Category — Sales

Philip Delves Broughton thinks that many business people “are clueless about one of the most vital functions, the means by which you actually generate revenue,” reports L. Gordon Crovitz in the Wall Street Journal (4/27/12). That function is the sales function, and the focus of Philip’s book, The Art of the Sale. Sales people, says Philip, are unfairly classified as somehow different than other business types. “They need conventions in Las Vegas and complex commission structures” and are “goaded to perform and reined in when they sell too hard,” he writes. “They are patronized as ‘feet on the street’ by those who prefer to imagine that business can be conducted by consultants with dueling PowerPoint presentations.”

But in sales, Philip sees a certain nobility. “It holds that in a properly functioning democracy, no matter the condition of your birth, if you can sell, you can slice through any obstacles of class, status, or upbringing in a way inconceivable in more hidebound societies,” he writes. “Selling well, in this view, is also a reflection of a healthy character. It means you are the sort of person people are drawn to — hardworking, clean living and trustworthy.” To make his point, Philip profiles a number of sales people, including Abdel Majid Rais El Fenni — but you can call him Majid. A Moroccan merchant of “high-end rugs and other furnishings,” Majid succeeds simply by being “open and honest with customers.”

Philip also praises Steve Jobs because Apple “inspires more than a commercial relationship. It inspires faith” — for which customers “are happy to pay a premium.” Nelson Mandela is cited for bothering to “learn the language and culture of the ruling white Afrikaners” and then using that understanding to make his case against apartheid. The Dalai Lama, meanwhile, uses “adaptive selling,” in that he alternately “presents himself as a modest monk” or “a sophisticated critic” depending on the circumstances. Philip predicts that technology will enable “a new sales culture neither hard nor soft, neither bullying nor sappy, but one that relies on transparent information and enhanced cooperation … Technology,” he writes, “provides the transparency that leads to trust.”

"The much maligned car salesman is still shifting the vast majority of new cars, despite carmakers’ efforts to sell online," reports the Economist (10/22/11). In Asia, Amway, Avon and Mary Kay — direct-sales firms — are growing rapidly. Closer to home, Google "has thousands of flesh-and-blood ad salespeople. Apple has sold millions of iMac computers online, but its shops are as sophisticated as they are old-fashioned. Its rivals sell computers via soulless big-box stores," but "Apple makes it personal, down to the last psychological detail: for example, staff are forbidden to correct consumers if they mispronounce the names of its gadgets."

All of which suggests that even though drug companies "cut their salesforces by a whopping 30 percent between 2006 and 2011" and replaced them with "cheaper telephone salespeople," sales is important as ever. And yet, influential gurus like Peter Drucker suggest that "the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous." Indeed, while "chief marketing officers" abound, it is much harder to find a "chief sales officer." Most MBA programs "do not teach sales as a separate subject" and chief executive officers rarely come out of sales.

According to Sales Growth, a new book by a trio of McKinsey consultants, "the difference between the best and worst companies when it comes to selling is far greater than the difference for functions such as supply-chain management, purchasing or finance." Some companies are now "reorganizing sales so that their most important customers are cosseted by huge, complex selling teams which include people from many departments." But, all in all, "salespeople are the unsung heroes of business," who "battle daily and bravely against rival firms and consumers who foolishly prefer to save their hard-earned cash."

Susan Nethero is turning "her boundless enthusiasm for bosoms" into a booming business in brassieres, reports Gillian Reagan in Bloomberg Businessweek (4/18/11). Indeed, Intimacy, Susan’s chain of 15 stores, last year sold some 290,000 bras, generating $35.5 million in sales, "a 27.5 percent jump" from 2009. This may sound like small potatoes next to Victoria Secret’s "1,000 locations and more than $4 billion in 2010 sales," but Susan brings an important point of difference: She employes "nearly 100 professional bra fitters" who spend a week in a "bra boot camp" that Susan calls "an MBA for bra fitting."

Susan’s strategy, then, is to focus on "fittings, not sales." Her stores offer "a half-hour of pampering" with the goal of showing "customers how properly fitted lingerie could transform their figures, style, and more important, self-image." It can also solve for problems like back pain. Susan, who previously worked in marketing at Xerox and Time Inc., opened her first store in 1992 after experiencing her own frustrations with ill-fitting underwear. She consulted with June Kenton, "the recently retired bra fitter for the Queen of England," and stocked European brands.

Her big break came with a 2005 appearance on Oprah, who endorsed the idea that "every woman needed to get a bra fitting." She’s been on Oprah and the Today show regularly since then, and Marshal Cohen of NPD Group says that Susan’s high-quality approach is the key. "With intimates, comfort and fit are way up high on the chart, and price is a lot less sensitive," he says. Susan’s bras typically sell for twice the average of a Victoria’s Secret bra, and, to ensure proper fit, her stores carry "approximately 15,000 bra styles in more than 90 sizes." Some women object to having a fitter with them in the dressing room, but Susan’s "bra psychology continues to work."

Don’t let the basics get lost in the shuffle at retail. By Will Minton. Are you as transfixed as I am by the sequences of zeros and ones that make up today’s digital shopper-marketing space? I find myself salivating at the thought of soon being able to scan UPC codes with my smart phone to complete a purchase without ever having to wait in line.

However, many of these advances in shopper-facing retail technology have not exactly been transformative. In fact, new technologies were rated as having the least impact on the customer experience in a recent survey of industry executives by RetailWire and Dechert-Hampe. The editors’ interpretation was that these enhancements are not transforming the shopper experience as much as they are refashioning aspects that were already there … read >>

A real estate broker, improbably named Lana Turner, is using her collection of vintage dresses to help sell a $1.7 million townhouse in Harlem, reports Peter Hellman in the Wall Street Journal (9/15/10). The townhouse is located on "a lovely but little-known street," which is partly why Lana decided a fashion show might help. It’s also because business is slow: "It was a better market up here a few years ago when there was very little inventory downtown, but that’s changed," says Lana.

Lana’s exhibit, "Finding Style in Time," occupies all four floors of the townhouse and features a total of "58 dresses, along with the gloves, hats and shoes that go with them … The exhibition is divided among themed rooms, including a ground-floor, 1930s-style tea room with old sheet music and rose petals scattered on the floor; a parlor filled with antique formal dresses; and a second-floor bedroom dedicated to travel clothing from an era when wearing jeans on an airplane was unheard of."

Lana "points out that details of the house can be highlighted by the dresses. In the front parlor, for example, several ivory-toned dresses are draped on Victorian armchairs." As Lana notes: "The color of those dresses actually accents the delicate pink porcelain tiles of the mantel." No way of knowing if her dresses can sell houses, so Lana is ready with her pitch, noting that "you can get a lot more house for your money here on this prime block that is a best-kept secret. But it won’t be a secret for people who come to see this show."

"I just kept thinking of Keith Richards, wearing that ‘Who the f— is Mick Jagger?’ T-shirt," (image) says Paul Harding in a Boston Globe piece by Geoff Edgers (4/15/10). Paul is trying to make sense of the unlikely success of his first novel, Tinkers, which recently won a Pulitzer Prize "– the first book by a small publisher to do so in nearly three decades." Paul’s manuscript had been rejected by everyone, including Jonathan Rabinowitz of Turtle Point Press.

But Jonathan liked the book, which is about "an old man facing his final days." He mentioned it to a colleague, Erika Goldman, over lunch. Erika runs a nonprofit imprint called Bellvue Literary Press who says she found herself "weeping for the beauty of the prose." She gave Paul a $1,000 advance and planned an initial print run of just 3,500 copies. Paul, a former rock drummer, was surviving on unemployment at the time.

Michael Coffey of Publisher’s Weekly gave the book a starred review. Lise Solomon, a sales rep, made it her goal to turn the book into a San Francisco Bay Area best-seller. John Freeman featured it as one of the year’s best books on NPR. The New Yorker, L.A. Times and Boston Globe all gave it rave reviews. "This wasn’t social media … It was real word of mouth and somebody picking up a lunch check," says Michael Coffey. "That’s the story line," says Paul. "This weird end run from noble obscurity to a Pulitzer."

Integrated Selling drives bottom-line sales and better brand performance. By Paul Kramer. (more)

Let’s put a new lens on the future of shopper marketing.  By Anne Howe. (more)

Some filmmakers are "using Sundance not just as a sales tool but also as a platform for immediate digital delivery," reports Brooks Barnes in the New York Times (1/25/10). Their reasoning is largely based on hard numbers. Of the $3.7 billion worth of films submitted to Sundance Festival this year, "only about $120 million worth make the schedule, and of those less than $30 million worth will find their way to market through the traditional system." So, for a film like "One Too Many Mornings" (trailer), which cost about $50,000 to make, it’s a no-brainer to try something non-traditional.

Michael Mohan, the film’s writer and director, is making it available for download for $10 and is selling DVDs for $20. "For $35, customers get a DVD, a poster and a piece of the sofa featured in the film." Michael is also offering theatrical rights via his website for $100,000. "Forget a bidding war," he says. "Whoever gets to their laptop the fastest gets it." Michael doesn’t see any downside to his approach. "There’s no reason it can’t go to theaters after it’s available online; it’s two different groups of people," he says.

But this probably wouldn’t work for a more expensive film. "If you’ve made a movie for $5 million and you’re only doing a video-on-demand deal, your investors are getting killed," says Jay Cohen, an agent. Indeed, the average Sundance candidate cost about $1 million to make. But some think a hybrid distribution strategy like Michael’s might have a future. "It probably does send Hollywood some signals," says Joshua Sapan, ceo of Rainbow Media, a Cablevision subsidiary that, among other things, owns the Sundance Channel. However, he cautions that specialty films generally don’t "have broad commerciality as a goal."

Instead of the usual 33-city book tour, Stephen Elliott promoted his latest novel, "The Adderall Diaries," by holding discussions in strangers’ living rooms. As he explains in a New York Times essay (1/17/10), Stephen decided that he "didn’t want to travel thousands of miles to read to 10 people, sell four books, then spend the night in a cheap hotel room before flying home." Instead, when his new book was published, he let it be known via his website that he’d hold an event in anyone’s home, provided they promised at least 20 guests.

Stephen would sleep on their couch, share airfare expenses with his publisher and hope to make up the difference by selling books. Most of the attendees had never been to a "literary event" before, and usually were a reflection of the host — a nurse brought hospital workers; a musician brought rock ‘n’ rollers; and an artist brought other artists. Unlike previous book tours, he encountered few aspiring writers interested only in advice on how to get published. He found his audiences to be friendly and engaged — after all, they were having a party.

Stephen sold his books one at a time, all told moving some 1,100 copies over 73 events. Not surprisingly, when reading to people with money, he found they would "buy books out of obligation, just to be polite, because you did a reading in their home, or for a signed souvenir of a fun evening." But he also said one of his best audiences was a group of 40 college students, who bought a total of just 10 books. For the most part, he concluded, his do-it-yourself, living-room tour didn’t attract the "standard literary audience … they were better."