Making things happen takes action
Several weeks ago, I was conducting a sales seminar for designers and salespeople. Since I was the last speaker for the week, I asked the group what was their biggest challenge with the information they received. The answer: how will we implement these great ideas? You see the participants weren’t owners and couldn’t go back and immediately make changes. This wasn’t the first time I’ve heard this but this time I decided to add some sales strategies for the participants.
What good would all this information be if no one would listen?
1. So what do you do? First you must understand that if you’re selling customers you are an owner! Without you and your sales the business would die. Trust me, if you can’t sell anything you’ll be out the door and be replaced by someone who can sell. That’s how important you are.
2. Think like an owner. Being an owner and worked with many, I can tell you they think about money and sales. Without sales the business will not exist and a smart business owner puts as much money and time into training their sales staff. If you’ve been sent to a sales seminar consider it an honor and take it seriously. The owner has made an investment in your future. It means you are valued.
Your job? Rise to the occasion and learn as much as you can and be prepared to go back to your business and as they say: learn it, teach it and do it!
3. First things first. You’re probably excited and learned so many things you don’t know what to talk about first. Think like an owner and discuss the things that are connected to number 1. –sales and money. You will have learned lots of important things and many will stand out in your mind but are they the ones “most connected to the bottom line?” Are they ones you can implement easily, will they have the most impact on your business? Start with these things first. As someone once said, we’re learning how to be “mini moguls!”
4. Make sure it “makes sense.” Do you have the data right, do you have an example of how it gets done? If you need more info before you present your ideas, go get it right.
5. Make an appointment with the owner or manager who will be implementing your ideas and use rule 2. as one of your bargaining tools. “You sent me to these informative seminars, and there are ways that we can make more money and improve our sales. Who wouldn’t want to listen to this sales pitch? This will be the best sale you’ve ever had!
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Are You a Merchant of Doubt or Opportunity?
Tuesday, November 1st, 2011It seems these days that all the media wants to talk about is how bad the economy is doing. With the continual talk on the airwaves and the Internet about everything from the debt crisis here and in Europe, to falling consumer confidence, it seems that if the media had it their way, we’d simply all give up hope, stop doing business completely and let full-blown economic Armageddon ensue.
I want to challenge you to think very differently about these Merchants of Doubt as I call the media, by offering up a few ways to move forward with greater success by developing and keeping a positive mindset despite what the competition or media think!
Here are three, simple, yet highly effective, mental strategies to help you combat
the merchants of doubt so you can secure the space in a consumers mind, as Dan
Kennedy describes, and serve more people.
#1. Become a merchant of opportunity. This is not the time to be down, especially
when talking with customers and prospects about how your business is doing. People
seek out and prefer to do business with people that are successful and make them
feel good. This is Marketing 101, but so many businesses still manage to mess this
up.
With cost-cutting in fashion, far too many businesses continue to skimp on training
or paying better wages to attract and retain better people. I’m always baffled as to
why this is still allowed to happen.
Attitude is a huge component in the sales process, and so many firms let poorly
trained or negative employees sabotage their ability to win new and repeat business.
With the cost of getting new customers time and fleeting attention proving more and
more difficult, happy customers are a huge plus and heres why: they talk to other
people they know, which often turns into referral business.
This unpaid advertising is the MOST VALUABLE, period! End of discussion.
The equation is simple:
Happy Employees + Happy Customers = Greater Referrals
#2. Ask for regular input from your best customers. Your best customers are a gold
mine for several reasons. They know you best, and, if asked, they will often tell
you what they like the most about you and how you can get better.
This is always valuable, but the real goldmine is when you ask them for advice on
additional product/service offerings that they’d like to see.
For example, when I worked in the ad agency business several years ago, we always
asked our top clients what else they’d like to see us offer.
This was extremely valuable, and better than any focus group of complete strangers.
In addition, before we ever rolled out a new service, we always went to our top
clients first to get their reaction and feedback. This not only saved us a ton of
time and effort, but it also provided our best clients input and a voice in the
creative process.
As you might suspect, when we circled back to them when the new offering was ready,
many of them were more than willing to meet with us, and several of them signed up
immediately, thus increasing our ability to serve them and positively add to our
bottom line.
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Tags: Business goals, Goal setting, Goals, indianapolis small business
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