I Dont Want To Be Sold I Want To Buy

Writen by James Yuille

I went shopping for clothes today.

My plan was to buy a navy blue sports coat, a couple of shirts and ties and maybe a pair of black shoes.

Understand that as a sales trainer, I want people to ask me to spend my money. I'm not going to buy unless asked. Unfair you say! Maybe but here's the thing... Unless you ask me to buy, I won't.

How hard would it be for me to spend maybe $1,000? As it turned out, it was very hard. Let me recount what happened.

Store 1. A well-known CBD menswear store. Actually they were having a sale - up to $200 off sports coats. I went to the display, took a coat off the rack and put it on. A size too small. A well-dressed, well-groomed senior staff member came up and said there was one in the next size and gave it to me. I tried it on and it fit and looked good.

Reduced to $399 and there's me with cash in my pocket... I said I wanted to look at shirts so he put the coat back and left me alone. Taking two shirts, I went to the tie rack and picked out two nice ties. Then I took them back to the coat rack and held them next to the coat.

Talk about giving out buying signals!

I was completely ignored. All they had to do was to say, "Great selection - they go together really well. Was there anything else you wanted?" and over $700 would have found its way into their cash register.

I left the store with my wallet intact and no new clothes.

Store 2. Drove from the CBD to a suburban mall. I knew the store I was going to; found the sport coat rack and tried one on as two staff members watched. I looked at myself in the mirror, went to get a shirt and tie and held them up in the mirror too. No one spoke to me. I was there for ten minutes and again left with my wallet intact. Of note was that there were no other customers in the store at the time.

Store 3. A little more down-market this one - a guy with a purple open-necked shirt hanging outside his pants (looking like the host from a reality TV show like "Idol").

He saw me hovering around the coats and asked me if I knew my size. I told him and he showed me where they were, giving me four different colours and styles to try on.

He was really helpful, explaining fabrics and what to wear with them. I politely told him that they weren't quite what I was looking for so what he did next was to refer me back to store 2 where he said they had "better brands"

No sale. Three times I'd tried to spend several hundred dollars. I went home with the money still in my wallet.

No one asked me why I was buying the clothes; what I was planning to wear them with or where I was planning to go when wearing them. No one attempted to get my name for their list. No one bothered to ask me to buy. It's so simple, it's annoying.

Oh, and guess what else? Not one of them made any attempt to get my name, address, or email details. So none of them offered me the opportunity to hear in advance of new ranges, summer / winter sales. Missed opportunity.

Please understand, I don't want to be sold, I want to buy but I sometimes need help. Here's the message: If you don't ask, you won't get.

© James Yuille, Brisbane, Australia, 2004.

About the author:

James Yuille is a sales and marketing consultant and trainer with over 32 years experience. He is based in Brisbane, Australia. His free weekly sales and marketing newsletter provides topical information for business owners and salespeople. Find out more at http://www.jamesyuille.com

Qualified Business Leads

Writen by Ken Marlborough

When talking about qualified business leads it is necessary to deliver an offer to the consumer in such a manner that the offer fulfills the needs of the consumer. In addition, the terms and attributes of the offer should be acceptable and beneficial to the consumer and, most importantly, all the organizational goals, including profits, should be achieved in the process.

In practice, how many firms make such a complete offer to the consumer? In the first place, it's the responsibility of the business firm to choose the product that would meet the identified needs of the chosen consumer or consumer group. Secondly, they have to perform various distribution functions so that the product can conveniently reach the consumer. Thirdly, the firm must carry out a number of promotional measures like personal selling, advertising and sales promotional programs, with a view to communicating with the consumer and promoting the product.

Lastly, the firm must use the pricing mechanism to achieve the consummation of the marketing process, striking the level of price that is acceptable to the firm as well as the consumer. It can be easily seen that all activities and programs which a business firm should design to get a qualified business lead for its effort towards winning customers, relate to one or the other of the four elements. These elements include product, distribution, pricing and promotion, and can be termed as the marketing mix of the firm.

Assembling and managing the marketing mix is the main part of the qualified business lead. However, no business firm is free to assemble and operate his marketing mix in a vacuum or in a setting of his creation; they have to necessarily operate it in the marketing environment in which the business firm markets his products. In other words, firms have to reckon the set of variables that make up the environment.

Business Leads provides detailed information on Business Lead Lists, Business Leads, Business Sales Leads, Free Business Leads and more. Business Leads is affiliated with Sales Lead Management.

How To Trigger Positive Cold Calling Responses To Achieve Sales Objectives

Writen by Steve Martinez

What I enjoyed about making cold calls was the challenge of gathering information. At one point in my sales career, I was selling copiers so cold calling was part of the job. What I learned during that period has helped me immensely. The goal of every contact was to learn something from each door you pushed open. Gathering reliable information is always the goal. Learning to heighten my comfort level, elevate my listening skills and become more observant was the key to my success. These skills helped to recognize when someone wasn't telling me the raw truth. Human behavior doesn't change all that much which is why receptionist are easy to read and good readers of salespeople.

Be advised that I don't have a degree in human behavior, my education comes directly from making thousands of cold calls and observing what happens when we trigger the right or wrong response. What I learned was that the typical receptionist or anyone for that matter prefers to do what they enjoy doing.

Logic dictates that when anyone hires a receptionist as a representative of their company, they always hire a friendly personality. This individual therefore has a preference to be helpful and tell the truth. Understanding this fact changed the way I made cold calls. My initial role in cold calling either on the telephone or in person is to trigger the friendly helpful response. I want to draw out this friendly person, NOT the protector.

If I was to act like or look similar to a salesperson, what do you think happens? In a split second they recognize me for who I am. So, they lie to me and protect their co-workers. They lie because I awaken the wrong person. I awaken the protector mode the receptionist must perform when they recognize an opponent. We are the opponent when we are in sales. The secret to success is to trigger the friendly, helpful response.

It is amazingly easy to trigger this mental switch. All I have to do is act like a person who needs help. Once accomplished, I get all the help I need. The receptionist is like putty in my hand. The manner in which questions are asked and the need for help makes a huge difference.

When I first started cold calling, the receptionist had the advantage the minute I told them who I was and where I was from. It was the tell tale sign of a salesperson. I wised up and stopped doing this. Instead I changed my pattern and began asking for help and appearing as if I was lost. This began my success pattern and triggered the preferred response. What was amazing was the ability to walk into a location and never tell them whom I was or where I was from but still learn what I wanted to know when I walked out the door. This knowledge made sales a fun game and changed the way I discovered opportunities.

Steve Martinez implements sales management strategies with a focus on automating sales for printing organizations. Selling Magic teaches businesses how to automate and customizing ACT or Outlook with the best practices of sales management while integrating email marketing and technology for greater profits. http://www.sellingmagic.com