Diva Sales Tips

Years ago I had a goofy boss who looked and acted like Yosemite Sam.

Yosemite Sam did however, have a great piece of advice for me when I was going through a nasty sales SLUMP.

Honestly it was a dry spell that was so dry I had sand in my mouth.

I wasn’t closing any deals and it felt like I was losing contracts far more than I was getting them.

He looked at me with his one eyebrow and said…

“Go out and sell something small.
It will build your confidence.”

I’m sure I rolled my eyes but I went out and sold something ridiculously small.  ( I kid you not – I think I sold a non-profit agency some commercials that totaled $300.)

It was easy. Why? Because I thought it was small and therefore I didn’t feel pressure.

But I had BROKEN THE DRY SPELL.

And I went on to sell something a little bigger.

And then a little bigger than that.

And before you know it – I was back in the game!

Are You Stuck In A Sand-Dune?

Maybe you’re having a sales slump right now and quite frankly, you’re feeling a little depressed about it.

You’re probably faking it to your customers and everyone else but deep down you feel DREADFUL.  You’re freaking out in fact.

It’s easy to fix. Get out there and sell something small.

Contact one of your old customers who loves you and fill an order.  Offer a Blow-Out offer they can’t resist and let them know it only happens once per year and it’s because they’re such great clients.

You’ll break the sales DRY SPELL, it will increase your confidence and you’ll be off and running and selling BIG DEALS again.

Trust me. It works!

Make sure you post a comment about how you overcome ‘dry spells’.

And don’t forget to leave your website too!

Love from your bossy Sales Diva,

Kim

P.S. I’m devoted to helping as many women entrepreneurs and women in sales as I can.  If you know of someone who would love to learn HOW TO SELL THE RIGHT WAY, then please encourage them to sign up at www.salesdivas.com and we’ll get them on the track to success!

Glen Beckel sent me a message today on Facebook with a great question that I wanted to share with you and get your perspective on…

Hello Kim…first I want to let you know I very much like your posts here on FB. I have a question tho. My business http://www.fxmassagetherapy.com caters mostly to women, 70-80%. All my marketing specialists are male, web designer, video director and myself. Do you have specific recommendations geared towards marketing towards women? I’m also launching a second site to host other therapists so they don’t have to build a site of their own and we get the power of the network. Again most therapists are female, 70%.

Best regards,
Glen Beckel

How do you target women in your marketing? Share with Glen (and me) in the comments below

If you’d like some specific Sales Diva advice on sales and marketing – send your questions into info@salesdivas.com. (don’t forget to include your name AND website!)

Are you making this crazy mistake that is costing you a lot of money?

I bet you are and in my world, it’s called info dumping. Now let’s just back up for a second.

I want you to think of a massive garbage truck. I’m talking a huge one and it’s backing up towards you and it’s boop, boop, boop…and all of sudden, crash! All that garbage comes all over you.

Would you be thrilled?

Would you be excited?

Would you be motivated to buy from someone who did that to you?

Probably not….

Here’s the deal. More than often than not, I see most sales people information dumping all over their customer.

They’re not focusing on benefits. They’re focusing on features.

They’re focusing on:

• statistics
• formulas
• information
• a little bit of this
• too many testimonials that aren’t relevant to their customer

…..and all it does is create an overwhelmed customer. What you need to be doing is back up and ask yourself, are you being a garbage truck and absolutely dumping all over your customer?

Step back from your marketing materials.

Step back from your PowerPoint and I want you just to dive in and start asking relevant questions.

As a kid – I lovvvvved Casper the ghost comics.

I wanted my own ghost actually.

There was a cool old house out in the country that I loved (still do) and I desperately, desperately wished for a ghost! I wanted to see a tall, kind ghost walking through the trees, or see a transparent woman baking bread in the old kitchen.

Didn’t happen. My Casper didn’t show up.

Funnily enough though…I’m like the kid from the movie who sees “dead people”. Now I see “Casper-the-ghost-sales people.”

Now you see them – now you don’t.
Now I see you – now I don’t.

Right now there are customers you need to call and you’re avoiding it.

Maybe you screwed up the bill.
Maybe you forgot to send the proposal.
Or you’re mad at them because they went to your competition.
You’re offended they haven’t returned your calls or email.
Or you’ve dropped the ball so bad that even THINKING about this client makes you feel ill.

You’ve officially become Casper The Ghost to them.

But here’s the catch o-wispy-one.

They’re probably NOT mad at you.
They haven’t kept track of how long you’ve disappeared…they have a life!
(1 year feels like 6 months to them…6 months feels like 3 months..get the picture?)

And you’ll FEEL SO MUCH BETTER if you grow a back bone instead of a wish-bone and call them.

So. Do. It.

I was visiting my good friend Tina recently and her young boys were playing in the living room.  Her youngest boy is definitely a comedic little guy – he always wants the LAST WORD.

Tina asked her oldest son to do a chore and her youngest boy leaned in with his huge blue eyes and Bambi lashes and said…

“Don’t do it.  It’s a TRAP.”

Honestly – we cracked up – advice from a 5 year old…but you know what I was thinking…”Hey – this is a great idea for a sales tip!”

Do You Know The Biggest Trap In Sales?

It’s when you’ve presented something to your customer/potential customer and they say…

“Well – I can get this from your competition for much cheaper.

Will you match their rates?”

Uh-oh.  You’ve officially landed in a trap.

The worst part? You set it yourself.

How Did You Set The Biggest Trap For Yourself?

You didn’t ask your client enough questions in the beginning. (Cough – you DID ask questions right?)

The more info you know about your customer BEFORE you present a proposal is to your advantage.  You have to know the HOT SPOTS of what they’re looking.

Examples:

What is your goal for using the service? Time frame?

What problems do you want to correct?

Are you using a product/service like this now?

Why are you leaving your current provider?

What attracted you to our company?

Have you defined a budget for this project?

How do you want to determine success with this product/service?

By getting a clear picture of what your customer wants you can AVOID walking into a trap that you SET YOURSELF by not positioning yourself as being DIFFERENT and RELEVANT to your customer.

So there.

Make sure you post a comment about a time when you were in a “TRAP”.

Make sure to leave your website too!

Love from your bossy Sales Diva,

Kim

P.S. I’m devoted to helping as many women entrepreneurs and women in sales as I can.  If you know of someone who would love to learn HOW TO SELL THE RIGHT WAY, then please encourage them to sign up at www.salesdivas.com and we’ll get them on the track to success!

Where is your customer hanging out?

Now I may be a sales diva, and I may have long nails but I like to fish.
I know that’s kind of hard to believe but when you fish, you don’t just get in the boat and just troll up and down the lake all over the place and hope that you’re going to catch something. Oh by the way, with your rod still in the boat and you didn’t bring the proper bait and you really have no idea what you’re fishing for? That’s not how you fish and that’s also not how you look for customers.

When you’re fishing, you don’t troll the lake, you go and find the little spot that is a secret spot and that’s where the fish are hanging out and they’re doing their thing and then you make sure that you have the proper bait, you have the hook in the water, and that also that you’re releasing the fish that are the best for you.

So let me ask you a question. Where are your customers hanging out? Are you winging it again? Are you just hoping that they’re going to phone you? Are you hoping they’re going to find out that you’re an expert? You need to be fishing where the fish are.

You need to be hanging out where they’re hanging.

So I have a diva sales assignment for you.

I want you to ask your customers, what professional associations do they belong to? What sort of networking events are they going to on a regular basis? And I want you to ask them if they’ll take you along as a guest.

I want you to check it out and of course, when you’re sitting in a table with your client who’s raving about you, that is probably one of the best sales techniques you can ever use because it’s a referral and also, join as a supplier, join an association as a supplier because that way you’ll have access to some of the information in the database; you’re a member so you’re increasing the trust ratio, and many times you can submit an article to their online newsletter or even to a printed newsletter.

So I don’t know about you, but I’d rather use my time and my money doing that than trolling up and down a lake.

Last Friday I hosted 12- 12 year olds for a birthday collage party for my niece.  Everyone had scissors, glue, a pile of magazines, poster board and I said…

“No rules! Just put on the poster all of the things you’d like to see this year -
everything you love!”

It was wild – if you saw clouds of “snow” over my house – it wasn’t snow at all…it was little pieces of paper from my 12 Edward ScissorHands!

I really loved watching the girls – they were yakking up a storm, lots of laughing and I noticed 2 very important things.

Things that apply to you too Lady!

Do You Have Second-Guess Paralysis?

50% of the girls went crazy clipping stuff – honestly they had so many pictures they had to flip the paper and use the backside.

The other 50% had collages that were almost barren.  Just a few random pictures.  And what did I hear them asking?

“Do you guys like this picture? Do you think I should use it? My collage is ugly…”

They were stuck.  They had what I lovingly call Second Guess Paralysis.  They didn’t trust themselves.

Of course I jumped in and told them their collage was off to great start! I  then asked what kind of food, flowers, movies, actors, pets, animals, fashion, places in the world, books, music etc that they liked ….and their 12-year old sparkling eyes LIT UP….and immediately their collages started filling up like crazy too!

(They had no idea they’d just been Diva-dized)

The second thing I noticed?

The girls that were ROCKING right out of the gate – did this:

“Hey everyone – I’ve got a picture of a dog – anyone need it?”

“Hey guys – I need a picture of a cat – do you have one?”

Get the picture?

What Are You Paralyzed About?

Are you currently feeling stuck about …

• How to jump in on social media?
• How to get new customers?
• Your lack-luster sales?
• How and why you should network?
• How you can get media coverage?
• Your website/ezine/blog?
• Fill in the _____________?

Listen cupcake – I know what you’re up to.

You’re trying to be PERFECT.

You don’t want to SCREW-UP.

You don’t want anyone to laugh at your “collage”!

Gotcha – didn’t I?

Guess what? You’ve got the basics down – all you need is to ASK some questions.  Who can you help and WHO can HELP YOU?

Here’s your Sales Diva Dare.  If you want to be more successful then you need

to step out of Second-Guess Paralysis.

Within the next 48 hours I want you to TAKE ACTION on something you’ve been stalling on in your business. (Yeah – THAT THING THAT JUST POPPED INTO YOUR HEAD)

Share how Second-Guess Paralysis is affecting your business and what you’re doing to overcome it, in the comments!

Love from your bossy Sales Diva,

Kim

P.S. I’m devoted to helping as many women entrepreneurs and women in sales as I can.  If you know of someone who would love to learn HOW TO SELL THE RIGHT WAY, then please encourage them to sign up at www.salesdivas.com and we’ll get them on the track to success!

Our Dazzle Diva question, this week, comes from Yvonne of Eco Scrubbers Inc.:

Hello Sales Diva.

I would like advice on how to sell my services to clients as my business is stuck at one place currently. How do  i get my foot in the door?

Thank you,
Yvonne
Eco Scrubbers Inc.

What are you doing to kick your business into high gear? Share with Yvonne (and me) in the comments

If you’d like some specific Sales Diva advice on sales and marketing – send your questions into info@salesdivas.com. (don’t forget to include your name AND website!)

Before I launched The Sales Divas I was in sales and management for 2 of Canada’s largest national television networks. (For 15 years and I had massive success!)

And ohhhhh boyyyy – I had some amazing customers!  (In fact, some of them were GIGANTIC)

In my first few years of selling …I was STOKED by these HUGE clients and I spent most of my time on them.  I was lunching with big-time advertising agencies and loving every minute of it.

(This of course, led me to make the BIGGEST MISTAKE I ever made in selling…it was like I was about to collapse in a hole and DIDN’T KNOW IT)

My Biggest Mistake?

I forgot about the “littler guys.”

The smaller companies/people who had significant money to spend but they weren’t as sexy and glamorous as the BIG MONEY I was making from the large corporations and ad agencies.

In fact, the “old boys club” really encouraged you to DROP the “little guys” and only focus on the biggest accounts.

Until of course…..something happened to one or MORE of those big accounts ie/ They switched to a new network, your connection was fired or jumped ship, they shut down a division, they went bankrupt etc.

You get the picture.  And pretty soon my BIG CLIENTS shriveled and sizzled down to nothing and I was in full-scale panic mode!

Because when you were in straight commission sales as I was….no money means no food on the table.  Eeek!

Are You Making One of These 2 BIG Mistakes?

I learned a hard lesson all those years ago and from that moment on – I always made sure to have different levels of customers in my “pipeline”. (Remember -in order to make a turkey sandwich – you need some bread and butter and NOT just the turkey!)

I’d bet you’re either focusing all your efforts on:

• A few, big-scale customers. (You don’t have ANY “littler guys”)
• Many, too-small customers (who put together wouldn’t give you enough money to buy a sandwich.)

What can I say? DON’T DO IT.

Relying on just a few large accounts makes you very vulnerable.

Relying on too-small customers who can barely pay anything makes you exhausted.

You need a mixture of large and medium (A medium is a “littler guy” to me)

Remember – “littler companies” have a tendency to ALSO GROW into bigger companies too!

My Diva Dare Question For You?

Are you well-positioned with your customer base or are you on “shaky ground?” with only a few heavy-weights or a kazillion puny customers?

Time to figure it out lady.

So there.

Love from Your Sales Diva,

Kim

P.S. I’m devoted to helping as many women entrepreneurs and women in sales as I can.  If you know of someone who would love to learn HOW TO SELL THE RIGHT WAY, then please encourage them to sign up at www.salesdivas.com and we’ll get them on the track to success!