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 Either way, you will earn the buyer’s respect by being knowledgeable and not asking outdated questions like “what keeps you up at night?”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.

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.

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:

• Part 1: The Disconnect
• Part 2: Leave Them Hanging
• Part 3: The Zombie
• Part 4: Bait the Hook
• Part 5: The Referral

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

This guy should not stop you from getting your cheese

… the mice will play.

That’s the saying. For those of you who haven’t heard it before, it means when the person in charge (cat) is gone, the subordinates (mice) will be less careful. That’s fine if you’re one of those mice that sit around waiting for a piece of cheese to come to you on the end of a mousetrap. But if you were one of those mice you wouldn’t be in sales. When the cat (boss) is away, you should work just as hard as if she were there. Hell, you should work the same no matter where she is, because you don’t get any cheese unless you go hunt it down.

One Moore Thing: Decide what kind of mouse you are, then ignore whether or not the cat is away… just make it rain cheese.

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.