Posts Tagged ‘Sales’
Are You Selling What Your Customer is Buying?
I’ll jump to the bottom line, then retrace my steps. “Customers buy holes in walls, not drills.” Actually, they may not be buying holes in walls, they may actually be looking to attach something to the wall… Yeah, I know you’ve heard that old maxim or a variant for years, possibly decades. Perhaps the reason the saying is…
Read MoreDiscover the Yin and Yang of Marketing Alliances
There is strength in numbers and if you can form alliances with other businesses, you can grab some additional marketing strength. Earlier this year, I outlined a system and some tools you can use to find other businesses that are wooing the same social media audience as you’re trying to get onboard. Today, I want to suggest…
Read MoreHow is Showcasing Changing Your Business?
Showcasing is yet another new wrinkle that the internet and mobile technology has brought to our culture. If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s when someone goes to a brick and mortar store to look at an item but fully intends to make their purchase online. This isn’t a new behavior but it’s certainly been on…
Read MoreHow to Simplify Your Commission Structure
Is your commission structure so complex that even you must have help understanding it—and calculating a commission on a pending bid? Sales people are incentivized by money. They usually are able to calculate what’s in it for them before they make the final presentation and ask for the order. But what if the commission plan…
Read MoreBeyond B2B and B2C: The Sales Channel Your Business is Overlooking
There are two well-defined sales channels that most people use. Selling directly to individuals, more formally known as business-to-consumer (B2C), and selling products or services to other organizations, known as business-to-business (B2B). These terms are so ubiquitous that when you talk about your business, investors, reporters, prospective employees and others will ask point-blank if you’re a B2C…
Read MoreThe Science of Selling to Women
There is no magic sauce that will help you gain women’s attention as you market your products or services. You can’t paint your product pink and think that will do the trick. You can’t wrap your service in motherhood, ballet or shopping and magically the women will come. The science of selling to women is more…
Read MoreIf You Can’t Write, You Can’t Sell
In the past few days, I’ve been embroiled in conversations about grammar and spelling. I read a discussion about “Should I hire a sales person with poor writing skills.” I was astounded by the majority of responses. Many people had the view, “If they can sell, who cares!” The conversations about grammar ran along similar…
Read MoreCan Sales Really Create Value?
Leanne Hoagland-Smith wrote an outstanding post, The Ultimate Sales Goal Is Connecting With Customer Value Drivers, Not Creating Value! In the post, Leanne hits head on what too many sales people miss about value. We tend to think of value and value proposition in our terms. Instead, it’s the customer that defines value! For us to…
Read MoreIt’s Never Too Early to Start Selling to Customers
Savvy entrepreneurs start testing their ideas on potential customers even before the concept is fully cooked. They have enough confidence in their ability to deliver that they don’t worry about someone stealing the idea to get there first, and they don’t forget to listen carefully to critical feedback. They become walking public relations machines for…
Read MoreSelling the Vision is Easier Than Selling the Product
I’ve never sold a computer or licensed software in my career. I’ve never sold consulting services in my career. Frankly, it’s really difficult selling those things. Take licensed or even SaaS software products. You have to know about things like GUI’s, software architectures, installation, coding, memory utilization, caching, pipelining, and all sorts of little details.…
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