Selling to Consumers | Sales Training Blog by Skip Anderson

Use Jott Instead

Have you ever been out and about and wished you had a note pad to write down a thought while it was at the epicenter of your consciousness? Maybe it was something like, "Get Pam a birthday card." But memo pads aren't accessible while you're at the coffee shop or out for a beverage with friends or shopping at the mall with your daughter.

But now I use Jott instead. I heard about Jott from Seth Godin. Jott is free, and here's how it works:

Let's say you're picking up your dry cleaning one morning, and suddently you think of something that you absolutely must do that day. You call Jott from your mobile phone. The automated attendant asks, "Who do you want to Jott?" You say "Myself."

Then you leave yourself a message by speaking into your phone: "Remember to call Dan Wilson about the XYZ fund." Moments later, your message appears on your computer as an incoming email. When you get to the office, you check your email, and you're reminded to call Dan.

You can also set up other recipients (spouse, friend, etc.) and have Jott turn your spoken word into email messages that are automatically sent to them.

I've been using Jott for several weeks. I use it all the time. I think many salespeople (especially in outside sales) could put Jott to good use. Check it out at www.jott.com.

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting firm. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

Details

Details are important. In the selling profession, and in website addresses.

One morning few weeks ago, I registered our main Selling to Consumers website with hittail.com. This is a nifty website that tells you where the traffic on your website is coming from.

The following day, I decided to check on the results, so I entered the hittail URL in my browser. But I was attempting to enter the hittail web address by memory. Since my memory is sometimes not at all impressive, I had entered an "o" in place of the first "i" (figure it out). My one-letter-wrong error took me to an adult website where I didn't intend to be. This site was completely different from what I was expecting at hittail. One letter made a huge difference in the results.

My error illustrates the importance of attention to detail when entering web addresses. Without it, you'll end up at a website where you don't want to be.

Selling is like that, too. If you miss a small detail, even a seemingly innocuous one, your sales track could be derailed, and you might end up at a place where you don't want to be: a place called "no sale."

So if your customer's last name is "Olsen," don't give them a price quote addressed to "Olson." If your customer ordered their widget in color #455 white, don't order it in #445 white. If your customer wanted size 8-1/2, don't mail them a size 8.

Heed my warning: Details are powerful!

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting firm. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

Free Sales Training from Skip Anderson

I will be teaching "The Art and Science of [Ethical] Selling" at Macalester College's EXCO (Experimental College) in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It starts in February 2008 and is FREE! This is an amazing way for Twin Cities residents to take complimentary classes that businesses spend thousands of dollars to send their employees to.

Get further information or register at www.SellingToConsumers.com/EXCO or call me at 651.681.8568.

Free is good!

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting firm. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

Fantasy vs. Reality

Fantasy: My prospects love me.
Reality: Customers only care about themselves.

Fantasy: I'm a "people person," so I'd be good at sales.
Reality: People who develop sales skills are good at sales.

Fantasy: I work smarter, not harder.
Reality: Working harder is one of the smartest things a salesperson can do.

Fantasy: I don't close because most of my customers buy without me closing.
Reality: Your sales will increase if you would ask prospects to buy.

Fantasy: Sales training is motivation for a while, but then my salespeople fall back into their old habits.
Reality: Sales training requires everyday sales coaching to be most effective.

Fantasy: Top salespeople got lucky.
Reality: Top salespeople are better at selling.

Fantasy: I only hire people who are motivated to sell.
Reality: One of the biggest jobs of a sales manager is to motivate his/her salespeople to sell more.

Fantasy: Sales training doesn't work.
Reality: Sales training works only if there's sales learning taking place ["learning" = "change of sales behavior"].

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting firm. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

Proactive Selling

Some salespeople are reactive. They react to questions from customers. They provide information that the prospect requests. They take their cues from the prospect.

But wildly successful salespeople are proactive. They lead prospects through a buying process. They get prospects to willingly follow them. They most definitely focus on their prospect, but they are the leaders in the selling relationship.

Just as good managers, or parents, or friends do, wildly successful salespeople encourage their prospects, they cajole them into action, they have fun with them, they enlighten them, they care about them, they listen to them, they help them, they influence them, they persuade them, they add valuable perspective to the prospect's situation, and they sell more than average or low-performing salespeople do because of these behaviors.

To boost your sales, don't re-act; pro-act.

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting firm. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

When To Close

Despite all that's been written about the importance of closing the sale, there is still a massive army of salespeople out there who don't take proactive action to bring about a prospect's agreement to purchase. Someone recently asked me when a salesperson should close. Here's my answer:

1. Whenever the salesperson concludes that the prospect is receptive to buying:

Prospect: "I've always wanted a Sony X59; I can't believe how beautiful the video picture is! And my girlfriend would think it's awesome."

Salesperson: "Do you want to go ahead and get it?" [a so-called "direct question" close]

2. Whenever the salesperson has presented a solution to a prospect that meets either a stated or unstated need of the prospect.

3. After a "Test Close"

Salesperson: "You told me that you want to retire by age 62. Do you think the investment plan that we've discussed tonight would allow you to achieve your goal? [a "test" close]

Prospect: "Yeah, it looks good."

Salesperson: "If you'll just authorize this paperwork, we'll make your investment plan a reality." [a so-called  "assumptive" close]

4. To handle an objection:

Prospect: (after much discussion) "I'm just not convinced the colors in this painting will work with the colors in my house. I like these colors, but I sure don't want them to clash with my sofa and rug." [an objection]

Salesperson: "How about if I bring it over to your home so you can see what it looks like? If it looks good, you keep it and if it clashes, I bring it back to the gallery." [a so-called "puppy dog" close]

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting firm. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

Two Goals from Seth Godin

In Seth Godin's blog, he tells a story about customers at an Apple Store in New York who care. It's a good story, and at the end, Seth writes:

"If no one cares, you've got trouble. Goal one is getting people to care. Goal two: listening to them."

I think that's a great observation. When I read these words, managing came to mind. Managers sometimes say their biggest challenge is getting their employees to care. But some managers miss that their employees did care, or want to care, but after weeks or months of management not listening, they began to not care.

One of the most effective ways to get employees to care is to listen to them. If you have a challenge with your employees not caring, please make sure your real challenge isn't listening.

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting firm. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter. 

Opening Lines: Your Turn At Bat

When telemarketers call a prospect, they've got one brief opportunity to engage the prospect. If they fail, the prospect hangs up, and the telemarketer is left with nothing. It's their one shot at bat, and if they strike out, they've got to wait until the next call to make something happen. The same applies to business-to-business phone prospectors.

If you sell in a retail environment, your opening line has the same high risk implications. If you choose your opening line wisely, you will have engaged your prospect and a conversation will likely commence. If you fail, you have nothing more than another browser checking out your store, along with your hope that the prospect will do a 180 and come find you to talk about their needs.

I've been keeping track of how many retail salespeople greet me with a good opening line and how many greet me with a trite, ineffective line (as a sales trainer, I do these kinds of mundane things all the time). Since I started keeping track, I've been greeted by 21 retail salespeople, and 19 of them have greeted me with what I consider to be trite and ineffective closed questions (closed questions can be answered with a yes or a no, or answered with a multiple-choice answer). Examples of these common retail greetings include:

- May I help you?
- Are you looking for anything special?
- Is there anything I can point you to?
- Are you doing okay?
- And dozens of others.

Using these ineffective questions in analogous to walking up to home plate during your at-bat and merely holding the bat out over home plate while the pitcher hurls the ball past you. The best retail sales professionals realize that they've got one brief shot at initiating a conversation with a new prospect. Over time, how a salesperson handles those brief opportunities will determine what degree of collective sales success the salesperson achieves.

These principles also apply to salespeople who sell at trade shows or in showrooms, or in any other environment where the prospect comes to the salesperson.

The most effective approach to opening lines is to--if possible--first make some sincere and friendly "small talk" with your prospect, taking care to make sure the style, content, and length of this small talk is appropriate to what you perceive to be the personality, temperament, and interests of the prospect. This should also be appropriate for the nature of your business and the environment of your store. Salespeople should also be aware of the physical space around the prospect, and try to determine the prospect's preferences for privacy in their personal space (just because your a touchy-feely, warm, and engaging salesperson doesn't mean your prospect will share your excitement for close physical proximity during sales interactions!).

After you've been able to engage the prospect in friendly conversation, it's time to ask your opening question. It's almost never wise to open the selling dialogue with a statement (such as "We're having a big sale today," or "Our cutlery is over her and our pots and pans are over there and our gourmet food items are back here). Salespeople will have more success when they ask than when they tell. 

Here's my favorite opening question: "What brings you into our store today?"

According to my research, you will have the highest likelihood of engaging your prospect with this opening question than with any other I have tested. [Having said that, if you have a suggestion that your experiences tells you is a better opening question, please share it with me - you can email me through my website at www.SellingToConsumers.com/contact]

When it's your turn at bat, don't just stand there holding it! Swing it!

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting firm. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter at www.SellingToConsumers.com

 

The Gift (or Curse) of Gab

When I was growing up, there was a guy in my small town that was a career salesman. Everyone in town knew him, and many described him having been born with the "gift of gab." I guess that meant that he liked to talk to people and did a lot of it (today, "Gift of Gab" is the stage name of a rapper in the hip-hop duo Blackalicious).

I suspect having a "gift of gab" is a big plus for a rapper. But now, having worked with many salespeople over the years both as a sales trainer and as a consumer, I understand that the "gift of gab" is often the "curse of gab" for people who earn a living selling products or services to customers. 

Many salespeople simply talk too much, and consumers hate that. And when they talk, they talk about themselves, their company, and the product or service that they sell.

They have it all wrong. Top performing salespeople, whether they have had quality B2C sales training or have simply learned it through trial and error, have learned how to put the brakes on their personal desire to dominate a conversation.

It's a new year and time for those pesky resolutions. Were you born with the gift (or curse) of gab? Why not resolve to tame it in 2008? Learn to focus your attention externally toward your customers and your prospects, and away from the internal "it's all about me" focus that feels so natural to those with the gift of gab. This year, you can actually sell more by talking less. Really.

Have a wonderful and prosperous 2008.

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting firm. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips newsletter at www.SellingToConsumers.com