Rethinking Marketing and Sales
Sound familiar?
I’ve had two Internet-related conversations over the past few months that gave me pause to think about the human condition.
The first conversation was with a web site designer. He was sitting in his office when he called, twiddling his thumbs, complaining that he had no business. Sure, he had a ‘couple of things’ awaiting approval, but even these were small assignments and had been bid very low. He had joined the local Chamber and found himself half-asleep and uninspired at 8:00 sales leads breakfasts. Nothing was happening.
The second was from a continually busy friend in the graphics business who was loudly stewing over being too busy and not making enough money. She complained about ‘cheap’ clients and found herself working crazy hours, which was endlessly annoying a very patient spouse. Needless to say she had no time for calling on new business. Her pricing structure is so timid and untidy that acquiring more clients just means more aggravation.
These are not problems that just happened ‘today’. These two have been laying the unfortunate groundwork for years. Both conversations point to the need to alter how their services are marketed and sold.
But where to begin?
They probably need to think about the services they sell; how they are presented; how they are priced; how they are estimated; how they will contract with the client; and how they will invoice the client.
Rather than looking at this cosmetically, we’re going to take an arthroscopic view - beneath the skin.
We’ll approach sales from our own unique perspective: Marketing and selling Internet creative and production services.
We won’t be attacking marketing and sales as though we are professional sales people. We aren’t. Frankly, the professional salesperson is one of the hardest working people I know.
We’ll be looking at marketing and sales through the eyes of full and part-time Internet designers who also sell, juggle work and relationships, answer phones, keep the books, and handle the paperwork.
Here’s a synopsis of what we’ll be covering over the coming installments:
- An out-of-body-experience
- "OK, you’ve got 30 seconds to tell me your story."
- Setting a price that’s profitable
- Laying the groundwork: estimates, proposals, and contracts
- How to find people & companies that buy what we sell
- The most important goal in sales for the non-salesperson [surprise...it’s not closing the sale!]
- The $7.00 presentation tools that makes your presentations a breeze
- The most important first 4 words in any presentation
- The unspoken message behind prompt estimates
- The importance of repeated follow-up calls
- Negotiating the final price
Installment One: An out-of-body-experience
I’m my own marketing director. I decide what my services will be, how they’ll be delivered, and what they will cost.
I’m also not a financial and marketing genius. Not formally trained in business, I’ve learned on the fly, picking up nuggets of information along the way.
Many of these nuggets are good ideas. Over 25 years ago I asked an elder statesman in the design business if he had any business advice. His answer - and good advice - was crisp and wry: Don’t lose money.
Yet many ideas are out-of-touch, out-of-date, and just plain wrong. It might be something I heard 25 years ago that still taints and haunts my thinking. These are no different than the goofy little things that I remember from childhood — things said to me by parents, counselors, employers, pastors, etc. - that still ring in my ears today.
I have a nasty business habit of holding on to absolutely ridiculous rules of running my businesses. Even my dog Pep knows when to let go of an old sock.
At a one-to-one new business presentation a few years ago I treated myself to my first out-of-body-experience. I found myself looking at myself as though I was the guy at the other end of the presentation. It was ugly. My story was unclear and my description of what I was offering were muddled. I’m good at what I do, yet my presentation was terrible. And to add insult to injury, my way of handling proposals, contracts, and invoices was confusing and inconsistent. In many cases they were unique to each client.
By the end of the presentation I realized that I wouldn’t have hired myself. The out-of-body-experience allowed me to view myself as I was viewed by others. While painful, the insight gained has led to significant improvements in marketing, sales and how my company operates.
Next installment: "OK, you’ve got 30 seconds to tell me your story."
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