How a bottle of Scotch ( which I never gave away or opened) and a thank you card ( which I never sent) made me thousands of pounds....................

Amongst my many and varied sales roles, I have worked as a new and used car sales executive. I was on commission for selling the cars, as you would expect. I was also on commission for the upsell of other products. One of the products I used to sell was "Gap" insurance.
"Gap" insurance pays the difference between the payout you would get from your insurance company and what you actually paid for the car, in the event of your car being written off for any reason, for say a 2 year period. As with all good insurance, a waste of money if you did not have occasion to claim, but an absolute godsend if you do claim. Imagine getting the price you paid back 2 years later and being able to go out and buy another new car.
Now I was only averagely successful in selling this product, until I read an article on "social proof"
This article said if you see other people have bought and been pleased with a product, you are more likely to do so yourself. So here is what I did.
I bought an expensive bottle of Scotch Whisky. I bought a quality thank you card. ( You're probably ahead of me here).......
The whisky bottle went in the drawer I knew I would open often during the course of the sale. With the card under it. During the course of getting the various pieces of paperwork out the bottle would clank about. I would get it out and look a little bit embarrassed, saying "I'm not a drinker, particularly not Scotch, I wouldn't know if that was a good one or not." (if your customer knows his whiskeys he will tell you what a quality expensive one it is). "A customer Who I sold gap to about 18 months ago brought it in for me last week, with a lovely card. He said I persuaded him to have the gap - I don't think I did anything different to what I usually do. It's nice when people appreciate you doing your job properly." - "Anyway - lets get on with sorting the paperwork for your car............." Then later after the sale paperwork is sorted, and it come to explain - not push - gap insurance, you can show the thank you card, which says inside how grateful Derrick and Margaret are that that I sold them gap, and how it made up a difference of £4,826.32p between what they paid for the car and what the insurance company paid.
A tangible illustration like that is nicer, and easier than a pushy unpleasant sales pitch, where a customer feels he is being sold to. And - the salesman has done the job properly, explaining and illustrating the product fully, without being pushy and in a way the customer will fully grasp all the implications. Is it immoral? Well not if you truly believe the product is right for the customer.
I am running a one day seminar - "Improve your Sales - How to be Persuasive Not Pushy" on 16th March email paul@bespoke-sales-training.co.uk for more details of this very affordable one day workshop

The way to be Confident.......

The way to be confident is to act confident.
I take it to another level. I get my "students" to pick a film star to play their life story. They are now going to do the scene the student has been dreading, eg the big presentation, or the cold call phoning, or whatever it is that makes the student nervous.
The student now has to imagine how the actor feels about playing them. The actor is not nervous. It's just part of the job, there is not the emotional baggage. It can be played without trauma, because the actor does not feel this is his life under the microscope.
Now all the student has to do is play the actor playing them.
That is often my starting point for nervous people. We then role play it out until acting confident starts to become natural.

Two Questions Every Business Owner Should Ask Themselves

Two Questions Every Business Owner Should Ask Themselves.
When I was selling advertising space in a regional travel book, I used to visit a lot proprietors of Hotels, restaurants, cafes, pubs and guest houses. I used to, as part of my sales process ask them these 2 questions.

(1)Why would anyone want to come here?
(2)Why would anyone want to come back here again?

When they had answered those questions, I had a pretty good idea of how successful they were or would be. Let me illustrate with a typical type of answer - say for a country pub...

(1) Because it is a charming old 17th century coaching inn with beautiful hanging baskets outside, a lovely location on the edge of the village, with a view down to the lake. We do an extensive range of fresh locally sourced home cooked meals, freshly prepared on the premises, all at a reasonable price.
Good answer don't you think?

Now we come to the second question, and this is where I could determine who was going to be a long term success, and who was going to have "tried everything but had such bad luck"
her are the two types of answer to question (2) - can you tell who will thrive and who will struggle?

(A) (2) Because it is a charming old 17th century coaching inn with beautiful hanging baskets outside, a lovely location on the edge of the village, with a view down to the lake. We do an extensive range of fresh locally sourced home cooked meals, freshly prepared on the premises, all at a reasonable price.

(B) (2) Because we make people feel welcome,look after theme, make sure they have a good time while they are here, and give them a great experience. We like to make customers into friends.

Those who give answer (B) realise they are not just in the "food and drink" business, but the customer experience business.
No matter what business you may be in, always remember if you have customers you are in the customer experience business.
There are more goods and services than there are clients with money to buy them. Customer choice has never been wider, are you delivering a good customer experience?

how touching

How touching - can increase the number of positive responses people give you.

I am not going to go into the science of this - we all know the value of a touch - yet we so seldom use this powerful tool in business.

All I am going to do in this topic is to tell you the results of an experiment that was conducted a few years ago. You can guess when it was by the fact that the experiment in volved a pay phone box - in the days when people used to use them (yeah I know you're too young to remember those).

Well here's what happened.

Coins were left in the return chute of the phone box, and researchers were hidden and able to observe. Without exception, people using the phone box took the money out of the chute and either used it for their call or pocketed it.

Upon leaving the phone booth, they were approached and asked had they found any money in the booth, as the asker had thought they had left some change in the chute. They had a 42% positive response.

Then the researcher repeated the above - except with one minor difference.On asking the question the researcher touched the arm or shoulder - it didn't matter where very briefly when asking exactly the same question.The positive response went up to an amazing 87%.

Some people in the second experiment were even prepared to admit that they had used the money to make a longer call, and they were sorry. This never happened in the 1st group.

Another experiment carried out by a group of researchers - where again the only difference was a simple touch, found that waiters increased their tips by over 50% just by that touch.

Powerful stuff. And it's a lot easier to do than you imagine, a simple touch on the forearm whilst you're talking to someone can make you appear more friendly - not creepy.

I run half, and one day sales psychology courses - so I may well treat you to some more of theselittle gems in the coming weeks

Keep smiling - keep selling - Paul

Turning weakness into strength

have had a varied and interesting sales career. I will tell you more about the unusual roles I have undertaken in future tips.
One job I had was as an RAC sales agent. It was my job to sell membership. I was paid commission only. I was working at a show on a Bank Holiday Monday. I had a "trekker" with me which was a little trailer 4ft x 3ft x 6ft high. It was a display unit only. A couple of hundred yards away was the AA display. It was quite grand. 2 patrol vans and a walk in and sit down trailer. It put my little effort to shame. I was thoroughly outclassed.
So how did I turn my rivals strength into a weakness? A few potential joiners commented on how pathetic my RAC display was compared to the 2 van and caravan set-up of the AA. It was time for some good salesmanship - or work a bank holiday for no pay.
What could I tell my customers to make me look good and give me the edge over my rivals? It was easy after I put a little thought into it.
"Sir, I can see you're not impressed with our little one trailer display compared to the 2 van AA display. Well let me tell you why there are no RAC vans here. It's Bank holiday Monday - the busiest day of the year on the roads. That means more breakdowns and incidents than any other time of the year. We care passionately about our members. Every RAC van is out on the road waiting to respond to our members' needs. Would you like to join an organisation that is passionate about service to it's members, or one that is passionate about making money for it's shareholders?"
Using this strategy I had a very sucessful and profitable day. Keep smiling - Keep selling - Cheers Paul
ps - for some reason my wife thinks the phrase "we care passionately about our members" is amusing.

Referrals

If you want referrals just ask! Heard that before? Does it work? The client says yes I'll certainly pass your name on. If you don't get a name and phone number straight away, you probably won't. So what is the best way of getting referred? It's quite easy really.
When you have concluded a deal with a client, or done a piece of work for them, tell them that you have enjoyed working with them. Tell them that they are the sort of client that you like best. Tell them that you appreciate having their business.
We all like compliments. We all like to be appreciated. We like people who pay us compliments. People we like are people we recommend. I have had a great many recommendations over the years on the various jobs I've done, however, none of them because I've asked.If you want referals just ask! Heard that before? Does it work? The client says yes I'll certainly pass your name on. If you don't get a name and phone number straight away, you probably won't. So what is the best way of getting referred? It's quite easy really.
When you have concluded a deal with a client, or done a piece of work for them, tell them that you have enjoyed working with them. Tell them that they are the sort of client that you like best. Tell them that you appreciate having their business.
We all like compliments. We all like to be appreciated. We like people who pay us compliments. People we like are people we recommend. I have had a great many recommendations over the years on the various jobs I've done, however, none of them because I've asked.

buyers remorse

We don't want our clients to suffer from buyer's remorse do we? - so what steps can we take to avoid it. A single word answer springs to mind - Consolidation.
So how and why do we consolidate, and indeed what is consolidation? The process comes after the sale, the order is taken, and most importantly - where appropriate - the NON returnable deposit taken. (More on this in another article). Consolidation is a process of both checking the client is happy with his / her purchase, and that they understand what they have bought - and most importantly what the product / service is going to do for them.
When we were selling the product we were majoring on the BENEFITS that the product will give the client. In consolidation the ideal process is to list the FEATURES and get the client to tell you the benefits, that the product will give him. So whats the best way of going about this? Here is a simple method.
"Mr Client, congratulations on your purchase of an ACME 128C Gizmo. To make sure you get the best out of it for the next 43 years - that's how long a client in Stoke has been using his old 121c model - I just want to check your understanding of all the features of it to make sure you derive the full benefits and savings it will give you."
When you have run through this recap it should be safe to ask "So, Mrs Client - are you happy with what we have done today?" Hopefully the answer is YES and it is given without hesitation or reservation. If its not then you need to ask the client "What is it you're unsure of ?"
Once you have got the client to agree the product or service is the right one, then you have the right to ask for a recommendation or introduction.
Happy Selling Guys n Gals. Have your tried Paul's Sales Tips forum ? I think its rather good.