How Not to Make a Sale

I have decided that the time has come to accept the fact that the world of business has changed forever. As a result of this acceptance, I believe that business owners can no longer simply hope to “hold on” until things return to normal, but instead must push forward using all the resources of our current and future technology and innovations to continue to sell and promote our products and services. In this time of change, there are definitely some old business practices that need to fall by the wayside as we move forward into this new and exciting world of changing business opportunities.

• Overconfidence is out - While it is important to express confidence in your abilities and your business, arrogant, over-confidence – which used to inspire confidence in a lot of buyers – now turns them off. This is largely because of the public failure and humiliation of large, confident fixtures in our business world like banks and insurance companies. Being “too big to fail” is no longer a good thing, because companies that fit that description are failing right and left. Be confident, but back up every word of your pitch with a solid fact that can reassure a troubled or cautious buyer.

• Do not apologize for other people’s failures - In an attempt to seem humble and aware of the possibility that a business might fail, many business owners are overcompensating for potential problems by apologizing for them in advance. If someone offered to sell you a car, then made you a list of the things that could go wrong with it, you would probably not ultimately make the purchase. In the same way, pointing out potential problems is not the way to win over potential clients. Instead, point out how those problems are not really problems for you because your business model is designed to deal with them before they escalate out of control.

• Don’t overdo it – be conservative. - This is not a political statement, but rather a statement on waste. More than ever, people want to see businesses using money wisely rather than spending extravagantly. Advertise effectively, but do not go overboard and send your potential customers large volumes of material that they probably will not read anyway. Instead, multi-task by sending them something that they can use that has your logo and contact information on it. This type of marketing tool is called promotional merchandise, and in a time when proving your intent to provide great value means everything, a good piece of promotional merchandise will outsell a twenty-page sales letter any day.

And remember, market creatively, carefully and often!