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Category Archives: Sales Blog

Five Tips for Maximizing Video Selling

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Last time out, I discussed the top trends in selling coming out of Covid-19.  If you haven’t read that one, you should read it now.  But, the #1 trend that I have identified, and that I think will be evergreen (meaning it will outlast Covid-19 and the aftermath) is the increasing use of video in selling.

With everyone working from home, more and more people have gotten comfortable with video conferencing, whether it’s a Zoom call or a different platform.  And many of those people have found it to be a time-efficient way to have meetings.  Those people may want to continue to use video conferencing when you are selling to them – so you might as well make it good.  Here are five ways you can maximize video as a sales tool.

  1. Ask for the upgrade. I said before that video selling lies between two-dimensional (phone) and three-dimensional (in person) activity.  So, when your contact wants to set a phone appointment up (you are making appointments for your phone calls, right?), ask for an upgrade.  “I’d be happy to have a call with you at that time – but would you rather have a Zoom call?”  Remember, more people are familiar with this technology than ever before. On video you can get more cues to and from your buyer – so the more calls you can upgrade from phone to video, the better off you’ll be.
  2. Respect the request. On the other hand, if your customer requests that you meet through video instead of in person, respect that.  Right now, many people are still leery of face-to-face meetings, and if your customer is one of them, you could put them off by pushing for a face to face meeting.  Accept the video call.
  3. Make sure your video is right. The great thing about video is that you have control over the visuals.  Think through your equipment and your backdrop.  Today’s laptops and phones have very high quality HD cameras on them, so that’s not a problem – but the camera lens should be at eye level (so you are making quality eye contact with your customer) and you should be looking AT THE LENS instead of at the screen.  That one’s difficult.    The backdrop should be interesting but free of anything off-color or distracting.  The lighting should be at your front and not your back.  You may want to get a good quality external microphone (mine is a Blue Yeti).  The best way to ascertain all of this is to set up as you would for a call, and then shoot some video of you talking.  Practice and get comfortable.
  4. Learn the technology. Right now, there are many different technologies out there.  They all have their pluses and minuses.  My best advice to you is to pick a technology that you like, get really comfortable with it, and then when you do schedule a video call, you be the person who does the inviting, rather than expect the customer to do so.  I will freely admit that I myself have been a bit tardy on this one.  That said – if your customer already has a preferred tech, go with it – which means you need to be conversant with many platforms and not just your own.
  5. Show up ten minutes early. The same rules apply for this as for a face to face call.  If you’re going to participate in a video call, you should log on ten minutes early, whether it’s your tech and platform or theirs.  If you’re on early, that means that when they log on they don’t have to wait for you; if it’s theirs, that means that if there are any technological hoops you didn’t know about (such as an app to download), you have time to do it before it’s meeting time.

Video calling is something we are going to be working with forever now, at least until someone invents a hologram so we can project ourselves into the customer’s office.  Do these things and you’ll be very effective at it, and you’ll beat salespeople who aren’t.

How to Make Rules For Your Sales Team

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How to Make Rules For Your Sales Team

This is another short clip from a Las Vegas speech a few years back.  What I said is still true – there is a three-part criteria for determining the value of any rule you have, or make, for your salespeople (or any other department), and you need to pay attention to it.  If you don’t, you’ll have lower sales performance than necessary, higher turnover, and all the negative effects of those two things.

How to Onboard Salespeople in 3 Steps

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How to Onboard Salespeople in 3 Steps

Onboarding salespeople is one of those activities where “act in haste; repent in leisure” certainly applies.  There’s a big difference between “doing it” and “doing it right.” If you rush onboarding now to get them out in the field quickly, you’ll probably regret it later.  This also goes, by the way, for industry experience hires, as I explain in this video.

In this video, I explain how to build a 90-day, three-step process for successfully onboarding salespeople so that they succeed now and later.  Make no mistake – a great onboarding process results in more successful salespeople AND greater sales longevity.

Want my help? I can help you build a great onboarding program as part of one of my Hiring Assistance programs.

Here’s a Tip: Love the Activity, Not the Result!

Sale Success, Sales Blog

How to Succeed at Sales

I saw the following post on a Facebook sales group, and quite frankly was shocked by what I read:

“If you waste another’s salespersons day and you don’t buy from them, assuming they did their job, TIP THEM. I do this myself, wasted a guys time unintentionally and ended up buying a different brand of side by side, not because of something he did wrong so I tipped him $50. We each know how much it sucks to spend a lot of time and effort on a deal and not get it!”

I find this ridiculous.  Successful salespeople know that most of the time we spend with customers won’t result in a sale. That’s how sales work. A sale is where need meets solution meets timing.  If a customer had ever tried to tip me as a “participation trophy” after I didn’t get a sale, words cannot express how insulted I would have felt.

How to succeed at sales for the long term

A sales call that doesn’t result in a sale is not a “waste of time”. If you How to succeed at salesthink it is, perhaps a professional selling career isn’t for you.  To be successful in sales, a sales call that doesn’t end in a sale is an opportunity to:

  • Initiate a relationship that might benefit you later.
  • Sharpen your skills and learn more about yourself and the potential customer.
  • Make a positive marketing impression for yourself and your company.
  • An opportunity. Period.

And a salesperson who thinks an “opportunity” is a waste of time is a salesperson who is only chasing the almighty buck – and isn’t fit for a professional sales job.

To be successful in sales, you must love the ACTIVITY, not just the result.

Buy Today, Dang It!

Sales Blog, Uncategorized

Growing up, in Topeka, Kansas, there was a furniture store called “Crazy Bob’s Discount Furniture”. Every decent-sized city had one of these. You’d see the TV commercials with Crazy Bob telling you about how the prices were so low because he was “CRAZY!” Well, ol’ Bob finally decided to pull out all the stops and put on a “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE!” Of course, you had to get the great buys RIGHT NOW because it would be GONE SOON! It took Crazy Bob five years to go out of business!

Scarcity Close

I thought of this the other day, clicking through my LinkedIn feed when I saw a long discussion about one of the oldest, most manipulative, and one of the most hackneyed (and well past retirement age) techniques: the “scarcity close”.  You’ve probably heard it or seen it; it is based on the principle that there Just Isn’t Enough Supply of what you’re selling.  So if you don’t BUY NOW, you might MISS OUT.

Apparently, based on the discussion, some salespeople still have some success with this approach. To me, it’s always seemed like “Crazy Bob’s Furniture Going Out of Business Sale”.  The thread drew a number of salespeople commenting, as well as other sales authors and trainers, and (as usual) I was the contrarian in the group.

You see, here’s my philosophy on the “Scarcity close”.  It’s designed to play on customer emotions – fear of missing out, fear of losing a once in a lifetime “deal,” and other anxiety-based emotions. To me, that’s not the right reason for a customer to buy.

I will also fully accept that scarcity does actually exist in some situations. For instance, when I bought my Harley, it was a used police motorcycle from Daytona Beach, Florida. That was important for a couple of reasons; first of all, it had a higher-performance engine than a standard Road King. And second, it had a special Mystique Green and Pearl White paint scheme that cop bikes around Kansas City didn’t have.  When presented with this one bike at a good price, I chose to buy because I didn’t want to miss it.  I’ve never regretted it.

Also, when I bought my first house in Topeka, it had some very specific characteristics that were hard to find in my budget at the time – so I moved fairly quickly.

What made both of those instances work, however, was that the SALESPERSON didn’t use a scarcity close. Instead, enough value had been built over the conversation that I recognized the value of the purchase. I also recognized that the opportunity wouldn’t be there forever, so I more or less closed myself.  I never regretted either one, because I didn’t buy because of external pressure.

As a salesperson, I only had to use this close a few times before I recognized that smart customers could quite literally shove it down my throat. “So, what you’re saying is that, if I come in and want to buy this car on Monday instead of Saturday, you WON’T honor that price?” I stammered, knowing full well that we would, in fact, honor the price.

Or, there was, “So, if someone is going to buy that from you regardless, why do you care if it’s me? Why are you bothering to apply this pressure?” Again – stammering.

Here’s the truth. The “scarcity close” is designed to INJECT urgency into the buying process. The problem with that is simple. If that urgency doesn’t already exist, then the close you use won’t matter. A sale happens when need meets solution meets timing, plain and simple. If you’re having to use scarcity as a “buy now” tactic, you’ve missed something in the process that you can’t make up later. It smacks of desperation and people don’t buy from desperate salespeople.

The scarcity close – when it “works” –  is a great instigator of buyer’s remorse, and can greatly harm your relationship going forward. Customers know when you’ve played their emotions and they don’t like it.

Like many cheap sales tactics, this is a “patch” for poor work early in the sale. My advice – do the work early. Ask great questions. Present to the needs. Truly understand your buyer, the buying process, and the timing thereof. And, the all-time greatest defense against needing to use these types of sales tactics, always keep your funnel full enough that you don’t NEED the next deal.

PSA from Troy: Dealing With Sleep Apnea

Sales Blog

Not too long ago, I wrote an article about my customer service experiences while getting a sleep study done.  I received a lot of email and messages about others who had experienced sleep apnea and gotten a CPAP – and for them, I’m posting this. If knowing about my sleep is TMI, I understand.

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, and have now slept with a CPAP for the last eight nights.  For anyone ‘on the fence’, as I was for years, about dealing with my sleep apnea (I’d been told that I had it), the only thing I can say is – DO IT.  Get the study done.  Get the CPAP.  Figure out how to be OK with sleeping with it (I get it; it’s not easy).  It’s worth it.  It’s already been a difference maker in my life.  I no longer get drowsy after lunch or midafternoon….or, really, until it’s time for bed again.  I have much more energy later in the day, and I just plain feel better.  I now feel silly for putting it off for the last few years.

Yes, I get it.  They’re expensive (my insurance covered it).  Getting comfortable with sleeping with a mask over your nose and straps around your head isn’t the easiest thing, and you’re limited as to your sleeping positions.  Plus you look like Dumbo with the hose coming out of the mask (at least I do).  But it’s WORTH IT.

For the record, I have the ResMed AirSense fully automatic version.  I just plug it in, put the mask on, and start breathing, and the machine figures it out from there.  The mask has exhale vents on it (very important in my opinion).

So, this isn’t a sales message.  Consider it public service to my friends.  Deal with your sleep apnea if you have it; you’ll feel so much better you’ll wonder why you waited.

A Customer Service Lesson

Sales Blog

This story is 100% true.

So, I had to rent a motorcycle trailer today, so I went to the most popular place to do so.  When I got there, they had one person taking rental reservations and one person in line ahead of me.  As I stood there, the person ahead of me was explaining that he had a voucher for $30 off on a rental because a customer service person at their main office had simply hung up on him.  He was showing the rental agent the email from the corporate customer service person.  The rental agent didn’t know how to enter the voucher into the computer and seemed doubtful about the whole thing.  She called her supervisor, and for 10 minutes the supervisor, the rental agent, and the customer went around and around about this $30 voucher.  Meanwhile three other people had arrived behind me and we were all getting annoyed.  At this point, I had the right to remain silent – but not the ability.  So I got involved.

ME:  Excuse me but I have to jump in here.  Let me see if I understand this.  This customer received a $30 off voucher because he received lousy service, correct?

MANAGER (glaring at me): It looks that way.

ME:  So, now you’re compounding his lousy service and making it lousier by not taking the voucher.  Plus, you now have a line of four other people who are receiving lousy service because of this issue.

MANAGER:  You have to understand, people are always trying to cheat us.

ME:  I get that, but do they go to the extent of faking an email with a voucher number from your corporate customer service department?  For 30 bucks?

MANAGER:  Um, no, not when you put it that way.

ME:  So, now, you’re making his lousy service worse, and again, there are four other people who are getting lousy service, all over 30 bucks that this guy is entitled to.  Don’t you think the smart call is just to honor the voucher, give him his 30 bucks, take care of him, and get on to taking care of the rest of your customers?

MANAGER:  When you put it that way, yeah, it is.

EVERY OTHER CUSTOMER (TO ME):  THANK YOU!

So, what was the problem here?  The personnel got so wrapped around the axle with procedures, rules, policies, and not stepping out of normal pattern that they lost sight of the big picture.  To try to guard $30, they were creating thousands of dollars worth of bad will.  The guy behind me was saying, “I should just go buy a trailer rather than put up with this.”

MORAL OF THE STORY:  Keep things in perspective.  Clearly the manager and the rental agent didn’t feel empowered enough – OR INVESTED ENOUGH IN THE COMPANY’S IMAGE – to make a $30 decision.  Don’t let your people feel that way.  I know one company – a very very successful small business – where any employee can make up to a $100 decision to keep a customer happy.  The employees become guardians of both company image and profit – and seldom do in fact give away money, but the customer retention rate is well above industry averages.

In other words, don’t step over dollars to save dimes.

How NOT to Send a Marketing Email

Sales Blog

I get a lot of emails sent to me for marketing purposes, and I send some out myself.  Some are good, some are great, and every now and then, there’s one that is so bad it’s notable.  This – name removed to protect the guilty – is one such email.

Hello,

I hope this finds you well.. I found your podcast and think your doing a great job… I wanted to see if you have interest in special guest speakers. I have build 100’s of Facebook ads and teach people daily via a online university how to be effective when running Facebook ads. Would you be open to allowing me to introduce my knowledge to your listers? I am willing to give you backend links and exposure in my (name of training course) course.. 

Thank you for you consideration. 

At first glance, you probably saw the spelling errors.  To me, this is an email that lacks both credibility and authenticity, and I’ll tell you how – and then I’ll give you some pointers for emails that have worked for me.  First, the problems:

  1. I don’t have a podcast, so he couldn’t have “found” my podcast. Credibility blown just a few words into the message.
  2. He had no less than FIVE spelling and grammatical errors – for someone who is trying to teach people how to market.

So, what should YOU do if you’re trying to email market?

1. Be authentic!  In this case, our friend is trying to establish commonality and is doing so by assuming that I have a podcast.  Honestly, that’s probably not a bad bet; a good many people like me have one.  But I don’t, so I know he’s full of it right out of the gate.  If there really is no commonality, admit it – and just tell your target why you’re reaching out.

2. Spell check is not overrated.  Granted, spell check wouldn’t have caught all of the problems in that email, but it would have caught at least three.  Use it.

3. Use the person’s name in the email.  Even if it’s a merged email, you can do that.

4. Never count on email marketing as your best foot forward.  Response rates on emails are small enough that they make response rates on direct mail (old-style snail mail) look impressive.

5.  Integrate email with a well thought out lead generation program via teleprospecting and social media, get all your messages harmonized, and you can win.

This email, obviously, didn’t get anywhere with me – but follow some simple rules and yours might generate some results for you.

Atlanta travel thoughts

Sales Blog

“And now for something completely different.”  I get asked a lot about my travel experiences, and I seldom respond publicly just because it doesn’t fit with my sales blog.  That said, I decided today, “Why not?”  Having just returned from Atlanta, a town which more than many has some travel nuances.  So, here goes:

The airport:  The Atlanta airport is the nation’s busiest, and one of the largest.  That in and of itself makes it a bit of a daunting prospect for some travelers.  I don’t mind the airport, although besides its size, there’s nothing remarkable about it – no great eateries that I’ve found (they are all typical airport chain restaurants), and no exceptional shopping.  That said, the facilities are nice and well kept, although the seating areas get pretty crowded – seating isn’t at an abundance.

The biggest advice I can give travelers through the airport is, “Allow plenty of time.”  From dropping off my rental car today until making it to my gate took 1 hour and 5 minutes.  That’s without checking a bag – just dropping the car, taking the tram to the airport, printing my boarding pass, going through security (which wasn’t exceptionally busy), riding another tram to the right concourse, and then walking to my gate.  Leaving – getting from the gate to the rental car and exiting the airport – is a similar experience.  That said, it’s not an unpleasant experience like some airports – just a lengthy one.

Driving in Atlanta:  Hoo boy, this is the tough part of Atlanta travel.  There’s not a straight road in the metro area, and the same road can have five different names in a 10-mile stretch.  GPS is your friend here, as is time.  Atlanta is burdened with a ton of traffic and few alternate ways to get places on surface streets (see the above note about no road being straight).  I use Google Maps, and I’ve found its travel time estimates to be very accurate, which is a good thing.

Destinations in Atlanta are referred to in terms of the “Perimeter,” which is the I-285 loop that runs in a circle around the city, so when you hear “perimeter East,” they mean on the East side of the loop.  The good news is that, with few exceptions (Downtown mainly), parking tends to be easy and free, unlike many other big metro areas.  This is important, because as congested as it can get, Atlanta is very much a driving town.  The MARTA train does pick up at the airport, but it doesn’t go many places in the Metro, and frankly, has a bit of a rough reputation.

Eating:  Atlanta has a ton of chain restaurants from McDonald’s all the way up to high-end steakhouses, but is a bit thin in terms of locally owned and revered dining (other than the sports-bar type of place).  The good news is that whatever type of food you’re looking for, there’s probably a place you’re familiar with.  If you like Tex-Mex, I highly recommend Pappasito’s, a chain out of Texas with one outpost in Marietta.  It’s worth driving to Marietta from whatever part of the Metro you’re in.

There is a lot more to know about traveling in Atlanta, but frankly, I don’t know it.  Know a good tip?  I’m all ears.