Tips
Competitive Advantage: Keeping What’s Yours
February 6, 2013
The most effective competitive advantages are the ones you’re able to keep. And one of the most important of your competitive advantages can be your team. When a close partner, associate, consultant, or key employee leaves your organization there can be a really good chance of losing more than the individual qualities, skills, or experience that made that particular person such an asset. In fact, they just might take off ready, willing, and able to share with your competition what it is that makes your company, products, and/or services unique.
It’s clear that making sure the only thing an employee leaves with when they empty their desk is a few free office supplies is certainly in the best interests of your small business. This is definitely a case where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. There are three common means small business owners can put into place to help protect themselves:
- An NDA, or Non-Disclosure Agreement
- A Non-Compete Agreement
- A Non-Solicitation Agreement
Each one of these legal documents shares the goal of protecting the competitive advantages of your small business, but they are different from each other. For instance, a Non-Disclosure Agreement is commonly used when bringing in a consultant. A Non-Compete Agreement is commonly used when a major goal is to prohibit a former employee from working for a competitor within a specific geographical area for a specific period of time. A Non-Solicitation Agreement keeps a former partner or employee from leaving one business and then soliciting other employees to come and work for them.
I’m Just a Small Business – Is this REALLY Something I Need to Concern Myself With?
Certainly not all small business owners need to be concerned about NDA’s, Non-Competes, or Non-Solicitation agreements. However, although you might think of yourself as “just another small business” your business may actually require some of the protections these documents offer. It can be helpful to conduct a “confidentiality audit” to help you determine whether or not to make an appointment with an attorney. For example, here are a few things that warrant protection:
- Trade secrets such as inventions, formulas, or scientific discoveries
- Specialized methods or processes
- Specific Data
- Client and/or Customer Information
Again, you may not think of your business as needing protection. However, it is common for small businesses to fit into categories that may indeed fall prey to damage inflicted by former employees absconding with sensitive and/or valuable information.
Most small businesses are going to have employees who come into regular, consistent contact with clients and customers. What may not be obvious is that, in the course of that contact, those employees develop valuable relationships with those clients. Should such an employee leave your small business, unless you are protected, there is nothing keeping that employee from taking those customers and/or clients (and their business) with them. Your customer base should be protected as it is essentially your most valuable asset.
Advances in technology have also created situations where small business owners will want to protect themselves. Certainly if your small business conducts research and/or develops products it only makes sense to legally protect proprietary and intellectual property. For example, you will want to be sure that you retain the rights to new designs (including the right to obtain a patent) created by an employee. However, proprietary and intellectual property may not be limited to “new” products. For instance, your small business may develop an innovative application for existing technology.
If you are still on the fence regarding whether or not you should contact an expert for advice as to whether or not you might need a Non-Compete, Non-Solicitation, and/or Non-Disclosure Agreement take a moment to answer a couple simple questions:
- Do my partners, associates, consultants, or employees have on-going contact and/or access to sensitive client information and lists that would be of benefit to a competitor?
- Do my partners, associates, consultants, or employees have access to anything that is best kept “secret” from my competitors or that would place my business at risk if the information was made public? (We’re not talking about illegal activity, more along the lines of a “secret recipe” or special way of doing things.)
If you answered yes (or even “maybe”) to one or both of these questions it is better to be “safe than sorry” and make an appointment to receive expert advice from an attorney or other subject matter expert.
– Merchant Processing Resource
https://debanked.com
MPR.mobi on iPhone, iPad, and Android
Social Media for Small Business: Food for Thought
January 29, 2013Here’s an interesting trend: blog posts on the subject of the “decline” of social media. Within 90 seconds you can locate three such articles on Forbes.com:
- 3 Reasons You Should Quit Social Media In 2013
- Facebook, Twitter? Can The Decline of Social Media Come Fast Enough?
- Why I Dumped My Smartphone – 2 Months Into Building My Personal Innovation Lifestyle
OK, so three articles can’t be considered a “trend” – but they definitely provide some food for thought.
Should You Quit Social Media in 2013?
The very notion that people are suggesting there might be value in at least “taking a break” from social media should get our attention. Take the three reasons J. Maureen Henderson gives in her article for doing so:
- It harms your self-esteem
- Your blood pressure will thank you
- Online is no substitute for offline
Henderson is speaking to personal self-esteem and gives the example that there are those of us who might feel better about ourselves if we weren’t constantly exposed to technology that forced us to compare ourselves to and compete with over-achieving peers. Yes, it can be personally humbling to discover the jerk you sat next to in biology graduated from Harvard when you barely made it out of State. Small business owners overdosing on social media just might have a similar problem trying to duplicate the social media activities of large competitors whose marketing budget is a big as their small businesses’ net worth – which can be very discouraging and demotivating.
Personal social media activity definitely can get pretty ugly. Name calling, ostracizing, bullying and just generally disrespectful communications can certainly cause your blood pressure to rise. Small business owners can have a similar reaction to preserving and protecting their online brand reputation. While it’s great to be able to communicate directly with customers and clients, the flip side is small business owners don’t have total control over the conversation any longer. Even if you’re monitoring your own platforms (for example comments on your business Facebook page), there’s always the opportunity that you could be missing some “flaming” commentary about your business online somewhere out there on the Internet.
Henderson notes a study stating that one-quarter of those surveyed feel they haven’t fully experienced real-life events due to activities necessary to place those real events on virtual social media platforms. She also points out that most people looking for a job do so online even though 70% of jobs are never posted online and are instead filled via in-person networking. Here is a lesson small business owners might want to take to heart – the impact, effectiveness, and value of getting in front of your customers and clients “in-person.” Real customer experiences are as important as virtual customer experiences.
Are People Dumping Their Smartphones?
We could give you a ton of statistics, but the short answer is a definite NO. As a matter-of-fact, the trend now is major increases in consumers using mobile devices to stay connected online. Some people may be becoming less enamored with “traditional” social media – but we’re definitely going to see an increase (at least for the foreseeable future) in the use of these devices according to a wide variety of studies by reliable resources such as Mashable.
The point is small business owners need to be aware that social media is constantly evolving (and most likely always will be evolving.) And that fact is both a blessing and a curse for small business owners. Certainly having new ways to effectively engage consumers along the “pathway to purchase” is a valuable opportunity. The threat can be not only keeping up with new technologies, but also the ways those technologies impact consumer behavior.
Even “expert advice” can be both confusing and in conflict. For example, here are two predictions in an article you can find at business2community.com:
Joey Sargent, Principal, BrandSprout Advisors: In 2013, we’ll see more social maturity in both B2C and B2B applications. Business will get “social smarts” and more fully integrate social media into their day-to-day operations across the organization. This means less social for social’s sake, and more focus on social media as a legitimate business tool to facilitate communication, engagement and loyalty.
Jayme Pretzloff, Online Marketing Director for Wixon Jewelers: Going into 2013 social media will impact sales more than any other metric because of the continued integration as a marketing platform and the acceptance of users to be marketed to. In 2011, almost 70% of users said that no social media platform influenced their buying decision and in 2012, that was cut in half to 35%. In 2013, this number will be decreased significantly again because these sites have become an integral way to gain access to information on companies, promotions and products.
Bill Corbett, Jr., President of Corbett Public Relations: The hype proliferated by “marketing” people about the tremendous business generating benefits of social media for small business will wind down.
Beverly Solomon, Creative Director at musee-solomon: People are over saturated with social media. They will gradually remove themselves from all but a few networks, blogs, etc. So many ads come in everyday that they have lost their impact. Most people just delete them before reading them. Social media will function more to alert friends of rip-offs than to encourage sales. Only the most clever sales campaigns will have any impact. More and more advertisers will be leaving social media and returning to snail mail, print and other traditional ads. Social media will continue to be a dating hook up, gossip fest and avenue for “gurus” to sell seminars. But real businesses will use social media less and less.
Who’s Right?
With such conflicting advice from subject matter experts – how is a small business owner to know who to listen to? Fortunately this question is easy to answer: Listen to your customers and clients because they – and only they – know how they prefer to be contacted as well as what the content of those communications must be in order to be of value and meaningful to them. This means small business owners need to find out where their target market “hangs out.” Are they already online and using social media? If so, how and where? If not, why not and what other ways would they like to hear from you?
The one constant advantage of social media is the ability to communicate with your market. But it is certainly not the only channel. As for our position on the matter? We’re making social media a bigger priority. We’ve just gotten more involved on Google+, a social network that just passed twitter and youtube to be the 2nd most used platform in the world.
It might be time for the everyday small business owner to take a peek at the big G, especially if they feel like Facebook isn’t delivering.
Guest Authored
– Merchant Processing Resource
https://debanked.com
MPR.mobi on iPhone, iPad, and Android
Coming In From the Cold: Connecting With Prospects
January 29, 2013
A small business owner posted a great question on the LinkedIn group “Small Business Networks for Startups and Entrepreneurs” board:
Are cold calls effective? Or is it old school? For a small company, what is the best way to promote the business? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.”
The small business owner who posted this question got more than her fair share of advice and opinions regarding the practice of cold calling. And, while most every single comment had a jewel of truth and wisdom when it comes to cold calling – the comments also conflicted with each other. For example:
“Not only is it old school but its intrusive and offensive.”
“Cold calling is old school indeed but it is still one of the most effective ways to reach prospects.”
So – which is it? Offensive or Effective?
Fortunately for the small business owner uncertain whether to pick up the phone there was one comment that simply rocked. Sandra Hoedemaker owner of ChefinDemand.com an online business coaching service specializing in providing services to personal chefs, posted a completely different perspective and approach to cold calling – something she calls “Connect Calling.”
Connecting is Warm – Cold is…well, Cold
Those commenters who identified cold calling as intrusive and offensive make a good point. Today’s consumer not only isn’t interested in hearing uninvited sales pitches, they can (and quite often do) find unscheduled sales calls as a definite intrusion into an already too busy day.
Sandra notes that she does, in fact, “cold call” and also indicates that these calls are always most successful when she is able to connect with the decision maker. So far her comment sounds like your run-of-the-mill cold calling advice. However, Sandra definitely breaks rank because she goes on to say that she “doesn’t sell on the phone.”
OK, if she’s cold calling, but not selling – what exactly IS Sandra doing when she makes those calls?
Sandra knows prospects aren’t interested in “being sold” – but they are interested in learning real ways to solve their problems and get their needs met. Sandra knows that the best way to do that is to establish her credibility as an expert who knows how to solve common problems and meet the special needs of her niche. How does she do that? She offers to provide them with carefully selected free services. This allows her to:
- Build her email list and then connect with prospects freely because they have invited Sandra to contact them.
- Stay connected to her prospects via blogging, teleclasses, and other virtual events (she’s also in the process of putting video presentations in place.)
Outside of the above, connecting with prospects versus cold calling prospects has resulted in Sandra receiving referrals and she’s also garnered invitations to speak as well. Sandra has successfully used Connect Calling as a tactic to connect with prospects in meaningful ways. She’s taken an “old school, annoying” tactic and turned it into a powerful tool to build a community of prospective buyers.
What is most impressive about her approach is the opportunity to begin to establish trust with prospects via Connect Calling. Offering useful, applicable free services and information allows prospects to begin to build a relationship where Sandra becomes a Trusted Advisor who’s got their back versus someone trying to make a sale. Sounds more like networking than cold calling doesn’t it?
And when those prospects pick up a phone to make a call when they find themselves in need of services Sandra charges for, Sandra’s much more likely to be the one who hears it ring.
Sandra’s business serves a unique niche – but Connect Calling can be a valid, productive, and profitable tactic to market your small business no matter what market you serve.
Guest Authored
– Merchant Processing Resource
https://debanked.com
MPR.mobi on iPhone, iPad, and Android
The World is Going Mobile
January 28, 2013We noticed a lot of people sharing and retweeting a link today to a web campaign by Google to create mobile friendly sites. Coincidentally, we’ve been working on “mobile-izing” Merchant Processing Resource for the past couple weeks. We used Google’s GoMo tool to see how we’re doing so far:
2 Seconds and easy to use! Now it’s your turn to GoMo.
Get to our site easily on your phone by typing in MPR.mobi.
A New Approach to Providing Employee Feedback for Small Business Owners
January 22, 2013
Sometimes you just can’t figure out how to deal with employees. Take Rebecca your receptionist. She’s excellent with clients, knows exactly what calls to put through and when to take a message, dresses professionally, and gets along with everyone in the office. She can juggle answering multiple phone lines while greeting multiple clients with ease, and is great in a crisis.
On the other hand, as far as performing her day-to-day duties, you can’t complain as to accuracy, but let’s just say prioritizing isn’t Rebecca’s strong suit. Take ordering office supplies. Sure, you never have to worry whether or not you’re going to run out of paper clips – but not when Rebecca somehow thinks getting the office supply order into the vendor is more important than the unfinished monthly report sitting on her desk – a report you need for this afternoon’s weekly sales meeting.
You’ve tried giving her positive feedback – you’ve tried giving her negative feedback, both to no avail.
Things aren’t always “either or” as in “either the employee’s behavior merits positive feedback OR the employee’s behavior merits negative feedback.” The world we operate in has a tendency not to be that straightforward – especially when we’re talking about human behavior, even more so when the subject is employee behavior. You may think you’re limited to one or the other of these approaches – but maybe what Rebecca needs isn’t feedback – maybe Rebecca needs feedforward.
Paying it Forward
You might have seen the movie “Pay It Forward” where the premise was that whenever anyone did a good deed for you that you should “pay if forward” to three other people. The idea is put forward by a little boy responding to a school assignment to “Think of an idea that could change the world.”
Now, that’s a pretty tall order – but Dr. Marshall Goldsmith professor of executive education at Dartmouth, prolific author, and well-known management thought leader has an idea that just might change the way small business owners approach managing employees. His idea? Instead of providing employees with feedback he proposes a process he calls feedforward.
Traditionally feedback has been “top down” meaning that a manager (top) provides feedback to an employee (down) regarding their performance. Fortunately the field of management has progressed to acknowledging that, while employees can learn from managers, it is also true that managers can learn from their employees. This has led to better communication between management and employees.
However, Goldsmith points out a fundamental flaw within both approaches: they focus on the past instead of the “infinite opportunities that can happen in the future.” Furthermore, Goldsmith asserts that focusing on the past is “limited and static” whereas focusing on the future can be “expansive and dynamic.”
True Balance
The notion that feedback should be “balanced” usually means the attempt to find some sort of balance between how many times you provide an employee with negative feedback versus how many times you provide an employee with positive feedback. It certainly doesn’t take a Ph.D. in psychology to realize that too much negative feedback will most likely be de-motivating whereas too much positive feedback certainly isn’t going to improve an employee’s performance outside whatever it is they are already doing well.
This is where Goldsmith’s approach shines. Instead of struggling to come up with some impossible ratio between negative and positive feedback, the focus shifts to making observations about the past within the context of positively changing the future.
A Feedforward Conversation
Feedforward is not some inapplicable academic approach to managing employees at your small business. Feedforward is a process versus a “reprimand” or “compliment” you give an employee. Feedforward is a two-way conversation. Let’s take a look at what that conversation might look like with Rebecca the receptionist:
Small Business Owner: “Rebecca, I’d like to take a few moments to discuss this month’s report with you.”
Rebecca: “Sure.” (Rebecca is thinking: I wonder what I did wrong?)
Small Business Owner: “Before we begin, I want you to know that the goal of this conversation is to focus on how we can better use this report in the future to help our sales team. What we’re talking about here is what you can do to help make that happen, as well as how I might be able to help you as we move forward. I’d like to use this week’s report as an example we can learn from. How does that sound to you?
Rebecca: “Great.” (Rebecca is thinking: This is weird, I think my boss wants my help, not just tell me what to do.”)
Small Business Owner: “OK, so tell me what you think about how things went this week.
Rebecca: “I guess it was so sort of hurried. I almost didn’t get it done in time.”
Small Business Owner: “Why do you think that was?”
Rebecca: “Well, I had to get the office supply order out which meant I had to take inventory and that took a while.”
Small Business Owner: “Making sure everyone has the supplies they need is important. How do you think you could make certain that those two responsibilities don’t come into conflict in the future?”
Rebecca: “Hmmm…maybe I should change the day I do supply ordering to Mondays. Sales meetings are always on Fridays. That would give me three complete days to devote to the report. We could even plan to go over the report on Thursday morning together to make sure there aren’t any problems or errors.”
Small Business Owner: “I think that’s an excellent idea. You definitely got that priority straight. I’d like you to take a look at your duties and provide me with a schedule that allows you to meet your priorities. Let’s meet at ten next Tuesday to do that.”
Rebecca: “OK, but…” (Rebecca is thinking: She wants ME to set priorities?) “Well, what if I don’t prioritize things correctly?”
Small Business Owner: “We’ll work together on that. You know, Rebecca, you’re the one doing the work. You know what happens in the front office. I’d like to get your take first before I make any decisions as to how we want to prioritize your duties. Does that make sense?”
Rebecca: “It does, and I’ll be sure to do my best.”
– Guest Authored
Merchant Processing Resource
https://debanked.com
MPR.mobi on iPhone, iPad, and Android
Getting Permission
January 21, 2013
Numbers don’t lie.
77% of online consumers surveyed said they want to receive permission-based marketing messages via email. Sounds impressive – but even more impressive when you learn that direct mail came in a distant second with only 9% looking forward to opening their mail box. Interestingly, only 5% preferred text messages. (Source: ExactTarget 2012 Channel Preference Survey)
That’s the good news. After all, email is perhaps the most inexpensive means for small business owners to communicate with consumers. The bad news is – before you can communicate with consumers via email – you’ve got to get their permission (along with their email address.)
Permission-based marketing simply means that you have your customer’s permission to contact them. However, if you’re a small business owner just getting their feet wet it’s likely that 77% of your list isn’t exactly a large number.
Collecting email addresses from customers and clients who have given you permission to contact them is the “Catch 22” and “between a rock and a hard place” of small business email marketing. Obviously purchasing lists of email addresses of consumers who fit the demographic of your customer doesn’t cut it. Emailing someone without their permission to ask for permission to email them just doesn’t make sense – not to mention today’s consumer tends to be totally turned off by businesses that make the attempt. Not too many fans of spam out there.
So, if you don’t have a list – how do you create one?
The Usual Suspects
It would be hard to find anyone with even a smidgen of experience searching the Internet who hasn’t encountered an “opt-in” when visiting a website. An opt-in is nothing more than a form that serves to ask permission to contact the consumer as well as collect their information. Visitors to your businesses’ website can opt-in to receive a variety of marketing messages from you – for example a newsletter, blog posts, or special announcements (such as a sale.) It makes sense to have opt-in opportunities on every page of your website.
Sounds great but, once again, if you’ve got very little traffic on your website, that translates into very little opportunity to build a Mondo email list. If the obvious tactic of including opt-in opportunities on your small business website doesn’t help that much when it comes to building your list – what other tactics can you employ?
Plenty – here are a few:
If you’re a retailer, make it a practice to ask for (and collect) every customer’s opt-in at the point of purchase. The same goes for B2B small business owners. For example, train your receptionist to ask for opt-in when taking calls.
Display an “opt-in sign up” book where customers and visitors to your office will easily find it. Be sure to include information that motivates people to provide you with their permission (i.e. a description of your newsletter, let them know you routinely email discount offers, etc.)
Do it the old fashioned way. It’s likely you’ve got the phone number of most of your customers and clients. Pick up the phone and call to ask for their permission to be contacted via email.
Contact customers and clients who’ve already subscribed. Let them know you’re running a “forwarding contest” and tell them they will be entered into a raffle for each person they forward your email to. Include a link that says something like “Forward to a Friend” (there are email marketing services that can identify which subscribers actually forwarded their email.)
Ask in-person. We are so “virtually” oriented that the obvious can escape us: ask people to opt-in when you meet them in person. This can be at professional and business networking events – even with that person you struck up a conversation with in line at the grocery store.
Partner with a related, non-compete business. Are you a web designer? Partner with a public relations firm and send out each other’s messages.
Include an invitation to opt-in on all printed marketing material. This includes everything from promotional brochures, stationary, and your business card. It also includes printed advertising.
Last, but definitely not least (and perhaps the most obvious) include a link to an opt-in underneath your email signature.
– Guest Authored
Merchant Processing Resource
https://debanked.com
MPR.mobi on iPhone, iPad, and Android
Like a Rolling Stone
January 16, 2013
There’s an old story still making the rounds on the Internet about a woman calling into a computer company extremely frustrated because her new computer wouldn’t start up. The customer service technician, of course, first made sure the machine was plugged in (there’s a good chance that question made his customer even more angry and frustrated, but we all know it had to be asked.) The woman responded that YES, it was plugged in.
The technician then asked her what happened when she pushed the power button. Power button? The woman told him she wasn’t aware of any power button, but she was certain that the foot peddle was broken. She’s pushed and pushed on it and the computer refused to come on.
She thought the mouse was a foot peddle.
It’s pretty much a certainty that all small business owners and their employees have their own customer complaint stories –and we’re sure thousands and thousands of them are pretty funny. We’re also sure that untold numbers of customer complaint stories small business owners and their employees have aren’t funny at all.
We’ve all had days when we’ve been so used and abused by a customer we wish could just fire them. Which begs the question – is it OK to fire a customer? If so, when?
I Can’t Get No
Wise small business owners know that the customer is always right. However, this doesn’t mean that a customer has a right to be abusive to you or to your employees. On the other hand, things happen – things that customers are justified in making a complaint. Some of those things are going to be the “fault” (even though unintentional) of your business. Some of those things are going to be outside the control of your business. Whether your company is at fault or not isn’t the issue. The issue is making the honest attempt to resolve the complaint to your customer’s satisfaction.
The problem, as the song says, is that there are going to be customers who, no matter how hard you try, “Can’t get no satisfaction.”
Here is the short list of basic ways to respond to complaining customers seeking satisfaction:
Let them vent. Most of the time even the angriest customers just want to be heard. They want to know that you’re taking them, and their complaint, seriously and the way to let them know you are is to allow the customer to vent. It can be frustrating, but don’t break in or interrupt. Instead, let them tell you their whole story. When you do, you’ll be surprised at how many customers “calm themselves down” without your having to say a word.
Help them figure out what they’re complaining about. Many times customers and clients call in and seem to be complaining about a very specific aspect of your product or service (i.e. it didn’t arrive on time, the quality doesn’t meet their expectation) but, after that issue is resolved, are still frustrated and/or angry. The way to respond is by asking clarifying questions that help the both of your sort out what’s really going on. For instance, a client may think they’re complaining about the quality of the product, when what they’re upset about is the fact that the service technician who installed it did not take enough time to explain how to use the product.
Validate the customer’s experience. Right or wrong – what the customer experienced is what they experienced. Attempting to convince someone they really aren’t or shouldn’t be angry or frustrated isn’t productive. And apologizing can backfire. Certainly there are times when a sincere apology for a goof up on the part of your business is warranted. There are also times when doing so can create unrealistic expectations on the part of the customer – expectations that will ultimately lead to the customer complaining again when those unrealistic expectations aren’t met. For example, you might apologize for the technician not taking time to explain the product when they installed it and then discover the technician spent a couple hours doing just that when 15 minutes is the norm.
Use your best judgment when it comes to apologizing, but also understand that more often your customer will be more satisfied that their complaint is being handled when, instead of apologizing, you validate the customer’s feelings. For example, “I know how frustrating new technology can be. Do you have any questions regarding how to use Product A that I can help you with now?”
However, if you’ve listened to your customer, asked clarifying questions to make sure you’ve handled their full complaint, and attempted to sincerely validate their experience and that customer still becomes increasing abusive or unreasonable it can mean it is time to sever the relationship.
This can be done by explaining to the customer that you’re disappointed you haven’t been able to resolve their issue to their satisfaction, but you truly feel this is because their wants/needs aren’t a good match – and then refer them to a reliable competitor. However, you don’t have to take prolonged abuse. If the customer or client uses abusive language or becomes threatening, it is completely reasonable to inform that customer that your company has zero tolerance for that kind of behavior and end the conversation as well as sever the relationship.
– Guest Authored
Merchant Processing Resource
https://debanked.com
MPR.mobi on iPhone, iPad, and Android
The #1 Sales Skill for Small Business Owners
January 10, 2013No matter how well you performed your due diligence before opening the doors at your small business, once you opened them you got a few surprises. And, unless you were in sales before opening your doors, the biggest surprise you got was likely just how difficult it is to “sell.”
Selling is a skill. Now, it’s true that there are “natural born sales people” – but all that means is that they have a talent for selling; they still need to develop their skills. The great thing about skills is that we can learn new skills.
The first skill you need to learn in order to sell successfully is often learning how to change how you think about “selling.” Not sure what we mean by that? If you read the word “zebra” an image of a zebra pops up in your head. Now read the word “salesman” – what image just popped up for you? Most likely not a very positive one.
It might take you a bit of time and effort to get over the prejudices you may have about sales. Unfortunately, as with many things in life, negative experiences we have a tendency to stick to us like glue. To make things even more difficult when it comes to changing attitudes, we also often have a tendency for negative experiences to stick with us much, much longer than positive experiences.
Don’t think that’s true? Here’s a brief exercise to prove our point:
- Write down 10 bad experiences you had with a sales person in less than 3 minutes.
- Write down 10 great experiences you had with a sales person in less than 3 minutes.
We rest our case.
Do You “Hate” Selling?
Let’s face it, if you’ve got a history of “not trusting” sales people it’s going to be pretty tough to feel very good about selling. Successful sales are based on trust and, in order for your customer to trust you, you’ve got to have a strong belief that what you’re doing is of value to your customer. Hard to do if you “hate” sales.
If you hate or are “extremely uncomfortable” about selling those feelings quite likely stem from beliefs you have about the process of selling in general and sales people in particular. For instance:
- Sales people are manipulative.
- Sales people are pushy.
- Sales people lie.
Right out of the box, it is true that some sales people do/are all of the above. But not most – and certainly the Top 5% are about as far away from manipulative, pushy, and dishonest as you can get. Think about it. You don’t want people to buy from you once – you want to create loyal repeat customers who also refer other loyal repeat customers to your business. Certainly the words “manipulative, pushy, and dishonest” aren’t behaviors that are going to result in creating a loyal customer base. That means that all those bad experiences you had with sales people happened when you were buying from “bad” (under-performing, unprofessional) sales people. While it might have looked like they would do anything to make a sale, it was probably because they were desperate to make a sale because they were so bad at it. Sales people who operate like that and are successful are actually the exception and not the rule. They also frequently aren’t successful for very long periods of time.
Hopefully you’re feeling a bit relieved to find out that learning how to sell does not mean honing skills related to being manipulative, pushy, and deceitful. Most successful, top-performing sales people are the exact opposite. Instead, sales is about solving your customer’s problems and meeting their needs. It’s about having their back and bringing them value even when they don’t buy from you. Why? Because that is how you create trust – and people like to do business with people they trust.
Believing in what you’re doing isn’t the only sales skill you need to learn – but it is definitely the first thing you need to get under your belt, and in a big way. No matter how many sales books you read or seminars you attend, unless you believe in what you’re doing and that your ability to sell is a value to your customer – you run the risk of becoming that manipulative, pushy, less-than-honest image of a sales person you love to hate.
Guest Authored
– Merchant Processing Resource
https://debanked.com
