♥ Nancy Dee Online ♥

    Monday, January 4, 2010

This week's topic: . . . Striking While the January Iron is Hot!

January is a great selling month. Everybody is charging out of the gate with new goals and new budgets, the health clubs are full and people are fired up.

As salespeople, we need to be sure we ride the wave of that new momentum while it lasts.

One thing I like to do in January is to review my past client list, that is, people I may not have spoken to for a while, and reinitiate contact. Often we have disconnected due to things like budget cuts or spending freezes which may now be out of the way, at least temporarily. It is always much easier to re-engage an old client than find a new one.

Another concept I have found to be effective at the beginning of each year, if your business lends itself to this, is to jumpstart my relationships with an early bird type offering. This can take the form of a free offering or something at a reduced price, just to prime the pump and energize a new conversation. While such an offering may not be apparent in your context at first blush, if you look a little deeper, it may reveal itself.

For example, if you are selling insurance, you can offer a "free" gap audit, in which you review a client's multiple policies and advise whether or not there may still be exposure or weak links. Or if you are a real estate broker, you can offer to provide a "free" market analysis to people who may be considering selling their homes in the next year. The reason I am putting "free" in quotes is because you and I know you would do this anyway, but the idea is to promote the early bird concept as something special, which in reality, it is.

The key to these types of marketing initiatives is to get them out there in January when everyone is the most optimistic and ambitious about the coming year.

Then you will have established a dialogue that you can build upon for the next eleven months!

Last week's topic: . . . Power: Being Prepared to Deliver the Knockout Punch!

December 1, 2009

Have you ever noticed that the same pivotal questions seem to come up at nearly all your sales presentations? You are not alone. In fact, there are a number of sales experts who believe that the success of most sales pitches comes down to the salesperson's ability to answer one or two key questions with absolute confidence and authority.

When explaining your product or service to others, write down the questions you hear most. Then take some time to construct thoughtful, powerful answers. Refine them and practice them verbally until your answers feel confident and natural.

When delivering your answers in a sales presentation, it can be highly effective to restate the question . . . that is, to incorporate it into your response:

"Mr. Client, I am glad you asked me about scheduling. We have developed proprietary software, and a highly structural communications system, that virtually guarantees on-time completion of this project. Let me show it to you."

Restating the question or issue acknowledges its importance, and subliminally expresses your respect for the person who is asking it.

How effective is having a great answer for a tough question? Back in 1984, Ronald Reagan's age was becoming a major issue in his re-election campaign. He had stumbled badly in his first debate with Walter Mondale, and sure enough, the question came up quickly in the second debate. Reagan paused, cocked his head slightly and said, "Well . . . I want you to know that I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit my opponent's youth and inexperience."

The crowd went wild, even Mondale laughed - and the rest, as they say, is history.

Game, set, match . . . Ronald Reagan!

Previous topic: . . . Emotional Incentive

November 11, 2009

A big part of our research and subsequent workshops revolves around the premise that people can be incented to make choices and change behavior by the emotional payoff of the decision. As salespeople, a big part of our job is to establish that payoff, in the form of differentiating our products/services, ourselves and the overall experience people have when they engage with us. Put another way, people will alter their behavior if they anticipate that they will feel good by doing so, and the management of our customers' feelings is an art that the greatest salespeople I know have mastered.

Please take a moment to view the short video on the link below. You may have seen it before, but this time, I want you to look at it from a sales perspective . . . the escalator in the video is your toughest competitor and you are trying to "sell" the stairs. Think about the psychology of what you see . . . how a new "presentation" and "experience" completely changes the behavior of this audience, even though the alternative you are offering requires more time and energy. This is precisely how we should be thinking about our own products/services, that is, how we can present them in creative new ways that stand out from the norm and change both perception and behavior.

To watch the video on YouTube, follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw