Selling Attitudes

This arrived this week in my email:

Start Selling More Newsletter Issue 371 July 15, 2008
A New S.P.I.N. On Selling SPIN Selling, written by Neil Rackham and published in 1988 is a terrific book. The book emphasizes the importance of asking the right sales questions. I was so inspired by this book I eventually wrote my own book emphasizing sales questions, "The 12 Best Questions To Ask Customers." I'd like to use the word S.P.I.N. in a slightly different way. I'd like to use the word as an acronym. Putting the right S.P.I.N. into your business especially during these turbulent times can change your attitude and improve your selling results. Think of the word S.P.I.N. as four pieces to the selling puzzle. S = Shrug it off P = Preparation and practice I = Initiative N = New Let's start with Shrug it off. Right now most of the world's news is negative. In the USA the real estate market is hurting, financial markets are in chaos, and just when you think gas prices can't go any higher - they go higher. Shrug it off. That's right, dismiss the bad news or it will eventually consume and overwhelm you. If the news gets you down, do something that picks you back up. If you're an entrepreneur or a professional sales representative you can't afford to be down and negative when you're working with your sales prospects and customers. Change your routine. Exercise more. Read motivational books. Buy a book of quotations. And stay away from negative people because it's amazing how contagious negativity can be. Inject a little Preparation and Practice into every selling day. For example, when you're planning sales calls for the next day, you can prepare several questions in writing. While you're driving to the account practice them. If you don't practice what you're going to say before you get to the account you end up practicing on your sales prospects and customers. Nothing could be worse! You can also prepare and practice specific parts of your planned sales call. You can prepare and practice how you will present the benefits of your products. You can prepare and practice how you'll deal with the price objection. You can prepare and practice how you'll ask for the next appointment. You can even prepare and practice how you will ask for the business. You know before you get to see your sales prospect if you've prepared and practiced enough - and unfortunately so will your sales prospect. My approach to S.P.I.N. selling includes "Initiative." The initiative I'm referring to is personal initiative. This word covers all aspects of professional selling. When times are tough it requires that you become tougher. Doing things the way you've always done things will not differentiate you from your competition. Take the initiative to learn more about personal salesmanship and selling skills. Literally - hit the books. Visit article directories such as www.ezinearticles.com and look for the best articles to help you achieve greater selling success. Take the initiative to pick up the telephone and schedule more appointments. Take the initiative to allocate more face-to-face time calling on sales prospects which represent new business opportunities for you. Take the initiative to cross sell and up-sell whenever possible. Take the initiative to do everything imaginable to help your customers solve their problems. And take the initiative on every sales call to exceed your sales prospect's and/or customer's expectations. The final piece to S.P.I.N. selling is the word “New.” The two most popular words in the English language are "New" and "Free." You can skip the free, but focus on what's new. How do you personally respond to the question, "What's new?" Do you have new products? Do you have new management? Do you have new technology? Do you have new ways to solve old problems? Do you have new programs? Do you have anything that's new? Focus on what's new, not what's problematic. Get excited when you're talking about what's new to your sales prospects and customers. If you're excited, they'll become excited. Develop a new attitude about everything. Sure the stock market is down. Novice investors are bailing out. Warren Buffett is licking his chops because of all the buying opportunities he sees. The real estate market is down and everybody is thinking doom and gloom - except for the very shrewd investors who enjoy bottom fishing and buying properties at bargain basement prices. It's not easy being positive when all the news is so negative. You have the ultimate control over your thoughts. So choose optimism over pessimism, positive over negative, sunny versus gloomy, and winning over losing. You’ll be glad you did and so will your customers. Growing your business, increasing your sales, and making more money is easy when you put the right S.P.I.N. on it. PS - Checkout my 57 Sales Tips! Cross Selling Checkout my new web page on the subject of cross selling. See it here Are You Getting Enough Kick Back Time Not according to an article I just read. "A national survey by Expedia.com found that 31% of Americans do not take all the vacation days they get, and we average only 14 days a year to begin with." The average worker in France gets 37 days. What's wrong with this picture? Everything! Take your vacations. They reduce stress and actually are a boost to your creativity. Tip - plan them well in advance, it gives you and your family something to look forward to. By The Way This is not for everyone. Since 80% of all salespeople don't routinely invest in themselves - you can skip this section. On the other hand if you belong to the 20% group here are a few things you might be interested in: A NEW Sales Manual which includes a bonus booklet of 250 quotations. 250 Transformational, Inspirational, Motivational, and Educational Quotes. Special 3-CD pack save 48% - to help you sell more during tough times. Links To Previous Newsletters S.P.I.N. Selling Phone Selling Techniques Sales-secrets Best Advice Link to Sales Dilemma
Start selling more today and everyday . . . Jim Meisenheimer 20 years . . . 512 customers . . . 83.3% repeat business
In-house Sales Training | Sell More Blog | More sales articles | Time Management book To subscribe: It's easy to subscribe to my newsletter. To join send a blank email to: startsellingmore@zoom.netatlantic.com Jim Meisenheimer | 13506 Blythefield Terrace | Lakewood Ranch, FL 34202 | 941-907-0415

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Batteries ARE Customer Service

This arrived in my email from the Weakest Link:

Whenever I buy something that says "batteries sold separately." I calmly dream that this will be the store redeeming my basic faith in a company’s ability to seize the most self-evident opportunity for customer service.

(I’m starting to think I am a hopeless idealist.)

1. If you are selling an item. TEST it before you let the customer walk out with it. Take out a pair of batteries. Put them in and make sure everything works.

It really doesn’t matter that the item is made by Widget Industries in Upper Mongolia. YOU sold it, and the customer will be angry with YOU when it doesn’t work.

2 . (This is where companies make fools of themselves) Turn off the object and put it back in the box before closing the sale. But LEAVE THE BATTERIES.

Yes, I said it! Save your key rings, forget about the complimentary Frisbee. Take the unusually smart step of actually making sure that the item will work when they get home without the customer needing to buy batteries.

In fact, if I come home with an object without batteries, but a complimentary branding Frisbee, I’m probably going to be even more fuming than if I didn’t get the Frisbee at all. At that second I am going to wonder what moron came up with that idea instead of just giving me a pair of bloody AA’s! Now I’m both angry that I have to go back out and get batteries, and convinced that your establishment is owned and operated by a cretin. Not the customer experience you should be shooting for.

Giving It Away Increase Sales

The amazing thing is that your sale of batteries has a great chance of increasing too. Why? Because if you don’t have a policy of testing each item, your sales clerks are going to forget to remind the customer they will need batteries x amount of times out of a hundred.

If clerks test everything as a policy, they won’t forget as often and that will improve sales of batteries as well. And here is the kicker, the customer probably has other things that need batteries, so even though you just gave them batteries for the item they purchased, they will often end up buying them for other items.

It All Goes In the Plus Column

If the item you are selling is $2.49 with a profit margin of 30 cents. This is admittedly not a great idea. But if you are holding a profit margin anywhere over $3 per item, you can’t really lose by doing this.

AA batteries are about 7 cents if you buy in bulk. You are paying more for those fancy brochures used to staple the receipt to in case the product doesn’t work. Now you will have to deal with less customer returns as well, which also saves you money and bad will. (See the math here?)

If you have a profit margin that is high, Say $70. You will have to convert 1 sale in every 250 to a returning customer or a referral for it to break even.

I guarantee you will be head and shoulders above the competition that are still standing there like misers, taking them back out of the gadget before asking you if you would like to buy batteries. To me, that is not just a missed opportunity of customer service. It’s downright counterproductive and borderline rude.

I can also promise you that the statement "I’m going to leave these in here, if you would like to buy extra batteries, this item takes Double A’s" will do more for your customer satisfaction than a Frisbee ever will.

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The latest ad campaigns

This is a weekly feature from Mediapost:

Out to Launch

by Amy Corr

SOYJOY bows optimistic campaign. Dell computers are like snowflakes: each one is different. Microsoft small-business site giving away 5000 gallons of gas. Let's launch! Adidas launched a print campaign in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Australia for the upcoming Beijing 2008 Olympic games. "Inside" features Olympic athletes performing better because of the support they've received from other people. Creative demonstrates this support by illustrating each athlete performing with multiple limbs. Featured athletes include Russian pole-vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva; American sprinter Tyson Gay; American track star Jeremy Wariner; South Korean weightlifter Jang Mi-Ran; and Taiwan taekwondo athletes Zhu Mu-Yen and Yang Shu-Jun. "I run with 600 million legs," says an ad featuring Jeremy Wariner running on a track in sneakers, flip-flops and high-heeled shoes. See the ads here, here, here, here, here and here. TBWA/Tequila Hong Kong created the campaign. How much do I love "Grand Ole Opera," the new TV spot for Jeep Cherokee? Not as much as "La Boheme," the opera whose melody is used in the spot, but enough to watch the ad multiple times! Genuine opera singers sing the praises of owning a Jeep Cherokee in Italian. It helps remove a stranded vehicle stuck in a snow embankment and makes shoveling heavy bags of manure a pleasant experience. Get me a translator, stat! Watch the ad here, created by Cutwater. Euro RSCG New York launched a pro bono TV campaign in an effort to help fight homelessness in New York City. The campaign commemorates the fourth anniversary of Mayor Bloomberg's pledge to reduce the rate of the city's homeless by two-thirds. Unfortunately, the number of homeless people living in New York has increased; and the average age of a person living in New York is a sad, unacceptable, 9. The PSAs promote the Coalition for the Homeless, an organization that provides housing, food, job training and hope to the homeless. The ad features homeless people of all ages reading aloud the plight of New York City's homeless as written in an article from New York magazine. Watch the spots here, on the Coalition for the Homeless Web site. Dell is pushing the customizable button in its latest two TV ads. Much as dogs can sometimes resemble their owners, so can Dell computers. Do you like the color pink? Enough to match your laptop to your scooter? Make it work. See the ad here. The second ad stars a man who takes a series of pictures of him and his ladylove. The storytelling set of photos come to a conclusion when the man crops the woman out of a picture, posts his mug online and poof, he has a new woman in his story of photographs. See the ad here. Mother created the campaign and Mediacom handled the media buy. IKEA launched a Spanish-language spot called "Kitchens," showing the room's universal role in houses as a central area of vitality. The spot incorporates various IKEA Kitchen products into the ad, while illustrating the important role a kitchen plays throughout all the hours of a day. The little girl that needs to pee might be the cutest part of the ad, seen here. *SCPF created the campaign and MediaCom handled the media buy. A little piece of Miami came to Times Square this month in a guerilla effort promoting season two of USA's "Burn Notice." And by little piece of Miami, I mean a 50-ton sand sculpture that was constructed in Times Square. Aside from the ridiculous amount of sand, a team of Broadway actors went rollerblading throughout the city singing, "Burn, Notice, Burn!" tweaking the lyrics to "Disco Inferno." I'm glad I missed that. More up my alley was a beach towel giveaway in New York, Chicago and L.A. markets. See pictures from the campaign here and here. The michael alan group executed the stunts. Earlier this year, SOYJOY repositioned itself from an energy bar to a provider of whole soy. The company's latest print campaign connects having a good day physically and mentally to eating soy. It's a very simple, positive, upbeat print campaign. I like it. "Whole soy: A source of good karma," reads one ad. "Side effects from whole soy may include pleasant music playing quietly in head," says another. See the ads here, here, here, here and here, created by RPA. Microsoft Small Business launched a Web site that offers small businesses practical business tips during a difficult economic time. BumpTheSlump.com offers five ways that small businesses can save money -- and 5,000 gallons of gas to one lucky small-business owner who enters their information online. In addition to this site, Microsoft is launching a peer-to-peer learning site later this month where small-business owners can share tips and advice with fellow SMB. Bradley and Montgomery created the campaign. Amy Corr is managing editor, online newsletters for MediaPost. She can be reached at amyc@mediapost.com.

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How to Email

You would think that we don't need to teach people how to use email.
But since it is a rather new form of communication, compared to regular mail (remember typewriters?), not everyone is aware of some of the common courtesies.

One, is don't spam.

The day of forwarding funny stories and cartoons is over.
Most of us are too busy to read them. The few that I get, about 2 a month, are okay.

But speaking of spam, if you are using email to reach out to customers, there are some rules to follow.

In my new role of Vice President of Communications for our local Advertising Federation, I am now responsible for overseeing our email and direct mail list.

So here's some advice from Seth Godin for you and me:

If you don't want to get email

...don't send email.

If you send a note to 100 or 1000 customers/clients/prospects/shippers/parents (whatever), be sure to give people a way to reply! I think this is especially important for small organizations or small subsets of lists... Amazon and eBay and others get a bit of a pass.

If it's important enough for you to send to me, it may be important enough for me to write back.

I know it's horribly expensive and inconvenient to work your way through the replies, but aren't the replies exactly what you need to see? What an opportunity.

Email is medium all onto itself. It's the only medium where the human voice appears the same whether it's 'live' or 'recorded' and where there's an expectation that all interactions are two-way.

Here's what you do:

1. Send the email to your permission list, an announcement that's anticipated, personal and relevant.

2. Set up a "reply to" that's a different address.

3. In the email, at the bottom, give people a web address where they can go to give feedback, or give them an email they can write to that will be read by a real person.

4. If they hit reply, the replyto will automatically send the note to the right person.

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Blog Tips

A friend asked me recently, (again), if this blogging was worth it.

It all depends on how you measure it.

And that depends on your goals for blogging.

This site has a couple of goals.

Spread the word about what's going on in the marketing/advertising/sales world so that others can learn and become better at marketing/advertising/sales. It also helps expose you to others ideas and wisdom. (That's why it's Collective Wisdom.)

And it also serves a my own personal marketing forum. If you want to establish yourself as an expert or authority on a subject, then a blog is one way to market yourself. And this one gets world wide attention I've noticed.

Need some tips on blogging? Read this from the DLM blog:

11 Ways to Generate Ideas for your Blog

Posted: 15 Jul 2008 10:09 AM CDT

Written on 7/15/2008 by Syed Abbas of TNerd.com.

“Content is King”, it is true to the core. Creating valuable content is a challenge and doing it regularly is a bigger challenge. I meet quite a few bloggers during conferences and events and one of the most commonly discussed issues among new bloggers is, “How can I create content on a continuous basis? Where do I get the ideas from?” This is one of the major reasons most bloggers start with lot of enthusiasm and quit in despair. It's simple math, content creation on regular basis adds value to a blog which brings more users. Now go in reverse, No content – No Value, No Value – No visitors. I’ve put together few things which have helped me generate ideas and put them in words for my readers on regular basis.

• Do Not Panic – Have Fun
  I’ve been there. It’s a beautiful sunny day; you sit down with your laptop to publish a great article only to realize that you don’t know what to write. Panic sets in, “I have to publish an article today and I have no idea what to write about, I don’t even have anything saved in Drafts.”
  
  The more you panic the worse it gets. So, you know what? Don’t bother! Think of it as a holiday, go hangout with friends, watch a movie, visit your favorite eat joint, spend time at the library, do whatever it takes to put yourself at ease. While you are out having fun, record your thoughts (if any) which can be potential blog posts. Just record your thoughts at this time don’t spend time thinking if they are really worth a post, do that once you get back home.
  
  The point I am trying to make here is that ideas for posts or articles will come to you naturally. All you have to do is look around without worrying about it. Most of the ideas come from regular conversations with friends and others or by something you see at a store on the sidewalk, etc..


• Feed aggregators
  This is THE most important source of getting ideas for blog posts. I cannot stress enough on how important this is. If you are a blogger and you do not have a list of blogs you follow through aggregators, then you are missing something really important. Feed aggregators are the fastest medium of getting the latest news and articles from blogs and websites and believe me the sooner you blog about “something” the better it is.
  
  If you don’t currently use any aggregators, start building one now! I use iGoogle and the Google Desktop Web Clips Gadget to get the latest from the blogs and news sites I follow.
  
  I can help you build your iGoogle, just shoot me an e-mail at nerd[at]tnerd.com and mention one of the following categories: “Tech News”, “Official Tech Blogs”, “Gadgets and Products” and I will share all the blog feeds I follow under that category. This way you can create your iGoogle page with close to 100 feeds instantly.


• Social Media Sites:
  Social Media sites are a very good source of certified interesting and valuable information. I say “certified”, because information on these sites is posted by readers like you and I who find it interesting enough to be shared with others.
  
  Few of the sites I Follow are:
  
  
  • Digg.com
    
  • Stumbleupon.com
    
  • Twitter.com
    
  • Sphinn.com
    
  • Mixx.com
  
  Feel free to add me to your friends list on Digg, Twitter or Stumbleupon.
  


• Visit Forums, QnA, News sites, etc.
  Identify the nature of blog you are running and the kind of content your users like to read. Once you have that, find forums and sites discussing related information. Make a list of such forums and sites and be a regular visitor. Comments and users discussions on such sites will generate enough leads to keep you busy writing for a while.
  
  Example forums and sites:
  
  
  • Yahoo Answers
    
  • Webmaster World
    
  • Google News
    


• Learn and Teach
  Did you do anything recently which required a lot of reading and research on multiple sites? If yes, then write about it (do pass links to the original source). If you had to learn something and did not know about it then the chances are, another million people on the internet are searching for it too. So write about it.
  
  For example:
  
  • How to download videos from YouTube and other Video sites?
    
  • How to search for different file formats?


• Keyword Logs of your site
  Sometimes you will see keywords on the logs which does not match the content on your site but can be a good topic for the next valuable post.
  
  Following image has a keyword which will get me to research if .rar files can be opened online. If yes then that will make a good post for users wanting to know how it’s done.
  
  I use Google Analytics to track visitor information on my tech blog. It’s a free tool which can be used on any site or blog including blogger and Wordpress blogs.


• Watch TV
  This is the easiest, just watch TV. Try watching news, tech shows, product launches, etc, instead of CSI or Lost. This is not only a good source of information but sometimes offers the opportunity of breaking the news on the internet, as you know breaking news has its own advantages.
  
  TV can certainly help but it depends on the kind of blog you run and the information you are looking for. For example a tech blog writer will greatly benefit from a program such as Click – BBC world.


• Software Sites
  Visiting sites like Downloads.com will help you find new software that is hitting the market.. If you manage to find one that has recently launched, is very useful and not many blogs have reviewed it yet, then that could be a potential article.
  
  Such sites usually offer a list of recently added or released software’s and utilities which can be very useful or you can go the software list page and sort by “Date” to see the latest additions.
  
  Example sites:
  
  
  • Tucows.com
    
  • Downloads.com
    
  • Versiontracker.com/macosx/
    


• Events and Conferences
  Keep a track of events and conferences; these can be potential blog posts. If published at the right time, these blogs can attract a lot of visitors and subscribers.
  
  Example events and conferences:
  
  
  • iPhone launch
    
  • SunTech Days
    
  • 4th of July
    
  • Valentine’s Day
    
  
  
• Track comments and e-mails on the blog
  Some of the top running articles on my technology blog are the result of tracking comments and e-mail from the blog. This can prove to be one of the best sources of ideas for posts and articles as users mostly leave comments asking questions.
  
  Few of these questions might require a lot of explanation in terms of following steps to accomplish a task or simply explaining a concept. So keep your eyes open and never let any comment or e-mail go without a notice.


• Last but not the least…
  Sleep well, eat well, go to the gym and stay fit.
  
  Bloggers usually work long hours and don’t get enough sleep which results in loss of focus. Not only blogging but anything you do, requires focus and best efforts for excellent results. The only way you can focus and give your 100% is by staying fit by sleeping enough and eating right.

I hope these tips were helpful. -Syed

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5 tips for Marketing to Millennials

A few months ago our local Advertising Federation had a guest speaker on this topic. This advice is from the BusinessKnowHow.com website:

The Millennial Generation was born between 1977 and 1998 and is just beginning to enter the workforce. As with each new generation, the Millennials come with their own set of expectations and abilities. Here are five things you can do to market to this group more effectively.

Read more ..

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Walmart Brand Changes

Laura Ries wrote this:

Wal-Mart: To change or not to change, that was the question.

The word “branding” comes from the cattle ranching days of the Old West. The branding of livestock was a rigidly-enforced practice that helped to keep life peaceful and orderly.

All cattle look pretty much the same. Without a brand, no cowboy would know whose cattle are whose. Determining ownership would be a nightmare.

In the American West, cattle still graze freely and branding allows ranchers to easily identify their animals especially during the fall roundup.

(Of course, some ranchers keep their herds on fenced lots and in that case branding isn’t required but is often done anyway. And in business, if you have no competition you don't need a brand either.)

A brand is the special mark or identifying design owned by a rancher. Branding occurs when an owner’s branding iron is heated to red hot in a fire and is pressed against the side of the animal. Not a particularly pleasurable process for the animal but essential for the rancher.

In the marketplace, brands and branding are as essential as they are on the ranch. Without a brand, consumers would have difficulty differentiating one product from another. But while any company can put a mark on the side of a package, that doesn’t make the mark a powerful brand. Brands are only powerful when you can burn that same mark into the mind of the consumer as well. Ouch!

Burning the consumer’s mind is the key detail many companies miss. They think branding is putting their name and logo on the package. But that is only half the answer. Making a branding iron is the easy part. Holding the consumer down and burning that brand into the mind is the hard part.

The good news is that once you have burned your brand in the mind of the consumer it is practically permanent. An established brand is difficult to change and hard to forget. Unless you keep changing what the brand stands for to the point of no recognition.

It is important to keep the look of your branding iron consistent over time. Constant or drastic change can be a brand-killer.

(Of course, if nobody knows your brand, you can change it all you want. Marlboro was initially a women’s cigarette which was rebranded with cowboy imagery.)

It was no trouble for Marlboro to change from a woman’s to a man’s cigarette but they can’t change from the cowboys without dire consequences. Marlboro has wisely stuck to the same imagery, look and logo for over 50 years.

Why do companies want to change the look of their brand? One reason is to keep the brand current and fresh. Or to attempt to change the position of the brand.

Making subtle changes over time to a brand is fine. It allows you to keep the logo fresh and up-to-date. The UPS logo has undergone 4 changes over 100 years but it still retains the same look, feel and most importantly the same color, brown. Consumers have hardly noticed the changes.

Sometimes a logo may not be perfect, but sudden, radical change to a well-known brand can be jarring, disturbing and destructive. This is the case with the latest changes to the Wal-Mart logo.

Since the launch of the company in 1962, Wal-Mart has made many subtle changes. But for the most part it has stuck to its traditional uppercase type. The brand is currently the world’s largest retailer meaning that its logo is burned into the minds of hundreds of millions of people around the world.

So what did they just announce? A drastic change. Not a small change, but a change that makes me cringe.

To hyphenate or not to hyphenate? Uppercase or lowercase? Star or no star? Dark blue or light blue? One color or two colors? Let’s change everything!

One change would have been radical enough, but making all these changes at once will disconnect Wal-Mart from its past. Which for the world’s largest retailer is stupid.

In general, it’s preferable to avoid hyphens in names and to use upper and lowercase letters rather than all-caps. But for Wal-Mart, its name and its typography are so well known that changing everything at once is dangerous.

What is even worse is the yellow starburst that Wal-Mart is adding to the end of its name. What the heck is that? I’ll tell you what it is. It is an attempt to make Wal-Mart look like a environmentally-friendly company and a big-box store that cares despite a record of union blocking and community commoditizing.

Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Gardner said: "This logo update is simply a reflection of the refreshed image of our stores and our renewed sense of purpose of helping people save money so they can live better."

Really? I think this logo update is an attempt by Wal-Mart to try and change the minds of consumers. To try to convince them that Wal-Mart has a renewed sense of purpose.

Has anybody mentioned Wal-Mart’s renewed sense of purpose to you? No one has mentioned it to me.

Changing the logo won’t change the brand in the mind. The only way to change what people think about Wal-Mart is to generate favorable publicity. The company has been making progress in this area with a more media-friendly CEO, Lee Scott, and by promoting energy-efficient light bulbs and a discounted drug program. I congratulate Wal-Mart for their PR, but question their radical logotype redesign.

For consumers who had problems with Wal-Mart’s brand the new logo won’t change their minds, slapping lipstick on a pig does little good either. For consumers who love to shop and save money at Wal-Mart (and there are a lot more of these consumers) the new logo is likely to confuse and frustrate. It is like your wife coming home with a new Mohawk, she might hope it makes her suddenly look young and rebellious but her family knows nothing could be further from the truth.

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The Power of Words

The words we use not only convey meaning, but they also create a mood. Check this out:

Daily Sales Tip: Nix the Negative Words

I was on a flight recently when the pilot announced: "We're not expecting any turbulence or flight delays today." Which words stood out? Turbulence, Flight Delays?

Our brains do not process negatives easily. We have to first consider the main words, and then negate them -- which takes extra thinking.

And since we've all experienced turbulence and flight delays, these words are now implanted in our brains, and we're feeling nervous -- just the opposite of the pilot's intention!

How often do you use negative words in your sales materials or meetings?

1. Do you end your correspondence with "Please do not hesitate to contact me?" Your readers see the word "hesitate." How about "Please contact me at any time?"

2. Do you say, "No problem" when answering a request? How about "It's my pleasure."

3. Do you say, "It won't be difficult to..." How about, "It will be easy to..."

Why not implant positive messages in your readers' and customers' minds? They will look forward to working with you, and "won't" anticipate any "problems!"

Source: Image consultant/author Lynda Goldman (impressforsuccess.com, 2008)

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Can you be bribed?

This came in my email.

I have no desire for their service or product, but I do have an interest in the $50 bucks.

But I passed on this. My time is too valuable. And I have enough books for now.

But if it was a Gas Card, would I have listened to their spiel? Would You?

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Mousetrap, Coffee, Houses

I could add a few more items like SUV's, Tomatoes, Tattoos. No matter what you are selling, you need a marketing plan:

Even Better Mousetraps Need Good Marketing Plans

Everyone's heard the old adage about building a better mousetrap—the idea that a great product or service sells itself. Michael Goodman, marketing consultant, says that nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, he argues, this mousetrap syndrome is responsible for innumerable small business failures and precious few successes.

To succeed, you have to understand the role and importance of a good marketing plan. If you can answer the following four questions, you probably have a good one:

Are you satisfying a genuine and unmet customer need? Conduct at least a minimum amount of market research to make sure you're not imagining a demand.

What will your marketing plan deliver? You need a clear and reasonable objective, plus a way to measure the plan's success.

How will you implement each part of your marketing mix? Don't assume that you'll be able to figure out the details once the pressure is on. You should know how you will implement your full marketing campaign before you start the ball rolling.

Do you have sufficient funding to accomplish your goal? Even the best plans can be ineffective if you lack the resources you need to follow through on all the details.

In Short: Nothing sells itself. Don't assume that your product or service is the exception.

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Web Browsers Effect Advertising Response

A friend of mine who builds websites, builds them to be compatible with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. He figures that the average Joe & Jill, use I.E. and that's that.

I use FireFox as my primary internet web browser, and there is an extension called Ad Block Plus, which is usually on, which filters out a lot of the advertising that I.E. users see.

(I also have Safari from Apple and Explorer from Microsoft on my computer that I use to check compatibility issues with.)

There is even more research regarding the differences between the people that use different browsers in this report from The Weakest Link:

Browser stats

If you are attempting to monetize your blog. This is one statistic that will tell you quicker than anything if you are getting "good" traffic to your site.

Quite frankly, Firefox users don’t click on ads.

Go check your statistics, Find a day with a lower click through rate than you normally have. I will bet you that your Firefox percentage was higher that day.

Firefox (depending on where you look) make up about 40% of the internet users. If your statistics are showing that you are getting more than that. You are seeing the "wrong" type of traffic for an advertisement funded blog.

Why is this?

1. It’s already well known that some traffic is pretty "useless" for ad conversions. Stumble, Digg, Propeller, and all the other social bookmarks don’t convert well into clickthrough. Google Organic searches and "surf traffic" do.

2. It’s also well known that bloggers, social bookmark users and other "net-savvy" visitors use Firefox to a much greater extent than the average 40%

Since the users that arrive from social bookmark sites are normally "bad clickers" and since they often use Firefox. You can tell that you are getting the wrong type of traffic by simply reviewing your Firefox percentage.

On days where I have a "normal" distribution of about 57% IE users, 40% Firefox users and 3% "other". I get almost a five times higher click through rate than I do on days when I have a Stumble or Digg heavy traffic day which brings 90+% Firefox browsers.

IE Users Surf - Firefox Users Probe

An IE user is more likely to actually surf the web, In other words to follow the links from one page to the next. Going with the natural flow of the net, they are there for enjoyment and recreation as much as information gathering. When one of your ads looks interesting enough, they will follow it.

Firefox users on the other hand, do pokes; they start at their favorite place on the web. Digg, Propeller etc. and they will hit a link only to return to the hub when they are done. The "Back" button is a Firefox user’s greatest friend. He or she will poke and probe only so far, and return to the "safe" surrounding of peer reviewed and recommended reads. Ad clicks are not their game, and this is not going to change anytime soon.

If you are a blogger, you probably started out on IE, and as you got more into social networking, you switched to Firefox because of its lower system requirements and better plug-ins. (like those that completely block ad networks.) You probably were a lot more prone to click ads before you got "wise" and switched to Firefox too. If you are a blogger that have been considering to switch to Firefox, I’m betting that you are fairly new to the game.

Links are Firefox Filters

Since Firefox users are less inclined to venture further out than one click from their preferred social media or bookmark site, getting links to your blog will effectively send much more IE users than Firefox users to your blog. IE users will follow links, Firefox users won’t to nearly the same extent. So getting inbound links to your site is imperative. You need them to get both an increased Page rank and since they will send mostly IE users.

This supports what I’ve been saying in the past articles of "The Blogpreneur." You have to build a strong blog with great content, when you do that, you will get links, which in turn will give you both Google, and referrals from other sites. And those hits will probably be much more IE heavy and thereby more click friendly.

Check your browser stats, it will tell you a lot about whether the hits you are getting are likely to hit an ad or not. If your traffic is Firefox heavy, you are not getting what you are looking for.

Check Firefox Ratio Before You buy Ad Space.

If you are going to advertise on a site to drive traffic to your site. Ask them what their Firefox percentage is. If its high, it’s probably better to pay per click than to pay a flat monthly rate based on their traffic.

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Internal Marketing

As I go about developing advertising campaigns for radio and websites, I often dig deeper and find out if the folks inside the business are aware of the advertising and marketing efforts their company is doing.

Sadly, more often than not, this is not being communicated. So I will do my best to include everyone in the loop so that those on the front line with the customers are as knowledgeable as those that signed the advertising agreements. When everyone is on the same page, results will improve dramatically.

Read more from the THINKING Blog:

Great Employees = Happy Consumers

Posted: 14 Jul 2008 04:09 PM CDT

Companies spend millions of dollars each year identifying their brand, and then communicating their brand promise through various media. Employees are the primary “media” in the majority of brand contacts. Raise your hand if you think a majority of your employees understand your brand promise well enough to live it and articulate it clearly.

I don’t see many hands up.

Tons of research has been done on this subject. Typically, the results indicate that more than 75% of employees are achieving much less and feeling far less enthusiastic about their work than they could be. One Gallup study suggests that if all your employees were “fully engaged,” your customers would be 70% more loyal, your turnover would drop by 70%, and your profits would jump 40%. In a 2006 study, Gallup reports that, “the lower productivity of actively disengaged workers costs the US economy about $328 billion.”

Research also has found that consumers who felt fast food restaurant employees did a great job were five to six times more likely to come back to that brand. At banks where employees stood out, the customer was six to 20 times more likely to continue the relationship.

Additionally, great employees also tend to engender “passionate” customers. For example, customers who praised store-level associates were 16 times more likely to be passionate about the retailer’s brand.

My analogy is this: drop a pebble into a pond and the largest splash occurs at the point of contact and then radiates outward in circles. The point of contact, from a branding perspective, is inside your company. Get employees on board from an emotional perspective and they carry their passion out to the next circle: customers. Passionate customers carry it beyond to prospects through word-of-mouth.

Effectively communicate your brand position with your employees, and unleash some passionate financial results.

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The New Sears?

Should Sears and K-mart just fade away?

Or....

Can they reinvent themselves?

As a teenager in the 1970's my parents always bought Kenmore Appliances, with the service contract, and Craftsman tools, guaranteed forever from Sears. I also remember the Sears Wishbook Christmas catalog that kids would use to make up their Christmas Lists.

K-mart, which is co-owned with Sears, was the place that you'd go for cheap stuff. They have also been struggling with an image problem for years, once Target reinvented themselves as a hip place to shop.

Here's the latest on Sears:

Sears To Teens: This Is Not Your Parents' Department Store

by Karl Greenberg, Wednesday, Jul 16, 2008 5:00 AM ET

Sears is hoping to convince tweens and teens that it is not their parents' department store. The Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based retailer is launching an interactive "back to school" marketing campaign, "Don't Just Go Back. Arrive," involving some 13 Web sites and custom animation, virtual worlds and social networking. The Web campaign aims to drive consumers to Sears' online "Arrive Lounge." The site features a five-part video in which "High School Musical" star Vanessa Hudgens struggles to find the right style for the first day of school. Site visitors can vote for the male cast member who will star with Hudgens in the final episode of the series. An associated sweepstakes dangles a Vanessa Hudgens concert at the winner's school, private jet and limo rides to arrive at school in style and a jet shopping trip to Hollywood. There is also a music mixing tool that allows site visitors to create music videos and post them to YouTube, Facebook and MySpace. Sears will also have product placement in MTV's romantic comedy feature film "The American Mall." Sears will include VIP Access Cards in its loyalty program, which dangles entry into various sweepstakes and notification of exclusive sales at Sears and Sears.com. The Web sites included in the effort are Alloy.com, Disney and Nickelodeon, which will have Sears messaging that directs consumers back to the ArriveLounge, per the company. Web partners that are offering various virtual versions of Sears stores and boutiques with back-to-school themes are Zwinky.com with a Sears virtual store; a Sears boutique at Meez.com; Sears Back-To-School branded experiences at GoFish.com; a Sears back to school section on Nick.com; custom games for Sears on Addicting.com. Other teen-centric sites in which Sears will promote the real by using the virtual include FunBrain.com, Poptropica.com, NeoPets.com; Facebook; MySpace. Seventeen and CosmoGIRL! magazines are doing print and online promotions with Sears back-to-school content. "Expanding our marketing strategy into the online world of user communities and social networking is a critical means of developing engagement and brand loyalty within the youth demographic," says Richard Gerstein, Sears' SVP and chief marketing officer, in a release. "By modifying our strategy to reach tweens in their own environment, we are demonstrating to them how Sears can be a part of their life, from their entertainment to their school wardrobe." Karl Greenberg can be reached at karl@mediapost.com

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The Flinch Test

Everyone wants to pay the "best price".

Not the lowest, not the highest, just the "best price".

And if you ever sell to salespeople, they know how to play this game.

This is from SalesDog.com:

Will You Pass the Flinch Test?
By Lee B. Salz

Many professional buyers have a test they like to give to salespeople. Fail and you don't stand a chance of winning their business. Lee Salz shows you how to pass with high marks.

After a lengthy buying process, the time has come to submit pricing. You've spent countless hours formulating a glorious proposal that details your comprehensive solution. Proud of your accomplishment, you present the proposal to the buyer. Skipping the sections about your company and your solution, she flips right to the pricing page and says, "Oh my gosh, I didn't think it would be this expensive!"

You've just been given the "flinch test." This is the test Procurement Agents and other professional buyers give to salespeople when they provide pricing. "Wow! You are 25% higher than your competition." These pros are trained to react with surprise so that they can see if you are confident in your price. The flinch test is nothing more than a straightforward negotiation tactic. Often times, they'll overstate the price difference such that you can do some quick math and see that the differential is bogus.

I can recall a time where I was told that we were 50% higher than the competition. When I reviewed the numbers, this meant that the competitor was losing 18% based on fixed costs that we both had. It was highly unlikely that the competitor was signing up for this kind of an account. When I asked the Procurement Agent about that figure again, he flinched and we ultimately won the business.

How to pass the test
The key to passing the flinch test is to respond with confidence in your price. If you don't believe you are providing a fair, competitive price for the solution, my question is why are you presenting it? One would hope that you have integrity, so why present something you don't believe in?

Here are some responses that will cause you to fail the flinch test:

	• What price were you looking for?
	• I'll ask my manager if we can do better.
	• How about if I take 10% off?

The reason these responses fail is that they create trust issues with the prospect. Were you trying to rip them off with the price you presented? One of two things is true. Either you were trying to rip them off or you believe you provided a fair price. What other option is there? Some will say that they were preparing for a negotiation. That's a fair point; however, it is a terrible negotiation strategy to give the appearance that you will drop your price the first moment someone balks. That approach gives the impression that you sought to gouge them.

Most negotiations end at the middle ground. They wanted 5; you wanted 10 and settled at 7.5. That seems logical. However, if you lower your price early, the middle ground is lower. In the same scenario, if you dropped to 8 right off the bat, the middle becomes 6.5. As I mentioned, you have to manage the negotiation such that the middle is not lower than an acceptable price for your company.

Successful salespeople have a planned, or dare I say "canned," response for the flinch test. They don't expect a prospect to respond with excitement about a price. They anticipate shock and have a process to handle it. Here are their secrets:

Set expectations upfront
Early in the buying process, set the expectation that you are not the low price provider. "To be clear, our company is rarely the low bid, does that mean that we won't be working together on this project?" If they say no, you are set for the later phases of the process. If they say yes, at least you haven't invested a ton of time in an account that you won't win. If you are going to lose, lose early.

Don't flinch
Instead, say something like, "I'm not surprised by your reaction. I get that a lot. As I mentioned at the outset, we are rarely the low bidder."

Seek to understand
Seek first to understand. Do so by asking, "When you say that you are shocked by the price, which part is surprising?

Reinforce your position
Reinforce your position by saying something like, "Since we are rarely the low price provider, what do you think our 1000 clients see that leads them to pay a little more to have us?"

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to participate in Procurement Training. (Think of it as sales training for buyers.) After the session, I had an interesting conversation with the trainer. Here's what he told me…

	"For 25 years, salespeople have asked me for coaching on the price of their proposal as I was the head of Procurement for my company. I told each one of them the same thing. Provide us with the best price that you feel good about giving and either way, you win. I always got a puzzled expression from that. Let me explain. If we award the business to you at that price, you're happy. If we award the business to someone else at a lower price, you are happy as well because you wouldn't have been happy to support the account at that price point."

To share a little secret, I use the flinch test all the time when I buy. It's amazing how quickly salespeople drop their drawers on price. I bet I've saved my family 20% across the board for all of our spending just with that test. It's no wonder that professional buyers use this. I often wonder how many commission dollars are lost just because the salespeople flinch. How may commission dollars have you lost because you flinched?

Lee B. Salz is the CEO of Business Expert Webinars, President of Sales Dodo, and author of "Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager." Known as "The Sales Dodo," Lee specializes in helping companies and their sales organizations adapt and thrive in the ever-changing world of business. Lee can be reached via email at LSalz@SalesDodo.com, or by phone at 763.416.4321.

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Tuesday's News Tonight

Why post this now?

'Cause, if you didn't have time to read it earlier, now you have all night.

Clickable headlines from Mediapost:

InBev's Bud Deal Unlikely To Change Branding Tactics
by Karl Greenberg
[Beverages] "There's a lot of difference from the standpoint of price and image between Bud Light versus Stella and Beck's and Bass," says Benjamin Stein, editor of Beer Marketer's Insights, who adds that Budweiser and Bud Light are already the biggest brand globally by far. "InBev sees that a critical part of the deal is extending the Bud family's incredibly strong market position in the U.S. to other countries. - Read the whole story...

For Back-To-School, Family Values Make A Comeback
by Sarah Mahoney
[Retail] "'Shopping down' is going to continue to be the big trend, not just for back-to-school, but through the holiday season and into next year," says Tim Henderson, senior director and consumer strategist at Iconoculture, a Minneapolis-based trend-spotting firm. What's more, he says, the new frugality is a sentiment cutting a wide swath through American shoppers-not just those directly under pressure by the weaker economy. - Read the whole story...

Southern Comfort Follows Its Target Demographic Online
by Aaron Baar
[Spirits] Since 2005, the company has run the SoCo Music Experience mostly as a local promotion, taking out print ads in the local markets where concerts featuring national music acts such as The Roots, Common and The Flaming Lips, take place. But, says a company rep, "We think we've gotten the program to a place where we can leverage it online. We've grown it to a point where we can bring it to a more national audience." - Read the whole story...

AT&T To Back Beijing-Bound USA Basketball Team
by Karl Greenberg
[Telecom] The deal has AT&T giving its customers USA Basketball team content, news and the like via the Web and mobile video-on-demand content. AT&T will promote its products and services through USA Basketball-themed marketing materials. - Read the whole story...

Sharp Pulls Out The Stops For Solar Panel Campaign
by Laurie Sullivan
[Electronics] "When consumers go to their dealer for solar panels, we want them to think about the same Sharp Aquos TVs they have in their home," says Neal Lattner, senior marketing director for the Sharp marketing and communications group. - Read the whole story...

Jack In The Box Intros Cheesy Macaroni Bites

Kimpton, 'Cooking Light' In Joint Promo

Coty Partners With Opera Legend To Unleash Fragrance

CVS, Kodak Ink Deal For Photo Books, DVDs

Mountaineer Signs On With Eddie Bauer

New Era To Uncap DC Comics Collection

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