Black Cars
“More products”. “New products”. “That’s the answer! “. Really?
What are all those people crammed into the Apple stores for? My last visit there I could only count a dozen or so products.
Remember the old Henry Ford story of “we sell black cars” and if that’s all we offer, that’s what we will sell?
The answer to lagging sales will not be found in “more products”. The best sales professionals, regardless of how many products they have, generally sell the majority of the numbers with less than a dozen products-they become experts and specialists in them, and go about selling those “professionally”. Too many offerings gets the typical sales person spinning in circles, dizzy, and confused. The cry for “more products” is typically a “weak excuse” by the sales force for not “professionally selling”.
Years ago, when I was in the mortgage business, we offered over 50 loan products, representing 25 investors, each with their own nuances and procedures. Our sales folks were buried in their dizziness, yet regularly begged for more (the latest and greatest). It was when we went from 25 investors to 3, and from 50+ programs to a handful, that our sales went up, our service levels went up, and our profits went up.
Take a look at your product offerings. Figure out your version of the “black cars”, then teach your sales people how to sell that!
The Daly News October 2009 Volume 34
Thursday, October 1st, 2009
The frustrating part of what I do as a speaker/teacher is relying on others to “take action”. Frustrating especially when you hear about the challenges of a tightened economy, and yet too many folks not taking the actions needed to WIN. Check these examples of others, and then ask yourself why you aren’t “making things happen”.I was seriously considering crashing your course today to share this but thought better to send you this note…Since Monday of this week, after attending your session with TEC, in fabulous North Dumfries, Ontario …I have closed two sales using your techniques: emailing from the parking lot and the thank you card dropped in the mail box nearest the building. Both clients loved it and both bought my software product. That has simply never happened before; the sales cycle with our software is typically two – four months.
I just wanted to thank you again for such an inspirational learning experience and I hope you read this to your group today!!
By the way, I got a hold of Jennifer yesterday and orderd Jack in the Box – can’t wait to get it!
All the best,
Jilaine-the-Selling-ManiacSo, Jilaine is seeing her business immediately improved and Arcus, formerly highlighted in our newsletter for their winning culture, customized money bags for all their folks and included this “rules card”. Love it- systems & processes
What are you doing to stand out from the competition, create perception of value, deliver added-value, and enhance your relationship with your better clients. Here’s my Australian mate Mark Betts taking it all to another level.
Hi Jack-
Check this mate, attached, the ultimate in customer satisfaction in the Philippines Ironman.
Wearing our major clients logo in the event gave my company so much coverage!!!
Jolibee is big than Mc Donalds in the Philippines with 780 stores, we have been supplying then for 20 plus years!!!! Did this get the local amped up!!! All through the race I heard go Jollibee go!!!!
What a Western guy wearing a Jollibee logo??? I received a lost of thanks from the directors of the company, and have taken the relationship to a new level, mission accomplished.
Always looking at ways to get the edge, plan to give them framed photo set including finisher medal in recognition of the first Ironman in the Philippines….
Leaving the competition for dead mate!!!!!
Learnt from the master bud!!!!
Mark Betts
Chief Executive Officer
Food Spectrum Pty Ltd
Presents
SMART SELLING WITH JACK DALY
Strategies to Dramatically Increase Sales TODAY!
See Jack Daly Live in NYC
TOMORROW
Thursday, October 29, 2009
7:30a-12:00p
The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
TODAY!
The New York Enterprise Report is excited to present Smart Selling with Jack Daly: Strategies to Dramatically Increase Sales Today. This interactive half day workshop will be filled with take-away value that provides field-proven, added-value strategies to increase profits and productivity in your business now.
Most sales people understand sales skills but execute them poorly. Get ready to take Jack’s proven techniques and turn them into your own sales and management success stories. Attendees will learn how to apply Jack’s street-tested techniques and strategies that make the difference in any business, along with providing and reinforcing personal accountability to increase sales immediately in any business.
Take the pulse of your business today and make the adjustments that will enhance your business tomorrow!
Attendees will learn how to:
- Increase revenue by enhancing your sales management
- Attract more new business while reducing marketing costs
- Implement sales leadership techniques & manage your sales staff more effectively
Other topics that Jack will cover include:
- Goal setting and measurement
- Getting past the gate keeper to win more business
- Building a Touch System: leveraging your prospects, customers and clients
- Learn to get around the price objection
- Beating call reluctance: pre-call preparation
- Prospecting techniques
- How to develop a winning management culture
- Communication/social/buying styles
Register Now
QUOTES FROM LEADERS WHO “GET IT”:
“This is a business built on personality. Personality and imaginative merchandising. You’re selling a candlelit dinner by poolside, not a piece of wax on a stick. You’re selling romance, not flatware.” Gordon Segal, Crate & Barrel 1985.
“We have to accept what we all know to be elemental-that taking a defensive position can, at best, only limit losses. And we need gains.” Peter Drucker 1961.
“When should a founder bring professional management into a new business? Immediately. When should the founder turn over control of that business to a professional manager? Never.” Phil Romano, Fuddruckers and Macaroni Grill 1991.
THE NEW WAY TO IMPROVE
Here’s a takeoff from an article in GOLF magazine September issue of the same name. Lot’s transferrable to our business and personal development.
- Elevate your goals. The more precise you aim, the higher you’ll climb. 400%- the increase in skill learning when long-term goals are paired with high levels of practice.
- Take a lesson. Learn from a pro to play like a pro. Whatever your skill level, it’s highly unlikely that you can recognize flaws, let alone prescribe an appropriate fix.
- Practice. Data suggests that practicing while creating actual playing conditions improves the ability to transfer practice skills to the “real thing”.
- Just do it. Then do it again. Keep practicing. Studies show that it takes 10,000 hours/10 years of concentrated effort to become an “expert” in anything in life.
- Find a role model. Copying is allowed when learning new skills. Per Dr. Penny McCullagh, “Watching an expert perform the skill you’re trying to learn allows you to acquire the patterns of the skill in question, giving you a blueprint to guide your motions.”
IN THE NEWS
Zappos, from separate articles in Fast Company and Fortune magazines:a habitof going to extremes. It gives free shipping on all purchases-both ways, so customers feel comfortable ordering multiple sizes. It has a 365-day return policy, in case you spend months agonizing over those Naughty Monkey Jungle Fury pumps. And new employees are actually offered $2,000 bonus to quit after a four-week training program. “It’s best to know early on if an employee doesn’t buy into the vision or the culture,” says CEO Tony Hsieh. “It just makes economic sense.” Every year the company publishes an unedited commentary from employees about life at Zappos and distributes a copy to everyone. The 2008 version is a 480-page tome. Several key words jump out:fun, family, smile, proud, weird, thank you, and “I heart Zappos.” Some of the reasons might be the free lunch daily, regular happy hours, the nap room, profit sharing, or paying everyone’s health insurance in full. There’s also a full-time life coach. Other offbeat policies include managers encouraged to spend 10-20% of their time with team members out of the office, and any employee can give any other employee a $50 bonus for a job well done. Those may not directly translate to profits, but this summer Amazon bought Zappos for $928 million. A winning culture certainly pays!
Goal setting-Pat Summitt, as seen in Success magazine: Eight times Pat Summitt’s University of Tennessee women’s basketball team has ended the season by lifting high the national championship trophy. Her 983 wins are the most ever for a coach- more victories than Adolph Rupp, Dean Smith and Bob Knight, three titans of basketball. Before each of the 34 seasons that Summitt has been the head coach of some of the most accomplished teams of all time, she and her captains have committed a set of goals to writing. “Set a goal that stretches you, requires exceptional effort, but one that you can reach, says Summitt. “We might set a goal that we win 20 or so games, that we win a conference championship, that we make the NCAA tournament. If we do those things, the truth is we have a chance of winning the national championship. But I would never want that to be the only goal. And the only way to ensure you become a winner is to set goals every day, and hold yourself and your team-mates accountable for reaching those goals. Setting up a system that rewards you for meeting your goals and penalties for failing to hit your target is just as important as putting your goals down on paper.” How would you and your business measure up to Summitt’s expectations when it comes to goal setting? Have you begun the process of working on 2010? Now is the time!
TAKING ACTION- Jack Daly Blog
TAKING ACTION-While we publish this newsletter on a monthly basis, you can get a regular feeding of “Jack Observations and Tips” by making visits to my blog- http://jackdaly.blogspot.com.As I make my travels around the world, I’m regularly confronted with examples of terrific sales and service examples, as well as the horrific. I’m using my blog to shout them out, so we can all learn from both the good and the bad out there. Check it out.
TWEET TWEET – http://twitter.com/Ironmanjack
For those of you not up and running on Twitter, here’s a few of mine you recently missed. And secondly, when are you gonna get with it? Planning on being last?
CONNECT WITH JACK- OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA
CONTINUOUS SELF DEVELOPMENT
Don’t buy one, buy two and give one to a friend that you care deeply about! My friend Simon Sinek hasjust released START WITH WHY and takes us through the idea of the Golden Circle. This concept can vastly improve leadership, corporate culture, hiring, product development, sales and marketing. It even explains loyalty and how to create enough momentum to turn an idea into a social movement. It offers clear insight as to how Apple is able to innovate in so many diverse industries. It explains why people tattoo Harley-Davidson logos on their bodies. It provides a clear understanding not of how Southwest Airlines created the most profitable airline in history, but why the things they did worked. If you have ever sat back and asked “How did they do that?”, Simon Sinek will help you with that answer and in doing so he will go deeper and wrestle down “WHY”, and enable you to tackle the same, in both your business and your personal life. This one is a “must read”.
2009-2010 Workshops and Summits
December 15, 2009-New York, NY
Full Day Smart Selling
December 16, 2009-Chicago, IL
Full Day Smart Selling
January 8, 2010- San Francisco, CA
Full Day Smart Selling
January 20 & 21, 2010- Las Vegas, NV
Sales & Management Summit
January 29, 2010- North Carolina
Full Day Smart Selling
February 18, 2010- Orlando, FL
Full Day Smart Selling
March 9 & 10, 2010 – Washington D.C.
Sales & Management Summit
April 16, 2010 – Detroit, MI
Full Day Smart Selling
May 14, 2010 – Dallas, TX
Full Day Smart Selling
September 23, 2010 – Kansas City, MO
Full Day Smart Selling
September 24, 2010 – Los Angeles, CA
Full Day Smart Selling
September 29, 2010 – Green Bay, WI
Full Day Smart Selling
September 30, 2010 – Montreal, QB
Full Day Smart Selling
October 20, 2010 – Denver, CO
Full Day Smart Selling Workshop
November 11 & 12, 2010 – Chicago, IL
Sales & Management Summit
November 19, 2010 – Vancouver, BC
Full Day Smart Selling
CALL JENNIFER FOR REGISTRATION DETAILS 888-298-6868
OR EMAIL HER AT [email protected]
Here’s the schedule of cities I will be conducting programs in over the next 3 months (some for clients, others are open seat workshops). I may have flexibility in my scheduling for lunch, dinner or more should someone have an interest. If you see I’m headed to your part of the world, feel free to email [email protected] with your interest and Jen will do her best to accommodate any requests.
November-Phoenix, Tuscon, Chicago, Birmingham
December- San Francisco, San Diego, Virgina
January- San Francisco, Jacksonville, Des Moines, Las Vegas, Charlotte
Coaches Corner
HOW ARE YOU COMMUNICATING REAL VALUE?
by Dan Larson & Dave Wilen
Value is perhaps the most overused and hackneyed word in the world of sales. In a recent meeting with one of our clients, the entire sales staff was telling us how important it is to provide value to the customer. When we challenged them to tell us what value specifically means; they froze up. We heard words like “You know… added value.” “It’s what I bring to my clients.” But the bottom line was that no one could tell us what value really meant specifically.
It appears that “added value” is often really some minor service or vague extra that the customer usually expects already. We hear things like same-day shipping, online ordering, parts in stock, or 24-hour service, a guarantee, and the list goes on. These things are not value-they are minimum expectations. Why? Because many competitors offer the very same thing. This “added value” list certainly is not distinct and compelling reasons to buy that separate you in the mind of the prospect. They are just expected pieces of doing business.
In an effort for you to understand the word “value” as it relates to your ability to make a sale, add the word “perceived” in front of it. If you think it’s valuable, and your customer doesn’t perceive its value, it isn’t really valuable to effectively differentiate you and clinch the sale.
- What are you giving your customer that they can’t get from your competitor?
- How do you differentiate yourself from the competition?
- Once you define this… then how do you show it and make it become tangible and real to the prospect?
A sales professional that we worked with in Canada a few years ago had a customer that had bought from him for several years. The seller had approximately 1/3 of the client’s business and was always trying to get deeper penetration. It seemed that he had tried everything. Then one day the client had a medical emergency and was hospitalized for several days. When the sales pro heard of the emergency he got in his car and drove up to the business to lend a helping hand to the staff. This showed “value add.” Caring about the health of the client and his business came before anything else he was doing. When the client returned to work and discovered what had transpired, he decided all of his business was going to be placed with this sales professional because he had become uniquely valuable.
Value is important for three reasons:
- It builds real relationships that are based on value.
- It eliminates competition.
- It reduces or can even eliminate pressure on price.
Once you define what the additional value is that you bring to the table, then you have to be able to communicate this value to the customer through articulate marketing, through results-oriented success stories and especially through your consistent actions. The more you put value in terms of how the customer benefits, how they profit, and how they produce more, the more it will be perceived as true or real value. And in the end, the value that you receive back will be significantly increased business. Now that’s your bankable value.
If you are a Sales Manager, Sales VP, president, executive or owner of the company and want to strengthen the way your team communicates value, call us for a free discussion to analyze your sales team’s approach. Contact either Dave at [email protected] or Dan [email protected] or call Jennifer at (888) 298-6868.
For years I have been underscoring the importance of regularly “touching” your prospects, customers and clients. In my training Workshops, I share examples of many ways to do this activity that will ensure you stand out from the competition. One of the more effective tools I’ve used for years has been taking photos on my calls and other occasions and quickly turning them into photo cards with my own personalized messages. These simple cards have generated me several hundreds of thousands of dollars in business over the past couple years, and the momentum continues to grow.
These are full color greeting cards sent right from your computer keyboard – the system does all the work of printing, stuffing envelopes, adding a stamp, and mailing. Fully automated campaigns of touches can be built and saved at the click of a button. You have 13,000 cards in 300 categories that you can choose from, which can all be customized with your own signature and handwriting at no additional charge. You can even upload your own photos for a truly personal, and custom designed card. Birthdays and anniversaries can be stored for annual reminders. Additionally, there are gifts that one can choose from – motivational books, magazines, gift cards, or gourmet gifts of brownies, cookies, etc. to tag along with your card if you would like–all done on-line with a click of the mouse.www.sendoutcards.com/jackdaly and select “Click Here to Send A Free Card”. An audio tutorial will begin to walk you through the simple process of sending a card. It’s fun, it’s easy, and I believe you’ll be able to see the many uses for your own business. Enjoy!
If any article in this newsletter would be of interest to your co-workers, customers or clients we would appreciate having you forward it along.
