How Do You Screw Up?

February 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Power Questions = Power Selling

Looking for a power question to make your customers stand up and pay attention to you? Ask them to list the top three mistakes people in their position make when making a similar purchase.

There are two possible outcomes to this question:

  1. They don’t know the answers and will defer to your expertise.
  2. They will think hard about the question and come up with the answers.

In scenario #1, you earn their trust by knowing the answers to questions they didn’t know they had. In scenario #2, they will give you insight into their doubts and you will be better prepared to preemptively address those misgivings. Either way, you will earn the buyer’s respect by being knowledgeable and not asking outdated questions like “what keeps you up at night?”

One Moore Thing: If you ask the same questions everybody else asks, you get the same answers everybody else gets… and the same results.

Filed Under: Attitude, Customer Service, Relationships, Sales

How To Earn Trust

February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Trust is easy to build and even easier to lose

Do what you say you’re going to do.

One Moore Thing: Don’t overthink it. People try to play games and use different psychological tactics to “earn” trust when all they’re really doing is trying to trick somebody. Trust is built over time and earned by simply doing what you said you’d do.

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

New Beginnings

February 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Congratulations to my little brother, Brian, who was married yesterday. He and his new wife, Debbie, have given themselves a new beginning for a future filled with promise and love.

As a society, we celebrate the new beginnings that weddings, births, and graduations signify. But why is it that in personal relationships we are typically quick (sometimes too quick) to make changes, yet in business we drag out important decisions because we are afraid of the unknown? Because we don’t trust ourselves.

One Moore Thing: If you consider yourself successful at personal relationships, then use same decision-making criteria to flourish in business… your gut.

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

Just Give

February 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

When you’re feeling your in a rut or experiencing a lull in performance, take a little time and give:

Give Time: Go to lunch with a customer. Talk about anything except business. You’ll learn new things, build a deeper connection, and be under no pressure.

Give Back: Take a day and volunteer at a homeless shelter or swinging a hammer for Habitat for Humanity. At the end of the day you’ll be dead tired, but thankful for what you have and refreshed to tackle a new day.

Give Ideas: Come up with three ideas that will help one of your customers increase their business. These ideas should have nothing to do with your offerings. You will be forced to look at things from a different view and your customers will start to view you as a trusted adviser.

Give It A Rest: Take a day off. Go see a daytime movie, enjoy a great lunch, and surprise your wife with dinner when she gets home. Don’t check your email or take phone calls all day.

Give Thanks: Take the day and drive to as many clients as you can. Show up without an appointment and tell them you just stopped by to thank them for their business. Have a brief conversation (don’t overstay your welcome) and tell them to have a fantastic day. They’ll always take your call after that.

Give Hugs: Show some love to people. Hug your husband, your kids, your friends, your assistant, or your customer. How can anybody feel bad after a good hug?

One Moore Thing: The more you give, the more you get back from the universe. It may not always be in the way you expect, but good always comes back to you.

Filed Under: Attitude, Customer Service, Feature Post, Motivation, Relationships, Sales, Training/Education

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

Keep Your Shirt On

February 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Entertainer? Yes. Salesperson? No.

Giving people the shirt off your back is a selfless act if you’re doing a favor for somebody. But if you’re giving them the shirt off your back when selling something… you’re just losing your shirt.

A common complaint I hear from salespeople is their prices are too high. Instead of selling the value of their offering, they want to win business by offering the lowest price. They beg and plead with their boss to lower the price just this one time… and if they can win just this one sale, they are sure there will be more work from that customer in the future. There are two flaws in that argument:

  1. If the customer is only buying because of your price, once the next opportunity comes along and your prices go back to normal, you’ll lose the sale.
  2. You’re expecting your fulfillment team to work just as hard on this opportunity as they do on profitable opportunities. There is an opportunity cost associated with each decision and at a minimum, they will resent you for diminishing their worth… but more importantly, you’re costing your company money. Not only are they losing expected margins, but their resources (people, factory time, etc.) are tied up so they can’t work on profitable business.

Selling solely on price is for lazy salespeople. Low pricing doesn’t build loyalty, because the instant a competitor beats your price, you lose that customer. Stop giving them the shirt off your back and instead focus on the value you offer.

One Moore Thing: It costs 5–10 times as much to find a new customer as it does to retain an existing customer. Why not reward loyal customers with pricing incentives instead of giving it to a stranger?

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

Creating Clients

February 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Ring the cash register by selling

Advertising and marketing departments believe they create clients. They must also believe in unicorns and flying carpets, because ad campaigns and viral videos don’t ring the cash register. Sales ring the cash register.

Before you send me hate mail, let me assure you that advertising and marketing are important in raising awareness and finding prospects, but they don’t create clients. Sales and customer service people are responsible for converting prospects into clients. They create the relationship that turns a company into a living and breathing entity.

One Moore Thing: Sales without marketing makes selling more difficult, but marketing without sales is a waste of money.  You need a proactive plan to make both work together.

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

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

The Disconnect Of Being Connected

February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

We can be connected to almost anybody with a few dozen clicks of a mouse. This confuses people into thinking they’ve made a real connection, which couldn’t be further from the truth. The “click connection” may actually distance you even more because you’ll start to prejudge them based on photos, tweets, and employment summaries.

By the way, if you don’t engage them in a conversation… that’s called stalking.

One Moore Thing: Follow up “click connections” with a conversation, lunch, or a beer. Get to know people instead of pixels.

Filed Under: Motivation, Relationships

For The Love Of The Omelet

January 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I’m making myself hungry

I am a passionate fan of The Golden Harvest. I love their omelets because they’re unique in their flavor, made with local fresh ingredients, and served in a one-of-a-kind environment. I love them so much I pay for a full breakfast even though I can normally only eat half of what they put in front of me.

I’m nobody special. They probably don’t know me by name, but they do recognize me as a regular customer. I come back for their omelets, and you should too. While they do serve good ole’ bacon and eggs, their signature breakfasts are phenomenal because they’re different. They don’t cater to everybody. If you want chicken fried steak, it’s not on the menu. If you want a bland turkey dinner, it’s not on the menu. If you want a low-calorie option, it’s not on the menu. If the music is not your taste, they’re not going to change the channel.

They are passionate about their breakfast food, and that’s where we can all learn a lesson. Because they’re vehement and uncompromising, the customers that go there (like me) have become more than customers, they’ve morphed into fans. Fans are passionate about what they care about and will go to great lengths to display their love. They will stand in a cold line, decorate their cars with logos, and take photos of their visit.

How many of your customers are fans?

One Moore Thing: You can’t fake an environment that creates fans. It must come from what you and your company culture are passionate about, and that cannot be diluted for the masses.

Filed Under: Attitude, Customer Service, Motivation, Relationships
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