New Contributor - David Colomb

Guest Contributor: David Colomb
David's Posts - David's Blog

Hi. My name is Dave Colomb and I am a salesperson with over twenty years of sales experience. I deal with small business owners, and love the experience. I sell trinkets and gift items to small independent gift shops. I also have 12 years of experience as a small business owner, so I've been on both sides of the table. I've thoroughly enjoyed both experiences.

In today's economic conditions I'm finding that my clients are extremely nervous about their futures. We live in an area,(Northern California), where there have not been large layoffs, but foreclosures are an issue, and everyone is concerned about the outlook for 2009.

The way to work through these uncertainties is to be a consultant and a cheerleader for your customers. You need to point out the positives and the opportunities of the situation. It's fun to sit down with a customer and lament on how bad business is, and how tough things are, but who does that help? We need to go in to the business with a positive attitude and a plan to help our business succeed, and it is our business. As my first sales manager told me, nothing happens until someone sells something. We all need sales, but to get those, we need to be sure that our clients remain in business, and remain successful. That means we need to be a consultant who shares the information that we have acquired through our travels.

As for the cheerleader aspect of our job, we need to point out the positives that are out there. Energy costs have dropped to levels not seen in the last five years; this is putting money in the consumer's pocket. Yes, the consumer is careful in spending that money, but they'll still part with their dollars if they see product that excites them, displayed properly. We need to help our customers to be able to do that. We also need to point out that the positives in the local area, new businesses, changes in the community, things that could improve our customer's business. In the last week, I've run in to several business owners who are saying that they have decided to ignore the "depression", they're going to continue to do their business and deal with the economy in a positive way. Many city governments have instituted, "Buy Local" campaigns, cities depend on sales tax revenue and in many cases they have spent a great deal of money to attract small businesses to their community, and they don't want to see these businesses fail. Closures hurt everyone. Even major retailers such as Wal-Mart realize that local businesses are needed. Wal-Mart has put programs in place to help small businesses succeed. There are a number of people rooting for the small business person.

I think that what is going to do the most damage to small businesses, in the overall, is fear. As we all know, looking at the negatives drives people to make defensive decisions, and that leads to buying less and contracting their business. Responsible contraction is prudent, wild contraction will kill a business; we all need to remain positive and work together to succeed.

Getting to No

Guest Contributor: Albert Luk
Albert's Posts - Albert's Site

Small business owners are unfailingly polite. Most of the shrewd ones (i.e. the ones we want as clients) know not to leave any bridges burning so they say "please" and "thank you" a lot. Combined with the fact that our society considers it rude to say no, you have a lot of frustrated salespeople who have small business owners who say "maybe," "call me back in a month" and "let me think about it" when first contact is made.

The elegant "maybe" is sometimes a real maybe but I say "maybe" a lot as a way to get a cold call or a sales call off my back (full disclosure here!). As times toughen, I suspect we are all going to hear the word "maybe," or its variations, in 2009.

Remember that the least desirable answer to any sales call is a "maybe". The best is obviously "yes" followed by a "no." The no allows you to at least move on. The "maybe" leaves you hanging.

Think of your high school crushes. If you asked them out on a date and they said "yes", you were in heaven. If they said "no," you were understandably crushed for a few days or weeks but you got over it and dated others. But the "maybe" was, in hindsight, the terrible answer since you could end up chasing this crush for weeks without any definitive answer when there were other wonderful people you could have dated.

There's nothing wrong with coming back to the maybe- at a later day. The usual question to a "maybe" is "when can I call you back?" You know what though? Whenever I was asked that question, I had no idea how to project into the future to give a definite date so the date was a guess.

Perhaps the better question may be not a date but an event in the future such as "when is your photocopying servicing contract ending?" or "is there a day you usually deal with administration?" If you anchor the date to an event rather than some forecast into an indefinite future, there may be a more accurate answer rather than a good-faith guess.

But remember the goal is to get to a "yes" or "no" quickly.

Have a safe and happy holiday season.

Frustrations and Anxieties Are the Keys to Your Riches...

Guest Contributor: Shannon McCaffery
Shannon's Posts - Shannon's Site

No I haven't gone mad, at least not yet! Here's

the deal, knowing your clients frustrations and

anxieties are truly the key to your riches. Let

me explain a bit more. You see we all have

desires, frustrations and anxieties. The real money is being able to

pinpoint what these are in your potential prospects

mind. Then you take these desires, anxieties and frustrations and run with them in all

your advertising!

Here are some great ideas to take to the bank

with figuring out what these are:

Let's start with just some desires- We all desire similar things like:

- Sex appeal

- Security

- Health

- Love

- Relationships

- Money

- Status

- Friends

- Attractiveness

- Youthfulness

In having these desires, we also have fears and

frustrations around them, like a fear of losing

or not attaining any one of them.

So how do you use these and turn them into money?
First thing you can do is gather all the information you can about

your potential prospects frustrations, fears and

anxieties. You can do this by interviewing current

clients, sending out a survey or by attending

certain networking meetings and associations and

paying very close attention to what people are

talking about.

Don't be afraid to get into your potential

prospects heads. If you're sincere about helping

them get to their desires by solving their fears, anxieties and frustrations,

they will want to work with you. Find out how they're

currently solving these right now and how it's

working for them. The key with your advertising is to enter into the conversation

your prospects are having in their heads right now. If you can do that well,

your prospects will unconsciously think you can solve their problems for them.

Some examples of products that solve anxieties, fears and frustrations- products that help you lose weight,

whiten your teeth, get rid of grey hair, give you fresh breath. All of these types of products appeal to

solving your anxieties of being overweight, or fear of bad breathe, looking old or having bad breath.

Start to notice how companies advertise and how they really address your fears and anxieties.

Some of them are especially good at agitating your fears and anxieties, and then of course they

show you how THEY have the perfect solution to solve these fears, and anxieties for you.

Again, getting into the heads of your potential

prospects and then using your advertising to address their fears, frustrations

and anxieties will certainly enhance and line your

pockets with much deserved riches.