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What Do Your Customers Really Want? Ask Your Competition by
Karon Thackston © 2004 http://www.marketingwords.com

It’s not always an easy task. Sometimes discovering what your
customers really want is like pulling teeth. It is imperative
for any business owner who hopes to develop new
products/services or to write effective advertising copy to know
what is important to his customers. But when direct questions
don’t deliver the results you need, what’s the next step?

Actually, your competition can often lend a hand in this area…
and without even knowing it! Many marketing pieces such as
brochures, sales letters, or Web sites include testimonials.
I’ve found over the years that this is an untapped source for
“customer intelligence.”

Look at this example from a Web-design site:

“I’m truly speechless! I knew my site design was in need of
revamping, but I never imagined how exceptional it could look.
You have done an amazing job! The colors, the graphics, the
layout… everything shows that you have a good understanding of
my business and my target audience. You’ve made me look as
professional as IBM! I often bring the site up in my browser
just to remind myself that this really IS my site. I am a loyal
customer and would not hesitate to recommend you to anyone in
need of professional Web design services.”

What do you think this customer wanted based on his comments? A
few things he mentioned were:

1. colors 2. graphics 3. layout 4. his target audience 5.
professional

Here’s another one from a copywriting site:

“I just wanted to thank you for everything. Thank you for
bringing my vision to life in words. Thank you for “getting” me.
And thanks for your patience.”

This customer needed:

1. someone to express his vision in words 2. someone who
understood what he had to say

Here’s one more:

“You had the product I wanted, it was in stock, at the lowest
price I could find. There was no shipping charge or sales tax.
Your website was easy to use; you followed up immediately by
Email; I was able to track the shipment; and the product arrived
on time and in good condition. What is there not to like?”

This customer of an appliance-sales Web site was obviously
impressed with:

1. item being in stock 2. low price 3. no shipping charges 4.
customer service 5. timely arrival

Doing a good bit of research into the testimonials customers
give to your competition can shed a bright light on what they’re
looking for. I’d recommend visiting several sites each week and
creating a chart to track what you find.

Just as I did above, jot down specifically what impressed the
customer in each case. Then look for trends. The more times a
particular service is mentioned, the more importance it will
hold.

Now, look back over your own business. Can you offer what your
competition offers? Can you offer something better? Is there a
way to improve your service in the areas that those who wrote
the testimonials mentioned? If so, do it!

Staying in touch with your customers’ needs should be top
priority. When you take the time to understand what your
customers really want, you stand a better chance of improving
sales and increasing customer loyalty.

In his classic book, “Think and Grow Rich”, Napoleon Hill discussed the eleven secrets of leadership. In reading this work, it appears that the attributes of strong leadership and effective selling have a tremendous amount in common. After all, to be really successful in sales, you need to be a leader, both within your own organization, as well as to your clients and customers.

To paraphrase management guru Peter Drucker, a leader is someone who not only does things right, but who also does the right things, while helping others do the same. The same holds true in sales: how better to serve your clients than to really know and understand what they do, and to truly help them do it better?

With that in mind, here are Mr. Hill’s eleven secrets to leadership, as they apply to leadership in selling:

1. “Unwavering Courage”: Selling successfully requires courage; taking a risk where the odds may seem stacked against you; courage to make that extra call, to deal with the tough client or prospect, and to not let anything deter you. As Hill says, courage is “based upon knowledge of self and one’s occupation.

2. “Self-Control”: The ability to set a course for yourself and take disciplined action each day is a key attribute of all successful salespeople.

3. “A keen sense of justice”: Knowing right from wrong - understanding what is fair and just - allows you to make, wise informed decisions.

4. “Definiteness of decision”: Deciding on what you want to achieve, and then doing whatever it takes to get there, even in the face of obstacles and setbacks, is crucial to your success. For those who don’t quite make it, failure can usually be traced back to a lack of decisiveness about what they really want.

5. “Definiteness of plans”: In Hill’s words, “the successful leader must plan his work, and work his plan. Truer words were never spoken when it comes to selling. Plan your time, and then take action on your plan each and every day.

6. “The habit of doing more than paid for”: Want to sell more? Go the extra mile for your clients. Want to get the respect, admiration, and cooperation from your internal “clients” – the people you need to rely on to implement or help you close sales? Go the distance for them as well.

7. “A pleasing personality”: Is selling a popularity contest? No, but would you buy something from someone who was nasty and rude?

8. “Sympathy and understanding:” Selling is about understanding what people DO, and then helping them do it better. Plain and simple.

9. “Mastery of detail”: Ah, yes… The devil, as they say, is in the details. Ever work really hard to close a sale, only to have it fall apart because of some small detail that falls through the cracks? What may seem like a small detail to you can be a crucial one, maybe even a deal-breaker, to your prospect, customer, or client.

10. “Willingness to assume full responsibility”: No matter how much customer support your company provides, you are the prime representative of your organization. If you try to pass the buck to someone else, you lose respect and credibility. “But it really wasn’t my fault that the shipment was delayed in customs and then the delivery truck was attacked a pack of wild dogs…” Doesn’t matter; accept the responsibility for any problem and all details, and then do whatever needs to be done to make things right. Your clients need to know that you are their advocate.

11. “Cooperation”: You can’t do it alone. Sales is a collaborative effort. Your prospects need to collaborate with you; you need the cooperation and assistance of others both inside and outside your organization to make things happen. The best salespeople are those who can work well with others, and with whom other people want to work.

Think about these eleven areas of leadership, and ask yourself how you do on each of these items. Find areas where you can make improvements and chart your course to work on improving what you do each day; incremental improvements each day become exponential over time.

Mark Dembo and Thomas J. Baskind are Managing Partners in DEI/Lexien of Greater New York, a sales performance improvement and management consulting company. They invite you to visit their website, http://www.lexien.com/, and welcome your comments and inquiries.

No doubt, cigar smoking is a pleasure. Over the period, it is
considered as the symbol of status of wealth and class. But, do
you wonder from where this fashion of cigar smoking came into
limelight and who started this? According to research, cigars
have been around for over 1,000 years. It was started by the
original native population of the islands in the Caribbean as
well as the rest of Mesoamerica in as early as 900 AD. In fact,
a ceramic vessel at a Mayan dig site in Uaxactun, Guatemala have
been found, which was painted with the likeness of a man smoking
a cigar that’s says the glowing past of cigars.

Later Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus had introduced the
smoking to Europe. With two of his colleagues Rodrigo de Jerez
and Luis de Torres, Columbus had taken puffs of tobacco wrapped
in maize husks, thus becoming the first European cigar smokers.

During 19th century, the popularity of cigars was on its
heights. In fact, all the states of United States had a cigar
factory. Cigars were more popular than cigarettes making almost
everyone a smoker, or lived with one. Later, in the early part
of the 20th century, cigar sales were at its peak. According to
a report, the weight of tobacco sold in the United States alone
in one year would equal the weight of the entire population of
10 states combined. Found everywhere in the united states,
cigars were priced as per the size of the pocket of the general
population as earlier Americans were not allowed to buy the
Cuban cigars.

Online Cigars Market The passion of smoking cigars increased
with the time. There has been a tremendous rise in the number of
cigar smokers now in comparison of past years. Order whether an
oscuro cigar, the black one or choose the claro, light brown
cigar, make sure you get the right cigar to enjoy that
unforgettable experience that lasts forever. By buying cigars
online, you can also protect yourself from the duplicate cigars
that are common these days. In fact, it also gives you the
facility to get cigars at your doorsteps too, no matters you are
the resident of any corner of the world.

Cigars are the ultimate experience of smoking. From last 1000
years, the fashion of cigar smoking is in practice and still
alluring many aficionados to carry on this great passion.

For more information on buy
cigars online visit http://www.selective-cigars.com

Once or twice in the last five years I’ve read one of those inordinately lengthy sales letters from start to finish. (You know, the ones that Internet marketing gurus claim are essential to make huge sales.) They must have been some of the better written, interesting letters. Or I must have been starved for some literary stimulation.

Now I realise that I really don’t have time to read all the hackneyed stuff inserted to establish credibility and to show how many testimonials one has collected. After the third or fourth testimonial, it all gets a bit ‘ho hum’. We get the message.

Similarly, audio snippets are of little benefit and I usually pass them by. The ones I have listened to were simply readings of the written test. Why would I need to read it and hear it?

Today I came across one of those long sales letters and this time I took special note of how I process the information. First I read the opening paragraph to make sure that the program I had seen advertised was the one discussed here. Yes, it was. Yes, I was able to get a good overview of what this program was about right up front. I didn’t have to wade through a tonne of fluff to find out what in hell this program was all about.

Next, I needed to know how much I was going to have to pay to own this program. Was that up front? No way. I scrolled down to the bottom of the six foot long page and eventually found a “Buy Now” button. Still no dollar signs anywhere to be seen. So I clicked on the Buy Now button and went to a processing site. Yes, the price was $97 and according to the writer, a terribly good bargain for a product who has made literally millions for so many people. If only I were to buy this program, my Internet marketing woes would all vanish and one day I’d be rolling in money like all of those about whom testimonials had been written.

While deciding whether I needed yet another program telling me how to make millions, I suddenly saw the freight fee of $75 and decided that today I could do without this product. ($172US is a fair stack of money in any currency).

So I backed out of the credit card processing pages and looked for another site I had on my list.

Now you know my MO. First, I verify what the program or service is … does it promote link management, is it MLM, a pyramid scheme, or simply an ebook you buy? Next, I want to know how much it costs and specifically if the fee is recurring (these can be a real trap!). After that I look for some additional information if I need it that will give me some reason to believe it’s worth the fee being charged. Most of the ebooks and other digital media I come across are over-priced when considering what you pay for similar type information in hard copy format.

I spoke with several of my colleagues who buy information products and services online and asked how they handle long sales letters. Without exception, they do the same as me; get an overview, look for the price and then make a decision about whether to purchase. Also without exception, they are annoyed when they can’t find a price until they click on an order button.

I strongly suspect that the reason why long copy is being used and ’said’ to be so much more successful is that copywriters earn more producing long copy. Now, I may be completely off track, but one has to wonder. What would be more conclusive is for one of the high fliers of Internet marketing to run some different advertisements, some short, the others long and see what works best.

Now there’s a challenge. One option for the short sales letters is to either provide two options for users - one long, one short and let them choose (click through statistics would reveal preferences). Alternatively, brief information could be provided at the sales letter stage and a link provided to further information for anyone who wants to read it.

While I’m deciding whether length is better than quality, I’ve changed one of my ebook sites to a shorter version with a subscription box where visitors can get further information by autoresponder if required. That way I get an email address too.

I’ll see what eventuates with this altered approach and determine whether my belief that surfers are fatigued by the long-winded sales letter and now prefer the concise, succinct version. Watch this space for a reply.

Copyright Robin Henry 2005

Robin Henry is an educator, human resources specialist and Internet entrepreneur. He helps small and home-based businesses and individuals improve performance by applying smart technology and processes and developing personally. He runs his business Desert Wave Enterprises from his home base at Alice Springs in Central Australia, although at present he is working in the United Arab Emirates.

Are you worried about your sales slumping? Are your first quarter numbers looking lower? Is your pipeline looking softer than you’d like it to be at this point even though the economy is strong? Here’s an idea that you can use to quickly pump up your sales. Its’ called the 90 day sales blitz. The whole premise behind this is to rally the whole company around doing everything it can to support the sales team to close deals, expand the pipeline, get more opportunities into the forecast, and close deals that have been out there languishing for some time. Create a sales turn around plan with your team by pulling together everybody from sales, marketing, and operations and figuring out where’s the low hanging fruit in the short term that we can go pick in order to bump our sales numbers up in the right direction. Where are our best opportunities that can close the fastest, what can we do to create more opportunities quickly through lead generation? How do we do direct mail or outbound telemarketing campaigns into our prospecting list? How can we create a compelling offer that we’d put on our website so that visitors who come through and find us from keyword searches decide that they want to convert and become quick sales leads that can be closed faster. What can they do to incentivize those that are searching for my products and services to call in immediately and speak to a sales rep? What sort of premiums and bonuses can I give to them to quickly bring me new sales opportunities?

So a good 90 day sales blitz starts by getting all of your people together, sitting down and figuring out, how can we, as a team, pull a rabbit out of our hat by bringing together all of the best knowledge and experience and all of the company’s energy and harnessing it towards making short term sales.

A number of ideas that we’ve seen over the years include short term sales contests and sales bonuses to people who are in marketing for generating the most leads. Also: customer bonuses for bringing in new referrals and doing option upgrades or doing cross sales or up sales. These are all the kinds of things that you can do to create some short term enthusiasm and rally all of your resources in your company around greatly increasing your numbers. So if you need to do something in the short term to stimulate sales, think about a 90 sales blitz. If you’re like many companies out there that have practiced this behavior in the past, you’ll find that with the right leadership, the right enthusiasm, the right incentives, involvement of all of the people in your company, you can really move mountains.

About Cube Management:
Cube Management provides sales acceleration services to emerging growth and mid-market companies in the technology, manufacturing, healthcare and business service sectors. The experts at Cube Management work across the entire spectrum of marketing, sales and business development to provide customized solutions that drive revenue and profit growth. Cube Management combines Strategy, Process & People to produce winning results.

Did you know that a credit policy is a channel where you can control your bottom line, sales and income? By tweaking your credit policy you can make more money instantly.

A new book, “Become the Squeaky Wheel” by Michelle Dunn describes credit policies and outlines how you can create one for your business so you have more control over your bottom line, sales and income.

When a potential customer fills out a credit application you can get near-perfect information about that customer and how they pay their bills, and if they can afford more credit. Most consumers that take the time to fill out a credit application are serious about buying from you; otherwise they would just go down the road to where they can buy without filling out any forms.

After extensive research it was found that consumers that can obtain credit will even pay more for a product or service when they are extended credit and have great customer service. The faster, easier and smoother procedures will get the most and better paying customers.

The result? More sales, income and happier customers for your business. This can also result in word of mouth advertising from happy customers, and that is free.

Michelle Dunn has over 17 years experience in credit and debt collection. She is the founder of Never Dunn Publishing, LLC, is a writer, consultant and the Editorial Advisor for Eli Financial Debt Collection Compliance Alert Newsletter. Michelle started M.A.D. Collection Agency and ran is successfully for 7 years. She owns and runs Credit & Collections.com a free online community for credit and business professionals.

She has written 5 books in her Collecting Money Series. For more information on Michelle’s services or to order any of her books please email her at michelle@michelledunn.com or visit http://www.michelledunn.com & http://www.credit-and-collections.com

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from one generation to the next, says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.

In many sales organizations, the heavy investment in existing sales practices makes dismounting unfeasible, and these creative strategies are adopted instead:

1. Providing motivational seminars, tapes, and group sessions, to encourage riders to stay on their dead horses longer.

2. Threatening riders with termination when they can’t get their dead horses moving.

3. Providing riders with stronger whips.

4. Determining how more successful organizations ride their dead horses. Then, adapting those methods as the company’s new “Best Practices.”

5. Determining that riders who don’t stay on dead horses are lazy, lack drive, and have no ambition - then replacing them.

6. Appointing an intervention team to reanimate dead horses and assure that all riders are in compliance with approved riding standards.

7. Awarding professional certification plaques to riders who learn the best techniques to stay on their dead horses for long periods of time.

8. Reclassifying dead horses as “living-impaired.”

9. Directing management to find new and better ways to inspire riders to charge their dead horses into battle.

10. Teaming several dead horses together for increased speed.

11. Donating old dead horses to a recognized charity, thereby deducting their full original cost. Then using the savings to buy new dead horses.

12. Proving that the reason for diminished sales results is a combination of macoroeconomic circumstances and increased competition from other dead horse teams.

13. Developing contests and incentive plans to reward the best dead horse riders.

14. Enacting a strict dress code so that their riders look “professional.”

15. Prohibiting riders from purchasing and riding their own live horses since that is not in accordance with the company’s time-tested methods.

16. Promoting the most persevering of dead horse riders to manage and train new riders.

Did you chuckle as you read this? Salespeople stuck riding dead horses need a good laugh. Sales managers who read this and laugh in embarrassed recognition need to abandon their dead horses-now.

If you’re ready to abandon the ‘tried and false,’ if you’re ready to commit to a sales process that really works, you’re ready for High Probability Sales Training.

©Jacques Werth, High Probability® Selling - All rights reserved.

Jacques Werth, author of “High Probability Selling,” is an internationally respected Sales Trainer and Sales Consultant. HPS graduates are excelling as Top Producers in over 70 industries. Visit http://www.highprobsell.com to read more articles, preview the book, and learn more about High Probability Selling.

Still looking for a way to improve your sales performance? The problem is that you’ve been going to the wrong places, talking to the wrong people and reading the wrong books. To get the right answer, you must know where to find it!

The answers that you need to enhance your method and boost your sales will come when you stop relying on bad selling techniques that require you to learn a scripted sales approach, change your company’s sales copy, or try to overcome a price objection. Your customers DON’T care about these things. If you want to really engage your customers and stir up their motivation to buy from you, you must focus on what matters to them. The only way to get customers to buy is to know WHY they buy. Understanding what makes one person buy your product is the key to creating an effective sales approach for them and your next customer.

The first important step in this process is to admit that you probably don’t have a clue why your customers do business with you. You’re so wrapped up in your company’s propaganda of why you are so great that you may actually believe it has somehow touched your customers. This is highly unlikely, and if you believe this, you have clearly lost touch with the REAL reasons people buy from you.

Once you have come to terms with the fact that you don’t know why your customers buy, don’t make the mistake of going to your salespeople for the answer. If your salespeople knew, then your sales would be much stronger! Going to them with this question will only give you another salesperson’s perspective. Your customer’s real motivation for buying has little to do with the shallow reasons you and your salespeople think of (like price or convenience).

The only way to know why your customers buy from you is to go straight to the source: your customer. Only they know the reason they buy your product! The only way you will know is if they tell you. Spend as much time with your existing customers as possible and try to learn as much as you can from them. This may sound hard, but it can be as simple as eating a meal with a few customers throughout the week.

When you’re with them, ask them questions that will get them talking about why they do business with you. Be open to what they have to say and be prepared for some answers that may be tough to listen to. Use questions that will help them describe their needs and desires, and get them to share stories of their experiences with you and previous suppliers.

A great opening question can be as simple as “Why did you buy?” Then delve as deep as you can to uncover your customer’s entire buying process: “What role did profitability play in your decision to select us?” “What role did quality play?” “How much thought was given to YOUR customers when making your choice?” “Can you describe the role our salesperson played in your decision to select us?”

Discovering buying motives should be hard work. The great part is that the process will not only help you understand your customers, it will also get you closer to the sale. While your lazy competitors focus on crafty verbiage and phony sales systems, YOU will be getting to the root of the decision. You understand that the answers are out there, and you will find them, because you will know where to look and who to ask.

Tom Richard conducts seminars on sales and customer service topics nationwide. Tom is also the author of Smart Salespeople Don’t Advertise: 10 Ways to Outsmart Your Competition With Guerilla Marketing, and publishes a free weekly ezine on selling skills titled Sales Muscle. To subscribe to this free weekly ezine go to http://www.tomrichard.com/subscribe

At-ti-tude, n.

One of Webster’s dictionaries describes the word attitude as:

a mental position; the feeling one has for oneself.

Your attitudes are mindsets—or points of view based on what you believe to be true about life, other people and yourself.

The $elling Edge®, Inc. has taught thousands of selling professionals how to consistently close sales. Some of these people have incredibly high natural sales ability but sell very little and others, with seemingly few innate skills, are able to achieve high levels of closings. What is the reason for this paradox? Very simply, a sales representative or service industry professional’s attitude toward selling.

In our research, we have found that many selling professionals do not truly value the role of selling. They dislike being described as a “salesperson” because they see selling as a manipulative process that somehow conflicts with their personal values. When these attitudes are combined with fear of rejection and failure, it is no wonder they would prefer not to undergo the discipline and hard work it takes to succeed in sales.

Your attitudes can positively or negatively influence your ability to consistently perform effective prospecting activities or vital selling techniques. Weak or negative attitudes toward the selling process will block your ability to succeed in vital sales methods. On the other side of the coin, a strong, positive, “can-do” attitude about selling can help you to sell more—even if you do not possess great natural selling skills.

My Sales Success Strategies series of articles outline techniques you can use to keep your attitude positive, your sales performance high and your selling goals focused. Check out the archive at: http://www.thesellingedge.com/newsletter1.htm

VIRDEN THORNTON is the founder and President of The $elling Edge®, Inc. an Ohio consulting firm specializing in sales and sales management training, personal coaching, advisory services and publishing. Clients have included Sears Optical, Eastman Kodak, IBM, Service Linen Supply, Bank One, Jefferson Wells International, and Wal-Mart to name a few. Virden is the author of the “best selling” Building & Closing the Sale, Prospecting: The Key To Sales Success and Close That Sale, a video/audio tape series published by Crisp Publications a division of Thompson Learning. He has also authored a client acclaimed Self-Directed Learning series of sales, coaching, telemarketing, and personal productivity manuals. To obtain a substantial discount on two of Virden’s latest books, 101 Sales Myths or Organizing For Sales Success, go to: http://www.TheSellingEdge.com/book1.htm.

NOTE: You can contact Virden at: virden@TheSellingEdge.com or check out his detailed biography at: http://www.TheSellingEdge.com/bio.htm

Ever had a party online or offline, and had guests say “I love that item, but I can’t afford it right now”, or “It’s so hard to decide, I want all of this!”. This is a perfect time to sell all those items to your customer without them having to pay a dime.

If you aren’t using this idea already, make sure to put it into action immediately. Have a gift registry form ready to point those customers to should they want extra items they simply can not buy right now.

What they do is fill out their information, special dates (Birthdays, Anniversary, etc), and the products they want. Then, they fill out names and contact information of relatives and friends they know they will be receiving gifts from. You contact the relatives, stating where you received their information and what’s on the wish list you hold. Ask them if they would like a reminder before the special date, and which item they will be purchasing.

Simple eh? It’s a win-win situation for everyone! You make the extra sale, the gift-giver knows they are buying a gift the other person wants (no guess work or wandering around a mall!), and the one receiving the gift is getting exactly what they wanted but couldn’t afford.

This idea works easily both online and offline. Keep several forms handy if you are offline, so you can pass them out at parties or events (Pre-made forms available with the Direct Sales Success Kit). Online you will want to set up a page with an automatic form for your guest to fill out. For an example of an online form, visit:
http://www.soy-wax-candles.com/gift-registry.html

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About the Authors: Kara Kelso & Anita DeFrank are two busy wahms, and the owners of Direct Sales Helpers. For more Direct Sales Success Tips, visit: http://www.directsaleshelpers.com/newsletter.html