Tag: selling

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People & Relationships

Help Prospects Change Their Lives And That Will Change Yours

Article Contributed by Tami Stodghill

If your goal is to make a million dollars, then you mastermind with millionaires. If your goal is only to make $50K a year, then align yourself with people who make $50K a year. It’s true. There is a reason those people who are immensely successful are. They are involved with quality products, in a growing company, with people who are interested in changing other people’s lives as well as their own. And in doing that, they continue to experience success. Is that always the case? No but then those people that are in it to line their own pockets exclusively sometimes tend to burn out quickly and find their prospects drying up over time. They aren’t in it for the right reasons. It’s that simple.

When we got into this business, it was our goal to just replace our income we had in our jobs so we could quit. We didn’t hate our jobs, but we were working 50+ hours a week, taking no vacations or holidays to speak of and were pretty much capped out on income. We knew that we would be “stagnant” so-to-speak and that we wanted to change and improve our lives. The couple who introduced us to our opportunity were genuinely supportive, supplying the information we needed to make an educated decision as to whether it was right for us. There was no pressure and our endless questions didn’t tire them or make them eventually avoid our calls. See they knew we had family, and responsibilities and were nervous about making such a substantial change in our lives. And they guided us through that change, helping us to realize our dream. Did that change their lives? Sure it did. But it did so as a result of offering us the ability to change ours.

When my husband and I return a call to a prospect that has contacted us in response to our marketing efforts, we stop and always take a moment to remind ourselves that we need to help that prospect find out if what we can offer them, in the way of a business opportunity, will assist them in changing their life. Because it’s a fact that any prospect that contacts you is looking for something. Some will be looking for something they can start immediately and make an income as quickly as possible. For them it is time-critical. Maybe they lost their jobs, or are losing their home, or have mounting medical bills or can’t afford daycare to work outside the home. But others are just looking to add income or change jobs. For them, the urgency isn’t there. However, they ARE looking for something or they wouldn’t have contacted you. It’s your responsibility to find out if your opportunity will help them find that something.

The opportunity we decided on was based on several factors. The product was timely for sure. It offers a program to help people eliminate debt, create wealth and change their lifestyle. Plain and simple. And we knew in today’s economy we would be able to offer people a solution that would, if they followed the program, do just that. But we also knew that the company was very interested in their consultants, welcoming input and involving them in day-to-day training and tools to help those consultants continue to experience success. Every company should be of that mindset. It’s good business and it’s recognizing that it takes good people to have a good business. Align yourself with a good product, service or opportunity to sell. then focus on helping other people reach their dreams. THAT is your top priority.

In summary, if you approach your business from a “giving” and “grateful” attitude and perspective, it will come back to you. No question about it. You make every call to your prospects asking yourself what your opportunity (or service or product) can bring to their lives. And in doing so, you will help them to discover that it’s just what they are looking for.

About the Author

Tami Stodghill was the Press-Relations manager, for a world-wide extensible-technology distributor based in London and the US for 20 years. She was also a freelance writer for several industry publications and is now a home-based business owner with WMI. She makes her home in Page-Lake Powell, Arizona, in the summers and Palm Harbor, Florida in the winters where she enjoys boating and reading, camping, hiking and meeting new people. She runs a blog site exclusively to offer tips for success for any small or home-based business.

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Business Ideas Customer Service Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship How-To Guides Sales & Marketing Success Attitude

How to Thrive in a Recession

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Every time I turn on the news I feel like screaming. I am sick and tired of hearing about how bad the economy is. Unemployment is up and is only going to get worse. Banks are in trouble and going under. Real estate is a mess and there is no end in sight. Major corporations are going bankrupt – heck, even the big three automakers may go under.
I hear about how this is the next great depression. I hear about the collapse of the dollar, the collapse of the western world, and the end of society as we know it.
It Isn’t As Bad As It Sounds
The sad part is that it isn’t all that bad. Yes the economy stinks, but this is only when compared to the amazing boom we experienced in the last decade. Companies have been able to go after the low hanging fruit-heck, there was more lying on the ground than you could pick up!
Just because the ground isn’t littered with business anymore doesn’t mean that there isn’t business out there. You just have to work for it. And the past decade of easy business means that most companies have not made the connections and built relationships. Now they pay the price.
And at the end of the day, now is the time where entrepreneurs can really shine.
No, I’m not crazy. Think about what a true entrepreneur does.

  • He connects with his customer
  • identifies his needs and problems
  • then creates products and services to fill those needs or problems

In other words, he gets paid to solve problems
Now more than ever companies are in trouble. Your customer desperately needs you. No, he isn’t spending indiscriminately. But if you solve his problem and help him survive (or thrive) in this downturn he will be your customer for life. And you solve your “slow business” problem at the same time. Only an entrepreneur can do this, and you finally have an advantage over larger companies.
Simple, but Hard to Do
This is a simple concept that is hard to do. I’ve written several articles that are aimed at this:

Categories
Communication Skills

The P’s and Q’s of Public Speaking

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Avoid the pain
Which would you prefer – root canal dental surgery without an anaesthetic or a bit of public speaking? According to the people who research these things, most of us would prefer the former.
Public speaking is still one of our greatest fears and it turns grown men and women into nervous wrecks. The mere thought of it turns our tongue to cotton wool, causes our internal plumbing to act up and our kneecaps to start knocking lumps out of each other.
The problem is that Public Speaking catches up with many of us at some time both in our business and personal life. You’re asked to do a short talk at Fred’s “leaving do”. The
organisers of your business club want fifteen minutes on why you make “kafuffle” valves. A potential client wants a presentation on why they should give you the contract.
Of course there’s always the confident people who think “I’m real good at this, lead me to the podium.” The only thing is that some of these people could bore your socks off and do more for insomniacs than the strongest sleeping pills.
Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to be sent on a Public Speaking course by your enlightened employer. But more likely, when asked to make a presentation you’ll get hold of a book on
speaking, start writing the speech and lose sleep until the event.
Well, there’s no need for all of this because help is at hand. All you need to remember are your P’s and Q’s. Let’s start with the P’s
Preparation –
When you sit down to write what you’re going to say, bear in mind who you’ll be speaking to. Will they understand what you’re talking about; will they understand the technical stuff and the jargon? If in doubt remember the old saying “Keep It Simple Stupid”. To quote Aristotle – “Think as the wise men do, but speak as the common man”.
Make sure that what you say has a beginning, a middle and an end. Think of some anecdotes that help reinforce your story.
People think visually so paint verbal pictures for your audience. And always remember, people want to know what’s in it for them – so make sure you tell them!
Place –
Have a look at the venue before the event if you can. It’s not always possible, however, even if you get there half an hour before, you can check out where you’ll be speaking.
Stand at the point where you will deliver from, imagine where the audience will be and check that they can see and hear you. You may even wish to place a glass of water where
you’ll be able to find it.
Personal Preparation –
Before any speaking event, think about what you are going to wear; when in doubt dress up rather than down. You can always take things off for a more casual look. Men could remove their jacket and their tie. Women could remove items of jewellery.
Part of your personal preparation should include some mouth and breathing exercises. Practise saying some tongue twisters to give your speaking muscles a good work out. Take
a deep breath and expand your diaphragm. Then breathe out, counting at the same time, try and get up to fifty and not pass out.
As part of your personal preparation, write your own introduction. Write out exactly what you want someone to say about you, large font, double-spaced and ask the person
introducing you to read it. Believe me they won’t object and will probably be pleased and impressed.
Poise and Posture –
Whenever you’re called to speak, stand up or walk to the front quickly and purposefully. Pull yourself up to your full height, stand tall and look like you own the place. Before you start to speak, pause, look round your audience and smile. You may even have to wait until the applause dies down. Remember, you want the audience to like you, so look likeable. Practise this in front of a mirror or your family; I’ve heard that children make pretty good critics.
Pretend –
I’m suggesting you pretend you’re not nervous because no doubt you will be. Nervousness is vital for speaking in public, it boosts your adrenaline, which makes your mind sharper and gives you energy. It also has the slight side effect of making you lighter through loss of body waste
materials. The trick is to keep your nerves to yourself. On no account tell your audience your nervous, you’ll only scare the living daylights out of them if they think you’re going to faint. Some of the tricks for dealing with nerves are:
Get lots of oxygen into your system, run on the spot and wave your arms about like a lunatic. It burns off the stress chemicals. Speak to members of your audience as they come in or at some time before you stand up. That tricks your brain into thinking you’re talking to some friends. Have a glass of water handy for that dry mouth. Stick cotton wool on your kneecaps so people won’t hear them knocking.
One word of warning – do not drink alcohol. It might give you Dutch courage but your audience will end up thinking you’re speaking Dutch.
The Presentation –
This is it, the big moment when you tell your audience what a clever person you are and have them leap to their feet in thunderous applause. Okay, let’s step back a bit – if you want their applause then you’re going to have to work for it. Right from the start your delivery needs to grab their attention.
Don’t start by saying – “Good morning, my name is Fred Bloggs and I’m from Bloggs and Company.” Even if your name is Bloggs, it’s a dead boring way to start a presentation. Far better to start with some interesting facts or an anecdote that is relevant to your presentation.
Look at the audience as individuals; I appreciate that this can be difficult when some of them are downright ugly. However it grabs their attention if they think you’re talking to them individually.
Talk louder than you would normally do, it keeps the people in the front row awake and makes sure those at the back get the message. Funnily enough, it’s also good for your nerves.
PowerPoint –
And for those of you who haven’t heard of it, it’s a software programme that’s used to design stunning graphics and text for projection onto a screen. As a professional speaker, I’m not that struck on PowerPoint. I feel that too many speakers rely on it and it takes over the presentation. After all, you’re the important factor here. If an audience is going to accept what you say then they need to see the whites of your eyes. There needs to be a big focus on you,
not on the technology.
Use PowerPoint if you want but keep it to a minimum and make sure you’re not just the person pushing the buttons.
Why not get a bit clever at using the faithful old Flip Chart, lots of professionals do.
Passion –
This is what stops the audience in their tracks. This is what makes them want to employ you; to accept what you’re proposing and make them want you to marry their son or daughter. Couple this with some energy, enthusiasm and emotion and you have the makings of a great public speaker.
Just think of our old friend Adolph Hitler, boy could he move an audience to action. It’s just too bad he was selling something that wasn’t to everyone’s liking.
Give your presentation a bit of oomph and don’t start telling me – “I’m not that kind of person.”
There’s no need to go over the top but you’re doing a presentation to move people to action, not having a cosy little chat in your front room.
That’s the P’s finished with so let’s look at the Q’s.
Questions –
Decide when you’re going to take them and tell people at the start. In a short speech it’s best to take questions at the end. If you take them as you go then you may get waylaid
and your timing will get knocked out.
Never – never – never finish with questions; far better to ask for questions five or ten minutes before the end. Deal with the questions and then summarise for a strong finish.
Too many presentations finish on questions and the whole thing goes a bit flat.
When you’re asked a question, repeat it to the whole audience and thank the questioner. It keeps everyone involved, it gives you time to think and it makes you look so clever and in control.
Quit –
Quit when you’re ahead. Stick to the agreed time; if you’re asked to speak for twenty minutes, speak for nineteen and the audience will love you for it. Remember, quality is not quantity.
One of the most famous speeches ever – “The Gettysburg Address”, by President Lincoln, was just over two minutes long.
Right, that’s my cue to quit when I’m ahead. Public Speaking will never be easy for most of us but we can all do it a whole lot better.

AlanFairweatherPhoto.jpgAlan Fairweather, ‘The Motivation Doctor,’ is an International Speaker, Author and Business Development Expert. To receive your free newsletter and free e-books, visit: http://www.themotivationdoctor.com

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Selling the Customer What the Customer Needs – Not What You Want

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I’d like to tell you a little story about Sam, an old acquaintance of mine. The first time I met Sam I had stopped in his little general store while passing through town to buy some soda for my long car ride back home. His was the only store in this very small rural town and he did a sizable amount of business. As I walked down one of the aisles to get to the refrigerated coolers in the back where they kept the soda, I couldn’t help but notice that the shelves were loaded with containers of salt for sale. There were salt containers from the front of the aisle to the back, from top to bottom, and on both sides of the aisle. I couldn’t believe it, an entire aisle dedicated to just salt.
I grabbed a couple sodas and went to check out.

As Sam stood there smiling I said to him, “Excuse me, but I noticed you have hundreds and hundreds of salts for sale.”

Sam simply said, “Yup. That’s right.”

So I said, “Well, you must be one heck of a salt salesman to sell that much salt.”

Sam slyly responded, “Nope. Actually, I’m a terrible salt salesman. But the guy who sold me all that salt, now HE was a great salt salesman.”

Dumbfounded, I paid for my soda, went to my car, and drove home.

Since I had so much time to think during my long drive, I couldn’t help but wonder about how Sam’s salt plight was so typical of customers who end up purchasing something they don’t really need. They purchase what the sales person wants them to, which is not always what the customer really wants or needs. Obviously, Sam did not need all that salt, but the salesman made a good commission check on that sale nonetheless.

Do you think that the sales person who sold Sam all that salt has a snowball’s chance in you-know-where of EVER selling ANYTHING to Sam again? Of course not! If he sold Sam only what he really needed at the time, he would have had a chance to develop a relationship for life and, over that life-time relationship, he would end up selling a lot more salt than he did in that one single sale.

This is one of the biggest lessons in sales – Understand what the customer needs and sell him the right solution for those needs. In doing so, you not only have done right by the customer, but the customer will trust you and that is how a relationship begins. Since customers are more knowledgeable, and even sophisticated, in today’s market, they are looking for sales people who are more problem-solvers and planners who can work with them as a partner rather than someone who is just trying to sell them something. Therefore, sales reps need to sell VALUE, not products or services. By developing your relationship-selling skills you’ll position yourself as a partner who sells value, which will make you stand out from the normal crowd of sales reps who are pushing products down their client’s throats.

Relationship-selling involves listening, instead of “telling”. Asking the right questions, shutting up, and carefully listening to the responses are the key ingredients for doing this right. Prospects will tell you almost anything if you show you care about them. The traditional “sales pitch” is now replaced with an interview, with the goal of solving your prospect’s problems. By considering the prospect’s bottom-line, instead of your own quota, you create a win-win situation. By solving their problems, you will get the sale and both of you will win.

In a non-relationship selling environment, the sale rep spends very little time in the early stages of the sales cycle. These stages include the initial contact phase where rapport needs to be built and the qualification phase where you establish whether there’s a good fit or not before wasting a lot of time. As a result, that same sales rep ends up spending way too much time presenting the solution, since they don’t know exactly what the right solution is. Therefore, the negotiating and closing phases take proportionately longer.

To sell value and develop a relationship-selling environment, you need to become a strategic partner who can bring value to the entire relationship, right from the start. Spending more time in the up-front phases of the sales process to build rapport and trust and to properly qualify your prospect to understand their needs, will make the next steps in the process go much easier and quicker.

You also need to be easy to do business with. Don’t make every step a painful experience. Each step should be viewed as something that is helping your prospect and driving them toward the conclusion (“their” conclusion) that they would be crazy not to purchase from you. If you are viewed as a valued problem-solver, then you will actually help them make their decisions, which is what many customers need. In other words, be part of their team.

Remember, it’s all about the customer, and not about what is best for you. So next time, try positioning yourself this way instead of focusing on your own needs. You’ll end up selling a lot more salt than you ever did before.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
RussLombardoPhoto.jpgRuss Lombardo is President of PEAK Sales Consulting, LLC and an experienced CRM and Sales consultant, trainer, writer, speaker and radio show host. Russ works with businesses to help improve their customer acquisition and retention for increased revenue and success. Russ is author of the books, “CyberSelling”, “CRM For The Common Man” and “Smart Marketing”. He can be reached at 702-655-5652 and emailed at russ@peaksalesconsulting.com.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Runaway Sales Calls

runaway-sales-call.jpgHave you ever been on a sales call where the client was in total control? Of course you were. We all were. And it’s a real bear trying to change things when it happens. At some point, it becomes a runaway sales call and the client has manipulated and controlled everything. When this occurs, you lose all negotiating power, your ability to identify their problems, the chance to close, and anything else that will help you win their business.
I was in one of those memorable events once along with one of my resellers, in a previous life. Since we only sold through the dealer channel (i.e., value-added resellers), I was there representing the software vendor I worked for at the time and supporting our reseller. So I let the reseller run the meeting. Sounds innocent enough. Yea, Right! The client had about four or five people in the room and were very polite and cordial. And then they brought in Hans, their “technical guru”. (Seriously, that was his name – Hans) That’s when things changed for the worse.
Hans began to tell us about how challenging their business was as one of the leading carpet manufacturers in the industry. They sold to carpet distributors (who sold to stores such as Home Depot), major retail outlets (such as Home Depot), small carpet dealers, and other various distribution channels. As a result, their challenge was forecasting future business, since many of their clients changed or canceled their orders even after his company started manufacturing their orders. This caused enormous wastes when not managed properly. So they were looking for a product that would help them plan their business, forecast sales, manage their accounts, and basically cure world hunger (well, not exactly, but that’s what it sounded like at the time).
Every time our reseller tried to present how our product could potentially solve his problem, Hans, in his heavy Bavarian accent, would shoot it down, saying in a condescending tone, “You don’t understand our business. That won’t work because…” It seemed like he kept trying to set us up with a description of a problem, only to say that anything we proposed wouldn’t work. It was as if he already knew it wouldn’t work before he opened his mouth. And, in fact, that’s exactly what was happening. You see, he told us that every vendor he brought in had the same useless solutions and we were no different than them. He proceeded to challenge us to solve his problem since no one else could. He was in total control of the meeting. He made it clear that he was bringing in vendor after vendor, only to chew them up and spit them out. This painful episode prevailed for quite some time, that is until I spoke.
Since I let the reseller do all the talking so far, I noticed that he was desperately trying to solve this guy’s problem and sell him our product. I, on the other hand, saw something else going on — a big game that Hans was enjoying. I think he called it “Kill the vendor”. He was, in fact, trying to find a solution since his problem was genuine. But he was using his unique situation to challenge every vendor he could get his hands on. That is until I realized that his problem was a process problem, not a technology issue. In other words, his problem was systemic and had to be resolved by the way they did business with their clients. Once that was resolved, then they could use technology to track and manage their business. Unless they fixed the way they handled their own customers, technology wouldn’t do them much good.
I waited for just the right moment to initiate a well-placed cough to get their attention. I then leaned forward in my chair and said, “Excuse me Hans, but what makes you think that technology can solve your problem.” He started to answer, but only a few half words and stutters came out. He stared at me, then at the ceiling. After what seemed like 5 minutes of total silence, he leaned forward and said, “No one has ever asked me that before.” So I said, “So what’s the answer?” And he said, “I don’t know. But I think you are on to something. We’ve been looking for a solution in the wrong place.” We then had a very cordial and intellectual discussion about business processes and how to handle customers who screw up his business by canceling orders after he started manufacturing them. Hans’ demeanor totally changed. He started treating us with respect and assigned himself a project to figure out how they will change their processes to resolve their internal issues. Only after that was done would he revisit technology.
I have since moved on and don’t know what Hans and his company ultimately decided to do. Frankly, I don’t think our product could have helped him anyway, but it was a very interesting exercise in managing a sales call. Wouldn’t you agree? With some good listening skills and asking just the right questions, you can keep control of your sales meetings, qualify your prospects, and arrive at the right solutions, even if that means walking away because you don’t have the right solution for their problem.
Good Luck & Good Selling!
RussLombardoPhoto.jpgRuss Lombardo is President of PEAK Sales Consulting, LLC and an experienced CRM and Sales consultant, trainer, writer, speaker and radio show host. Russ works with businesses to help improve their customer acquisition and retention for increased revenue and success. Russ is author of the books, “CyberSelling”, “CRM For The Common Man” and “Smart Marketing”. He can be reached at 702-655-5652 and emailed at russ@peaksalesconsulting.com.