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Sales Lessons From The Business Page

Written by: Laura Posey

Article Overview: What can reading the financial section of the newspaper teach you selling?

Sales Lessons From The Business Page

I’ll admit it – I love watching the news. No not the part about murder and mayhem but the business news. I’m fascinated watching the way people’s emotions control the financial markets and how they make decisions. There are a ton of great sales lessons in the financial news as well. Here are a few from recent headlines.

1. Know your markets – a few years ago an upstart company called Google decided to take on the big boy, AOL, for dominance of the Internet. While AOL was busy collecting fees from it’s consumer subscriber base in exchange for dial up access to the Internet and some proprietary content, Google’s geniuses realized that getting people connected was a very service-intensive business, requiring lots of employees and overhead. They also noticed that the trend was towards broadband connections, not dial-up. Google decided to become the number one destination once users were already connected and use that consumer preference to entice advertisers to fork over huge sums to get in front of those millions of eyes. Moreover, AOL’s business model was difficult to spread worldwide, while Google’s was blindingly simple. The result? Just recently AOL announced that they were moving to an advertising-based model in imitation of Google. The lesson- pay attention to what’s happening in the market and anticipate what your customers will be doing, not just what they are doing now.
2. Think the impossible – two years ago, very few people had heard of a little company called Mozilla. They produced a rival to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which had a whopping 99% of the browser market. Internet Explorer owed it’s dominance to the fact that it came pre-installed on just about every computer sold in the world. How was Mozilla supposed to compete with that kind of supremacy? A few week’s ago, Mozilla announced that it had gained 15% of the browser market with its 200 millionth download of its Firefox software. The lesson – just because someone else is bigger or richer, doesn’t mean you don’t stand a chance. Believe in yourself and do good work and you can achieve anything.
3. It’s not always about price – in the early 1970’s, when gas cost a fortune, a small Japanese automaker called Toyota began selling small, ugly, fuel efficient cars in the US. At the time, the Big Three Automakers laughed at the puny little Coronas coming off the boats from Asia. But Americans, feeling the pinch at the pump, began buying them in droves, despite the fact that they were expensive. Over a decade, those Toyota drivers noticed that their little “rice-burners” outlasted their friends Chevys and Fords, and Toyota began to develop a reputation for quality rather than just fuel economy. 30 years later, Toyota has just leapfrogged Ford to become the number two automaker in the world and is on pace to pass GM as number one within two years. The lesson – pay attention to what your clients want and provide it to them. They will pay higher prices for the things that they believe are valuable to them.
4. It’s all about leveraging relationships – a few years ago someone had the bright idea that local radio was too limited and played too many commercials. Satellite radio was born. As a way to sell new cars, Ford and GM jumped on the satellite radio bandwagon and began installing them as standard equipment in new cars. Subscriptions to satellite radio went up quickly but car sales didn’t. A few weeks ago, Ford and GM, finally wised up and realized that consumers actually wanted iPod docks, not satellite radio, in their cars. They both recently announced a partnership with Apple to install iPod connectors in new cars. The lesson – partner with someone who is already doing well and who has a market you want to penetrate. But be willing and able to reciprocate. Holding up your end of the deal makes it a win-win and likely to continue.

None of these lessons is anything new but sometimes we forget the basics. Be creative, think big, listen to your customers and build reciprocal relationships. If you keep your eyes open you’ll find lessons you can use in your sales career right on the front page of the newspaper - or on Google in your Firefox browser!

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