Will you only be a distant memory?

Business is a lot like politics; once the people cast their vote you are either in or out. The hardest, gut-wrenching thing about people is that you will never know what they will say until they have said it.

You have done all the research, quantified the data into various colourful charts and graphs, and you are now tempted to predict what people will say.
I hate to tell you this, but if I were you I would rather stick my head in the beehive and see what is going on inside.

Good questions lead to good answers, and by asking the target market good questions you can quickly determine if there is a demand for this fantastic new product or service everybody needs so badly.

The most important discipline and skill you will need for this exercise is to provide as much need-to-know information to the potential clients without giving it all away.
There is no copyright protection for ideas, and if you don’t play smart you will see your great invention published before you even completed your market research.

Although there are few things not yet discovered or invented, you might find yourself “inventing the wheel”. If this happens there will be no concrete information at your disposal to determine if it will sell. How will people know they need something they have never seen before?

The risk (sticking your in the beehive) is part of what defines entrepreneurship. Good entrepreneurs do their homework and sell the product. They worry about the rest later. If you have the information at your disposal, the risk is too high, and it is likely to fail, forget about it. But, if there is no information to make sound decisions you have to take your idea to the market and get someone to pay for it.

What really matters is that you commercialise you IDEAS and get them to the market.
Will someone pay for it? I don’t know, and neither will you until you try and sell it. You might end up being the next Bill Gates.

Secondary tools of selling

In my previous post I covered the primary tools required for selling to, setting up and maintaining your client data base. Although some salespeople have a natural "feel" for it, sales and marketing is not an art. Many "natural" salespeople make the mistake of thinking that it is not important to keep their client databases, stats and information sheets up to date. Following are a few secondary sales tools you can use to keep record of everything that is developing in your pipeline and maintain customer contact frequency:

Get a personal assistant

As your business grows and begins to put a lot of strain on your time I suggest that you get a personal assistant. Although it is not you who will talk to your clients personally, having a personal assistant will help you to keep the relationships together. It is very important that your personal assistant shares your high appreciation of good client service. Sometimes it ha pens that personal assistants disregard the importance of returning a call. It is important to remeber that the personal assistant can not replace you, and should therefore rather be seen as an additional value add to your sales force.

Develop a proper support system

As a salesperson you will know about all the capabilities and value added features your product offers. However, it is a brilliant idea to have an engineer, system developer, or product designer call an important client to answer the more specific technical questions.
I served in the South African Defence Air force many years ago. In the air force you only have pilots. That is the perception of the general public. Many people asked me if I was I pilot, since I worked for the air force. I always told them that I was not a pilot, but if it wasn't for the majority of the air force personnel, that the pilots would not fly.
The moral of the story is this:
Make sure you are backed by people who know about the technical things. There won't be time to suddenly get a support system in place once the aircraft's engine dies while in flight.

Use your fax machine

Just think about it. Your client receives hundreds, if not thousands, of emails per week. There is a very good chance that your email will not be read by the intended recipient. Most directors and CEO's have personal assistants who screen their messages. Your email might not seem to be important enough, and will most probably be deleted. Sending an sms is very unprofessional, and reeks of mass marketing. It will probably be forgotten and lost between the hundreds of sms messages received by your client. A fax message, on the other hand, is more personal. There is a 99% chance that your message will be read by the intended recipient. Most people will respond quicker to a fax message. If you decide to send faxes you should make sure that your fax messages are not hand written and stand out from the rest. It is also important to confirm receipt of the fax. Sometimes people take faxes out of the fax machine and file them or throw them away. Sometimes I send a fax into space because I got the number wrong.

Some other tools you can use:

If you use these tools smartly and sincerely you can also expect a higher return on investment for your time:

• Personal thank you's.


• Company awards.


• Let them know you read their article in the newspaper.


• Someone got promoted.


• Company won an award.


• Greeting cards.


• Post cards.


• Newsletters and invitations.


• Endorsement letters.


• How to's and helpful hints.


• Industry announcements.


• Specific offers and information matching your client's needs.