Rick Baker Thought Posts
Left Menu Space Holder

About the author

Name of author Rick Baker, P.Eng.

E-mail me Send mail
Follow me LinkedIn Twitter

Search

Calendar

<<  April 2025  >>
MoTuWeThFrSaSu
31123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
2829301234
567891011

View posts in large calendar

Recent Comments

Comment RSS

Sales Tweets #293

by Rick Baker
On Aug 31, 2011
Sales Tweet #293 Your 'prospect' claims to want the lowest price. That’s it. The lowest price…what do you do?
 
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet
Remember this...the reality: the cold, hard facts like lowest price aren’t the things that matter. What matters is ‘how people feel’, how they perceive the experience. Neither selling nor buying is about ‘lowest price’. ‘The lowest price’ is fleeting ...it will soon be forgotten. It will always be forgotten. However, perceptions will not. When the buyer feels good...we have sold. If the buyer maintains a good feeling over time then we have a business relationship. Buyers need help ‘packaging’ their purchase. So...help them ‘package’ their purchase.

Tags:

Sales | Thought Tweets

Permalink | Comments (0)

Sales Tweets #283

by Rick Baker
On Aug 17, 2011
Sales Tweet #283 Develop ‘pet names’ and ‘pet sayings’ to remind your Sales people… “Size Does Matter”.
 
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet
Sometimes Sales people focus on wee pieces of low-hanging fruit. That can happen when it is easy to sign up wee pieces...so they do it…even if your business cannot afford to serve those wee clients. Maybe you need some strategies and sayings to address this problem? For example: “Well that's a really good start: you’ve picked up a nice little blip on the radar screen…”

Tags:

Humour | Sales | Thought Tweets

Permalink | Comments (0)

Sales Tweet #278

by Rick Baker
On Aug 10, 2011
Sales Tweet #278 Knowledge can backfire. Selling has little to do with the technical things you know and/or talk about.
 
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet
Does this sound familiar? ...As time goes on, you learn more and more about the product/service you sell. Human nature being what it is you cannot resist sharing with prospects all the technical stuff you know. You are brilliant and you want to light up the prospects’ offices. As you do this, you talk too much and you listen too little. You educate the customers. They applaud. But, your Sales fall off. You are all tied up in technical know-how and forgetting how Sales are achieved.

Tags:

Communication: Improving Communication | Sales | Thought Tweets

Permalink | Comments (0)

The Art of Good Questions

by Rick Baker
On Aug 4, 2011
While this probably has never been the subject of a scientific study, I believe the most-successful people of all time form the same crowd as the most-successful question askers of all time.
 
In some disciplines, this is self-evident: teachers, trial lawyers, philosophers, scientists, inventors, sales people, and market researchers come immediately to mind.
 
In those disciplines, the master-players all excel at The Art of Good Questions.
 
How about your discipline...your chosen field of business?
 
Could you and your people learn the Art of Good Questions?
 
The answer is - Yes.
 
Consider buying & selling as one example and think about it this way…
  • You are a sales person. You are on one side of a chasm…a wide, deep, dark, bottomless crevice…it looks like a mini-Grand Canyon, except it is pitch black and you can see nothing when you stand on the edge and look down
  • Your probable client is on the other side…too far to jump to be with you
  • You and probable clients have been here and there before…lots of your probable clients are in that wide, deep, dark, bottomless crevice…somewhere
  • You can do one of two things:
    1. You can do and say the same old things you have always done and said
    2. You can ask a terrific question that magically launches your probable client over the wide, deep, dark, bottomless crevice…over to your side
If you picked #2, well done, you know the The Art of Good Questions.

Tags:

Entrepreneur Thinking | Questions?: The Art of Asking Good Questions | Sales

Permalink | Comments (10)

Sales Tweet #267

by Rick Baker
On Jul 26, 2011
Sales Tweet #267 You want Clients? Learn from successful job seekers!
 
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet
Successful job seekers pave paths….directing them toward specific doors. Successful job seekers pave those paths well before they reach doors. When successful job seekers get to their doors they don’t beat down doors…they don’t even knock too hard!

Tags:

Sales | Thought Tweets

Permalink | Comments (0)

Sales Meeting – Agenda or No Agenda?

by Rick Baker
On Jul 21, 2011
Here’s a way to look at why a meeting agenda is an important tool and why sharing views on ‘Why are we meeting?’ are important.
 
Create an agenda, review it at least a day or two before the meeting. Then quickly review it when the meeting starts. If, at the beginning of the meeting, people are on different wavelengths then that’s a big problem.
 
Something must be done to correct that problem.
 
Here is a set of steps you can discuss with your sales people…
  1. Always have meeting agendas.
  2. When the meeting with the Client/Probable Client begins, confirm the agenda...if there is any hesitation on the Client’s part...take the time to understand the situation and decide whether the situation is better or worse than the situation you thought was agreed to under the agenda.
  3. If it is worse then step back and do not start the meeting until you believe something has changed for the better. If nothing changes for the better....you should recognize the Client probably does not want to do the business meeting with you at this time. Have strategies ready for that situation. Let the Client know you are sensing maybe this not the right time for the Client to do the meeting. See how the Client reacts. Perhaps, insist on returning later rather than proceeding. Use your judgment.
  4. If the situation is better than expected under the agenda...try to go with it. Try to understand what has changed and what the Client is now thinking and wanting. Then decide whether or not you can get that done, and make money. If you feel you are not prepared then maybe you will be uncomfortable and that may be a good reason to re-book the meeting? Or, maybe you will sense a major opportunity and go with the flow as it takes you to even greater success than anticipated?
  5. Rarely do people want to stick with the pre-planned agenda. That comes out when the agenda is being reviewed at the very beginning of the meeting....so, the meeting rarely goes exactly as anticipated.
  6. So, try to adjust what you say to optimize/maximize the situation. The main point: do not assume the situation…understand the situation.
  7. Never give “canned” presentations or spiels...and, rarely use the same approach twice even if you are selling the same thing. [about the underlining…I have found many Sales people really struggle with this one. Ordinary Sales people really struggle with it.]
  8. The keys are: understanding what the Client wants...and recognizing situations change. Situations will change between the times you book the meetings/set the agendas and when you visit to have the meetings. Don’t assume or take chances: figure out those changes.

Tags:

Sales

Permalink | Comments (0)

Copyright © 2012. W.F.C (Rick) Baker. All Rights Reserved.