But in pictures …
Back in November, Marguerite Zimmerman, owner of e=mz2, changed the way I look at sales forever. While I’ve got a fair bit of sales experience, what I learned at the workshop gave me insight that I never would have learned otherwise. Being in business for myself, sales is an area of business development that neither I can’t afford to ignore. And neither can you. Read on to learn to learn the basics from this workshop and how it can improve your business sales.
I’ve been in sales off and on for years but it’s always been for someone else. Kids clothing, jewellery, food, programs, women’s clothing – I’ve done a lot of selling. But the end game was to make the company richer and meet my quota. I never had to sell myself or the services I’m providing. I’ve never had to worry about making up the story because I just had to follow the company line. Now? Well now I’m not only the one making up the company line, I’m also the one delivering the line and helping people swallow the line. It’s a completely different story when it call comes down to you.
How do I gauge the success of a workshop? Meaning did I actually learn something that I can apply to my business? I use how many pages I wrote during the workshop. For Marguerite I wrote 4 1/2. And during the writing of the pages, I had so many a-ha moments that I had a hard time paying attention while trying to write everything down.
Marguerite covered the power behind building the relationship with the customer that helps you to overcome the objections in the decision making process and get to the yes. The science behind it is fascinating and gaining any understanding only serves to help you fine tune your sales pitch.
Speaking of sales pitch – she covers that too. It’s fascinating to discover that the WORST thing you can do with your sales pitch is to tell the customer what they need. What you want to do is ask questions that get your customer thinking about why they NEED your services. When you just launch in to your pitch, you are missing the opportunity to engage the potential client in the process and begin to tailor your services to their needs right away. Authentic and personal connections to people are the key to overcoming objections to the service or product you are offering.
The basis for overcoming these objections is the science of persuasion and involving potential clients in the conversation that convinces them to jump over certain levels of the decision making process and straight to yes. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never given much thought to the science behind decision making. Now that I know? I can completely understand why my sales skills need work. Since now I’m selling for my own businesses it’s even more vital that I have every advantage when I have the chance to sit down with a potential client.
Marguerite wrapped up the hour long session reviewing influence tactics and inviting participants to start thinking about their current sales story and what they could change. After learning from her for the past hour, it was easy for me to analyze recent conversations with potential clients and to see how I could improve the outcomes by listening more, having a clear view of my unique business proposition and personalizing my responses.
Why am I sharing all these great tips, tricks and notes? Because one of the main reasons I started At My Office Canada was to give business owners every opportunity possible to meet and benefit from the talented people in my network. I’m fortunate to know amazing people like Marguerite who are not only skilled in what they do but also fantastic at providing workshops where you will walk out with actions items to fix problems with your business.
But just like you, I can be skeptical about spending time and / or money on a workshop where I don’t know the person or what value they provide. I hope that by sharing these notes and findings, you’ll see the value in coming out to workshops and the benefit they can give your business. To learn more about Marguerite Zimmerman and her sales company e=mz2, click on the link to visit her website. And keep an eye out for upcoming opportunities to learn from this talented sales pro. How? Well she’s agreed to run the workshop again! Got your notebook ready?