Carl Davidson’s Sales & Management Training Blog

One reason many flea market vendors do not do well is the products they choose. This article looks at how to select the best products to sell at flea markets that give you the best chance at good earnings.

How’s The Competition?

Before you take on any product, we suggest you go to the flea markets you intend to sell at and check out the competition. Even the best product will not sell well if there are a lot of other vendors with the same product. And prices will fall if too many vendors have trouble selling the product. The time spent doing this homework will prevent costly errors.

Does It Display Well?

Some products display better than others. Jewelry looks great with lights making it twinkle. A big pile of T-shirts can look good when you open but can look messy in just a few minutes. Display sells. We suggest products that display well.

Does It Require Trust?

Some products do not do well at flea markets because they require a level of trust you cannot earn at flea markets. The public knows you can be gone tomorrow and that you have no actual store or a sure way to contact you. For that reason, products that require product support, installation help, warranties etc may not sell as well at flea markets.

Can You Demonstrate It?

The big earners at flea markets all do demonstrations. Good demonstrations attract a crowd and raise their buying interest higher than just walking by a booth can never do. If you want to make big money, we suggest product that can be demonstrated.

Are There Size & Color Problems Or Carrying Problems?

Some products come with problems. Is it too big or too heavy to walk around with? That will cost sales. Is it too easy to steal from your display? Is it sharp or dangerous? Do people need to try it on? Is size and color important? These are all draw backs to products.

Is It Part Of Your Theme?

Your booth may confuse people if it has too many different kind of products. For example, if your booth is all electronic gadgets, you become known as the place to go for gadgets. If you add skin cream and vitamins, they don’t fit your theme. Try to carry products that compliment each other. This helps with cross selling and up selling as well and that can increase sales dramatically.

Choose wisely and test small quantities. “Buy smart, sell smart” is the way to success.

If this article was helpful, we have more information on how to choose great products to sell at flea markets and suggestions on great products too. Our instant on line video training program also teaches the “New Jersey Boardwalk Demo” This information on how to do a great demo will increase your sales and earnings dramatically. Visit www.fleamarketbiz.com or call 716-580-3384

The quality of your sales presentation will determine the chances of success in any selling situation. There are few areas of sales training with more misinformation than the presentation. Forget about working on a slick presentation, practicing your pitch, learning long speeches filled with all the technical details. Here are the five keys to great sales presentations. I know that if you will use them, the interest shown by your prospects will rise dramatically and so will your closes and sales. Remember that the key to closing is doing a presentation that leads to a sale.

Customized For Each Customer

To be effective, your presentation should be customized to your customer. Forget about learning one pitch and using it all the time. How do you customize it? By asking enough questions that you know what this particular customer wants, needs and fears. Only then are you ready to present, so ask questions first and sell later. This becomes selling not telling and it works with today’s customers. People today will not politely sit through a presentation that doesn’t interest them. Throw away your flip books and charts and talk to the customer about things that they told you they want to hear.

Benefits Not Features

If a young man sees a great looking woman walking down the street, is he thinking, “I’ll bet she has a great liver?” Not likely, because we all want the benefits not the features. The reason features are taught in sales training is that much sales training comes from or is paid for by manufacturers and creators. They are proud of the products and services they have created and can’t wait to tell you all the details. Like livers, valves, size of steel, actuarial tables and more probably will not raise a customer to the boiling point. If a customer is interested in the technical, by all means, use it. However, realize that people buy benefits not technical information. For example, most people want to know their new home will keep their family “warm on the coldest winter night” as opposed to what the insulation is made of and how it is installed. Make sure everything you say is about the benefits for the customer. Presentations that focus on the company fail. Things such as “we are number 1 in the state”. “we invented it first”, “we’re a family company” and “our founder built this company from scratch” may not be of interest to most customers.

Trial Closes

When you present any benefit, always end with a question, not a statement. Weak salespeople say, “This computer has dual processers and a titanium bus board”. Stronger salespeople say, “this computer is the fastest available to get your work done faster and without crashes. Is that the kind of stability your company is looking for?” If you end every point with a question, every time the customer says “yes”, you are closer to the sale and you know you are on the right track.

Know Your Product/Service

Even though I have stated that people do not buy the technical, there is an important use for product knowledge. You need to know your product inside and out so you can customize a presentation to your customers. If you only know the 8 main points about your product, you won’t have much room for customization. If you know lots of exclusive features and benefits, you will be able to raise the buying temperature of many more prospects.

Keep Your Eye On The Sale

Remember that everything you say takes you closer to the sale or farther away. Be careful what path you go down in any presentation. Anything you talk about that is not pointing out a benefit you know your customer is interested in is taking you away from the sale. Think before you speak and be sure every word is taking you closer to the sale by raising the customers’ interest.

Salespeople often concentrate on the close but the truth is that great presentations make the close easy. You may already be a better closer than you think. You may be able to raise your sales by improving following these steps to better presentations.

If you found this article helpful, visit Carl Davidson’s web site at www.salesandmanagementsolutions.com . We have a variety of instant on line video training programs including a new on Secrets Of Closing And Over Coming Objections. You can call Carl Davidson at 716-580-3384.

Poor closers worry rejection. They often don’t close because 
of it. A recent study showed that 80% of sales situations end 
with no close at all!. The reason is simple. After you ask if the 
customer wants to buy and they say, “No”, it feels very 
uncomfortable to try again. It’s pushy because they already 
said “No”.

The solutions to this problem is never to ask them to buy. This 
technique takes the fear and rejection out of sales. Of course, 
no closing technique works without the proper foundations 
being laid. These include a great custom presentation with 
trial closes and a reason to buy now. Assuming you have done 
a good job with these, try this close and I think you will be 
surprised how well it works.

When you are done your presentation, instead of asking 
something like, “So, do you want to get it?”, try a statement 
instead of a question. You might say, I’ll get the paperwork 
started”, put your head down and start writing. Notice that this 
is a statement and not a question. You are not asking their 
permission. You already have that from all the trial closes they 
said “yes” to during your presentation.

You can write a lot without further questions, fill in the date, 
your name, their name (if you know it) what they wanted to 
purchase and more. The longer they let you write before 
stopping you, the more committed they are to buying. Only a 
few will let you write the order without stopping you or 
questioning you but these sales only come to those who start 
writing.

Notice that I am suggesting you do this without showing them pictures of your product, telling them your history, loading them with technical data or all the other things we often do at the closing stage. The reason is that these things  take you away from the momentum of the close. Your customer has a boiling point and they should be at it when you lose. Don’t let them cool off while you show them things and tell them things they don’t need to know. If they want to know, they will ask and then, by all means answer and close again. 

If they stop you with a question like , “Hey, you didn’t even tell me the price”. Simply answer the question in an optimistic way and close again. “The price? I have great news, everything we discussed today is only $2,450.00. I’ll get the paperwork started”

Because you don’t ask a question and get a “No”, you can do this many times without selling after they say “no”. The average person says “yes” after being asked to buy 5 times. You can increase your sales dramatically be using this technique to ask for the close more often.

Keep track of how often you actually ask for the close and you will be surprised. The more you can ask, them more you will sell.

So, give it a try stop asking and start leading. Do you get more kisses if you say, “Would it be alright if I have a kiss”? or by leaning forward and kissing. This same principle holds true in sales.

For more information, visit our web site at www.salesandmanagementsolutions.com or check out our DVD How To Sell Anything To Anybody. You can also email Carl Davidson at info@salesandmanagementsolutions.com

Most salespeople who call me are crying the blues at present. Times are tough. Few are buying. It is true that we are in a recession. This week I got a great call form a customer who said he is making more than ever before. This customer sells water equipment to home owners…you know, like Culligan etc. They sell for about $4,000.00. This customer had his own company but closed because sales got so bad.

So what has changed? He has found the secret way around recessions…contact more people. You see, recessions mean fewer people can buy or will buy. If a recession cuts the number of able and willing buyers by 40%, you need to contact 40% more people and you’ll be selling as much as you did before the recession.

So, how has he done this? With automated prospecting calls. Here are his exact numbers from our conversation this week. Larry (yup, that’s his real name), invested in our voice broadcasting system as we describe at http://www.salesandmanagementsolutions.com/get-the-leads-you-need-with-voice-broadcasting.html . He says he calls 500 people per day. These are residential home owners in the rural area he markets. He says he averages 5 calls back per day out of the 500 calls. He told me that some days he gets more and some days he gets nothing but he averages 5 calls back. So, in a week, he calls 2,500 people and gets 25 to call him back. He says he gets an appointment to present his products to 6 out of the 25 and that he sells 3 systems per week. That means he sells about $12,000 per week in equipment and his cost of making the calls is only about $60.00!

Best of all, he says that he has never had a better life. The system makes the calls for him, he works about 6 hours per week doing presentations and about 5 hours per week talking to people who ask for a call back! He says he has never made more money and never had as good a life.

The secret to this success is contacting more people. Without this system, no one could call 2,500 people for about $60.00. Another reason he enjoys his new life is the fact that he only takes his time talking with the people who are interested. This saves time and completely eliminates rejection.

Larry is happier than ever selling his products and services. You can be too. Call us at 716-580-3384 to find out how this system can end the recession for you today by helping you contact the volume of people you need to make the sales you deserve. Tell us Larry sent you.

Almost all sales training talks about getting a sale on the first visit but there are situations when, even in door to door sales, it may be best to make your contact a two step process.

For example, if all decision makers are not available when you knock, it will be better to have a reason to come back. For example, if you sell cable TV and a decisions maker is absent, it is better to ask questions about what they use now and make an appointment to come back and go over the results than to present to just one person.

If you sell roofing, for example, if all decision makers are not present, I suggest you take measurements and offer to come back for an appointment when you have “run the numbers”.

This approach is also important if you sell a product that takes more than 15 minutes to demonstrate or calculate. Today’s customer is very unlikely to have more than 15 minutes free that they are willing to give a stranger without an appointment.

As I have discussed in our sales training, be sure too that you have a good reason for knocking on their door. The days of just knocking are over.  Reasons could be your company is installing equipment on the next block and since you have to wait for the installer to finish, the company will allow you to do a $120.00 assessment for them at absolutely no charge, to see how much they could be saving.

If you sell a product you can see from the road like chimney flashings, siding, landscaping etc you can knock because you noticed something like damaged shingles and you are just stopping to let them know before they get any water damage. This approach makes you look very helpful and is a great conversation starter.

Give these tips a try and they will help you open a few more doors.For more information, and specialized door to door sales training, visit http://www.salesandmanagementsolutions.com/Sell-Door-To-Door.html

BY: Carl Davidson
www.salesandmanagementsolutions.com
716-218-4060

Have you ever awakened in a great mood, ready to sell, only to find that a big account has canceled or is complaining? Would an event like that reduce the spring in your step and lower your optimism for the day? If so, you need to realize that optimism, confidence and expectations are a very big part of our success in selling each day. Let’s take a look at ways to increase these vital factors to sell more every day no matter what happens.

Realize The Importance Of Optimism
Your first step in selling more every day is to realize and accept the power of optimism. If you expect to sell, you are far more likely to make contacts Read the rest of this entry »