Sales Laundry

Posts Tagged ‘ERP’

Q&A’s are excerpts of questions I have answered as part of Sales Laundry or other forums that I am apart of.  If there is a relevant sales message for the masses I post it here to share, gather feedback and discuss.

Q:  What is the best way to keep a (commercial printing) salesperson engaged and motivated during these tough times?

  A:  A small dose of Progress taken daily can wipe out a whole room full of “it’s hopeless.” Retreat as needed.

 

I approach it like the old adage “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” 

I don’t want my team focused on the big picture Armageddon talk with all of the accompanying noise. Quite the opposite, I want them focused, and therefore engaged on what they need to do each day to keep methodically working toward their goal. 

One other thought.  How about creating some of your own print business?

 

I don’t know what objections your sales guys are getting, but I assume one of them is “we don’t have the money right now.”

 If you have several small businesses that don’t have the budget to print flyers or marketing materials, but need the exposure, maybe you can bring a different value add.

 Maybe you can solve a larger problem for your customer that will allow them to take advantage of your services.

 Maybe your sales guys, with a database full of local contacts, can help out the small business community by developing a single marketing piece that features a few companies that are not direct competitors and have a similar target market. 

 The result could be that the small business gets the marketing they need, at a price they can afford, you have a new unique product, your guys get paid, and you can keep the presses running.

 

Q&A’s are excerpts of questions I have answered as part of Sales Laundry or other forums that I am apart of.  If there is a relevant sales message for the masses I post it here to share, gather feedback and discuss.

Q:  Help!  I am marketing a new sports bat training device through independent sales reps, sales are improving, but slowly, and I need to speed up the process.  Any suggestions?

  

A:  Congratulations on getting from patent to production.  That is no small accomplishment. 

It sounds like sales are happening, but each sale is happening in a vacuum, and not having much of an impact on overall sales velocity. 

Pick a niche in your target market. Maybe it is college baseball, high school baseball, or pro, maybe it is rehab facilities, or possibly coaches, and put your available resources toward owning that niche (ala Crossing the Chasm) to begin to create some leverage out of each sale, that will make the next sale just a little bit easier. 

That should start to give you the multiplier on existing sales you are looking for. 

The next key is finding the right individuals in your selected niche that can add another multiplier to your existing sales with their credibility and influence. 

Look at that niche market and find the people who have influence over the potential customers in that niche. Instead of focusing your sales on anyone that will buy one, focus on the handful of guys that carry enough influence to multiply the leverage benefit of each individual sale. 

Where do you find these guys? Look at trade organizations, governing organizations, boards of directors and consultants for major baseball sporting goods manufacturers. Or it could be as simple as finding that old guy that everybody knows who has been around the game forever and knows everybody who is or was anybody in the game. Look to one of the statesmen of the game along the lines of the late Buck O’Neil as a fine example. 

I would also look to entrepreneurial ex-baseball players with hall of fame reputations. Look for the guys that are out of the game, have the contacts you need and are building business empires of their own. Nolan Ryan is one that comes to mind. 

I had to make a lot of assumptions here, but I hope that helps. 

 

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.

Sales Laundry – Where did the name come from?

“Sales laundry” is a term I use to describe the personal development, the study of the art of sales and people development, planning, tactical/strategic thinking, and the real life laundry, hair cuts and shoe shines that keep me physically and mentally prepared each and every day.

This blog is a place where I share my observations and experience, hopefully giving you a chance to catch up on a little of your own sales laundry.

About Me.

Val, is founder and chief Business Development Alchemist for sales consultancy AlchemyEngine, using his sales experience amassed over 20+ years, developing, teaching and managing hundreds of sales professionals across a diverse set of industries.

Val melds entrepreneurship, 10 years of  software and CE management experience focused on customer service with 15 years of technology business development, sales and executive management with start ups, regional VARs, consulting organizations and national enterprise software companies.

Previously, as Vice President of Business Development for Boomstar, Val was responsible for building Boomstar’s sales organization and participating in the development of Boomstar’s world wide sales efforts, and establishing a global client base.

“Starting at the ripe old age of 4, I opened a lemonade stand.  I sold every glass of yellow sugary goodness I had the raw materials to make, made a tidy profit, and was hooked on the fine art of sales.  Thanks, Mom!

At 5 I was a freelance newspaper salesman, getting permission to pick up newspapers laying in the neighbors’ yards that were not going to read the paper and redistributing them with my trusty Radio Flyer wagon to those that had the time, desire and would gladly pay a little to read the newspaper.

I founded my first company and formed my first partnership in high school working late night weekends at a local radio station, establishing a successful mobile DJ company called Sound Investment.

While working on my Business Administration degree, college brought my enjoyment of entrepreneurship, business and public speaking together as part of the Students in Free Enterprise organization, ultimately winning the SIFE International Championship for having the best college student driven business development and business education program in the world.

To this day I enjoy selling.  I enjoy building companies and the sales teams within them.  I enjoy developing raw recruits into star performers and being a continuing student of the art of sales, management, and building organizations that work.”

SalesLaundry.com gives me an avenue to give back and share my sales experience and knowledge with anyone interested in the many different facets of sales.  You can reach me at Val {at} saleslaundry.com