Wow, before I jump in, I want to apologize for being so side-tracked from this blog. I have been incredibly busy and my focus has been elsewhere – but I have a lot to share and I promise to pour it out here as much as I can.
I attended a Business Intensive Seminar on Sales last Friday. The seminar was put on by a business coach who had been referred to me by a friend. I’ll admit I was skeptical, and I battled back-n-forth in my head all morning about whether or not to go. I pretty much had myself convinced to stay until I told myself “you are going. The only reason you don’t want to is because it’s outside of your comfort zone. So you are going.”
I am SO happy I went.
I really have a different perspective on sales. There were a lot of concepts that were thrown out as food for thought, as well as concrete ways to set sales goals and figure out both lead and sales conversion ratios. However, the main thing that struck a cord with me was the idea that, during any given sales pitch, you are focused on one of two things:
Money
How you’ll make a difference – meaning your service or your product.
If you are focused on how you’ll make a difference to the person you are pitching, you will be far more successful in your pitch than if you are focused on money, or closing the deal. The more you are focused on the money, the more you decrease your chances of converting the sale.
Funnily enough, I can use said Business Coache’s pitch to me as a prime example. When he was pitching me, I felt strongly that he cared about making a difference in my business. He had me sold on his group coaching program and made it sound like he’d send me info and it was all easy-going. The next email I received jumped right into needing my payment for the group coaching, and needing immediately or I’d miss the boat (group). Well, that completely threw me off. I almost immediately backed out and said I would look into it for the next round. If he had stuck with the original approach and made it seem like getting my money wasn’t the MOST urgent part of the process, I would have been happy to stay on course. Instead, I decided to attend this one-time seminar at about 1/20th the cost of the group-coaching program.
I think this is important for all of us who don’t have a sales background. It’s hard not to focus on whether the prospect is going to say “yes” or “no” – which is focusing on the money. Focus on how you are helping them and they will feel lucky to be in business with you. You always want it to feel like a win-win, especially in our industry, where you are looking for long-term relationships.
Even if you aren’t the sales rep for your company, this concept should translate to all of the PR and marketing you do for your company as well.
Great e-commerce job opportunity with 5 Minutes for Mom
I thought that I would post this e-commerce job opportunity in case any of you might be interested in working on an e-commerce site (uploading images, writing / editing product descriptions, graphics work) before plunging into running your own online boutique. 5 Minutes for Mom is offering a great work-from-home opportunity for the right woman with the right skills and willingness to commit to some decent work hours each week ($$$).
In brief, from 5MinutesforMom.com job description:
If html, css, ftp and other techy stuff doesn’t scare you and you are a skilled writer, with solid grammar skills and the ability to quickly write creative product descriptions, you just might become our new team member. If you also know Photoshop and happen to be a whiz at isolating images (removing backgrounds), you’re getting closer.
We are work-at-home moms and we want to offer this position to another work-at-home mom. Our site is all about promoting moms and so we are excited to be able to share the opportunity to work at home.
Click on the following link to read more about this WAHM job opportunity:
http://www.5minutesformom.com/3502/ecommerce-job/
Good luck!!