It sounds unfair, and we probably all know people who deliberately dress in a way that they will be pre-judged.  They don’t want to be judged by their clothing – yet that’s how they subconsciously judge others.

If you want to sell to higher-income customers, you need to look at your appearance and make sure it fits.

The following may be read as a series of sweeping generalisations – they won’t be true in every case, but they’re widely regarded as accurate in most instances…

• Bright colours impress low-income customers, whereas higher income business owners generally prefer conservative colours and dress.
• Navy blue and dark grey are the most popular colours for top salesmen
• Navy blue and dark green are fab for women
• Brown should be avoided, as it’s seen as weak
• If you accessorise, choose well and select expensive accessories that match and don’t overshadow the outfit

I once heard that women who wear make-up outsell those who don’t.  I don’t think it’s the actual make-up that does it, I think it’s the additional care that’s obviously taken before you leave the house.  If you care how you look, you’re likely to care about your customers and your products.

Another tip I heard as a teenager was always to dress like the person in the role above you.  That was reiterated to me recently when someone told me, if you’re trying to sell business-to-business, to always dress as the business owner’s advisers do.  At least, if you want to be taken seriously.

Love it, or loath it, our clothes make a statement about us.  What are yours saying about you?

When you buy baked beans, do you choose any brand of beans, or will only Heinz do?

This question usually splits our seminar audiences in half.  For my family; only Heinz is good enough and I won’t buy any other brand of baked bean.  But why?  Especially when people (the other half of our audiences) tell me cheaper beans taste the same?

It’s because most of us don’t buy on price.  Emotions and perceptions are a very powerful tool – and that’s why blue-chip organisations spend a fortune building their brand.  Mr Heinz himself was famous for the acid test of branding – his vision was that any person entering a supermarket looking for a Heinz product but unable to find it would leave the store and shop for it somewhere else.  If all your customers did that, how powerful would it be?

So, if we don’t buy on price, what makes up our mind?

Risk is actually the major issue for most buyers.  Your product or service must represent the lowest risk (or the most safe and secure purchase decision).  People don’t like change and, buying from you for the first time represents change.  So they need some reassurance that your product won’t make them look foolish, or they won’t regret the purchase.  This is much more important than price or quality.

So, instead of labouring over the price of your product, think about how you can reassure customers and maybe shoulder some of the risk they’re taking.

Their customers are primarily office workers, who pop into the shop for chocolate bars, snacks and cigarettes and they have a fairly consistent turnover from that market, but it’s only just covering the bills.  They have a sandwich shop next door and a restaurant on the other side; both of which also attract a lunch-time crowd.

The couple also have a block of 700 offices within yards of their door, in which no-one delivers sandwiches, coffee  or newspapers.  This untapped market could massively boost their profitabliity and negate the need to open at weekends (or could fund a member of staff to cover those late shifts.)

Often, as business owners, we only see the area that we control.  But, if we look outside and think more broadly about potential customers, we can find a huge amount of opportunities, right on our doorstep.  Why would you travel further?

In most cases, a one-off advert will not cover it’s costs.  And this is unfortunately what leads to most business owners being unhappy with marketing as a whole.  But, what they sometimes don’t realise is that there are many other marketing methods they can use; most of which are less expensive.  But they do require a bit more thought.

I’m afraid there is no magic marketing bullet that will bring you an inordinate amount of business overnight.  It’s a question of trying different methods and measuring your results.  But, we always recommend looking at the cheaper methods first – what difference could you make to your bottom line, for example, if you improved your customer retention by 10%?  Chances are that’s cheaper than looking for new customers.

By creating a plan, you can put some science to your marketing.  Henry Ford once famously said ‘I know 50% of my marketing spend is wasted – I just don’t know which 50%.’  My argument is that he should have known what was and wasn’t working – just by asking ‘How did you hear about us?’ you can reduce your spend in the areas that aren’t covering their costs and boost it in others.

One of our favourite customers did just this and re-allocated £5000 in advertising that wasn’t working, into a campaign that was generating results.  This year, his audience figures are up 18% on last year.  In the middle of a recession.

The majority of business owners we meet have never asked themselves what it is they really want, or why they’re in business in the first place.  But, once you have a purpose and a focus, you can have anything you want.

A great exercise  to help with your long-term planning is to brainstorm ideas – and just write down the first things that come to mind.  Jim Rohn has a framework to help you, which is just there to get you started (I’ve added one of my own, which I’m hopeful Jim would agree with, as it matches his own business philosophy.)  Just keep writing – you don’t only have to have one idea in each box – the more you have the better.  Perhaps just set yourself a time limit of 10 minutes and see what you come up with…

Once you’ve created a list of goals, you then need to make a plan to achieve them.  But first, we’ll take a look at how badly you want the things you’ve written down tomorrow – it’s a great way to prioritise them.

Trust is a vital component in any sale; particularly a long-term purchase or with intangible purchases (like a service you can’t touch or hold in your hand).  But many business owners overlook its importance, or fail to take the time for customers to build trust and get to know the sales person.

They say it takes on average seven points of contact before someone will buy from you – and credibility is the reason why.  If people don’t trust you first, they’re unlikely to part with any money.

So, how can you build trust or credibility? Our top five tips are as follows…

1. Have a clear brand, through signage, business cards, telephone numbers etc.  People are happier with landline numbers that are local, rather than PO box numbers and mobiles.  And they like to know who they’re dealing with, so keep things simple and clear.
2. Ease of contact – is your telephone number easy to find on your literature and website?  Do you encourage people to call you and make it easy for them to do so?
3. Stick to your promises – if you say you’ll call back, call back.  As and when you promised.
4. Provide testimonials – let your customers see what other people say about you.  That’s far more convincing than any sales pitch.
5. Give something away for free – with services, it’s great if you can offer a tip or a piece of advice for free, especially if it proves you are great at your job.  If it’s products, offer a guarantee – put your money where your mouth is if your products are fantastic, instead of asking the customer to take all the risk.  You’ll be surprised how powerful it is.

When you take the time to build trust with your customers, they’ll reward you by referring you to other people and put their reputation on the line based on their relationship with you.

And, then you’re on your way to the third and final step…Profitability (see Monday’s blog for more…)

1. One of the most important tips focuses on attitude.  If you enter a ‘sales opportunity’ thinking you’re going to fail, or be knocked down on price, then you probably will.  You generally achieve the outcome you imagine, so focus on the positive and you’re likely to improve your success rate.
2. Consider yourself to be self-employed.  Whilst you may well be self-employed, you may have sales agents or employees who are not.  But, it’s only when you (or they) take responsibility as a business-owner for sales and targets, that conversion rates increase.
3. Be the best sales person you can be.  If your role in the business is sales, you need to learn how to be good at sales.  Read sales books, attend seminars, develop your skills and invest in yourself.
4. Take a consultancy approach.  The top sales people see themselves as consultants or problem-solvers, not sales people.  They have great relationships with their customers and find solutions for them – which may or may not be what they’re trying to sell.  They put the customer and their relationship with them first and the sales follow.
5. Become a doctor – examine, diagnose and then prescribe.  Leading sales people ask lots of questions.  And the better the questions you ask, the better the answers.  You get to the route of the customers problem, before you ‘prescribe’ a solution.  That way, you can offer a better solution – and are more likely to get the sale.

These are just five tips from a single chapter of Brian Tracy’s book.  If you’re responsible for sales, I would recommend reading the rest of it (I won’t be sharing any more of what I read, as that wouldn’t be fair, so it you want to benefit from Brian’s experience, you need to buy the book – it’s only £7.50 on Amazon!)  It would also be worth sharing this book with your sales people.