Video Mystery Shops reveal plain vanilla is the flavor of the day
Why be “plain vanilla” when you can be Rocky Road with rainbow sprinkles and a cherry on top? After personally viewing about 20 video shops in the last 2 weeks, I am seeing lots of “vanilla” presentations out there in sales land.
What’s Vanilla? Vanilla is nothing exciting or out of the ordinary. It is a “speil”. It is a “Vanna White on Valium” tour…”this is the living room, here’s the master bedroom, blah,blah, blah…”. The only way I believe to succeed in today’s market is to work on developing your own unique, quirky, memorable brand. Your builder works hard at creating their USP. Now, it’s time for you as a professional salesperson to have a “P-usp”…a “personal unique selling proposition”. Why be normal ? (As Alfred E. Newman used to say).
How would you answer this….”I am the ONLY Sales Person in__________________who_________________?”
I posed that question at the Atlantic Building Conference audience and someone said they are the only Sales Rep in their area who personally stops by and visits prospects in the area who have come to her model center. WOW! I know we follow-up the traditional way-calls, notes, emails and connect on Facebook, Twitter, etc. But, how cool would it be to “drop by”? The prospect asked a question and you SHOWED UP with the answer and of course, brought a “thanks for visiting our homes” gift. You would be remembered! You would get to see where they live now and have another opportunity to chat with them. You would stand out!
Now, I know some of you are shaking your head. “Melinda, there’s no way I’m stopping by people’s homes-that’s like stalking”. Remember, successful Sales People do what unsuccessful ones refuse to do!
You need to study all your competitors and then brainstorm a way to stand above the crowd and be unique. After all, study after study always points out the fact that the buyer buys YOU FIRST. End of story.
How do you become good at being “different”? Study other companies and make a note of what appeals to you as the customer. The perfect example of this is when I ordered a CD at “CD Baby.”
“Thanks for your order with CD Baby!
Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.
A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.
Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.
We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved ‘Bon Voyage!’ to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Wednesday, September 19th.
I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as ‘Customer of the Year’. We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!”
Far from vanilla to me!
