Sales Techniques - Are they necessary?

For me - Direct contact works best...Telephone calls and visits. The internet is good for presenting yourself, exchanging information, documents and follow-up messages...But. face to face meetings work best with me. Especially with being able to promptly answer questions - Correctly.

No matter how experienced someone is, I think it is always important to prepare (Just like you are preparing for an interview or an oral exam). Knowing completely about the product or service that you are selling is important.

And, if you are able to point out something that the client overlooked, or something that would improve the product or service for the client, that greatly helps in a sale....

I point out that most of my business involves products, or services directly related to the marketing of products - So, personal meetings, with a sample of the product, or in the client's plant or warehouse (with the product there in front of us) really allows both parties to exchange info, and even to jointly discuss some new ideas (on the spot) - Which then has you working as a team...

Sales Techniques aren't necessary....if your happy with your current level of sales ;) If not, then adding some strcture to how you go about selling would be a good thing.

I've sold to the local cellphone companies for several years now, and I find it amazing how some aspects of the sale are the same no matter what you are selling, and how some things are so vastly different. Sales Cycles for one thing -- selling a messaging system to a cellphone company can take years! They are also hugly high-risk/high-gain...you can spend months and months selling your soluiton, invest a ton of time into the sale, only to be passed over in the last hour. But if you win the deal, its worth millions to your company.

One thing that never changes with a sale; its always personal. If your selling them a stick of gum, or a $50 million messaging system, its all about how its going to make the buyer feel once they have it. At my level, its about how its going to make the buyer look to the folks above when the system is in place and making money. Cheap prices are nice, but that's never the deciding factor. I've been beat plenty of times by more expensive solutions from other vendors becuase they made the decision maker feel warm-and-fuzzy-er.

You have to look at your industry and see what makes the most sense. Do you go for the big high-risk/high-gain sales? Or do you go for lower margin "volume" sales? The type of sale and the type of customer you are looking to win over will point towards the type of sales techniques you should be using.

Personally, I like to write articles. This simple approach works well to get people contacting me (I share them on my sites, and make them available to other places through syndication).

In addition to that I just try to engage people in genuine conversation -- look for ways I can be "valuable" to them in some way and watch things grow from there.

We've been sending DVDs and flyers and brochures. We use to send our CDS which didn't work at all, but the DVD got us to Wounded Warrior Project and the Soldier Ride 2 years ago and Interbike this September.

I do Visa/Mc processing for businesses and that is a very competitve field. My most sucsessful selling tactics always involve relationship building. Wheather that's face to face networking or some type of referal system. My best customers have always come from a progressing relationship. Art T.

A woman here!

I do lots of networking. I chat with people about what they need help with, what their problems are and I offer suggestions. It is all about giving. When I connect with people and give value and people see the benefit. I also write articles and post them all over the internet on article banks. That is more marketing than sales but it brings people to my website where people subscribe to my newsletter because again, I offer value. Giving is the best way to sell. Sounds ironic but it works. I love helping people and I hope that gets communicated.

Iam not good at marketing:-( but luckily 'word of mouth' referrals by my clients have kept me in business. Iam pretty happy and satisfied by what 'word of mouth' publicity has done to my business. I feel this is the best way to get quality clients and build up a successful business...

Well, sales techniques are necessary and marketing is essential for any business to grow. Well for me promoting my business is best done by quality control. For sales, the quality of your product should be better than your competetors.

I should add one more element to good business - a good web site. When all else works or not, a good web site can generate all kinds of things including sales.

Here's the most recent example. I come back from being at my mother's 80th, I find 300 e-mail in 7 days. That's not as bad as my brother who has 1600. But on Thursday the 18th, I found we got an order out of the blue. This order is a test. If our product solves the problem, and we know it will, then he plans to order a whole bunch. That is pay more bills and lower debt heaven to my ears.

Sales is an integrated process that uses multiple techniques. It's important to be sure the foundation is present with a good logo, professional materials and a readable website.

I think it's most effective if you have a plan realizing that research shows it takes from 7 to 9 exposures to a product before you make a sale. If you use a combination in networking, telephone contact, email follow-up, and direct mail you are well on your way to making that sale.

The most important thing is to know who your target audience is and spend your resources there.

Great discussion! I have seen research that shows that in today's "info glut" world, it actually takes 17-20 "touches" to build trust and ultimately do business.... up from "7-10" times in earlier years.

Lori

My philosophy has always been to create a customized MarComm strategy for each client.

This is a process I integrate into any market analysis I conduct before meeting with a potential client.

Understanding a client's needs and how to present value-based information to them in a way that is relevant to the communications systems they use as well as other means of new media marketing integration I am exploring with them - these have been some of the keys to my success.

I think it depends on what you are selling. I have had positions where my product was a "one call close" and currently in my position it much more process driven. That is not to say that occasionally that process does not happen all in one call, but that is not as often as I would like.

There is a huge difference between transaction selling of a commodity and solution selling.

I've heard it takes 20 touches for a person to become a law client. I believe it. We have restrictions on how we can promote, but not as many as in the past.

These rules on how many touches it takes are pretty ridiculous. They become something people rest on instead of finding out what they can really do to convert a prospect into a client or customer in 1-2 touches. And many of those studies on how many touches it takes are done with larger companies. Small business owners who know their stuff and can develop personal relationships with prospects and clients should be converting like crazy.

Theresa, I have clients who are lawyers and there is no reason it should take 20 touches, even with marketing restrictions.

Three big problems I see that decrease conversion rate:

1. Spending too much time and effort on the wrong market for your business.

2. Lack of authenticity and genuine relationship building.

3. Not following up soon enough and missing the ripe moment.

Looking at this thread, I see some different definitions of the touch" concept. Some people are referring to how many times you actually meet with someone and have a sales conversation, others are referring to all media impressions and any contact with your name, face, article, story, ad, word of mouth, etc. Typically, the studies include the latter and that's why the numbers are so high. When we are discussing things like this, it's easy to get a really warped sense of things since there are a few ways to look at this topic.

I hate to use the term touches -- it's dehumanizing. Applying Karrie's (brilliant and elegant, as usual) framework to my own experience as a lawyer, I find it's dead on:

1) one authentic conversation with the right prospect usually results in a new client

2) when I spend time with someone and don't end up working with them, it's usually because they weren't a good prospect in the first place (but over time I've gotten much better at prequalifying before spending time)

3) I almost never lose a good prospect...and historically just about every instance I lost business that I might have wanted occurred as a result of failing to follow up quickly enough (and this problem is legion with lawyers, not that it is an excuse!)

By the way, I don't believe that marketing restrictions are an impediment to building my practice at all.

getting found in organic search results in google has been one of the most effective methods for us to reach our customers. we get 2-4 new clients a day this way. with right content and keywords we are able to reach the prospects who are looking for what we sell.

Karrie, yes the definition of touch may vary considerably.

Danny, I've heard you give a talk, so I'm aware of your personal experience. I did not find that it held true for my own personal situation, but I started my practice in a different market than you work in.

I was a very sales oriented person in my past life and I'd love to be able to just pick up the phone and ask a single potential client very directly and very point blank for their business even if I knew they were already represented. It's my understanding that is prohibited by the RPC.

Some of my best potential prospects are no goes due to non-lawyer conflicts of interest, i.e. spouse's employment. Just a fact of life. Another frustrating experience is winding up with an actual true legal conflict of interest, this is very easy to encounter in a small town.

So, here in Kititas county where we have 37,000 people and 50 some lawyers, I suspect it's a little tougher. So after running the numbers (and factoring in the absence of private industry and one of the highest poverty rates in the state), I'm taking my frustrated corporate legal self to a bigger burg at least part time . . . .

Thus, I'm going to hold to that idea that on average it takes 20 "touches" for most people to become a law client. But I may be defining touch differently coming from a place where word of mouth and famililal connections and other generational considerations weigh heavily on buying decisions.

Hmm,

Interesting topic. I see lots of people answering with what I might consider marketing, i.e. how they contact people.

"Techniques" can be a loaded term for people. Spike and Danny bring up great points about a solution that is value based and being authentic.

It's great to sell products on the internet, but I've found lots of folks in small business could use help learning to sell. (they often do anything BUT the selling cause they fear it so much)

Best wishes on your event