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.”
Jeff Cornwall reminds would-be entrepreneurs
to ask themselves
3 key questions
before pulling the trigger on a business.
Is there a market?
Is there a margin?
Is this for me?
One test of the third question
is whether or not you can walk away
from the idea with no regrets.
If you can while you’re in the rosy pre-launch stage
then you will likely bail
when the going gets tough…
and it WILL get tough.
Acting coach Robert Carnegie
states bluntly that Ashley Judd
was the worst actress in her class.
She was so bad that everyone,
including the teachers, had bets on
when she’d quit.
She didn’t quit of course
but went on to star in movies like
Kiss The Girls and Double Jeopardy.
Natural talent is all very nice
but nothing beats hard work.
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.
It doesn’t often rain in Marrakech
during the month of May.
One of the locals said he couldn’t remember
it raining in May the past 12 years.
It rained this year.
Almost everyone at the breakfast table
was unhappy about this.
Almost everyone.
One smartly dressed businessman
bounced into the room,
exclaiming how wonderful the rain was.
And it was…for him.
The man was a roof installation salesman.
When better to sell roofs
than when it was raining?
Someone profits from every situation.
Marian Salzman points out three major trends,
the growth of brand sluts,
making complex things simple,
and increased isolation
as the average person grows wealthier.*
The third trend I find most interesting.
Salzman points out that as people have more,
they become more paranoid
about keeping what they have.
This drives them to withdraw from others,
seeing them as possible threats.
What does this mean?
More gated communities.
More tables for two.
Less church attendees.
* May 2007 issue of easyJet Inflight
Country star Alan Jackson
had to deal with resistance
when he launched his now loved
but then controversial song
“I’ll Go On Loving You”.
He said “I knew the fans would like it
but didn’t know if we could get it
through all the red tape at the radio
to get it to the fans.”
Every industry has gatekeepers.
These gatekeepers have to be sold on new ideas
before the innovations even have a shot
at being sold to the target market.
I asked a gambler
which horse he liked for an upcoming race.
He replied that he doesn’t bet on horses,
he bets on jockeys.
You see jockeys want to get paid
and the more they win, the more they get paid
so the best jockeys pick the best horses.
And if a jockey shows up for only one race
you can be sure that he intends to win.
In every business,
there is more information provided than needed.
Cut through the noise
to focus on what is key.
In Harvey Mackay’s book,
Beware The Naked Man
Who Offers You His Shirt,
he tells the story of Sam Walton
walking into the messy, disorganized
store of a competitor,
zeroing in on one area
and asking
“how come we’re not doing that?”
The competition may lag you
in sales but
there’s a reason they are
still in business.
That is because they are offering
something you aren’t.
Find out what that something is.
Web Ink has done an analysis
of the most over used
gobbledygook words used
in press releases.
The big winner?
“Next Generation”
What does this mean to customers?
Absolutely nothing.
You only have seconds
to grab your prospect’s attention.
Don’t waste it with filler words.
And yes, industry standard
was on the list too.