Selling Where Ever You Are

A Book Sale In My Girl Friend's Kitchen

Labels: blogs, sales, weblogs

Don't Believe Everything You Read

Labels: blogs, business, sales, success, weblogs, writing

Read Wes Zimmerman's Latest Blog Post on the Subject:

Click Here:
Blogging, Web Selling, What I've Learned

Labels: blogs, business, marketing, sales, success, weblogs, writing

... a total stranger walked up,

"You're Wes Zimmerman."

"Yes."

"You wrote that book. You're the man on the motorcycle."

"Yes."

Read the rest: There Are No Coincidences

Labels: blogs, sales, weblogs

Wes Zimmerman Speaks On

The Perception Of A Difference




In the first five seconds of your first contact with a business or person, a perception forms in your mind.

You have absolutely no control over its formation.

You will have very great difficulty changing it after five minutes.

From that point on it will affect every decision you make concerning the business or person, including anything the business or person advocates.


Choose From Three Presentations

1. In twenty minutes Wes will help you to realize the truth of these statements. You will receive useful information on how you can improve the likelihood that perceptions of you and your business are positive.

2. In fifty minutes with Wes you will know how to apply the Perception of a Difference, both in your business, in whatever position or title you hold, and in your personal life as well. You will learn how you can make a positive difference everyday.

3. In one hour and forty-five minutes including breaks, you will appreciate the power of the Perception of a Difference and its effects on your business and life. Before his presentation Wes will ask you to educate him about your business, do additional research on your industry and then customize his presentation to your needs. You will realize positive results for many years.


Here are some comments from prior participants:

"I applied what I learned in your Inc. presentation "The Perception Of A Difference" and experienced a 40% sales increase [in my company] in 11 months."
CEO Maintenance Service Company.

"I flew 6000 miles to go to Club. It was a long, tiring trip. Your presentation by itself was worth the effort." President Software Company

"Since your presentation I'm doing the things I did 25 years ago and had forgotten. Sales are up 30%. I'm having more fun than anytime in 15 years."
Salesman Veterinary Supplies

"Your sincerity is motivating. When you speak to a group, you present ideas in such a way that people understand why they will work. Your "Perception Of A Difference Presentation" worked so well that when our people left the auditorium, they believed they could make a difference and they have."
V.P. Information Systems

"You're a man of integrity and that shows. You also have a wealth of information to give away. I appreciate how direct you are."
Marketing Director

"Wesley Zimmerman, I was in your Inc. Conference
audience, six years ago. I've never forgotten that
presentation. It was loaded with useful information.
One of our customers told me you were here.
I want you to work with my people."
CEO

I must admit it was a learning experience participating in your lectures. Though operations is primarily my responsibility, the information you communicated to all of us about being winners and how to respond to our customers, whether existing or prospective, will certainly be of help to me in the future.
Operations Mgr.


Contact Wes at wes@perceptionofdifference.com or call him on 480.628.2450
to discuss the presentation content of your choice and associated fees.


Throughout his life, Wes has been moved to help others. He's done this while successfully performing as industrial engineer, plant manager, salesman, sales branch manager, market planner, sales and business counselor. He mentors professionals, corporate executives and individuals in all walks of life. Wes is an accomplished speaker and author of numerous articles. He has written and published the "Perception Of A Difference Quarterly", "Zimmerman's Zingers" and the book: "The Perception Of A Difference - The Power In Buying, Marketing, Selling, Customer Care," the first in a series.


Wes will make a difference in your life and your business.


Wesley W. Zimmerman
WZA Inc. The Business Enhancement Team
11060 N. 77th Street
Scottsdale, AZ 85260-5564
http://www.perceptionofdifference.com/

Labels: first impressions, perception, sales, success

Sales Compensation Plan Musings

I worked in professional sales and managed sales professionals for many years. In all cases my compensation was percentage-of-sales commission-based. I liked commission compensation because I controlled my earnings. I was never in a group commission arrangement and would not have accepted such, because I would not have been the sole determiner of my income. However, there are as many versions of commission compensation as there are grains of sand on the seashore.

My first professional sales job paid straight or "pure" commission. I paid all my expenses and received 16% of all sales, plus a desk, a phone, and secretarial help, when I chose to go to the district office. I received half of the commission in the month the order was entered and the remaining half in the month when the order was shipped: paid in one check at the end of each month. It was fairest plan I ever worked with: no one could mess with it by creating a new interpretation of it. If you could not sell enough and went hungry, you quit and found other work. Managing sales professionals under this plan was simple; you helped them to get the job done, you trained and supported them: You did this enthusiastically because your income was dependent on what your sales people sold.

Every other plan I worked with demanded interpretation and the happiness of the sales person depended on who was doing the interpretation and their level on the organization chart. The plan I liked best was one that gave me a monthly check, referred to as two thirds of "planned earnings" plus a check at the end of the year for the difference between the sum of twelve checks and the total commissions earned in the year. You also were paid for travel and living expenses including mileage in your territory. Managing sales professionals under this plan was the same as straight commission and worked well as long as the products being sold met the needs of the customer.

When the products did not meet the customer's perceived needs, or were no longer competitive managing became a series of tough decisions. You kept your best sales people because they could live on the monthly check until such time as the product was improved; hoping it would happen quickly. If the product would not support enough sales to cover the monthly check you either convinced management to write off the difference, or you tried to sell the sales people on accepting a reduction in the monthly check and hoped you could hold them. If a salesperson declined and quit you divided their territory "temporarily" among those that stayed expecting them to keep existing customers and thereby earn enough to cover the monthly check.

It was important to keep as many sales people as possible because they were your best communication line to the customer. The customer-salesperson trust relationship was key to learning how to improve the product so it would again sell. As manager I had to convince management that asking the sales force to accept reduced income while management did not reduce its own, was unethical since product shortcomings resulted from their failure, not the sales teams.

Success depends on supporting others and sharing the results of your own experience.

Wes Zimmerman

Labels: compensation, compensation plan, management, sales, success

I Came Back Because ... May 2007 Zinger Preview


Ever wonder why your customers come back year after year and happily pay you for the things they need or just want? The Harley Davidson motorcycle dealer that put on a safety seminar recently, unexpectedly learned why during the seminar. I was there, listening, along with twenty-two others. It was a lesson the dealer will not forget; neither will you.





Zingers is a monthly newsletter subscription that includes the first two issues free. You may purchase this month's newsletter individually for $5.47 without subscribing to the monthly newsletter subscription.

Labels: Customer Satisfaction, previews, sales, zingers

Labels: first impressions, perception, sales, success, testimonials

A Discount = Lost Credibility = Lost Sale

About once a month I succumb to a promotion and register to listen to a free telephone seminar that will "Double your income in twelve months"; or "Help you to make your book an Amazon best seller," or give you "The Seven Secrets to Sales Success." You name it. I do this because I am always ready to learn something new. Like you, I am subject to times of self-doubt, lower sales than I want, and times when my enthusiasm dwindles. Sometimes I register just to see how the "expert" presents his/her product/service; today was one of those days.

A friend forwarded the email pitch with the thought that it sounded like it might be worthwhile. It promised ten secrets to better sales. I read it, learned that it would happen in two hours, last one hour, and only 14 slots were left. I jumped right in. This was the "wild card" buying decision described in my book "The Perception Of A Difference". Was it worth it?

Yes, for two reasons.

1. It reconfirmed the value of what I have practiced most of my life, including the absolute value of consistency in sales and business practices and
2. It demonstrated the destructive power of discounting.

The ten "secrets" are not new, but they were presented in a different way. They can be found in the Torah, The Old Testament, The New Testament, and "Dad's Sayings" on page 293 of The Perception Of A Difference. There is nothing new in this world, only new approaches to helping you and me learn the eternal truths of human nature. I needed and benefited from hearing them again.

For me, the seminar experience was a powerful demonstration of how to lose a sale in a series of small steps.

• It lasted one hour and twenty minutes, not one hour.



• The last twenty minutes were pure sales pitch.



• The featured expert used too many superlatives in describing results, including doubling your business/sales in one year. All businesses are not created equal. What proof could he offer for this estimate?



• He used many references to high placed, oft-quoted, rich people that I will never meet. Even the moderator noticed this and asked if ordinary people could use what he was espousing.



• He talked too much.

He should have asked for the order after thirty minutes, everything he said after that weakened his presentation and proved that he isn't the expert he claims to be. An expert knows when to ask for the order.

His normal charge for the eight session phone seminar plus three one-hour, one-on-one phone calls for $1,997.00. Eleven sessions would cost $181,59 each,- not unreasonable if you improve your business by even ten or fifteen percent in a year. If you double your business, as he suggested, it's a flaming bargain.

But then he discounted the price of his seminar by fifty percent -- yes, 50%. That blew the sale completely for me. I knew instantly that he wasn't worth his "normal" fee of $1,000.00 per hour. If he were, he wouldn't be putting on this free telephone seminar. If he were he would not be offering his $1,997.00, eight session, regular phone seminar plus three one-hour, one-on-one phone calls for $997.00. If he were, he would not invite us listeners to pay in two easy installments instead of the usually required 100% up front.

Had he not eroded his credibility, which lowered the perceived value of his seminar, and had he not offered a discount, he might have landed an order.

Dad taught me to never discount, I have followed that policy with great success.

What has worked for you?

Wes

Labels: credibility, discounts, perception, sales, success

(Zinger Sample)





For years my business uniform was a three piece suit built out of the finest English worsted, tailored to measure and properly conservative in color and pattern. The company car, which I normally used on business, was a Lincoln Town Car late model, but my car for pleasure was a 1970 Mercury Marquis convertible. The paint on the convertible was a tad faded and the engine used a bit of oil after 149,000 miles, when this enlightening experience unfolded.

The yellow convertible was rear-ended and suffered a bent rear bumper. When my schedule opened up a week or so later I decided it was time to get out of uniform, get a repair estimate and enjoy the ride with the top down. I donned a golf outfit that my wife informed me was purchased eight years previously and run through the automatic washer 150 times. It was a forty-minute drive to the first body shop and I thoroughly enjoyed the wind blowing my hair in six directions.

The first stop was the Lincoln-Mercury dealer from whom I had purchased automobiles for fifteen years. The body shop manager greeted me with a friendly smile, looked at the bumper, made out his estimate and said, “To save you time, you can get a second estimate by just going down the street a block and pulling in at the Cadillac dealership. They do outstanding work and will be happy to take care of you, but we’d like to do the work for you, after you get things settled with the insurance company.” I thanked him and he thanked me. I headed down the road.

The Cadillac dealership was the oldest and most prestigious in our fair city. The entire operation covered two-thirds of a city block. I drove to the front of the imposing show room and parked in full view of everyone within. I had decided that since I needed directions on how to reach the body shop, in this large establishment, I might just as well ask directions in the show room and stop and look at those shiny new Cadillacs.

I walked in and saw, at the far end of the show room, four salespeople looking at me. They were not your typical stereotype automobile salesmen: i.e., they wore long-sleeve white shirts, ties, and jackets with pants that matched. They made absolutely no effort to come toward me or greet me. One of them, after obviously looking me over from head to toe, turned and walked into a back area where he wouldn’t have to deal with me. I had that instant sense that I wasn’t dressed right for this occasion.

I had to walk the full length of that show room to get close enough to the three remaining salespeople to ask them how to get to the body shop. No one greeted me or asked me what I wanted before I asked the question. I got a very courteous and detailed answer about how to wend my way through the establishment. No one offered to show me a Cadillac; no one said, “Thanks for coming in.” I turned and decided not to stop and look at the shiny new Cadillacs.

When I got to the body shop office, the first thing I did was look in a mirror and comb my hair. The lady behind the counter took care of the data gathering in a very business-like manner. The man I’d been told to ask for admired the car and gave me a bumper repair estimate in a friendly and competent manner. He wanted to know the details about that old yellow convertible and what my future plans for it might be. When I told him that I intended to restore it sometime in the next twelve months, I received a complete sales pitch for a $2,000 seven-coat hand-rubbed paint job. He thanked me for coming.

I left feeling that when the time came I might come back for quotation on replacing the paint on the old convertible, but I never again darkened the door of that Cadillac store and I even considered specifying, in my burial instructions, that a Cadillac hearse not be used to carry my body to the graveyard.

What I really wanted to do was go to my barber, then shower and shave, put on my finest fresh-pressed, navy-blue three-piece suit, drive up to the Cadillac show room in the freshly washed and polished Lincoln Town Car, walk in and as all of those salesmen gathered around me, kick them each hard, in the shins.

But I never went back.

To this day, I am absolutely convinced that had I arrived in the Lincoln Town Car, wearing my business uniform, with gray hair neatly combed, I would have had to fight my way out of that show room instead of being humiliated by being looked upon as a cheap skid-row derelict with an old car.

* * * * *

Would the people in your store treat me the way the Cadillac salespeople did?

What have you done to prevent it?

In today’s language the salespeople were “profiling”. The prospect also does profiling, but it is all accomplished in those first few seconds without conscious effort. Do you think a prospect has the right to judge a salesperson in this manner?

Do you think a salesperson has the right to judge a prospect in this manner?

Does the kind of business the salesperson is involved in or the product he/she is selling make a difference?

A good salesperson learns early on that the first five minutes in the presence of a prospect are critical. The prospect judges a salesperson in that period of time based on appearance, manner, courtesy, language used, and sixth sense communication. A perception forms in the prospect’s mind in the first few seconds and hardens into reality in the following five minutes. No one likes to deal with someone who is not successful. I wore those fine suits and still do, because I want the perception in my prospect’s mind to be that I’m successful.

When ever I’ve learned I lost a sale because of premature judging, I tried real hard not to do it again, not always successfully, but I keep trying.

.
Nuff said!!!

Copyright 2005-2007 - All Rights Reserved
WZA, Inc. - The Business Enhancement Team
Wesley W. Zimmerman

Zinger sample, "Judge Ye Not Prematurely" is provided as a courtesy to prospective Zinger Newsletter subscribers only.

Contact the author directly for reprint rights: WesZimmerman AT PerceptionofDifference.com

Labels: first impressions, judging, perception, sales, zingers