She believes if you want to make life a little more interesting then you need to …

“Stir The Pot”

So What Does Stir The Pot Mean?

I’m sure you’ve had this happen. (in fact – you may be experiencing it at this very moment)

You’ve been busy. Or distracted. Or focusing on something else (whatever that may be).

And during your “mental absence” your sales have slowed down -in fact, there’s nothing simmering at all.

And you’re starting to panic. Lots of heavy breathing, heart racing, 3 am wide-awake moments (and George Clooney nowhere in sight!)

Get out Your Wooden Spoon Lady!

It’s time to stir things up a bit.

I want you to set aside 3 hours. (YES – 3 hours – enough whining already!)

And you’re going to do some SERIOUS POT STIRRING.

How?

5 Ridiculously Easy Ways To Increase Your Sales:

1. Phone all of your top customers and ask them for their advice on a free teleclass you’d like to offer. Ask them what topics would interest the
2. Email the customers who have purchased from you…but they have settled down to the bottom of the pot. Ask them about the tele-class too.
3. Ask a potential customer that you’ve met recently, out for lunch. Ask them for feedback as well about a teleclass/product etc that you’re working on. Ask them what their challenges and goals are for their business as well.
4. Attend a networking function filled with people who are your niche!
5. Create a special blow-out offer and send it to all your SPECIAL TOP CUSTOMERS via a postcard or through your e-zine (oops – you DO have an e-zine don’t you??)

What Will Happen?

You connect with people you’ve been out of touch with.
You create top of mind awareness again.
People will say “I was just thinking about you….”
You’ll get feedback and ideas.
You’ll sell stuff.

And most importantly?

You’ll learn you CANNOT IGNORE YOUR CUSTOMERS. (next time you do that I’ll smack you with a “wooden spoon”)

So there.

Love From Your Bossy Sales Diva,

Kim

There are so many advantages to growing up in a little place like that. You’re surrounded by people who KNOW WHO YOU ARE. (now as a kid and especially a teen-ager – that can be both good and bad!)

And YET – it was from this tiny spot that I learned the sales skills that I now travel and teach internationally today.

My Best Sales Teacher?

The absolute best teacher for me was a wonderful, elderly gentleman named Mr. Farkas. He was a very tall and elegant man, who was always dressed very formally and yet he had eyes that twinkled and he was SO quick to smile.

He and his wife ran a little café in the center of town. They had the best of EVERYTHING to offer a 6 year old kid. Chocolate bars ( my favorite was the Wig Wag!) , a hundred different kinds of ice cream, penny candy by the jar (and all the jars were all lined up for you to drool over) and suckers and gum by the boatload.

For a little girl in the ‘70s – this place was magic!! But sometimes it felt a little overwhelming. I didn’t want to make a mistake and order something and then change my mind.

I would stand there with 25 cents in my hand – trying to make up my mind on what I wanted. And even though he had a line-up of other customers…

…Mr. Farkas never PUSHED ME TO HURRY UP and MAKE A DECISION.

Instead he would ask me this very simple question:

“ Kim, what are you craving today?”

And well – that always did it!

Because you crave something DIFFERENT every day and it also makes you feel that you can CHOOSE SOMETHING DIFFERENT another day! There was no risk.

Instantly what I wanted would pop into my mind and I would make a choice.

And this is what he also did.

He thanked me each and every time. He treated me the SAME as the adults who had spent hundreds of dollars in his café. I felt special.

And I loved Mr. Farkas.

What Can You Learn From An 80-Year Old?

Well – I want you to ask yourself:

1. Do You Know What Your Customers Are Craving? So often women come up to me and tell me about their product or service and how they are having a tough time selling it. And when I ask them “Did you ask your customers what they wanted?” – they look at me with a blank stare and then say “NO.”
2. Do You Push Your Customers To Make A Decision? My. Farkas was gentle with me and he knew what I was struggling with. Even a 6 yr old customer doesn’t want to make a mistake. And yet his gentle question took all the risk out of it for me. If you pressure your customers, I guarantee they will say NO. There has to be A REASON for them to buy now!
3. Are You Thanking Your Customers? This common courtesy has appeared to have DIED OFF. Are you honestly thanking people for their business? With eye contact, a hand-shake, warmth and gratitude? Thank you cards in the mail? How are you showing it?

Mr. Farkas Understood Selling Is All About Relationships

It doesn’t matter whether you sell face to face, on the phone or over the internet. People buy from people and companies they like, trust and respect.

What are YOU doing on a consistent basis to create a relationship of like, trust and respect?

If you have any doubt – just look at your bank account as it will tell you the honest answer.

Sales Skills and Poetry?

Once Mr. Farkas learned about my love of books – he and his wife would always ask me to come for tea and he would show me books from his collection. He instilled in me a life-long love of poetry and I will remember him always as someone who saw me as SO MUCH MORE than just a customer.

I Diva-Dare You To Do That For Your Customers.

So there.

Love From Your Bossy Sales Diva,

Kim

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!

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.

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!

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!

When I was a kid – my mom didn’t buy my sister and me 2 boxes of Smarties.

Oh no.

She’d buy ONE BOX and say…

“Share it.”

(I think it was her sneaky way to improve our counting skills.)

And when little kids sit down at the table to split something like a box of Smarties they say…

“ONE for you.

And ONE for me.”

Are You A Smartie At Negotiating?

I’ve observed something over the years.

Most women SUCK at negotiating.

Whether it’s buying from someone or selling something of your own…negotiating probably makes you feel a little “cheesy.”

You probably fall into one of 2 categories:

1. ALL MINE. You aren’t going to give up ANYTHING to get the deal.  Not one inch. (And P.S…you’ve lost some big opportunities because of it.)
2. TAKE ALL OF MINE. You don’t want to LOSE the deal so you give away everything hoping they’ll choose you.  (The problem lady-is that you’re left with nothing.)

The BEST Negotiating Phrase EVER?

Remember – the number one rule of negotiating is that BOTH parties should feel satisfied.

The SECOND rule of negotiating?  In order to give a little – you have a get a little back.

Are You Ready For The BEST Negotiating Phrase?

It’s simple.

The customer you’d love to have (remember we never negotiate with people we don’t want) asks:

“I want /need____________.”

You say:

“We/I can provide (REPEAT WHAT CUSTOMER ASKED FOR) ,

HOWEVER, this is what we/I would need from you in order to make that happen:

Ie/ Specific number of units sold

Guaranteed contract over x amount of months

If the customer is asking for something too crazy for you to consider – you say:

“I’d love to help you with ________________, HOWEVER we can best help you with __________________.”

Get the picture?

In negotiating you have to split the Smarties.  You can get what you want and so can the customer.

Negotiating requires a plan.

So don’t be too rigid or too easy the next time you need to negotiate.

Remember – SMARTIE sales women know to eat the red ones last.

And make sure to send me a comment and tell of one of your negotiation success stories (or flops)!

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!

I laughed out loud (OK – I think I actually SNORTED) and the guy beside me looked at me with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

With a smirk I said…

“You’ve got to be a woman to really appreciate this advertisement!”

Muffin Top

The dreaded spillage caused from wearing too tight pants.

It’s your basic nightmare.

But being the strange sales coach that I am…I immediately thought…

“Hmmmm….most women are experiencing MUFFIN TOP SALES!”

So What The Heck Are Muffin Top Sales??

Well cupcake…just as we’re responsible for creating muffin-tops in our jeans – you’re also responsible for creating Muffin Top Sales.

They occur when you’re trying to make sales:

• Wearing rates that are too tight
• Accepting too many clients that pay the tight rate
• Seeing spillage because there isn’t any room in your business ie/not enough time, money or even room for new and better customers.

How Do You BANISH Muffin Top Sales?

You know me as your bossy Sales Diva.

Well my clients know me as the..

“Super-Bossy-Sales-Manager-Who-Made-Me-Increase-My-Rates-
And-Drop-Bad-Customers”

You’ve got to push away from the table lady.

Whether you work for yourself or for someone else – you can still have Muffin Top Sales.

You’re overloading yourself with clients who don’t pay enough.  (And you let them.)

The only growth you’ll see from these customers will be the increased demands on your time.

Will You Accept My Sales Diva Dare Sales Tip?

It’s time to get rid of the Muffin Top.

Go through your client list and identify your Bottom 20%.

You know.  The clients who pay the least, expect the most and who take up the bulk of your time.  They’re costing you money in a big, big way.

The clients who aren’t going to grow WITH you.

And make sure you drop me a line letting me know how you DROPPED your Muffin Top Sales!

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!

She’d call the house around 9 am (that’s as LATE as we were allowed to sleep in) and she’d say…

“Your “Cinderellies List” is waiting for you and your sister.
Make sure to have it all done by the time I’m home at noon.”

So for those of you who didn’t have a “Cinderellies List” as I did…here’s what I’m talking about.

My mom would have a BIG piece of paper waiting on the kitchen table which said…

“Good Morning Cinderellies!” (Her twisted version of Cinderella)

“Here’s the list of what has to be done today – if you FIGHT – you ALSO have to mow the grass and wash the car:”

• Make a pan of brownies
• Vacuum
• Dust
• Clean bathrooms
• Wash 2 loads of laundry
• Take the garbage out
• Have lunch ready

Love, Mom

Yikes.  We VERY QUICKLY chose the list that was less work.

So what can my MOM teach YOU about selling?

Compare Something BIG to Something Smaller

I’d bet when a customer asks you about YOUR pricing you start with the LOWEST amount and then offer a range ie/ We have packages STARTING at $99

Uh oh.  You need a lesson from my mom.  Because remember – what your customer (or your kids) will remember – is what you SAY FIRST.  My mom positioned washing the car and mowing the lawn IMMEDIATELY as the big comparison – it made the rest of the list LOOK EASY!

You ALWAYS position your products or services in COMPARISON to something else. (Sometimes even what a competitor is usually charging)

Show the VALUE of what you normally charge.  Show what you’d normally charge per hour.  Show what the retail value is.

Your Diva Assignment this week is to review your rates and pricing.  Are you positioning expensive products without COMPARING it to something EVEN MORE expensive? Or you’re having a sale but you don’t compare it to anything?

Fix it.

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!

I’ll be speaking at Gratitude Stationers ‘Glamour & Great Things’,  in Edmonton.  It will be an evening of extraordinary sales training that will transform your entire business. Get ready to be inspired and left spinning with great tips and secrets.

Check it out.

P.S. Come prepared with tons of business cards – you just never know the connections you will make!