sales & marketing

I gave a discount. It’s not the first time I’ve ever done it, it probably won’t be the last time I ever do it. But I teach against it. And I preach against it. If your price is $1000, and you discount down to $900, $100 comes right out of profit. And in these times, profit is the only saving grace of business.

I owe my positive attitude to Napoleon Hill. During one year of daily, four-hour intensive sales and positive attitude training back in 1972, I was fortunate enough to expose myself to his success principles. Each day one of the eight guys on my team had to give a book report on a chapter from Think and Grow Rich. Since there were only 15 chapters in the book, we reviewed it in its entirety every three weeks.

You go through your ENTIRE one-hour, amazing sales presentation. You nailed it. The prospect seemed to be in agreement, even excited at times. He or she has all the logical and emotional reasons to buy, but at the end of your pitch says, “Sounds great. I need to think it over for a few days.”

I give more than 75 presentations a year at annual meetings and sales meetings. There are always other presenters. CEOs and VPs of everything from finance to marketing. Most of the speakers are (to be kind) less than compelling. Most of the speakers (to be unkind) are boring. People in the audience are doing emails and texting while their CEO is speaking. YIKES.

Terex Cranes announced Thursday it will close its Wilmington facility for fabrication and assembly by the end of the year, eliminating about 90 jobs in the process, according to a press release. The facility in Wilmington does some assembly and fabrication of tower cranes and small crawler cranes.

Facebook is the easiest phenomenon to understand. It has changed the way you communicate with your friends and your family, and has opened the freedom door to anyone that you come in contact with either business or personal. You have found old friends, schoolmates, and co-workers – and they have found you. And in the same way, you can find customers and prospective customers – and they can find you.

Think about the pile of business cards on your desk, of people that you’ve never really connected with, and certainly have never provided value for. Then think about the number of people who you could be adding to your network; people who could really be enlightened by you and discover your depth (or lack of it).

Not long ago the last night of Larry King Live aired. I don’t watch a lot of television, but I was compelled to see what his last night would look like. He’s interviewed thousands of people, every notable person in the world, and I’m was sure it would be interesting, if not nostalgic.

1. How many of you have some social media involvement? (Almost everyone raises their hands.)
2. How many of you wish you were better at it? (Almost everyone raises their hands.)
And keep in mind this is from a (supposedly) sophisticated group of people. They all have smart phones, most of them get personal Facebook notices on their phones, but for one reason or another they have chosen not to enter the world of business social media.

Slate Magazine published an article by James Ledbetter about the ever-increasing number of disappearing salespeople. The headline read, “Death of a Salesman. Of Lots of Them, Actually. The troubling disappearance of salesmen and how it helps explain America’s economic woes.”