| |
| |
|
Sales Information |
|
|
|
Are You a Cultivator or a Harvester?
As a result of providing marketing consulting, training and coaching to a variety of individuals and industries over the years, I have come to recognize that people generally approach the business building process in one of two ways. Everyone tends to be what I identify as either Cultivators or Harvesters. The problem is the business building process requires both cultivation and harvesting. Read on to determine which you are and how to assure that you are both cultivating and harvesting new business. Harvesters are the great sales people of the world. These are the people that don't mind, may even enjoy, spending two or three hours a day cold calling. They willingly spend a day starting at the first floor of an office building and visiting every office on every floor to try and get an appointment. Harvesters will close business. However, they also tend to leave a lot of green fruit on the tree because their approach is geared towards those individuals who have a need now and are willing and able to purchase - the so called low hanging fruit. Harvesters tend to move from orchard to orchard seeking out and picking whatever fruit is ripe at the time. They are constantly seeking out a new orchard that might have ripe fruit. Cultivators tend to rely on the other elements of the promotional mix such as advertising, direct mail, networking and public relations activities to develop business. Cultivators prepare the soil, plant the seeds, nurture the seedlings, and provide care to the fruit as it ripens. They grow their own orchards so they have an ongoing supply of ripe fruit. However, Cultivators sometimes are so busy tending to the orchard that they forget to pick the fruit, leaving it either for the Harvesters as they make their daily rounds or to rot on the tree. Clearly, in an ideal world the Cultivators and the Harvesters would work together to assure a constant supply of ripe fruit and to be sure that the ripe fruit is picked daily before a competitor picks it or it spoils. That is why in large corporations you will find both a marketing function and a sales function. However, most small businesses don't have the luxury of two separate functions. Many small business owners have to both cultivate and harvest new business as well as oversee or even implement the myriad of other functions required to keep a business going. The purchase decision involves a process of moving from unawareness to awareness, awareness to preference or liking and finally to conviction and purchase. Promotional activities such as advertising and direct mail are most effective in the awareness building stage. Public relations activities and networking tend to be most powerful in the preference and liking stage. Direct selling tends to be the activity that actually closes sales. Blair Singer in his book Sales Dogs says "The more marketing you do, the less selling effort you have to deal with. Prospects put up their hands and come looking for you instead of your having to sniff them out. It's the art of having sales opportunities come to you" In effect what he is saying is the more effort you put into cultivating your orchard, the less time you have to spend out looking for fruit in other people's orchards. The challenge for Cultivators is to make sure they call on the prospect once they've raised their hand. If you're a Harvester how can you develop cultivation skills? · Implement activities to develop awareness that allow you to reach many potential customers in less time than it would take you to reach each one individually. . For example send out a predetermined number of letters each week to prospective customers you have not met and that may not yet be aware of your product or service. · Develop systematic ways to stay in contact with prospects that are not currently ready to purchase such as a regular newsletter. · Develop credibility through active involvement or a leadership role in a trade association or organization that your potential customers are involved in. If you are a Cultivator how can you assure you are harvesting the rewards of your work? · Initiate one-on-one follow-up when someone expresses interest. Don't expect even very interested people to follow-up with you. · Don't approach the initial meeting as a "sales" meeting. Rather than trying to sell, use the initial meeting as an opportunity to really learn about the prospects, their problems and their needs. · Learn to love objections. If someone has an objection to your product or service at least they have an interest. An objection is easier to deal with than a lack of interest any day. · Rethink your attitude toward closing a sale. Think of it as gaining commitment for an action. If you are a Cultivator, the harvest will never be your favorite time of the growing season. If you are a Harvester you will never relish the work it takes to grow and ripen the fruit. However, successfully building new business requires both. © 2003 STRATEGIES-BY-DESIGN May be reprinted with credits and contact information. Julie Chance is president of Strategies-by-Design, a Dallas-based marketing consulting firm specializing in marketing programs including marketing coaching for professional service providers and specialty retailers. If you are interested in additional information about how to develop more leads, turn those leads into loyal customers, and obtain a greater return from your marketing investment, Julie invites you to sign-up for their free marketing tips newsletter at http://www.strategies-by-design.com.
MORE RESOURCES:
Sales - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Before You Sell Do The Math This is an important and potentially profitable piece of advice. It goes like this - before you ever attempt to sell any products and services - do the math. Everyones Favorite Topic - 3 Tips for How To I believe that everyone understands that no matter what business you are in- Real Estate, Financial Services, Teaching, Auto Sales any other profession, we are all in the PEOPLE BUSINESS. It's been said that fully 85% of your success in life is directly related to your ability to effectively work with people. My Competitor Has a Better Product The topic of this issue's article is a response to a question submitted by one of my newsletter readers. QUESTION - "At the moment, my competitor's have a far better product/deal, due to circumstances out of my control. Psychological Tricks in Selling ----------------------------------------------------------Permission is granted for the below article to forward,reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website,offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as longas no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and theresource box below is included. ---------------------------------------------------------- Psychological Tricks in Selling By Stephen Bucaro In this article, I'm revealing six powerful secretpsychological tricks that you can use to increase theeffectiveness of your advertising and marketing. Want More Sales? Write A Barry Bonds Sales Letter I'm not a baseball fan. Never have been. 10 Amazing Product Selling Formulas 1. Sell your products at a wholesale price to retail web sites. How to Give Your Customers a Choice Between You and the Competition and Have Them Choose You Instead of giving your customers or potential customers a choice between you and your competition and having them choose the other guy, have them choose you.Michelle Dunn's new book" Become the Squeaky Wheel," says creating a credit policy can have surprising results. Whats Your Clients Style? When it comes to effective selling, one simple fact never changes: Selling is a relationship business. You already know all about your company's products and services - and you've learned the fundamental aspects of the sales cycle. The Prejudging Predicament There's a direct correlation between sales experience and prejudging. The more sales and marketing experience you have the greater the tendency to prejudge your customers and prospects. Build & Protect Your Confidence I can remember the first time that I had to get new customers from a cold start. I was a sales rep at IBM. Breaking the Ice and Winning Over the Client Wherever you turn these days you'll find articles covering every business strategy and tactic available to man from how to make a great presentation to strategies for success all the way to negotiations and prospecting and getting a client to commit. But hardly anyone touches on the subject of breaking the ice with a new client and winning them over. Cold Calling Reluctance Most salespeople I know consider cold calling a dreadful, but essential activity in our profession. Even those who are good at it rarely like it. Leads, Prospects, and the Huge Gap Between The leads marketing delivers to the sales team never seem good enough. Either the leads are "bad" and are wastes of a salesperson's time, or there are just not enough "good" ones. A Pause For Thought You can have your cake and eat it.What is it that makes the sale of information products so appealing?Is it the fact that the only storage space required is a minute spot on your computer's hard disc. The Allure of Antique Store Fixtures They say if you wait long enough, a style you liked in almost any genre will come back. This is as true for retail store fixtures as it is for clothing or styles of music. What Successful Sellers Know - Others Dont ... The Subtle Art of Closing Ask any salesperson, "At what point in the selling process does the 'Close' take place?" Eight out of ten will answer, "at the End". To be fair, they are not totally incorrect but they are, nevertheless, more wrong than right proving in principle and in practice, Perado's Law: Twenty percent of the sales force make eighty percent of the sales and profitability. Money Does Talk! When buying something, you can buy in one of two markets. The first is buying on terms in the retail market and the second is buying in the wholesale cash market. The Power of Thank-You When was the last time you thanked your customers?This often neglected gesture is a very powerful sales tool. As a small business owner, I want to know that the companies I chose to work with appreciate my business. How Leaky is Your Sales Pipeline? Does your Sales Pipeline leak? If you answered no, you don't even understand the question. Every business' Sales Pipeline leaks to some extent. Write On The Money: The Ten Commandments (Plus Five) Of Profitable Sales Letter Writing According to the Direct Marketing Association, in 2003 U.S.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
