by Mike Brunel | Jun 12, 2023 | Sales
Understanding Basic Human Needs and Their Impact on Sales
Introduction: In this week’s blog post, we explore the importance of understanding the basic human needs we all have and how it relates to sales success.
Discover the key to unlocking better sales outcomes by uncovering your clients’ wants and needs.
Importance of Discovering Client’s Needs:
As a salesperson, understanding your client’s needs and wants is essential for achieving successful sales. Without this understanding, closing the opportunities you have been given becomes harder, and your sales progress may be blocked.
Here are three needs that you may want to think about as you go on your sales journey.
- The Need for Certainty/Comfort:
One of the most significant human needs is the need for certainty. This desire stems from our innate need to feel in control and secure about what the future holds.
By addressing your clients’ need for certainty and comfort, you can create an environment where they feel safe, comfortable, and confident in making a purchase.
- Asking the Right Questions :
To better understand your clients’ needs, asking the right questions is essential. Discover what your clients need to feel certain about your product or service. Consider what assurances you can provide to instil confidence in your clients. Differentiate yourself by demonstrating the certainty they can gain from working with you compared to other options. Additionally, identify the risks you can alleviate when clients choose your product or service.
- The Impact of Meeting Basic Human Needs:
Even when there are similar products of inferior quality in the market, clients may still choose them over superior offerings. Understanding why this happens can enhance your sales presentations.
By addressing the underlying human needs that influence purchasing decisions, you can better position your product or service to meet your clients’ needs and stand out.
Conclusion: Recognising and understanding the basic human needs of your clients is a vital aspect of successful sales. You can establish trust and forge stronger connections by uncovering their needs and wants, particularly their need for certainty and comfort.
In this new world of selling, where human needs play a bigger part than before clients’ need to trust you, provide reassurance, and differentiate yourself in the market.
Good selling this week.
Mike.
PLUS: WHENEVER YOU’RE READY…
- Here are 4 ways I can help you make more sales in your business – whether your business is big or small.1. Want to become a Sales Mindset Blueprint Member. Every month you get access to an exclusive coaching session with me as well as full access to my sales programme. Get the deets here.
- Try the new ‘7 Days to Sales Success’ framework. Make more sales in 7 days. The framework of everything you need to get started in making more sales in your business. The Sales Success Framework is based on a simple 7-day challenge. Click here to find out how to grow your business by making more sales.
- Join our private Facebook group – The Sales Mindset Inner Circle. Get all the latest up-to-date sales ideas. Every week we do Facebook Live updates on all things sales. Tips, ideas, free coaching, and much more. Join me by clicking here
- Work with me one-on-one. If you’re a business owner, small or large or in professional services, you might just be a few strategies, tactics and tools away from doubling your lead flow, revenue and impact. Jump on a FREE 15-minute brainstorm call with me by clicking here.
by Mike Brunel | Jun 5, 2023 | Sales
Do you know the lifetime value of your clients? What does it mean to the long-term survival of your business?
I recently had an interesting encounter with my mother-in-law, with whom I generally have a good relationship (after she forgave me for “snatching” her daughter nearly 30-odd years ago).
She faithfully visits her hairdresser every week for the usual treatment and blow wave. I know this because she has been recounting a recent incident to her daughter every time they meet.
She’s angry.
“The Power of Customer Loyalty:
Now, the cause of her anger may seem trivial, but when you consider that she has patronised the same hairdresser for over 30 years, it becomes easier to understand her frustration.
10% off your next visit.
My mother-in-law received some vouchers in the mail from her hairdresser, offering a discount for her next visit.
It seems these vouchers were part of a generic promotion sent out to the entire customer database of the salon.
However, on her most recent visit, my mother-in-law, perhaps a little absent-minded, decided to present these vouchers and request a discount on her just-completed treatment and blow wave.
Her answer was, “Sorry, but that voucher has expired.”
When the daughter of the salon owner examined the vouchers, she regretfully informed my mother-in-law that they had expired and, therefore the discount no longer applied (it was a week overdue).
You can probably imagine the reaction—it was far from pleasant. As a result, the relationship between my mother-in-law and the hairdresser ended despite a few phone calls between the two parties.
Trivial? Probably.
Curious about the situation, I began asking my mother-in-law some questions. What I discovered was rather interesting.
For over 30 years, she had been visiting the hairdresser once a week, paying an average price of $45 per visit.
Accounting for a few occasional weeks missed, I calculated that she had spent around $2160 at this particular salon a year.
Times that by 30 years (48 weeks a year for 30 years multiplied by $45 equals $64,800.
The lifetime value of this client amounted to a whopping $64,800.
The hairdresser lost a lifetime client over a mere $4.50 (the voucher offered a 10% discount on the visit).
It certainly makes you think.
Fighting over $4.50 may sound trivial, but sometimes that’s all it takes to sever a long-standing relationship.
One could argue that both parties overreacted and that the situation could have been resolved.
However, these seemingly insignificant incidents can trip many of us up.
So, do you know the lifetime value of your clients?
It’s worth finding out.
Remember, every client represents potential long-term revenue and contributes to your business’s overall success and survival.
Keep selling wisely.
Mike (Lifetime Value) Brunel
PLUS: WHENEVER YOU’RE READY…
Here are 3 ways I can help you make more sales in your business – whether your business is big or small.
- Try the new 7 Days to Sales Success Framework.
Make More Sales in 7 days. The framework of everything you need to get started in making more sales in your business. The Sales Success Framework is based on a simple 7-day challenge. Click here to find out how you can grow your business by making more sales.
- Join our Private Facebook Group – The Salesmindset Inner Circle. Get all the latest up-to-date sales ideas.
Every week we do Facebook Live updates on all things sales. Tips, ideas, free coaching, and much more. Join me by clicking here.
- Work with me One-on-One.
If you’re a business owner, small or large or in the professional services you might just be a few strategies, tactics and tools away from doubling your lead flow, revenue and impact. Jump on a FREE 45-minute Brainstorm call with me by clicking here.
by Mike Brunel | May 29, 2023 | Sales
“The Power of Persuasion: Lessons from the Kellogg Brothers’ Grain-Based Breakfast Campaign”
Allow me to share a captivating tale with you, shedding light on the origins of our breakfast habits involving grains.
This intriguing narrative serves as a valuable lesson in the realm of advertising.
In the annals of history, the Kellogg brothers played a pivotal role in persuading us that consuming grains was a wholesome choice for breakfast.
Now, I must preface that I am no authority on health and nutrition, but it is a fact that 150 years ago, the majority of people indulged in pork, beef, or chicken as their morning meal.
“From Sanitarium to Supermarket Shelves: The Kellogg Brothers’ Journey”
According to the account put forth by *Dr. Al Sears, the Kellogg’s operated a sanitarium and adhered to a vegetarian lifestyle.
It was within these walls that they formulated what we now recognize as “granola” and eventually pioneered cornflakes.
Rather than providing their patients with animal products, Kellogg’s substituted them with these novel grain-based creations.
As the patients departed the sanitarium, they continued to request these products through mail, convinced of their health benefits.
Recognizing the potential, Kellogg’s commenced packaging and soon found themselves embarking on a flourishing enterprise.
To promote their offerings, the Kellogg’s employed astute advertising techniques, painting grains as virtuous and casting aspersions on meat and eggs.
Not necessarily due to irrefutable evidence, but driven by Kellogg’s commercial and vegetarian agenda, they succeeded in persuading individuals that their product was the epitome of “healthy,” while traditional foods were not.
“Cereal vs. Nature: Unravelling the Marketing Magic Behind Tony the Tiger”
For decades, the iconic Tony the Tiger, Kellogg’s spokesperson, has regaled us with the mantra that cereal is “Grrrrrreat!” to consume. (A character invented by the famous advertising agency Leo Burnett
However, it is worth noting that such an endorsement goes against the natural inclinations of a tiger, which would never partake in such fare.
What makes this story remarkable, regardless of its veracity, is the profound influence of advertising and persuasion.
Now, I must clarify that I am by no means advocating for the distortion of truth in advertising.
Nevertheless, we can draw from this narrative the power of storytelling in advertising and impart the knowledge that, with compelling copy and the right combination of product, message, and medium, success can indeed be achieved.
Presenting your story whatever it may be requires the right communication. A formula for telling good stories and presenting great offers.
If you want to know more about our format system just pop (4Mat System) in a return email and I can send you some details.
Mike (Make better presentation) Brunel
PLUS: WHENEVER YOU’RE READY…
Here are 3 ways I can help you make more sales in your business – whether your business is big or small.
- Try the new 7 Days to Sales Success Framework.
Make More Sales in 7 days. The framework of everything you need to get started in making more sales in your business. The Sales Success Framework is based on a simple 7-day challenge. Click here to find out how you can grow your business by making more sales.
- Join our Private Facebook Group – The Salesmindset Inner Circle. Get all the latest up-to-date sales ideas.
Every week we do Facebook Live updates on all things sales. Tips, ideas, free coaching, and much more. Join me by clicking here.
- Work with me One-on-One.
If you’re a business owner, small or large or in the professional services you might just be a few strategies, tactics and tools away from doubling your lead flow, revenue and impact. Jump on a FREE 45-minute Brainstorm call with me by clicking here.
*Al Sears MD Doctors House call newsletter January 2014
by Mike Brunel | May 22, 2023 | Sales
What airlines can teach about Upsells and cross Sells.
As many of you may know, I owned a media consultancy company called NRS Media. We consulted Radio, TV, and Newspaper publishers, and online media companies all over the world.
Delve into the world of upselling as airlines show us how to upsell.
As you can probably appreciate, it involved a lot of travel, with many of our staff often on planes, always travelling somewhere.
If you want to watch a great movie on air travel as a businessperson, I would recommend Up in the Air starring George Clooney.
Some of the tricks and manoeuvres he goes through to get on some of his flights are very funny, and I am sure many of our staff think the same as they contemplate their journeys.
One of the questions that I always ask when I arrive at the counter is,
“How busy is the flight today?” If the answer is
“Okay, not too bad, not too full,” I always ask the next question.
“Can you block off the middle seat?” I ask.
“I’ve got a bit of work to do and want to spread out.”
Usually, if they have one, they will do it for me.
You see, the middle seat is NOT the seat of choice for frequent travellers; it’s a seat that nobody wants, unless it’s the kids, and they share it with each other.
The kids don’t mind; it gives them the chance to play against each other with some new video game or a movie they can watch.
“Escape the dreaded middle seat with an empty seat next to you!”
So, the question is, would you pay for the seat to be FREE? Well, some people would, and one airline, my airline, Air New Zealand, does just that.
It’s part of their new makeover on their new flash Boeing 777s. If the seat next to you is empty, you can secure it if you part with $150.
Example Upsells:
- Upgrade to Premium Economy: Enjoy extra legroom, enhanced services, and priority boarding for a more comfortable and exclusive travel experience.
- In-flight Wi-Fi Package: Stay connected during your flight with high-speed internet access and unlimited browsing. Upgrade your ticket to access this convenient service.
- Business Class Lounge Access: Make the most of your pre-flight experience with access to the luxurious business class lounge, offering complimentary refreshments, comfortable seating, and premium amenities.
By implementing these upsells, airlines can enhance their customers’ overall travel experience while generating additional revenue.
Swipe the new word for marketing other ideas.
I love looking at other businesses for ideas. Your sales organization can be innovative too, you know.
Create your own upsells and cross-sells to add value to your customer’s purchases and increase your sales.
Good selling.
PLUS: WHENEVER YOU’RE READY…
Here are 3 ways I can help you make more sales in your business – whether your business is big or small.
- Try the new 7 Days to Sales Success Framework.
Make More Sales in 7 days. The framework of everything you need to get started in making more sales in your business. The Sales Success Framework is based on a simple 7-day challenge. Click here to find out how you can grow your business by making more sales.
- Join our Private Facebook Group – The Salesmindset Inner Circle. Get all the latest up-to-date sales ideas.
Every week we do Facebook Live updates on all things sales. Tips, ideas, free coaching, and much more. Join me by clicking here.
- Work with me One-on-One.
If you’re a business owner, small or large or in the professional services you might just be a few strategies, tactics and tools away from doubling your lead flow, revenue and impact. Jump on a FREE 45-minute Brainstorm call with me by clicking here.
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!
by Mike Brunel | May 15, 2023 | Sales
Over the past week, I had the opportunity to address one of my client’s most pressing concerns: how to improve their prospecting efforts.
Whether you’re selling a product or a service, mastering the art of prospecting is crucial for the success of any sales organization.
It allows you to tap into the lifeblood of your business and unlock new opportunities.
Now, let me share with you a system that can revolutionize your approach to prospecting, setting you apart from your competitors and positioning you as the go-to expert in your field.
Stand Out, Be Memorable: The Power of Personal Branding in Prospecting.
The key ingredient in this system is credibility. Regardless of whether you’re a seasoned veteran or a fresh-faced rookie, your clients want to be reassured of your credibility before committing to a business relationship.
Every day, they scrutinize you and evaluate what you have to offer.
Imagine if you could establish yourself as the undeniable authority and the first name that comes to mind when they think of sales in your industry.
Well, here’s the secret: shift your focus from hunting the prey to positioning yourself as the client’s guide to understanding your expertise.
Countless case studies have shown the transformative power of this approach. As a business, you have the opportunity to transcend the traditional salesperson role and become a trusted advisor, someone your clients rely on for valuable insights.
Crafting a Compelling Bio: Your Gateway to Captivating Prospects
One effective way to achieve this is by crafting a compelling bio that encapsulates your professional journey and highlights your unique qualities. Let’s break down the process into four simple steps:
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Tell your story concisely: In just 25 to 30 words, describe yourself professionally. Emphasize your qualifications, experience, and any transferrable skills you’ve acquired from other sectors within your industry. This concise summary should capture the essence of who you are as a sales professional.
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Showcase your achievements: Share notable accomplishments from your business and professional life. Whether you’ve excelled in sports, earned an MBA, or successfully raised a family, demonstrate that you are a multi-dimensional individual, not just a marketing machine. Highlighting your achievements helps establish credibility and fosters a deeper connection with potential clients.
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Personalize with a photo: In today’s digital age, a well-captured photo can enhance your personal brand. You don’t need a professional photographer—your mobile phone or a friend/colleague can help you take a high-quality picture. Consider using a black-and-white photo for a touch of professionalism, but make sure it reflects your authentic self.
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Define your unique value proposition: Craft a positioning statement that clearly communicates what sets you apart. Your positioning statement should instantly convey to the client who you are and what you offer. For instance, consider the example of my real-estate friend, whose positioning statement is, “Dedicated to Superior Customer Service.” This concise statement demonstrates a commitment to providing exceptional service, instantly differentiating them from the competition.
Establish Credibility, Win Trust: The Key to Prospecting Success
So, as you embark on the journey of prospecting for the rest of 2023 I encourage you to implement these strategies. Embrace the power of credibility and become the go-to expert in your industry.
Take the time to develop your bio, highlighting your story, achievements, and unique value proposition. Remember, selling is about building relationships and establishing trust. By leveraging these techniques, you’ll be well on your way to prospecting success.
Wishing you the best in your sales endeavours for the balance of 2023, and please feel free to share these insights with others.
PLUS: Whenever you’re ready…
Here are 3 ways I can help you make more sales in your business – whether your business is big or small.
1. Try the new 7 Days to Sales Success Framework.
Make More Sales in 7 days. The framework of everything you need to get started in making more sales in your business. The Sales Success Framework is based on a simple 7-day challenge. Click here to find out how you can grow your business by making more sales.
2. Join our Private Facebook Group – The Salesmindset Inner Circle. Get all the latest up-to-date sales ideas.
Every week we do Facebook Live updates on all things sales. Tips, ideas, free coaching, and much more. Join me by clicking here.
3. Work with me One-on-One.
If you’re a business owner, small or large or in the professional services you might just be a few strategies, tactics and tools away from doubling your lead flow, revenue and impact. Jump on a FREE 15-minute Brainstorm call with me by clicking here.
by Mike Brunel | May 8, 2023 | Sales
Get Your Sales Groove On in Just a Week: Here’s How!
Sunday: Plan
Your Week and Get Your Hustle On Set aside half an hour to plan your week, but don’t stop there!
It’s important to make sure you establish your sales goals and write them down.
Remember, without clear goals, you’re just wandering around in the dark. Make prospecting, appointments, and client issues a top priority this week.
Monday: Get Chatty with Your Clients, STAT!
Are you talking to your clients yet? Don’t wait another minute! Schedule your first appointment for 9:00 am sharp and get the conversation started. Time to put on your big boy/girl pants and make some sales!
Tuesday: Express Your Gratitude (And Get Some More Business)
Feeling a little stuck at your desk? Write five thank-you cards to your clients and remind them how much you appreciate them. Gratitude not only feels great, but it can also be a powerful motivator. Make it a weekly thing!
Wednesday: Break a Sweat and Get Your Creative Juices Flowing Get your gym clothes on and hit the gym.
It’s time to clear your mind and get inspired. Sometimes, all you need is a little sweat and some endorphins to come up with a genius idea. Let’s get moving!
Thursday: Testimonials, Testimonials, Testimonials!
Do you want testimonials? You got it! Make four service calls today with one goal in mind: getting testimonials. Send a feedback form and ask your clients for a LinkedIn recommendation. At Mikebrunel.com, we have a simple testimonial form you can use for free. Just hit me up (email at the bottom of the article).
Friday: Reflect and Plan Like a Boss It’s time to reflect on your achievements and plan for the following week.
Take some time to think about what worked and what didn’t work this week. Do you have any appointments? Have you planned your sales meeting and shared the agenda with your team? Use this time to plan for Monday and get ahead of the game.
Saturday: Unwind, Relax, and Find Your Balance Take some time off and relax.
Spend time with your family, do something you love, and reflect on your work. Remember, balance is the key to being a successful salesperson.
Email Mike@mikebrunel.com for a free testimonial form.
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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. He 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!
