Archive for the ‘Sales’ Category

There are two kinds of people in the world of customers and prospects: Those who are motivated by moving away from a problem and those who are motivated by moving toward a solution. Successfully selling to them means listening carefully to their language for the words that will tell you which kind you’re dealing with, says consultant/coach/trainer Erik Meier. Read more here about how to sync your presentation with their style.

Many years ago a stand up comedian (Robert Klein? George Carlin?) had a comedy sketch in which he advised us how to ruin somebody: Buy his daughter a Barbie doll. With that $5 investment, your opponent would go broke buying clothes and accessories for the doll.

Razors are a little like that: Buy the handle and there’s only one set of blades that fit. For many years I used a Gillette Mach 3 man’s razor. Why? Because I got the handle free, tried the blades and liked them. Then, one day, I bought a package of Rite Aid blades, whose label suggested that they would fit in the Gillette handle. They didn’t, so I bought a Rite Aid handle to go with the blades. Gillette lost my repeat business while Rite Aid made certain that I had to come to their store whenever I needed blades, at which time I would also buy … whatever: Greeting cards, candy, sunscreen, lip balm.

The other day I went to Rite Aid to buy more blades. The package didn’t say what handle they’d fit, but they seemed OK. Nope. The alternative blades didn’t fit, either. Well, heck. If I’m going to buy a new handle, I’m going to buy a national brand, so I won’t be restricted to Rite Aid.

With that failure, Rite Aid potentially lost hundreds of dollars of my business.

It gets better. I started comparing devices and costs and discovered that the unit cost of a single, triple-bladed cartridge can go as high as $2.60, while a package of twin-bladed disposable razors have a unit cost of 38 cents each. Note that those were men’s razors. Those for women – pink instead of green but otherwise apparently identical – were 41 cents each. Are my legs more sensitive or complicated than my husband’s face? I think not. (The women’s razors with the Susan Komen brand logo were even more but I wasn’t going there!)

The lesson here is about preserving customer loyalty. You can never, ever let up. Of course you have to continue to provide value, but a satisfied customer will pay a premium to avoid having to shop around for a replacement. Remember, too, the adage that a satisfied customers tells three people while an unsatisfied customer tells seven. Look at me: I’ve just told 850 people about my dissatisfaction and how to find a decent shave for less than 38 cents a day.

OK, it’s my column and because it’s my column I get to rant occasionally. Today I’m ranting about conversational narcissists. You know who I mean. The ones whose general tenor is, “Well enough about me. How do YOU like me so far?”

Disguising the circumstances, I’ll say that I encountered this at a recent event where I ran into two old friends whom I hadn’t seen in a long a time and one person whom I knew slightly and the others didn’t know at all. Person number three not only monopolized the conversation but did so with topics completely unrelated to the event. Celebrity names were dropped, information about excretory symptoms of illness was overshared. Our naked attempts to seize control of the discussion sailed over the offender’s head like Titan rockets.

I was thus happy to find this article about conversational narcissism from artofmanliness.com in a Lifehacker article on how to make a good first impression.

Here are a couple of subspecies of conversational narcissists:

 The Punctuation Deprived: One thought flows seamlessly into the next. There are no pauses and, by the time you realize the subject has changed, there’s no way to go back to comment on the previous one or to derail the runaway train of thought.

The Provocative Interjector/Hijacker: This guy often thinks he’s a real card. In a conversation about sleep disorders, he pops in with “Well that’s only true if Herman Cain wears red pajamas” and, next thing you know, you’re talking about the GOP debates.

That’s the great thing about blogging. It’s the written equivalent of conversational narcissism. That’s enough about me, but you can talk about me some more by using the comment box below.

Attending a couple recent conferences I concluded that, rather than enhancing communication, Powerpoint impedes it in sometimes-fatal ways. When I started writing this post, it was going to have a series of tips on how to make better Powerpoints. Then I thought I was going to ask you to abandon it completely. Now, though, I just want you to stop using Powerpoint as a verb and instead use it as a noun.

The presentations have overwhelmed the content; no, they have usurped it. They have become the very purpose of the session: I Powerpoint therefore I am.

Powerpoint makes people with little artistic ability think they are artists. Hey, they chose a colorful background and a creative font! They used dissolves. They found a cute caricature; never mind the fact that they had to revise their script to rationalize the picture. They Powerpointed!

Public speaking is story telling. Your objective is to make the audience believe or feel or do something. Even if you are presenting mind-numbingly dry technical information, you still want them to at least exclaim “Aha!” at the end of your talk, if not write you a check.

Because it’s a story, a presentation needs an arc: A beginning, a crisis, a dénouement and a conclusion. Powerpoint slides trudge along at the same tedious pace, sabotaging the rhythmic changes and drama that make your story compelling. Nobody ever complained that a speaker was too entertaining.

And while we’re talking about drama, why are you standing off to the side of the room hiding behind a podium while that projection screen hogs the spotlight? You are the star. Don’t share the honor. Any actor will tell you that downstage center is the place to be.

I think the problem is that, as speakers plan their presentations, they start not from the story but from the Powerpoint. They do Powerpoint, not persuasion. If you’ll promise me that you’ll knock it off and write your story first, I might allow you to use Powerpoint as a noun: As a tool to deliver images that explain, expand and enhance your story.

You don’t need a fancy template. You don’t need a continuous stream of slides. Maybe you only need three or four images that you call up when a picture really will replace a thousand words.

That’s easier said than done, because relevant, evocative images are hard or expensive to create. If you want to take viewers’ breath away when they see the scope of your factory, you’re going to need a photo. Shot from a helicopter. If you’re going to show illustrations – maps, artists’ renderings, site plans – they have to be well-executed to begin with because, if they’re bad, they’ll be worse when they’re 10 feet tall instead of 10 inches. One dramatic pie chart is better than a dozen wishy washy ones and those created in Excel look like it. What story does the picture tell that words cannot? Is it therefore obvious that slides with words on them are equally limiting and pretty much useless?

Here’s a parenthetical reason to use Powerpoint as a noun: Murphy, who correctly said that, if anything can go wrong, it will. The projector bulb burns out, the technician shows up with an immobilizing hangover, your computer rewards your optimism with a blue screen of death, the lights in the room either can’t be dimmed enough for slides to show up or is so dim that you can’t see your notes. If you were planning to Powerpoint (verb), you’re dead. If you were planning to Powerpoint (noun) the show will go on.

For grins, here’s a site with some examples of spectacularly bad Powerpoint slides.

By Erik Meier

When you’re counting close friendships, loving relationships, acts of kindness, or the gold bars securely stashed away in your secret vault, the answer is, “Yes!”  It’s better to have more…rather than fewer of them.

Is the same true when it comes to the tools for building and growing your business?

Many salespeople (and their organizations) believe that more is better.  Unfortunately, “more” often translates to the latest technology or some “magic bullet” process for attracting new clients or closing sales.

Do you really need the latest and greatest to grow your business?

Do you need the newest and most comprehensive CRM application that allows you to not only record, but also organize, prioritize, and analyze every bit of information about every contact and every customer?

Do you need a cutting edge marketing program that gets your message out to a scientifically defined demographic, in a precise manner, at a predetermined point in time?

Do you need the latest computer applications to preload, download, and explode each step in your business development process so you can track, document, and report every interaction with every prospect?

All of the “latest and greatest” can provide some advantages… sometimes.  And some can be very beneficial.  But, do you need all of them?  And, do you need more of them?

Probably not.  In fact, they can hinder your ultimate productivity and progress. Continually seeking new resources to make your job easier, more effective, or more efficient, sidetracks you from the actual work that needs to be done.  It’s a form of procrastination that has a compound negative impact.  Not only do you spend time looking for and researching the next magic bullet, but once you find it and obtain it (or what you think is “it”), you must spend additional time learning how to implement it.  And all of that time is time diverted from your primary objective of building your business.

When growing your business, it’s not about how many resources you acquire…or whether they are the latest and the greatest.  It’s about how you use the resources you already have to solve the problems you face, and to create a path for accomplishing your goals.

It’s about thinking strategically; understanding the true nature of the roadblocks between you and your objectives, and then calling on your initiative, skill, and determination to find a way around, over, or through them.

It’s about tackling the hard tasks first and getting them out of the way as quickly as possible, rather than wasting time looking for magic bullets to make the tasks easier…or perhaps make them disappear.

And, it’s about being honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses; identifying the strategies and skills you need to improve; and then taking the necessary steps to refine the strategies and develop your skills.

There will always be a new shiny object to attract your attention—one that promises unparalleled results.  But, your ultimate success won’t come from a new technology, a new computer application, a new marketing process, or a new sales tracking system.  It will come from your determination to do what has to be done…and your willingness to do it to the best of your abilities.

Erik is the CEO of the EAM Consulting Group in Troy.   He trains, coaches and consults as an authorized licensee of Sandler Training,  a world leader in innovative sales and sales management training. Click here for information about Erik’s Nov. 30 introductory seminar. 

One of my longtime readers recently mentioned how much she enjoys the epigrams that appear at the bottom of each of my enewsletters, so I figured I’d share them all again, all in one place:

1. “The less people know, the more the suspect” – Josh Billings.
2. Better is the enemy of good enough.
3. Everyone is always right.
4. Nobody likes me.  They like themselves when they’re with me.
5. Sometimes it’s easier to get forgiven than it is to get permission.
6. The world is run by those who show up.
7. Fundraising rule #1:  You have to ask.  Rule #2: Ask for enough.
8. Crowded is good.
9. Lumpy is good.
10. There should always be a bottle of champagne in the refrigerator.
11. Don’t let people who make less than you decide your salary.
12. Share the credit; take sole possession of the blame.
13. “Who cares?”  isn’t a flip question.  It’s the launching pad for every successful marketing campaign.
14. Email will never replace print media as long as people still read in the bathroom
15. Big won’t beat small.  Fast will beat slow.
16. “If you think hiring a professional is expensive, wait ‘til you hire an amateur.” – Red Adair
17. “It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.” Samuel Johnson
18. · “Learn from the mistakes of others. You won’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” – Martin Vanbee
19. When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the fire department usually uses water.
20. “The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings and, in the end, the communicator will be confronted with the old problem of what to say and how to say it.”  Edward R. Murrow
21. Market where your competitors aren’t.  “The short road to ruin is to emulate the methods of your adversary.”  Winston Churchill
22. Never screw up on a slow news day.
23. “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking.” The Scarecrow
24. “Advertising is the price we pay for being unremarkable.” Robert Stephens, Founder of the Geek Squad
25. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. Luke 12:48

According to Erik Meier, when you examine the day-to-day conversations that take place in the business arena (or almost any setting), you’ll discover examples of miscommunication and non-communication occurring in varying degrees. Conversations will contain distortions, deletions, and generalizations. They are part of the fabric of interpersonal communication. And, it’s the distortions, deletions, and generalizations that get in the way of closing more sales…and closing them more quickly.  Read more.

by Erik Meier

Becoming focused on what you need to do to accomplish your sales goals seems like an appropriate thing to do.  Homing in on exactly what needs to be done, how it needs to be done, and when it needs to be done might be considered an essential element for developing an effective plan.  And it is… until “getting focused” becomes an activity onto its own.

Too much research and planning can be worse then no research and planning.

How can that be?

If you performed no research, had no plan, had no strategy, but instead, just pulled up your prospect database and started making phone calls… or went out and started “knocking on doors”, at least you’d be doing something.  Some people would talk to you, some wouldn’t.  Some people would have meaningful conversation with you, others would dismiss you quickly.  Some people would qualify as prospects, some wouldn’t.  And, some people, not prospects themselves, would point you in the direction of others who may be.

Even though your activity would not be based on or directed by a well thought out plan, it would ACTIVITY.  And, results come from “doing”, not “thinking” about what to do.  So, invest a sensible amount of time to do the research, target your prospects, develop your plan — then ACT!

Erik is the CEO of the EAM Consulting Group in Troy.   He trains, coaches and consults as an authorized licensee of Sandler Training,  a world leader in innovative sales and sales management training.

Hidden among the tax and accounting information provided by Reinert & Co. PC was this useful summary of metrics for measuring your sales force.

Stout Systems provides software development consulting and IT staffing services. Their marketing mix includes the use of direct mail, traditional media and social media. For the latter, part of their strategy includes targeted advertising on Facebook, according to President John Stout.   (John and I are mentors in Detroit’s TechTown program.)

At first, their Facebook ads weren’t generating a substantial number of clicks, so the company discontinued them for several weeks, and almost immediately saw their lead generation drop by about 10%.  The company reinstated the Facebook ads and the stats improved and are now running higher than ever.

“We didn’t always know why our Facebook ads worked for us, but clearly they do work,” Stout said.