Things I've learned about selling: #2 of many:

#2 Make THEM Smile.

In my previous post I wrote about the importance of smiling when you engage a prospective buyer. 

• Smiling makes you happier.
• Smiling at someone may likely evoke a smile in response.
• Smiling will make that person happier.
• A person who smiles will have a more positive impression of what follows than one who doesn't smile.
• Therefore: If you make them smile you will have more sales success.

This is not a theory. This is a fact. I did not make this up. Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winning psychologist, wrote Thinking, Fast and Slow, which every professional salesperson should read. Strike that... EVERYONE who has an interest in how and why we make decisions and how we are influenced should read this book.*

• Want to make someone smile? Ask them to put a pencil in her/his mouth, between their teeth. It causes the “smiling” muscles to trigger, forcing someone to smile for real, even if they don’t want to. The physical act of smiling positively affects levels of dopamine, endorphins and serotonin... making you feel better.

I'm not suggesting you hand your buyer a pencil and ask them to stick it in their mouth. Nor would I recommending you tell an off-color, inappropriate, insensitive or politically charged joke. The skill of getting prospect to smile while maintaining your stature as a credible, informed and trustworthy professional is incredibly valuable and shouldn't be underestimated.  

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy." ~Thich Nhat Hanh

*and this book by Malcolm Gladwell: Blink. 

Marketing Without Selling is Like....

Bert without Ernie, 
Pizza without cheese,
Mick without Keith,
Thunder without Rain,
Peanut butter without Jelly,
Lennon without McCartney [although great on their own]
and Freedom without honoring our veterans [It's Veteran's Day!]

• Marketing covers everything that leads up to the sale. The focus groups, the promotional packages, "star placement", media coverage, etc. It's all theoretical. Sales, on the other hand, is the end result. The meeting with customers every day, where communicating is the most important ability. They don't teach that in marketing class.

Oh, and for me... it's like Stacher without Stacher.

Defining your white space...

WHITE SPACE according to...

PC Magazine 

Unused spectrum between earlier analog TV channels. Any area on a document page that does not contain text or graphics. Also called "negative space."  Non-printing characters. A void in service; for example, white spaces in the cellular industry are geographic areas without coverage.Unused space in a disk storage system. White space may refer to allocated, but unused, blocks of storage. 

Principles of Design 

Areas of a design devoid of text or graphics. White space is also analogous to "negative space" where "positive space" is defined as images, blocks of text, and other graphical elements. In graphic design, the white space, or negative space, is considered an important element of the overall design. It is used - and evaluated - based on the same criteria as the rest of the elements in the design. White space can add to or detract from the balance, unity, harmony, rhythm, and overall success of a design. White space can give emphasis, contrast, and movement. It can be used for repetition and pattern, and work within various relationships with other elements of the positive and negative spaces in the design.

Harvard Business Review 

"market opportunities your company may wish — or need — to pursue that it cannot address unless it develops a new business model."

Me...  

"WHITE SPACE is the gap between current capabilities and/or markets, and their potential."

Where are your white spaces?  Which do you fill-in first... and which do you leave open?

The process can be, "Like eating glass"....

 according to my friend, a Judge.

I just completed jury duty and we were discussing the process of Jury Selection, and the challenge I felt both lawyers were having in communicating effectively, in a court setting which has a proscribed process and structure which limits and controls words and meaning; inferences, suppositions, presumptions.  Whether rookies, unprepared, or legally astute attorneys, their presentation and communication was not smooth or fluid... annoying to those you are trying to influence to make a judgement in your favor.

The ability control semantics, tone, energy and flow are imperative for success... as an attorney and salesperson... and it starts by becoming intimate with the facts and the process.