One of my Facebook friends. Kim Duke, produces a useful newsletter about selling- she’s not styled the Sales Diva for nothing.This week her artilce really made me smile so here is an abridged version:
In the good old days popcorn was not a bag that you put in the microwave – to make popcorn you needed a stove, a pot with a lid, oil, popcorn.When you made popcorn – you put the pot on the stove, heated the element, added the oil, then the popcorn, put on the lid and then you waited.
What was the first thing that happened ?
NOTHING.
NOTHING.
NOTHING.
And then???
A lonely little POP.
More waiting.
Then another 2 or 3 little POPS.
Then you start shaking the pot slowly (so nothing burns) and then
POPPETY POPPOPOPOPOPOP POPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOP POPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOP
Kim says this is like the sales process. She exhorts her readers to make SALES POPCORN. To do this:
You need to have many popcorn pots on your SALES STOVE.
You need to be planting seeds, making connections, have proposals out there with
the right companies and people.
You need to be watching those seeds, giving it some time, shaking the pot a bit and making sure that nothing is burning!
She then askes her reader whether they are making these Sales Popcorn Mistakes:
– You plant some seeds (network, meet with clients, send out an ezine, etc).
– Then you get impatient and keep lifting the lid off the pot or adjust the temp mid-way.
– You ignore your customers who have been loyal to you through good times and bad.
– You only have one SALES POPCORN pot on the stove.
– You only have a few SALES POPCORN seeds in the pot.
– You use stale popcorn seeds that need to be pitched out.
I thought this was a really brilliant analogy and worth sharing with my readers.
