Month: October 2011

Reminders

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Apple IOS 5.0 came with a new App called Reminders.   It’s pretty cool.   It didn’t come pre-populated though with any real helpful reminders about work so I thought I would do that in case you’ve forgotten.

  • Discovering needs is dead.  Creating needs is alive and well.   Big difference folks; a huge difference.   One assumes your prospect is a helpless victim of their environment, the other presumes they are definitively in charge of where they intend to go. 
  • Have you ever heard such a hue and cry for information and knowledge before?  Consumers and businesses yearn to understand social media, global marketing, internet marketing, economics, new languages, tablet and smart phone technologies and more.  Teach people too.  Teach people and you’ll corner that market and never go hungry. 
  • It’s not like it used to be anymore.   Before you ever hear from that prospect or customer they’ve been to your website and done lots of digging already (but they won’t tell you that).  When they finally get to you- you best deliver something other and better than a screen shot rehash.
  • You can choose not to have a credible or professional web presence for yourself online but that would be unwise.  Trust is at an all time low.  People, prospects, customers, partners and employers all want to see what your brand is and what you represent before they invest in you for real.    
  • You can have too many contacts, too many followers, too many fans, too many friends.  There’s a point where your influence like it or not, looks like it’s for sale or it’s too easily given away; either way – trust deteriorates, hits the tipping point and it becomes a zero sum game.
  • Be Invaluable.  Differentiate.  Simplify.   Hard to go wrong if you do those three things.  Just a reminder is all. 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Email: mark.mccarthy@deluxe.com

Internal Blog: http://blogs.deluxe.com/Mark/

External Blog: https://growthebusiness.wordpress.com/

Twitter at:  http://twitter.com/GrowTheBusiness

Kids Make The Best Sales People

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Today’s post is a guest blog by my colleague,  Angie Harley.

For those of you who have ever spent significant blocks of time with children, you know what I’m talking about.  Kids are- and probably always have been- some of the best sales people I’ve ever encountered.

Now, since child labor laws exist, and we don’t sell cookies, this isn’t the next greatest idea for our business.  But, I think there are a 3 lessons we could all relearn- since each of us have this deep rooted experience from our own childhoods- from these little people.

Lesson #1: Be persistent.

My four year old has this down- see if you can relate. 
“Can I watch Megamind?”  No.  “Mom, can I please watch Megamind? “ No.  “But I said, please.” Thank you for using manners, but No.  “Why not?”  Because I said so…

Look at that- three no’s and there is still persistence.  No fear of the no with a kid- they just keep asking it differently. 

My six year old is a little better at this skill.

“Mom, if I eat all my dinner, could we go get ice cream tonight?”  Not tonight.  “Why can’t we have ice cream, it’s a beautiful day for ice cream, and I know you love the Dairy Queen?”  Good point.

See, she got the no- kept going, but look at the insertion of value statements, giving a benefit, seeking to understand the no.  Much more effective.  Be persistent, but do it well!  

Lesson #2:  Money isn’t the issue

“Mom, can I have a new game?”  We’ll see.  “Mom, this game is only $50 for the Wii, and you love to play the Wii.  We could have so much fun with this one.”  $50 is a lot of money, honey.  “Well, not if we play it every day, Daddy said your new pants cost $50 and you only wear them sometimes.”  Ugh, another point for the six year old.

You see, while money is important- it’s more about the value you get out of that money.  Don’t be afraid to ask for that high dollar sale, if there’s value to the customer, the money isn’t the issue.

Lesson #3: Be fearless of the insane.

Let’s use my four year old again- 5 minutes before bedtime.

“Mommy, I’m hungry.  Can I have some cookies?”  No, bud, it’s bedtime (what is he thinking!).

Call me a meanie, but asking for straight sugar right before bedtime is an insane question.  But, again, children are fearless when asking for the insane. Whether they know it’s crazy or not- it’s a bold, brave move to ask for the insane.  Try it, ask for that big sale, the crazy work schedule, or a day off- your fear may be the only thing in your way of a yes!

she wins another round. 

However, the lesson isn’t to pester your customers into prospects, but 

There is so much to learn, more than just the three lessons here.  So, the next time you are near a small child, pay attention to the little things they say and do to get their way.  You’ll be amazed how savvy these little people can be!

 

Angie’s Bio 

Angie Harley has a passion for learning- especially learning from the seemingly insignificant events of everyday life.  She has over 10 years of sales, management and training experience.  Angie lives in Minnesota with her husband and two sales savvy children.  She can be reached at angie.harley@deluxe.com

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Offline, Online and Flatline

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I love QR codes.

I really really do.

In our business they are the perfect marriage between online and offline marketing. A business comes to us and we print a QR code on that piece of paper that sends the consumer via their smartphone to a landing page we created for them.

QR codes link those 2 worlds together giving a business maximum exposure to grow their business. The value and effectiveness of both types of products by the way, just increased.

Perfect.

But now they’ve gone too far. QR codes are being engraved on headstones linking I guess 3 worlds together – real life, cyber life and now, afterlife. Folks literally can use their smartphone at the grave site and go directly to a memorial page online celebrating the life of the loved one.

Not sure we are getting into that business. But um, if you have any stone carving experience, give me a ring and we’ll talk. 🙂

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Steve Jobs Our Loss

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Getty Images

Getty Images

 It feels personal to me.   We  lost a truly great man. He wasn’t a hero, a president, a rock star or a childhood sports idol.  He was none of those but by gosh, he was all of those. There are so few original thoughts in the world yet he thrived in giving us glorious ideas we never thought of.

 

Yet we didn’t know anything about his personal life, his illness or his family. He didn’t want us to.  And we, refreshingly, didn’t care to know.  In that speaks volumes about purity and priority.

There is something better. That is what he believed. So simple;   There is something better. So wonderful.

He was also a business leader (uncomfortably for some), and yet that is what so many of our fathers and mothers, customers and even ourselves are. It’s not a bad thing this business of business he knew, for it fuels the joyful lives of so many people.

As I finish this post on one of his instruments; the IPad, it occurs to me how poignant that is. It never leaves my side. It contains so much better my thoughts, my passions, my dreams and my visions. How fitting is it for all of us and for him that the result of his dreams and visions helps us so easily partake in our own.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

It Never Was About You

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In business to business selling (particularly small business selling), good sales people begin to fail when it becomes about them.  

I see it all the time but I don’t mean when it becomes about being number one, or hitting the goals or maxing out on commission plans;- ain’t nothing wrong with that. 

Consider rather, the talented Sales Rep who begins with a new company or now has to sell a new product.  He or she is trained and coached to present to the small business owner not only what this product or service does for them but what it does or has done for small businesses just like the prospect they are speaking to. 

That makes perfect sense because the credibility of the solution or product obviously is not with the Sales Rep – it’s with the common customer experiences of customers that look just like the prospect.  Just like it should be. 

But then something strange happens.   

As the sales person becomes more successful, they start to believe they can skip all that “other customer stuff” because after all, they understand it all now.  They start to omit the small business statistics, the stories and the testimonials of other small businesses in their pitches.   The sales rep begins to launch into monologues about what they themselves know, what they themselves believe and what they themselves recommend.  

But the problem is “they themselves” still have comparatively little credibility with a small business prospect and frankly boasting about their time or years selling the product is a poor substitute for sharing what other small businesses are actually doing.

It’s never good to stop leveraging with other like small businesses do.  Never.   Sure, your credibility and experience counts over time but know your audience (SB’s) –  Survey after survey will show “what others do” is a highly influential variable in the sales process with small business.

If you are a sales rep who had a great start last quarter or last year but are starting to tail off or perhaps you coach sales reps that have had a great start but are fading; think hard about why.  If there’s scant reference to other successful customers and what they do, then it’s time to pretend you don’t know much about your product and sell like that again. 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

 Mark