I’m always both baffled and entertained by sales calls I receive.
You have to wonder sometimes how these guys make any money. Blabber, blabber, blabber. Feature, feature, feature.
Boring, boring, boring.
What surprises me even more, though, is how much time a sales rep will invest in me even though I’m an extremely unqualified prospect. They’d rather spend an hour with me in what seems like a one-way conversation (monologue?) rather than spend 10 minutes making sure I’m worthy and prime for their product or service. (Which, ironically, makes them more attractive. But I digress ….)
But here’s the thought that made me pause and reread: how do you keep ‘em close? As Sonia works through her post, she lands on the classically obvious idea of building trust and keeping people in the loop so they think of you when they are ready to buy. I say classically obvious because this is what so many of us like to talk about theoretically. What made me doubletake today was I sat and wondered if this is really how it works. Do I buy things from people who keep me close?
There are lots of people who are smarter than you. Sometimes, we get to/have to work with them. The “get to/have to” thing depends on our attitude about it all. Sometimes, we eagerly wave the white flag of ignorance and welcome an smart expert into our midst. Other times, our egos make us feel threatened [...]
Two Mormons visited me on Super Bowl Sunday. What were they thinking?
Obama’s State of the Union sparked some thoughts on how our predispostions affect every choice we make. As marketers, we most cater to those choices rather than try to change them.
Get more than 2,300 new customers in the next year. Use this systematic approach to getting new customers. Focus on the marketing tactics you can do well to get new customers.
You might not know right away what it is that your prospect is buying, but don’t ever try to persuade the to buy what you’re selling. You, Mr. Salesman, are the one who needs convincing. Take notes, notice what they respond best to, and keep hammering it home.
I just got off the phone with a telemarketing rep for a business consulting group. During our quick 60 second conversation, I was disappointed not once but three times in their sales approach:
Brad wrote an excellent recap of some of his branding work at Hallmark. There are lots of nuggets in this post, but what really stick out to me are his thoughts on adding new distribution channels while maintaining the traditional channels that got you to where you are today. In his example, Hallmark wanted to [...]
It’s way too easy and way too common for sales and marketing to be seen as the same thing. After all, marketing and all its tactics are only as effective as the sales they drive. And sales can only be produced when interest and introductions can be driven by marketing. But too many of us [...]
