Good sales is just good service.
When you boil away any slick suits and used-car-salesman tactics, what you’re left with is simply serving people what they need and desire.
If we want to influence someone to say “yes” to us, we first need to convince them that our offering serves them well - better than any alternative.
The problem with sales is - everybody’s needs are different.
So before you can sell to someone, you need to work out how you can serve them.
If you want to make more product sales, you need to serve your prospects.
If you want to make repeat sales, you need to serve your customers.
If you want to sell through others, you need to serve your partners and affiliates.
Again, each group has distinct needs. The way you serve affiliates will be different to the way you serve prospects.
If we try to serve everyone the same, nobody really gets what they need, or even want.
If you’re building a product right now, and you’re expecting to get a foothold in a market by selling through affiliates, take a moment to ask them what they want and need from your product in order to promote your product most effectively. (Think about partnerships and synergies - how can your offering, together with your partners offering, broaden a market or create more sales for everyone involved?)
If you want to build relationships and secure life long sales from your current customers, ask what they want and need. (Listen to your customers. Do what you can to avoid ever disappointing them or letting them down - while working to pleasantly surprise them over and over - like their own personal fairy godmother.)
If you want to turn prospects into customers, find out about their needs. (What problems do they want you to solve? What do they need to see and hear before they trust you? What can you do to make your sales process easier to understand?)
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9 responses so far ↓
1 Scotty Walker // May 8, 2010 at 12:44 am
Brent, nice to see you back in the inbox. Good post. Concur. / Scotty
P.S. Loving Market Samurai updates especially the “Update Selected Only” in Rank Tracker
2 Rich Russell // May 8, 2010 at 2:02 am
It seems to me that there is a trend these days, particularly with technology, to come up with a solution where there was no problem.
We can produce a laptop accessory that cleans your drains. Let’s do it and think about who might want it later.
The problem is, they seem to be able to get away with it. There are people who will buy something they never knew they wanted, just because it is new.
I still believe it is safer to ask people what they want before you go ahead and build it.
Rich
3 Edmund Pelgen // May 8, 2010 at 8:03 am
Bret,
Great and timely post. It really helped be see that this is exactly the process we are going through at work and personally. You’ve given me a great angle to hang my rethinking on.
I think one thing that is critical in mind is that as you choose who you are serving, make sure that it is a group that will serve you best in return by buying your stuff.
Cheers
Edmund
4 Robert Somerville // May 8, 2010 at 5:07 pm
There are many ways to serve people. The. Key is finding the way that suits you.
5 Bryan Foster // May 8, 2010 at 11:48 pm
Hi,
Thanks for the post. I enjoyed it, but almost didn’t.
I’m not sure how difficult this would be, but I think it would be useful if e-mail marketers could give some indication in the subject line regarding the context within which they made initial contact to the prospect/customer. For instance, I mean some way of letting me know that my interest in your e-mail stems from my interest in and subsequent purchase of purchase of Market Samura. The reason I think this is important is that I’m in purge mode right now and did not connect you name with Market Samura and came very close to deleting without reading. If I’m on a list it’s usually because I had some initial interest, but if I can’t remember it and I getting too much e-mail, out they go.
6 Luke // May 11, 2010 at 11:48 am
Great post Brent
7 Summer Beach Wear // May 23, 2011 at 6:19 am
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9 Maria // Nov 1, 2011 at 7:24 am
you are right…. Its very difficult to satisfy a customer and to have a good reputation in the market. I takes time and a lot of effort….
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