A discussion about sales, sales tips and advice, and about those who land the deal

The Maui Pineapple Company of Maui, Hawaii, donated their fresh Hawaiian pineapple to facilitate a friendly wager between the two cities of the universities competing in the NCAA football 2008 Sugar Bowl game, and in the process pulled off a very savvy sales & marketing coup, showing that it always pays to be a part of a major sporting event.

According to Maui Pineapple Company’s blog, PineappleNews.com, the wager was between the cities of Honolulu and Athens-Clarke, the home cities of the two teams playing in the 2008 Sugar Bowl, the University of Hawaii and the University of Georgia. If Hawaii lost, they would have to send Hawaiian pineapples to Athens-Clarke, and if Georgia lost, they would have to send Georgia peaches to Honolulu. If you remember, Georgia won 42-10, so Honolulu had to come up with the goods. To help settle the bet, Maui Pineapple Company rose to the occasion and donated a dozen Maui Gold® pineapples to the cause.

It sounds like such a simple thing to do—donate a dozen pineapples—which it is, and as a result, Maui Pineapple Company received major national and local news exposure, helping to promote the brand and most likely increase sales. I commend the creative thinking by the Maui Pineapple Company marketing team—a lot of media exposure gained for a relatively tiny expenditure. There were news articles written and even TV news story coverage of the delivery of the pineapples.

Seth Godin, one of the world's leading marketing gurus, has an insightful piece on his blog that I wanted to forward you because I think it has some great applications for you as a sales professional.

It has to do with "first impressions".  As sales people, you work hard to create good first impressions for your future customers (and even your current ones).  But in the long term, Seth asks, isn't it better to worry about the last impression you leave?  Here are his thoughts:

"Marketers (and high school kids) focus a lot on the first date. After all, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

I recently had some waterproofing done in the basement. The first date was great. The company was professional and had every single element down, from their AdWords to the web site to the way they interacted on the phone and in person.

I think that stuff is pretty important, but I'm way more interested in the last interaction than I am in the first (and if you care about word of mouth, you should be too).

After they finished the job, they left my basement a mess.

Forever, my only memory of the job is going to be...

Today, the non-profit environmental group CatalogChoice announced it has added its 400,000th member.  Their organization helps mail recepients to stop unwanted catalog mailings sent to their homes, thereby reducing the amount of paper needed to print them.

Is this significant to companies who sell via catalogs sent through the mail to people's home?  Will it effect their ability to sell?

Maybe, maybe not.

• A significant number of catalogs are already...

I expressed my remorse over the death of actor Heath Ledger earlier today, along with a comment that we should all remember that career and success doesn't always guarantee happiness.

That prompted one outlandish reaction, followed by another (both annonymous):

"You know, it's PATHETIC that the poor guy has only been dead for about probably 6 or 7 hours and you are posting LIES.It's people like you that...

Here's what someone said, wagging his or her finger in the process, in response to my reaction and corresponding thoughts to the death of actor Heath Ledger.  I wish I could address them by name, but - surprise, surprise - they posted it annonymously:

"Heath Ledger was not a notorious success chaser. In fact, he was a pretty private person who just so happened to have been very talented. I don't think he overfocused on his career, necessarily. He was apparently very committed to his family, which reportedly was undergoing some problems.

But hey, way to inject your religio-political viewpoint into someone's
untimely death."

????  What the.... ?????

I expressed my sadness for an actor I enjoyed, and then made a point that success does not necessarily bring happiness...which it sounds like Mr. Ledger would have agreed with if what this poster says is true with regards for Mr. Ledger shunning the limelight for the more important things in life.

So I'm at a loss for what I did wrong.  I'm also at a loss as to why this person then goes on to accuse me of inserting my "religio-political viewpoint" in response to Ledger's death.  Huh?  Since when is telling my audience that God and family are important to me somehow wrong?  And how in the world is it a "political" view?

I probably shouldn't have spend this much time reacting to an annonymous post (lots of guts there, by the way, on not putting your name with your ridiculous comment) but its important to say that this actor was one I enjoyed, and thought he was good.  At the news of his death, I was sad. 

And, there are lessons in it that we can all remember as we continue on with our careers and with our lives.  And I stick by that opinion, and will go home this evening remembering the life lesson it has reminded me of.

The lesson is this:                                                   

Finding success in your career, in business, and in life, does not necessarily bring happiness.  You can read about in the Bible, or you can read about it in the New York Times.  The examples are everywhere.

Success does not bring satisfaction.  Wealth is not the secret to happiness.

So what's it all about?  Why do we...

There's a great article over at MarketingBlurb by my colleague Susan Gunelias.  She talks about the new movie "Cloverfield", which looks kind of like "The Blair Witch Project" on Godzilla-caliber steroids.

Susan makes an interesting observation in her post:

"From the beginning, Abrams (the director of the movie) has stated that his plan was to create a monster movie for the YouTube generation, so viral marketing was a natural extension of that vision." 

Which begs the question from me: What are you...

I was on Amazon.com today, and noticed that they are starting to sell a new digital reading device called a "Kindle".

Here's what it looks like:

So, now the question that will dictate whether or not this is the next big thing, or just another technology bust: Would you buy it?

For me, the answer is probably not.  That's not an opinion on the technology or product itself, mind you.  This might be the coolest thing in the world.  But here are the problems I see Amazon facing when it comes to selling a bunch of these:

• It's big.  From what I see, the trend in technology is going...

For those sales professionals out there who wonder when (or if) you start talking about the price of your product or service, here's a great article by author and consultant Alan Rigg.

I found it in my SalesDog weekly newsletter, but Rigg also has a website that you should look at if you're interested in more of his work.

Here's a quick sample of what Alan writes today:

"Talking about price is an important step in the sales opportunity qualification process. After all, if a prospect can't afford your price, is he really a valid prospect? Do you really want to invest your valuable time trying to sell to him?

That said, it often does more harm than good to discuss price before you and the prospect have determined whether your product or service can provide value. Just about any price sounds high when it is quoted "in a vacuum." Yet, that very same price can sound very reasonable, or even cheap, when compared to the quantified impact of a prospect's business problems."

Rigg goes on to explain his definition of "quantified impact".  Plus, he touches on lots of other great points when it comes to price.  I encourage you to read it.

News on the economy today is not good.  For sales professionals, that means the selling environment is going to get as tough as ever:

Wall Street extended its 2008 plunge Thursday, tumbling after a regional Federal Reserve report showed a sharp decline in manufacturing activity and as investors feared that downgrades of key bond insurers could trigger further trouble with souring debt.  

The Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 300 points, or nearly 2.5 percent, and skidded to its lowest close since March 16. The Standard & Poor's 500, the index closely watched by market professionals, fell nearly 3 percent.

Get ready for a changing economy, folks.  It's going to mean learning to sell in a radically different way than you have before...