Way to Grow

Price vs. Product

Researchers have found that consumers evaluate product and price separately, according to Ks blog. Here's the explanation, and it makes a lot of sense to me:

• The consumer evaluates a product and places a pleasure value on it.
• Then the consumer evaluates the price and places a pain value on it.
• If the pleasure value is greater than the pain value, the consumer buys.

The natural conclusion, then, is that you should introduce the product first and let the buyer develop a pleasure value before you introduce price. It's a useful sales strategy to keep in mind.

Salesperson? Trusted? Be Both

You're probably hearing the phrase "trusted professional" a lot these days. I fear it's already way down the path toward trite. But the concept that a salesperson should be a trusted professional is still worth considering. After all, who are you more likely to buy from? Someone you trust, or someone you don't?

Rob Reed offers Sales Tips to Be a Trusted Professional, and I like the points he makes. He has 13 tips in this post. Several are surprises. Here are my favorites:

Live within your means. It's simple. Don't force yourself into a position where you "have to make the sale" or you lose something.

Some business is not worth pursuing. Most sales managers probably hate this one. It's important, though, to be realistic about each sales opportunity. You're not going to win every sale, so why work under the assumption that you will?

Don't Forget to Follow Up

Sometimes it's a matter of forgetting -- or of being busy at the best time for a follow-up. But sometimes people "forget" because they're uncomfortable with following up!  Kelley Robertson has a good article in About Entrepreneurs on "The Power of Follow-Up".  He lists a number of reasons people fail to follow up, and I suspect that one of the most common ones is "They don't want to appear pushy".

The majority of people who start a business don't have a background in Sales, and they find the acts of promoting themselves, asking for business, and following up distasteful.  An executive coach I know -- I wish she had a website so I could link you to her -- says she overcomes this problem by remembering that what she does provides a valuable service to her clients.

So, remember that prospective customers are that because they have a need for what you offer.  And don't forget to follow up!

A Remedy for Sales Burnout

If you're wearing the Sales hat in your business, at some point you'll probably experience low motivation. The arm that reaches for the phone gets heavy, and you think of all kinds of other things to do.

Barry Farber in Entrepreneur.com offers 6 tips to get you motivated again. My favorite: Visualize Your Success. Farber says, "Have you ever seen the high dive in the Olympics? Watch the divers seconds before their dives while they stand still, sometimes with their eyes closed. They're visualizing the entire dive in their mind's eye. Then the body physically executes what the brain already completed. There's no difference when visualizing your sales goals and how you're going to achieve them."  Try it!

Shortening the Sales Cycle

When a customer doesn't yet understand the value of what you're selling them, the sales cycle drags on and on, affecting your revenue forecast and adding to the cost of sales.  A good Marketing Profs article by Jeff Tull shows how, by helping the customer calulate the cost of the problem you're trying to help them solve, you can demonstrate real value and shorten the sales cycle.

Customer References -- The Golden Sales Tool

Customer references are certainly persuasive sales tools, but sometimes they can be hard to come by. Sridhar Ramanathan at Pacifica Group has some great advice on the topic, including:

• ways to motivate your customer to be a reference
• incorporating a request to be a reference into your contract negotiations process

Selling to the Committee

The larger your target customer's business and the larger the pricetag of your product or service, the larger the number of people who will be involved in the sale. And according to Sridhar Ramanathan at Pacifica Group, the size of the "committee" in a complex sale has grown by an additional 3.5 people from 2001 to 2005!  Guess what that does the sales cycle. Right, it gets longer. Plus, Sridhar says, "...decision-making seems to be moving up the chain rather than down. Why? It’s about risk. No one wants to make a bad purchase."  If this is the kind of market you're in, you will need to nurture many relationships over an extended period of time.

Getting Over the Fear of Cold-Calling

Cart before the horse here. My last post was about getting past the "gatekeeper". Now I'm writing about cold-calling. You've got to do the cold-calling first before you get to the gatekeeper. But I'm out of sequence because I just now read K's Blog post titled, Why I Spent a Stint As a Telemarketer. K's point:

Why are cold calling skills needed?
Because the good things in life come to those who cold call.

The good jobs are seldom advertised.
The good mentors aren’t actively seeking proteges.
The intelligent aggressive men aren’t asking for dates.
Publishers aren’t requesting novels for publishing.
Venture Capitalists aren’t asking you to take their money. 

Can't agree more.

Increase Your Odds with the Gatekeeper

When you're starting out, being your own salesperson can be a necessary but daunting task, especially if you aren't experienced at it. Not least of your hurdles is simply getting to talk to decision makers. Chances are they have never heard of your business, and they're busy people, so they have "gatekeepers". I recommend you read the MarketingProfs article by Debra Feldman titled, "Gatekeeper Management 101: How to Get a Foot in the Door".

As Feldman points out, "Gatekeepers are not meanies; they are their bosses designated agents charged with limiting unnecessary, potentially wasteful interruptions and unexpected interference that may impede bosses' workflow or productivity." Your job, then is to convince the gatekeeper that have a necessary message that will be valued by the boss. Read the article and find out how.

Know Your Weaknesses

It isn't negativity; it's smart selling.  Jim Logan reminds us that you have to be able to handle objections when you're selling your products or services. So make a list of your weaknesses, or at least those factors your competitors could paint as your shortcomings. Stand in your customers shoes and list all the objections they might raise. Then put together a position that reasonably counters the objections. You can't afford not to be prepared, so "think negative" just long enough to come up with a great sales pitch!

Via Dane Carlson.