selling

On Dislodging

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On Dislodging

You best be getting better at dislodging the competition.  It’s going to get harder out there.

Oh sure it’s fun to sell products/services to small businesses who have never had a website, or any online meeting software, or water/ coffee services, or insurance, or you fill in the blank.

And it’s not just fun, it is darn easier too.  Everyone knows that.

Every salesperson ormarketer knows it is a heck of a lot easier to get that small business into some product or service they never had before than to dislodge the competitor and stealmarket share. 

I remember us sales people back in the day ( I was one of them),  nearly careening into each other as we screeched out of the parking lot upon hearing a new construction site was opening up.  Oh to be the first one there to sell the contractors on stuff!  So much easier than kicking out the competition.

But you can’t bank on being first anymore – it’s just harder.  More competition from not just your local region but from around the world.  More competition because that small business prospect is not waiting for your knock or your call but is on the web looking at you and your competition making decisions and placing orders while you are snuggled in your bed unawares.

And soon,  very soon – every small business new or old,  is going to have things like a website package, online meeting services,POSsoftware, promotional products, outsourced legal support,  business cards and more often right at the time of their business launch and just as likely right at the time you decide to give them a ring or a knock on their door.     Now you may be lucky and all that business belongs to you, but I’m guessing you’ve got a bigger quota to hit than relying on that pipe dream.

All is not lost – Here are 5 Keys to Dislodging:

  • Find The Trigger:  When you need to dislodge a competitor or another means in which the client is getting something done, search for that opening -be it a new sales leader or business partner that moves in, a new location that opens up or they just started putting a Twitter logo on their materials.  Whatever that trigger is – there is a chance that new blood, new ideas or new budget is involved and your chances of dislodging have just gotten better.
  • Make is Easy & Fast & Painless to Come to You.   Get it all done inside 24 hours; be it the product, the demo or the proof that gets in the clients hands.    If you can, offer to cancel the competitor service for the client (like Geico does).  Pain to change and pain to switch is as big an enemy of dislodging as anything else.  
  • Remove The Risk;  If there is no pain to “try you out” or “run side by side” or “guarantee you will be more satisfied”  then you have great shot.  Gutsy stuff for sure but what you do with that shot is what really matters.  And do the math, compare this CTA ( Cost to Acquire) versus CTA for new business and you’re often surprised it’s cheaper. 
  • Say it/ Script it:  “I want you to come to us”, or “We can do better than what you are doing today” are great phrases.   I know one group of sales people today who are having success dislodging by saying right up front to customers –  ” This year we are committed to an aggressive approach towards competitive packages based on an annual volume.”  
  • Be Incomparable or Comparable ( not anywhere in between) :  Sometimes the worst thing you can be is “kind of like the other guy “.  Nothing bores like a perceived commodity.   Be, and accentuate the difference(s) hard or go straight up head to head ( like Flo’s Progressive insurance company ads do.)  If you are decidedly different in one area – that is your lead story.  If you are similar across the board to the competition; share that, be an advocate for getting the right solution for the client and beat the competition more often than not on price,  service or quality.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

If You Knew, You’d Act Differently

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Let’s start this post with Jeopardy like feel except that the answer to the following 6 questions is the same:

 What is, “You bet I would!”

 

  • If you knew small business prospects are 3 times more likely to act when you give dollar discounts versus percentage (%) discounts, would you handle your offers or pitches differently?
  • If you knew most small business prospects had already looked at your website before they called you inquiring about pricing, would you handle the call differently?
  • If you knew most small business prospects initially dislike being interrupted over the phone by sales reps, would you handle your call opening differently?
  • If you knew most small businesses think you are more credible if you give specific details (like “we are launching a 3 part welcome program to all new customers..”) vs. sharing a customer testimonial, then would you speak or market differently? 
  • If you knew that 3 out 4 small business prospects in Manufacturing, Construction and Healthcare have their interest piqued when you share information specific to their industry ( vs. say just 1 out of 4 Retail prospects care about information specific to their industry), would you plan your contacts, visits and marketing with these types of verticals differently?
  • If you knew that most small businesses don’t yet realize social media is the new and most sacred  “Word of Mouth”, would you talk about, advise, encourage and role model social media differently?

The above are true and just a smattering of real data about real small businesses I culled from the research done by firms like the Enterprise Council on Small Business (ECSB) and other reputable research orgs. 

Now you know.   Go forward differently.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

 

Show Rooming Is Our Fault

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Show Rooming Is Our Fault

Target got all a tither last week firing off letters to their suppliers demanding they either reduce their costs or focus on giving Target more unique and exclusive products to sell in their stores.

Problem is that folks go to Target, look at a product, touch it, hold it, feel it, ask questions about it and then turn around and go online and buy the same thing cheaper from some online company that doesn’t have the costs to bear for the brick and mortar, the labor and all the rest.

They call it Show Rooming and brick and mortar retailers like Target are getting sick of it. 

But Target is mad at the wrong people.  It’s not the supplier that’s the problem – it’s us. 

Maybe it was the way I was brought up or where I’ve worked but there’s something wrong about using one company to learn and see everything about a product and then going out and buying it online ( or anywhere else for that matter.)   And it happens a lot.

There’s something wrong with walking into the local hardware store, getting that advice on which paint to use to cover paneling, spending some time at the color wheel and then saying “Thanks man!” while jumping in the car to speed off to the superstore to get the exact same paint a little cheaper.

There’s something wrong when the Veterinarian examines your dog, hands you the product she needs to stay healthy and you put it down sheepishly saying “gee I can’t get that right now” only to go on line, look for the same product and order it there for 3 bucks cheaper.

There’s something wrong with going to a car dealer, working the sales rep for 2 days, getting all the answers, taking that test drive and getting all of it down on paper  to then neatly fold it, slip it into your back pocket and then shopping around with all this new knowledge to get better price from some other dealer who sells the same model car.

And it happens to you too.

It’s not real different in sales either when you spend 3 weeks educating a prospect about a solution, prepare a proposal and that prospect takes your proposal and their new education, then turns it over to a competitor and says “Beat that”.  That happens, that’s life but that’s Show Rooming a Sales Rep and that ain’t right.

It’s a lot like stealing I think.  For too many people it’s not a problem to take insight, or time, or commitment, or ideas only to use them against the very people and places that were so skilled or gracious in giving them to you in the first place by going somewhere else to buy.

That’s called Show Rooming and nope, even though its rampant and even a source of pride for some, I don’t like it one bit. 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Time Forward

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Time Forward

Sales isn’t about moving the ball forward.  Sales isn’t about getting to the next agreed upon step.  Sales isn’t about pushing it through the pipeline. 

That’s way too advanced.  

Sales is about earning time forward. 

Sales is about doing so well in the first 5 seconds that you earn 10 seconds more from the prospect or client.  Sales is about doing so well in the those next 10 seconds that you get the big prize which is maybe 30 seconds more of that prospect or client’s attention. 

And if you nail those 30 seconds really, really, really well you might just get the equivalent of what feels like a week’s worth of time in this rough and tumble world of Sales, and earn maybe 5 whole minutes more. 

And then and only then, you may garner the right to purchase (yes, I do mean purchase) more of your prospect or client’s time.

You see, time is the most precious commodity there is today.  Worth more than gold I’d say.   And to earn this time at the beginning and to do so well that you get the chance to buy more of it later,  that my friends,  is what you ought to be obsessively focused on doing right now with all of your time.  

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Small Business Naked

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I’m not one for craft fairs. But I went to one recently and learned some awesome things.

Normally attending a craft fair, even if it is to only walk through as a courtesy to the organization running it, is worse for me than a visit to (gasp!) a mall.

Add the hustle of the Holidays and hundreds of sugar amped children screaming for Santa (fueled undoubtedly by the 4 tables of chocolate baked goods for sale) and I’d frankly rather drive ingots into my eyes.

But a couple of weeks back, I spent 45 minutes walking through one and it hit me hard.

These folks are Small Business Naked.

There’s no hiding in a storeroom or behind a “Closed” sign or even behind some HTML code for these craft table entrepreneurs. These folks have no choice but to lay out their wares right there in front of you, with no where to hide and are totally exposed.

These folks sit or stand inches away from their hand crafted “life long passions” or their “work that pays the bills” or in many cases as you could plainly see – they stand in front of what they feel is the very definition of themselves.

These naked small business owners have to have tremendous egos and confidence and pride like any small business owner we know but also have the unavoidable stress of being assessed and judged by hundreds or even thousands of people in a compressed period of time.

“Do you like me?” is what each business owner is asking you with his or her eyes as folks walk by. Meanwhile there is no wondering about the competitive landscape. Each naked small business owner needs to only look left or right to see who and what they are up against, fighting for those dollars in the strolling public’s wallets. No where else is the competition so “out there in plain sight”- with dozens of smiling yet competitive and competing small business owners inches from and across from, each other.

On so many levels, it’s clear that these folks who purchase a “craft table” face so many of the same hurdles the traditional small business does ranging from product market analysis to production, to inventory management, to marketing, to pricing strategy, to selling skills and the list goes on.

Except for one thing – They are out there exposed for 5 or 6 hours at a time, hiding nothing about who they are and what they do. That’s an awesome thing. I know now I’ll see these fairs a bit differently; perhaps as an opportunity for me to keep learning from some of the gutsiest group of small business owners out there.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Why I Hate Disney

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It’s their employees mostly. 

I just spent three miserable days at Disney World.

I was at a Learning conference and that was great but the employees at Disney were something else. 

Enough with the eye contact!  I don’t know you and you don’t know me so quit looking me in the eyes all the time.   Let me avert my gaze at the ground or the menu or my beloved smartphone or anywhere else I’m comfortable with.  My mother used to look me in the eyes all the time – usually when I was in trouble.   I spent 3 days walking around Disney wondering what the heck I did wrong.

They wouldn’t let me open my own doors (though I know exactly how to do it and have never injured myself ) and even more rudely – after I struggled to dig out cash, uncrumbling it from my pocket to hand it out as a tip, they refused to take it.   How insulting and ungrateful.

Obviously there is lot of potential trouble brewing around the place too.  I’ve never seen more well dressed managers and supervisors walking around always checking on things.  Always ambling up, smiling and chit-chatting with the staff.  Made me nervous.  Must be a history of random guest chaos or something.  They should just go back into their offices and only get involved when someone has a complaint, like normal bosses do.

I’m not old and hardly selfless but given the number of “Mr. McCarthy’s” and “Thank You’s” I got  from the staff, I thought I was both.  I am darn proud not to be a Baby Boomer ( having missed that designation by a whole year thank you very much) and frankly I gave at the office, so I’m not sure why I remind you of your dad or what you are so gushingly thankful for.

Finally, I was appalled that I never saw a Disney employee sitting down or wearing anything but a smile.   Nobody had a chair  whether they were behind a desk, a booth, a counter or actually anywhere.   And smiling all the time? That’s just creepy.  Heck, I spend most of my day sitting down and hardly ever smiling from what I’m told.

Anyway, I heard Disney was conducting some kind of session at the conference about how they train their employees (ahem.. “cast members”).    It was supposed to be a “best in class” kind of session.  Yeah right.  Got it already.  Glad I didn’t waste my time going to that one. 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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

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

“Can I Help You With Anything?” (Ugh)

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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.  🙂

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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