Sticky Sales and Marketing E-Book

Peter Lyle DeHaan

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Serie: Sticky series
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 139

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Growing your business sounds easy. But successful sales and marketing is hard. 

Is your business failing to realize its true potential? It might be that your sales and marketing are holding you back. Learn how to market more convincingly, sell more successfully, and manage more effectively. 

In Sticky Sales and Marketing, Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD breaks down sales and marketing strategies in a coherent story-driven process and highlights what works and what doesn’t. Through personal stories and eye-opening insights, he shares how businesses and organizations can promote their products and services more effectively for long-term growth. 

By highlighting powerful examples, we’re given a comprehensive overview of sales management, sales tips, marketing management, and marketing tactics. 

No matter if you’re selling products, services, or an idea, Sticky Sales and Marketing teaches why some sales and marketing techniques work—and others don’t—and what impacts the bottom line the most. 

Through insightful stories and examples, you’ll learn how to: 

 - Close more sales and gain repeat clients. 

 - Understand the keys to a high-producing sales team. 

 - Know what marketing channels will work best for you. 

 - Apply marketing tactics proven to work. 

 - Feel confident in your sales and marketing ability. 

Sticky Sales and Marketing will not only teach you the building blocks to marketing that sticks, but how to escape marketing failures that could hurt your reputation and your business. 

With the right plan and process, you can become better at marketing without resorting to scammy tactics or poorly executed strategies.  

Let Sticky Sales and Marketing show you how to pursue sales and marketing with more confidence and greater success.

Leseprobe

Sticky Sales and Marketing Success Tips

Produce Positive Long-Term Results and Relationships

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

Sticky Sales and Marketing: Produce Positive Long-Term Results and Relationships Copyright © 2022 by Peter Lyle DeHaan.

Book 2 in the Sticky series.

All rights reserved: No part of this book may be reproduced, disseminated, or transmitted in any form, by any means, or for any purpose without the express written consent of the author or his legal representatives. The only exception is short excerpts and the cover image for reviews or academic research.

ISBN:

979-8-88809-000-8 (e-book)

979-8-88809-001-5 (paperback)

979-8-88809-002-2 (hardcover)

Library of Congress Control Number: 9798888090015

Published by Rock Rooster Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Credits:

Copy editor: Robyn Mulder

Cover design: Taryn Nergaard

Author photo: Jordan Leigh Photography

To all who pursue sales and marketing in its various forms

Contents

Sales and Marketing

Part 1: Sales Management

The Sales and Marketing Success Formula

Commission Plan Failure

An Unconventional Hiring Approach

Earning Expectations

Not All Sales Experience Applies

Experience versus Education

A Day of Sales Calls

Anything for a Sale

Part 2: Sales Tips

The Either/Or Close

The Special Incentive

Three Lessons in Retail Sales That Everyone Needs to Hear

A Shocking Experience

Put the Customer First

The Optimum Time to Sell

Check Your Email to Close More Sales

Part 3: Marketing Management

Marketing Options

Tracking Marketing Effectiveness

Channel Inconsistency

Your Company’s Online Presence

How to Succeed at Email Marketing

Promoting Churn

A Lesson in Futility

A Marketing Failure

Part 4: Marketing Tactics

Pricing, Sales, and Discounts

Respect Your Existing Business Relationship Status

Align Marketing Tactics with Sales Skills

A Primer on Ads

Pursue Content Marketing

Successfully Submit Press Releases and Informative Articles

The Ideal Follow-Up Strategy

Moving Forward: You Can Do It

Other Books in the Sticky Series

About Peter Lyle DeHaan

Sales and Marketing

Promote a Product, Service, or Idea to Achieve a Desired Outcome

Every business or organization has a sales and marketing function. It’s only the details that vary. They may have an existing department, or two, to address this need. Or the sales and marketing functions may fall under the purview of an individual, manager, or department. Regardless of whether it’s structured or ad hoc, every group has a promotional element integral to it.

Some businesses sell a tangible product. It’s something that customers can see and touch. It displays nicely on brochures and in ads. Buyers can hold it in their hands or try it. It’s real.

Other businesses sell a service. A service is intangible. Buyers can’t perceive it with their five senses. They realize benefits only after using the service. To sell service requires painting a picture of what life will be like once they’ve used the service. This is a harder sell because there’s a delay between making the purchase and realizing the desired outcome. Amid this uncertainty, it’s easy for the hesitant buyer to say no.

Some organizations—especially nonprofits—sell ideas. They promote concepts. Often their promotion efforts revolve around asking for donations. They use these contributions to cover overhead, fuel more sales and marketing initiatives, and address the needs of their target audience. They may even use a form of sales and marketing to find and reach out to their clientele, the population they seek to serve.

Beyond businesses and nonprofits, however, individuals must also use these tactics throughout their life. Whether it’s finding a job, promoting a cause, or successfully interacting with family and friends, each interaction has some degree of sales and marketing—even if we don’t call it that.

We must be able to successfully promote ourselves (sales and marketing) to land a job. The same applies if we’re advocating for a cause or pitching an idea. And many interactions with family and friends involve a degree of negotiation—from “Pick up your room,” to “I think we should buy this car,” to “Which restaurant do you want to go to?”

If we don’t fairly present our perspective, we lessen the chance of realizing the outcome we want or find acceptable. At the root of this idea of influencing others to achieve a desired outcome is sales and marketing.

That’s why this book is important. Everyone’s involved in sales and marketing to one degree or another. It’s just that most people who don’t carry a sales-and-marketing related title don’t realize this truth.

Whatever your position or situation, it’s important to master effective sales and marketing. This book will get you started. It will be up to you to apply these principles.

Part 1: Sales Management

I spent several years working in a multi-location call center that specialized in telephone answering services. As I moved into upper management and later became part owner, I took on the responsibility of sales management, along with my other duties.

Later I started a publishing company specializing in print and online periodicals. Once again, I found myself in a sales management situation, overseeing my media rep. She was not an employee, however, but an outside, independent salesperson. It was a different type of management experience for me, one I repeated later when I hired a virtual assistant to handle book sales.

The Sales and Marketing Success Formula

Sales Success Comes through Attitude and Execution

People often ask, “How can I get more sales?” Increasing sales stands as a primary concern at most businesses. No one has ever told me their company closes all the deals they want.

I wish they would ask me easier questions: “How can I improve quality?” “How can I increase revenue?” “How can I reduce turnover?” I’ve dealt with all these issues, but the sales dilemma is trickier.

Sales managers seek a quick fix, a simple strategy. It’s as if they expect me to say, “Invest X dollars in Y process to produce Z sales.”

But there is no magic solution. If there were, I’d start a sales and marketing business. My clients would merely tell me their sales goals for the month, and I would fill their order. But it’s not that simple. Selling is complex.

Though there are many sales strategies and marketing channels to pick from, they don’t count for nearly as much as implementation. Implementation matters most.

Here then is my ultimate sales and marketing success formula:

Personnel

Sales staff is the first element in the success formula. Without the right people in place, nothing else matters. This starts with finding the ideal person for the job. Over the years, I’ve hired many salespeople.

What is true for all job candidates is even more valid for sales applicants: you see them at their absolute best during the interview. In fact, even mediocre salespeople know they must give their best sales performance during the interview. If they can’t sell themselves to you, how can they ever sell your product or service to someone else? To cut through all of this, I have a few key questions I like to ask sales candidates:

How much did you make at your last job? If they made six figures, but can only earn half that at your company, they’re unlikely to work out. They’ll be unhappy with their lower compensation, develop a negative attitude, and leave as soon as a better-paying job comes along.

Conversely, if they barely cracked the poverty level at their last position, they may be out of their league to produce at the level you expect. Ideally, their target compensation working for you should be 5 to 25 percent higher than what they made at their past job.

How much would you like to make at this job? The response to this is most telling. Why? Because if it’s unreasonably high, they won’t be satisfied working for you. On the other hand, if it’s lower than what you are prepared to pay, then they’ll coast once they hit their target compensation.

Look for a salary expectation that’s consistent with what you can deliver but will still motivate them.

Would you like to work straight commission? I don’t advocate that anyone earn a straight commission. However, I pose this question to throw them off track and gauge their response.

To make this work, don’t ask the question directly but back into it. If they’re at all good with sales, they will have already regaled you with their accomplishments, assured you that they’ll be your best salesperson ever, and pledged to produce at a level beyond your wildest expectations.

And, if they have moxie, they may even say you’d be foolish not to hire them or they may suggest your company will fail without them. (Yes, I’ve heard this from sales applicants.) Given all of this, they assert that you must pay them top dollar.

At this point, I lean forward and whisper, “I don’t normally offer this, but based on your track record and past performance, I think you’re worthy of special consideration. I suggest we consider a compensation plan where you’ll be highly rewarded for your results and given an open-ended opportunity to exceed your compensation goals.”

Then I pause before I ask, “How would you like to work for straight commission?”

First, watch if they can smoothly react to an unexpected question. Next, see how they retreat from their prior boasting. Often a more realistic picture emerges. Last, their counterproposal will reveal what they expect for base pay and how much they’re willing to put on the line in the form of commissions, incentives, and bonuses.

If this offer offends them, simply apologize and say that, based on what they said, you thought this idea would appeal to them.

Never once did I have a boastful sales candidate want to work for straight commission.

Attitude

Having the right sales staff, however, is just the beginning of the success formula. They also need to have the right attitude. How many times have you seen salespeople talk themselves into a bad month? The thinking goes like this: “Last year this month was bad. Is it always bad? I better brace myself for a bad month.” It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and then they have a bad month.

Another self-defeating attitude is negativity. Consider, for example, the salesperson who says, “Direct mail? That won’t work!” And with that attitude, it never will. Or how about, “That didn’t work last time, and it’s not going to work now!”

Are they willing to try new things? If they’re open to innovative ideas, then they have a much greater chance of success than if they’re closed-minded.

Strangely, all too many salespeople would rather continue to do what has failed in the past than try something new.

Execution

Linked to attitude in our success formula is the proper execution. In fact, without the right attitude, successful execution is impossible. I’ve seen ideal marketing plans flop because of poor execution. Conversely, I’ve seen the most ill-conceived strategies succeed brilliantly because the sales team diligently, steadfastly, and consistently implemented them.

Quite simply, there needs to be a plan. Then meticulously follow the plan. And hold those involved accountable for their work. This brings up the fourth element: management.

Management

The glue that holds the success formula together is management. Good management starts with hiring the right salespeople, giving them excellent training, providing them with proper compensation, and motivating them to produce.

Follow this with a sound marketing plan and a supportive environment in which to implement it. Finally, sales management means an ongoing time investment to encourage, observe, teach, and adjust what your sales staff does.

Succinctly put, management keeps them on task and holds them accountable.

Seldom is a salesperson successful without ongoing managerial attention. They need encouragement when they are down and applause when they make a sale. Keep them responsible for their schedule and liable for their results. This takes considerable time and effort. As such, proper sales management is not just one more hat to wear, but a full-time job.

Successfully managing salespeople is challenging work. It takes time, perseverance, and dedication. But then, don’t all things that are worthwhile?

Sales Management Success Tip

Find the weak link in your company’s success formula. Then implement a plan to fix it.

Commission Plan Failure

Ill-Conceived Incentive Programs Can Actually Hurt Sales

John was a salesperson who periodically visited our business. His company supplied specialized equipment to our industry, and we regularly bought from him. He cultivated relationships with many people in the company, including me, even though at the time I was scarcely an influencer—let alone a decision-maker. Yet John paid attention to me, and I looked forward to his visits and the cordial friendship we shared.

John once told me that his company provided a decent base pay along with a commission. The base pay was enough to live on, but to go beyond that the commission was essential. When my company made a significant purchase from John, I assumed he would be ecstatic.

He was not. He was quite nonchalant about his significant sale.

“Won’t you get a nice commission?” I asked him in private.

He shook his head.

I gave him a quizzical look.

“I only get a commission if my sales exceed last year’s. And last year was a banner year for me, three times what I’ve ever sold in one year. I was the top salesman of the company and ranked high on the all-time list.

“I won’t be able to match that this year, not even close. That means no commissions.”

I considered what John said. “Does that mean you need to try to alternate between good years and bad years so you can at least earn a commission every other year?”

John again shook his head. “Last year’s sales number is my target going forward to earn any commission. And since my base pay is fixed, if I want to earn more, I’ll need to change jobs.”

John continued his affable interaction with our business, but he seemed to have lost his enthusiasm. His company’s commission plan had disincentivized their top salesman, serving to push him away.

Much later in my career, the company owner presented me with an intriguing incentive plan of my own. Though it wasn’t sales related, he intended it to motivate me to produce even greater results.

As he explained the criteria to calculate my bonus—which could double my already nice base pay—I planned what I’d do to maximize my bonus.

My eagerness didn’t last long, however, when he got to the last provision of the plan, a caveat. It said that the payout was contingent on company profits. That meant I could meet every objective and receive no bonus if the company had a bad year.

He never asked me what I thought about the plan.

If he had, I’d have told him that to work all year for a bonus but then not receive it would be the biggest demotivating factor I could face. As far as my long-term employment with the company was concerned, it would be in my best interest to not pursue the bonus, even though that’s how I was wired.

I ignored the goals of the incentive plan and continued to do what I thought was in the best interest of the business. Even so, by year end I did earn a couple thousand dollars bonus. But I didn’t care. I didn’t get my hopes up because I knew that each year was contingent on the company’s profitability.

My indifference toward the bonus surely perplexed my boss, but he never asked why the plan failed to motivate me.

My employer no doubt put that last provision in place because of a negative experience that another company owner had encountered. She had put her operations manager on an incentive plan that rewarded her for growth, effectively for sales and customer retention. The manager responded with diligence to the incentive and the company grew under her direction. She earned nice annual bonuses.

A few years in, the owner realized the operations manager would make more than she would—much more. The owner paid the agreed upon amount and dropped the plan. The operations manager soon left.

Sales Management Success Tip

The purpose of a commission or bonus is to motivate salespeople. Evaluate your plan from their perspective to ensure that it does, in fact, incentivize them. Make sure there are no provisions that would cause them to not do their best or that might provoke them to leave.

An Unconventional Hiring Approach

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

Her words surprised me.

“I can’t run this ad!”

The rep’s response caught me off guard, but it wasn’t completely unexpected either. “I agree that it’s a bit unorthodox.”