What You Can Learn From The Movie BusinessWritten by Kim Duke
Maybe everything you need to know you can learn from movies. A friend of mine is a screenwriter in Los Angeles. Over a glass of wine, we were discussing his business and nature of beast in Hollywood. He’s a boy from Canada who gave up his much-loved Honda, his life savings, and his broadcasting career to move to Los Angeles to attend American Film Institute. Not an easy feat in your mid-30s. After 8 years of hard work he is now becoming new discovery of LA. He said most difficult thing to adjust to was all talking.Collin slouches into his chair. "Everyone lies in this business. It's all big Cheshire cat smiles – but essentially people have 'Enough about you – more about me' mentality." After our conversation I thought about his last statement. Are You On A Blind Date With Your Customer? We tend to love what we do. So we get all excited about it and then proceed to tell everything about ourselves to potential customer. It just reminds me of a really bad date! A one-sided conversation becomes tired pretty quickly. Customers feel like they are on a bad blind date with you if there isn’t a connection to what they need. Minus cynicism, our clients are also thinking like Hollywood set, "ENOUGH ABOUT YOU blabbing about all wonderful things about your company, your product, your requirements. MORE ABOUT ME – and what I need to survive and thrive!" The Helium Test Are you talking your face off when you are speaking with your client? When they ask you on phone what you have to offer – do they hear a massive intake of air and then you giving your best "I just sucked in helium and can talk really fast" act? If so – you aren’t making a connection with your customer. You sound like everyone else, you act like everyone else and you aren’t positioning yourself as someone who can help. Because at end of day –what you really do is HELP PEOPLE. The only way this is accomplished is by discovering what your customer needs and researching other areas of need – areas your customer may not even have thought of yet!
| | The Golden "Week" of SellingWritten by Kim Duke
Have you ever heard of Golden Hour? I live with a paramedic – so I am always learning about medical terminology (whether I like it or not!) The one that caught my attention was Rob’s reference to “The Golden Hour.”The first 60 minutes after someone has been injured are critical in EMS. This is when they can offer most support in saving someone’s life. Paramedics, doctors and nurses call it Golden Hour. In selling there is also a Golden period. 7 days! One of biggest factors in why someone doesn’t CHOOSE your product or service is they didn’t get what they needed FAST ENOUGH. Hey – we have all been there – flat tires (I have had 2 in one week!), orders to fill, e-mails to respond to. We get busy and sometimes a customer or potential customer can slip through cracks. A good friend of mine, Wayne Cotton, is an international speaker. I love his quote “If you have a problem then create a process. Good-bye problem!” 7 Point Diva Checklist: Once you have had any interaction with a potential or existing customer go through following 7 point checklist: 1)(Insert date) info is required to be in front of client. 2)Thank you card sent within 7 days of meeting. The earlier better! 3)E-mail follow-up within 24 hours advising them info will be delivered by date they need. 4)Delivery of info BEFORE deadline if at all possible. 5)Follow-up phone call to ensure they have received material – as well as to set up a date to discuss proposal. 6)Another thank you card once they have purchased your service/product. 7)Insert them into your e-zine/database for additional follow-up for next 12 months.
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