As part of #BeMyGuest month, I am delighted to have the opportunity to provide a guest blog for Robert Pickstone, who requested a story from my sales and marketing career.  So here is how I learned my most important lesson about selling. And yes, it is true!

What a Tramp taught me about Selling!

Early in my sales and marketing career, I sold cars. The hard way. Commission only. An English woman selling cars in Scotland!

I was taught the technicalities of selling by men whose lives had been spent in the motor trade.  But the most important lesson I ever learned about selling was taught to me by a tramp on a wet Christmas Eve.

The only people in the showroom are the 4 other salesmen and me – all looking forlornly out the window, thinking what a waste of time – no one will buy a car on Christmas Eve when it’s raining.

An old man, dressed in a dirty mac, tied up with string, walks into showroom. The other four scarper, leaving me muttering under my breath that I wasn’t quick enough to disappear with them. The tramp comes across to say hello. What the heck, it’s Christmas, why not spread some good cheer around and just take the time to have a conversation with another human being. So I spend 10 minutes talking about trivialities with a dirty, smelly stranger who obviously just wants to get out of the rain.

Then he says “I want to buy a car”.  Oh no – a tramp who’s mentally unstable too!  Buy I play along, so we discuss what type of car he would like.  I even showed him the cars in the showroom, making sure he doesn’t get in them and get the seats dirty.  I can even hear my 4 “colleagues” sniggering as they hide behind the one-way window in the service area.

Then “my” tramp picks a car – a demonstrator.  And he wants a test drive.  Well okay – let me get the seat protectors (sheets of plastic used by mechanics to avoid getting oil on customers’ car-seats). And I take him for a drive around the East Lothian countryside, all the while worrying that a real buyer might be walking into the showroom.  

As we drive back into the garage, he says he likes the car and wants to buy it.  “Can I drive it away today?” he asks.  Yeah right, I thought – you won’t get finance. “Och hen, I dinna want finance. I want to trade in my old car. Look it’s over there.”

And I looked at his car – a one year old Nissan Micra. All he had wanted to do was trade up to a car with more doors. He gave me the logbook and his insurance – yes, it’s really his. Next hurdle – I price his trade-in and there’s a £2000 difference. “Nae worries, hen.  I’ve got some notes in my pocket – not sure how much tho’.  Will ya count it fer me?” and he hands me a wad of cash which turned out to be £3000.

I was the only sales person on that Christmas Eve to sell a car in the whole franchise of 15 garages. And yes, he did drive it away the same day. And the best bit of all. As he drove away: “You know hen – this was the 7^th garage I’ve been to today and you’re the only person who came and said hello to me. Thank ye.”

It’s easy to make our minds up about other people without knowing anything about them. Now I never prejudge people as I know we are all unique, complete with quirks and foibles! Like the tramp, all we want is someone to notice us and say hello!

 Sue Windley is the Marketing Director of the Pragmatic Performance Group, a business acceleration consultancy that supports small and medium-sized enterprises in the south west of England. She is active on Twitter as @DangerousMkting, which is also the name of her blog where you can find all sorts of news and views on all aspects of marketing.

This year the Likeminds 2010 conference had all of the above. What took it that step further though was the people-to-people experience that guests (not customers) were part of.

Debate is bound to follow about the quality of the presentations and discussions. There will be different views on the value of what was on show and the messages that were being pushed. Saying that, the audience were invited to offer their opinions during panel discussions and not all panel members agreed with each other anyway. Like any conference, it is up to the individual to absorb everything and then make their own mind up. What Likeminds 2010 did was provide world class thought-leaders and practitioners (Chris Brogan, Olivier Blanchard, John Bell, Jonathan Akwue and Joanne Jacobs) that will hopefully inspire many others to take part in healthy, social media/online communications debates.

What I believe can’t really be debated is whether or not Likeminds 2010 delivered on what I believed to be the underlying theme of the whole experience: connecting people. They delivered big time. I don’t think I have ever attended a conference or event where talking to people has been made so easy. It might sound silly to say but it is true.

There were two stand out factors that made it easy for me to connect. Firstly, the name badges with the Twitter avatars on allowed me to spot people I have spoken to online but have never met in person. Secondly, booking lunches with speakers/panellists/guests who shared similar interests allowed me to speak to others with whom I knew I shared common ground. Along with the great hashtag feed and the willingness of most guests to mingle, an environment was created for people to connect to other people.

As Scott has said on many occasions, being part of a community is not enough. Good connections need to be made so that actions can actually follow.

I made many new connections at Likeminds 2010 and I am positive these will lead to many actions. Sure, I will enjoy debating the details of the event with many others over the coming weeks (putting on the ’social media geek hat’ can be quite fun), but the overwhelming emotion I have right now is that Likeminds connected me to many great people and many positive outcomes are on the cards.

For this I would like to thank everyone who took part.

Do you agree? Did you find it easy to connect?

If your customers or potential customers are not responding to your constant emails, phone calls and letters, yet you are still trying your hardest to get their attention, then it may be time to step back for a second.

• Why do they have no interest in engaging with you?
• What can you say to make them listen?
• What can you do to prove that you can be useful to them?
• How do you change their perception of you?

Don’t be a business version of Alan Partridge. It is very funny to the outsider but the way you communicate is going to get you nowhere.

What is the point in being negative? Does anyone actually have a good answer to this question? Has anyone ever found that being negative is more productive than being positive? 

Being negative makes others around you feel bad too. Why would you want to drag them down with you? Why would you want them to switch off to what you are saying?

We all encounter situations when it is very hard to remain positive but the very least we can do is try our best to keep sprits high so that we are helping ourselves, helping others and helping things getting done.

If you are preventing me from getting something done by being negative I will either switch off completely and do my own thing or I will be just blunt with you. Can you do the same back please?

I recently came across the following tweet from LinkedInQueen:

“Writers block? We set up and write blogs starting at $100! http://bit.ly/8PanVX”

I was pretty astonished at first. How could someone else possibly know the ins and outs of a company when they have never stepped foot inside Head Office? Why would a company want someone else to speak to their customers? Why would a company be misleading and pretend that they created the content of a blog or that it is their voice?

After clicking on the link I discovered that the “Social Media Service” could write content around 3 areas of the company’s choice, as part of the basic plan. So, it may work like this: I give the brief…hand over the money…ask for blog articles around marketing, finance and skills…they produce the content…content is discussed and mutual changes are agreed…I give it the OK…it then gets posted to my company blog (which they have created) as my own content.

I am actually a little uncomfortable with this. In the vast majority of cases a company’s blog content should be controlled by the people that work for the company. They keep the cogs going round, they know the business inside out, they engage with customers, they are the experts, they are the company.

After stating that I did not agree with the approach, the author of the tweet responded: “There are clients who really need help & we work closely to translate their words w/ their approval”.  So, is this a way of saying it is a copywriting service? Or does this service write blogs for companies?

In an extreme example, there may be an extremely creative, self-employed entrepeneur who has very poor literacy and no computer skills, but wants to use the internet to share his ideas under the company brand. If his ideas were translated word for word after a discussion, then this may be copywriting. If there is any element of control or creativity being handed over to the agency, then would the blog content be 100% his? Translating and writing are two very different things.

After racking my brains, and after a brief discussion with Kimmo Linkama, the only times I can think of when it may be OK for a company to have blog content produced and then genuinly passed on as their own, is as part of promotional blog articles (Press Releases, Interview Transcripts, etc). Readers may expect other contributers in thse instances. However, an outside agency writing articles to display a company’s level of expertise and knowledge, or even just their opinion, just doesn’t sit right. That is not blogging to me.

• When do you think it’s OK for a company to have blog content created for them and then displayed as their own?
• Do you think it is wrong for others to write your company blog?

Vote in the poll below and share any opinions you have on this subject. It would be really interesting to hear your thoughts and experiences. If I am looking at this the wrong way, tell me.

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• Stephen Fry is one of the most famous celebrities using Twitter and to be honest he tweets about all sorts – it can be witty, it can be personal, it can be random – he does engage with followers. He has been talking about clay pigeon shooting, Omegle and lunch today.
• Duncan Bannatyne has used Twitter to show the more personal side to the multi-millionaire “Dragon” that sometimes scares contestants on the BBC show Dragon’s Den. I have learnt that he is enthusiastic about charity and recognising achievement. Duncan also engages with followers.
• Dannii Minogue has used Twitter really well to respond to many of her fans, as well as fans of ITV’s The X Factor. In the past, pop-music fans may have drawn a picture and popped it in the post to their idols – now they can take a twitpic and within minutes there is a chance they will receive some feedback!
• Mark Bright loves talking about football (soccer to Yanks) and sport. Many Twitter users also love talking about football and sport. Mark gives fans a chance to talk to an ex-professional player as the action is happening out there on the pitch.

I think that these celebrities have used Twitter to help brake down barriers and speak directly to fans and the general public. That is why I will continue to follow them and big up others who do the same! They must get bucket loads of messages and so can’t physically respond to all of them – but at least they make an effort.

What celebrities do you follow that try to engage with their followers?

Do you think more celebrities will use Twitter in 2010 to help brake down barriers with the wider public?

Update:  More celebrities recommended for two-way engagement

Jed Langdon recommends:

- Jason Manford – http://twitter.com/Jason_Manford
- Peter Serafinowicz – http://twitter.com/serafinowicz
- Matt Horne – http://twitter.com/mfhorne
- Alyssa_Milano – http://twitter.com/Alyssa_Milano

Feel free to make your own recommendations.

• The ability to make new friends
• The ability to help others
• The ability to learn

Have you grasped these gifts? If so, are you going to grasp them again next year?

This must be one of the shortest blog posts out there but I just wanted to get straight to the point. Hopefully next year we can all continue to meet new people, help them and learn from them.

Merry Christmas.

The information you find can help you spot a common interest, both personally and professionally. Using this information correctly, your conversation can be enhanced, opportunities can be spotted and deals can be clinched. Background information can also help you to build a foundation to a good working relationship.

What tools are available though and what can we find out? You may want to think about the following:

• LinkedIn – We can find out what their professional background is, what qualifications they own, who recommends them, what their skills set is and who their business contacts are.
• Twitter – We can find out what they are saying “real-time”, what issues they are currently interested in and who they are sharing their conversations with.
• Facebook – We can find out a combination of the information available from LinkedIn and Twitter. Also, interests and hobbies tend to be more prominent on Facebook.
• Blogs – We can find out what area they have a real passion for, what they are willing to spend extra hours writing and talking about, and what message they want to spread.
• Search Engine Results – We can find out comments that may have been made on forums and blogs, as well as when they have appeared in press releases and on company websites.

Like I said, this is just a general breakdown. Do you share public information in a different way? Would you use these tools to research a client before meeting with them?

I would be interested to hear your views and experiences.

Persuading someone to side with cash when they don’t really need to should cause a huge amount of guilt. I only felt this once, and it wasn’t for large amounts of cash, but five years on I still think about it now and again. Once was too often.

One factor that can influence sales people into this action is a commission pay structure, especially if pay is commission only. Other factors can include pressures from management, chasing promotion and the buzz of a sale.

If you currently work in sales, or have done in the past, have you felt this guilt?

If you are constantly receiving sales pitches for products and services you don’t need, then why not ask about their motivation and bring guilt into the equation? It might make a difference.

We all have responsibilities within our jobs but sometimes personal responsibilities are much more important.

Some people chose to communicate by spending hours on the phone each evening. Some people are unable to drag themselves away from their emails. Some people send thousand of texts each month. Some people talk so much they give themselves, and everyone around them, headaches. They are all communicating in the way they choose. Social media is just another form of communication that you have chosen.

As long as you don’t allow it to detract from the value of other forms of communication then it shouldn’t be a problem. If you find yourself taking three days to reply to an email from a work colleague or a text from your Mum then it may be time to take a step back and think about what you are doing. If relationships are being weakened rather than strengthened then then same applies. More often than not though a balanced approach works best and being able to communicate effectively in lots of different ways is surely a good thing.

The real addiction that most of us have is wanting to talk to people. That’s not a bad thing. It’s better than being hooked on watching Star Trek re-runs alone most evenings.

What do you think? Are you an intelligent addict?