Business Skills

Connect and Contact

October 11, 2021 by sycreed

Have you become isolated because of the pandemic?

But I’m not really talking about social distancing here.

What I mean is, have you stopped reaching out to your target audience?

I see way too many business owners doing so. But the truth is, the hiding that they’re doing is only risking the future of their businesses.

In the previous email, I described the first step in the selling cycle: you have to find people with money and a need that you can meet.

Once you do that, you must connect with them with the right message.

In the old days, there were two basic ways to do it. You could go door-to-door and pitch in person. Or you could do it over the phone through cold calling.

Today, however, we have so many new opportunities. In fact, it’s never been easier to reach the right people with your offer.

Social media is one of the most obvious channels to use, and for a good reason. Done right, it can be the most effective. Posting on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube can help you amass a large audience and keep them entertained in these tough times.

Trust me, the returns are going to be high if you can make this happen.

People welcome any opportunity to take their minds off the doom and gloom. If you give them a chance to do this, they’ll want to engage with you. This will almost inevitably result in more sales.

Now, social media is not the only way to connect and contact your audience. You can go on speaking engagements, send out emails, blog, and do a whole bunch of other things.

If you haven’t been reaching out enough, it’s time to step up your game.

Just be careful not to dilute your attention on too many channels. Find out where your audience is so you can meet them there and build relationships for growing your customer base.

Consistency, Charisma, and Value

October 11, 2021 by sycreed

I have shown you some of the best ways to connect with your audience. And now, I want to go over essential tips for this.

As you know, there’s a blizzard out there for most businesses.

People may be in isolation, but they’re also more connected than they’ve been. Every business is moving its marketing to a handful of channels. It’s becoming hard to cut through the noise and put yourself in front of your audience.

To make your messages more effective, there are three things that you must do.

First, you need to be consistent.

You often won’t see immediate results for your marketing and sales efforts. That’s because they’re investments that will only pay off later. If you give up too soon, you’ll just be wasting your resources and not get a chance to experience the results.

Next, you need to show charisma and personality.

No matter if it’s emails, articles, or YouTube videos, charisma is critical. If your messages are monotonous and generic, most people will ignore them. They’ll devote their attention to those who work harder for it.

To avoid this, you must find a unique voice and use it across all your marketing and sales efforts. This helps you to become recognizable and easily position yourself in the market.

And finally, you must provide lots of value to your audience. They need to feel as if you’re ready to help them for free before they’re willing to pay you.

To sum it all up:

Add value publicly, sell privately.

Irrespective of how you connect with your audience, show them that they have a lot to gain with you. Even if they’re not ready to buy right now, they will be one of these days.

In the meantime, you should be building strong connections with every member of your ideal audience.

Find People with Money and Needs

October 11, 2021 by sycreed

Every business has a unique selling cycle. That means you can’t sell the same way for both high-ticket and low-ticket offers. Your sales process must also look very different, depending on whether you’re a wholesaler or retailer.

But that’s not all.

Many other factors influence the specifics of your sales cycle. However, some principles are universally applicable – your type of business doesn’t matter.

Over my next few emails, I’ll break down this cycle into actionable steps that can pump up your sales.

Let’s start with the first and vital step. It’s actually simple:

Find people with money and a need.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, your customers from a few months ago might not be your customers today.

For example, someone might’ve lost their job and is now relying on the government to support them. But as soon as that stops, they might not be able to buy from you anymore.

On the other hand, some people might need your products more than they did before. There might be a new audience for you to tap into.

Because of this, now’s the perfect time to do some research and revisit your customer base.

Naturally, the first thing you must do is to see who can afford your offer now. And then, you must see if there’s a particular need that you can meet. Find out how your offer fits into this new context and who might need your help.

Once you’ve done this, you must figure out where your audience is.

Do they hang out on Instagram, Facebook, or maybe LinkedIn? Perhaps your audience is in church groups or trade associations? Whatever the answer, you must locate your audience so you can position yourself in front of them.

And finally, you need to see exactly what they want from you.

Many people and businesses just want to survive this period, instead of searching for nice-to-haves. You must structure your messaging to reflect this need if you want to get in front of your audience properly.

So, have you done any of this so far?

If not, you’ve got to start soon. There is an audience for what you’re selling…

You just need to know where to look.

Be Awesome,

Blair Singer

Ask Questions to Close

May 21, 2021 by sycreed

I used to be in your shoes. A long time ago, I struggled with closing. I had a little voice telling me all the reasons why I couldn’t do it.

But you know what?

I found that if you lay down the proper foundation, closing is a natural end to a conversation.

Let me tell you what I mean by that…

There are certain basic elements that must be in place in order to close a deal. If you have these basics down, closing is more like arranging to deliver goods than closing.

Why is that?

Because if you’re laying down the basics correctly, you’re priming your customer for closing.

Here’s a breakdown of what it should look like:

Assess Needs Accurately

First, you need to show an understanding of where they’re at in their world. You do this by restating their problem.

Why is this step necessary if the client told you their problems?

Restating the problem helps both you and the client to focus.

The person you’re talking to has a million other things going on in their life. But when you articulate the problem you bring the focus back to you. It also helps you focus as well.

Ask Question to Close

All of your conversations with the prospect should set you up for closing. And that includes the questions you ask.

So, it’s not enough to state a problem. Follow it up with a question like, “Do you recognize this as being a problem in your business?”

The prospect’s response may be something along the lines of, “Yeah, Of course.”

You can also ask questions like:

Is there anything you’d like to say about that?

Does this make sense to you?

These are trial close questions. They get the person to start saying yes and agreeing with you. But, that’s not all.

The questions also allow you to see if you’re on track.

Solution or WIIFM (What Is In If For Me)

After all that, it’s time for the solution you have configured for them. But don’t stop there.

Try framing the solution in two parts: feature and benefit.

The feature may include creating metrics and understanding where the numbers come from. But the value or benefit comes from maximizing the areas they’re already good at and coaching them in the weak areas.

Take these basic, but necessary steps and closing is just a matter of delivering the goods. With your trial close questions, they’re already saying yes.

#blairsinger #salesdogs #TeamCodeofHonor #RichDadAdvisors #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #Sales #PersonalDevelopment #Management

What’s your selling personality?

May 18, 2021 by sycreed

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that I like to talk about different sales personalities. I don’t believe that one size fits all molds for success.

What you really need to tap into is your individual sales personality.

What’s your selling personality?

You may say that your business’ selling protocol involves XYZ, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

Each member of your sales team has a different sales personality. If you’re not playing to their strengths, you’re not utilizing them properly.

In my book, SalesDogs, I talk more in-depth about the different personalities and strengths you may encounter on your sales team.

Do any of these types sound familiar?

Pit Bull
This is the stereotypical attack dog. These salespeople never take no for an answer and are very aggressive. All they need is a cuff to latch onto and they’ll never let go.
Poodle
This type of dog is charming and loves to be the center of attention. They’re the life of the party and always look good. Poodle salespeople know how to present well and how to get in front of people.

They’re great networkers and make sales based on that networking skill, not cold calling.
Chihuahua
The chihuahua sales member is a data freak.

If you google everything and are constantly on YouTube to gather data, you are a chihuahua personality. These people love the bits and bytes about competition. And, they’re the go-to person when you have questions about the ingredients of a product or the tech of a service.
Golden Retriever
On the other hand, if you have someone who loves doing things for people, you have a golden retriever on your hands. They’re out there doing favors and taking clients to lunch. They operate on the Law of Reciprocity… If you give, then you shall receive.

Golden retrievers love the interaction and make great teachers.
Basset Hound
Lastly, you have the basset hound personality. These salespeople have the natural ability to build instant rapport. Clients naturally trust them. This type really gets where you’re coming from.

If you have one on your team or you’re one yourself, you should focus on one-on-one deals. Basset hounds are really good at that.

So, the point of these personality types isn’t to pick the best one. It’s to get you to play to your team’s strengths.

Find out which personality types are in your kennel and coach them accordingly.

#blairsinger #salesdogs #TeamCodeofHonor #RichDadAdvisors #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #Sales #PersonalDevelopment #Management

Being your Authentic Self

May 16, 2021 by sycreed

I’ve been doing this for a long time. And, in my nearly 30 years of experience, there were many people that modelled me.

That’s okay if you’re new to the game. But, when it comes down to it, you need to be you.

Have you ever heard that you need to be like somebody else in order to be successful in your life?

You know, I’m a big advocate of modelling certain behaviors in order to learn something new. But, only to a certain extent. When you don’t know anything, modelling is not a bad strategy.

But at the end of the day, the secret to being able to make a lot of money in sales or in business is being your authentic self.

Now, I know that may sound trite to you. However, there’s one thing that I’ve found out after working with thousands of people all over the world.

There’s still a belief out there that, “I’m not good enough,” and “I have to be like somebody else in order to be successful.” This is true particularly when it comes to sales.

On the other side of the argument are the sales managers and business owners that believe that everybody on their team has to be just like them.

And you know, in my experience, that’s just not true.

Think about the famous basketball player Shaquille O’Neal. This guy was a seven-foot 300-pound center in the NBA. And, he was great at it!

But, imagine if all of a sudden he decided he wanted to be a horse jockey.

What’s going to happen?

The poor horse is going to die for one thing. And, he’ll never be competitive.

Being a jockey isn’t playing to his authentic self.

Is that any better or different than you trying to be somebody you’re not?

You need to play to your strengths.

Think about all those diagnostics and review programs that give you your strengths and weaknesses. Once you get the analysis, what does the coaching team normally say?

They tell you what you need to work on your weaknesses. But, I’m telling you right now that is a colossal waste of time.

Why in the world would you try to improve something you’re not designed to do?

The key in business is to play to your strengths based on what you’re good at. Don’t try to fix something that’s not fixable.

#blairsinger #salesdogs #TeamCodeofHonor #RichDadAdvisors #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #Sales #PersonalDevelopment #Management

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