Do yourself and your future clients a favor by helping them stop
going cross-eyed looking for the best deal by building value
by building trust.
Too many people go cross-eyed analyzing proposals and scouring websites in search of the absolute, 100%, bottom-dollar best deal in the universe.
Meanwhile, you don't have a client and they are not benefiting from your goods and services.
If you're in sales you know that "time kills deals."
But if what you sell is a big deal, time may be your friend.
If you're selling a low-end gizmo you have two choices:
- Sell a ton of them super-fast and be the low-cost leader, a.k.a. Wal-Mart and even Dell. (Have you noticed Dell's stock performance vs. Apple the last decade?)
- Figure out how to upsell your prospects and clients by buying:
- More of those gizmos with each purchase.
- A higher-end gizmo.
- An extended warranty.
- A support / training package.
- A complimentary gizmo you offer.
- A complimentary gizmo one of your affiliates offers.
If you're selling a high-end gizmo or services you have two choices:
- Look and dress and talk and act the same as everyone else and attempt to "Wow" the marketplace with:
- Promises of "Great service after the sale."
- All of your degrees and initials at the end of your name.
- A free steak dinner at Applebee's.
- How many years you've been in business.
- Pictures of kids' sports teams you've supported.
- A 4th of July sale.
- Look and dress and talk and act differently than your competition so there is no banana-to-banana comparison so you can charge "reassuringly expensive"prices, which allow you to really focus on the needs of your clients, provide better service and everyone wins by:
- Marketing for "marriage" not a "one night stand." (Jeffrey Gitomer is famous for his quote "People love to buy but they hate being sold." Stop selling. Start helping.)
- Focus on the needs, the wants, the fears, the desires, the frustrations, the goals of your prospects and addressing them all in your marketing.
- Answer the Frequently Asked Questions then going above and beyond (and helping them and you) by answering their Should Ask Questions.
- Deliver the information they are looking for FAST!
- Maybe that means giving it to them via the web.
- Maybe it means sending a physical book / booklet / catalog via Priority Mail or even FedEx.
- Maybe it means calling them immediately.
- Maybe it means all of the above.
- Baby Boomers, while they are on the internet and are OK with it, they appreciate physical mail and catalogs and books. It helps you stand out.
- Gen X and Gen Y shoppers are certainly fine with the internet and physical mail is almost a "novelty," which means it stands out. We still love it when family comes over for Christmas with something wrapped under their arms with our name on it vs. an email that says "Here's your $50 iTunes credit." Make the effort to stand out.
- Deliver information to them consistently. Your friends and family trust you because they've known you for years. When selling a high-ticket item or even a bunch of low-ticket items it takes time and/or effort to build that trust. Being Steady Eddie is the best way to help you win that trust.
The Bad News: this takes work.
The Terrible News: the economy is not recovering anytime soon.
The Good News: your competition is too lazy to do this.
The Great News: you'll be "cooking with gas" 12 months from today if you approach your sales and marketing this way.
As the business owner you better ask yourself every day "How am I building value in sales?" along with "How am I showing that value to my prospects?"
If you need a "sales and marketing drill sergeant / alarm clock / butt-kicker / motivator / coach / fellow-trench-warfare-sales-combatant" you may benefit from enrolling in my Make Every Sale program.
It's on-demad training with a private online group.
It's reassuringly expensive.
(However, you have lifetime access to the material, the group, and me through the group and it's 60% less than the amount I spent last month alone for sales and business growth coaching. I've taken my game to a new level and you get to benefit from my learning, testing, doing and winning.)
To see if my system actually takes your money (I turn it off when I'm full) visit the private sales community training page.
Market like you mean it.
Now go sell something.