Perpetual Development, Inc.
©2007 Perpetual Development, Inc.

Sales Insights – Simplify for Success
By Brent Patmos

The distractions of complexity are everywhere.

Look Around!
Your customer’s business, decisions, interactions and communications with their customers are continuing to get more complex. Today’s sales landscape offers more products, more services, more options, more choices and more providers than ever before. Researchers tell us that the average consumer processes over 1,500 commercial or advertising messages on a weekly basis. Thankfully, many of those branding messages come from promotional and ad specialty products.

Look Around!
Business is moving at a dizzying pace and people are trying to juggle more projects, more priorities, more responsibility and more balance. All of this while trying not to go nuts!

Look Around!
Salespeople and business owners are trying to manage more customers, more information, more technology and more distractions that have nothing to do with selling more promotional and ad specialty products and services.

Look Around!
This is not a picture of doom and gloom but rather a picture of opportunity. This is an opportunity to communicate more effectively, to follow-through more thoroughly and to revolutionize the way your customers view you and your company. This is your opportunity to make your customer’s life easier, more effective, more productive and more profitable!

This is your opportunity to SIMPLIFY!

SIMPLICITY LEADS TO UNDERSTANDING.
That is reason that children’s books have very few words and lots of big pictures. If you have ever tried to capture the attention of a child, you know exactly what I am talking about. Remember that “BIG” words lose meaning and are used more often for the benefit of our ego. Without minimizing the importance of proper presentation and interaction, it stands to reason that people have a limited attention span no matter what their age. If you want to sell more and increase profits immediately then pay particular attention to simplifying the following areas:

SIMPLIFY COMMUNICATION and CONTENT.
Maybe you have heard someone tell a story, but they weren’t a story-teller, and about half way through you were screaming inside “GET TO THE POINT!” That is exactly what customers say about many of the sales presentations and “stories” that they receive. Never say in 100 words what can be said in 25 words. The important part is the substance of what you say rather than how long you take to say it. Simplify by cutting in half any written, verbal or e-mail communication with your customer. Instead of beginning a proposal or presentation with “happy language”, begin by simply stating the three key points around which you will provide impact to your customer. Be clear and concise in all that you say. When you get to the point, your customer takes note because you are immediately focused on their needs and requirements.

SIMPLIFY PREPARATION
This doesn’t mean eliminate preparation and start “winging it” through sales presentations. Preparation always takes more time in our mind than it does when we actually sit down and take action. Thinking about preparation often leads to procrastination. Break planning into fifteen minute segments and designate a topic for each block. If one topic requires more time, then assign the correct number of 15 minute blocks to that topic. You will avoid being overwhelmed and be amazed at how effective the investment in planning and preparation becomes.

SIMPLIFY HELPING THEM BUY
Help your customers buy rather than just trying to sell them. Help your customers buy in both short and long cycles through the use of multiple resources, decision making levels and relationships. This defines effective selling. You want to avoid the perspective of “typical” when a customer is referring to you and your sales effort.

SIMPLIFY TONE AND PACE
How you say something is as important as what you say to your customer. The key is to use a tone and delivery that are uniquely your own. When making sales presentations or having sales conversations, it is not uncommon for the tone of your voice to go up as the pace of your speech gets faster. When tone and pace increase, the art of being conversational is lost. This is often connected to nerves or a lack of preparation. Repeatedly practice your delivery and presentation with an emphasis on being conversational. Emphasize the skill of talking with your customer rather than talking to your customer. This is best achieved by practicing dialogue scenarios that allow you to interact in a way that is realistic and focused. Breathing is the key to both tone and pace so insure that you have plenty of air in your lungs.

SIMPLIFY FOLLOW-THROUGH
When it comes to productive sales behavior, follow-through ranks as the highest priority. Why you ask? Because it is the most talked about and least executed activity in the sales toolbox. You will service your customers at a higher level and sell more promotional and ad specialty products when you execute on follow-through relentlessly. It is not enough to think about follow-through. You must take action if you want to create impact! Remember that it is the one or two things you do differently that make you memorable in the mind of your customer. Additionally, never underestimate the power of urgency and immediacy. Stated simply, you must do what you say you will do consistently and with greater focus if you want to put significant distance between the follow-through level of you and your competition!

SIMPLIFY THE EXPERIENCE
Here’s the bottom line: Your customer wants you to simplify their life by simplifying their experience! The distractions of complexity are everywhere. Your customer is looking for every way possible to increase their sales and improve the profitability and performance of their company. You possess key strategies, services and products to make these goals a reality. You have the ability to identify, brand, promote and develop the business of companies on a global basis. Imagine if customers tried to do all of that on their own without your expertise. Talk about creating complexity.

SIMPLIFY the promotional and ad specialty products and services experience for your customers and get ready to increase your sales, margin and effectiveness BIG TIME!