selling

Piano Man is A Bad Song

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piano man

Piano Man is A Bad Song

Who knew Billy Joel could teach us a key lesson about sales and marketing?

 Lately I’ve been really into Billy Joel again.  Not the late 80’s and 90’s Billy – Uptown Girl stuff, but the good stuff – The early stuff. 

My son (who is downright amazing on the piano), was on YouTube last month and watched the Inside the Actor’s Guild 1999 Interview with Billy Joel.  I (a piano player of a lower order) decided to check out that interview too.

And then I heard him say it.  It was stunning. 

“Piano Man is really not a good song”.   He said this in reaction to James Lipton pointing out one of the most unusual things about the song – that it was in ¾ time.  It’s essentially a waltz.     

It’s a waltz but that’s not why the song is “not that good” Billy explained.   He said that the song is “so simple” and really just “repeats itself over and over again like a Limerick” with even some “La da diddy da’s” thrown in.  

He said some people know it’s bad.  Whenever he enters a restaurant or bar with a piano player these days, the musician will make eye contact and invariably start playing “Piano Man” which is all nice and good until “he realizes the song just repeats itself” and then “repeats itself some more” and “then he looks me in the eye blankly and I just nod and say “See?  Not much too it!”

I love that song.  We all love that song.  It’s a great song!

“If it’s so simple and bad, why is it so popular?” James Lipton asked.

“It’s got one hell of a story” Billy replied. 

There is was.  And there it is.  There’s Paul – who’s a real estate novelist, there’s Davy who is still in the Navy and there’s the waitress who is practicing politics.     All real people Billy explained (even Davy whose name is “Davy” and was in the Navy.)   

The point is pretty clear.  Great story makes up for a lot of things.  Some of Billy’s music is compositionally brilliant and has good to great stories in them; New York State of Mind and Scenes from an Italian Restaurant come to mind. 

But Piano Man is not a great song.   It is simple.  It does sound like Limerick.   But the story.  The Story.  The Story.   That makes it good.  And makes it stick and well, makes it awesome.

You need stories.  We all need them.  Piano Man is a lesson about how a great story needs to be wrapped inside your business, your solutions, your brand and your pitches. 

We know this.  We hear it all the time.  But we don’t always listen.   Powerful stories work hard for movies, books, businesses and I realize, music.    So all you marketers and sales people get out there and sing us that song, you’re the Piano Man!

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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It’s Better Read Than Said

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It’s Better Read than Said

How many of you like pulling VM from friends or colleagues on your smart phones, home phones or work phones these days? 

That many. 

I thought so.

So cumbersome, this voice thing:  So much time wasted listening to the slog of a human voice blathering dozens of extra words around the likely simple intent of the message  added to the process of accessing, listening and remembering what was said ( or worse –lunging for a post it note to scribble it on).

It’s getting harder and harder to find the time out there to listen to the human voice share information.

Why?  Because it’s getting so much easier, faster and efficient to read it.  And type it.  And text it.   And Like it.  And Follow it.   And also to Learn and Share and Refer and Recommend.

We are information hogs, all of us now.  We can’t get enough.   We want information in huge amounts,   And we want it in a way we can save it, retrieve it and share it.    We want so much so fast, that it becomes easier to accept the inefficiency of the human voice and not want to use it or as we more increasingly feel, hear it.  

You need to understand the change here on a couple of levels.

You as a person and an employee should know:

  • When you do talk or leave a voicemail, it better be good and meaningful and compellingly vital because if it’s not- it should have just been an email or post and eyes will roll.
  • Human nature yearns for the sharing of “one to many”.   Everything you might have wanted to say to some one you can say to hundreds or thousands at the same time but without the fear of Public speaking.  That is outrageously attractive to people.  And that’s a powerful thing for your self and your career if you embrace it well.

You as a business owner should know:

  • This is Word of Mouth now.  This is where your clients rave or rage about you.  You must make it easy for your customers to pass along good things about you and your business.  One to one still works but people would much rather “tell 10 friends” except this time they can do it for real in seconds.  
  • You have to be smarter and cooler and more valuable than your website.  If talking with you takes 5 times longer than what the prospect could have gotten in 3 clicks on your website then you are not adding value where you should.  Think hard about what your voice brings to your business.  Think brand.  Think feel.  Think purpose.   Then plan and speak accordingly. 

 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

 

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If You’re Confused, What The Heck Do You Think Your Prospect Is?

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confusion

If You’re Confused, What The Heck Do You Think Your Prospect Is?

I spend a lot of time looking at, and experiencing training these days.     And sometimes it’s clear that the things we train our own employees, like some of the products and services we sell,  can be …well …..confusing.  Not every service or product as everyone well knows,  is tangible or simple.  Some,  like financial products or online marketing products can feel particularly abstract and complex.

And if it’s confusing to my Trainers when they first start to learn the products and then later for the Sales and Service people who then have to present in front of customers, do ya think it might be that much more confusing for prospects and clients when they are first are approached or exposed to these things? 

And if you’ve ever read anything in this blog before, you already know that confusion kills sales.

Here are 3 ways to alleviate that confusion when you represent a complex product or service:

  • Teach your Sales people to teach.  Get past the idea that sales of complex or non tangible products / services begins with the pitch.  It doesn’t.  It begins with the teach.  It’s OK to build teaching into your sales cycle despite the fear of lengthening the sales cycles.  You aren’t lengthening the sales cycle – you are starting earlier – you have to.    It’s OK to get all your sales people to a level where they become experts with online webinars under their belts, with  killer LinkedIn pages and Twitter followers who look to them for as much insight as they do for what’s on sale. 
  •  3’s:  Everything in 3’s:   The mind is not wired to remember more than 5 numbers, let alone 5 points.   If you have a service for example that manages your online marketing spend then even if it has 12 steps to get started, it should sound like “…Only 3 key steps to getting you started.  In the first step we’ll interview you around 3 important areas like…….  Then after that, we get to tackling 3 areas of your current website like…..” You get it.  “3” sounds simple.  Simple eases tension and sales can keep on moving.
  •  Analogies:   Nothing simplifies better.  Are you a marketing consultant? Nope, you’re a marketing GPS that gets the business to the destination of 25% more customers.  Are you a website developer?  Nope; you are building an automated employee that works 24 hours a day taking orders and that never sleeps.    Think hard about what you sell or service and find that perfect analogy that makes it click and stick. 

This blog is not complex but I kept it to 3 points.  More than that and it gets confusing who the heck wants to read that?

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Punctuation Free (For a Reason)

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Punctuation Free ( For a Reason)

When you look closely, there is no comma, slash, semi-colon, parenthesis or period between the title words “Sales Representative.”  And that’s on purpose.   You have to do both at the same time. 

You have to sell but you have to represent the company simultaneously.  It’s not one or the other.  You can’t sell for selling sake and set unreal expectations or pound out fishy phone calls or phishy emails because then you are not “representing” the company well.   Conversely, you can’t be all Kumbaya and go harvesting customers with super friendly experiences and never broach filling the unmet needs of the customer. 

There is no comma, slash, semi-colon, parenthesis or period between the title “Service Representative” either.

You have to give great service but you have to represent the company simultaneously time.  It’s not one or the other.  If you don’t take ownership (“I don’t know why they did that in shipping..”) or apologize for real (“sorry that happened to you…what’s your account number?” ) you are leaving an awful impression as a Rep of the company.   Conversely, your reliance on policy or procedure or terms and conditions do little to evoke the “service” part of a service call. 

There is also no comma, slash, semi-colon, parenthesis or period between the titles of “Sales Manager” or  “Service Manager” so you best know sales and service at an expert level and likewise need to know how to expertly support your people at the same time. 

Punctuation between words has its place – a means often to stop, pause, reposition and separate.  But if it ain’t there it ain’t there – that means when the words go together; they belong together. 

 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

 

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Useless Vs. Priceless Phrases

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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

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We Need More Boring Sales Stories

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We Need More Boring Sales Stories

We need more of these.  You know the boring Sales stories right?

 

 

  • Your Voicemail lights up.  “Hi Mark, I’d like to place a new order”. 
  • Your phone rings:  “Hi John, I need to buy a car for my daughter.”
  • Your door opens:  “Any way I can get a pool installed in 2 weeks?”
  • Your 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 was 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  was 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

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3 Keys To Giving Great Advice Fast

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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

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I am Joe’s Lead

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I am Joe’s Lead

I am Joe’s Lead.

Here I  sit, in Joe’s queue.  And It’s way boring man.

All I can see sitting in this CRM is this big banner over my head that says “moc.ecrofselas”   That cursor thingy keeps swiping by me now and then,  but never quite lands on me.

It’s been 2 darn days.

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.  We don’t wait for anyone.  We are crazy busy.  If we ain’t moving – we’re dying.

I raised my my hand two whole days ago!  But I am dying so fast I am starting to lose my memory as to why I am here.  When Joe finally clicks on me and calls my business owner he’ll  probably flat out forget why the heck he made me.  He might even deny I exist at all because frankly  he can’t remember why he filled out the form, and dammit, he’s busy.

Joe has a bigger problem about me, Lead.  He doesn’t get me at all.   I’m not “his lead” or 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 occasionally 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 my 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 of my business owner!  I’m a gap, an idea, a dream, a pain that won’t go away, a prayer to save a 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 us.

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

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The 3 Best Cold ( and not so cold) Calling Tips

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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

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Educate

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Educate

Educate.  It’s part of the sales process many can’t get used to.

But sales people have to do it.

Sure there’s lot of  buzz and research about how prospects do all this learning  online about a business before they even get to a sales person.  I’ve preached that research before myself.  But I’m not buying that it is entirely true hook, line and sinker any more. 

I keep hearing prospects confused, unsure or frustrated about certain services or products.  I keep hearing prospects so busy at work and so inundated with messaging and marketing- they don’t have time to research and learn. 

If you are a company selling somewhat abstract  services like money management, digital marketing, brand development, risk avoidance, sales training, marketing solutions and the list goes on – you have to understand that many prospects just really…don’t understand. 

These prospects aren’t going to shout this out to you but not understanding stops any sales process or worse – prevents it from even starting.

Educating can happen with great marketing, branding or advertising but educating prospects live with real humans  (i.e. sales people talking with prospects) often gets above the clutter.  Face to face or voice to voice is the single most intrusive attention getting sales activity- and we must learn to better use it to teach vs. pitch.   

Learn how and invest in finding ways to educate prospects first.  Call to invite dozens to your live webinar.   Produce YouTube videos with you explaining the marketing place and call not for an appointment but to share links with your prospects.  Build education however brief into your conversations – not about your product or service but about the industry, the data, and the research – something intriguing that the prospect did not know.   Offer incentives to learn; not just to buy.

If you skip the “educate” part of the sales process and focus like always on the offer, the snazzy presentations, the closing skills and the sales contest then you’ll severely limit yourself with the number of qualified leads you could have really had.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark