‘Buyer Beware’ is a phrase that has been around for a long time and for good reason.  There are enough stories in circulation to know that not all sales people or businesses behave honourably, and some are nothing more than fraudsters and scammers.  With the market getting more crowded everyday, the need to attract buyer attention and grow revenue, and the rise of the online business model, buyers should beware.

While most businesses and their sales people want to attract and work with viable prospects and customers, there are those less than honourable sales and business people who are after victims, not prospects.  Their entire focus or raison d’etre is to get your money at your expense.

For instance, I recently came across the website Scamnet which was put together by the WA Government and profiles scams targeting consumers and businesses.  Scamnet gives you an A-Z listing of scams ranging from Pyramid schemes to the ‘Nigerian scam’ many of us have experienced via our email.  The site shows you how to spot a fraud or scam, hopefully before it gets you.

In my line of work I also come across various of business practices offered up as sales and marketing tactics, some of which are questionable and potentially problematic.  For instance I recently found some terms I had never heard of before on Wikipedia – Ethically Disputed Business Practices . On the surface these practices may seem legitimate but are regarded as inappropriate, unethical and even illegal in many circumstances.  However, despite their dubious nature, you see these practices being employed in businesses and politics on a regular basis.  Here are some of the more common questionable business practices I thought worth mentioning (source Wikipedia):

Frugging:- In market research, frugging is “fund-raising under the guise of research”.  This behavior occurs when a product marketer falsely purports to be a market researcher conducting a statistical survey when in reality the “researcher” is attempting to solicit a donation.  Generally considered unethical, this tactic is strictly prohibited by trade groups, such as CASRO and the Marketing Research Association, for their member research companies.

Sugging: – is a market research industry term, meaning “selling under the guise of research”.  This behavior occurs when a product marketer falsely pretends to be a market researcher conducting a survey, when in reality they are simply trying to sell the product in question.  Generally considered unethical, this tactic is prohibited or strongly disapproved of by trade groups, such as the UK Market Research Society MRS, CASRO and MRA, for their member research companies.

Shill: – A shill is a person who is paid to help another person or organization to sell goods or services.  The shill pretends to have no association with the seller/group and gives onlookers the impression that he or she is an enthusiastic customer.  The person or group that hires the shill is using crowd psychology, to encourage other onlookers or audience members (who are unaware of the set-up) to purchase said goods or services.  Shills are often employed by confidence artists.

The term shill (or plant) is also used to describe a person who is paid to help a political party or other advocacy organization to gain adherents.  As with the situation of selling goods or services, the shill gives the impression of being unrelated to the group in question, and finds merit in the ideological claims of the political party.

Shilling is illegal in many circumstances and in many jurisdictions because of the frequently fraudulent and damaging character of their actions.  However, if a shill does not place uninformed parties at a risk of loss, but merely generates a “buzz”, the shill’s actions may be legal.  For example, a person planted in an audience to laugh and applaud when desired, or to participate in on-stage activities as a “random member of the audience”, is a type of legal shill.

“Shill” can also be used pejoratively to describe a critic who appears either all-too-eager to heap glowing praise upon mediocre offerings, or who acts as an apologist for glaring flaws.  In this sense, they would be an implicit “shill” for the industry at large, possibly because their income is tied to its prosperity.

My intention is not to be a moral arbiter here, I will leave you to be the judge of what you do and don’t do. However, in the spirit of ‘fore warned is fore armed’ I hope this helps you and your people steer clear of any scammers or fraudsters before they get you.  This information may also help keep you from ‘unintentionally’ taking up any dubious marketing or sales activities that may impact on yours, your  business and your customers’ viability and credibility in the future.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

‘Walk a mile in my shoes’ is a song written by Joe South and made famous by Elvis Presley.  The song is very much about challenging closed mindedness, respecting and honouring differences, and learning how to get along with each other.  However, I propose that it also has a lot to say to sales and marketing people.  For instance, the first verse sets it up well:

If I could be you and you could be me for just one hour
If we could find a way to get inside each other’s mind
If you could see you through my eyes instead of your ego
I believe you’d be surprised to see that you’d been blind

Many a customer’s ire has been roused when a sales person shows up and fails to find out what a customer’s priorities are.  Instead, launching into a self absorbed diatribe of product information and self aggrandisement leaving the customer completely out of the picture.

Another stanza points out some of the major issues with being internally focused, refusing to acknowledge and see others as they are.

Well, your whole world you see around you is just a reflection
And the law of common says you’re gonna reap just what you sow

This stanza reminds me of my common catch cry ‘who’s your brochure written for anyway?’  Many companies still fail to produce sales and marketing materials that their customers and prospects can relate to, instead producing material that is too internally focused.

Being “other” aware, tuning into what another person needs, likes or wants is vital to a successful sales career.  And it’s more than just asking a series of pre formed questions, writing down information and regurgitating it back without empathy or genuine understanding.

As Geshe Michael Roach, the author of The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Strategies for Managing Your Business and Your Life points out, the current western way of thinking, especially business and corporate incentives, has been very centred around what’s in it for the individual – ‘how am I going to benefit from this?’, ‘what will I get if I do this?’ and ‘how much will I make if I get this client on board, or deal over the line?’

Geshe Michael asks “When did you hear or read about two sales executives or two corporate executives splitting their bonuses because they did a good job together?  This individual focus causes us to concentrate on ourselves, at the expense of paying attention to others.”

‘I’ has been the centre of our business models for a very long time, however I am proposing that in order to be a highly evolved sales person we need to shift to a ‘we’ focus.  From ‘I’ to ‘we’ means including the ‘other’ in our thoughts, intentions and actions, and being able to see the world from another’s perspective even if we do not like or hold the same views or values ourselves.

Geshe Michael states “People have an instinct when they know you do not care that much about what they like or need and they have an instinct for the opposite as well.”

This statement begs some questions:

• How well do I really understand another person and see the world from their perspective?
• How well am I able to determine another person’s level of understanding about complex areas such as work, business, life, values, culture, etc.?
• How quickly am I able to become aware of how another person thinks or feels?

The practice of exchanging ourselves with others takes us out of our exclusive focus on ourselves and starts us off on the process of being sensitive to others.  It has a profound effect on work flow, performance and, most importantly, sustainable relationships.

There is a Buddhist practice called the Jampa Method which is outlined in more detail in The Diamond Cutter.  It involves exchanging yourself for another – what you do is to pretend to put your mind in their body and then open your eyes and look at you from their perspective.  You get to see or hear what it is that they (you in their body) would like from you (you).  This step is called switching bodies.  It is a little deeper and more difficult than just watching the people around you to see what they like or dislike.

When I practice this I ask myself “What does the other person need or want me to say and give to them?”  It creates a much deeper level of listening than I have ever experienced before and I find that I can really tune into the other person with greater clarity and connect with them on a deeper level.  It may seem a bit artificial at first but anything new does. I am work in progress as this method requires conscious effort and focused attention, however it can become second nature after regular practice and can make a profound difference to all relationships, personal and professional.

Therefore as I am writing this piece I am thinking about how I, the author, can stand in your shoes.  I am imagining myself as someone reading this thinking – “What about my customers, when are they going to stand in my shoes?”

It is a common response we hear from many sales people that they would just like their customer to know how they feel too.  This response highlights the importance of how we choose our actions and emotions rather than simply responding to those of others and that someone has to start the process first.

The choice is yours:

1. Do you choose Inaction? (which means you wait for your customers to make the first move) OR
2. Do you choose Action? (where you take the lead)

So in the spirit of ‘walking a mile in each others’ shoes’ maybe we could all as customers and sales people, or simply as human beings try this approach and see what happens.

Walk a mile in my shoes, walk a mile in my shoes
Yeah, before you abuse, criticize and accuse
Walk a mile in my shoes

Thank you very much!

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

‘Getting back to basics’ is our 2010 Sales Trend #3 as voted by you, our readers.  Despite the positive start to 2010 in Australia, especially compared to other post GST economies, we cannot forget the fundamentals when it comes to creating a healthy, viable sales team, culture and business.

One of the real challenges of 2010 will be keeping sales momentum while understanding how changes in customers, competitors, markets, innovations, media, technology and all manner of things will impact on our businesses and our people. Getting our heads around all this to find the right ingredients for our plans and strategies will be demanding.  We need to recognise the new ‘things’, in themselves, will not make things better, it is how they are integrated and applied in ours and our customers current situation and circumstances.

Often with new technologies, new trends, new ideas, and new innovations people become distracted thinking that these new things will promise to make life better, easier, faster, or more effective or efficient, all the while missing 2 key points:

1. In taking on the ‘new’ how does this support our real intentions and purpose as a business and leader?
2. How will these new innovations make our business and, more importantly, our customers lives better in action and deed?

Throwing away the ‘tried and true’ and rushing headlong into the ‘new and shiny’ without considered thought can pose great risks.   If we look at this from the customer’s perspective we will see their wary cynicism of the new and shiny, and recognise their desire for transparency, continuity and familiarity as well as their need to be up with the latest.   Many have long memories and know from lessons learned often the new and flashy is quickly dated.

Equally being closed off to the ‘new’ is just as bad because we could miss vital signals that may lead us to better places.  Either way throwing out the basics or being closed off to the ‘new’ will leave us worse off.

In 2010, wise business/sales leaders and people will embrace the ‘new’ but not forget the basics.

The Back to Basics Checklist includes having:

1. A vision with clear intention, purpose, values and actions – what do we stand for and how do we act?

2.    Clear sales strategy and tactical plan articulated at a business, state/regional, and sales person level. This would include:

• Sales goals
• Clear market message
• Client segmentation including account management, new business development and service support
• Competitor analysis – direct and emerging
• Go-to-market sales tactics including how we make contact with prospects and customers
• Clear Input and Output Measurements (role clarity, clear performance expectations, team unity, etc.)

3.    Sound Sales Processes and Frameworks including:

• Sales management knowledge, skills, and mindset (coaching, performance management, strategy, recruitment, leadership, etc.)
• Sales Planning knowledge, skills, and mindset
• Prospecting knowledge, skills, and mindset (Sourcing Leads, networking – new social media opportunities; Proactive prospecting activities like making telephone calls to new prospects, existing or lapsed clients; doing and monitoring your activities on a daily basis)
• Selling knowledge, skills, and mindset (client meetings, pitching, presentations, negotiation, account management, customer service, conflict resolution, territory management, proposal development, etc.)
• Self Management knowledge, skills, and mindset (monitoring self talk, analysing a situation accurately, taking care of personal health and well being, working with a sense of purpose and clarity)

Keeping our sales basics in tune will help us while we integrate and experiment with the ‘new’ such as  social media and other new advances coming into our markets.   It’s about finding out what is effective and then weaving in the ‘new’ and trialing it to see how it enhances or detracts from our sales efforts.  Investing large amounts of money and effort into one sales approach leaves us vulnerable.  It’s about having a blended sales approach and fine tuning it to meet our customers and our needs for being in business.

By knowing who and how to target customers and being well skilled in sales planning, prospecting, and client communication we will keep sales happening. By sticking to the basics and integrating the ‘new’ bit by bit  we will work out how Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, Sales 2.0, Social media and all the other innovations will work best for us and how we need to keep on selling.  With change comes opportunity and challenges.

I suggest we repeat the mantra ‘hasten slowly’ and keep doing the basics while considering, trialing, evaluating, and integrating the new.  In 2010 the focus will be on selective incorporation, based on customers, community, company, and self, while still remembering the basics that got us where we are today.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

Gerry Harvey, (Harvey Norman) was recently bemoaning the culture of discounting in our retail sector. He was saying that retailers had lost the plot and didn’t know how to sell real value anymore.  He said they had fallen foul of a culture of constant discounting as the only way to attract customers, which was tantamount to business disaster and a degradation of the retail sector. I happen to agree with Gerry in this instance.

He went further by saying that retailers were failing to find out what customers really wanted and what they really valued.  He said retailers weren’t offering choice – a range of options of different value and therefore were not selling.  He went on to say that while a ‘sale’ may attract customers to a store, you still needed to put the effort into selling.  Selling doesn’t happen by itself.

I’m not a retail expert, however, discounting, sadly, appears to be main stream in Australian retail businesses.  Rather than a ‘sale’ being a rare event, it now seems, everywhere you turn there is a ‘sale’ or discount war waging.  In short, over the last 10-15 years the consumer has been habituated to look for cheap, cheap, and cheap.  The real value to, we, the consumer, of having a range of products and services to choose from across a wide value scale, seems to be lost in a mentality of it must be ‘cheap’.

It begs the questions “How has this come about?” and “Who started this discounting avalanche?”  It wasn’t always this way.   I recently had the opportunity to visit the exhibition ‘til you drop – shopping, a Melbourne History’ at the Victorian State Library which is about retail shopping in Melbourne across the last 100+ years.  I found it quite an enlightening and educational experience. For instance:

“In the 19th century, ‘retail therapy’ had a different meaning from how we understand it today. Shopping was often promoted as combining commerce with intellectual or aesthetic benefits.  Influenced by British morals and values, the display and purchase of goods were expressions of taste and self-improvement.” This is certainly a far cry from ‘cheap, cheap, cheap’ we now hear.

It seemed that shopping in the 19th century had a higher purpose to it.   Perpetual discounting sadly does not.

Constant ‘discount sales’ erode margins and low or no margins means a business is not profitable and therefore not sustainable.   Gerry and other retail experts will tell you that there is a time and a place for discounting – moving old stock, stock liquidation, seasonal or special events for instance.  Discounting should NOT be seen as a regular occurrence or constant ‘way of life’ as this will affect the buying patterns of consumers i.e. people will wait for the ‘sales’ instead of buying across the year.  They will pick their way through the plethora of ‘sales’ on offer every day, meaning no one has to pay full price for anything across the year which in turn forces retailers to enter a never ending loop of discounting.

Discounting in any business sector, retail or business to business, may increase turnover initially, but as a constant strategy comes at a cost which, in the long term, may create more severe problems than we had intended. This may include poorer sector and business performance, less investment in new ideas and products, loss of jobs, business closure, decreased diversity, poorer quality products sourced in place of better quality offerings, which can lead to increased customer dissatisfaction, and less choice as a result.

Less choice means we end up only getting access to products that are of a lesser quality. This creates poorer product performance, a diminished product life, and increased and unnecessary consumption, resulting in greater costs than if one had invested in a better product or service in the first place.

Who wants to pay for more ‘crap’?   In a world where more and more people are conscious of overconsumption, you can see that this journey down the ‘cheap’ road doesn’t lead to a very good place.

Maybe retail needs to return to its ‘higher purpose’ roots.  Another excerpt from the ‘til you drop’ exhibition bears this out:

“While bargains are always popular, when standardised brands replace some specialty and locally produced items the quality of products can become less reliable.  Today, many shoppers are returning to smaller stores selling organic or locally-grown and made produce.  Supermarkets are, in turn, following this trend and promoting gourmet sections and their own ranges of organic and specialty products.  The fact that consumers are becoming more aware of the impact of goods and shopping trends on the environment can be seen in new approaches to packaging and transportation. People are increasingly recognising that more sustainable shopping practices can reduce their ‘shopping footprint’.”

This is why I propose that a climate of perpetual discounting may potentially lead to the erosion in our quality of life and may limit our ability to make the right and best choices for ourselves, our families, our businesses, our communities and the environment.  Is our culture of ‘discounting’ potentially leading us to a false economy? If so, ultimately, this will ‘cost’ us a whole lot more.

Gerry, I suggest you and your retail mates take a collective look in the mirror and do a bit of reflecting on the potentially larger issues ‘constant discounting’ may be creating for us all.  And while you are at it, why not pay a visit to the ‘til you drop’ exhibition which has some great pearls of wisdom about creating real value in retail.

Special thanks also go to Andy and Errol, my fellow tennis parents who work-shopped this article with me one Sunday morning as our sons played tennis.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

Understandably everyone wants to save money, especially in these times, however we need to be aware of falling victim to false economy.  False Economy is an expression that refers to an action which saves money at the beginning but which, over a longer period of time, results in more money being wasted than being saved.

For instance, I have never understood why some people will drive half an hour across town to get their petrol two cents a litre cheaper, all the while using up what they may save by driving across town, notwithstanding the time it took to travel there and back in the first place.  In almost all cases this action delivers a net loss.

The following excerpt from Wikipedia on a False Economy provides some good examples:

A notable practitioner of false economy was King Frederick William I of Prussia, who was said by Thomas Macaulay to have saved five or six dollars a year feeding his family unwholesome cabbages even though the poor diet sickened his children and the resulting medical care cost him many times what he saved.[1]

The concept of a false economy is similar to planned obsolescence, whereby the lower initial cost of a false economy attracts buyers mostly on the basis of low cost, who may later be at a disadvantage.

Motivating factors on the part of the party engaging in false economies may be linked to the long term involvement of this party. For example, a real estate developer who builds a condominium may turn the finished structure over to the ensuing condominium corporation which is run by its members once the last unit is sold and the building has passed a final inspection. Longevity of the components of the structure beyond the final turnover of the facility may not be a major motivating factor for the developer, meaning that the result of the application of false economies may be more detrimental to the end user, as opposed to the developer.

A false economy affects businesses and consumers on many levels.  The quality of decision making is the factor here.  The cause and effect of our decisions may be creating a false economy in our businesses or our personal lives.  Anyone in the procurement profession (purchasing) who still holds onto ‘cheapest’ being their only option for purchasing from suppliers may be setting their companies up for failure or disaster.

For instance, many SME businesses may be tempted by the cheap telco service offering or cheaper equipment.  On the surface, these cheaper offerings could appear to be great deals, but before one buys anything they should do some analysis beyond the obvious price on offer.  Just because something is cheap does not mean it is good for you or your business.  A cheap phone or communications system could mean unreliable phone or poor internet connection, poor equipment performance resulting in frustrated or lost customers who cannot communicate with you or your business, a poor reputation, or poor staff retention.  The so called ‘cheaper’ service just cost you a whole lot more than you intended to pay.

The expression ‘buyer beware’ also springs to mind. It is not just the sales person’s job to convince us to buy it. Our job as the buyer is to do the math and to look at the genuine ROI (return on investment) of our purchase.  Any self respecting sales person is well equipped to look at the consequences and ROI of each purchase, and would help you make a sound decision based on facts.  We need to work together to ensure we do not enter into a false economy for all our sakes.

So what are we really purchasing?  Thinking beyond the immediate outlay of money, we can view every purchase in our personal or business life as an investment.  I have just had a salient lesson in false economy courtesy of my eldest son and his friend when they purchased some remote control products online.  They found some great planes on a website whereby they could purchase them at a considerably cheaper price than elsewhere.  Seeing as they were paying for them with their hard earned pocket money, the price looked great to them.

You can see what’s coming can’t you?  8+ hours of my time attempting to communicate with the US online company to get our order processed involving numerous attempts to get what we ordered fully shipped. This was a classic case of false economy.  Even though my son and his friend went through feelings of devastation at the thought of losing their collective $740, feelings of disappointment when their order was not fully filled and the shipping costs were out of proportion, and resignation that not everyone fulfills their promises, the lessons for all of us were invaluable.

They learnt about checking out the reputation and credibility of a company first, the cause and effect of buying and selling ‘cheap’, that trying to fix problems can take a lot of time and cost money, and that plenty of people have lost a lot more than they did. So we were able to put it into perspective, albeit that $740 to an 11 and 13 year old is a lot of money.  They also discovered the value of thinking before you act, the consequences of actions, and how to process a range of emotions that we feel when things go wrong. Perhaps most importantly, they learnt how to respond with patience and reasoned analysis to get what you want rectified, instead of threats.
All in all it was a great lesson, learnt early in life with limited consequences, and hopefully one they will carry with them into the future to help them on their way.

So if using a cheaper alternative costs you even one sale, is it worth it? While in some cases the answer may be yes, in many other cases the more expensive option may be the one that provides the greatest return for you. As you’ve just read, ‘costs’ can involve a lot more than just dollar value.

Special thanks go to my son Josh and his friend Nick for the inspiration for this article.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au