The Selling Sherpa

Sales Tip of the Day: SOLDIER BOY

Yesterday I shared what I thought was a couple of ideas for tax day promotions.  A few subscribers contacted me and said they weren’t fair tax day ideas because they didn’t have enough time to act on them.

Well, there’s always next year...but they made their point.

So how about some promotions for May to acknowledge the families of your local soldier boy, or girl as the case may be?

There are five different dates with a military focus in the next month.  May 1 is Loyalty Day, May 8 is VE Day and Military Spouse Appreciation Day, May 16 is Armed Forces Day, and May 25 is Memorial Day.

You could create a different promotion for each day, or turn the entire month of May into a promotion that focuses on celebrating those who serve in the military and the families that support them.

Get creative.  Look online.  Find strategic partners to cross-promote with.  Sponsor a community event, or create one of your own.

When I sold radio advertising, I always had a couple of ideas to share with my clients, so call up your local media rep and ask them to brainstorm with you.

But plan NOW to have a May that blows your competition away!

© 2009 YOU ROCK!™ Communications

Sales Tip of the Day: TAXMAN

In the US, everybody knows what April 15 means: it’s the deadline for reconciling with the taxman.

And you can just bet there will be a long line at the post office, and the tax preparer’s office, and probably at a lot of accounting firms as well.

So if you know where the crowd is going to be, what are you going to do to reach them?

Could you arrange to bring some massage therapists in to help prospects relieve some stress?  Can you offer a special pricing deal, like 10 items for $40?  You are only limited by your imagination.

If it’s too late for you to do this today, start planning now for next year.  You can create an annual promotion that will have you looking forward to tax day every year, instead of dreading it.

© 2009 YOU ROCK!™ Communications

Sales Tip of the Day: TIMING IS EVERYTHING

I noticed all the Easter markdown merchandise in my local store today.

About half a dozen grocery carts were filled with candies, baked goods, decorations, and assorted items.  Nothing broken, defective, or substandard.  Just one day past relevance.

Suddenly, a few hours past prime selling time, all of this stuff is worth no more than half of what it was, even though it’s no different from the same stuff that was sold at full price a day before.

 

Of course, the same would be true if you tried to sell Easter merchandise in July, or summer clothes in November, or ice on Antarctica.

Actually, no matter what product, service or treatment you sell, you face the same challenge.  If your timing is right and your solution is available at the precise moment of highest need, you can always charge a premium price.

You’d pay almost anything to get a plumber to come out and fix a burst water pipe at 3AM, but you’ll shop and compare quotes when you are thinking about adding an outside sink sometime next year.

So when your prospect says no, or suggests that your price is too high, maybe it is just because you picked the wrong moment to make the offer.  A year, 6 months, a couple of weeks, or perhaps only a day later, the situation might be different.

Timing is everything, so don’t stop offering just because a prospect said “no” today.

© 2009 YOU ROCK!™ Communications

Sales Tip of the Day: TO THE POWER OF THREE

There’s a drive-thru espresso stand that is convenient for me, so I pull thru on a semi-regular basis.

When I first started patronizing the location, they gave me a punch-card, which is fairly common in most of the independent coffee shops.  It was the size and stock of a standard business card with a place to punch or mark 10 purchases.  Once complete, the card is redeemed for a free beverage.

Last year during the time when milk prices escalated, they stopped using punch cards.  But when I stopped in last week, I found they had a new improved version.

What was the big improvement?  Instead of one series of punches for a free beverage, the card now has three rows of punches good for three free cups.   `

The card is now worth three times as much to a customer, and the business saved money by only have to print one third of the normal quantity of punch cards.

What are doing now that you could leverage the same way?  Is there a way to reduce your expense and still increase value for your customer?  How can you multiply your promotion, coupon, or redemption program to the power of three?

© 2009 YOU ROCK!™ Communications

Sales Tip of the Day: WESTERN UNION

Not long ago, I attended an event that was billed as a sort of marketing roundtable, where anyone can ask questions or pose a problem and everyone contributes ideas.

One participant said she didn’t want to be like everyone else, so she doesn’t send email to her contacts.  Instead, she is focusing all her time and efforts on Twitter, but she is having trouble creating effective messages.  (If you don’t know about Twitter yet, don’t worry.  You will hear more and more about it in the coming months.  And, yes, I Twitter too.)

After a few people offered suggestions, I had to interrupt and survey the attendants.  When I asked how many people are using Twitter, about 20% of the room raised their hand.  When I asked how many people in the room use email on a daily basis, everyone raised their hand.

I thought my point was clear, but the Twit (not an insult, just a slang term) remained adamant that she would not use email to reach out to her market.  That’s a big mistake.

Your prospects, customers and colleagues all have different preferences for how they want to receive communication, and if you think you can get them all to use only your method, you are going to be disappointed.

If you are smart, you will ask every contact how they prefer to be contacted and use whatever method they indicate, be it Twitter, text message, email, fax, phone, mail or Western Union.

Oh, and let’s not forget that face-to-face is also a pretty good way to communicate.

© 2009 YOU ROCK!™ Communications

Sales Tip of the Day: WALK DON'T RUN

Networking events are a great way to meet new people, make new friends, and discover new opportunities to serve others.

Almost every time I attend a mixer or learning situation, there will usually be a few card collectors present.  They practically run around the room to grab cards from everyone they see, without ever bothering to really make a personal connection.

Sadly, most card collectors will never realize the true potential of networking.  Mostly, they end up with boxes full of cards from people they couldn't identity again if they had to, and send a ton of spam or junk mail to recipients who never read it anyway.

Do yourself a favor.  Whenever you attend a networking event, walk don't run.  Take your time to meet just a few people and make a meaningful connection with each one.

You may not meet everyone in the room.  But the connections you do make will be good ones that can actually lead to those service opportunities you are looking for.

© 2009 YOU ROCK!™ Communications

Sales Tip of the Day: HOLD THE LINE

Last week I shared a tip about making sure you have a live person answering your phones.

A long time subscriber, Karen Westeen, contacted me with her own telephone horror story.  Apparently Karen called a firm (the shameless will remain nameless) and was put in an on-hold cue for about ten minutes.  Still worse, there was no identifying message, so she could not even tell if she had reached the right number.

Another terrible example is when an incoming call is answered with a terse “hold the line please” and immediately put on hold before the caller has a chance to say anything.

A phone call from a prospect or a customer is a BIG buying signal.  They think your product, service or treatment can solve a problem for them and they are giving you an opportunity to make an easy sale.

You must not risk losing this chance to make a great first phone impression.

If your company is getting too many incoming calls, hire another person to answer phones.  The sales you are losing would probably more than pay for the extra help anyway.

Or, better yet, give your personal number to all of your prospects and customers and ask them to call you directly.  That way you wont unknowingly lose a sale because someone back at the office doesn’t understand that answering the phone is a function of marketing. 

Sales Tip of the Day: THINK

Sometimes, all you need to do to deliver more value to the customer is to think a little bit about what you say before you say it.

Bob Burg brings up a good point in a recent post.  Being given a free promotional item “because we had some left over” is not nearly as engaging as “because we really appreciate you being our customer.”

Just a little effort in crafting a customer-focused message will increase the perception of value, and that always makes selling easier.

Before you act, before you speak, THINK!

© 2009 YOU ROCK!™ Communications

Sales Tip of the Day: THE LOCOMOTION

Back in 1962, Carole King and Gerry Goffin wrote a song called “The Locomotion.”  It hit #1 that year for Little Eva, then again in 1974 for Grand Funk Railroad, and also made it to #3 for Kylie Minogue in 1988, which made it the first song to ever appear in the Billboard Top 5 three times.

Have you seen the famous pumpkin-carving kits with the small tools featuring plastic handles that are orange?  What about the newer watermelon-carving kits with the same tools except for the green color?

What do either of these have to do with selling?  Plenty!

The concept is called “repackaging” and it could be a goldmine for you.

By tailoring the song to current trends in music, or the kit to different purposes, it became possible to sell to people who had never heard or seen the originals.  And, in some cases, people who loved the originals bought the repackaged versions, as well.

How can you repackage what you sell to reach an entirely new audience?

What would your sales look like if you suddenly had a new market to sell to?

Sales Tip of the Day: THIS NOTE’S FOR YOU

Have you ever forgotten something a customer told you?  Or maybe even what you told a customer?

Research has shown that only three hours after the most dynamic seminar, even a good listener can only recall about half of what was said.  One day later, that recall drops to around 25%, and a month later, the average person can only recall about 5% of what they heard.

You must make a habit of documenting important points during a sales call so you don’t forget critical information.

That’s easy enough to do when you have a planned sales meeting because you can make notations in a client file or on a needs assessment form.  But what about random encounters or chance meetings?

I keep a small hardbound book with blank pages in my jacket pocket for writing notes.  The ones made by Moleskin are perfect.

Also, I keep a digital voice recorder with me.  It’s handy for recording reminders to myself, capturing testimonials from fans, or, with permission, conversations with prospects whenever they occur.

Just remember to transcribe what you’ve documented every day so you’ll know which notes are for clients and which notes are for you.

© 2009 YOU ROCK!™ Communications