Posts Tagged ‘consult’

you don’t deserve to be treated …

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

… rudely. E V E R.

I’m flying in an airplane right now, coming back from speaking at WedSmith a fabulous wedding conference in Utah. I’ll be highlighting that conference as well as, A Wedding Preview Event that I attended in August. I’m behind. I know.

Back to the subject …

Yesterday, while speaking I had asked the audience a question and someone had mentioned that while she was at a sales consult, her prospective client told her that her portfolio was ugly. Of course, I had an instant cheeky come-back which I gladly shared with everyone.

However this morning I could not get this scenario out of my mind. The sheer audacity of some people.

Always remember: No one has the right to speak to you rudely or suggest you feel inferior about your work, especially when it is subjective.

I don’t care if it is a prospective client, your spouse, your boss, a friend, someone you bumped into on the street or sitting next to on a plane.

As Simon T. Bailey said yesterday, “What other people think of you is not your problem”. That includes prospective clients.

Next time, if someone ever treats you like that… close your portfolio book, look them right in the eye, and say, “If you feel this way then there is no need to continue this meeting. It’s a waste of my valuable time”.

Stand up to leave and on your way out the door, be sure to cuff him really hard in the back of the head. He deserves it. You are nobody’s wedding bitch.

ps Ever had something happen like this to you? If so, please share…

Happy Selling!

 

 

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a sales lesson in the dressing room…

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

I visited one of my favorite stores, Marshall’s the other day. I was in need of a few things and of course, ended up in the dressing room with SEVEN items to try on. I’m a girl. What do you expect?

Our local store has been in renovation for the past few months. With everything re-done, the store looks wonderful. Especially the dressing rooms! New stalls with fancy doors and the lighting is superb. What caught my eye though, made me stop and say “hmmmmm”.

Women know that when we start trying on a lot of clothes we start to divide them into groups in the dressing area. What we are going to buy, what we may be on the fence about and what we are not going to purchase.

Marshall’s in their infinite-always-selling-strategy, installed these cute little signs in various places inside the dressing room stall, to help you organize your clothes.

marshalls a sales lesson in the dressing room...

The first sign, “definitely” is what I noticed initially. I thought to myself, “How handy of them to think of this…” and placed my soon-to-be-purchased-new Levi’s on that hook. That’s when I started doing some investigation around the dressing room.

The second sign, “possibly” was another great idea. Makes sense, right? Because sometimes you aren’t sure about your purchase. It’s not a yes, nor is it a no. You might have to try it on again. Which is exactly what I did with a pair of Express pants.

The last sign is what stopped me in my tracks. “tomorrow”. I didn’t see a sign that said, “No.” or “Not Buying”. I saw something that gave me a little hope, that I may go home, kick myself for not buying that new shirt and come back tomorrow for the purchase.

See how subliminal the selling message is? If I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a 100x. Selling is a mind thing. Creating desire and filling the need.

Do you view your potential clients like that? Or do you get down and let the negative, creepy thoughts that multiply quickly into your brain when you haven’t closed the sale immediately?

Always have a little hope. Sometimes the “no” sale might be made today, but “tomorrow” it might be turned into a “yes”.

ps I loved the fact they used all lower case on the signs. That means nothing to you, except it made me happy.

pss I did not purchase the Express pants.

happy selling!

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no. the customer is NOT always right.

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

jellyfish no. the customer is NOT always right.

I’ve been mulling over this post in my head for months now, finally getting it typed out. Just when I was about to hit post I came across this fabulous post by Lara McCulloch-Carter (aka @ready2spark) regarding the similar topic. I’ve followed Lara for YEARS and she is brilliant. And in her particular post there is an awesome, must-see video.

You’ve heard the cliche, “the customer is always right”. I’ve never really liked that saying. Of course, customer service is critical to any business and going above and beyond solidifies yourself among your competitors.

However, having a spine like a jelly fish (do they have spines?), will not help you or your client.

This is why.

Clients make demands or requests based on their needs or wants. It is our responsibility to educate our clients as to why their need or want is not feasible based on our experience. You will do yourself no favors by making promises or agreeing to ideas that you cannot deliver.

Example: You’re a photographer that is a “fast shooter”. At the client consult they are running down their rough timeline and they are literally giving you 45 minutes to shoot: the whole family (both sides), entire wedding party (all 16 of them) and then bride and groom photos.

I don’t care how experienced you are, you know that you need more time. You can’t make more minutes in an hour, nor can you expect 30 people to respond quickly like robots at a wedding to be able to get the 100 portrait requests.

Do yourself a favor and let them know this information up front. Their expectations will not be met by you, nor any other photographer. Something will give and it will probably be less photos shot. Which they won’t know until after the wedding. And they will not be happy.

Remember though, don’t come from a place of “no”. Instead offer up some suggestions and alternatives for them to consider. You’ll appear firm, knowledgable and have the ability to generate new ideas.

ps I had to google if jelly fish do actually have a spine. Alas, they do not, says cha cha. But you get the point.

happy selling!

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10 things that your potential clients won’t tell you…

Monday, February 14th, 2011

confessions 10 things that your potential clients wont tell you...

You’ve spent a lot of time and energy honing your consultation presentation. You’ve read the sales books, received feedback, read this sales blog and many others.

But have you ever wanted to know what the bride and groom REALLY think after your consult? I know, because I’ve asked!!!

Here are some REAL ISSUES that bother your potential clients, but they don’t have the guts to tell you. This is from their perspective:

  1. You talked TOO MUCH. You talked about every bride and groom you’ve ever worked with before us. That’s all fine and dandy but we want to talk about OUR wedding.
  2. You didn’t LISTEN. We have very unique ideas about how we want our wedding to unfold, but you kept talking about how you “usually” run the wedding reception. We want it different and you didn’t even listen or give suggestions.
  3. You BUGGED the hell out of us. We don’t need an email, phone call or text every single day after we meet. It’s annoying. We know you are busy, BUT SO ARE WE. Are you that desperate for business? Cause that is what it feels like.
  4. You were UNORGANIZED. Sorry but the papers everywhere and scattered notes during our consult looked weird. Even though we talked about our wedding on the phone for 45 minutes, you acted as though we had never spoke. Were you not paying attention the first time?
  5. It was all about YOU. You named dropped like 15 times during the consult. We don’t care that you did the mayor’s daughter’s wedding 5 years ago. You talked about who knows YOU, and how YOU did this or wrote this article. We just want a spectacular wedding and we already prequalified you by looking at your website. Let’s talk more about US.
  6. You IGNORED one of us. Listen, this is OUR day…that’s why we came to the consult together. Don’t just stare at my bride and ignore me like I’m not in the room. I know, as a guy, I don’t know much about flowers, but I don’t want to feel invisible.
  7. You BAD MOUTHED other vendors. I bet you didn’t know that the caterer you just bad mouthed is my Maid of Honor’s cousin. If you think putting others down elevates yourself, you are so wrong. You just looked petty and small.
  8. You were too PUSHY. We have just started the process of planning our wedding and we feel it is important to meet with more than one vendor in each category. Any vendors that are prodding us to sign immediately will get put on the back burner. Because if we wanted to sign, we would of told you.
  9. Your proposal was NOT PROFESSIONAL. You were really nice and appeared to be have everything together, but the quote you gave us was so unprofessional. Your services will be the largest investment of our wedding and receiving an estimate of costs in a paragraph form through email is not helpful to us.
  10. You seemed DISINTERESTED. I’m sure that we are like your 5,000th potential client meeting. But this is a day that is really important to us for both emotional and financial reasons. You seemed like you were just going through the motions of the consult and honestly, came across a little burnt out. We’ve decided to go with the less experienced vendor, because at least she was really enthusiastic about our wedding.

I hope this helps you to think about what you are projecting at your consults. What are your thoughts?

happy selling!

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On the Ninth Day of Selling…

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

On the Ninth Day of Selling my sales coach gave to me….

REVIEW OF YOUR CONSULT METHOD

sales methods On the Ninth Day of Selling...

Ah, “the consult”. That’s where the magic happens. So let’s be sure all your “tools” that you use is up-to-date. Here are some examples:

  1. Photogs do you have your latest and greatest photo album done to show off? The one that you have been wanting to get completed since June?
  2. Planners are your examples of timelines, layouts, design and decor photos up to date? Do you have other things to add?
  3. What do you use at your consults to show your “works”? Laptop? iPad? Update all your images and processes….. let’s reflect your best work. (Nothing says lame when you are showing off your stuff from 2008).
  4. Do you have latest testimonials to show from clients?

Whatever your process is, review, update and get ready!

Happy Selling!

photo: my eoffice

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