SnogFrog Blog

Big and Easy

Big or Small?  Easy or Difficult  It's obvious....Big and Easy.

Always always look for BIG and EASY business before you look at the other types.  If it's Small and Easy, then sure, go for it.  You may for strategic reasons go after some Big and Difficult business, but be careful.

Never ever go for Small and Difficult business.  And yet why do so many salespeople chase the Small and Difficult?  Why do Sales Managers encourage salespeople to chase Small and Difficult business?

Of course, there may not be Big and Easy business around, but always have that mentality in Selling.  It's the best tip I was ever given in selling.

Niche Markets Salesperson (Types of Salespeople)

From my own selling experience, working with sales people, and training hundreds and thousands of salespeople, I thought about what makes a good salesperson and came up with 8 types;

1. Lovable Rogue
2. Nice Guy
3. Talker
4. Dirty Rotten Scoundrel
5. High Activity Rate
6. Repeatable Process
7. Proposal Writer
8. Deal Maker

You can be a very good salesperson just by focusing on one of these areas and being good at it.
I’m not going to go into detail and describe each one here.  You’ll have to keep returning or subscribe to this weblog!!
But what reminded me of these 8 Types is having a Repeatable Process – Finding a niche market, supplying to that niche market something it wants, and then just keep doing it. You don’t have to even be good at what you do, you just keep doing it because you’ve found what the market wants.

I was thinking about this today, at a café here in Melbourne, that has free WiFi.  It’s attracting Geeks.  Lots of them. The word is out, and the café was packed today.  More so than any other café on Acland St in St Kilda.  And I spent more today, yet again, on coffees and breakfast, than I would if I signed up for hourly access!!

I’m just at another café and I asked out of courtesy, if I could plug the power in.  The guy had to phone up to the boss, and word came down, that I could if I ordered another drink.  Now I’ve already met a friend here and had 3 coffees.  Not exactly friendly, and it was like an alien question to them.  I’ve not been made to feel welcome, but actually, the place is so empty, it’s the best working space I’ve found so far in Melbourne!

The other niche market, that I keep scratching my head over, is my daughter’s new school.  For some obscure reason, they decided to be “The” French school in Melbourne.  In other words, they want to attract all French speaking people to the school.  In some cases the parents can’t speak English, but they want the kids schooled in English and French.  What a great niche.  If you are a French family working in Melbourne, and you’re looking for a school for your young kids, then this is the place.  If you want your kids to learn French, then this is the place.  A very tightly defined niche.

Find your niche.  Find what the markets wants that you offer.  And you won’t have to be good at selling.  The product or service sells itself, because the niche is so well defined, and there’s strong demand.

I identified this type of salesperson by realising that there are many very successful salespeople out there, who aren’t particularly good, but they’ve found their niche market, and they just focus on that, sometimes for years, having huge success. Think about the people you know who seem to sell well in spite of their talent!  It could be that they have a Repeatable Process selling in a Niche Market.

Qualifying - The Most Important Thing in Selling!

I'm often asked what is the most important thing in selling (actually I'm hardly asked at all, but it sounds good!).
Qualifying.  In conjunction with kissing a lot of frogs, you can be good at selling (or dating), by knowing the right frogs to kiss.
Those who are great at selling, instinctively know which frogs to kiss, and which frogs to leave well alone.
They've learnt from bitter experience who is going to waste their time or not choose them.

So instead of trying to convince someone who doesn't want convincing, they move on, or they don't spend too much time with them in the first place.  You've got to be careful how you reject some frogs, because you might be wrong.

I remember two years ago going into a shop, desperate to buy a new mobile phone and sign for a new 2 years contract.  The salesperson at Crazy John's wasn't interested and had decided I wasn't worth the effort.  They even moved me on to another supplier (Telstra!), where I got the attention and service.  I had to buy that day because my wife needed a new handset before she flew to Sydney the following day.  Those 2 years are now up, as of yesterday.  Do you think I'm going back to Crazy John's?  Nope.  Am I going back to Telstra?  Nope.  Telstra haven't done anything beyond taking the contract.

I digress.  In general, you have to think about which frogs you're going to kiss, but not use it as an excuse to not kiss frogs.  In fact, for myself, for the first time in 5 years, I've decided to not contact and delete a number of frogs, because in my heart of hearts, they're not interested, and I wonder if I want to do business with their organisations!  That's brave of me, but as long as I have some nice frogs, it makes it easier.

You don't have to be a great convincer to be a good salesperson, you can be a good qualifier.