I’m the best sales person in our office. And here are all my best sales tips. Er… tip.
Selling is easy. This is my entire sales strategy: one sales tip. It’s relationship-selling.
It’s only one sales tip long, so you won’t need to take a lot of notes.
Ready…
I was driving to an appointment to sell a large direct mailer our top team’s creative writing and design services the other day and a cop pulls me over and says, “Have you been drinking because your eyes look a little red.”
Jeffrey Dobkin at the game.
Undaunted, I immediately shot back, “Have you been eating donuts because your eyes look a little glazed.” We can learn two things from this. 1. Never shoot back at a police officer even verbally. 2. Some police officers have very little sense of humor.
Before my wife bailed me out 6 hours later I had a good chance to think about the advertising and marketing business services we sell. And here is what I thought. Business is good. But enough regressing. How about all those actors on the cover of People Magazine. They deserve it. Yea, right – they majored in drama in college. Now I’m kinda sorry I double majored in applied calculus and analytical statistics – no one ever told me they have no practical application. And that I’d never be in the tabloids. Oh well, college still was the best 9 years of my life. Or was that high school?
Yeah, so where was I? Oh, yea… sales tips and selling our creative services. I was selling our small shop’s copywriting skills while I was playing golf. Yes, I shoot in the mid 80’s. If it gets any colder than that, I don’t go out. And my drives are always in the 200 to 300 yard range. That’s 150 out, and 100 to 150 yards to either the right or the left. No telling which before the shot, the shorter side of the fairway being the better guess.
But I sell a lot of our team’s creative writing services on the golf course. Well, I don’t really sell creative services at all. I’m glad if I know which end of the pencil to use. And computers? Forgetdaboutit! And thank the good lord we don’t have thermal fax machines anymore. I mean, is it paper towels, TP, fax paper – I get so confused when things on a roll run out. More than once I’ve left the bathroom in pain. Luckily, it seems I don’t have to know anything about writing great direct mail to get firms to buy from me.
You see, in sales – and this sales tip is true for any industry – people buy through relationships. And I have relationships. In fact, I have relationships with most of the women that buy from me. Wait a minute – that didn’t come out right. Especially if my wives find out. Er… wife.
Look at our own insurance sales letter series we sell from this site. It’s the same strategy there: we don’t sell any insurance products in the letters we sell, our objective is simply to make the reader call. We get our clients to “Hello,” the beginning of all relationships. Then our customers who purchased our letters get to speak with their potential prospects, and… yes, form a relationship. Almost all insurance sales is the result of relationship-selling.
My own clients know they can count on me when they have a question, problem, or need something. They have my cell phone number and I always answer it. Product questions? I may not know the answer but that doesn’t mean I can’t or won’t find out for them in a hurry. My efficient staff makes it easy for me to appear to be the slacker I appear to be. Apparently. But on the back end, I work pretty hard. My attention to detail is obsessive. Our product specialists send detailed information to people that need product specs, and copy me so I can make sure they’re correct and sent on time. And pricing is a blend of my feedback along with industry norms and competitors’ bids. I study every quote before it goes out. And I’m there before, during and after the sale.
For whatever reason, people trust me. They know while I can be pretty funny. They also know I’m always honest, 100% trustworthy and always genuinely eager to please.
It’s fun being funny and having relationships and having everyone around you always smiling and laughing – isn’t that the way you’d like to do business? So would your clients.
And that’s the way you sell a lot of writing and direct mail services. Just be yourself and develop relationships. It’s all natural. Relationship selling. When clients like you and trust you, they’ll buy from you. There’s your sales tip for the day.
Here’s the bottom line of our sales tips. Don’t get caught speeding and give lip to the cop: it costs $450 and the guys in the drunk tank all look like they’ve been on one too many episodes of cops. Yeesh… you’d think if someone had only one tooth they’d take better care of it. Hope you enjoyed reading this article on sales tips as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you ever need letters or booklets written and designed, here’s my phone number: 610-642-1000. Call anytime. Even if you just want to say hello.
Jeff Dobkin is a funny speaker about sales, motivation, marketing and direct marketing. He writes sales letters as well as technical business papers for clients. His specialty is direct mail, direct selling long-copy ads, brochures and collateral, annual reports, TV scripts and stuff like dat dere. He has written 5 books on marketing and humor. Visit www.jeffreydobkin.com. Wait – are you hear already? Welcome. Now call me: 610-642-1000 rings on his desk.