Advice for sales persons of all products and services, packaged in personal terms.
Whenever any one of us buys something we’re faced with fear. Except my wife. She has never seemed to manage this reasonable emotion (Just kidding, Honey). But in all seriousness you can be faced with fear of making a mistake; the fear the sales person is lying to you; the fear of parting with your hard-earned money; and in some cases the fear of embarrassment. Such fears paralyze many from decisions that clearly could be in their best interest.
For professionals, like myself who rely on sales for our living and our families well-being, we must find ways to overcome these fears and continue on in spite of them. Because try as we might, these fears aren’t going away. As correctly pointed out by the blog Wheelhouse “Goal-oriented sales people can’t overlook the risk their sales prospect is taking on by giving them their time and attention.” …or the fear that accompany that “risk”.
This subject has been on my mind lately because my wife and I are AdvoCare Advisors, distributors of fantastic nutritional, energy, and weight loss products that have positively changed our lives in the past 6 months.
AdvoCare allowed me and my wife to lose 30 lbs each in just 4 months.
I just can’t belief everyone we know is not more willing to take my word-for-it that this company and these products are “the bomb” (’90s term, right? Oh well). Of course, the fault is with me and not with them. In sales terminology I need to earn their trust, and upon doing so confirm it. The “closing” parlance calls for this confirmation to be acquired by simply asking, “You trust me, don’t you?”. Let’s face it, your best friend and even your Mother withholds trust unless you ask this simple question. Upon asking they tend to feel a little sheepish about saying they don’t trust you. And with the exception of only the worst of us fellow human beings, why would I or any sales person lie to you? Especially if they’re family or friends already? You just need to remind them that they do…trust you, that is.
As for the fear of parting with their hard-earned money you just have to convince those you’re presenting your sales proposition that their lives will be better without that money. In my case with Advocare it’s usually easier to convince someone that they would live and feel better minus the extra 40-50 pounds they’re caring around than it is to convince a another very fit person that they too will feel better, have more energy, and probably look better too. But both are true. But we have to get past their fear.
The fear of embarrassment is easier to overcome. But I’m not like most people. I have a pretty high tolerance for embarrassment. With Advocare there’s the embarrassment of admitting that *gasp*, your fat! My own fear is in approaching clearly over-weight people with a product that I know will help them, and that if they or I are embarrassed by their girth we need to get over it in order to help a fellow human being. The other embarrassing aspect of Advocare and similar products or companies is that they are a Direct-Sales company. This doesn’t embarrass me in the least. But it does others. Here we just have to be tough and correctly point out how AdvoCare does hundreds-of-millions of dollars in business every year and has been in business for 20 years. Direct Sales is a common form of dispensing products and has been used for a variety of companies for well of 100 years. So as the expression goes, get-over-yourself. What’s good enough for Mary Kay, and Avon, and Fuller Brush, Pampered Chef, etc, etc. The list is endless.
Whether you are selling cars, homes, knickknacks, or AdvoCare you will be faced with your prospects fear. Failing to overcome it is your fault. Know that you are doing them a favor by helping them over-come it too.
Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.
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M Schuett blah blah blah 
Be Yourself on Social Media.
I joined Facebook with my personal profile page in May 2008, and some would say at that point a monster was made. The truth isn’t quite so dramatic and was in fact a slow evolving process. Now I’m very active on Social Media and a lot of it is for fun, but most of it is a calculated effort to promote my company Total Broadcasting Service, and recently my wife and my Advisor status with the direct sales company, AdvoCare.
The truth is the “monster” reference above refers to both my frequency of posts and my willingness to break some long-standing “rules” for business and networking. The big one of which I refer is “never talk religion or politics”. It’s long been believed crossing the line into those two subjects is a sure way to lose customers or potential customers. Well, I’m a happy example of how that “rule” is largely myth. And I’ve come to the conclusion that the politics and religion banishment from social media discussion or business and networking discussion is created mostly by people who are personally more reserved anyway.
Nothing is wrong with being more tightly guarded about your thoughts, actions, or beliefs. But those who are ought not unfairly judge those of us who are happily more vocal. After all, if everyone held ideas so closely to the vest and never shared them how would people learn and grow and solve problems. It’s the more boisterous in society who call attention to problems and those problem’s solutions.
Total Broadcasting Service is an eight year old company. We’re a radio advertising brokerage and audio production company that has added video production for internet marketing to our list of services. We experienced four years of growth after beginning operations in 2005, and then fell on hard times like so many others in 2009. We saw a lot of customers close their doors that year. Since then every year has gotten progressively better. And in 2012 we have recorded our best year ever in terms of gross income.
What I find interesting about this is the fact that 2012 was an election year and I made no secret about my support for what the election determined was a minority opinion. Not only was it a minority opinion nationally, but my Conservative politics was and remains an extreme minority opinion where I live and where most of my business originates from, in King County, Washington. So how can it be possible that my business has continued to grow and support my family with what amounts to an above-average income and life-style?
Stephen Colbert
As Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert demanded to know during the Chick-fil-A vs Gay Marriage controversy last Summer, “I’ve got to know what positions my food has taken on all the issues. For example, I love Carl Jr’s Western Burger. It must be anti-ObamaCare, because it is clearly trying to kill us. And whenever I go to Applebee’s, I insist that they only give me right wings. After all, you are what you eat. And now, you also believe what you eat.”
The absurdity of Colbert’s comment should be obvious. And to me the obvious conclusion I’ve come to is that most people don’t care about politics or religion. Traditionally poor voter turnout proves this fact. Studies showing only about 50% of Americans regularly attend church further proves it.
Like Adam Smith clearly enunciated in his seminal book, “The Wealth of Nations“,
Adam Smith
everyone cares about their own selfish interests. And that’s a good thing. Because in caring for our own selfish interests we as individuals and individual businesses are stronger and better able to serve specific customers and the general populace. Weak people and weak businesses serve very few. And in caring for their own selfish interests people care little about my politics or religion. They care about whether my business can make their lives better, something we constantly strive to do. And we strive with equal fervor for our Liberal customers as for our Conservative customers; for our Christian customers as for our Jewish, Buddhist, Atheist, or Muslim customers. Doing so is in our best interest.
My efforts on Social Media now include regular posts to my Facebook personal page, business page, and personality page. In 2010 I added Twitter and LinkedIn personally and for business to my Social Media promotional efforts. And in 2012 Pinterest began receiving our attention. And we are bloggers here on M Schuett blah blah blah. (We’re also on Biznik. But since they started charge money for even their most basic profile page we discontinued our subscription). Selfish advocacy of my political and moral points of view are frequent subjects of my posts. But foremost at ALL TIMES is merely to be interesting to as many people as possible in order to promote my business interests; Total Broadcasting Service, and in the past 3-4 months, AdvoCare health and nutrition.
AdvoCare allowed me and my wife to lose 30 lbs each in just 4 months.
Social Media experts will tell you that marketing through social media is not intended to get you direct business; but instead to keep your brand, product or service in the front-of-mind for potential customers. That’s true. But when you make yourself interesting on Social Media and are not afraid to “show a little leg” and make yourself vulnerable you gain credibility with even those who disagree with you. And in gaining credibility you gain direct customers. As we have. And we’re grateful.
Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.
December 11, 2012
Categories: Business, National Politics, Washington State . Tags: advertising, Advocare, blogging, Business, Carl Jr, Comedy Central, commentary, Conservatism, current-events, facebook, internet advertising, LinkedIn, marketing, networking, Pinterest, politics, religion and politics, social media, society, twitter, Wealth of Nations . Author: Michael Schuett . Comments: Comments Off on Be Yourself on Social Media.