The need to ask more questions, be more conversational to connect with customers.
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Archives for Sales
When the Buyers is Saying Bad Things . . . it is a Good Thing . . . for YOU
When the Buyers is Saying Bad Things . . . it is a Good Thing . . . for YOU by Kordell Norton Your buyer calls in a panic. They were about commit to huge amounts of business, but are now asking for last minute concessions, extra conditions, better pricing . . . or else. What was a solid sale, now looks shaky. What happened? As sales people become more conversant in consultative selling, an advanced selling skill that is often helpful is to understand the psychological processes that the buyer is going through. Several years ago, Xerox did research
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What YOUR Competition Does NOT Want YOU To Know About
It is called Sub Rosa. You need to be aware of this term. It could sneak up on you. Consider some recent news stories. · The recruiting of Sales and Marketing Executives has found new levels of attention and activity by Executive Head Hunters (Wall Street Journal) · Restaurant Sales are way up over last year (USA Today) · Victoria Secret’s new Miraculous Bra is expected to show great sales in 2010 signaling a time when women are ready to spend on themselves again. (NY Times) The economy is coming back (no surprise) and when that happens the focus
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The 10 Commandments of How to Handle Angry Customers
The 10 Commandments of Angry Customers By Kordell Norton I – Thou Shalt Assume That Thy Customer Has Rights . . . Including Anger Every decision is made by its decision maker. That person may not be the smartest, most qualified, or the right person to be making the decision . . . but it is still their decision. It is our job to persuade them as much as we can to make the right decision, or in our favor if that is the case. That decision maker has the title of CUSTOMER. If they don’t make it in our
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Only a professional speaker would find something good in having their car stolen
“Dad, my car got stolen,” the words coming fast and in panic from his cell phone. My home-bound college student had just lost everything he owned while he sat in the restaurant. “Even my birth certificate and social security card,” he declared. For a couple of days all he owned were the clothes on his back and his iPhone. He was able to stay on top of a police investigation, cancel credit cards, start on the insurance spreadsheets, apply security protection on his identity and keep us informed of his activities . . . all on his phone. On his
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How ShamWow Can Mess Up YOUR Business
There is the scene in the ShamWow! commercial where the spokesperson pours cola drink into a piece of carpeting. He then proceeds to suction up massive amounts of liquid with the fantastical Shamwow. On watching the commercial a second time I notice that between the soaking of the carpet and the picking up the liquid there is a moment when the camera cuts to a shot of the spokesperson. When the camera goes back to the carpet all of the soda that was running out from beneath is GONE. The picture had been doctored. Ah ha. The ShamWow! is a
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“But Noah! I thought the Ark left at 8:00!”
Which stranger would you go with? There at the end of the pier stand two men. On the left is the wizened old man, white beard, sun toughened face, calloused hands. To the right stands the expert. He oozes sophistication, education and professionalism. Again, which one would you go with? The old man or the young professional? And what about you personally? Where are you? Where do you mentally slot yourself in your business, your profession? Are you the highly educated, sure footed and professional provider of products and services? Or are you second guessing yourself, wondering if you are
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Screwing with Screwdrivers
I spoke to the ACCA – PHCC conference last week. That is the Air Conditioning Contractors of America and the Plumbing and Heating Cooling Contractors. They had a trade show that I wandered around. One vendor had nifty key chain flashlights and screwdrivers that were their “giveaways”. I suggested that they might want the screwdrivers that had a flat head on one end and a phillips on the other. They indicated that the flashlights we 40 cents each and the screwdrivers were $2.50 and that was for a reason. “The little screwdrivers have a very narrow tip on them for
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Let the Hot Chocolate Continue to Flow . . . continuation of a previous blog
Variety is the spice of life. Because I am the curious sort I continue in my search for the perfect hot chocolate getaway. I continue to work on the next book each morning and thought my Starbucks and McDonalds forays might be helped with a journey to the other two A.M. eating establishments. Cracker Barrel. Pleasant surprise when I discovered the hot chocolate is 50 cents less than Mickey D’s. The table top space for my weapons of writing was huge but the wait staff was surly, I guess because of the demands on them to distribute the salt
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Which is harder? Strategy or Execution? I ask and your answers are. . . .
With a ratio of 9 to 1 the answer is . . . (the suspense builds, but more on that in a minute). It was the late 60’s and Fred Smith was listening to the conversations of the other Jet Jockey’s. Fred was flying charter flights out of a the Tweed New Haven airport. The pilots of the other sleek corporate jets were mentioning how their planes were empty. No passengers. They were flying around the country delivering computer parts. These pilots for IBM, Xerox and the like were trying to cover for the need that was not being
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