"We Don't Like To Be Sold"

How many sales people are pulling old presentations out of dusty old files and simply changing the names and emailing them to clients?

How many phone calls do suppose advertisers received last week from sales people asking to speak to the person handling the advertising or worse just launched into their spiel about a product or special opportunity they had to offer?

How many appointments did you book last week because you called with a compelling reason for your client or prospect to take time out of their schedule to meet with you?

When was the last time a client complimented you for helping them to navigate today's competitive marketplace and grow their business?

If you don't like your answers to the questions above, it might be time to throw out your old plan, your old "same old-same old" way of doing things and think about creating a new sales strategy.

A new strategy could start with you having a better reason for clients to meet with you.  A Valid Business Reason.   This article is full of compelling VBRs and content which could make your next Client Needs Analysis one of your best.  This one article, could result in you receiving several compliments from clients this next week.  This one article could be the tipping point in your Q4 billings.  Wouldn't that be cool!

As consumers we don't want to be sold by companies and their advertising campaigns and clients don't want to be sold by Advertising Sales people.  Yet both groups are buying and possibly spending more money than we might expect in a down economy.

Consumers are spending more money with Brands who promote an opportunity to save money. 
As I read this article, I couldn't help but think there might be a great opportunity for a sales organization or sales person to establish themselves as a money saving partner.  In fact, as I look back at the advertising investments I've make over the past few months I realize I spent substantially more with the companies who offered me a way to save. 

As I am also responsible for buying the inventory for our retail operation I realize we spend substantially more (as in thousands) when a showroom offers us a substantial savings off of the wholesale price.  I might spend $400 with a showroom who sells samples at regular wholesale and $4,000 with a showroom who offers a greater savings such as 50% off wholesale.  These showrooms are side by side and often their merchandise is almost identical.  Yet their sales strategy is very different. 

This article references a study conducted by University of Miami professor and his colleagues and the message is pretty straight forward; when we feel like we are saving money we typically spend more.

If you use this article and get a positive response from your clients - post your experience in our comments field.  I'd love to hear from you.

Cindy

Tweet This!

Seriously.  The Twittersphere is simple yet complicated and many of us are still trying to figure out how to use it as a marketing platform.  I love it as a resource - there are gobs of great ideas and articles being shared by the minute.  It's easy to scroll through the Timeline and catch the Tweets that appear to have meaningful content.  I can open the link on the spot or email it to my account to read at a later time.

As a resource - I'm all about Twitter.

As a marketing tool, I'm not as confident. But I'm not giving up.  I keep tweeting my observations and opinions in hopes that they are making an impression on someone, somewhere and those impressions will come back to us in the form of more customers. 

The other thing I do is try to read every article I come across on how to effectively use Twitter, such as the one HERE.  If you're an advertising sales person trying to establish yourself as a resource to your clients, there are a bunch of ways to do that OTHER than pitching and selling them an advertising campaign.  When you talk about your capabilities...are you including idea generation for Twitter and other Social Media capabilities? 

If not, this little Blue Bird may be flying right past you; leaving you in a cloud of old school dust.