Sales

How do you sell buckwheat pancakes and macrobiotic rice milk to somebody like, say, Viacom’s resident tough guy Sumner Redstone? You probably don’t even bother to try. Or, you get Gwyneth Paltrow to email him her newsletter GOOP, instead, hoping he’ll be receptive to the pictures. By and large, he doesn’t seem like somebody who would be into a macrobiotic diet. As Gwyneth said of her father Bruce Paltrow, Redstone would probably think that eating macrobiotic food is like “biting into the New York Times.” (Although, I should point out that the octogenarian Mr. Redstone allegedly swears by a elixir called MonaVie - a Brazilian concoction made with Brazilian acai berry which he swears is a "miracle drug" which will cause him to live to be well over 100 years old) So who knows? Maybe he would go for the buckwheat.

As a small business owner who needs to make Sales to stay in business (whatever type of business you are running) you have got to figure out who your customers are, and find a way to give them what they want when they want it, the way they want it. That, basically, is the trick to sales. Don't try to sell buckwheat pancakes to the Sumner Redstones of the world unless you have reason to believe they want or need it. Cause if they don't, they're more than likely not going to buy. But if you try to sell buckwheat pankcake to Gwyneth and her wannabes (my hand is in the air), you will probably have much better luck.

According to Linda Richardson, author of Perfect Selling, there are five steps which must be perfectly executed in order to make the perfect sale. The steps are: 1) connect 2) explore 3) leverage 4) resolve and 5) act. All five of these steps must be mastered in order for you to make that sale. It doesn't matter what you are trying to sell, whether you are in a service business or whether you make goods and produce things. These are the five steps to making the perfect sale.

When you think of “Sales” you probably think of the cold caller from Wall Street who is trying to sell you one or the other stock. The truth is, everyone is a salesman. And everyone is a customer. Of something. At some time. You have probably heard the expression “you’ve got to sell yourself” whether in the context of an interview, or getting a small business loan, or convincing a venture capitalist to sponsor your hedge fund or IPO, or convincing the customer to buy the coat in your high end boutique, or you're a lawyer or doctor, or accountant or what have you trying to sell your services to clients. It doesn’t matter who you are, how big your business, whether you are a service industry or you make Good Year Tires. You are a seller of a want or need of something, at some time, to some one and you've got to figure out how to connect with that customer and make that sale.

The trick with Sales is to figure out what your customers want and need. The Sumner Redstones of the world probably don't want or need buckwheat pancakes. But I am certain there are other things that he wants and needs and the right sales person can get him to buy, so long as they connect, explore, resolve, leverage, and act.

Every small business is in the business of selling, as I’ve indicated. What are you selling? Goods? Services? A combination of the two? Is there a market for what you are selling? In other words are there consumers/customers who need or want your good or services? As a small business owner you have to determine whether what you are selling has value to the people you are trying to sell it to. Otherwise you probably won’t have much sales success.

Martha Stewart is probably the ultimate sales woman. A former Wall Street stock broker, she has “mastered the art of style and entertaining” and has sold this mastery to her customers under the umbrella of Martha Stewart Omnimedia – “a one stop shop for lifestyle, content and products via television, radio, magazines, books, retail channels and the web.” In October’s Equities Magazine, Martha says, “I am really an entrepreneur in the highest sense of the word. I am willing to take an idea and run with it.”

She does not say she is the ultimate at selling that idea to her consumers. But ultimately, that is what she masters – the selling of her ideas to the masses. She admits in the interview that “part of my business model from the start was to provide consumers with consistent high quality information where ever and however they want it.” She understood from the get go that success at selling her ideas meant observing her consumers, and seeing what they want and giving them what they want the way the want it, when they want it.