Category: Sales

One of the biggest adjustments
going from the business world
to the writing world
is that in business,
you greet folks by shaking their hands.

That’s the norm
and if you want to succeed in business,
you need to perfect your handshake.

Guy Kawasaki outlines
how to shake hands well.

-Make contact throughout
-Utter an appropriate verbal greeting
-Make a Duchenne smile
(a genuine smile that gives you crow’s feet)
-Use a medium level of vigor
-Stand a moderate distance from the other person
-Make sure your hand is cool, dry and smooth
-Grip the person’s hand and give it a firm squeeze
-Hold the handshake for no longer than 2 or 3 seconds.

That’s the perfect handshake,
and it comes with practice.

According to the Heavy Hitter Sales Blog’s
survey of 1,000 successful salespeople,
humility is a top personality trait for sales success.

“Contrary to conventional stereotypes
that successful salespeople
are pushy and egotistical,
91 percent of top salespeople
had medium to high scores of
modesty and humility.
Furthermore, the results suggest
that ostentatious salespeople
who are full of bravado alienate
far more customers than they win over.”

This makes sense,
especially when you look at another top trait
curiosity.

Egotistical people don’t ask questions.
Great salespeople do.

In sales,
knowing that you don’t know everything
is a GOOD thing.

When I talk to my author buddies
about hand selling books,
they say that
they couldn’t.
They don’t want to bother anyone.

Bother anyone?

WTF?
If you think so little of your novel,
that you consider
telling another person
about it
as bothering them,
then please
DON’T sell the story.

Chuck Piola
is
dubbed the King of Cold Calls.

Why?

“Chuck was absolutely sure
that he had something of value
to offer his prospects.
As he saw it,
it was a good day
for the prospect
when he came calling.
Because he wanted to
make them some more money,
solve their problems
and
make their lives just a little bit better.”

Believe in the product
you’re selling.

The wonderful thing
about being a doer
is that the older we get,
the longer the history
of doing
we have,
and the longer the history
of doing
we have,
the better our reputations.

I have seven years of history
here on ClientK.
Seven years of posting once a day.
When people visit this site
for the first time,
they see that history,
and it says something.
I’m seen as more reputable
for that history.

With one of my pen names,
I have 20 stories published.
When readers go to my website,
they see that publishing history.
It means something to them.

As copyblogger states
“Past performance
helps people convince themselves …
because despite what those financial disclaimers say,
past performance very often
is
an indicator of future worth.

In other words,
if you’ve done good work before,
you’re probably going to do
good work going forward.
Crowing (humbly)
about your past
removes risk
from your potential new customer’s mind.”

That is why
I post my archives by month
on this blog.

That is also why
I list my backlist
on my writing sites.

Use your past history
of doing
to do even more in the future.

I feel good about my writing
if I have 3 stories in submissions
(i.e. in the sales funnel).
If I don’t have those 3 stories,
I move my ass
and get stories submitted.

Now, it is really easy,
when I’m feeling lazy,
to say the 3 stories I subbed
to X, Y, and Z agents
in the spring of 2009
are still in the funnel.

But that would be a lie
because those deals are dead.
So I regularly clear my submission/sales funnel
of all the dead wood,
and I focus on the new deals.

John Mongillo has similar thinking
about sales funnels.

“The fact of the matter is
that the average pipeline
should be lean and mean,
and not puffed up and flabby.
A lean pipeline is great
for the psyche and
forces the salesperson
to generate new opportunities
because staring at
the same names and numbers
week after week
is nothing but draining.”

Clear the dead wood
in your sales funnel.
Focus on the legitimate opportunities.

Hauke Borow has a great post
on solving relationship conflict.

“…conflicts can only be solved
at the same communication level.

An emotional person wants
to be taken seriously
with his emotions.
This is why you should also
respond emotionally.
It’s a kind of signal
for the other person.

This doesn’t have
to be in the same intensity.
But it must take place
at the same level.

It’s like you’re dunking
into the world
of the other one
and collect him
from where he is right now.

And if you do this cleverly,
he would never resist
to follow you.”

THIS is why telling a person
rationally that she is being emotional
escalates the conflict.

Fight emotion with emotion,
rational thought with rational thought.

I work closely with
the pricing support team.
This team approves special case pricing
offered by sales people.
ALL sales deals tend to have
special case pricing.

There’s one salesguy
that no one likes
He’s a real asshole.
He chews out the pricing support team
on a regular basis.
He is really noisy about mistakes
and really good
at weaseling out of apologies.

The pricing support team hates him
so they wait for the absolute last minute
to approve his deal,
they look for any reason
NOT to approve his deals,
and
when he asks for a special favor,
it is a no can do.

He’d sell twice as much
if he was half as much
of an asshat.

Jonathan Farrington states,
the top sales people
“Understand how to prevent sales
from being sabotaged
by an internal enemy –
they insulate themselves
by developing strong allies within.”

Treat your internal co-workers
as well
as you treat your customers.

Ever notice that,
in large companies,
the pool of candidates
for an open position
consists of
internal applicants
and referrals from employees?

There’s a reason for that.

If you are truly interested
in working at a large company,
you WILL know at least one person there
(either directly or through someone else)
and if you really want the position,
you’ll ask that one person
to refer you.

Immediately,
the applicants are weeded down
to people with initiative or people with connections.
Both types of people
can be assets to an organization.

Consider asking for a referral
part of your job application.
Do it
and increase your odds of success.

BTW… if you say you don’t know anyone
at that large company,
that’s bullshit.
I can guarantee that you know someone
who knows someone there.
All you have to do is ask more people.
(your landlord, your bus driver, the grocery store clerk)

One of my buddies is fighting
with her publisher
(her major customer)
over her cover.
She admits that
the latest rendition
is a great cover
but it ‘doesn’t reflect the book.’
Reflecting is subjective,
and open to interpretation.

Another author buddy
spent the weekend
fighting with readers
(i.e. her prospects).
A reader asked
for more information,
and the author told the reader
to look the information up herself.
Other readers didn’t take that response well.

There are plenty of people
in the world.
If you’re difficult,
folks have the option
to deal
with someone else,
so before you kick up a fuss,
you may want to ask yourself
“Is this important enough to me,
to risk losing the business over?”

If you ask people
which they’d rather have
angry customers or apathetic customers
many people will say
apathetic customers.

Anger is messy.
It is tense,
and it can hurt.

Apathy is sanitized.
It feels safer and
more comfortable.

The thing is…
it is much easier to flip customers
from hating to loving
than it is to make them care
either way.

I’m not saying
intentionally piss off customers.
That would be silly.

But when you do piss them off
(and you will,
if you try anything new),
see it as an opportunity
and know there are bigger problems
you could have.