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Sales – The Best Way To Do It

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By Lindsey Tolino

Sales gets a bad rap. It’s kind of earned it.

We’ve all experienced pushy sales people – ones who didn’t listen, ones who weren’t trying to serve you, ones who were trying to pushing you to buy so they’d get their commission.

No solicitors allowed

It’s off-putting to say the least.

We’ve gotten sales really backward. It shouldn’t be a pushy job. It shouldn’t be dominated by sales people’s self-interest.

Sales should actually be quite the opposite: Sales should be a position of servanthood.

Yes, you may be responsible to make certain quotas. But your job isn’t to sell indiscriminately to hit quotas. Your job is to serve people.

Your job is to serve people by finding those who need your product, serve them by informing them about your product, serve them by respecting their decision to buy or not buy your product, and serve them being a resource after they decide to buy or not buy your product.

Things get all messed up in sales when you put your interests first. Potential customers can tell if you’re selling just to make money. It’s incredibly unattractive. Not only that, you create way more work for yourself than you need to.

You know it’s better to have solid, consistent relationships with your customers than to be scrambling to find new prospects because you’ve treated past customers transactionally.

Yet, we tend toward transaction. Why? Why would we sell ourselves short of a solid relationship for a quick, one-time transaction?

It’s ultimately not because we’re selfish. It’s ultimately because we’re fearful. We don’t trust the process. We fear that we may not have enough for ourselves. So we go out and try to make a quick sale to take care of ourselves, instead of trying to serve others. Our scarcity mindset pushes us toward putting our own interests above others’.

Let me explain. If you put a small pile of food in a field and release a bunch of dogs that haven’t eaten in a week, there’s likely going to be fighting over the food.

But, if I take away the food bowl from my pit bull while she’s eating, she won’t become aggressive or fight me. She’s still interested in it. She wants it back. But she trusts me. She’s fed twice a day without fail. She knows I’ll give her food, even if I have to take it back for a moment because I forgot to put her medicine in it.

The first set of dogs have been conditioned into a scarcity mindset. My dog hasn’t. The great news is, we’re not dogs. We may have been conditioned into a scarcity mindset, but we can refuse to keep that mindset any longer.

We know that serving people is better for them and better for us in the long run. We can choose to sell to people out of a desire to serve them excellently and not out of our own self-interests. When we choose that, we create more sustainable relationships with the people we serve, which benefits us as well.

Refuse a scarcity mindset. Sell out of a desire to serve others. It’s better for all of us.

Author’s Bio:Lindsey Tolino is small business management consultant that uses her intentional creativity to make businesses better. She serves business owners with her words at ToBusinessOwners.com. Follow her on Twitter @LindseyTolino or connect with her on Google+.

Image info: Royalty-free image by Mark Brannan. (http://www.freeimages.com/photo/622720)

7 Death Traps to Avoid When Starting an E-Commerce Business

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By Simon Horton

The Web offers endless possibilities to businesses. You sure are aware that the Internet has changed the dynamics of buyer-seller relationship forever. The lure of the Web is very difficult for an entrepreneur to resist and you are already planning your e-commerce blockbuster.

There is more happy news for you. The holiday season has brought in bumper sales for retail sellers. Cyber Monday saw sales totaling $2.68 billion with almost 21% of that sales coming from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

The weekend after Thanksgiving raked in more than $2 billion in online sales. Online sales in the US for the months of November and December combined are expected to surpass $89 billion, an increase of 16% over 2013.

The Internet obviously is the place to be for businesses. Amazon shipped approximately 426 items per second on Cyber Monday, with sales totaling in excess of 37 million items.

But finding your place under the sun in an unforgiving online marketplace is not easy. With super-hot competition breathing down your neck it becomes increasingly important for you to be at the right place at the right time to land the sale.

Success is very hard to find in an over-crowded global marketplace. Here are a few things you need to keep in mind to avoid a potential disaster for your online business.

1) Think Style over Substance

Once you have decided to take the leap and start selling online, is time to work out a clear strategy.

Do not spend hours creating the most attractive, interactive, responsive and stylish website. Not only are you required to put in endless hours, but you also end up spending quite a lot of money.

Dive into the potential customer base you are targeting. If you are selling kids’ garden accessories, make sure you know where to find your customers. Parenting blogs, forums and self-help groups offer much potential.

So do schools and kindergartens. With increasing stress being laid in schools on teaching children to eat healthy and natural, on how to source food from their kitchen gardens, and in general encouraging them to spend more time outdoors, your products do have potential to sell.

Go where your potential customers are more likely to find you and try to engage them constructively.

2) Neglect Content

Your website need not pay big bucks to bloggers to write for you. Spare some time to share valuable, informative, engaging and interesting content with your online visitors.

Blogging would not take up more than a few hours every week. Once you get the hang of it you will be easily able to post two fleshed out posts every week. And that’s all that is required in the early stages of your business.

Do reply to all comments and suggestions, and ensure you do not neglect any visitor to your blog.

3) Not Stay Social

Social media holds much sway over the online marketplace. This is where your potential customers meet and share ideas, opinions and latest gossip. You need to be familiar with popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Once you have succeeded in building up considerable traffic to your site, you will be able to leverage social media to increase your visibility to a much vaster audience.

If you ignore social media sites very soon you will be left behind in the race with your competition getting there first and building up a dialog with the prospective customers.

4) Not Gauge the Practical Aspects

Your business is not all about your brilliant idea and yourself. You will need the help and support of plenty of others to actually get your business up and going.

Vendors, suppliers, shippers, customers and employees are all stakeholders you need to work with to ensure the success of your online venture. You need to measure how much all of this is going to cost you financially. How long can you sustain the nuts and bolts of your venture if the revenue takes time rolling in?

Amazon would not have been the success it is if it had shipped stuff late and broken all through its formative years. You will have to sweat to win your customers trust and most importantly their familiarity with you.

You have to honestly and thoroughly assess all of this before you set up your online store. Do you have all the necessary ancillaries in place for your business to flourish and run well?

5) Do Not Have a Customer-Centric Site

This is one of the biggest mistakes that could really mar the customer experience.

An online business site should be a delightful experience for any guest, not just for those who have painfully created an account. Do not make it mandatory for visitors to register to complete sale. Ensure the visitor faces as few hurdles as possible.

Quality, high-resolution images should be provided along with comprehensive product descriptions. There should be no room for doubt in your prospective customer’s mind as to what he is paying for.

You should also clearly specify the price of the product and the shipping options available. All modes of shipping do not cost the same. US Postal Service offers several benefits for small businesses that you can pass on to customers. Be clear to your customers about the choices available to them..

You should also clearly define your return policies and provide all info regarding customer support for all available channels including phone, e-mail and instant chat.

6) The Checkout Process Is Tedious

Tedious checkout processes can really depress your sales. Help your customer complete the payment in a single click. Follow the industry standard for entering credit card information and make the flow as intuitive and responsive as possible.

When you shop at Amazon or eBay the breezy checkout process makes shopping a pleasant experience.

A long and tortuous order placement process can make your customer abandon the shopping cart and find a better place to shop at.

7) Limited Payment Options

71% of e-transactions are made with cards. But a whopping 29% are using non-card methods which include PayPal and e-wallets. Go for payment methods that are favored by your target audience.

Lack of preferred payment options will deter your prospective customers from completing the transaction.

Ensure you allow payments without having to create an account and do not redirect people to other sites. SSL and PCI badges add to the credibility of your website. Customers value the padlock icon and the https URL prefix that shows you are using a secure payment gateway.

The path to online marketing success is waylaid with potential deathtraps. Avoid these mistakes and your venture is sure to succeed and win customer loyalty.

Author’s Bio: Simon Horton is the Founder of ShopIntegrator.com, a Hosted Shopping Cart Store Add-In. His years of experience has helped him setting up this platform. Feel free to reach him out on Google+.

How To Get Out Of The Habit Of Concealing Flaws

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By Lindsey Tolino

I’ve had acne since 7th grade. It’s been 15 years now. By the second year of my struggle with acne, I learned to conceal it. I have bought countless bottles of concealer in 14 years. I have learned how to conceal my flaws well.

Makeup

We’re taught to conceal. Not to admit our flaws, but to bury them under a mask. This is true of our businesses too. I’ve seen businesses try to conceal their flaws with social media campaigns, investing in more marketing and pouring energy into public relations, all trying to change public perception without resolving the underlying problems.

When you live with something for 15 years, you hardly even notice it. It becomes a part of life. But, every once and a while, the acne is painful.

Then I notice it.

I think about addressing it, maybe trying to resolve it. But once the pain subsides, I mostly go back to living with it.

Is it like this in your business?

If I stopped wearing makeup to conceal my acne, then I’d have to face the reality that I have it and should do something to resolve it. This is what so many businesses need to do. We need to stop concealing our flaws. We need to stop blinding ourselves to the fact that employees are unhappy, that sales are lower than expected and that our businesses aren’t as healthy as we’d hoped.

But I can’t just stop wearing concealer and say “I love this face of mine, pimples and all.” Because I don’t love it. I don’t want to have broken, unhealthy skin.

We can’t just stop concealing our business flaws and say “I love this business, high turnover and all.” Because if we’re honest, we don’t love it.

We don’t want to have broken, unhealthy businesses.

Our businesses aren’t perfect, but we can’t simply cover it with concealer and expect it to get better. We can’t be content to blindly love them in all their imperfection. We need to care that things aren’t healthy. We need to resolve core issues to make them healthier.

We need to do this if we want to have sustainable, profitable businesses.

So how do we resolve issues in our businesses instead of trying to conceal them?

1. Acknowledge that our businesses have flaws that are making them unhealthy.

This is often presented in a variety of symptoms such as high turnover, high customer complaints or a low number of repeat customers.

2. Investigate the flaws.

At this point, you have to resist the desire to simply treat the symptoms, because ultimately you want to cure the disease. You have to resist the urge to hurriedly pour money into marketing, to hire better salesman or to increase employee salaries. You have to investigate to make sure you understand the underlying cause of the symptoms. This may mean inviting honest conversations with your employees, scrutinizing finances and digging into your own thought process.

3. Decide how much you want to invest in resolving flaws in order to create a sustainable business.

This is an important step, not only to plan out what you’re able to invest, but also to intentionally move forward in resolving issues. When you’ve decided to set money and time aside to resolve an issue, it makes it easier to execute the plan.

4. Work to resolve the issue with what you decided to invest.

Don’t get discouraged in the process. Be persistent and do what you can with what you have.

5. Evaluate and repeat as needed.

Your consistent hard work to resolve issues at their core will benefit your business. When you stop trying to conceal flaws and invest in resolving core issues, you put your business on a healthier, more sustainable path.

Image info: Royalty-free image from http://www.freeimages.com/photo/909988.

Author’s Bio: Lindsey Tolino is a young creative who helps make businesses better. She serves business owners with her words at ToBusinessOwners.com. Follow her on Twitter @LindseyTolino or connect with her on Google+.

Find out where your ideal client is hiding

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My parents used to live near a famous fishing stream, the Yellow Breeches. Over the years, I noticed that on certain days, there would be a lot more fisherman out there in the water, decked out in their waders, waiting hopefully.

Turns out it wasn’t coincidence. They stock the stream periodically, and the fishermen know when that happens, so they show up to fish when there is a newly stocked stream.

(This seems like cheating to me, but whatever.)

fisherman in stream

The point is, fish where the fish are biting.

It’s so important to find out where your ideal client likes to hang out.

Once you have established a strong picture of the person or business that will absolutely love and benefit from your service, go out and find where that person spends time.

How to find out where your ideal client hangs out

1. Ask Them

This seems obvious, but many business people forget to actually talk to their customers.

Either do a formal survey of your existing customers, or do it more casually. Next time you’re in conversation with a prospect who you think fits your ideal profile, ask them what their go-to social network is, what magazines they read, what association they belong to, what conferences they attend.

2. Look at Available Data

There are resources online that will help you sort through the demographics and composition of most of the social networks. Check out the Pew Research Internet Project for yearly updates on social network usage. Edison Research has a wealth of information on social habits.

3. They Gather in Pools

If your ideal customer’s industry has a trade association or magazine, this is a good place to find them congregating.

Look for the association website and see if they have an online community. If it’s open, you can join the community and be helpful (no promoting, just be useful). See if they accept guest posts on their association blog.

Don’t ignore print magazines–many associations have print materials that present an opportunity for articles or advertising.

Another offline opportunity is the time-honored trade show. You don’t have to drag an exhibit with you, just attend and form some relationships. Seek out the chance to be a presenter if the show includes sessions or workshops. Just keep your “knowledgeable expert” hat on and leave the “sneaky marketer” hip waders at home. The more helpful you are, the more leads will naturally flow in your direction.

And then maybe you’ll land the “big one!”

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Photo Credit: Chris | christopherharrison.net via Compfight cc

How to Get Your Buyers to Stop Objecting to Price

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By Scott Dailey

julie andrews meme


Imagine this scenario:

You just finished making your product presentation and yes, it went as you planned – as you hoped even. Your buyer now knows the costs, and was sincerely engaged throughout. As for the other stakeholders in attendance, they leaned forward often and peppered you with good questions. Things looked good. As you were shaking hands with everyone, you even made sure to ask if you could field any lingering questions. After all, you’re not new to closing and “no, no, no,” is all that’s uttered. You, for a moment, feel triumphant.

“Now to close,” you silently meditate.

But suddenly, just as you’re getting ahead of yourself – just as you’re feeling unstoppable — the key decision maker pipes in.

“Thank you Scott. Very thorough presentation. I learned a lot. Of course, I’m going to need to think about it. And besides that, I also have a few other vendors Bob’s located, that I want to have a look at. Yah know; before we decide anything.”

Imagine this happening to you. It’s probably not hard to do at all. Surely you have encountered this very set of circumstances. Fired out of a cannon, you slay the room and ready your kill shot when seemingly out of absolutely nowhere, you’re faced with this very objection and its brawn threatens the close, the win, YOU!

Well then what would you say? What sort of ironclad retort would you have prepared ahead of your meeting? I mean, surely you would have had something cued up, right? What go-to answer would be cocked and loaded, ready to dispatch with absolute haste this oh-so common sales hurdle?

Remember that, in this scenario, you almost certainly spent hours preparing your presentation and dammit, that preparation has covered well your product’s features and has earned your audience’s respect. Kudos! But at that pivotal moment, when your buyer suddenly tells you, “no,” how would you have remembered that meeting? How would you recall that particular opportunity? Your presentation had done the heavy lifting. Your buyer believed you. Believed in you. Yet the objection emerged. What didn’t you do? Or said differently, what did you not, perhaps, do well enough?

Would your meeting be remembered for your failure to produce an irrefutable argument that squashed that objection as it grew wings? Would you, at that moment, convert your prospect into a buyer?

What Didn’t I Do?

Now let’s be clear on something. We’ve all heard this objection registered in a thousand different styles. But every time you do hear it, no matter the delivery or the packaging, I assure you, it’s the same old objection and an easy one to negotiate if you know why it’s being tendered.

You are getting this objection because you didn’t convince your buyer sufficiently that the benefit to using your service outweighs the benefit of keeping the money it costs to buy it. If your buyer values the money it costs to purchase from you more than the value your solutions yield your buyer, then you have no chance to make the sale. Only you can persuade the buyer to see value as something that has more appeal than cost. This your responsibility, not your audience’s.

You cannot simply prepare a world-class presentation, do your research and hypnotize your listeners and expect that the work is done. As a matter of fact, your research must be more immersed in how to field this objection, than it ever is in showcasing your product’s features.

Your products, their features, what makes them shine — it’s all for you and means nothing to your buyer. You must make them see that the value had in using your solutions creates the outcomes they seek. Do this and you’ll begin to help your buyer see that retaining the funds it costs to buy from you is less critical than getting hold of your solution.

Next time you encounter this objection – no matter the flavor it’s dipped in – try this:

“Great! I think that’s great, Sue. You should totally look at alternatives to me.

But if you’re shopping for a less expensive vendor, or what I mean is, if the continuing shopping exercise for you deals in finding the most inexpensive provider, then we don’t fit, I’m afraid.

If you’re truly going to shop around, then look for someone who is better than me, not cheaper than me. Better than me, you won’t find. But cheaper? I can throw a rock out of this conference room window right this very second and hit someone in the head who will do less for you, for less than me.”

If we’re tabling next steps because you want it less expensively, then this isn’t a fit, Sue. I’m the best. And I want to be clear on this point: I wouldn’t begrudge you a bit for looking for better than me. I actually encourage that.

But I don’t compete with cheaper than me. I won’t compete with it.

How about this: you’re the best at what you do, Sue and I’m the best at what I do. Let’s get this right the first time?”

In this scenario, Sue may actually believe she needs to shop around for competitive pricing, while never realizing she’s mistakenly comparing value with cost. There is no comparison to be made between average outcomes and successful ones.

Lead with value in everything you present to your buyer. This will not only help keep the conversation in your control, which is critical to the sales process, but it will also assure your prospects that benefits, when satisfying the buyer’s wishes, always outweigh cost.

Sales professionals must believe passionately that they have an obligation to get buyers to stop asking questions about cost by producing answers that deal in value. Therefore, every action you take should be meant to provide satisfactory answers to questions your buyer may not even know he or she is asking.

Author’s Bio: Scott Dailey is the Director of Strategic Development for the digital marketing company Single Throw, in Wall, New Jersey. Scott leads the marketing and sales department for Single Throw and is an ardent lover of all things digital marketing and lead generation. You can follow Scott on Twitter at @scottpdailey.

Get More Sales and Better Revenue Numbers

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asaleeDoes your sales team enjoy your sales meetings? Or have you caught the telltale glazed eyes that let you know the stacks of work back at their desks are looking a lot more attractive than your meeting right now?

Done right, your sales meetings can boost your profits, help your team bond, and bring you the insights you need to drive your business forward. So what makes for a great sales team meeting?

Follow these five tips to turn your sales team meetings from boring to brilliant:

1. Keep Your Focus Narrow

As the article “Ideas For Sales Meetings – Sales Skills Development” points out, cramming too into too little time leads to dull meetings that drag on and bore your sales team.

By picking a focus for each meeting – such as a specific skill or product – you’ll make your meetings more effective.

Your team will have time to digest the new information and learn from it. You can’t cover multiple topics effectively, so narrow your focus.

2. Offer Something to Take Away

If you want your team to get something from your meetings – offer them something!

The goal of your sales team meetings isn’t to give your team an info dump and then send them back into the field. The goal is to make your meetings count, improving your sales and getting the most from your team.

To do that, add fun and interesting skill building exercises, team bonding activities, or even bring in an expert to teach something new.

Use your meeting time to strengthen your sales team and you’ll see the benefit in your business turnover.

3. Give Everyone the Floor

Being talked at for the duration of a meeting really makes it feel like a drag for your team.

Instead, get them engaged by making sure at least some of the meeting time is dedicated to giving everyone a chance to have their say.

Keep the conversation productive with direct questions and great time management to make sure everyone gets a chance to contribute without the discussion getting too far away from the key point.

If you make the conversation about everyone, your team will be more engaged.

4. Presentations? Make Them Pop

Presentations can be an engaging way to get your point across during sales meetings. Or they can be the point when your sales team starts surreptitiously checking their smartphones.

To make presentations work for you, keep them sharp and relevant. Try adding multimedia such as sound bites, video or images, and inject something new, unexpected, humorous or interesting to keep your team’s attention.

Make time in your presentation for interaction, such as questions or even a simple show of hands.

5. Make Time for Motivation

Adding motivation to your team meetings adds an element of fun and competition that encourages your team to do better.

You can offer rewards, for both a job well done, and for excelling at in-meeting activities. The rewards can be as simple or as impressive as you like. Don’t forget the simple act of thanking your team, praising the team as a whole and any particularly outstanding performers.

Make sure your team knows you appreciate them, and give them a reason to give you their best.

Your sales team meetings don’t have to be a chore.

Following these tips will help you build meetings that your team will benefit from, leaving them feeling valued, motivated, and with new skills ready to bring to the table.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Tristan Anwyn writes on a wide variety of topics, including social media, SEO, sales skills and team meetings.