Okay, back to the world of advertising which sales people can learn all sorts of things from.
I want you to think about a 30-second commercial that absolutely caught your attention.
I’ll tell you a little bit about one that I’ve always loved.
Buckley’s Cough Syrup.
Remember that, where all of a sudden it takes the big heaping spoonful of syrup and then you hear those bloodcurdling scream and then it says, “Buckley’s. Tastes terrible but it works.”
I absolutely loved that and I think that there’s a lot of things that you can learn from Buckley’s and as well in terms of creating emotion.
Do you know that that’s why customers buy from you?
They’re not buying because you’re information dumping all over them.
They’re buying because you are creating a feeling inside of them.
And by the way, it better not be boredom or anger although that is typically what most people are creating in their customers or potential customers. So I want you to step back a little second and think about this.
How are you creating emotion? How are you connecting with their problems on a deep level and how are you alleviating their stress, making them feel joyful, making life easier for them, making them feel confident and proud that buying you was the best decision they’ve ever made.
Do you know what top of mind awareness really is and what it can do for your selling? I came from the world of the television media and work with tons of national clients and here’s something that you can do as a sales person or as an entrepreneur and you don’t have to have the massive budget that Nike or Wal-Mart or any of those companies have.
Here’s the trick.
You have to stay in your customer’s radar because otherwise they have no idea who you are. They have no relationship with you and they just think that you’re a sales person out to get something.
So instead of just doing the one trade show, one networking event, one email, one phone or oh…I wonder if you’re even sending them a thank you card when they give you a meeting, when they’re buying from you, and you know what?
Even when they’re not buying from you, you can still stay within their radar by sending them a thank-you card.
It sounds pretty basic but it’s something that works incredibly well.
And here’s the deal.
You must stay within your customer’s world at least once a month.
So are you sending out an ezine?
Do you have a blog?
Are you sending them cool stuff via the postal service?
What are you doing that makes you different, that is setting you apart, that is helping to develop that relationship so that you’re not looking like one-hit wonder because remember, who remembers Vanilla Ice?
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.
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.
