Buy and Return

In the chapter of "Reduce the Risk," Gitomer lists some examples that salesperson can use to gain prospect's trusts. However I have something in mind doubting if one of them would really work from salesperson's perspective.

- If you're concerned about whether or not it'll work for you after you get home, don't worry, you can ALWAYS bring back (and add some peace of mind). We want you to be happy.

Hearing too many problems from a friend who was a Customer Service Representative at an online instrument store, customers always used some lame excuses trying to get a full refund when they bought something later they found out they don't like them. There are excuses like "don't like the colors," "the instrument doesn't play," "the quality is not as good as I thought," and etc. From the company's perspective, shipping and packaging cost a high percentage of the sales price if the product is under US$150. I've also heard from my dad that the return rate of his products at Wal-Mart is as high as 12%. And his returned stock cannot be used again, they all went into trash. I even know a friend who bought a laptop at Fries and returned it as soon as she was done using it (she only needed for a few weeks). These rights are used to protect customers, but customers are using this right as a legal loophole.

Studying the history of creativity in your industry.

"In order for you to figure out what is going on today, and project your brilliant ideas into the future, you need to have a firm grip on what happened yesterday and why." -Jeffrey Gitomer.
Therefore, I did a google search on "history of snorkeling." The website says that the root of modern snorkeling can trace back to 5,000 years ago. Sponge farmers from Crete used hollow reeds to breath underwater. Later, animal skins that contain air and diving bell were used. Pretty interesting, eh? That just recalled my time in grad school, I had to take a class about history of gaming. By doing so, I can understand what's the purpose of each gear and equipment and how they're developed.
Per Gitomer's suggestion in his book, I also purchased "Thinkertoys" by Michael Michalko from amazon for me to think creatively. Yay can't wait. I'm like a college student assigning my own assignments.

Humor

After you master all of the fundamental sales skills. There's a spice to add in- HUMOR. The most difficult thing to learn. There's a borderline for humor, never offend anybody. The safest and the funniest is to make fun of yourself.

Ask the right questions

After the wedding, I got sick. Staying home all day long resting, doing a little bit of reading. I just finished this chapter called "Engage me and you can make me convince myself."

Dad told me that a good sales would know his or her prospect's answers before asking questions.

And Gitomoer states a powerful question would be a question that leads prospect to think, such as:

- "What do you look for...?"

- "What have you found...?"

- "How do you propose...?"

- "What has been your experience...?"

- "How have you successfully used...?"

- "How do you determine...?"

- "Why is that a deciding factor...?"

- "What makes you choose...?"

- "What do you like about...?"

- "What is one thing you would improve about...?"

- "What would you change about...?"

- "Are there other factors?"

- "What does your competitor do about...?"

- "How do your customers react to...?"

Weekend Break

Taking 2 days off. Attending one of my best friend's wedding rehearsal and wedding. I'm going to be one of the bridesmaids. Need to wake up at 7am and the event will be done at midnight. Going to be very tired, yet I'm very happy for my friend Christen!

Assign yourself homework everyday.

Nobody will help you to learn. In fact, everybody is too busy to teach you. Assign yourself homework everyday.
I'm going to DEMA (Diving Equipment & Marketing Association) show at Orlando, FL. at the beginning of November with my dad. There are going to be lots of companies from different countries gathering over there. Dad scheduled two meal meetings with Ocean Management System from New York and Grupomak from Cancun. This is going to my first time exposed to the public diving/snorkeling world. I'm actually kind of nervous.
I've been doing research for these two companies, read their catalog and take notes in an excel sheet. By doing so, I learned what does each gear do and how to use it. There are also lots of vocabularies I've never seen before. It's very time consuming but it's surely a good lead. Although I might not be able to use this knowledge in the meeting, but I should be able to understand what they will be talking about. I also plan to record the meal meetings and learn how the real businessman do their business while eating.
By the way, I got my business card today! It will also be my very first time handing my business card to the right people.

YouTube your product

I learned about one of our manufactured products BCD today. What the heck is BCD? It stands for Buoyancy Compensator Device. I YouTubed it and see how it works. It's a vest-like thing divers wear to sink and raise in water with the air inside of the device. Although I've never done scuba diving, but this thing looks fun to play with in pool. YouTube is a great tool to know your product if you never used it before.

Don't give a sales pitch, but do speak on your topic.

In Gitomer's "Little Red Book of Selling," there's one principle called "Giving Value." One section states "Speak about interesting stuff to the audience that teases your stuff - BUT give a great speech. If you sell burglar alarms speak about home safety, if you sell copiers, speak about image and productivity, Get it?"

This can be easily applied into Market America products. Speakers from Market America always speak about what are the correct ways to take care of health. But, for snorkeling gears? What am I supposed to talk about? Snorkeling safety? Snorkeling fashion? As a newbie to the whole snorkeling world. I don't even have my own gears for snorkeling. How can I find out how people pick and buy their gears? However I like snowboarding and I have my own gears. The way I would shop my gears is to go to Sports Chalet and pick something that looks stylish and make a color match for all my gears. But I guess that's retail. The relationship between a manufacturer and a distributor is probably different. Is it solely based on price? Or the personal relationship outside of the business? Distributors buy stuff from the salesman they like. It's a mixture of everything.

Business Newbie

After getting my BA and MFA in computer art, after 4 years of working in game industry, I got laid off 4 months ago. Totally unexpected. I left game industry and entered the world of unknown - sporting good industry. What am I going to do? Artist? No. I'm going to learn how to run a manufactured snorkeling gears company and how to find deals with distributors and retailers. This is totally different than I was doing before, and I never thought I would step into this world. I don't know anything about business/sales/economy impact. I'm a shy person who works with computer only.

I spent my first 2 months traveling around and spending time with my hubby. And then, I made some graphics on boogie boards, setup an e-commerce site, take photos for products, study silk screen printing, register trademark for my dad's new brand. Wow, never thought I would want to do these. I still wasn't sure what I had been doing. I was so used to just to follow the direction to get the work done until my dad gave me this book "Jeffrey Gitomer's Little Red Book of Selling." I have only read 3 chapters so far and it really motives me. I learned that the fundamental mindset and the right attitude are the most important things. So I've decided to create a new blog writing about how a 3D artist transform to have business mindset. To be continued....