{"id":681,"date":"2015-01-09T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T14:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salesfolk.com\/?p=681"},"modified":"2015-10-07T20:33:14","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T03:33:14","slug":"sales-lessons-inciting-bidding-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salesfolk.com\/blog\/sales-lessons-inciting-bidding-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales Lessons I Learned from Inciting Bidding Wars in High School"},"content":{"rendered":"

Growing up I hated sales people.<\/p>\n

I always hated the thought of being sold, and so I avoided salespeople with a passion.\u00a0 Except my Russian friend who gets excited when he sees sales people for an opportunity to haggle, most people generally don\u2019t get excited to be sold.<\/p>\n

But I was<\/em> an entrepreneur. Between selling dubious Chinese fireworks in elementary school and reselling Costco candy during those hungriest hours of my high school classes, I was a salesperson without even knowing it.<\/p>\n

Although I didn\u2019t consider myself as a salesperson, my endless entrepreneurial endeavors had actually been teaching me powerful sales skills. My sales consultancy still leverages these same lessons today for scaling my own business and my clients\u2019 outbound sales.<\/p>\n

[Names of people included in anecdotes have been changed.]<\/em><\/p>\n

\"sales<\/a><\/p>\n

Sales Lesson #1: Scarcity Really, Really Works<\/h3>\n

I discovered in high school that I could incite a bidding bar with a single candy bar.<\/p>\n

One day I pulled a Reese\u2019s bar from my backpack for my mid-morning snack, and Joe, the boy sitting next to me asked me if he could have my candy bar. If Joe was a friend I might have shared, but I did not particularly like Joe nor did I want to share with him, so I said, \u201cSure, Five Dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe paused for a minute and stared at me, and then said, \u201cOkay,\u201d and pulled out a five-dollar bill. I wanted that candy bar, but I could go to Safeway and get at least 12 candy bars for five dollars.<\/p>\n

Joe\u2019s friend Jorge stared at him intensely with mouth-watering eyes as he opened the Reese\u2019s package. \u201cHey, can I have a piece?\u201d he asked his friend. Joe looked back at Jorge with a smirk and said, \u201cSure $5.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jorge didn\u2019t pay Joe the $5 for a single piece of Reese\u2019s, but Nick almost did. Before he could, Nick\u2019s nemesis Jack offered Joe $10 and bought it just so he could make Nick watch him eat it slowly. And just like that Joe had half my candy bar and actually made $5!<\/p>\n

I felt like a sucker, but Joe had given me an idea! I would go to Costco and buy bulk discounted candy bars to sell to all the hungry\u00a0kids in my class to incite a bidding war. After school I bought a large box of Reese\u2019s and a box of my classmates\u2019 beloved carmel Twix. Rather than saturating the market with my candy bars, which would cheapen my product and lower my margins, I would only sell a few candy bars a day, but the bidding wars would drive the prices high. I once sold one for $27.<\/p>\n

COLD EMAIL TIP #1<\/strong>: If you\u2019re emailing prospects to get beta testers, create urgency and scarcity by telling them there are a limited number of slots.\u00a0 To make it convincing, tell them there are x number of slots, and y number are already taken by companies x, y and z. This works even better when these companies are somewhat competitive to each other.<\/p>\n

You can also use time as a scarce factor and say that you wanted to talk to a prospect about x before you have that upcoming meeting with their competitor. Be tactful and not sleazy or a jerk so you don\u2019t get caught lying with your pants down, but mastering this tactic will increase cold email response rates.<\/p>\n

\"sales<\/a><\/p>\n

Sales Lesson #2: People Buy From People<\/h3>\n

In college I had a small house-cleaning business long before Homejoy ever existed.\u00a0 My first client was a retired couple in their 80\u2019s who just needed some extra help with light housework. The husband was a retired economics professor.<\/p>\n

Later after getting the job I discovered that they had interviewed dozens of applicants of more than 100 that applied. They chose me because we had instantly connected. The husband got excited when he learned I studied economics and told me he was a former economics professor; we ended up talking for at least 20 minutes about our favorite economists.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re not always going to be lucky enough to have lots in common with your prospect, but making the effort to discover similar interests goes a long ways in sales.\u00a0 Yes, your product\/service needs to be useful and the prospective customer actually must have a need for it, but what sets you apart from all your competition? \u00a0Unless your product is 10x better than your competitor or has a major feature that customers need which the competition doesn\u2019t have, the ability to connect with the prospect makes or breaks the deal.<\/p>\n

We all have different strengths and interests, but you should definitely leverage what makes you unique whenever relevant. Those little details make you human and memorable instead of just a bot spamming them with sales emails.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Kissmetrics’ Hiten Shah signs his emails with a fantastic Zig Ziglar quote representing his sales philosophy and why Predictable Revenue’s Aaron Ross doesn\u2019t capitalize anything in his emails.\u00a0 It\u2019s also why I have an orange goat on my business cards and continue to brand myself as an economist instead of just another entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

COLD EMAIL TIP #2<\/strong>: Consider adding something interesting and intelligent to your email signature that lets people know your sales or business principles. It should be appropriate and somewhat relevant to your business. This shouldn\u2019t be more than a single line and should either build integrity, intrigue or both.<\/p>\n

COLD EMAIL TIP #3<\/strong>: If possible, use your SDRs to write a quick phrase or sentence for each of your prospects that can be used in your cold email\u2019s first sentence. Assuming you know you have a really good targeted list of prospects that should all qualify, this approach has huge returns for your time. If you don\u2019t do this at least write an eye-catching first sentence that is hyper-relevant to your entire list\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

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