Day 117: Influence of the price

Yesterday I participated at free webinar of Slovenian marketing guru Aleš Lisac where he talked about the price setting of the products. It assisted me a lot in realizing some facts that I thought before were quite different. I will now be able to be more confident at sales activities of the product that I am marketing. The conclusion is that most of the time we do not think very much about the price of the products we buy. We buy it simply out of convenience, because it was there, on our path, near other things and places and times where we usually buy our stuff.

The biggest mistake that he pointed out was that when sales are not as expected, we lower the price. This act produces very bad psychological message to the potential buyer and it also diminishes the profit of the seller a lot. Price reduction is actually lack of imagination about other possibilities. The price is basically never the problem and the best practice is to enhance the quality of packaging or create a product with even larger price. This is because price is never in a vacuum, it is always relative to prices of other similar products. 

So if for example your main product costs 100 € it is best to produce just a bit larger or better variation and price it significantly higher, like 200 €. Immediately the primary product would not anymore be regarded as expensive but quite cheap, regardless of what it is. Improved looks, design or packaging also influence very much what the price range can be. For example average book costs 25 € however the special issue of the Bible produces by our famous print company sold it for the price of 2.000 € and was treated as collectors item. The other example is a dog shed which costs about 100 € however there is a producer of dog sheds with starting price of 20.000 € and they do sell very well.

There are also certain psychological price levels that influence very much how much each type of product will sell and they have to be tested. Also a very wide variant selection of one product can bring to confusion and consumers have hard time to decide. And the most challenging way of selling is one on one personal direct sale when the customer can find out very quickly if the salesperson believes that the price is too high. Also one must never judge the price based on own buying power since they are people who can afford your product even if it is too expensive for you to buy it for yourself. 

Other ways of improving sales is to improve the product line, to sell in batches, to add some kind of bait, to offer terms or installments, to make product more exclusive or to hire a celebrity. Salesperson must be skilled in noticing when the person has already decided to buy the product and then not get benevolent beyond what is necessary. The strange rule of thumb is that there will be always people who will claim that the price is too high, even if you drop it just to production costs. So the rule is to raise the price until the share of people who complain about the price gets to about 20%. Of course if the share of complainers is more than 50% then one might consider that the price is actually too much or that the value of the product has not been presented properly.

The best way to justify the price is to find out what is the cost of the problem that your product is solving. The value of the product is thus never the production price but the potential money savings if the product would be purchased and used. And also the price is relative to the budget or context of the product or service that you offer. For a client with low budget your product would be considered expensive, but for the well funded client, no price is no matter. Also one should ask the client what characteristics of the product or service they desire.

And the strangest point that Mr. Lisac exposed is that many companies, especially startups go bankrupt because the price of the product is too low. One must always consider many costs, like production, marketing, accounting, salaries etc. so the profit margin has to be high enough to cover all expenses. One must calculate how much is needed not only to produce the product, but also how much money would be necessary to sell the product. For example there were two producers of the fitness device that both enable the same functionality. However the first one was prices 600 € and the second one 14.000 € and they both sell. The difference is that the advertising budget for the first model of device is only 200 € but for the second one is 13.000 €. So the produces of more expensive device can invest 65 times more expensive advertisement and thus also succeed in sales.

Day 90: Truth about lying

I strange realization today while talking to my direct sales mentor. I asked him about the short suggested time that I should mention to the leads. Usually the presentation lasts about an hour up to two hours, however it has been suggested to set a date only for the presentation that lasts about 15 minute. After I asked him if this is not lying he gave me very interesting explanation.

He said that people are very busy and do not have much time for the direct sales people. But what people are very busy with is very insignificant things, like watching TV. People are constantly very very busy with watching TV. They always find time to watch TV or surf the web or post things on FaceBook or play games. Just to run away from reality and having to change anything.

So we, the sales people want to improve the lives of people with high quality products and we must find a way how to properly introduce them to the leads. If I would be totally honest and say to person that I would need two hours of his time to fully understand the product, no one would want to schedule a date. People simply can not handle the truth and they do not want to listen and understand the facts.

Sales people thus have to lie in order to get into people's home for just a few moments, but then engage in as much entertaining presentation as possible so that leads do not get bored. If the sales presentation is entertaining, from the perspective of the leads, it is like watching TV. Basically people want to be entertained and if the sales presentation is at least as entertaining as watching TV, people will enjoy it and they would not look on the clock all the time.

Thus I forgive myself for allowing and accepting to always speak truth and nothing but the truth, instead of realizing that people have such unconscious mind patterns that they simply can not handle the truth and that they need to be tricked into listening if the information about hot they can improve their lives has any chance to be delivered. 

Day 39: The new job breakthrough

In the previous five post of this blog I wrote about my challenges and resistances in regard to my new job as direct marketer who does house visits and in-home presentations. My mentor supported me with suggestion what is the best approach, what works and what not. Yesterday I printed the teaser cards and today was the first day that I used them. But before I was able to go out, I also needed a system of tracking which apartments I visited, and what were the results of the visit so I would not nock again on the doors of residents who were not interested and that I would be able to visit again those apartments where nobody was home at time of my visits. So I created a table that enables me to track all the necessary data. And for the finish I just had to think out how to create a composite folder that would hold the forms, cards and the table nice and simple which I was then able to construct just fine.

In the afternoon, when people returned from the jobs, I continued to visit the block neighborhood that I engaged a day before yesterday. I managed to collect the first couple of contacts that I will call by phone tomorrow and arrange a date for the presentation. However I realized the neighborhood that I picked was pretty poor and will not be the best target group of people for the product that I am selling. So the next step is to scout the city and find out where the more wealthy people live.

Today after thee hours of nocking on the doors and talking to the people I became very tired. I planned to work for four hours but I was not able do to increasing pain in my shoulders. And I also became sleepy and mentally tired. However after I returned home, I decided to run through the park and city center in order to release the stress. I see that running is a very beneficial exercise for me and that yesterday's exercise also very assisted in releasing tension in my back. So I did the same today and will be doing this every day also to get in the better condition that would enable me to do the job activities effectively.

I also managed today to solve some crucial issues with the suppliers of the basic necessities that threatened me to cancel the agreement and stop the delivery. Those points bothered me very much and I am glad that I was able to come with agreement. I am somehow glad for this experiences of lack of money and not being able to cover all the costs since this gave me the necessary motivation for creating a lifestyle where I would not have to experience this again. I am now raising from the ashes and plan to fly high. The whole day I constantly listen the education material from the prive success club that I am member in order to change my thinking and behavior patterns.

There are some small but powerful things that each must do in order to attract or better say create a big success. One must have a goal, a vison, a chief aim that drives him forward. Without a target you have nothing to aim at and thus nothing changes. And the most important of all is to think about this chief aim all the time, to have it constantly in your mind. One can achieve this by creating a visual accessory that represents this goal and place it on all the places where you will be able to see it all day. So you can place it in the bathroom, in the car, in your wallet. This is a very simple but powerful habit and basically no one use it since it ti so simple. Now it is my turn to discipline myself in making this practice a reality in my life and observe if there will be also a big change in my life due to this tool.

Day 37: Resistance to the new job finally overcamed

Today in the morning I had a meeting with a new interesting person who is also very in self-research and improvement. Two hours of conversation went by very quickly and I was to face again the next step of my sales activities. I was to restructure the presentation narrative and then also realign the presentation flip-chart graphics which I also did. I took me a lot of decision making how to design all the material for the best impact. In the afternoon when I was to go out and arrange in-house visits, the storm clouds accumulated and rain with thunder stoke from the skies.

At the same time as the storm raged, my mind lost its stability. A slight fear and dizziness appeared in my head and was disappointed due to estimation that I will not be able to execute the visits that I planned. I lied down on the bed and started to think about how long will it take me to even start the new job properly and when I would actually make the first sale. The whole process is takin so long, too long. I started to imagine how I will give myself another day to prepare myself even better for the presentation. I said to myself that tomorrow would be the day. However it turned out different.

After on hour of resting in the bed, my head became stable and the rain stopped. I still had about two or three hours left before in would become too late for the home visits. So I sad to myself that it would be the best to make some visits today and thus brake the ice even if I would achieve best results. Most important is to move forward and to gain as much practice as possible. So I dressed up, packed all the presentation and went on the road.

I targeted a small new neighborhood that I knew from before when I was searching for my own apartment in the town a year ago. I found the blocks very nice and expected a lot of young families to live there which is my target population. I started to ring the bells and made the talks. Many of them, about 70% were not even at home which is a usual percentage. I visited two blocks and then decided to stop for today. I did not manage to do any presentation, however I handed out couple of business cards and couple of people were willing to talk to me if I visit them at some other time which is also cool.

In the evening I had a chat with my mentor who evaluated my approach and corrected me for the better effect in the future. I realized how what I said created resistance in other people and what is best to be said in order to collect as much orders as possible. The main point in pre-presentation talks is not to give to much information, but just a little in order to create curiosity. I also met a girl who I found very attractive and now I am thinking if I should do anything to check if she is available and if I should try to  make a connection or if I should focus on business for now.

Anyway, I made progress and I am satisfied with my achievement. I will now push myself every day a step forward until I became excellent and very successful in sales. It is not just about money, what is cool about direct sales is that one develops communication skills and overcomes many fears and resistances that prevent oneself to fully express itself. Physically moving and making live conversation with others is an effective tool for self-realization. Thus I also suggest others to engage in sales activities and experience all the beneficial effects of direct marketing.

Day 36: Resistance to the new job slowly ending

In the past two blogs I wrote about the resistance that I experience towards starting the new job of selling a new product via in-home presentations. Today was the first working day and I planned to go out and meet people in their apartments. In the morning I had a meeting with my friend at my place where we supported each other in regards most effective selling approaches. I then went to the local print shop and made some additional flip-chart graphics and also the badge with my picture and name that is suppose to be a very effective ice-braker when other will see me on their doorsteps. However I still did not found myself ready enough to go out and also the weather was not very appropriate since it rained.

Well the rainy weather could from one point be seen as advantage since people are at their apartments far more probably than in sunny weather. However it is not very easy for me to make the home visits in the rain since I also have to bring an umbrella and it is much more cold and slippery outside. I almost died once when I visited a customer a couple of years age in the evening and tripped. This definitely brings up a very disturbing memories. 

Then bottom line is that I just did not feel confident enough for doing the presentation today. I have not yet assembled all the quotes and flow of presentation that would make a good impression and convince the prospects in buying the product. So I will now structure all the point by condensing them down to titles and then expand them into paragraphs. I will reorder the flip-chart presentation to best follow the paragraphs. At the end I will prepare all the possible questions and objections and the best answers and explanations.

I will then practice the complete presentation in my mind and rewrite the complete scenario using blue ink and white paper to commit it to my long-term memory until it will be totally internalized. Then I expect to be fully prepared for the battle and will accept victory as the only outcome. Well I realize that someone could say NO in spite of me fully excelling however I want to be prepared for all possible scenarios and perform well. The main objective is to present the product by showing all the benefits for the prospect. I must be totally confident in the quality, functionality and value of the product while breathing effectively and staying emotionally stable. I realize that any question that prospect makes is just for them to make sure that their decision is the best.

Today I also read the book titled ”So you would like to sell?" for the second time. Is is short but very effective book on sales. To calm down, remove stress and clear nervousness, I made myself a first hot bath after several months and I enjoyed it very much. I then remembered a couple of additional techniques for diminishing stress. One is rebounding and the other is sauna. Jumping up and down on a mini trampoline is a simple but very effective exercise that benefits the whole body. And I remember how sauna assists in removing the toxins from the body and how also prevents the backchat. The heat in sauna stops the mind, one is unable to think but only be here, present in this moment.

From becoming overwhelmed by thinking about how I will be able to arrange all the information I found assisting to firstly imagine all the procedures in my mind while the physical body is resting. While working with computer one has to besides thinking what to do also think how to do it, what button to press, what software to use, what kind of document, what font, how to design the information and bunch of other things. So all these thinking drains the mental resources and distract attention from what actually has to be done. Thus imagining all the necessary steps firstly in the mind and doing some handwritten notes will assist me in completing the project.

I learned from the success club that I am member of that the false information that most people holds in the low income class all life is the believe that time for thinking and time for the practical execution of projects have to be in balance or equal. However the most successful people prove this to be wrong. The most important thing is thinking or planning and this is to be 99% without asking much about how the objectives would be achieved. The most important point is to come with a “what” and let flow of the actual events to create the “how”. This is because one is never able to be aware of all the potentials in existence and possible outflows of all the events. So let us see how all this will turn out in the following days.

Day 35: Resistance to the new job continued

I am doing a slow progress towards preparing a presentation text for the new product that I will be presenting via in-home presentations. Yesterday we had a picnic with some friends and one of them had a lot of experienced with door-to-door sales. She explained that is is very important to have a badge with your picture and name with big letters since this creates confidence in other people. Then when you enter the apartment, you look around and see what would be the best point for the conversation ice-breaker. Next it is very important to ask what are the parent's usual seats, especially of the father. You make sure that you never sit down where their usual seat is.

Today is Sunday and Sunday afternoon is the best time to call the prospect on the phone and set a date for the meeting. However I am not sure if this is also a good time for making visits. In the morning I have assembled some additional presentation text but I still have not finished it. I could try to do some presentations for practice or I could spend the day completing the text. It is a tuff decision.

What pulls me down is also the weather. Yesterday afternoon couple of weeks of nice sunny weather ended with rainy storms. Recently I find weather changes to influence my state of the mind quite extensively. My mind is not very stable even due to reactions that are related to unconscious emotions of fear. And when the clouds accumulate in the sky and the rain starts to fall down, I started to feel heavy and sleepy and my mind also becomes heavy, cloudy or dizzy. Maybe this is related to the change of air pressure.

Since I know that I can be effective with sales only if I feel excellent, I am not very confident with going out and making house visits. I expect that most of people would also be influenced by weather and that it is best to at least wait for the next working day. I friend who is also very experienced in sales will visit me tomorrow morning and we will have a workshop where we will practice sales skills. I the meen time I will finis my presentation text and design a badge with my name and photo for the best effect. But then it must be end with procrastination. Monday afternoon I plan to go out and do my first unannounced home visits.

I will also read again a book about hot to be effective in sales. We all try to convince something or sell something to another. There are amateur salesman like parents who try to sell their kids some believe and make them do specific things and there are professional salesman that do convincing on a daily basis with better results. All try to influence someone in order to get what we want. We use words, arguments and the level of our success is based on the level of understanding what are the needs of others and how our services or product can fullfil their needs. And this is quite a task where each of us has to grow and expand and widen the awareness about how we and this world functions.

What drives me away from doing my sales job is also awareness that I will meet different people. When they open the door, I will have just a few seconds to convince them to let me in. And some will be also very nasty and angry and this kind of behavior will not be very easy to handle. Even if you have the best product in the word, some people will yell at you. It will be a big challenge to keep the good mood, clear all the recent past bad experiences and remain emotionally stable within. I will have to do a lot of breathing and doing regular self-forgiveness and self-commitments. 

Day 34: Resistance to the new job activities

Days 31, 32 and 33 are in my Slovenian blog

My new job of selling a new product created more resistance than I imagined. While I have been working mostly from home in the past years, and customers would be mostly business people that found me on the internet and came to my office to place an order, I am facing the job now where I will have to go to the customers. And they are not the business people but families with kids and different professions.

I have a mentor who is supporting me in becoming a better salesman and from what he thought me, I realized that I will have to change extensively. Until now I did not have to make a lot of effort in order to get an order since I worked in graphic and web design and photography. The products were commonly known and from my past work references the customers knew what to expect from me. Now I am selling a new product that is a new technology and nothing that has ever existed before. And also the use of the product bring a spectacular results in terms of personal development and transformation of the society as a whole.

The first challenge for me as a salesmen is to test and use the product myself. There can not be a good salesmen that tries to sell the product that he is not using himself. One has to become convinced that the product is of high quality and is beneficial for the user. Since the product requires mind activity, I experience resistance due to my addiction of watching movies and am thus finding reading much less attractive. I will have to discipline myself firstly to star using the product myself and see the result of its use on myself and that will then enable me to become more enthusiastic about the product and will thus also be able to make more sales. At sales in fact you are never selling the product, but yourself.

The second point is that selling this new product requires me to develop new skills and totally change my mindset, develop my self-esteem and transform my attitude towards other people. Throughout past several years I have developed introverted personality with constant evaluation and judgement of others. I was directed by others and became used to wait for the orders. I was basically in a very passive mental mode. The new job requires me to become proactive, to come forward, to make connection with others, ask question and become genuine interested in what other want and need. It is so that certain product can only be sold if it fulfills the needs of others. Thus I have to learn what are the problems and challenges in the life of others and how the product that I represent could solve that problems.

The third challenge is the price of the product that I am selling. The product covers the user needs for several years and is thus a long-term investment. Due to its unique technology, the long-term savings and the incredible benefits of its use it requires from customer to come with quite a lot of money. This bring me even in the bigger mental pressure. I have to become absolutely sure for myself that the product is more that worth of that kind of investment and that it is a life-time opportunity where customer is to find a way of getting the money since it is for its own best interest.

And the last point is that the products comes with such a marketing plan that creates a very good money-making opportunity for me. Due to extensive amount of accepted and allowed limited and destructive believes in regards money, I have a challenge allowing to come such quantity of money in my life.  I have to become convinced that I am worth of receiving money and become rich. I definitely already know how to spend it so that quality of all life on earth will become better and I have to understand that I will not be able to achieve that without firstly allowing a lot of money to come to me and thus becoming very rich.

The most challenging from me is the need of creating a more pleasant personality. So from being a quiet introverted serious person who answers only when asked, I will have to become more relaxed, opened, initiative and happy person. The best effect in sales is made if you smile during the product presentation. And this is very difficult to me. I have become used of being secretive, flat-faced, judgmental and angry. Being happy and joyful is a whole new experience to me, like bringing the fish out of the water. So I must change my personality, my resonances or my water extensively. And this is why I experience such massive amount of resistance that I never imagined.

Day 20: Expectations self-forgiveness

These are my self-forgiveness and self-commitment statements in regards to my thinking patterns from the previous post of this blog.

1. I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed to become totally excited and thrilled for the subjects that I faced in different periods of my life and to fanatically share my believes in regards to the subject, considering others as stupid and less in value if they do not share the same excitement for the subject with me, instead of realizing that perspectives on any subject change based on the perception of observer and awareness.
   
   
2. I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed to define a product or service as something more than others and thus creating energy of good feelings instead of understanding that all products and services are just different shapes and have different use.
   
   
3. I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed to believe that something that I hear or read is absolute true purely because the messenger is presented as expert on its field, instead of realizing that any opinion is just a personal view of on individual and is limited by its current state of awareness and is also influenced by the starting point of the statement.
   
   
4. I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed to expect that everyone has to buy the product that I sell instead of realizing that in the moment of my presentation person can either have different interests or priorities or they currently do not have enough money to buy the product.
   
   
5. I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed to want to be praised for the products or services that I offer and thus allowing the driving force of my activities to become the good public image, instead of understanding that any product that I would ever sell is for some people appropriate at that time and for some not and that it is best to engage in sales activities without any desire for attention from others.
   
   
6. I commit myself that when and as I engage in sales activities, I breathe effectively, remain here, explain the benefits of the product, ask questions and overcome objections and understand that the product is not for everybody and thus accepting YES or NO with the same state of inner stability and equality.

Day 19: Expectations breed excitement and disappoitment

Days 16 to 18 are in my Slovenian blog

Throughout my life I have been doing different things. Every time I discovered something new, I became very excited and wanted to share my findings with others. I explained to others the magnificent details of the things that I found amazing. However in a while I went to the next step by discovering something that was even more exciting than the previous thing. It was like climbing the top of the mountains. Every time I would reach a peak, I would with enthusiasm share the magnificent view from the top, however in time I would discover that there is an ever higher mountain nearby.

In time I learned that I can not possible know how many mountains are still out there in the existence and what mountain is the ultimate in height. Thus I started to share my discoveries with others with less excitement, like I would talk about any other thing. I found out also that even if I would explained my finding to others with biggest enthusiasm, some would not be able to understand the point fully and would not be able to get excited as much as I did. Some would even start to pull me down and claim that I am crazy and that what I found out must be a lie and would not believe it. In that cases I would then become very disappointed, sad and angry.

Similar point has showed up in regards to my business and sales. It is common knowledge that if you are a businessman or salesman, the success of the sales depends upon your belief or understanding about the quality of the product. You have to get excited for the product or service that you are selling. You have the understand the value and the quality of the goods and that customers would be very satisfied if they would possess it. So then you start to explain the benefits of the product to the prospects with excitement and passion with hopes that they would take it. Consequently successful presentation brings joy and happiness and if there are no sales, disappointment, anger and depression appears in ones mind.

However successful businessman and salesman have learned not to swap moods regardless of the result of the sales presentation. With practice one develops the ability of staying emotionally stable on every single occasion. This is achieved by understanding the reality of every single business which is that regardless of how valuable product you have, never will everybody want or be able to buy the product when introduced with the benefits of the product. So every time you try to sell something, there would be some that will buy it and some that would not buy it even if you present with all the glamour in the world. Always there will be acceptance and rejection.

This is so because firstly the purchase power and peoples's interest change during time. For example you might in one occasion present the product to someone and the person would absolutely like and want the product but at that time it would be broke, it would not have enough money to buy it and it would thus decline the purchase. Then in some other occasion, the person that you present the product would have more than enough money to buy your product but would not like it or need it at that time due to different desires or priorities. However the person's interest or priorities or wants and the person's purchase power or the amount of money they currently poses constantly changes.

So the main point in every sales is to be always aware that NO does not mean, NO NEVER, but just NO AT THIS TIME. The same person that currently declined the purchase due to lack of money could soon get enough money and buy the product later. Or some person who has currently no interest in the product could soon become very interested in it due to change in it's life circumstances. Thus it is important to always accept this reality and never get to excited in someone buys the product and especially never get angry and create resentment towards the person who currently does not buy the product. It is best to every single time allow the prospect to say NO without any bad feelings.

Based on this realization it is suggested to at the beginning of presentation to clearly express to the prospect that it is OK to say NO, that you really do not care if they say YES or NO and that you will be just fine and in total acceptance with any decision about the purchase that they made at the end. And this is not best only in sales but in any single situation in life. Even in personal relationships with others you experience acceptances and rejections. So it is generally in all times suggested to always be aware of the fact that sometimes the answer is YES and sometimes is NO. And in each case you are to fully accept the reality, understand that there are substantial reasons for that decision and that by not accepting the reality you just harm yourself by creating the energy of the good or bad feelings in you mind.