Everyone sells: Part 2 - Jennifer

[hausdok]

by Matt Michel

JENNIFER

Jennifer is one of the top salespeople in her organization. Her peers roll their eyes when discussing her. She’s in a whole other league. She’s a sales machine.

As good as Jennifer is, any of the salespeople in her organization could match her if they were willing to put out a similar effort and practice similar disciplines. They don’t, so she outsells them.

What are those disciplines?

1. Jennifer Doesn’t Sit Around - A lot of salespeople would rather sit around and complain than hustle. Not Jennifer. She doesn’t waste time. She works. She’s out making sales while the other salespeople are trying to figure out what they’re going to do.

2. Jennifer Plans During Downtime - With every product or service, there’s a time when you can sell and a time when you can’t. Jennifer takes advantage of the downtime. She uses it to pre-plan her sales. She doesn’t waste sales time getting ready. She’s already ready. Sales time is for selling. Downtime is for preparing.

3. Jennifer is Opportunistic - Jennifer makes sure everyone she knows, knows what she’s selling. She’s not shy about it. As a result, she gets orders other salespeople from her organization miss. Show the least little interest and Jennifer’s ready. She’s always got an order form with her. She knows her product line backwards and forwards. She’s alert for buying signals. She scripts what she’s going to say, but will vary the script based on the circumstances.

4. Jennifer Keeps Records - Many salespeople fail to keep records of what they sold, to whom, when, and where. Jennifer keeps detailed records. She reviews these every year. As a result, she knows what to do to maximize sales time.

5. Jennifer Retains Customers - Buy from Jennifer once and she considers you *her* customer. She learns and

records your preferences. She reminds you what you purchased before. She asks for a reorder and suggests new items.

6. Jennifer is Efficient & Unconventional - The best salespeople are willing to try new approaches. They are willing to go

beyond their training. The products Jennifer sells are typically sold face-to-face by a direct sales force. This is how they’re trained to sell. Jennifer sells that way too. She also telemarkets. She simply calls her old customers and asks for orders. With the telephone, she can reach more people. She can extend her selling time.

7. Jennifer Sets Her Own Quotas - Jennifer disregards the quotas handed down by her organization. She sets her

own quotas.

Jennifer is 12 Years Old

Yes, Jennifer is 12. She’s a Girl Scout. She sells cookies. Every year, between school, scouts, softball, and soccer, she finds time to sell more than 400 to 500 boxes of cookies. She has a cookie clientele.

KATIE

If Jennifer is a sales star, Katie is a Girl Scout Cookie superstar. This year, 9 year old Katie went from 210 boxes to 1,869. How did she do it? Simple. She created a new approach.

While other girls went door-to-door in residential neighborhoods, Katie went business-to-business. She walks in, asks to see the manager, explains that she’s selling Girl Scout Cookies, and explains the program where people can buy cookies for the troops overseas. Katie then asks how many *cases* they want – not boxes, cases. That’s new paradigm selling.

If a 12 year old can follow those seven sales disciplines, so can you. If a 9 year old can create a new sales paradigm, so can you.

Why are you still sitting around? Remember the first discipline?

Copyright © 2004 Matt Michel - The Comanche Marketer

Source: Comanche Marketing. Reprinted by permission.

THE COMANCHE MARKETER

They were a tribe of warriors. They were masters of the horse and masters of war. Through their tactical brilliance, they overcame the inferiority of their numbers to drive the Apache out of Texas and beat back the Spanish. The Utes called them "one who fights me all the time." The Utes called them Comanches. The Comanche warrior was one who fought all of the time.

The Comanche marketer is one who markets as fiercely, as brilliantly, and as relentlessly as the Comanche fought. The Comanche marketer is "one who markets all of the time."

Free subscriptions to The Comanche Marketer are available at: http://www.serviceroundtable.com -- click on the Comanche Marketing tab.

Editor's Note:You might ask why TIJ features marketing articles written by an HVAC sales guru like Matt Michel. The answer is simple. Matt's stories are lessons learned over decades of overcoming obstacles to sales and can be applied to any profession. Home inspectors, as a breed, are uncomfortable marketing and are their own worst enemy when it comes to selling their services. Michel's lessons can help each of us defeat that enemy. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!