Power Up - Marketing and Selling for Greater Success

Enjoy the dinner menu during breakfast

How can we be more effective at cross-selling.  That term for the uninitiated is the process of selling more than just a product when you are selling - you want to maximize your time and sell several associated products.  E.g. selling the computer is fine but also selling the software, the consulting services, and the maintenance contract is the home run!

While enjoying breakfast with an associate I read over the dinner menu that the high-end dining established had displayed on the breakfast tables.  It made for interesting reading.  The menu's dishes provoked a desire to bring my wife to dinner there that evening.

What was the cost and effort of this simple cross-selling effort?  Minimal!

Think about your services and how often you even mention them to your current clients nonetheless your prospects.  Opportunities abound - make the most of the opportunities.

Be aware of your selling place

The doorbell rang and I interrupted my  work to answer it, only to find a stranger holding an orange. He explained that he and his associates were in our community to provide us with some excellent fruit - upon which he opened his pocket knife and cut into the orange and extended to me a slice to taste.  As the juices from the freshly cut orange dribbled onto my entryway, I tasted the orange and he proceeded to take out a grapefruit cutting it and offering a taste to me.  The selling patter continued as I continued to be amazed at the commingling of juices accumulating in my entry.  Next he produced an apple and as I ate a slice I wondered how many finger nails his pocket knife had cleaned?

I enjoyed the tasty fruit but declined his offer to buy a box of mixed fruit for the special "today only" price.  He was a pleasant salesman but I was left totally baffled as to why he felt, without asking, he could have his "taste this fruit stand" at my front door.

The term "permission marketing" is used in Internet communications so that the recipient agrees beforehand to getting your message.  I suggest that anyone who has a messy presentation also apply permission marketing before creating a mess on the prospect's desk or doorway.

His last gesture was to leave the cut fruit on the threshold and told me I could enjoy finishing it.  Clean hands?  Clean knife?  I don't know.  But I do know that my threshold was not clean.  A very interesting selling approach.

Something we all can learn from.  How do we demonstrate our products and are we sensitive to the prospect's environment?