Over the last few days I had the opportunity to deal with a few different vendors, while I was in the middle of purchasing a couple of different services — both business and personal.

I was amazed how many simple things these vendors screwed up and got wrong.  Wrong for the customer — and wrong for them.

In fact, each one of these mistakes cost them money — both in the short-term and over the long haul, as well.

Let me share 3 of them:

1.  None of these vendors bothered to ask me anything about myself.

Some of them were people I visited in person, in retail-style establishments — and others I called into, after I was referred to their website online.

Before you speak to a prospect, you MUST get contact information from them.  Their name, and at a minimum, their e-mail address — but preferably, their physical address and their phone number as well.

This way, you can follow up with them every and any way you want, and you can thank them for stopping by… for their time and interest… you can make follow-up offers, and so on.

Same thing online, by the way – if you’re not inviting someone to give you their e-mail address in exchange for something… then any money you’re investing in marketing… is wasted.

2.  Can you believe, in two out of two places, when my wife and I (along with our daughter and two other kids) walked in… NO ONE greeted us?

In one place, no one was even present for say… 5 minutes.  And in another place, the guy was sitting down slumped over his desk.  When we came over to him, he didn’t stand up and say hello… extend his hand… tell you his name and ask for yours, or anything remotely close to this.

Instead, he looked my wife and these three girls up and down (which was a little creepy), and asked them something like, “What do you want?”

It’s amazing how people act, and then they think you’re going to want to give them money, isn’t it?

Crazy, huh?

Again, whether you’re online or offline, you’ve got to have some kind of strategically thought out systematic way of introducing yourself, and your goods and services to your customers.

“Hoping” they will buy, simply won’t work.  “Hope” is not a very good business strategy, at all.

3.  Because there was no structure or system, they had NO control over their clients or over the sales process.

In both of my experiences — in person, and over the phone — I was the one in control of the entire sales process.

Which meant I came and went as I pleased, I gave them NO information they could use (because they didn’t ask me for it), they gave me no direction… and I bought… nothing.

Look, selling is one of the few relationships you’re going to have, where “control” is actually in everyone’s best interest.

If you’re controlling your sales process, then qualified prospects get what they want… and you make a sale.

And I don’t know about you, but to me… that’s a pretty good deal, no?

Yes, of course it is.

So be mindful of these simple mistakes — because there’s a VERY steep price to pay… for making them.

Now go sell something,  Craig Garber

P.S.  How can you find the hidden money in ANY business? 

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