If your sales aren’t as strong as you’d like them to be, there’s a good chance your belief system is a big part of the problem. Specifically, there are four beliefs that are pounded into us—by well-meaning but misguided people—which hamstring our ability to sell effectively.

Listen to my appearance on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio with Michele Price. In this twelve-minute segment, I reveal what these beliefs are, where they come from, and how you can rid yourself of their negative influence so you can dramatically boost your sales!

To listen, just click on the link below. Or to download the segment to listen later, right-click the link and select “Save Target As…”

Four Beliefs That Are Crippling Your Sales: Don Cooper on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio (mp3)

To learn more about Michele Price and listen to her interview other business experts on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio (which I highly recommend), check out WhoIsMichelePrice.com.

Great quotations can enlighten, educate, entertain, even embolden. Here’s another round of my favorites.

“Selling is our No. 1 job. Never get away from selling a lot of merchandise personally. The more you sell the more you learn.” —James Cash Penney

“Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.”    —Richard Branson

“The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you’re playing by somebody else’s rules, while quietly playing by your own.” —Michael Korda

“Powerful people respond to other powerful people. Recognize and use your personal power.” —Deborah Torchia

“If in the last few years you haven’t discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead.” —Gelett Burgess

“Treat every customer as if they sign your paycheck…because they do.”        —Lana Calloway

“The bitterness of poor workmanship remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.” —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.” —Howard Aiken

“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.” —Malcolm Gladwell

“Once you discover who you really are, you are no longer willing to be who you are not.” —Bridget Haymond

“The essential element of successful strategy is that it derives its success from the differences between competitors with a consequent difference in their behavior. Ordinarily, this means that any corporate policy and plan which is typical of the industry is doomed to mediocrity.” —Bruce Henderson

“They can conquer who believe they can.” —Virgil

“Never limit yourself because of others’ limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination.” —Mae Jemison

“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” —Joseph Chilton Pearce

“If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” —Albert Einstein

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”               —Andrew Carnegie

“Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it with use.” —Ruth Gordon

“Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.” —Tom Peters

“There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out.”               —Russian Proverb

“For every sale you miss because you’re too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you’re not enthusiastic enough.” —Zig Ziglar

“If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong.” —Charles Kettering

“Not failure, but low aim, is crime.” —James Russell Lowell

“I would rather stay positive and get 50 percent good results, than stay negative and get 100 percent bad results!” —Joyce Meyer

“There can be more than one right answer.” —Dewitt Jones

“A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in on the experience.” —Elbert Hubbard

“Action is the foundation key to all success.” —Pablo Picasso

“It’s never too late, in fiction or in life, to revise.” —Nancy Thayer

“You’ll never make it great at anything by playing it safe.” —Fats Brown (Jonathan Winters), The Twilight Zone—“A Game of Pool”

“Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.” —Willis Whitney

“If you can’t sell what you do, you can’t do what you sell.” —Don Cooper

For more of my favorite quotations, check out Great Thoughts on Sales, Business and Success Volume I, Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV, Volume V and Volume VI.

What are some of your favorite quotations? Leave them in the comments section below!

How would you like two hours of free consulting with six of the smartest strategists in business? Do you think that would help you boost your sales?

That’s what Michele Price was thinking when she brought together six of us for an episode of Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio so powerful, it was deemed a “Staff Pick” by the staff of BlogTalk Radio.

In addition to my thoughts, you’ll hear brilliant sales insights and tactics from:

• Stephanie Calahan, The Business Optimizer
• Daniel Cohen, Owner and Lead Writer at RedShift Writers
• Dino Dogan, co-founder of Triberr
• Geoff Livingston, co-author of Marketing in the Round
• Andrea Waltz, co-author of Go For No

The program is two full hours, so I’d recommend downloading it to your favorite device so you can listen to it at your leisure.

Click here for the episode. It will start playing automatically. To download it, right click on the link in the player that says “Download this episode,” and select “Save target as…”

For more insights and ideas from Michele, Stephanie, Daniel, Dino, Geoff and Andrea, click on their names above to follow them on Twitter.

Whether you’re building rapport with a new prospect, negotiating the fine points of a big contract or working to resolve a customer problem, one of the best things you can do with your buyer is to agree with them whenever possible.

Agreeing with customers helps to reassure them that you’re actually on the same side, working toward a mutually beneficial outcome. It also demonstrates respect for their thoughts, feelings, needs and values. Even more importantly, it helps them feel more comfortable because they’re dealing with someone who understands them and can relate to them.

The result is that they lower their defenses and become more agreeable as well.

The challenge is, if you use the same word or phrase over and over, it starts to sound rote and insincere, which can undermine your credibility and cause your buyer to trust you less, leading to more conflict. To avoid this, you need to vary your agreement vocabulary.

In no particular order, here are 23 words and 36 phrases that communicate your acknowledgement, support and empathy:

Words
1. Yes
2. Yeah
3. Yep
4. Okay
5. Uh-huh
6. Right
7. Sure
8. Surely
9. True
10. Truly
11. Absolutely
12. Definitely
13. Certainly
14. Precisely
15. Exactly
16. Naturally
17. Undoubtedly
18. Unquestionably
19. Indubitably
20. Indeed
21. Bingo
22. Amen
23. Hallelujah

Phrases
1. I agree
2. I understand
3. I see
4. You’re right
5. I concur
6. I feel the same way
7. I would feel the same way
8. I don’t blame you
9. Me too
10. Me neither
11. You’re 100% correct
12. That’s true
13. No question
14. No argument
15. Sure thing
16. You got it
17. Right on
18. Too true
19. I’m sure
20. I bet
21. I believe it
22. I don’t doubt it
23. I can see that
24. I hear you
25. You know it
26. You got that right
27. I know what you mean
28. I couldn’t agree more
29. We’re on the same wavelength
30. No doubt
31. Of course
32. By all means
33. I see your point
34. Point taken
35. That makes sense
36. You bet

Which words and phrases are best for you? Depends on what you feel most comfortable with and what will resonate with your customers. (Personally, I don’t think I would ever use the word “indubitably” in a conversation, but if it works for you and your clients, hey, go for it.)

The right word choice also depends on the situation. Each of these words and phrases has its own tone and subtext—even more reason to expand your repertoire.

Make a conscious effort to practice these expressions of agreement, not just in sales and customer service situations, but with everyone you interact with: friends, family, colleagues and others. The more you practice them, the more naturally they’ll come to you, and the more agreeable you’ll find everyone around you to be.

Did I miss any? Do you have a favorite expression of agreement that’s not on this list? If so, leave it in the comments section below!

The term “Relationship Selling” has become a cliché. Sales speakers and trainers throw the term around as if it’s a panacea for poor sales performance.

There’s a problem with the cliché of relationship selling, though—prospects don’t actually want a relationship.

That’s not what they’re there for. A relationship might develop, but that’s not their goal. It’s not even on their radar.

Nobody ever walks into a store thinking, “I hope I find a good relationship in here.” No manager or CEO meets with a salesperson and thinks, “Oh boy! A chance to create a new relationship!”

On the contrary, buyers are looking to buy something. The salesperson is the necessary evil they have to endure to purchase it.

So if you’re trying to get chummy with your prospect and they’re having none of it, that’s the reason why.

Understand that a buyer isn’t going to invest time and effort into forging a relationship with a person they may not encounter more than once.

So instead of trying to force a relationship with a person who isn’t looking for one, be the kind of salesperson your prospect wants to build a relationship with.

Keep in mind that good relationships are built on respect, trust, support and communication (read: listening). And it’s up to you to exhibit those elements first. Your prospect has no reason to respect, trust, support or listen to you until you respect, trust, support and listen to them.

Which means ask good questions and listen to the answers. Respect your prospect’s time, intelligence and values. Think of ways you can support them in their goals. And trust what they say, rather than falling into the trap of believing “buyers are liars.”

A relationship with your customer is a good goal, but it’s not your primary one. Your first and most important goal is to serve your prospect’s immediate needs. Do that well and you create the opportunity for a strong relationship down the road—one that’s mutually rewarding.

Sales isn’t easy. And there’s no magic bullet for success. If you want more sales, you need to make investments in a variety of areas.

Which areas, precisely?

Listen to my appearance on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio with Michele Price. In this eleven-minute segment, I discuss three specific resources you need to invest and six areas to invest them. And if you’re a CEO, business owner or sales manager, there’s a bonus strategy just for you!

To listen, just click on the link below. Or to download the segment to listen later, right-click the link and select “Save Target As…”

Six Things You Need to Invest In to Boost Your Sales: Don Cooper on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio (mp3)

To learn more about Michele Price and listen to her interview other business experts on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio (which I strongly recommend), check out WhoIsMichelePrice.com.

I was meandering through a store recently when I came upon a display for a new electric toothbrush. The biggest, boldest words on the signage and the packaging were “New Quadpacer Mode!”

I thought to myself, “Finally! I’ve been waiting my whole life for someone to make a toothbrush with Quadpacer Mode! I love Quadpacer Mode!” And I bought a dozen of them.

No, that’s not true.

What actually happened was that I shook my head, laughed silently to myself and continued on through the store.

Because I don’t know what Quadpacer Mode is. And more importantly, I don’t care what Quadpacer Mode is.

Clearly the people at the manufacturer care about it. Some engineer thought up the idea and somebody in marketing ran with it.

But while Quadpacer Mode might be the biggest thing to happen to oral hygiene since the Tooth Fairy, its significance is lost on me. Because the message focused on what I don’t care about, rather than what I do care about.

What do I care about?
• Cleaner teeth
• Whiter teeth
• Less time brushing
• Healthier gums
• Fewer cavities
• Painless dental checkups

What do all these things have in common? They’re benefits, not features. Quadpacer Mode is a feature. See the difference?

If the biggest, boldest words were “50% whiter teeth” or “Cut your brushing time in half” I would have read further. Because I’m interested in those things. But “Quadpacer Mode” doesn’t mean anything to me so it doesn’t interest me. And if it doesn’t interest me, I’m not going to waste my time learning more about it.

Companies get all excited about their features. Businesses of all types and sizes fill their brochures, web sites and advertisements with them. But here’s the reality: Nobody cares about your features. People only care about the benefits they’ll receive as a result.

Which means if you’re planning a marketing campaign, creating a sales presentation, designing a product package, writing a headline, revising your web site or engaging in any other effort to sell your product or service, you need to stop focusing on features and instead, focus on benefits.

It’s okay to mention your features, but only in the context of explaining how you’re going to deliver the promised benefits to your customer. If you lead with your features, your audience will tune you out.

When you focus less on what people don’t care about and more on what they do, your sales will increase. And isn’t that what you care about?

You made the sale! Congratulations!

But are you leaving money on the table? Could the order be bigger? Very possibly. Because there are a number of good reasons why your customer should buy more from you than they had originally planned.

Listen to my appearance on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio with Michele Price. In this ten-minute segment, I share seven reasons why it may be in your customer’s best interest to buy more from you.

To listen, just click on the link below. Or to download the segment to listen later, right-click the link and select “Save Target As…”

Seven Reasons People Should Buy More from You: Don Cooper on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio (mp3)

For more business insights and ideas from me and four other business strategists, listen to the entire show. Michele asks me five powerful questions about sales and business—the answers will surprise you. You’ll also hear fascinating thoughts from Stephanie Calahan (award-winning productivity expert), Daniel Cohen (founder of RedShift Writers), Dino Dogan (founder of Triberr) and Andrea Waltz (best-selling author of “Go for No”). To listen to or download the full two-hour show, click here.

Recently, a friend of mine in Colorado posted a complaint on Facebook about a major retailer that was doing an online promotion. The promotion ended at midnight, but when she went to the web site to take advantage of it, shortly after 10 pm Mountain Time, she discovered that the retailer meant midnight Eastern Time.

As a result, she didn’t make the purchase. And I’m sure a lot of other people across the country didn’t as well. How many? Hard to say. Could be hundreds. Could be thousands.

Because odds are, a lot of this company’s potential customers assumed that midnight referred to their local time zone. Of which there are six in the United States.

Which means if you’re doing everything on Eastern Time, you’re losing sales.

We all live in our own world. We think about things as they relate to us. We base our plans and actions on our local environment, not somebody else’s.

So if you want to tap into an opportunity for more sales, think like your customer. Speak their language. Know their hot buttons. Go where they are. Understand how and when they like to buy. Appeal to their wants, needs, fears, hopes, issues and priorities.

And as much as possible, conduct business in their local time zone.

Social media is the most powerful communication tool since the Internet itself. Most companies, though, are barely tapping into its potential.

Want to maximize the power of social media to boost your sales? Here are twelve activities you should be doing regularly.

1. Highlighting promotions
Having a sale? A special offer? An event of any kind? Publicize it on every social media channel. People are paying less and less attention to traditional forms of advertising and more attention to social media. In fact, 29% of people on Twitter follow a brand and 58% of Facebook users have liked a brand.

2. Offering exclusive deals to followers
A simple way to build followers, buzz and sales is to offer promotions exclusively to the people who follow you on various platforms. Exclusive deals give potential customers a strong incentive to “like” and follow you. A Havas Media survey found that 77% of people like getting exclusive offers that they can redeem via Facebook. As a bonus, your fans will also share “their” special deals with their friends and followers.

3. Entertaining people
People don’t consume media to see advertisements. They consume it to be informed and entertained. Especially entertained. Which is why humorous posts, photos and videos get shared so much more than other types of content. If you want potential customers to pay attention to you, entertain them.

4. Educating your buyers
While social media audiences are looking for entertainment, they’re also looking for information. So give it to them. What information do you have that can help your prospects and customers be better buyers? Or better users of your products? Or simply better at something in their lives or jobs? You have enormous amounts of expertise within your company. Share it socially via text, photos and videos.

5. Announcing new products
Announce new products (or services) on social media to build buzz. You can even test market new products by making them available to your followers before anyone else.

6. Monitoring customer experiences
Ever wish you could eavesdrop on your customers to learn what they’re really saying about you? You can! According to recent studies, 39% of people on Twitter have tweeted about a brand and 42% of Facebook users have mentioned a brand in a status update. And that’s not counting all the people who post reviews on sites like Yelp, Citysearch, TripAdvisor and Google Places. What are your customers saying about your company online?

7. Resolving customer problems
Often, when your customers have a problem with your product or service, they won’t bother to tell you. But they will tell hundreds—or even thousands—of people online. This is actually an opportunity for you, because it gives you the chance to resolve your customer’s problem. And because you’re doing it in a public forum, others can see your response, building trust.

8. Encouraging evangelists
Some of your customers are more vocal than others about how much they love your company, product or service. Your online responses to their social activity can either encourage or discourage them. If you ignore them (30% of customer questions & compliments get no reply), they’ll talk about you less. If you publicly thank and praise them, they’ll talk about you even more. To reward and encourage your evangelists further, give them additional discounts, bonuses and upgrades.

9. Researching competitors
Want to know what your competition is doing? Follow their social media pages. Want to know what their customers think of them? Monitor Facebook, Twitter and other platforms for mentions of their names and look them up on review sites for competitive intelligence you can’t get anywhere else.

10. Asking questions
Social media is not just about broadcasting. It’s about dialogue. Asking questions of your customers and prospects causes them to feel more emotionally connected to your company, strengthening brand loyalty. It’s also an efficient and effective way to gain valuable ideas, insights and feedback about your products and services.

11. Listening
Asking questions, of course, does no good if nobody is actually listening to the answers. You need a system in place to not only monitor the online discussions of your industry and brand, but also to record, collate, analyze and use all that raw data. How can you create a process to do that?

12. Experimenting
What works on social media? All kinds of things. What doesn’t work on social media? All kinds of things. Which means, unless you want to continually be a runner-up to your competitors, you need to experiment. Innovate. Try new things. Is there a risk in doing that? Of course. But the risk of not doing it is far greater.

How many of these actions are you engaging in consistently? If you’re like most companies, probably only three or four. Create a plan (and a team) for executing all twelve and you’ll be rewarded with more followers, more loyalty and more sales.

Six seconds may not seem like very much time. Certainly not enough to accomplish anything substantial. And yet it’s plenty of time to make a difference in your sales.

Listen to my appearance on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio with Michele Price. In this seven-and-a-half-minute segment, I discuss how much impact you can make in six seconds. And I share not just one way to boost your sales that quickly—but SIX ways!!

To listen, just click on the link below. Or to download the segment to listen later, right-click the link and select “Save Target As…”

Six Ways to Boost Your Sales in Six Seconds: Don Cooper on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio (mp3)

To learn more about Michele Price and listen to her interview other business experts on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio (which I absolutely recommend), check out WhoIsMichelePrice.com.

Scan this code for a free special report: Ten Ways to Increase Your Sales Right Now!

In a previous post, I discussed 22 Ways to Use QR Codes to Boost Your Sales. The article lists 22 different things you can link a QR (Quick Response) code to, in order to boost your web traffic, engagement and sales.

Since QR codes bridge the gap between the print  and digital worlds, they’re perfect for getting more of your marketing message into the hands of anyone with a smartphone and a (free) code-scanning app. Which means your print marketing has the potential to be mobile marketing as well.

What kinds of print marketing? Conceivably, all of it.

Here are 39 places you can put your code:

1. Business cards
2. Letterhead
3. Envelopes
4. Postcards
5. Mailing/shipping labels
6. Invoices
7. Flyers
8. Posters
9. Brochures
10. Mugs
11. Mouse pads
12. Greeting cards
13. Newsletters
14. Articles
15. In-store signage
16. Vehicle signage
17. Booklets
18. Catalogs
19. Directories
20. Billboards
21. Proposals
22. T-shirts
23. Bookmarks
24. Calendars
25. Pre-paid calling cards
26. Banners
27. Tote bags
28. Press releases
29. Stickers
30. CD or DVD covers
31. Coupons
32. Magnets
33. Product packaging
34. Point-of-Purchase displays
35. Buyer’s guides
36. Newspaper ads
37. Magazine ads
38. Television commercials
39. Advertising specialties/promotional products

The more places you put your QR codes, the more they’ll get scanned. So use your codes in as many of your marketing efforts as possible.

Where else have you used a QR code? Where else have you seen one used? Share your answer in the comments section below!

Whether you’re brand new to sales or you’re a seasoned sales veteran, the bad news is, you have shortcomings. The good news is, that’s okay, it’s perfectly normal. The better news is, those weaknesses represent opportunities for you!

Listen to my appearance on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio with Michele Price. In this twelve-minute segment, I discuss how to identify and overcome your shortcomings so your sales soar!

To listen, just click on the link below. Or to download the segment to listen later, right-click the link and select “Save Target As…”

How to Solve Your Sales Shortcomings: Don Cooper on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio (mp3)

To learn more about Michele Price and listen to her interview other business experts on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio (which I highly recommend), check out WhoIsMichelePrice.com.

What are the best failures to learn from? Somebody else’s! And here’s a unique opportunity to learn from the mistakes of six different business experts.

Join me, Michele Price, Dino Dogan, Andrea Waltz, Ian Cleary and Stephanie Calahan for a special episode of Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio. In this hour-long program, we share our biggest failures of 2012, as well as our biggest successes and what we’re planning to do differently in 2013.

To listen, just click on the link below. Or to download the segment to listen later, right-click the link and select “Save Target As…”

Lessons from 2012’s Successes and Failures: Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio (mp3)

To learn more about my fellow business and social media experts featured in this program, click their names below to follow them on Twitter or check out their web sites:

Michele Price   WhoIsMichelePrice.com
Stephanie Calahan   ProductiveAndOrganized.net
Ian Cleary   RazorSocial.com
Dino Dogan   diyblogger.net
Andrea Waltz   GoForNo.com

What was your biggest failure in 2012? What was your biggest success? And what are you planning to do differently this year? Share any or all in the comments section below!

Who did a great job of using social media to generate sales this past year? And what can you learn from them?

Join me, Michele Price, Stephanie Calahan, Ian Cleary, Dino Dogan and Andrea Waltz for a special episode of Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio. In this hour-long program, we share our thoughts on the brands, companies and even individuals who effectively capitalized on the power of social media to boost their sales.

To listen, just click on the link below. Or to download the segment to listen later, right-click the link and select “Save Target As…”

2012’s Top Social Media Successes: Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio (mp3)

To learn more about my fellow business and social media experts featured in this program, click their names below to follow them on Twitter or check out their web sites:

Michele Price   WhoIsMichelePrice.com
Stephanie Calahan   ProductiveAndOrganized.net
Ian Cleary   RazorSocial.com
Dino Dogan   diyblogger.net
Andrea Waltz   GoForNo.com

Who do you think did a great job with social media in 2012? Share your picks—and the reasons why—in the comments section below!

photo credit: Rosaura Ochoa via photopin cc

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my Facebook “friends” gave to me……

Twelve bloggers ranting

Eleven Pinterest repins

Ten #FollowFridays

Nine Instagram pics

Eight Foursquare check-ins

Seven viral hoaxes

Six LinkedIn invites

Five…YouTube…streams…

Four Yelp reviews

Three +1’s

Two Facebook likes

And a Klout score of 63.

You only have a few weeks left to reach (or exceed!) your sales goals for the year. How can you make the most of them?

Listen to my appearance on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio with Michele Price. In this eight-minute segment, I share six specific strategies you can use NOW to boost your December sales and finish the year strong!

To listen, just click on the link below. Or to download the segment to listen later, right-click the link and select “Save Target As…”

How to End Your Year On a High Note: Don Cooper on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio (mp3)

To learn more about Michele Price and listen to her interview other business experts on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio (which I strongly recommend), check out WhoIsMichelePrice.com.

“When I attend a trade show, I only stop at booths that have candy dishes. Because, if you have candy, you must be a terrific company. And the greater the variety of candy you have, the more likely I am to buy your product or service.”

This sentiment has never been expressed by anyone, ever. But you’d think it was the proven mindset of every prospect out there, based on the prevalence of candy dishes at trade shows.

What else could account for the ubiquity of sugary treats at shows large and small? Is there a clause in every trade show contract that mandates every exhibitor provide sweets? Did some company put out a candy dish at the very first trade show thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia and everyone has blindly copied the practice ever since?

Whatever the reason—Cut it out!!

Unless you actually sell candy, having a candy dish at your booth is pointless. In fact, it’s worse than pointless—it’s detrimental.

Here are five reasons why candy dishes are bad for your trade show sales:

1. They cause non-prospects to approach your exhibit, taking your attention away from real prospects.
Every person who approaches your booth commands your attention, even if only momentarily. The more people there are jockeying for your attention, the harder it is to focus and be effective. Worse, many attendees feel slightly guilty helping themselves to candy, so they alleviate that guilt by feigning interest in your company. That occupies even more of your time, leaving less for actual prospects.

2. They cause you to be lazy in your planning.
An effective trade show effort requires a lot of planning: pre-show promotion, staffing, signage, show message, giveaways, post-show follow-up and more. But a candy dish can lull you into the mistaken belief that you don’t need to do all of that: “We’ll put out a candy dish and people will stop and talk with us and we can make our pitch and that’ll work.”

3. They take up valuable real estate in your exhibit.
Space is at a premium at a trade show. You’re paying a lot of money for every square foot. Why waste some of it on something that has nothing to do with your company?

4. You have to take time to refill the stupid dish.
The other element at a premium during a show is your time. Do you really want to spend it refilling a candy dish every 20 minutes? And heaven forbid you run out—now it looks like your company isn’t even competent enough to keep a candy dish filled!

5. They make you look like everyone else.
One of the biggest challenges at trade shows is differentiating your company from all the other exhibitors. In order for you to stand out, you need to be as different as possible. A candy dish does just the opposite, making you more forgettable.

Here’s a heretical idea: Rather than giving away candy, how about giving away something that actually relates to your product or service? Something your prospects can use? (And people who aren’t your prospects wouldn’t bother with?) Something exceptionally cool or fun that will cause people to talk, tweet and post about you? Something unique that positions your company as innovative and exceptional?

Give the issue some thought. Sure, a candy dish is the easy way out, which is why it’s used by so many of your competitors. But if you come up with a better tactic, you’ll outsell them all show long.

By guest blogger Marilyn Suttle

There are many reasons why your business might not be doing as well as you’d like. Don’t bother blaming outside factors like the economy. And don’t waste your time shaming yourself for not having a crystal ball about past decisions. Start attracting quality customers now, by dropping your defenses while you read and respond to the following questions. Your honest answers could provide valuable insight.

Who’s your ideal customer?
Can you easily define who you are here to serve? Don’t fool yourself into believing it’s, “Anyone with a pulse.” The clearer you are about who your company is designed to help, the easier it will be for those customers to get that “I belong here” feeling that will attract them to your company.

Is your message boring your customers to death?
Are your online-presence, your marketing material and your sales staff focusing on the customer experience? Or are you showing off by droning on and on about your boring “features.” I’ve been guilty of this myself. When my book, “Who’s Your Gladys?” came out, I wanted to tell people all about the features of the book – as if they cared! I shared that each chapter has real-life stories – boring! I shared how at the end of each chapter you find a check list of practical points – boring! I shared that there’s Q & A and fill-in-the-blank tests – boring! What our readers want to know is: How will reading this book improve my business? How will it bring me more customers? How will it solve my problems? Focusing on the features is like giving them details about the bus that’s driving them to Disneyland. Nobody wants to hear about the vehicle. They want to hear about the destination! Tell them about the Disneyland experience that your business offers. Unless you can send a clear message of the results of doing business with you, your message is lost.

Do you focus too much on your customers’ needs?
Back in 2000, I attended a conference with a fellow trainer who told me I needed to start, “Wrapping up what your customers need with what they want.” They may need better parenting skills. What they want is a happier family. What’s going to excite them more – talk of the parenting class or talk of experiencing happier, more connected family relationships? You got it – the want always beats the need. You won’t be able to give customers what they need unless you first get in touch with what they want, and how your business satisfies that want. (Did you notice that this point is similar to the point above? Sometimes it helps to ask the same question in a different way.)

Are you at cross purposes?
You may be crystal clear about who your ideal clients are and equally clear about what you’re offering. You may have crafted a compelling message. None of that will matter if you’re at cross purposes. Are you? If your ideal customers are senior citizens, and the primary way to order your product is through a smart-phone app, you’re probably not accessible to your target market. If you love working with social workers and teachers, but you have Lamborghini prices, you may be stressing out and pushing away the people with whom you want to do business. Consider if what you’re offering makes sense to the market you’re going after. Create alignment and you’ll soar.

Do you practice positive thinking without positive action?
It’s easy to get caught up in the belief that if you think positively, business will come. The truth is, business will come if you think positively AND act positively. It takes both. Imagine a young boy with a hairbrush in his hand, singing rock and roll songs in front of his bathroom mirror. He thinks positively of winning a spot on American Idol. He might be the best singer in the world, though unless he auditions, he doesn’t have a shot. The courage to take inspired action is required.

There are so many more questions I’d like to add, though your answers to this list may be enough to help you catapult into the client-attraction zone. How will you turn these questions into actions in your business?

Marilyn Suttle is the bestselling author of Who’s Your Gladys? How to Turn Even the Most Difficult Customer into Your Biggest Fan. Marilyn travels internationally to deliver service excellence keynotes and workshops. She inspires her clients to excel by creating strong, productive relationships in every area of life. Marilyn specializes in creating “Suttle Shifts” in the way people think and act to produce massive results. When you need a keynote speaker or success coach, Marilyn can be reached at (248) 348-1023, marilyn@marilynsuttle.com or visit www.whosyourgladys.com.

© Lisafx | www.stockfreeimages.com

They SEEMED interested. And they have the money. But they’re not buying! What’s going on? And what can you do about it?

Listen to my appearance on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio with Michele Price. In this twelve-minute segment, I share four reasons stalls happen and six ways you can overcome them.

To listen, just click on the link below. Or to download the segment to listen later, right-click the link and select “Save Target As…”

What to Do When the Sale Is Stalled: Don Cooper on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio (mp3)

To learn more about Michele Price and listen to her interview other business experts on Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio (which I highly recommend), check out WhoIsMichelePrice.com.