SALES QUOTE
“The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.”
–George Bernard Shaw
For Salespeople…
Logic alone has never persuaded anyone. If not, why are almost one third of Americans obese? (Of course they know logically that Coca Cola for breakfast is not healthy.) Yet, many sales professionals think that the more they present the technical aspects of their products and services the more likely the customer will buy. Forget it. Instead of an emphasis on just the technical aspects of your product, try to tap into your customer’s emotions. What makes it painful for your customers to do their jobs? Why would using your products delight your customers? People think logically and act emotionally. When customers have good feelings about your product, their emotions motivate them to buy. Your job is to ask the questions
to uncover these emotions. When you ask, there will be no illusion about your communication effectiveness. Your customer will buy.
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THE BLOG S AND OTHER COLUMNS
I’m now writing The Real Deal, a column on women in business for Allbusiness.com Hope you’ll read more ideas so you can achieve your success in business.
You can get RSS feed for the blog.
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THE SELLING IDEAS FOR THE MONTH
Lagniappe
If you’ve ever been to New Orleans you probably know that Lagniappe works well to keep customers coming back for more. Lagniappe is giving something extra that’s unexpected. Our selling strategies should include lagniappe because when you give you’ll find that you get rewarded. It also enhances selling.
Sometimes it will get you the sale. Dr. Fred Tibbals was Program Manager of Jamison Film, a Kodak company in Dallas. His job was to set up a development manufacturing and support area in an empty building, for the Digital Cardiology product line. His project required taking an open work area and subdividing it into workspaces for various departments. Modular furniture was the way to go. He called several suppliers and they asked him what he needed. He had no idea. When one creative supplier heard Dr. Tibbals response, the supplier asked another question. “Dr. Tibbals, would it help you to have an architect look at your space and give you an idea of what you need? We work with an architect and we offer the service at no charge.” Guess who got Dr. Tibbals order for modular furniture?
It makes it easier to sell. Ms. Anne Hudson is CEO of Grouputer (www.Grouputer.com). Grouputer is designed for groups that work either remotely or together to be more productive when making decisions. Ms. Hudson has provided free Grouputer licenses to a local university to use her product. Why give them away? The university will be using Grouputer to deliver a commercial consulting service. All the leads that come from the consulting will be given to Grouputer for follow-up. Users will be prequalified as they’ve already used the product and have a higher probability of purchasing Grouputer for their companies. Giving away product to get someone else to do effective prospecting for you is a great way to sell.
Trying leads to buying. Mr. Stefan Werdegar is an account manager at Unisys (www.unisys.com). He provides technology solutions for Fortune 100 and 500 companies. One of his new customers at a manufacturing company was uneasy about the recent purchase. The customer felt the new system was considerably more expensive than the previous system. This customer didn’t see the total value. To alleviate this concern, Mr. Werdegar provided project management services to help with the installation at no cost to the customer. Mr. Werdegar found that by working together with his customer he built a stronger customer relationship. He also received more business from his customer. The project management resulted in a quicker implementation. His customer ended up recommending Unisys to other departments and other companies. This now completely satisfied customer became an enthusiastic reference for Unisys’ work.
When is enough enough? If you’re thinking of giving away services for free you should know when you’ve given enough away. I recently had a prospect who asked me for work that was part of my consulting. I provided it with the expectation that I would be hired for training. When the questions kept coming and the decision to hire me still hadn’t been made, I began to question whether I should continue to offer my expertise. Instead I decided to ask for the decision. I said to my prospect, “I’ve noticed that we didn’t put a date on the calendar for the presentation. Should we get that done now?” He said “yes” and I didn’t have to make the decision that enough was enough.
Selling success comes from getting paid for what you sell. It also comes from making strategic decisions. You must decide what you should give away and when you’ve given enough away. When you make those decisions your selling will be easier. What could be an easier way to sell than to give away samples of your products and services.
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Action Items
1. What can you offer customers to distinguish you from your competition?
2. Are you getting sales from the offers you are giving?
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Programs
You can check for current programs.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: DID YOU KNOW?
When you receive a qualified referral, you will get the sale in 50-90 percent of the time. No other strategy gets results like this. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Here are some selling tools to help you sell more now. Click on the photo to find out more!
Monday Morning Sales Tips : A book that has quick ideas for you to be more successful in sales. Real-World Selling: A book with selling skills and strategies that work in the real world of sales. Secrets of Persuasion: Audio CD for the clues to use to speed-read people and close more business.