The recession, benefits, the safety net, and the learning curve

carolt

Harry_Powell wrote: »

Sorry, I didn't mean to pry. I was just interested in how someone could set up their own school and what they would teach in it. I understand your reticence in discussing this if is so specialized that it'd give away your 'real life', so to speak.

Though if you can speak in vague generalities, I'd still be very interested. I live in a very mixed race area of London was was considering setting up a study group for people new to the UK and for those who are going through the Nationality tests. I'd therefore find any advice / insight you could give to be very relevent and useful.

I can't really offer you any advice except for the obvious - if you're going to sell a service, make sure the people you're selling it to have some spare cash. Obviously, if you were considering it as voluntary work, that's a different matter. Doubt most of those doing nationality tests have much spare income. But I might be wrong there.

Have you done any market research into what else is out there and the need for such a service?

PasturesNew

I have actually been a columnist in an A4 colour B2B regional magazine about what I do... and not many people know that. One column grew to about half a page. Used to take me about 20 minutes to write that, about 10 minutes before the presses rolled

Like I've said before, no limelight.

carolt

How glamorous.

Are you, in fact, Liz Jones, incognito?

PasturesNew

carolt wrote: »

How glamorous.

Are you, in fact, Liz Jones, incognito?

LOL. No.
That reads a lot posher than intended now I've read it again.

It just means that when I was working for a marketing company, as the internet marketing consultant, I was asked by the local business community to write a column in their regional B2B monthly glossy mag. So I did.

carolt

Still sounds glamorous. No-one wants to interview me.

Bet it looks good on your CV.

Internet marketing consultant. Oooh, hark at her.

dopester

PasturesNew wrote: »

I think the "from the heart" answer is: lack of confidence, I don't believe in myself, I've never been supported/encouraged but instead knocked back, I don't want to let anybody down, fear of failure.

All of those old chestnuts rolled into one, I guess.

That's the truth.

Even many selling professionals lack confidence. The fear of rejection. Fear that selling is about being pushy, trying to sell something to someone at a premium, where you doubt they'd want to buy from you.

However if you've got a product or service or skill you believe in, which you believe/know adds value or improves other people's lives, something you can offer better than others, then why not actively sell your product and service? Obviously different for each individual business.. how-we-do-it.. a bit of clip-art for a service/product won't sell luxury for example ect.

A quote from an excellent book.. Go It Alone. (Geoff Burch) (Author of the highly acclaimed: Resistance Is Useless, and, The Art of Business Persuasion.)

Indepth book so I can't touch properly on all the excellent info in it. Author has seen his fair share of people unsuitable to self-employment who gambled everything, fully convinced by their own ideas, on doomed propositions - but also, done smartly, many outstanding successes.

An American colleague of ours not only does the guru bit, but also manages his owns and manages his own company. The products are sold on a purely cold basis. The products are quite expensive. The success rate is quite limited - lucrative, but limited. He calculated that if his salesmen saw 100 people, they would sell 3 investments. Whilst this made him loads of wonga, he felt that the 97 potential customers were slipping through the net, and the hit rate could be improved.

He looked at his salespeople's call records, and sure enough amongst the 97 percent were plenty of now notorious `v.int's.' For the sake of maths, we'll say that his team received £200 for a sale. This meant that 100 visits would yield £600. He decided to do something that on the face of it seems very strange indeed. He offered his salesforce the usual £200 a sale, but with the added, if not bizarre, incentive of £10 a refusal. In other words, the `yes' could bring in £600 for the salesperson, but the `nos' could earn £970.

You may initially think that everyone who didn't buy was a `no', but the no had to be a firm no, and in writing. To the salespeople's surprise, the nos were almost as hard to get as the yesses, but more than that, the results were fascinating: 12 yesses, 34 nos, and heaven only knows what the rest were. They were still `v.int's' I suppose. Notice how the yesses were quadrupled simply because, instead of letting the customer drift along as a `v.int.' a decision was firmly asked for.

I know you will be a bit touchy on your first few client meetings, or when your first customers sidle in, but remember if they don't buy, you starve. If you don't ask people to buy things, then they are very much less likely to buy. These examples may seem a little crude, and they are, but to start with never forget to ask people to buy something.

Selling. The two most popular definitions are, 'Pushy, won't take no for an answer', and perhaps more serious, 'Selling things to people that they don't want or need'. Lets deal with the first one.

I saw someone the other day who most certainly would not take no for an answer. They went on and on until their intended victim caved in, and yet after the event, they ended up loving each other. Do I detect a note of disbelief? Ok, perhaps I should have explained the person doing the selling was about six years old.

'Dad, can I have lolly?'
'No.'
'Why not?'
'Because you won't eat your dinner.'
'If I promise I'll eat my dinner, can I have a lolly?'
'No.'
'Why not?'
'Because you mother would kill me?'
'Mummy doesn't have to know. If I promise I'll eat my dinner and I won't tell Mummy, then can I have a lolly?'
'Well perhaps a fruity one.'
'But I want a Chocolate one.'

I am sure you can see where this is going. We all had that ability once, but I suppose we lack the single-minded focus a kid has, and our good manners, along with the shyness adulthood has brought us, prevented us from doing that. Not that I am suggesting that the six-year-old's method works 'as it', or there again, maybe it does.
.
[Switches to a meeting accepted at an office, with product/service demonstration with possible client.]
.
'Ah well, yes, than you for that. Have you any details you could leave me? Jolly good, I'll just see you out. I'm sure we'll be in touch if we need anything,' and you will write 'v.int'. At least the six-year old's approach asked for something, even if the initial answer was no. Anyway the no is useful because it is something to get our teeth into, a reason why he won't.

Watch what the kid does next. He investigates the reason for the no. When he is clear on it, he doesn't just offer a solution, he demands a deal for the solution. Commitment from the customer [his dad]: 'If I promise, then will you?' The customer is only being offered the promise on the condition he proceeds. 'If we could manage a slightly better price, then could you give us the order today?'

You see, then, that this so-called childlike approach is actually a very powerful, if somewhat simple, first step to winning substantial business. I am afraid that you must also see from the £10 for a no story that even hardened pros lose the bottle to just come right out and ask for it.

I suppose it is a fear of rejection and the fear that if the approach has too much brass neck, then it will put the customer off from life. Whilst that may be true with aggressive or abrasive approaches, it does suggest that not seeking no for an answer is a description of a poor technique.

PasturesNew

For one excited minute, seeing your large post ... I thought you'd delivered "the goods" aforementioned.

Max_Headroom_3

Ah yes, the mystery list.

Seems to be a complete mystery even to Dopester himself.

fc123

nearlynew wrote: »

I read your last post on the "other" site fc and haven't got a clue what you are doing now. But good luck anyway.

And you PN.
Your "thing" is even more confusing.

I design + make clothes. I make them in England too. Then I sell them in various, mainstream ways.
I have to be nice to fashiony, corporate types now as I now longer have my own retail space where I could run things my own way.

Very outdated business model methinks making things.

Today I feel I have the cruddiest, worstest job to have ever been invented by humankind...it wasn't a good one.
The bin is overflowing and teen daughter had a look at some stuff and dismissed it all as 'Hideous', ''Granny'', ''Vile'' finished with ''OMG Mum, you're not going to sell any of that''.
I can't work out if it was because she wanted to swipe a sample to wear out and I said no...or is it all truly awful?

Prices; we get pushed on prices all the time and it's driving me mad.

I can't yell and say' Hey, this is made @ £7 per hour UK labour rate, not 4 pence per hour''....well, I try but they don't want to hear.

A Bad Day...hope everyone elses was better.

fc123

Actually, having read todays entries, I think we should all pack in the day jobs and write for a living. Watch out Liz Jones.