I couldn’t Sell Candy….
Wednesday 18 March, 2009

…but I learned so many lessons that it was worth the price my mom had to pay ($35 per box)

When I was in grammar school (a long time ago!), we had fund raisers for our school and the item that was supposed to bring in the big bucks was candy. Not just any candy….chocolate bars (with or without almonds), from a company (see link below) who has made a huge business providing “fundraiser candy” for schools/groups across America.

Anyway, back to my story. My friend Mike and I would get these boxes of candy bars and begin going door to door throughout our neighborhood. The responses, “Sorry, but we just bought some from Johnny/Jane/Billy.” What a shock….the other kids from school were also ‘hawking’ their chocolate covered commodity and had beat us to the punch. First lesson learned: Speed to market is paramount.

So Mike and I brain-stormed and came up with a new strategy. Let’s take our chocolate wares to a high-traffic area, where people are coming to us with money in their hands. Bank of America, here we come. So we stood at the front doors waiting for the tidal wave of foot traffic as we stood between the bank customers and their money! We waited and a few people cam through, but not what we were expecting. The problem? It was Wednesday. Friday is the busiest day at the bank as customers are cashing their paychecks and flush with cash from their weeks worth of work.
Second lesson learned: Timing can be more important than your offering

A new day, a new game plan. We adjusted our strategy once again and on Friday afternoon, we stood at the front door of the bank, ready for the mad frenzy that would turn us into chocolate magnates. The first 3o minutes were promising as we continually heard “I will buy one from you on my way out.” Great! We’ll sell out and be playing GI Joes while the rest of our friends are still out pounding the pavement. Of course, we were young and still a little naive and failed to notice the second set of doors on the other side of the bank. Whoops. Our high powered sales pitch was going wasted as the bank suddenly became a one way street with customers entering the heavily guarded front entry and exiting the rear doors.
Third Lesson: Make sure you cover all your bases.

As we started seeing some of the same customers we saw a few minutes earlier, magically appearing back at their cars, we asked ourselves, “How did they get past us?” Once we figured out that our boat was leaking water by the gallons, we decided to plug the hole for good and Mike took the entrance, while I took the rear doors. Instead of pitching to customers on the way into the bank (we figured out they had too much time to make up an excuse before exiting), we put the hard sell on those leaving, flush with cash from their untouched paycheck.
Fourth lesson learned: Your strategy may be sound, but keep fine-tuning.

We didn’t become millionaires selling boxes of chocolate, but we did learn some important lessons about selling.

Final lesson learned: Ready…Fire…Aim. Use Guerrilla Sales Tactics, track your results, and refine your strategy until you are killing your competition!

http://tinyurl.com/d743al

Thomas Jefferson, the prophet?
Tuesday 10 March, 2009

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”
—Thomas Jefferson, 1802

Sales & Marketing: Which is more important?
Sunday 1 March, 2009

Sales and Marketing always seem to be tied together and it makes sense; you can’t have one with out the other.  I have a fairly extensive background in sales and have always used various marketing tactics in my business plans.  So I asked myself this question: Which one is more important: Sales or Marketing?

This is kind of like asking “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”

If prospects do not know what you are selling, your job in selling becomes much more difficult and the sales cycle much longer.   However, a good salesperson can do a better job at “closing” a prospect and that is ultimately what we are looking to accomplish (Close deals!).   It truly is a balance of “sales” and “marketing” and each contributes significantly to the sales cycle.   If you are effective in your marketing efforts, your sales efforts will provide greater results in a shorter period of time.   Marketing is the first step to educating and engaging the prospect and in effect, “greases the wheels” for the sales process.

The answer to the question is this:  Both Sales and Marketing are equally important, but one area can be more successful than the other.  You will need to determine the strengths and weaknesses of yourself, your business or your organization and decide which area can have the largest impact on increasing revenue - which is ultimately, the reason why we ask this question in the first place!

The List of 3 for Joint Ventures or Partnerships
Wednesday 25 February, 2009

Whenever I engage in talks with someone about a joint venture or business partnership, one of the first things we do is exchange lists with the other party.  Each list contains three things:
1) Things I am good at
2) Things I like to do
3) Things I do not like to do (and have no intention of improving)

I think this is a useful task that we should consider more often than when a partnership opportunity arises.  In fact, I wish I had done this more often at the different stops, over the course of my career.  The reason?

If you can focus your time and energy on the things you are good at (your strengths) and eliminate the tasks you are not good at (your weaknesses) or do not like to do (lack of interest/engagement), you will achieve better results, higher levels of productivity and greater satisfaction.  Sounds like a winning formula to me!

Cold Calling sucks!
Monday 23 February, 2009

I hate “cold” calls.   I hate to receive them and I hate to make them.  Then again, I have yet to meet a salesperson who likes to cold call, but in order to fill the sales pipeline (the lifeblood of every successful salesperson), it has to be done….or does it?

I hate “cold” calls and I refuse to make them.  However, I have been one of the top salespeople in each of the companies I have worked for and with my own businesses, I have rocketed past the competition.  What I developed was a surefire process that anyone can employ and enjoy the same level of success as the top salespeople in their industry.

My first job out of college was an inside sales position with a specialty alloys manufacturer.  Not very sexy and just a step above a “commodity” type product (think copiers, cell phones, payroll).  I was given a list of clients who had not done business with the company for over 5 years.  I will never forget the words from my boss as he handed me this list:  “I am sure there are a few diamonds in there….now go find them.”

After sitting at my desk for a month, hoping my phone would ring, I needed to do something and cold calling was not something I was good at, so I had to come up with a strategy.   This became the starting point for developing my formula for creating multiple strategies, that I would continue to tweak and improve at each step along my sales career.  By the way, my boss was right…I found a few “diamonds” on that list on the way to becoming the top salesperson in my company (318% of quota!).  Three years later, I was promoted to Regional Sales Manager (one of the youngest managers in the 110 year history of the company) and took on the responsibility for the $125 million sales office.

What has been my secret for avoiding “cold calling”….it may sound simple, but I make sure the call is a “warm” one, before I ever pick up the phone.  Pre-call homework and guerrilla marketing tactics are a huge part of my formula and I will provide many of the details in this blog, so stay tuned.

Sales Skills and Talk Tracks
Monday 16 February, 2009

Lately, I have been thinking about the qualities that a good salesperson possesses and one of those skills is to be repetitive.  What do I mean that?  Well, a good salesperson should always start his/her conversations with the same message (value proposition) over and over again, to each and every prospect. Even though he might feel like he is repeating himself.

Some times, I find myself more concerned with making sure I do not repeating myself rather than making sure my talk tracks contain the foundation of the sales pitch each and every time!  Just because I have heard myself say it 1,000 times,  doesn’t mean that a prospect has heard (or understands) it repeatedly and in fact, they may be hearing it for the first time.  This is a very difficult balance, as you still need to “check in” with the prospect to make sure you are not dragging them through a forest where he already knows the type, color and location of every tree.  However, you should not assume that a prospect already knows or understands your value proposition (sales pitch) from the foundational “building blocks.”   If you move too quickly or skip over important aspects of your sale, because they seem like common facts between your own two ears, you may lose or confuse the prospect and put the deal into a tailspin.

When you pitch the same “talk tracks” to 1000 new prospects, you can fall into the unconcsious habit of telling yourself that the new prospect in front of you, has also hear the sales pitch 1000 times.  Don’t make that mistake and instead, concentrate more on “checking in” with your prospect for feedback on their level of understanding of the foundation of your value proposition/sales pitch.

Internet Marketing, Making Money and Infomercials
Sunday 8 February, 2009

I have been learning a whole lot about website marketing and it is extremely interesting to me. I am one of those strange people who find infomericals to be completely fascinating. It is advertising, marketing and sales (ABC) 101 all within a 30 minute time-frame. Internet marketing has some of the same aspects as an infomercial, except it needs to take place with a 30-2:00 time-frame. The attention span and ability for a web surfer to quickly close out a window and open another resembles the person watching TV who can just change to another channel….but they stop at that channel while they are skimming (how many people do you know who purposely tune into an infomercial channel…ok, besides me!) and the next thing you know they are entranced in this wonderful opportunity to purchase an powered toilet scrubber.

I think there is STILL a tremendous opportunity to make money on the web with creative sales, marketing and advertising. I also think that since the world is getting flatter (see Tom Friedman’s “The World is Flat”) by the day, the opportunities with worldwide consumers is endless.

Maverick Marketing Tactics kicks off!
Friday 30 January, 2009

Someday, I want to write a business book….since I have no idea what the premise of the book should be, I figured a good place to start is with this blog. Hopefully, I can detail the sales and marketing tactics I have employed, seen or heard about from other successful entrepreneurs/business owners/salespeople that I seem to encounter on a weekly basis. Who knows, maybe someday, I will have a nice collection of stories that will serve as the content for my future best seller!

At the very least, it will serve as my outlet for the day to day business encounters and hopefully, provide the reader with some helpful hints, skills, insight, knowledge or a laugh or two.

Here is to the start of Maverick Marketing Tactics!