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Sales

We Are All in Sales

by Daria Steigman on February 11, 2013

"Sold To Very Nice People" tagDid you know that the average person spends 40 percent of his or her job on sales? That works out to 24 minutes per hour.

In a fascinating conversation with Jonathan Fields, Daniel Pink said that “the technology that was supposed to obliterate sales has turned more of us into sellers.” Pink, whose latest book is on this topic, makes the point that blurring lines at work has put a form of selling into everyone’s job description.

We are all in sales.

Lawyers won’t tell you they are in sales, but that’s what they do every time they wine and dine a potential client. Customer service reps won’t tell you they are in sales, but the results of every service call can mean the difference between a product return and return business. Researchers won’t tell you they are in sales, but they’re selling ideas, projects, and their budget needs to their bosses (and their bosses). And CEOs… Well, you get the picture.

Watch the video. It’s long, but it’s worth it.

My friend Geoff Livingston said in a speech recently that “no one wakes up and says, ‘I am a lead generator.’” And yet we are. A lot of food for thought here–and implications for the world of work.

Photo by PinkMoose (Flickr).

Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.

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The Truth About Being a Selling Success

by Daria Steigman on April 16, 2012

Stones in a Row: Why Concise is a Business AssetMy father makes his students write one-page briefing memos for the Secretary of State. He also dings them for typos.

Being concise (and accurate) is a business asset. And it can be the difference between selling your idea (or initiative, or product, or service) and sitting on the sidelines.

I was thinking about this as I listened to a pair of CEOs talk about how to grab their attention. One talked specifically about “telling me what I need to know.” His point was that he was best able to make decisions when someone broke down the strategy and put the information into chunks.

A couple more takeaways from the CEOs’ conversation are worth noting, if for no other reason than the fact that they were raised in the first place (yes, more duh moments):

  • Don’t act like a lemming. One of the CEOs, a Swedish national, said that Americans tend to say yes to everything, while Swedish employees are more apt to ask questions and challenge the assumptions on the table. Feedback is critical, so which kind of employees do you want?
  • Know your boss’ temperament. The second CEO pointed out that social intelligence is huge, and you have to know the right (and wrong) times to approach your boss. I wrote about one aspect of this here.

There might have been more takeaways, but the moderator dominated the conversation. So much for concise.

Photo by Olof Senestam (Flickr).

Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.

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Would Your Business Survive the Shark Tank Intact?

by Daria Steigman on February 13, 2012

How a Great Product Ended a BusinessI was watching Shark Tank the other night when entrepreneur and inventor Eric Corti walked in pitching a balloon pump designed to take the air out of an open bottle of wine. He was looking for cash in return for a stake in his business.

I’m no oenophile, but I know that wine lovers and wannabe snobs will pay a lot of money to preserve their vintages. A friend of mine even installed a temperature-controlled wine chiller in her kitchen, telling me that “everyone has one.” (My mom quipped, “Yes, it’s called a refrigerator.” But I digress.)

The sharks liked the guy’s product, with one of them calling it “a better mousetrap.” Kevin O’Leary offered more money than Corti had initially requested in return for a 50-percent stake in the business—on the condition that he was coming in solely to help negotiate the sale of the wine balloon to the competition. Lori Greiner offered $500,000 for 100 percent of the company. Mark Cuban joined her—upping the buyout offer to $600,000 but only if Corti said yes immediately.

The sharks’ interest gave me three valuable pieces of information:

  1. The product was salable.
  2. The potential value of the product was significantly higher than where Corti had valued it.
  3. No one valued the inventor—just his invention.

Point #3 is significant—because most investors bank on the entrepreneur and count on that passion, drive, and smarts to result in a great product and a successful business. Here they had a product they believed was bankable and didn’t need (or want) the entrepreneur.

It’s decision time. What would you do?

First, I give Corti credit. He tried to negotiate a small (3-percent) royalty for his wine balloon. It backfired, but it was still the right move. And it got instant pushback (which actually reinforced data points 1 and 2). Cuban dropped out (and the offer dropped). At the end of the day, Corti accepted $400,000 in a revised Greiner-Cuban buyout.

I walked away thinking that Corti had allowed himself to be robbed—especially after the price dropped by one third. Sure, $400K is a lot of money. But there are other investors out there. Probably other buyers too. And attracting that much interest from the Shark Tank crew had to worth something. Plus there’s nothing to say that Greiner wouldn’t have brought the product to QVC anyway. Or that you couldn’t perhaps leverage her obvious interest in the product to pry open the door at rival HSN.

What would you have done?

Photo by floodllama (Flickr).

Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.

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Your Customers Are Not Morons

by Daria Steigman on January 31, 2012

Customer Service, Empowered Customers are not ClownsThis should be obvious, right?

[Insert BIG SIGH here.]

There’s a lot of talk these days about “empowered consumers” and what this means for companies. It’s an issue for  pricing and sales, and for what consumers want and expect from the brands we interact with.

We have more information than ever a mouse click, search term, or social scroll away.

There’s a big gap between the empowered consumer and many sales and customer service teams.

Case in point. I was shopping around the other day for information on Internet service providers. Mine has been very reliable–but the price has gone up astronomically. So here’s how the conversations went.

1. Existing provider said they felt my pain. Customer service agent put me on hold for a couple of minutes while he (maybe) went off to see if he could give me a different service or a better price point on this one. Came back and spouted a company line about having only one speed of service and that I was paying the standard rate for that. I told him I was going to cancel. Said he would be sorry to see me go.

The rate I was paying was $7 over the highest rate listed on the company’s Web site. The base rate was 40% lower than what I was paying.

2. Prospective company’s sales guy wants to know what I’m paying now. Not relevant, I reply, I want to know what options you offer. Sales guy asked what provider I have now. (Nice try, same answer.) Then he starts talking about bundled new services–which I say is not what I’m asking about either. Finally, he quotes me a price.

The price he quotes me is 25% higher than the rate listed on the company’s Web site. And it’s for completely unbundled service–and I already have one service through this company.

They must think we’re morons.

Clearly, companies have a long way to go in understanding how the Internet–let alone social platforms–impacts the business/customer relationship.

Photo by macinate (Flickr).

Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.

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Why Every Deal Is Not a Bargain

by Daria Steigman on December 12, 2011

sales, marketing, value, Independent ThinkingWhat’s up with the “2 for 1″ sales trend these days?

My thinking on pricing,  rates, and value is pretty clear. And I don’t understand why some people think every deal is a bargain:

  • “Buy 1, get 1 free” suggests the item is overpriced.
  • “Buy 1, get the second free (just pay separate shipping)” suggests the product is so cheap that all the profit is built into the shipping cost.
  • “Used to be [a lot more], but really great price today” tells me the product is pretty close to worthless. And no one’s buying it and we desperately want to get rid of our inventory.

I’m all fine with sales–everyone knows that’s a temporary drop in your profit margin. (And “2 for 1,” used judiciously, can serve that aim.) But when your business model is all about discounting, then I start to get worried.

What about you? Seen any deals lately that aren’t bargains?

Photo by Anthony Easton (Flickr).

Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.

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