Generating market awareness and qualified leads is critical to sales success and it need not be as hard or expensive as you might think.
The corporate cliché ‘The customer is king’ takes on a fresh perspective at the two-day Power Selling Workshop conducted at the Singapore Management University in July by Professor Charles F. Goetz, Distinguished Lecturer in Entrepreneurship in Goizueta Business School, Emory University. He is also a successful serial entrepreneur of nine companies and author of three books.
During the two-day Power Selling workshop, Professor Goetz delivered a long list of powerful sales strategies, tactics, tips and tools.
“The vast majority of sales people walk into their sales calls and assume that their prospects are already interested in their products. This is a major mistake as the overwhelming majority of prospects are not,” he says of typical sales pitches.
“Most salespeople spend the vast majority of their sales call talking about how great their company is, how amazing their products are, and have very little about understanding about their prospects’ situation and requirements. The prospects don’t care about you, they care about themselves. If you start selling before the prospect understands all the implications of their problems, you will be out of their office and their lives in no time.
“The science of power selling is a combination of both marketing and psychology. Understanding how customers think, how they prioritize needs, and how to persuade them is key to success in sales.”
Power selling in action
He shares of a story about a married couple who were previously his students. They had difficulty selling their specially designed sunglasses called Babiators for children in the US and Canada. They sought his opinion on their latest strategy to increase their sales. They wanted to sell two pairs of sunglasses for the price of one in order to boost sales.
“I knew instantly that it was a really bad idea. By doing this, they were really reducing the perceived value of a pair of their sunglasses from $19.99 to $10.00. Reducing the perceived value of your product doesn’t increase sales. So instead, I suggested a much more powerful strategic approach,” says Professor Goetz.
“Instead of making the sale about the sunglasses, I told them that it should be about the importance of protecting children’s eyes and demonstrate to their prospects how much they care about their children’s eyes. As such, the company needs to provide an irrational offer – should a child loses or breaks their sunglasses the company will immediately send out another pair of sunglasses absolutely free. This is because we understand how important it is to protect their children’s eyes.”
The duo became excited over his idea and ran with it. Soon afterwards, American talk show TV host Ellen DeGeneres heard about the offer, bought a pair of sunglasses for her niece and talked about the product in her show. The company subsequently became one of the fastest growing companies in the country because of its approach to the market, says Professor Goetz. They later expanded their product offerings to children based on the same product replacement principle that made the company.
He shared a key to success of any business: “You’ve got to stand for something that is important to your customers. If your business is only about making money, you’re going to be out of business real soon.”
Creating opportunities for entrepreneurs
Besides companies and products, Professor Goetz says Power Selling principles are applicable to the marketing of oneself as well. “You’re selling yourself every day. If you are not effective at that, your career will be negatively impacted.
“Power selling can be applied to companies and individuals. Everybody needs to know how to sell. If you want to succeed in life, you will need to know how to sell yourself. It is marketing using very little budget dollars to get 95% effectiveness of what big companies would usually spend. But you have to be smarter and do things differently.”
To do so, Professor Goetz shares the following tips for individuals. He stresses that entrepreneurs should have a healthy dose of creativity that will help to open up opportunities for their businesses.
1. Join an association
Know the people in the industry and the market your business is in. This increases the opportunities for networking as you learn about the trade.
“The beautiful thing about joining associations is that you will meet people in your industry. You will also get a list of everyone and their contact details, who are your prospects, from the association. You will also get research and information, which the association has spent getting for millions of dollars about the industry, for free,” he says.
“Next, if you are really good at what you do, offer to speak at events held by the association. Have a good and creative story to tell. You will also get the credibility in the industry by being a speaker.”
2. Use Google Alerts to network
It is simple. Set up a Google Alerts account to receive notifications on news and updates on business contacts published online. Send your contacts congratulatory and customised messages with the URL links bearing their coverage online to keep in contact.
“Using Google Alerts that cost you nothing, you can become an unbelievable networker who generates leads, relationships and referrals that make the business work,” says Professor Goetz.
3. Video references
Have clients share testimonials about you and your business in videos lasting 15 to 30 seconds, where you can post them on your website and mobile devices to show prospective clients.
“You need not be fancy about creating these video references. Make sure that you are filming in an area with a lot of light and the person talks twice as loud as he would normally do. Include the name of the person and title in the video when editing the clip. With these videos, you now have people talking about how great your company is,” he says.
The entrepreneur can obtain such video references by working with clients who are keen to try the product or service at an introductory price and with an understanding that they have to share their feedback about the company and their purchase on video.
“Once you get three or four video references, your business and brand becomes credible. And this does not cost you a lot of money,” says Professor Goetz. “Now you are not a nobody but you have clients who say positive things about you.”
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