The Salesby5 Blog

Today I was traveling From San Antonio to Big Spring, Texas and I landed in the Midland/Odessa Airport.  I had forgotten my prepared itinerary for my trip, so I did not know what rental car company I needed to visit.  The first one I noticed was Enterprise with two ladies looking very angry.  They had no customers and were staring off into space, each with a scowl.   At about 15’ away I started laughing out loud and called out to them asking “Who are you angry with?” There was a third lady with a smile who kindly told me I did not have a reservation with them.

Remember, people are watching you.  Are you smiling and living your company or organization’s brand?

Photo by Theklan

I often fly Southwest Airlines.  With four flights in two days moving a variety of passengers from professional to blue collar workers of all ages, one thing stood out…how few people said “thank you” to the flight attendants when offered peanuts, drinks or when a request was fulfilled. I sat next to a lady about 70+ years old with a special request, Wheat Thins. She never said “please” or “thank you” after they looked for her. I should have thanked them for her.

After this experience, I asked one of the flight attendants what percentage of the time he thought he got a “thank you.” He said about 30 percent. I am now going to ask them all on every flight.  Why? We need to remember the magic words of “please” and “thank you.”  It’s the right thing to do AND it sells or un-sells!

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We live our lives based on social conventions where we want some sort of relationship, no matter how fleeting it is, before we want to help someone.  I know that I’m guilty of this mentality.  Do you have an internal monologue that goes something like this: “What? You want my help? You want to inconvenience me? Ugh. I don’t really know you OR you haven’t gone through the right channels to be able to ask for that.”  This is typical and no one would be surprised if you thought that way when a stranger asked for a favor.  Dr. Cialdini, professor at the University of Arizona even talks about the importance of reciprocity.

Last evening I was reading some of Ed Wallace’s Business Relationships That Last where he spoke of Max the Cab Driver. Max would pick Ed up in a British taxi in immaculate shape with bottled water and an ear ready to listen to Ed’s life stories. He would remember the little details such as Ed’s newborn, so he would gently tap on the screen door to not wake the baby. After Ed’s first ride with Max, he hoped to book him for the next week. Unfortunately, Max was booked typically booked two to four weeks out. Max explained that the extra little efforts he made were the same ones that people do for their friends. This was how he turned “fares into friends.” What do you do to enhance your personal brand or your company’s offering that is a small extra to make your customers feel as if they are getting a friend’s bonus? How has it paid off for you? Share in the comments!

photo by Caro Wallis

1. It’s easier to give advice than take it. Usually the advice I give is also meant for me.

2. Focus is extremely underrated. The most successful people I know have the ability to focus and get things done.

3. Jobs, places, and things come and go. It’s the people we meet that make life special.

4. It’s my actions that define who I am, not who I say I am.

5. Learning to start my day over was one of the best lessons I ever learned.

6. Humility is the greatest trait I can have as a leader, partner, husband, friend, and father.

7. Having humility is easier said than done.

8. The more I try to learn from successful people the better my chance at success.

9. The only person who can decide if I’m having a good day or bad day is me.

10. The more teachable I am the more I know. The more I know the more I can help others. The more I can help others the better my life, and that’s why I try to remain teachable.

11. Work hard when it’s time to work, but go home when you’re supposed to go home.

It is September 4th of 2003. (I wrote blog posts on paper then). My wife and I were checking into a Disney resort in Florida with my 3 year old daughter and 1 year old son. I was scared of a tiny room that I had reserved and asked about an upgrade. It was going to be a $250 per night upgrade and I asked what was included. I was told “it is a little larger” with a small bedroom and an attached couch bed. I was having a hard time swallowing the $250.00 per night extra and mentioned this. Within a few seconds, the price dropped to $175.00 and I reluctantly said yes as I was told I could get the smaller cheaper room if I did not like it. I really wanted this to be fun, special and relaxing, right?

We get to the room to see what we got for the extra $175.00 and we had been completely undersold. We had a full suite with a fridge, kitchen, 2 full bathrooms and a full living room. It was 2.5 times the size.  The room had a porch which overlooked views of the giraffes and gazelles. I am pretty happy at this point and the family was too as we had friends coming in to visit us for the day and now had plenty of space.  But, there is more. The floor we were on had a giant living area, kitchen, bar, and two people at a desk who turned out to be concierges. I found that because we had the suite, we also had free dinner, drinks, South African wines, desserts, breakfast, snacks, lunch, French water, cokes, free tickets to events, free transportation and a person to take care of all of our needs as part of the suite.

I almost said no to the $175.00 as it provided only “a little larger room” and the real overt benefits were never mentioned. I wonder how many upgrades don’t get sold because of what comes with the room. Later, I went to thank the lady who booked the room. She had never seen it and others had not either, yet there was a whole floor of suites. They did not know what they were selling but viewed it as a tiny benefit. If you ever go to a Disney resort, ask about the upgrade, it may just be the best money spent.

Is there anything you are marketing, selling, advertising that you are not articulating the real value, the real experience. Real matters and your customers should not have to dig to find it.

photo by DJ Riel

Today, many of you may have experienced either a delay in the use of your Google services including Google Reader, GMail and other Google services (Google claims that only 14% of users were affected).  In case you were wondering, Google is updating from an older standard of networking to the shiny, new IPv6 for a better and faster user experience.

Around noon today, Google sent out a tweet that they were aware of the issue, working on a fix and they would be releasing more information soon.  Then, at 2:15 PM CDT, they released a blog post, explaining the problem with 5th grade simplicity, apologizing for the downtime as well as including the reason for the downtime.  It’s great to see a company as large as Google recognizing that people rely upon them heavily and communicating in simple terms that everyone can understand.  How do you feel they did with their communications?

Yesterday, we talked about the importance of purpose—the why—in your organization. It is equally important to have the right people. Passion is something of great value in the workplace, but you should hire people who are passionate about your purpose. Simon Sinek’s insights say that candidates can be highly qualified, but unless they believe in your why, they will not fit. When your people are asked if they like their job, they should say they love it. That will let you know whether or not you have the right people. Bruce Chizen, former CEO of Adobe Systems, says that we all know if we’ve made a mistake within the first month of hiring and to pull the trigger quick if it’s not right. Don’t be afraid to take the steps to get the right people in the right places. A team that lives your purpose and core values will be worth all the effort.

We know that cultivating and nurturing relationships is the best way to gain and maintain great clients. Jim Cecil, the “Father of Nurture Marketing,” and author of Nurturing Customer Relationships, tells us that our goal should be to get customers to call us first. Instead of cold calling and pushing consumers to buy, they call you when they are ready to purchase your products or services. 

The Nurture Selling Process is:
• the core engine for true one to one marketing
• more encompassing than simply “relationship marketing”
• a series of automated Action Plans that easily cultivate and nurture multiple personal one-to-one business relationships simultaneously
• designed to continually reinforce and enhance your top-of-mind presence
• a true Cure for the Common Cold Call

And the results are:
• Shorter selling cycle
• Reduce turnover
• Increase sales productivity
• Increase customer satisfaction

What would it to do the morale of your sales teams if you eliminated the cold call?  If you need help learning to nuture your customer relationships, join us at the Gazelles Sales and Marketing Conference!

The rules of marketing and PR have changed, according to David Meerman Scott, who has made it into the Marketing Sherpa Viral Hall of Fame twice, in 2006 and again in 2007. He shows us that the old ways of marketing and PR are outdated; you don’t obsess about being “on message,” break the bank with expensive advertising nor do you beg mainstream media to write about you. Instead, you tell your story directly to an interested market.

With all the tools we have to connect with one another—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Plaxo, to name a few—it is much easier to reach an interested audience. These money and time saving tips are more relevant than ever. To learn more about David Meerman Scott, join us at the Gazelle’s Sales and Marketing Conference!