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 love the decor, the songs, the cheesy Christmas specials (my favorite is the Charlie Brown Christmas), my mom’s shortbread, visiting with friends and family and having mulled wine after cross-country skiing. I love it all!

This fa-la-la-la-la atmosphere can lull you into making one of the GOOFIEST mistakes I see people making with their customers.

What Is The Goofy Christmas Mistake?

Sending Christmas cards and presents to your clients.

You know what I’m talking about here.

The dreaded fruit basket.
The frightening fruit cake.
The dried-out gingerbread house.
The Costco cheese platter.

All mixed in with 12 million Christmas cards that are strung out on a string across your client’s office.  Or worse – some lame e-card that says Seasons Greetings.

If you’re doing this – you are breaking the GOLDEN SALES DIVA RULE.

Thou shall not BLEND IN WITH THE MASSES.

Listen lady.

I know you love your customers.  However, giving them something at Christmas when they are swamped with a bunch of Christmas goodies – DOES NOT MAKE YOU STAND OUT.

So What Does Your Diva Want You To Do?

Send something in January.

Why? Well – the fun is over and the bills start to pour in.  The credit cards are full, it is cold outside and your client is starting to feel a little grouchy.

Here’s where YOU come in.

You’re going to send something FUN in the mail to them – a cool gadget, a magazine subscription for their favorite hobby, a ticket to the opera – whatever would float their boat.   Or you’ll take them for lunch and give them the scarf you found for their Paris trip.  Make it personal.

And you’re only going to send it to your TOP 10% of your clients.  Remember -the clients who are responsible for keeping you in business with their referrals and purchases.  (The ones you’d have a panic attack over if they went to your competition)

Your client will love you for it.

You will stand out in the crowd.

And you’ve created an opportunity for starting the year off on a positive note.

So there.

Love from your Bossy Sales Diva,

Kim

Get a load of the look on her face.  She isn’t feeling too wonderful about her pile of money!

Do you want to know one of the reasons so many women struggle with selling?

Women Feel Like They Are Stealing From Their Customers

 I kid you not.

Many women (maybe even YOU) want to help customers with your product or service.  In fact – sometimes you even feel BAD that you are charging customers! (admit it lady)

Somewhere along the line you were taught that SELLING IS BAD.  That salespeople are like bank robbers – always trying to rip people off.  And so deep down the thought of being in sales just makes you feel…like Bonnie from Bonnie and Clyde!

Well – Your Sales Diva is here to tell you – THAT JUST ISN”T SO!

Being in sales is an honorable way to earn a living.  In fact – anyone who has their own business is in SALES and MARKETING FIRST and whatever they sell SECOND.

Even dentists.  Even doctors. Even bankers. Even lawyers.  And everyone else you think “isn’t in sales”.

 WHY?

Because without SALES they have empty chairs, empty offices, and empty bank accounts too.

 So I think it’s time that you started seeing yourself as a sales professional in EVERY WAY don’t you? 

You’re doing good things for your customers and you deserve to be paid fairly for it.

 And you can definitely TAKE THAT to the bank.

 So there.

 It’s about getting all the spinning ideas and inspiration out of my head and into ACTION! (Be watching for more exciting projects from me Lady!)

I had a wonderful time at the second annual http://www.salesshebang.com/ .  I was the opening keynote speaker and we had a ballroom full of smart, innovative and very fun saleswomen in attendance!

Jill Konrath is  the fabulous author and speaker who created The Sales Shebang  (sales training for women in sales – make sure you check out her site at www.sellingtobigcompanies.com

Pictures and more to come regarding my Sales Shebang experience…I’ll be adding some super sophisticated women to my blog roll in the next week or so….you’ll definitely want to check them out.

 Ohhhh – I almost forgot!  I also did 10-video clips that will be used on a very well-known business blog – stay tuned – you’ll get some of my SASSY TIPS in video!

Were you at the Sales Shebang Conference? If so – drop me a line!

If you MISSED THE EVENT – yikes – make sure to sign up for the e-zine at http://www.salesshebang.com/ so you’ll get tons of notice for next year.

Yawn. 

This is the first thing I think of when someone I don’t know contacts me by:

• Saying “Kim, when is the best time to call you – Tuesday or Wed?”….(they are in high-pressure sales mode)
• Sending me direct mail that is all about them. (double yawn)
• Sales proposals that use boring language, boring visuals and boring benefits. (nothing that relates to me or my needs)

No One Needs Any More Mediocrity

So my Diva Dare to you is:

Spice up those sales proposals! Make them relevant, visually interesting…make someone drooooooooooooooool they want it so bad!

So there.

My friend Bev and I like to check out a new place every couple of weeks – you never know what you’ll find!

Today we visited a new little eatery that I’ll never set foot in again.

Why?

 Hmmm – well…we were the only diners in the restaurant and had to wait to get a glass of water (and then they brought it warm.)

The lunch order was totally bland and forgettable, the soup we ordered as a starter came after the entree  (much later) and it was a tomato soup curdled disaster.  Egad.

The owner was fumbling all over herself, apologizing a million times…but this pretty much explained why the diner wasn’t full and also why I’ll never go back.

It was a N0-G00d-Soup For You Moment!

 So wait a second – could THIS be happening to your business?

• Are you following up sporadically?
• Do you over-promise and under-deliver (and KNOW it?)
• Are your products and services pretty blah and forgettable?

We all make mistakes from time to time – I get that. 

However - if your sales are at the bottom of the soup pot – there is always a reason (and NO – you can’t blame everything on the economy either)

 Soooo – don’t be lazy, don’t be bland, don’t forget about your customers who take time to contact you, don’t take it for granted that customers will keep walking through the door.

Too many “bad soup” experiences and your customer will move on and try someone new and different.  And sometimes they will do it after only 1 CONTACT with you.

P.S. Which was EXACTLY what Bev and I did  -we hit a new place immediately afterward  and I had the most unbelievable banana-chocolate bread pudding – YUM!

I was in Barbados presenting at a conference, then off to Montreal to be trained about Global Warming from Al Gore (a volunteer project I’m doing), off to Chicago and then back to Edmonton to emcee a local 2-day conference.

I had many fabulous experiences but I  also had 1 noteworthy brutal customer service experience as well.

This is a company who definitely does not read anything from www.sethgodin.com or your very own www.salesdivas.com!

Which company am I referring to??

Air Canada. 

They take the cake for conducting their business in complete denial. (never, ever use this airline by the way!) The ways they screwed up were too long to identify here – however – when I contacted their Customer Service and Complaint Department – they said they would get back to me in approx. 5-6 weeks.

Wow – how is that for a speedy resolution?

As a Canadian – I would love to be able to brag about our wonderful national airline. But I can’t. Their staff are rude, condescending, lacking in responsibility and they have given me enough fodder for a million seminars in the future.

However, I CAN brag about another Canadian airline that is doing EVERYTHING RIGHT.

  www.westjet.com is the “little airline that could” and has been growing leaps and bounds in Canada over the past decade. 

They get it.

 If you want friendly customer agents who treat their customers as guests,  positive problem-solvers who are given flexibility to make decisions and who CONSISTENTLY provide exceptional service on every level…then www.westjet.com is the airline to use.

 Have a look within your own market and your industry.  I would bet there are 2 companies who represent both sides of the scale.  One is doing amazing things for its customers and the other….well – they are big but they are dying a slow, “monopolizing” death.

 Make sure you know which side your company represents.

 So there.

What ticks me off about their old-fashioned and out-dated sales approach?

1. They use an unknown number.
2. They leave a message – ” I’d like to talk to you about a “transcription matter” – which is their sneaky way of trying to get me to call them back. (I know there aren’t any “matters” I need to speak to them about)
3. And they keep callingggggggg.

My sales tip to all of you fabulous women in sales?

Don’t do that. 

Contrary to popular belief ” Persistence does not wear down resistance.”

It just makes you a pain in the you know what.

With New York that is!

One of the most hilarious moments was when my friend Bev and I went into Saks. http://www.saksfifthavenue.com/

As soon as you walk through the doors you smell this delicious mixture of perfumes from around the world.

If you are allergic (be forewarned lady!)

It’s a lavish, beautiful store with marble floors, clothing to drool over and much more.

But. Yes – there’s a but.

Saks also has an army of make-up specialists standing in front of of their cosmetics counters with this look of absolute determination in their eyes.

They want you to stop in your tracks RIGHT NOW to get their 10 minute make-up overhaul that will banish 10 years from your face. 

 I’m not kidding – it was close to full scale hand to hand combat to get them to back off!

At one point I was  howling with laughter as my friend Bev had this guy massaging her face in the middle of the aisle…without her permission and who was pulling her hair back and saying she had “glorious eyebrows”.

Oh please.

As we walked away with the cosmetics guy saying “Come back…Come back” in desperation…I thought – Hmmm…

“ I wonder how many people actually sell like this to their customers?”

Remember ladies – the beg and plead approach doesn’t work.

Why?

The perfume of Desperation just stinks.

What do they Information Dump about?

All the BORING features and benefits of what is marvelous about their product or service.

Yawn.

Instead, as a customer I am interested in someone who is a PAIN-REDUCER.

For instance.

I was recently buying new appliances for my home.

This is always a great reminder as you get to deal with a million sales people who are torturing their customers on a daily basis.

The first 3 places I looked, had salespeople who didn’t ask me ONE QUESTION about what was the most important thing I was looking for.

Instead they babbled on for 10 minutes (as I was looking around frantically for an oxygen tank to give them) about all the wonderful features of this and this and this. (hellllo spin cycle!)

They lost me. 

I wasn’t even thinking about the appliance and all its “pleasurable” features any longer. 

 I was looking for the next exit.

So Who Sold Me The Fancy Schmancy Appliances?

A guy who did a wonderful job of asking me questions that weren’t pushy.

For example.

He asked me if I liked to cook (I LOVE it), he asked me if I hated doing laundry (are there people out there who actually like it??)  and he also asked me how important it was for me to have environmentally friendly appliances. (Al Gore is my hero).

And based upon my responses he did something you’re probably not doing.

He made a RECOMMENDATION.

He recommended I have:

•  dual-ovens so I wouldn’t be serving food on cold plates to my guests.
•  a convection oven so I can quit wasting 25% of my time WAITING for meals to be ready
• washing machine and dryer on stands which also use a teaspoon of soap so I am not harming the environment or always shopping for laundry soap.
• and sooooo much more.

 And he also made a very big sale.

So What Are You Doing Still Flopping On Spin Cycle?

I know. I know.

You were taught by someone that being a good sales person is being a smooth talker.

Ditch that thought.

Instead – FOCUS on all the PAINFUL PROBLEMS you’ve learned from your client and cater to that instead.

I don’t care about all your features and benefits.  They just go down the drain.

I want to know HOW you’ll solve my problem better than anyone else.

Answer that and you’re out of the spin cycle lady!