As a young sales rep my manager used to say this to me all the time.
“If you do not have a plan, stay in the car.”
As we reach week three in our country’s lockdown, it’s time to understand what that means in this crazy world we live in right now.
Next piece of advice I can give you…
Stay out of the fridge and stick to a plan
Three questions to ask yourself now and what to do about it that may just help you in the long term:
Am I selling an essential?
Am I selling to the rich?
Or am I selling to the non-essential business owners?
Essential selling – If you are selling to essentials then you should be okay. Talk to them every day, using soft communication. What they are after is for you to look after them. Be there if they need your help.
Sales and the doing takes many forms, relationship building to your essential clients helps continuity of business. Marketing to them is even more important. Keep your brand top-of-mind.
Selling to the rich – Whatever comes their way, nothing affects them. They make up less than 5% of the population and just keep doing what they are doing. As with essential clients, love them and build deeper relationships.
Selling to non-essential buyers – This is going to be harder, let’s not sugar coat this. However, it’s not the end of the world, as in my previous blog.
Making sure you tell people who you are, where you are and what you have to offer, will help keep your business or service top-of-mind, I promise you.
Next week we look at the three critical things you need to do to keep your business running.
Until then.
Mike (top-of-mind) Brunel
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
Let’s face it, what I think about changes daily, even hourly.
The only subject at school that I loved was History.
I still do. Most of the books I read are about the past, because I believe that is sometimes where the best learning can be found.
Lifetime of experiences.
In my lifetime (old guy), I have seen three events that stopped us dead in our tracks and caused us to pause:
1987 Stock Market Crash – I was selling radio advertising to small businesses.
9/11 – 40 odd staff in my Atlanta office were shut down and we were selling broadcast to media companies like CBS Sinclair, ABC Fox etc. Advertisers again!
2020 Coronavirus – I’m providing sales consultancy services to the manufacturing sector, plus own retail, hospitality and importing businesses.
Every generation will experience and learn.
I have learnt that every generation has such an event, one that hits us at the core.
This is just another one, and I honestly think that the winners in this one will be the ones that learn and grow.
If we have the courage, and us Kiwis are good at that, we must be more creative and innovative than we have ever been before.
If you are like me – someone that has never taken a salary for too many years to remember, just the profits and rewards of my company’s success – then you have already had some practice in creating new things and taking risks.
If you have not, then maybe, just maybe, it’s time you did.
Over and out, Lockdown Mike
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
Be confident when you are talking to your customers.
In addition, don’t be the first one to talk about Coronavirus.
Why? Because you are confident that things will get better.
By letting your customers bring up the virus, it opens the door for you to talk about what you can do for them.
Because to you, it’s not about the Coronavirus, it’s what will happen when this is over.
Some of my best years in sales were after 9/11.
I had 65 staff in our Atlanta office hoping they were okay and helping them through that nightmare.
We are not like our grandparents who saved every penny after The Great Depression in case it happened again.
Now we can’t wait to spend money after we go through a crisis.
Because spending money makes us feel better.
This time will be no different. Our job in sales is to relay this to our customers.
They need to be ready because this will end.
They need to be prepared.
Yes, what is happening now is very serious.
I am worried about my Mum sitting in a Christchurch home.
My brother who has a health condition.
My wife and my other businesses.
Even though I am worried about the days ahead, I am looking at the future. It’s no different for your customers. They need to look at the future and be ready too.
It’s our job to make sure they are.
I got this note from a mate in the US, Jay Jensen. I have revamped it to my situation. Feel free to copy and paste and send it to you client who have clients.
This one is from me to you.
T… Please space it out so it’s easy to read.
Cheers Mike
In April, via Zoom, I’ll be putting together 5 good folks and showing them exactly how to take their existing services that they sell face-to-face, virtual!
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
With all this madness with the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) it is important to be reminded that this is the time to make sure your business is one of the businesses who have built that all-important top-of-mind awareness that will succeed.
Top-of-mind awareness creates recall so that when the ‘tomorrow’ customer becomes the ‘today’ customer, your business will be among the top three or four choices on your customer’s mental shopping list.
Focusing on branding and top of mind awareness really does work. We know that because that’s what the best marketers in the world do. How do you think Coca-Cola, Ford, McDonald’s, (local advertiser) and (local advertiser) became so successful?
Build your brand
Because they recognised, and continue to recognise the importance branding, that’s why. They know that top-of-mind awareness is what builds successful businesses – not short-term sales and promotions.
Let me tell you about the most famous of them all – Coca-Cola.
John Pemberton created Coca-Cola in 1886 and his total sales for the first year amounted to $50; he sold an average of 9 drinks a day. It wasn’t until 10 years later – after Asa Candler had bought the company for a mere $1,000 and launched a major advertising campaign to brand Coca-Cola – that Coke became America’s favourite drink. John Pemberton made almost nothing from his now famous recipe that today is worth billions. If it had been left to John, who had no interest in advertising, Coca-Cola would never have survived. Let me tell you now that Coke’s success had very little to do with its taste and everything to do with its marketing.
And here’s another interesting thing about Coca-Cola….
Defining moment for Coca-Cola
The defining moment in Coca-Cola’s phenomenal success story was the Great Depression of the 1930s. Instead of reducing its advertising spend, as other soft drink manufacturers did, Coca-Cola increased its advertising budget dramatically and focused on building its brand. It created the famous ‘Pause That Refreshes’ campaign in the 1930s that uplifted a nation at a time of depression and created the famous Santa campaigns that still continue today. Coca-Cola created the image of the Santa we know today – a jolly fat man in a red and white suit. Prior to that, Santa was depicted as a dwarf!
This pro-active marketing strategy saw sales grow substantially during the biggest financial crisis that America has ever seen and provided the foundations for the massive Coca-Cola empire that we know today.
There are always casualties
Has any anyone ever heard of Delahaye?
I thought not. And it’s not surprising because the company no longer exists. But Delahaye was the premiere luxury car manufacturer of its time – the 1930s rival to Rolls-Royce.
During the Great Depression, Delahaye eliminated its total advertising budget, instead relying on its reputation and high profile to attract customers.
Delahaye stopped advertising to save money. But it is wasn’t enough to save the brand! They soon went out of business, never to be heard of again.
Like Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Chevrolet and Ford are other companies that increased their advertising budgets during the Great Depression and came out of it unscathed.
Put bluntly, the companies that demonstrated the most growth and which rang up most sales were those that advertised heavily. The Great Depression offers classic examples of the power of brand advertising, even during times of economic crisis.
And guess what. Right now, your competitors are probably reducing their advertising exposure. This presents you with a great opportunity to take a larger share of the market while your competitors sit back and watch.
This blog was written by my business partner – previous owner of More FM and author of The Note Through the Wire – Doug Gold.
In April, via Zoom, I’ll be putting together 5 good folks and showing them exactly how to take their existing services that they sell face-to-face, virtual!
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
Here’s my tip for this week and it’s from some reading that I’ve been doing over the weekend.
Sales team can be effective if…
How do you make your sales force more effective?
In the video blog I mention a couple and here they are in more detail.
Systems.
Everyone in sales and in a team must have a systematic approach to running their sales organisation.
Therefore, that involves skill sets, making sure you’re doing a lot of training, understanding the processes and measuring your output.
We are all in this.
The sales manager has a critical role to play in his or her team, and even though it can be complex at times, it’s important that you understand your role in the organisation.
I believe it doesn’t matter what sort of business you are, the business as a whole makes sales more successful, not just the salesperson.
That’s an important one to remember.
Keeping customers is not enough.
Keeping customers is a basic requirement for a sales team.
I think we know that, as a sales organisation, but finding and winning new customers is your lifeblood.
Continually upskilling and training is paramount.
When it comes to you as a salesperson you have to keep looking for where you are strong, naturally, but also where you need some more help and updating new skills, etc.
If you’re a sales manager or business owner and you have a sales operation it’s important to create the right climate in the team, between you and the team everyone has to be comfortable about that.
You want to think about sharing any success your team may have with the group, or other people who are selling, go on visits with the team, and so on.
This is the time to stay ahead of all the challenges facing us as business owners and salespeople.
Have a great week.
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
In these days of trying to stand out, here is an idea that might just get your proposal directly onto the decision maker’s desk.
What’s the next best thing to face-to-face?
Here’s my tip for this week and it’s about standing out with your clients.
I talk to a lot of my clients and a lot of their salespeople see a client, draft a proposal, and then they send it out by email.
And guess what?
They don’t have the opportunity to present face-to-face.
However, the more important thing is they don’t have the opportunity to stand out in front of the client.
Now I accept that sometimes a client will need some sort of proposal sent to them after you’ve made all the agreements, which tends to be the way that I operate.
To make that proposal stand out a little, here is an idea.
Envelopes that sell
Why don’t you use one of these?
Envelopes that are specially printed to look just like a priority courier pack.
Here’s a couple of examples.
Imagine taking your finished proposal and placing it in the envelope, then addressing it directly to your client.
What do you think’s going to happen?
Do you think if that landed on your desk, you would open it?
You bet you would, and that’s the secret!
That’s the way to get in front of people more effectively.
Standing out with an envelope that sells, is a much better option than a plain, boring, old white envelope.
Even worse an email.
And, that’s my tip for this week.
Have a great week and I’ll talk to you again soon.
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
