I have put together 5 tips that have worked for us.

Have a read, try them and tell us what you think.

1. Be a human.

Have you lost the human touch? Companies don’t buy, it’s people who buy, and they buy other people.

2. Advise more than you sell

You will sell more as a person who is trusted for good advice than, someone who goes straight for the kill.

3. Be approachable

If you go for the hard sell every time you met your customers, they may dread your phone calls and visits. Be personable, be approachable and you will get more business.

4. Every impression counts

From your first meeting, to your last meeting. Make every impression a favourable one, it’s you who they will be more inclined to remember and call.

5. Don’t take your customers for granted

When things are tough, many companies look at ways of saving money. Don’t take it for granted your customers will always come back. Treat each sale with respect, and if there are ways to save money tell your customer and they can make the decision.

What do you think? Want to share some of your own with us?

Sarah Arrow

Sales success for freelance and self employed couriers 

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Delivering everything from an envelope to an elephant is a very powerful marketing phrase and it stays in peoples minds. It has that extra stickiness created by the fact they indicate something small,and something large as well as the fact they begin with ‘e’.

When discussing website copy with Jeff at Rienne Business Consulting, he suggested this line, but only if we had actually delivered an elephant! Elephant that needs delivering?

Well actually, Arrow Light Haulage has delivered an elephant, not a living one, as couriers are not allowed to carry livestock, but a wire framed one for an artist client of ours.

The call came out of the blue, could we go and collect an elephant? If we hadn’t of known her, we would have thought it was a wind up! Could we collect a wire frame of an elephant? Of course we could!

The artist was going to plaster to it and make it look lifelike as something that would go in the garden to surprise her family.

We got the dimensions, it was huge, but our since retired Luton could take items up to 17 feet high, at 16 feet the elephant just got in. The Elephant had to be carefully strapped to the sides, so that it didn’t slide and covered in felt blankets to protect it in case the unexpected happened.

200 miles later, it was delivered safe and sound, we had a few tricky moments unloading. It is awkward moving an elephant backwards onto the tail-lift but we will know for sure how to do it next time!

As to envelopes, we are delivering blueprints and documents all the time as part of our confidential delivery services. These services are often used by Essex based law firms, courts, doctors and architects.

Next time you read “we deliver everything from an envelope to an elephant”, don’t forget to ask about the elephant, and don’t forget we really have done it.

You have read our story, so how powerful is your marketing phrase?

• Will it help you stand out from the crowd?

• Does it have a story that helps make it memorable?

• Does it describe accurately what you do?

Small business training can help you stick in the minds of people who can go on to become customers.

Regards

Sarah
Sales success for those that drive for a living

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An online conversation with Linda Mattacks and Sally Church, leading pharma marketing consultant (from Icarus Consultants) proved illuminating recently.

We were discussing 60 second pitches, or elevator pitches as they are sometimes known.

I was at a loss as to what to say when contacting not only to ‘prospect’ companies, but when having to say my spiel at a breakfast meeting. I found the whole process of writing and speaking the pitch, daunting.
“I work for Arrow Light Haulage, Essex couriers delivering nationwide. We deliver parcels, pallets and urgent cargo” is often what I blurted out, and it didn’t get me very far….

Sally’s started to get me thinking with her comment – “So why should someone call you rather than another courier? You need a compelling USP – unique selling point that makes people remember you first.”

Linda responded with “Sally, you’re right but sometimes that’s easier said than done :

* It’s tough to do in a competitive market where people often initially buy on price
* Especially when customers only get the benefits from the USP once they come on board
* We all get too close to see the wood for the trees ”

Linda, took me under her wing and started to train me with the soft selling skills that I needed…

“All I’ve done so far Sarah is look at your website and thought about various conversations we’ve had. Why not play with my basic suggestion and come up with different stories and angles until you get a formula (or two) that you’ve tested out and know work.”

And this is what she come up with for me….

“I’m Sarah Arrow of Arrow Light Haulage, Essex couriers delivering parcels, pallets and urgent cargo nationwide.

Most people see couriers as a commodity – and it’s not unusual for them to switch suppliers if one pops up and tempts them away with a cheaper deal. They really think they’re saving money and everything’s fine until something goes wrong, as this story from one of our customers graphically illustrates.(pause) He says:

“I thought I would go cheaper (pause) after all it was only delivering clothes to a deadline, how hard could that be? I went with another courier and, in a month, I was billed £30,000 in fines from missed deadlines and port fines. I learned my lesson, (pause) professional couriers make the difference and are worth every penny and are not that much more expensive…”
(pause)

Don’t you make the same mistake – talk to us: Sarah Arrow, Arrow Light Haulage.”

Linda even told me when to pause and take a breath….

Linda went on to say, now you might not like the above at all but hopefully it will give you some ideas to play with. The following might be useful, too:

* People love stories
* People remember good stories
*Believable stories can bring home valuable lessons without appearing to lecture

*Use real life good stories to demonstrate how you’re different
I ran the above spiel fairly slowly though in my mind and reckon you could deliver that well within the time allocation. In this example you’ve reinforced your brand name four times in less than a minute – not bad going, huh 😉 !Whatever you come up with practise it in front of a mirror till you can say it easily and naturally

Now, none of this was new to me, but Linda and Sally spoke to me in a language that I understood, and it speaks to my customers in a language they understand!

For more information, and a downloadable sample of Linda’s superb book ‘Calling all Couriers- Win Keep and Grow Customers, please visit Sales Success at the Courier Shop.co.uk

Warm regards

Sarah Arrow
Chelmsford parcel and same day couriers
Basildon Parcel and courier services
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Networking is a funny thing. Working recently with Linda from Small Business Training / Cozo, has got me thinking…. When I network with people, who do I touch? Who do I reach? Where do my words and thoughts go? Is blogging networking?
Image by ::Prad Prathivi @ Amodica Studio:: via Flickr

I have recently started the Cozo Gold training course, and it was whilst reading the chapter on networking that these thoughts occurred.

Could I be networking with people I have never met or spoke to through a blog? Do you have to speak to a person to network with them? can it be a one sided conversation?

That lead me to thinking about the blogs that I read… do I think that I am networking with that person? Nah, of course not – it’s a one way street… or is it?

Leaving a comment and the writer responding to that comments starts the dialogue, and starts a relationship.

My next thought is how many blogs do I think “hmm, that’s interesting but never say anything?” The answer? too many.

So the next step is to start appreciating the blogs that I read,  if you find a comment saying interesting read, that’s me being appreciative :-)  if it has more words, it could be a step towards creating a dialogue with a potential customer.

Regards

Sarah Arrow
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2 out of 3 sales people fail to meet expectations with the first year of employment.

If you’re the employer, how much is this failure going to cost you? Particularly if the failure takes several months before it becomes obvious?

And why does this happen so often when employers obviously take on the person they think can best do the job?

Well, the single biggest reason is that whenever we invest a substantial amount of money in a purchase (in this case a sales person) we always go through the same process:

We are initially attracted by a strong emotion, whether that’s to ease or cure a nagging pain or for anticipated pleasure that the purchase will bring. Then we use logic to justify the expenditure. And, finally, emotion takes over again. If the emotion is strong enough, we will buy.

Notice that emotion starts and finishes the process, with a smattering of logic in the middle! Let’s concentrate some attention and effort back into the logic.

We’re never going to eliminate the emotional factor, nor should we try. “Gut” feelings are particularly important, but we do need to strengthen the input of the logic!

Go to The Sales Professional for your free download on 7 steps to employ the right salesperson.