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Collegiate Sales Advisory Board

The mission of the Collegiate Sales Advisory Board is to support the Sales Program at Northern Illinois University. We achieve this goal by assisting in the marketing of all sales activities while offering students valuable content that will help them achieve success in all disciplines. We assist members especially in their preparation for the Advanced Professional Selling Course, or Marketing 450, and for sales related success beyond the classroom.

In short, we at the Collegiate Sales Advisory Board strive to be the stepping stone of every great sales professional that goes through the sales program at NIU!

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The Recipe for a Great Leader

Everyone either wants to be a great leader or be led by one. As we all know, being one isn’t easy and finding one takes a lot of time. Daniel Goleman’s HBR article on what makes a great leader gives several traits every great leader should have and the recipe revolves around something called Emotional Intelligence.

Summary

Everybody knows the newly promoted exec that’s really skilled at their job and/or a genius. However, they quickly fail at the new roles. It doesn’t make sense if we think about the skills the company requires. Goleman did his research and found that there were several traits common to great leaders. Each of them related to how leaders interacted with other people and their emotions. So he bunched them up into a bundle called Emotional Intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence consists of 5 traits:

• Self-awareness – awareness and understanding of your emotions
• Self-Regulation – ability to control or redirect your emotions
• Motivation – passion to pursue goals with energy and persistence
• Empathy – awareness and understanding of other’s emotions
• Social skill – ability to build and maintain relationships

These are the differences between what we often think would make a great leader and what really does. So now that we know what they are, how did he find them?

In Daniel’s studies, he segmented people’s capabilities into three segments: Technical Skills, Cognitive Abilities, and Emotional Intelligence. Tech Skills are the nuts and bolts like accounting and business planning skills. Skills like analytical reasoning fall under Cognitive Abilities, while Emotional Intelligence consists of the five traits above. He teamed up with several psychologists who created competency models and interviewed senior managers at top firms and asked them to give capabilities that their most outstanding leaders have. The results showed that, while Cognitive Skills and Technical Skills were important, Emotional Intelligence was twice as important.

Key Takeaways

Daniel Goleman proved that while being techy and analytical are great traits business leaders should have, they are often not enough to be outstanding. To do more than suffice, leaders need to think about people. Key Takeaway: the best techsters aren’t always the best leaders in their field.

That being said, the human aspect of business, namely emotions, play a vital role in leading people and having a healthy business. Being aware of and understanding your and other’s emotions is that human factor. Key takeaway: Having Emotional Intelligence is what separates good leaders from great ones.

Who knew emotions played such a large role in leadership? Yeah, they’re important, but it seems intuitive that getting the job done is more important. However, we can all recall times that our emotions were the difference between leaving tasks incomplete and putting all we have into them. Key takeaway: Leader’s must stay aware of everyone’s emotions, including their own.

What’s a Marketing Plan?

Whatever size your company is, it needs a marketing plan. A marketing plan is the story of how your company is bringing its value to market. It includes everything from a SWOT Analysis to the money your company spends bringing your product to market. Lucky for you, its easy and StartupNation‘s article on how to Develop a Strategic Marketing Plan tells just how to do it.

Summary

Marketing doesn’t just mean Advertising, PR, or promotion. As you’ll see in a moment, it’s much more. Your marketing plan will actually covers many things and should go quite into detail. In fact, its much like building a house. Here are some things to include:

Overview

This section will be an executive summary of your marketing plan. A brief run-down of everything covered in it and maybe some highlights. It should be a page in length. Naturally, this will be written after the rest of the marketing plan is done.

Situational Analysis

Just like contractors survey the land to build excellent houses, you must survey the market to grow an excellent business. The easiest way to do this is to conduct a SWOT Analysis. See what your company’s strengths and weaknesses are and what market factors are opportunities or threats.  Don’t forget to include what customers you want to reach and your competitors.

Marketing Strategy

Now that you know where you’re building your house, you must decide what kind of house you want to build. The marketing strategy is where you set goals and objectives for your business. The best goals are SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely). Be sure to also add some particulars of what your business is offering. The easiest way to do this is by using the 4 Ps known as:

• Product – What product or service will you be giving to customers?
• Price –  How much are you asking for them?
• Promotion – How will people hear of your company and its products or service?
• Place – Where will you sell your products and services?

Bonus: As your staff plays such an important factor in customer experience, you might want to include a 5th P, People. What kinds of people will be working for your company? Different people bring a different company culture and image.

Marketing Tactics

These are the tools the contractor uses to build his house. These are the tools you’ll be using to grow your business. Proven tools to use are print, online (website and social media), radio, events, and public relations. Don’t just put what tools you’ll be using, write why you’re using them, how much they cost and when you’ll use them. Go into detail.

Marketing Budget

This is the money that pays for the contractor’s new house. Plan how you will be spending your money implementing the strategy you just came up with. Remember the SMART goals in this step. As you continue running your business, you should be measuring your budget monthly and don’t be afraid to make some changes.

Timeline

Unlike a contractor, you never finish building your project. You’re business will always be growing. Always check how each of those marketing tactics is helping you. Again, it’s okay to make changes to the business plan. In fact, it’s encouraged.

In general, your company should at least revise its marketing plan once a year and whenever any new products or services are offered.

Key Takeaways

No matter how small or large your company is, it should have a marketing plan if you want to expect growth. Just like a contractor needs blueprints to build a house, you should have a marketing plan. Key takeaway: If you don’t have a marketing plan already, you better start soon.

Making a marketing plan is not something to do during your spare time. You’re going to need to put some honest work into it. Dedicate time to it so you can make it stronger. The more in detail you go, the more helpful it can become. It’s the blueprints to your business. Key takeaway: Go into detail in your marketing plan.

Even if your business already has a marketing plan, you want to make sure it stays up to date. Check over your marketing tactics and budgets regularly and consider a whole update annually and whenever a new product or service is offered. Key takeaway: Keep your marketing plan up to date.

The New Tobacco: Soft Drinks

Are soft-drink companies using unethical tactics that tobacco marketers used in the 1950s when tobacco was linked to health problems? Let’s see what Andre Mayer of CBS says in his article Soft-drink makers accused of using “Big Tobacco playbook.”

Summary

Canadian obesity expert Yoni Freedhoff says the moves that soft-drink makers are pulling are last chance efforts to save an industry that’s been proven to be a risk to people’s health. If this sounds familiar, here’s why: in 2009, an influential paper pointed out that when tobacco use was linked to certain health risks, tobacco companies started acting like they cared about the public’s health and promised to make some changes in good faith.

For example, soft-drinks have been linked to health issues such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease for a few years now. In the mid-2000s, popular brands like Coca-Cola and 7Up created products that promised to be healthier. Since then, the Food and Drug Administration has ruled Coca-Cola of making false claims about a product’s nutritional value and a class-action lawsuit on 7up about one of it’s  product’s nutritional value have caused the products to be discontinued.

Another thing soft-drink makers are doing is promoting healthy lifestyle choices in marketing campaigns. One example is Coke’s “Coming Together” campaign which features an ad called “The Calorie Dictionary.” The dictionary attempts to give consumers ideas on how they can burn off the calories they consume by drinking a Coke. Freedhoff, however, suspects this ad to be deceptive.

What makes the Big Soft-Drink playbook more successful than the Big Tobacco playbook when both products have been linked to fatal diseases? Perhaps it’s that lung cancer is mainly caused by smoking tobacco (or second hand smoke) while obesity can have soft-drinks as a factor but it isn’t the only cause.

Key Takeaways

One of the biggest concepts to glean from this article is that marketers must be careful of how they respond to industry events, such as consumers’ perceptions of soft-drinks becoming negative. While Coca-Cola and 7Up made products that showed soft-drinks could be made healthy, they failed when the law caught up to them for faulty claims. This could have doubled their troubles since now consumers have a bad perception of their product and them. Key takeaway: Be aware of legal implications of what you say.

Another concept that is important in this article is that sometimes companies have to help their customers use their products appropriately. The article mentioned that Coca-Cola had an ad that showed how someone could burn the calories they consumed from a can of Coke. While this was seen as deceptive from some, it did show Coke acknowledging the issue at hand and being responsible. Key Takeaway: Show understanding of current issues relevant to your brand.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, companies can’t just stand around when there’s big news in the industry. Even if these brands had promotions that failed, they had promotions and showed effort. Sometimes consumers like seeing that companies actually make an effort to fix a situation, whether it works or not. Key Takeaway: Be proactive about your brand.

Watch and Learn: Reading Body Language to Understand the Prospect

Phone calls, texts, emails, memos. There are many ways to communicate with someone and learn how they feel. But did you know you can read people’s body language to discover things they might not be saying? Ken Osborn of Entrepreneur Magazine shares ways we can read people’s body language in his article Let’s Make a Deal.

Summary

Your subconscious is often like an auto-pilot for your body, controlling everything from breathing to digestion without you even thinking about it. Since so much depends on your subconscious, it never lies, making it an excellent source of information in a negotiation setting.

Ken shares some ways we can start noticing others’ nonverbal cues. One is that people tend to make a slight frown when they are in disapproval. If they have their arms crossed or if they rub their eyes, you can be in trouble too. These are all signs of dislike towards whatever they’re thinking about. Sometimes, if people wants to say something but you are talking and don’t give them a chance to speak, they might start tugging their ears. In this situation, it might be wise to pause and allow your conversation partner to share what’s on his or her mind. People sometimes even let smiles “leak” from them, as Ken puts it. They see something they like but don’t control their impulse to smile. Looking for these body language signs in conversation is a good way to understand what the other person is thinking without him or her even saying it. In a negotiation setting, this can be a very good tool.

Ken finished his article by saying that negotiation is an essential skill to run a business. Often times, your business’s success will depend on how well you understand your clients’ objections and interests.

Key Takeaways

Many times people don’t say how they feel. Whether it’s because they are in a stressful situation or just not realizing it, this ignorance can lead to mistakes. Key Takeaway: Monitor your own body language.

Other times the people we talk to don’t directly tell us how they feel. Maybe it’s because they don’t trust us or because they don’t want to hurt our feelings. But reading someone else’s body language can be a sure way to clear up the misconception. Key Takeaway: Monitor other’s body language.

Lastly, you want to use this super-power for good not evil. Some people’s body language is more obvious than other’s. If someone doesn’t want to share something with you, it could be for many reasons. Therefore, it’s important to really think about why someone is not being completely upfront. Key Takeaway: Use empathy to think before you speak about what you see.

What do you sell?

Features, Benefits or Value? Wherever you do your marketing (online, with salespeople, or otherwise) you should consider what you want your customers to think they’re buying. This is the topic of Geoffrey James’ article in INC. Magazine titled How to Sell: Value, Benefits or Features?

Summary

Most people think value is getting the most product for the least amount of money. This is wrong. Value can come from a few different ways that don’t have to do with cost necessarily. Features are what your customer physically thinks he’s getting. A 4K TV, for example, would have the feature of 4,000 pixels across it. The benefit of this, however, which is that the quality is better, is a better sell than the actual numbers. It’s usually people that are geeks about something that will go off on just features. Marketing the benefit, better quality, is still not the best way to sell the 4K TV though. What does better quality do for your customers? That’s what value is. Value is what’s in it for them and what it means to them. The fact that they can enjoy watching movies more with the better quality is value. Value is the strongest selling point. Next comes the benefits. Least effective are the features. Don’t sell features, sell value.

Key takeaways

When selling a product. Don’t sell it on the features. Most people won’t understand what the features are good for or how features impact them. They won’t even know what some of the jargon means when you start selling technical products or services. Key takeaway: Don’t sell features.

While feature are nice, value is king. Tell your customers what the value they get out of buying from you. How will you make their lives better? They want to know how you will impact their lives. Key takeaway: Make value clear to your customers.

It’s difficult to tell how someone will value something without knowing them. You may not have the best idea of what they value. Without knowing what they value, how will you know how they value your product or service? By getting to know your customers and their businesses, you will better understand (and help your customers understand) how they will be better off by buying from you. Key takeaway: Get to know your customers.

How to Close Without Giving Tips for Free

The world of sales is a tough place. It’s difficult to get people to see things from your point of view, let alone make them spend money because of what you tell them. That’s why looking credible is such a big part of getting a sale. Some salespeople, however, look to giving away free advice to establish their credibility. This, in return, happens to dilute their value. Grant Cardone, in his article in Entrepreneur Magazine titled How to Stop Offering Free Advice and Make the Sale, shares ways salespeople can close sales without giving away too much.

Summary

Customers don’t appreciate your advice as much when you give it to them for free as when they pay for it. Is there another way to make yourself credible without giving away too much? One way is to show your past work. Presenting your past successes, and name-dropping when possible, is one of the best ways to show credibility. Another way is to build rapport with clients. Grant shares that clients often have outright told him that they prefer to do work with people they like or even are passionate about. Lastly, and most daringly, draw the line in the sand. Tell your client how much you charge for your time. According to Grant, “You can’t expect people to respect you unless you respect yourself.” By telling them your costs, you get them to respect you and, in effect, increase you level of credibility. If you want a long term approach to being more credible, start writing blogs, take leadership initiatives and join industry associations.

Key Takeaways

The reason people buy your services is because they don’t have them. By giving prospect tips and advice in the sales call, you lose some of your credibility and dilute the value of your service. Why would they pay for you when you’re giving them you for free. Key takeaway: Don’t give away too much for free to build credibility.

As some of Grant’s clients have told him, they like to do more business with people they like. Therefore, it’s important to do things like building rapport to treat them like real people, not getting straight to business. Key takeaway: Remember to build rapport with your customers.

So how do you show your prospects that you’re credible? Simple put: Be more credible. Show them your past achievements, provide evidence, and maybe even testimonials. Also, take yourself more seriously. Doing things like telling them straight-up how much you charge for your time, becoming more active in your industry and undertaking leadership initiatives. Key takeaway: Get people to respect you by respecting yourself.

Negotiating Isn’t Just Getting a Good Deal

Negotiating means carrying on business. At least, that’s where the word “negotiate” originated from. Grant Cardone of Entrepreneur Magazine talks about this and several of his rules of the art in his article titled 3 Golden Rules of Negotiating.

Summary

Some people think negotiating means getting the best deal for themselves, others think it means getting to pay the lowest price possible. Like many other words, understanding where the term originates from helps understand what’s really behind the word. The word negotiate comes from the Latin word negotiari which means to carry on business. So the goal of negotiating isn’t really to get the lowest price on a deal. It means coming to an agreement on how to carry on business with another. Therefore, your product or service solution should be the focal point of negotiations, not price. Here are three rules to follow when negotiating, keeping in mind the goal of carrying on business.

Be the one to start negotiations. Be doing this you can be the one that has control of where negotiations lead. Grant uses the example of asking someone what his or her budget is. Once you ask this, you are allowing him or her to start negotiations and take them to the end. You are working to meet his number. What you want is for him to start working for your number.

Negotiate in writing. The purpose of a negotiation is to get a written commitment. Therefore, you should always be referring to a written document. The best way to do this is to be writing it in front of the client. When you negotiate terms, then create a document, not only do you waste time creating the written terms document, you lose the chance to ask for a signature when your client makes his or her decision to buy.

Stay grounded throughout negotiations. Some negotiations can become heated exchanges due to personality conflicts stemming from egos or emotions. You should stay grounded and on task, dusting the emotions and egos off your shoulder. Focus on the logic of the solution you are offering your client.

Key Takeaways

During negotiations, you want to be in control. Sometimes you can give up control by letting your client begin throwing his budget at you without even realizing it. Once you do this, you’re chasing his numbers, but you really want him to be chasing yours. Key takeaway: Always give your client your numbers first.

You just spent two hours negotiating a contract with a client and have finally gained commitment. The only problem is you don’t have any document for him to sign. Because you didn’t negotiate in writing, you risk something coming up last minute and changing the commitment before you create a written document. Key takeaway: Always have a written agreement handy.

Everybody knows negotiations can spark emotions. Emotions make people’s thinking unclear and distracted. Don’t let this happen to you. You wouldn’t want to lose a deal because you let your emotions hijack you into saying something you know you shouldn’t be saying. Key takeaway: Always be grounded in logic.

How to Build Brand Loyalty with Customer Service

Having brand loyal customers is every marketer’s dream. The benefits of having customers becoming brand loyal are endless. But how can you build brand loyalty if you’re a new business? Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin brand, shares with Entrepreneur magazine readers what he’s seen to be effective ways of building brand loyalty using customer service in his Q&A advice article on Entrepreneur.com.

Summary

An Entrepreneur reader asked Richard Branson “How do you build a company culture based on brand loyalty?”

His answer starts by referring to a New York Times article implying that his Virgin America airline brand seems to be having trouble balancing its profits and its service. However, he shares that since his philosophy focuses on customer service, he is able to do things that companies whose focuses are on bringing in cash are unable to do. Therefore, he will always choose service over profits.

Branson’s experience tells him that if he focuses on winning people over, the profits will follow. Back in the 80s, the potential of his other airline company, Virgin Atlantic, was criticized by the media. The brand was questioned as the media didn’t believe many people would fly across an ocean with an airline called Virgin. Now, since he kept his focus on giving his passengers the best customer service, the airline has more loyal customers and competes with the major airlines.

Brand loyalty can come from the inside as well. Branson explains that employees often times come up with the best ideas. Not only does brand loyalty get strengthened internally, but the ideas are essentially free. All you have to do is encourage employees to listen to customers and be creative.

The last tip Branson gives is to be the sort of company that goes the extra mile for its fans. The sort of company that customers remember for going above and beyond for them. More likely than not, the customers will go above and beyond for the brand and become brand loyal.

Key Takeaways

Richard Branson has created many successful companies (some not so much) and has learned a few things about business along the way. One of which is to focus on the customer more than the profit since this can build brand loyalty. Marketers can use this to build brand loyalty with their own customers. Just don’t worry too much about the profits necessarily. Key takeaway: Focus on people and profits will follow.

Employees can be a company’s greatest asset. This is especially true because employees can be a company’s eyes and ears to the customers. Marketers that inspire their company’s employees to be active in the company culture can end up with their next big idea. Key takeaway: Empower your company’s employees to be active.

Customers that have a company take that extra step for them love the brand. Customers that see a company take that extra step for someone else notice it and like the brand just a bit more. Marketers that encourage their company’s employees to do more for their customers can expect to see more brand loyalty. Key takeaway: Be good to your customers and your customers will be good to you.