Category: Sales

Money And Power

If people perceive you have money
in the U.S.,
laws don’t apply to you.
They just…don’t.

You are unlikely to be charged
with anything.
And, in the rare instances
where you are charged,
you are unlikely to be found guilty.

Is this fair or just?
No.
But it isn’t a fair or just world.

For business builders,
this has big implications.

If our target market
is the wealthy,
we are at risk
of not being paid,
of being victims
of other crimes.

UNLESS people perceive us
as being as wealthy,
as powerful
as the people we serve.

If we can’t yet craft
that type of personae,
it is likely best
that we avoid the wealthy
until we CAN craft it.

Laws don’t apply
to the wealthy.
Remember that
when dealing with them.

If You Can’t Supply The Product…

I attended a workshop
during which
a book promo company
was begging authors
to use them.

So I tried to use them.

They sent me a rejection email,
told me they were fully booked
until October.

F*ck them.
F*ck them permanently.

Either their representative
was lying
or
she didn’t know
what that f*ck was happening
in her own company.

Either way,
I’m not interested
in working with them.

Don’t sell products
or services
you can’t supply.

You’ll lose that customer
permanently.

What Prospects Say Vs What They Do

I posted a short story
on social media.

Readers claimed to love it,
said I should expand it
into a novel,
promising to buy it
when I did that.

I won’t be expanding
that story.

Why?

Because NONE of those readers
have shared the posts
they were supposedly so excited
about reading.

Not one reader.
I had zero social media shares
on that short story.

If readers couldn’t be bothered
to click the share button,
they likely would never
plunk down cash
to buy the story.

People say all types of sh*t.

They claim they never
eat french fries.
They say they always vote.
They tell you to create a product
and they’ll buy it.

Watch what they do.

Do they offer to help fund
that product creation?
Do they post
about going to vote?
When you eat lunch with them,
do they tell the waitstaff
to hold the french fries?

Base your decisions on
what people do,
not what they say.

Keeping The Contact List Current

Our contact lists are precious
but they are even more valuable
when they are current.

I ensure I contact each person
on my list
at least once a year.

This is a BIG task
as I am fortunate to have
thousands of contacts.

What I do
is contact a certain number
of people per day.

I ask how they are doing.
I give them a few lines
about what I’ve been up to.
And I tell them
I’m there for them
if they need someone.

That’s it.

I send these messages
to X number of people,
note I’ve done that
in my contact list.
And I send a new set
of messages the next day.

Keep your contact list current.
Reach out to people on it
at least
once a year.

Where To Store Your Contact List

Your contact list is priceless.
Where should you store it?

Many people use LinkedIn.
It IS designed
to connect people.

But it is also owned
by another entity.
If that entity decides
you aren’t someone
they want on their site,
they can delete your profile
tomorrow.
All your contacts will disappear.

ALWAYS have a copy
of your contacts
elsewhere.
Download them
and store them somewhere safe.

Ensure YOU have a copy
of your contact list.

Building Your Contact List

In today’s world,
contacts are one
of our most precious resources.

Having a list of people
we can reach out to
for help
and advice
is priceless.

So how do you build
that contact list?

A master salesperson loved one
has added everyone
he has regularly worked with
from all the jobs
he has held
to his database.

At first,
this database was small.
He had less than 10 people
on it.

Now, his database is massive.
He has thousands of people
on it.

(When he left those jobs,
he reached out to them
and gave them
his personal contact information,
often receiving
their personal contact information
in return.)

Add your key co-workers,
vendors, partners
to your contact list.

Add a note beside
their information,
mentioning their relationship
to you
and other details.

Start building
your contact list
today.

You Might Be Their Only Contact Of The Day

I receive thousands of messages a day.
I suspect you receive
a high number of messages also.

We’re not normal.

We’re business builders.
We have a lot of contacts.
We have partners, customers,
vendors, industry folks
reaching out to us.
We subscribe to newsletters.
We are on mailing lists.

The average person
sends and receives
121 business emails a day.

Many of my readers
(customers)
are WAY below that average.
A busy day for them
is sending 10 emails.

Every one of those emails
is important to them.
Every one of those emails
they’re awaiting replies on.

Remember that
when you’re replying to messages.
That message might be one of a thousand for you
but your message is one of ten or less for that sender.

Make your message count.

Someone Should Earn Affiliate/Commission Income

Whenever I buy something
on a certain big bookseller’s site,
I navigate to the product through
a buddy’s affiliate link.

It doesn’t cost me anything
other than a couple minutes
and my buddy gains income
from it.

She earns enough from affiliate income
to allow her to write full time.
This has made a huge difference
in her life.

Before I buy anything at all
from any company,
I see whether or not
someone has an affiliate account
or could earn a commission
off the sale.

Yes, it helps out someone
in exchange
for a few moments of my time.

But it also builds relationships.
I give them sales.
They might, in the future,
return the favor
and send customers my way.

If you can,
give someone the commission
or affiliate income.

Selling Via Customer Service

I sell books
when I receive an email comment or complaint
about something
regarding my books.

That shouldn’t surprise you.

As Seth Godin
shares
“…the customer who calls you
or shows up at the adjustments window
is fully enrolled.
Unlike just about
every other moment
you’ve had with them,
in this moment,
they are paying attention,
leaning into the situation
and on high alert.”

We’re also having a direct conversation.
The reader (customer) isn’t talking
with Amazon
or another bookseller.
She is talking to me.

I can fix her problem,
listen to her
AND
sneak in a few sentences
about an upcoming book (product) release.

I can direct her
to a book of mine
she might like MORE.

I can give her a free copy
of a first book in a long series.

The options are almost limitless.

This isn’t the hard sell.
This is having a discussion.

Are you selling products/services
when customers contact you
about issues?

The Easiest Customer To Make Happy

Midway through a cruise,
I told a maître d’
we were extremely happy
with our table
and with our servers.
They were doing an excellent job,
etc. etc.

The next day,
he moved a grumpy passenger
and her group
to our table.

We were told to sit somewhere else
– a not-as-nice table
with different servers.

I refused.
We were then given the same servers
but we never got our table back.

And we could hear
the grumpy passenger complain
night after night.

The maître d’ didn’t make her happy
and he made his happy customers
unhappy.

The easiest customer
to make happy
is the customer
who is already happy.

Don’t f*ck those customers over
when attempting to make
unhappy customers happier.

Keeping happy customers happy
should be your priority.