The gold is in your hands!

If you have been following my special report series, you will realize that one of my goals is to help others use the tools of marketing to improve the quality of their lives, be it in business, personal or social. My theory is that marketing is universal and can be used by anyone at anytime to improve the quality of life. In this report I focus on sales. Professional salespeople who want to improve on the daily selling process and make more money will find ways to outsell and outsmart the competition, and find a great deal of benefit.

I will show you how I was able to triple the sales of my start up division in a matter of four months from $300,000 to $1.2 million and also how I was able to sell a company for about $70 million. My goal is that by the end of this report, you will be armed with the knowledge, guidance, and tactics you need to become a sales superstar. sales battery!)

Let’s get re-programmed in a positive way, so you really understand what sales is. I will share with you six killer marketing strategies. These are time tested, proven and consistently used by top performing sales people that I have met over the course of my business career. I promise that once these six killer strategies become a part of your daily life, you will see an explosive growth in sales! 

Killer Strategy One: Get trained in the Sales profession!

Sales is a profession. In fact, it’s the world’s oldest and largest profession. Everyone on the planet makes a living by selling something! But there is not one formal sales course at a university anywhere in the world, and many professional sales people have not read many books on sales or attended many professional sales training courses.

Of course, the first sales people were the prophets. They went around the world and convinced people of God, someone that you could not see, the product was invisible! But they were successful.

Their product is still in existence today, it is the number one bestselling product in the world and it is called religion. Every city in the world has religious establishments, mosques, synagogues and churches.

One of the best marketing strategies you can implement to outsell and outsmart your competition is to treat sales as the profession it is. Read, go to seminars, and interview successful sales people. Study the profession, like you would study a subject at college.

Never assume that one day you will wake up and by some divine guidance become a sales superstar. It just won’t happen. Sales, like any other business skill, are learnable. I continue to read books and articles to increase my sales effectiveness. Every profession has associations, trade magazines, and trade shows, and so does sales. Just go on line and you can see them.

Get signed up with newsletters. Read the magazine Selling Power. Every week it has tips on what top sales people are doing to get more sales. Go to justsell.com, a website focused on providing information, education, tools, tips, and strategies on improving sales effectiveness. The site offers free reports on how to sell and offers e- mail updates with tips and motivational quotes.

Sign up for the now infamous E-Zines. All famous motivational speakers have these, including Dr. Denis Waitley and Joe Gerard (World’s Number One Sales Person). Visit the sites of Tom Hopkins, Anthony Robbins, and Brian Tracy. I have found Joe Gerard and Brian Tracy to be among the best.

You have no excuses! I give you a thirty day guarantee when you buy my sales CD. Why thirty days? It’s more likely you’ll take action. My belief is that if you don’t use and apply the contents in that time period, you probably won’t. Visit my web site www.marketingisking.com for more information. My book Marketing is King! was endorsed by Joe Gerard who said, “Ali’s 19 characteristics of top salespeople is bang on the mark! The book is also outstanding in terms of clarifying the relationship between sales and marketing. A must read for all professional sales folks! I love it, and I’m sure you will, too.”

I’ve worked hands-on with sales people in 22 different countries, ranging from start-ups to billion dollar companies, and I have found one thing in common with all of the top performers,

Top performing sales people treat sales as the profession it truly is. They read books, articles, attend seminars, and actively look every day at ways to improve their selling skills.

It is absolutely not by luck that they end up in the Chairman’s Club, or the President’s club. They work exceptionally hard to develop this much-prized skill. It takes four years to get a degree, and it can take several years to master and develop key selling skills:

– Understanding the sales cycle

– How marketing and sales work together

– How to convert suspects into prospects

– How to write powerful sales letters

– How to make powerful client presentations

– How to leave powerful voice messages

“The words you use will make you win or lose!”

– How to network

– How to handle rejection

– How to keep the pipeline full

– How to close a sale

Summary of Killer Strategy One

The good news is that at any point you can improve your own sales effectiveness, by simply recognizing that sale is a skill in its own right, and there are tools to help you get ahead in your profession.

Training will make your sales approach more efficient and effective. The words you use (semantics) will have a powerful impact on your customers, and you will see a marked difference in your results.

On the flip side, it’s up to you. Set aside 30 minutes a day for self development, reading and practicing sales techniques. It’s like a muscle – once you start to exercise it, it will get stronger.

What will make you stand out from the crowd and make a difference is something called professionalism. People make millions of dollars selling products, services and ideas. The time spent learning and investing in the profession is time well spent. Sales is a skill for life, a skill you can pass down through generations.

I hope one day the sales profession will achieve the status it deserves. I find it amazing that not one business school in the world teaches sales as part of an MBA program, when according to Thomas J. Watson (founder of IBM), “Nothing happens in business until a sale is made.”

Take it seriously. Life is all about how effectively you can influence, convince and persuade people that you have something of value for them. Dale Carnegie said 80 percent of success in life comes from the ability to influence people, and only 20 percent from academic smarts.

Killer Strategy Two: Know why people buy

Why do people buy products, services or ideas? Not because they actually need it, but because it is of value to them. We all “need” more money, we all “need” a new car, or more quality relationships, but only when this need becomes a must or we place value on it, does it become reality.

People buy things because they attach some level of importance to them. This importance is referred to as perceived value, and is where marketing comes in. Marketing is no more than the process of bringing value to the marketplace. But the value is the perceived value that others or your customers believe/perceive to be important. 

One of the biggest mistakes people make is to try to sell something that they like to sell, versus what their customers really want. This is why they face so much rejection.

Is it difficult to sell something people want, need, desire and value? It’s easier than trying to sell something you like, and assume your customers feel the same way. It’s common sense, but don’t miss the obvious. Most sales people have the whole thing backwards. It’s called “selling backwards,” which means because you assume a product is good, so should others.

I have said it in my talks and in my book Marketing is King! And I will say it again for your benefit. One of the worst mistakes you can make is to make assumptions. In fact, if you look at the word assume, it reads “ass – u – me.” You look foolish to customers if you bring them things that have no value to them.

Salespeople are rejected, don’t get calls back, get frustrated, and don’t generate leads because there is simply no value in their offer. When I teach sales, I ask people to write this down:

“People don’t reject me; they reject the value I bring to them.”

Many people fail in sales because they take rejection personally, and subsequently suffer from low self esteem, which results in poor performance. It’s a vicious circle.

The way out of this trap is to focus on the value your customer’s want, which is called perceived value or gain. One technique I used to triple the sales (from $300,000 to $1.2 million) of my start up division in four months was very simple. I asked my sales folks to focus on always bringing value to their customers. They called and asked customers what type of information they liked to read and monitor, then the sales folks would send articles, news and events relating to that interest. These are called “value items” in the world of marketing. Customers saw us as a “value added” resource, and when the time was right, they would contact us. We did not need to sell them. Time spent upfront researching and understanding the needs and challenges of the customer, is time well spent and invested. It will mean less time getting rejected later on.

Summary of Killer Strategy Two

Once you figure out that people buy perceived value, it should open the flood gates for you, and change the way you market. All your thoughts, actions and intentions will be focused on the customer’s betterment. Develop an external versus internal mindset. Ask quality and probing questions to help you determine what people value, and then align all your communication with them along these lines. You will be seen as a value added resource, versus someone out to “sell” in a conventional sense.

The basic rules of sales apply, know what you are selling, know why people buy, and then show them the usefulness of your offering or why they should buy from you!

Killer Strategy Three: Don’t Sell, Just Help!

One of the easiest ways to increase sales effectiveness is to simply stop selling.

Ask any average person their definition of sales, and they might say something like “sales is about peddling things, it is about forcing people to buy things that they don’t want or need.” Sales have a terrible reputation sometimes, because 95 percent of all sales people have had little or no training in professional selling. These are the people that give sales such a bad name. These people are in sales for their own financial benefit rather than the benefit of others.

As of today, change your mindset from selling to helping. In your own personal dictionary, change the meaning of the word “selling” to “helping.”

Old Meaning       New Meaning

Selling                       Helping

The way to sell is to help other people solve their problems. Once you adopt this mindset, your selling career will become explosive, and you will be unstoppable! You will love what you do, you will have no problem cold calling, you will want to go out prospecting, because you see yourself as a valuable asset, not a annoyance – a solution provider, not a problem creator – a value-add, not an inconvenience. This simple yet profound change in your approach will have the impact of an atom bomb on your customers.

Remember, people buy your product, service or idea because they want to increase the quality of their lives. Your offering is the answer to their problem!

Now we understand that selling is really no more than helping people solve their problems, let me share with you two real world stories to drive the message home, because I want to ensure that you master this very simple but important concept.

How a Post Office area manager became President’s Club

When I started out in business, I had to figure a way how to ship my CD’s to my customers. I was working full time, and my wife was busy, too. So I talked to my local Post Office, and they put me in touch with an amazing lady called Molly. She came to my house and saw my problem (limited time and resources to ship CDs). The very next day, she sent me packing envelopes and a scale for larger packages, and helped my wife pack and ship them. Molly was in the President’s Club, or the top performers club for the U.S. Postal Service.

She knew another little secret worth millions of dollars to you, if you truly understand it. It is a secret all top performing salespeople know, and I talk extensively about it in my book.

“When the customer’s problems become your problems, you make money in sales.”

Molly was not out to sell me, she was out to help me, but the result was a sale! Small distinction, but a huge difference, that made her a member of the President’s Club.

So if you struggle in sales, show your customers how you can help them improve their business performance.

– Send them articles

– Send them information

– Inform, educate, and enlighten them

Continue to show how your solution, product, service or idea can be of value to the customer. Most sales people make one huge mistake when they market. They inform people of the existence of a product or service, without providing any compelling reasons for them to buy.

Show your customers how your offering will bring value or benefit them in their context, their world. Don’t assume they can figure it out. I teach my students to “tell me why” the product, service or idea will improve my life. Don’t just inform me of your existence, and assume I can figure it out. I may be too busy or too lazy.

Marketing is about value, and people always look for value. In no uncertain terms tell others the benefit of using your product, service or idea. The official marketing term for this is the “elevator pitch.” If you and I are in an elevator, before we reach the fifth floor you need to tell me what you do and why it’s of value to me!

How to Make Chairman’s Club of a Major Insurance Company

The second story to reinforce the concept of selling being no more than helping is one of a sales rep for a major U.S. Insurance company. He’d won all the major sales awards for his company, but he told me he’d never sold a day in his life. He had simply helped a lot of people by providing them with a valuable service that he felt they needed.

“Attitude” took him to the Chairman’s Club as a top sales performer. Now he has people calling him through referrals – very common once you have value in the marketplace. When I asked him how he initially made cold calls he said he would get a list of prospects. He would send a letter or email and follow up with a phone call. He’d say something like this:

“Hello”

You have shown an interest in purchasing medical insurance. I would like the opportunity to show you how it is more affordable than you may think. When would be a convenient time to meet?”

During the meeting, he would educate the prospect on the different alternatives and options available. He would customize the best plan possible for their best interest, ensuring that his customers neither overspent nor under spent on insurance. He had a real interest in helping his prospects get the optimal plan

Never once did he “sell” or force his customers to buy things for his own interests or financial benefit. He simply educated them on the alternatives and options available, and helped them make the right choice in their best interests.

Summary of Killer Strategy Three

A simple change in mindset cans double your sales effectiveness. I know it works because it is a part of my daily life and routine.

The way to help your customers is to educate them. Education is the secret to marketing. Constantly show your customers how your product, service or idea can bring them value, and how they can benefit from it. Then it will simply be a matter of time before they come looking for you! Remember, being a salesperson means you also are a teacher.

It is not true that sales is manipulative. A true sales person does not take advantage of others, but conversely wants to help them. As an example, a doctor (like any other profession on the planet) needs to make a living. If you get medical bills you know what I am talking about!

But you would not say that doctors make a living by taking advantage of other people’s misfortunes. So in the same way, why would you think that sales is manipulative? Like doctors, top sales people simply make money by solving other people’s problems.

The sales principles outlined here will make your life as a professional salesperson so much fun. You will feel a sense of contribution and purpose. People will be attracted to you, since they know you are not out to take advantage of them, but to help them achieve their dreams, goals and desires. You will have also in your own little way made the world a better place, since your product, service or idea is now helping others. You will stand out from the crowd and make a difference. Money will just be a byproduct.

Killer Strategy Four: Focus on both the front and back end

Most sales people think that if they can get a sale they have won the game of sales. But what’s the hallmark of a real world-class sales person? He or she:

1. Gets a sale

2. Gets it at the highest possible margin

3. Gets it in the shortest possible time

4. And continues to get repeat sales

Sales has many dimensions and facets. Getting the sale is only one. Anyone can get a sale, the question is how profitable is the sale? How quickly was it achieved, and can you do it again and again?

Sales is not a transactional event, it is a perpetual process. Assume you are in sales for life, and understand the importance of both the front and back end.

Every sale has a front end and a back end. The front end is getting people to buy; the back end is getting people to buy more, and to buy more often.

The equation is shown below:

Sales Revenue = Units x Price x Frequency

===== ==== ========

Front Back Back

If we assume a 1:1:1 relationship, getting people to buy units accounts for only one third of the total sales revenue potential. The other two thirds is to get people to buy more, and to buy more often.

Most sales people assume that making a one time sale is a great accomplishment. These people continually “chase their coat tails,” since they need to always go out and get new business and customers.

A much smarter approach is not to see sales as transactional but as perpetual. Know that two thirds of the revenue lies at the back end, and focus on keeping customers coming back over a long period of time, so they buy more and more often.

Relationships are key in sales, because they ensure you have a steady book of business or residual income coming in.

Summary of Killer Strategy Four

If you continually focus on getting new customers, you have your marketing backwards! The greatest leverage, the greatest opportunity, the easiest and most lucrative form of business is from existing customers. Get them to buy more and more often. It’s where two thirds of your potential sales revenue lies.

Educate them on the value they get by continually doing business with you:

– What are they missing out on?

– Where is the opportunity to add value?

– How can you improve their efficiency?

– How can you save them money?

– How can you save them time?

– How you give them a better quality of life?

Condense it and present it in the form of a value proposition. Full details on how to prepare and present value propositions can be found in my book and CD.

Killer Strategy Five: Know the Key Sales Formulas

There are two basic formulas to know as a professional salesperson.

1. Production Formula

Sales Volume = Units x Price x Frequency

2. Activity Formula

Activity x Value = Results

Let’s talk about each of these individually, and how to use them to your benefit.

Production Formula

We touched on the Production Formula in Killer Strategy Four. We reviewed the anatomy of this formula. But if we dig a little deeper, we find the formula is more revealing, since it also shows there are only three ways to grow sales:

– Get people to buy—————————— Attract

– Get people to buy more ————————-Sell

– Get people to buy more often——————-Re-Sell

To grow a sales revenue base, all you need to know is the three categories used to build sales. Get people to buy, buy more, and buy more often, or attract, sell, and re-sell!

There may be ten or twenty different sub-categories under these three basic categories. It’s really up to your imagination and your type of business.

All marketing strategies are ways

1. To attract customers

2. To get them to buy as much as possible

3. To get them to come back as frequently as possible

Don’t get confused about how to get more sales. Get creative and think of as many different ways you can get your customers to buy, buy more, and buy more often. Without even knowing it, you will have developed a marketing plan!

Activity Formula

The activity formula is also essential to success in sales. It basically says there are only two ways to get results in sales: Either you work hard or you work smart. Ideally you should do both!

Most good sales people play the numbers game. They work really hard, they have a very high level of activity, and this helps them make their numbers. They live by the thought that activity equals results.

Then there are people who know everything about their product or service and how it can add value to their customers, but are just too lazy to tell others. They still are able to make their numbers at the end of the quarter, since they know they can make a few calls and close the sale. They call this working smart.

But the Superstar sales person will work both hard and smart. They know the value that their product or service offers others. It’s a “no- brainer” because people need the product. But at the same time they continually communicate with the customers. The activity level is very high.

However great your product is, you will never get everyone to buy it. The key to sales is continuous value based communication – simply do good marketing. You are not annoying them, but are making their lives better!

Summary of Killer Strategy Five

Sales is a systematic process. It is not by luck that the Superstars emerge. The Superstars have mastered the performance and activity formulas, and know how to use them for their benefit. Now you do, too.

Killer Strategy Six: Network, Network, Network

It is absolutely impossible to be successful in sales unless you are a master Networker. I say it in my book, but I will say it again for your benefit. I hate Networking – the only thing I like about it, is that it works!

We all are networking all the time. If you want a quality plumber, doctor, or dentist, what do you do? You ask a close friend. What you just did was to take the shortcut. You bypassed the due diligence required to find a trusted supplier.

Now put yourself on the receiving end. If you are the supplier, what do you need to do to get referred? To get into other people’s networks! How do you do this? Ask for referrals! Make a habit of asking all your customers for referrals, based on the quality of work you’ve done for them. They should be happy to refer you.

The quickest way to get more sales revenue is to get your customers to become your 24 hour, no cost extended sales force. This means you become part of their network.

Make it a habit to ask all your customers, “Who else do you know could benefit from my products or services?” Networking is the most efficient way to generate new contacts, develop business relationships, and to find new business opportunities.

Most sales people assume if they do a good job, their customers will refer them to their network. Not true! We talked about the dangers of assumption earlier. People are busy and need to be reminded of the value you bring them, and how their friends can benefit, too. It’s not that they don’t want to help; it’s that they need to be reminded.

Recently, my DIY person told me that business was down and asked what he could do. I told him that to call all his best customers and ask if they knew someone who needed work done. Bingo, he was busy for weeks afterward!

The money you earn is very closely related to the network you’re in. Wealthy people simply have more powerful networks!

The way to gain double advantage of a network contact is to also ask for a testimonial of how good your work is. This is a marketing principle I developed several years ago called the Rolls Royce marketing principle.

R – References – To be used as credibility = RR (Rolls Royce)

R – Recommendations – Access to the Network

Rolls Royce marketing gives instant visibility through access to other people’s networks and instant credibility, because you have references that can be used as testimonials on your mailing lists, websites and other venues

Summary Killer Strategy Six

Networking is time tested and proven. It has been used over the generations and is still as powerful today as it was centuries ago. Although we have evolved so much as a society, we still go back to the basics of networking when we are looking for a trusted vendor. If we know this, then the secret is to be the person referred. It happens by actively developing and working your network.

As a salesperson, you have your own sales force prepared to work FREE, and work 24 hours a day. That sales force is your existing customers. Make the most of them, and don’t make life more difficult than it needs to be.