INSIGHTS & JOY
A business newsletter with
Pizzazz!
"We help leaders
tackle major issues and become better marketers
using a holistic business
approach!"
Dick Morgan CMC,
FIMC
April 2010
21st Anniversary Issue
What is
"selling?" The key to long-term sales success is helping customers meet
their goals, not yours. When you learn your prospect's future goals,
you must then find ways to help him or her achieve those goals. You become
valuable to that new customer. People tend to keep what they value, so if your
customer values your help, that person will want to keep you around,
right? Owners of businesses, in particular, tend to appreciate the
salesperson who takes time to understand the owner's goals before trying to sell
a product or service. Take a couple of minutes to explore with me some of
the finer points of successful selling. I am always interested in hearing about
the selling experiences of others, so please give me your
feedback.
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IN THIS ISSUE
What is
"selling?"
Marketing Facets - The Market Focused Guide to
Company Analysis
Smiles make the day!
$ Million Marketing Tips
Facts about wine...
What is
"selling?"
A long time ago, someone
told me, "selling is easy. Simply find out what your prospect needs to buy,
then sell it to him." Perhaps the selling part is easy, but usually finding
out what a person needs is the hard part. Others put it this way,
"find a need and fill it." It's the same thought as the first quote. The first
step is to discover a need. That means the salesman must stop, look, and
listen. Needs normally do not wear a neat sign, so you have to dig and
probe to find the starting point, to understand the situation from the
prospect's perspective. Monopoly game boards conveniently have a corner space
called "Go," to make it easy to know where to start. Selling does not have such
a space, but to win a new customer, you must find "Go." You must find out what
that prospect wants or needs.
It may seem almost too elementary to
mention, but the quickest and best way to determine what a particular prospect
wants is to simply ask good questions! When you understand a person's goals, you
can better identify his or her probable needs and determine if and
how you can help the prospect achieve his or her goals. One
final hint: usually what your prospect needs or wants will not be
simply a product or a particular service. Chances are the prospect will be
looking for additional intangible things, like peace of mind, avoidance of
risk, reassurance, image, no hassles, warranties, ease of use,
etc.
The key to long-term sales
success is helping customers meet their goals, not yours. When
you learn your prospect's future goals, you must then find ways to help him or
her achieve those goals. You become valuable to that new customer. People tend
to keep what they value, so if your customer values your help, that person will
want to keep you around, right? Owners of businesses, in particular, tend
to appreciate the salesperson who takes time to understand the owner's goals
before trying to sell a product or service. For example, it would be pretty
fruitless to attempt to sell a prospect on an upgraded product for a
present system when what the prospect really needs and wants is a completely new
system.
Do not be so arrogant as to assume that you
already know his or her goals without the prospect's input.
Chances are excellent that your assumptions are either wrong or incomplete.
When you approach an owner or decision-maker with intelligent questions about
the business, and use the information provided to develop new ideas to help
achieve stated goals, you will always be welcome. If you waste time trying
to push a prospect into helping you achieve your sales goals, the
chances are you will get a quick brush-off.
The two jobs of a
salesperson. When you boil it all down, a salesperson has only two
jobs. The first is to keep existing customers happy. When someone is buying from
you, he or she deserves your help and attention. The customer needs service and
a reduction of the usual "hassle factor." The customer looks to the sales
representative for satisfaction and when the customer gets satisfaction,
the salesperson is rewarded with more business. The second job of a salesperson
is to create hate and discontent in the mind of a prospect who has not yet
bought! That is right, the salesperson must help the prospect discover
enough valid reasons to be dissatisfied with an existing situation and supplier
that the prospect will want to make a change.
Have you ever know a prospect who bought
your product or service while he or she was perfectly content with the current
situation? If you ask the prospect if he or she is satisfied, the prospect will
usually answer that he or she is perfectly content. To say otherwise might call
the prospect's intelligence into serious question. How you create hate and
discontent will vary in each case, but your ability to do so can be based on the
universally accepted theorem that everything and everyone can somehow improve.
The prospect probably has undiscovered
"suffering points" and it is your job to find them and create enough hate and
discontent with the status quo that the prospect will want to take
corrective action. The "suffering points" are his newly uncovered needs that you
will then be able to help remedy.
Suffering points are
usually hidden from the prospect's normal view, often floating just below the
surface like a submerged log in the lake. The prospect needs a professional like
you, with an independent and knowledgeable eye, to bring the suffering point to
the surface. It is your knowledge of your business and of other businesses
similar to your prospect's that help you to probe, gather facts, compare
operational details, and uncover areas for improvement not yet recognized by
your prospect. Once you uncover suffering points, you have to use great
care to avoid alienating the prospect or other key individuals. Once the
prospect accepts the suffering point, you can confirm that you possess a
solution by presenting a written proposal that provides an outline of the
problem and a very general picture of the benefits of your solution. It is
also important to avoid the temptation of providing your prospect with the
details of your proposed solution prior to a solid commitment to buy from you.
Spilling the beans too soon may simply allow your prospect to put your
idea out for bids and resolve the suffering without you! When you allow a
prospect to go around you to resolve the suffering, you become a charity worker,
not a professional salesperson!
Marketing Facets - The
Market-focused Guide to Company Analysis
Should a salesperson's birth date be an
important fact for a company acquirer to know? Could extended product warranties
create a competitive advantage? How does the company forecast sales? What are
the backgrounds and capabilities of the firm's key managers? Answers to these
and a vast array of other in-depth questions receive attention in Marketing
Facets.
Marketing Facets is a practical
resource for those involved in determining the current health of a company and
gauging its future prospects. Marketing Facets is a 103-page
guidebook, and a supplement to other evaluation procedures
and information normally gathered during a thorough due diligence or
business valuation process. The workbook takes a holistic approach, assembling
facts and management assumptions in key areas to help the analyst form and
support conclusions.
Marketing Facets is a valuable
resource to private investment fund managers, individual investors, venture
capital specialists, investment banks, and valuation specialists.
Marketing Facets is also a guide for C-level executives who
wish to perform their own company analysis as part of normal business planning,
or in advance of efforts to refinance, acquire or divest.
Marketing
Facets is available in electronic form via the Internet, on CD/ROM,
or in print with a ring binder.
> Electronic in MS Word .doc or
Adobe .pdf format via the Internet @ $79.95
> CD/ROM format @
$85.95 including U.S. shipping and handling
> Ring binder
version and CD/ROM combo @ $99.95 including U.S. shipping and
handling
Smiles make the
day!
Experience...
1. Education is what you get from reading the fine print.
Experience is what you get from not reading it!
2. Experience has been described as "Compulsory
Education."
3.
Experience is cheap if you are smart enough to get it
secondhand!
4. Experience
allows one to make an old mistake in a completely new way.
5. About all
that some get from experience is just more
experience.
6. Past experience should be a guidepost, not a hitching
post!
7. Experience is the best teacher, and considering what it usually
costs, it should be!
8. Some people speak from experience; others, from experience don't
speak!
$ Million Marketing
Tips
TIP: Business buyers
generally are no more logical than consumers. There are emotional elements in
every sale.
TIP: Can you
tell customers, in one compelling sentence, why they should buy from you instead
of your competitors? Work on it!
Facts about wine...
1. If you plan to bring a bottle
of wine to a restaurant, be sure to call ahead and inquire about the corkage
policy. A reasonable corkage fee is $10 or less per bottle. Some may waive
corkage if the food bill is substantial.
2. Price is the least accurate
measure of a wine's quality, but with no other information available, it is a
place to start.
3. Label words like reserve or
vintner's selection may or may not indicate quality...there is no guarantee that
the wine is really 'special.'
4. A wine's place of origin (or
appellation) is an important consideration when judging quality; second is the
producer; and third is the vintage year (due to weather
conditions).
5. Cabernet Sauvignon is
remarkable for the wide range of structure, light-body to full-bodied and
crafted for aging. Some of the best are France's Bordeaux and California's Napa
or Sonoma Valley Cabernets.
6. "Buttery" is the taste impression
made by many Chardonnays, due to a trend toward the use of an
added malolactic fermentation step in the winemaking process.
A client
speaks: "Dick helped to increase the revenue of my
previous business from $10 million to $18 million during the three years we
collaborated. Even better, he enhanced the final sales price of my business by
100 percent. Dick’s introduction of strategic planning, action plans, and
implementation support was the point where our planning took on a professional
approach. Operations, marketing, finance, and personnel all were beneficiaries
of the counsel and processes he provided.”
Ben Johnson, Johnson Diversified
Enterprises, Inc., Colleyville,
TX
Our ideal
client is a
business owner or CEO between 30 and 65+ years old. Usually with a financial,
engineering, or production background. Who is often impatient, and
interested in improving company performance. Comes alive
when you ask, "How's business? " He, or she, is practical but also
enjoys the finer things in life. So, you may see my ideal client driving a
Lexus, BMW, or SUV to Neiman Marcus...and to Sam's Club. Who do
you know that fits this
description?
P.S.
Ninety-five percent of our engagements originate as a referral from
helpful people like you!
If you know
someone who:
> Wants to develop a
more productive marketing program, or
> Needs help building and
implementing an effective operational business plan, or
> Wants to exit a
business or acquire another company,
I would appreciate the opportunity to
discuss the situation with you.
© 2010 Morgan Marketing Solutions, Inc. All
rights reserved. Other distribution permitted with proper
attribution.
To unsubscribe, e-mail to rpmorgan@morganmarketingsolutions.com and write
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Richard P. Morgan CMC, FIMC
Morgan Marketing Solutions, Inc.
Two Galleria
Tower, Suite 1000 Box 8
13455 Noel Road, Dallas, TX
75240-6620
Telephone 972.931.7993 fax 972.931.0542
email
rpmorgan@morganmarketingsolutions.com
www.morganmarketingsolutions.com
Author, Marketing Facets - The Market-focused
Guide to Company Analysis
"We help leaders tackle major
issues and become better marketers using a holistic business
approach!"
CMC (Certified Management Consultant) is a mark awarded by the
Institute of Management Consultants USA, and represents evidence of the highest
standards of consulting and adherence to the ethical canons of the profession.
Less than 1% of all consultants have achieved this level of performance and
dedication. For more information go to: www.imcusa.org
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