In 1855, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote this in his journal:
“If a man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs than anybody else, you will find a broad, hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.”
By 1882, newspapers and periodicals started attributing a slightly different quote to Emerson, though it became much better known:
“If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.”
In other words, someone spun a better quote about the “better mousetrap” to get people’s attention. And that is precisely what marketing is all about, Wes Schaeffer explained at Social Media Marketing World. Schaeffer, a sales trainer/speaker/author known as “The Sales Whisperer,” says the job of marketers is to tell a better version of the truth in order to cut through clutter – keeping attention long enough to make a sale.
Here’s how, through 8 Social Media Sales Success Secrets that Schaeffer shared at SMMW.
1. Get comfortable with sales.
Well, duh; why market if you don’t have something to sell? Unfortunately, a lot of entrepreneurs are “doers,” not sellers; scared of selling because of the connotations often associated with (sleazy, slimy, pushy) salesmen.
Actually, the word “sell” comes from the Norwegian word “selje,” which mean “to serve.” The purpose of selling should be serving customers by offering solutions – not products.
When you go to the doctor’s office, for instance, he doesn’t start pushing drugs on you as soon as you walk in. He takes the time to ask the right questions to diagnose you so he can treat you appropriately. To get comfortable with sales, learn to ask good questions instead of trying to “fix” your customers.
2. Get comfortable with money.
When you’re comfortable with money, Schaeffer says, you:
– Charge according to the value you provide.
– Get paid up front.
– Create residual income.
– Raise your prices. In fact, double them. Even if you lose half your clients, you’ll still be making just as much money and only working half as hard.
When closing a sale, the goal is to get customers to put a dollar figure on their problem so they recognize the value of your solution. Ask questions like “How long has this been an issue? Who else is affected? How much does this impact your bottom line?” to determine what’s at stake.
3. Choose who to lose.
A magnet attracts to the same degree it repels, so if you have raving customers you’re also going to have raging critics. (Think Howard Stern.) You’ve got to be willing to stand out and be different to cut through the clutter; and it might turn some people off, but you can’t make everyone happy. Choose the niche you can satisfy, and focus your attention there.
4. Prior planning prevents poor performance.
For the same reason that you need an editorial calendar to guide your social media content, you need a sales process workflow to help you prepare for and predict customer interactions throughout the sales cycle. Here’s an example of one from Credit Repair Resources (a client of Schaeffer’s that I previously interviewed for NLC Trends magazine):
“That’s when I became a professional salesperson – when I followed a process, when I had an agenda for every call, every meeting,” says Schaeffer, a top reseller for Infusionsoft. “It changes everything.”
5. Daily discipline done diligently determines destiny.
You don’t do all your exercise for the year on January 1. Every day you’ve got to do a little bit – write a blog post, make a video, publish an eBook – to build up the relationship for a sale.
6. Build on the land you own.
You only own your website and your email database. Everything you do through “borrowed” social media channels should drive traffic back to your website where you have an email sign-up, so you can move fans and followers into a database you own.
7. Vegetarians don’t want steak coupons.
Segment your list so you’re sending timely, relevant messages to the right people. Over time, create a drip marketing workflow to send relevant messaging to customers based on how they do – or don’t – interact with your brand. For example, trigger different messages to remind your subscribers about a webinar if they open the email but don’t click, click but don’t register, register but don’t attend, etc.
8. (Bonus Tip!) Stay the course.
People like doing business with people they know, like and trust – and it takes time to build trust. Don’t get desperate for a sale, but keep adding value every day to “make a better mousetrap” that people will remember.
>> Contact Bantamedia if you need help connecting with customers and closing sales through content. >>
Image credits: Wes Schaeffer, Social Media Marketing World presentation, “The Art of the Close: 7 Social Media Sales Success Secrets”