27 Jan 10 Crafting Your Sales Approach to Build Long-Term Client Relationships
When I was young and just starting out in my sales career I always wanted to soak up as much product knowledge as I could. I’d craft and streamline my elevator pitch to perfection in hopes of wooing my prospect with a bulletproof sales presentation. While this strategy isn’t necessarily bad, it involved me talking most of the time.
Too many sales people come across as overbearing and sales, as a profession, gets a bad wrap. Many customers think of sales people as sheisty crooks who do whatever they can to sell you a product or service in order to make a commission.
As a salesperson I learned that it’s important to think more about the buyer and less about my motives. What does your buyer really need? Just shut up and listen a little more! Before going into your long-winded sales pitch, ask them what they are looking for, what they need, and what exactly their game plan and objectives are. You’d be surprised by the amount of times I talked myself out of a sale because I didn’t listen to my prospect. More times than not, if you ask a prospect what they want, they will tell you.
Listen, gather information, and think about what your prospect is saying. Are they giving you any buying signals or rattling off anything specific that they want that you can provide? What do you have in your product/service arsenal to actually help them and solve their problem? Do you have a solution for them? Can you offer them something that will improve their business or save them money? How can your product or service make their life easier? If I can’t help a potential customer with 1 of the 3 below points I simply walk away from the sale:
- Help your Customer Solve a Problem
- Save your Customer money
- Make your Customer’s life easier
Ethics comes into play and if I can’t help someone solve a problem, save money, or make their life easier, I let them know this is probably not the right fit for them. People will absolutely appreciate your candid approach and sincerity in having their best interest in mind versus you trying to shove a product or service down their throat. They may even go out of their way to try to reciprocate and send you referral business from their friends and family who may have a need for what you sell. Earning trust in business is very difficult, and building a relationship with a sale is even harder. If you start with the customer’s needs as your first priority, and cater your presentation based on their objectives, and actually try to help them, I’m confident that your closing ratio will go up and you’ll build long term client relationships; not quick turnover sales.
Tags: Business, Communication, Sales
22 Jun 09 T-Mobile Makes Mobile Internet Affordable
I’ve had T-Mobile for my mobile phone provider for over 5 years now. Previously, I experimented with Verizon and Cingular (AT&T). Hands down, T-Mobile has the best overall package. When evaluating a cell phone provider, or any business for that matter, I look for value and performance.
Top Importance for Me:
Coverage/Reliability
Price
Customer Service
Problem Resolution
Technology
My T-Mobile Experience
T-Mobile is 5 stars across the board. Whenever I’ve had an issue I can be assured when calling the customer service line, I’ll be taken care of professionally and promptly. There’s no long hold times or robotic support agents at T-Mobile. The customer service is what keeps me a customer. They are always willing to help you with any problem, and are quite creative in finding the best resolutions. They even support ‘non-supported’ phones. Ask for the ‘Tier 3 Data Support’ and you’ll be transferred up the ladder to the best of the best phone support techies who can answer any phone compatibility questions, regardless if T-Mobile sells it or not!
‘Unlimited Minutes’ Cell Phone Plan
Now on to the best part- pricing! T-Mobile recently started offering an unlimited nationwide minutes plan for their ‘loyal customers.’ While there were not any explicit requirements to meet this need, they were rather choosy the first 2 months of this offering. Since then, it appears it is now a plan that can be obtained by anyone. So for just under 50 bucks a month you have unlimited phone calls to anywhere in the U.S. It’s a great price and most competitors charge over $70 for this.
Cheap Mobile Internet
On my plan I’ve always had the $19.99 all you can text feature. Previously, it would cost an additional $19.95 for unlimited internet access. I opted to just roll with the minutes and text features… until now! T-Mobile just launched a new preferred pricing plan for mobile internet. You can now take advantage of unlimited text AND mobile internet for $19.95. So I am only paying 5 bucks more a month and can now fully access the T-Mobile 3G Mobile Internet network. It is a rather fast internet connection and every month there seems to be new phones added to the 3G lineup. You of course can still access the ‘edge’ network for slower speeds, but yet still very reliable.
In Conclusion
I believe T-Mobile is the BEST cell phone provider in North America. I’ve had no issues with coverage or calls being dropped off. Their customer service is tremendous and I always feel like they’re willing to work with me to find the best solution to my problems. They always ‘make things right’ and are a pleasure to speak to on the phone. Now with the preferred pricing and excellent packages, I believe T-Mobile is hands down the leader in mobile communication.
Tags: Business, Communication, Mobile Internet, Technology
11 Jun 09 E-Mail Marketing Strategies For Increased Sales Conversions
I’ve always had great success in business development and sales conversions through e-mail marketing. My colleagues always wondered what my secret is and how I’ve been able to get so many conversions simply from e-mailing prospects. Well, I’m not going to give you all of my marketing secrets but I will provide you with some insight as to what has worked for me in the past.
Subject Line
When e-mailing prospects, potential customers, existing clients, or anyone for that matter; it’s important to remember that they get tons of e-mails a day just as you and I. If they’re important and busy (like most executives & decision-makers) they will determine your e-mail’s fate in an instant. Have a generic SUBJECT line? Delete! Sounds like Spam? Delete. The FROM section reads something like discoduck@gmail.com? Delete! Make sure you’re subject line is brief, to the point, and not littered with spam-like keywords such as ‘Great Offer’ or ‘Incredible Opportunity.’ Don’t allow your e-mail to be sent to the spam folder before your recipient even gets a chance to read your wonderful e-mail.
Attention Grabber
I can’t tell you how many times I delete an e-mail after reading only the first two sentences. Just as the saying goes ‘it only takes someone 15 seconds to make an opinion about you,’ so too is it true for e-mail content. Most people will judge your e-mail quickly based on the first two to three sentences. You need to gain their interest immediately with someone either compelling or with a sentence or two that shows you did your homework or researched about them or their company before sending off this e-mail. People take pride in their work and they are enthralled when someone writes them with a congratulatory first sentence or few lines showing they researched their product or service. Even better, if you share a similar interest with your prospect or client, you should let them know. An example would be- “Hi, this is Brent Grablachoff from XYZ Company and I had the opportunity to view your website and noticed you enjoy _______. Immediately this e-mail now sounds like a personal correspondence rather than a sales letter. I am not saying to trick you recipient, but if you use a more personal spin, you will experience an immediate increase in e-mail conversions.
Content
Everyone is human, well most people at least. This means they expect people to have their own personality and it’s quite exciting for most people to see something new & unique once in a while. Whenever I write e-mails I try to keep them professional, but add some ‘flare’ to them so they come across as a casual conversation rather than a stiff compliance notice. It’s important to use proper grammar, spelling, and sentence structure. It’s worth the extra 10 seconds to do a spell check and re-read of your entire document. For very important e-mails, I generally pre-write them in Microsoft Word and tweak them till perfect and simply copy and paste it into the body of my Outlook e-mail. It’s always better to take a few extra seconds and get your e-mails written with your own unique spin, rather than rush off to the next prospect or follow-up e-mail and engage in a spam fest.
Strong Close
I consider this the “Call to Action” section of your e-mail. It’s where you wrap up your ideas with a BRIEF summary and then propose a ‘next step’ for your prospect. Whether you want them to sign up for a free trial of your software or visit a specific page on your website, or register for the seminar, you need to make it explicit as to what they should do next. You of course need to do this in a persuasive way as to not sound like an overly pitchy salesperson and more of a traffic director. You should expel confidence, keep your closing brief and direct, but be very clear as to what they should do next. After reading your e-mail, your prospect should have no question marks in his or her head, and know exactly what the next step is. If you’ve really written a compelling e-mail, you might even get an immediate phone call back… Hopefully it’s not to tell you “%$#& Please stop e-mailing me!”
Tags: Communication, E-Mail Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Sales
05 Jun 09 Negotiating for a Win-Win Result
In business and in life it’s a valuable skill to be able to persuade others. I’ve learned over the years it’s even more impressive & effective to negotiate and communicate so that both parties win out. Any negotiation that involves one party taking advantage over the other is set up for failure from the start.
I’ve always been interested in the art of negotiation and how to effectively persuade others to my thinking. The biggest interest I’ve had is how to use strategic negotiation to win others over to my thinking, while staying calm & collected. Many times it is so easy for people to get worked up over the small things and let their emotions take the best of them. When entering into a bargaining agreement or even any social or business setting that requires you to persuade someone- please keep in mind your end objective. Whether it’s to get a higher payment agreement, close a prospect on a sale, or convince someone to go out on a date with you; keep focused on the end result, rather than get wrapped up in the moment.
So many times I’ve entered into negotiations with people who run me around in circles and ultimately the conversation ends up into an argument with no real solution or problem solved. I’ve found the best way to negotiate is to think about the other person’s objectives, put yourself in their shoes, always be reasonable, and speak slowly and calmly. Rarely will raising your voice or becoming hostile with someone win them over to your side. Sure, you may win your point for now, but ultimately you set yourself up for a failing relationship if you win people over by force. Effective business people use charisma and personality to win people over for the long-term. They do not focus on just today’s result, but more importantly how will today’s outcome affect tomorrow. Are they going to be a happy customer, client, or partner? Or will today’s ‘win’ turn into a nightmare tomorrow?
A book I recently read does an excellent job of explaining the art of “WOO” (Winning Others Over). Author, G. Richard Shell describes in his book The Art of Woo: Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas
Tags: Business Books, Entrepreneurship, Negotiation, Persuasion, Sales
01 Jun 09 First Ever Link-Up Orange County a Success
Link-Up Orange County
I just got back from my first ever ‘Link-Up’ in Orange County, California. I came up with the idea after being on Linked In for some time and having great success in making online as well as offline contacts. I originally posted messages on the ‘groups’ section of two different Linked In Groups I am a member of. The summary of the message explained about the new group and it’s not a typical ‘networking group.’ In fact, this group is anything but one of those groups. Not to say that networking groups are all bad, but when I hear that word, it brings to mind people wearing nametags passing out business cards and asking ’so… what do you do?’ before even getting to know the person. So I decided to come up with something more personal and down to earth in a format that promotes small groups so that we all can get plenty of talking time.
The 5 people who came out saw my message from various sources- Linked In group post, Twitter Tweet, and one referral from a friend. Considering the group’s focus on entrepreneurial thinking, innovation, technology, internet, and sales & marketing; I think we were off to the right track since Rob (one of the members) actually found me from a twitter tweet! Our discussion started at 8:00pm promptly and we all spent the first 20 minutes getting to know each other and learning that we all came from diverse backgrounds. For example, Mike and Peter are accountants/consultants that focus on a very specific niche of small business owners, Rob is a software developer who’s worked for IBM and is now actively involved in a tech startup that is involved in creating a sales & marketing platform, and Behrouz is a programmer developer with an interest in tapping a specific internet market and wants to provide solutions that help people monetize various sources of content on the web. I myself have an extremely diverse path ranging from technology sales to working for a Wall Street firm to starting my own business to working at a startup and innovating new e-commerce sites. I think the diversity is what made our group unique but the technology discussion is what kept us interested.
We are planning on setting up regular weekly meetings on Monday nights from 8:00pm-9:30pm in Laguna Hills, California in Orange County- just in between Los Angeles and San Diego. The next meeting will be on Monday, June 8′th at 8:00pm in Laguna Hills. Please feel free to contact me about it or join our Linked In Link-Up group here. Our group focus will be to discuss entrepreneurship, technology, sales & marketing strategy, and help each other establish new businesses, grow existing businesses, and share how technology & the internet is helping us to solve problems, provide solutions, and help run our businesses with more automation and simplicity.
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Internet, Linked In, Marketing Strategy, Orange County, Technology, Twitter
13 May 09 My Blog Objectives
My objective for this blog is to provide insight and valuable information to readers interested in Marketing Strategy, Sales & Negotiation Strategy, and how to utilize emerging technology & the internet to make your business more effective. Much of my writing will come from personal & business experiences in Marketing, Sales, Entrepreneurship, and communicating with people. I believe to really be successful in business, you have to have excellent communication skills. I also believe that even if you have a Master’s Degree, there’s still a lot more that can only be learned by getting your hands dirty, experimenting, taking educated risks, and working with people in ‘real-time.’ I’ll provide insightful recommendations & reviews of ‘must-read’ business books that have helped me immensely on my personal & business journeys. I’ll incorporate real stories of my experiences and include actionable items that you can use to learn from my past successes and failures.
Tags: Business Books, Communication, Entrepreneurship, Marketing Strategy, Negotiation, Sales, Technology
