4 Big Miscellaneous Tips

by Dan Kennedy | Oct. 16, 2011

If you want to get cooperation from somebody

- especially a busy, successful person, make it easy for them to give you what you want. A few days ago, I was asked to record some fairly lengthy audio clips for somebody's tele-seminar, which I was happy to do - until the "system" kept cutting me off and giving me a 9 choice option menu to deal with. So much for that.

People frequently send me books they'd like favorable comments about, but hardly anybody sends a pre-done FedEx, many hide their fax numbers. (When I sent books out and asked people to do me a favor, I sent them FedEx, with $50 bills attached to the "please" letter.) People send me video to review - on DVD's, which can't be easily stopped and rewound; triples the work time vs. VHS - so I don't do it at all.

If you want to sell to somebody, find out how they want to buy.

Different people want to buy differently at different times. Sometimes I like to take my time shopping and I enjoy being creatively sold - the clothing salesman finding matching shirts, ties for jackets, socks for slacks, endlessly showing me choices until I succumb. But, the other day, I hit a Jos. A Bank store in a hurry and made it clear I wanted to buy "the basic uniform": blue blazer, camel blazer, gray slacks, tan slacks, blue shirts and be gone in 20 minutes. To her credit, an assistant manager "got it" and got a $1,600.00 sale. But more often than not, I'm not asked how I'd like to buy, and I'm not listened to when I tell people how I want to buy. On two occasions, I've had salespeople lose big ticket sales to me because they insisted on telling me a lot of technical information instead of asking whether or not I needed and wanted to hear it.

If you want to make more money, stop yourself and your staff from down-selling.

My travel agent, bless her, is constantly anguished over the money I'm spending and feels compelled to save me, suggesting less expensive hotels, resorts, suites, travel. And she's on commission. Silly?

Well, 90% of everybody selling does this very same thing. Worrying more about price than their customers or prospects. Instantly going to the lowest priced option. At that Jos. A Bank store, she wisely did NOT steer me to the "50% Off" selection of shirts (Carla found it) - because it was clear I didn't care about price; I never asked a price question - so why sell me anything but their best? But most salespeople could be heard immediately telling each customer: '"Look, we have shirts at half off today."

If you want to get more done, kick the asses of people who interfere with you getting more done.

Recently, I coached a Member who has leapt from $300,000.00 to $1-million in yearly income in 1 year. I told him: your hour is now worth 300% more. Waste you might have tolerated last year, you can no longer afford to tolerate. Of course, if you make $300,000.00, a fast path to making $1-million is treating your time's value as if you were already making a million.

Dan S. Kennedy is the provocative, truth-telling author of thirteen business books; a serial, multi-millionaire entrepreneur; trusted marketing advisor, consultant and coach to hundreds of private clients running businesses from $1-million to $1-billion in size; and he influences well over 1-million independent business owners annually through his newsletters, tele-coaching programs, local Chapters and Kennedy Study Groups meeting in over 100 cities.

Glazer-Kennedy Insider's Circle, owned and operated by internationally known marketing personalities Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer, is THE place where truly smart, progressive, aggressive entrepreneurs with a love of marketing, a sincere desire to get rich and richer (with no apologies for doing so), and an optimistic, forward-looking attitude, gather to exchange and share timely information and "what's working today" strategies and examples. Get Bill Glazer's #1 Bestselling Book, "Outrageous Advertising" for FREE. Click here.