BRUCE’s BLOG
Salesmen, Con Artists, and Holy Rollers
If some random blogger knew with certainty when economic trends would shift – and how to profit from that news – they wouldn’t waste their time writing blogs trying to frighten you. Instead, they’d be investing their own money or cashing the Apple stock they bought in the late nineties.
Salesmen, Conmen, and Holy Rollers all want the same thing – to get you to do something for them that you wouldn’t be willing to do otherwise.
Sales Made Easy 12 in a Series
My four-word rule for Sales Success 12 will tell you exactly how to make your marketing materials understandable to your target audience.
Sales Made Easy — Four Word Rule 11
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO Sales Made Easy – My Four-Word Rules...
Sales Made Easy 10 in a Series
Having spent the last 15 years hammering out this blog week after week while writing new books, countless speeches, articles, and TV commentary, as well as keeping up with my client assignments, I’ve been reminded of two universal truths that assert themselves time and time again. Sales Made Easy 10 says…
Sales Made Easy 9 in a Series
No matter what you’re doing or selling, there’s always another way to delight people. To make your sales and your business a success, my Four-Word Rule for Success 9 is There’s Always Another Solution.
Sales Made Easy 8 in a Series
There are many ways you can set yourself and your business apart: You can be cheaper, faster, better looking, closer, more innovative, better, higher quality, more convenient, or better known. You can be all of the above. Or you can be something else.
However, the best way to build your brand value and demonstrate why you matter to your customers and your potential customers is to understand why you matter to them.
Sales Made Easy 8 says…
Sales Made Easy 7 in a Series
Sales Made Easy 7. Look at all the exciting new whiz-bang technologies, figure out how they can fix old problems, and then show your prospects how your new hybrid idea can save them time, money, or effort. Sales Made Easy Rule 7 is…
Sales Made Easy 6 in a Series
Sales Made Easy 6: Understand that no new business plan survives five minutes in the marketplace. Or, as Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Instead of going through that, simply listen to your customer.
Sales Made Easy 5 in a Series
If you understand what you do, what your client wants, and where those two things intersect, you already know where to focus your time and attention. Sure, there are other things you can do. But just like that delayed flight, you’re better off concentrating on the things you can affect and improve instead of busying yourself worrying about things that are out of your control.
Sales Made Easy 5 says…
Sales Made Easy 4 in a Series
You are the only one who should be living your life. And you get to choose who you spend your time with. Let someone less evolved deal with them. Your time is reserved for people and activities that deserve your attention.
If you look at it this way, Sales Made Easy Rule 4 is a no-brainer…
Sales Made Easy 3 in a Series
Sales Made Easy #3: Most therapists will tell you that their patient’s first concern is usually the symptom, not the problem. Don’t fix problems you don’t have. It goes double for your customers and clients. Your job is to uncover the real problem and fix that.
Sales Made Easy 2 in a Series
Sales Made Easy 2: If you want to build your business, your number one job is to generate as much interest in you and your activities as possible to build relationships. And while there are no direct metrics to extrapolate how many lunches it takes to generate additional income, a good rule of thumb is this: the more, the merrier.
It all starts when you take them to lunch.
Sales Made Easy 1 in a Series
Decisions are made without all the facts all the time. Once the purchase decision has been made, more facts might reinforce the deal. But they could also kill it. Once you’ve got a “Yes,” why risk snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?
The simple solution in presentations—especially ones that go well—is to be quiet and let the buyer talk. To do that, remember Sales Made Easy 1: “Shut the @#$%!! up.”
Power of Simplicity
Simplicity in design also helps create a sense of calm, aids in comprehension, and provides an attractive focal point for attention.
Simplicity allows viewers to concentrate and appreciate what matters most while helping them disregard what doesn’t.
Simplicity separates the wheat from the chaff, the critical from the superfluous, the important from the less so.
The Power of Simplicity has been an essential subject for designers and communicators to encourage focus, meaning, and action.
An Ironic Sales Technique
As I wrote in my last book, Is That All There Is?, and as our group discusses in my Together with Turkel Strategic Roundtables, sometimes the most successful sales technique is to turn your liability into an asset. Or, as I wrote in the book, “Make Your Scar Your Star.”
The simple humanity of accepting and presenting our fallibility – whether planned or not – works in sales, branding, and life.
Increased Business Opportunity for Solopreneurs
If we find this example of a business opportunity staring us in the face on something we see all the time, imagine how many more opportunities are out there just waiting to be pounced on.
Ideas swirl all around us all the time. All you have to do is pay attention, separate the need from the noise, and start creating the solution.
And then, once you figure out what that solution could be, you have to strike while the iron’s hot. Because as my dad used to say, “When a business opportunity knocks, you can’t say, ‘Come back later.’”
Bad Publicity
Bad publicity can be dramatic and compelling. And it can help establish awareness and even keep other, less troubling news off the front pages. And yes, some consumers are both intrigued and attracted by negative news.
But that doesn’t mean it’s good.
Misleading and bad publicity is exactly what it sounds like. Let the listener beware.
Super Bowl Halftime Show
Sometimes loving a song because it makes you dance doesn’t excuse what it says. This year’s Super Bowl halftime show proved that.