Model Agency 411

Have you ever heard the sports saying, “You have to run your own race”?

I interpret it this way, and I believe it pertains even more to selling.

(1) You can’t focus on two things at once.

(2) You can only control your performance.

(3) The grass is greener on the other side, and from a distance our competitors look like giants, instead of the ants they probably are.

(4) Competitive advantages like a lower price are misleading and usually temporary.

(5) When they make you concentrate on them, they’ve won!

Our greatest fear, as salespeople and as businesspeople is that we are, fundamentally the same as our competitors, but this is patently false.

Even if you sell a commodity, such as steel or coal, or computer memory, there are dozens of things that distinguish you from your competition. These include your delivery and financing terms, your personality, your customer service attitudes, capabilities, and practices, your reputation, your experience with similar clients, your expertise, your availability, and even your good cheer and humor.

I could go on.

Although prospects like to tease us and to grind down our prices by shopping the competition, they still want to deal with us.

If we even come close on price, if they have sense they’ll grab the deal because they know we’re far and away the best choice available.

Keep that in mind, instead of worrying about your competition!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of http://www.Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations from Santa Monica to South Africa. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com

For information about coaching, consulting, training, books, videos and audios, please go to http://www.customersatisfaction.com

A conversation:

The Salesperson: “I don’t cold callI want to build relationships.”

Wendy: “Huh?”

Recently I’ve had a number of conversations with sales professionals and entrepreneurs who tell me they do not cold call because they want to build relationships with prospects.

I’m confused.

Who says the two are mutually exclusive?

Every relationship whether business or personal begins somewhere. Everyone whom you currently know, your significant other, your colleagues at work, your friends, or your neighbors were unknown to you at one time. Then, somehow, you met and over time formed a relationship. It takes time.

In sales there are many ways to contact and reach out to new prospects. There’s direct mail, networking, referrals, trade shows, the internet, public speaking and writing articles. And yes, there is calling prospects on the telephone. These are all ways to introduce yourself, your company and your product or service to potential customers.

The telephone introduction is incredibly direct, easy, efficient and inexpensive. First you target your market and then you introduce yourself to the decision-maker. That’s one of the reasons I prefer the term “introductory calling” to “cold calling.” The call is an introduction. It is not a sale or a relationship.

However you initially meet a prospect, after that introduction, you still must take all of the necessary steps to build a relationship. With every prospect that you encounter, however you first encounter them, at some point you will have to pick up the telephone and call them. If at that point you do not represent yourself effectively and articulately, you will not move to the next step. This means that even if you are calling a prospect who did not originate with a phone call, you will need to do all of the same preparation that you would do if that prospect were a total stranger and you were calling for the first time! You would still have to determine how you want to represent yourself, what points you want to make and what is the goal of your conversation.

Every sale has a cycle with four steps. The cycle could be longer or shorter depending on the product or service, the market and/or your skill level, but you must go through every step of your sales cycle. Most sales cycles go something like this: The first step is always the introduction. This could be a phone call, it could be a letter or an e-mail, but somehow the prospect must become aware of you. Usually the next step is a meeting (or sometimes a series of meetings) or an extended conversation (or a series of conversations.) You personally introduce yourself and whatever you are selling to your prospect and you learn more about the prospect company. From there, if all goes well, you move to the proposal step. This proposal can be verbal and as simple as explaining your services and fees or it could be a more complex written proposal. The last step of this particular cycle is the close, when your prospect accepts your proposal. This process could happen in a dayor it could take a year, but however long it takes you will never skip any of the steps.

The mistake most people make is in not understanding the steps of the sales cycle and that you must pass through each step to get to the next. The introductory call does not lead directly to the close. What that introductory call does is easily and quickly get you directly in front of your prospect to begin your sales cycle. You will still have to put in all of the work to show your prospect how you can help. And you will still have to put in all of the work to build a relationship with that prospect.

Many people do a lot of time-consuming, expensive things to first meet prospects so that they can later follow up with a phone call. My suggestion: Simply call. It saves time and it saves money.

© 2004 Wendy Weiss

Wendy Weiss, The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success, is a sales trainer, author and sales coach. She is the author of Cold Calling for Women and the recently released Cold Calling College. Get her free e-zine at http://www.wendyweiss.com.

Many have goals, but few reach them all. Businesses like sports teams aspire to making goals (gaining points) to earn rewards. Are your goals clichéd with being productive? Why is it so difficult to set realistic goals that 100% of the time you can reach with ease? Ever think about what the motivating factors are that caused you to choose those goals? Goals cannot be set alone - they need reflection and confirmation of the origin along the surrounding dynamics to assure the appropriate method to set realistic goals. If you choose to set goals based only on what you think is right, that will not work alone. You need to agree that the goals set by your organization are also your goals but not limited to their plan - make your own! Look beyond, dream about what you wish for your loved ones, for yourself and start there. Taking charge of your own destiny will keep you productive. You will be able to look beyond the politics of organizations that can diminish your efforts to reach and exceed goals when they are not your own.

When the press asked Larry Bird how many practice shots he takes in a day, he responded with “1,000 shots.” The reporter asked, “How is that possible?” Bird simply stated that some shots are physical but most are visually taken (positive visualization). Visualizing successful shots when at a stop sign (seeing your successful goals played out) is an effective means of motivation towards achievement of your goals.

It’s up to you to determine what you wish to achieve in life, but learn from what you’ve accomplished, what factors proved to support you on your journey to achieve goals that are in line with what you desire. But make certain you visualize all your goals for the day, month, year and life and map them individually, enabling you to see how to score your own shots. When you own your goals, they will naturally motivate with empowerment to reach them.

Here is a question I recently received from a young automobile salesperson:

“I’m a sales rep just starting off. I am 21 years old and have nine months experience at a (auto dealership) store. It is hard for me because I am very young. The rest of the sales guys are at least 40 with many years of experience. I would like to ask you for some personal tips so I can surpass these guys. I don’t have a repeat client base quite yet, but I’m working up to it. I would appreciate if you wrote me back.”

Here is the answer that I provided to this young go-getter:

You can really set yourself apart if you focus on learning how to ask questions to determine the key factors behind your prospects’ buying decisions. If you ask good questions, your age will rapidly become a non-factor as your prospects gain respect for your courtesy and professionalism.

Ask penetrating, insightful questions and listen very carefully to each prospect’s answers to your questions. Those answers will tell you whether the individual is a prospect that is worthy of a significant time investment, and, if they are, how you can best help them buy.

Too many automobile salespeople are focused on trying to cram a vehicle (any vehicle) down someone’s throat. Or, they are fixated on features of vehicles that they themselves admire. Here is an example:

One time when I was looking at cars, I met a salesman that waxed eloquent about a particular car’s engine, horsepower, 0 to 60 time, and other “gear head” specifications. I politely informed him that those things didn’t matter much to me. As long as the car could perform decently when I was passing someone on the highway, that was all I needed to know about its engine and horsepower. I was more interested in the car’s appearance and the quality of its interior appointments. Yet, even though I explicitly told the salesman what my primary interests were, he kept peppering his conversation with “gear head babble”. I found his behavior to be quite amusing, but it didn’t help him make a sale.

That doesn’t mean you never want to discuss engine specifications with a prospect. Just reserve those conversations for people that are truly interested in such things. They will make themselves known by the kinds of questions they ask and the general focus of their comments.

When someone visits your dealership, a good place to start a conversation is by finding out what brought them into your store. Here are some questions you could ask:

• Why are they looking at your specific brand? Is it because they have some loyalty to the brand, or did some other reason bring them into your store?

• Is there a particular type of vehicle or certain features they are especially interested in?

• Why are they interested in that vehicle or those features?

• What kind of vehicle are they driving currently?

• What do they like about their current vehicle?

• What would they like to change when they acquire their next vehicle?

• How will they go about making their vehicle purchasing decision?

• How do they prefer to acquire their vehicles (purchase or lease)?

• What is their purchasing time frame?

• What factors are driving their purchasing time frame?

People make buying decisions for an astonishing and ever-changing variety of reasons. Your mission is to determine the particular combination of reasons that is driving the buying decision for each of your prospects. Be sure to avoid generalizations or stereotypes and treat each person as a unique individual. Just because someone is a certain age, gender, ethnicity, etc. doesn’t mean they will make their buying decision for the same reasons as others of the same or similar age, gender or ethnicity!

If you ask questions like the ones noted above, you will prepare yourself to provide the best possible service to your prospects. In many cases you will also help them clarify their own thinking about how they will make their buying decision.

Remember, people don’t like to be sold, but they DO like to be helped to buy. Facilitate the buying process, help your buyers rationalize their purchases, and help them make choices that fulfill their needs and wants. When you do this, the end result will be happy, satisfied customers that buy from you repeatedly and provide numerous referrals!

Copyright 2005 — Alan Rigg

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don’t Perform and What to Do About It. His company, 80/20 Sales Performance, helps business owners, executives, and managers DOUBLE sales by implementing The Right Formula for building top-performing sales teams. For more information and more FREE sales and sales management tips, visit http://www.8020salesperformance.com.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!

In my office, I have a fabulous collection of framed autograph pictures of movie stars like Harrison Ford, Jack Nicholson, Farah Fawcett, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Drew Barrymore and even talk show host Jerry Springer (I’m a former employee of the show). Those who enter my office for the first time, both business contacts and friends, say, “WOW! How did you get those pictures!” You should see their eyes and how they light up like a light bulb. I’ll tell you one thing; it’s a great ice-breaker! Keep reading.

Then I thought to myself, “What a great idea!” Are you asking yourself, what is he talking about?” Then it hit me, why not contact sales prospects who have been either pictured or quoted in an online or offline medium.

A few more detailed examples include the following:

People On The Move Sections

Industry Leaders profiled on a website or in a newspaper or magazine

Names mentioned in advertisements

Awards found in press releases

Management listed on company websites

Why contact these people? This approach helps to reduce and remove your prospect’s level of resistance. It helps to make the dreaded task of cold calling actually FUN and something to look forward to each day! You will find that utilizing this approach helps to change your prospects attitude in a more favorable way. I mean people buy from people they like and people love to buy. Also, why wouldn’t these people take your call? I mean, who doesn’t like to being recognized? We all want our 15 minutes of fame right? This philosophy ties into Andy Warhol’s most famous words, “In the future everybody will be famous for 15 minutes!” So, I’m proposing that anyone in sales seriously consider using this technique. So let me guess, you are really excited now right? What now? How do you get started? Keep reading.

Great sources to find these leads include your local newspaper, a local or national magazine or even your local business journal! Be creative in your search, use www.google.com or www.yahoo.com to locate specific opportunities to find additional leads. You will never have any problem finding these types of leads and you will never run out of places to look. That’s another reason why I love this approach, the opportunities are endless!

One of most strategic places to begin your search is to visit www.prnewswire.com. What exactly is this site and why use it? PR Newswire is a press release service that companies use to distribute their news to large media outlets. What’s great about this site is that you can search over 50 industries, search by state, search over 40 subjects and even search by keyword. Since, breaking news may affect your industry, especially in the areas of prospecting for new business, you find important leads such as:

Personnel Announcements (if there is a promotion, maybe they are expanding the department

New Contracts

Acquisition, mergers and takeovers

New products and services

Real Estate Transactions

Awards

Joint Ventures

All of these areas mentioned above are opportunities for you to contact these companies to see if they may need your products and/or services. It’s an opportunity to be a creative thinker, it’s an opportunity to use a creative approach to win a sales prospect, it’s an opportunity to standout amongst a crowded room of sellers. Welcome to my world. The question that you may now be asking, “How do you open the call using my technique?” Keep reading.

Let’s say for example you do a search, and you come across a press release on a new product that will be introduced on a national scale in the next few months. The prospect that you may be calling may already be working with your competition, however, you don’t know that for sure right? In business, you are either proactive or reactive; my advice is it’s better to be proactive. It’s easy to say someone else has called on them, but I can guarantee you that you no one has approached them in this way! Thus, when you use my approach your prospect will remember you so that when you do call back they won’t forget how creative you were in contacting them. This will give you a strategic advantage in case they are not happy with their current vendor.

When you contact this prospect try saying the following, “Yes, I’d like to speak to the movie star (use their name here)?” Your prospect will most likely laugh and say something like, “Movie star, ha-ha, that’s me!” My name is ………and I work for (list your company here) and we specialize in …………..and I saw your name mentioned in a press release issued the other day. Your prospect will say something like, “Yeah, we issued that the other day.” You then say, “I actually didn’t think you would take my call?” They then respond, “Why is that?” You then say, “I thought you would be out signing autographs!” Your prospect will find this very funny and then you continue to go on (while they are laughing) with your sales pitch. Here you can state the reason for your call and that you have some creative ideas that you wanted to run past them that would help to compliment their existing marketing program (just one example).

This technique works great either on live call or just as effective on voicemail. In many instances, I have found that when you leave a voicemail message, they end up playing your message for their entire office. What a compliment! Keep in mind that your sales prospect gets tons of voicemails, why not be a little different right? Okay, so you want an example voicemail now? You can’t wait right? Let’s take the same example above and try saying the following on a voicemail, “Movie star (list their name), I didn’t expect you to take my call, you’re probably out signing autographs. This is ………calling from (list your company) and I saw your name mentioned in an article about your new product that will be introduced in the next few months. When you get back from your autograph sessions can you call me back at (list your phone number) I wanted to run a few ideas by you that your competition is not doing and that you could be doing to increase market share of this product. I’ll be expecting your call today, thank you!”

I have never received a negative response using this technique. Every sales prospect loves it and they always tell me how creative I am. What they are really saying is that I want to do business with you! One more thing, have I said how much I LOVE USING THIS TECHNIQUE! Have I made it clear how much MY PROSPECTS LOVE TAKING MY CALL! Why? BECAUSE IT’S SO DIFFERENT! Being different is a necessary element that will separate you from others who contact the same prospects. If you are looking for a way to STAND-OUT in a crowded marketplace then I strongly encourage you to this innovative approach to cold calling and sales prospecting!

Copyright 2006 MR. COLD CALL SEMINARS - All rights reserved.

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Behind The Scenes With Mr. Cold Call

Daniel Arenzon, known as Mr. Cold Call, has developed a series of non-traditional cold calling and sales prospecting strategies to effectively reach key business decision makers such as C-Level and Senior-Level Executives. His techniques have been tested and proven as a result of making over 80,000 cold calls working for companies such as CBS MarketWatch, Futures Magazine and Dartnell Publishing. MR. COLD CALL has been quoted and featured in a variety of sales publications including an audio program produced by Selling Power Magazine called, “Accelerate Your Sales.” Arenzon has personally spoken at companies such as Brown & Bigelow, Smith Barney, UBS, First Southern Bank, Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors, New York Life Insurance, American Express, Pre-Paid Legal Services, New England Financial, A.G. Edwards, Morgan Stanley and Docutek Imaging Solutions. For more information on Mr. Cold Call and to sign up for his free weekly cold calling tips please visit http://www.mrcoldcall.com

Is your small business really kicking butt in your local market? Is your market niche literally owned by you in that market? Do you feel that this is because of your superior marketing or is the competition just purely weak? What have you done lately to improve your already top of the food chain status?

Why are you finding yourself number one when there are reasons why people might shop with your competition? If you are the best of breed in your business niche, then how are you better than your competition? Can you define why you are the best? I sure as hell can in everything I do and it behooves you to think on this to sell more and be wiser with your marketing dollars. If you are truly better than the competition; then say so.

If you are not; then find something about your business that is and tout that and keep it simple stupid; KISS. Have a really simple message and mantra and market it well and watch those customers come in droves. You will increase sales, have better leads and turn your customers in to more word of mouth salespeople for you. Think on this and why and how you are better than you competition. Will you do that for me? For yourself; you will be glad you did, so consider all this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/