Category: Sales

I went to a family party on Saturday.
An adult was talking to a kid.
He made a joke
using a long word
and everyone laughed.
Everyone except for the kid.

She scrunched up her nose
and said
“I’m in grade four.
I don’t know that word yet.”

The adult explained the word,
she then laughed
and we heard her using the same word
later on that evening.

The thing is…
most people,
your customers included,
wouldn’t admit to
not knowing that word
(or, yikes, acronym).

Not knowing all the words
makes people uncomfortable.
People don’t buy
if they’re uncomfortable with the purchase.

When I prepare any written piece
or any speech,
I always look it over
and ask myself
“Does my listener/reader know all the words?”
(yes, I do this for my novels also)

I recently was a first round judge
in an amateur romance writing contest.
The submissions that I thought
were ground breaking, original,
and likely to be published
did not final.
The submissions that made it to the finals
were competent but safe story lines.

If I was an editor or publisher,
I wouldn’t be looking at the finalists.
I’d be looking at the entries
with the widest range of scores,
the entries that both delighted
and offended.

Years ago,
I attended a science fair.
The kids that won had
competent, time tested experiments.

Then there were the entries
that didn’t quite work.
Why didn’t they work?
Because they hadn’t been done before.
The kids were trying something new.
THAT was where the excitement was.

Different doesn’t usually win awards.
If you are looking for different,
you may want to look at ALL entries.

Minutes ago,
I received a call from a telemarketer
(I, of course, am NOT
on the Do Not Call list
because being pitched to
is an easy way to perfect my own pitch)
and was told
“I’d like to follow up on some
correspondence we sent you.”

“Thank you, no.” Click

Correspondence means nothing to me.
If you send me something in the mail,
why don’t you mention when you sent it
and the general topic?

You have those specifics
(somewhere),
use them.

Specifics sell.
Saying 72% of dentists prefer that toothpaste
is more convincing than saying
most dentists prefer that toothpaste.
We trust specifics.
Use specifics and
we’re more likely to trust you.

It is challenging to blog every day
(believe me, I know).
It can also be lonely.

One solution is to ask others to guest blog for you.
Why would others guest blog?
To gain exposure to other readers.

So what happens if you have a new blog?
If you have no readership?

Then you sell your blog
on the promise of future readership.
Or you’re so nice
the blogger has trouble saying no.
Or you read her books.

Yep, you read that right.
I guest blog
(on the topic of romance or writing)
for any reader, author, reviewer
who reads my books
(or claims to read my books
– I don’t test them).

I’ve landed New York Times Bestselling authors
for guest blogs
using the exact same technique.
I write,
I tell them I’m a fan
(which, in my case, is true),
and 8 times out of 10,
they’ll send me a short guest blog
or answers to interview questions.

It isn’t about traffic.
It is about giving the guest blogger
something she wants.
I want to be read.

I went to the hairdressers yesterday.
I’ve never dyed my hair before
but, concerned about my grays,
I asked the hairdresser if I should.

I know what you’re thinking
“Dumb question,
she makes more money
if I dye my hair.
She is going to say ‘yes.'”

That would be a legitimate concern
if she hadn’t already earned my trust.
But she had
and I asked.

She said
No.
There was no reason for me
to dye my hair.
Confirming my trust in her.

Trust is earned.
Not by fancy commercials
or great products.
It is earned by the little interactions.

I walked into a store recently
feeling down in the dumps.
The store clerk took one look at me,
and asked
“Tough day?”
I nodded.
“Well, lets see if we have something here
to make your day a bit brighter.”

I was absolute putty in her hands.

If you ask anyone about any recent purchase,
they’ll come up with a perfectly
rational reason why they bought.

They’d also be lying.

People don’t buy on reason.
They buy on emotion.
They come to you
with one emotion,
wishing to exchange it for another.

If you want to sell,
ask how your prospect is doing
(i.e. feeling)
and REALLY care about her answer.
Listen to the words
and her tone.
Read her face.

Then give her what she needs
to deal with that emotion.

Monopolies are in a sweet position.
They don’t have competition (yet).
They don’t have hefty marketing spend.
They don’t spend money
finding customers.
Customers find them.

Great monopolies know
there’s always a chance
they won’t be a monopoly tomorrow.
They concentrate on giving
such outstanding service
for such a great price
that the competition couldn’t get a foothold,
even if they were allowed in
their market.

Not-so-great monopolies
abuse their captive audience.
They don’t deliver on promises.
They raise prices so high,
customers complain.
They ignore innovation.

These not-so-great monopolies
create wonderful opportunities
for savvy entrepreneurs.
There’s always a way to compete
by offering a service that meets customer’s needs
while not being the prohibited same service.

I recently had a few credit cards expire.
Many of my bills are on pre-authorized payment.
This works out well
both for me
(convenience)
and for the vendor
(they can count on the payment every month).

Of the 12 bills I was paying by credit card,
only 1, you read that right, 1 contacted me
to get my new credit card information.
I renewed that vendor
without much thought.

The other 11,
I seriously thought about.
Did I need the service?
Could I get it somewhere else?
Some of them lost my business.

Ensure that if you accept pre-authorized payments,
you also have a system in place
to deal with credit card expiries.
Don’t lose customers
because you forgot to make a phone call.

A friend’s brother is an employment lawyer.
When another friend
needed a referral to an employment lawyer,
I asked for the brother’s information.

When given it,
I was told not to relay
the brother’s contact information
unless my friend was ‘serious.’

I didn’t bother asking.
I filed the card
and recommended someone else.

I am not a lawyer.
I am not in the industry.
I have no idea how to judge
whether a person is ‘serious’ about
hiring an employment lawyer.

And frankly
if the lawyer doesn’t yet have a system
in place
to judge for himself
whether a referral is ‘serious’,
I don’t want to refer people to him.

Referrals are dang difficult to get
and it is usually not a salesperson
doing the referring.
Accept referrals with no restrictions
and THEN get your salespeople/assistants
to qualify these referrals.

Canada is America’s largest trading partner.
It isn’t a long shot
for me to guess that
you have Canadian suppliers
or Canadian customers.
(If you don’t,
is this a market you should be looking at?)

Do you treat them differently?

Take today.
It is July 1st, Canada Day
(think July 4th).
Did you tweak your July 4th special offer
for your Canadian customers?
Swap Happy July 4th to Happy Canada Day?
Change the flags?
(Fireworks are universal)

Did you send a simple email
wishing them a Happy Canada’s Day?

I bet you haven’t.
Why?
Because in all my years
of working with major companies
(with serious cross-border trade),
I’ve never heard of a company doing this.

That creates a wonderful relationship building opportunity
for the clever company that does.