Category: Sales

Hidden within Kelley Robertson’s great article
on dealing with time wasting prospects
is this truism
“the person who asks the questions
is the one in control of the sales process.” 

That’s why I answer the phone with
“What can I do for you today?” 
That’s why I ask more questions
regardless of being the interviewee
or the interviewer
(that and people like to talk about themselves). 
That’s why when I attend seminars,
I arrive with questions prepared. 

Asking questions is powerful.

There are a number of techniques
to sell into large companies,
most require an affiliation or introduction
from an already known entity
…like your lawyer or accountant or advisor. 

That’s right. 

One of the best value added services
your advisors can provide is access
to their contact list. 

That should be taken into
any advisor evaluation. 

Some money is better than none, right?

Wrong. 
In a social experiment,
when a pot of free money was divided,
stingy offers were rejected
even though this rejection resulted in
no money being given to either party. 

This may not make sense
until we think about what
the money represents. 
It represents status. 
Accepting a low ball offer is 
equivalent to accepting a lower social status. 

What does this mean? 
When negotiating a deal,
terms need to be not only win-win
but win-win equally for both parties. 

According to a study by
Maria Jonsdottir and colleagues,
the average person has 6.4 action slips a week. 

Amidst these action slips are
storage failures
(going to the store to get coffee and
then forgetting why you were at the store),
sub-routine failures
(returning with tea instead of coffee),
and discrimination failures
(taking the wrong car to the store). 

The highest incidence of action slips
happened on weekdays between 12 and 8. 

What does this mean? 

These might be the best times
to capture impulse purchases.

Stuck in a sales plateau? 
Consider raising your rates. 

That’s what
Jessica Duquette of ItsNotAboutYourStuff did,
with success. 

“At one point,
I hired a fabulous business coach
who insisted that I raise my rates
for people who wanted to work with me specifically,
and to hire others to do
the more routine work with my clients.

I can honestly say that each time
I have raised my rates,
I have actually gotten more business,
not less, as I had initially feared.”

You’ve done the difficult part,
getting the prospects in the store,
but once they’re there,
are they buying? 

The difference between traffic and
conversion into sales transactions
is an easy source of increased revenue
yet according to Headcount,
less than 25% of retailers track traffic. 

Take that extra step.

Joss Stone hounded Lauryn Hill’s mom
for 2 months to convince the elusive singer
to add her voice to Stone’s new album. 

She was ultimately successful. 

80% of salespeople quit on their first no. 
20% of salespeople make 80% of all sales.

Coincidence?

I don’t think so.

As Stone says “If you want something,
you have to go out and get it.”

Persistence is a requirement for sales,
both internal and external. 
Very few people buy on the first approach. 
As Kelley Robertson states
it takes an average of 8 points of contact
before a prospect buys.

But there is a difference between
being persistent and being a pain.

Persistent saleswomen are respectful
of the prospect’s time.
They keep it brief, keep it polite,
and allow the prospect time to respond.
I.e. they don’t leave long voicemails
every five minutes.

According to
Guerrilla Marketing Weekly Intelligence
“52 percent of callers hang up
when they are placed on hold
for one minute in silence,
but only 13 percent hang up
when music is played,
and a mere 2 percent hang up
when there is a spoken message.”

But what to say?
A study in the Journal of Applied Psychology
states that customers prefer
information over apologies.

Tell them
where they are in line.