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Tuesday, September 2, 2008
This week's topic:. . . "Help!" (John Lennon, circa 1966.)
Here is a simple selling technique that can produce very powerful results. It goes something like this.
The next time you run up against a particularly tough prospect or simply want to further engage a current customer, step back . . . and ask him for his help or advice.
"Mr. Prospect, may I ask you for some advice? I am trying very hard to establish myself as an outstanding service provider for my clients. You are obviously an expert in this area. What would you be doing for prospects or customers if you were me?"
Then pause, and be prepared to listen. Chances are you are going to get a virtual gold rush of information! Here's why:
For the most part, people love to give advice. In our culture, when someone asks us for advice or help, it is an almost irresistible gut reaction to respond.
But it gets even better for us as salespeople. You see, "buyers" put themselves in a purchasing position because they love power and control. So how do you think it makes them feel when you ask them for advice? You guessed it . . . powerful and in control.
By the way, this technique can be especially effective for younger salespeople who are attempting to establish rapport with an older buyer. Most of us share a very strong mentoring instinct and we often have kids of our own who are out in the market trying to break in. When asked politely and sincerely, it feels good to help young people "learn the ropes."
Communications Tip:
When asking someone for help, be sure to start the sequence by addressing his name: "Mr. Smith, may I . . ." or "John, may I . . ." Tests show that your chances of a positive response increase dramatically when you personalize the appeal.
Remember, this is a subtle tactic and is not meant to substitute for a good value proposition or strong selling skills. But I have used it occasionally to crack some pretty tough nuts, and while there are always buyers who enjoy being curmudgeons, I have found that many more are happy to engage when asked for guidance!
Last but not least, if you are fortunate enough to receive a buyer's advice, it sets up a perfect opportunity for a follow up thank-you note – handwritten, of course.
View the Mr. Shmooze Archives of Great Articles and QuickTipsTM from the Master!
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Two words every human being loves to hear ... "you're right!"
Mr. Shmooze High Fives!
My five favorite:-
12.19.2006 at 14:25
Here are my five favorite Shmooze Tips for selling insurance through relationships.
1. For prospects, prepare a short two-sided primer on a hard surface card that summarizes how much people should be paying for the types of insurance you sell.
Most people overpay for insurance because of outdated policies. Let prospects know precisely what the opportunity is with this simple, informative piece.
2. For current clients, proactively inform them of possible premium reductions. A surprise premium reduction can create a customer for life, and lead to an expanded business relationship.
3. The insurance industry produces great statistics. Share some of them with your customers. People remember numbers 10 times more than words.
4. Personally shepherd claims. Relationships are solidified when emotions are running highest. Solve a problem and gain a friend for life.
5. Keep in touch preferably monthly but no less than quarterly. I like evening voice mails.
"Hi Bill. Just checking in to see how you are. let me know if you have had a good check up lately. I'd like to get that life insurance premium down if we can."
SUMMARY:
The best insurance agents actively cultivate their relationships. If your customers are talking about you to their friends, you have succeeded beyond 90% of your competitors, and your business will grow exponentially.
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12.19.2006 at 14:20
Here are my five favorite Shmooze Tips for selling real estate (residential).
1. Send out an annual personalized letter telling people how much (on average) homes in the neighborhood have appreciated over the past year. Use examples to drive home the point. Show past ten years as reference. It's a great story -- you should ride the emotional energy.
2. Send out quarterly emails with tips on remodeling and appreciation including insider recommendations on each topic. Say the topics this quarter is kitchens.
3. Become an expert on schools in your markets, including principals, teachers, and technology.
4. Become a community resource. Send out timely community emails around the various holidays and include special events like midnight mass schedules, etc.
5. Develop a personal website/blog. Issues can include great contractors, the market, mortgage/refinancing dynamics, community news, summer camps info, etc. Become the "insider's choice" for community affairs.
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11.04.2006 at 17:19
Here are my five favorite Shmooze tips for selling landscaping services through relationships.
1. Sell the big picture. Great landscaping is a 10-year (or more) investment. Designing it right and maintaining it well is the best aesthetic strategy and the best 10-year financial strategy. Prove it a with financial case study.
2. Appeal to the client's ego: "A house (or office building) like this deserves great landscaping!"
3. Talk about "best bang for the buck." Dollar for dollar, landscaping can provide the best ROI there is for personal and/or investment property.
4. Show examples of bad landscaping, over time, such as poor pruning, improper fertilizing, reduced life cycles. Have comparison pictures of good vs. bad available.
5. Talk about your people, their training, your security checks, your supervisor, and how often a supervisor or manager will inspect the property and touch base with the client.
Bonus: At the end of a meeting, present a small (landscaping-related) gift. It doesn't have to be extravagant ... a seedling tree, some bulbs, a small indoor plant.
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11.02.2006 at 17:30
Here are my five favorite Shmooze tips for selling consulting services.
1. Studies show that fear is a bigger motivator than reward. Buyers are afraid of consultants. Probe for buyer fears (often the "black hole" fear, for example) and have direct answers to solve the perceived risk.
2. KISS - Consultants are famous for using industry jargon and complicated charts and graphs. Your job is to make the client's life less complicated, not more complicated.
3. Check your ego at the door. Consultants often have an "I'm smarter than you" attitude ... the kiss of death with buyers. Be humble. Listen. Suggest rather than lecture. The buyer wants to feel big, not small.
4. Emphasize the stakes. Your contribution should have a profound effect and it should keep contributing long after you are gone. It's not a question of the hours (fee) ... it's a question of the long-term benefits.
5. Study psychology. Subscribe to Psychology Today. A great consultant is a trusted advisor and, ultimately, often becomes a quasi "therapist" to the customer and the company. Learn as much as you can about the science of human behavior.
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10.23.2006 at 12:36
Here are my five favorite Shmooze tips for selling mortgage services.
1. Explain that your job is to help a client build wealth through the intelligent applications of debt.
2. Explain the principle of leverage to people who may not understand it. Have an example ready.
3. Have at least one, real-world example or case study, in each economic tier, of someone who prospered in real estate through leverage and debt. Use real numbers.
4. Explain the principle of "OPM" (other people's money). Let the lender share the risk.
5. Present wealth-building case studies side by side: smaller house, no leverage ... larger house, 80% debt. Twenty-year model.
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10.23.2006 at 12:32
Here are my five favorite Shmooze tips for selling legal services through relationships.
1. Be known for a specialty. Talk about it. Buyers love experts.
2. Utilize direct marketing. Write occasional letters, saying that you realize people do not change law firms often, but if they ever consider a change, you would love to be of service.
3. When marketing, act less like a lawyer (discerning, defensive) and more like an innovator (creative). It goes without saying that you protect the downside. Be known as a "fine mind" that can contribute to the upside as well.
4. Have a success story up your sleeve in which you played an important role.
5. Put prospects together with clients who can be potential customers. Three-way lunches can be great, as can informal gatherings for a drink after work.
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10.23.2006 at 12:32
Here are my five favorite Shmooze tips for selling accounting services through relationships.
1. Be able to explain, in a paragraph or less, why you or your firm is different (better) than other accountants. Example:
"We are great accountants, but we want to be part of your strategic team. Our specialty is growing your business."
2. Send out a postcard, once a month, with a simple financial tip. Example:
"The best time to purchase long-term medical insurance/care is before the age of 60."
3. Produce primers. Example: "Five common small business mistakes and how to solve them."
4. Develop a start-up practice. It's a great place for young accountants who can grow with a new business.
5. Expand coverage. Offer to audit things like insurance, utility bills, real estate taxes, and bank loans to look for redundancies, double payments, etc.
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10.23.2006 at 12:06
Here are my five favorite Shmooze tips for selling pharmaceuticals through relationships.
1. Take care of the staff. Gift baskets with cookies or candies tied to holidays work best. Make sure you personally deliver them.
2. Provide great information beyond pharmaceuticals. Doctors are usually too busy to be great businesspeople. Provide articles, books, and information from the Internet on how they can run their businesses more effectively and make more money.
3. Start a website or, more proactively, send a weekly e-mail with short tips of interest to doctors.
4. Ask doctors from a larger practice if they want more business (some don't). Offer to create a marketing plan for them including suggested letter, brochure, etc. (Your company's marketing folks could help.)
5. Offer to have "boxed lunches" brought in, deliver a great lunch, and talk about your products.
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10.23.2006 at 12:05
Here are my five favorite Shmooze tips for selling securities through relationships.
1. Determine the prospect's appetite for risk. Gamblers will love to take some flyers ... risk-averse people will agonize over every trade.
2. Keep in touch when the market is on the downswing. Many planners call only when things are going well. Holding a client's hand during a swoon builds trust.
3. Remind people of wins or they will take them for granted. Send a quick e-mail: "Nice gain on P & G this week," etc.
4. Stay topical. If oil is the hot topic of the day at cocktail parties, send along a short article on some research on the subject.
5. Send birthday greetings and a little note that says,"We are up 12% since last year's birthday!"
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10.23.2006 at 11:25
Here are my five favorite Shmooze tips for selling network marketing through relationships.
1. Have a written case study of a successful affiliate ready for anyone who has an interest in your platform.
2. Link up with network marketers in other industries for cross-referrals.
3. Get to know some Realtors in your area. People moving in and moving out are often in the buying mode as they reorganize and remodel.
4. Don't forget opportunities at the office. Hold some luncheon demonstrations with friends and their colleagues for a finder's fee. People love to talk--and buy--in the lunchroom.
5. Find a friend who is wired into the Hispanic market. It's growing fast, and it appreciates value.
03.06.2007 at 11:02
Learning to become a great salesperson is a life long journey, but did you know that almost all big producers share a common, non-teachable personality characteristic? Psychologists call it "Drive."
Research shows that Drive is composed of three things:
1. Need for Achievement: A burning desire for success, not for the money, but because achievement is the only emotional state that satisfies a driven person. (Picture Tiger Woods.)
2. Competitiveness: The love of competition. A fierce desire to outperform others, even to the point of needing to "win over" the customer. (Picture Michael Jordan.)
3. Optimism: This is the most subtle key. Sales is a tough game . . . full of rejection. It takes a core optimist to see the lighter side, and to believe the next sale is surely just around the corner.
These three (3) ingredients must all be in place to ensure a "high-drive" salesperson, and they can be identified via personality testing/interviewing.
For more on "Drive," and on identifying "high drive" sales candidates, go to http://salesdrive.info/ for more details.
03.05.2007 at 11:35
Client gifts can be a bit touchy, but there is one gift that is elegant, thoughtful, and is almost always considered to be "politically correct." This gift is . . . a book.
I love to look over a prospect's or client's office to see what his or her passion is. Clues are usually everywhere . . . pictures, awards, hats . . . it's usually pretty easy to spot something and to probe for the intensity of interest. Same goes for casual conversation prior to the formal business meeting or small talk during lunch.
Over the years, I have sent people books on hunting, fishing, golf, cooking, horses, dogs, teenagers, motorcycles, boxing, gardening, skiing, poker, carpentry, marathon training, and many, many others. It never ceases to amaze me how many "worlds" there are, and if you can find your client's world, and send him/her a book about it, he/she will love you for connecting in such a classy, and intimate way.
02.21.2007 at 11:09
I've been to a thousand dinners with clients. They are one of the truly great opportunities to establish intimacy and build trust. Unless they're boring! You know, like when the service is slow, or the conversation is dull, or the food is mediocre. My strategy is not only to eliminate these risks, but also to raise every component of the experience way beyond my client's expectations. Here's how I handled a recent dinner with ten people:
- I cut a deal with the carhops and had everyone's car washed while they were at dinner. I took care of all tipping.
- I preselected the menu with the chef-choice of meat or fish. That saved about 15 minutes of ordering time.
- I ordered three spectacular seafood plates for appetizers. Everyone served themselves and each other family-style, a great icebreaking technique.
- I preordered the wine and had the wine steward give us a short explanation of how the wine matched the food and vice versa.
- Prior to dinner, I sent a letter to everyone that outlined brief points of interest about the attendees. There were a combination of tongue-in-cheek comments and real anecdotes people could follow-up on at dinner.
- About halfway through, I asked every other person to move two places to the left! That stirred things up. I made sure the waiter knew so he could order new silverware setups for everyone.
- At the end of the main course, I had everyone get up and move to the bar for a dessert tray. Again, it saved time and got everyone circulating.
- Finally, I ended the evening by presenting all my guests with a small gift. I made sure it was wrapped. My favorite gift is . . . you guessed it . . . a book.
The goal is for everyone at dinner to tell their spouses and friends what a spectacular and unusual time they had. That's what the Mr. Shmooze experience is all about!
02.16.2007 at 16:34
The key to maximizing the impact of a client event is to create a "glow" which starts before the event, runs through the event, and extends after the event. Here are my favorite tips for hosting a dynamic golf outing and creating a lasting "glow."
1. Send a pre-outing care package. Include a scorecard, glove, sleeve of balls, tees, and green repair kit. Attach a short note with the schedule (lunch, tee times, etc.).
2. Have the pro stop by lunch to announce a short chipping lesson prior to teeing off. At the chipping lesson, have a quick "closest to the pin" chip off for a sleeve of balls.
3. Have the pro join you in a "Par Three" for a beat the pro contest . . . closest to pin. Make the pro use one of your group's clubs.
4. Play a low-stakes betting game that switches every 6 holes, so everyone gets to be everyone else's partner. Play best ball only if there are inexperienced players to take the pressure off.
5. After the match, have cocktails brought out to the putting green, and have a putting contest for new balls (could be one ball at a time as a prize). Even poor players can putt, so it puts everyone in a good mood after the match.
6. A week or so later, send everyone a nice picture in a frame . . . they might display it if it's nice and includes a country club logo.
Remember . . . golf can be humbling and make high handicappers feel small. Find ways for everyone to win, and create a great memory in the process.
10.23.2006 at 12:37
I've read hundreds of books on sales. Here are a handful that have the horsepower to take your game to the next level.
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Incredibly powerful lessons on the compounding effect of personal networking and differentiation. The Paul Revere story itself is a reason for all of us to consider Gladwell's research on what it takes to stand out and make an impact as a communicator. Additionally, Malcolm Gladwell has an outstanding blog accessible through his website, www.gladwell.com.
Marketing Outrageously by Jon Spoelstra
A sports marketing classic with lessons for all of us on how to move beyond the ordinary and package our products, and ourselves, in ways which captivate our markets.
Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith
Sharp, concise, chock-full of real-world anecdotes about what works, and doesn't work, in the rough-and-tumble world of marketing and sales. I like the stories from the trenches ... long on facts and short on theory.
You Are the Message by Roger Ailes
President of CNBC and media advisor for three winning presidential campaigns (most notably, Ronald Reagan's), the consummate expert on building an appealing image and communicating clearly to your audience. His thesis, that we have to sell not only our product but ourselves, and his recommendations on how to do so are a must-read for anyone who has chosen sales.
Mr. Shmooze. The Art and Science of Selling Through Relationships by Richard Abraham
I couldn't resist. The ultimate, bigger-than-life character. A man who "gives for a living" and has more fun than anyone we know in the process.
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