Category: Sales

Everyone Wants Direct Links

If you send virtual promotional material
– a newsletter, a social media post,
an email
– give your prospects direct links
to your products
in their country-specific store.

Almost no one is going to
search for your product.

Many prospects are so accustomed
to receiving direct links
they don’t know HOW
to search for your product.

I receive emails from readers
in countries I sell very few books in
asking for direct links.

Yes, they prefer to email the writer
of a book
than to search for that book
at their online store.

Give your prospects
direct links.

December And Bad Reviews

This is based on
purely anecdotal evidence
(collected over decades)
but December is a ROUGH month
for reviews
and for customer service feedback.

The average person
thinks others are full
of holiday cheer
during this time of year.

The average person
is also stressed, super busy
and extremely grumpy.

The happy customers
have no time to leave reviews.

The unhappy customers
are often unhappy with the entire world
and they make the time
to take that unhappiness out
on what they believe
is a faceless company (or author).

Reviews and customer feedback
will skew toward the bad
during December.

Expect that to happen.

It is merely part
of doing business
during this month.

For Every Customer Contacting You…

I send my beloved Mom
a poinsettia
every November,
the start of
her holiday season.

Every October,
I have to email
the florist
to ask them if they are selling
poinsettias
that year
as there aren’t any yet listed
on their site.

They say, ‘Yes.’
I buy a random florist bundle
and ask them
to change the order
to a poinsettia.

Every year.

Which is fine
for me
because I know the florist has sold poinsettias
in the past.

But what about new customers,
customers who don’t know
they sell poinsettias?

What about customers
who don’t want to take on
the extra work
of contacting the florist?

I suspect THEY
either
don’t order the poinsettias
or
they contact another florist,
a florist who has poinsettias
displayed on their site.

And there ARE other customers
like me wanting poinsettias.

Because for every customer
contacting a business
about something,
there are dozens or hundreds
of customers
with the same issue.

If one customer contacts you
about an issue,
consider fixing that issue
for everyone.

Sourcing Private Information From Other People

A relative asked me
what my romance novel pen name was
(he believed I only had one).

I told him
I don’t share that information
and I told him why
I don’t share that information.

He then sent his wife
to ask me
what my pen name was.

When I told her
the same thing,
he asked at least
one other relative
if they knew my pen name.

That’s d@mn creepy.
Restraint order level creepy.

I plan
to avoid this relative
going forward.

I’m blocking him
both virtually and in real life.

Don’t try to source
private information
from other people.
Go to that person directly.

If they don’t want to share it,
then stop trying to obtain it.

Don’t be a creep.

Increasing The Price For Dirty Produce

Should you wash
your produce thoroughly
before selling it
at a farmers’ market?

Logic would say
you should.

But humans
aren’t logical beings.

There was a study
by the National Farmers’ Market
Association
that found
consumers were willing to pay
25% more for the exact same produce
if it came dirty.

Why?

Because they feel dirty produce
is ‘proof’
it came directly
from the farm.

Don’t wash
your produce
before selling it
at a farmers’ market.

Direct Contact With Customers

One of the challenges
with working with
large resellers
like Amazon
is we, as business owners,
have little direct contact
with those customers.

We don’t have access
to their email addresses
or their phone numbers
or who they are.

If we part ways
with that reseller,
we part ways
with that customer.

I recently purchased a product
from Amazon.

Inside the product’s packaging
was a card
that offered me
a free add-on product
if I emailed them
and gave them ‘honest’ feedback
on the product.

I emailed them
because… why not?

Boom!
They captured
all my contact information.
They now have
direct access to me.

I became
THEIR customer,
not merely Amazon’s customer.

All for the price
of a $10 at retail
add-on product.

There ARE ways
to gather the contact information
of customers
at resellers.

Consider implementing
one of those ways.

Convert that customer
into YOUR customer.

Telling Groups Of People Not To Buy

A politician
recently told
socialists and communists
not to come
to his US State.

His definition
of socialist
is anyone who cares
about other people.

I care about other people.
So I’ll do as he says
and won’t visit his State.

But even if I didn’t
belong to one of the groups
he is warning away,
I still wouldn’t visit his State.

Because he clearly
doesn’t want or need
more tourists.

This is true
whenever we warn
any group away
from our products or services or territories.

Sales or visits or actions
decrease
across all other groups.

Because prospects
will assume
we have so much business
we can afford
to be choosy about customers.
And many of them won’t risk
not being chosen.

If you want sales,
don’t warn undesired groups of people
away from
buying or using
your products/services.

Instead, encourage the groups of people
you DO desire
to buy or use
your products/services.

Matching Sales To Service/Product Delivery

Subscription services
are EXTREMELY appealing
and can be VERY lucrative
for business builders.

Sign a customer up once.
Earn income from them
monthly
potentially forever.

But they work best
if there’s a product or service
delivered in the same time period.

Subscribers need to SEE
they’re getting value
with their payments.

They want to be able
to tell themselves,
for example,
“I paid $10 to this writer
this month
and I received
beautiful character art.”

If you want happy
subscribers,
ensure your product/service
deliveries
and your billings
occur in the
same short (!) time period.

Do You Have A Selling Face?

Many marketing experts
suggest using photos
of ourselves
when promoting our products.
They claim
prospective customers
like to see
who they are buying from
and
supporting.

These marketing experts
are usually good looking.

Client K specializes
in delivering the harsh truths
and a harsh truth
is
some of us
(myself included)
don’t have faces
that would sell products.

We might,
in reality,
have faces
that would STOP prospects
from buying our products.

And that’s okay
as long as we know this.

I’ve sold a LOT
of romance novels
and my face isn’t anywhere
on the internet.

Having our faces
associated with our businesses
isn’t necessary
for success.

Get an honest opinion
from someone you trust
about this.

Give that person
a choice between
your face
and
a logo/another photo
to represent your company.

If they choose
the logo/other photo,
separate your appearance
from your business.

Not all faces
sell products/services.

It is okay
to stay behind the scenes.

The Next Sale

The book formatting program
I use
requires a one time fee.

After that,
there are no additional charges
…forever.

I’ve used this program
for a decade
and have formatted
at least a hundred books
with it.

The one and done fee
is a BARGAIN
for me
but it is
a problem
for the book formatting company.

Because they have
thousands of customers
they will never
sell another product to.

You’ve sold a product/service
to a customer.

What will be your next sale
to that same customer?

If there isn’t a next sale,
you likely have a problem.