sales
Sales Is Not Marketing
While discussing e-mail marketing a local business owner stated that their e-mail marketing campaign was handled by an industry association. When asked if the association provided content, the owner answered, “No, they send offers. We use calls t…
No You Are Not ‘The Same’
In a recent conversation a sales manager told me that his product was the same as all his competitors. I was appalled. Having used his product and his competitors’ products I knew this was not true. If you are the same, you have a commodity and t…
Be Honest About Your Work
It’s been said over and over. People do business with people they know, like and trust. How are people supposed to trust you if you are not honest about what you do? Over the past several weeks I have met a number of people introducing themselves…
Who Are You Giving A Referral For?
Businesses thrive on referrals. There are organizations that exist for sole purpose of having businesses trade referrals. Before you give another referral, think about who you are giving the referral for. In every referral there are three parties: you,…
How Much Do You Know About Your Prospects
It’s a rare day when a business owner doesn’t get a sales call or solicitation email. The vast majority of these are generic cold calls or cold emails. Some may have your name in them but most don’t even have that. Some make it abunda…
Networking Is Not About The Numbers
If you have been to a networking event, you have probably seen Joe Businesscard. Joe runs around the event giving out his card and collecting as many as possible. He’s playing a numbers game. Getting in front of as many people as possible, withou…
Tell Your Customer’s Story
One of the most important elements to attracting potential clients is that they understand what you are offering. If they don’t have a clear idea of what you can do for them they won’t know why they should use your service or product. For complicated s…
Don’t Let Causes Outweigh Your Data
It’s great for your company to support a cause, but you shouldn’t let that determine your products. Your products need to be driven by customer demand, not causes. Case in point: female empowerment. For many years women complained that there weren’t e…
Some People Will Never Buy
Recently online radio broadcast service Spotify went public. When it did, analysts discussed their business models. The service offers two services, ad-supported and paid. One analyst stated that Spotify could convert all of its ad supported users to p…
Take The Sale
Business people talk about upsetting. It’s a tried and true technique to get customers to buy more, usually higher-margin items or services. The reason it works so well is that you are selling to someone who already knows and likes your product o…