How To Increase Sales – Jeffrey Gitomer
SUMMARY
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Content marketing is probably the poorest use of the words on the planet because the people that use it have no idea what it is. Therefore they are unable to learn how to increase sales.
The information of value you put out doesn’t necessarily have to attract excitement but it does have to attract interest.
Make sure the content is in favor of the customer. It’s a perceived valuable content or readable content or usable content or interesting content but it’s not just plain content.
I get asked how to increase sales. The entrepreneur has to understand that their message has to be value-based not sale- based.
The more value you provide into the marketplace, the more your phone is likely to ring or people are likely to connect with you.
The young stages of a business besides making a few sales, connection is what it’s all about. This is how to increase sales in the long run.
The whole key is writing something that’s got enough interest that the person reads all the way to the end and then, takes action.
Putting out your content.
- Write on a specific skill. Focus on a single topic.
- You need around 900 words to make it googleable.
- Be consistent. Write weekly.
Being observant can give you the inspiration to create something and it will teach you how to increase sales. When you see a service thing being done poorly or done great, write about it.
If you have some knowledge, start sharing, and if you want to get paid for what you know, you first need to show that you know it.
Give your stuff away.
Be willing to take risks, this is the first step to learn how to increase sales.
TRANSCRIPTION: HOW TO INCREASE SALES – JEFFREY GITOMER
How To Increase Sales
Kamala Chambers
Are you struggling to get clients or you’re wishing that clients were chasing you down and begging to work with you? Well today, we’re going to uncover some key secrets on how to increase sales.
Luis Congdon
All right. So you want to raise your fees, you want to have more clients and you want to have a thriving business. One person comes to mind to teach us how to increase sales and crush it our business.
Jeffrey Gitomer is today’s guest. He has written 12 books. He’s got millions of followers online. He has a huge email list and he’s speaking on stages all around the world.
Jeffrey Gitomer is someone I truly admire in the world of sales. He’s been one of my most fundamental teachers in sales and so, I’m really excited to bring to you Jeffrey Gitomer.
Welcome to the Thriving Launch. I’m really excited. We’ve brought on Jeffrey Gitomer to talk about how to increase sales.
Jeffrey, I really love your work and what you’re up to with sales. Welcome to the show. Are you ready to launch?
Jeffrey Gitomer
I’m ready Luis. I’m ready!
Luis Congdon
I’m excited to talk about how to increase sales and how to get to place where people are coming after us. People are seeking to find us, our services because this does so much for our business.
I know that I’ve been to a place where I was cold calling people. I was knocking on doors and I absolutely hate that lifestyle where you’re chasing after people.
What are some of the things we need to know in order to get to the place where people are chasing us?
Jeffrey Gitomer
First of all, the typical entrepreneur in today’s business launch world had an idea and may not be the person who they think is going to be the one who’s in sales and they’re going to hire a bunch of salespeople and that would be their panacea to solve their problem or their issue.
When in fact, the internet has provided an opportunity for them to create what euphemistically called “Content marketing” but it’s probably the poorest use of the words on the planet because the people that use it have no idea what it is. At least, I’ve been using it for the last 25 years.
There’s a way for the entrepreneur, the launch guide to put out information of value that can attract attention. It doesn’t necessarily have to attract excitement but it does have to attract interest. Can I get someone interested in what it is that I’m saying or doing? If I can do that through a series of articles, podcast, blogs, tweets, YouTube videos, whatever the circumstances in social media, they have a shot at it.
To be able to learn how to increase sales you need to master content marketing first. Let me start up by redefining content marketing so that the person who’s listening to this can actually get an idea of what they have to do before they hire sales person.
Make sure that the content is in favor of the customer.
I don’t want to know how great you are. I want to know how I win. I want to know what I can do. I want to know how I have to act. It’s something that I perceive as valuable to me. So it’s perceived valuable content or readable content or usable content or interesting content but it’s not just plain content.
Most of the time, people try to put out some offering. Like if you go to Twitter and you see all the bitlys that are out there. Most of those bitlys don’t lead you to content, they lead you to an offer and that is probably the biggest single turn off in the Twitter world.
It’s the same thing in anything they’re doing like in kind of emails going to have some kind of silly graphic in there, “Please click here because you’re going to get the deal of your life,” and there’s 3 bullet points and it’s all bullshit.
So, I feel as though the entrepreneur has to understand that their message has to be value-based not sales-based and the more value you provide into the marketplace, the more your phone is likely to ring People are likely to connect with you, engage with you and connect with you.
The young stages of a business besides making a few sales, connection is what it’s all about which will help you learning how to increase sales.
Kamala Chambers
This is fantastic and one way that Ray Higdon talked about it in our interview with him is out teach your competition, be the leader in your market, and be the one putting out the most valuable content.
I’d love to hear a little bit more about how you integrate this and how you incorporate putting out content. I know that putting out content can be a real drag for some people. It can be a lot of work. Do you have any tips on how to make it easier?
Kamala Chambers
Yeah. I absolutely agree with that.
Luis Congdon
I think that’s a tweetable. I like that. That’s pretty awesome.
Jeffrey Gitomer
Let’s talk about what might be a sure path.
When I started my sales training business in earnest, it was 1988 and it wasn’t until 1992 that I started to write. Writing changes everything. When were you guys born?
Kamala Chambers
We were both born in 83.
Jeffrey Gitomer
Okay. So you get it. However, the internet didn’t really happen until 95, 96, 97 and even then, there was dial-up. So I didn’t have any way of getting out socially. I had to be in print in order to teach how to increase sales.
I had to be in a newspaper, magazine, or some kind of business weekly in order to be able to get response. So I put in at the end of every column that I wrote a little call to action, “If you want more information about this, send me this,” and people did. At first it was a fax and then it was an email.
That got me thousands and thousands of responses. The whole key is writing something that’s got enough interest that the person reads all the way to the end and then, takes action. That’s a simple thing.
Now, before that, I put myself in front of people that could say, “Yes” to me and I gave them value. So, you deliver value and then you ask for response. Those are two key critical issues that now, are even simpler than ever because all you have to do now is put a “click here”. I put a, “click here to get more stuff.” A little blue line somewhere and people will click it and they’ll go to my website and that could put them in a funnel.
It’s very sophisticated now. It was not sophisticated when I first started out.
Kamala Chambers
I love how the strategy behind it has to be very intelligent. You have to really know what you’re doing, the ends and out.
Kamala Chambers
Exactly. I’ve really love that being about an entrepreneur. The first thing I do is try to talk people out of it and then, if they’re crazy enough to sit through the conversation with me talking them out of it and they still want to do it, then we dive in and then we get real.
Jeffrey Gitomer
That’s pretty interesting and I think in many ways, you’re correct. You try to poke a hole in it, maybe a hole that they didn’t see in their enthusiasm and then, you carry on from there.
Kamala Chambers
One way that we found to build a produced content that is the quickest path or the path that we’ve enjoyed the most is through podcasting.
It’s something that we can produce content in conjunction with other people. We have you and experts come on talking about the stuff that they’re genius at. Everybody has their genius.
What are some of your favorite ways to put out valuable content which will help learning how to increase sales?
Always Be Observant To Learn How To Increase Sales
Jeffrey Gitomer
I know that sales people have needs to build their skills. So I’ll write on a specific skill whether it’s asking a question or building relationship or even the best way to make an appointment or have somebody meet you for a cup of coffee.
The challenge is just focused on a single topic and I try to talk about 28 things at one time.
The Mother Google will find it and post it up some place and I think for that, you need somewhere around 900 words in order to really make it Mother googleable.
Jeffrey Gitomer
You can’t write one every 6 months and think something’s going to happen. For me, it’s weekly and I’ve been doing weekly for the last 20 something years and it works.
Luis Congdon
Jeffrey, I know that you’re incredibly prolific in teaching how to increase sales. You’ve written quite a number of books. Just in the world of books, you have a nice body of work. I mean, most of us are thinking just getting one book out is hard and I know that you’re somebody that doesn’t do a lot of studying for books.
You have an idea and you sit down and you’re not grabbing quotes and you don’t have a bunch of books next to you. You really pull it out from yourself.
When I think about you and the amount of content you’re delivering, I see you on YouTube, I see you on Twitter. You’re everywhere Jeffrey. I can’t get away from you and it’s really awesome because you share so much value that teach people how to increase sales.
How do you keep enough inspiration to continually do that? Part of it is just a grind but I’d still think that even when people are grinding, they’re running off of something. I saw Anthony Robbins speaking and he was talking about how his voice box should actually be gone but he said, “This is just inspiration that’s moving me. My voice shouldn’t be around right now for how much I talk.”
How are you staying inspired to create that much content and where are you finding the inspiration too to pull from and then create something?
Jeffrey Gitomer
If you read Napoleon Hill’s Think You Were Rich, you’ll find that he recommends being observant to be able to learn how to increase sales. I’ve been observant since 1972. I look at everything. I’ve look at everyone. I talked to everyone that I possibly can and, I’m in New York City right now, which is the epicenter of things that you got to look at. I live in Charlotte North Carolina and New York and, it helps me have a depth of content, a depth of body of work and use many ideas. The minute I get an idea, I write it down or the minute I see something, I wrote it down. Now, I text myself or take photograph of it.
I’m responsible for my own ideas. I see a bad situation. I see someone doing something stupid. Some service thing being done poorly or some service thing being done great and then I write about it.
Kamala Chambers
I love how being observant can be the fuel. When we’re paying attention to what’s going on around us.
Jeffrey Gitomer
Most people are just looking at their phone like idiots.
Luis Congdon
Jeffrey says it straight.
Jeffrey Gitomer
Think about it. What the hell can you see if you’re looking at your phone all day?
Kamala Chambers
Exactly.
Jeffrey Gitomer
What did you do 10 years ago before you had one of this? Somehow, you managed, right?
How To Increase Sales – Be Willing To Give
Luis Congdon
Jeffrey, you’ve given us a lot of valuable tips about how to increase sales.
All of you listening right now, I don’t know if you know the value that Jeffrey has given us. When I was first starting in my entrepreneur journey, I had no idea what I was doing. I came from the nonprofit world. I was very into giving, not making money and then you start your own business where at some level, and you’ve got to make money now.
There’s nobody paying you for what you do and I remember trying to figure out, how in the heck am I going to get my name out there, how can people understand that I have value and, one of the things I started doing is I just started giving away 20-minute coaching calls to people.
I didn’t know how to do sales so there was no pitch. I just get on a call and add value. I got a few clients that was very slow going. I hired a sales trainer to help me at some point but somebody came into my life and said, “Hey Luis, one of the things that you’re not doing is you’re not creating a body of work that shows you’re an expert and teaches us something.” I got really focused on sales because I’ve been the opposite of just give, give, give and giving without understanding the sales aspect and without creating blog articles. It was literally phone calls just connecting with people.
Learning how to increase sales is so important. Last time I checked it, I made 350 calls in less than a year ranging from at least 30 minutes or beyond, all completely free. I built my name on a lot of ways by doing that but at some point I realized I can’t do this and I can’t grow a business this way. So, somebody came into my life and said, “Luis, why don’t you start writing blog articles and Facebook posts and Tweets and things that shows us that you’re an expert and give us tips and tricks and really dive deep into your body of knowledge and teach us how you do what you do.”
Once I started doing that, it totally shifted everything for me and I just want to encourage all of you that if you have some knowledge, start sharing, and if you want to get paid for what you know, you first need to show that you know it.
Jeffrey Gitomer
Right, that’s the key to knowing how to increase sales. There are many sales training companies that put out the philosophy of, “Don’t give away your work,” or “Don’t do free consulting.” Those people are morons. I’ve made literally, millions of dollars by giving stuff away. Every solid mentor I’ve ever had has made their money by giving stuff away.
My recommendation is to give it away.
Luis Congdon
You have a really great story. Derek Halpern is someone I really admire and appreciate over at socialtriggers.com. He teaches people how to blog and how to increase sales. He gives tons of free stuff away.
One of the stories I remember reading about you Jeffrey is that you sold T-shirts and you talked to this guy. You somehow made a connection and you just gave to him or something like that. I don’t remember exactly what it was but it sounded like you kind of created a friendship and then it turned out that this guy ended up buying tons of shirts from you and you made one of your first million deals when you were young.
You approached this person as, “I’m just going to bring value to this guy.”
Jeffrey Gitomer
His credit card got stuck in a machine in the Dallas Airport. I kind of recognize him from a trade show. I asked him what was up and he told me about his credit card thing. So I gave him 100 bucks and he’s literally couldn’t believe it. I got the 100 bucks literally by FedEx the next day. Then, he called me up saying he had the contract for the 1984 Olympics but he was only going to manufacture the shirts and needed somebody to print them.
Luis Congdon
That’s amazing. What I love about that story is this sharing and caring about somebody that you don’t know.
Jeffrey Gitomer
Just be willing to take the risk if you want to learn how to increase sales.
Luis Congdon
It’s really amazing to have you on the show. Jeffrey is somebody that I’ve learned a lot from about how to increase sales.
Kamala Chambers
We’ve been here with Jeffrey and it’s been such an honor to have you here. We really love the insights about how to increase sales.
Please make sure to check him out and continue to practice this. Putting out your content and being consistent. That’s a huge take away from today. Thank you, Thriving Launchers.
Jeffrey Gitomer
It’s my pleasure.
