Sales Closing Techniques No Longer Work

I didn't write the article, let that be known. It's definitely worth sharing, so check it out, here

Merry Christmas!

Zig "the jerk" Ziglar

Well I posted here about the clocks. Word of mouth sales were good. We went through option after option, racking our brains for a method of selling the rest, and if they sold well, getting more supplies and selling more. My partner took a clock with a Masonic emblem on the face to his father (a Mason), who really, really liked it. That meant that the next formula in the sales process, is to get referrals. To John, that means simply saying, “please tell your friends” and ending it right there. To me, it means asking for numbers. Do as much of the job as I can for the customer. Just give me the names and numbers of people you’d think would like the clocks as much as you like yours, and I’ll take care of everything else.

John thought it was pushy, and a bit rude, so I asked around. The first person I asked was his wife. The idea made her go ballistic! "That's just rude, crazy, pushy and downright wrong! I'd be pissed if anyone ever did that to me!" I quote Hawkeye, in one of my favorite episodes of M*A*S*H*, “Umm, put down one ‘No’ ”.

So I asked my wife. Same answer, same tone. “If someone did that to me, I’d be royally ticked off at them! I’d just be thinking ‘I can’t believe he did that to me!’ “. I asked other people too, mostly friends. The typical answer was pretty much the same, and all of their replies to the question contained the two word phrase, “did that.

What is “did that”? What, exactly is that, and why is that so terrible? Answer: send a salesman over. Salespeople are evil, salespeople are bad. Okay, I can accept that, salesperson equals vulture, all salespeople are jerks. And I too would be pissed if someone sent a jerk my way. And why are they evil? Because most of us, at one point in time, have felt conned, or ripped off, or made to feel exorbitantly uncomfortable, by a salesperson.

I tried to convey that no one is sending a salesperson to their friend’s house, they’re sending me. And while they all knew good and well that I would never intentionally make someone feel uncomfortable, the fact that I would arrive all ‘salesman like’ is enough. That’s an automatic aura of unease.

All the same, we’ve all purchased from salespeople before, and we all will, in the future. So there’s a problem. How do you sell, while never making a client uncomfortable?
At this point, I don’t have a clue.

Why is there a stereotype of salespeople anyway? I think it can all be summed up in the phrase “hard sell”. At one point in time, we’ve all had some jerk use a phrase like “if you really love your family,” or “if you purchase right now,” or “would you like one, or two?” when you never implied that you’d like any. These are all tactics and tricks of the “hard sell.”

Why these tricks ever came about, I’ll never know. But I know who propagated it. Zig fricken Ziglar. His whole life has been pushing hard sell tactics, under a different name. He won’t say, “hard sale,” he’ll say something like “convincing a client of their need.” He won’t say “handle objections” he’ll say something like “objections are just invitations for you to tell them more about the product” or “objections are just misunderstandings.” No, jerko, that’s hard selling.

I was forced to reflect back to when I did door-to-door sales, selling security alarms. The day I resorted to the hard sell as taught to me by Zig Ziglar … and it worked … is the day I quit. I didn't like myself very much afterwards. But I didn't realize that so many had been burned so hard in the past, that the term "salesman" is now so tainted, and synonymous with "asshole" to the majority of people.

So the next option on the list: direct mail. We’ll make up a clock that we feel will appeal to a certain target market, get a list, and mail out flyers. See if we can get orders that way. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Bootstrapping Is An Honorable Way To Start Up

"I define Bootstrapping as the act of starting a business with little or no external funding. Bootstrappers don’t write lengthy business plans, chase deep-pocketed investors, or indulge in overly academic market research exercises. Instead, they focus all of their considerable energy, brainpower, determination and skills on creating a business that can actually succeed in the real world." - Greg Gianforte, CEO, RightNow Technologies

Did you ever notice that bootstrappers in business are the most under appreciated, when it comes to business resources? I've found one site dedicated to bootstrappers in a quick google search. Just one! And it's more motivational and informative than a provider of resources for the bootstrapper.

We need more than a definition of bootstrapping, and singing the praises of boostrappers that have "made it" (yes, we know that Michael Dell is one of the most famous bootstrappers). We need marketing tips, inexpensive adversiting, networking, and freelance exchanges.

I was called by a friend the other day, who is bootstrapping his own catering business. He's got a huge paying gig coming up, and needs an assistant. It pays cash money that night, plus tips. I'll probably walk away with about two hundred bucks that night. That's good advertising money, for my business. My commission checks thus far go right back into my business, for various things, but mostly to build more business. An ad here and there, thank you cards, etc. That two hundred dollars will help things to progress for another month for me. I'm all out of my own specialty advertising products to give to my customers, so now I can happily make an order of product for my company, to pass out once things heat up again next month.

Now there's freelancing websites out there, we have entrepreneur magazine, and a multitude of others. But do any exist solely for the business bootstrapper?

The idea of doing Santa pictures along side corner street vendors was presented this past friday to me. I think the idea was inspired by my huge gut, but that's neither here, nor there. Had the idea came at the beginning of the month, I could be making bank right now, selling Santa pictures for 1/2 the price of the mall pictures. It's a nice way to make money during a typically slow month in my business. If a resource for bootstrappers existed, then this and other ideas to make a quick buck and fund more business expenses, maybe more bootstrappers would "make it."

I guess I just identified a possible need in the marketplace, I don't know. If you're a budding entrepreneur without an idea, that's one you can pursue and research. See if my idea has any merit. Just be sure that if you take the idea, and "make it," that you come to me for your specialty advertising, or promotional product needs, darn it!

Being a boot strapper takes loads of ambition and relentlessness. I'm proud to pull myself up this way. My acquaintance, "weird," posted here that I shouldn’t call myself a “wannabe” anymore. Well I won’t change the name of my blog, that’s marketing suicide, but if I were to actually change it, it’d be “bootstrapping.”

If you have any ideas for bootstrappers to make some extra money, post it. I’ll make a separate page and link to it from the blog. Giving you full credit, of course!

Custom Clocks

Here's a copy of the flyer we made for clock sales. Just thought I'd share. Right now, we're debating on the best way to sell them to the public. Choices are: To hit businesses, and drop off a flyer. Then go back and see if anyone there wanted to place an order; To post them around the area in places that have public bulletin boards. To set up a table out in John's front yard, like a yard sale; To set up a table at a busy intersection. John made a huge copy of the flyer ... like 3 feet by 2 feet to display.

Right now, all our sales have resulted from word of mouth. But I want the BIG money! ;)

Selling To Jerks

So there's this huge industrial looking business. It's got a building the size of an aircraft hangar out there, and a piece of metal pipe about five feet in diamter sitting off to the side, rusting. A small building sits in front and there's a sign. Which leads me to believe it's a commercial business. Perhaps they'd be interested in marketing their business with specialty products.

I walk in, just as happy as you please, because, I'm an entrepreneur! I'm ready to take on the world! I'm working for myself, out there, creating my own results. "How are you today sir? May I speak with the person in charge of purchasing your advertising?" Nothing wrong with that approach, is there? Well the reply I got was "that'd be me, and we're not interested" and he didn't even look up at me. Okayyyyyy, now here's where it gets hairy.

My initial reaction, to myself, was "move along, he's a jerk." But all the sales books don't tell you to do that. You should stay, and "overcome the objection," the books say. So I come back with, "okay, do you have competitors?" To which he rudedly replied, "of course I do, everybody does, and we're not interested." Now books and tutorials would be proud. This guy was being an ass, and I stayed, like a glutton for punishment. "wouldn't you rather your business name be in your customers eyes more often than that of your competitor?" This time he got more stern, but still he answered, "of course I would, but we're not interested." So at that time, I thought books be damned, I'm leaving. I did find it funny a little, too. I worked hard to supress a laugh as I walked out. I didn't let him get me down in the slightest, but I did have to ponder about how we're struggling to get off the ground, and there's a guy that's a real jerk, owning a business big enough to have to support a doghouse for a 747. Is that what it takes? Do you have to be a jerk to "make it?"

Anyway, so I have a problem. According to sales books, I should have overcome all of that, and pushed past it, to find the "real reason." Then I should have built a relationship of trust with him, perhaps visit him up to 8 times, and finally get an order. But why? Why would I want to get to know this guy in the slightest, or even bother to get to know him? I don't want his business, the guy can make a business out of kissing my ass.

A lot of sales books also say, "it is twenty percent of the sales people on this planet/in your company/ in the sales profession ... that make 80% of the money." Well if I have to work with jerks like THAT, you can keep his money. I'll settle for 79% of the money.