Category: How To Differentiate

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How To Create Believers with Storytelling Selling with Michele Kelly #288

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How To Create Believers with Storytelling Selling with Michele Kelly #288

Michele Kelly is an author, co-founder and CEO of K+L Storytellers.  She helps companies who need to tell their story,  especially those who care as much about living their values as they do about making a profit.  In this  episode,  we discuss storytelling selling. We discuss the process for creating believers by telling your story.  Believers become customers!  Believe me!   And get this, we did it by sharing stories!

Egos Lothos Pathos Selling

Aristotle defined the structure of the story  humans have shared for thousands of years.

Ethos; building trust, Logos: using using logic and rational thinking, and last Pathos; drawing on emotion and empathy.  Good stories contain all of these.

When selling, use the Hero Journey story, but make your customer the hero.  You, the seller, are the guide e.g Sam in Lord of the Rings, or Jack in Titanic.

Design the story where there is a situation with some challenge. Then one day, an incident happens. This creates drama and from this incident an opportunity arises. Now you,  the guide, shines.

Sales Rep is the Story Guide

The sales rep is the guide in these stories. Unfortunately too often sellers can’t see themselves in stories. But you can with reflection. Consider past customers who you’ve been able to help. Frame it in a story.

Seth Godin says  marketing is no longer about stuff you make, but stories you tell. When telling a story  Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion takes the listener from awareness to admiration to acceptance.

The way you create believers, is with your story.

How To Find Michele Kelly

This is Michele and Roderick’s company K&L Story Tellers

LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/michelekellystorylove

On Twitter @mkellywriter

Past Episodes Telling Stories

Listen here for past guests advice on storytelling!

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Story Selling with Harry Maziar #276

Harry Mazier Sales Babble

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Story Selling with Harry Maziar #276

Harry Mazier Sales BabbleHarry Maziar is the author of the new book Story Selling: Sage Advice and Common Sense About Sales and Success.   This book is a passion project aligned with Harry’s mission of inspiring and empowering sale teams and others to pursue their purpose in life.   Harry served as President of Zep Manufacturing Company, a division of National Service Industries,  inspiring his sales team with a newsletter containing Harry’s Helpful Hints. In this episode Pat pulls up a chair to listen to Harry share stories, quips and insights on story selling.

Harry’s Helpful Hints

Harry believes that talking is sharing, listening is caring. Many deals are quashed by sellers talking too much.  In his job as president, Harry had a newsletter with a section titled Harry’s Helpful Hints. Some examples include:

    • There is mighty big difference between good sound reasons and reasons that sound  good.
    • I must do something that will always solve more problems, rather than  saying “something must be done”.
    • The best place to find a helping hand, is at the end of your arm.
    • There aren’t enough crutches for all the lame excuses.
    • People that don’t get carried away, should be
    • The best rules of success won’t work, unless you do

What Makes For a Good Story

A bad story is like a bad joke. It will fall flat. If the story is methodical and mechanical it will not work.  A great sales story must be persuading and influencing, The communication must be crystal clear, as well as engaging with a point the customer can relate.

We then let Harry read some stories. Once upon  a time ……

    1. Just because it’s common sense, doesn’t make it common practice
    2. University of Florida telegram
    3. You never get rewarded for things you intend to do

Bottom line: effective selling is not hard closing, but listening and building relationships.

Take Action

Take a daily accounting of what’s working and not working in your life, set goals and work on them.

How To Find Harry Maziar

Harry’s email is harrymaziar @ gmail.com
His phone is 404-853-1063

This is the book Story Selling: Sage Advice and Common Sense About Sales and Success.

Research Study for Habanero.Community

Please help with the Habanero. Community matchmaking mastermind study! two  minutes I promise!

 

Entrepreneurial Mindset

Sales Presentation Tips

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Trust me, I’m a Salesman with Yuri Vander Sluis Selling With Trust #268

Yuri van der Sluis Sales Babble

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Trust me, I’m a Salesman with Yuri Vander Sluis Selling With Trust #268

Yuri van der Sluis Sales BabbleDo you trust the value that your products and your services you bring to market? Do you really think its good stuff?  Because if you don’t it’s going to be very hard to build trust with the buyer. People can tell! They know when you’re just trying to get rid of a product and make a commission. They can smell it a mile away.  You’re not selling with trust. This is the belief of Yuri Vander Sluis, the author of the new book “Trust me, I’m a Salesman: How to Earn Customers through Trust and Value”. Yuri and I discuss concrete ways to build trust with real examples of building rapport, closing deals, dealing with price and selling with trust.

When Buyers Trust, Sales are Made

Despite what you see in the movies, you don’t need to be a jerk to  be successful in sales like in the movies. Instead adopt a different approach based on trust.  As mentioned, buyers don’t trust people at the start. But there are things you can do to close the trust gap.

Start with integrity.   How, you may ask can you demonstrate integrity? The best way to to show authenticity. Don’t be in a rush. Take your time to let the buyer get to know you. That’s selling with trust.

Example:

Ask the buyer

“Have you ever struggled with problem A?

In my experience I’ve had clients like you with X Y and  Z issues.

They  often face problems challenged by A.

Is that your experience too?”

You Must Believe in You

If you don’t trust the value you bring to market, you can’t sell and build  trust with the buyer. People can tell when you’re just trying to make a quick buck. Commission structures often get in the way.  Be authentic and believe in your business. If you can’t it’s time to quit. Life is too short being a con artist. Better to be a professional selling with trust.

Overcoming Closing Issues

Often sellers have millions of dollars in the pipeline, but they’re not really closing the deals. Yuri did a study on one of his clients, calling prospects in the CRM. More than had no idea about the company.  When selling with trust you need to go as fast or slow as the customer demands. Some deals take years of nurturing.

Example questions:

  • “Why are you interested in this product?”
  • “Why do you see this as a higher priority than other projects?”
  • “What distinctive value do you think you could get from this product?”

Price Doesn’t Matter

Deals are rarely stuck due to price. Instead sellers need to understand where is the urgency and where is the impact. Secure the value sooner rather than later. Don’t dump your price and yoru margins.

Selling with Trust Take Action Advice

Mature Seller advice:

  1. Ask existing customers why they found value in you personally as the sales person.
  2. Understand from different executive levels what the value they appreciate

New Seller advice:

Call on customers and ask how and why they are using an existing product. What works? What doesn’t work? Learn how to differentiate yourself.

How To Find Yuri Vander Sluis

Yuri is easy to find online:

This is his website www.yurivander.com

On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/yurivandersluis/

Link to his new book!  Check it out

https://www.amazon.com/Trust-Im-Salesman-Customers-through/dp/9887890103

Selling with Trust and Rapport in Sales

Here are other past episodes on building trust with buyers. Enjoy!

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Selling with FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) with Louis Kreppert #262

Louis Kreppert Sales Babble

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Selling with FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) with Louis Kreppert #262

Louis Kreppert Sales BabbleAre you looking to create extra income for yourself on a full or part time basis?   Do you have a small business selling products and you’d like to expand and sell across the country? Or, do you have a product idea you’d like to bring to market? I believe all sellers are secret entrepreneurs  fascinated with creating their own gig.  Selling them on Amazon may be the solution
for you in 2019. In this episode our guest Louis Kreppert visits the new Fox.Build podcast studio and  explains the nuts and bolts of the FBA Fulfillment by Amazon program.

In this episode we discuss how to sell on the number one e-commerce marketplace, Amazon. We’ll cover all the basics on selling physical products on their FBA, including cost and fees associated with it. Louis will share some  best practices for success and examples of successful products and others that have bombed. By the end of this chat you will be able to confidently know if this a platform for you and the steps necessary to get started.

FBA Way

Fulfilled by Amazon, is  a program where Amazon does all the storing, packing and shipping versus merchant fulfilled, where you hold all the inventory, do the packing and shipping.  FBA provides sellers the opportunity to only focus on marketing and selling.   Their only responsibility is finding customers and meeting their needs.

Elements of a Great Listing

There is one listing for every product. The best way to sell is to create your own listing and differentiate from the rest. Amazon drives prospects to look at  your listing.  Everything is searchable. SEO is key. The words are great but the pictures are what really matters. A great set of photos shows the benefits. The first photo must be shot on a white background. The rest of the photos can be anything else product related but it  should tell a story. Each photo should have 85% image, 15% words at the most.

The Title should sound human (not a babble of keywords). Then add 4 bullet points, 1-2 sentences long.

The ratings,  “1- 5” stars reviews, really matter. People want to see authentic reviews that  reflect reality. If there are no reviews, that’s a hurdle.

Compensation

You can make money as a full-time sellers (third part seller). It’s important to keep your costs down and add value (beyond some commodity). On average FBA takes 50% of your sale. It costs Amazon 25% for the fulfillment services, and keeps 25% for profit.

Example Product Stories

Win – Louis put a bundle together e.g. birthday party bundled set. Got good reviews and it started selling. Views started to snowball. He sells 10 day. Took 4 years to get this product right.

Bomb – Louis had a product that wasn’t unique. Unbundled hand warmers (successful for a while) then the competition found it. started competing then  drove the price to the ground.

Take Away

Take the Amazon university course or hire an  expert like Louis.

How To Find Louis Kreppert

Louis helps struggling businesses become successful through E-Commerce sales and marketing. In 2014 he started his own marketing company:

LK Sales and Marketing helps people focus on selling products on
Amazon and other e-commerce platforms.

Contact Louis in LinkedIn    or you can reach him here:   Louis@lksalesandmarketing.com

Sales Tools

Here are other sales tool you can add to your tool box. Listen today!

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Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell with Mike Adams #251

Mike Adams Sales Babble

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Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell with Mike Adams #251

Mike Adams Sales BabbleWhen it comes to story selling, author Mike Adams is the expert and our  honored guest. In this episode Mike shares 7 types of story you need to leverage when selling. Mike gives examples taken from his book “Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell” . He recommends that you learn the types, create your own stories, memorized them and naturally apply to your business. 

Three Problems Sellers Face

If you’re new to an organization you probably don’t know a lot of stories. Here are three problems you will face AND seven stories you should learn before meeting a  prospective client.

  1. How do I connect with prospective buyers
    • Personal Story
    • Personal Story of another person in the company
    • How did your company find success (strategy and origin story)
  2. How do you get them to change course and buy you
    • Story that shares an Insight you have about their business (great for startups)
    • Success story of YOUR customer:
      1. scene before you met your them
      2. they have a problem
      3. then they met you
      4. you gave them a plan,
      5. avoid failure
      6. achieve success
  3. How to Close the deal
    • The value story, explain how your company leader will behave after the deal is made
    • The sales manager story – teaching the client can sell to their management with a story

By learning the seven stories every salespersons must tell, you will be prepared when meeting clients and able to repeat naturally the stories at the appropriate time. Your clients will relate to the stories and persuade them to buy.

Take Action

Build a story library and practice them.

How To Find Mike Adams

To find Mike on the internet and his book Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell look at the following:

The Story Leader is focused on storytelling for revenue growth teams.
For a free how to blog post, discount, or a free product or service.
Our free online storytelling training course (links to the Seven Stories book)

Using Story in your Selling

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Nimble Social Sales and Marketing with Jon Ferrara #238

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Nimble Social Sales and Marketing with Jon Ferrara #238

Jon Ferrara believes the more people you can help grow, the more you grow. It’s one of the reasons he pioneered contact management and CRM with GoldMine in the 90’s, a company he sold for $125 million, and then he came back to invent the Nimble social CRM for nimble social sales and marketing.

Jon’s core values include building products that help others achieve their

  • passion,
  • plan,
  • purpose

to drive success. Don’t rely on your company to build your network. You own that. In this episode we learn how.

Sustainable Garden

Establish an identity in places where your prospects congregate. Share content often and talk about how they can personally grow. People buy a better version of themselves. Be that version and they will see you as an expert.  Don’t talk about you, talk about them. People are going to hire you based on your network. So, make sure and take good care of your personal CRM.

How To Stand Out

The more digital we get, the more human we need to be. You can get past traditional social sales and marketing by picking up the phone and sending handwritten notes.

5 Fs of Life

This list shows how you get connected and stay connect. Talk about these topics to find the softer side and deeper connection with others.

  • Family
  • Friends
  • Food
  • Fun
  • Fellowship

5 Es of Social Selling

Use this list to build your brand and stand out from the crowd:

  • Educate
  • Enchant
  • Engage
  • Embrace
  • Empower

The more people you grow, the more you grow  – Zig Ziglar

Take Action Today

Sales is the new Service. Service is the new sales.

How To Find Jon Ferrara

To connect with Jon here are the links for nimble social sales and marketing mentioned in the podcast.
This is Jon on LinkedIn and on Twitter 

The CRM we spoke about is Nimble.com  and you can email Jon at jon @ nimble.com

After the Two Week free trial use the discount code  jon40 (40% off)

We are both fans of Hardcore History with Dan Carlin

Social Selling

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Win Deals At Your Price with Sales Differentiation with Lee Salz #236

Lee Salz Sales Babble

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Win Deals At Your Price with Sales Differentiation with Lee Salz #236

Lee Salz Sales BabbleOur guest is Lee Salz a leading sales management strategist, bestselling author and CEO of Sales  Architects.  Lee is a returning guest, visiting nearly three years ago in Episode 88 How to Differentiate when Selling a Commodity with Lee Salz #88   Lee has a new new book out titled Sales Differentiation – 19 powerful strategies to win more deals at the price you want.  In this episode  we talk about things that you can do to stand out, show value, work around price concerns and actually charge a premium. Stop selling on price and boost your sales today. 

How to Differentiate when Selling a Commodity

Sales people too often complain “If we don’t drop our price, we will lose the deal.”   It’s too easy drop the price and cut into the companies margins. Profits matter!  To win deals at the prices you want, Lee believes your needed strategy is differentiation.

During the interview Lee walked us through a few of his 19 easy-to-implement concepts to help salespeople win deals while protecting margin. He believes these concepts are applicable to any salesperson in any industry and are based on the foundation that how you sell, not just what you sell, differentiates you.

Some highlights mentioned:

  • Focus on what you sell, and how you sell.
  • References – don’t treat it like chore, but opportunity to connect like minded buyers.
  • Price – you can’t be too early but you can be too late. Explain meaningful difference early on.
  • Your greatest competitor is not the status quo, but other sellers competing for your prospects time
  • Author a RFP for your industry and give to prospects as an example to tip the focus to your favor.
  • Your personality is the number one differentiator – especially those with internal company relationships.

Take Action

If you haven’t taken to the time to define how you’re differentiated, spend a moment and reflect on value that you bring to the market. Next build that definition so you can win more deals at the prices you want.

How To Find Lee Salz

Website: www.SalesArchitects.com

Twitter: @salesarchitects

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/leesalz

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SalesManagementMinute

Lee’s New Book – Published October 2, 2018

Sales Differentiation – 19 powerful strategies to win more deals at the price you want.

Get the bonus opportunity at www.SalesDifferentiation.com

NOTE!

As I mentioned, Sales Babble was selected by Feedspot as one of the Top 15 Sales Podcasts on the web. Check this out!

Sales Differentiation for Closing Sales

Here are past episodes to keep the babble up. Listen now!

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The Introverts Super Selling Powers with Beth Beulow #235

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The Introverts Super Selling Powers with Beth Beulow #235

In this episode we meet Beth Beulow, author, business coach, speaker and host of the Introvert Entrepreneur Podcast. Beth is a avid proponent of the introverts super selling powers. She believes when introverts can leverage their natural gifts of listening, preparation, making people feel safe, and see selling as an educational process, they can be highly successful in sales.

Introverts, Extraverts and Ambiverts

We discussed the book To Sell Is Human by Dan Pink on the success of various personality types in the selling role. According to the book:
  • Extraverts – performed the least, too pushy, too aggressive
  • Introverts – performed better, good listeners, yet too meek
  • Ambiverts – converted sales best, a bit of both extraverts and introverts, most successful
lf you’re not connecting with the buyer it could be a lack of balance in the conversation. When you have resonance, that’s powerful selling. Not all great conversations close sales. The timing maybe wrong.  But remember, it’s a marathon not a sprint. At the very least you might get a referral.

Introvert Super Duper Sales Powers

Introverts commonly have the following characteristics. They can be powerfully leveraged for selling:
  • Sales is education. It’s only a story that sales is icky. Share what you have to offer with a focus to make their lives better (whether or not they buy).
  • Connecting one on one. Introverts commonly say they are NOT good in groups, but good one-on-one.  This is actually a super power. Sales is P2P,  person to person. If you can connect with a person, you can make a sale.
  • Listen with curiosity. Many introverts are very good at sitting back and asking questions. This is how you discover what the client needs.
  • Create safety – create an environment where people can open up. You can do this by being real and allowing people the ability to be vulnerable.
  • Preference for preparation – There is power in doing homework and researching to make sure the meeting is more productive. For many, preparation calms the nerves.
Know how you’re going to start. Know how you’re going to close and be open to how you get there. Trust yourself.

Take Action

Look at your website and ask the question, “is this differentiated from the rest? Or do I look like everyone else?”   Remember that a confused mind always says no.

How to Find Beth Beulow

You can  find Beth ALL over the internet! This is the free offer mentioned during the podcast:

Overcoming Sales Fears for Introverts

Selling For Introverts with Alen Mayer #61
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Telling Your Sales Story with Tom Jackobs #233

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Telling Your Sales Story with Tom Jackobs #233

In this episode we meet Tom Jackobs. Tom is a former fitness trainer, business owner and now story teller. Tom and I discuss the value and power of using stories when selling. Tom talks about ways to find stories that best represent you telling your sales story. Secondly Tom shares how to structure the story in a way that makes it memorable, insightful, and impactful.

The Hero Journey

Tom went from fat to fit. Through his fitness journey he discovered his ability to educate people. He started a personal training studio in 2008. Despite facing near bankruptcy, with the help of a family business loan, he learned how to Up his selling skills. When sharing his fitness story prospects identified with the tail and were persuaded to join. Tom’s business grew from in $100K to $500K revenue in less than a year. The rest is history.

How To Find a Good Business Story

Find impact moments in your life. Big or small, write them all down. Next, pick the top three that are the most emotionally charged. Write out the story as a hero’s journey. The story should contain:

  • Troubles you experienced
  • Insightful moments
  • What lead up to the challenges
  • Who helped
  • The villains
  • How it turned out
  • What your audience would learn from it

Get the audience to see themselves in your story. Add details, “it was a rainy gray Thursday and …. ” . Once the stories are written practice, practice, practice.

Take Action Now

Don’t be afraid to tell your emotionally charged story. This is how you make a connection. This how you make sales.

How To Find Tom Jackobs

Website – www.TomJackobs.com
Twitter @tomjackobs
Facebook tom.jackobs
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/trainertom/
youtube: youtube.com/c/tomjackobs

Stories That Sell Training: www.AlwaysBeSellingSystem.com/webinar
Impact Sales System: www.ImpactSalesSystem.com/training

Past Episodes on Storytelling Selling

Let’s keep the conversation going. Here are past episodes to take your selling skills to the next level. Listen now!

SB032 – How Sellers are the Plucky Sidekick an Interview with Aprille Janes

 

Image Message Story. An Interview with Heidi Thorne

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Honesty Sells with Colleen Francis #223

Colleen Francis Sales Babble

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Colleen Francis Sales BabbleHonesty Sells with Colleen Francis #223

Colleen Francis is the Founder and President of Engage Selling Solutions and the author of Nonstop Sales Boom and Honesty Sells. Colleen is a successful sales leader for over 20 years, well versed on the challenges of selling in today’s market. She is a Certified Sales Professional (C.S.P.) and an inductee into the Speaking Hall of Fame.  In this episode we discuss the necessity of honest selling and advice on how sellers can build trust with transparency.

What Makes for Honesty Sells

  1. Trust is built on honoring your word in all you do. Keeping promises matters.
  2. Prove honesty through voice mail e.g., promise you will call them back at a set time, then do it
  3. If you made a promise and have no news, make the call and share you have no news
  4. Customer experience is the key differentiator
  5. Have a culture of honesty in your organization. It will spread to your client interactions.
  6. Always apologize when you make an error. Coddle them with kindness. Own it.
  7. The top performers (upper 10%) have a culture of honesty.
  8. Don’t over promise and under deliver
  9. Don’t under promise and over deliver
  10. Honor your word

Take Action Advice

Make sure you’re creating an open transparent organization, both inside a team and outside of the team. Next make sure the sales team starts telling customers exactly what they are going to do, then doing it. Meet your committments!

How To Find Colleen Francis

Books Mentioned 

Nonstop Sales Boom and Honesty Sells. 

Consultative Selling

Here are some previous episodes on the power of honest selling.