What are YOUR challenges

D

DJ Carroll

Member
I'm going to be working on some stuff this winter. One of which being starting on my blog for saleSWAG.com

I'm looking for topics to write on that are real world issues you guys are facing. So what I am asking for is that you guys post up your challenges when it comes to sales and marketing. Could be anything from efficiencies, systems, tactical approaches, psychology, or set situations.

Post em up and I will post the articles after they are written.

Hope everyone had a great year.
 
How about breaking into the "good ole boy networks"?
What about community involvement to indirectly reach out to residential and commercial? How to utilize sponsorships and charity events?
We've been trying to split our advertising dollars among post cards, flyers, web development, and community involvement. How about a post about building a plan, looking for non-conventional opportunities, tracking results, and adjusting the plan!?
 
DJ Carroll said:
I'm going to be working on some stuff this winter. One of which being starting on my blog for saleSWAG.com

I'm looking for topics to write on that are real world issues you guys are facing. So what I am asking for is that you guys post up your challenges when it comes to sales and marketing. Could be anything from efficiencies, systems, tactical approaches, psychology, or set situations.

Post em up and I will post the articles after they are written.

Hope everyone had a great year.
Click to expand...


Very interesting post DJ, I'll be following this one for sure.

Sales is like a "Golf Swing" some got it some don't. I've just scratched the surface as far as Marketing and try to learn more everyday.
 
BlueBliss said:
  • How about breaking into the "good ole boy networks"?
  • What about community involvement to indirectly reach out to residential and commercial?
  • How to utilize sponsorships and charity events?
  • How about building a plan to be sales distinctive, tracking results, and adjusting the plan!?


We've been trying to split our advertising dollars among post cards, flyers, web development, and community involvement.
Click to expand...
Re-posted for clarity.....
 
Guy Blackmon said:
Very interesting post DJ, I'll be following this one for sure.

Sales is like a "Golf Swing" some got it some don't. I've just scratched the surface as far as Marketing and try to learn more everyday.
Click to expand...

Defiantly a good post, I don't agree salesmen are born. I can make anyone a sales person. training is what selling is all about and motivation, discipline & often persistence. Of course it starts with knowing your product, believing in a product helps but is also a sales fallacy.

Dj has read a lot of books and has developed some great strategies and technics. I say his strongest is confidence. His weak spot is his experience.



Selling is about leading the person to buy from you, its no secret that when we walk through the door we want there business. Sure sales swag gets you business, it gets you noticed. No sales Swag can keep a Job.

I'm not talking about residential clients, this type of work never excited me.

I focus on repeat Clients, sales is fundamentally basic until you have actually mastered it. Early on I researched all the top guys, I studied there approach took sales 101 202 & 301.

The best teachers I found was the sales people that I met. The guys in the trenches dealing with todays market. People will say that sales has not changed over the years, I'm here to tell you it has. Keeping up with the times is what my biggest issues are. Not with Email , texting, websites and these things. Its not knowing what the next biggest thing will be as it relates to tools used. Not knowing the next youtube or facebook. Someone will come out with a site that will capture business structure. AT&T is buying up search engines, they want to change this for massive directories they have always had a monopoly on.

The day to day operation of how my model functions I don't see many real changes.

With technology and price shopping its making customers that you do not have relations with more difficult to retain there business.

Smaller Companies will focus on good vendor relations and loyalty. Wall street owned will not, the person that controls that budget has numbers to meet to keep there job.

I know that most of this is way over your heads because most of you are just trying to make money. Some here think just selling a job and its over. There is much more to selling than getting the ink on the contract.
 
Great post Ron!

Tell us more when you can.
 
Ron Musgraves said:
Defiantly a good post, I don't agree salesmen are born. I can make anyone a sales person. training is what selling is all about and motivation, discipline & often persistence. Of course it starts with knowing your product, believing in a product helps but is also a sales fallacy.

Dj has read a lot of books and has developed some great strategies and technics. I say his strongest is confidence. His weak spot is his experience.



Selling is about leading the person to buy from you, its no secret that when we walk through the door we want there business. Sure sales swag gets you business, it gets you noticed. No sales Swag can keep a Job.

I'm not talking about residential clients, this type of work never excited me.

I focus on repeat Clients, sales is fundamentally basic until you have actually mastered it. Early on I researched all the top guys, I studied there approach took sales 101 202 & 301.

The best teachers I found was the sales people that I met. The guys in the trenches dealing with todays market. People will say that sales has not changed over the years, I'm here to tell you it has. Keeping up with the times is what my biggest issues are. Not with Email , texting, websites and these things. Its not knowing what the next biggest thing will be as it relates to tools used. Not knowing the next youtube or facebook. Someone will come out with a site that will capture business structure. AT&T is buying up search engines, they want to change this for massive directories they have always had a monopoly on.

The day to day operation of how my model functions I don't see many real changes.

With technology and price shopping its making customers that you do not have relations with more difficult to retain there business.

Smaller Companies will focus on good vendor relations and loyalty. Wall street owned will not, the person that controls that budget has numbers to meet to keep there job.

I know that most of this is way over your heads because most of you are just trying to make money. Some here think just selling a job and its over. There is much more to selling than getting the ink on the contract.
Click to expand...

See...that's what I'm talking about.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
 
I agree. In any kind of sales relationship, the customer relations can make or break you. You really need to establish yourself as someone that the decision makers want to deal with. Sometimes it is because you are reliable, other times it is because you display technical knowledge, maybe it could be because they are comfortable talking to you because they feel safe, finally, it could be that you are the biggest, baddest and most expensive. The last one doesn't happen too often, but I hear some make it their marketing style.
My prime focus is customer relations and communication. A lot of little problems can be kept from becoming huge by the simple effort of communicating what is happening.
Years ago I had one of my employees brush soap on a brand new raw aluminum trailer. It was an ugly situation. Here I had a $40,000 aluminum trailer that was looking all sorts of ugly. It was a big account for us at the time, about $1000 a week. I saw it and the first thing I did was to find the owner of the company and show him what happened. He asked me what I was gonna do about it, and I told him I would fix it. The next day I spent about 15 hours machine polishing that trailer. The effort was what was important. The results were phenomenal. It became the trailer of choice for the drivers because it looked so good. Ended up making everyone thrilled with our service.
 
Scott Stone said:
I agree. In any kind of sales relationship, the customer relations can make or break you. You really need to establish yourself as someone that the decision makers want to deal with. Sometimes it is because you are reliable, other times it is because you display technical knowledge, maybe it could be because they are comfortable talking to you because they feel safe, finally, it could be that you are the biggest, baddest and most expensive. The last one doesn't happen too often, but I hear some make it their marketing style.
My prime focus is customer relations and communication. A lot of little problems can be kept from becoming huge by the simple effort of communicating what is happening.
Years ago I had one of my employees brush soap on a brand new raw aluminum trailer. It was an ugly situation. Here I had a $40,000 aluminum trailer that was looking all sorts of ugly. It was a big account for us at the time, about $1000 a week. I saw it and the first thing I did was to find the owner of the company and show him what happened. He asked me what I was gonna do about it, and I told him I would fix it. The next day I spent about 15 hours machine polishing that trailer. The effort was what was important. The results were phenomenal. It became the trailer of choice for the drivers because it looked so good. Ended up making everyone thrilled with our service.
Click to expand...

Systems for customer service is what keeps customers. Selling is often easy. Great story Scott


Ron Musgraves text me for questions 480-522-5227 Pressure Washing Institute
 
Scott Stone said:
I agree. In any kind of sales relationship, the customer relations can make or break you. You really need to establish yourself as someone that the decision makers want to deal with. Sometimes it is because you are reliable, other times it is because you display technical knowledge, maybe it could be because they are comfortable talking to you because they feel safe, finally, it could be that you are the biggest, baddest and most expensive. The last one doesn't happen too often, but I hear some make it their marketing style.
My prime focus is customer relations and communication. A lot of little problems can be kept from becoming huge by the simple effort of communicating what is happening.
Years ago I had one of my employees brush soap on a brand new raw aluminum trailer. It was an ugly situation. Here I had a $40,000 aluminum trailer that was looking all sorts of ugly. It was a big account for us at the time, about $1000 a week. I saw it and the first thing I did was to find the owner of the company and show him what happened. He asked me what I was gonna do about it, and I told him I would fix it. The next day I spent about 15 hours machine polishing that trailer. The effort was what was important. The results were phenomenal. It became the trailer of choice for the drivers because it looked so good. Ended up making everyone thrilled with our service.
Click to expand...

Nice....

And I would not hesitate to say Scott that even if the trailer did not turn out exactly the way the owner wanted it....YOUR efforts and the hours put in to try to reach a satisfactory level would have meant more to the owner vs. the final look of the trailer.
 
Ron, you should think about offering training in selling, I am sure I am not the only one that would attend.
 
I can get a 501(c) 3 together...
 
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Ron thanks man i really appreciate the kind words and your right about the only thing holding me back is experience which i combat with my white hot burning desire to be successful.

Nido Qubein once said: Being sales savy is important because an excellent sales person can sell a mediocre product MUCH better than a mediocre sales person can sell an excellent product!

That is one of the ways I am sales distinctive.

When I walk into a room I make sure people can feel that I am there. I live in the moment and am 100% focused. I actually TRY to make the secretary feel uncomfortable. There is so much psychology that goes into selling it blows my mind. Can't wait to get started on these blogs.
 
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