I read an article recently that stated that sales and marketing people spend less than $20.00 personally per year on improving their skills.
That means almost all sales and marketing people don’t even buy one book a year to improve their skill at sales and marketing. Now, many get lucky because they work for a company that provides them with some sort of training.
However, I find it really disturbing that most sales and marketing people won’t spend some of their own money to help themselves get better at their chosen profession.
I hope you do not fit into this category. And if you are an entrepreneur, you need to spend even more time and money understanding how to market (sell) your products and/or services.
With the Internet changing the way we do business, it is imperative that you understand the many different avenues that are available to you, to build your business.
And selling in the B2B marketplace also adds some complexity to selling, as you need to understand how people buy, when they are also buying for their company. You also need to know the people who influence a sale in a corporate environment.
There are many ways to improve your skill level. There are many sales and marketing books and programs that will help you.
But what is the best way to improve your skills as a marketer and sales person?
All pro athletes and many successful business people use a number of methods to improve their skills. Many business people, for example, join Mastermind Groups of like people, to learn how to succeed.
But the best way is to get a good coach, who has been there and understands all of the skills needed for you to succeed. All pro athletes have coaches. Whether they play on a team sport or an individual sport, like golf or tennis, all of these athletes have at least one coach.
And most successful business people have also had extensive coaching. So the best way for you to improve your skills is to have a coach too.
In about two weeks, I will be announcing a new coaching program for you to help you become successful in your B2B marketing and sales career. And you need to understand both marketing and sales if you want to grow your business and career.
In the next few emails to you, I will be sending you videos on how to succeed, to give you some of the ideas I will be presenting in my coaching program.
So stay tuned. And if you are having any difficulties now with your sales and marketing career, please email them to me by replying to this email. I will include my responses to questions in my upcoming videos. And certainly you will get all of your questions answered in the coaching program.
Do you utilize a frequent contact program to communicate with clients, past and present, in order to gain a larger share of their business?
When doing so, here are some simple ideas to carefully consider.
#1: Most businesses invest too much time and energy in chasing new clients, and too little in doing additional repeat business with their existing clients.
#2: The satisfied client is predisposed to purchase again, purchase more and purchase something different.
#3: It costs much less to motivate a known client to purchase again than to acquire a new client.
#4: Clients are only fickle because a new competitor is paying more attention to them than you are.
Here is a huge mistake many companies make.
In business-to-business marketing, many companies make the huge mistake, of having all their contact with their clients go through the sales representative. This leaves the clients vulnerable to theft if the representative jumps to another employer. It also leaves too much opportunity for negligence on the representative’s part.
Regardless of the layers of distribution between you and your client, you should establish some direct link. The chief executive officer of a large company can do it with a newsletter, and maybe a hotline telephone number.
Here are some of the ways that direct mail can be used to communicate with established clients.
#1: To introduce new products or services.
#2: To give advance notice of and explain price or fee increases.
#3: To offer special discounts or premiums.
#4: To provide useful information.
#5: To give recognition to top clients.
#6: To announce seasonal sales.
I’ve rarely seen a business that could not increase their revenues, and improve their client relations through increased direct marketing to present clients.
Now here’s a real marketing secret. It is a true secret. Most companies make a critical, crucial error in this area. I’ve personally made this error many times.
Here’s the secret.
When marketing to established existent clients you should still tell your entire sales story every time.
Do not make the mistake of assuming knowledge on the part of the client.
Do not take shortcuts with existing clients, and do not feel that you are boring them by telling the same story repetitively.
If you have quality, service, a guaranteed price, or other advantages, point them out each and every time you deliver a sales presentation.
North American businesses desperately need to place a new higher value on the client. If your business is not performing as well as you would like, it’s a message you should listen to also.
Communicate with your clients and you’ll do more business.
As you know, most of us set goals each New Year, and then by February, we wonder what happened. There are a number of reasons for this, and the biggest one is that we are not committed to the goal, because it would only be nice to have, as opposed to a burning desire that [...]
I read an article recently about this, and thought about some of the experiences I have had, especially in restaurants, and wanted to relate two of them to you, about how the restaurants reacted.
Years ago, I was skiing in Vail Colorado. The first night we were there, my wife and I went out for dinner, [...]
Here is a very interesting assessment, by Daniel Levis of The Total Package, of one of the world’s most renowned businessman.
As you may be aware, Jim Rohn, America’s foremost business philosopher, passed away over the weekend – at the age of 79.
I can’t say I knew Jim. But every time I read one of his [...]
Last time we looked at one type of person that has trouble focusing, the person who believes they have so many skills, and opportunities that they don’t know which one to focus on.
Today I want to talk about the person, who isn’t sure of their skills and opportunities, and therefore is unsure of what they [...]
As you recall, I was going to discuss what to do if you are in the second group of people, who has trouble figuring out what to focus their business on, if you are unsure of your skills.
However, I came across this article the other day, written by Michael Masterson of Early to Rise, and [...]
Whether you run a small or large business, or are a sole entrepreneur or sales person, one of the biggest issues I see people struggling with is “What will I do, and how will I start?” People see this in two different ways.
Some people see so many opportunities that they cannot find which ones to [...]
Pursuing our process from the last few weeks, I want to give you one more thought on communications, and how it can help you grow, both personally and professionally.
A major source, of problems in communication, is defensiveness. Effective communicators are aware that defensiveness is a typical response in a work situation especially when negative information [...]
Following on from the past three blogs, I want to give you some concrete ideas about how to improve your communications skills. This skill is probably the most important life skill you can learn. I like to use the term “life skill” versus “soft skill”, because these are skills you can use in most life [...]
