Sales Laundry

Archive for the ‘Sales Tools’ Category

I got this email today from one of the LinkedIn groups I am associated with trying to sell me outsourced services for my business.  I opened it up, read the first three lines and deleted it.

 Then I decided to pull it back out and see if I could improve on the efforts of the original sales person and make a sales lesson out of it.  I am ignoring the spelling/gramatical mistakes as I am not an English teacher, I am a VP of Business Development.  The names have been changed to protect the sales or marketing knucklehead that wrote it. 

 

The Original – feel free to skip ahead as I could not get past the first 3 lines of this email on my first pass.

 HEADLINE: For Possible Business Collaboration / Oppurtunities

 Dear Mr.Val, 

I represent ABC Company, an offshore based services outsourcing Organization. We help our world-wide clients with our outsourced services such as;

Global HR Services – All Technologies, All Business Domains, All Business skills, At all levels of expertise & Knowledge.
- Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO),
- Worldwide Contractor staffing – Offshore/Remotely working resources/Onsite resources
- Online/Remote/Onsite Training & Development -Technology & non Technology training, e-learning courses development & Administration, Monitoring & Managing Training needs etc.
- Payroll Processing
- Employee records maintenance, & verifications
- Travel &, Accommodation
- HR policies & strategies
- Market /Competitor research
- Employees Compensation & Benefits
- Performance Appraisals processing, Administration & Management.

In addition, ABC Company helps worldwide organizations in the following areas;
1. Information Technology services (IT solutions development, customization, integration, Migration, upgrading, Implementation, Maintenance, Support etc. – All Technologies & Business Domains

2. Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO services – (a) Engineering – Mechanical, Civil, Architectural, structural b) Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO – all skills) c) Technical Writing & Communications d) Remote infrastructure Management (RIM – Monitoring & Managing any IT resources remotely, Technical Help desk, Systems & Database Administration, support, e) Animation, 2D, 3D modeling etc.)

3. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO – Document processing, Data entry, help desk, Data analytics, Data/market/IP research, Billing, verifications, Transcriptions etc, Outbound/Inbound Calling services etc – All Business domains and skills)

4. Bioinformatics (Contract/Collaborative Research & Development, Consulting, Life Sciences Software Applications & Tools, Data Mining/Data Analysis, Data & Applications Integration. Clinical Trial I/Medical informatics, LIMS, Internet/Intranet Applications, Multimedia & Virtual Reality Applications, Education & Training)

We have seen the following benefits accruing to our clients from our services;

1. We have a large team of highly qualified, experienced, talented, efficient, young and enthusiastic resources to support your organization in any of the areas shown above.
2. Our teams work as an extended team of onsite teams of our customers, thereby adding more strength and bandwidth and increase your teams’ skills and servicing capabilities.
3. Our resources can work on a 24x7x365 basis; our turn-around time for our service is very short. In most cases, the output will be in your inbox when you reach office the next day morning
4. We help our customers in cost savings of as much as 30-60% on case to case basis
5. We can provide our resources in good numbers at a short notice, and quickly ramp-up to meet your business needs.
6. Our clients save the hassles of constantly searching around for resources, every time, a task needs to be accomplished.
7. Our teams bring to the table, a very strong technical & English Communication (verbal & written) skills, highly professional & helping attitude, business ethics, services delivery expertise & commitment

I would be very glad to know, if ABC Company can be of any help and support to your organization or any of your client organizations, in any of the areas shown above please. I appreciate your time.

My Version

HEADLINE:  Are You Running Your Business or is Your Business Burying You?

 ABC Company helped me save my business!  ABC helped me identify why my operations costs were increasing even as our sales were slowing down.  ABC handles the backend of my operation so I can focus on bringing in new sales.

 Jay Richards, JR Enterprises (VIDEO CLIP:  Jay talks about ABC Company)

 Val,

Imagine I gave you a magic wand that let you eliminate every aspect of your business that you don’t enjoy, or that just seems to take your focus away from the things you feel you need to be doing.

 How much better would your business be if you enjoyed everything you did and had the time to focus on growing your business?

 What could you do if all of that extra weight was lifted off your shoulders?

 My name is Val King and I specialize in helping guys like you offload all the excessive weight that keeps your business from soaring.

 It is not magic, though, it’s our business. 

 Here are the Top 5 things our customers typically ask us to offload for them.

 Human Resources.

Payroll.

Insurance & Benefits Programs.

IT Services & Help Desk.

Billing & Collections.

Call me at 800-xxx-xxxx and let’s identify the Top 5 things weighing down your business.

If it makes sense, I will offload your Top 5 list for Free for a few weeks so you can experience our brand of magic and experience the impact you can have on your business once that excess weight is gone.

Val 

 ABC Company manages all of the time consuming aspects of my business that I hated.  Our business is growing again and I spend my days doing what I love.  Thanks ABC.

 Dave Johnson, Johnson Medical (VIDEO CLIP:  Dave talks about ABC Company)

LESSONS LEARNED

The original email reads like a laundry list, these guys are into everything from 3d animation to Life Sciences and Bioinformatics.  They list a lot of capabilities but this sales guy has no idea what my problems are, so he just lists everything they do in this email to make sure they cover every sales base possible.

LESSON:  Research your customer and avoid firing a shotgun email like this one.  Narrow your focus to what you are absolutely best at. 

The intent of this extensive list of services is to show me that they can help me in many different areas of my business with a huge stack of sales offerings and services.  However, I read this feeling that they could not possibly do all of this well.  I have no way of knowing which sales offering is their strongest, nor do I want to take the necessary time it would take to figure it out, so my instinct is to hit the delete key.

LESSON:  Avoid the temptation to send out a laundry list disguised as a marketing email.  It weakens your message and erodes some of your credibility.

The original email establishes no credibility for this company.  I have never heard of them and the only person telling me how great they are is the sales guy.

LESSON:  If the only person saying your company is good is the sales person then no one is saying anything good about your company as far as I am concerned as a customer.  Use legitimate references I can call or for a bigger bang for the buck, use video references I can watch.

There is no tie to what any of these services do for me, the guy that is supposed to pay for this fabulous service.  The sales professional should paint some sort of picture of how my life as the business owner or how my company might be better if I just offload this stuff to them.

LESSON:  It is your job as the salesperson or as the organization sending the email to explain to me how I will benefit from your product.  If you don’t make that connection, don’t expect me to respond.

There is too much text in this flippin’ email (and probably this post.)  The text is small, there are acronyms all over the place (RPO, KPO, LPO, RIM, and LIMS.)

LESSON:  Be as short and concise as possible as you are imposing on my time with your email and use language that is plain and free from industry jargon.

They use the work “all” eight times in the email.  Example:  ”Global HR – ALL Technologies, ALL Business Skills, at ALL levels of experience and knowledge”

LESSON:  Horsefeathers.  I don’t believe it.  I will delete it.  

There are 7 stated benefits for me the customer.  Some are ridiculous adjective fests…

Benefit 1:  Large team that is highly qualified, experienced, talented, effiecient, enthusiastic and as if that was not enough they are also described as being young.  I don’t know about you, but I feel better already. 

Some are not benefits to me at all; they are minimum standards like…

Benefit 7:  Our teams bring very strong technical and English communication skills.  

LESSON:  It is only a benefit if it benefits me.  Write your email as if you are standing in my shoes, not trying to talk me out of them.

This was the closing line.  “I would be very glad to know if ABC Company can be of any help and support to your organization…in any of the areas shown above…  I appreciate your time.”

When I read this closing line what I get out of this email and what the salesman wants me to get out of this email are clearly two different things.  I am sure the salesman would like me to look at the list like some sort of ala carte menu, make a few selections and get back to him so he can work up a quote.

What I read is that the salesman at ABC Company is too lazy to figure out what my business is or what I do all day.  He has effectively hit me with a list of SIC codes and a Scan-Tron asking me to color in the little circle next to my selection with a #2 pencil and get back to him.

LESSON:  Figure out what I need to buy before you try to sell me something.  It seems to work better that way.  If you are going to be lazy and not do the research then don’t send the email at all.

 

Got a suggestion of your own to improve on my improvement?  See another lesson here worth covering?  Add a comment.

“Cleaverly disguided” photo – courtesy of  http://rlv.zcache.com

“English photo” courtesy of - http://www.flickr.com/photos/40741986@N00/399082864

“2 shoes” photo – courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/conqenator/2952567054/ 

What is Dead Air, as it relates to sales, anyway?

 

dead air – noun. Silence in the room when no one is talking or the silence between the time a question is asked and the answer given.

 

 

Do not be afraid of dead air.  Do not be afraid to ask your client a question and let silence fill the room while you wait for the answer.  Well placed silence can be a sales tool just as strong as any other in your bag.

 

Trust me when I say it is not necessary to fill up all of the gaps in a conversation with more words for the sake of saying more words to avoid awkward silence. 

 There do not have to be words in the air at all times.  In fact your words, as a dutiful Business Development Executive, should be far fewer on average than your prospects.  80%/20% is what the experts say.  Remember, you want to hear what Mr. or Ms. Prospect has to say because they have the problem you are trying to get paid to solve!

 There are times you are going to need your friend “dead air,” so you might as well get comfortable with him right now.

 For example, when the time is right, and you ask for the order from your prospect, let the dead air out there hang to add emphasis to your question.

 

Ask the question…

 “Mr. Jones, if I can put together a pilot project that meets the criteria we have defined here, will you sign off on the proposal?” 

 

Then do the most important part… be quiet and wait for an answer.

 It will either be “Yes,” “No,” a valid reason, an excuse, or he will create a diversion and run screaming from the room like his hair is on fire.  That is my experience, anyway.

 When you have pushed a man to a decision or woman for that matter, give him a chance to answer.  This is true of all of the defining questions you will ask throughout your sales career.  I will go as far as to say that your very success in sales hinges on your being able to identify and ask the right questions and sit in silence while you listen attentively for an answer.

 What do you think? (I am not saying a word until you answer.)

Trade show season is upon us and for those representatives that depend upon them to make their fortunes, I thought I would relate a story that might help spark some sales creativity.

Our company, focused on the financial services vertical, more specifically banks, decided at the last minute to rent a booth at one of the annual banking association shows.

At the time I was working in a new territory for the company building a new client base and relaying references from our client banks that were thrilled with our expertise and skill at eliminating a lot of the technology and regulatory headaches faced by the banking industry.

Approximately two days before the show I got a call asking me to staff the booth for the show with two of my fellow team members.

Two days and many miles later, I arrived early to make sure we got the booth setup and that we had all of the services/equipment we were paying the show company for.

As it seems to go sometimes, we had no carpet, we had no electricity but what we did have in abundance was mass confusion on the part of the show company related to what we had ordered, what was needed and when anything could get done.

Even allowing the extra time the show opened before we were able to work out all of the details and get our show strategy in place, but on the bright side, we did have a bowl full of candy.

Our last minute booth selection put us along the back wall, in a corner, that was far away from the sessions the bankers were attending. You had to want to go back there to find us. If you did manage to find the row, the massive stretch of concrete down one side convinced some to forego our isle and the exhibiting vendors on it, altogether.

Doing their part, the show sponsors staged raffles and other events almost every hour to keep the show patrons engaged, the challenge for us was that none of the sponsored events were close to our booth, so far from seeing a traffic bump each event was in fact a net drain on participants in our area.

We realized pretty quickly that to have any chance of making the show a success, we were going to need to generate some excitement to get patrons flocking to our side of the exhibit hall.

Plan A was to raffle off an expensive iPod and to place a hawker out in the aisle redirecting traffic to the booth. We later expanded this by sending two hawkers all over the show floor talking to and collecting business cards from any interested attendee.

The iPod drew interest at the time because no one else was doing it, not the case today, but even then that was not a compelling reason to get them to our booth, it was only a strong enough draw if they were in the immediate area.

Plan B inadvertently came to me while I was driving around trying to find a place to park for the event. I saw a group of 8 or 10 people having fun rolling around on Segways on some sort of tour of the city.

While at the show, I called the tourist board and found the number to the Segway Tours company, gave them a call and effectively negotiated a package including the Segway and an instructor to give lessons in and around our booth while we were at the show.

The Segway was a fantastic draw. We had lines of bankers at our booth waiting, working with the instructor or riding around the large concrete expanse around our booth.

When one banker would see another banker he knew riding around the show floor, he would head to our booth to get his turn.
The show turned out to be a success, with a lot of leads, a pile of new contacts, and a ton of awareness for who we were. For better or worse, over the next few weeks as I traveled around on follow up meetings I was introduced as the Segway guy.

The year that followed that event proved to be the best year to date for our company. I can’t tie all of our success to that one trade show, but I can say that the show was the spark that gave us an opportunity to demonstrate how the life of a banker would be better with us than without us.

Got a success story or tip? I want to read it. Any wild failures that led to a great lesson learned? I would like to read that, too.

Photo courtesy of  isdnvoices.com

Are you getting any value out of the time and money you are spending at trade shows?

 While I can’t say I get a lot of value out of all of them, I can give you my tips for maximizing the time and the dollars you are spending to attend.

 

I am not going to go over the merits of having a booth vs. not having a booth here.  Most of these points apply either way, but I write this assuming, for the most part, you are not tethered to a booth.

 

1. Define a strategy for the show.  Figure out exactly what you want to achieve before you set one foot on the show floor.  With clear objectives it will be much easier to stay focused and tune out the chaos that can ensue when the show floor opens. 
2. While the show is still several weeks out, identify who you would like to meet with at the trade show.  For best results, avoid the standard practice of showing up and winging it.
3. Setup email campaigns and/or call these prospects and try to setup an actual meeting time at the show.  Meet in your booth, a lobby coffee shop or a good couch, whatever works.  TIP:  Pack a snack in case your schedule forces you to miss lunch.
4. There are an amazing number of people that will take a meeting at a trade show having no idea if you can benefit one another.  For the prospects you do identify, do a little research and figure out how you can potentially benefit one another or don’t take the meeting.
5. Confirm your meetings with the prospect face to face or voice to voice on the telephone.   TIP:  Only confirm with something that can feel responsibility or guilt.  I have seen some pretty sophisticated voice mail systems, but never one that will take a meeting with you if his or her owner skips out on you.
6. The tag scanners at trade shows can be great when all you need is an effective swap of electronic business cards.  Be careful not to fall into the trap of scanning the prospects name tag and just trusting yourself to remember what you talked about.  I use a 5”x5” ruled notebook for this purpose with a handy dandy $3.00 mini stapler.  
   

   Swingline Slim T Mini Stapler

   When we exchange business cards to start, I staple the card on the first blank page on the spot and write my meeting notes.  In doing this I have found that I do not lose business cards, I know everyone I met with because I have all of their cards stapled in the book and in the order of how they were sitting in the meeting so I can keep faces associated with names.  I will write more on the value of this little spiral in a future post.

    

    

7. In my most recent trade show visits I have had a full multimedia presentation and a demo reel showing our work.  I keep a copy of everything loaded on my Blackberry as well as my laptop and use the most convenient one based on the situation.
8. Get a rolling bag.  Skip the free bag you get at registration, or the laptop bag you carry around on your shoulder, if you will be carrying your laptop or anything significant in the way of sales literature buy a rolling bag with the a retractable handle.  TIP:  Pay close attention to the quality of the retractable handle.  A bad handle will pinch your hands and in some cases draw blood.
9. In some cases I have had up to 40 meetings over the course of a 5 day show.  I keep a small version of my schedule with meeting times, names of contacts and firms, and contact numbers to stay in touch at the show.  I typically keep this information on the backside of the name tag on the lanyard around my neck.
10. Business cards.  Take twice as many as you think you will need and hand them out to anyone you talk to.  Never miss an opportunity to build some awareness about you or your offerings.
11. Talk!  This is no time to be timid.  Develop some ice breakers in advance of the show if you have to.  I talk to people everywhere.  In the lobby, at lunch, at the hotel, over breakfast, on the shuttle to and from the hotel, anywhere there is an opportunity to have a short conversation.  Don’t whack all these people over the head with your offerings, but when you find one that seems like a fit schedule a time to meet “officially” or have a good 30 second elevator pitch prepared to entice them to want more information.
12. Get a hotel room as close to the show venue as possible.  The hotels closer to the show are a bit more expensive and fill up fast, but having the ability to get back and forth to the hotel without enduring significant time loss or  logistics issues will be money well spent.
13. Evening events.  In many cases there are show sponsored events and private parties scheduled once the day on the show floor is done.  Plan to attend these if you do not have any evening meetings or dinner appointments setup.  Look for the invitation cards while you are at the show and ask around as you meet with people to find out what private events are scheduled.
14. Plan a private event.  If it makes sense for your offerings and if you have the budget, setup a private event one night after the show.  A few drinks, great snacks or a nice dinner can loosen tongues and allow conversations to take place that would be difficult anywhere else.
15. Be prepared to meet a prospect anywhere.  I think of it as traveling heavy, with my rolling bag, all my materials, my laptop, etc. or traveling light with just my mobile phone (with presentations loaded,) business cards, and a small notepad.  I will sometimes carry my 5” x 5” notebook tucked into the small of my back under my jacket.  It works well for me.

   

Trade shows can be an incredible source for contacts, leads, and opportunities or complete dismal failures.  From maximum success I develop my goals; I develop a primary and secondary strategy unique to each show I attend.  I try to remove as much mystery as possible by defining my prospects, pre-scheduling my meetings, and researching my prospects developing a mini strategy for each meeting.

 

The last thing I can say is even with all this planning, keep a degree of flexibility built into your schedule.  As I have discovered, even with all my planning, I will on occasion forget something important, like remembering to pack my pants.

 

Got your own trade show tip?  Is there something you have done to turn a miserable show into a screaming success?  I want to hear about it.

Image courtesy of managemytradeshows.com

I am always looking for unique ideas to stand out from your average (sales) bear with clients and prospects alike.

 For some prospects that are deemed critical to the success of a territory I will sometimes step way out of the box to capture that prospects interest or make them at least curious to hear what I have to say.

 To that end, I recently stumbled upon www.sweetpics.biz.  Sweet Pics can take any digital image and print it directly on chocolate, and yes, you can eat it.

 

They can take your plain white business card and create a chocolate version that looks like they just taped your business card to the top of a business card sized piece of chocolate.  The edible business card weighs one ounce and comes with a case for each card so you don’t have to worry about the logistics of handling a chocolate business card.

 

If you want to rev it up a bit more they make a package that looks like a standard box of chocolates with a clear lid that has your business card, in chocolate, front and center surrounded by various truffles and chocolate treats.

 

I have not tried them yet, so I cannot comment on the taste, but I thought the idea alone was worth comment.

 

Taking that a step further, remember they can put ANY digital image on chocolate. 

 

What does this chocolate treat cost?  Best I can tell, the business cards are $2.49 each, minimum 50, but there are other options available on the cheap.

 

Have you come up with something creative to get your foot in the door or to stand out from your competition?  I would like to hear about it.

“I want to be a partner for my client not just a vendor.” – Joe Salesguy

I say “Prove it.”

“I am in it to help my customers business be successful.” – Joe Salesguy

“Yeah, right.”

“I do not have to understand my customers business in order to sell my product.” – Joe Salesguy

“Your right, but you might have to if you actually want him to buy from you.”

You cannot be a partner with your customer if you can’t understand life from your clients’ shoes because being a partner implies you bring a desired expertise to the table that is not only valued but preferred to other resources available to your customer.

If you do not understand your clients business, you are no different than every other Account Manager or Consultant that knocks on his door. You are indistinguishable. You look the same and smell the same as every other guy out there pitching similar gear.

Failing to understand your potential clients business makes you lazy, stupid, or ignorant. I can fix ignorant, the rest of you are on your own.

With the wealth of information at your WWW fingertips you should have a basic understanding of your clients business before making the call. With a little bit of reading you can even get up to speed pretty quickly on your clients industry and any news about his company in the last year.

If you want to be perceived as being smart, ask smart questions. Take some time to write down some questions ahead of time that will not only demonstrate you are not an idiot but will actually begin to give you a better understanding of the type of environment you client faces.

If you ask “So, what do you do here” you should be show the door with a size 10 footprint on your backside.

Want to know why the best reps in your office can actually get their clients on the phone when they call them? It’s because the client places some value in what that representative has to say.

Or, of course, there is always the possibility that the client could have just accidentally answered the wrong line.

Be helpful, be entertaining, add value if you want your client to consider you valuable.

Right now, think about what you typically say to a prospect in a first meeting. Gut check time. Would you really want to sit there listening to that for an hour?

If not, change what you say. Don’t be boring. Bring value or just don’t go.

The client gets absolutely no value out of the initial questions you ask on an account call.  He only tolerates the questions because he assumes there will be some value coming from your yapping at some point to make it all worth it.

Don’t disappoint.

 

If you have a story where you have legitimately brought the value, I want to hear it. If you have a story where you got schooled, but learned a good lesson, I want to hear that, too.

 

I have literally taught hundreds of people “how to sell” over the years, but I still find myself amazed because selling is one of the first things we put into practice as a baby.

 

Several years my very young daughter reminded me of that fact at a well placed moment in time when I thought I was a master sales trainer, having just helped a young man close a sale that only a few months before he and I both would have said was impossible.  I should clarify that in saying I gave some instruction, but he did the heavy lifting in front of the customer.

 

Arriving home, swelled with the pride of a father who just watched his son achieve his goal and feeling pretty good about myself my wife brought me back to earth by asking me to feed my little girl (and clean up after the food stopped flying.)

 

Knocked from my high horse, I set about putting my daughter in her high chair and inspecting the nights fare.  There was some sort of green glop next to some brown glop next to the only thing I recognized on the plate, which was apple sauce.

 

Ever the dutiful father, I scooped up some of the brown stuff, opened my mouth wide, trying to coax my daughter to do the same and inched the spoon forward.

 

She was smiley and happy to see her daddy.  She was hungry and ready to eat.  In went the spoon and a trained hand maneuver later the spoon was out, clean as a whistle and ready for another dose of the brown stuff.

 

My daughter’s face was telling a different story.  Her little face was scrunched up and then she was holding her mouth half open like she was undecided as to what to do with the glop in her mouth.  All the while she was looking at me like I had betrayed her or at the very least put a beat down on her favorite teddy.

 

Then, as quick as it went in, Pluuuaaahuha, it was out with amazing velocity and residing on me.

 

OK, that went well.

 

“Let’s try the green stuff.  Yeah, that looks yummy.” I said, or something like it I am sure as I crept ever closer with the spoon.

 

My daughter, now not so trusting, but hungry none the less, looked at me much more suspiciously and only half heartedly opened her mouth.

 

I saw my opening and took it.  In went the green stuff, but the spoon was barely out of her mouth when the green stuff, now mixed with baby slobber, came flying back out at a speed close to the sound barrier I am sure.  This time I jumped to safety and let my chair take the split pea carpet bombing intended for me.

 

Cleaning the chair up, I soldiered on, this time with the apple sauce.

 

My daughter looked at me with complete distrust in her eyes.  Nope, not going to open up, no way.  I had to resort to a face she loved to make her giggle, then, like lighting, I was in there with the spoon, back out and under the table waiting for the fruit fallout.

 

Then nothing.  Just baby noises.  Peaking out, she looked at me like “Hey Dad, how about some more of that stuff?” bouncing back and forth in her seat, visibly excited.

 

“Well, one more bite of apple sauce, that won’t hurt anybody.”  So, in went another bite of applesauce and more happy bouncing and happy baby clapping commenced.

 

I was a hero again, so I thought I would test that new goodwill with a quick shot of the brown stuff.

 

As soon as I got close with that spoon, the nose wrinkled and she started breathing in and out of her nose like a hand air pump filling up a bicycle tire.

 

It seems she had already equated brown with bad and it was the same for green I soon discovered, but yellow…

 

Yellow… big bright eyes, a smiley face, nearing hyperventilation. I realized my daughter was exhibiting a sales skill that Madison Avenue has mastered but that your average Joe Salesguy misses entirely.

 

The lesson?

 

Selling something is more often about what the person doing the buying is going to get out of it, not a feature set.  It is about explaining how they are going to feel or be better off if only they have your product.  Most of the time a new sales guy will simply and sheepishly rattle off a bunch of product features and smile awkwardly at the strange silence when he suddenly realizes he has nothing left to say.

 

Madison Avenue, or the commercials they come up with, rarely sell you on features of the product, almost all of the time is spent telling you how you are going to feel or by showing you images they want you to associate with the product/brand.

 

Coke doesn’t sell itself as brown sugar water with high fructose corn syrup, the message is you will be refreshed, you will be so happy you will want to buy a candle and stand on a hill somewhere singing “I would like to teach the world to sing.”

 

What I thought I had done such a good job teaching, my daughter demonstrated a mastery of while still filling up her Pampers with the “other” brown stuff.

 

My daughter’s version was a little more direct.

 

Brown stuff in, yuck, bad daddy, you should feel terrible for subjecting a defenseless baby to that yucky stuff.

 

Yellow stuff in, yea!  Happy baby, happy daddy, smiling, giggling, clapping, bouncing, all is right with the world and another fairy somewhere gets her wings or something like that.  I feel good.

 

What’s more amazing is she communicated that message without using a single word, just her facial expressions.  OK, and some projectile puree, but you could simply call that a very effective three slide PowerPoint presentation.

 

What happened?  How did that skill get lost in the shuffle of puberty? 

 

More importantly, which one are you?  The Baby or the Bonehead?  Are you selling based on a list of features, or are you selling based on the emotions, concerns, fears, wants and needs of your potential customer?

 

Think about it.  Visualize your product in a 1 minute commercial, how would the boys and girls on Madison Avenue spin your product to convey some sort of buying emotion?

 

If you come up with a commercial, leave me some feedback describing it.  I am still a student of sales, as it is a school you never seem to graduate from.