credibility

Chairvolution!

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It’s the easiest and most effective “how to sell” prop in the world. 

The simple chair.  

When I get a chance to speak to sales folks, I’ll occasionally launch into using a real chair that happens to be lying around to help folks learn how to sell.  Every time I do it; I see heads nod in enlightenment and jaws literally slacken as many salespeople have “aha” moments.

It resonates so well that I typically walk away from these little talks saying to myself “Geez, I’ve got to do that chair thing every time!”  But then, as I am apt to do; I forget to do it the next time.   Not any more, I am committed to embracing the chair!

So with apologies to the office furniture and chair sales folks out there, I must explain that the ubiquitous chair is the perfect prop to represent your “product” or whatever it is you are selling or marketing.  It is precisely because the “chair” is so common and so “everywhere” that it works.   It works because it allows you the teacher, speaker or trainer to easily put emphasis on more than just the product and focus on the positioning, credibility and solutions your product or service really needs to get sold.

The chair is big.  Really big.  You could spend a whole day preaching and teaching a lot more than just the 6 lessons below but heck, it’s a start.  

Welcome to my Chairvolution.   Please steal shamelessly.

6 Easy Chair Selling Lessons

Start by saying “I am going to sell you a chair” and then follow the guide below as you teach and preach.

Lesson 1: Put the chair behind your back and ask (as if you are the sales rep) “What kind of chair would you like?”  This is a great first lesson because it is about what not to do.  In this harried, crazy, no time and no trust world of buyers we live in; the age old “Tell me what you dream” is really just about dead.  Open ended,  out of the blue questions more often stop sales processes, not start them.  You’ve got to lead folks or give them a comparative reference.  Psychology notes that comparison is less brainwork than creation.   Discuss.

Lesson 2:   Bring the chair back from behind your back and say “This is our most popular selling chair”  Pause, then ask the group –   “How many of you just ever so slightly had their interest piqued?”   Here is a great 2nd lesson in the value of popularity.   Popularity is so important that the next 2 lessons using this chair go even deeper there.  There’s a reason Amazon built that algorithm! 

Lesson 3:  Continue holding onto the chair and say   “This chair is the most requested one by the folks at your company”.   Pause and ask “What’s different in this lesson?”  What’s different is that Popularity positioning you shared in Lesson 2 has been turned around and is now positioned with something more valuable to the client.  That is that prospects “like them” ( i.e. those people that work in this company) love this chair.  No doubt the interest of the group is piqued about the darn chair.  Discuss.

 

 [Here is a good place to remind the group that we have yet to talk about the features and specs of the chair as a means to sell it,  and oh by the way…in all of these lessons today-we won’t!]

Lesson 4;   “Everyone in your department on the first floor has this chair”   Here it’s getting obvious that the closer you get to the truth about popularity of product by customer and prospect type, the better.  Study after study shows that most people need to and love to do what other people just like them do and make similar choices.  Yep, like the Amazon pop-ups and the Net-flix pop ups; you get it.

Lesson 5:  Switching gears, look longingly at the chair and say “This chair will make your back feel better” or “This chair will get that capital expenditure under control” or “This chair will give your employees that “Google” office feel they want”.   The point here is that you are showing just how much work needs to be done before you talk about the darn chair to prospects.  What problem it solves, what pain it eases, what yearning it fills.  Have fun with this part as nary a mention of price, height or color is in sight. 

Lesson 6:  Take the chair and roll it up next to one of the participants in the room and say “Your mother suggested I talk to you about this chair”.    Have a good laugh at those who say “I don’t like my Mom” but the point is this –  The best selling approach ever is a credible referral from someone the prospect trusts or even better; loves.   Sales people should work hard to secure referrals and references.   Frankly with those in hand, there is no real selling involved, it’s already done.

Don’t couch this one folks.  Unseat all those beliefs that selling is about price and options.  Lay it all on the table in a different way this time and use that chair!  I promise it will open a brand new door to how salespeople think about sales.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

5 Oddly Wonderful Things to Say to Customers

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They are only “odd” because folks don’t say them too often.   And they are “wonderful” because well……just read on, and I’ll tell you.

  • “I just came out of a Training class on….”  We rarely say this yet many of us attend training regularly in the classroom or online.  We think it is a sign of weakness that we had or went to…um.. a training.    Our clients want to know that you are getting training because heck,  maybe you are getting smarter about them.   And even if you didn’t go to a recent training,  our clients want to know that you read that book on small business marketing trends or that other one on customer loyalty.   Smart sells.  Wicked Smart sells even better.  You have to share it.

 

  • “I Love You…”  Ah yes, warm and fuzzy for sure but I say, why not?  Why not say “I love you” but tie it to a good reason?  “John, this is such a pleasure.  I love to talk to 5 year plus customers because you know the marketplace and you know us….” Or “I love to talk with customers who take the time to give us feedback, I know how busy you are …”.   Love is a word customers don’t expect to hear, at least from a partner or supplier.  And unexpected love is a very cool thing.

 

  •  “Guess which one is the most popular these days?”  If you want to improve your chances of a client or prospect listening well or listening longer to your presentation (or even a conversation), you should embed survey-like questions early into the experience like “What % of retailers do you think would say “keeping returning business is more important than getting new business?”” or “Which do you think most retailers prefer, this or this?”  You make the call on the question but do two things; draw out the answer so you insert your value proposition,  and then if you don’t believe me that this works,  read the bestseller Made To Stick (Heath Bros) and take a look at the evidence supplied on page 89.  Folks will pay attention longer to see if they are right or just to know what the right answer is.  Find a way to conversationally add this to your client facing meetings and contacts and more sales will ensue.

 

  • “You can trust our business with your business…”  This is obviously a B2B thing but 10 years ago I pitched this phrase as something we could and should close phone calls with or have on business cards or ( and these were really new then): emails!  etc. etc.  I have never forgotten it and always wanted to make it part of our customer experience but we haven’t done it just yet.   Now I have proof that this would work –  Have a look at this Roger Dooley article at his Neuroscience Marketing blog  and learn about the real evidence supporting in “10 Words That Build Trust”!  Then, tell me why you wouldn’t want to say “And as always, you can trust our business with your business, have a great day!” 

 

  • “Here’s what I want you to do..”.    It’s a rare day that we sales and marketing folks send out samples or emails or catalogues or brochures or links and ask any customer/ prospect to do anything.   The most we often eek out is “Have a look and if you have any questions let me know” or “I’ll give you a call next week and you can let me know what you think.”  Ugh.   Be specific and give instruction.  “Have a look at page 3 and circle your two favorites” or “Watch the video and jot down two things that you want more information on as that will be my first question to you when we talk next week”.  People like to help people.  People like (most of the time) to have clear direction.  Psychologically, people will more likely keep that next meeting when there was something of detail they were supposed to do vs. just another scheduled contact.

 

There, oddly wonderful aren’t they?   Let’s make them a little less odd shall we? 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Inanity

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Sometimes the reasons we give people to buy are inane.

Inane as in lacking sense or silly as dictionary.com would define the word.

Here is my most recent TV commercial favorite.   It’s the garage door that still works (praise the almighty) when you lose power at your house.   This 30 second inanity begins as the fearful family pulls in the home to discover that there is no power to the house but Holy Driveways Batman, the garage door still opens!  We are saved!  

 Are you kidding me?   A) How often do you lose power and B) are you not capable of getting out of the car and using your key to the front door?  So silly.  The scary part is that some bright marketing agency felt that a garage door that works when you lose power is the key selling feature and that it should be the central part of a 30 second television ad, i.e. the reason buy.  

That’s inane.

If inanity lives in prime time advertising it may still exist closer to home.  So let’s make sure in the B2B world we don’t have any inane reasons for someone to buy hanging out there.    Let’s make sure we don’t have reasons that lack sense or are downright silly. 

I doubt these inanities still exist around here but just in case;

You should buy because I’m your account manager.   I remember a time when folks would believe that and even say that.  That having someone “assigned” to a client to be “account managed” was gloriously stupendous all by itself.   Many a sales rep used to think (I hope) that since the customer has “me” as an account manager well that would…um….be a darn good reason to buy.   A classic sign if you or your company still possesses this kind of inanity is if you get upset, hurt or worried when a customer chooses to buy a product some other way like going online or by calling someone else at your company.  

You should buy because We’re the cheapest.  This is B2B folks; cheap is cheap.   70% off, 60% off or”I can beat everyone’s price” gets you less and less today in the sales game.  You might actually do better by raising your prices; it can reflect your investment in services/ product and impart more literal or perceived value to a client.  Cheap makes you look cheap.  Cheap undervalues what your product does.  Cheap is something to avoid, not embrace.   Very few can pull of cheap as a reason to buy and those who do it well leverage far more than the low prices to retain and acquire customers.

You should buy because We have- “hours from 8am to 8pm 6 days a week”, “.. a 100% guarantee..”. “ …free shipping on..”, “..online ordering..”, “ ..a loyalty program for…”…etc…etc”.  These are pretty much Table Stakes folks;  that is to say that  everybody has these and simply needs to have them to get a chance to even play at the table.    And frankly, one of these alone or even all of them together is not a killer reason to buy.   Conversely, and somewhat unfairly, not having these can be a reason not to buy from you.   

So let’s take a lesson from our colossally idiotic consumer group that is dumbfounded by what to do when the power goes out and they are caught outside with just a garage door remote control.    Our business clients aren’t like that; they carry a bunch of keys to get where they need to go and they’ll need a lot more from you before they look to you for help.

 

Till next time,

Grow The Business

Mark

You Need A Fan Club

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You do.   I kid you not. 

You need a real fan club with people who sing your praises, who will talk about you behind your back and in front of your face.   You need a fan club of people who will write gloriously about you, who will make audio recordings of how much they love you and even on occasion, a video exclaiming how much you mean to them.

Yep.  You gotta have a fan club.  You my friend, need “Groupies”. 

Here’s why.

If you sell stuff like custom printing, financial tools, marketing products or most anything else where your opinion matters, then you need fans.  Why?  Because credibility matters more than ever.  

In this over whelmed, data spewing, low trust environment clients and prospects live in today, your influence, opinion, intelligence and skill will have more to say about a customer buying products in this space than ever before. You need your personal fan club at your fingertips to help you sell yourself. 

You need credibility because when you sell this stuff, you are more important.  Credibility keeps the sale alive and moving.  What you do, what you say, what you know and how you sell is a bigger influencer to the client’s buying decision process here than when you are selling for example,  ink cartridges or packing tape.  

  • Imagine a DVD you leave with a prospect that is just testimonials about you and your work
  • Imagine the link to YouTube you send that has one of your happy customers praising you and your skills.
  • Imagine a customer testimonial reference list complete with phone numbers printed on the back of your business card.

 

 Imagine. 

Get started today building your fan club.    Ask for and collect testimonials.  Collect great examples of the work you have done and package them up.  Get started and build the tools online and offline to advertise you to prospective fans. 

Do it well and you’ll get more customers.   Heck,  if you’re not careful you might get a van full of Groupies following you around where ever you go!

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

5 New Rules For Book Reading

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After a recent conference meeting, I offered to send out a particular book to any sales leader who wanted one of my remaining stash.  Many folks replied requesting the book and my guess is that others used the link I provided to purchase the book at Amazon. 

Super.  I love people who read business books.  They get it.  

It was a little odd though.

Some sent notes saying things like “Please send the book and I’ll pass it on to each leader” or “I’ll send back it back when I am done with it”.  These notes are from people wanting to invest in themselves and are very well intentioned for sure.  I’m convinced though, that our “Library” experiences and our “Textbook” experiences in school have fostered the belief that all books should be treated as we once were instructed to, or as we might treat fiction books today; That books are to be read and read only; That books are to be passed around, or resold or covered in protective paper and never, ever to be written or doodled in.  

It’s time for the old rules to go.  I don’t think those beliefs suit us well when applied to essential books.  These types of books I’m talking about can change your life at work and at home.   

Here are 5 new rules to go by.

1) Never Share:

It’s yours.  You wanted this book to read.  You will, if you do it right, write in this book including in the Kindles of the world.  In a mad rush some day in the future, you’ll lunge for your bookcase because you know that there is this book or this author who has that idea  and you need to read it again to move this effort forward or make something happen.  Make sure that this book is in your bookcase or on your desk when you need it.  Recommend a book?  Yes.  Share a book?  Never. 

2) Never Borrow:

Never borrow one of these types of books from anyone.  Not your colleague, not your spouse, not your friend.  Borrow means you have to give it back.  Borrow is a complete waste of time.  Think you can read a non-fiction critical book and remember the 10 essential themes or tools it teaches?  If you can, welcome to the tiny percentage of folks with a photographic memory.  The rest of us need to skip the “borrow” approach to books.  Never borrow.  Leave that to the fiction and fun books. 

 

3) Always Write In and Highlight In Your Book:

Have a pencil and your favorite color highlighter in hand whenever your read one of these books.  If you are into the electronic readers be careful; you have to get the ones that easily allow you to write, highlight and retrieve (and Nook ain’t one of them).  Books are a collection of moments from great teachers, researchers and leaders and like anything else, offer some moments that are better and more striking than others.  Highlight them or write a note next to that moment.  Your books should be a complete mess of color and notes.  It makes it that much easier a year later or 10 years later, to pick up this book and find what you loved about it the first time you read it.

 

4) Spend Money:

Spend at least $60 of your own money every month on books.  About a $2 dollars a day on ways to be better, be happier, be smarter or be more of whatever it is you want to be.  You decide if you are worth it but if you are reading this, my guess is that you are.  

 

5) Re-Write the Best:

If you take the time to read these types of books (and you must), do so with a small notebook that you’ll never lose (I use a small red moleskin notebook).  When you read, there are concepts that on occasion will make your jaw drop, your eyes widen and your breath quicken as within this book and on this page, a brilliant perspective screams out to you.  These thoughts are so profound that a note or highlight just won’t do and in fact, you should carry it with you. Transfer that tremendous thought to your small notebook.  Carry it with you and look at it often. 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

You Got Facts? So What?

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It’s not the size of your knowledge that matters, it’s what you do with it that counts. 

You see, facts are getting less and less valuable every day.  They are just too easy to come by.

I saw two people sitting at a bar the other night playing that trivia game thing; you know the one you pump the quarters into and try and get the highest score.  One of them had an IPhone.    Fastest animal?  No problem, just Google it.  Superbowl X Champion?  That’s easy…Badda -Bing it.  Tallest skyscraper?…Yippy- Yahoo it.  

Game over.   That was fun.   Game means nothing now and so does your score.

Got a new video game for your kid?  Most 12 year olds go online, get the Cheatin’ facts and get the game codes.   Game over.   Good for you that you defeated Tyranna KingZilla, means nothing to me (and really to anybody else either).

Used to be that knowing a lot of facts nobody else knew actually meant something.  Meant you were smart.  Meant you had value.   Not anymore.

If you are the Keeper of the Knowledge, the Knower of All Things or the Encyclopedia of Vital Stuff, good for you except your days of being truly valuable are numbered.  

And that’s OK. 

Knowing facts or having knowledge all by itself had its day, but that was so yesterday.  

  • You’re a plumber who knows how to fix a leaky faucet.  So what? In a heartbeat I can go to ehow.com ( http://www.ehow.com/video_15854_fix-leaky-faucet.html ) and get all kinds of facts by watching a video on how to fix my faucet.  You’ll never get my call.
  • You’re a sales rep who knows every product, every process and every procedure ever created.  So what?  If you are up against someone who has great sales skills and a good search engine, you’ll get the steak knives and he’ll get the Cadillac.

 

It’s not about you knowing stuff no one else knows anymore.   Your customers and your competition can know pretty quickly what you know as far as facts go.  It’s about having the skills to do something with the facts.  The skills and applications and ability to seamlessly and proactively use facts to market better, to sell better, to strategize better and to differentiate you from just being a repository of those darn facts. 

That’s a good thing.

People and businesses that can do those kinds of things well will grow in value. 

So chill a bit about the facts (you can get those so much more easily now) and work on the skills.   That’ll make you stronger and nobody for a long time (maybe never) is going to say “so what?” to that.    

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Pssst! Check These Out

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I’ve got some uncommon sales tips for you.   Not sure why you don’t hear much about them; they really work.  

Learn From Radio Commercials:  These are some of the best guides for how to create interest and sell.  A radio ad has just 30 seconds (or less) to grab our attention and drive you to action and/or make an impression you won’t forget.  Often your sales people have just about the same amount of time.  Next time you sit in the car, really listen and break the commercials down.  You will hear concepts likely in this order; credibility, commonality, benefits, applications and testimonials mixed with humor, contact info and perhaps a jingle.  I guarantee you’ll hear something you can steal by listening, really listening, to radio commercials.  Sales managers, bring a radio to your next huddle, listen to a live commercial and break it down with your team ( I’ve done this for real and it makes a huge impact with your staff) or perhaps gather folks around your car with speakers blaring just before the shift starts- it will be worth it.

Lower Your Voice:. It’s a given in the electronic media and social psychology research shows that the lower the pitch of your voice (even relative to your normal speaking voice pitch); the more credible the message sounds.  Think of this; have you ever heard anything other than a lower pitched voice do commercials or voiceovers on the radio? (This includes female voices, which like males on radio, are more likely to be lower in pitch than the average person of their respective gender). So pick your critical sales phrasing appropriately and lower the tone in just the right places.  And the next time you are justifying why you need a raise, keep that voice nice and low…

Stop Selling One Day Per Week (or more)   Have an existing customer base?  Spend one day per week visiting / calling out and just overtly thanking your clients.  That means more than just saying “Thank You” of course, but the specifics I’ll leave to you.  You could include an article too about how the local demographics are changing saying “I was thinking of you” or drop off a branded promo item with your sincere acknowledgement of their 7 years with your company.  You get the idea. This day will leave one heck of an impression that will lead to more sales and referrals than you can imagine.  

Till next time,

Grow the Business.

Mark

Josh Beckett Came To My House Saturday

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Mr. Beckett showed up at my house on Saturday.   Josh is a pretty famous major league baseball pitcher and currently plays for the Red Sox.  

My wife had been cleaning all morning in anticipation of his arrival (I told her that it was not a big deal; the house looked fine- but you know how that goes).

I had a busy morning too and was in the backyard when Josh rang the doorbell an hour early.   My wife answered the door and not being much of a baseball fan, she didn’t recognize him even though he was decked out in his baseball jersey that said “RED SOX” on the front and “BECKETT” on his back.  

I came around the front of the house and was surprised that he was wearing a game jersey. Not what I expected.  I was then shocked he had put a ton of weight on and got about a foot shorter since the season started.   I looked a little closer…. and realized……. that it wasn’t Josh Beckett at all, but the cable guy who was scheduled to come about an hour later.

There are a lot of problems with this; not the least of which is that there is an age when a man should stop wearing another man’s name on his back (and that age should be about 14 ).  But there are bigger problems than that; problems that people and companies should fix.   Problems you can get involved in solving.

Problem A):   He scared my wife.  Really scared her.   That is not good.    Who is this guy at the front door in khaki’s and Red Sox Jersey?  She literally told me later “I was freaked out and scared, I had no idea what he wanted and you were way out back”.   (It was only because our dog was barking that I even came around to the front of the house.)

Problem B):   I didn’t trust him the entire time.  About anything.  He was there for an hour adding some cable service and because he chose to wear his Saturday best and he scared my wife, I had a lot of tension and concern watching him work around my house.  If you don’t care how you look, do you care how you work?  

Don’t tell me that his truck should be a giveaway.  His truck was parked behind our two cars and the lettering on the truck if you chose to walk up to it, was tiny, had no colors and no logo.   It doesn’t matter.  If someone comes to your door dressed like he’s ready to go to a tailgate party, you’re not looking at his vehicle for a company or a brand to begin with.

If you serve businesses or are one you’ve known (supposedly) for years about the value of having that logo and that personalization on the clothing because it makes the customers feel at ease and that your company is professional.   So why is it not happening still today?

Uneasiness was the tenor of the day and hence, the entire experience was certainly not professional.

Right or wrong, because of the way he dressed Saturday, I questioned everything about him.   I questioned his ability, his commitment to his company and whether he had any concern at all about me, the customer.   That’s bad news.

And worse now, whenever I see Josh Beckett pitch I’m going to think about the cable guy and wonder if my picture in HD is really as good as it could be.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark