Atlanta's Marketing Center

Telling stories

There is perhaps no more powerful way of influencing others than to tell stories.  What I mean is that no matter how you're attempting to influence, use the example of others around you to make a point.

For example, a software client was having trouble with someone on their sales force who was producing but was a disruptive influence and was, in my opinion, hurting the efforts of the sales group.  And so I introduced a story of my experience with a similar person I worked with in a sales organization at AT&T.  I described the short term gains but long-term pain associated with the person.  This helped fuel the dialogue around the rep's future with the company.

In selling situations, I have typically used another person as an example of how they came to decide on the product after working through some doubts and the example has translated to the person I was selling to.  Through the introduction of a similar example, people are less likely to be defensive and actually welcome communication that will help them to better understand.

Wise people use stories to relate because they know people are comfortable with them.  I suggest that you use this in marketing, sales, and other communications situations.  A good example of this in the marketing sense is the use of case studies.

Do you use case studies?  How have they worked?

Sales vs Marketing Mentality Example

Sam Sales owns a painting company.  When Sam first opened the company, because of all the business early on, he never thought he'd have a problem.  Today there are times when business is great where he has three or four jobs lined up.  Most of the time however, business is slow.  When business is good, the work consists of jobs he's really had to work to get, typically dropping his price to get them.  And many times the work he gets isn't ideal.  He goes out, paints, then goes about trying to drum up work.  Every day seems like a do-or-die situation. 

The leads he gets are from a friend or perhaps a customer.  His marketing effort is weak.  During the slow times, he hands out flyers in neighborhoods.  When that doesn't work very well, he moves to a different neighborhood.  He's never overly discouraged to change though because there's always someone around the corner who needs their house painted.

Matt Marketing owns a lawn service.  When he put the company together and developed a business and marketing plan, he decided to focus on commercial business in a specific geography.  He spent the time early on to establish a website, a direct mail campaign, and an organized referral system.

Sales were slow at first.  In fact, for the first couple of months, it was scary.  He followed through though with his marketing plan, taking the kind of work that he'd targeted for the company and passing on the other.

Today, he has a two crews with 10 people.  His customers love him and consider his work to be excellent.  He has dropped the direct mail campaign and gets work solely through referrals now.  He still says 'no' from time to time on work that's out of the geographic area.  Business is so good that he can choose to grow further if he likes.

I come across the first type every day.  I'm sure you know some as well.  Is a sales mentality bad though?  I don't think so.  In fact, I think the most effective approach is a mix of the two...a planned approach to the market with messages being sent out along with the ability to convert leads into work. 

What are your thoughts?  What is the best mix?

The Killer Proposal

The really great proposal seems to have largely gone by the wayside for many small businesses. And this is a shame because for businesses that sell custom, higher-ticket items (such as services), the advantage of delivering a good proposal and a poor one or none at all typically means getting the business or not.

A good proposal leads the prospect from the problem to a recommendation in a logical and orderly manner. It signals to the prospect that you’re a professional who cares and has taken the time to think through their issue and deliver a solution.

The secret many professionals and companies don’t realize is that proposals are really easy to develop now. You can get a proposal template online, customize it with your logo, include general information about the company, then save and simply alter the prospect’s situation in each for all future proposals.

The key to a good proposal is the “Statement of the Customer’s Concerns”. By simply restating the issues that the customer is having along with their most important criteria in selecting a vendor (which you need to inquire), your conversion rate will increase substantially.

Consider the impact of good proposals in your sales conversion ratios. If you typically close 4 out of 10 prospects and you could close 5 out of 10 through the use of a good proposal template, how much more money would you be making from that one success?

Acquiring a good proposal template is easy and there are many options. Microsoft offers a couple of free ones through their online center. I also suggest looking at the Siebert Group (www.persuasionselling.com). They offer RFP software as well as a simple template package. The template package costs just $20 and is easy to use and set up. I highly recommend that you include effective proposals in your marketing/sales process for greater returns.