Marketing Tips, Tricks, Experiences, Marketing 101

[mazz]

Robbie suggest that a Marketing 101 thread be started and I think it's a great idea!! Maybe we can post our marketing 101 tips, tricks and even some experiences that we can all learn from, both positive and not so positive, if you feel like sharing those.

Robbie posted some gold nuggets on the "Composer Interview" thread and I think it's worth starting this thread off by pasting his words here. Thanks Robbie!!


Here goes, take it away Robbie!!:


- Listen - I know that Mazz already stressed it but there is a reason that we have two ears and one mouth. The succesful sales person pays attention to that ratio and listens more than they talk. Then when they do talk it also seems more important. And when you are listening make sure that you are actually listening and not focusing on what you are going to say next.

- get them to talk about themself or what they do. Don't just ask questions in a strange manner but ask questions that gets them talking about things they like. It might be about this project, it might be about something totally unrelated. You might see something in their office which shows what they like (if you are meeting at their office). People typically like to hear themself talk. If you have a meeting and 90% of the time you had fun discussing things that they liked than they will be left with what a great time they had with you. Right now I am in the mortgage business. Almost all of my business comes from local realtor referrals. When I go visit local realtors I do NOT talk about mortgages unless they bring it up. I will talk about anything and everything just to get into a conversation with the realtor. Sometimes no conversation happens. You never know what sort of mood they might be in. I smile a lot and when appropriate get them to laugh (don't be obscene, you just met the person). Of course they know that I want them to refer their clients to me but if I come right out and ask them to do that its kinda like getting an annoying telemarketing phone call.

- you don't have to feel nervous about talking about yourself. As I mentioned in my above paragraph you should only talk about yourself once they ask you a question. This should be more natural.

- Now for my most important sales coaching tip (I have been a sales manager for a very large RV dealer and have coached many sales people over the years in banking, telemarketing and other related fields) When you are speaking your brain needs to be ahead of your mouth. In other words, you want to be thinking about what you are saying before it comes out of your mouth. There is one very simple way to know when you are doing this or when you are listening to another sales person if they are doing it. It is the word "Um". Don't use this word! Ever! Unless you actually mean to be saying it. You will sound more articulate if you pause and say nothing for 2 seconds than you will if you fill the space with an "um". Pay attention the next time you hear some one speaking in a sales setting or in front of a group. If they are saying a lot of "ums" then their brain is not ahead of their mouth. Why would anyone choose to use that word? We don't use that word when we write.

Good luck, relax and have fun,
Robbie

_________________
Robbie Pittelman

http://www.myspace.com/robbiepittelman
http://www.taxi.com/rpittelman

[crs7string]

Just a couple things I've found helpful:

1. Show up on time. I know this sounds ridiculous as a tip. But, why start a meeting by apologizing by saying "Sorry I'm late".

2. I like lunch meetings. There is no better "first date" than lunch. It is also a great way to observe how the other person acts toward the wait staff. If they order with the "gimme the" preceeding their order, you may have someone who is demanding and unappreciative. Possibly, not a good sign.

On the other hand if they say please and thank-you, and the big bonus, they refer to the server by name, this is a person that cares and respects others. And, most likely understands the value of a relationship.

3. Keep chit chat to a minimum. I am not a big fan of "finding common ground", especially if you have to fabricate your end of the common ground. It can and does backfire. Also, every "salesperson" in the last fifty years or so has been trained to do this. It is easy to stand out simply by not doing it.

4. I am a huge fan of "thank you". "Thank you for taking the time to meet today". (to start the conversation.) "Thanks, again, for taking the time to meet today and telling me about your business" (to end the conversation.)

Follow-up note or email, "Thanks again for meeting over lunch last week, I enjoyed meeting you and learning more about your business."

Gratitude can speak volumes and build relationships.


5. The simplest approach I've ever heard to building trust: "Do what you say you will do and when you said you would do it.".

If you said you'll send them some music tomorrow, send them the music tomorrow. And, I would add a note, " here is the link to the music that I promised I would send you when we had lunch yesterday. Thanks in advance for listening."


The people I interact with around here may be sick of me talking about "trust relationships". But, far more is accomplished with "the speed of trust".


My five cents worth.

Chuck

[delagarzamusic]

great tips,
you could do a book with this stuff

[DesireInspires]

Does any of that stuff work in real life?

It seems pretty hit or miss to me.

[davewalton]

Do what you say you will do and when you said you would do it.

Does any of that stuff work in real life?

Nah... always better to be "unpredictable". Keeps the people you're trying to do business with on their toes.

[jazzstan]

.. always better to be "unpredictable".

But Dave, I just KNEW you were gonna say that!

[mazz]

Does any of that stuff work in real life?

It seems pretty hit or miss to me.

Well, like you, I work in a pharmaceutical company, and from that you must know that in order to get along with your co-workers, you have to practice at least a few of those suggestions just to make it through the day. In any business, corporate America, big or small pharma, etc., you have to have some of these skills, unless you want hit or miss results.

In anything, it takes practice to have consistent results, otherwise, yes, it is hit or miss!

[DesireInspires]

Does any of that stuff work in real life?

It seems pretty hit or miss to me.

Well, like you, I work in a pharmaceutical company, and from that you must know that in order to get along with your co-workers, you have to practice at least a few of those suggestions just to make it through the day. In any business, corporate America, big or small pharma, etc., you have to have some of these skills, unless you want hit or miss results.

In anything, it takes practice to have consistent results, otherwise, yes, it is hit or miss!

Yeah. It is such a shame I have to tap dance and walk on eggshells somedays.

I have a growing ambivalence to not only the work I do, but the people I work with. I cannot get myself to maintain and stay cool like I used to. I have noticed myself making sarcastic and brash comments about different things. I am not able to play along like a good guy anymore because I do not care too much anymore.

It'll be over soon.

[rpittelman]

Thanks Mazz for starting this

I was going to start this today if you didn't

3. Keep chit chat to a minimum. I am not a big fan of "finding common ground", especially if you have to fabricate your end of the common ground. It can and does backfire. Also, every "salesperson" in the last fifty years or so has been trained to do this. It is easy to stand out simply by not doing it.

Just to clarify what I said about this, I certainly agree with you Chuck that by no means should you fabricate anything. Just like any of this there is a certain skill to creating an easy flowing conversation with someone that you just met.

Does any of that stuff work in real life?

It seems pretty hit or miss to me.

I will try not to overload this thread with my own thoughts but that being said I know what my strong suit is. I don't mean that in an arrogant way. Over the past 18 years I have become an expert in client satisfaction, sales coaching, handling difficult situations and making my clients feel as though there is no possible way that they could have received better service from anyone other than myself.

The simple answer to your question, yes. Absolutely it works. Let me give you a brief background of my own work experience. I learned just about everything that I needed to learn in music school on how to write music for film except for one very important element. They didn't teach me how to sell, how to get work or how to make a living.

One of my very first jobs out of college was selling cars. I hated it and I was really bad at it. Just to put it in perspective my 3rd month in the business I sold 3 cars. The next lowest salesman sold 13 and all the rest sold more. I didn't get it. I thought I was intelligent. I thought I was good with people. Why wasn't I selling? I slowly started to learn but it wasn't till about 2 years later that I came across someone who actually started to show me that I could learn how to sell.

Contrary to some people's belief most great salespeople weren't born that way. After being in car sales for a little over 4 years with a brief try at selling insurance in the middle I got into banking. All of a sudden I was a superstar. Well, in the eyes of the management at the bank. Selling doesn't happen by accident. You don't get good at anything without practice. Compared to the other bankers I had a ton of sales experience. I knew how to make my customers feel comfortable and speak to them in a way that made sense to them.

This is not voodoo. Yes there is a "sales process" but I'm not talking about that. Knowing or learning the sales process doesn't teach you how to sell. Its like learning a C Major scale and then thinking that you can write a symphony.

I keep calling it selling because the reality is that it is very hard to find any job in any industry where you don't have to do some sort of selling in one way or another. It might be to a coworker, it might be to a client, it might be an idea but the bottom line is we are all selling. Ultimately we are all selling our self. If you think that you work in an industry that doesn't involve any selling please let me know. I'm sure that there are situations where knowing how to sell can improve your environment.

I don't like the term "knowing how to sell". It creates negative connotation in my mind but for lack of a better term I am using it. When I say knowing how to sell this is what I mean....

- Speaking to their listening - this means that you have to be conscious of how your customer, client, "fill in the blank" hears you. This also means not using jargon that they don't understand. Every industry has jargon. Be aware of how you use it. Speaking to their listening involves paying attention to what they say "listen" and pay attention to their body language. Their body language tells you a lot in how they might be hearing you.

- Taking care of the client in a way that makes them feel like nobody else could have taken better care of them. The actual achievement of this mostly occurs in how you communicate with them but it is an important element to have in your mind at all times.

- Keeping your brain ahead of your mouth (I explained this one in the beginning but I cannot stress the importance of this one). Start paying attention to people when you go into stores. Notice how often they say "um"

- Removing your own emotional attachment from the situation and just "get" what the client is telling you. Have you ever seen someone in a store getting into an argument with a customer? They got sucked into the customer's emotions, got angry and now have no chance of ending things on a positive note. This is soooo important in what we do because we are selling a product that we created from nothing. The business side of our brain needs to realize this and be able to speak about the product in a way that will handle the client's needs.

- Making sure the client feels like the got a good deal. This is really only relevant in negotiations but it important to understand people don't actually need to get the very best deal. They need to feel like the got the best deal. This doesn't happen by telling them the got a great deal. It all exists in how the communication happened in the negotiation. (I think I'll stay off this one for now)


Now, for any of you reading this thinking to yourself, "I don't want to sell" or "I can't sell I just want to write music" or produce music or what ever you do, you have to understand that selling is simply a show. Most of you reading this probably have performed in front of an audience at some point. Did you rehearse or did you get up there and play a piece of music that you had never played before? Selling is actually the same exact thing its just that you are playing for a much smaller audience. When you are playing music in front of a crowd you are probably playing something that you've played dozens if not hundreds of times. Selling is a performance. Now the key is having the audience feel like its fresh. Just like playing music. If any of you have ever acted on stage then you will understand this concept. You need to deliver the same lines over and over again but make it sound like you are saying them for the first time.

Over my sales career I would often use partial scripts when I worked. I rehearsed them when I was alone. Sometimes it was for on the phone and sometimes it was for face to face. By the way, I highly recommend using a script when you are making phone calls. But, you have to deliver it like you are saying it for the first time. Having a few key lines that I would fall back on and use at certain times in the transaction created a comfort zone for me. Its kind of like soloing over changes that you are familiar with or coming up to a part in a tune that you like soloing over. Its easy, you get juiced by it. Using my scripted lines created a sense of comfort for myself and without my client knowing, I was in control. Of course I would actually spend a lot of time tweaking my lines just like we might tweak a melody we are working on so it flows better. My scripted lines would have an intended outcome. Sometimes they had to be answered with a yes or a no and sometimes they where designed to not be answerable with a yes or no. The point is that the client was not aware of this. I'm not being pushy yet I'm moving the conversation in the direction that I want it to go.

In the mid to late 90's I spent a lot of time doing mailings (yes actual mailings, not email) to film makers. There are industry publications for casting calls. I had the idea to mail an introduction letter to these film makers about 5 or 6 months after their casting call. Over the course of about 2 years or so I believe that I mailed about 2500 letters. In terms of mailing I got an unbelievable response. I ran about a 4% to 5% response to my letters. In those days people actually had to call me to get my demo reel. All of these film makers didn't have a lot of experience and I started to realize in my conversations with them that I was able to guide the conversation in the direction where I wanted it to go with out them realizing. Ultimately giving me the result I wanted.

Ok, I think I've rambled on long enough now. I'll keep my future posts shorter

[Kazak]

Yes, thanks Mazz. I have spent 23 years in purchasing in the O&G business. I have met thousands of sales people over the years.
You would be shocked at how few of them follow up and do even the smallest thing. For example, if I asked them to
send me their brochure, they would say yes, however 9 out of 10 times I would not receive it.

This is unbelievable to me, but it's true. I always wished their supervisors could find out how they lacked follow up.

Say what you are going to do and then do it. If there is a good reason (i.e. they are out of stock of their brochures until next month),
then convey that message to the customer also.

Oh, and if you have lunch don't order anything messy

Alicia