The Who was blaring “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” and as if by some transporter or time machine, I was taken back to my furniture factory in Camden, NJ in 1971. The twins were about to be born. A hundred memories. Great ones. I made a note to call my cousin Ellie. He was my right hand man, and I haven’t talked to him since my daughter Rebecca’s wedding. Triumphs and tragedies on my road to today. I bought a Who CD just a short time ago and it had my favorite Who song, ” You Better, You Better, You Bet.” It rocks. I listen to it often.
Wow! Music can take you back to an exact place. A moment. An adventure. Another life. A friend. A lover. It’s an instant memory maker, or better stated, memory shaker. All of a sudden, your mind is transported to a place in time, as the revived thought passes before your minds eyesight in Technicolor, you are singing along. A song you haven’t heard in twenty years, and you remember every word, or damn close.
Why?
And what’s that got to do with your sales quota?
Read on Elvis, you’re about to get a tune up.
Is it the music with the words?
Could you just say the words without the music?
Harder. Maybe impossible, unless you wrote them.
So, who’s remembering your (sales) words?
Who’s singing your song? Humming your hook?
Oh yeah, the hook. That three or four note phrase that you remember forever, “We are the sultans of swing,” “Welcome to the hotel California,” “Come on baby light my fire.” The line you could sing over and over. The one you wait for when you hear the song. The one that even if you can’t sing a note, you’re compelled to join in. The chorus. The hook. The words you REALLY remember.
Can anyone remember your words?
Maybe you weren’t playing a song they liked.
Maybe you can’t carry a tune.
Maybe you hadn’t done any research to find out the music you liked and were just singing your tune.
And worse: Who’s singing your song after you’re done playing it?
If you could get your prospect to like your song, maybe he would buy it. Think about how music is sold.
Does Springsteen stand in the record store waiting for a customer to walk in and say, “Hi, I’m Bruce Springsteen. Have you ever heard of me? I’ve been in the rock and roll business for the past twenty years. Let me give you a copy of my brochure. I have some records I’d like you to listen to, and if you like them, we’re having a special. I’m the lowest price record on the market and I could save you some money.”
No, you rush to the music store to BUY the Springsteen CD and the price does not matter a bit. It’s the music.
Sales music. Very few sales people make it. Most sing sales songs way off key. Almost painful to listen to. No one wants to hear someone singing off key.
All I’m doing is issuing the challenge of who is listening to you. And it all depends on the music you play and the way you sing. How can you get people to buy more? Easy answer. Rehearse more. Springsteen, as good as he is, rehearses every day.
Springsteen also loves what he does. Has fun at what he does. He, and others like him, create an atmosphere where others want to buy. People camp out to BUY his concert tickets.
Here are 3.5 things you can do right now to get people to buy tickets to your sales show.
1. Change your tune. Your approach has got to change from push to pull. Selling to buying. You do this by creating sales music that the listener wants to hear — not what you want to sing
2. Have a hook. Memorable enough that others can sing your tune.
3. Rehearse more. You have to play the song in front of a large audience without a flaw.
3.5 Love it or leave it. No love, no passion. No passion, no buyers. If you wake up in the morning and you hate going to work, go someplace else as fast as you can
Words can also create a mantra. A saying, verse, or lyric you can identify and own. “Some dance to remember. Some dance to forget.” They inspire you and you remember them.
“We are the champions my friend. We’ll keep on fighting until the end. No time for losing, cause we are the champions of the world.”
GitBit. The Loyalty Building Formula. The 6.5 solution-oriented things you need to do that will get you on the path to measuring loyalty. Go to www.gitomer.com — register if you’re a first time user — and enter the word LOYAL in the gitbit box
Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible, and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless. President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts internet training programs on selling and customer service. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com
2003 All Rights Reserved – Don’t even think about reproducing this document without written permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer, Inc. o 704/333-1112
