The answer is simple; the Selling Magic system doesn’t rely on salespeople! Salespeople get too busy just like business owners are! Instead, we create the perfect selling system that acts like a sales assistant and is customized to the business objectives. It’s a system that works like magic with push button simplicity. If we think about it, every business wants to come in first place all the time. At least I think they do. One of the hardest things to do in business is to develop new customers. Getting the customer to think of you first is what TOMA is all about. 

Some businesses are Victims of TOMA!

In today’s business it’s all about “Top Of Mind Awareness” and being in the first position. You can’t win sales if you aren’t in first place and at the top of your prospects or customers mind – especially when they are ready to purchase. The Selling Magic system works because we create Top Of Mind Awareness with prospects and customers to protect a business from the competition. Selling the old fashioned way is a problem for many businesses.

The rules of sales have changed, and some businesses haven’t changed with the new rules. If you haven’t changed the way you sell and how you market to customers, you can fall below 2nd or 3rd to create a challenge to get back on top.

Businesses lose billions of dollars in revenue from customers and prospects that fall through the cracks. So I ask the question, is your company one of them? 

Staying in Touch
Poor service is the number one reason why customers leave, and not paying enough attention to customers is one of the main aspects of poor service. As part of an effort to deliver excellent service and improve customer loyalty, businesses need a more systematic way to communicate with their customers. We enjoy helping business owners discover a system that helps improve communication and retain more customers

Over 5 Million Businesses need an Affordable, automated solution to the following problems.

Stop Losing Customers
“On average US companies lose 50% of their customers every 5 years. …Experience has shown that disloyalty stunts performance by 25 to 50 percent, sometimes more.”
- from ‘The Loyalty Effect’ by Frederich F. Reicheld and published in The Harvard Business Review.
Why so Many Prospects Fall Through the Cracks
In a highly competitive environment, the pressure on sales people to make quota is tremendous. That’s why the vast majority focus on the lowest hanging fruit — the 5 to 10% of leads and prospects who are ready to buy “ right now” or within the next 30 days.

This morning the fresh thought of the day is how is the business world is changing. It was just the other night when we were having dinner with some friends and the conversation came up about business and the future. This has always been a topic I enjoy talking about. My interest in this subject of technology trends run high and deep.

I think about my grand daughter who will soon be 10 years old. The way she has taken to the computer is like a duck to water. It’s as though she is wired for computers and the way she thinks and where her trusts lie and her comfort level. It a few short years, she will enter the workforce and along with her, all the other kids who are ahead of her with the same mental wiring.

The older crowd including me is not wired like her. This is the point of my thought. My friends at dinner were very challenged with computers and although they have adapted, they are typical of older adults who haven’t embraced technology. Some of the texting, ipod, my space,video and other new technology on the web is foreign to my friends. My granddaughter on the other had is very aware of the world of the internet.

Traffic Woes and What to Plan For

I suggested to my friends that the time will come when traffic will NOT always be so bad. I predicted that the transformation of many traditional jobs will change and many more people will work from home as technology allows business to become more productive with workers. I cited a few examples and how some jobs can easily be done at home.

Sales Positions will change dramatically

I suggested that the effective nature of a salesperson will change and is changing now. Here are the primary reasons.

1. More and more buyers are using the internet to gain research on products before they purchase. When they purchase, they often purchase online. If they talk to a salesperson, it is often only because they had no other option or that they just wanted to confirm what they learned on their information quest.

2. Buyers are learning that they don’t need to talk to a salesperson to get information. They can search through the internet as more and more information is joining the web space and as video and audio grow, the comfort level grows.

What excites me about these trends is simple, Selling Magic, is on track with these trends and we help businesses increase their position. We automate the selling process and don’t always require a salesperson who is on the streets hitting the block walls of business. As the trends we just wrote about continue, the strategy that Selling Magic adopts will work better and better.

Since we use technology to link buyers to the web, our customers are enjoying the linking we are providing. Well, time to get back to work.

www.sellingmagic.com

As always, have a great day!

Food for Thought -

What happens when a giant retailer takes a bite out of Identity products? You wake up and think - That was easy! WOW,  anyone who sells identity products just took a deep breath. Think about how this news changes the future of an industry.

Staples is poised to take advantage of their e-commerce capabilities. If you are a small retailer with customers in this market space, now is the time to secure your ASI business and make it easy for your customers to buy from you. Remind customers that you are their partner, come up with new ideas and use e-commerce to maintain this segment of business. 

Staples Acquires American Identity
As first reported in a Breaking News Alert this morning, Staples Inc. announced that it has acquired Counselor Top 40 distributor American Identity (asi/120601) from Republic Financial Corp. Financial terms of the deal were not released. Staples, the publicly-held (Nasdaq: SPLS) office products company, believes this deal will give the company a solid entry into the growing ad specialty market. “We’re interested in expanding our capabilities so we can consistently offer new products to our customers. We think this deal helps us do that,” said Jay Baitler, executive vice president of Staples Contract Division, in an exclusive interview with Counselor. “We had done some experiments regarding promotional products in some of our retail outlets, and decided this was a great market to investigate further.”

American Identity will continue to operate as a separate business and will provide products through Staples’ North American Delivery and North American retail businesses. Henry says the company will keep its name and will still be based in Overland Park, KS. In 2006, Staples Inc. had sales of $18.2 billion and operated more than 1,900 retail stores in 22 countries.

How Selling Magic can help

Our Selling Magic System is designed to maintain TOMA with your customers. Protecting your business is where we exceed in our selling program. Every customer is important and as the business of business moves towards using on-line ordering, salespeople become less vital and e-commerce more important.

Business buying trends indicate that sales people are becoming the last contact instead of the primary contact. Business decisions are being made from information on the internet and it is only going to get easier. How a business integrates an e-commerce strategy is critical to its survival

By Steve Martinez

When someone starts their career in selling or a new business, it’s a constant battle to win new accounts and develop customers. The initial contact for new accounts is the dreaded gate keeper. How a business or a salesperson greets this opponent determines victory or defeat. If a salesperson treats the gate keeper like the enemy, the enemy wins every time. The gate keeper has all the power and control to determine who gets past them. Fortunately, there are ways to turn the gate keeper into a customer.

The Two Faces Of The Gate Keeper

One of the first things we must recognize is that gate keepers don’t want to be cruel to everyone they meet. Most of the time, the vicious gate keeper is really a charming and lovely person who enjoys meeting people. The gate keeper is the receptionist who just happens to sit at the front desk and answers the telephone. In most cases, the receptionists are hired for their pleasant personality and vivacious nature. However, one of the assignments a receptionist gets is to ward off salespeople with two significant weapons. The weapons are misinformation and a license to be cruel to solicitors pedaling anything.

When a gate keeper hears your voice on the telephone for the first time or when you walk into their door, they are sizing you up by your actions and your tone of voice. The last thing you want to do is tell them you are a salesperson. Yes, the last thing because the minute you do and they recognize you as a solicitor, all the defenses go up. You instantly become the enemy and the weapons of misinformation come out. The receptionist might sound friendly but the veil of deception is in full mode.

Fortunately, there are two faces of a gate keeper. The friendly face and full disclosure of information is available from every gate keeper when you don’t act like a typical salesperson. When I was first taught to sell, I was told to introduce myself and ask for the buyer on cold calls. This action led to rejection and limited success. My winning strategy turns the table on the gate keeper when I appear to be lost and need information. The result of exposing a helpless nature reveals the helpful, friendly and resourceful receptionist to provide all the assistance I need. The secret of triggering the right response is to ask for help and not appear to be a solicitor.

How To Trigger The Friendly Receptionist

There are triggers that will reveal the friendly receptionist or the vicious gate keeper. The tactics you use will determine how successful you are.

• Unless you have an appointment with a client, never ever walk into a business with the look of a solicitor. This includes carrying a briefcase or introducing yourself as a salesperson. The only time this will work is when you are famous or a celebrity. The gate keeper will recognize who you are and the weapons of misinformation will come out. You will hear things like, “all of the decisions are made at the corporate office.
• If you know the name of the contact you want to reach, act like a friend and use their first name. Use a friendly tone of voice and don’t tell them who you are unless asked. If asked, tell them you have been trying to reach this person for a while. Keep the tone of voice the same as you would with your best friend. There is a noticeable difference in voice tone and the receptionist will hear the difference.
• Acting like you need help is powerful in cold calling. The most vicious of gate keepers will not be able to resist helping you. One of my favorite lines is “Im hoping you can help me, I’m not sure if your company can use my service. Does your company have a need for _____________.” The question is a plea for help and that is all the receptionist hears. The receptionist doesn’t hear that I’m a salesperson. The gatekeeper hears someone needing help and they comply with good information.
• Relax, really relax to the point that you feel like you are with friends on the telephone or when in front of the toughest gate keeper. It is amazing how well this works over the telephone or in person. If you wear glasses, a great gesture is to remove your eye glasses as you begin talking to the person. This does two things, it assures the person you aren’t carrying anything and if you can expose your wrists, it verifies your openness to them with your body language.
• Slow down and take time with your questions. Cold calling is not a speed sport and the more time you spend, the more information you will get. One tactic is to almost leave and then turn around to ask another question. Some people refer to this as the Colombo tactic from the television show. The action of almost leaving and then asking another question usually almost always gets additional information. It works because the minute the receptionist thinks you are leaving, they drop their guard some more. This gives you an advantage for the next question.
• Don’t be afraid to challenge misinformation. One of the things I have always enjoyed when hearing something that didn’t quite seem right, is to challenge the statement. I’ve learned that if you challenge something a gate keeper says that is deceptive, they can’t uphold the lie more than twice. So, when this happens, challenge the statement in a friendly manner to get clarification.

First Impressions Score The Most Points

There is only one opportunity to make a good first impression with a gate keeper. The first impression will score the most points and give you time. The objective is to get more time and information. Don’t sabotage the entire sales call by treating gate keepers or prospects like opponents instead of friends. You will get more information which will lead to more customers.

Selling Magic.com

How would you answer an aspiring salesperson who asks — “How long does a typical sale take from start to finish?” I thought about this answer and realized Mother Nature has answered this question since time began. Selling is like planting seeds so we can reap the fruit of our efforts. We just have to know where and when to plant the right seeds and how often to water them to get good results. 

Mother Nature and Selling

The world has different types of climates, soils, plants and trees which are like selling to different types of businesses and customers. I can see a clear example in my back yard where four years ago we planted a tree. The tree we planted has only grown three feet and has not created the shade we wanted for the area. It apparently wasn’t a good match for the soil or our climate. However, a small tree sprouting on its own, a few feet from the planted tree has reached the height of the tree we planted. One started from a seed and the other had a five foot head start.

Each tree has the same watering schedule, soil and climate, so what is the difference? The difference is the application of the seed. If we performed better research before selecting a tree, we would have learned that our selection was NOT suited for our climate. We should have planted a shade tree that thrives in our climate and grows at a rapid rate. Our mistake was corrected by Mother Nature. If we were a business, and Mother Nature was the competition, you can clearly understand the advantage of experience.

What would happen if we applied Mother Nature’s s selection process to customers with the seeds of opportunity? We would certainly get better results and could blow away the competition! It just takes is a little research to determine which customers are better suited for our products or services and plant the right seeds. When we focus our efforts on planting the right seeds with the right customers, we will grow our business faster.

It was enlightening today. You know what I mean by this. . . there are just some day’s that shine brighter than others and perhaps the thoughts that run through the mind are deeper than before. Maybe we are ripe for the surge of thinking along a specific path.

Well, anyway, my thoughts were about my customer and where my customers come from, why they buy and what makes them buy with passion. Basiclly I took my  customer files out and began thinking about them because of an exercise one of my customers is going through.

You have to understand that when I work with clients, they are looking for sales and marketing advice and I’m the consultant or mentor they  turn to for this direction. I currently have a client that realized that they don’t know where thier customers are coming from and why they buy from them. Althought this might seem like a scarry thought. I have learned over time, a very long time that this isn’t all that un common. Many businesses don’t take the time to look at thier customer profiles and try to understand why customers come to them and what the key reasons for buying are. Without this information, a company can drift from the core reasons a business was started and with a moving target of customer trends, this could keep the company  out of the main stream of interest from the masses.

This gave thougtht to this post. Primarily because I was thinking about my business and why customers come to me and what they want in return. I will give this additional thought and post the answer soon. What do you think? Do you know who your customers are and why they come to you? All the best.

What has changed?

My Grand daughter asked me about my first job the other day and it got me thinking about how things have changed. Taylor is 11 and already thinking about what she wants to do in her life. I told her that my first job was at an instant print shop and it was fun because you never knew what the next job was. It was called instant printing because most customers would wait at the counter, have a cup of coffee while their job was printed. It seems so long ago but yet it was only 30 years ago.

In a few years Taylor will be working and if she needed something printed, where do you think she will go? She will probably use the last company that printed something for the company. But, what if they don’t have a printer, where would she turn to? Would she look up printing in the yellow pages or refer to a rolodex and drive to the local print shop and wait in line? Probably not! I don’t think she knows what a rolodex card is and she won’t use a phone book, it’s too old fashioned.

I don’t use a phone book today, whenever I see a phone book on the porch, it goes directly in the trash. I’m like many decision makers in business, who prefer to go on-line, research and find what you are looking for. For this article, I thought it would be fun to experiment, so I searched for a local print shop in Riverside, California. I simply typed – Printing, Riverside and whoever came up first would be my first call. In this experiment, Printmystuff was at the top of the list. This is the power of the internet and how it can impact sales.

You know this got me thinking about my own business. So, I did a Google search for printing, sales automation which is the main focus of my business and I was pleasantly surprised to find my website listed at the top of the list. I would encourage you to do your own Google search experiment about your industry and company and maybe even your name to see where you come up. I looked up my name, Steve Martinez and discovered my sales article references at the top. The bottom line is that many printing buyers have changed the way the search for printers and services. Let’s face it; many of the old methods of reaching prospects don’t work today. The digital highway is replacing the asphalt highway and this relates to salespeople too! It is one of the reasons we meet people on the internet with web meetings and demonstrations instead of spending time in traffic.

What Changes Will Increase Sales

If your best prospects are looking for a printer, you better not be relying solely on a rolodex card memo pad or a telephone book listing to increase your sales. Fortunately, this also means that if your competition is banking on these old methods, you have a nice opportunity to reach Internet savvy prospects by embracing technology to make an impression on-line with them. Increasing your web presence and email marketing are the tools you can use to create impact.

One of the reasons printing is a natural for email marketing is that customer files are often sent online and most print orders come over the Internet, it makes ideal sense to use email marketing as a communication method for increasing sales.

When I first started in printing, the size of the parking lot and the number of people working the front counter made a big difference in how much business was done. Not anymore, the digital highway is where the action is and if a printing operation can increase its web presence and show up on the desktop of prospects and customers, sales will increase. When we create and design a sales action plan, we recommend our clients invest in email marketing as a tool for increasing sales. The goal of a business sales and marketing campaign is to reach TOMA! Top of Mind Awareness. Email marketing is a tool that can reach the prospects at their desktop. In many cases, it reminds them of all the services a printer can do and it sparks a new order.