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Thursday
September 1, 2011

Tip of the Day - 5 Worst 4th-Quarter Mistakes

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4th Quarter MistakesFrom “To Do Before 2012″ in Advantages’ September 2011 issue.

While following the to-do list is important, there are also some “to-don’ts” that salespeople should keep in mind. A few common mistakes:

  1. Letting your network get static. Harvey Mackey, author of Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive, urges sales reps to make sure “your network is current and relevant to your career position today” and evaluate “whether you need to set a goal of building it more effectively in the new year.”
  2. Bringing business forward from next year. Sales reps may be tempted to boost their year-end numbers by getting clients to place orders earlier than they normally would. This can put strain on the client relationship and sets a poor precedent. 
  3. Avoiding year-end financial analysis. “A big mistake salespeople make in the fourth quarter is not doing a financial analysis and cleaning up your financial records,” says Mackey. “If you don’t, you won’t be prepared to set goals for the next quarter.”
  4. Saving heavy selling for the end of the year. “A lot of people try to use the holiday time to try and close their year strong, but that can come off a little desperate,” says CanvasPop’s Salamunovic. He suggests seeing the final month or two as a time to continue selling, but not to expect huge sales.
  5. Playing it safe with next year’s goals. Especially in the current economic climate, many sales reps might be tempted to lower expectations. “Safe is important in baseball, but in business you must be prepared to take some risks,” says Mackey. “To triple your success ratio in the next quarter, sometimes you have to triple your failure ratio.”
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Wednesday
March 2, 2011

Tip of the Day - Fun Things to Do for Your Presentation

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PresentationEveryone loves samples, so take a minute to come up with some creative giveaways for your presentations. Not only will your prospects hear what you have to say, but they’ll also have a tangible item to help them remember you. Here are eight great ideas.

  1. Bring donuts and coffee – in a donut box imprinted with your information, of course! Take it a step further and give each team member you’re presenting to an imprinted mug.
  2. Give each person you present to a pen and notepad imprinted with your contact info, so they can take notes during your meeting. 
  3. Award a $25 gift card to the first person who correctly answers a question about something you mentioned during the presentation. 
  4. Start with a funny or engaging video about promotional products. 
  5. If you’re pitching to a client that is out of state, bring an imprinted food item that is famous in your city. 
  6. Showcase your success – bring a relevant item from a previous sale and describe how you hit the home run. 
  7. When you’re presenting a promotion about specific apparel items, wear them! 
  8. Have the prospect’s company information imprinted on something small – tapping into your own bottom line creates goodwill.

From Advantagesmag.com March 2011 issue.

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Wednesday
December 29, 2010

Tip of the Day - 5 Ways to Grow Your Business in 2011

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Michelle Yurcak, president of Premium Event Services in Michigan, says 2011 will be a growth year for many and gives these five key strategies for getting there.

1. Educate yourself and your clients. “It is critical that companies not only continue to educate themselves in the industry they are in, but that they are educated about their clients, and educate their clients,” Yurcak says. “Commit to attending at least two educational events specific to your industry, reading publications focused on your industry, and keep up to speed on your industry’s latest trends. Additionally, educate yourself in the culture of your area and its people – I promise you that they have a lot to teach you. Ask yourself, what are some of the idiosyncrasies unique to your area? When you educate yourself on issues important to the people you are attempting to do business with, you win over many clients; when you speak with authority on your own industry as you are building these client relationships, you seal the deal.”

2. Don’t be afraid to say “no.” “It’s easy to be tempted to take on work that is not a right fit for your company, but seems financially rewarding in the immediate future. “Analyze what is your core business, and who are your core clients,” Yurcak says. “Many people might also be watching you to see if you’ve been tested and proved before they choose you – are you picking the right clients so you can shine appropriately?  Not all business is good business – make sure you are comfortable turning down business that does not fit within your mission and core capabilities.

3. Be confident. “To grow in any industry, you must be confident in your expertise, and have the nerve to tell a client that their ideas may not produce the most successful results,” Yurcak says. “I have found that some clients will have a theme in mind for an event and after qualifying all of the demographics, objectives and logistics of the event, their ideas or suggestions are all wrong for them. We help them understand that, and give them an event that truly accomplishes their goals. Once you are confident that your ideas and creativity will produce the desired results your clients envision, you can begin to create that sense of expectation from a client that will give you the open door to advise them what works and what doesn’t for their specific situation.”

4. Be relevant. “It is imperative that any part of your company output is no longer status quo,” Yurcak says. “When your goal is to create an experience every time you come in contact with a client, growth follows, especially because not every company can create and deliver a true client experience. Stand in their shoes for a moment – what will he appreciate; what is she hearing me say? How can I avoid wasting any of their money?”

5. Know your competition. “I may be going away from conventional wisdom to say this, but give your competitors a pat on the back. For us, ours is a small industry, and having allies over enemies shows that we support the growth of our entire industry and not just our own business,” Yurcak says. “We maintain that we can’t be all things to all people, so if we lose a piece of business, maybe we weren’t the right fit; we believe that another opportunity is sure to follow. Grow right, grow wisely.”

From Advantages magazine, January 2011.

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Wednesday
October 27, 2010

Tip of the Day - 20 Ways to Master Your Time

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Promotional products salespeople can easily fall prey to time-consuming detail work, from product research and placing cold calls to filling out purchase orders and chasing payment. Here are 20 tips to make sure
every minute is maximized profitably.

  1. Clean the Client Closet.
  2. Analyze Product Profitability.
  3. Make the Most of Market Expertise.
  4. Encourage Repeat Business.
  5. Create a Time Cushion.
  6. Know Your Clients’ Business Cycles.
  7. Educate Yourself.
  8. Learn on the Run.
  9. Purchase Quality Equipment and Software.
  10. Be Accurate From the Start.
  11. Think Quantity and Repetition.
  12. Group Up.
  13. Practice a Clear, Articulate Message.
  14. Track Your Time.
  15. Create Habits.
  16. Set a Meeting Agenda.
  17. Live by the Four Rs.
  18. Watch Out for Hassle-Makers.
  19. Reduce Travel.
  20. Work With Preferred Suppliers.

Read more in the Advantages 2010 November issue.

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Wednesday
October 20, 2010

Tip of the Day - Break Into New Markets

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MarketingHere are five steps to take to ensure your sales and marketing efforts to new markets will be successful.

STEP 1: Evaluate the Local Market
Before deciding on a specific new market to target, you have to be certain that It’s going to be worth your while, according to Ken Thoreson, president of consulting firm Acumen Management Group. “Number one, are there enough opportunities, enough companies in that market sector within your geographics?” he says. “For example, if I want to sell to chiropractors, are there going to be enough to go after? If I find there are only three companies in my territory, I may not want to go after them.”

STEP 2: It’s all About Research
Once you decide to go after a new market and have identified potential opportunities in your area, the next step is ramp up research efforts, according to Mark Ziskind, COO of Counselor Top 40 distributor Caliendo Savio Enterprises (asi/155807), who uses Counselor’s State of the Industry report (www.StateOfTheIndustry.com) to learn which industries are big purchasers. “We’ll look at that info and ask, “Is this consistent with our client list?” You then mirror that with your contacts and your geography,” he says.

STEP 3: Make In-Person Visits
Ziskind warns that you shouldn’t do all of your new market research remotely. “You might go visit them,” he says. “Talk to them and ask, “What would you like to see in a supplier?” Or, go to the kiosks in the mall and ask, “What makes you push one phone model over another?” All you need to do is stumble onto one gold nugget of information to get a better understanding of the tools you need to go to market.”

STEP 4: Get Specific Information
After you’ve gathered general data about a particular market, you’ll want to drill down to find out as much information as you can about specific company targets. Going to corporate websites and making calls can be your sources of information here, says Thoreson. “You can pick up the phone and just ask for sales, or ask the receptionist if he or she can mail you information about their company,” he says. “Typically, if you’re selling to small businesses, you can’t go online or to The Wall Street Journal for information, but if they have press releases on their website, read their latest press releases. All that kind of information can give insights.”

STEP 5: Make a Sales-Call Checklist
When you decide that you’re prepared enough to make that first sales call to a company within your new market, Thoreson suggests the following checklist for sales reps:

From Education Adviser, vol. 32

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Wednesday
October 6, 2010

Tip of the Day - Run a Successful One-Person Business

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Seven steps to successfully running a one-person business.

Step 1 - Be Flexible. The key is serious organization and immense flexibility.

Step 2 - Be Selective With Suppliers. Part of the secret to being nimble is to pick a handful of trustworthy suppliers and work with them repeatedly to build a rapport that can be called upon in times of need.

Step 3 - Build Efficiencies. Of course, seamless order processing and drop shipments save time – a critical move for solo distributors who often need every minute of the day to get their jobs done.

Step 4 - Outsource Your Weaknesses. Adrian Miller, president of Adrian Miller Sales Training in Port Washington, NY, says distributors should outsource tasks that they either aren’t good at or don’t like.

Step 5 - Make Every Move About Money. “The important thing is to do things that generate revenue,” Miller says.

Step 6 - Work Your Contacts. For distributors selling on their own, selling deeper into existing accounts and leveraging contacts within a few key industries is often a smarter sales strategy than spending hours cold-calling new clients in new industries.

Step 7 - Lose The Dead Weight. Like larger businesses, it’s vital for one-man businesses to consistently evaluate their client base for revenue and profitability targets.

Read the complete article this month’s in Counselor magazine.

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Wednesday
August 25, 2010

Tip of the Day - Smile Your Way to Sales

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The human brain prefers happy faces. So says Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D., president of Kinsey Consulting Services and author of The Nonverbal Advantage. When you smile at someone, they almost always smile in return. And, because facial expressions trigger corresponding feelings, the smile you get back actually changes that person’s emotional state in a positive way. Here are three reasons smiling can get you more sales, all backed up by in-depth research.

  1. You’ll be unforgettable. Research from Duke University proves that we like and remember those who smile at us – and shows why we find them more memorable. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the Duke researchers found that the orbitofrontal cortices (a “reward center” in the brain) were more active when subjects were learning and recalling the names of smiling individuals. 
  2. You’ll encourage collaboration. According to a report by the British Psychological Society, positive and negative emotional responses systematically alter the use of language. Speak to a positive listener and people will likely use more abstractions and subjective impressions. But if people talk to a negative listener, they’ll probably stick to the relative security of objective facts and concrete details. Researchers speculate that this is because the smiles and nods of a positive listener are interpreted as a sign of agreement and understanding, encouraging the speaker to provide more of their own opinions and speculations. By contrast, negative listeners provoke speakers to adopt a more hesitant and cautious thinking style. 
  3. You’ll improve your productivity. Charles Garfield, author of Peak Performance, once coached the Russian Olympic weight-lifting team. Garfield noticed that when team members lifted to exhaustion, they would invariably grimace at the painful effort. In an experiment, he encouraged the athletes to smile when they got to that point of exhaustion. This seemingly minor difference enabled them to add two to three more reps to their performance. No matter the task, when you grimace or frown while doing it, you are sending your brain the message, “This is really difficult. I should stop.” The brain then responds by sending stress chemicals into your bloodstream. And this creates a vicious circle: the more stressed you are, the more difficult the task becomes. When you smile, your brain gets the message, “It’s not so bad. I can do this!”

From Advantages magazine.

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Wednesday
July 14, 2010

Tip of the Day - 10 Surefire Door Openers

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10 TipsSteal some ideas from real reps who put persistence and creativity to work to win their prospects’ business.

  1. Tell a Great Story - “There was an old grandpa who drove an old Chevy…”
  2. Buy Something From Them - “Might I buy your products back?”
  3. E-mail a Value-Packed Video - Re-establish a personal connection.
  4. Consider Yourself “Awesome” - It’s all in the attitude.
  5. Suggest a Product/Slogan Tie-In - “We’re a cut above.”
  6. Send a Bouquet - “Take some time to smell the flowers.”
  7. Add a Signature Touch - Signed artwork sealed the deal.
  8. Drop a Line - Don’t leave a notepad naked.
  9. Team Up - Help others help you sell your services.
  10. Do What You Love - Use your personal passions to connect with prospects.

Read the complete Advantages story here!

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Monday
July 12, 2010

Tip of the Day - Win Back A Client

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After a big merger and many management shifts, distributor Active Concepts (asi/104857) has lost a major pharmaceutical company as a client. Here are four ways for owner Debbie Honig to win the client back.\

  • Ask for referrals. Honig should speak to any contacts she has within the client company and try to get them to refer her to the new decision-makers. Internal contacts often have a lot of influence on how executives make purchases. Honig should be using these contacts to her advantage as much as possible.
  • Target decision-makers. Once she identifies exactly who is making the purchasing decisions, Honig should target those people with her marketing and sales efforts. During a merger and management shift, the key for a former vendor is to get in the good graces of any new decision-makers. It may feel like starting from square one with a client you already know, but in reality this is a completely new client. New buyers equals new client.
  • Provide ideas. Honig needs to stay relevant with this company by offering those decision-makers marketing and promotion ideas. Active Concepts knows the client’s business quite well, considering Honig has done work for them for years now. Put that experience to use by offering marketing ideas that provide solid returns on the client’s investment. 
  • Go to a trade show. Can’t get into a former client’s office? Go to a trade show where they’re exhibiting. They’re probably using promotional products there anyway, so it could be a great place to begin a conversation with new contacts.

From Counselor’s July 2010 issue.

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Thursday
July 1, 2010

Tip of Day - 5 Sales Myths Debunked

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Sales MythsDavid Zahn, president of ZAHN Consulting LLC, has been training salespeople since 1990. “I have seen both the eagles that soar and the turkeys that sink,” he says. Here he provides his own list of most-common myths, and the truth behind them.

1. Myth: Scan the office and comment on a picture, trophy, or find something that aligns you with the buyer.

Reality: Many buyers are offended by this and see it as being a “tactic” that is insincere. So much so, that Walmart refuses to allow vendors into the buyers’ offices and forces the conversation to occur in a windowless, artless, non-personal space to avoid any chance of that happening.

2. Myth: People buy from friends.

Reality: Buyers buy from people they envision can solve problems within their own organizations. Especially in sales that are heavily technology-based and require purchase of software or hardware that the purchasing organization has not used before, the buyer wants to know that should something go wrong, there is one person that he can call to get it fixed. Zahn had one buyer tell him that he wanted to know that if something went south, he knew which one neck he had to choke to get it right.

3. Myth: Sales were lost because a competitor had a better price.
 
Reality: More sales are lost to no decision than to competition. Even when sales go to the competition, it is not because of price in a large percentage of instances, but because the winning salesperson/team did a better job of meeting a need and helping the buyer visualize a solution.

4. Myth: Buyers are swayed by product features.

Reality: Buyers are buying a business answer and not a product. What the buyer is purchasing is a solution to a problem (an opportunity to increase productivity/increase efficiency/reduce turnover, etc.). Sales will often “blame” marketing for the lack of product features, when the reality is that the salesperson has not done a sufficient job of converting the prospect’s business issues into a solution provided by the product or service. No one “buys” a feature. They buy what it provides for them.

5. Myth: Lower price wins.Reality: If all things are equal, sure, a lower price is more attractive. However, the role of the salesperson is to ensure that all things are not equal and that there is value to doing business with him/her/the company that exceeds the “savings” of the lower price.

 

From Advantages magazine.

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