by Scott Howard | Aug 19, 2014 | ScLoHo Sales Tips
Earlier this month I was part of a training exercise for our company that was designed by our sales consultancy. 2 days filled with role playing and other exercises to stretch us to better serve our clients.
The 27 of us were divided into 3 competing teams. Over the two days I had a love/hate relationship with our trainer.
When it was all over, I wasn’t sure what I learned. I mean after being in the marketing and advertising since I was 26, let’s say 2 decades due to time away pursuing other career interests, there isn’t much I haven’t learned, heard, or taught.
Most of this training is a refresher. A reminder. Perhaps a new structure of organization of the same basic principles, but rarely something brand new. But the following week, I realized the benefit I got from those couple of days and started putting those lessons back into daily practice.
So what is the Most Important Question that you and I need to ask?
It could be asking them about money and budgets. It could be about who makes the decisions. These were a couple that we discovered during the exercise.
But the most important question is one that you should ask every time. You should ask it after you have asked many of the other must ask questions:
What else should I know that we haven’t talked about yet?
You can adapt this to any selling Q & A, with one condition. Make sure you keep it open ended. You don’t want a yes or no answer. You want to discover what is really important and this question can open that door.
by Scott Howard | May 24, 2013 | The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
December 22, 2008.
That’s when I originally wrote this.
My website used to say “Marketing is so much more than advertising…”
But why?
Advertising is a part of your marketing.
Advertising is a paid form of marketing that you can control.
It’s the invitation for people to do business with you.
I sometimes use the invitation comparison like this:
What if you decided to have a party. It was going to be one BIG Extravaganza! You hired a band, a caterer, rented a reception hall, spent tons of money on getting everything all set for 500 people but you left out one key element: You never sent any invitations with the details.
No matter how much planning you put into your party, if you don’t invite anyone, no one will show up.
Same thing with your business. That’s the purpose of advertising. To get peoples attention to what you have to offer.
Marketing is the whole customer experience. It includes the way your phone is answered, the way your staff treat customers and potential customers. The professional appearance of you, your staff, the vehicles you drive, the way you handle complaints, the way you thank people for doing business with you.
There’s the way your building looks, the way your website looks, and the image they project. Your business card, your follow up and follow through. The way you and your staff conduct yourselves in your off hours, that “personal time”.
Each of these items build on each other. It can be a delicate balance like the stack of stones in the picture.
If any of these marketing issues are lacking, no amount of paid advertising can fix them. Sure, you can try and compensate for a bad location with excellent service, but advertising… that’s another animal.
You have an opportunity, and a necessity to work on all of these areas that I’ve tossed into the marketing arena, including advertising.
And now in 2013 Social Media is now a major part of your marketing. Even if you are not active, others are talking about you on Facebook, Twitter and the other Social Media Platforms.
Need help?
Contact me at Scott@ScLoho.net
by Scott Howard | Feb 23, 2013 | The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
From my archives, exactly 3 years ago today:
Every once in awhile, I come across a business owner and the conversation begins with this:
Me, “So, who are your customers?”
Them, “Everyone.”
To which I mutter under my breath, “Uh, Oh”.
Please, Please, Please understand that you can’t get everyone to your store, shop, or website.
And don’t fool yourself into thinking that you need to reach everyone with your marketing efforts either.
A couple of the biggest companies, Walmart & McDonalds do not do business with everyone.
When Walmart comes to a new town, the natives used to tremble in their boots, thinking they would soon be out of business because Walmart would beat them up on price.
Yes, you can get a giant jar of pickles for a couple of bucks, but not everyone cares about price over value.
And just as there are some people who never set foot in a Walmart, there are some people who have never tasted a McDonalds french fry.
Focus on what you do best.
Focus on what you can offer that others can’t or won’t.
It’s not the lowest price.
And the lowest price won’t please everybody anyway.
by Scott Howard | Nov 23, 2012 | The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
A repost from 5 years ago, November 2007:
For all the research studies, for all the technological improvements, for all the traditional old media advertising to ignore human beings and the way we do things and why we do things is almost as big a waste as any other spending of time, energy and money. Over and over, people ask the wrong questions and then wonder why the answers don’t produce the results that all the research said it would.
RELATIONSHIPS is the key.
The key to relationships is emotion.
And emotions are within all of us that are alive.
Examples:
Buying a car. Did you buy a car that you did not feel good about? My last three cars, when I forked over the money, I felt good about it. I remember one car we bought exactly 5 years ago, on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. It was a snowy afternoon and we made the sales guy work. We test drove about 6 cars and picked one that had the right number of cup holders. I’m sure there were other factors too, but that’s what I remember most. When we decided and the sales guy started to go through the financing options and we stopped him in mid-sentence and asked, “Will you take $X,XXX if we pay you cash right now?”; I’m sure it surprised him and made it all worth while. We still have that car,it’s been passed down a couple of times and has a really cool sound system.
Let’s examine this for a moment: When we arrived at the dealership, I already knew what my price was and how I was going to pay for it. So all the sales guy had to do was make me feel good about driving the car for the next few years. And what he really did was stay out of the way while we experienced it ourselves.
Going out to eat: Wow, here’s a doozy. First of all, we have about 6 sit-down restaurants that we could go to. In reality, there are a couple hundred we could go to within a 30 minute drive, but we have our favorites. From that list of 6, I have 3 favorites and one of those you have to be 21 to enter. We will have (most likely) our 19 year old with us, so that cuts my list down to two. We are going to go to the one that is the most fun. Interestingly, I do not like a lot of the items on their menu. But there are a couple of things that I can have and the atmosphere makes up for the lack of selection. (In reality, there are over 50 items on the menu, I have self-limited my selection due to my own personal tastes).
If the service at this restaurant sucked, we would not be regulars, no matter how tasty the food was. If the car that I bought a few years ago did not have the right combination of cup holders, I wouldn’t have bought it, no matter what the price.
These are just a couple of examples of the relationship factor and emotion factor that makes advertising and marketing work.
by Scott Howard | Oct 10, 2012 | The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
Last week I shared how to use Social Media to increase Sales.
Today, I want to step back.
Back to a bigger picture of how to build your business.
And step back to 2008 and what I wrote 4 years ago.
From the ScLoHo archives:
As I have advised numerous business owners, Relationships Matter.
But Why?
No matter what product or service you sell, you have at least one competitor. Even if you are the only car repair shop in town, your customers can choose to trade vehicles instead of dealing with you, if they don’t want to.
So what makes you the one they spend their money with?
Depends on a multitude of factors but they have one thing in common, a relationship.
Sometimes a relationship is based on convenience such as location.
A couple of years ago I moved 2 1/2 miles and my coffee shop habits, and grocery store habits changed.
Location was one of the influencing factors that I changed.
Think about it this way, would you rather do business with someone that treated you fair, or someone that you were distrustful of?
So do your customers.
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