Norman Davies' Blog

Selling, What Works?

The World of Selling has changed dramatically.  The days of knocking on doors and selling wares from a delivery van has mostly vanished.  The average consumer is more educated, worldly and knowledgeable about their choices and this has changed everything for the sales professional and the management team working to direct sales efforts.

That being said people are people and have always been people with the same basic motivations and drivers that we had fifty, one hundred or one thousand years ago.

Similarly, the fundamental traits of a successful sales have never changed.

Colin Powell, the former US Secretary of State, once said, "There are no secrets to success: Don't waste time looking for them.  Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty to those for whom you work, and persistence." The same ideas apply to success in selling.  It is the hard work and learning from failure; it's the persistence; it's applying the basics that have worked year in and year out that help ordinary sales people achieve extraordinary success. 

'People often ask me how

I accomplished this or that...

I work hard; I set goals; I give

customers service they don't expect.

No one is ever shocked.

Because, deep down,

everyone knows that

if they acted upon these

'clichés', they'd be successful."

Don Fink, Vice president

Citicorp Private Bank

Success in sales doesn't come from standing still or from doing the same things you've always done.  Trying new things, taking new actions and measuring the results is key to long term growth. Very rarely will the actions that brought you success continue to do so.  What worked last year may not work as well this year and may not work at all in three years. 

Foster The Right Attitude

If success could come easily, it would not have the same meaning.  There would not be thousands of books written about finding success. All of us get hit with difficulties every day, and we have to find ways to deal with them.  It is our attitude toward these difficulties that make the difference.

Avoid Negative Situations

Turn rejections into an asset by changing your perspective.  It is hard to hear "no" or 'not interested" but successful sales people listen to objections and use them to change their approach toward prospects or to focus on different customers.  In sales it is highly unlikely that the buyer is rejecting you personally so don't take the rejection of your offer personally.  Thank the prospect and move on learning from the experience. Whenever possible surround yourself with positive people and environments.

Build Strong Relationships

Successful sales people know that nothing happens in life without the assistance of other people who like and believe in us and our goals.  Building strong relationships takes time and effort and requires that we are there for others. Build you network so that it is there wen you need it. 

Earn Your Customers' Trust

In sales, trust is everything and must be earned through Truth, Reliability, Understanding and Service.  Trust is earned by consistently doing what we promise and standing by our word.  Not always an easy task. Build on it everyday and sales will come faster and easier.

Trust Yourself

Trusting yourself is truly the basis for self-confidence and self-confidence goes a long way toward building success.  It often does not matter what your words are it is the confidence that lay behind the words that wins customers' confidence.  A sales person who has lost trust in themselves won't win the trust of others.  Look for things to believe in everyday and build your confidence and success will follow.

The attitudes above can go an long way toward creating success but a sales person can not do all of these things alone.  Sales people need a supportive management team behind them doing everything possible toward creating success. 

I have heard many managers say one thing but do another and slowly but surely their salespeople loose the confidence in the business that is needed to help them succeed. 

Owners and managers set the trend for the entire business.  Businesses are organic just like families and the person who leads the organization sets the tone for the entire organization.  Words do not count for much if not supported by consistent actions.  Most businesses that struggle with sales staff turnover and poor sales do so because  management does not support the goals set for the sales team.  When everyone is aligned then goals are achieved and success is realistically within reach!

craigslist.org Power

craigslist.org

Power

 

Craigslist has become one of the most powerful business tools that any business can use and it is free!  Craigslist is a simple online classifieds board with an incredible amount of power. 

 

Craigslist has boards for over 450 cities worldwide and has more than 30 million users each month. The volume of users and the ability to post photos and to use HTML coding makes it a powerful tool to reach out to people in a wide variety of ways. 

 

Marketers use craigslist.org to post jobs for free, find renters for apartments, sell cars and any imaginable product and service.  Craigslist can also be used to stimulate viral marketing by placing well thought out postings that can contain references to products, services or ideas that the marketer wishes to promote.

 

Creative posting can stimulate awareness in product and events or to promote political agendas. Marketers posing as "regular users" can use postings to manipulate the thinking of other users.

 

Take some time and look around the board and keep an eye out for innovative approaches being used to get your attention, mold your politics or manipulate your personal agenda. Click below to visit craigslist.org

 

craigslist
online community   

Shake hands and Build Sales

Shake hands

and Build Sales

 

What's in a handshake? As a near-universal gesture of "accommodation" handshaking is a relatively new cultural behavior. Its original purpose was to prove to others you were coming "open-handed" and unarmed. It took off only a few hundred years ago. As far as I know, it was the English we have to give credit for it.

 

The English of that time were world travellers,and the convention spread like wildfire. Right from the start some rules accompanied it. They weren't chiseled in stone, but they were general guides on how to conduct a handshake.

 

 

There are three main conventions.

1. The way you extend the hand
2. The way you apply the pressure
3. The length of time you shake the hand

A handshake has nothing to do with the character of a person. It's not an inborn behavior, but a learned one. Once you've gotten used to the way to shake hands, you think is that is the right and only way.

 

A handshake has nothing to do with the character of a person. It's not an inborn behavior, but a learned one. Once you've gotten used to the way to shake hands, you think is that is the right and only way.

 

1. The way you extend your hand.

In the past it was always the most important person, or the strongest in the group, who had to extend the hand. That has changed. Today, anybody at any place at anytime has the right to offer you his/her hand.

However, whenever you extend your hand, there are three ways of doing it.

• Palm down (you are the one offering it).
  If you feel strong and think you "Hold the Whole World in your Hand" you automatically will offer your hand palm down. This forces the other person to offer palm up, and he or he can feel in a "underdog" position. Not very pleasant.
• Palm vertical (let's work together).
  The most generous way to offer a handshake is palm vertical. It sends the signal of cooperation. "I want to work with you."
• Palm up (I am fully at your service).
  Salespeople often offer a handshake palm up. This is a subtle way of indicating the "at-your-service", aspect of doing business. It says that you, are in charge. 
•  
  To further emphasize the "I'm at your service, and you, my customer, are truly in charge" aspect, extend your hand vertically, and slowly turn it till your hand is palm up, and the other's is palm down.
   

  Let me give you a couple of examples.

  Let's go to a concert. The violins are always on the right side. Musicians don't just walk up and take a seat. There is a system to everything. The conductor's place is close to the middle. When the musicians are settled, the conductor will enter the room. He or she will go to the kapelmeister, and extend his or her hand, palm vertically. The conductor is greeting the group and wishes for a good performance.

  He or she then goes to the podium, takes the baton, and starts the music. Just assume everything went perfectly. When it's all over, the conductor thanks the kapelmeister. However, please watch the position of the hand! Inevitably, after a superb performance, the conductor will extend hand, palm down! I do not think there is a school of conductors where they are instructed on how to shake hands. In such instances, it just comes naturally.

  2. The way you apply pressure. 

  Has nothing to do with honesty, strong character, or anything else. In the western world, professionals encourage their children to give strong handshakes. The child himself won't do it automatically. It has to be taught.

  In other parts of the world, however, to apply pressure is regarded as impolite. (It's about the same as if you would go into a business meeting, and somebody would suddenly hug you, because he/she likes you�..)

  If a North American woman, with a good firm hand grip goes to the Far East I have to warn her. Taking a man's hand and giving it a firm press, signals him that the woman has a sexual interest. So please do not be surprised, if the man reacts "strangely" to you !

  3. The length of time you shake the hand.

  This aspect of handshaking is both taught as well as somewhat intuitive. In Canada, in a normal situation, you shake about 4 � times and hold the hand a few more seconds. The longer you keep holding the hand, the more powerful you look. However, doing the same in South America it is regarded as rude! You should pump about a dozen times, and hold seemingly forever!

  If you like someone, you increase the shaking. If you go to a job interview and the interview is over, count the pumps you get. More than four will indicate your interviewer liked you.

  Consumption of alcohol will also increase the pumps - about two per drink. Try it out. Go to a party. When you leave count the shakes. The more you and your host like each other the more likely you and he or she will pump the hand of the other.

  These observations are not a piece of formal academic research. They are what I have observed from my experience. Try it out yourself.

Do You Want Fries With That?

Do You Want Fries With That?

These are perhaps the six most profitable marketing words ever spoken.  With over 31,000 restaurants worldwide, employing more than 1.5 million people the numbers are staggering.

 

If each restaurant were to successfully upgrade 100 customers per day the dollar value of the add on sales on fries alone would be tremendous.

 

I know from my own experience that almost every sales can be increased by 10% through the use of promoting add on sales.

 

New products, low value products, product quality upgrades, rush order charges all produce an opportunity to increase the value of orders. What would a 10% increase in sales mean to your business profitability?

 

Every business has the opportunity for incremental sales growth.  At the most basic level, it is the sales person who asks if a customer would like to try a new or related product. 

 

Now here's the beef!  The magic of incremental sales growth is that your existing customer is buying more.  You are not paying more in sales costs or marketing costs to acquire a new customer - you are increasing the value of your existing customers.  This is why Wal-Mart has added pharmacies and food floors - to get more dollars from their existing customers.  The most successful retailers in North America have been expanding their product offering to increase sales and add more value to their role as supplier.

 

The cost of getting new customers is high and is getting higher every day. I am not suggesting that you shouldn't work to get new customers, but your highest priority should be in selling more to the customers you already have. Your existing customers have already agreed to have a relationship with you.  The hard work is already done. The next step and the continuing work is to foster that relationship to build the lifetime value of that customer.  How is that done?  Well read on!

 

1) Use effective product training of your front line staff to increase the incremental value of each sale. Regular product knowledge sessions will allow your staff to sell more in a helpful, customer-oriented fashion.

 

2) Use affinity programs to get more of your customers' business and maintain loyalty. This can be as simple as a punch card to get a free gift or a discount, or a highly sophisticated computerized tracking systems to anyalyze each customer's spending habits.

 

3) Only spend money to acquire new customers when you have done everything possible to fully statisfy the needs of your existing clients.

 

4) Identify who your best customers are  and get closer to them.  Learn about their needs and customize your marketing pieces to focus on their interests. Perhaps two versions of a sales promotion, each geared to different customer interests.

 

Whether you operate a single retail store, a restaurant, a distribution company or manufacture 10 or 10,000 products, an incremental sale is the first step to increased sales.  Build on your customer relationships to create true customer intimacy and long-term value.

 

"Would You like fries with that?' is the first step to getting closer to your customer and winning through incremental sales and customer intimacy.  This means taking the relationship to a higher level.  Asking the customer if they want fries is, in fact, pulling the supplier-buyer relationship closer. 

 

Relationship are where every sale begins and ends!

 

A Sales Machine?

A Sales Machine? 

 

ma·chine   /məˈʃin/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pron[[muh-sheen]  

1. an organized group of persons that conducts or controls the activities of a political party or organization: "He heads the Democratic machine in our city." 

My experience is that many business managers believe that success in sales is based on having the right sales people in place.  People are important, however, first and foremost in the process to development of a solid sales organization is the development of a sales machine - a sales process.

 

The machine or process needs to consider each and every interaction that a potential customer has with a business and how to modify that interaction in order to create a successful sales outcome.

 

This involves every single area of the business including new product development manufacturing, location, packaging, delivery , accounting, customer service,pricing, literature,  and on and on!  In fact, every aspect of the business should be analyzed to determine its impact on the sales cycle and on the customer's long term satisfaction. 

 

When every aspect has been looked at and scrutinized for its affect on the sale then you can begin to assemble the sales system. 

 

The sales system is a document that outline how your business approaches the sale and what resources your company will allocate to getting the sale.

 

The sales system is, in other words, a business plan, specifically focused on the process of the sale.

 

It is the sale that supports and should drive everything in a business, however, many companies treat the sales process as an after thought. 

 

The Sale Is The Business!

 

When this is understood then much more attention will be directed to how the sale should be established and how every other system in the company can be oriented to support the sale.

 

Does your credit department act in a way that drives customers away?  Is your service department customer friendly? Is your price list impossible to understand? Does your delivery driver upset customers? Do your customers dislike your sales manager? Does your website, telephone system or ordering process please or annoy your customers?

 

If any of these are in question then you seriously must rethink your approach to business and focus on creating a winning sale machine! 

 

We Sell Peace of Mind! Care To Place an Order?

We Sell Peace of Mind!  Care To Place an Order?

 

I have worked with literally dozens of companies who had been frustrated with sales growth and the sales process.  An endless turnover of sales people leads to a constant search for qualified sales professionals and an enormous frustration with all the good money down the drain.  The owner, whose time should be spent in creating and managing the business plan, spends all of their time putting out fires and struggling with their people.  The constant turnover in the sales department erodes the confidence of the entire team.  The frustration with sales team leads the owner to micro manage the areas of the business over which they do have control leading to employee tension, frustration and loss of confidence in the owner's ability to manage the business.

 Why Do So Many Businesses
Struggle with Sales Development?

 

I have been able to help many businesses achieve powerful and lasting results.  Of course some failed to see the hoped for outcomes.  Without exception, however, if developed strategies were followed then results were achieved.

 

Most consulting is not truly difficult work - it is really about understanding business models combined with the real world experience to know what works and what doesn't work.  The problem for business owners and why some fail to achieve results is that they refuse to understand the fundamental truth of all roads to improvement.

 

                                "If we want our world to change then we must change!"

 

Nothing can change in our world or in our businesses if we refuse to look at things in a different way or accept a different reality.

 

I have been fairly physically active in the last eight years.  I have run a few marathons and participated in a few triathlons.  Part of the process was the understanding that if I wanted to change my body then I needed to change.  The solution to body weight is simple - calories consumed and calories burned.  If you want stronger muscles then you need to lift increasingly heavier weights.  If you want to run faster then you need to run faster - speed drills.  The list of the obvious goes on and on, however, how many people pay gym fees and hire personal trainers and their bodies never change. The same is true in business.

 

Sales and marketing is not a secret.  Everything you need to know is out there in books and on the web - most of it for free. The real problems lay with reality that most business managers want their sales success to change without their business changing.  They want everything to remain the same but somehow want their sales to increase. This is the basis of sales failure.

 

 

We Provide the Tools to Focus on 
Building Your Dream
Not Struggling With Your Business.

 

Cold calling and performing boring repetitive  sales functions are the tools of the salesperson who is lost.  Rainmakers and the sales stars do not cold call the telephone book.

 

Rainmakers analyze the business opportunities and choose the course of action that will provide the maximum results and aggressively pursue that course of action supporting themselves with all the necessary tools. 

 

Case Study

I worked with a client who, prior to me taking on the consulting role, had a sales person who for three years sat at his desk and cold called prospects - writing names and numbers in coil notebooks.  The sales person had no script, no literature, no proposals to send out, the company had an unprofessional web site that had been created by the receptionist. The sales person was trying to sell customized software programs that sold for $285,000.00!

The sales person did this for three years until fired by the owner.  As we started our work with the owner we presented a plan that required a new website, sales literature, new company logo, press releases, sales scripts, sales training, etc.  At first the owner agreed with these changes but quickly fell back on his old beliefs demanding that what was needed was telephone cold calling.   It was at this juncture that I realized that the previous salesperson has simply been doing what he was told to do. I confronted the owner who stuck to his guns that this was the right path for his business. We ended the consulting immediately.

 

Creating a winning sales strategy and action plan first requires an analysis and testing of what works best.  Doing what has always failed in the past is not a sound strategy.  Try new ideas, track actions and measure results and then incorporate the winning changes into the way you do things. Many businesses believe that cold calling is the answer - it is NOT the answer. It might have been 25 of 50 years ago but not today.

 

When Red Bull launched its product cold calling did NOT work.  Retailers did NOT want it and would not give up valuable retail space for a test on a drink that cost too much and tasted bad. Success did not come from cold-calling but from creating a viral marketing plan that created demand that retailers could not ignore. Red Bull is a 4.5 Billion dollar business and controls 70 percent of the energy drink market - a segment they created.

 

The people at 1-800-Got-Junk don't work the telephone book asking people if they have junk they need to get rid of instead they have focused on creating powerful grass roots marketing including spots on Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Phil as well as hundred of publicity stunts to raise the profile of their service. Their sales effort is focused on securing bookings with prospective clients who call them! !-800-Got-Junk is a 120 million dollar business in a market that until they arrived was almost always one man operation. How is that for Vision!

 

Creating sales is Not about hiring a competent sales rep and sending them to hit the street with a few thousand business cards. Cold calling and banging on doors is a sales process that belongs to the last century (or the century before that).  Consumers are sophisticated and busy and lack the patience to be interrupted with what is important to our business not theirs.

Of course, sales people do. cold call but it does not make them happy and over time they loose their enthusiasm; then selling become impossible. 

 

Throwing rocks to kill birds may work if you throw enough rocks...

...but a rifle will get better results! 

 

If you want results - get a rifle! 

Our work is to determine, in your industry, what is the rifle!

How To Hire a Sales Person, the Myths and the Mystery.

How To Hire a Sales Person,

the Myths and the Mystery.

 

Hiring a sales person is almost always a challenge.  Whether a company is growing, or replacing a salesperson  finding the right candidate is almost always a struggle.

 

The personality of the successful sales person

is a difficult thing to define, however, in simple terms it is a balance between ego and empathy.  Ego is our desire to win, to get ahead to watch out for number one.  Empathy is our ability to want to put ourselves in another's shoes, to care for others and to watch out for the other guy.

 

In order for a sales person to be a success both ego and empathy need to be present in a high level but, importantly, in balance.

 

Too much ego and the sales person has such a strong desire to win that they will lie and cheat their way to the finish line often upsetting customers and other employees along the way.

 

Too little ego and the sales person will lack the self confidence and initiative to drive toward success and will stagnate.

 

Too much empathy and the sales person will give away the business trying to please customers and will waste their own time and the time of others in the company trying to benefit the client.

 

Too little empathy and the salesperson will lack the ability to understand the needs of the customer, the company or their co-workers - disaster!

 

Someone with strong levels of both ego and empathy bring energy and commitment to their work and will crusade for both the customer and the company in balance.

 

How to know?  Well there are personality tests available such as Myers Briggs and others which will help you assess the personality of candidates and these are a good choice and will provide valuable assistance in making a decision.  It is also good to have someone outside of the company, who has a good sense for people, to give you their opinion.  Most of the time your gut instinct will be right.

 

Many people believe that success in sales is about being about to "sell ice to Eskimos" or "having the gift of the gab."  Although these traits sometimes do exist with the successful sales person's success in sales is really about the drive to win and the drive to help.  Many successful sales people are truly shy people who fight their shyness to create success for themselves. I knew a sales person in Alberta who had a terrible stutter but produced great results because of his hard work and his commitment to his customers.

 

Once you have found the right personality you can then look at industry experience, relevant education and other factors which  bring additional value to the role.  If you have got the right person the rest can be trained.  If the person looks good 'on paper" but doesn't "feel" right then you have potential problems down the road.

 

If the candidate is from within the industry then why are they leaving their present role? There are clues to their personality with the answer.  If they have a track record of success find our why they were successful.  Did they work for the best company during the boom times or did they develop and grow a sales territory on their own?  Talk to references and people within the industry and look for non-verbal clues such as short conversations and middle of the road opinions that might hide problems people are reluctant to share.

 

Ask for non-work referrals from friends, church and school or club members. A great method for judging a person is to look at their friends.

 

So you have finally found a candidate that fits and you feel good about their abilities. The hire is done! Time to sit back and wait for the orders to roll in!  Wrong!!!

 

If you want a successful sales team you need to be certain that they feel welcome to your company that they are properly introduced to all of the staff and important customers, have ALL of the tools and resources that they need to succeed and that the entire company is working to support their efforts.

 

There are certainly sales people who believe that they are the centre of the universe which is certainly not true. 

 

What is true is that sales people are the stars of the show.  They are out front promoting your company and brand and are deserving of all of the cooperation and support possible.  The sales person needs to know that they have all of the resources of the company behind them in their efforts to sell your brand!   If they fail - everyone fails!

 

Where to find great sales people?  Well you meet them occasionally. They are selling furniture  or stereos or working the front desk of hotels.  If a person impresses you tell you that you are always looking for good people and make an effort to keep in touch.  Always keep an ad for sales people posted on your company website just in case a competitor's star is not happy!

 

When posting ads remember you need to sell your business too - but be honest and don't oversell the opportunity or the relationship is bound for failure.

 

Good luck!