| New Millennium Sales – Staying Sharp |
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Dear Colleague, In this issue, you will get a few of my thoughts about: • The Super Bowl (and the ads) But first, let me welcome all the new subscribers from the Orlando IBS, Bank of America and the Central Minnesota Builders Association. Over 400 new subscribers have joined our “posse” of sales misfits. If any of you have comments or feedback on my E-zine, you can easily do that here on my “Sales Misfits” Blog. Now to the Super Bowl…Congrats if you are a Steelers’ fan. They hung in there tough and grinded out a win with their hard nosed play. You gotta love it. But, the real reason that we all tuned in to watch the Super Bowl was to witness the commercials. Here are my top three choices for best Super Bowl ads of the 2006 big game: 1. Fed Ex caveman. That was just too funny. It was very creative and original. And most of all it was memorable. 2. CareerBuilder.com monkeys in the board room. An extension from last year’s ad campaign, they continued to amuse us with the pseudo realities of corporate America. 3. Budweiser Clydesdale horses sheep streaker. Budweiser knows a good theme when they see one and they continued to entertain us with these majestic horses and their antics. Those were my favorite picks for this year. The consensus at the Super Bowl party that I and my family attended seemed to agree. What are your favorites? Let everyone know what you think here: Paul’s "Sales Misfits" Blog. Google has been kind enough to post the Super Bowl ads on their site in case you missed any of them. For your convienence, just go here: Super Bowl Ads. Here is a sidebar for you. I wasn’t all that impressed with the GoDaddy.com ads. Now to the Money Making stuff... We are six years deep into the new millennium. The overall U.S. economy has been very strong with only a slight glitch about eighteen to twenty four months ago. What have we learned so far? What is the sales environment like? What is the composition of the buying public and most of all where do we go from here? I know three things about new millennium sales. I will share those with you now. 1. Buyers are savvier than ever. The consuming public is sharp and well educated. When your customer is considering a purchase of any significant investment, they are educating themselves before they ever arrive at your store and they are doing it at 11:30 at night on the Internet. Yes, Al Gore’s invention of the Internet has changed the way our customers do business with us. Don’t send email telling me that Al Gore didn’t really invent the Internet. He convinced me that he did and I believe him. Don’t you??? Anyway, back to reality. Here is what it boils down to. Not only does your customer know what you know, they know what you should know. Your customer is so educated about your product, your company and your services that they could almost sell your product for you. With that in mind, you shouldn't’t be trying to out-smart your customer with your product wit and knowledge. You should be trying to work with them. They need to see you as a resource of information and helpful application of the knowledge they already have. They are looking for someone to validate their understanding of your product. They want to like and trust you first. Don’t let them down because if you do, they will give their business to your competitor. 2. No one is born a sales professional. Sales people are a dime a dozen. Actually, they aren’t sales people at all. They are order takers. You want to be a bona fide sales professional? If so, it means that you are always in the game of sales. Your education never ceases. Your mind is always on refining your sales skills. More importantly, you are constantly trying to understand your customers’ buying motives. Why do your customers buy from you? Why do they buy your specific products and services? What motivates them to part with their hard earned greenbacks? While there are many reasons customers buy, it filters down to just a few fixed reasons: a. They feel that your product or service fills their current or long-term needs What are you doing to promote these understandings and feelings to your customer? An order taker has no clue how a sale is made. A genuine sales professional makes it his/her craft, not only to understand but to foster a relationship that answers all of the above questions. 3. You can’t get lazy. With a booming economy and the prospects of further expansion in the economy, you just cannot rest on your tush and expect for the sales to keep rolling in by themselves. There are going to be peaks and valleys in your sales career. However, if you are constantly working and networking, you will always be in the upper echelon of sales professionals. I would also suggest not getting too fancy. Sales can be a fickle animal. However, fundamentals will always win out. Stick with the fundamentals of creating trust, discovering needs and tapping into buying motivators. When you master these basics, they will become second nature and you will never go wrong. A FREE Resource for Sales Manager’s Meetings... If you are a sales manager who conducts regular meetings with a sales team, here is a free resource for you: Sales Manager Meeting Agenda is a four-week outline of sales meetings. Each meeting can be conducted in about 30-minutes depending on the amount of feedback you get from your team. This is a free resource and you can get it simply by clicking on this link: Sales Manager Meeting Agenda. A Special Offer to “Punch Up Your Sales” Before I get to my comments about Mick Jagger, I want to offer you one more resource that will help you improve your sales and increase your profitability. Punch Up Your Sales is my audio CD program designed to help you Create More Leads, Close More Sales, Generate More Referrals and Get More Repeat Customers. This is a four-hour audio album that is divided up into small segments covering many of the essential selling strategies that I so regularly teach. Click here to learn more about this audio program. Here’s the deal for you. When you invest in my audio CD program Punch Up Your Sales, I will send you a complimentary issue of the book, Give Stress a Rest. This book is a compilation of the ideas of twenty of America’s top experts on the subject of stress management. And who of us doesn’t need that? It is one of the best books I have ever read on the subject of stress management. You can read more about Give Stress a Rest here. Punch Up Your Sales is just $79 (plus s&h) and Give Stress a Rest is a $20 “throw in”. Stay in the game of sales as a bona fide sales professional with my Punch Up Your Sales audio album. And what about Mick Jagger performing during the Super Bowl half time? If you are not a Rolling Stones and Mick Jagger fan, then you have my genuine sympathy. Mick and the boys proved once again that “old guys rule the world”. Their half time performance was the real highlight of the Super Bowl. I grew up listening to the Stones and I own just about everything they have ever done. Mick had the energy of a young man Sunday night and he proved that when you are passionate about what you do, you can do it for a very, very, very long time. If you were able to catch his press interview earlier in the festive week, you heard him laughing and cutting up with the excitement of a little boy. During his half time performance I couldn’t help but wonder how long he could sustain this kind of energetic performance. I wondered how many more hits he had in him. My own 17-year old son was glued to the TV watching with amazement. I wondered how many young people don’t even realize how special it was to hear this legendary group. I think after all of these years of success, Mick and the boys finally got some Satisfaction. Well, I hope you enjoyed this issue and most all that you got something valuable from it. Drop me a line on my “Sales Misfits” Blog. Until next time, take great care of yourself and your loved ones.
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| Punch Up Your Sales Special Offer for this E-zine |
Punch Up Your Sales: Over 4 hours of programming on this 4-CD Album to help you increase your sales, deliver dynamic sales presentations, optimize your networking opportunities and grease your sales funnel.
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February 7, 2006
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