The Cart Blog » Sales

Developing your value proposition

thatsoftwareguy — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:32:38 +0000

Elastic Path’s Linda Bustos (@Roxyyo) asks, “How Strong is your Value Proposition?“ If the answer is, “not very” or “huh?” then you should read the article and start working on it.

As an extra added bonus, marketing guru Bryan Eisenberg commented on Linda’s post and gave a link to a related article he wrote.

The art of the cross-sell

thatsoftwareguy — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:11:25 +0000

Elastic Path lets a guest poster discuss some cross selling strategies.

Selling with sweetness

thatsoftwareguy — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:31:59 +0000

Would it even be possible to be nicer than the Jonas Brothers? The latest piece in People.com about the boys says that they select girlfriends on the basis of their niceness (smart move, btw).

What if niceness was part of your PR strategy? “Do business with me because I’m nicer than my competitors.” We’ve already seen the opposite strategy – rapper Akon claiming to be a felon when he wasn’t, for instance. Please note that I do not endorse this strategy.

It is a truism that people like to do business with people they like. So it’s probably worth doing a niceness audit of your business, and making sure you pass muster.

More threadless

thatsoftwareguy — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:54:36 +0000

I wrote a while back about Threadless.com. It looks like their crowdsourcing approach and narrative-linked product line has also caught the attention of Time Magazine.

We’re hard-wired to be drawn to stories. Is there an opportunity for a story in your product line?

Encourage like Osteen

thatsoftwareguy — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:31:37 +0000

Reading an article from Portolio.com about Joel Osteen (which was predictably suspicious) made me stop and think about his remarkable ability to connect with people.

Now you may or may not be a fan of prosperity theology – and for the record, I’m not. But isn’t it interesting how many lives Osteen has profoundly affected, and for the better, it must be conceded. From a sales perspective, he’s clearly one of America’s greatest salesmen.

What’s his secret? Relentless optimism. It’s a pattern in his life and his speaking. And it’s worth emulating.

Chinese business site uses Chinese math

thatsoftwareguy — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 09:13:23 +0000

So few things are as annoyingly hopeless as the practice of using Chinese math. You know – the idea that “if you can only get 0.00001% of the population, you’ll be a success.” Here’s the problem with Chinese math: it doesn’t work. Small percentages do not translate to easy results.

So why are Chinese business websites using this discredited form of reasoning?

PS> If you’re thinking, “if Chinese math doesn’t work, what does?” then here’s your answer. Don’t use comparative figures aspirationally; instead, show trends and figures from ideas that already work that demonstrate how your parallel idea is plausable.

Gitomer on YouTube

thatsoftwareguy — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:24:04 +0000

If you need a brief instructional or motivational sales video, do a YouTube search for Jeffrey Gitomer. Then watch and be amazed.

Sales Training Videos

thatsoftwareguy — Sun, 25 May 2008 10:40:05 +0000

Probably not what you’re used to.

Gitomer re-releases “The Sales Bible”

thatsoftwareguy — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:09:43 +0000

A 20 year old classic is brought up to date – The Sales Bible by Jeffrey Gitomer. He’s running a special offer today (May 6, 2008) – buy The Sales Bible, email the receipt to salesbible at gitomer.com, and get a free e-Book. Sounds fun!

Info Week: High Gas Prices drive Online Sales

thatsoftwareguy — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:40:08 +0000

Plus almost half of all respondents will use their rebate checks to shop until they drop. Read the whole article from Information Week.