November 21st 2008
The questioning ideas will help you identify what’s really going on in just about any selling situation that involves a sales obstacle or challenge. Of course, you may wish to target your questions more specifically.
Below, you’ll find some more narrowly focused questions for specific challenges you may face. Continue Reading »
July 31st 2008
Some 56 percent of U.S. households bought kitchenware and housewares in 2003, about even with the 58 percent that did the same in 2001.
A category that is often perceived as a household necessity, consumers are encouraged to buy when retailers and marketers give them a reason to replace existing kitchen accessories with the latest models that give new functionality or ease of use. Continue Reading »
July 22nd 2008
Free agency. Choice. Accountability. Life-affirming values. They are the most effective tools for coping with the legion of personalities that arrive at your electronic door. Don’t depend on convergence to allow you to limit the playlist. Do you know the e-customer? If you sing it, I can play it. You will never guess what they all want so let them make their own world. Guide them to it. Play the part of mentor.
Don’t rush on the first date. There is plenty of time to pop, sparkle and slide messages past his eyes and into his brain. First he has to be open to the new ideas and most e-customers aren’t ready when they are acclimatizing themselves to your little place. A new world for him. Take it easy. Continue Reading »
May 30th 2008
As sales are to business success, so then is enthusiasm to sales success. If you never get the hang of the rest of selling, you can get a long way by just exhibiting excitement about your company, your product, and yourself.
If you don’t think that your business is fantastic, a value to the community, and a work of art, why would you expect your custom_ ers to rate it more highly than you do?
If you’re not brimming over with enthusiasm for your product and the benefits it can bring to your customer, why would youexpect your customers to hand over their hard-earned dollars for it?
If you don’t believe you can add value to the product or service you offer, and that you are the best resource your customers canfind for what you sell, why, pray tell, should they think better of you than you do? Continue Reading »
May 23rd 2008
Most honest individuals will put in a decent day’s work with little more motivation than a reasonable wage. You’ll probably want more than that from your people. I know that nothing tickles me more than to see an employee use his opportunity with our company to grow and prosper. However, to get these results, you must provide motivation.
The better you know your people the better you’ll know how to motivate them. There are certain key things you can do, though, that will result in employees consistently going the extra mile. Continue Reading »
May 7th 2008
The key criteria for building a Brand Identity are: appeal to prospects, relevance, the right personality for the market, user friendliness and the offer of an important benefit that is not currently being made by the competition.
A good brand is easily recognizable and its name must be easy to pronounce. Simplicity is the key to success. Consumers must remember it easily. This is what branding is all about: occupying the number one spot in a consumer’s mind to ensure repeat sales. Another important consideration is whether the brand name can be protected or not. Intellectual property must be registered as soon as possible and must be difficult to copy. Generic names are difficult to register (for example, The Coffee Place is a generic name whereas Joe’s Coffee Place is attached to a name and easier to protect). A good brand name cannot be copied easily (think Compaq, Intel, Coca-Cola and Nike). Continue Reading »
April 23rd 2008
By now you’re an old pro at this money thing. Just keep managing your existing investments, and transfer your accumulating savings balance to these or new investments as you see fit. If you paid attention, you saw that I followed a few simple guidelines for this strategy.
In other words, use it to store your accumulating weekly contributions until you have a balance large enough to transfer to a higher-yielding investment. If you keep all your savings in a regular savings account, you’re missing out on better opportunities. Continue Reading »
February 13th 2008
Market leaders choose their customers very carefully because they know that they will be judged by them: Nothing says more about a business than its customers. Unfortunately, conventional wisdom can’t help in this task. The first rule in sales is, go after the low-hanging fruit—that is, the easy-sell customers—rather than clamber for what is hard to reach. But this is good advice only if there is a plethora of fruit on the low branches, and in the era of customer scarcity, the pickings are getting slimmer. The real plums are in the high branches.
Market leaders deliberately pursue some of the most difficult and demanding clients they can find because they know that satisfying these customers will stretch their abilities and help them become better at what they do. I call these stretch customers.
But not all tough customers are desirable matches. Some of them are simply the wrong ones to have because their demands don’t play to a company’s strengths. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are undesirable for other suppliers. Picky, critical eaters who want personal service could be ideal stretch customers for a swanky full- service restaurant but a very bad match for McDonald’s. Continue Reading »
