Sales

Tell Me What

Garth Beyer

I walked around campus earlier today and saw a couple of people (separate instances) giving something away. They had stacks of something and that was it: them and a stack of something. How could I ever be intrigued to know why I should take it if I have no clue what it is.

Show me a sign. Hollar out what you’re giving away. Tell me what it is.

People rarely express any interest or start to care about something if they don’t know what it is. News writing is a perfect example. Before a writer develops the nut graf (the why you should keep reading paragraph), they tell you what has happened, what the focus is, what the story is.

“Free Bible”

“Pocketbooks for students”

“2014 calendars”

What was it that they were handing out? If they had told me, then I would have been curious why they wanted to give me a free bible, why I need a pocketbook, why they were giving me a calendar when I only ever use the one on my phone.

I’ll never ask why if you never tell me what.

 

Stay Positive & Yes, There Can Be Mystery, But At Least Say You’re Giving A Mystery Box Away

Garth E. Beyer

You Don’t Have To Be An Extrovert, But…

Garth Beyer

Every now and then I question whether I know more than my dad or not. It seems that I tell him new things, correct him, and remind him of what he said a week earlier quite often. This makes it difficult to pay attention and listen to him when he talks to me about a topic (as if he knows more than me).

And yet, I do listen and pay attention for one reason: I may be 20, but I’m not young enough to know everything. (HT Oscar Wilde)

Aside from a handful of small lessons I’ve learned from my dad over the last week, I want to share the largest one, and it’s this: talk.

Talk to whoever is around you, talk to who you are dealing with, talk to who you’re buying from, talk to who you’re sitting by. Hell, talk to yourself. Get in the habit of talking.

I’ve decided to quit using the word negotiation or any spinoff of it. Just as fine print is dying, so are negotiations. Sure, one can make a sale by going back and forth, but it’s the most unpleasant, unfulfilling, and frustrating interaction in the sales world. Naturally, I want to say my dad is a great negotiator, but he’s not. He’s a great talker.

Just this morning he got my motorcycle insurance lowered by nearly $200. I asked how and he responded, “I talked a lot.”

I am sure this guy has saved more money talking than others have scamming, saving, or negotiating.

 

Stay Positive & A Lesson Worth Passing On

Garth E. Beyer

 

What’s The Rush

Garth Beyer

I walked into a café yesterday and as soon as I reached the counter I was asked what I wanted. I had yet to look at what specials they had to offer. Of course, the majority who walk into a café know what they want (despite the minute they take to look over everything on the menu just to order the usual). So let’s just say the barista wasn’t rushing me to order. However, he was rushing to take my order. The quicker he gets it, the quicker (earlier) he can start to fulfill it. But then what? An order done gets you a customer. But businesses – if they want to be successful – should not be going after customers, they should be going after friends. Friends are certainly going to buy more, visit more often, and bring their friends with them. Spare the minute rushing to take an order and use it to connect, to make a friend.

 

Stay Positive & People Don’t Order It Often, But Here Is Food For Thought

Garth E. Beyer

10 Lessons About PR You Won’t Learn In School

Garth Beyer

Last night I was honored to listen to John Mose, Senior Vice-President of Public Relations at Cramer-Krasselt in Milwaukee, give a presentation to PRSSA Madison Chapter. The next few posts will be highlights of the presentation with my own commentary for an added texture.

1. Writing is important. Really.

You can land a position by presenting writing examples. You can get promoted by writing up proposals. You can get honored by writing the best press releases. You can be respected for writing media pitches. You can have the advantage of knowing what writers want to write about by being one yourself. Writing is everything.

2. Clients care about details.

You can skip the details when you are writing a plan out because you know them. You can skip the details when you pitch to your boss because your boss knows that you know them. You can’t skip the details when you pitch to your client because regardless of any title or background you have, your client won’t care. They want the details.

3. Understand and consume media. Read!

If you’re like me, reading all the articles in a newspaper is hard. The idea of opening a magazine to have my eyes blasted with absurd and uninformative ads repulses me. One word: literature. Other than that, I love reading articles online, but my eyes can only stand looking at the screen for so long. I’ve written about adaptation and this is when you have to get used to consuming all that you can. I’m making progress, you can too/need to.

4. At an agency, you are the product on shelf.

“Companies don’t cut the product that makes money.” – John Mose

5. PR can’t solve everything.

I’m leaving this up for debate. I have yet to meet a PR Professional other than John to say this. PR Specialists – being one myself – live by the adage If there is a will, there is a way.

6. Better to be fast than perfect.

My spin off of this that I have tweeted a few times, and rarely do I ever tweet something twice, is Be first, but be right first.

7. Be ready to sell some aluminum siding.

Similar to the next lesson; you never know what you may have to sell.

8. Know difference between a good-looking horse trough and an ugly one. You have to go out and be, do, or buy some crazy things.

You never know what you may have to do.

9. It’s okay to have non-traditional experience if you can make it interesting.

Took a year off? No problem, make the reason why fascinate me. Spent that last six years working a job that has no respective value? No problem, find and share what value it did hold. Every topic that you believe will work against you on your pursuit of becoming a PR Specialist, find how to make it interesting.

10. Study something else.

It’s time to confess something to you.

Everything you have read so far on this blog has come from experience, self-learning, or books and classes that are not directed at PR. I have to say that any and all future posts will be of the same context.

John advocates that you study something else, something you are passionate about, because the real world is the education center for PR. I couldn’t agree more.

(HT to John Mose)

Quality Over Quantity Is An Antiquity

Quality Over Quantity Is An Antiquity

Garth Beyer

 

 

Quality

It’s expressed over and over that quality should always be over quantity. It is one of three factors to profiting most from a product.

1. Lowest Price

2. Best Service

3. Best Quality

But I am not telling you to choose quality over quantity.

Quantity

Sure quantity over quality had its spotlight at one time. But the light has since gone dim. It flickers from time to time and that is how we got generic brands or bulk items. There are times in life that we can forget the quality of something for the quantity. Do you really want to spend 60 dollars on one new quality toy for your four-year old? Or purchase 10 toys for 60 dollars? Especially when you know that if you paid extra for the one toy, the chances of a four-year old breaking it is pretty high.

But I am not telling you to choose quantity over quality again either.

So What’s The Q-Fusion

Why is it that you have to choose quality or quantity with a product? Why do we have to place one over the other?

You know what you can do? Put them on the same level and see what happens. Yes, I’m telling you to use both. If we are talking about importance then sure quality is the most important, but that doesn’t mean quality can’t be completed at a steady pace. Nor can you argue that a quantity of quality will always make you — not just A winner, but THE winner. A winner in sales, in business…in life.

 

Abraham Lincoln said, “And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”  — Quality

I will add, “And don’t settle for a bit of life in each year, go all out” — Quantity

 

Stay Positive and Synthesized

Garth E. Beyer