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Archive for August 2011

The Final Summary of Bettger’s “How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success in Selling”

August 25, 2011 Book Reviews, Selling No comments

I have to note that I haven’t finished a book in quite some time as fast as I did this one. Overall, in my opinion, it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read and extremely helpful (even coming from someone back in the early 1900s).

Let’s just mention that all of the ideas I wrote on, had some significance in my life and I could relate. Before getting into the final summary, I have to mention this:

He talked about Philadelphia – where most of the stories took place, anyway. He mentioned streets I had heard of, he mentioned The Bourse, which is totally one of my favorite places IN Philly. He mentioned two people that I greatly admire from history – Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin. He mentioned being in St Petersburg, FL (and that’s currently the area of where I’m at).

I learn the most and gain more from reading non-fiction. This is his advice about ‘selling’ – coming from his OWN personal failures or successes. He walked the steps and guides us in the right direction to find ours. I love this. It’s his story. It’s non-fiction. It’s fact.

He ended his book with Franklin’s Thirteen Subjects. He says to make your own thirteen subjects that you need to study, study one each week for thirteen weeks and wash/repeat until you become excellent in that area.

He taught us that no matter how the failure or failure after one another, to always pick yourself up and continue. To not be afraid of failing, to focus on what you need to learn to become better, to study your traits on how to become better. To just learn.

He wrote actual conversations he had or others had and demonstrated them to explain what he meant by each subjected chapter.

What else do you need?

Overall, just such an excellent book. Covers so much information but not enough to make you forget. He has nice little pointers at the end of each chapter and a large summary at the end of each part. It’s pretty much ‘hey, here is the pointers of which you need to focus on’.

Please grab a copy and read it when you can. My previous entries discuss further into some of the pointers in the chapters, if you’d like to read that for more information or for my input.

Thank you for reading!

More Bettger book talk: remembering names & faces, demonstrating and contacting customers after the sale.

August 25, 2011 Book Reviews, General Business, Pitchmen, Selling No comments

I know I already have several entries dedicated to Bettger’s book, however, there will only be one more after this entry: the finalization of the entire book. I have to mention these two topics separately only because of recent events for the first one and the second one is very important to an industry that I have a deep passion about, here goes:

PLAYING THE NAME GAME. 

In chapter 22 – Bettger discusses the untidy event of forgetting someone’s name whilst meeting with them after a long period of time, or having just met them and struggling to remember their name. I have been in that position on both the receiving and giving end.

You see, I have just recently started a job – a temporary job, mind you – and after not having worked with more than one other person in the last past three years, it has been difficult to remember people’s names. I mean, wow; these people introduce themselves and I just can’t remember their names sometimes, even though I’ve been getting better at remembering. The more I see them, the more I do know their names. That’s on that end.

Today, I have been called everything but my own name (well, a correction of my name after a few names) and then.. I wasn’t even called by my name, when I asked the coworker next to me to get management, she told management ‘the cashier on this side needs –  - – - ” Ummmmm. WOW. First of all, I have a name and it’s not ‘the cashier on this side’. Them forgetting my name doesn’t hurt me, being called by ‘the cashier’ or something other than a name is offensive in some matter.

So, what’s in the psychology of remembering names or forgetting names? My possible reasons for not remembering names: a few of the people don’t have unique names so I don’t remember them as often and I don’t work with some of them more than once a week or barely by a default of a miss.

Their reason for maybe not remembering me: I look like someone they used to know (this has actually happened on MY side, everyone looks like someone from my past), it was just accidental, for the same reasons I gave, it’s just too busy and people become confused/distracted, or – since I’m just a temporary worker, they really DON’T need to remember my name. I’m nameless or faceless, just a person in passing after a month has gone by. Now, please don’t read me wrong, I’m not saying anything against anyone – it’s just the ‘way it is’ – sometimes.

What does Bettger have to say about learning names and faces, you ask? By three pointers, (1) impression, (2) repetition and (3) association.

(1) Impression. Get a clear impression of his name and face.

(2) Repetition. Repeat his name at short intervals.

(3) Association. Associate it with an action picture; if possible, include the person’s business.

Now, while these three pointers may just be dedicated to more of a professional business, such as selling or something like that, they are very good tips.

DEMONSTRATIONS. 

Bettger sums it up in three sentences: ‘One demonstration is worth more than a thousand words. If possible, let the customer perform the demonstration. Let the customer help you make the sale.’

Now, this is where my favorite part came in – and I’m really glad that he discussed this. While his book is mainly about selling insurance, I can relate this to a certain industry that I love.

It IS all about the pitch, but it IS all about the demonstration, too. If you have a faulty pitch AND demonstration, you’ve pretty much pulled the drain on your success. If you have a successful pitch and a faulty demonstration, the same, down the drain – and vice versa.

Now, let me use an example… back to the days of Billy Mays & Anthony Sullivan on Pitchmen. There was TWO demonstrations that was the mother of all demos. One being the impact gel product demo. In order to test how strong this product was, they put that over their hand and put it underneath a car to be run over. That is a mind-blowing demonstration. Next, on Pitchmen S2 – Sully was lit on fire to test the quality of Cold Fire. Of course, he survived and the product worked.

It’s all about how a product is demonstrated to a customer. Telling about something is one thing, while actually showing a customer how it works (and possibly allowing them to try it as well) is excellent.

REPEAT CUSTOMERS. 

Something else that Bettger touched on, that I really wanted to discuss, was repeat customer business. It might just be for professional type jobs like insurance, banking, clients, etc. but this is a good piece of advice, either way.

After a little while goes by, after you’ve sold that product, Bettger says why not keep their number and give them a call and check upon them in a few weeks or months. See if they need something else, or just to see how that product is working with them. Find it all out, ask questions. Bettger talked about how by doing this he (and others) have become great friends with his very own customers and even were suggested to their friends/family.

When I worked at Goodys, there wasn’t anything more that made me more excited than to see one of my favorite customers. I had several friendly faces that I talked to, and they’d come in every so often and it was most pleasant getting to catch up in my store. I had an email from one, phone numbers from a few – but unfortunately – for the best ones, I just relied on seeing them every so often and lost touch with them.

When I moved on from there to the mall, finding repeat customers wasn’t so fun. Not to mention, it was in a general airport – tourist-y like area, so you were lucky if you saw the same customer twice.

If I ever become a freelance writer, photographer, designer  -I know I would definitely keep my customers on file and contact them with discounts or something of that nature to continue that relationship. That’s not only good for repeat business but also to gain the confidence from them, so they can spread the word about how decent of a {professional} you are.

So, there you have it – three of my favorite “summaries” towards the second half of the end of the book. Next up: the final summary.

Bettger’s Top 11 Tips On: How To Make a Big Sale (insurance) & Part 2 and 3 Summary

August 25, 2011 Book Reviews, Selling No comments

If you didn’t read my part 1 review of this book, you should and you can here.

This entry won’t be much other than just a weebit of statements and pointers.

In chapter 8, I thought this was very important to make note of. Here is a list of eleven pointers on how Bettger made such a huge sale when he was selling insurance.

  1. MAKE APPOINTMENTS
  2. BE PREPARED
  3. WHAT IS THE KEY ISSUE?
  4. KEY WORD NOTES
  5. ASK QUESTIONS
  6. EXPLODE DYNAMITE
  7. AROUSE FEAR
  8. CREATE CONFIDENCE
  9. EXPRESS HONEST APPRECIATION OF YOUR LISTENER’S ABILITY
  10. ASSUME A CLOSE
  11. PUT *YOU* IN THE INTERVIEW

In the following chapters, he emphasizes on the asking questions method. Chapter 9 is a biggie on discussing asking questions.

Asking questions: helps avoid arguments, talking too much, enables you to figure out what they want, the idea becomes the opponents idea, finds the key issue and gives the other person a feeling of importance.

Chapter 10 states that we should find the basic need or the main point of interest and then stick to it.

Chapter 12 – Basically stating that in order to be able to turn someone’s mind around, you must dig around two reasons as to why the person doesn’t want your product. They could hide behind ‘I don’t need it’ or ‘it doesn’t really work’ but what’s really on his mind is something else, the real reason someone doesn’t want something. This could also work for two reasons for doing something.

Chapter 13 declares seven pointers: (1) finding out what the customer wants and helping him find it, (2) when you show him what he wants, he will find a way to get it, (3) ask questions ask questions ask questions, (4) finding the key issue (the point) and stick to it, (5) ask ‘why’, (6) find the real reason as to why he doesn’t want to fulfill the purchase, and finally (7) be a good listener – show attention, pay attention, give him appreciation.

PART THREE – pretty much discusses the ways to win and hold the confidence of others. (1) Create confidence, (2) Confidence in yourself, (3) Praise the competitors, (4) never exaggerate statements, (5) Bringing witnesses to the table, (6) look your best.

ASU iTunes Discovery – Advertising & Marketing Class – “Assignment 1″

August 21, 2011 Advertising, Assignments, Marketing One comment

To note: I’m still working on writing out pointers from the previously discussed Bettger book. I read part 2 & 3 and need to make a great summary because a LOT of things were covered in those chapters. Since then, I have also bought a couple more books from the thrift store about marketing/advertising that’ll I’ll be writing about as well.

Today’s discovery brought my “thirst for knowledge” to a whole other level (can you scream nerrrrrrrrrd!?). Dear ole iTunes sent me an email about ‘HEY GO CHECK OUT THE NEWEST COLLEGE CLASSES ON ITUNES UNIVERSITY!” Fine, I will. I went through a few places discovered that there are lectures/lessons/discussions about Mozart’s opera, Streetcar Named Desire, anything Oxford = love, a bunch of literature and then… I discovered this gem:

Essentials of Advertising & Marketing from W.P. Carey School of Business Arizona State University. 

The professor is amazing!! No matter what anyone says, we all know the professor will always make or break the lesson and so will the listener (student). I listened to the first and second lecture back to back and he still kept my attention (even though this was generally about class things that took place there and not anywhere else). This reminds me of a few wonderful professors I had when I was at KCTCS. I grew very fond of them due to their passion of teaching and the excellence they displayed in the classroom.

Of course, like in real life, the first few day and half of class is get to know you, stories, finding out how the class will go, asking any questions that need to be asked before class really starts, stories about OR of the professor, and so on. The second lecture I listened to, the professor gave out an assignment and even though this was from 2009 – I still think I’m going to do it.

Second portion (after the first day portion) discussed the value of a customer. He shared stories of customer service in service positions, he had others to discuss it, he talked about previous students actions {reactions} to their service jobs and so on.

So the assignment was something as follows – come up with a story of where you were on either side of the service (giving/receiving end) and share how the problem happened and how it was taken care of in the end.

 

ASSIGNMENT 1:

I worked at three different retailers for four years from July 2005 – March 2009 and then at a coin shop for two years after that. Even though we had plenty of angry customers, odd customers, moments of our own that we should definitely own (bad days), and so on… I can’t exactly pick a certain “subject” because I don’t really remember details too much. I do still have funny moments written down from those years, but it’s nothing of importance to show a before and after ripple effect.

My husband and I just recently moved to Florida in March 2011 and that ended my two years at the coin shop. Well, I continued doing one main thing on my own that I did at the coin shop and that would be working on eBay.

I took on eBay high strung by myself. I had to supply my own items to sell, instead of having someone supply them for me. Any mistake or cost came out of my pocket, so I made sure that I had enough pictures to show the customer what the object looked like, packed my items very well, placed a well-written paragraph in each description asking customers to message me if they wanted to toggle with price or had any questions and I even answered their questions as fully as I could to support their main objection (I guess you would say).

One day I was at the park enjoying my evening and I had my iPhone out taking pictures when an alert came across my email and eBay app. This customer had opened a case against me, and THEN emailed me this nasty message and threatened me saying that if I did not answer her, she would turn me into eBay. Well, she had already accomplished that by opening a case instead of contacting me first like the rules state to do.

The problem was that her item arrived broken. I knew that I had packed it well enough, even having put ‘FRAGILE’ on the outside — and the item STILL arrived broken. So, she offered to let me see pictures via email and I saw them. That was a great move to show the evidential proof. We talked a little bit more back and fourth and came to the conclusion that she’d send it back and I’d give her the money back.

After a moment’s thought, I ended up sending her a message back saying I’ll refund the money and she can just keep the item. With it being broken, she could toss it in the trash and not have to send it back to me – which makes an extra charge that I couldn’t really afford, anyway. Plus, I wouldn’t have been able to re-sell it.

She agreed to do that and the situation was solved. However, also included in that last message she offered to give me lessons on how to properly pack an item so I can avoid this situation again. I believe that I said ‘I’m extremely sorry that this happened and I hope you have a great day.’ I did not touch on her comment because it really offended me, even though that I had packed it to the best of my ability regardless of it arriving broken.

I continued eBay for a few months more, having to toughen my skin over a few more angry customers. I have to say after that, I took each person individually, found out what they wanted to do and took care of it their way. They gave me great feedback, especially for the customer service side. I only quit eBay due to how much it was to keep up a store and I couldn’t afford that, unfortunately.

My thoughts on banks and the poor (economy).

August 19, 2011 Economy, General Business 2 comments

The banks are growing much evil inside of them, why? Because almost every bank is going to start charging every customer to use their services once again. What? Yes. They tried this in the 1980s and shortly afterward when things were good, that went away. Now, they’re back doing it again and free accounts will be non-existant.

I had a discussion with someone from the bank today and I was not happy discussing this at all.

It’s like what the fuck are poor people, like me, supposed to do?

You get charged $5-10 if you don’t have direct deposit amount of $500-$1000 and actually keep that amount in your account.

SOME banks are charging $5+ in order for you to make unlimited purchases with the check card.

Okay, so what if you are like me who doesn’t have direct deposit, who doesn’t have $500 to my name (actually it’s more like negative amount due to major debt), who *may* have that amount of money in a couple of months but that money goes back out the door to bills. And, one who doesn’t need to be charged extra just to use services?!

Because, like me, my soon balance will be $0 again after my bills are paid for at the beginning of next month. So, if I am charged a $7 maintenance fee AND $5 fee for unlimited purchases of my debit/check card (like my current bank wants to do)… then I am in debt by $12 more. How am I expected to pay that amount when I have a $0 balance? Really? 

So what the fuck are poor people supposed to do? There’s not a bank where we can go to put our money in to have it be taken out again. And, if you DONT have a bank account then you are still charged a fee for NOT having an account when you need to get your check cashed if you are working.

Also, if you get a random debit card to fill up with money… you are STILL charged random fees for doing that, even.

Why do the banks have to work against the poor people of America?? I’m sure that there are a lot of people like me that’s in this situation. So, do we just keep running off to other banks one right after another trying to avoid fees to only be able to never use a bank until we are able to have loads of income? This just isn’t right at all.

So… I just don’t know what to do. I have until November to figure SOMETHING out, hopefully that’s enough time.

It’s just extremely frustrating that there’s not other ways of helping the poor to become LESS poor then slapping on more fees where we (the poor) become even more maggot-y to the economy and bringing it all down.

 

 

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