These are my highlights from Chet Holmes’ Ultimate Sales Machine. I highly recommend buying this book and reading it for yourself, but until then, this should get you going.
Not only did the implementation of the Gold Service improve sales, it also stabilized the business. Where the owner used to hope every month that customers would respond to his fliers, he now knows, going into each month, how many people are signed up for the Gold Service cleaning. It made the business more stable in every way and it transformed sales performance.
This was not easy or immediate. Every salesperson started off not really doing the required activities. But when they were put on the hot seat by me, with all 50 of the other salespeople as well as the president of the company, the vice president of sales, and their sales manager all listening, they quickly realized they had better respect what we were going to inspect.
I call this “education-based marketing,” and here’s a line you should write down: you will attract way more buyers if you are offering to teach them something of value to them than you will ever attract by simply trying to sell them your product or service.
1. List your strategic objectives. Look at those listed for the newspaper company as a guideline. Then do a workshop with your team on each one of them. It will be profound. Ask your staff, “What would make us more respected?” Do a workshop on it. Then ask them, “What would position us as an expert in the eye of our buyer?” and so on. Go through all 13 strategic objectives listed for the newspaper example, and workshop each of them with your team. Those will be very fruitful workshops. 2. Do some market research on your industry over time. Keep track of everything you find out that could be of value to your customers. Dedicate some time to this every week until you’re sure you’ve found your smoking gun.
To put that in a business context, “When best buyers buy, other best buyers buy faster.”
I have a rule about selling: never lie. Make sure you’re telling the truth. By wording our telephone approach carefully, we were telling the truth, but the impression we gave was that it was already happening. By mentioning names of other top firms, we got interest from their competitors pretty darn fast. We also made certain that it was the truth. We were in touch with all the large firms. In fact, we called all of them on the same day. If someone checked, another firm might say, “Well, yes, we’ve heard from them, but we haven’t set anything yet ” – or what ever – but the point is that we were, in fact, “in touch” with all the large firms all at once.
All this information was available in hundreds of sources, but what we did was put it all together into one source – our orientation – and the results were an amazing educational experience and snapshot of the legal profession from a very high level
I’ll state it again: while you’re doing everything else, have a special effort dedicated to just the dream clients.
I’ve used this approach in hundreds of cases, especially for myself. I’ve gotten 60 of the Fortune 500 as clients through the pigheaded determination I’m recommending for you. And to tell you the truth, most of them were not that difficult to get. The point is that massive and diligent follow-up can penetrate just about any company if you are determined.
First, the body copy must focus on your prospect, not on you. The biggest mistake most advertisers make is focusing on themselves
This story illustrates many points. If I just said to you, “Make sure you stay in your prospect’s face even more if things aren’t going right,” that sounds good, but telling this story dramatically makes the point. I sell training programs that teach the importance of better follow-up, so this story certainly shows the importance of that. What are you selling and what story illustrates the need for your product or service?
When you’ve identified someone who is a dream prospect or you find a dream neighborhood of your best buyers, you need an organized, consistent, and relentless program to win them over as clients for life – no matter how many times they tell you they’re not interested.
The offer letter we sent to these CEOs said something like, “As you know, we rely on the manufacturers to be successful. To that end, we have commissioned a study and found that you have some serious problems. To help make certain that manufacturers are successful, we are now making this information available at no cost to you.” You’ll notice that I use this approach often. When you seek to serve your industry, it justifies your offering to do this for them. As previously stated, if you really want to serve your market, do some research that will be of value to them. Apparently, our letter was compelling, as it resulted in a 7 percent response rate. Most direct mail is lucky if it receives a 1 percent response rate.
How else can you work with affiliates? On your sunset cruise, you may want to invite a diamond dealer to have a jewelry show on your boat and maybe even give you a commission for sales made. Or go to that diamond dealer and offer to give a sunset cruise to anyone who pays cash for more than $5,000 worth of diamonds. If you are a diamond dealer, you can go to a boat showroom and offer to do a show for any clients who buy boats. Or give a coupon. The possibilities are endless. It’s easy to increase sales if you use some of the concepts in this book.
Here’s a review of the key points to remember about building your core story: • Use market data, not product data. • Set the buying criteria in your favor. • Find the “smoking gun,” the one thing that undeniably positions you over everyone else. • Make sure you hit their pain points. • Include your own pitch for your product or service only after you have covered the education thoroughly.
In the words of Jay Abraham, “If you truly believe that what you have is useful and valuable to your clients, then you have a moral obligation to try to serve them in every way possible”
Remember that features tell, benefits sell. Don’t tell them what it is, but rather why they need it
So when someone throws you an objection, if you isolate the objection you have just moved a huge step closer to closing the sale. Now it’s up to you to lock down the sale. You say, “So if I can find a way for you to afford this product, you will buy it?” If the client says yes, you have just closed the sale. You will now need to be more creative in the financing of the product or service or help create more desire, showing how not buying it will cost them a lot more in the long run.
Your job, Chet, is to help people make that decision to buy. That is the greatest weakness in folks – they’re not good at making decisions. If you truly believe that your prospect should benefit from your product or service, it’s your moral obligation to help them make a decision and get on with their lives.
Remember, trust and respect are the largest part of the sale. Every minute that a prospect doesn’t hear from you after you leave their office, his respect falls off. Out of sight, out of mind.
Every company today should have a major initiative to build email databases and relationships with its buyers. Drive as many folks to your Web site as you can, as often as you can, and for every reason you can think of.
All you can control is your perception and your attitude. The good news is that perception and attitude are all you need to control to achieve your goals and dreams in life and business.
Thomas Edison, who invented the lightbulb, the movie camera, and dozens of other ingenious things, said, “Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.” You can actually pose something to your subconscious as you go to sleep and wake up with the solution in mind. Napoleon Hill wrote that you should “demand” that your subconscious give you the solutions or answers that you desire.
Most people spend more time planning a vacation than they do planning a life.