Page 65 - Lighting Magazine February 2020

learned how to do it. Remember, in these digital days, marketing leads us to the prospect, and the well-trained sales teams will win here.
The prospecting activity no longer consists of un- solicited calls, emails, or spammy social media posts that are focused on trading boxes for dollars. This evident and ignorable tactic may work for certain sellers, but most prospective clients have become numb to these self-serving campaigns and they will not lead to increasing the floor traffic that show- rooms are seeking.
People are more open to being influenced by another strategy: “Inbound Marketing.” Inbound marketing provides us with prospects who have an interest or problem related to our businesses. The clients are drawn in by the relative content being produced and the transferred emotion shared by the sales team. It is the sales team’s responsibility to interact with prospects to determine the level of interest that the “like, follow, or share” generated.
Now everyone may not be able to craft a 3,000- word pillar blog, but they can speak to their digital client relative to category knowledge. It’s the same information they need to work with a client who is with them face to face in the showroom.
there iS GolD in GrouPS
No matter which social platform is your favorite, they all have ways to find “groups” of people who can be served by you. Monitoring these groups for conversations and answering requests for help are the perfect place to share your information and skill.
This procedure works on Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups and, to some extent, hashtag fol- lowers on Instagram.
Look for town, city, and industry groups within your trading area and monitor them for relevant questions that allow you to get involved. Follow trade clients or prospects and be an active sup- porter of their postings. Share your content within these groups and make sure the content resides on your website.
Business owners and managers, your sales teams need time in the workday to scan these groups looking for opportunities to interject into the con- versation. For those salespeople who don’t want to have their personal information at risk, create a work profile that is used for this type of work. While the showroom’s profile could be used, people re- spond better to other people.
“Clients want the convenience of digital and the benefits of human interaction.”
look Who’S tAlkinG
Information needed by the prospect is based on where they are in their buyer’s journey — and you can’t sell the same way to everyone. When the client is at the beginning of their journey, the information they want is different from the client who is closer to making a buying decision.
retention iS mAnDAtory
With the statistics saying that the Millennial genera- tion is the most loyal generation to the companies they buy from, I see retention as the fourth stage of client engagement. Again, I look backwards to see into the future. Joe Girard was hailed by the Guin- ness Book of World Records as the “World’s Best Salesperson” for selling more cars than anyone else (more than 13,000 cars over his career). One of the mechanisms Joe would use was called the “Ferris wheel.” I think the name came from the old analog Rolodex style of contact management. Today we have a variety of electronic platforms and programs to help keep track of past customers. Still, the activ- ity of reaching out to past clients is not to sell them, but to have a continuing relationship. Retention provides two-fold results: we stay top of mind with our clients, and they become promoters of us and our showrooms.
Find out what your clients do for a living, and sup- port them in their work. Send them the notes and cards that others won’t. The key to retention is not to be sales spammy with your communications, but provide useful non-selling information. Send notes and make comments that celebrate the client. After completing a new home project, I would send “Hap- py Anniversary” cards to my customers’ homes. The only goal is to continue a positive experience for the client after the sale is made.
As time moves forward, showrooms and their teams have continually faced new challenges with the economy and advances in technology. As in the past, some will fold under the newfound pressures, and the remainder will meet the challenges and find greater success in the long game.
Mark Okun is a Sales Success Consultant for Bravo Business Media and President of MOC Performance Group with over 40 yearsí experience in sales, marketing, and business management within the furniture, lighting, and decorative plumbing industries. He is a monthly contributor to enLIGHTenment Magazine and conducts sales training programs, webinars, workshops and market seminars for retailers, sales representative agencies, and manufacturers. Contact Mark Okun via email at mark@bravobusiness media.com or call 800-425-5139 ext. 626.
on the Mark
As Always Happy Selling! 
February 2020 | enLIGHTenment Magazine 63