Category: Sales

There’s a regular group
of participants on one publisher loop.
Whenever one of the regulars
misses a chat or two,
I will send a message to the loop,
saying that I missed them.

I do miss them.
This is sincere.
But the thing is…
many people miss them
but no one actually says it.

Which is silly
because the phrase “I missed you”
is one of the most powerful phrases
there is.

Everyone wants to be wanted.
Everyone wants to be missed.
Missing someone is the equivalent of caring.

If you notice that a regular is not at your event,
let them know they were missed.
It’ll tighten your relationship
and likely gain your a fan for life.

Guy Kawasaki spoke
at the American Express Open Booth
at the Consumer Electronics Show
about enchanting prospects.

One of the techniques is
the use of reciprocation.
I’ve talked about reciprocation before.
If you do something for me,
I am more likely to do something for you.

Guy’s pro tip is
that when you are thanked
for doing that something,
you respond with
“I know you would do the same for me.”

This does two things.
It sets up that you expect
the favor to be returned,
and it communicates
that you feel she is an honorable person.
That makes her feel good about herself.

Another pro tip
is to ALLOW the favor to be returned.
This two way exchange is essential
for a healthy relationship.
Otherwise, an honorable person feels guilt.

Money doesn’t make the world go round.
Favors DO.

I’ve watched two or three episodes of Entourage
but I can’t count myself a raving fan.
After hearing its star
Adrian Grenier
speak at the Consumer Electronics Show
in Vegas,
I now, however, count myself
as one of his fans.

It was clear that
Adrian planned out talking points,
and was deliberately trying
to engage the audience.
He talked to the techies about his Blackberry.
He talked about
how he learned to live the Entourage lifestyle
in Vegas.
He credited his mother for his success.

He reached out to the audience,
pointing out things they had in common
to form a connection,
and he succeeded.

If a TV star works that hard
to engage an audience,
don’t you think
we should work even harder?

I said something flippant
to a buddy of mine.
I was distracted by another issue,
and I wasn’t paying attention to my wording
OR my friend’s reaction.
My friend thought I was angry with her.
Her feelings got hurt.

When really,
my attitude had nothing to do
with her.

That often happens
when you try to market
or sell to someone.
You think their lack of response
means lack of interest,
or that ‘now’s not a good time’
means ‘there will never be a good time.’

There are thousands of things
happening in your prospect’s life right now.
If you/your appointment
gets rescheduled to another time
or ‘later’
(I suggest putting a time frame to ‘later’),
that may simply mean
that these other things are more important.

Sometimes it really ISN’T you.

You’ve made a sale.
Now what?

You reinforce the sales decision.
You ease buyers remorse
with a follow up call,
saying you’re there to support your customer.

You call the next day,
the next week,
and then the next month,
touching base with your customer.

Why bother?

Because selling to an existing customer
is easier than selling to a new customer.
Because referrals are also easier sales.
Because you want your customers
complaining to you,
rather than Twitter.

Yes, every once in a while,
you might have to refund a purchase
but you can swing
even that scenario
in your favor
IF you know about it.

Reinforce the sales decision.

When I worked for
one of the big beverage companies,
the CEO often told us
to never bad mouth our competition.
Healthy competition
made for a healthy industry.
A healthy industry
translated into more profits for everyone.

If you are a salesperson,
there is another reason
not to bad mouth the competition.
It is because your prospect
is likely using that same competition
and no one wants their ‘mistakes’
pointed out to them.

It is better to focus
on why your company is the right choice
for today
because the world is changing
and so should their decisions.

Seth Godin has a great post
on this subject.

You have a shiny new product
you wish to sell.
You know why everyone should want this product.
You have the benefits
and testimonials ready.

Then you pitch
and the prospect says no.

Are you prepared?

I wasn’t
when I started selling.
I always assumed a ‘yes’
and I didn’t know what to do with a ‘no.’
Since most sales start with a ‘no’,
I lost out on a lot of sales.

Tory Johnson, founder of Women for Hire,
went through the same experience.

“When I’d worked for the networks,
I was used to pitching celebrities,
and everyone wanted to be involved
—people always said yes.
Hearing no was a challenge.
That is a really important lesson
for aspiring and current business owners.
Not everybody will say yes.
I had to have responses ready
for the objections.
We spend a lot of time
thinking and talking about
why someone should buy a product or service,
and when they say no,
we’re like a deer in headlights.
It was valuable experience
to understand how to overcome objections.”

Prepare for objections
and learn how to handle ‘no.’

Bob Burg has a great post
(especially for today)
on dealing with difficult people.

His advice?
Act like you like them.

“So, take action
—take positive action
—practice feeling good about a difficult person
you know by acting good,
acting benevolently,
acting joyously toward that difficult person.
Yes, at first it is an act.
And, that’s OK.
You are acting your way into feeling,
into actually liking that person.
Perfectly acceptable.
Then, when the person picks up on your action
and feeling and relates more kindly
and benevolently toward you in return,
your good feelings really will be true.”

On Monday, I posted on Facebook
that Monday was going to be a great day.
I immediately saw the postings
of my buddies change.
They became more upbeat and happy.

I think this is the easiest way
to change the world.
Smile, encourage, be optimistic.
Watch the happiness and hope spread.

And yes, it is good for business too.

Okay, they don’t always
but it depends on your definition of nice.
If it is not deliberately harming another person,
then, yeah, you may win in life.
But if it is not asking for what you want,
you WILL finish last.

One of my writing buddies
is on the great agent hunt.
An agent was interested,
read the entire manuscript,
and then rejected it because she isn’t a fan
of angels as heroes.

My buddy has another story
with NO angels in it.
Did she email the agent back
and pitch that book?
Nope.
Because she worried the agent
might think she’s too pushy.

Filling a need is not pushy.
The agent needs a manuscript to sell
to a publisher.
My buddy has that manuscript.

BTW… we all say we like to buy
from companies and people we like.
Sure.
As long as those companies and people
offer us what we want
at the price we want.
Nice is a distant consideration
in the buying decision.

Scott Ginsberg has a great post
covering the myth of nice.

You’ve sent an email two weeks ago.
The prospect or publisher or employer
hasn’t responded.

Many people
(women especially)
are shy about sending a follow up email.
In this age of aggressive spam filters,
this hesitation is dumbness.
Odds are…
your prospect didn’t even receive the email.

That said…
it means that your follow up email
should be written
with the assumption that
she hasn’t read your original email.

Yes,
you should write
something like…
‘this is a follow up to
the email I sent on Tuesday, November 5th
regarding my submission of XXX.’
This allows her to find your original email
if she so wishes.
It always lights a fire under her ass
if she’s been sitting on it.

Then you repeat everything you stated
in the original email
plus any updates.
This saves her time
if she prefers not to look up the original email.

Sure, it takes extra effort
to repeat all the original information
(if you consider using the cut and paste function
extra effort)
but your prospect will appreciate it.