Category: Sales

The first time
a loved one and I
went to Pizzeria Uno
in Chicago,
we were served a frozen pizza.

This loved one
recently traveled to Chicago
for a business trip.
His co-worker wanted
to eat at Pizzeria Uno.
My loved one told the co-worker
his story.
The manager overheard
and promised that the frozen pizza
was an exception.
The pizza would be perfect this time.

So they ate there
and the pizza was served cold.

My loved one, his co-worker
and I will never eat there again.

If you’re given a rare second chance
to impress a customer,
make certain you get
this second chance right.

Whenever we’d pitch a product
to a board,
we’d start with a story.
We’d talk about ONE possible customer
for that product,
telling the board
why she or he would like the product,
how it would solve a problem,
make a difference in her/his life.
THEN we’d pitch the financials
and other details.

Story telling
is essential for selling and marketing.

Carmine Gallo
shares

“When I analyzed the content of
[civil rights attorney Bryan] Stevenson’s
TED talk for Talk Like TED,
I categorized each sentence
into one of three buckets
consistent with Aristotle’s guide to persuasion:
Pathos (emotion, stories),
Logos (logic, data), and
Ethos (establishing credibility).

Remarkably,
personal stories—pathos—
made up 65 percent of Stevenson’s content.
Stevenson spent 65 percent
of his time telling stories
and 25 percent of his time
supporting the stories with data.
Stevenson’s references
to his background or experience
(ethos)
made up the remaining 10 percent
of his stage time.”

Ensure you tell stories,
not simply recite facts.

When the average person
dreams of being a writer,
they believe
they’ll spend their day
writing.

Writing is a tiny part
of a writer’s job.
It is also one
of the least important parts.

The most important part
is SELLING the books.
It doesn’t matter
if you write the best book
in the world
if no one reads it.

Ricardo Trillos,
founder of
Cao Chocolates,
shares

“You can bake
the best cupcakes,
the best cookies,
the best banana bread,
but if you don’t know
how to sell it,
or you don’t have
a well-structured business,
you won’t go anywhere.”

Selling is key.
Learn to sell
or delegate the task
to someone who can.

A loved one was on a sales call
to a big client.
Before meeting with this client,
he met with his associates
to ensure they were making
the same pitch.
They met in a small meeting room
at the client’s office.

When they met with the client
minutes later,
the client listed their points,
almost word by word,
before they made them.

Did the client have ESP?
No.
But they could have been
listening.

When I worked for large corporations,
they reportedly had
the common areas
of their offices bugged.
They also bugged right
outside the doors.

This is why
salespeople talk
in their cars.

If you’re on a company’s premises,
assume they’re listening
to your conversation.

Under one pen name,
I write both
science fiction romance
and
contemporary romance.

My huge New York publisher
sells my contemporary romances
for 99 cents
(yes, ouch).
My smaller publisher
sells my
(same number of pages)
SciFi romances
for $3.00.

My SciFi readers are angry.
When I self publish this year,
I’ll have to price at 99 cents
or face a revolt.

You might think your two (or more)
groups of customers
are ‘different’,
that they might not talk.

They do.
And with the internet,
everything is in the open.

Remember this
when you try tactics
like different pricing
or different terms.

In the writing world,
it is almost impossible
to get a yes on a prospective story idea
after publishers have given us
a no.
That’s why when I pitch an idea,
I think of all the possible objections
a publisher might have
and address them
BEFORE the publisher does.

Polina Raygorodskaya,
CEO of
Wanderu
shares

“Once they already
have a doubt,
it’s much more difficult
to change people’s minds
than it is to explain it
in the first place.
If you can anticipate concerns,
that’s how you turn people around.”

Address the doubts first.

Successful saleswomen
spend much of their time
on crafting that first offer.
Why?
Because it anchors customers.

Talia Wolf
shares

“Even though
more accurate information
may be presented later,
people tend to rely on
the first piece of information
they receive.
You see this everywhere,
even at the supermarket
where an old label will be
placed above a new one
or the unit price will be shown
above the actual price.
Showing an older, higher price
gives consumers the sense
that they are getting a deal.”

The first offer also gets
the most focus by the customer.

Craft that first offer carefully.

There’s a reason
instant wins are so popular.
We want our ‘rewards’
as fast as possible,
even if these rewards are small.

Talia Wolf
shares

“Hyperbolic discounting
is a psychological trigger
that has to do with the way
we evaluate rewards.

When given a choice
between two awards,
we tend to prefer the one
that arrives sooner
even if it is worth less.

In other words,
people favor an instant reward
and discount the one
they have to wait for.”

“Reward” customers
as soon as possible.

The average person
uses the same words
over and over
(yes, even writers do this
– this is one way
we define our style).

Some of the words
you may be using
are doing more harm
than good.

A loved one was using ‘stupid’
again and again.
It’s not a professional word.
It’s not a powerful word.
I noticed
and told him.
He was surprised.
He hadn’t noticed he was doing that.
He has since erased this word
from his vocabulary.

You likely don’t know
you’re using a harmful word also.
What can you do?
Record your conversations for an entire day.
Replay them
(perhaps on your commute).
Note the words you use.
Can you improve these?
Make them stronger?

Monitor your speech
(and your thinking).

I talk to writers
every d*mn day
who think making money
from our products (books) is evil
who believe that possibly overcharging
a reader
is fate worse than death.

That’s bullsh*t thinking.

1) It isn’t possible to overcharge a customer.
If the customer doesn’t think
the product is worth the price,
she won’t buy it.
If she buys it,
she believes the price is right.

and

2) There is nothing noble
about being broke a$$.
I’ve been poor.
I’ve had to rely on the charity of others.
I can’t see how that is benefiting society.
Charging a fair price for our products,
taking care of ourselves,
possibly taking care of others,
frees resources for the truly unfortunate.

Meg Keene,
founder of A Practical Wedding,
shares
(this entire post is awesome)

“I’m consistently trying to
make the case that
if you don’t make sure
your business is turning a viable profit,
it won’t support you,
you won’t be able to grow,
and you will burn out
and go out of business.

And that helps nobody.

Because there is nothing sadder
than a truly awesome, creative,
forward-thinking business
that you love
disappearing,
simply because
the owners couldn’t bring themselves
to take care of the finances
and make a profit.”

Don’t be a selfish beyotch.
Charge a fair price for your product.