The Selling Sherpa

I DON’T KNOW IF WE CAN HELP YOU

If part of your selling day involves making cold calls, you may dread the automatic “we’re not interested” response you sometimes get before you can even begin the conversation. There’s one thing you can try that may break the ice just enough for you to actually ask a question or two.

Whenever someone tells you “we’re not interested”, respond with something like, “I'd be surprised if you were already interested...I don’t even know if we can help you yet.”

This response is one they've probably never heard before, and it may stop them just long enough for you to at least gather a little information about them.

Try it and let me know how it works for you!

A MATTER OF TRUST

Your customers, your prospects, and your colleagues must be able to trust you, your company, and what you sell.

Until the “building trust” manual is published, here are some things you can do to encourage trust:

• Never ever exaggerate, mislead, or lie

• Show your customers that you really can help them handle problems.

• Ensure every promise you make is kept.

• Stay in constant contact with your customers.

• Concern yourself with the success of others. (If you do, your success is virtually assured!)

As Billy Joel sang, “it’s always been a matter of trust.”

Show that you are trustworthy and selling becomes a breeze!

WANT FRIES WITH THAT?

It’s one of the best techniques in the world. Chances are you hear it often. But are you using it?

It’s called suggestive selling, and it most commonly sounds something like, “do you want fries with that?” Simply making the suggestion of an additional purchase to augment the customer’s experience is usually all it takes to increase your sales.

What can you suggest? If you sell cars, I am sure you suggest the premium audio package.

If you sell advertising (like I did for over 2 decades), I hope you are suggesting remotes or sponsorships in addition to the ROS/ROP buy.

In virtually any business, there is a “full meal deal” option you can offer your prospects.

Start suggesting fries with every order, and you’ll be surprised how easy it is to sell more.

THE PROBLEM WITH MAILING SERVICES

Every time I bring up the importance of hand-written thank you notes and staying in touch with your prospects and customers, a few subscribers will tell me about a service that does this for you at a very affordable cost. They will even scan your handwriting and produce a custom font so they can print up cards that look like you wrote them, or you can use their standard font selection.

While I am personally not a big fan of the concept, it is better than doing nothing.

The problem with mailing services is that you risk duplication. And if you do the same thing other people are doing, you cease to be remarkable.

No doubt that seems a far-fetched concern. After all, what’s the chance that two different people would send the same card using the same font on the same day to the same person?

I don’t know what the odds are, but I do know it happened to me yesterday. Really. Same card, same font, same day, but different senders.

Don’t get me wrong. I really appreciate the thought. And I am truly grateful for the “green mermaid” gift card that was enclosed in one of them (thank you Fred!).

But they are just not the same as the hand-written thank you notes I received from two people who were my guests at a big awards event last week.

You can be remarkable. You can take shortcuts.

You may not be able to do both.

CHERISH EVERY CUSTOMER

I spend way too much time helping sales teams figure out how to find new customers.

As I see it, they have failed to grasp a basic truth: the best place to find new business is with existing customers.

They already know you, they already buy from you, and they already trust you.

If you tell them about new offerings, they are likely to make a purchase. If you ask them for testimonials, they are usually happy to provide them. And, if you know how to ask for a referral, you will probably get all you can handle.

Unless you do something to make them dissatisfied or disloyal, your current customers will continue to provide revenue for your firm, and personal income for you, for years to come.

So cherish every customer as if your personal success depends on it...because it does!

ANOTHER “WOW” EXPERIENCE

I am sure you have bought products from online retailers before.

But I bet you’ve never gotten an order confirmation like this one:

“Thanks for your order with CD Baby!

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with
sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure
it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over
the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money
can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party
marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of
Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in
our private CD Baby jet on this day, Wednesday, September 19th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did.
Your picture is on our wall as 'Customer of the Year'. We're all
exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!”

Will my CD really show up in a gold-lined box? Of course not. And I seriously doubt a company jet will be involved in the delivery.

But before I finished reading the note, I was chuckling out loud and really feeling good about making the purchase from what must be a really cool bunch of people. (Or, at the very least, one very clever copy-writer!)

Can you engage your customers with a compelling story?

Can you make them really feel good about buying from you?

Or will you just give them one more boring receipt?

CUSTOMER OF THE MONTH

After a session with one of my consulting clients, we walked up the street to a coffee shop to continue our conversation. We entered and the place was buzzing with conversation, energy, and activity.

On the counter near the register was a prominent frame with a picture of one of their regular patrons noting his selection as “Customer of the Month”. I was impressed by this and wondered how one achieves such an honor.

I asked the barista about the selection criteria and she informed me that it’s a group decision by all who work there.

How cool is that? Not only was it something out of the ordinary, but darned if it didn’t make me want to try my best to be the next Customer of the Month.

What would happen if you started honoring a Customer of the Month?

Would clients actually compete for the honor?

Do you think customers would be kinder and gentler with any complaints?

TELEPHONE LINE

Anytime I call a business and get the “to serve you better, please select from our menu of options” routine, I wonder if it is really to serve me better or if its just so they can keep payroll costs down.

What about your customers? When they call you, are they herded into the telephone line to wait through a seemingly endless list of options? Or, worse yet, the “next available representative” holding pattern.

You might not have realized by surveys have shown that approximately 94% of people say they are “very frustrated” when they call a customer service line and the call is not answered by a person who can answer their questions.

What about your competition? Are they irritating their customers with this kind of “service”? Could you give them something better and win some new customers?

WHY WORRY?

Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs...and he also struck out 1,330 times

R.H. Macy built a successful store...and seven previous stores failed miserably.

It is probably easy for you to walk..and you probably fell down the first time you tried.

Failure happens to us, but it does not define who we are.

So, when it comes to failure, why worry? Instead, be concerned about what passes you by when you fail to try.

THE BIGGEST BUYING SIGNAL

Much has been said about watching for buying signals when you are doing a presentation or meeting with a client. But I’d like to point out the biggest buying signal of all: when your prospect calls you.

Anytime someone calls YOU to ask for a proposal, brochure, meeting, etc., the only reason they do is because they need a problem solved now and they believe you might be able to solve it for them.

And make no mistake, in this scenario, the prospect will buy. They may buy from you or they may buy from your competition, but they will buy.