What Can the Girl Scouts (and their cookies!) Tell Us About Marketing?!?

Jason Forrest, with Forrest Performance Group, offered a great blog recently, Five Sales Lessons from the (Girl Scout) Cookie Trade.  You can read it here!

The blog suggests Girl Scouts are learning 5 lessons about keeping the sale sold. We're going to focus on 2 of these lessons here:

#1: Communication Comes From More Than Words -- we all have heard sales people should make eye contact, smile, stay approachable. We've also heard a picture is worth 1,000 words.



Very few words; lots of communication!

#2: Spice Up Your Presentation -- You've all seen the folding table with box upon box of Thin Mints, Trefoils, Samoas, Do-Si-Dos.  Just looking at them brings back the taste, childhood memories, even a personal first selling experience!

Spicing-Up a 55+ Information Center!

How about combining these two concepts with an interactive touchscreen in your sales/leasing center?  Touchscreen systems are engaging, approachable and full of images (photos, video) about your product, your location, your selling features.  People will walk up and start touching because they want to find out about your community, what is unique.  The touchscreen will help you keep the sale sold.

Communicate your uniqueness; Spice Up your sales center! Find out more about CPS' interactive touchscreen system, SalesTouch, here.

Adding new tools to your sales process or... Let's Get Creative

Really loved the Jeff Shore/Jason Forrest Sales Leadership Summit last week in Dallas.

No doubt, every attendee took away a new idea, added something new to their "sales and marketing toolkit."

Really noteworthy was the thought that the tool might already be there..just not put to effective use as a selling tool.  Tool in point: using a cell phone for someething other than calling prospects.  Why not snap a picture or create a short video to forward to a sales prospect highlighting a feature they liked (the gourmet kitchen) or missed (sunset from the proposed backyard)?

We're all carrying around cell phones and... probably taking pictures with them, too.  But..how many of us think about how we can incorporate these day-to-day items in a new and effective way?

Phone..check; email...check; telephone...check.  We have the tools.  How often do you think: Can I put this to a new and creative use?

CPS' Bob Musa joins Builder Radio and Winchester Homes' Jack Fugiel on Weds., May 11, for a webinar: Follow-up Tools, Techniques and Strategies that Work...imagine they'll be talking about tools you already have...and getting creative about their use to enhance your sales success. 

Interested in adding new tools?  Here's a link to the Webinar: http://tinyurl.com/3hy8j9y

Using YouTube as a "personal" sales tool

Just returned from an excellent Jeff Shore/Jason Forrest Sales Leadership Summit in Dallas, TX.

The seminar focused on providing management coaching for sales agents and one of the points I liked was the need to develop "personal" sales tools.  Jeff Shore demonstrated an example: an agent, having shown a home in the morning, following-up with a cell phone photo or video with a sunset view from the patio.  If the video is too long, Shore suggested, post it on YouTube and send a link.

Upon my return, saw a saved Wall Street Journal article discussing small business use of You Tube and other video sites.   Then, there's another article in the same Small Business section, "Talk is Cheap: Word of Mouth Advertising can be targeted, inexpensive and effective -- if done well."

That's how I see YouTube being a "personal" sales tool...an individual -- sales agent, marketing coordinator, anyone -- is able to take a topic (whether specific to an individual, a product, or company) and use it as a sales tool via YouTube or other video site.  Sometimes, you'll have an event (like the sunset) that can be captured and sent along with a message (Your new view!); or it's possible to use an event to create the message.

For example, one of CPS' SalesTouch interactive touchscreen presentations was the recipient of a Southern California industry award.  Yes; attendees heard that news but...we wanted more people to hear it! YouTube gave us an excellent vehicle to get the word out -- as well as serve as an ongoing piece of marketing collateral.  We created a 5-minute video featuring the presentation and posted it.  Some find it via keyword search and we use it as another piece of marketing collateral.  Another social networking tool as well as a cost-effective way to communicate.  Here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1jMEfK-j6U.