First, what is it?  It is a virtual bulletion board or pinboard, perhaps similar to the one you have in your office, but on a WWW scale.  People can “pin” images they enjoy on the site, gather interested others, group like things together, and have some fun.  The best way to learn is to visit the site - http://pinterest.com/ . 

From their site, here is what they say, “Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.  Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests. To get started, request an invite.”

We suspect the Pinterest people learned from the Facebook experience and others too.  Right out of the box it has both personal and business appeal.  Let’s say you make a nifty new bridal bouquet made of buttons.  Creating new buzz for your product in important, especially because it is something unusually new.  You have your web site, Facebook page, and Twitter ID and are pushing your button bouguet images as aggressively as you can but could do more.  So, along comes Pinterest and one of your early customers “pins” pictures from her beautiful wedding.  Shazam,featured prominently in some of those images is  your best button bouquet.  With hundreds of million visitors, could you potentially generate a few more sales leads and maybe get your product buzz revved up a bit?  

Traditional marketing experts will take one of two positions, either getting goose bumps about Pinterest, or expressing ROI skepticism about it.  Yes, Pinterest is still a bit new, but can or should you ignore the millions of eyeballs currently browsing Pinterest?   It may not be obvious that your product is suitable for Pinterest or that your potential new customers are there.  But we are optimistic that the Pinterest excitement will continue to grow and marketeers with imagination will find a way to capitalize on it.   Perhaps you should start thinking about it.

When you hear a sales person say, “I hope that deal closes before month end”, just smile and run away.  Their deal is about to explode.

The next, not so secret way is to up-sell and cross-sell to your existing customers.  Sounds simple doesn’t it, then why do most business people suck at it?  The US Post Office may do this one thing right.  Go to the Post Office to buy a book of stamps.  You can be assured the Postal Sales Person will ask you if you want to buy any other supplies, rental boxes, or services.  Now it is such a habit it sometimes doesn’t even get a response from the customer, but it is a good simple example of trying to up-sell and cross-sell.  In a retail setting it may be just that simple to add a few more transactions per day. 

On your next trip through the McDonald’s drive up to get your morning java, try to get away without the McDonald’s person asking if you want a hot apple pie for 50 cents or a hash brown for a dollar.  Do you think it works?   Of course it does, that is why they do it.  They can tell you precisely how many more apple pies and hash browns a store sells when they behave this way.  If the evidence is there, why aren’t your asking your clients if they have a need or want your other products.  Are you even sure they know you have other products?

Studies and history show us the easiest sale is to an existing customer. It makes perfect sense.   They know you, are happy with the current product they buy, and they are accustomed to doing business with you.   In a  Business to Business (B to B) setting, similar results can be achieved. 

I have a friend who owns a package shipping store, with mail box rentals, fax services, greeting cards, and more.  Customers like its convenience.  The vast majority of the business is package shipping.   My friend asks one day, how he can achieve his growth goal of adding 15% more transactions per day.  While discussing the business, several customers come and go.  They are efficiently served and leave happy.  The proprietor doesn’t ask them if they want a postal box, a greeting card or other services?  Those customers leave the store, most likely unaware of the other products and services available to them.  As I coach him to ask, he practices on the next few customers.  He feels awkward at first, then quickly gets the hang of it, especially when one shows interest in a postal box. 

Let’s look at the math.  If the store sees 100 package customers per day, and 15 of them choose to purchase other products or services, he has met his goal.  This approach cost him incrementally nothing – no marketing, no advertising, no cold calling.  He is now a believer.

If you are not sure about how you can grow through up selling and cross selling, contact us for help.  There are many nifty methods and techniques that make these efforts very productive.

The Internet and the incalculable growth in mobile devices is creating new opportunities for rapid spontaneous product promotion.     Today, with tablet like devices in the store showing your products,  it is possible to capture actual customer input, reaction, etc., all real time.  Retail stores, manufacturers, and many others can dramatically benefit from tablet enabled customer connections.

Helping you make that connection to your end customers is a new company – Fiverun.   They provide a tablet engagement platform to display products with real time analytics and socialization ability. So now, not only can a product be emailed and shared directly from a retail location, it can also be facebook “liked” and tweeted about.  So, a 17 year old fashion queen, can quickly and easily tell her friends about your new accessory and encourage them to shop, right from your device in your store.  If that wasn’t enough, you the manufacturer or retailer can get real time location aware visibility and data at your fingertips.  You now have a connection directly to customers and know what they are thinking every minute of the day.  Imagine what you can do with this information and what it can do to increase revenue.

Co-Founder and CEO, Fabian Oliva says, “A tablet is not a replacement for a PC, its how a PC should always have been. The business benefits of mobility and usability can drastically be improved, but only with software that can power the tablet. Fiverun is developing the application glue that will enable that usage.”

Check them out at http://www.fiverun.com/

But, there is a growing population (albeit still small) suggesting more than the dress code has evolved.  Some now believe the relaxed dress code has produced a relaxed attitude where business formalities and traditional practices are abandoned, where well written and bound sales proposals have been replaced by hastily constructed email, where eloquent face to face presentations have been replaced by impersonal webinars, where nice respectable thank you dinners have been replaced by machine printed thank you cards, etc.  Nostalgic, well maybe, but many clients, especially those in the executive suites, still appreciate a formal traditional approach.  Some see the lowering of the dress code as a statement about their eroding importance to sales people and that sales people aren’t taking their profession as seriously as they should. 

Bottom line, never dress or have an attitude less formal than your clients.  Actually you should consider always being one notch higher on the scale.  If they were sport coats, you should wear a suit.  If they wear khaki’s and polo shirts, you should wear a sport coat.  OK, you get the idea.   Always guard against fostering an informal attitude.   

Progressive plans to hire 1,100 new sales, service and claims people;  185 in Austin, 65 in Phoenix, 129 in Colorado Springs, 390 in Tampa and 337 in Cleveland.  “We’re constantly looking for ways to make it even easier for employees to grow and succeed,” said Katie Koch, recruiting director at Progressive. “At Progressive, employees enjoy the flexibility to balance the demands of home and work. By putting our people first, we attract the best and brightest people around.”

Siemens announced that the company will increase its pledge to the Joining Forces initiative by committing to hiring another 300 veterans in 2012.  “Siemens is in the enviable position of being at the forefront of job growth in this country and we have our choice of the best talent out there,” said Mike Panigel, Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Siemens Corporation. “We are extremely proud of our work with Joining Forces and this additional commitment reflects the fact that the technical training and advanced skills sets that veterans bring to the workforce are a perfect match for Siemens. Having these brave and talented men and women join our team will make our company stronger for years to come.”

Tibco Software announced plans to hire 500 people in the U.S. this year as the economy improves and Europe works out its debt crisis, Chief Executive Officer Vivek Ranadive said in an interview. “We are hiring quite rapidly now, all in sales and service,” Ranadive said at the World Economic Forum’s annual conference in Davos, Switzerland. “It’s a good time to hire.” Some big banks aren’t hiring, so there isn’t as much competition for workers from Wall Street, he said.

All of his rules are instructive but the one we really like is number 4 – Sales Cure All; “Know how you will make money and how you will actually make sales.”   A statement like this from Mr. Cuban needs no amplification or modification.  It is purely driven from his experience.  Every startup must understand clearly what they will sell, how they will sell it, how much they will sell, etc.  This can not be a mystery – it must be well understood. 

We work with many small businesses and startup firms and understand rule 4 very well.  If you are considering starting a company with a great product idea or similar, make sure you understand rule 4 very well.  Even if you have grown from startup to small business status, you never stray far from the impact of Rule 4.   We can help make sure you have the understanding you need and the plan required to make sure you know exactly how you will make money.  Do this work early, before you invest in people, time, products, marketing and sales.

In baseball, the fans tend to remember the score of the last game.  In sales,  your manager tends to forget your last sale, especially if it was some time ago. 

The pursuit of a sales target always keeps you focused on the next sale and your manager is the best example of that.  You may have closed the biggest deal in company history earlier in the year, and you may be 200% of your year-to-date sales target, but your manager will still want to know – what have you done for me lately.   It just happens that way.

Would every business owner want more revenue?   Would a baseball player want to hit more home runs, or would a child want more toys, or would a politician want more votes?  This has to be one of the simplest truths about business.  So, how do you do it?   How do you grow revenue, especially in a difficult economy? 

Let’s start with one of the oldest most proven ways – referrals.   Yes, referrals, the concept of existing customers referring you to new customers.  

You are right now probably chuckling and saying to yourself, “Yeah, right like that will make a big difference.”  So, take yourself out of your business setting and put yourself into another.   Think about a recent business transaction where you were the customer.  Let’s say your name is Jill and you recently needed the services of a carpenter to finish your basement and that carpenter did an outstanding job.  While talking with that carpenter as you were signing the check, he asked you, “Jill, you said you really liked my work and would use me again.”   He continued, “Would you please think about the people you know and if they may have a need for a good carpenter?’   ”It is important to my business that I gain new customers from the referrals of satisfied ones.” he said.   If you did really like his work, you will give him a couple names, including Tom, who told you a few days ago he too was thinking about finishing his basement. 

The next day, the carpenter calls Tom.  He introduces himself and says he has recently helped Jill remodel her basement, that Jill was very satisfied, enough to suggest that he call you Tom to help with your basement remodel. Now if you were Tom, please tell me how likely you are to consider that carpenter for your basement remodel.  Referrals have very strong odds of becoming customers.  Jill’s recommendation of this carpenter is better than most all forms of marketing and sales.

So, regardless of your business type – retail, consumer, business to business, you should be seeking and asking for referrals.  In  your business setting, make it a habit of asking every customer or person you meet for referrals, especially your satisfied customers.  Try it for a few weeks and see what happens.  Come back and tell us what happened.

When you think deeply about it, trust is a requirement for just about every productive human interaction.  Trust plays a significant role in personal relationships, including your spouse, your children, and your friends.  Trust also plays a significant role in business relationships, including employees, managers, team mates, coaches, and also in sales.  We always want to talk about the importance of the trust a buyer has in their sales rep.  But it works both ways.  Sales reps must trust the information being given them and the people giving it. 

Do you trust that sales rep, or client when you first meet?  As a buyer or client, do you trust what the sales rep tells you or do you confirm the information through other sources.  When they say you have the best price, do you trust that it is?

We all are doing more in less time.  We are in a hurry and are looking for ways to shorten efforts, cut corners, and save time.    Trusting the client or the sales person who says, “your product meets all our needs.”  can be very risking.  Imagine the conversation that takes place later, after many thousands of dollars were spent, and months of effort expended - when the product fails to meet one of the requirements.   Trust, especially blind trust is not an suitable replacement for good preparation and study.