“Can I Help You With Anything?” (Ugh)

My wife went to look for a dress on Friday.

She told me about it later (must have been a commercial break as I’m not inclined to really listen to mall shopping stories) but I was so pleased to have heard it.

As she entered the store, the associate walked up to her and didn’t say “Can I help you with anything?” She also didn’t say “Hi, how are you?” She didn’t say too “If you need anything just let me know”…

What she did say was – “What brings you here today?”

[How Wonderful!]

My wife hesitated, (it’s just harder to blurt out “I’m all set” to that question!), then mumbled she was looking for a dress and the associate smartly followed with “…for a special occasion?….”

By golly, yes she was. Happiness and an extra large charge on the credit card ensued. 🙂

What a great reminder of how idiotic in sales we often are.

Shoppers who enter your store or call your phone already have an interest in something (or um….they wouldn’t be there right?).

Yet how often do we neglect to enhance that energy or fuel that fire but saying silly things like “How can I help you today?” or “Can I answer any questions for you?”

Take a lesson from the associate my wife met on Friday and instead ask “What brings you here today?” or “What prompted your call today?”

Energy and Need propelled the shopper to walk into your store or to dial your phone, don’t drain it with inane meaningless questions – fuel it!

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

My 25 Secrets for Selling to Small Businesses

Since 1988 I’ve sold, serviced and essentially provided for my family via the results of my interactions with, and strategies toward in large part, small business. Maybe that’s you too. Maybe you are an indepent, an employee of a large firm or even a small business selling to small businesses – no matter — this is all good for you.

I’ve forgotten far more than I’ve learned I suspect, but here are my 25 best kept secrets for selling to small businesses.

The worst time to sell to a small business is M-F,10am to 12pm and 1-3pm. Ain’t nobody in small business interested in doing any business but their own at those times. Work harder on the fringes!
New In Business is gold. It’s a little like a chick imprinting on you just after hatching. Help a small business when they are starting out and they will be fiercely loyal to you.
Not every SB wants to grow! (but they sure as hell want to at least keep what they have). Use a maintain angle.
Testimonials are so table stakes now. What you need are testimonials from someone your SB prospect knows.
Surprise! Surprise! Small business owners are or once were; sales people. They can smell your trial closes and rotating yes’s from 100 yards away.
The most important word to think, proclaim, represent and lead with when talking with a small business owner is the word “easy”.
Never forget how prideful, ego laden and direct a business owner usually is about his/her business!
I’ve never said the word “small” to a small business. Ever. I just won’t do it.
Your price, your service, your terms and even your competition are not remotely close to the biggest problem you face with small business. Time (and getting it) is the biggest challenge by far.
Whoever answers the phone at a small business is good at customer service, great at connecting you to brother Billy and a pro at getting rid of salespeople like you.
Everyone in a small business has at least some influence in the decision. Sorry. Dems’ the apples.
If you don’t make it easy to switch to you, you won’t get a sale.
You get to go home to your kids. The SB owner’s kids are in the back room coloring on the folding table. Free up their time to spend more time with family and you win.
The first step in the SB sales model isn’t discovery or introduction or greeting or any other silly thing; it’s building credibility. That needs to be your obsession.
Time is so precious that “either/or” leading questions about anything are always better than open ended questions for a busy small business owner.
Your customers have customers. If you focus your solution on how it impacts your customer’s customers then it’s a win-win and the sale is easier.
“What most people do..” is the most powerful phrase in small business sales. Use it liberally.
The SB’s website and/or storefront is the “face” of the business. You can tell a lot by just looking at someone’s face. Do that first!
I bet a killer secret- to- be in cold calling is the phrase “Did I catch you at a terrible time or do you have 90 seconds?” right after you say your name and company. (I just learned it so try it and let me know!)
Your SB’s don’t realize yet (most of em’ anyway), that that cherished Word of Mouth is changing. Not in value, but in the tools being used to pass that along. Help your SB’s see the value of social media!
SB’s don’t want to hear about your “8:30to 5 shift” (they don’t have no stinkin’ shift) the old small business you had (that failed) or the other business you go to “just like theirs” (their competition). So just knock it off.
It’s not what you think, believe or analyze about your SB customer or prospect so much that matters- it’s what they think of you.
Asking for help always worked for me. And you know what worked best? 2 sales people knocking on doors (one being a trainee). You always got time! People (SB’s too) like to help people.
Slick, coiffed, corporate and the King’s English doesn’t fly in Small Business. Be normal, polite and smart but don’t be everything SB’s hate in the first 30 seconds inside the door.
The greatest secret to selling to Small Business? They aren’t a sale, a lead, a customer, a prospect, your commission or even a business; they’re human and would just like a little help.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Your Cheatin’ Start

I was young when I learned that if you combine working hard and cheating you often get something that actually pays off.

I sat at the piano when I was 8. The M*A*S*H song was the first real tune I played plunking out each note quite shocked that it actually sounded remotely like the theme song.

I haven’t stopped playing since. But my story doesn’t blossom into me learning to really play the piano and how I got to play a couple of gigs for Journey or for Springsteen when they came to town. I’m not a good piano player by any stretch.

I need that music in front of me. I taught myself the guitar chords symbols to play on the piano and know enough sight reading to plunk out the melody in the right hand. I cheat.

But I work hard at cheating so that most people can’t tell I’m staring at the guitar chord symbols as I accompany anyone who cares to sing. I even play in church on occasion in front of sometimes hundreds of people.

They don’t realize how much hard work this is for me and that I am in fact, cheating. But they seem to like it. That can’t be all bad.

In fact, it’s not bad at all, it’s OK – Happens all the time.

Your boss or your colleague is sooooo good at coaching people. It comes so naturally to them. You on the other hand, sit at your desk and bang out “How to deal with conflict in the workplace…” like 4 times a week on Google looking for a darn answer. You find it. You print it off. You sweat it. It works. Tis’ that combo of hard work and cheating payin’ off.

Your buddy’s closing deals like Vin Diesel in the movie Boiler Room and yet he looks like he just rolled out of bed most of the time. You listen over the wall and start stealing his lines left and right with what he’s saying to customers. You try em’. You memorize em’. You steal em’ for a week and soon you start landing deals. Tis’ that combo of hard work and cheating paying off.

The team needs an answer. It’s brainstorming time. Have to find a way to drive some more sales. You are clueless, tired and it’s been a long week. You trip over a book that fell off some table you walked by, pick it up, pour over it and find the answer. You go to meeting. You share the idea. You don’t (gulp) share that you accidentally found the answer in a book you tripped over. Tis’ that combo of hard work and cheating paying off.

Here’s the deal. Hard work mixed with cheating has its place. Sometimes it’s for a specific need at a specific time. Sometimes like my piano playing, it’s forever.

When it comes easy to you it comes easy to you. When it doesn’t, that combination of hard work and bit of cheatin’ can get you some darn good results and no worries, nobody needs to know.

And for those of you aghast that I could condone cheating well, let’s just call it like it should be called in this case – stealing shamelessly.

Gotta run, have to “practice” some Billy Joel.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

From Have to Believe

It’s best to move on now from what you have, to what you believe.

If you are transforming from a commodity-like company to a knowledge and service based company, its best to move on from what you have, to what you believe.

So many of us are doing just that. Whether we are a company or a sales rep or a marketer or a trainer; more and more of us are adding (or must add) insight/ intelligence to our stable of widgets or even in some cases, instead of our widgets.

The market is starving for direction.

Don’t get me wrong, what you have is fine for they are the products and services. Thankfully, they pay the bills and feed the kids.

But too often we eagerly share, shout and talk about those products and services. Too often we earnestly show what we have for products and services on our websites, in our phone calls and during our webinars. Too often we study too hard about what we have for products and services. Too often we train too much about what we have for products and services.

And we spend so little time talking about what we believe.

That’s right, what we believe. What your company believes. What you believe.

You thought I was going to tell you to focus not on what we have but on what your products and services do for the customer; how they solve a problem, how they fit a need.

Good lord, that is so 80’s. And that’s table stakes now.

Belief sharing is better. Belief sharing is needed now more than ever. Belief sharing is the new black.

We spend so little relative time in sharing our credible prescriptive path to success for our customers. We spend so little relative time espousing our beliefs about the direction our clients must go to achieve what they want to achieve.

Products and Services are critical yes, but amazingly, they are too often fun, too easy to count, too easy to have sales on and in fact can crowd out the very essence that they should be an extension of a very passionate and clear belief– not just about what our products and services do but what we believe the path is to get there.

An obsession about what we have may work well for widgets, gum and shoelaces, but what we believe matters more if we profess to be in the Advice and Counsel game; the Insight game or the Knowledge and Service game as so many of us do ( and need to do).

Customers are drawn to those who have passionate beliefs. Small businesses for example, line up to get counsel from SCORE, to join Mastermind groups, to access advice and counsel from Hubspot, DuctTape Marketing and Amex’s Open Network. .

The difference between saying “We have this and this and this……” and “We believe the best route to success is …” is awesome. And powerful.

What you believe in the knowledge and service game sells the products and services that you have. It’s not the other way around.

We must also be consistent about those beliefs from the company home page to the person in the field or on the phone. And we must be different from the competition. And we must be religiously true to those beliefs as if they were inscribed on tablets made of stone; not just in what the results will be but in the prescriptive method of how those beliefs are executed upon.

It’s OK to teach and lead customers to your beliefs. It’s more than OK. In a shaky economy and a world that gets more confusing everyday, it’s got to be your lead story now.

For without that rock solid, credible path about what you believe, nobody will come to you, or listen to you or give a darn about what products or services you have no matter what they do.

Take a stand. Have a belief. Preach it, teach it, brand it, package and sell it. Leave the obsession with products and services behind.

If your customer is so inspired, have no fear, they’ll ask you what you have.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Odd Duck

What would you be if you believed that the real selling began after you closed a sale?

What would you be if you believed that the real service began after the phone call ends?

What would you be if you believed that real customer value began with what you believe and not what you have?

What would you be if you believed that your real job began with what you think and not with what you do?

Heck, what would you be if you believed that the real meaning of life begins with what you leave ahead and not what you leave behind?

Answer: You would be the most beautiful and wonderfully odd duck of a person, performer or company.

Ever.

****

P.S. Everywhere you see the word “be” in a question, swap in the word “do”, go grab a pencil and answer it. At length.

Then do it.

Odd Duck you will be. How wonderful.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

When Just Do It is Just Worse

Tried to fix a vacuum yesterday. Almost did too.

Nearly finished, I dropped the vacuum putting the last screw in. Exploded all over kitchen floor. Now it won’t even turn on.

I do this a lot. I get all jacked up on a whim to tackle these little projects usually on a weekend. Move a couch and instead rip the fabric. Fold down the lawn mower to make room in the shed and instead snap off the starting rope. Change the shower head cuz’ gosh darn it, the other one is so old and now I’ve got a leak I didn’t have before.

When I do these little projects things often get worse. I realize I don’t prepare or think too much in advance of these things. I just do it.

And if I’m honest with myself sometimes this happens at work too (though with my boss subscribing to this blog too, I’d rather not share exactly what I’ve made worse thank you very much :))

But the hindsight view is usually the same – it’s a result of not a whole lot of preparation or thought before tackling an issue or an opportunity; I get all jacked up and um… just do it.

When just do it makes it just worse, then it’s time to ditch that catchy marketing phrase at home and at work and just leave it on the ball field.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Horrible Bosses

Horrible Bosses is a hot movie of late starring the likes of Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Anniston.

The premise is that if your boss is horrible well um… go ahead and kill em’ (or at least try to).

That’s a little dangerous in the real world.

You might get caught. 🙂

Ah seriously, I don’t condone violence towards any horrible bosses. Too messy.

Here are four other (and better) ways to deal with a real horrible boss:

Demand he play well with others. You know the type – the “I’ll take my ball and go home type”. Not open to hearing concerns about your competing priorities, instead you hear “Fine, I’ll find someone who can get it done” and then you hear a click and a dial tone in your ear. This same guy makes no effort to collaborate but rather rams his way through people. This faux cowboy attitude is for the movies and 6 year olds. Kidnap this guy, surround him with your posse and scream “This is your team, we work together!”

Force her to take a stand. I suspect this is the most common trait of a bad boss; the fear of, or unwillingness to take a stand or pick a path or make a decision that means something. Swamped or swimming purposely in administrivia, the boss shirks the tough calls and instead being right or wrong, she is neither and everyone suffers in a frenzied, crazy busy world of essentially nothing. Corner her and take dead aim at imploring her to make choices! Even wrong decisions are better than none; at least then you can learn and move on.

Don’t Dread on me. She’s the one you can’t stand to see, hear or read – literally all the time. You see the email from her and you just don’t want to read it as you know it is bad news. You arrive in the morning and ugh, your voicemail light is on so that means she wants an answer or OMG she just walked out of her office and is walking your way hell bent to talk to you about your “improvement opportunities”. Enough! Does every interaction Ms. Boss have to be about something “wrong” or “bad” or “concerning”? Grab your scepters, your hoods, walk around like the Grim Reaper and let her see what you see. Dread is not a way to lead.

Unfriend him. Don’t you wish could do it more often with your friends in social media or even at home with family or relatives? But in the world of work, this guy is the boss who saunters up beside you and says “Yeah, this new incentive plan is a stretch” or “Geez, we made this product 10 years ago and it didn’t work then…” News flash Mr. Boss, I’m not your buddy and I am not your chum. You’re my boss and your immature efforts to bond with me as a “friend” by back stabbing your peers is appallingly odd and makes you look weak. And who wants a weak boss? Collectively dismember your friendship status with this guy as fast as you can and demand a change in his status back to loner.

There you go. Horrible gets better and nobody dies. Not much of a movie but aren’t horrible bosses enough drama already?

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

5 Tips for Better Summer Selling

It is engrained in all of us whether we are buyers or sellers; this summer season.

We all went to school at one point in our lives and most had “summers off”. More of us had summer vacations than winter vacations. There are more 3 day weekends, barbecues and down time no matter where you live during the summer season. It’s just the way it is.

And if you own a business or sell to a business that physiological indoctrination doesn’t just go away. It’s there.

So that old belief about selling and buying being a bit tougher in the summer has some truth to it.

It can be tougher. But rather than fight it; Embrace it.

Intensify Activity Mon – Wed: The summer weeks get compressed. Bring your A game to Work Habits and Sales Skills in a big way Monday through Wednesday. Start early and stay late. These three days in the summer week are the times when attention, interest and consideration of what you have to offer is best consumed. By the end of the week on a Thursday or Friday, the decision maker wants not to discuss much more (or can even find all the right players to gather and discuss) your proposal – but they do want to be able to make that decision, call you, get it done and move on.

Free Up Client’s Time; It’s about sharpening your sales messaging during the summer. There isn’t necessarily more time for business owners or executives to take off, but there is a strong desire to do so. Make your visits or calls to “take something off the plate”, or “to wrap things up before August”. The summer is when it is especially important to remind clients how brief and easy it will be to get things done. Talk in “minutes” not “appointments”, talk in “3 simple steps” not in “Let’s get this process started”. Time pressure in the summer is often higher than the rest of the year.

Focus on Low Stress Contacts: You don’t want to disappear from your customers mind for 3 months, so summer is the perfect time to arrange face time or phone time but in low stress (ah…summer…) ways. Arrange for the customer satisfaction survey, the yearly review, the product review session or the just plain ol’ “thank you for your business” call or meeting. Ask about ways you can make working with you easier or better. Ask about what’s happening with their social media efforts and how that’s going. These moments can often lead to a summer sale but if not, they at least keep you in mind.

Summer Clearance; You don’t hear about winter clearances much. And every savvymarketer knows if you have a reason for a sale like “We are changing over our inventory!”, or “Clearing out overstock!” people will buy. Summer clearance makes sense; create the need. You can create your own summer clearance message as a salesperson or within a sales team and frankly, the smaller the time window “July Fire Sale before they are all gone!” the better.

Focus on Strategy: Business owners or C-Suite types aren’t shutting down their brains in the summer. In fact, though vacation time is up and speed to decision time often slows, this is the time that these folks are thinking strategically. They are planning next year’s budget, ormarketing objectives, or sales strategies during the summer. Now is the time to plant those strategic seeds with your client that can help them. Share industry best practices, white papers or send links to informational pieces and talk strategy be it during a planned meeting or when they call you.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Oxymorons

Yeah, these words don’t go together anymore.

Big Network: Nope, you have no network if it’s too big. Smaller is better. Smaller is more influential. Smaller is more trustworthy. Too many connections or too many followers and too many fans and trust dissipates and doubt rises. Micro Networks are growing and will grow and grow and then will split off and get smaller and smaller. And then rinse and repeat.

Sales Expert: They call me one but I know that phrase is dead. Sales is marketing is sales is teaching is sales is training. It’s all blending together now. Marketing people sell and sales people market (and are marketed themselves). Trainers sell (because knowledge is the new hot product) and trainers market and customers sell and customers market for themselves or you. I see it every day. It’s not always comfortable but that linear business model is no more- the prospects dear friends, have said they want it this way.

Closed Sale: It’s a new game out there. Nothing is closed when the sale is done. Nobody need be loyal anymore. Nobody need be local anymore. It’s all about wanting to want to be. So when a sales is closed, that is when selling really begins now. When a sale is closed that is when investment and calories and phone calls and unbelievable customer experience has to begin. It’s too easy to walk away now. ClosedSale? Hardly – it’s only just begun.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Sharpen Your Sales Message

Stop yourself just for a moment. Breathe. And Think.

Listen to yourself or look at what you are writing. Is it really what it should be?

Sharpen your Sales Messaging.

It’s odd sometimes how much energy we spend pulling all the levers that we do to improve sales but often don’t take enough time to look hard or re-look at the very first lever – the most critical lever: Sales Messaging.

If your sales messaging is poo then it doesn’t matter how often or in how many ways you say it or distribute that sales message – it’s still poo.

It’s not “We have a special right now..”, it’s “This special we have right now is flying out the door..”

It’s not “We can help you get Online..”, it’s “We can help you get more good leads …”

It’s not “There’s a price break at 2,000….”, it’s “Hold on, let me save you some money here…”

It’s not “I’m calling to see what your supply of..”, it’s “I’m calling to take something off your to do list..”

It’s not “We’ve updated the product to include…”, it’s “Most people are flocking to the updated product because….”

It’s not “We have a some brand new Holiday cards and gifts this year…”, it’s “ Let’s help you stand out from your competitors this year..”

It’s not “We can customize this for you and add those things you want..”, it’s “Let’s make your life easier for you…”

You get it.

But be honest with yourself. Are you doing it?

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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