I was reading one of the marketing blogs I follow the other day and, amongst the comments on a post on selling, a number of people admitted to being shy and finding it difficult to hold up a conversation never mind selling to people. This was holding them back in business as they just didn’t have the confidence to go out and sell. They had confidence in their product, just not in themselves.

Being so reserved actually stops you from being the kind of aggressive or ‘pushy’ salesman we all hate, and that’s a good thing. People are becoming very resistant to the traditional ‘the more you talk, the more you sell’ approach, especially when it’s over-hyped! What people are looking for is answers to questions, solutions to problems and how to achieve eternal happiness :-). And they’ll happily pay whoever can supply what they want.

Now, I used to be shy too, I guess I still can be reserved sometimes. When I first started out selling, friends and family were aghast! “How is John ever going to sell anything?” was the question they all asked. But I had learned that the best conversationalists do more listening than talking.

Most people love to talk about themselves if you press the right button. You do that by asking targeted questions that get them talking. Questions about their interests, problems, dreams etc. then listen, I mean really listen, because they are going to tell you what to sell them. If they start to dry up ask a question about something they’ve just told you, something that will tell you more about what they want out of life. After a while they’ll think you’re their best pal and will listen to your recommendations. Use this technique in conversation, in selling, even in dating (boy, does it work well there 🙂 )

It doesn’t have to be face to face, but it works really well in that form.  You can do it over the phone, in a sales letter or on a website. This is really what Geoff (the guy who’s post I was reading) is doing with his blog. He listens to the ‘online conversation’, posts a comment or a question here and there and people answer him, so he learns what he needs to keep the conversation  going and the sales coming in.

When you know what people want, you don’t have to ‘sell’ them anything, you just have to let them know where they can get it and that’s from you. Everyone is good at something and usually that ‘something’ is being sold profitably by someone, somewhere. If you are good at a particular thing, they might just as well buy it from you, especially if you are better than wherever they are getting it at the moment. Or better still, if they can’t find it at all.

But you do have to join the conversation, go on, just do it!

Good selling!

John

PS  I  got a great product idea just from reading the comments section and by listening to and  understanding the readers’ concerns. So I’m really glad I joined in the conversation.

I was deep in thought about a topic for the blog when my wife uttered that well know phrase “A penny for your thoughts“, “meaning – what are you thinking about”.

The topic I was considering was how to find out what my customers would need next, a preliminary to product creation. Her enquiry gave me the blindingly obvious thought, why not just ask them! Why not just make a list of my best and most influential customers and ring them up and ask “what 3 things connected with telecoms would help you to grow or better manage your business right now?” Telecoms is my primary business as you probably already know.

Once I get a selection of typical responses from my customers, I can then look at how I might deliver what they have asked for. But better still, I can then contact prospective customers with the same question. Rather than take the usual telesales route of trying to pitch prospects on a particular service, I can ask them what they want with a fair idea of what their responses may be based on the results of my customer conversations.

Approaching prospective customers is a little trickier so a ‘softly, softly’ approach is best. I would simply ask if they could spare a minute to give me their thoughts on what 3 things about their telecoms would most help their business to move forward in the present economy.

You see, when you ask other people their opinion and express an interest in their business, they open up and are happy to talk to you. The normal ‘sales barriers’ come down leading to some very useful discussion, and what’s more – they will remember you as someone genuinely interested in their welfare not just as some salesman trying to make a buck.

So where does the ‘penny’ come in? Well, at current business phone rates (UK) that penny buys me a minutes worth of phone time, the very minute that I asked the prospect to spare me to give me their thoughts.

Of course most of them will talk for longer once they get started but by then I’ve turned a prospective customer in to a warm lead and a probable future customer.

“A penny for your thoughts“, a very inexpensive way to find out what the market will buy from you next!

Try it, let me know how you get on.

PS (shameless plug warning!) If you are a UK based business here’s where you can get your business calls at a penny a minute.

The Mail Order industry has always had a thriving information marketing element, as has the new internet marketing arena. The best known example in both industries is the business opportunity or ‘get rich quick!’ sector of the information market. But information products are selling in huge quantities in many markets: Language learning, stock market trading, pet care, parenting, personal development, improving your golf, fly fishing, learn to play guitar, cook books, gardening books – are just a tiny few examples.

So why am I telling you this? Well, selling information is an ideal ‘work from home’ venture. Many well known information publishers started out as home based businesses and quite a large number of people would prefer to continue to operate from home. It suits their lifestyle, gives them freedom and generates a potentially good income. The attraction of information products to the mail order industry has always been the excellent profit margins to be had, but with the advent of the internet it has become even better. Marketing costs are lower on the internet, you can reach a wider market, people are actively looking for information on the internet and electronic, downloadable products are cheaper to produce and deliver than physical mail order products.

But what really sparked me off on this topic is a series of short ‘bite sized’ audio interviews I’ve been listening to on the future of information marketing. I’ve been ploughing through a series of 72  15-minute interviews with some of the most successful people in the business on their views of where information marketing is heading in the next few years. Some of their ideas have really got my head buzzing (and my ears ringing 🙂  I must give the MP3 player a rest!)

The set also comes with a 70 minute overview of the series which the interviewer has promised I can give to any of my readers who might be interested. If you would like a copy, post a comment below and I’ll see you get one.

Speaking of information marketing, the latest sponsor advert on the right of this page (bottom right of the block) is for a new book on quick cash tips for affiliate marketers. I’m a great believer in affiliate marketing, as you know, but I was amazed at some of the results people have been getting with these ideas.

Lincoln Showcase

I recently attended an exhibition specifically designed to help small to medium businesses to market their business to other businesses and to large corporate and public sector buyers. I was there to promote my telephone numbers business (0800, 0844, 0845 etc.) and my internet business, WordPress Websites to the business sector.

The exhibition was funded by our regional development agency in the UK East Midlands as part of their assistance to business during the present recession, which meant the entire event was free of charge for both exhibitors and visitors. There were several events throughout the region, but the one I attended was in Lincoln, where I have my own businesses.

The exhibition followed a familiar but successful format consisting of a large exhibition area containing some 50 exhibitors and a seminar room hosting short business presentations throughout the day. The seminars brought in a lot of visitors who may well not have been attracted to the exhibition on its own and, being business seminars, they brought in a very specifically targeted audience. This ensured that exhibitors had to deal with very few ‘gawpers’ and ‘time wasters’.

The format was also useful in that during the seminars the exhibition hall was fairly quiet. This gave exhibitors the time to network with one another and gain business that way.

I was next to a local video production company run by a friend of mine and during one of these quiet spells we took one of his video cameras and an outside broadcast microphone and I interviewed a number of exhibitors about their business. It was a spontaneous opportunity to network in a new and different way and, at the same time, promote the idea of marketing with web based video.

You can see the results here –> Lincoln Showcase

Can you think of a novel new way to network or promote your business?

Over the next few weeks every pundit on the planet will have a go at predicting the future. I have just looked at some 10-50 year predictions from a couple of years ago and several have already happened. But no-one predicted this year’s financial problems, even though the signs were already there.

So what does it all mean?

It means that the future is coming up so fast that by the time we have made our forecasts, they could well have become history already! The present economic situation hit us hard and fast and took most people completely by surprise. The next change could happen just as fast, but what it will be – who knows?

But one thing I can tell you is that, just as the current situation is creating winners as well as losers, so will the next change…. and the next…. and the next!

Looking back I’ve been a winner more often than I’ve been a loser. Even the one occasion that I appeared at first glance to be a loser, turned around the other way and sent me in a direction I would never have expected. So how did I do that?

Opportunity Knocks!

No! Nothing to do with the TV talent show that nobody remembers. During periods of change opportunity is everywhere and during periods of rapid change, the opportunties really come thick and fast – so look out for them. Focus on opportunities not problems. Smart business people of the past learned the easy way to do business:

“Find out what people want and help them to get it!”

Simple? Obvious? Common Sense? Yes! So why are so many businesses still trying so hard and spending so much money to try to convince us we want stuff that we really neither want nor need? Because in a boom when many consumers have more money than sense, it can work. But in an economic downturn, when everyone is watching the cash and being very careful how they spend it, you had better be offering them exactly what they want and need in their current situation.

The business that can understand what their customers want most right now, and that can deliver it in terms of quality, service and value, will always prosper.

Think positive and Roll on 2009! 🙂

Do you have a list of enquirers who never bought from you?

Sure you do, and so do your competitors!

If you don’t have what they want, maybe your competitor does. So why not swap lists? Or better still, recommend your competitor’s product to your list, and get your competitor to market your product to his list. Then share the profits. Simple – and it really impresses the customer too.

Better still, do a google search for websites selling similar, complementary or related stuff and see if they have an affiliate program. Check out the quality of their products and customer service and you could find yourself with a whole new product range to promote to your customers.

If you are new to affiliate marketing, or have never heard of it! Get more information at www.learnaffiliatemarketing.co.uk