benefits :: SoundAdvice Sales and Marketing

Sales Advice | Sales Training | Online Sales Help

Archive for benefits

Overcome Your Fear Of Sales And Selling

Posted by Phyllis on Monday, June 6th, 2011 in Mindset, Sales Tips | Comments (2)

Fear stops you just when you need to take that next step.
The one that is going to make a difference in your business and your bank account.

For most of us, the fear comes from two very real places.

The fear of rejection – that someone will confirm that our work, our stuff isn’t good enough.
Secondly, the fear that we’ll offend or be seen as pushy, self-promoting and greedy.

But what if you shifted your lens ever so slightly?

Can you for a moment, embrace the possibility that what you fear isn’t really sales or selling at all?
I’m not saying your fear isn’t real.
I’m not telling you to just get over it (as if that ever works) or ignore it and do it anyway.
What I’m asking is for you to be willing to look at the issue with a new perspective.

I decided to check with a few experts on the subject.

I asked them to define sales and selling.
Here is what they had to say.

Seth Godin

“The salesperson’s job: Help people overcome their fear so they can commit to something they’ll end up glad they invested in.” Taken from his post titled: Selling vs. Inviting
Seth Godin has written thirteen books that have been translated into more than thirty languages. Every one has been a bestseller.

Carol Roth

“Sales has evolved: it used to mean trying to convince someone that they needed your product or service. Nowadays sales (or at least effective sales) is about listening to customers or potential customers and educating them on how you can meet their needs and pain points.”
New York Times best selling author of The Entrepreneur Equation. Carol Roth has worked with hundreds of companies on all aspects of business and financial strategy.

Tom Hopkins

“Professionally using a person’s desire to own the benefits of your product, then blending your sincere desire to serve them in order to help that person make a decision that’s truly good for them.”
Since 1976, Tom Hopkins International has been dedicated to providing the finest sales training strategies and techniques to individuals and companies alike.

Pamela Slim

“Sales is delivering a solution you are passionate about to a customer who finds it the perfect resolution to her problem.”
Pamela Slim is a seasoned coach and writer who helps frustrated employees in corporate jobs break out and start their own business.

Bob Burg

“I’ve heard a number of definitions of sales, and many are excellent. So, while mine is far from the only definition, it would be: Sales: “Helping someone to own what they want, need or desire.”
Co-author of the national bestseller, The Go-Giver, Bob shares information on topics vital to the success of today’s business person.

Steve Kloyda

“If you had the cure for cancer, how many cancer patients would you approach each day and ask to purchase your cure? As many as you could! Sales is real simple. Identify a problem and provide a solution. A professional sales person helps a prospect or customer make a decision that is good for them and always leaves that person better than they found them.”
Founder of The Prospecting Expert, Steve helps his clients attract more prospects, retain more clients, and drive more sales.

James Clear

“You can’t make anyone take a certain action, but you can make it much easier. That’s what sales and “selling” is all about. In my experience, there are two pieces to the sales puzzle. First, you need to make it known that you’re selling something. Interestingly, the first part is the one that drives most people away because it makes them feel “awkward” or “scammy” to push a product or service. But the reason the feel that way is because they don’t understand the second part of sales, which is the psychological piece. You need to understand the psychology of buying a product in order to sell it. You need to get to know your customer, get inside their head, discover their problems, needs, and desires. If you do that, then you’ll realize all of the ways you can help you customer by selling to them and you’ll help them realize the benefits as well. That means more sales for you and more benefit for the customers — all while sleeping soundly at night.”
James runs the Passive Panda website making it easier for you to earn more money every day.

The common thread?

Selling isn’t something you do TO someone, it’s something you do FOR them!

Each definition mentions the customers best interest.
Selling includes things like listening, serving, solving.
Shifting to that perspective opens the possibility of helping not pushing; conversations instead of convincing, being a welcome resource.

Here’s my definition.

“Making an offer and giving someone the chance to say yes!”

Now, it’s your turn. How can embracing a new definition of sales help you? Leave your comments below.

Sales Questions And Solutions

Posted by Phyllis on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011 in 5 Steps To a Compelling Marketing Message, Sales Tips | Comments (0)

Time To Answer Your Questions

I promised to to do a video response – and here it is. My editor (and best husband ever) was out of town today and I decided to post this as is – just me chatting with you about a sales question.

SoundAdvice Sound Bite

Click to hear the audio – 2:20

SalesConfidence

Text Version

Today’s SoundAdvice Sound Bite is about Sales Confidence.

This is an issue that solopreners and business owners bring up when we’re talking about sales results or the lack of results.
Being confident in what you’re offering is key if you want people to opt in, hire you, buy your thing.
If you’re not sure about what you’re offering – how can your customer be sure?
Let your confidence come from a place of service and value.
I’ll explain.
This is what I like to call quiet confidence.

It’s not about being arrogant or pushy.

Quite confidence is about being helpful – offering hope – offering solutions.
Because it comes from a place of value and service.
If you know you deliver value, your products and services deliver and clients will feel better, look younger, be happier, lose weight, see real results – Then it isn’t just a good idea to share that – it is part of your mission – to make sure that those who need what you have can find you – get access – and get results.
When you are selling from a place of service – the focus and emphasis is always on the customer.
What will they receive? how will they feel? what will they learn?
What results can they expect?

Remember, people buy results.

Have that conversation – and give them the chance to say YES!
When you sell with this kind of confidence, your customers will be confident about working with you or buying from you as well.
That’s todays SoundBite – let me know in the comments if you have any questions or thoughts about your sales confidence.

While you’re here please sign up to receive my newsletter, it’s the best way for us to get to know each other.

Thanks for listening and have a great day!

5 Sales Basics To Make It All So Much Easier

Posted by Phyllis on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 in Sales Rx, Sales Tips | Comments (10)

I was recently asked to provide some assistance to someone who was just starting a sales career. They asked for the “secrets” to be a huge, smashing success. Without knowing in depth everything about her past accomplishments or her individual strengths, I thought a few sales “basics” would be just the thing to get her started.

Easy enough right? That’s what I thought too, but once I started I ended up with lots more than our time together would permit. Here’s the edited version, and I’m finishing the long version .pdf. If you’d like a copy, you can sign up here, and I’ll make sure you get it.

1. Identify Your Target Market – I write and talk about this often, but it’s still the number one issue for people who aren’t seeing the results they’d like. Before you say something like “anyone who likes cake” stop and think about it this way. Who is the perfect customer/client? The one that will pull out their credit card over and over? To simplify: If you sell children’s books, your target isn’t children, it’s their parents, or grandparents right? Spend some time on this – I promise it will pay off and make everything better.

2. What Problem Do You Solve? Deep down, you already know that people buy solutions. No one really wants to pay hard earned cash for mulch. But lots of people want a nice looking yard. What need do you fill? Do you save people time? Make a difficult task easier? Save families money? Once you understand the way others view what you offer, marketing to them will be much simpler.

3. Where Does Your Perfect Client Hang Out? Are they online? What kind of organizations or clubs do they belong to? Do they affiliate with a particular movement? What are their interests? This will help you reach those who will buy from you. If you offer family budgeting tools, advertising or offering a discount to the PTO members at school is a great idea. So many times marketing doesn’t work because it isn’t getting in front of the right people. See rule number one if this is fuzzy.

4. K.I.S.S. Keep It Short Stupid This is often called the “elevator pitch”. I don’t like that term since it makes me think of all those people who rush to give their “pitch” without even finding out if I’m in their target market. Like the telemarketer who wants to sell me lawn service when I live in a high rise condo. (Number 1, 2, and 3 come to mind here) It is important to be able to easily and concisely tell people HOW you solve problems. Notice, I didn’t say tell them your job title, or what you “do” – but the how part. This is the benefit. Here’s a sample – I make my clients yards look amazing and give them back time and energy to spend with their families. Isn’t that better than I sell mulch and lawn services?

5. Your Unique Selling Proposition How is your product/service different and better than others? What makes doing business with you an advantage? This is closely related to the K.I.S.S. principle. If you have a compelling answer to the “What do you do?” question you are likely to get a follow up (or need to move directly to it on your website or marketing materials) with more benefits. Please note it is critical that these be from the clients view point. The fact that you have a super fast mulching delivery system is of no interest to me, but the fact that you can have my yard looking amazing in 4 hours does. See the difference? No one really cares that you have the best tools, or certifications or how long you’ve been doing this. What they will care about is what it can do for them. Using the best chocolate money can buy in your cakes doesn’t matter. Making sure my guests will be raving about dessert for days after my event does.

If you aren’t having the results you’d like – pick one or two of these and polish your approach. They aren’t complicated and I’m guessing you’ve heard them before. Taking time to understand them and apply them is well worth it. Sales is so much more fun when people respond to your message, love what you offer and become raving fans.

Figure out who, how to reach them and help make their problems go away and you’ll never be in short supply!

I’d love your feedback – and any other tips you think I should add to the list! Need help? Ask away!

Sugardaddy’s – Proof Overdelivering Can Be Simple

Posted by Phyllis on Thursday, May 13th, 2010 in 5 Steps To a Compelling Marketing Message, Lessons Learned | Comments (1)

I’ve been talking about 5 ways to develop a compelling marketing message. One of the steps is adding value. You should find a way for one simple reason.
It works.
Customers will love it.
They’ll talk to others about it.
They’ll come back for more.

Here’s a great example. I recently wanted to send a gift to a friend who lives across the country. I wanted it to be unique and somthing she could share with her husband too. I chose to send Sugardaddy’s brownies. I visited the store but could have easily accomplished this online as well. A simple gift transaction has made me a raving fan.

If you aren’t familiar - Sugardaddy’s make brownies – really amazing brownies with names like American Beauty and Drunken Chunky. (Note: you can’t overdeliver if your basic product/service isn’t great to start with)

They ship brownies in really cool packaging. It doesn’t just taste good, it looks good too. When you open up the box, you know before you take a bite these are really special brownies. They also promise next day so they are fresh. Their standard is “Oven to door in 24.” (Note: they charge for the service, but it’s not an option)

I placed my order, wrote a nice note to be included and left feeling good about my gift choice.
I was happily surprised by a phone call to thank me for my order - a nice touch – and they also let me know that my gift had been delivered and signed for. Confirmation that my gift was there. I also received a discount code for 10% off my next order.
Easy? Sure. But hardly anyone does it.
It made an impact.

Sugardaddy’s doesn’t sell on price – they charge for shipping (of course) but only offer overnight rates because they insist that their product arrive and be fresh. They don’t make cakes, or other treats – they market the “couture” brownie. I love that they tell me as a customer – this is how we do it. We’ll deliver the best brownies in a beautiful package and guarantee freshness. We’re awesome at that. That one thing.

How can you apply this concept in your business? Can you simplify things and make doing business with you/your company easier and customers happier?

Watching QVC Can Make You A Great Sales Person – Really!

Posted by Phyllis on Friday, May 7th, 2010 in Sales Rx | Comments (1)

I did a sales training event this week with Darrah Courter. We had a great time and I met some great new people. A point in my presentation was all about the need to talk about your business in terms of benefits to your customer/clients/prospects. Nothing new about that. We all nod our heads when we hear it. Doing it well not as common. We are all so used to talking in terms of what and how but what we really need to share is the why.

Enter QVC.

I love Mike Rowe don’t you? The clip is random mind association about cherubs – and guess what? I’m sure it worked (to some extent) because he’s associating cherubs with angels, hymns, church, children… you get the idea. Well, Mike has moved on to better gigs but there’s a point here – I promise.

How well do you explain your benefits? If you’re like most you can talk forever about what you do, you can give me supporting info to establish credibility (education, certifications) and you can especially tell me HOW you do what you do. Great, you’re qualified. I was already hoping that was the case.

Tell me why I should care. Why does it matter to me? How will buying from or hiring you make your clients happy? How can you make them feel good about themselves?

Today’s Rx: Watch QVC

These people are masters at making people want to buy. Pull out a credit card and call or go online right now and spend. How do they do it? By talking benefits. Developing a narrative and a story that people relate to. Buying a mop is now all about being the best mom, taking care of your kids and keeping the H1N1 out of my home thank you very much. That collection of flameless candles is a gift that says I’m a good daughter or friend and I care about the people in my life.

Now, I’m not advocating the sometims spammy, pushiness sometimes associated with this medium. What I do think is helpful is learning how to tell a story about the great benefits people can expect. Things like saving money, feeling confident, reducing stress, having more time/freedom/money, losing weight, being beautiful. That’s why people want to spend their money.

Your next Rx: Write down why people want what you have! What’s your narrative? If they can make a mop sound appealing (and they do) you can too!

Let me know what you come up with. I’m here to help if you get stuck along the way!

#1 Sales Mistake (We all make) and Rx To Make It Better

Posted by Phyllis on Monday, April 12th, 2010 in Sales Rx | Comments (0)

This post was originally going to be called 5 Sales Mistakes You Can Stop Making Right Now and the 2 Things You Can Start Doing Instead. It was getting really long so I decided to break it up into 5 seperate posts. These topics come up all the time when I’m working with clients.

Mistake Number 1 – It’s Not About You

Well meaning but misguided sales people think that selling is about their product or service or company. It’s not now and it never was. It’s about the customer. Always.

No one really cares how long you’ve been in business or the company mission statement. People are not interested in your degrees or certifications either. The only thing they want to know is what you can do for them. It’s so important,I’m going to say it again.

What can you do for your customers?
How can you help?
What problem does your product or service solve?
What issue can you improve?
How can you save them money, time or other resources?

All of your sales conversations (or emails, letters, messages) should be centered around these topics. Yes, explaining how your products or services work may be important, but ONLY if you can link it to why your client should care.

Tell me why I should do business with you – based on how I will benefit.
Here are a few examples:

Our surround sound systems come with gold plated cables. Well, that’s nice but it is a feature – an attribute of the product. The benefit is enjoying crystal clear sound – movie theatre quality at home.

Our life coaches are certified and have over 7 years of experience. We follow a 5 step system with metrics for evaluation. The benefit is a guaranteed way to insure results and an easy to use process. Years of experience is helpful but only if you can tie it to why it matters to the client.

We only use the finest ingredients and no preservatives. Again, this is a feature. The benefit (why you should care) is healthful food that tastes great.

Rx: Write down the 4 or 5 major benefits of your product or service, then convert them into benefit statements.
This is hard for lots of people. We are so used to talking about features (the what, the how) and it’s more important to make sure the WHY is clear.

The primary reason anyone buys anything is because it makes them feel better. How does your product or service get to that point? I’d love to hear the benefits you come up with for your business.