Niche Marketing Matters

As you know, the recession has taken its toll on workers. Those who remain employed are openly unhappy about things. A recent study found that 71% of employees intend to find a new job when the market turns around. Sales people are no exception.

Of all the job categories, sales reps are under the most pressure to perform in this tough environment; the mantra has been work harder and make more sales calls. To make it worse, many commissioned sales people have taken significant pay cuts—I know some reps that have seen their income cut by 50% or more. Candidly, it is likely your sales reps are very angry and will consider changing jobs soon.

In response, here is what I recommend:

1. Wake up and smell the coffee. Anticipate turnover and prepare for it.
2. Spend some quality one-on-one time with your sales staff to access their vulnerability.
3. Investigate and/or revise employee retention strategies; this could include a personal development plan for each rep. Find out what they want and need.
4. Consider the creation of long term incentives. Investigate golden handcuffs to keep them.
5. Invest in training your sales staff to help them get ready for recovery.
6. Time to review your succession plans including sales management.
7. Consider upgrading your sales staff with better reps. The upside of this market downturn is the great inventory of available quality reps who need jobs.

Finally, hug your sales reps daily. They need love too.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

Source: CNN 2009

It seems that many employers in the new economy expect you to work like “your hair is on fire”. This most applies to sales people.

In the era of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, activity is king. Activities include telephone calls, emails, proposals, face-to-face meetings, product demonstrations, etc. The thinking is that if many sales activities are good, then more activities are even better. The message chanted to sales people is to work faster, harder, and longer.

While I am a proponent of activity being the enabler of sales results, I feel strongly the quality of the activity far outweighs the quantity of the activity. Regretfully, many sales managers driven by the need to increase revenue can put too much emphasis on the number of activities and the documentation of these activities.

A few years ago, FedEx had such a mindset about sales activities for their B2B field sales force. Their sales force was put under tremendous pressure to create activities and log them all in the CRM system so that management could track the trends and forecast better. In practice, the CRM system was so cumbersome and time consuming that the average sales rep was spending about 8-10 hours a week entering their activities in the CRM. Ironically, sales were going down instead of up.

While it took a few months to figure it out, FedEx management ultimately determined that their number one sales activity was entering sales activities in the CRM. How brilliant is that? Needless to say, CRM data expectations were later streamlined. Yes, sales increased when the sales force devoted more time to selling.

A better message to send your sales team is to slow down. Make the most of your customer contact by listening carefully and focusing on the customers’ wants and needs. Trust and respect the sales process and you will be rewarded.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

Here is guest blog by Greg Jordan of www.gregjordandesign.com

Meetings are a necessity. The size, type and dynamics can vary. But unproductive meetings are annoying and can become an all-too-frequent waste of time. I hope this blog posting will challenge you to consider the types of meetings you conduct and maybe test a different tactic.

“I had breakfast today with a senior executive who estimates she spends more than 30% of her time in internal meetings.

My guess is that many marketers (who seem to go to more meetings than most people) might envy a number that low.

Despite the time spent, most people don’t seem particularly happy with the results the meetings create…” —Seth Godin

We’ve all suffered through them. The late-starting, meandering meeting with loose objectives and questionable outcomes. We’ve all witnessed the meeting that results in another meeting. Or the meeting that gets hijacked by someone with an ax to grind, and so on. Whether you’re a one-person company or at a large corporation you may be able to refine your meeting skills and enjoy a more productive result.

1. Set tangible expectations. Why are we having the meeting? What is the context of the meeting? What are we going to accomplish? Make sure you’re framing the meeting appropriately.

   » If the goal of the meeting is simply an internal status update consider foregoing the meeting and distributing an email or video instead.

   » If the meeting is a pitch or proposal presentation set expectations around what would benefit both of you as a next step.

2. Bring Food. Don’t underestimate the power of good snacks and coffee for motivating attendance!
3. Distribute a written agenda. Set a clear agenda and specific time line. Stick to it!

   » Request that people refrain from using their computers or BlackBerries.

   » If you anticipate the meeting requiring more than one hour, schedule bio breaks and allot break time for people to return phone calls and emails.

   » Specify exactly what time people need to return to reconvene. Ask one of the attendees to act as a facilitator to help keep you on track.

4. Who should be at the meeting? Schedule a staggered meeting if there’s no real need for everyone to all be there at the same time.

   » Schedule guest speakers at the beginning of the meeting. It can help the meeting start on time and is the respectful thing to do. Also, you can easily transition to the remainder of your agenda once the guest is finished speaking and leaves the room.

5. Stay on target. If any part of the meeting begins to wander, stop and recognize the importance of the issue. Summarize the issue and sideline it on the white board as something that warrants additional time.
6. Arrest hijackers. Don’t let anyone push the meeting off topic. Acknowledge the importance of their issues and ask them to meet with you and the appropriate people separately. Stress the need to keep to the agenda. Add their sideline points to the whiteboard.

What are some of the things you’ve done to make meetings more effective?

Related blog post: Telephone Conference Calls

What makes a great sales leader? Is it a manager with confidence, an ego under control, and empathy for others? Or, is he or she an egocentric, power-mad narcissist?

A recent article by Live Science (10/7/08) suggests that it is probably the latter. The article suggests that, “Narcissists are overconfident about their abilities and like to be in charge. They are most likely to step in as leaders, be they politicians or power brokers.” Sadly, many narcissists are also selected as sales managers.

The article continued, “However, their initiative doesn’t mean they are the best leaders. Narcissists don’t outperform others in leadership roles. Narcissists tend to be egotistical types who exaggerate their talents and abilities, and lack empathy for others.”

The researchers stress that, “Narcissism is not the same as high self-esteem. A person with high self-esteem is confident and charming, but they also have a caring component and they want to develop intimacy with others. Narcissists have an inflated view of their talents and abilities and are all about themselves. They don’t care as much about others.”

Unfortunately, narcissists become sales leaders since they love power, are egotistical, and are usually charming and extroverted. This profile doesn’t make for better sales leaders. Narcissist sales leaders make poor choices since their focus is about themselves rather than the team or company. They just don’t care about others.

Organizations select the narcissists for leadership roles for the wrong reasons including the unending pleading by the narcissist to get the job, along with the personal charisma they exude. They fool management into giving them the job.

Need a strong sales leader? Look for someone with patience, analytical skills, quiet self confidence, and a desire to help others. That spec will eliminate most of your sales leader candidates.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

Price skimming refers to the pricing of a new product or service at a very high level (while you can get away with it). This type of pricing is often deployed for a product which has a competitive advantage that is not sustainable. This happens a great deal in technology when an innovative product first captures the customer’s attention and the competition later follows.

Another reason to set an initial high price is to establish the new product as a prestige or a high quality product. Buyers have been taught that quality comes at a higher price, so in a weird way buyers are comforted by the higher pricing.

Alternatively, when you begin with a high price, you have room to move down in price with the anticipated entrance of competition. To generalize, most prices go down when competition joins the fray. This logic suggests that you should anchor with a price high and prepare to negotiate.

An example of skimming would be the DVR (digital video recorder) product called TiVo, which has revolutionized watching television. Early on, this was a product for the early adopters and TiVo products commanded a premium price. Competition entered the market and prices softened. Soon all satellite receivers will have DVR features. Game over.

However, skimming is not the preferred pricing method for a niche market player. Niche marketers create value based on a sustainable competitive advantage and a partnership with the customer. The customer values the offering above other alternatives and considers the pricing fair.

Pricing on value is a better approach for niche players.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

Gift giving practices vary from industry to industry, but an appropriate gift is a great way to say thank you and can help solidify a relationship between customer and provider. The operative word is “appropriate”.

Appropriate gift giving has these key elements:
1. The gift is well timed.
2. The gift is meaningful or relevant to the recipient.
3. The gift is memorable for the giver or the brand.
4. The recipient can and will accept the gift.
5. Nothing is expected in return.

Without these elements, the gift may be inappropriate or may be considered a bribe. For definition’s sake, a bribe is money or a favor given or promised in order to influence the judgment or conduct of a person in a position of trust. The gift could be seen as a bribe if you’re trying to obtain a new client’s business or if you have contract talks underway.

The timing of gift is critical. The element of surprise brings a certain drama to the exchange that will flatter the recipient. Other times to give a gift include:
- Holidays. Promotions. Graduations. Weddings. Etc While this is the obvious time to give gifts, you may be one a herd of gift givers.
- When you want to strengthen your business relationship with a client.
- To celebrate a business associate or employee’s promotion or retirement.
- To celebrate a personal event of an employee, such as marriage or the birth of a child.

Gifts need to be meaningful and relevant to the recipient. I remember getting a golf bag from a vendor which I graciously accepted. The only problem is that I don’t golf, so I promptly gave it to my brother who does. My brother remembers the gift fondly while I don’t remember the name of the giver who gave it to me first. I guess that makes me a “regifter”.

One way to make the gift memorable is to personalize it with engraving or embroidery. It could read something like “To Tom Chaney, Congratulations on your promotion to Vice President. From Jack Thomas, May 16, 2008”. The date is also an interesting touch.

Just because you think it’s an appropriate occasion does mean that the recipient can accept it. You might want to call his or her company to discover whether it allows employees to accept gifts or if it places a dollar-value limitation on gifts received. Many large corporations have strict gift policies. Avoid an embarrassing situation of a returned gift by checking first.

You also might want to consider whether religious or personal issues prohibit him or her from receiving holiday gifts. A canned ham might not be appropriate for Islamic or Jewish business associates. Also, don’t send flowers to someone who is allergic to them.

A gift that meets these criteria will generally be accepted and remembered. Being remembered is what really counts.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

P. S.

The IRS allows businesses to deduct up to $25 for gifts you give to any one person per year. There is no limit on how many people you can give business gifts to during the year, nor on how much you spend for those gifts, although your business gift deduction is limited to $25 per recipient.

I get this question a lot from sales veterans who remember what selling was like before the Internet. My answer is that things are different with some aspects of selling harder and other parts easier.

The biggest change in selling is the rise of the better informed buyer. Prior to the web, buyers had fewer choices available and relied more heavily on sales people for product information. Today buyers come into sales meetings with significant knowledge of your product along with the competitive offerings including pricing.

The days of the “canned pitch” over—seldom does the customer need to hear about your offering since they already know about it from their website searches which yielded product reviews, pricing tips from other buyers, and product comparisons. The focus of the conversation needs to be on customer needs and concerns. In this respect, this is just like the old days.

Identifying prospects is much easier today since just about any prospect can be found on the web. Social networks provide for a bonanza of information on just about everyone. Getting ahold of them? That is another issue. Caller ID, voice mail, Blackberry devices, etc. have made it much more difficult to have a live conversation. Often selling is reduced to an email game of tag.

Today’s buyers are tougher negotiators. They come with a better knowledge of pricing and product trends; they know a good deal when they see one and the converse is also true. Additionally, buyers have had negotiation training and know how to make sales people squirm. On the flipside, sales people have not had the negotiation training that many professional buyers have had; it is my estimation that pressures to reduce the cost of sales have not allowed sales people to get this type of needed training.

“Cost of sales reductions” have also trimmed the support that old school sales had including administrative assistants and marketing help in the field. Travel and entertainment budgets are greatly reduced. Instead, sales people have productivity tools such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems better known as ACT!, Seibel, and Goldmine. The downside to these tools is that sales people are required to enter ridiculous amounts of data into these CRM systems instead of selling. How stupid is that?

So, is selling harder? I think the answer is a qualified “yes”. At the very least, selling is much different from than the good old days.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

Marketing campaigns, sales quotas, and sales awards are soon forgotten. Yet, your reputation seems everlasting—it is the essence of what others remember about you. How will you be remembered?

Mark Twain said, “If you tell the truth you won’t have to remember anything”. This adage makes sense to me. I don’t want to have to remember who I’ve told what, or worry about who might find out what I did or did not say. You can see how this applies to selling—telling the truth is an integral part of selling and a critical determinant of your reputation.

Sales people get challenged daily to meet their customers’ expectations or needs. It has been my experience that customer needs don’t always fit your company’s offering. Old school sales training challenged the sales person to push harder on the customer to overcome their “objections”. The customer just needed to be sold or convinced of your product’s fit or superiority. In effect, the customer was ignorant or uninformed.

While this type of persistence may pay off, some sales people have taken this message to the extreme by telling the customer whatever is necessary to get the deal—in other words, they lie. Of course, this behavior is dead wrong.

Besides showing poor self esteem and strong personal insecurity, these inflated claims or half-truths are unethical and will do more damage than good in the long run. Most customers will remember you and the falsehoods—good luck in ever getting their business again.

A half-truth is a whole lie and lies will ultimately damage your reputation. Instead, why not choose to sell with integrity by just telling the truth. You will be remembered as being honest, which is far better than any year-end sales award or commission check.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

The business trade press has published volumes about how selling requires intense strategy and calculated thinking. I think this is mostly hogwash. Stop trying to out-think your customers. Instead, try to understand the customers’ wants and needs—then act accordingly. Selling is a lot more like checkers than chess.

Being understood by your customer may be the most important aspect of selling. If they don’t get what you said, then you are setting yourself up for big problems which could include false expectations, confusion, resentment, or even worse, a lost customer. Generally speaking, being misunderstood is avoidable.

Here are few ideas to help you be better understood by your customers:

- Speak slowly. Say what you mean and say no more. Don’t fill the dead air with unnecessary words.
- Avoid clichés which can be misunderstood or misinterpreted.
- Slow down, stop talking, and listen. Listen to what the customer has to say about what you said. Give them time to react.
- Ask if they understand you. Pause and verify that they got it. If not, try again.
- Repeat what you said. Repeat what you said. Repeat what you said.
- Give examples of what you mean. Be specific.
- Tell stories. Facts tell and stories sell. Stories help the other person visualize what you mean. Stories are also remembered.
- Put what you said in writing. This helps avoid “he said she said” situations. Written statements can also smoke out misunderstandings.
- Always tell the truth. This way you won’t have to remember anything.

Think checkers, not chess.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

Selling on the phone can be drudgery, but this is how the money is made in sales. It all starts with a phone call. Whether you are a full-time telemarketer or CEO selling the company’s vision, the telephone is the most potent tool in the sales tool bag.

Here are ten simple rules for selling on the phone:

1. Talk the customer’s language - Talk louder, softer, faster, or slower; in effect, mimicking the client’s voice using inflections and tones where the client is most comfortable.
2. Use words that they use - This sometimes is called mirroring and helps customers feel comfortable. For some of us it happens naturally.
3. Smile when dialing- People can sense your happiness and will react positively to your positive attitude. Try looking into a mirror as you speak to see if you really look happy and, therefore, sound happy.
4. Repeat the customer’s name - This is “old school” selling. Use the customer’s name at least three times during the presentation, and you will increase your chance of selling.
5. Customer “wants” trump “needs”- Studies show that people don’t buy what they need. They tend to buy what they want. Good salespeople sell to wants before needs.
6. Keep the word “I” to a minimum - It is not about you and it is all about them. People who talk a lot usually talk about themselves and come across as being selfish and egocentric.
7. Testimonials - Use testimonials or third-hand references since they are far more believable than anything you can ever say.
8. Be polite – Always say thank you and please.
9. Be punctual - If you promise to call at 2 pm, be sure to call at 2 pm and not a minute late.
10. Listen - Ask open-ended questions. Then stop and listen.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2006 All rights reserved.