Category: Sales

A salesperson loved one
spent months
setting up a sales call
with a business partner.

The day of the sales call,
the business partner canceled.

The customer had already freed
the time slot.

My salesperson loved one
couldn’t pitch to the customer
without the business partner present.

But he COULD meet
with the customer.
The partner was okay with that.

My salesperson loved one
took the customer
out to lunch,
wined and dined him.
Instead of the initial bad feelings
about the last minute cancellation
lingering,
their relationship strengthened.

If a business partner
cancels a sales call
at the last minute,
consider meeting with the customer
anyway.
It might save the relationship.

A successfully selling
fictional book
doesn’t merely tell
a great story.
It tells a great story
many readers can connect to.

When I craft a book character,
I ask myself
“What is this character
experiencing
that many of my readers
are also experiencing?
Why would they connect
with him or her?”

Because that is what
readers are truly craving
– connection.

I craft my marketing efforts
to do that also.
I ask questions.
I share an experience
readers might have also
went through.

If I connect with prospects,
I can sell to them.

Seth Godin
shares

…connection is at
the heart of the economy
we live in now.

Connection means
finding the others.
Embracing peer support,
giving more than you get,
engaging with ideas
and with other people.”

Your prospects
are likely craving connection also.

Figure out a way
to give it to them.

I have a reader
who complains about
how much sex
is in my books.

The thing is…
my books always have
the same amount of sex
in them.

She knows,
when she buys my books,
she will be reading about sex.

She still buys them

…because she secretively
loves the heat level of my books.

(As an aside,
my books have WAY more violence
than sex
in them
yet American society doesn’t have
an issue with the violence,
only with the sex.)

I have a Facebook friend
who always grumbles
about my bad puns.

The thing is…
I have always posted
bad puns.
I’ve been doing this
since I started
a Facebook account.

She knows,
when she goes to my profile,
there will be bad puns.

She still goes to my profile

…because she secretively
loves the puns.

If your brand is consistent
and a customer complains about
an aspect of it
yet is still loyal to your brand,
the odds are good
she secretively loves that aspect.

She has choice.
We all do.
Yet she continues
to choose your brand.

Ignore her complaints.

I write in a couple of niches
and I’m very much aware
I am ‘borrowing’ these readers (customers)
for a while.

They have read books in these niches
before I started writing similar books
and they will read books in these niches
after I stop writing similar books.

I was fortunate.
I didn’t have to gather these readers
into easily accessible groups.
That had already been done.

That drove home
the fact that
these weren’t exclusively ‘my’ readers.

But even if I had been the person
to gather them into a group,
they wouldn’t be exclusively ‘my’ readers.
They had always existed,
always been reading.

Seth Godin
shares

“The realization that
the tribe is already there,
just waiting for you
to contribute,
is energizing.

And the fact is that
while we get
the benefit of the doubt
—that the tribe is open
to hearing from you—
they’re not yours.”

They are not ‘your’ customers.
You’re merely borrowing them
for a while.
Treat them well.

One of my buddies,
a female executive,
only works with companies
who have women on their pitch teams.

Her reasoning is…
if the company doesn’t value
women enough
to place them on their pitch teams,
the company won’t value
her, a female executive, enough
to listen to and respect her input.

She has an empire
to build and to run
and she has options.
Why would she choose
to work with people
who didn’t respect her?

No one has time for that.

Nick De Paula
shared
this story about Beyoncé.

“She had a meeting
at Reebok
and they had a whole presentation
of everything,
potential products,
how this could all look.
And she kind took a step back
and said,
‘Is this the team
that will be working
on my product?’

Somebody said yes.

And she said,
‘Nobody in this room,
reflects my background,
my skin color
and where I’m from
and what I want to do.’

So she kind of
took a step back and left.
And then it did not come to terms.”

If you’re a business builder
and you have choices,
save yourself time and effort
and work with companies
that respect you,
that, at the minimum,
won’t hold who you are
against you.

If you’re pitching
to a company that values diversity,
ensure your sales team is diverse.

We WILL notice.

I reached out
to another writer
who had harmed me,
asking her WHY she did it.

She received the message
but she ignored it.

Previously, I had thought
she had harmed me
out of ignorance.
She didn’t know
what the consequences would be.

Now, I suspect she knew.
She didn’t offer an explanation
because she knew
an honest explanation
would make the situation worse.

Lack of an explanation,
however,
does the same thing.

When you’ve harmed someone,
and we all harm someone
from time to time,
there’s a temptation
to ‘ignore them
and hope they go away.’

They WILL go away
…eventually
but they will go away
hurt or angry or disappointed
and
they WILL think the worst
FOREVER.

Your response
doesn’t have to include
an acceptance of blame.

“I’m sorry you were hurt”
is perfectly sufficient
for most situations.

But, if you care
at all
about having a relationship
with the person/entity,
respond.

I have a loyal readership
(customer base)
of about 5,000 people
for one of my pen names.

These readers
buy and read
almost every book (product)
I release.
I can count on them.

And I know
almost every one
of them.

I’ve built my readership
reader by reader.
I’ve interacted with them
at some point in time.
I keep records of those interactions.

THAT is something
a big writing conglomerate
can’t claim.
That is an advantage
I have
as a small business.

I’ve been with my business,
with my brand,
since the beginning.
I have met everyone.

And I USE this advantage.
When sales are slow,
I reach out
to my regular readers.
When I promo,
I’ll sometimes mention I’m looking for
XXX number of my regular readers.

When you’re building your business,
track information
about your customers,
especially your regular customers.

They are your base.
Maintain that base.

I recently took a cruise.
There was a really loud racist
on board the ship.
He was looking for a fight,
verbally accosting other passengers
and many of the crew.

Time after time,
crew stepped in
and de-escalated the situation.
They ensured the targeted passengers
were safe
and
were able to gleam some happiness
from what should have been
a relaxing vacation.

It happened so often
and so flawlessly;
it was clear
the crew had been trained
in dealing with racists.

Simply having
a no verbal/physical abuse
policy
isn’t enough.
Racists and other hate mongers
don’t care about policies.

If you want to appeal
to a diverse customer base,
consider training
your team
to
deal with racists.

Live Alkaline Water
was the first
black-owned
alkaline water company
to land in Walmart.

How did they do it?

Dr. Chayla Creer,
Co-Founder,
shared

“I called…
many Walmarts,
and finally we got
a hold of one
who allowed us
to do a presentation.”

They were rejected multiple times
before merely getting
the opportunity
to PITCH.

Yet that didn’t stop them.
They moved to the next store
and asked again.

I talk to hundreds
of readers
multiple times
before getting a sale.

Rejections are part
of success.
Don’t let them stop you.

A writer asked me today
why my readers are such
happy, generous people.
Her readers complain…a LOT.

Her readers complain
because she complains.
She talks about books she hates.
She attracts the haters.

My readers are happy people
because I try to only post
happy things.
I talk about books I love.
I attract the lovers.

Want customers who pay full price?
Don’t talk about sales.
Talk about getting the product FIRST
or some other angle.

Want customers who will forgive a mistake?
Promote free upgrades
as your product/service improves.

We attract the customers
we deserve.
If you’re not happy with
your customer base,
look at your marketing.