Bill Gluth, Creative Business Strategy Blog

Sales Strategy 101: Teach to Sell

In your niche in small business:

You have talents that I don't possess.

You know things that I don't understand.

You have a strong drive to learn and grow in areas that are only of cursory interest to me.

You have a wealth of experience in areas I don't have a clue about.

So why are you trying to sell me something?

Teach me what I don't know, show me what I can't see, expand my knowledge in areas I'm lacking information in and share your experience to keep me from making the bone-head mistakes only you can help me avoid,  instead. 

That's sales today. 

You're a teacher, mentor, trusted advisor and guide. 

Remeber that when you're interacting on social media, networking, conducting sales calls and in all of your marketing outreach efforts. 

Photograph Courtesy: George Eastman House

What to Do If You're Feeling Down

How does feeling down affect a small business?

It makes each day seem like a never-ending juggernaut of unsolvable problems for the small business owner. 

It affects how well clients are engaged, which limits the potential for additional sales and the resulting revenue those sales create. 

Let's face it, feeling down limits (or completely destroys) your sales, marketing and promotional efforts. 

When you're feeling down, the last thing you want to do is put on a happy face and call a prospect or client who needs to hear from you.

Yet, what happens when you don't make those sales and client care calls?

Yep, you feel even worse than you did before.

The reason you feel worse is you know in your heart you have limited your business potential by shrinking back.

The good news is, reversing the tide is easy.

All you have to do is take a deep breath (even though you don't want to) and engage prospects and clients that need to hear from you.  

Act as if you're succeeding by taking focused action, again, even though you don't want to.

When you take focused action, your mood will change. 

The reason your mood changes is you feel hopeful.

You're taking action that makes a difference to your bottom line revenues. Succeeding in business makes us happy.

That new-found happiness will turn down days into a stellar experience in a very short time. 

Image by: Pixel Addict

Why is Personal Branding Important

 

Your personal brand is the door that other people use to gain interest, trust and credibility with you and your business.

For small businesses, a strong personal brand is vital. Take 2 minutes to find out why, now.

Personal-Branding

30 Second Time Management

Take 30 seconds to read this simple time management tip.

Implement it.

Get at least 25% more done today, next week and beyond.

1. Make a list of EVERYTHING you have to do. Don't leave anything out. 

2. Prioritize the list. Most important/time sensitive things get done first. Important but not time sensitive tasks are secondary.

3. Set an exact time and day that you will accomplish each task on your list. Add it to whatever day planning tool you use.

4. Follow the plan.

The secret is to set an exact time and day and then follow your schedule.

Without that step, you'll fall short of achieving maximum productivity.

Secret, Simple, Sales Follow Up

When it comes to follow up, there is one secret that is so simple most everyone misses it. 

The secret is to use greeting cards in your follow up program.

Don't take my word for it though.

Here's what a top sales trainers and personal development experts have to say.

Tom Hopkins said, ‎"I built my original million-dollar producing real estate sales career from nothing to being a 98% referral business by keeping in touch with my clients through the use of thank you cards."

In Lessons from the Greatest Salesman in the World, Jay Abraham tells the story of Joe Girard, who is recognized as the most successful salesman in the Guiness Book of World Records.

Joe sends ALL of his clients a handwritten greeting card every month of the year.

The number of cards reached more than 16,000 per month and he had to hire people to help him do it.

As a result of the repeated exposure to Joe, such was his customers’ impression of Joe that when Guiness Book of World Records started to call up some of them to audit his sales, all of the buyers could recall Joe by name.

Harvey Mackay has written extensively on showing gratitude with greeting cards. In fact, Harvey sent greeting cards while building a multi-million dollar business.  

At a speech Harvey Mackay gave at a "Treat 'Em Right" seminar in Scottsdale, AZ earlier in 2011 he said, "Send Out Cards makes you stand out!"

And Mike Brooks, known as Mr. Inside Sales shared a story in a recent article about George H. W. Bush Sr., 41st President of the United States. It's said that every person that George met, he kept in touch with. 

It didn't matter whether it was interns, politicians, business people, or clergy, he and Barbara Bush would make sure they stay in touch.

The way he did that was with simple greeting cards and personal notes.

If you listen to top experts in their field and follow proven processes it's obvious that greeting cards are king.

But they can be a hassle and time consuming to buy and send. 

No more. Here's the tool I use (since 2005) to make sending a greeting card by US Mail as quick and easy as sending an email.

Complete this exercise and try it for yourself.

Think of 1 client who really needs to hear from you. Do it right now, while you're thinking about it.

Follow this link and send them a card right now. My treat.

Then notice how great you feel after sending it. 

Ready. Set. Send Out Cards!

 

Meaningful Productivity

I have a "magic bullet" I like to use to measure meaningful productivity.

By meaningful productivity I'm talking about things you accomplish that actually moves your business progress and revenue generating activities forward.

The "magic bullet" is both easy to use and effective in building your productivity awareness.

Just follow these steps right now:

1. In a Word doc, create the headings: SALES, MARKETING, OPERATIONS, MANAGEMENT

2. As you accomplish tasks throughout the day, add that task to the proper heading.

For example:

If you called a new prospect someone referred, you would add that to SALES.

If you wrote a blog post about meaningful productivity and spread it across social media channels, you would put that under MARKETING.

All of the tasks that goes into delivering your offer (product or service) goes into OPERATIONS.

And all of the tasks that go into running your business goes into MANAGEMENT.

MANAGEMENT tasks could include: updating your accounting software, managing human resources, dealing with equipment breakdowns; all would be MANAGEMENT category tasks. 

At the end of the day, review your list.

How much time did you devote to sales? What about marketing? Did you spend all day in either operations or management?

This list will show you why you are where you are right now and how to correct that situation.

For additional ideas, here's a great book on how to grow a small business by one of my favorite business authors, Jeffrey Fox:

Sales Outlines vs. Scripts

I've been doing quite a bit of work lately on developing sales processes. It seems that at the end of the year and the beginning of a new year this topic is pretty hot.

One question that always comes up is, "Should I use a script in my sales outreach and prospect qualifying efforts?"

I have found that your goal should always be to create a natural conversation yet be orgainzed to reach a desired outcome. 

Scripts do this, but so do outlines.

Both can keep the conversation on track. Here are a few things to consider.

Scripts often sound stiff. Many scripts contain devise language that is added to "convince". 

The great thing about scripts, however, is that they keep the conversation focused and progressing to a close. 

Once the script is presented 100 times or so it becomes the natural language of the speaker. For some, more technical sales, scripts are a good thing.

However, for most independent professionals, outlines are a better option. 

When it comes to scripts I like to remember one of Jeffrey Gitomer's mantra:

"People like to buy but don't like to be sold."

Use outlines to keep your sales conversations more authentic.

Your outine should cover points that help you discover:

Where your prospect is now, in relation to your offer.

How your prospect is feeling about that situation.

Where they want to be.

What's keeping them from reaching their defined goals.

What their life will be like when they reach the goal. 

Again, always be sure to you understand what are challenges that keeps your prospective buyers from getting where they are to where they want to be.

And why can't (or haven't) they resolved those challenges on their own?

Once you know this information you are now ready to focus on a recommendation that resolves the issues you discussed.

So use outlines to organize your sales conversations and see better results from each and every interaction during the systems of sales portion of your sales process. 

 

 

75+ Tasks that Your Business Should Outsource

On the Carol Roth blog; this interesting compilation piece will help make you aware of where you're losing both money and productivity.

I'm tip # 68. You can read them all here. 

Then take notes and create a plan that helps you plug the holes where you are personally wasting time and money.

Enjoy!

Small Business Wisdom from Dalai Lama

These thoughts by the venerable Dalai Lama are wise to follow as a small business owner. 

Don't get so caught up in success that you forget to love yourself, family and those that matter to you personally. Once health and relationships fade from lack of nuturing you can never really catch back up. 

Focus on today and don't worry about the past or future. The past has taken you to where you are today. The future is predicated by what you focus on right now.

Awareness is the key. Turn off your personal auto pilot and live for now. The rest takes care of itself.  

Deep awareness creates a self-empowered human being. Self-empowered human beings can change the world, one small step, one individual at a time. 

 

How Noisy is Your Inbox

For the majority of small business owners and entrepreneurs the email inbox presents a unique challenge.

Challenge 1: Clients email your business. Those emails need immediate attention and special care.

Challenge 2: Your inbox is also flooded with emails from marketers, competing for your attention. 

When you look at the two challenges, which type of email most often fills your inbox?

More than likely, the marketers win by a wide margin.

If that's the case, keep the emails you actually read each time they arrive and unsubscribe from the rest.

That way, you will be able to focus on your clients and other vital business issues by minimzing the distraction (and plethra) of marketing messages.  

Noise goes down.

Focus goes up.

You achieve more meaningful results every day.