Selling to Consumers | Sales Training Blog by Skip Anderson

Free eBook: "27 Can-Do Steps to Sell More in Tough Economic Times"

My new eBook is 33 pages and it's absolutely free. Download it here at free sales ebook.

And please email this link to your colleagues and friends so they can download it, too:

http://sellingtoconsumers.com/27_can_do_steps_to_sell_more.htm

 

Business Networking Tip #3: Give Before You Expect to Receive

Some of us in the sales profession do lots and lots of networking (all of us should be networking, regardless of the type of selling we do - and yes, that include retail sales pros, too). I've noticed there are three types of networkers:

1. Those on a mission to receive.

These are the individuals who are always looking for business, introductions, and referrals through networking. The individuals can be quite aggressive, and even off-putting. What many of these real estate agents, insurance sellers, financial professionals, and others don't fully comprehend is that prospects and customers typically care primarily about themselves, and are not programmed to go out of their way for others.

What is this group's fatal flaw? They seek to receive without giving first, and this is a turn-off for many. Therefore, networking success for these folks is often very limited.

2. Those on a mission to give.

These salespeople know that they will eventually receive if they give first. They've learned to be the first one to extend a hand of support, or share a lead, or provide a valuable tidbit of information. These salespeople, who we should all aspire to become if we aren't already, have a spirit of helping others, knowing they will benefit be creating the relationship first and receiving the benefits of that relationship as time marches on.

Give before you expect to receive.

3. Those who network but aren't on a mission.

These individuals don't have a clear networking plan. They have a lot of contacts, they connect with a lot of people, and they enjoy meeting new acquaintances. But they are missing a networking strategy. They likely know where they want to end up (with revenue generated via their network), but there is a disconnect between their strategy and their desired end game. These individuals enjoy the hunt, but they don't reap benefits from it.

What is this group's fatal flaw? Random networking activity that doesn't get them to where they want to go.

* * * * *

While we're on the topic of networking, I wanted to let you know about a book I've recently read by Kathleen Watson, MBA. "NetProfit: Business Networking Without the Nerves."

What I love about this book is the simplicity of the layout of the book. There are copious checklists of activities, self-checks throughout the book to get you to analyze your own networking behaviors, and valuable "bottom line" summaries.

The chapters are fairly brief and easily digestible, but don't take that to mean light on content. This is a very good book, and anybody who is interested in improving their networking skills would be well-served to read it. Get information here about NetProfit.

 

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Skip Anderson is the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and management consulting company. Skip is mad about helping companies and individuals sell more. 

Inspiring Ideas to Help You Sell Through the Retail Slump

The Customer Collective asked eleven leading sales experts to contribute to a fantastic free eBook to help sellers through the recession. The brand new eBook, "Selling Through a Slump: An Industry-by-Industry Playbook" is available at the Customer Collective site starting today. With authors like Charles Green, Jill Konrath, and Dave Stein and other respected selling authorities, I'm proud to be part of the author group.

Each author gives inspiring advice for overcoming the economic slump in one specific industry. My contribution is for the retail industry (although the information might also be helpful to those who sell in customers' homes or to those who sell real estate, financial products, and insurance). Many retailers have been hit hard during this recession, but there are still incredible opportunities for sales growth.

See the complete list of authors and the sales topics who contributed a sales strategy to the book. I've read the entire book and it is excellent. Thanks to Oracle and the Customer Collective for sponsoring the project.

Download the Selling in a Slump free eBook now!

If you like this post (or don't!), please consider leaving a comment, or subscribe to our free sales tips newsletter.

Skip Anderson is the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and management consulting company. Skip is nuts about helping companies and individuals sell more. 

Book Review: The Race to Success (Time Mastery = Sales Success)

I picked up Cheryl A. Clausen's new book, The Race To Success: The Master Guide to Sales Success Through Time Mastery to read on the plane on a recent trip. Always looking for new ideas, I was not disappointed with Cheryl's book.

High performers in many different fields of endeavor, including sales and business, must treat time as one of the most precious resources we use.Time is the one resource we can never replace; once time is gone, it is gone forever.

Cheryl makes a compelling case for proactive time management in her book. Using the analogy of a race, she guides the reader through a well-conceived plan of getting control of time to achieve sales success.

I wish I would have been able to recommend "The Race to Success" when I was a sales manager. I worked with several people in my management career who had tremendous sales potential, but absolutely horrible time management skills. This book would have been a valuable centerpiece for the time management coaching I was doing with those individuals. I will continue to recommend this book to my corporate clients and individual coaching clients who would benefit by cleaning up their use of time and making sure they utilize every day wisely.

The Race to Success is a 99 page paperback and a fairly quick read.

If you like this post (or don't!), please consider leaving a comment, or subscribe to our free sales tips newsletter.

Skip Anderson is the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and management consulting company. Skip is nuts about helping companies and individuals sell more. 

Book Review | "Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy" by Martin Lindstrom

Martin Lindstrom is a global branding expert and and brand futurist. His latest book is "Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy."

First, some information about the author. Martin is a globe-trotting marketing hot-shot who spends 300 days each year traveling to all corners of the business world to consult with companies on branding and customer engagement issues. One of his previous books, BRAND Sense, was acclaimed by the Wall Street Journal as one of the five best marketing books ever published. Both BRAND Sense and Buyology have been translated into over twenty-five languages.

Buyology is a fantastic read. It's main topic is "neuromarketing," a newer field that blends science and marketing into a new discipline. Neuromarketers use technology to do such things as analyzing brain activity to identify study participants' reactions to brands or products or other stimuli. In doing so, a scientist can determine the true reasons various variables resonate positively or negatively within the subject's psyche.

Buyology is chock full of neuromarketing tales and fascinating stories of marketing studies. Anybody who is vaguely interested in marketing, branding, or business in general will be entertained and informed by this book. I also appreciate that much of the information in the book can be applicable to the sales professional, although it is not a sales book.

At times, the reader may feel like this book is part science fiction, but it's interesting whether you're a SF fan or not (I'm not). It's not science fiction, it's the state of creating marketing and branding today. Do yourself a favor and read Buyology. I highly recommend it.

Listen to my interview with Martin Lindstrom on the Selling to Consumers Podcast.

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Skip Anderson is the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and management consulting company. Skip is nuts about helping companies and individuals sell more. 

Grow Your Business Today: 3 Experts Share Their Fab Ideas

Today, I have three dynamic experts to help you grow your business (whether you are self-employed, a business owner, or an employee of a business). Here goes...

ONE. Here's a quote from internet strategist Leslie Carothers that she thought up herself right there in her little ol' head. And I love it:

"Intention without action = the status quo."

-Leslie Carothers

Salespeople and business owners' heads are full of good intentions, but sometimes the only thing keeping the intentions from becoming reality is one thing: inaction. The status quo is the enemy of business growth. So what can you take action on today upon which you've had the intention of taking action?

This reminds me of one of my own quotes:

"Activity breeds activity."

-Skip Anderson

If you want more customer activity (as in "buying"), then get more active. Get off the sofa!


TWO. I'm a big fan of marketing expert Al Ries. I absolutely love his marketing books (The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing is a must-read for anyone interested in marketing and business). If you're self-employed, a business owner, or simply interested in marketing, read his wonderful post at Advertising Age, "The Difference Between Building a Business and Building a Brand."

Read it even if you're a salesperson. As you read Ries' post, think about your personal brand as I presented it in my personal branding post earlier this week. Be true to your brand!


THREE. Over at Trizle, there's a great post about "Why Entrepreneurs Fail." It's well written and has some great, simple insight into what we all need to do to run successful businesses.

If Carothers, Ries, and Trizle can't inspire you today, then I don't know who can! Read on! Sell more!

Please share your comments. C'mon, now...click "comments" below just a little bit and post a comment!

Skip Anderson is a professional speaker, sales coach, and the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and consulting company. Subscribe to our free sales tips newsletter.

Sales Coaching: A New Edition

I bought Linda Richardson's book, "Sales Coaching: Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach" when it was first published in 1996. For me, it was one of those books you read where you find yourself thinking, "I wish I would have written this book!" As a believer in the importance of sales manager's who coach, it was the best book on Sales Coaching I had ever read.

Now Linda's book is being released in a revised and expanded second edition. If you're a sales manager, get this book.

The principles of the first edition remain in this new edition, but special attention has now been given to streamlining Linda's Developmental Sales Coaching Model. Additions to this edition include remote coaching and a discussion of technology.

I admire Linda's Developmental Sales Coaching model:

1. Connect and Clarify
2. Compare Perceptions
3. Consider Obstacles
4. Construct to Remove Obstacle
5. Commit to Action

Linda believes the power of sales coaching is in the questions you ask (not unlike the power of selling lying in the questions one asks!). I agree. Questions are the secret strategy of effective sales coaches.

This book is not for sales managers who believe their job is to be the top seller in an organization. Nor is it intended for the sales manager who spends the entire day hunkered down in front of his computer in his office. This book is for the sales manager that understands that her biggest impact on her company will be achieved by rolling up sleeves and digging deeply into the sales behaviors of each of her sales people. For that kind of sales manager (and I wish there were many more of them), this book leads the way.

- - - - - - - - - -

Speaking of sales coaching, for a limited time, I'm offering a free 50 minute sales coaching session to any of my readers who are business-to-consumer sales representatives, sales managers, or business owners. Contact me for more information here or call our office at 651.681.8568.

Skip Anderson is a professional speaker, sales coach, and the Founder of Selling to Consumers, a B2C and retail sales training and consulting company. Subscribe to the free Sales Tips newsletter.

Networking: An Interview with Liz Lynch

Certainly, some B2C salespeople spend a great deal of time and effort networking (typically, those who sell real estate, financial products, and insurance). But other consumer salespeople haven't jumped on the networking bandwagon yet (those who sell in retail stores and showrooms, or those who sell in customers' homes). I'm always preaching the importance of networking as a way to expand both revenue creation and the reach of professional influence.

Liz Lynch is the author of the new book Smart Networking: Attract a Following In Person and Online.

I interviewed Liz Lynch to get some networking advice for readers of the Selling to Consumers Blog:

Skip Anderson: Liz, if a salesperson who has never put any effort into networking wakes up one morning and realizes, "Hey, I've got to start networking," where would you suggest they begin?

Liz Lynch: That exact same thing happened to me, so I’ll tell you what I did. Since it takes time to build relationships from scratch, I reconnected with people I already had in my network. These are the folks who already knew me and my work and who would most readily support anything I wanted to do. As it turned out, I got nearly all of my business my first two years from that small group. We can get so caught up sometimes in trying to meet the next new person who can bring us a million dollars of business, that we forget about the contacts we already have.

Skip Anderson: There are only 24 hours in a day and seven days in a week. How can a savvy networker decide where to put their efforts to achieve the most return on their time investment?

Liz Lynch: I didn’t pay you to ask this question, but you teed up the exact premise of my book perfectly! Smart networking starts with a purpose. First articulate the goal you want to achieve, then determine who you need to have in your network to help you reach that goal. Next figure out the best way to connect with those people. Is it in person or online? Is it through direct contact or an introduction from a mutual connection? By putting together a plan like this you can focus exclusively on the activities that will help you build the right relationships.
 
Most people work backwards and start going to events and meeting whoever they can meet and fitting them into their network somewhere. Or they join an online network but don’t really know who they’re supposed to connect with. It can be very random and take a lot of work for little result.

Skip Anderson: Are there certain personality types who do better at networking, and other personality types who struggle with networking?

Liz Lynch: I think different personality types have different struggles and triumphs when it comes to networking. Extroverts may find it easier to get out there and be energized by walking into a roomful of strangers, but they may shine the spotlight too long on themselves. Introverts may have a harder time getting started, but if they can get over this initial hump, they’ll may end up building rapport more quickly. Because they (we, because I’m one too) don’t like the attention, they’re more likely to want to keep the other person talking by asking questions, and this will actually help them develop a stronger bond.

Skip Anderson: Networking for salespeople needs to be not only about expanding their network, but also to create revenue. What suggestions do you have for networkers to align their networking activities with their need to generate revenue?

Liz Lynch: Ah yes, we all like revenue, don’t we? To get more focused on revenue, get more focused on who you’re networking with. Build your own strategic alliance group of folks who target the same customers as you do, but with complementary, rather than competing, services. You can bring each other in on projects and be more of a resource to your clients because you’re able to help them with more of their business needs. Use your networking time to find the right people for your alliance and to get to know each other well so you know exactly how to leverage each other.

Skip Anderson: What is biggest mistake salespeople tend to make in their approach to networking?

Liz Lynch: I think the biggest mistake is trying to sell at a networking event. People go to networking events to make connections, not to buy stuff. They don’t want to be subjected to a sales pitch. Of course they’ll ask you what you do, but it’s not the time to go into a 10-minute presentation and use boiler room closing techniques to get the next appointment. Have confidence in relaying what you do, but focus on getting to know them too, and on building a close enough connection that they’ll want to sit down with you for a follow up.

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Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting company specializing in sales training in retail, in-home selling, and services. Subscribe to the free Sales Tips newsletter.