Revenue Journal®

People buy when they're comfortable that they're making the right decision. If they're uncomfortable, they don't buy. This is especially true when money is tight or people are fearful. Their comfort zone - and how well you stay within it - will determine if you make a sale, or not.

Let's look at what will kick you out of their comfort zone - and how you can stay inside.

Some time ago, I wrote an article about how software buyers were mired in the "skepticism swamp." It's even worse now.

If you're selling software, you have to be able to overcome the massive amount of disbelief that has built up in buyers' minds, thanks to all the promises that have been made to them - and broken. Everyone promised higher productivity, increased efficiency, and plug-and-play. HA.

What everyone delivered was installation headaches, integration nightmares, missing-in-action service, and navigation that required that you know the program intimately before you could do anything useful with it.

Today, software buyers and users consider each purchase an investment - of time and grief, as well as the money.

In the beginning, the entrepreneur starts a company, and does all the selling himself. Then, as the business grows, he hires a salesperson, then a few more salespeople. This goes on for a couple of years, then he hires even more salespeople and a sales manager.

As this progression occurs, this entrepreneur, now the CEO, makes selling mistakes. All CEOs make these mistakes, even if their background was in sales before they started their company, or before they joined the corporation. There aren't many companies run by salespeople; in my experience, CEOs usually come from engineering, finance, or operations. But even the sales-background guys and gals make these same mistakes. Avoiding these seven mistakes can save you a lot of grief.

Here they are. I'll be stating each mistake as a belief, because it is the belief that gets the CEO in trouble. These beliefs are actually dangerous myths, myths that cost companies millions or billions of dollars every year.

There comes a time in the course of inevitable economic ups and downs, when "everyone" starts to feel like "things are going to hell in a hand basket." The media is filled with stories of business and industry failures, people start hoarding and cutting back on their expenses, sales that used to be easy become difficult, and company budgets are cut.

There is a sense of impending doom, and financial statistics are reported that reinforce that sense. We are in one of those periods now.

It doesn't really matter how we got here, or how much of it is real and how much is mass hysteria. Having been through a number of these periods, I've come to pay less and less attention to the "why."

The most accurate economic indicator I have ever found is "primary customer motivation." As I interview customers for clients, I learn what is driving them to make the decisions they are currently making. In times of uncertainty, there is usually one big, fear-based driver. In times of economic growth, more drivers come into play, such as the need for status, the need to solve a problem, the need to change one's lifestyle, and the need to experience something new.

I have also found that journalists and economists don't have a clue about "primary customer motivations" until it's obvious to everyone what is going on. And, you can be sure that if the facts conflict with their agenda, the agenda will overshadow the story. That's why any business owner who depends on the press or economists to "guide" him is always going to be a day late and a dollar short. Instead, if he was personally and regularly interviewing customers (or having someone he trusts do it for him), he'd be finding out what's really going on - six months before everyone else (including competitors).

In any economic situation, these primary customer motivation drivers determine what people are buying and how, as well as what they are deciding not to buy.

I am currently working with a couple of clients whose sales are being affected by current economic events. One client is in the luxury travel business and another is in the recreational boating business. In the former situation, high gas prices, higher food prices, and the fall of the dollar against the Euro are causing their customers to pull back on their buying decisions. In the latter situation, high gas prices and a concern about the economy are causing their customers to put off their next recreational boat purchase.

Of course, they're not the only ones feeling the pinch right now. If you are too, here's a recessionary rallying cry for you:

If you want more sales, get serious.

Serious about what?

Those persona articles I wrote recently (here and here), created a bit of a stir out there in BlogLand. Adele Revella from Pragmatic Marketing mentioned my concerns about personas and then went on to describe how those problems could be addressed, including not talking to salespeople about personas, but by relating stories about real buyers. Good advice.

Pragmatic marketing also blogged about my persona blog, with a piece about how people find numerous ways to avoid visiting clients.

Brian Eisenberg quoted Adele's quote, then also went on to talk about how to solve persona problems, using a 4-question survey that will help put flesh on the bones of your personas.

Salespeople (or, I should say, order takers) who are used to taking calls all day are still having a hard time adjusting to the email-driven business world we live in now. The same is true of many small business owners.

The phone is no longer the "instrument of choice" for today's busy buyers. Their preferred way of contacting companies when they are interested in a product or service is via email. And yet, too many salespeople and entrepreneurs are still treating email as an intrusion into their busy day. Because they get so much email and spam, and because they don't want to spend all day typing notes to people, they just aren't giving incoming email buyers the attention that they deserve.

If your salespeople are struggling with, or ignoring, this issue, it helps for them to see the email scenario from the buyer's point of view. It will help them understand how just a few minutes spent responding can make the difference between closing a sale or losing a customer for life. Let's look at this from the perspective of a customer we'll call Jane.

Personas do have their place. When you're designing a product, you have to make decisions about what to put in and what to leave out. Personas can help with that process.

But once the product is designed, and it's time to create your web page, write selling copy, and train your salespeople, personas can get you into real trouble. They can make you think you're addressing the buyer properly, when in fact you are probably ignoring who the buyer is, what the buyer really wants, and, in many cases, insulting the buyer.

You see, if I'm the buyer, I already know who I am. So I'm not the least impressed if you think you know who I am. Besides, it makes me feel a little creeped out anyway, that you're so determined to know everything about me you can describe me to your buddies around the conference table.

Do you really have to know all those things about me to sell something to me? I mean, c'mon. What does it matter how old I am or how much money I make? I just want to buy something to fix a problem. I don't want my personal space invaded.

Not only that: Is it going to be a fun to buy your product, or are you going to make it a hassle?

There's a joke - you've probably heard one of the many versions of it - that I think of as the "demo" joke. My favorite version is the one starring Bill Gates:

Bill Gates died and found himself standing in front of St. Peter, who was sizing him up.

"Okay, what the Hell," said Bill. "Let's try down below first."

I am continuously amused at the lengths company executives will go to, to avoid talking directly to their customers. They'd rather do their taxes than phone or go face-to-face with a real, live customer.

As a result of this fear, company executives and owners will bet the company on any other data they can get their hands on. They pore over their website metrics. They run web-based surveys. They ask their salespeople (sometimes) and customer service people (hardly ever) what customers are saying. Every so often, they may lurk on an online discussion group.

They demand more and more data from their marketing folks. Every piece of data makes them want more data, because the data they get only raises more questions. Deep down inside, they wonder if it's all BS.

If they found some backbone and focused instead on actually having a few conversations a month with their customers - and listening to the calls that come in from customers - they'd understand what their customers want them to sell, and how they want to buy.

The rise of "personas"

Over the last few years, the idea of customer "personas" has been finding its way into website design. The basic idea, obviously, is to design your website for the types of people buying your product, so it satisfies each type of person's preferences and buying process.

"Fast, right, cheap. Pick two."

Print shop owners used to like to post this little truism near the front desk of their shops. There's a lot of wisdom on those five words. If you do it too fast, it's likely to be wrong. If you take too much time obsessing over details, it isn't going to be fast. And if you get it cheap, you might also get it fast, but it probably won't be right.

The problem is, today's customers assume that they can get "all three" if they just look hard enough. Google has given them a virtual, endless, global shopping mall. If one vendor can't give them all three, they'll just keep looking. Click. Click. Click.

I really enjoy making sales departments more productive. It's one of the most rewarding aspects of what I do, because there's always so much to improve, and because even a few changes can make a huge difference in a company's revenues. As we slip further into group-recession-think, it's time to look at what an economic slowdown really means and what you can do to make sure your business continues to grow - in spite of the persistent recession drumbeat. There are a number of things you can do to improve your sales levels in this economic environment.

1) Ignore the recession drumbeat. It's easy to be spooked by the latest news on the economy. Even if you are in an industry that is directly affected by a slowdown, being distracted from your normal revenue-producing tasks - and lowering your sights - will only make matters worse. Make a personal, definite decision that your business will be an exception to the overall trend.

It is possible to be going "up" when everyone else is going "down" - I've done it myself several times in my career, so I speak from personal experience. Your two biggest enemies are always distraction and fear.

It struck me recently that I have become a commerce code-cracker. Companies bring me in when something is stuck, when they can't figure out how to get from "here" to "there." They know what "here" looks like, and they know what they want "there" to look like. But, they have either tried to get from here to there, and failed, or they can't imagine how to get from here to there, knowing what they know. So they bring me in, and I set to work cracking the code.

I investigate until I understand where the problems are. It doesn't take long, because I have been doing this a long time, in many different situations. I know where to look and what to look for. When the solution is clear, I make recommendations.

What's interesting is how often the problem has been self-inflicted. Actually, thinking through the countless situations I've encountered, I'm realizing that "often" isn't the right word. The word should be "always." This means, of course, that if you don't mess yourself up, your chances of success are quite good. On the other hand, if you're like most people, it means that you're messing yourself up somehow.

The problems that I find fall into three categories:

John Smith is a typical customer in the market for a fairly high-end product, one that requires a salesperson to finalize the deal. He has done his research on the web - he's spent hours, in fact, researching. Now he has a couple of questions for the salesperson to answer. Otherwise, he is ready to buy. He decides that the best way to get the answers he needs is to go to an industry tradeshow.

I've been interviewing "John Smiths" for a client, and one of them described what happened next, using these words:

"I had to defend my wallet and my family against The Pitch."

He was there with his wife, and as he was trying to get answers to his questions, the salesperson kept trying to close the sale.

From the customer's perspective, this is irritating. Sleazy. Totally inappropriate. You're just asking someone questions, and the whole time, they keep trying to sneak around to the side of you and grab your wallet out of your back pocket.

The better your content, the more you will sell.

A pretty simple concept to grasp, especially when we think of the buying process from the buyer's point of view. Most people who are buying something for the first time go straight to Google. They type in the search phrase they think will give them the right result, refine it if needed, and then start drilling down - mostly on the sites that come up "above the fold" on the screen. We all know this.

And yet, as I work with clients to improve content, and as I see content from the buyer's point of view, I am dismayed by how un-seriously managers take their own content.

Every company has a tempo. What do I mean by tempo? It's the amount of time you think you have - to get something done or resolved. It's the heartbeat of your business. It's the tick-tick-tick of your corporate clock.

Your tempo is tied directly to two aspects of your business: How quickly your technology is changing, and how competitive your market is.

Tempo and revenue are joined at the hip. Here are the situations where the tempo/revenue connection becomes critical:

You are the head honcho at your company. You stay awake at night struggling with unsolved problems. You go into work every day and focus on solving them. Your life consists of finding and solving those problems.

You think you know more than anyone in the world about your company. You're right - no single individual knows more than you. But there is critical information that you don't know, information that is sucking the life blood out of your company's potential for growth. Information that, if you knew it, faced it, and dealt with it, you could remove those stubborn barriers to the sale and start your revenues flowing in new ways and at new rates.

It's so easy to rationalize. We are so eager to think of ourselves as successful, to have others think of us in as successful, and to want things to turn out a certain way, that we are willing to ignore all the signposts along the road and keep driving, full-speed, until we realize that we have driven right off the cliff and we are on our way down. Even then, we rationalize.

"Gee, this isn't so bad. I'm sure I'll survive."

When it comes to generating revenue, rationalization is one of your biggest enemies. It's especially common for entrepreneurs to ignore what their own customers are telling them. "Oh, they always say that," is a common response we get from the rationalizing entrepreneur or CEO. In other words, "I don't think this problem is worth worrying about, it's always been that way, and I'm still here."

Many rationalizers manage to limp along for years, in spite of themselves, when they're lucky enough to have a product that people actually need. But when things get tough, or the market shifts, or buyers become more skeptical, those rationalizers start to slide downwards. As they slip, they start to panic, and do all kinds of crazy things. They become deceptive and manipulative, desperately pulling vendors and customers down with them as they start to swirl down the drain.

Imagine that you are going to have a house constructed, and while it is under construction, you want to insure the construction site. Your contractor refers you to an insurance salesperson he knows. You meet with the person, you like him, and you proceed to give him the information he needs to proceed with a quote.

As the weeks go by, however, you decide that you aren't going to do business with that insurance broker. Why? Because he just wasn't working hard for the sale. He was friendly, but not professional. It takes too long for him to respond to requests. The information he provides doesn't match your situation nor answer your specific questions.

You end up finding another broker, who responds quickly, thoroughly, professionally to every question you ask him. You end up telling the contractor that you appreciate the referral to his insurance buddy, but that you will be using a different insurance broker.

When you run a business - no matter how large or small it is - you have a certain amount of energy available to apply to the long list of things you must get done. How you apply that energy will determine how successful you are.

I have been watching companies invest that energy for years. One conclusion I came to early on was that management fads were very distracting and expensive. They seldom, if ever, result in tangible, positive results.

A lot of entrepreneurs obsess over their search engine marketing and Adwords campaigns, to make sure that they are within view when someone goes searching for their type of product. Nothing wrong with that, but given the bandwidth of the typical business owner, there's a tendency to focus on lead generation at the expense of conversion.

There are two kinds of salespeople in the world. One knows that the customer is just trying to get some questions answered, and does what he can to answer those questions. The other sees the customer's questions as "objections" to be overcome - obstacles to his making the sale and getting a commission.

In other words, in the first case, the customer is right - right to be making sure the product will meet his needs. Right to ask questions. Rightfully entitled to getting honest answers to those questions until he has enough information to make a good decision.

In the second case, the salesperson behaves as if the customer is just plain wrong. During the conversation with the customer he is, by turns, evasive, dismissive, and downright rude as he spits out answers. He is combative during the question-asking process. He interrupts the customer, argues with the customer, and treats the customer like an idiot.

A recent experience with such a salesperson convinced me that these salespeople end up in sales because they love to argue but they're not smart enough (or industrious enough) to get through law school. They are wanna-be lawyers.

What is the most important part of every email you send - whether to one person or to your entire email mailing list? The subject line.

What's the second most important part of every email you send? Your signature.

Marketing is often considered a very subjective exercise. But the expectations and behavior of email recipients have created certain absolutes associated with subject lines and signatures. Use them well, and you will add a lot of success to your work day. Use them poorly, and you will generate inefficiency, confusion, frustration, and a lot of wasted time - in your day and in the working days of your recipients.

The problem with marketing and sales is that they are the functions inside companies most likely to be driven more by emotions and anecdotal "evidence" than they are by facts. The result is never as profitable as it could be.

If salespeople dominate decisions, without the benefit of qualitative customer research and buying process analysis, the atmosphere is always dominated by fear of losing the next sale, and activity is always frantic.

The salesperson will send an email to the marketing person: "I just closed this sale. I sent this fax to them, and they read it while we were talking to each other, and the person loved this fax. We need an email and landing page that uses this copy!!!" The marketing person will comply. The salesperson will then talk to another customer, who will react positively to something else, and the salesperson will send another email to the marketing person, demanding another email and landing page.

The phone rings. I answer it, the way I always answer it: "This is Kristin Zhivago. Can I help you?"

There is a bit of silence, then suddenly the line is alive with the sounds of a busy telemarketing boiler room. Many voices can be heard in the background, pleading, sympathizing, pushing, lying. I know exactly what is going to happen next, but because I am a professional revenue coach, dedicated to improving how people sell their products and services, I stay on the line. The person on the other end has a very thick Indian accent. So we know who is calling and where they're calling from.

"Hello, I'd like to speak to...um...Mrs. Cheerago."

Sigh. "This is Kristin Zhivago," I say agai

Fear is a powerful motivator. Entrepreneurs use fear to motivate themselves; CEOs often use fear to motivate themselves and their employees. After a while, it's easy to consider fear as a valuable tool, a friend. Too bad it isn't true.

Every business starts with a dream. Every buyer starts the buying process with a dream.

Every business can turn into a nightmare. And, every buying process - especially those involving large, expensive, important purchases - can turn into a nightmare.

These dreams - and fears of nightmares - drive the decisions and actions of both business owners and buyers.

We've all seen this at work in extreme cases, where an individual will let their own fantasy world overwhelm reality to the point where they lose their job or their business, and the people who supported them along the way.

But these situations are rare. The more usual, day-to-day situation is one where the seller and buyer are trying to find common ground, to negotiate a realistic solution where everyone can be happy.

Let's say you're a vendor in a developing country selling some kind of product or service to customers in more developed countries. You know you can provide what the customers there need, but you're not sure how get the attention of the right kinds of buyers, and when you do get a lead, you find it too difficult to close the sale. Something is standing in your way. That something is the negative reputation that your country or industry might have in the mind of the buyer.

This article will address both of these challenges while looking at the process from the buyer's perspective. The advice in this article will help anyone selling any type of high-risk product or service - even in well-established markets - as the dynamics are similar.

It took a while before the Web really changed the way people bought things, but it has happened. Now people go to the Web first and research the heck out of a subject before they buy.

They scrutinize, analyze, and agonize. They Google and re-Google, fine-tuning their search term until they start getting the desired results. They know exactly what they want and they keep searching until they finally find it, then compare their options, read the reviews, and consider the price and the functions. Once they are satisfied they have found the right product and are comfortable with the company selling it, they place an order.

I'm sorry to say that, over and over, I am finding business owners struggling to make sales because their marketers - in-house or outside - are trying to use yesterday's marketing and selling methods on today's buyers, who have definitely moved on.

Buyers have specific questions. If you're not giving them specific answers, you're not going to capture those sales. All technology aside, this is the biggest difference between "old" marketing thinking and "new" marketing thinking.

The best way to illustrate this is with an example.

There's a certain type of entrepreneur who becomes obsessed with a product idea, and sets up a business to sell it. It's always a guy (yes, for some reason, it's always a guy) who can never understand why "everyone can't see the wisdom of this idea" and why "someone can't give me the money to get this business off the ground."

I hear from these gentlemen because of my blog and book, and my consulting company. The most recent person who contacted me said he had also contacted a famous "marketing guru" company, but that "they won't give me the time of day."

This most recent person says that he lost a great deal of money trying to sell websites for a website creation franchise operation. He is now in debt, and is trying to get out of debt selling a gasoline additive. He tells me that he wants marketing help. But when I make specific suggestions, he responds to my email with more detail about how he got into debt and how he is a nice person who was raised to treat people with respect and courtesy, and how he just needs marketing help. In other words, he asks for advice, advice is given, and then he ignores it and asks for advice or sympathy.

At any given time, in addition to my Fortune 100 and medium-sized company clients, I always have a couple of entrepreneurs on my client list. I enjoy helping startups, and increasing the revenues of existing small businesses.

Typically, someone who starts a business is an expert in a particular area. In other words, their core competency doesn't lie in marketing and sales. As a result, they are constantly searching for any trick or technique that will help them make more sales.

This search - and in some cases it is a desperate search - makes them easy prey for any halfway plausible idea. They are constantly reading articles and books, talking to friends, and listening to vendors selling ad space, website design, direct mail, and so on. I often get questions by email - "I just talked to So and So, and they said..." Or, "I just read an article that said..." The questions are always about doing a specific thing that will supposedly help their sales increase.

The sad thing is, it's never one thing. And it's never the thing that you just read or that someone just told you. 100% of the time, the answer is right in front of you. Yes, I said 100% of the time. Always. Here's how you find the answers you seek.

Long-time readers are probably wondering if I've gone off my rocker with that title. No worries, I'm not suggesting that you do anything stupid or lewd. But there is something that you can learn from any performer, even the most superficial ones.

Having come from a show business family, I learned at an early age about "stage presence." It really boils down to the fact that when you're on stage, you're in character. Even if you are a bit player in a crowd scene and you're the person at the very back of the crowd, you are still on stage. You must be in character and engaged the entire time you are on stage. If the main character in a musical is singing a solo, and you are part of the "listening crowd," your role as a listener is just as important as the soloist's role.

What does this have to do with sales? Imagine that you are part of a sales team, pitching a potential client. Someone in your group is presenting.

A group of consultants are in a conference room, pitching a new client. One of the consultants is making the pitch. We'll call him the salesperson.

So far, the client has been alert, sitting up straight, listening, eyes fixed on the presentation being displayed in the conference room. Then the salesperson says something that disturbs the client, and the client shifts in his chair. His brows furrow a little. His eyes are no longer open wide, but squinting slightly. His hand comes up to the front of his face, palm on his chin, fingers over his lips.

The client has just sent a signal to the presenter. It is an unmistakable signal, if the presenter is properly attuned to body language. The signal says, "Hmmm. Wait a minute. This doesn't sit well with me."

Here are some of the most common barriers to revenue that we encounter as we help our clients. Are you making one of these mistakes?

Your company name doesn't tell them what you sell. We call our company Zhivago Marketing Partners for this very reason. It would have been just as easy to call it Zhivago & Company or something similar - but that would not have answered the first, most basic question: "What does this company sell?"

If you're just starting out, make sure your name clearly indicates the type of product you sell.

If you've already invested too much in your non-specific name to change it now, then add a tagline to your logo that says what you sell. Keep it short - no more than five words. Tell them what you sell, using the words people would use to find you.

Well, it's that time again. People are worried about a recession.

Strange, because according to the US Department of Labor, the unemployment rate is at 4.4%. For historical perspective, ten years ago (April 1997) it was 5.1%, rose to a high of 6.3% in June of 2003, and has been falling ever since.

Average hourly earnings have risen from $12.29 in January of 1997 to $17.10 as of January 2007.

How do I know people are worried? The phrase "How to make money during a recession" has started to become more common again in my search term results. Plus, the bigger companies have stopped spending while they wrangle over budget cuts. And entrepreneurs are focusing more seriously on making more sales.

If we do have a recession, what will happen? What typically happens in all recessions?

The longer you head up a company, the more it becomes like a private club. You go to work, and are immediately swarmed by messages, issues, meetings, random hallway and instant messaging conversations - all from members of your own club.

Everyone in the club knows everyone else, everyone knows who the facilitators are - and who are the obstructionists. They know the helpful ones and the spoiled brats. You spend your entire day interacting with everyone in the club, people who make you feel good about yourself, your company, how well your people are doing - and how happy your customers are.

Here's the danger: After a while, it gets harder and harder for anyone outside the club to get what they need from anyone inside the club. Your days are consumed by your interactions with each other.

We had a lot of reasons for moving from Silicon Valley to the New England coast, about ten years ago. None of them had anything to do with the weather, though we liked the idea of having "seasons." We also wanted to live on the water for less than, say, seven million dollars. We had many family members here, and both of us were born here - although we also both moved to California when we were young. Many of our clients were on the East Coast. And it looked like it would be a great place to sail.

This background sets the stage for my little salesman's story - a perfect example of selling the wrong way, using the "tell, tell, tell" method instead of the "ask then tell" method.

In the course of our search for a house in New England, one April day we were being driven around some waterfront neighborhoods in Connecticut. The real estate broker was a typical congenial salesperson, a large man who had obviously enjoyed his share of drink, food, and smoke. He was chatting away as he drove us around. We didn't say much, because he was doing all the talking.

I've mentioned before that I buy a lot of software online. Recently I undertook an extensive search for software I could use to efficiently build outlines for books and other large, complex documents, because the outlining function in Word is pitiful and slows...the...creative...flow...to...a...crawl, and has a klutzy expand/contract outline function.

I must have looked at 25 programs, and trialed at least 10. For all of you out there selling software online, I have some very specific advice for you, from a buyer's point of view.

I get a lot of calls from PR folks. Each call is a sales call, which is why I'm talking about it here. Anyone who sells for a living - and that includes CEOs and entrepreneurs - can learn from the mistakes that PR houses make. This article will also help you manage your PR folks, who are probably making these same mistakes.

PR people call me because they have a story they want me to "buy" and write about. Their methods, for the most part, are pitiful. It's sad, because just about every person who calls is a decent human being who wants to do a good job.

Most of the calls come from young females who have been hired to call editors, reporters, and bloggers and try to line up an appointment with the company's CEO. They must all attend the same school of Dysfunctional PR, because they all say the same thing:

Hi, my name is Jennifer. I'm calling because XYZ company is rolling out a new widget. Did you get my press release? Would you like to interview the CEO?

I'm sad to say that they've been saying this same thing to me since 1984, when my monthly columns started appearing in a marketing magazine. After hearing the same pitiful pitch for 23 years now, it would be easy to be impatient and cross. But I was young and in PR once, so I try to help them.

The customers I interview for my clients range from engineers to programmers to CPAs to physicians to store owners to sailors to dealers to system integrators to women who buy skincare and makeup to salespeople to marketers to CEOs to...well, you get the picture. Just about everybody.

They always have something interesting to say. In fact, you'd be surprised - shocked, even - if you heard how much your own customers have to say about your product and company.

If you interview people skillfully, it's easy to get them started, and once they get started, they can talk for an hour or two about a product, company, and industry. They can tell you what they like about it, what they wish vendors would do, what else they've tried, and what they thought about those products. They will tell you what was frustrating or convenient about the buying process.

They can tell you how they looked for the product, the questions they had, and the tradeoffs they had to resolve before they spent the money. They can tell you the trends they see in the industry, not just based on their own needs, but by observing what others are doing and buying. They can also tell you what would make the most difference for them.

For example, the women I've been interviewing lately for a cosmetic/skin care company have mentioned that they wish cosmetic companies didn't come up with new colors every year.

Marketing is a force. Like any other force, it can be used for good or ill. There are many people who say that marketing itself is evil. Not so.

Marketing is only evil when the power of marketing is used to misrepresent or hide the truth.

I supposed I could stop here, because that really is the essence of it. But I'll go a little further to and provide an example.

If you want to see a perfect example of a company that makes it easy to buy, take a look at Home Reserve. What an exceptional site this is. Let's look at what they do right.

First, the home page.

What's the first question when you're shopping for furniture? Cost. Most people have a specific budget in mind for a given room or situation. And, that's the first big question Home Reserve answers, right on top.

As you come to this site, first your eye goes to the two people, and, immediately, to the prices. Then to the pictures and the fabric swatches.

Home Reserve uses the circle motif to draw your eye to important areas of the site, including the shop button, the photo gallery, and the swatches. One thing I find interesting about this is how the first circle you see is emotionally comforting - the two people obviously enjoying each other as they look at color swatches. Does this encourage you to assume that all circles will be emotionally satisfying? Hmmm."

Here's the first sentence of a website selling an email security solution:

"In today's business world, email has become critical to daily commerce. But, it also contains serious threats, threats which have increased dramatically over the last few years. You can't afford to ignore those threats."

Whoever wrote these words has obviously never spoken to a real IT person, who has been fighting an endless battle against spam for years. Actually, even a technophobic grandmother who does nothing but email on her computer knows that email contains "serious threats" which have "increased dramatically."

In any sales situation, the seller wants the buyer to buy. The buyer, meanwhile, is considering the purchase - and alternative courses of action. Most sales training gurus would call those alternatives "objections," and salespeople are trained to "counter" those objections.

But this usually backfires.

Here are some typical "alternative courses of action" that could be floating around in the buyer's mind as she listens to a sales pitch:

Looking for higher revenues this year? Pay attention to your projects and processes - Part 2

As I mentioned last week, successful companies are characterized by a series of successful projects.

There are other activities, however, that happen every day, which are not as "visible" as projects are. These activities are "processes" that take place as people work on projects, produce products or information, or carry on day-to-day administration such as accounting, IT, marketing, sales and order fulfillment.

If I were to do a "revenue growth audit" of your company, chances are you would get low marks for your processes. Inefficient processes would be inhibiting your ability to service customers and run an efficient operation.

How can I be so sure about that? Because process-centric companies are very, very rare.

As the leader of your company, what you decide to do is what gets done. At least, that's how it should happen. What you have control over (to a degree) are your own decisions, your own actions, and the management of your employees. You have some influence with your business partners. You have no direct control over your customers.

Of course, without customers, you wouldn't have a business - no revenue, no employees, no partners. The people most important to your business are your customers.

Whom do you spend the most time with? Employees.

True story, happened this month.

A man has recently taken up the game of golf. He is working hard on perfecting his swing, visiting the driving range every few days to hit a bucket of balls as straight and as far as he can.

As the fall has turned to winter, he has found it necessary to wear some sort of winter gloves while practicing his swing at the driving range. Normal cold-weather gloves are either too thick or not "grippy" enough to hold a club properly. So the man decides to make a special trip to a "golf warehouse" store. It's a bit of a drive, but he goes there because he knows it has a large selection of golf clothing and accessories. He is expecting to find all of the different models of winter gloves, and try them on.

Let's stop this specific, real-life story for a second and look at the broader implications. Here we have someone with a definite need. Someone who has decided what would meet that need, and is going out of his way to purchase the best solution to that need.

This is the beginning of the buying process, a moment in time that happens literally billions of times a day across the globe.

The president of a small company recently sent me an email. "We've done well in a lot of areas of business, but what we haven't done is sorely inhibiting our growth. We need to master marketing and are committed to doing just that. Will you point me to the best learning tools?"

I'll bet you can guess where I pointed him…right back to his own customers. Here was my reply:

Well, it's that time again. Elections. Always causes a bit of a dip in productivity, and a slowdown of the buying process, while everyone waits to see how the election will turn out.

Welcome to Distraction City.

In our news-dominated culture, distractions interrupt buying patterns. The larger the distraction, the larger the interruption. I tend to think of these periods as distraction-driven mini-dips. If there are a number of them in succession - especially those involving armed conflict or a terrorist attack - the dips can turn into a recession.

During these distraction-driven mini-dips, it's more difficult to generate revenue. Everyone still goes to work, meetings are still held, contracts are still signed, but if you're on the selling side, it always feels like the world is sliding sideways. As you attempt to finalize a contract, it's like talking to someone who is talking to someone else on a cell phone. Or who is pretending to be paying attention to you while simultaneously watching a movie. Sure, they will answer your questions, but they're not "all there." People are no where near as adept at multi-tasking as they think they are, especially if they have an emotional stake in the other task.

It's not just the buyers who are distracted. Sellers are distracted, too.

Major opportunity for you

If you haven't been to the launch site for NXP, a spin-off from Philips, take a look - and prepare to be blown away.

The site is beautiful. Breathtaking, even. The Guy in the Green Shirt (below), who will talk to you while you're on the site, does a pretty good job of being professional and yet friendly, in a geeky/retro kind of way. So friendly, in fact, that when you return to the site he will welcome you back.

Most business activities can be managed in a fairly straightforward fashion. You decide what you're going to do, you create a project plan - complete with cost and timing - you get the right people to execute the plan, you build in checkpoints, and then you set the wheels in motion.

The chances of these activities being successful are fairly high. The barriers to success are internal politics, unrealistic expectations, and mismanagement or ineptitude as the project progresses. These problems can be overcome with effective management. Politics can be squashed by managers who are forthright and goal-driven. Unrealistic expectations can be avoided by seasoned managers who have "been there, done that," and they know what can go wrong. Mismanagement isn't a problem when the managers gather accurate data and make sound decisions. Ineptitude shouldn't get in the way - even when it is well-disguised - because good managers can spot ineptitude a mile away.

A typical business person begins the day…

Booting up computer…OK, 200 emails that I am expected to respond to…18 phone calls I must make today…7 hour-long meetings…this email says that we can't use the approach we all finally agreed upon…sigh…phone rings…boss…wants me to call into a meeting he's holding now…there goes my "quiet" time…calling in…hmmmm boring…why did he think I needed to hear this?…May as well do something productive while I'm listening…briefcase handle broke yesterday, need a new one…let's see…Google…typing…

briefcase leather black computer pocket Briggs & Riley

Hmmm…MSN Shopping shows a bunch of them, looks like…clicking…ah, good…wait, boss is asking me a question…yes…yes…yes, we've got that under control, I'm sending you the project plan…email to boss…OK, back to briefcases. Man, they're expensive. Better sort by price…OK…I'll look at this and this and this…

We all know that this is the reality of a busy person's day, and the reality of a busy person's buying process. Yet we write as if they are sitting around with their feet up, luxuriating over every precious word of our promotional copy, like a recreational shopper with too much money and all day to spend it.

There's a conflict between the information you want to get from your potential buyers - in order to market to them effectively - and the fact that asking for that information can prevent them from interacting with your website or making a purchase. Asking for too much information too soon is like the owner of a retail store "greeting" you at the entrance and forcing you to sign a guestbook before you can start shopping. Most people would decline and leave the store, which is exactly what is happening on your website - except you can't "see" them leaving without resorting to in-depth web stat log analysis.

How do you find out what you need to know without placing barriers in their way?

Kimberley Deane makes beautiful, reasonably priced jewelry. Her photography skills are top-notch. Her website and printed materials are stunning.

The only problem is, Kimberley hates to sell. She'd rather spend most of her day creating her wares, not "selling." Most artisan entrepreneurs, especially those who open up one-person shops in order to sell what they love to create, hate to sell. Selling is a distasteful, intrusive activity. It grosses them out and causes them to break out in a cold sweat.

Kimberley wants to increase her sales, but she didn't want to have to sell in order to do it. Once I understood her problem, I was able to tell her that she doesn't need to "sell" in order to increase her sales. She just has to make it easy for people to buy from her. That was a comforting thought for Kimberley. Then we started working on exactly how she would do this.

Entrepreneurs, listen up. You may feel like you are alone in your struggle to increase your sales. You're not. Every single entrepreneur struggles with the same issues. And every conversation I have with an entrepreneur follows a similar pattern, and has a similar happy ending, once I show him where his solution lies.

The first conversation always starts out with the entrepreneur telling me what he has been doing about marketing and sales, and what he thinks he wants to try next. His options always involve decisions about marketing vehicles ("Should I do PR? What about my website? Should I follow the advice of this person selling direct mail services? What about this local agency that is trying to get me to run radio ads?")

I listen until he has given me the whole picture. It doesn't take long, because 35 years of selling every type of product helps me fill in the blanks--if he's selling direct, I know what his business model looks like; if he's selling through partners, I know right away the problems he's having in that area.

After asking him a number of questions - including "Are you interviewing your customers on a regular basis?", I can see why he is struggling with his marketing decisions. The problem is, he's focusing on his selling process.

"Demand generation" is the new name for "marketing." It has its roots in every salesman's fantasy. Salespeople are happiest when their product is in demand, when they're writing orders rather than having to make cold calls and trying to convince people to buy. The sweetest phrase a salesman can say to himself is, "I'm in demand!"

But "demand generation" has nothing to do with the customer's buying process. The only time "demand" can be applied to the customer's buying process is when a child is demanding something from a grownup. Picture the full-blown, in-store temper tantrum employed by the three-year-old, or the more subtle--but just as irritating--Major Sulk employed by a teenager using more "sophisticated" methods. But even in these cases, the child doing the demanding is not even the final decision-maker.

Every day, potential buyers are calling your company for the first time. They are also calling competing companies. This is the "first contact test."

If you are like most companies, your first-time callers will be confronted with a recorded voice that tells them to "select from the following options."

They must then pay careful attention to the options presented. As the voice rattles off the choices, #2 may sound hopeful, but not quite right. They try to remember #2 while they listen to all the other options, still hoping that one of them will lead to what they need. When the voice finally gets to #9, then says "press pound to hear the menu again," they realize that none of the options were appropriate and they are not going to be able to get human help by pressing zero.

If this is how your company's current system works, and you'd like to grow your sales, scrap your system.

Your website is one of the most important "employees" in your company. It is your company's most important salesperson and service person.

What kind of employee is it? Is it friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable? Or snarly and surly, thwarting the customer (and sabotaging the sale) at every turn?

I just bought a new laptop and its associated software and accessories. As I purchased and configured the computer, I was reminded again how stark the difference is between companies with a helpful website and companies with an obstructive website.

On the good side of the equation, we have CDW, the large computer company based in Illinois. I was considering buying my new laptop from them, but became convinced it was a good idea after talking to Jim Sterne. He told me he had gotten a cold call from them one day, which quickly turned into a warm call, which caused him to go to their website, and actually buy something. He has continued buying from CDW, over and over. Having now gone through a very pleasant and successful buying experience with them, I can understand his enthusiastic loyalty. More on CDW in a moment.

Strip away all the blather about image and branding and positioning and market share and guerilla marketing and relationship marketing, and on and on, and you have this basic fact: it's all about someone buying something. Period. It's time we stopped obsessing about how we "sell" and start obsessing about how our customers buy...and how we can help them.

Here's a great example of a buying process. The person doing the buying lives here on our island. Roger Marshall is an entrepreneur, boat designer, author, columnist, editor, and publisher. Anyway, Roger and I got to chatting recently about buying experiences. Shortly afterwards, he sent me an email about his recent attempt to buy a camera.

I'll let Roger tell his story:

"You want a service that fits you perfectly," the headline says. "We tailor to your size."

What service?

The rest of this ad, which appeared in The Wall Street Journal Online Edition, doesn't help answer this question. There's a picture of a tape measure - one of the most worn-out clich�s in the history of advertising, online or off.

There's a link to "More information"; again, totally useless. There's the great, informative tagline that probably cost the company $30,000 to create: "Making more possible." Gee, who else could that tagline apply to? Only about 3 million other companies.

Got a phone call today from a telemarketer for the "National Directory." Lots of voices in the background, obviously a boiler room. OK, no problem with that. But the guy calling me is talking too fast. Red Flag #1. Fast-talking callers make buyers uncomfortable.

He's talking so fast, I can barely understand which business he represents, and thus am not sure what this call is for, or where it's headed. Red Flag #2. He says something about this being the directory used by AOL's Yellow Pages.

He wants to confirm my contact information. OK, I can do that, I get these calls all the time. But I'm still suspicious. This "just confirming" shtick is usually the preamble to a sales pitch. Red Flag #3.

He confirms my contact information, then says, "Thank you. Now, you will be listed in the National Directory, free for 15 days." Red Flag #4. Big One.

"What happens after the 15 days?" I ask him.

"It's free for 15 days," he says, avoiding my question.

"That's not what I asked. What I asked was, 'What happens after the 15 days?'"

"Well, Ma'am, if you approve your listing, you'll pay $39 a month."

Let's assume someone really good-looking swept you off your feet with promises of a life of bliss. You dated, got engaged, and then tied the knot.

About five minutes after you left the church together in your limo, your new spouse suddenly turned into the ugliest, meanest, rudest person you had ever met. A broken heart and many months later, you were free, and you vowed to yourself: "Never again."

This is the mindset of today's software buyer. Especially those considering big-ticket, enterprise-wide programs.

These people are Skeptical, with a capital S. They have already been badly burned by "revolutionary" systems like CRM and ERP. Some of them almost killed their own companies trying to put these systems into place (and almost did it again when they had to remove those same systems).

Think you can impress these buyers with flowery promises? Not anymore. Think they'll believe that "It will be different this time - we will actually take care of you?" Ha! Think you're going to convince someone to champion your solution to their CEO? Dreamer!

They don't trust any promises; too many promises have been broken by everyone in the software business, from Microsoft (the biggest promiser and promise-breaker of all time) on down.

No wonder it's so tough to sell software.

Economies are driven primarily by consumer beliefs and behaviors. When consumers are confident, they buy more. That's why economists watch consumer confidence levels. But that one measurement doesn't tell the whole story.

The real source of consumer confidence

A large portion of consumers are workers, employed by a company. Their confidence is directly linked to the confidence level of their boss. Workers watch their bosses carefully. If the boss is worried about the future, and openly agonizing about competition, slow sales, or too-high expenses, the worker is going to play it safe and hang on to his money.

He'll nurse his old car along; he won't buy a new house; and he'll resist making other purchases until his boss' attitude changes. He will also be more careful with the company's money. He'll watch his business spending. He'll take longer to make decisions, dragging out the buying process.

His boss, the company's owner, is also a consumer - of both consumer and business-to-business products and services. In addition to having an impact on the behavior of their employees, CEOs and the world's growing league of small business owners have a direct impact on the economy. They play a significant role as their company's top dog, and as consumers in their own right.

It's finally becoming clear to everyone that marketing is not about relationships. Customers don't want relationships with sellers. Instead, they want to be able to find a product or service, get their questions answered, and make a purchase - without being forced into a "relationship." No one wants the local car dealer showing up for dinner. It was sellers who wanted a relationship, as if they could somehow magically make a customer loyal for life.

"Marriages" don't happen in the world of commerce. In real marriages - the romantic, lifetime kind - the partners stick it out through thick and thin. Commercial "relationships" are really one-night stands. One partner provides the goods, and the other partner pays the money. If the provider of the money isn't satisfied with the goods, he'll go find another partner.

If not relationships, what is marketing about?