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04.19.10
Increase Your Sales Dollars
Increase Your Sales Dollars
The Magic Word for Salespersons: Up-selling
 
Years ago in my misspent youth, I was taught that there are three ways to increase your sales numbers: Get new customers, reactivate former customers and get more business from existing customers. The latter being the easiest and fastest means to bigger commissions.
 
What my tutor didn’t tell me is that there is another adjunct to those three principles; Up-selling. Increase the dollar amount of your sales by showing the customer how they can actually save money by spending more at the moment of sale. As every car salesman knows, no one buys the “Sally Rand” (a stripper) model of any vehicle, at least no one other than a person who understands that a car is just transportation. 
02.03.10
The Eleven Rules For A Successful Career (Life)
There is an e-mail going around the internet, forwarded by well-meaning friends, that claims to be a commencement speech given recently by Bill Gates to a High School class. The class is not identified and a check with Snopes.com and TruthorFiction.com disclose that the revered Mr. Gates is not the author of the article/speech/commencement address. No one knows who authored the piece, but it still rings loud and clear as good advice to late teens (and anyone else who have yet to hear the sound of reality). Rule 3 gives some indication that this piece was written before the modern era of everyone carrying a cell phone.
 
01.21.10
It’s A New Year: 2010 Will Be A Year Of New Focuses And Beginnings

The economy sucks, there's a bunch of ignorant boobs in Washington, DC, the Federal deficit is stupendous and higher taxes are looming . . . doesn’t sound like 2010 will be a good year, does it? Take heart, the economy will get better, an awakening public will vent their collective spleen on Congress and the Executive Branch forcing them to do something about deficits and taxes . . . and selling professionals will advance us towards a “pre-boom” economy.

12.16.09
Too Much Technology?: Face-to-Face Contacts Are Being Replaced By Technology

We are being surrounded by technology today, so much so that people have almost forgotten how to make face-to-face contact with customers, prospects, suppliers and their own offices. Who would have thought twenty-five years ago that salespeople couldn’t get along without their Blackberry, laptop or PC in the office? In 1980, the height of technology was a pager.  That device was replaced over the years by greater technology in the form of cell phones, Blackberries, palm-sized computers and a host of other electronic marvels. These gadgets are great, but they should be used to assist not replace sales technology. In the “olden days” of salesmanship, it required a face-to-face contact to initiate the sales call, make the presentation, offer the close and follow-up on either the sale or the next step in the sales process. Nowadays, it is the technology that performs many of these tasks.

12.08.09
Increasing Business

Sales trainees are taught that there are a number of ways to increase the sales in their assigned territory, thereby increasing their employer’s business and justifying their own existence. The sources of new business are, in order of importance to a new salesperson: New customers, increased business from existing customers and referrals. There are a number of sub-headings for each of these items. Referral business is relegated to least of importance because a new salesperson has yet to develop the sources, being too new to have a rapport with existing customers or other referral fountains. Referrals are, however, the source that experienced salespeople find are the best and most reliable source of prospective customers.

11.30.09
Bigger Isn’t Always Better: Expanding Your Business May Not Be The Best Choice

Many a small businessman, empowered by the success of his small operation, expands himself into failure because he didn’t understand the dynamics of his success. Many of us have seen a successful restaurant expand their facility, staff and services, only to see their business dry up and disappear. Writing in Inc. Magazine a number of years ago, business consultant Norm Brodsky wrote, “If you don’t really understand what’s driving your success, you have to be careful about the strategy you adopt. There’s a risk, after all, that you may accidentally undermine whatever made your company successful in the first place.” Brodsky cited an example of a client-friend who wanted to expand his very successful retail store, but when encouraged to evaluate his business, he realized that the increased costs would require another million dollars in sales to break even . . . and his current customers had not turned away because of his crowded shop

11.17.09
Thanksgiving Turkey Cajun Style: Deep Fried Bird is the Way to Go

The turkey season is here and I don’t mean turkey hunting season. We are rapidly approaching the holidays where turkey is the featured main course, particularly on Thanksgiving. Turkey is so good, healthful and low cost, I don’t know why people don’t eat the delicious bird at least a couple of times a month. In one part of the world they do; in Cajun country turkey is not limited just to Thanksgiving and Christmas, but enjoyed at many family cookouts as well.

11.09.09
Healthcare Reform: Is The “Fix” In?

What is it about politicians that they all think they have to “reform” or “change” the systems they were elected to administer to . . . and a lot of things that they were not elected to manage, like businesses and healthcare.  The bloated bureaucracy in Washington, DC has a history of mismanaging nearly everything they touch, so what makes them think they can manage the healthcare of the USA, or General Motors, or Chrysler, or AIG, or CIT?

11.02.09
Be Likeable: Who do you buy from? Not Oscar the Grouch!

Think about it, when is the last time you bought anything from a salesperson with a bad attitude, or even an unsmiling guy or gal? It is the likeable salesman who gets the orders, regardless of the product he is selling. He makes the sales experience a positive one and his customers know that he really appreciates their purchasing from him. His attitude establishes credibility and the clients believe what he says. Studies have shown that people buy from salespeople they have come to like during the sales process. Are you or your salespeople viewed as “likeable” by you prospective customers?

10.29.09
Sales Prospecting For Success: There Are Fewer Sales Without It

Sales volume is in direct proportion to the volume of prospecting by the salesperson. Sales cannot be made without prospects. Sales is a numbers game; the more prospective customers a salesperson calls on, the more sales are made and the more prospecting a salesperson does, the more prospects they have to call on. Sporadic prospecting results in inconsistent sales figures, up-and-down sales volume. In times of plenty (lots of leads to work) it is natural for reps to prospect less, but there should be consistent prospecting in order to assure a constant flow of leads to be worked.

10.26.09
Cold Calling Primer: How to make effective cold calls

In a response to a recent article by sales systems guru, Ari Galper, the author revealed that he had received numerous e-mails from his salesman readership, most of whom reported an abject fear of making cold calls, particularly by telephone. The fear of rejection was the most cited reason for the “cold calling chills,” but all respondents said they would find many excuses for not making the calls they all knew were necessary. Quite simply: Salespeople who don’t make cold calls, don’t make sales.

09.30.09
Exercise Can Extend Survival: Physical or Fiscal, Exercise is Good For Business

The jury is in and the verdict rendered. Exercise, even for the “oldest old” is good for you and may extend you life. According to a study done in Israel, the three year survival rate for 85-year-olds was three times higher for those who were active than the inactive group. Active was described as “more than fours hours of exercise weekly,” and consisted of walking and other forms of fitness. The study also concluded that previously inactive people of all ages benefited from starting an exercise regimen. Those who were part of the test reported also that the “active group” experiences less depression and loneliness. They also had an easier time performing routine, daily tasks.

09.19.09
The Biggest Myth in Sales

“Ya gotta close the deal on the first visit, ‘cause they ain’t coming back!” says the old timey salesman to the rookie. “Be sure to give them your watch so they know what time to be back.” is further advice from the grinning, hoary old peddler to the kid. Be-backs, people who don’t buy on the first visit or on the salesman’s first call, are lost opportunities because they’ll go down the road and meet a real salesman. You get one chance to close the deal, one shot at get their signature on the contract before they bail out.

09.18.09
Stressed Out? Proper Nutrition May Provide An Answer

There is certainly a lot to be stressed out about today. The economic crisis, job losses, sales revenues eroding, business tanking . . . Many people find some relief by eating something, but what you reach for may only add to your stress, not relieve it. Munching on “comfort foods” like chocolate or ice cream gives a momentary sugar rush to the brain, but this is only temporary. Soon the brain chemicals heightened by the sugar leave and the stress returns.

09.07.09
Tunguska Event: Big Blast in Siberia

On June 30, 1908, a little after 7:00 AM in the area that is now Krasnoyarsk Krai on the Lower Tunguska River, a huge explosion flattened more than 80 million trees on 830 square miles of Siberian taiga. The explosion was estimated at one-thousand times greater that the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. The cause of the explosion is not known for sure, but some scientists surmise that it was a large comet or meteor striking the Earth. The evidence does not support that contention, however, but pictures of the site look more like an air-burst than an impact since there is no crater to support the impact theory.

09.02.09
Bad News Isn’t Always Bad

Shrinking Social Security Payments May Herald Economic Turnaround

A recent article in the Sovereign Individual newsletter commented on an Associated Press headline, “Millions face shrinking Social Security payments.” The SI editor went on to say that this news, though misstated, is exactly the news economic prognosticators should want to hear because it heralds the restoration of government fiscal prudence. The contention is that there will be no cost-of-living increases for SSI recipients because the Consumer Price Index is down. The CPI is the indicator to which SSI COLA is tied. This actually means “deflation” not inflation . . . a good sign.

08.31.09
Did You Get Your Stimulus Check Yet? How About Cash For Your Clunker?

You may not know it, but we aren’t the only fools thinking that we can borrow our way back to prosperity. Heck, the whole world is doing it, too! Both Germany and France have government bailouts and “cash for clunkers programs.” Their economies, much like that of the USA, are very reliant on the manufacture of automobiles . . . and the sale of them. Both countries have reported some growth in the past couple of months, a whopping .03 percent, but it is growth, but is it attributable to auto sales?

08.27.09
Bargains Galore: Everywhere in the news prices are dropping

Bargains, bargains everywhere. Headlines in newspapers, on advertisements and across the tops of industry newsletters extol the plethora of bargains available on nearly everything imaginable; Real estate, classic automobiles, jewelry, electronics, hey, even Omaha Steaks are 50% off! One headline announced that baseball Hall-of-Famer, Len Dykstra, just lost his house he had listed for $24.95 million. He had dropped the selling price by nearly $10 million, but it still didn’t sell and went into foreclosure. Another personality, music producer Scott Storch, lost his $7.5 million house to a bank who bought it at auction for $5.5mm.

08.18.09
Make Your Business "Green"

Take your business “green.” Going GREEN is a buzz-word commonly heard today in these environmentally-conscious times. There are green building materials, green consciousness in energy usage, green office products, green choices in packaging, green automobiles and just about everything else that can is going green. The most important “green” however, is that on the backs of our U. S. currency. Our current economic meltdown has many businesses scrambling to slow the slide of their revenues, but smart, aggressive business owners are going after bigger market shares while the others are pulling in their horns.