9 Mistakes to Avoid in Sales & Marketing
After talking with thousands of our clients who are salespeople, managers, professionals, and business owners, here are nine of the most common mistakes they say people make in sales and marketing.
- You think you’re selling your service or product, when in fact you’re selling yourself. A business owner in Baltimore told me that she could not bring herself to fire one of her salespeople because he was so tenacious and persistent. So much so that his prospects told her they would do business with her if it wasn’t for his obnoxious behavior. I told her that pit bulls are also tenacious…but not everybody wants one.
Malcolm Gladwell said that his N.Y. Times #1 best selling book, Blink, is about the first two seconds of contact with others; a time when first impressions are made and people make accurate decisions about you. He says that we need to take charge of the first two seconds to control our first impressions. They are what make you stand apart from others and get you remembered first. There is no way you can sell your product or service this quickly. The first thing you’re selling and the first thing people are buying is you. If they don’t like you, they’ll buy from someone else.
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- Don’t expect instant results when marketing. Current research has found that people have to see you, see your name, or hear your name 6-10 times before they trust you enough to buy from you. And 71% of the purchasing decision is based upon trust between the prospect and the customer. The same research found that 92% of salespeople stop calling on prospects after only three contacts, yet 70% of customers won’t even make an appointment or buy from you until after five contacts. If there is a magic number you feel you must stop at, make it five.
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- As long as the prospect is using your competitor never stop marketing to them because things will change. If they’re using your competitor, this tells you that they have a problem and they need a solution to it. Your problem is that they’re using your competitor. But during that company’s or individual’s lifetime things will change. Decision-makers come and go. Money comes and goes. Needs come and go. And your competitors come and go.
Harvey Mackay, Swim with the Sharks, said that if you can’t be the #1 vendor on the prospect’s list, you better make sure that you’re #2. When things change, and they will, the prospect is not calling #3, #4, or #5 on her list. She’s only calling #2. You better have an organized program that allows for multiple contacts; a program that allows you to be persistent without becoming a pest. Unfortunately, people don’t have an organized plan to do this. Their marketing strategy is hope. “I hope they remember me. I hope they call me. I hope the business will fall into my lap.” Hope is not a marketing strategy.
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- Referrals come through marketing, yet 95% of people have no active plan to get referrals. Everyone says referrals are the best way to get business, but they never do anything about it. A referral is half sold before you show up. With many of the traditional ways of marketing no longer working, or because salespeople are limited by Federal and state laws, a referral program today makes even more sense. Referrals come from an organized marketing plan.
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- Companies and salespeople don’t cross-sell. Mark Stevens, author of the best selling Your Marketing Sucks, found that the majority of companies never cross-sell their existing customer base even though they know “it is easier to sell something to an existing customer than to a prospect who is unfamiliar with your business.” He found there are three primary reasons companies don’t cross-sell: (1) they just don’t think of it; (2) salespeople think it’s too pushy; and (3) the staff is uncomfortable doing it and feels it is unprofessional. He said that we need to pick the low-hanging fruit first.
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- Don’t send information that only promotes your product or service and think that this is marketing. This is one of the most serious mistakes we have seen people make. Your marketing piece will look like 15 other junk mail pieces you get each day and throw out yourself.
Send them something that is fun, educational, or humorous. Send something that will stop them in their tracks and get them to notice and remember you. Something that will capture their imagination and make them want to show it to others. Detroit new car salesman Joe Girard, How to Sell Anything to Anybody, and listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for four years as the #1 salesman in the world, sent out 13,000 cards every month to every customer and prospect with a simple message: “I like you. Joe Girard.” He said all he wanted was two seconds of your time each month in order to: (1) sell himself first, (2) get remembered, and (3) use the cards as part of his on-going referral program.
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- Companies don’t have a customer retention program. They talk about it, but do nothing about it. Most companies’ idea of customer retention is to try and save an account when the customer has already made a decision to leave. By then it’s too late. A Bain & Co. study published in the Harvard Business Review found that the average organization loses 50% of its customers every 5 years; and the cost of replacing them can be 6-7 times more expensive than winning them in the first place. The study showed that a 5% increase in customer retention can result in profit increases of at least 20% and as much as 80%. Instead of trying to find new clients, keep the ones you have and cross-sell them.
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- Let people know how they can find you when they’re ready to buy, not just when you need to make quota. Robert Liodice, president and CEO of the National Association of Advertisers, speaking before a group of marketing executives, said “Customers want to be involved with your message. Capture their attention in intriguing ways. Get them comfortable with you. Sell without really selling. Let the customer know we’re always here when they need us.”
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- People forget the four basics of marketing: (1) get the customer’s attention; (2) get your message read and saved; (3) get you remembered; and (4) get your message shown to others. With peoples’ time and attention short, and with the Internet information overload, you have to accomplish this in the shortest time possible.
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If the traditional ways of marketing no longer work, you’ve got to do something different. Start your own personal sales and marketing department with You’ve Got Contacts D-I-Y Sales & Marketing Email Postcards ™. |