Increase your profits in a recession!

I’m going to be writing a series of posts about small business strategies to profit during a recession.

First of all, I do believe there are some real serious economic challenges, particularly for large companies or even smaller companies who may be having some challenges obtaining credit.  I also believe that there are a lot more opportunities than the media would have us all believe.

Case in point – During a recent segment on Good Morning America, Diane Sawyer was interviewing an Avon distributor.  She acted astonished that women were buying cosmetics in such a tough economy.  About half of the people I know are women and I can’t tihink of a single one who quit applying makeup every day.  The absurdity of Ms. Sawyer’s comment was unbelievable!

Head to Walgreens, Krogers, Wal-Mart, Macy’s or any other store and see if they have cordoned off the cosmetics department because the economy is bad!

One thing I really shudder at is when a business owner tells me they are cutting back on their marketing because of the economy.  If they are cutting back, then their marketing was likely ineffective image advertising, they have no mechanism for tracking results or really don’t know what to do.

Don’t cut back!  Instead, sharpen your approach.  Understand your market, the media that will reach them and the message that you are sending.  Track your results, improve what is working and toss what isn’t.  Make every dollar you invest in marketing bring you prospects or sales.

Try multiple approaches and see what works best for you.  You won’t know what will work best unless you test it.  Be bold and different from your competition.  Stand apart from the crowd and provide incredible service.  Create a loyal fan base who would never consider leaving you.  Give them a reason to buy more from you and to buy more frequently.

In future posts, I’ll be giving you strategies and tactics that will likely deliver the greatest return for your business.   If there is something that works particularly well for you, share it with me so we can help each other gropw and succeed

Dedicated to multiplying your sales!

Paul

Are you making friends on facebook?

What are you talking about?

Are you writing copy for a newsletter, blog, web site or sales letters?  Do you write your own brochures or business letters?  Do you ever wonder if your message is getting through?  When you proofread your materials, do you stop to wonder if it is even interesting?

What’s my point?  Okay, bear with me and I’ll share a small business marketing tip that can make a huge difference in response rates in the response rate to everything that you send out.  It is a secret of top copywriters and has meant a big difference in my income and that of my clients.

To quote Dan Kennedy, “Write like ya talk.”

That’s right, pretend you are having a conversation with your prospects and clients.  Forget that you are writing anything related to business.  Just pretend you are talking and let it flow like you would in a conversation.  Can’t think of what to write?  Then start talking into a recorder, play it back and take notes about what you’re saying.

Summarize your notes and begin writing.  When you’re done, pull out the recorder and read what you wrote and play it back.  Is it interesting?  Ask someone else to read it aloud to you.  What’s it sound like?  Is it interesting?  Does it catch your attention?  Does it compel you to learn more about your product or service?

If it’s not interesting to you, what makes you think someone else will want to read it?

What’s the lesson here?  If your intention is to communicate an idea to a stranger (which is what you are doing with a brochure, letter or web site) then you want to make it easy to read.  It’s often hard to be interesting when using formal business language.  Try to be conversational when you write and more people will read what you write.

I’ll be writing a lot more about this topic in different blog posts.  If you find what I am writing to be interesting, then you want to do a couple of things.  Learn from my style and try to see how you can weave it into what you are writing.

The other thing to do is to be sure you are signed up for my Marketing Moments e-zine so you get my e-course and the other great bonuses I send to my readers.  You can subscribe by completing the form below.  Have any comments or ideas about what I’m writing?  Then go ahead and comment on my posts. I’d like to get a community going here with input from a lot of great minds like yours!

Have you been drawn to the Dark Side of the Web?

The Dark Side of your site? Is Paul on another Rock and Roll theme using Pink Floyd to make a point? Well, those of you that know me remember my penchant for weaving album themes into my notes but this time, it’s all about YOUR web site and how easy it is to read. We’re talking about readability.

You can have the best copy writers in the world write your copy but if the font and background colors or graphics distract from your sales or marketing message, you will lose potential prospects by the thousands.

If your site is a commercial site promoting your business, you must make it easy for your prospect to read. Your goal is not to be creative, cute or pretty. The goal is to interest a prospect in your product or service so you can get them interested enough to take a step towards buying. That said, every element of the site or ad should be created with that specific goal in mind.

What is the Dark Side? Well, it is called reverse printing, which is white or other light color print on a dark background. You may think it looks very cool but remember, the goal is not to look cool, it is to generate sales.

I have seen many sites with a great message destroyed by reverse printing. A facebook friend recently directed me to a site with red type on a purple background. I literally could not read a word of it. You see, like 10% of males, I am color-blind. I see colors but certain combinations are difficult to see. It was like trying to understand a Grateful Dead album cover. I was a prospect for the service but I clicked away because I couldn’t read it.

The force can be with you

Think of a few of the major players on the internet. Take a minute to look at Google, Yahoo, MSN, Facebook, Amazon or other top sites.

How many are written with a reverse type font? None.

Now, go to your library and pull out any book. How many use black paper and white ink? None.

Now, look at your newspapers and magazines. How many use black paper and white ink? None.

Do you notice a common thread here? Dark print on a light background is easy to read. If it is hard to read, a lot of your prospects will click away.

Light print on a dark background is hard to read.

Let’s return to the goal of your site. If it is to generate revenue, make it easy for your audience to read your message. If your web designer tells you otherwise, get a new designer. If your ad agency tells you otherwise, get a new agency.

You could have Dan Kennedy, John Carlton, Yanik Silver and the spirit of Gary Halbert collaborate to create the most powerful sales letter in history. If it is hard to read because of the selection of type and ink, you just wasted a fortune.

If you are compelled to use reverse type, at least test it against a non-reverse control. Track how much time a visitor spends on the page. Track sign-ups to your newsletter. If the reverse pulls better for your niche, by all means stick with it. However, I think you’ll find the Dark Side is limiting your sales.

Now Luke, defeat the Dark Side. Let the Force be with you and… make it easy for the everybody in the Empire to read. Dark print on a light background is the way of the Jedi. Our message must spread across the galaxy and the citizens must not struggle to read it. Only you can help spread the message!

Oh no!!! Imperial Storm Troopers are outside of my office, I must find Master Yoda. He has a message I must get to the resistance and I am out of white paper and black ink. Curses!!! I can only hope that the Staples on the planet Alderon is open at this late hour!

Wish me luck and may the force be with you!

Signed,
Jedi Master Paul Flood

PS -  A lot of people disagree with me on this point and say there are situations that call for reverse printing or graphic intensive sites.  Others say brand consistency is important.  I look at a web site as a marketing investment.  As such, it’s purpose is to increase sales.

My small business clients hire me to make them money, not build a brand so I look at a site as any other marketing piece and ask the question, “Will this lead to a sale or a prospect wanting to buy the product?”

In print ads, reverse printing reduces readability and sales.  Statistics and studies have proven this repeatedly.  I’m applying the same rules and will continue to advise against reverse until research proves otherwise.

Can you hear me now?

As a hobby, I am a woodworker.  I have learned to build fine furniture, jewelry boxes and a wide variety of other wood projects. I’ve even done some custom commission work and made decent money for doing so.  Someday I’ll get some pictures of my work on my site so you can take a look at my work.

Yesterday, I was down in my shop working on a shelf for the patio and took a look at my tools and other things in the shop and wondered which were the most valuable.  I actually have several thousand dollars worth of woodworking machinery and hand tools.  I’m pretty proud of my collection.  I couldn’t decide between the top two so it ended up being a tie for first place.

What would you guess I chose?  Was it my cabinet saw, router, planer, workbench or any of my hand tools?    My cabinet saw is definitely what I use them most and if you were to survey woodworkers about the most valuable tool, the cabinet saw would win, hands down.   What But that’s not the case for me.
The two items have a combined value of $30.  One is my safety glasses and the other are my hearing protectors.  Why am I telling you this?  Because I believe the two most important selling and marketing tools are closely related to my choice of shop tools.  In sales and marketing, your eyes and ears are the most important tools.

A 1972 UCLA study concluded that the words we say account for 7% of our overall communication!  The other 93% of our communication is non-verbal and consist of body language and voice quality.  Now you can see why I chose the tools that protect my eyes and ears!

Your eyes allow you to read the body language and emotions of your customer.  You can see if you are connecting with them or if you are boring them.  Are they engaged with you or just being polite?   Your ears allow you to hear voice inflection and tone.

Can you read or have you ever studied body language?  Crossed arms and legs reveal the other person is closed to your comments or you.  A person leaning back with arms behind the head is saying “Oh really, prove it!” Someone leaning forward is engaged and interested in what you are saying.

Entire books have been written about the topic and can help you, not only in sales and marketing, but also in personal relationships.

Understanding body language can mean a huge difference in your sales.  The scope of this issue goes way beyond this newsletter but if you would like to know about some of my recommended resources, give me a call or send me an email.

We’ve all heard the cliche that God gave us one mouth and two ears so we can listen twice as much as we talk.  Well, there’s a reason it’s a cliche – it’s true, particularly in sales. You will only know what benefits to stress when you understand your client’s needs.  How can you propose a solution if you’ve done all of the talking?

Listening is an art.  A key listening skill is to avoid formulating a response until you finish listening to what your client is saying.  Notice I said listening, not hearing.  Ask your client or prospect to clarify and elaborate be sure you are answering the question they asked.  Avoid interrupting, unless it enhances or clarifies the topic.

Think of how frustrating it is for you when someone interrupts you in the middle of a sentence or answers your question with an irrelevant answer.

Remember the E.F. Hutton commercial years ago?  Their USP was that when E.F. Hutton talks, people listen, inferring their advice was more valuable than you could get elsewhere.  Just think about that, their sales soared because they said YOU should listen to THEM!

Dean Whitter countered with Dean Whitter grows one client at a time, meaning they took the time to listen and take care of you before they moved on to the next client.

As you look to improve your selling skills and learn new methodologies or new concepts, remember that the things that can make the biggest difference is how effectively you read the body language of your client, how effectively you use your own body language and finally, how well you listen.

Do your client’s miss you? You must keep in touch with them!

Is this you? Staring out the window, hoping a client will appear over the horizon with loads of cash in their hands ready to fork it over to you? Do you wonder where your clients have been? For most business owners, the answer is yes. The reason is they’ve done nothing to create a relationship, let alone nurture one.

Just think about it. How often does any business you patronize ask for your name? What is the chance for them to develop a relationship with you if they don’t even know your name?

They spend tens of thousands of dollars in advertising to get new customers. They are out in the yard digging for bones when all they need to do is wag there tails and show appreciation to the person who gave them their last one.

They are ignoring a key marketing concept, Life Time Value (LTV). The LTV looks at the value of a client over the lifetime of the business relationship. Here’s a simple formula to calculate LTV:

What if the average dog refers one other neighborhood dog per year who becomes a loyal client? Over a twelve year period, the potential value of one happy dog can exceed $25,000!!! Can you see why it makes sense to spend $20 per year to strengthen relationships with existing clients.

Keep in touch with your clients. They do want to hear from you !! Ask them to return and to buy from you again and again. It’s that simple. Get their names and develop relationships with them. You need to do more than throw them the occasional bone or table scraps.

Here are some things the pet boutique can do to cement a bond with their furry clients:

• Send a coupon for a pampered pet day.
• Send a special treat on their birthday and monthly pet care newsletter.
• Take their picture and hang it on the lobby bulletin board. Use the picture to create custom post card appointment reminders.
• Send the dog’s family birthday cards on the family birthdays..
• Hold a “Where’s Fido?” month to ask back the dogs who quit coming to see you. Put a treat in a special envelope addressed to the dog and say “I miss your wagging tail and cold nose. Please come back in to see us.”
• Hold a special human training days where the dogs’ owners can learn how to take care of them.
• Have a pet art show. Hire a caricature artist to draw caricatures of the dog and their owners. Sign them with paw prints.
• Create a pet blog where your clients can share the funny and cute things their owners did.
• If you hear a client has died, send their owner a sympathy card.
• Get a welcome board to welcome all your clients by name on the day of their session. Their owners will say “Look, Sparky. There’s your name on the board!”
• Have a pet Halloween costume contest. Charge a $10 admission fee with all proceeds going to the local animal shelter. Invite local media. Find local celebrities that love animals and ask them to be celebrity judges.
• Call to confirm appointments.

The list of possibilities is endless. Notice that the cumulative cost of my suggestions is probably less than $10 per dog per year! Now, if your pet groomer did these things, would you look elsewhere for grooming services? You’d even pay them a premium.

Not in the dog grooming business? Well, there’s good news. Humans also like to hear from you. Before you say, “It’s expensive to keep in touch with all of my clients,” be sure to calculate the LTV and the cost to acquire a client. You may think good service is sufficient to retain clients but, in today’s world, good service is the minimum to BE in business.

There are many inexpensive and simple systems to maintain client contact. Topping my list of recommendations are newsletters and greeting cards. Here is an automated greeting card system I use and recommend. Email is easy but the odds of it being delivered and read keeps decreasing and dogs have a hard time with keyboards.

Your competition is sniffing the air and putting out plenty of treats to convince your clients and prospects to switch over to them. It is up to you to build an invisible fence of loyalty around them. You can help to insure that your clients will give your competitors a “slight correction” if they try for the business!

Client loyalty is not a mystery buried in the ground with old bones. It requires quality products and service and regular communications from you to let your clients know you appreciate their business and want them to buy from you again.  If you forget this critical concept, you can plan on always sniffing around the neighborhood, forever looking for your next client.

Rock & Roll Marketing Lessons From The Who

See Me
……Feel Me
…………Touch Me
…………………Heal Me

• The place: London England
• The band: The Who
• The story: Tommy
• The year: 1969

In 1969, The Who released Tommy

The first rock opera. The story of a young deaf, dumb and blind boy named Tommy. It was banned by the BBC and several US radio stations because of its dark theme and references to religion, child abuse and drugs.

The album was a smash hit and the chorus “See Me, Feel Me, Touch, Me Heal Me” became part of our culture. Tommy was released to “My Generation” but continues to resonate with the generations that have followed me and my fellow baby boomers. When I saw The Who, chills ran up and down my spine. For me, it was not a concert but an emotional and almost spiritual experience.

Tommy was written by Pete Townsend, who poured his emotions and life story lives onto a sheet of paper and then expressed through his music. He and many other artists may say that they don’t write the music and songs, it just comes out of them. It’s as if they were simply storing something that HAD to be expressed through lyrics and music.

What does all this have to do with marketing?

When you’re writing ads, scripts, copy or sales letters, you want to connect emotionally with your prospect. Your prospect and client have a want or need and your product or service is what they will fill it for them.

See Me

It’s not about you. It’s about your prospect and their needs. You want to see them so you can be communicating with one person at a time.

Feel Me

You want to understand their needs so you can connect on an emotional level, one person at a time. Write to one person, not to “a niche.” A niche is not buying from you, a person is.

Touch Me

Use all the senses in your communications. Connect with your prospect. Reach out and touch them with your words and pictures.

Heal Me

Show how your product or service solves their problem and will heal the pain they have.

It’s a Boy Mrs. Walker, It’s a Boy

When you communicate to your prospects, do so in language and imagery that reaches out directly to you specific target market. Give them reasons why they will want to business with you.

There’s a Doctor I’ve Found Who Can Cure the Boy

Use testimonials and social proof to show your client that you are credible and your product does what you claim. If you are telling me I’m going to be healed or be able to live my dreams because of what you are offering, then prove it.

Go to the Mirror Boy

Before you put your message out to the world, read it aloud, show it to others and play it back to yourself. Does it make sense? Is your message clear? Are you talking about yourself or your prospect?

We’re not Gonna Take It!

Be emotional and use words carefully but don’t manipulate your prospect with a bunch of empty hype. Your words must ring true and your product must have the value and worth you claim it does. If you’re selling a dream and asking someone to part with their hard-earned money, then you owe it to them to be the real deal.

We Won’t Get Fooled Again (OK – Different album but a fit with my story)

In the age of the internet and social media, word gets around very quickly. If you are full of empty promises and hype, if you see others as money in your pocket instead of as individuals with lives, desires and needs you can fulfill, you will never connect and rarely have repeat business. You’ll be seen as an empty promise, forever doomed to the end of days wondering where your next customer is coming from. You may be living in Tommy’s Holiday Camp – but remember his disciples tore it down.

Tommy Can You Hear Me?

Great music and art are the emotions of an artist, often telling us epic tales with a few words or images that are forever burned into our psyche. The lesson of my story here is for you to take a moment to think of your marketing messages and materials. Are you moving your prospect using emotional triggers that connect, on a one-to-one level so they want to hear and listen to your message? Music, images, pictures, words all help you make the connection. Combined artistically, they are marketing gold.

Pinball Wizard… From afar you’ll see me, I’m a sensation…

Connect with your client. Provide phenomenal service and products and you can be the next marketing sensation, known near and far as someone we want to know and do business with. You’ll be the Pinball Wizard of your industry.

Long Live Rock!

Obama and McCain Grilled By Media for Giving Away Free Money!

Free money???

Well, if you’re a marketer, the campaigns are giving away the next best thing… Free marketing lessons!

As crazy as it sounds, the next U.S. President, whether it’s Obama or McCain,is planning to give you free marketing  lessons. He is also going to have some of the highest paid and most talented direct response talents in the country show you how to appeal to your prospects strongest buying emotions.

He will also show you some very effective social media marketing strategies.

“Oh really Paul?”  “How’s that going to happen?”

No seriously. Read this post for the complete scoop. It’s really some pretty good stuff!

Well, it’s election time again in the U.S. You folks Europe, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Canada and are also hearing a lot about it.

The candidates are bringing out the big guns so it’s a good time to talk the marketing of a President.

There’s a lot YOU can learn from this year’s election that
can show you the path to selling more of your products and services.

Isn’t it kind of strange that the most prestigious job in the U.S. comes down to one thing –

MARKETING

If you took marketing in college or read some books, they tell you about the four P’s – product, price, promotion and place (or distribution). The academics make it a bit more difficult to understand than necessary.

I need to make it a bit simpler.  You see, marketing is about selecting markets for your service, get the attention of a prospect, turn them into a client and then service the heck out of them so they buy from you and tell otheres to do so as well.

Bottom line:  Study a market and appeal to it so they buy from you.  That’s what marketing is about. I’ll be a lot of A lot of people who teach marketing don’t even get that.

If you’re in business, You are a marketer.  Who is in the market for your products or services?  Find out what’s important to them, tell them how your product is the solution is the answer and get them to buy, and do so frequently.

Let’s get back to the election.

The candidates are products being sold to diffferent markets.  What are the markets?

Hunters, gays, lesbians, Christians, Muslims, men, women, soldiers, artists, factory workers, office workers, millionaires, the elderly, the retired, the about to retire.

You will hear each candidtate talk directly to each of these groups and make a promise about how he is going to make their life better.

The promise is the headline: “I’ll take on big Oil.”  “I’ll end the Iraq war.”  “I’ll give all working people $1,000.”  “I’ll stop global warming!”  “I’ll support Israel!”  “I’ll open talks with Iran!”

Each of these sound bites is a carefully crafted headline written to appeal to a deep emotion.  Whether you like it or not, it works!  Think of how frustrating it is to watch a campaign commercial.  Sometimes you want to scream at the TV “YOU IDIOT!!!”  and other times you want to yell out the window “Finally somebody GETS IT!!!”

What they’re doing is appealing to powerful emotions.  Think of your reaction.  Whether you like or dislike the message, as a marketer you can learn from it.  You see, the candidates and campaigns are real good at hitting your emotions with a powerful PROMISE of a BIG BENEFIT.

The media picks it up and spends days analyzing and condemning the statement.   What’s that?  Free PUBLICITY to a target market.

Do you really think they are running around the country wearing holes in their shoes because they like PTA meetings, hot dogs and factories?

NO!  They do it to get free publicity.  If they come to your town, it’s in the headlines and is the lead story on the local news.  That’s called PR!  If they make some ridiculous promise or major goof, the comment is on the national media!

They also use all the possible media:  TV,radio, direct mail, telephones, the internet, billboards and newspaper.

They even offer joint ventures, strategic alliances and affilitiate programs.  “Elect me and I’ll send pork barrel projects out your way or I may even get you some cushy job!”

What’s the free marketing lesson?

Identify your market, target your group with the right product and message.  Make a bold promise and use free media to get it circulated.  Follow up and keep them happy.

Now that you can see how the people who are living and dying by the marketing message, can you see how you should be doing it as well?

This is Paul Flood and I approved this message.

P.S. In you want a crash course in marketing and promotions, take a look at this http://tinyurl.com/6plgf3.  I’m using it myself and am blown away by the program!

Understand the business that you are in!

1. You are in the marketing business.  Everything you do
ultimately affects your marketing.
2. Your business or industry is not different.
3. You must build a marketing system using several different
marketing strategies.

Understand the business that you are in.  Regardless of the product
or service that you sell, you are in the business of marketing that
product or service.  Marketing brings you clients and until you
have clients you don’t have a business.  You may have a store, a
profession, a practice, a factory or whatever else your product it
but without clients, you are still in the idea phase.

Management guru Peter Drucker tells us Marketing and Innovation
make money, everything else is a cost.  When you understand you are
in the marketing business, you realize everything about your
business is part of your marketing.  They are either taking you
closer to more sales and profits or moving you away from them.

One of the biggest business marketing mistakes that prevents
businesses from succeeding in the marketing business is to think
their business is “different” and that they are somehow “special.”
They think their profession or industry is different and that the
marketing rules don’t apply to them.  If you happen to have this
mindset, let me ask you these questions:  Are your customers
people?  Do they have emotions?  Do they make emotional decisions.
Do they want to be taken care of and get quality products and
services?  Do they want a better life for themselves, their
families and businesses?   Do they want to be happy and have
fulfilling lives?

If your clients are people and have the above traits, guess what?
Your business is not “different.”  What if your clients are
businesses?  Well, the client may be a business but the the buying
decisions are made by people who are making them based on their
emotions and feelings about the products.  I have personally been
involved in and made buying decisions from as small as the ad
specialty pens to give to clients to multi-million dollar shipments
manufactured overseas and shipped in on containers.  I made those
buying decisions as a person, not as a business.

These business owners also think their industry is different and
they have standards to adhere to.  I am not referring to
professional standards, codes of conduct and behavior or ethics.
These, of course are valuable  standards that may protect the
public and the integrity of your industry.  I’m talking about
marketing standards.  These are not official but have become the
norm.

After many years of experience, I am still astounded by the number
of times an owner shows me a web site, ad or brochure of their
competitors and tell me they want their materials to look the same.
I ask if they are different or better than the competition and the
answer is always a resounding, “Of course!”  I then ask, “If you
are so much better, why do you want to look the same and have the
same message?”

The lesson is this:  Everything you do that potentially impacts
your clients and prospects is part of your marketing.  Your
products, your staff, your policies, your building, your restrooms
and the list is nearly endless.

You must have a marketing system built on multiple pillars (or
strategies).    The exact strategies vary but the key is to use
several.  At the top of the list are strategies to maximize the
value of a client (which we will address in a later chapter) and to
build a long-term relationship with them.  Direct mail, media
advertising, sales representatives, email, fax, a web site,
telemarketing, referals, joint ventures and alliances networking
are all examples.   The key is to never rely on any specific one
strategy because if it fails for any reason, you have problems.

Can You Hear Me Now?

As a hobby, I am a woodworker.  I have learned to build fine furniture, jewelry boxes and a wide variety of other wood projects. I’ve even done some custom commission work and made decent money for doing so.  Someday I’ll get some pictures of my work on my site so you can take a look at my work.

Yesterday, I was down in my shop working on a shelf for the patio and took a look around the shop and wondered which tools were the most valuable.  I have several thousand dollars worth of woodworking machinery and hand tools and I’m pretty proud of my collection.  I couldn’t decide between the top two so it ended up being a tie for first place.

What was my choice?  Was it my cabinet saw, router, planer, workbench or any of my hand tools?    My cabinet saw is definitely what I use them most and if you were to survey woodworkers about the most valuable tool, the cabinet saw would win, hands down.   But that’s not the case for me.

The two items have a combined value of $30.  One is my safety glasses and the other are my hearing protectors.  Why am I telling you this?  Because I believe the two most important selling and marketing tools are closely related to my choice of shop tools.  In sales and marketing, your eyes and ears are the most important tools.

Words only play a small part in communications

A 1972 UCLA study concluded that the words we say account for 7% of our overall communication!  The other 93% of our communication is non-verbal and consist of body language and voice quality.  Now you can see why I chose the tools that protect my eyes and ears!
Your eyes allow you to read the body language and emotions of your customer.  You can see if you are connecting with them or if you are boring them.  Are they engaged with you or just being polite?   Your ears allow you to hear voice inflection and tone and understand your prospects needs.

Understanding body language and how to use it can mean a huge difference in your sales.  Countless studies have been done on the topic and you can find great resources online and in the library.  A study I read about several years ago revealed that the salespeople who sat with their legs crossed during the sales presentation closed dramatically fewer sales than those who sat with legs apart.  I don’t recall the exact percentage but it very significant.

God gave us one mouth and two ears for a reason

Some people see it as a cliché.  Well, there’s a reason it’s a cliche – it’s true, particularly in sales. It is so we can listen twice as much as we talk.  You will only know what benefits to stress when you understand your client’s needs and you can’t identify their needs and wants if you’re doing all the talking!

Listening is an art

A key listening skill is to avoid responding until the other person is speaking.  Notice I said listening, not hearing.  Ask your client or prospect to clarify and elaborate be sure you are answering the question they asked.  Avoid interrupting, unless it enhances or clarifies the topic.

I once heard a friend in a conversation with another person and he was quite frustrated about being interrupted by the other person.  He finally said, “Our conversation will be a lot better if you wait for me to finish my sentence before you talk.  You will know when I am done talking because I will stop.”   Talk about getting to the point!
Think of how frustrating it is for you when someone interrupts you in the middle of a sentence or answers your question with an irrelevant answer.  It shows they did not hear or care about what you were saying because their thoughts were what mattered, not yours.  The same applies in sales.  The top earners are not pushy and brash, they are recognized as professionals who understand and fulfill their client’s needs.  They do so because they listen and recommend solutions that will benefit the client.

Do you remember the Dean Whitter commercial that ran several years ago?  The tagline was “We grow our business one client at a time.”  I thought it was brilliant.  It meant they listened and cared about YOU, not the next sale.  The campaign ran for quite some time so it was obviously a success. It was built around the simple precept that people appreciate someone who listens to them.

As you look to improve selling skills, remember that the things that can make the biggest difference are as simple as seeing and listening.  Now, let me ask you… Can you hear me now and what do you see?

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