Category: Sales

A loved one is a teacher.
She’s a damn good teacher.
Not only does she continually take courses
to become an even better teacher
but
she surrounds herself
with the same cultural influences
her tweens are surrounded with.

She watches the same movies.
She reads the same books.
She listens to the same music.
She plays the same video games.

Why does she do all this?

Because her job involves communication
and, to communicate,
it helps if you speak the same language.

She gets the one-word answers
her tweens often give her.
She encourages essays on current topics
like werewolves vs vampires
and she can talk the Twilight books
well enough
that she can give struggling students prompts.

If your sales prospect gave you
a one-word answer
using her industry’s jargon,
could you understand her?

Heavy Hitter Sales Blog
has a great post
on the Seven Deadly Sins Of Salespeople.

His deadliest is
ignorance.
“Ignorance is the deadliest sin.
If you do not have a spy
within an account
who is telling you
what is happening in closed-door meetings,
defending you when you are not around,
and disseminating propaganda on your behalf,
you will most certainly lose.”

These spies are precious resources
and must be nurtured
whether you currently have their account
or not.

They are also
NOT duly appreciated by
the company you work for.
They are seldom acknowledged
as even existing.
You will get grief
if you expense money nurturing them.

But they are
what differentiates
successful salespeople from unsuccessful salespeople.

Spend the time and cash on them,
even if it is your own time
and your own cash.
They are a wise investment.

A cousin of mine
will be visiting my city
at the end of July.

She phoned,
asking me to send her
details on where I live, etc. etc.

I sent her
a chatty ‘glad-you’re-coming’ email.
Her reply
was very professional and rather dry.

I teased her about it
as I knew she didn’t mean to be such a stiff
but when I received it,
I felt like she slapped me in the face.
All my friendliness was being rebuffed.

It is SO important to mimic your prospect’s tone.
If she is formal, address her formally.
If she is informal, address her the same way.
Not only is it respectful
but it puts the other person at ease.

A Survey of sales targets by
The McKinsey Quarterly states that
‘most destructive’ failures
of business-to-business sales reps
are too much contact with customers (35%)
and inadequate product knowledge (20%)’

Really?
Really?

I agree that nothing pisses me off
like sales reps wasting my time
or contacting me in a way
I’d rather not be contacted
(by phone)
or trying to sell me products
I can’t possibly need.

But I have never ever complained
about a sales rep
sending information core to my business
or helping out on volunteer events I support
or checking in after a major event.

Never.

Go ahead and contact your prospects
whenever you’ll add value to them.

I wince every time
I read a study saying
that beautiful people are more successful.
That, I believe, is bullshit.
Confident people are more successful
and while beautiful people are more likely
to be confident,
the two do not always equate.

Yesterday, I watched a documentary
on Cleopatra.
When I think of Cleopatra,
I think of a beautiful seductress,
a woman who captivated powerful men
such as Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.

The thing is…

She wasn’t beautiful.

Research shows that she was quite homely.
What she had though
was confidence,
loads and loads of confidence.

Confidence is sexy.
People, men included, want to be around
confident people.
If people want to be around you,
they will also help you become successful.
In Cleopatra’s case,
they helped her win back
the leadership of a country.

As I often tell my girl friends,
it isn’t how you look FOR a man
that counts.
It is how you look AT a man.

Be confident.
Be strong.
Be successful.

My recruiter recently told me
that I had the worst resume ever.
The reason that I land gigs
is because…
well…
I’ve landed gigs
at some of the top companies.

Why is my resume
the worst ever?

Because it is task heavy
and not results focused.

Employers want to read
about results.
They want to hear how much money
you saved previous companies,
what products you successively launched,
and
what changes you made in a company.

If you’re like me
and still stuck in the ’80’s
with a task heavy resume,
you may wish to update it.
You never know
when you’ll need it.

Forbes has a great list
of five things a recruiter
wants from employees.

An author buddy
was complaining about
how expensive book award contests were
to enter.

Her argument was
that there are many great books
written by broke a$$ authors.
The world is deprived
of these works due to lack of funding.

That’s bullshit.
The world is deprived
of these works due to lack of creativity
and if the author
isn’t creative enough
to figure out a way
to get the $35 entry fee paid,
then how innovative can the book possibly be?

If you believe in your product
that much,
ask a friend, family member, or fan
to pay the entry fee.
Repay them out of the increased sales
when you win.

Never let lack of money
hold you back
from achieving your goals.
Find a way.

I was invited to a free lunch
on Friday.
I was told it was ‘Italian food.’

I envisioned pasta.
The actual meal was pizza.

I love pizza.
I love pizza more than I love pasta.
If I had been told it was pizza,
I would have gone
and enjoyed it.

But I was told it was Italian food
and, even though I prefer pizza,
I felt like a fool
for having been ‘taken.’

That’s what misleading marketing is.
It is when you think
your shit isn’t good enough
so you ‘enhance’ the marketing message,
hoping that someone will try it once.

But they only try it once
because they feel like a sucker
for having been tricked
and end up associating that negative feeling
with your product.

You have a choice.
You can mislead prospects
and hope you have an unlimited number of prospects
to sell to.

Or you can market a product
you have confidence in.

When I first joined
my local writing chapter,
I didn’t know anyone.
The members had already formed
into cliques.
I didn’t really fit.

So I started the back row gang.
Whenever a new person joined
or I saw someone sitting alone,
I called out to her
to sit with ‘us’ in the back row.

Now, at meetings,
the back rows are full
and those newbies aren’t newbies anymore.
They’re published authors.
Some have written bestsellers.

That’s the thing about wallflowers.
They don’t stay wallflowers.
The woman who didn’t know anyone
yesterday
knows half the room tomorrow.

Be kind to wallflowers.
They’ll remember that kindness.

Lori Richardson has some more
wallflower stories.

A couple of weeks ago,
I needed to buy a pair of slacks.
I went to a large department store
and left without even trying on a pair.

Why?

Because it was too hot
in the store for clothes shopping.

Many claim that
70 to 73 degrees F is the ideal store temperature.
Vary far from that temperature
and you’ll turn off almost all buyers
but tweak your store temperature
and you can tweak sales.

In a quick service restaurant
I worked with,
the store owner would
increase the store temperature
by a couple of degrees
when he wanted to sell more ice cream
and turn it down
when he wanted to sell more hot beverages.

A travel agent I know
plays with his store temperatures
to drive trips to certain destinations.
He uses it as a marketing tool.
‘This is the temperature in Barbados today.’

Store temperatures make a difference in sales.

BTW…
A higher temperature is not necessarily better
for ice cream sales.
As Christina Seid
of the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
says
“When it is too humid,
people want to be in air conditioning.
Instead of going out to ice cream parlors,
they would rather stay at home.
Sales are much higher on days
between 70 and 80 degrees
than those in the 90s and 100s.”