On Thursday, April 11th, Digital Marketing Mayo joined forces with 6PX Digital to bring ‘The NEXT Level: How to Sell to Modern Buyers. 6 Powers of Digital Selling™’.
Kevin Neary, OrcaWise, kicked off the evening by sharing his entrepreneurial journey and talked about “UnkUnks”, the unknown unknowns, that sales teams encounter when launching new products and services. From his experiences building several multi-million-euro businesses and recently completing extensive research into the digital sales transformation at University College Dublin’s, Nova Centre for new ventures and entrepreneurs, Kevin advised that “No matter what your customers say, you never know what they are thinking, until you ask for money.” He suggested that you “ask early and ask often.” Kevin’s talk demonstrated how to set up and run a modern sales operation, on a budget.
Kevin went on to talk about the 6 Powers of Digital Selling:
- Data Driven KPI’s
- Digital Strategy
- One Journey (Buyer/Seller)
- Channel Optimization
- Content Enablement
- Human Connection
“People buy feelings & emotions, capture that in your message,” Kevin remarked. 100% of your customers are people, you need the human element.
Next up was Olive O’Connor, Former CEO of award-winning MediStori and PX/CX (Patient/Customer Experience) Specialist, who talked about how to get your message out there to potential customers/clients. Olive reinforced that people buy from people so you need that human connection. And when you have a team she highly recommended that to succeed you need to “Treat your team better than you,” as you are training them to be able to look after your business.
She also mentioned that “If you don’t ask, you don’t get!”. In sales you need to get YOU and your brand out there. She encouraged people to take risks. You have to ask for help and put yourself out there. Word of mouth can be a massive sales driver so apply for awards, attend events and make yourself seen and heard whenever the opportunity arises.
When developing the customer experience you need to consider it from the customer’s point of view. What would you like if you were the customer. This will help you develop a user friendly experience but it’s advisable to repeatedly go back to “What experiences do you want your customers to have?”
Following Olive came Peter Turley from SalesTALK, who is an award-winning sales innovator and sales trainer and he captured our attention immediately. With a memorable opening, Peter explained that “Words that are picked in the right way & articulated correctly can change people’s minds and alter people’s perceptions.” He encourage people making sales to remember that it’s not what we do or how we do it, it’s what our customer ultimately gets. Before trying to sell, think about what difference does what you do make to your customers.
When Peter surveyed people on what his clients spent their extra money from sales on, 83% spend it on a holiday, not putting it back into the business as people would have thought. So therefore, the difference you can make to your customer by helping them make more money is so that they can afford a holiday. Therefore, you could introduce yourself as ‘Hello, my name is Bill and I’m in the luxury travel business.’ Or ‘Hi my name is Sally, and next year i’m going to bring you on holiday. ‘
Grab people’s attention in less than 7 seconds and have them wanting to work with you before they even know what you do.
Finally, when pitching a sale, make it action words like I make or I do. Leave no room for doubt. That will stop them asking how much.
Closing this event, we brought the three speakers together for a panel discussion.
When asked by MC Noreen Henry, lecturer in GMIT Castlebar, How do you get that first critical sale, especially for startups, the answers were flowing. Olive discussed the importance of LinkedIn as a tool and how it helped her grow her business. She reminded the audience to tell the customer about the solution they want, as opposed to what you are selling. Kevin advised that people pay attention to their management of cash to keep the door open, to find a way to somehow keep the door open as a startup, but to be weary of going down the investor route too soon.
Peter remarked that a startup is normally a brain child or passion and the founder will be able to sell it on passion. He explained the reason so many startups fail is that the founder gets too busy running the day to day jobs, that when they get someone to sell it for them, they won’t have the same passion or drive so it won’t sell as well. Skills can be taught but the belief is what will increase sales at the end of the day. Olive agreed and reinforced that founders “Capture the process of the business and train your team to be better than you.” In order for your team to succeed they need to understand the dream you are offering people.
When further questioned about using LinkedIn, Olive advised everyone to watch what your profile says. She suggested that everyone should read their message and then ask, would you buy it? She also recommended using keywords on LinkedIn as a way to get noticed.
The audience wanted to know how do you find out what customers want, apart from using traditional forms of research. A simple answer was given. Get people in to a room and be transparent on what the issue is. It could be an informal get together, lunches or a committee meet up. People love to give advice, you just need to ask.
The final point made by Peter was to not overcomplicate. “Everyone we meet wants an easier life, no matter what is it.” Does what you do help someone to have an easier life. If so, then it Will help make ‘yes’ easy.
There was a lot to take away from this event, with some examples that got the audience excited about what they were hearing and most attendees were ready to begin their new sales ideas walking out the door.
Digital Marketing Mayo were thrilled to partner with 6PX Digital for this event. Our next event will be in Knockranny House Hotel on May 28th where the theme is The Power of Influencer Marketing. We will be welcoming a panel of some well known influencers to discuss where influencer marketing is going and how you can use it for your business.
