6 Tips - Sell Anybody Anything!

“[Stories] are very engaging… people go into… story mode, we get out of judgment.”

                                                                                                                                -Eben Pagan

How to Sell Anybody Anything

So there was this little girl who was born with a very unusual condition.  She was a type of albino that was practically allergic to the sun. This was a horrible condition for her, because she could never see the light of day, watch a sunset, or leave the house because it was a risk to her very existence. Can you imagine? Being locked up in a room all day, every day, without even being able to look outside your window. 

The curious thing about this particular condition, though, is that the poor girl didn’t just have a danger of meeting her demise if she stepped out into the sun; there were concerns about her going through puberty, because the female body requires so many nutrients, especially calcium, to properly develop. The problem with calcium, is that it needs vitamin D so that the body can absorb it. For most people, the body synthesizes vitamin D naturally with regular exposure to the sun, so most people don’t need additional supplementation. This girl, however, did.

But, there was another problem. Vitamin D is fat soluble. This meant that this little girl had to consume very fattening foods just to be able to get the vitamin D and, eventually, the calcium her body needed. She was at an age where, even if you’re not able to leave the house, body image is everything. And, being stuck in the house meant she watched a lot of TV and had very few human interactions, so her idea of what her body should look like was completely fabricated by mass media marketing. She did not want to get fat, and she couldn’t really exercise properly to burn off all the fat she needed to consume.

What a conundrum!

Luckily, most of us don’t have this issue. Scientists say that it’s worse for a person to never get any sun at all than to get too much sun. Of course, you don’t want to get too much because of the increased chances of skin cancer if you burn.  So the trick is to build and maintain a decent tan, just like you would maintain a proper weight by exercising regularly and eating right without overdoing it. The fact is, you can’t build a tan in one day (unless you spray tan), just like you can’t get in shape by going to the gym once.

This story is the secret to how I sold indoor tanning in the Sunshine State – and I never lied to anybody. I was also a responsible tanning salon owner in that I never allowed anyone to over-tan. I researched skin types and what proper exposure times would be. Sometimes that meant the person could only tan for 1-2 minutes, which is not what people are used to, but it really helped build credibility and trust with clients. I even had celebrities tan at my place.

So how can you sell bags of sand at a beach? Here are the top 6 things to ALWAYS keep in mind when trying to sell:

11.      Don’t ever try to sell anything. The Japanese have a thing called uwe, which means “trying not to try”. The single-worst thing you can try to do when trying to sell something, is to try and sell it to the person. Think of when you enter a department store and the sales associate approaches you. Most people’s reflex response is, “I’m just browsing.”

22.       Tell it as a story. The quote from Eben Pagan at the top of this post says it exactly like it is; if you start with a story, it’s easy to move in for the kill. Like my story of the little girl with the extreme form of photosensitivity, stories help people get their guard down so you can insert your pitch without the buyer ever noticing. Did you spot it in my story above?

There was a lady at a department store one time who overheard my conversation with my brother as we tried to decide whether to buy an LCD or LED TV. Although she but into our conversation, we didn’t mind it because she opened with this: “Oh, my God. My husband had friends over for the Big Game last year and they were having the usual: chips, pizza, beer. One of his friends jumped up to do a dance when the other team scored, and tripped, knocking our LCD TV off the wall. The screen looked like there’d been an oil spill inside half of it, and it couldn’t be fixed. Definitely get LED.”

Turns out this lady was the sales rep at the store. We had no idea until we thanked her for the vital info and she introduced herself. Had she walked up and asked if we needed help, we probably would have told her we were just browsing. Instead, she got two very grateful, loyal customers who returned a month later to buy a laptop from her.

33.      Simplicity is your friend. Don’t overwhelm your client with too much unnecessary information. In the tanning story above, I gave plenty of scientific fact without overwhelming the person. Notice that I didn’t describe the different machines and which was better than the other, etc. That information can be given if the customer asks, but you would be the expert based on your conversation and assessment of the client’s wants and needs.

44.     Don’t give the customer too many options.  Have a conversation. Ask about the kids. Ask about their likes and dislikes. Then ask what their goals are for that bachelorette party. You can decide which two or three options you’ll give the client and say something like, “Based on what you’ve told me, I would recommend either the life-size Spider Man statue or the Batman costume.”

55.     Know thy audience. Although you may be an expert botanist, if an old man walks into your flower shop looking for a beautiful bouquet for his wife on their 60^th anniversary, find the two options and explain why you presented them. This bouquet is nice and bright, to celebrate such a joyous occasion; this bouquet has five shades of blue because you said that’s Ethel’s favorite color (you said even her hair is blue!). Do not tell this guy the names of all the flowers in bouquet and the difference between a Sunflower and a Black-eyed Susan.

Now, if the guy says he worked on gardens all his life, or has a green thumb, maybe mentioning these details would help build rapport with him. You may even be able to tell him about your “flower of the month” club, and get an upsell in this way. But remember people are all different, so because it interests you, it may not necessarily interest them.

66.     Assume the sale. There’s  a comedy prank show where one of the hosts was challenged to rub sun block on an unsuspecting beach-goer. The host simply went in behind the man and his first words were, “you know, they say the moon landing was fake,” and he was able to rub sunblock on the guy’s forehead, and even order daiquiris.  Hilarity aside, the confidence of the approach made the whole thing possible.

Remember, though, assuming the sale (and the old “ABC – Always Be Closing”) doesn’t contradict point #1 above. What it means is that you would’ve built such good rapport during your interaction and through you Shakespearean-style storytelling that it wouldn’t be a question whether the bachelorettes are going to buy something at your novelty store or not – it’s a question of Batman versus Spider Man, or maybe you’ve told them the story so well that it’s without question going to be a team-up!

If you have any comments, questions, or would like me to send you a list of resources that can help you sell a dog to the cat lady across the street, please leave a comment or email me at HeadlessHammerhead@gmail.com.

Put Your Hands on my Baby!

“You don’t have success unless you take someone with you.”

-Napoleon Hill                          

Learn to Trust the Experts

Although the quote above may have you think this post will contradict my previous post, it really won’t. I’ll start as usual: with a story. 

Many years ago, I had a friend who opened a women’s gym in a relatively small town. He had moderate success, even though he would never become wealthy running just one gym. He later admitted that he’d opened the gym to try and meet beautiful women (which is just as stupid a reason as you can imagine for going into business). Anyway, he wanted to cut costs as much as possible, and taught all the classes, and he handled all of the departments in the gym, like Accounting, Inventory, Legal, etc.

I’m sure you probably already know where I’m going with this, and you may think that you would not commit these mistakes yourself, but sometimes the reality of running a small business is that you have to wear all the hats if you can’t afford to have someone else wear them.  In a bout of desperation, you may choose to go the cheap way and do everything yourself. Avoid the temptation!

The first thing to ask yourself if faced with this issue of having to do everything yourself is, did I plan for this in my business plan? If your answer is no, then you need to go back and spend several hours or days researching and planning for this event. This is not easy, as your mind and ego (we all have them!) will try and convince you that you can do it, no sweat. Take the time to research the position you’re planning to take on – what responsibilities and skills will be needed.

A good method of getting quick answers for this is to look on job boards. So, for example, if you’re planning on handling your own accounting, look on accounting job boards and find out what you need to know for the position. Learn about SAP, AP, AR, Payroll, Taxes, etc. After you’ve researched these things, honestly ask yourself if you’d feel comfortable going on an interview for one of those positions you saw online. If your answer is no, or you have a doubt as to whether you could answer any questions the employer would ask you, then you’re not ready to handle that skill.

The second thing you’ll need to do is ask yourself if you have enough time to handle all the tasks. My women’s gym friend was teaching aerobics, cardio kickboxing, basic yoga, and doing personal training, and he also had to handle inventory, accounting, cleaning, legal, marketing, management, reports and general clerical (contracts!), as well as IT and maintenance for the equipment. 

Realistically, he couldn’t handle all of that by himself in a 24-hour day without doing a crappy job.

Finally, you need accept the reality of your situation and suck it up. Some of the skilled jobs need to be handled by someone else. The easy stuff, like cleaning, you’ll need to do yourself. That’s easy. But if you’re not a natural manager, or an accountant, or you don’t know all the laws in your municipality (city, county, state, etc.), hire someone to do it. And it’s extremely important to remember to let go and trust your people, always. Don’t hire someone if you’re going to micromanage them, because that would completely defeat the purpose, and it will take up more of your time than if you had done the work yourself.

If you have any comments, questions, or would like me to send you a list of resources that can help you decide on who and how to hire someone to perform a specific function of your business, please leave a comment or email me at HeadlessHammerhead@gmail.com.

The "Devil You Know" Principle

“Family love is messy, clinging, and of an annoying and repetitive pattern, like bad wallpaper.”

-PJ O’Rourke

In the last episode, I explained the importance of allowing your baby to leave the nest. This is an important thing to always keep in mind, because many entrepreneurs have a hard time “letting go”. There are many of us who don’t have this problem, but who also have a hard time “letting go” in a different way. I’m talking about you, as the entrepreneur, allowing yourself to leave the nest.

I know it’s extremely tempting to keep family and friends as close as possible to assist you in launching your business. After all, better the devil you know than one you don’t, right?

Unfortunately, when it comes to business, almost all great entrepreneurs will tell you the same thing: don’t go into business with friends and family. There are many reasons for this old adage.

From my personal experience, I know how complicated this can be. I made the mistake once of going into business with my fiancée. I thought that, since marriage is for life, this would not be an issue. Boy, was I wrong. Our relationship quickly deteriorated, and not because of the business, but because of other issues that are not relevant here. Suffice it to say, when the writing was on the wall and time came to decide how we were going to handle running the business together, it became a very delicate situation. Ultimately, I decided to cut my losses and move on; I left the business to her, but I kept many of the debts.  So, if my story is not enough to detract you from doing the same mistake, consider this:

First, like with going into business because you like the product more than you like money (see my first post), running a business with family can blind you to issues with your friend or family member’s performance. It is very easy to look the other way when a minor transgression occurs, when performance is lacking, or when the person is just a screw-up. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that because the person is a good employee somewhere else, they will do well as your partner or employee; the sad fact is that many people are not cut out to be entrepreneurs, and behavior on the job will reflect this attitude.

Second, there is a risk of you having to discipline or worse, fire, your loved one. This can cause a permanent rift between you and your loved one. Remember that, especially if you’re the person’s boss, they often expect you to give them special treatment. Think of all the times you’ve seen, in person or on TV, someone say, “my brother owns this place. Get out!”, or, “my father owns this hotel chain. Go screw yourself.”

This can leave a very bad stain on your business’s reputation with customers or the public in general. And although I usually say there’s no such thing as bad publicity (there’ll be a future post detailing this), this is one of the exceptions. You do not want to be known as the business owner who hires family members that abuse customers or other employees.

Furthermore, if you decide to discipline or terminate the business relationship with this person, they may take it as a personal assault. The person may become vindictive, destructive to your business, or worse. Don’t ever underestimate how someone you love and think you know would react if they feel you’ve betrayed them.

Third, there is the problem of money. Nothing can tear even the most tightly-knit family apart quicker than a fight over money. Money decisions, business decisions, and more, can become a point of contention if you own a larger share of the business than your loved one. Some people will also suspect that you are not being completely honest regarding the business finances, even if there is no skullduggery going on. Anything can set these beliefs off in a person, whether it’s a dream, advice from another friend, or a book or TV show the person sees.

So, if you haven’t gotten the point of this article yet, it’s don’t ever go into business with family or friends – the “Devil You Know Principle” works backwards in entrepreneurship. If you do decide to go into business with a friend or family member, plan ahead for these issues by: having an escape/action plan set; drawing up a contract for the partnership; discussing the possibility of a need to end the business relationship before you dive into the madness. And if after reading this you’re still not convinced it’s a bad idea to mix business and blood, watch “The Godfather” all the way to the end. Really, do it.

 If you have any comments, questions, or wanna hear the full story of what happened with my tanning salon, please leave a comment or email me at HeadlessHammerhead@gmail.com.

Avoiding Business Abortion

“O God! Can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?”

                                -Edgar Allan Poe, A Dream Within a Dream

Let The Bird Leave the Nest

In keeping with the theme from last week, this week I wanted to discuss another important aspect of starting your own business. This one, however, may be even more controversial than last week's post because it will probably feel like I am attacking your family; particularly, I am about to attack your baby and it's not gonna feel good.

Being an entrepreneur myself, I know the pride that comes with starting your business or creating your product: seeing your logo on a sign, seeing reviews on social media, reading your awesome title on a business card out loud. Owner. President. It's as good a feeling as having your kid become POTUS.

BUT  I am about to take that business card and rip it into hundreds of little pieces right in front of your face. Well, not me but I'm gonna ask you to do it. Go ahead - try it.

How did that feel? I bet it was a devastating feeling. But as an entrepreneur, you're gonna need to get used to it, but not always for negative reasons. Let me explain.

My first business was a tanning salon. Yes, I actually sold sunshine in the Sunshine State. I planned for over a year, researching the industry, trends, viability in my market, competition, location, and much much more. I wrote a 65-page business plan, and I was very proud of that. Even the bank loan specialists were impressed with the plan and many asked for copies to keep, even after denying me a loan. I'll get into more details on that in another post, but there are two important points here. First, I opened the business with my fiancée at the time (again, a future post will focus on starting a business with friends and family). My second problem was actually related to the first: my fiancée felt all those giddy things I mentioned in the second paragraph above, and she wanted to avoid feeling what I mentioned in the third.

When the business grew to a point where I felt it was time to expand (i.e., a second location, franchising the brand, etc.) she did not want anyone else to have a controlling interest in the company. Not even 5%. And to avoid a lengthy discussion or fight, I went along with it.

Then, about a year later, our relationship came to an end. We had a brief discussion about the business, and I told her to keep it. Most of my family and friends believe that was a mistake. But, an entrepreneur needs to be able to see when a decision or product or service is going to create a hemorrhage that could prove to be his or her own personal extinction asteroid. I had cut my losses and moved on; I knew I could open another tanning salon if I wanted to, and eventually buy her out - but I never cared for the tanning business.

Had I tried to fight for a share of that business, I'd probably still be fighting for it ten years later, and only the lawyers would be making any money off of it. Thing is, I had planned for this (and many other crazy scenarios) in my business plan. I'd even planned for an often-missed "best case scenario" (in which the business grows too quickly to be sustainable). The tanning salon is still afloat, but it's not making my ex a millionaire by any means.

So, learn to kill that baby. I recommend giving away a precious possession or buying a graphics tablet like the Buddha, Adesso, or Crayola, then write or draw something amazing every day or every week, and wipe it clean (or let it clear itself). You can even get a dry-erase board and do this on a budget. If you get a sweetheart deal from a "White Knight" investor like those on TV, weigh the options objectively and do it. It's usually for the best.