Posts Tagged ‘sales’
Bake Sale Confessions
Bake Sale Confessions
Last week at the Bake Sale I lied, cheated and deceived.
And while I kind of feel bad about it, I kinda don’t.
I did it all for charity.
And OK, I did it to prove a point too. One you need to remember.
Jeanie and I were in charge of the Bake Sale table for that hour. Sales needed a boost. It was all for a good cause – a charity that needed money to do good. Jeanie and I go way back in the sales world. We knew we needed to apply our skills. I winked, she smiled and knew what I was going to do.
One large plastic tray laying on the table had a single package of wrapped homemade cookies left in it. “$1.00 for 2 cookies” it said. A lady walked by, saw that it was the last one and ….poof!…. she bought it and it was gone. An empty tray now. A nice big empty tray. Perfect. I took 2 sorry looking single packages of other homemade cookies hadn’t sold at all and placed them along with their description and price tag in the newly emptied large tray and walked away.
Those unsold cookies looked so puny in that big tray but they also looked like the only two left in what must have been (perceptually anyway), a full spread of those cookies at one time.
What hadn’t sold at all; these 2 cookie packages – were gone in less than 5 minutes. Charity Cha – Ching!
That tray was gold. When it emptied, I placed other items ( many that were single sole items to begin with) and put them that tray tucked up against the corner looking like the last of the most popular product on the table. Disappeared they did.
On occasion, I admit I threw in a whispered “That’s the last one….” to the unsuspecting passerby while pointing to the giant tray of what must certainly look like the hottest selling treats in the Bake Sale. Folks stopped, then stared, then snagged the item and shelled out the cash.
The ultimate of course, was the single $10 raspberry pie that was always just a single pie made for the Bake Sale. I realize as I write this, that my local Priest reads this blog but I have to admit my white lies went eggshell on me and I shouted ”This is THE last raspberry pie!” and placed it carefully in what had become the Solid Gold Tray of Charity. It sold right away along with my soul perhaps, to the Devil.
I’ll take my chances with the Devil because of the Cause (Rev. Paul, help me out here will ya? ). No one was hurt. And the event was something that totally outweighed the means I suspect.
It’s not rocket science; this Bake Sale behavior. It’s Psychology. We are simple, good people who act way more on emotion and peer pressure than logic. Way more than we’d like to admit. So if you mix popularity ( it must be good) with scarcity (there aren’t many left!) like the “last remaining” baked items put in that big tray – you create a recipe most people can’t avoid tasting.
It’s why we stand in line for IPhones, why we rearrange our lives in trying to get tickets for one of only two shows and why we pay high prices for the best seasonal seafood.
But it’s also why we look twice at the last products on a shelf amidst a sea of like products in a supermarket or club store. It’s also why QVC still tallies “how many left” on the bottom of the screen during a pitch. It’s why in the end, we respond so well to things that are popular and scarce. It makes us want.
I’m not advocating lying or cheating or deceiving. (OK, maybe a little for charity). But you all have products or services or even people that are truly popular and scarce. Shout it out! Find your Solid Gold Tray and place them there. Let your customers, prospects, colleagues or employer see what is so precious and rare.
From a Bake Sale, to your company’s Biggest Sale, to just Better Sales for you no matter what you sell – remember the power of the near irrestistable mix of popularity and scarcity; it’s an influence like nothing else.
Till next time,
Grow The Business.
Mark
Nobody Good
Nobody Good
It sticks with me; a glorious opportunity.
It was on a large conference call. The leader was talking.
“We asked hundreds of small business owners this same question about who they think of when faced with this challenge. And do you know what they said?”
(Long pause)
“Nobody”.
Wow. Nobody! That is wonderful!!
It grows wearisome to enter the market place and find that you are yet just another competitor.
It grows wearisome to plan, to process, to test, to test some more, to test yet one more time and then find out you are pretty much like the other guy.
It grows wearisome to follow the “shiny bright thing”, or to dig up “old tapes” from another company that didn’t get it right or to just chase the “short term gain”.
I don’t want to follow, dig up or chase anymore. I want to invent. I want to lead.
So when you ask an audience and the answer is “Nobody” or “I can’t think of anyone” or “No idea”, realize that that is the sound of glorious opportunity yet to be embraced.
Have at it.
Till next time,
Grow The Business.
Mark
P.S. “Nobody” is opportunity on an individual level too. Ask your team, your boss, your colleagues “Who do you look to for __(fill in the blank)__ ?” If the answer is “I don’t know”; that space is yours for the taking!
Angela’s Assist
Angela’s Assist
“What are you buying it for?”
“Oh, that’s wonderful…”
“Let me do that for you…..”
“I think you should grab a couple more…”
“That looks beautiful on you…..”
“Oh, I don’t like that one on you so much, not conservative enough…”
“You know what would really make that look sharp…. is a belt..”
“A necklace will really tie it together and show your personality…”
“You may want to grab another blouse with the 50% off promotion and mix and match this.”
“Good luck, I know you’ll get the job”.
Yep. That’s pretty much verbatim what sales associate Angela said to my 23 year daughter 2 weeks ago as we shopped for her first real business suit as she was about to interview for a customer service role in one of the largest investment firms in the world.
It was a memorable almost “wow” service experience as her mother and I watched Angela guide her through the buying process. She wasn’t pushy; she wasn’t hovering as in fact, Angela was helping two other customers at the same time.
It was however, so smart. It started with the right question. Not just “What are you buying?” But, “What are you buying it for?”
The rest of her comments and questions make smart sense. They are honest. They are helpful. They are overtly credible and said with the tone and content that she has “totally been here before”. And it was in the end, not about the suit at all – but about the goal our daughter had in mind – landing that job.
She did land that job. [Today, in fact 
]
And while the business suit Angela helped pick out for our daughter probably wasn’t the reason she got the job, it sure didn’t hurt and better, what a great lesson in customer service Angela gave her to steal from for the interview. It works on a lot of levels.
You can steal shamelessly from Angela too. Read the comments she made and the questions she asked. Think about them. Apply accordingly.
Till next time,
Grow The Business.
Mark
PS: If you’d like to see Angela in action, head to the clothing store Ann Taylor at Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, NH. I’m sure she won’t mind that I sent you there.
Useless Vs. Priceless Phrases
Useless Vs. Priceless Phrases
I have three Priceless Phrases that can make your life easier (and/or more successful) if you chose to use them immediately.
But before I get to those, let me share some favorite Useless Phrases so the distinction between the two types of phrases becomes very clear to you.
3 Useless Phrases
- I’m a big fan of shouting “Lords of Light!” when surprised. ( Silly phrase – Just darn odd too)
- Being of Irish Boston heritage I will say a whole lot of (when angry) “ _______, Mary and Joseph!” (I left it blank because I swear my Mom still can hear me and she would not be happy).
- If you are a faithful blog reader you know that lately I’m partial to randomly saying “That’s not a real puppy. That’s too small to be a real puppy”. I use this phrase (stolen from a TV commercial) when I see people obsessed with social media.
None of these phrases really do anything for me. Nor certainly, will they do anything for you.
But now these next phrases – Have at em’ – They will set you free!
3 Priceless Phrases
“OK, let’s talk a bit more and see what we can do”. Is part of your job helping people? My guess is yes. Is part of your job getting requests or demands from colleagues or customers? Then this phrase is for you. Nobody likes to hear “no” right off the bat (and few of us like to say it). This phrase takes requests or demands and gets you both a little time (critical for discovery) and focuses on what “can” be done vs. what can’t. Tension is therefore reduced and work can begin. Make it your own – “talk” can become “meet”, “we” can become “I”. You get it.
“Who besides yourself…” So easy, but nobody says it. Talking with customer, colleague or service provider no matter – this phrase gets you way more than you think. Want to talk to the decision maker? Presume the person you are talking to has some kind of influence and ask “Who besides yourself has a say in investing here?” Otherwise you risk disconnect or diversion. Protect the pride and ego of the people you talk to- it helps you.
“Tell me more about that…” Fantastic for a networking event, or easing the challenge of going to party with people you may not have ever met or simply doing some good discovery with a client. We all love to talk about ourselves or what we do. This phrase fuels that making you also perceived to be “such a great listener!” No harm in saying “Tell me more about that” a dozen times in an hour at a convention, conference or party. Bonus: You can make this phrase more effectively open up your clients, new friends or potential customers by narrowing the focus (vs. the broad word “more”). Ask “Tell me the best part about that”. It allows for often a faster focus point for the responder and better, it keeps that person focused on the positive – all good when they think back on talking with you.
Till next time,
Grow The Business.
Mark
We Need More Boring Sales Stories
We Need More Boring Sales Stories
We need more of those. You know the boring Sales stories right?
- The Voicemail lights up. “Hi Mark, I’d like to place a new order”.
- The phone rings: “Hi John, I need to buy a car for my daughter.”
- The door opens: “Any way I can get a pool installed in 2 weeks?”
- The email pings: “Can you be the listing agent for my house?”
You never hear any of these sales stories around the water cooler or at the bar. No war stories there. Boring. Boring. Boring.
Yet these things do happen to great sales reps. You don’t hear about them though because as we’ve established, it’s um, boring – not much to see here.
Except that’s not really true.
You see, in these sales stories, someone else did the selling. Some customer so moved by the experience with their sales rep, so amazed at the service, the follow up, the treatment, the wisdom and the sheer help, that he/she inspired friends to call, visit or ping this sales rep with their open minds and wallets.
No referral was asked for here – all the selling done behind the scenes, unknowable to the sales rep. Hard to tell a story in which you have no idea what really happened. A real snoozer.
Best kind of sales though where the customers do the selling for you ain’t it? Bring on the boring – Zero to close in 30 seconds!
How many of these calls, visits or emails are you getting? How many boring sales stories could you actually tell? Not enough?
Get cracking then – do what you need to do to get your customers to sell for you. Be boring all the way to the bank.
Till next time,
Grow The Business.
Mark
3 Keys To Giving Great Advice Fast
3 Keys To Giving Great Advice Fast
Smart sells. Smart and Fast sells even better.
If you are in the B2B space there is little more valuable today than insight. Insight is attractive. Insight gets attention and sets you apart from competitors. Insight leads to influencing client behavior which leads to sales.
Good advice giving is important today especially in the abstract service spaces like online digital marketing or insurance or payroll services or social media services etc- you get the picture. And Business owners (especially SBs) are pressed for time and even more pressed for advice and counsel.
So when they talk with you Mr. or Mrs. Salesperson or Consultant; they expect you have something smart to say or something to share that they did not know before and the reality is, they have very little time to stand around ( or hang on the phone) to answer your 20 questions and wait for you to absorb, analyze and provide that insight.
So if you are charged with having to provide important tips or advice in very little time to a prospect or client, how do you do it? And how do you do it fast?
3 Keys
- Set the Table Correctly Before Asking Any Questions At All: It’s a rare day when you can amble up to a business owner or chat with them while they are calling in to place and order, and start to pontificate smart advice. At a minimum, a question or two usually needs to be asked. But it’s how you preface asking those questions that makes a difference. Tee up the questions with a statement that respects the appeal from the customer/ prospect’s perspective. “I know your time is short so let me ask just three quick questions about your business so I can then give you something interesting to think about” Business owners love the words “quick” and “three” ( they know when it is over!). And you have totally respected the time issue. Do this and you have just improved your chances of your questions being answered honestly and completely enough as he/she wants what you want –to give/get good insight, fast.
- Be an Industry Informant. There’s nothing wrong with taking a tact that starts with “You know what I’m hearing from a lot of the accountants I’m talking to these days…” Or “I gotta say the contractors I talk to today are hammering social media and print marketing pretty equally..” This approach doesn’t respect the client’s individual business needs (yet) but makes you sound very smart (you must talk to people just like me every day!) and therefore the advice has credibility. And of course, nothing is more influential to a business owner than what other businesses (who are just like them) are doing. Key here is you have to leverage Lines of Business or even some deeper segmentation (gulf coast contractors for example) that appeals to clients’ sense of your industry intelligence.
- “Think” / “Consider” vs. “Do”: The worst kind of advice to give to someone you don’t know that well just yet is to tell them to “do” something. Particularly in those more complex, abstract services and especially when those people you are talking about are business owners who have a pretty large sized ego, pride and sense of entrepreneurialism. Know your audience. Telling someone to “do” something can get backs to arch so to speak. Try “Consider some payroll options, a few things to think about are how much time you spend per month…” Or “One thing to think about is investing in some kind of trackable answering service…”. Semantics? Nope. Insert the word “do” in the last 2 examples and pretend you’re a business owner talking with someone you just met. Yeah- fun uh? Encouraging business owners to “think” and “consider” is smart. Not when you are suggesting buying a pen or upgrading to larger quantity – that’s fine use a form of “do”. But when you are in those more complex products or services, it shows you get how these folks work and that you are advising not closing at this stage.
Be Smart and Sell More!
Till next time,
Grow The Business.
Mark
I am Joe’s Lead
I am Joe’s Lead
I am Joe’s Lead. That’s what they told me anyway. Here I sit, in his queue. And It’s way boring man.
All I can see is this big banner over my head that says “salesforce.com.” That arrow thingy keeps swiping by me now and then, but never quite lands on me. It’s been 2 darn days. Good times.
Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
And I am dying fast. Way faster than anyone realizes, particularly, Joe. He doesn’t get it. I’m a Small Business Lead you see. I don’t wait for anyone. I am crazy busy. If I ain’t moving – I’m dying.
I raised my my hand two whole days ago. But I am dying so fast I don’t even remember now how I got here in this thing. I am starting to lose my memory as to why I am here too. When Joe finally clicks on me I’m probably going to flat out forget why the heck he is calling me. I might even deny I wanted a call because frankly I don’t remember why, and dammit, I am busy.
Joe has a bigger problem about me, Lead. He doesn’t get me at all. I’m not “his lead” nor am I his “commission ammunition” or his “meal ticket”. That just ticks me off. I am not something to burn thru, beg for, to be traded around or worse – to be ignored. And don’t think I don’t hear Joe dissin’ me and my peeps when he occaissionaly says we are “weak” or a “joke” or “trash from corporate”. If I could ( stupid glass!), I’d reach out and slap Joe’s scowl and headset clear off his face when I hear that.
Nope, Joe doesn’t get me. I raised that hand somehow, some way 2 days ago. It doesn’t matter how high I raised it – I raised it! And I am not a Lead, I am a Need! I’m a gap, an idea, a dream, a pain that won’t go away, a prayer to save my business, a chance to go big, a plea for some education because I just don’t understand, a fear of my competition, a hope for a few more sales per month or a chance to put a stop to all these customers leaving me.
I am all of those things and more. I am a Need, not a Lead.
Hope this clears things up a bit.
So Joe do me a favor will ya? Click on me man. Do it fast before I forget how you could help me. God knows I needed something.
Till next time,
Grow The Business.
Mark
The 3 Best Cold ( and not so cold) Calling Tips
The 3 Best Cold ( and not so cold) Calling Tips
Calling out to small business? It’s not dead. Cold calling, Warm calling, Smart calling – whatever you want to call it. It ain’t dead.
And if you do it right you can make an impression “above the clutter”, earn 20 seconds more or get that appointment or meaningful conversation going.
So let’s cut to the chase and all the quadrillions bytes of information out there (including everything I’ve written) about how to do it well and put only 3 of the best of the best out there for you today.
“45 seconds”. …..“Did I catch you at a horrible time or do you have just 45 seconds?” (Who really doesn’t- the phone was picked up (And do you realize how much you can actually say in 45 seconds?)) And what sales rep actually says “45 seconds?” (Nobody). I skipped over the greeting but you get the point. You can use “45 seconds” or “65 seconds” or heck “73 seconds” —the point is it is differentiatingly odd (attention getting), short (45 seconds is time tension goodness). Try it. It works. Oh, and make sure your 45 seconds is killer and you may earn some more time.
Local Local Local : Got a local company name you’ve done business with? Got some local customer counts of those you are doing business with? Use them right up front. All business is local (if given a choice). “Mr. Johnson, there 14 customers right there in Salem trust us already with their….”. (Credibility, Popularity, Local). It doesn’t matter if you are not local- just make sure some of your customers are.
Insight, no strings attached. Don’t always sell you, the company, the product, the appointment, the opportunity up front- sell Insight. This real example works – “I can give you 3 tips in just 3 minutes to get more sales no strings attached, just by looking at your storefront…” Prospect interested? If yes, then that is because there is a reason, a need, a gap, a worry, an ego, a dream or all of the above and THAT is more than enough to qualify as lead worth pursuing. You make the Insight make sense for your effort and lead with that. Smart sells.
By the way, these 3 tips work just as well too when “warm” calling – cross selling into new product spaces to existing clients.
Till next time,
Grow The Business.
Mark
Move Along, Nothing To See Here
Move Along, Nothing To See Here
Watching inane television, rubber necking at traffic accidents or viewing any of the top 10 YouTube videos on any given day are just 3 things that are an insipid waste of time and focus. Move along, nothing to see in any of that.
Here are some other things not worth focusing on for you folks who Sell to feed yourself and your kids.
- If a prospect’s hand is raised (no matter how high) then you needn’t start from scratch with that selling process. Move along, nothing to see here. No need to create interest already created, rather fuel the interest and move the sales process forward.
- If you had that cup of coffee already and got caught up on your colleagues weekend activities (or better yet didn’t waste time getting caught up) – get in your car or get on the phone and start connecting with prospects/clients. Move along, nothing to see here. Keep moving – time is precious and hard to get from your busy clients.
- If you have presented the solution, painted a compelling picture of how the client benefits from using it and removed the perceived risk of their investment then you needn’t hang around that part of the selling process any longer. Move along, nothing to see here. Ask for the business or presume you have it and move forward.
- If you’ve got a few questions answered from your client then quit asking more. Move along, nothing to see here. Incessant discovery of clients’ wishes, dreams and goals is exhausting for them- teach them something smart instead. That will move the sales process forward.
- If you’ve gotten two “Send me some info’s”, one missed planned call and a couple of “I’ll look it over’s..” then you needn’t keep nurturing this lead. Move along, nothing to see here. The prospects willingness to change is not there- they will stay with whatever they are doing today (including nothing) and are just trying to be polite.
I bet there are a dozen other wasted foci out there; feel free to share (and teach us) in comments!
Till next time,
Grow The Business.
Mark
