Category: Sales

Renewals Are A Lot Of Work

A loved one,
a skilled salesperson,
signed a renewal
for a multi-million dollar contract.

He had worked on this renewal
since the previous contract
was signed.
There were multiple meetings
a week regarding it
for an entire year.

The contract could have easily
gone to competitors.
My salesperson loved one
fought hard
to keep the business.

He was paid no commission
on it.

His company’s policy
is
they only pay commission
on new business.

Contract renewals
are key to a company’s success
and they are HARD work.

Ensure your salespeople
are compensated
for them.

Masks And Hand Sanitizer Are Here To Stay

With Monkeypox ramping up
and COVID not at all ramping down,
it is essential
that businesses,
including the small businesses
you and I are building,
attempt
to keep customers
and employees safe.

The easiest way
to do that
is to have hand sanitizer
and masks always available
at the front door.

Keep those containers
filled up.

Factor those expenses
into your financials.

Assume you will supply
masks and hand sanitizer
forever.

Because you likely WILL
do that.

These are the bare minimum
now
for businesses
going forward.

And they convey
that you care.

Welcome Latecomers

I’ve been writing in a world
I developed for seven years.
I have over 40 stories
written in this world.

Yesterday, I received a message
from a reader
who discovered Book 1
in that world.

She was excited.
For her,
it was a brand new book.
And she had questions.

These questions
had all been answered
many years ago.
I can barely remember
that story.

But I re-read it
and I copied and pasted
the answers to her questions
and I welcomed her
to the world,
to my array of products.

Doing this is worth my time.
If I treat this latecomer well,
she will buy all 40 plus books
and become a reader for life.

If you’re fortunate
and your products/services
have staying power,
you WILL have latecomers
to those products/services.

Ensure you plan for this
to happen.
Value these new customers.
Welcome them
to YOUR world.

When A Big Market Evaporates

There is talk
about banning Romance Novels
in some areas
of the U.S.

F*ck.
There’s more than talk
happening.
Some areas of the U.S.
have already banned
Romance Novels
with Male/Male, Female/Female,
and other non Male/Female
relationship constructs.

The U.S. is my biggest,
by far,
market for my Romance Novels.
It consists of
80% of that income.

I have attempted
to build the income
in the other countries
but haven’t been very successful
at that.

If I lose the U.S. market,
it won’t make financial sense
to continue publishing Romance Novels.

I’m planning for that
possibility.

If your largest market
evaporates tomorrow,
what would you do?

Is there some way
to mitigate that risk?

When Clients Leave

I decided not to renew
a professional membership.

I was no longer using it.
The fees were hefty.
The time requirement
to keep it
was equally intense.

Since I’ve passed the renewal date,
I’ve been receiving
increasingly angrier messages
and notifications of
increasingly larger late renewal fees.

There hasn’t been a single message
asking me
WHY I haven’t renewed.
No one has contacted me
about options
to help with the renewal fees
or to ease
the time requirements.

The reaction is 100% punitive
and it has reassured me
I made the right decision
by not renewing.

If you truly want to
retain customers,
talk to them,
listen to them,
help them
stay with you.

Pleasing The Niche Market

My target market
for my Romance Novels
is fairly small.

The readers in this niche
know what they want.
They have certain expectations
for the stories in it.

I HAVE to meet those expectations
if I want to sell to them.
I have to make them happy.
I have to craft books
they find great.

If I don’t,
I won’t sell very many books.

Because my books aren’t for everyone.
The random reader
won’t like them.
My books are designed for this niche.

Seth Godin
shares

“The strategy of
the smallest viable audience
doesn’t let you off the hook
–it does the opposite.

You don’t get to say,
“well, we’ll just wait
for the next random person
to find us.”

Instead, you have to choose
your customers
–who’s it for
and what’s it for.
And when you’ve identified them,
the opportunity/requirement
is to create
so much delight and connection
that they choose
to spread the word
to like-minded peers.”

Creating products/services
for a niche market
can be more challenging
than creating products/services
for everyone.

Know the niche market’s expectations
and deliver the products/services
they desire.

Some Customers WANT Imperfect Products

One of my buddies
buys first versions
of games.

She knows
the games will have bugs
in them.
They won’t be perfect.

But she is willing
to tolerate those faults
to have the games first.

I have a weakness
for products
with small imperfections
in them.
Every object
in my house
has something wrong with it.

We are often told
we should perfect
our new products/services
as much as possible
before releasing them.

But there’s a market
for imperfect products/services.

And,
as Seth Godin
shares,

“If you want to leap forward,
you’ll need to ship things
before they’re perfect,
mostly to people
who want to buy them
before they are.”

Our products/services
don’t have to be perfect
to be viable.

Membership Vs Donation

I planned to donate
X dollars
to a science center.

When I clicked on
the one time donation option,
the site bots
asked if I had a membership.

I didn’t have one
and I ended up
buying a membership
at the same level
of dollars
as my intended one time donation.

Which seems like a loss
for the science center
EXCEPT
I will likely
renew that membership
every year
for the rest of my life.

And I will likely
also donate
in the future
at fundraising events.

That’s a huge increase
in future revenues
for the science center.

If you can,
turn a one time donation/sale
into
a renewable membership.

The Starting Price

One of the unwritten ‘rules’
in negotiations
is
the person who states a firm number
first
loses in negotiations.

They supply the anchor,
the starting price
(or salary).
And it is difficult for them
to move their price/salary
from that anchor
to benefit them.

As Seth Godin
shares

“The asking price
is a signal,
a way to message expectations
and begin a negotiation.
It’s simply a guess
about the future,
made by the person
who goes first.

It can anchor our thinking,
but if we’re not careful,
it can be an anchor
that also drags us down.”

One of the ways
to work around
sharing the starting price
is to state a range.

That provides a starting place
for discussions
but gives the negotiator
some flexibility.

State ranges,
not absolute numbers.

The Ripple Effect

A recent study
showed
the best way to convince others
to switch to solar
is to install
solar panels on our own roofs.

Those others we’ve convinced
will then install
solar panels on THEIR roofs
and that will influence
more people to invest in solar.

Our actions might seem small,
might seem insignificant
but they have ripple effects.

If we offer paper bags
as an alternative
in our stores,
surrounding businesses
are more likely to offer paper bags
as alternatives.

The businesses surrounding them
are then more likely to offer paper bags
as alternatives.

Our actions have ripple effects.
They are more powerful
than we realize.

Take that great-for-the-world action.
Make this planet a better place.
Leave that as one of your legacies.