Oooh, friends. THIS is a tough one.
I find myself coming down on both sides of this, but I tell you what - I'd MUCH rather sell a product I love than one I don't. Here's why.
The process of "selling" has evolved. No question about it. As we've previously discussed, "sell" has become one of the four-letter words we don't want to admit doing. We "offer." We find needs and fill them. We look for people who are looking for us. But heaven forbid, these days, it is very out to actually "sell." In fact, it's not unusual for someone to be recruited into our business - called "Direct Sales" by the way - and be told that they don't ever have to "sell."
Avoiding all the negatives of selling, then, the process has moved to one of "permission" marketing, storytelling, etc. I don't really have a problem with this - but it works a whole lot better IF you have a story to tell about your product or IF it has made some difference in your life that you just have to share. In essence, if you LOVE it.
What if you don't have a story about how the product made a difference in your life? What if you don't use the product? What if you respect the product, but it just doesn't zing for you? Can you still sell it?
Yes, yes, and yes again. But don't lie. Use simple selling skills, and look for people for whom this product is the RIGHT answer to their needs. Just because it doesn't solve a need for YOU, doesn't mean it doesn't solve a need for someone else. I started out in this business selling a product for children before I had any. I believed in the product, but had no personal story or personal experience to share.
But, it's easier if you love it. It's easier if you've got a story. It's more fun if it's a passion.
Now, the hard part. What if it wasn't the product, but the opportunity that called to you?
This one has tangled up more than a few of us. Here's the dilemma. You hear about a great, probably start-up, company and you have a chance to get in on the "ground floor." It's not a product that excites you, but you're a smart enough business person to realize there IS a market for it. So far, so good.
But, because what attracted you was the "great opportunity" you MAY have the tendency to sell that, instead of the product. Just be aware. It's not going to be ground floor forever. This is the voice of experience sharing with you here. I'm not saying you should avoid a great opportunity - I just want you to make sure a great, viable product that you are comfortable selling is part of it.
So, do you have to LOVE your product to sell it ethically and effectively? Nope.
Does it help? You BET.
SALES...the Life of the Party Plan
Kimberly Bates, the Better Seller Coach
You can follow me http://twitter.com/thebetterseller
To receive a sequenced twenty-six week Selling Skills course via email, sign up here
http://www.beabetterseller.net
Friday, March 27, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Is Your Market Saturated?
I’d like to tell you a story.
Several years ago I was part of the launch of a direct sales company. About a year and half later I had an opportunity to do a show for a friend of mine who happened to live in the company’s home city. The population of that metro area was 804,340 at the time. Using the 1 to 1000 rule, the area could sustain 804 active consultants. Using the 80/20 rule, we’d need five times that or just over 4000 signed up consultants to be saturated. (I'll talk about these "rules" below.)
Now, being as the company was based there, many of the first consultants and superstars lived there. In fact, at the time I did the show there were at LEAST five senior leaders – the top level of management with teams generating in the hundreds of thousands in sales per MONTH. Now, of course, the teams were spread all over the country, but a whole lot of them were in this city. Although no one person I knew had access to the company’s ledger, my senior leader estimated (based on conversations about team size with her counterparts, joint meetings, etc.) that there were about 4000 consultants SIGNED UP in this city at that time, eighteen months after launch. Using the 80/20 rule, there were probably 800 active, selling consultants.
So, I pretty much figured doing this show that the audience would have seen it all and heard it all about the company and products. To shorten it up, I did the show, booked two shows, and then one more from one of those. I did four shows there in three weeks, with approximately forty-four total customer guests.
I’d like you to take a guess at the following: How many of the forty-four had already been to one of our shows?
Are you ready for this?
One.
That’s right. Eighteen months after launch, in the headquarters city, with approximately 800 active consultants, ONE guest of forty-four had been to show. Even more interesting, at least HALF had never heard of the company before they were invited.
HALF!
This experience cured me of believing in saturation. But, let me put some "rules" and numbers around it so you can see where the expectations come from.
One reason is simple math. Different examples exist by various organizations, but common wisdom is that an area is saturated when there is one consultant for every 1000 people. Using Year 2000 census data, let’s pick a city. How about the metro Atlanta area? Using only four counties – Fulton, Gwinnett, DeKalb, and Cobb, the population was 2,678,150. So, theoretically that area would be saturated if there were 2,678 consultants for any given company in metro Atlanta.
But wait, don’t forget another common wisdom, the 80/20 rule. That is 80% of the work is accomplished by 20% of the people. So, should you consider the total number of consultants in an area, or 20% of that number? Using that rule, it would take over 13,000 signed up with 20% active to "saturate" these four counties.
Let’s throw another common statistic. Among every three consultants who sign up, one will do nothing, one will sell for a while and eventually drop out, and one will sell something consistently. Then, of the three who sell consistently, one of those will sell only, the second will sell and sponsor and move into lower management levels, and one will sell well, sponsor and move into upper management. For the third, one in three is a superstar. If you’ve stayed with the math, one in nine works the whole business, and one in ninety-nine is a superstar.
Here’s another example, and I’m not picking on Mary Kay. I have PROFOUND respect for that company and what they have accomplished on behalf of all of us who do direct sales. But, there’s a perception that MK is saturated in the U.S. I beg to disagree. Let’s go back to the stats. Population – about 300 million. Divided by 1000 that’s 300,000. And yes, there are more than 300,000 MK reps in the U.S. But, how about the 80/20 rule? Last figures I could obtain for U.S. Mary Kay consultant numbers was around half a million – so 20% of that is 100,000 doing 80% of the sales.
Waaay under the 300,000 the population could sustain.
And no company has anywhere NEAR MK’s numbers. Not even close. I always ask people – is there a Mary Kay rep on your street? Do you know her name? You’d be amazed how few people actually know anyone who actively sells.
Do certain areas have a higher percentage of consultants to population for any company? Absolutely. Does that mean a passionate and determined sales person is destined to fail there? Absolutely NOT. There’s no substitute for effort. None.
Bottom line. Saturation is a myth. Don’t let the perception of saturation keep you from working. A determined sales person who is actively seeking customers will find them anywhere, regardless of how much presence the company has.
Do you love your product? Then just keep looking for people who need it. They’re out there. Just keep asking – and prepare to find customers!
SALES…the Life of the Party Plan.
Kimberly Bates, the Better Seller Coach
Twitter @thebetterseller
http://www.beabetterseller.net
Several years ago I was part of the launch of a direct sales company. About a year and half later I had an opportunity to do a show for a friend of mine who happened to live in the company’s home city. The population of that metro area was 804,340 at the time. Using the 1 to 1000 rule, the area could sustain 804 active consultants. Using the 80/20 rule, we’d need five times that or just over 4000 signed up consultants to be saturated. (I'll talk about these "rules" below.)
Now, being as the company was based there, many of the first consultants and superstars lived there. In fact, at the time I did the show there were at LEAST five senior leaders – the top level of management with teams generating in the hundreds of thousands in sales per MONTH. Now, of course, the teams were spread all over the country, but a whole lot of them were in this city. Although no one person I knew had access to the company’s ledger, my senior leader estimated (based on conversations about team size with her counterparts, joint meetings, etc.) that there were about 4000 consultants SIGNED UP in this city at that time, eighteen months after launch. Using the 80/20 rule, there were probably 800 active, selling consultants.
So, I pretty much figured doing this show that the audience would have seen it all and heard it all about the company and products. To shorten it up, I did the show, booked two shows, and then one more from one of those. I did four shows there in three weeks, with approximately forty-four total customer guests.
I’d like you to take a guess at the following: How many of the forty-four had already been to one of our shows?
Are you ready for this?
One.
That’s right. Eighteen months after launch, in the headquarters city, with approximately 800 active consultants, ONE guest of forty-four had been to show. Even more interesting, at least HALF had never heard of the company before they were invited.
HALF!
This experience cured me of believing in saturation. But, let me put some "rules" and numbers around it so you can see where the expectations come from.
One reason is simple math. Different examples exist by various organizations, but common wisdom is that an area is saturated when there is one consultant for every 1000 people. Using Year 2000 census data, let’s pick a city. How about the metro Atlanta area? Using only four counties – Fulton, Gwinnett, DeKalb, and Cobb, the population was 2,678,150. So, theoretically that area would be saturated if there were 2,678 consultants for any given company in metro Atlanta.
But wait, don’t forget another common wisdom, the 80/20 rule. That is 80% of the work is accomplished by 20% of the people. So, should you consider the total number of consultants in an area, or 20% of that number? Using that rule, it would take over 13,000 signed up with 20% active to "saturate" these four counties.
Let’s throw another common statistic. Among every three consultants who sign up, one will do nothing, one will sell for a while and eventually drop out, and one will sell something consistently. Then, of the three who sell consistently, one of those will sell only, the second will sell and sponsor and move into lower management levels, and one will sell well, sponsor and move into upper management. For the third, one in three is a superstar. If you’ve stayed with the math, one in nine works the whole business, and one in ninety-nine is a superstar.
Here’s another example, and I’m not picking on Mary Kay. I have PROFOUND respect for that company and what they have accomplished on behalf of all of us who do direct sales. But, there’s a perception that MK is saturated in the U.S. I beg to disagree. Let’s go back to the stats. Population – about 300 million. Divided by 1000 that’s 300,000. And yes, there are more than 300,000 MK reps in the U.S. But, how about the 80/20 rule? Last figures I could obtain for U.S. Mary Kay consultant numbers was around half a million – so 20% of that is 100,000 doing 80% of the sales.
Waaay under the 300,000 the population could sustain.
And no company has anywhere NEAR MK’s numbers. Not even close. I always ask people – is there a Mary Kay rep on your street? Do you know her name? You’d be amazed how few people actually know anyone who actively sells.
Do certain areas have a higher percentage of consultants to population for any company? Absolutely. Does that mean a passionate and determined sales person is destined to fail there? Absolutely NOT. There’s no substitute for effort. None.
Bottom line. Saturation is a myth. Don’t let the perception of saturation keep you from working. A determined sales person who is actively seeking customers will find them anywhere, regardless of how much presence the company has.
Do you love your product? Then just keep looking for people who need it. They’re out there. Just keep asking – and prepare to find customers!
SALES…the Life of the Party Plan.
Kimberly Bates, the Better Seller Coach
Twitter @thebetterseller
http://www.beabetterseller.net
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Do You HAVE to do Parties?
Yes, you need to do shows.
This is coming from someone who doesn’t necessarily love the process of doing shows. That is, I absolutely loathe hostess coaching. Gotta do it, but I’m one of those sellers who wants to tell my hostess exactly what to do, have her do it without question, and then I show up at her door at the assigned time to a room full of excited prospects.
Not happening. But, that’s the topic of another blog. Today, we’re going to talk about why you need to do shows, even if you ALSO take the water to horse by "door to door" work, or other selling efforts.
It’s simple math – shows will almost invariably pay you more per HOUR for the simple reason that you walk into a room of pre-qualified prospects because they accepted the invitation to come to the show. That doesn’t mean they’ll buy, but it does mean you get a chance to see if your product fits their needs. It’s the audience that matters. A bigger group that someone else assembled is GOOD for your business.
Let’s do some math. It won’t be bad, I promise!
Suppose you call around to individual customers, or go visiting offices, or whatever, and collect enough orders to put in a show. For our example, lets say you spend two hours a day for five days one week and you get $500 in orders. I’ll pick a 25% commission rate since that’s common. So, you earn $125 in straight commission. You could also quantify soft costs of mileage, and soft gains of getting hostess benefits if you are allowed. But, to keep it simple, we’re going to use the $125 commission for $500 in sales for 10 hours of work.
That’s $12.50 per hour.
Now, you have a show for that Friday night. Spend half an hour prepping, half driving, two hours at show, half driving home,. That’s 3.5 hours. And you sell $500. So you earn the same $125 for 3.5 hours work or $41.67 per hour.
It’s almost a no brainer, all other things being equal. That is, you may get show leads from both efforts, meet consultants from both efforts, etc. You know from my previous post I’m a believer in working your business outside shows unless you have more than enough leads to suit you.
But, I want to make sure you get the biggest benefit of the show…SOMEONE ELSE does the initial prospecting for you. And prospecting is time consuming, no doubt about it. So, suck it up and do those shows, even if they aren’t your favorite part of the business!
SALES…the Life of the Party Plan
Kimberly Bates, the Better Seller Coach
http://beabetterseller.net/
On twitter, you can follow me @thebetterseller
This is coming from someone who doesn’t necessarily love the process of doing shows. That is, I absolutely loathe hostess coaching. Gotta do it, but I’m one of those sellers who wants to tell my hostess exactly what to do, have her do it without question, and then I show up at her door at the assigned time to a room full of excited prospects.
Not happening. But, that’s the topic of another blog. Today, we’re going to talk about why you need to do shows, even if you ALSO take the water to horse by "door to door" work, or other selling efforts.
It’s simple math – shows will almost invariably pay you more per HOUR for the simple reason that you walk into a room of pre-qualified prospects because they accepted the invitation to come to the show. That doesn’t mean they’ll buy, but it does mean you get a chance to see if your product fits their needs. It’s the audience that matters. A bigger group that someone else assembled is GOOD for your business.
Let’s do some math. It won’t be bad, I promise!
Suppose you call around to individual customers, or go visiting offices, or whatever, and collect enough orders to put in a show. For our example, lets say you spend two hours a day for five days one week and you get $500 in orders. I’ll pick a 25% commission rate since that’s common. So, you earn $125 in straight commission. You could also quantify soft costs of mileage, and soft gains of getting hostess benefits if you are allowed. But, to keep it simple, we’re going to use the $125 commission for $500 in sales for 10 hours of work.
That’s $12.50 per hour.
Now, you have a show for that Friday night. Spend half an hour prepping, half driving, two hours at show, half driving home,. That’s 3.5 hours. And you sell $500. So you earn the same $125 for 3.5 hours work or $41.67 per hour.
It’s almost a no brainer, all other things being equal. That is, you may get show leads from both efforts, meet consultants from both efforts, etc. You know from my previous post I’m a believer in working your business outside shows unless you have more than enough leads to suit you.
But, I want to make sure you get the biggest benefit of the show…SOMEONE ELSE does the initial prospecting for you. And prospecting is time consuming, no doubt about it. So, suck it up and do those shows, even if they aren’t your favorite part of the business!
SALES…the Life of the Party Plan
Kimberly Bates, the Better Seller Coach
http://beabetterseller.net/
On twitter, you can follow me @thebetterseller
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