The Selling Newsletter
SALES QUOTE“If it’s easy to read, that’s cause it’s writ hard.”
Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway should know. He was a master of the written word and won a Pulitzer Prize for literature. In sales you have to be a master of the spoken word. Yet some salespeople think that the words will flow from the tips of their tongue when they start talking with a customer. Don”t count on it. I”m not suggesting you script your next sales call. I am suggesting you think about what you want to say to your customer or prospect. How do you want to explain what your product does? You could use a metaphor to be more persuasive. A metaphor (a comparison of two dissimilar things without like or as) won”t come to you without some thought. When Lee Iococca asked for a $1.5 billion bailout from Congress for Chrysler, he didn”t say, “I need a bailout.” He carefully reframed the message and said, “This is a safety net for the American people.” Instead of focusing on dollars, he focused on all the jobs that would have been lost if Chrysler failed. That was a planned strategy of what to say. You can be like Iocooca and plan what you are going to say. Who knows? You might just sound brilliant like Hemingway when you speak and might get lots of money like Iococca.’
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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
The Power of One
What do you think you should hear when you do a better job than your peers of managing your budget and exceeding your goals? I did both and my boss told me that I was "cheap to keep." That was the last straw. I knew I was a top performer and already knew that I was long being underpaid. I had not done anything about it. Hearing that insult made me finally take action.
I’m also writing a sales blog for Salesmecca.com. I’m now a guest columnist for the Dallas Business Journal. My column is called “Customer Connections.” I’ll be answering readers’ questions about selling. Do you have any selling questions? Send them to info@bestatselling.com
What’s sales tip has helped you be even more successful in sales?
Send your helpful tip to tip@bestatselling.com
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The Selling Ideas for this Month
Winning At Sales
It’s working for Michael Phelps. Not as well for the women’s gymnastics team. And for Du Li, the air rifle competitor, not at all. What is it? Winning big at the Olympics. The sports arena is just one of the places where there are people going for the gold. There’s plenty of that pursuit off the field as well. You might be interested in taking what some businesses are doing off the field so you can apply it to your selling.
Do something different. WIN detergent is the official detergent of the Olympics. Did you know that the Olympics even has an official detergent? I didn’t. Neither did the athlete who became WIN’s Olympic pitchman, US decathlete Bryan Clay. He knows now. The detergent excels at removing the odors of smelly sports apparel. WIN’s chief executive Mark Konjevod figured that he had to do something different to stand out amongst the many detergents on the market. Leveraging the Olympics’ marketing power helped his company and allowed his product to stand out. As Konjevod says, “We said to retailers, ‘If it’s good enough for the USOC, it should be good enough for you.’ ” Start looking for different ways to promote your products if you need your product to stand out.
Do your customers know they have a problem? WIN’s marketing premise is that it solves a problem for people who work out. What is that problem? Smelly athletic clothes. Traditional detergents do a good job of removing the stains and odors from cotton clothes. The synthetic fibers in today’s athletic clothes make it more difficult to eliminate stains and odors. Today’s smelly laundry problem is a big one. In the U.S., sales of high-tech athletic apparel reached $5 billion in 2007, a 39% jump from 2005 according to one market research firm. You have a problem, too, if you have to wash the stinky clothes that your weekend warriors and athletes produce.
Technology changes today seemingly at the speed of light. Who knew they would have password protection problems, needs for cell phone protectors and other related concerns that evolved from new situations and products? What’s changing in business that creates a problem that your product could solve?
Look for influencers. If you were to call Nike and complain about your stinky duds, Nike would recommend that you go out and buy a bottle of WIN. Did it cost WIN anything? Not a dime. Nike found that WIN made their products perform better so they recommend WIN to their customers. Look at your own business. Do your products help other businesses perform better? If you can improve the user experience for other companies’ customers you can create new business opportunities for your products.
Go up against the big boys. Did you think that only large corporations can be Olympic sponsors? Many people do. That’s obviously not the case. WIN Products is a $4 million company. Some salespeople shy away from prospects because they think they can’t compete against a larger competitor. That’s a missed opportunity. Large organizations have their own disadvantages. They’re inflexible and slow to respond to change. Often that leaves customers in the lurch. Changes in leadership at larger organizations can result in a loss of consistency for their customers. A smaller company can be quicker to respond and more likely to maintain a consistent business strategy with customers.
Take a page out of WIN detergent’s play book. You might not win a medal, but winning the sale could be even better for your business.
Action Items
1. What will you say when a customer asks you, “Why should I select you over your competition?”
2. Do you know the problems your product solves? Why is it an important problem for your customer to solve it, too?
3. Are you afraid to sell to large companies or compete with large companies? You can sell to them and compete with them if you recognize your strengths and abilities.
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Programs
When: February 20 9-12noon
Where: Great Plains Technology Center, Lawton, OK.
What: Real-World Selling: Influence Strategies To Sell More Now
More information at 580-250-5551 or 580-250-5556.
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Here are some selling tools to help you sell more now. Click on the photo to find out more!
Sales Quotes: 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.