Wise Woman Shining » Selling for Small Business

How to Sell So Price Doesn’t Matter — Part Two

caseydawes — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:00:16 +0000

Here’s the continuation of “Five Ways to Sell So Price Doesn’t Matter.”

3. Listen for your prospect’s true objection. Listen, price is an easy way to object to being sold something. Have you ever been accosted by one of those kiosk salespeople in malls? I’ve gotten sucked in a few times because the item is something I’m toying with getting. Ultimately, though, I don’t buy. I tell them it’s because of price. The real reason? They annoyed me and wasted my time when I wasn’t ready to enjoy the shopping experience. They made it about them and not about me. But, I’m not going to tell them that.

One technique to get to the problem behind the price is to ask, “If you felt that you had no problem affording this, would you buy it then?” And then wait. We are too hurry to interrupt and supply answers to others. The most respectful thing we can do for others is to listen – truly listen. And pay attention to the answer. Don’t just use the answer to “sell” them right away. Store the information and then use it to change your marketing materials and your selling script.

4. Use your prospect’s language. Selling is about developing a relationship. This is particularly true of women. People have better relationships with others that they feel understand them. If a couple is having trouble, one of the techniques that family counselors use is to teach them how to “mirror” each other. They become aware of the language that their spouse is using and use it back to them. No, it’s not fake. It helps the other person feel that you are really hearing them.

Pay attention to the industry that your prospect is in. Do research before you even pick up the phone to make that first call. Understand, at least to some degree, the jargon that they use in their everyday life. You don’t (and shouldn’t) use it if you don’t totally understand it, but it will give you an idea of how to best explain the benefits of your product/service in ways that they understand.

5. Have an outrageous goal – and an outrageous reward for meeting that goal! Get out of your own way in terms of price. If you really want to reach your goal, you will make the changes that you need to make to eliminate price as the only reason that people decide to buy from you. You will also begin to honor yourself, and your prospects, by not wasting time with those for whom price truly is the only criteria to buy.

Different economic times require that we pay more attention to our selling techniques. We need to refine them, and yes, work a little harder. But most of all, we need to work consistently and smartly to reach our business goals. Use these five strategies to bring you better selling conversations where price is no longer an issue.

Five Ways to Sell So Price Doesn’t Matter – Part One

caseydawes — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:00:58 +0000

In the current business climate, price has become the ultimate differentiator. It sometimes feels like it’s the only thing that matters to our potential clients and customers. The global economy has impacted both product prices and services. Want a cheap knee replacement? Go to Asia. Ditto if you want your website updated or your book printed.

As women, we are conditioned to seek the best bargains for our families and to stretch the family budget almost to the breaking point. And yet, if we try to run our business only by giving the cheapest price, we will soon run into problems. Economically, we just can’t compete with Asia. Our housing costs alone prohibit that. And that’s before we get into the cost of making sure that our employees are adequately cared for in terms of safety and health.

Yet I see too many business women compete on price. It’s as if they have no other idea of the value of their product or service. They get into the price discussion too early and let it dictate the marketing and selling conversations. If you find yourself always competing with another business in terms of price, these five suggestions can keep you out of the price discussion until you are ready to have it.

1. Know your value. Too many women don’t truly believe what they have to offer is of value. They don’t want to “sell.” They think it’s demeaning, beneath them, and a synonym for getting the other person to spend money that they don’t really have. Women in this position find themselves deeply discounting their products or services, giving their hard work away and eventually going out of business. If you find yourself in this position, you need to change your belief about yourself and your service.

One way to think about it is to look at how the world would be without you and your company? What drove you into business in the first place? If you are like most women, it was the search for time flexibility and autonomy. However, you also developed a product or service that you believed in. Why? Sit down and answer the following questions:

What happens to your customers if they don’t have your product or service?
How is your customer’s life improved when they use your product or service?
How valuable is that?

2. Stop making price your own defining value when you purchase something. By becoming aware of your own attitude about price, you can see how it influences your prospects. A woman came to me who was selling a line of clothing. All of her discussions with customers were about price. When I asked, she admitted that her clothes were expensive, but were worth the money because of the quality of construction. In her own mind, she separated the cost (expensive) from the value (good quality). No wonder her conversations were always about price! When she began to change how she thought about her products and realized that they were the right price for the value offered, her conversations began to change.

The next time you make a purchase, bring your awareness to the conversation going on in your own head. Are you justifying the price? Making up a story about value for your husband if you are buying something that isn’t in the budget? When you hand over your plastic, what exactly is the reason that you are making your purchase? The more you know about your own buying process, the more you will be able to understand your prospects.

On Thursday I’ll post the remaining three ways to sell so price doesn’t matter.

Finding the Gold in a Pile of Business Cards

caseydawes — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:26:31 +0000

Do you have piles of business cards from other people? Maybe they are neatly arranged in a Rolodex, cardboard box or business card case or in small piles around your office, in your briefcase or in the pocket of the suit you wore to the last event. You may have hundreds of them stuffed in a garbage bag.

They aren’t doing you any good there. However, the thought of dealing with them may be so overwhelming that you decide to ignore them. They can’t be any good, but your instincts say you shouldn’t throw them away.

As a business coach in San Jose, I’ve seen women entrepreneurs do this again and again. But there’s gold in those cards—information that can help you make more sales and increase your business profitability. You simply need to learn how to leverage the information.

The key is to develop a contact relationship management (CRM) system that makes sense to you and is easy to use. Begin by dedicating an hour or so to organize the information.

Handle Your Business Cards

Step One is to collect all your cards from wherever they are. As you go through them, put them into piles. I’m suggesting some categories below, but you may also come up with some of your own.

I-Don’t-Know-Why-I-Have-This-Card Pile

When you look at a card and you have no idea why you have it and you can’t remember the face behind the card, it’s time to dump it in the recycle bin. If it is someone you are meant to work with, they will come back into your life.

Referral Pile

These are people you have purchased goods or services from that you might recommend to other people or use again. By referring others, you build good will both with the person you referred and the person whom you referred. At some later date you might sub-categorize them into the types of service they offer, or just keep them in alphabetical order.

Current Customer Pile

These are active customers who are using your goods and services. They are part of your gold in these piles. You want to keep these cards front and center in your mind, reaching out to these people on a regular basis.

Past Customer Pile

This is another part of the gold in your business cards. They used your services once; why didn’t they come back? It might be a good question to ask. These past customers are also potential future customers. This stack should also be available to you on a frequent basis.

Prospects

Be careful that you don’t confuse prospects and contacts. A prospect is someone with whom you’ve had more than one brief discussion. You’ve had several conversations and feel that they could definitely benefit from your services. Some people call this group their “hot leads.” This pile is also part of your gold — people to keep checking in with regarding how they are doing.

Contacts

Everyone else is a contact. To keep your pipeline full, it’s good to keep moving these folks from the contact pile to one of the other piles. Pick a few to check in with each week, sign them up for your newsletter or your blog feed. Remind them periodically that you are around and begin to develop a relationship with them.

Use a Sales Database

Step Two is to enter the information into the CRM database you want to use. It can be a spreadsheet to get started. If you have lots of business cards, you might want to invest in a business card reader. Or you might want to get more sophisticated and use something like HighRise which will guide you through the sales process.

Should You Barter?

caseydawes — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:30:22 +0000

While attending a meeting of the Women’s Initiative last week, I had the opportunity to briefly mentor some new entrepreneurs. The subject of barter came up as a strategy to get new customers and clients. I had to advise against overuse of the strategy, no matter how tempting it seems when you’re first starting out.

There’s two main reasons that I advise against it over the long term.

1. Too many times barter is done a one-for-one basis. For example, I give someone an hour of coaching for an hour of massage. Or for some dry cleaning, or a hair cut. But if I take my hour of coaching out to the money-based world, what I charge for an hour of coaching isn’t the same that is charged for an hour of massage, dry cleaning or a hair cut. However, the discussion of value of the product or service is rarely discussed. As a result, over time, one person may feel that they are getting a great bargain and the other may begin to feel cheated and resentful. And, neither person has tough conversations about value and money. Which brings me to point number 2.

2. As a rule, I’ve found that women entrepreneurs and business owners hate talking about money. They will avoid placing a monetary value on their goods or services, particularly if they perceive that what they offer has little intrinsic value. If they barter, they never have to talk about money. But, like it or not, most of the developing world functions on some kind of monetary standard. Originally, currency was an easy method of trade that relieved us all of carrying around a spare chicken or two. Obviously over time, it’s become charged with all kinds of emotional baggage and abuse. If you want to run a business, you need to be able to talk about money, value and what things cost.

So barter if you must, but have a conversation about the value of your product or service in terms of money.

Heck, go one step further and just pay each other!

The First Step in the Sales Process

caseydawes — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:14:09 +0000

I recently came across an excellent article about the sales process on Women Entrepreneur entitled, “Stop Closing and Start Selling.”

One thing this article did not mention, however, was what I consider the most critical part of selling–research.

Once you have an idea that someone is a prospect, it’s a good idea to qualify them. What that means is to make sure that they have a need for what you offer, or think that they have a need for what you offer or that what you offer will fit the need that they think they have. I know that’s a little convoluted. But many times, for example, people aren’t looking for a business coach. What they are looking for is someone who can help them make more money, keep more money and spend less time doing it. My job is to help them understand how my services can help them do just that.

Once you find out that they have a need for your services, it’s important to see if they can afford your product or services, as well as the likelihood that they will choose to purchase from your company vs. finding doing it in house or working with firms they already have a relationship with.

Where can you find out that information? Using a search engine such as Google, you can find out a great deal of information about a company, including their financials if they are a publicly held company. Understanding how to use social media as effective research tool, will show you how Linked In, Facebook, Twitter and even You Tube can yield in-depth information about a company or prospect. (Sign up for my class on using social media for your business to learn how.)

For example, leverage Linked In to find out who you know who knows someone in the company you’re targeting. Get introduced so you can talk to them directly and find out a few key pieces of information that will help you help your prospect. Remember, building relationships over time is what matters in business. By doing your homework first, you’ll show you respect your prospect’s time. You’ll also be able to quickly demonstrate how your product or service exactly fits their need.

Business Alliances Matter for Women Entrepreneurs

caseydawes — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:04:11 +0000

I’ve got two business alliances in the works in two different segments of my business. In this economy, business alliances are going to need to be vital components of your business development strategy.

Why?

Because they help you expand your marketing and credibility reach. By working with another business owner, whether woman or man, you are able to access their client, prospect and contact database in a way that you couldn’t in any other way. That business owner already has credibility with the people on his or her “list.” By inviting you in as an alliance partner, they are conferring legitimacy on you and your business. Of course, that also means that you, as a business owner, must exercise care when inviting another business owner into your “space.”
An alliance partner will help you stretch your business mind. By working with another human being, you can test out your theories, strategies and issues with someone who is experiencing their business from the same level you are. Talking with your employees or subcontractors is one thing. Discussing strategy with someone who has a vested interest in you doing well will create new business opportunities.
Working with alliance partners will speed up your time to market. Business owners are enthusiastic people, but we can be distracted by “bright shiny objects.” One way to avoid that is to have a commitment to someone else. You’ll each benefit from accountability as you create and meet deadlines.
Complimentary skills are a natural benefit of alliance partnerships. For example, I have strong strategic, marketing and communication skills. One of my alliance partners is good at organizational development and navigating complex organizations. We are a natural fit for a complete program for small and medium business.

Look through your contact database and see if there are business owners who are a natural fit for a business alliance. Then pick up the phone and arrange a meeting.

Other thoughts on alliance partnerships? Comment below.

Five Things Your Customers Are Dying to Tell You

caseydawes — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:30:34 +0000

Women are starting new businesses in record numbers. As they move from corporate America to following their own dream, however, they find that they are taking on tasks that they may be unfamiliar and uncomfortable with — in particular sales and marketing. To add to that the marketing and sales arena is in a large state of flux. Is social media marketing the best thing since sliced bread? Yes! No! Maybe….since a recent report from Advertising Age states that only 25% of people trust their friend’s recommendations, down from 45% in 2008.

Of course, it does depend on your definition of “friend.”

However, there are some truisms about marketing and selling that really haven’t changed, no matter what the method (or channel in marketing-speak) is that you use.

If they could speak directly to you, your customers might tell you…

1. It’s not about you — it’s about me. Find out what I want. Don’t just sell me an organic Egyptian cotton 3,000 count sheet set in orange because you happen to like it. Maybe I’m a flannel sheet kind of gal, or a satin sheet kind of guy. Research what I want — because I’m the one paying you money.

2. I’ve seen and heard it all (yawn). You’d better catch my attention within the first five seconds or first sentence of reading — or I am out of here! There’s so much calling for me — television, Internet, billboards, my kids. I’m on information overload!

3. Don’t tell me what it does, tell me how it’s going to make my life better. Take the aforementioned sheets. Will it help me sleep better? We all need more sleep! And now that I’ve got these hot flashes, perhaps I need sheets that come with small fans?

4. Price doesn’t matter, unless it does. If I think that you have something that I want, I will find a way to get it. My parents would have saved, but I have discovered the wonders of credit, although, I’m rethinking that position. However, if I am a person who truly believes in a budget, and what you are selling isn’t in my budget, no amount of value will make me buy it. So price your goods and services at a price that reflects its value, not what you think I’m willing to cough up.

5. Once I buy something from you, treat me really well. Make me feel exclusive. There are many other offers out there that are enticing. It’s going to cost you less to keep me as a customer, buying more things from you than it will be for you to get a new customer. Remind me about once a month about how you can make my life better. Then, when I am ready for the next widget, I’ll call you.

Any other tips you’d like to offer?

Business Plan Financials — Cash Flow

caseydawes — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:58:58 +0000

When I do business plan consulting, one of the most painful areas for some women business owners to review is their financial reports, including Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow reports. These are vital reports for every business owner to review, and the entrepreneurial woman is no exception.

This week I ran across a great article from “Jane Out of the Box” on how to handle cash flow problems. Jane says,

“There are two primary reasons businesses have cash flow problems – either the amount charged is insufficient to create enough profit OR the business does not have enough customers to keep it afloat.”

Women entrepreneurs are constantly plagued by two underlying causes for these problems: they don’t feel that they are “worth it,” or they “hate sales” so they don’t do it.

Selling for Small Business to Improve Cash Flow

We need to get over both of these problems.

If you feel that you aren’t “worth it,” then you can fix what’s wrong with your offering. If you think it’s a good offering, then you need to fix what’s in your head. Therapy can help and coaching can help. There’s also an excellent resource, Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life, by Byron Katie, that can help you question your beliefs about whether or not you are “worth it.”

Marketing and sales work a lot better if you give the used care salesman who lives in your head a boot in the rear. Have you ever been looking for an item and seen the perfect ad on television? Or had a friend mention to you where she got her hair done? That’s marketing. We do it all the time. It’s just letting people know about your product or service so when they have a need for it, they know it’s around. Your product or service does fulfill a need, doesn’t it? Well, then tell us about it!

Sales doesn’t mean calling a list of people you’ve never met at dinner time. Good sales involves a lot of listening. You are trying to solve a problem that someone else has. You think your product or service will do it! You can solve someone else’s problem. How good is that?

Like most things in life, if you change your attitude, you can change your circumstances. So straighten out those voices in your head and improve your cash flow!

Keeping on Top of Time

caseydawes — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:04:13 +0000

It’s a quiet day in my neck of the wood…or ocean, if you will. It’s very warm, which means the hoards from San Jose are flocking to the beach. I am very grateful to see them. Where there are tourists, even “day-trippers,” there is money being spent. As I ran my errands today, I got a chance to see a lot of people out and make some observations.

OSH was crowded. People are planting. I’d picked up a tomato plant at the farmer’s market last week and stuck it in a container on my deck. My garden used to be huge when I lived in Pennsylvania. I’d get my son, Jesse, out there, digging in the dirt. However, I’ve sacrificed land for a view of the ocean. It’s a good trade. My tomato seems happy enough.

The quilt store was also swamped. The woman who runs it is vivacious and warm. You feel welcomed when you go in. I was looking for a label for my granddaughter’s quilt. They didn’t have any, but the brilliant salesperson wanted to know if they could make one up for me. “How big would you want it?” she asked. After I gestured with my hands she said, “How much would you pay for it?” I told her and we came to an agreement. She made a sale by being creative and friendly about it.

Contrast that with the yarn store I went to. I hadn’t been in this one before, because I’d heard some things about the people running it. When I went in, they didn’t have what I wanted either. There was kind of a “too bad” attitude about it, but no real effort to help me out with my problem. “Too bad” for them. I won’t be back.

Everything you do is a lesson in marketing and selling. See what people around you do. See what you like and what you don’t like. Then, use those ideas in your own selling.

Can I craft a business support program for you that meets your needs and budget? Let me know in the comments below.