Put out a good product and people will buy it!

I love sports! And I like the similarity between sports and business as some of you that may have read my previous blogs will attest to.

The saying "if you build it they will come"; popularized by the movie Field of dreams in 1989 is a common analogy used by business people to describe potential growth. More simply stated if you put out a good product people will buy it.

Never was more apparent than in the days after the Philadelphia Phillies signed Cliff Lee. The day the Phillies announced they had re-signed Cliff Lee they sold 15,000 tickets. All of this occurred in a down economy where consumers are seeking the best value for their entertainment dollar.  These same principles should be studied and emulated by companies and sales organizations.

Value is always a key component in every purchase. Truth be told, value is subjective. The products services features and benefits that I place value on may be totally different from yours. However, they represent value nonetheless. This value is perceived by the consumer and I believe perception is reality. Their reality!

Don't confuse value with price. The Phillies were well aware of this when they signed Cliff Lee. Signing a player of his caliber but disrupting ticket prices would reduce the value for a number of the consumers.

You only have to look at new Yankee Stadium and the New York Jets ticket base for proof of this.

Whether you are a company or individual sales representative you need to be cautious of the price you associate with your product or service. No one will willingly pay a higher price without perceived value.

Determining your customers’ perception of the value you provide can only be done through good consultative salesmanship. It's not smoke and mirrors or magic its hard work that takes practice.

Good selling!

You have to speak their language ...

We all know the importance of speaking to someone in terms they can understand.  For instance, a Sales Manager is interested in growing his organization’s sales while a product manager’s main concern could be market share and the CFO cares about ROI.

However, most people confuse “understand” with “resonate”.  It not that your clients don’t understand what you are telling them is it that the words don’t resonate with them.  This is because in this particular scenario it is not what they have been told to care about.  Again, don’t mistake this for no caring.

Never was this more obvious to me than the recent conversation I had with my son about his future.  Like all parents I want my son to have a “better” life than I have had.  He and I were discussing his future plans and I was trying to explain to him how much it costs to live the life he has become accustom.

I explained to him how much a house costs, a car payment, raising a family … and his own ever growing food budget!  None of this seemed to hit home with him.  In fact, if anything it served to confuse the situation even more.

That was when it hit me … I wasn’t speaking his language.  It wasn’t that he didn’t understand mortgage rates and car payments it was that in his world of skateboards and drums he did care. 

So, I changed my approach to something he could relate to.  I took the big annual numbers and broke them down into more easily digestible smaller numbers and broke those down even further to and hourly wage.  This was a number he was familiar with as he has recently been job hunting and the dollars per hour was a metric he understood.

This conversation took place while driving to I took the liberty of drawing the correlation between the dollars per hour he now understood he needed and the businesses we passed along the way… explaining to him that he would not meet those lofty goals working at these various stores.

My son came to the conclusions (the same one I was trying to bring him to when the conversation started) all by himself.  I thought to myself how easy this was once I talked to him in terms that were important to him.

Good Selling!

Organizational Dynamics ...

Organizational dynamics is one of those very simple yet very complicated terms.  In its simplest of forms it could be summed up as - can't we all just get along?  But as everyone knows "just getting along" is easier said than done. 

As children or parents of children we all know the one kid that can't get along - that is unless it’s our kid.  Or maybe we were "that kid" growing up.  You know the one that specialized in divide and conquer.

Well organizational dynamics in business isn't much different.  But be careful how you handle it as the results may have exponential effects.  Newton's law of motion - "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction' - doesn't apply only to physical objects.  It also applies to the dynamics or personalities as well.

Let me explain.   A few years ago I was managing a sales team not unlike most.  There was a top performer that everyone despised.  This representative broke all the company rules in the name of making the sale. 

I fielded complaints daily from the rest of the team of how they had been wronged.  Their customers were stolen, their prices were undercut, and their leads were poached.  Naturally, with this constant grumbling I saw this representative, despite their top producer status, as detrimental to the team.

Although no form of management seemed to work I was determined to solve the problem without dismissal.  Unfortunately, my sales representative wasn't as committed to resolution and eventually left.

I thought my problems were over but soon found out they were just beginning.

The three representatives below this top producer were all close in sales and as such became a close knit "team" unto themselves.  What I didn't realize it that every competitor needs an opponent and the top producer that had just resigned represented that opponent to these three.

While the camaraderie among the sales team improved, the sales efforts didn't.  They no longer worried about leads and customers and prices.  They lost their common goal of defeating the top producer and as such produced less themselves.

It served as a very interesting lesson for me that having someone around that others didn't like served as motivations that I hadn't considered.

When adding a new sales representative to a team everyone wants to know "how will they all get along".  We'll maybe it is best if they don't!

Good Selling.

Would a sales representative take less money, a la Cliff Lee, to sign with a contender?

Would a sales representative take less money, a la Cliff Lee, to sign with a contender?  A week or so ago Cliff Lee did the unthinkable when he signed with the Phillies for less money than the Yankees were offering.  It made me wonder if a sales representative would do the same.

What would it take?  Maybe more equipment than the competition would sway them?  Perhaps a “better” location would be the key?   Could private ownership over a big corporate parent or vice-versa make the difference?  Higher commissions, lower prices, experienced staff, liberal vacation time …. What could it be?

Culture!  That’s the difference.  You see culture is the combination of everything that a company brings to the table for the employee.  It’s the location, the environment, the people …. Everything!  A business owner I know prided himself on having a place where people would want to come to work, another placed value on providing a safe workplace while a third said the fact that his company held everyone accountable for their work that he was most proud of.

To create great culture you have to practice what you preach.  If you want people to show up on time then you have to show up on time.  If you want people to care about the customer you have to care about the customer. 

In fact, you have to go beyond practicing and preaching.  You have to show people how to do it; correct them when they don’t do it right and praise them when they do.  You have to remind them everyday why the company exists, the basis on which it was founded, what their role is and what their contribution has meant to the company.

YOU HAVE TO SELL!

Good Selling.

Are job titles important in Sales environment?

This question was posted on LinkedIn and I thought it made for some interesting reading.

I feel job titles are important in sales on two main fronts.

Accurate titling assists in the continued branding of your organization.  I managed a sales team and we branded the sales titles as "graphics specialist".  This was in response to the customers' feedback from surveying that they were searching for companies with a higher level of knowledge from the sales representative.  In addition, this helped continue the identification of our organization since we had a name that could have easily been mistaken for a law firm, accountants or a funeral home. 

The second area was from a hierarchy standpoint.  In the process of growing customers it is important to develop peer to peer relationships.  By this I mean it is helpful for owners to know owners, accounting to know accounting and so forth.  This is a necessary step for companies to insulate themselves from a sales person holding all of the relationship cards.  The best way to do this is with titles.   

I feel several titles such as “Account Executive” or “Account Manager” are overused and rather than clarify what someone does they may confuse the situation.

These titles lead clients to believe their representative may have more authority than they actually do; particularly when you introduce the word Manager into the equation.  As such the client may ask something of the representative – like a discount- that they are not solely responsible for. 

If others in the organization have titles on their cards then it is not just appropriate but necessary for the sales representatives to have them as well.  As is the case with anything of this nature it is important that this be given thorough thought and explained internally fully so it is understood.  Too many initiatives such as this never get the internal attention they deserve and then become a failed experiment.

Good Selling!

While you were out …

While you were out …

Last week while sharing cold calling techniques with members on my LinkedIn Account I told of how I am using the “While you were out” notes to help improve my cold calling.  Well, I had so many requests for an example I figured I would post it here on my blog.

After having left several voicemail messages that go unreturned I have started using “While you were out” notes.  These are the little pink slips of paper receptionist used to leave in peoples’ mail boxes back in the olden days!

Here is an example of what it might look like.

After I have filled it out I scan, copy and paste it into the body of an e-mail.  The Subject is usually “While you were out”

I don’t attach it because many firewalls will then block the e-mail plus that would require the client to take an additional step to see it and I don’t want to ask them to do any more than they need to do to get the message.

This has yielded a surprising 80% response rate and even better resulted in an 85% appointment rate of those that have responded.

I also have enlarged copies of these notes that I use when I am cold calling in person.  These haven’t yielded the same numbers as the e-mail version but they are also at the very beginning of the sales / prospecting process.  I have no doubt that when the e-mail version of the same note arrives in their in box it will trigger their memory and again I will have a very successful campaign.

This is just one of several “shoestring” techniques I use to improve my marketing efforts.  If you’d like to hear about more please send me a comment.

Good Selling!

Don't Mail It In ...

No matter how hard you try sometimes you just “mail it in”.  We all do it.  I’ve even seen the Pastor at a church do it with his sermon.   C’mon you know what I mean - Just going through the motions!

But when sales people do it - it can be fatal.  The old adage that you only get one chance to make a first impression might be more important in sales than anywhere else.  Even more important – in sales it probably doesn’t apply to just the first impression.

Every interaction with the client either improves or erodes your relationship.  There is NO middle ground.  And when it comes down to it isn’t it all about the relationship?

So, how do you avoid mailing it in? 

First and foremost is preparation.  I know when I have mailed it in it is often because of a lack of preparation.  As a sales manager I have also witnessed sales people who have mailed it in for the same reason.  Preparation leads to confidence.  Confidence is a very powerful positive emotion.

Another key reason for mailing it in is you are “too busy”.  By this I mean your mind is cluttered.  It is full of everything from the last call you took before the meeting to the parent teacher conference you are going to have in a few hours after the meeting is done. 

You have to find a way to clear your head and give your client the attention they deserve.  Image how a professional athlete or top entertainer would respond if they kept allowing the issues of the day to creep into their performance.  What if your surgeon had a whole host of things on his mind when he was operating on you? 

I’ve found the best way to clear my head is to arrive 10 minutes early and just take a few minutes before walking in to relax.  Maybe it is in the peace and quiet of your car or perhaps it is listening to your i-pod.  Just the other day I grabbed a seat in the atrium where my client’s office was and had a cup of hot chocolate before the meeting.  I was relaxed and the meeting went great.

Finally, one of the biggest keys to mailing it in are your self limiting beliefs.  These are the thoughts and mental blocks each of us carries around with us in the back of our minds.  They are the collection of experiences we have built up over a lifetime.  They are the inner monsters we have stored in our mind that hold us back from achieving our goals.

This is the hardest of all to get rid of.  They only way you can combat this is with positive thoughts.  Remember, if you have one positive thought for each negative thought you are only back to square one.

Positive thoughts lead to positive actions which lead to positive results.

Good Selling!