Getting Started Is The Hardest Thing

April 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Keep on truckin

When you’re on a road trip and drive through a rest stop or gas station, you’ve probably noticed that most of the semi trucks have their motors running all night. With the rising cost of gas, why would they do that? Because they burn more fuel by starting the diesel engine than by leaving it on for several hours. The same goes for our habits.

When you decide to give up smoking, start exercising, or change your prospecting habits, those first few weeks require you to constantly think about what you’re doing until it becomes a habit. Simply put, it takes more energy to start doing something than it does to continue doing it.

One Moore Thing: According to most evidence, it requires 21 days to form a habit. So if you’re trying to change something in your life, commit to at least a month.

Filed Under: Attitude, Customer Service, Feature Post, Motivation, Prospecting, Sales

Does Your Grandma Know What You Do?

April 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Rock on, Grandma

If she can’t explain it, then your message is overly complex.

One Moore Thing: Even if you offer a dozen different services, condense it into a message that can be communicated in less than 15 seconds. If done properly, people will ask questions that expand the conversation.

Filed Under: Attitude, Customer Service, Motivation, Prospecting, Relationships, Sales

Sweet Smell of Success

March 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It all started with just one bite

Debbie had big dreams. Armed with only a small storefront and a unique cookie recipe, she flipped the sign on the door to read “OPEN” and waited… and waited… and waited, but nobody came in to enjoy her chocolatey goodness. Finally, she took samples out to the sidewalk, enticing pedestrians with the smell of warm chocolate chip cookies and telling them where they could find more. That’s how the Mrs. Field’s cookie empire began 35 years ago.

Over the past three decades, Debbie Fields has went from one store to over 400 franchises across the world. She still has the same quality recipe as she did that first day, but it would never have been purchased by millions of people if she had waited for the customers to come to her instead of going to them.

One Moore Thing: Have you developed a proactive plan to get in front of your prospects or are you waiting for them to call you?

Filed Under: Customer Service, Feature Post, Prospecting, Sales

Your NETworking is NOTworking

March 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you aren’t prepared, somebody else will be

If you’re NETworking is NOTworking, you’re approaching it wrong. Consider this scenario: you’ve been invited to a great networking event by a friend or colleague. You probably are thinking one of two things:

  1. I won’t know anybody, and I don’t have anything in common with these people. I’ll make a quick appearance so my boss will think I was working and then sneak out to catch the Mad Men marathon.
  2. Awesome! Free beer!

Instead of showing up with the intent of sneaking out or getting free drinks, come up with a game plan in advance. That plan should include:

  1. Anybody in particular you want to meet.
  2. If there’s nobody specific you want to talk to, then how many new people would you like to be introduced to?
  3. What kinds of questions are you going to ask them?
  4. What topics of interest can you find common ground on?
  5. How long should you talk to somebody before you disengage and move on to another conversation?

By having a plan in place, you will show up more confident. And confidence attracts people.

One Moore Thing: One or two free beers are great… ten free beers, not so much.

Filed Under: Attitude, Customer Service, Feature Post, Motivation, Prospecting, Relationships, Sales

Rotten Fruit

February 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

That low hanging fruit may be rotten

When you’re looking for new prospects, where do you look?

You probably find somebody who is already using your what you sell but being serviced by a competitor. You know they need what you have, they’re familiar with your products and you can do it way better than your adversary. Easy sale, right? Wrong.

Look at the other side of that coin… you’re already competing against somebody before you’ve made the first call. Even worse is they are the incumbent, a known entity; and sometimes the devil you know is better than the one you don’t. You’re probably also going to be competing on price, which lowers margins. And quite frankly, if the prospect is willing to talk to you, they’re probably also talking to your other competitors, which further muddies up the water.

One Moore Thing:  Open a new market, a new vertical with no competition. Find somebody that nobody is talking to but that may have a need for your service. If you take good care of them, you will be the incumbent.

Filed Under: Attitude, Prospecting, Sales

What The Beep?

February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Voicemail can work for you instead of against you

“You’ve reached the voicemail of John Connor, please leave a message after the beep.” Now what?

You hate voicemail. Get over it, because that is definitely not an exclusive club. But today’s reality is that you will probably get voicemail 80% of the time you call somebody. Many people hang up when they hit voicemail, but rockstars know that leaving a voicemail is an opportunity for free advertising… if done properly. The issue has become that most people don’t know how to leave a voicemail that will get somebody’s attention. Here are some tips:

  1. Make it brief: If you leave a 4-minute message, somebody may punch you in the face. Hell, if you leave a 4-minute message, you should punch yourself in the face. Make it less than 30 seconds and preferably around 20 seconds. If you can’t leave your message in 30 seconds, work at making it more direct. Trust me, brevity makes the message more concise and effective.
  2. Be a mirror: Prospects are more apt to listen to somebody that sounds like them. If their outgoing voicemail is slow and methodic, your message should sound similar. If it’s fast and upbeat, you should sound full of energy.
  3. Call to action: If you don’t ask them to do something, they won’t.

One Moore Thing: Looking for real-world calling scripts? Here are some that may help:

 

Filed Under: Attitude, Feature Post, Prospecting, Sales

Shopping or Buying?

February 16, 2012 By 3 Comments

It’s more fun that it looks…

I love shopping. I know I may lose my Man-Card for that, but it’s true. It doesn’t matter of I’m buying Christmas gifts, clothes, electronics, or even groceries… I just like to shop.

One reason I like shopping is because I like “stuff”… who doesn’t? But the other reason is that I find it cathartic; the process of buying something is relaxing to me. I know what I’m looking for and when I find it, I’m typically ready to purchase. Rarely, if ever, do I buy the lowest price because for me it’s more about value and service. And because I value those things, I also don’t negotiate prices.  I want my seller to make money. I want them to be around next year. I want them to look forward to me walking in their door because I’m a friendly and profitable customer.

I don’t have to be sold, because I’m a buyer.

One Moore Thing: Are you trying to sell to people or talk to buyers?

Filed Under: Attitude, Customer Service, Motivation, Prospecting, Relationships, Sales

Speed Is The New Killer App

February 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Speed equals sales

Today’s prospects are handling hundreds of emails, dozens of phone calls, and several meeting each day. They don’t have time to do an in-depth analysis on every single item they’re working on. That’s the downside.

The upside is they are so incredibly busy that if you can answer questions, return calls, and schedule resources faster than your competitor, you can save them time… and time is more valuable than money in today’s economy. So it stands to reason that if you can save your prospects time, you will win more business.

To capitalize on that advantage, you need a killer app. What is a killer app? Here’s the definition from Wikipedia:

In marketing terminology, a killer application (commonly shortened to killer app) is any computer program that is so necessary or desirable that it proves the core value of some larger technology, such as computer hardware, gaming console, software, or an operating system. A killer app can substantially increase sales of the platform on which it runs.

This has nothing to do with software. Although the iPhone has a killer app (Siri), so does Zappo’s (customer service), and Walmart (low prices). In today’s hectic sales world, your killer app should be speed.

Imagine if you needed a plumber or a moving company. You call on Monday and customer service schedules an appointment for Thursday. The salesperson meets with you for an hour and then moves through the rest of their daily appointments. On Friday, the salesperson goes through their process to get pricing, and after engaging their resources, they email pricing the following Tuesday. You’ll probably receive a follow-up call a week after the email seeing if “everything looked good” on the quote.

What started as a pressing issue to you was just relegated to mediocrity by the salesperson. Instead of having the same sense of urgency as you, they went about their business at their own speed. You needed immediacy and instead had to wait 1–2 weeks to get an answer.

Now you know how your prospect feels.

One Moore Thing: Every business is different, but in most instances, speed can be a competitive advantage that can increase your win rate by 10–20%. You just need to determine the best way to streamline your sales and customer service processes to ensure you are faster than your competitor.

Filed Under: Customer Service, Feature Post, Motivation, Prospecting, Sales, Technology

Steve Jobs Wasn’t A Great Manager

February 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Sales skills help you excel at everything else in your life

Steve Jobs was not a great manager. He probably wasn’t even a good manager. Jobs was a modern-day slave driver that managed people by scaring them, insulting them, and demanding they put their work life ahead of everything else. He expected them to be him, and that was an impossible task.

So, if Steve Jobs wasn’t a great manager, how did he thrive in the hyper-competitive tech industry?

He was a great salesperson. So is Warren Buffet. So is Bill Clinton. And you can be, too, if you’re willing to put in the work.

One Moore Thing: To be great, people need to buy you before they ever look at your product.

Filed Under: Attitude, Feature Post, Prospecting, Relationships, Sales

What’s Your Number, Part 2

January 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Are quality prospects the right focus for you?

Yesterday, I gave five great reasons why you should focus on quantity rather than quality of prospects. Today, I’m going to give you five equally great reasons why you should focus on the quality of your prospects.

Quality

  1. Focusing on quality prospects will increase your chances of winning a sale because you’ve already identified that they may have a need for your services before you approach them.
  2. Having fewer prospects or clients allows you to have a deeper understanding of their needs and what drives their decisions.
  3. If you focus on clients within a certain industry or demographic, you have the opportunity to become an expert in their sector, which will attract more quality prospects.
  4. Clients logically know that you have more than one client, but they like to feel as if they’re the only one you focus on. By having fewer, more profitable customers you can give them extra attention and respond quicker when needed.
  5. When your pipeline is filled with quality prospects, you are better able to build strong personal relationships with them… and relationships drive sales.

One Moore Thing: You can’t simultaneously focus on the quality and quantity of prospects. It’s like building muscle and losing weight at the same time. While you may have a little success, you’ll never excel at either.

Did you miss Part 1 of this post highlighting why concentrating on the quantity of prospects may be a better fit for your business? You can find it here.

Filed Under: Customer Service, Feature Post, Motivation, Prospecting, Relationships, Sales
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