Monday, February 01, 2010

Lessons from a Vacation

Unfortunately, not mine.

My vacation is next month.

However last year Jim Meisenheimer wrote this. How many lessons can you learn from his experience?

Sales Lessons From A Cruise

Sales lessons can be discovered anywhere including a 10-day
cruise to the Caribbean.

Bernadette, my wife, and I drove from our home in Lakewood
Ranch Florida to Fort Lauderdale the day before the ship was to
leave port.

We stayed at the Marriott Renaissance Hotel just minutes
from the Port Everglades.

I'm always on the lookout for new sales tips and techniques
that I can share with my subscribers to my "Start Selling
More Newsletter."

B. and I were having a cocktail at the bar before dinner.

There was no one else sitting at the bar. Carol, our bartender,
was happy to talk with us.

One of the questions I asked her was "How big is the hotel?"

Without any hesitation she said "We're small, but mighty -
233 rooms."

A powerful choice of words.

Imagine telling your sales prospects, "We're big enough to
perform and small enough to care."

We sailed on the Emerald Princess. It was the largest ship
we've ever been on with 3500 passengers.

Our scheduled first stop was Antigua. Because of bad weather
and severe winds the Captain decided to take a pass, for
safety reasons, on this port.

So the island of Dominica was to be our first stop. The dock
was loaded with brightly colored umbrellas where the locals
were set up to sell almost anything you wanted to buy.

B. was in the market for some perfume. I forget the name,
but that's not important. B. found what she was looking for
and struck up a conversation with Noreen - the vendor.

Let the games begin. In almost all Caribbean Islands,
shopping usually includes some haggling between buyers
and sellers.

My wife asked Noreen if she could do any better on her price.
Noreen quickly responded, "If you talk to me, I'll talk to
you!"

So B. started telling Noreen about Morgan, her niece - who
the perfume was for.

After B. talked to Noreen, Noreen started talking too and
the result was a 20% discount.

Noreen didn't do much selling, but she did get the customer
(B.) talking. That's a sales lesson we can all benefit from.

Our next stop was St. Kitts, where B. did some serious
shopping for jewelry. I won't bore you with all the details
but you should know there were two very happy women when we
left the jewelry store - B. and the saleswoman!

B. was looking for several specific pieces. She spotted what
she was looking for and asked the salesperson if she could
set it aside for a while. Now how many times a day do you
think these jewelry shop salespeople hear cruise ship
passengers say, "We'll come back later?"

So Maggie, the salesperson, does everything under the sun
to get us to buy before leaving the store. This included
four different levels of pricing.

The store had "Looking pricing," they had "Thinking pricing,"
they also had "Buying pricing," and even had "Even better
than buying pricing." What a way to qualify your sales
prospects.

I must say it worked. B. wanted to look around to see what
the other shops were offering. She did however really like
the three pieces that Maggie had set aside for her. What's
more, we left the store with their "Buying pricing" which
meant when we went back to the store we could expect
an even better price.

It had a built in attractor factor for us. Go back to the
store to get an even better price for something B. really
liked.

We did go back to the store and not surprisingly we did get
an even better price. Perhaps another sales lesson here.

What struck me about these different encounters was the one
thing they had in common. They were unconventional, unusual,
unorthodox, and of course original which is what made them
memorable.

During your sales calls to existing customers and sales
prospects don't be boring.

All the product knowledge in the world doesn't add up to a
hill of beans if you can't distinguish yourself from your
competition.

It doesn't take brains to be different - it takes courage!

The choices you make in life determine your destiny. Choose
to be courageous.

Your customers will remember you and reward you with their
business - another sales lesson!