Sales Tips   

Welcome to the dog days everyone. You are probably asking yourself what in the world is he talking about and what could it possibly have to do with the field of sales. In baseball, the month of August is referred to as the dog days of summer. Because that is when the season begins to drag on and on, and the playoffs are still two months away. It is the teams that fight their way through these days that often find themselves playing well into October.

The months of March and April, I believe, are the dog days for many of us as salespeople. T...Read More

When you look at your business from a neutral perspective, as your customer sees the business, there is only one thing that separates you from everyone else selling your products or services. Your people! With the internet, big box stores, chain stores, catalogs, your own vendors, other independents, and major department stores all selling almost, if not exactly the same products as you, the bottom line is the only thing that you can offer people which is unique is the service that you provide and the people that are providing it!

Anyone that knows me realizes that I take the responsibility of being a Business Owner or Store Manager very seriously.  As an owner or manager that supervises employees you are faced with a monumental responsibility.  I believe that when you hire someone you are telling that person, either directly or indirectly, that you are going to provide a place where they will have an equal chance at making a living and providing for their families.  You are telling them that you will provide the location, merchandise, and the tools that they wi...Read More

We talk a lot about how to meet our customer’s needs and about being attentive.  While it is always true that we need to be aware of our customer’s wants and needs, it is just as important to respect the wishes of the customer.  Have I completely confused you yet?  What I am talking about today is the issue of personal space and having respect for the personal space of your customers.

The issue came up when I was doing a little shopping at an electronics store the other day....Read More

We talk all of the time about customer service and how it is the most important aspect of any salesperson.  In a society where customers can get virtually the same product from a thousand different stores, it is customer service that often sets one store apart from the other.  Why am I telling you something that you obviously all ready know?  It is simple, I had an experience the other day that shocked me, but it is also sad to say that it probably happens all too often.

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We just finished the holidays and the busiest shopping time of the year and so many things are running through the mind of a professional salesperson.  They may be thinking about their product lines or what kind of specials are going to take place after the holidays to attract customers.  All of these are very important to a salesperson but there is one technique that is not used nearly enough and should be.

Seeing your store or your showroom as others see it is so important.  We often compare the field of sales to sp...Read More

We talk all the time about the differences between an average salesperson and a great salesperson.  We have discussed that the small things are what separates the average salesperson from the great ones.  One of those things we covered in our last Sales Insight, the importance of not only knowing your inventory but also having a working knowledge of it on a daily basis.  Along those same lines, it is also vital that you memorize the prices of the items that you are selling.

With the Holidays behind us I thought over the next two or three weeks, I would share with you some things to either brush up on or just to keep in mind.

The first of those is your inventory.  The process of knowing and keeping track of your inventory is not just a once a month occurrence but rather something that should be done on a continual basis.  I would like to share with you a story that best illustrates why knowing your inventory is so vital especially at this time of year, when what you have in stock can change day-to-day, hour-to-ho...Read More

In case you have not noticed, we live in a world that is much different from the one our parents live in.  For that matter, the world we live in now is completely different than it was even five to ten years ago.  I heard a news report recently about how fewer and fewer people are reading the newspaper these days and that the average age of a person that does read a newspaper on a daily basis is 55.  The primary reason given for the decline in newspaper readership was access to the Internet and twenty-four hour news channels.

When we talk about providing high quality customer service, we automatically assume that the customer will be willing to accept our efforts.  While this is usually the case, there are exceptions to the rule.

I have a friend whose refrigerator went out a few weeks ago and they began to call numerous repairman to see if they could do anything.  The first person came out and after two minutes said there was nothing he could do and that the compressor was shot.  He said the compressor was under warranty but it could take up to three weeks to get it fixed....Read More

Today I would like to take a moment and talk about moments, those moments that make up what we call life.  As I continue to grow older, no jokes here, I believe more and more that life is made up of all kinds of different moments or occasions.  Our family has had a couple of weddings in the not too distant past, as I was sitting there, it dawned on me that this is what life should be about.  My entire family was there having a good time and all of our day-to-day troubles were millions of miles away.

We have talked numerous times in the past about customer services and the standards for which we should be striving.  There is never a time when customer service standards should be compromised or sacrificed for something else.  I am not going to spend time going over the standards of customer service but what I do want to do is emphasize the importance of those standards in today’s world.

Take a minute and look around at what is happening.  People ar...Read More