5 Tips To Be A Successful Salesman

There are many different types of sales that we must make in our life.  High schoolers may work their summer selling Cutco knives or a 40 year old may have a career out of selling suits at a retail store.  A recent college graduate has to sell himself to a company to get a new job or a college drop-out may have to sell his entrepreneurial idea to local businesses.  As a freshman in college, you may have to present yourself favorably to catch the eye of that perfect girl or, one day, in meeting her parents.  We have to sell ourselves to earn trust in friendships, relationships, and businesses. Knowing that sales are found in many different areas of life, we must be constantly aware of how to make sales.

I wanted to put a picture of a man, or voice I trust. Who better than Morgan Freeman?

1. Establish Trust: Nobody will purchase or believe anything that you say if they cannot trust you.  Establish yourself as a reliable person that can relate well with them.  Provide information about yourself, and know that any question that you ask, you must be able to answer as well.

2. Remember The Little Things: When you are meeting with a customer for a second sale or a boyfriend for a second date, prove that you listened the last time you were together.  Asking little things about their personal life, such as how their kids are, how their last test went, or how their job interview went will make them realize that you care about them.  Caring about your customer outside of the sales situation is vital to making them trust you more . . . leading to more sales.

3. Be Generous At First: While being generous is a trait that you always want to possess, you must be able to draw them in with an act that will make them appreciate you.  This could be something as simple as buying a girl a drink, providing a potential client with a free trial of your service (GoToMeeting),  or giving them a glimpse of your public relations campaign for them and how you can help them out.

4. Care About Your Product:  I know for a fact that I could not sell clothing from Old Navy or happily encourage others to go watch "The Notebook".  The reason you want to sell something to someone is because you like the product that you are selling.  Selling something without caring for it will come across as laziness or a lack of interest to the client, making them not buy into whatever you are selling.

5. Make Them See Their Benefit:  When selling something, the objective is to always fill a need of the consumer.  Make them see what they will get in accepting your offer.  Let them know that if they join your fraternity that they will always have a 60 strong friends.  Make it aware that if they purchase your laptop that it will provide great quality for them.  Prove to them that if they purchase your clothing that it will look good and last for a long time.  If it does not do them any good, they will not buy it.

Breaking Bad Strategy: Walter White Teaches Us Success

During my final year at Furman, one of my roommates decided that the two of us should pick a television show to watch over the course of the semester.  After asking a few of his friends and checking on Netflix, Nate decided that we should watch Breaking Bad.  For those of you that do not know, Breaking Bad is an AMC show about Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and starts to cook and sell meth to try to help his family financially.

As you watch the show, the deeper and deeper Walt gets into the drug scene and potential dangers, the more creative and devious he becomes.  Walt constantly lies to his family and friends to get what he wants.  While I obviously do not support his deception and deviousness, Walt is one of the best television examples on how to create new ideas, get out of seemingly impossible situations, and changing the game.  Why is Walt the best in the industry?

1. Product:  Walter White makes a meth product that is more pure than anyone else's.  Because of his chemistry background, he does not sacrifice the quality of the product for quantity or price reduction.  Whenever Walt gets into a tangle in the seasons two and three, he generally gets out of it by letting people know that he is the only one that can make his product, and that it is better than everyone else's. This makes Walt an indispensable part of the business.  Without him, there is no product; with no product, there is a large demand that is not met or satisfied.

Working on his Blue Meth product.

In the business world, you need to make the quality of your product so good that people do that think that they can go without it.  For example, Steve Jobs made Apple the best quality of computers.  People line up outside of Apple stores for a new product that is the most expensive of its kind.  Yes their are cheaper laptops, but will you sacrifice quality for a drop in price.

2. Business Planning: When Walt is about to be murdered by Gus Fring, the leader of meth distribution in the Southwest, Walt is steps ahead of Gus in planning.  He constructs a plan to regain loyalty from his partner Jesse and to kill Gus, eliminating all threats against him.  Walt plays life like it is chess, always knowing his opponent's move before it is made. Even though Walt worked for Gus, he always saw him as an opponent and an enemy rather than a partner.

If you can see into the future and know what the market and competition are going to do, you can adjust your plans and strategy to come out on top.  In the business world, a large part of your success depends on what you do, but if that is all that you focus on, then you will never reach your full potential.  You have to do research about market trends and new things that could impact the supply or the demand of the item, as well as knowing about the competitors' products, marketing, advertising, and service.

3. Loyalty: Even though it builds slowly and is a very rocky road, the relationship between Walt and his co-worker Jesse is a vital part of the success of their business.  Multiple times during the show, Walt or Jesse save each others lives because they consider themselves a package deal.  This is how they end up beating Gus and ultimately having their business succeed.

In a working environment, you need to be around people that you can trust. Having people that you know will come through for you in tough situations makes everything much easier.  If you have loyal people, then the likelihood that you succeed are much better.

4. Risk: Walter is not afraid to put his neck on the line.  He believes in his products and does whatever he can to get them out to people.  In this past episode, Walter and Jesse even robbed a train to secure the most key ingredient of their product: methylamine.

Sometimes, you may have risks that you must take to make your business more successful.  Before doing these though, you must master the business planning aspect, understanding the consequences of your potential actions and decisions.  For example, a few years ago, Tropicana changed its logo and the outburst was enormous.  Sales dropped dramatically and an uproar was created among its customers.  Always play the devil advocate and do a cost-benefit analysis before any move is made.

Instagram For Businesses?

Everyone’s talking about Instagram after the recent $1 billion Facebook acquisition.  In just 2 years the app has aquired more than 50 million users and has become a staple of high school and college kids.  With all of the great filters that allow for pictures to look so much better than they actually are, one big question remains: Is Instagram useful for businesses?

This is a topic that I know very little about.  First, I want to give my few thoughts on Instagram and business.  After those thoughts, I am providing insight and examples of other people.

Instagram is something that can be very useful.  The business success stories that I have witnessed with Instagram all involve fashion in some sort.  Why?  Fashion items are easy to take pictures of.  You can put it on a hanger, a person, a pet, or a nice backdrop, and the picture does the talking for itself.  People see what they are getting with the item, and if they like the way it looks, then generally that is enough to buy it, or at least like it.  

Coach, the famous purse company has 48 thousand Instagram followers.  They generally post about one picture a day, and leave it at that.  The consistency of their posting has made them an Instagram success.  On a smaller scale, a local start-up in the Carolinas called Good Ole Boys has done a great job of taking pictures of their gear and creating a comfort appeal around the brand.  They may not have the largest fan base, but they post consistently, interact with followers, and show their items in ways that make people interested in the product.

After doing research, I have realized that my assumptions are pretty much true.  With digital photography being a great way to show advertisements, many fashion companies use Instagram successfully.  Taking a picture of a dress or pair of shoes and attaching a link to an online shopping cart is an easy way to increase sales.  MyHauteCloset is an example of a fashion blogger who was given many items to model and ended up making a nice fashion business just through Instagram. 

The other industry that appears to have done this is sports teams.  Teams like the Boston Celtics and the Atlanta Braves have succeeded on Instagram because they are sports and entertainment focused.  A lot of people enjoy looking at photos of their favorite athletes as they play the game they love or goof around in the clubhouse.  Sports teams also use it to recap and post photos of promotional events; for example the Atlanta Braves recently had a Star Wars night, and their Instagram shows some photos of fans in Star Wars apparel. 

Instagram really has become almost a hybrid of Twitter and Pinterest.  You post pictures that appeal to you and you make them look pretty through filters.  Then you can comment under them in a short text or post them at somebody.  While Instagram will never overpass a Twitter with text or a Facebook with profiles, it is a handy, mobile application that can connect people on a smaller level.  Maybe it will get much bigger.  Maybe the boom of the Instagram bomb will continue to spread outward, but for now, Instagram is not a do or die social medium for the business world.  If you are in the fashion industry, I definitely think that it would be beneficial to have it.  Otherwise, do with it as you please.  As for me, if I ever get more than 1,000 Instagram followers (@justinsthomason), I will run a 5K in a Batman suit.