Category: Sales

I work beside a crackerjack sales guy.
Prospects pick up his calls
ALWAYS.

Why?

Because he’s an absolute treat
to listen to.

He calls people on his team
data ninjas.
He told a guy who sent him
an irate email that
he was “shooting his mouse off.”
He phones folks
simply to “circle the wagons.”

Every conversation is peppered
with fresh phrases
and funny sayings.

And because people pick up his calls
and intently listen to his every word,
he “slam dunks sales”,
making the “big swish”.

Sales superstars are masters
of the language they’re selling in.
They study it,
they hoard phrase words,
they press its bounds
in their sales call.

John Mongillo has a “slam dunk” post
on this topic.

Although I’m with numerous publishers,
only one of my publishers is upfront
about what genres and plots sell well.
The others don’t share this information,
because knowledge of what sells
is viewed as a strategic advantage.

Sure, if no one else
has access to this knowledge.

The major book reselling sites, however,
all have bestseller listings.
With one click of a button,
I can see what sells.

So their competitors have
their rough sales information.
By keeping what sells and doesn’t sell
a secret from their authors,
the publishers force their bestselling authors
to spend time redoing research they already have,
time these authors can use
to write more stories with the plots
and in the genres that earn these publishers cash.

When I worked for a beverage manufacturer,
a newbie to the organization was aghast
because everyone from the cleaning lady to the CEO
knew what our top selling juices were.
When he commented upon
this sharing of ‘strategic’ information,
the VP of sales pointed out
that market research companies gave competitors
that information in a neat, convenient list.
Why should the competitor know more
about the company
than employees did?

Are you keeping information
your competitors know from your employees?

Why?

Geoffrey James has a post
on the 8 Key Character Traits of Top Sales Pros.

One of those traits is
self awareness.

“Top sales pros have the ability
to understand
and control their own emotions,
regardless of what happens.”

I think self awareness
is a key success attribute
for every profession,
not simply sales.

Self awareness is not
the same thing
as being self centered.
Self awareness involves
being aware of bad traits
as well as good traits.

When we are aware of
our good points
and our flaws,
we can design systems
to work with them.

I know,
for example,
that I get distracted
by bright shiny ideas.
I have a system for dealing with this.
I list my new bright shiny ideas
in a notebook.
This gives me the satisfaction
of ‘taking action’ on the ideas
without taking so much action
that I derail my current projects.

I also have a few friends
assigned with the duty
of keeping me on track.
They remind me why I’m involved
with my current projects.

Become self aware.
Realize when you’re sabotaging
your own success
and put in systems to deal with it.

A loved one recently visited
McKendrick’s Steak House in Atlanta.
He ordered an appetizer
with a tuna steak on the side.
The tuna steak arrived overdone.

Good customer service
would be to apologize
and replace the tuna steak.

McKendrick’s Steakhouse, however,
provides great customer service.

When my loved one
brought it to the waiter, Antonio’s
attention,
Antonio immediately apologized,
took it off the bill
(my loved one didn’t want a replacement),
and offered him a free dessert.

Is your company
giving customers ‘free dessert’
when a mistake is made?
If not, why not?

Submitting a short story
for an anthology
isn’t about the (rather small) royalty check.
It is about getting your foot in the door
with that publisher.

We do this all the time
in business.
We partner up with prospective clients
on small, revenue-eating projects,
hoping to build relationships
for future sales.

The thing is…
getting the foot in the door
makes NO sense
if you’re not interested
in going through that open door.

If you have a story in an anthology,
pitch a full length novel
to the same publisher.

If you are cross-promoting
with another company,
look at what project
you’ll work with them next.

If you take that entry-level job
with your dream company,
consider your next move
within the company.

Don’t simply stand there
with your foot in the door.
That’s a recipe for pain
plus it blocks others.

A few months ago,
I posted about follow up emails.
In business follow up emails,
you should be business-like.
Emails are forever.

With follow up phone calls,
you can be less formal,
and more casual.
The trick to not being
a pain in the ass
with follow up phone calls
is
to make that call
more about them,
than you.

For example:

I’m trying to land a business gig,
and I call my placement buddy
every single week.

The first 10 minutes of the call
is about him.
I ask how his wife is doing
(she was recently in the hospital).
I ask about his kids.
I usually make a joke or two.
I pay attention to what he said
in the previous call,
and I refer to it.
I let him know that I care
(which I do but still…).

During the last 5 minutes of the call,
I ask if there’s anything I can help him with.

As far as I can tell,
he doesn’t consider me a pain in the ass
for calling every week.
He still takes my calls.
He calls me back promptly.

A good follow up call
refers to information the other person
commented on
in the previous call or meeting.
Focus on the other person first.
THEN address your wants/needs.

The writing world
is brutally hard on self confidence
but, as all salespeople know,
you can’t sell without confidence
so what’s a writer to do?

She sets up a venue for
a guaranteed yes.

When I started writing,
that venue was blogging.
I knew that I could send a post
on business or travel
to a blogger,
and she’d think it was the greatest post ever written
(or at least say so,
’cause she was getting the content for free)
and it would be a guaranteed ‘yes, I’ll publish it.’

Currently, my guaranteed yes
is a publisher I’ve been working with
over the past year.
I know what stories they want.
I have the skills to write them.
I send them a story a month
and it is basically
a guaranteed yes
(with editing, of course,
all writers need to be edited).

This guaranteed yes
gives me the self confidence
to pitch other projects
to other publishers.

Can you set up
a guaranteed yes?

I was listening to a venture capitalist
talk about what gets him excited
over a new venture.
What was that magic thing?
Sales.
Cold hard cash coming in.

It didn’t have to be millions of dollars.
There simply had to be cash
he could see and touch.

I have been working on
a blog for a few years now.
I’ve been trying to get a loved one
to manage it for me.
He hemmed and hawed about it,
giving me excuse after excuse.

I recently showed him
a check from Google Adsense,
and now
magically,
he can’t wait to help me out.

Passion is great.
I wish I could get everyone interested
in my projects
based on passion alone.

But nothing speaks like dollars.
Have a project cash flow
and you will a lot of assistance.

I went out to dinner
with my best bud yesterday.
We have specific preferences
that normally don’t cause problems.

Last night, they did.
The waitress,
a very nice woman,
argued about everything.

And she might have been right
but she wasn’t convincing us.

That’s the thing.
The customer may not always be right
but there is no way
you are going to convince
the customer she is wrong.

So don’t bother.
Nod, and move onto
the next customer,
the customer you do think is right.

Match.com claims
that their site has led to
‘more dates, more relationships, more marriages’
than any other dating site.

Well… of course.
If the first is true,
the other two should be true also.
It is how the dating funnel works.

That’s how the sales funnel works.
More contacts
leads to more prospects
leads to more sales.

That’s how the innovation funnel works.
More ideas
leads to more product launches
leads to more successful products.

This is common sense
yet we all know people
who are trying to skip the first two steps.
I know women who want to get married
without ever having to date.
I know saleswomen who want sales
without ever having to contact a prospect.
They wonder why they aren’t successful.

Fill the funnel first.