Category: Sales

Recently I ran classes on the same subject 
to two separate groups. 

The first class,
I was personally affiliated with, and
I gave the class free of charge to participants. 

The second class,
well I didn’t really want to host,
so I charged a nominal fee. 

The results were interesting. 

Participants in the second class
asked more questions,
offered more discussion, and
after the class was completed,
they offered more thank you’s. 

Substantially more. 
Wasn’t even close. 

My conclusion? 
If I want appreciation,
I’ll charge a fee.

On one of my blogs,
I’m spicing up content by
posting more interviews with experts. 

At first I was finding these experts
with simple Google searches. 
Took time and
I didn’t have a very good response rate. 

Then I realized that I was searching in the wrong place. 

I went to an article directory. 
Here were a list of experts writing content for free,
all in hopes of publicity. 
Suddenly my response rate increased
to pretty close to 100%. 

Are you also searching for customers
in the wrong place? 
Are you buying ad space for online ventures offline? 
Are you trying to sell romance novels to poetry readers?

I received an email promoting an event. 
At the end of the email, I read this…

“We will begin at 6 p.m. sharp. 
Please be on time!

No Cancellation after Wednesday October 17, 2007
and No shows will be charged . 

Advanced Registration Required.
Payment required in advance by credit card only.” 

Was this sent to a bunch of high risk attendees? 
Nope, professional accountants. 

And it was for a bowling night. 
With this fun, fun email,
what do you think attendence was?
(I don’t know… I didn’t go)

In the writing community,
there is an ongoing discussion
about “free” writing. 
I give away free short stories
on my writing blog. 
Should I be trying to sell them
to magazines instead? 
Or is it keeping the “discussion” going? 

Communications specialist Renate Zorn in
“The Woman in the Red Dress” points out
“When most conversations falter,
they do so not because the participants
don’t have anything in common to talk about,
but because one or both participants
aren’t giving or using “free information.”…
Free information includes
any unsolicited comments
or information provided by the speaker.” 

So to communicate well,
you have to give some information away. 

I went to a seminar after work two days ago. 
About a quarter of the attendees
were in suits or blazers and
the rest were very casual. 

An interesting thing happened
at the end of the seminar,
all the suits were talking to each other,
exchanging business cards. 
There wasn’t a single casual dresser
in the group. 

Why? 
Because the suits knew
while the primary reason to attend
was to hear the presenter,
the secondary was to network, and
networking while looking one’s best
is more effective. 

One of my favorite phrases is
“If you don’t buy a ticket, you can’t win.” 

I feel better when I have
a possibility of having things happen. 

Since deciding to focus on writing,
I’ve always had a contest entry,
a manuscript to be edited or
query letter out there. 
If I didn’t, I knew I had no chance of being published. 

Ovid put it more elegantly
“Let your hook be always cast,
in the pool where you least expect it,
there will be a fish.” 

Send out a sales letter today.
Give your product a chance.

I have a loved one
who used to complain
I never thought of her. 
Despite calling her semi-regularly,
sending her emails, etc.,
I would hear that repetitive complaint. 

Then I started sending her weekly letters. 
Now for a cost of a stamp and a postcard,
she’s happy. 
She feels loved. 

What does this have to do with sales? 
Most customers have a tiny, tiny “thing”
that if supplied, they feel loved. 

For me, as a customer,
it is the follow up phone call/email/letter
after I buy. 
Do that and I’ll be a customer for life. 

How to find out that one thing?
Simple. Ask.
Ask about their best buying experience
and what the salesperson did during it.

I was on a site selling blogs
(doing research for a friend). 
Listing after listing had the same information. 
Page Rank, Monthly Revenue,
Unique Visitors, Links In…  

Then there was a listing
with none of that. 
And no bidders. 

The comments? 
Asking about the common information. 
It was common because
that was what the buyers were looking for. 
That was how they valued the blogs. 

By not listing the information,
the seller looked like a junior jammer,
out of touch with the market.
Not likely to get premium pricing.

Hearing no is part of sales. 
Learning how to deal with objections
is a must for any salesperson. 

Brian Tracy in this book “Be A Sales Superstar”
suggests using the Feel, Felt, Found method. 

“When a customer says something
like “It costs too much,” you can say,
“I understand exactly how you feel. 
Others felt the same way
when they first heard the price. 
But this is what they found
when they began using out product or service.””

We see it in retail all the time. 
The single-invoice mentality. 
What is it? 

Stan Adler in “The Zen Of Selling” explains…
“This store is full of single-invoice mentalities. 
It’s pathetic, but it’s also your advantage. 
Most salespeople don’t follow up for two reasons: 
first, because it means more work, and
they probably got a sales job in the first place
because they didn’t like hard work and,
second, they don’t have confidence in what or
how they sold the customer initially,
so why should they call the customer
and risk confronting a problem? 
That’s the working premise of a nonseller.

What the average salesperson doesn’t understand is:
If the customer hasn’t already called you,
whatever problem there is can’t be urgent.”

So follow up,
solve the small problem and be a hero.