Day 15 - Know your clients

I spent the morning working on the training manual for the agents. Still struggling to formalize the ins and out on sales techniques. I’m very near to copy and paste from other authors at this stage.

Unfortunately its not a science. So I’ve come up with the following so far:

How do you explain and teach the art of identifying your ideal client?

Guru’s all talk about ideal clients. How do you identify them? Think about the client that spends the most. Write down everything you know about the client.

Type of Job, Workplace, Age, Gender, number of children etc.

Once you have this start looking for places where this type of client gather.

This is the hardest part of finding the right client. Once you have mastered this – sales will become easier.

How to sell:

1. Firstly you have to make a good impression by being self-assured

(This is usually the toughest for me. I’m an introvert, but due to the nature of my work I have to socialise. So my way around that ice cold feeling when you walk into a room with people that you don’t know, is to be loud on entrance. I walk straight to a group and introduce myself. I then move around the room. Somewhere in this process I end up with someone that likes the sound of their own voice. This eases me out from the strangeness.)

2. Notice the way a person dress and speaks. Take in consideration the environment as well as the time and place you meet. Money doesn’t have a roll in this part. You have to notice the small things. Specifically their jewellery.

Should you meet a prospective client that is only wearing gold or real silver you will have a tough time selling stainless steel to them. Don’t waste your time pursuing the sale, should they not be interested. You will end up negative. Move on and find your ideal client.

There is nothing wrong with you or your product. You don’t have the right buyer.

80/20 rule applies. 20% Of your clients will bring in 80% of your sales by using 20% of your resources , time and efforts. Unfortunately we spend 80 % of our disposable assets in trying to convince 80% of our clients to make up 20% of our income.

3. Know your product. When you have the right buyer in front of you, the key is knowledge and honesty.

If you know the answers to most questions and honestly say that you are not sure , when you are not , this establish trust. Nothing wrong with not knowing. Find out and revert back. Undersell and over deliver.

4. Understand the process

When you finalise the sale, explain the process.

5. Brand your parcels, service or whatever you sell. Branding doesn’t necessarily mean a logo. It can be a personalised card to thank the client for their order. Tie it up in a nice bow and add your own touch to the look of it
6. Follow up on the sale. After a couple of days, check in. Make sure the client is happy. Don’t wait for them to call you. By that time they are usually already in a bad space and won’t be as friendly

Then again, these are only pointers that works for me. Perhaps sales techniques depends on the personality of the seller?

I have some reading to do , especially around the psychological side of sale techniques for other types of personalities…. The bottom line still stands though throughout.  Know your client.

After spending the morning on a few paragraphs I realised that today was the second last day of Le Roux in my house . He has to return home on Monday.  

At lunch I put the menu options on the table for dinner , braai got the unanimous vote.

Later, sitting around the fire watching the 3 musketeers handling the braai it struck me that this will also come to an end. We take it for granted that our house is filled with noisy children. Reality is that in 5 years from now, they will be 21. Whilst hoping that our house will then still be a safe haven for them I realise that life happens. Then my boy will also escape my house and leave me behind.

We work on our children, help them to adapt in this ever changing world. In this process they develop their own personalities and attributes that makes them their own unique person.  We help shaping the future by investing in our children now.

Raising children is a lot like selling. You have to convince them that what you need them to do is in their best interest. We make the mistake of forcing our will on our children , when they have their own personalities. What is right for one, is not always fitting for all.

In this lockdown period.. use the time to learn everything about your children. Look at them from another perspective. Like you are a seller and they are your clients. You will achieve much more, with less fighting  if you understand what makes them tick.