Sales by 5 Blog

Sell More, Faster - Make It Simple!

Are you interested in selling more hamburgers, phones, music or (fill in the blank)?  Have you thought about making your offering simple?  In-N-Out Burger has become known for their ultra simple menu.  Jitterbug has created cellphones with stripped down features and menus for the elderly.  For those of you that have been living in a cave or have been cryogenically frozen, iPods have made scary mp3s easy enough that my dad uses one.  Push the simplicity to the edges.

A store in California was selling jams.  When customers had 24 flavors to taste test, 2% of the people purchased.  When they reduced the taste test to 6 flavors, then number jumped 6x to 125%!  Too many choices overwhelmed potential customers! - data from our friends at Eureka! Ranch.

Review your offering and see what things you can strip away to leave the really good stuff.  Maybe you can be the genius that makes tough concepts easy. 

Have you subscribed to our blog via RSS?  Check out this simple (and awesome!) video below from Lee and Sachi LeFever of CommonCraft.com to understand why RSS is worth knowing about and why you should hit the subscribe button to the right of these blog posts to subscribe right now!

Ten Days to Selling More with Less Effort - Living It!

Yesterday: Great stories start inside the company and go out. Great stories capture the hearts of people including buyers, prospects, and even cold leads.

Today: Living It! "It," is your product or your service.

A few years ago I walked into a nice department store, I wanted to buy nice shoes and a nice suit. The man, a "fashion adviser", selling the suits and shoes was dressed in an  unattractive suit and bad shoes!  His credibility was lost because he wasn't living “it,” so I didn't buy anything from him.

Here's a story from our friend and former intern, Carlton Douglas.  We were blessed to have him and we're proud to know him.  Carlton "lives it" and we could feel it when we hired him. Here's his story, in his own words. 

From the Desk of the FORMER Intern

I logged onto the website to get the address of Sales By 5 for a resume (I’m trying to get a Promotions Manager position at Indie 103.1 here in Los Angeles). Seeing the familiar SB5 color scheme and then Erik and Nan’s video posts, my mind jolted back in time to the months in which the company employed me.

Some people feel like crap thinking about past jobs. I, too, have a few of those jobs, but Sales By 5 wasn’t horrendous enough to make the list. In fact, it was the best job I’ve ever had. Out of everything it taught and reinforced in my working behavior, the most important was that I could do anything. ANYTHING. I don’t mean that in a sappy, Reading Rainbow way, either. If someone asks me to do something, the truth of the matter is that I can do it… if I want to do it.

Present Day: I’m in Hollywood. That’s pretty cool. I met a guy on Sunset Blvd. and La Brea, Antonio, whose brother writes music for Lil Bow Wow. He hooked me up with these guys who do just about everything in music business – booking, management, PR, and pretty much anything else you can think of. I snag a short gig doing miscellaneous work for them.

I get a call the night I might them telling me to get them a list of all of Whitesnake’s managers and label affiliations since the mid-70s. I tell them that it’ll be done by morning - without a doubt. Then, I realize that its one in the morning, and I’m still too poor to have Internet access at my apartment. I don’t want to disappoint these guys, so I proceed dialing every number in my phone to get some help, but everyone is asleep. Just great! Thirty minutes later, I remember that I have web access on my phone, and I’m off searching through Google to find almost 40 years of management and label information about a band I’m too young to care about. By four in the morning, my task was complete, and I had impressed guys who would end up giving me a few more gigs.

Hopefully that sounds impressive to you. If not, you should give it a try. On top of doing the research, try it ON A CELL PHONE! It was the Sales By 5 attitude I had embraced that got me through this trying task.

My first day on the job, Erik had me figuring out where to get beer bottles with custom labels, filled with beer of course. Oh, and it wasn’t just your average Sunday afternoon football 24 case of Budweiser. I needed to find 1,000 bottles! Google was always my friend, but I wasn’t that great at it. Erik tosses a few pointers my way, and I’ve got at least 10 options in front of my face in 5 seconds. I never knew that being a Google Master could be so beneficial to your career!

Six months after last stepping into the office, I still use my Sales By 5 learned abilities. It wasn’t that one instance in which what I learned while working with the company helped me out. Most recently, I wrote up a bio for a country singer at the request of Shakira’s former publicist – using a similar format to press releases done for SB5. She wants to give me more work! I “marketed” myself to a wealthy jazz enthusiast, who heard me playing sax on Hollywood Boulevard, about financing the recording of a jazz album. He’s digging the idea.

Sales By 5 didn’t change my life. My life had yet to begin before working with them! Things are beginning to take off, and I can credit so much of that to this company.

Erik & Nan -keep your eyes on the mail. Your million-dollar check will be there soon enough.

Carlton D.

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Do you see the difference between living it and just going through the motions?

From Housekeeping to the CEO - Communication is Key

Returning calls and emails in a timely fashion makes a difference.  People take ignored communications personally.  By saying nothing, people think you don't care about their opinion, you disagree with what they're saying, or you dislike them.  It is up to you to manage expectations.

It is easy to stand out.  Be quick with your responses, no matter who you are.  You have a cell phone with text messaging or email.  What's keeping you from being a great communicator?  Put numerical precision to it - Who do you need to call or email back within the next 10 minutes?

Boost the Value of Your Personal Brand with the Right Clothes

This last week I (Kya) was a volunteer at the 2008 NCAA Final Four National Championship, an extremely   rewarding experience!  My role was to be the face of San Antonio for the out-of-town guests.  This included greeting and accommodating our visitors with a real San Antonio positive attitude. My only concern was the Final Four uniform.  As Director of Remarkable Service for SalesBy5, I try my hardest to live up to that title in every way; including my wardrobe.  To me, the uniform meant conformity.  I felt like a stranger in someone else’s clothes, which dulled my usual outgoing personality.

As the event came to an end, I hurriedly changed into a bright pink (favorite color) shirt and put on my cute shoes.  I felt like myself again! 

If you want to stand out, wear clothes to live the part!  What you wear helps you sell yourself by affecting your mood and others that come into contact with you. Your personal brand is as important as a corporate brand. Corporations spend thousands, some millions on their brand. Understanding what makes you sell and what makes you sell yourself, makes a dramatic difference.

Integrity: Do What You Say You Will Do! We Do It and Seth Does Too!

I had a question that was recently chosen on Dishymix.com for Seth Godin, the most popular marketing blogger in the world, to answer.  Having my answer chosen won me an autographed copy of Seth's new book, Meatball Sundae.  I was happy to receive the book today and was pleasantly surprised by a free prize inside - a Seth Godin action figure!  Seth is a great example of someone who lives his brand.  Thank you Seth, I appreciate the nice touch! - Nan

Do you do what you say you will do?  That is salt and pepper, but the free prize is not!  Take a note from Seth and start today.  If you do, people will remark!  What can you do that is not expected?

Selling Your Co-Workers to Keep Your Job

What if you had to sell your boss, your co-workers, or your employees to earn the chance to come to work tomorrow?  So, if you did not sell each day, you would not have a job! Yes, even the CEO!

This is a real question with a real answer... You sell, or un-sell. Which are you doing? If a change is needed, how fast can you change?

Handful of Rules, Repeat.

How do you get everyone focused in the same direction?  Have a hand full of rules and repeat them often. We all have too much clutter in our lives!  Have a hand full of rules that you and your team can use - written down! 

International Growth Guru, Verne Harnish taught me this in 2001. I have lived it since then at home and at work with great success.

The One Thing

Often times the most important thing or the “ONE THING” is forgotten. Ours is inspiring others. I inspired 11 people today, personally, that I am aware of. That is what matters for us. What is your “ONE THING?"

Make Your Advice Valuable

Do you find it frustrating when people ask you for advice, then ignore it?  Here's a way to increase the likelihood that people will listen to you.  Next time someone asks for your advice, request that they pay you a small and odd amount of money, say $1.08 - in cash.  Why?  The person will be required to get the exact change, meaning they have to put work into receiving the advice.  Once they do this, your advice now has true value, rather than being free.  "Hey, I can't just ignore this stuff, I worked for it!"  The value of your advice has just multiplied.

Many of my friends ask advice all the time and I give it. I do not send them a bill and they do not listen but, end up asking the same advice the next year just re-worded. When you pay for it, like your first car, you appreciate it. If it's free, it's worth nothing.

Make Good Friday Live Up To It's Name

Take some time out of your busy schedule today and do something remarkable for someone who doesn't expect it or doesn't deserve it or who can't return the favor.  As my friend Bob says, be "up and at 'em and ready to be bold!"  Come back on Monday and tell us what you did to inspire someone!