Are Your Salespeople Selling Value Like Nordstrom's or Price Like Sam's Club?
Are Your Salespeople Selling Value Like Nordstrom's or Price Like Sam's Club?
We were at Nordstrom's today and I noticed two things that were unusual for such a "dismal" economy. Despite the fact that there wasn't a sale taking place and they don't have low-end or discount pricing, they were busy. And they were staffed - three people were taking care of my wife - all at the same time - and they had more people to help if needed! Yet, if you walk into the discount stores and need someone to help you'd be out of luck. They are down to bare bones.
So what does this say about the state of the economy and more specifically, about discounting and trying to win business based on price?
I received an email tonight from a fan of Baseline Selling asking for help with his positioning statement Here's what he sent me:
"I've been very successful helping owners and CFO's who have had so many insurance quotes that it makes their head spin but who don't understand how to reduce their overall cost of risk in their business. I thought you might want to invite me in to learn how our free risk assessment helped other business owners reduce and predict insurance cost in all markets."
As most salespeople do, it was way too long, and focused on the wrong issues, using price as an enticement to get in the door. He used "quotes", "reduce" (2x), "cost" (2x), and "free". Do you think he sounded any different from the other agents that are calling these owners? Do you think they want to talk with him? Let's ut it this way, if they wanted to talk with him he wouldn't have emailed asking for help.
Here's what I suggested he use instead and, as you might expect, it follows the Baseline Selling syntax for an effective positioning statement.
"I help CEO's who can't stand all of the insurance agents that always call at renewal time. Can I ask you a question?.....I help a lot of CEO's and the two things I hear most right now are, one, they're not sure how to assess all of their risk, and two, they're not sure how to determine how much of that risk affects their premium. Does any of that ring true for you?"
If you are not a Baseline Selling apostle, you may not understand the reasoning behind the choice of words or the message but you can still take my word for it that this will work for him.
Do your salespeople have formal positioning statements?
If they do, are they identifying the issues that differentiate you from your competition?
If they are, is it working consistently?
If your final answer was a "no", here are some more questions:
Is it their message or their ability to engage and deliver it?
Is it their lack of hunting ability or their lack of willingness to hunt?
Is it their willingness to hunt or do you have the wrong people?
Do you know how to find out?
Update - the agent responded....
From: The Agent
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 8:44 AM
To: dave@baselineselling.com
Subject: RE: Baseline Selling
I believe that most agents are so price driven that if we can educate them on some key areas the emphasis comes off price some what, I do call on or arond effective dates do you believe that this statement would work for those times as well? I was reading the selling tip first impressions and wondered about the "I'm a _______ expert" do you think that is good as well? Also I am trying to put together a worksheet for my sales manager on the rough cost of boot camp what airport would I fly into and would I need to rent a car? Look forward to a response.
Thanks
The Agent
And my reply:
Hi The Agent,
This isn’t about most agents – it’s about the owners that you are calling.
I wish you weren’t calling at expiration time – that’s when everyone calls! Don’t you want to be heard? Owners don’t even know when their policies expire. If you strike the right chord they’ll talk to you – regardless of dates. You might not get their business until expiration time but then you can prevent them from talking to the predators that call at expiration time because you’ll already have the power to influence.
Dave
Are Your Salespeople Selling Value Like Nordstroms or Price Like Sams Club - To learn more about this author, visit Dave Kurlan's Website.
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Doug McMillon, CEO of Sam's Club, was interviewed in the October 27 issue of Fortune. He said that people are spending about the same money as before but on different things, as the cost of food and energy has reallocated their discretionary spending.
We were at Nordstrom's today and I noticed two things that were unusual for such a "dismal" economy. Despite the fact that there wasn't a sale taking place and they don't have low-end or discount pricing, they were busy. And they were staffed - three people were taking care of my wife - all at the same time - and they had more people to help if needed! Yet, if you walk into the discount stores and need someone to help you'd be out of luck. They are down to bare bones.
So what does this say about the state of the economy and more specifically, about discounting and trying to win business based on price?
I received an email tonight from a fan of Baseline Selling asking for help with his positioning statement Here's what he sent me:
"I've been very successful helping owners and CFO's who have had so many insurance quotes that it makes their head spin but who don't understand how to reduce their overall cost of risk in their business. I thought you might want to invite me in to learn how our free risk assessment helped other business owners reduce and predict insurance cost in all markets."
As most salespeople do, it was way too long, and focused on the wrong issues, using price as an enticement to get in the door. He used "quotes", "reduce" (2x), "cost" (2x), and "free". Do you think he sounded any different from the other agents that are calling these owners? Do you think they want to talk with him? Let's ut it this way, if they wanted to talk with him he wouldn't have emailed asking for help.
Here's what I suggested he use instead and, as you might expect, it follows the Baseline Selling syntax for an effective positioning statement.
"I help CEO's who can't stand all of the insurance agents that always call at renewal time. Can I ask you a question?.....I help a lot of CEO's and the two things I hear most right now are, one, they're not sure how to assess all of their risk, and two, they're not sure how to determine how much of that risk affects their premium. Does any of that ring true for you?"
If you are not a Baseline Selling apostle, you may not understand the reasoning behind the choice of words or the message but you can still take my word for it that this will work for him.
Do your salespeople have formal positioning statements?
If they do, are they identifying the issues that differentiate you from your competition?
If they are, is it working consistently?
If your final answer was a "no", here are some more questions:
Is it their message or their ability to engage and deliver it?
Is it their lack of hunting ability or their lack of willingness to hunt?
Is it their willingness to hunt or do you have the wrong people?
Do you know how to find out?
Update - the agent responded....
From: The Agent
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 8:44 AM
To: dave@baselineselling.com
Subject: RE: Baseline Selling
I believe that most agents are so price driven that if we can educate them on some key areas the emphasis comes off price some what, I do call on or arond effective dates do you believe that this statement would work for those times as well? I was reading the selling tip first impressions and wondered about the "I'm a _______ expert" do you think that is good as well? Also I am trying to put together a worksheet for my sales manager on the rough cost of boot camp what airport would I fly into and would I need to rent a car? Look forward to a response.
Thanks
The Agent
And my reply:
Hi The Agent,
This isn’t about most agents – it’s about the owners that you are calling.
I wish you weren’t calling at expiration time – that’s when everyone calls! Don’t you want to be heard? Owners don’t even know when their policies expire. If you strike the right chord they’ll talk to you – regardless of dates. You might not get their business until expiration time but then you can prevent them from talking to the predators that call at expiration time because you’ll already have the power to influence.
Dave
Are Your Salespeople Selling Value Like Nordstroms or Price Like Sams Club - To learn more about this author, visit Dave Kurlan's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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