Category: Sales

Creating Holiday Spirit

We’re deep into
the holiday buying season
here in North America.

When we sell customers
gifts,
we’re selling them
the possibility
of happiness.

That is MUCH easier
to do
if our salespeople
are happy.

How do we accomplish
this
while they are working long hours
and dealing with
quite a few customers?

Some retailers host contests.
Some bring in treats
for their salespeople.
Some post a joke every day.

They create a festive environment
for their salespeople,
knowing that mood
will be relayed
to customers.

Ensure your salespeople
are happy
this holiday season.

Happy salespeople
sell more products.

We Have Choices

Yesterday,
I talked about
how I block people
who are possible threats,
even if they are experts
in a field.

I can do that.
Because I have choices.

There are many experts
in every field.
There are many prospective
business partners.
There are many possible
customers
or vendors
or influentials
or…
well… any type of person.

Listen to your instincts,
to the warning signs.

Don’t spend time
with people who give you
reasons to be afraid
or share the same space
with people
you don’t feel comfortable
being around.

There are over 8 billion people
on this planet.

Choose someone else.

A Useless Response Is A No Response

A couple weeks ago,
a politician
‘strongly recommended’
everyone wear masks indoors.

Medical experts
said that step was useless.
The average person
wouldn’t wear a mask
unless it was mandated.

The politician
isn’t a dumb a$$.
He KNEW recommending
that people wear masks
wouldn’t change anything.

He didn’t WANT to change anything.

But if he shared THAT truth,
the media and his opponents
would jump all over it.
He’d receive
re-election-crippling bad press.

So he took an action
that would have no impact
on anything
yet made it look like
he WAS taking action.

I’ve seen this happen
in business all the time.

Employees are leaving, for example,
due to their wages being sh*t.
Management, instead of increasing wages,
installs a suggestion box
in the break room.
It does nothing
but it looks like action
is being taken.

When the ‘solution’ to a problem
is clearly useless,
that leader doesn’t want
the problem to be solved.
The answer is ‘no.’

Small Deals Matter

A salesperson loved one
works for a HUGE tech company.
He regularly works on
million dollar deals.

He hustled to close
a two thousand dollar deal
last week.

Why did he care
about that tiny deal?

It might lead
to a larger deal
in the future.

But most importantly,
it puts him ‘on the board.’

When staff-reduction-focused
management asks for a list
of all the salespeople
who didn’t close a deal
this month,
his name won’t appear
on that list.

Of course, he is continuing
to work on the big deals.
But he has closed A deal
and that might save his job.

Chase the big deals
but close A deal
this month.

Discrimination Can Happen At Any Level

One of my buddies
is a skilled salesperson.
She is also very detailed-oriented,
which is why
she found it surprising
that legal
would block or significantly delay
every one of her deals.

Seeking to fix this issue,
she asked a trusted coworker
to look at her contracts
before she submitted them.

He found no issues with them.
This white male salesperson
said he had submitted similar deals
in the past
and received no pushback
from legal.

She submitted the contracts.
Legal blocked them.

She brought this issue up
at a department meeting.
Every woman in that department
had the same issue.

The Legal department of one
was an older white guy.

Recognize that the ‘isms
– racism, sexism, etc
– could happen at any level
in an organization.

Legal could block
the sales of female salespeople
in an organization.
The mail person
could ‘lose’ the deliveries
of people of color.
Reception could ‘fail to connect’
the calls for trans employees.

Monitor complaints
and
take them seriously.
Look for patterns.

Our organizations
aren’t truly exclusive
if someone within it
is discriminating against others.

Artists Need to Eat Also

A writing buddy
posted on social media
that she needed more sales
per book release
to continue self-publishing
her stories.

Many of the replies
from semi-strangers
implied she should be writing
for the love of it,
for the art,
not for the money.

That is complete bullsh*t.

Writers and other artists
are business people.
We are also humans
living on today’s Earth.
We need money
to pay for things
like housing, heat,
FOOD.

We wouldn’t pay
a doctor or lawyer
or the store clerk at the grocery store
in smiles or appreciation.

Our work is as valuable.
We SHOULD expect
to be paid
for our creations.

Ignore or, better yet, block
people
who make you feel bad
about expecting to be paid
for your writing or other art.

They aren’t your customers
and they certainly
don’t care about your well-being.

If You Won’t Change Their Minds, Stop Talking

I chatted with a reader
who hated romance novels.
She didn’t believe
happy was possible
for most people
and that included
imaginary people.

I presented points
but eventually
I realized…
I would never change her mind.
She would never believe
happiness is possible.

So I stopped talking.
I was wasting her time
and I was wasting my time
by talking about it.

We chatted about other things.
I realized I could never be friends
with someone
who didn’t believe I could be happy.
And we went our separate ways.

We don’t have to convince
everyone.
We don’t have to sell
our products/services/ideas/stances
to everyone.

Some people will never buy
and that’s okay
because there are
over 7 billion people
in the world.

We don’t need that sale.
We can stop talking.

Violent Pushback Is Successful

One of the things
we’ve learned
from the pandemic thus far
is…
loud and violent pushback
results in success.

Governments know
thousands,
likely millions,
of people
will die
because they dropped
COVID precautions.

Yet they dropped those precautions
anyway
because they were tired of dealing with
the loud and violent
minority
who seem to want
everyone around them
to die.

What this means is…
this tactic
of being loud and violent
will be used again.

Because it works.

It will be used against us,
business builders.
It will be used
against our partners.
It will be used
against our prospects/customers.

Expect your customer service team
to be verbally and perhaps physically
abused
in the future.

Decide NOW
how you will deal with that.

Put a plan in place.

In Case Of Shortages…

With everything happening
in the world –
climate change disasters,
COVID,
other sh*t
– we are likely
to temporarily run out
of some of our products
now
or
in the future.

We won’t be able to
supply our products
to our faithful,
hard won
customers.

When that happens,
there will be bitter feelings.
Customers are loyal to us.
They expect us
to be there for them.

These customers will also
have to find replacement products.

The replacement products
could be purchased from the competition.
We could lose these customers
forever.

OR

The replacement products
could be purchased from us.

Maybe, for example,
we don’t have any
of the yellow product
but we have plenty of units
of the red product.
They are exactly the same
except for their color.

Or we don’t have the regular product
but we have the organic product
at roughly the same price.

Suggestion substitutions
on your website.
Perhaps mention them
on packaging.

Supply the replacement products.

Subscription Models And Supply

I love the concept
of Amazon’s Subscribe And Save
service.

We sign up to buy
often used products
and they are sent to us
monthly.
We don’t have to think
about buying these items.
We set it up once
and can forget about it.

Except Amazon
rarely has the items
in stock.

50% of my monthly order
isn’t available
this month.

Last month, 30%
of my regular monthly order
wasn’t available.
Those unavailable products
were different
than the products
unavailable this month.

I have to rush to find
and buy alternatives to them.
And that’s d*mn irritating.

It is easier
and more reliable
to simply buy
multiples of the items
we need
once
and store them
in our homes.

Don’t offer a subscription service
of products/services
unless you can secure
their supply.