I made it to the morning session and got to see Jeffrey Gitomer speak on sales and marketing. After his talk, I had a chance to meet him and shot a quick video. Check it out (my notes on the seminar are below, there is also another video direct from Jeffrey Gitomer at the end of this post):

How to Dominate Your Market

*Disclaimer: I took these notes on my blackberry in point form so you’re getting it in raw format without witty commentary!

Now that I’ve given you fair warning, here are some great lessons from the sales and marketing master himself:

1. Give something away to your customers – give them more than they paid for
2. What have you done that’s promo worthy?
3. Desire to be the best at whatever it is that you do.
4. Gitomer spoke on the importance of scheduling time to think. Think about your business, think about being the best, think about how you can do a better job for your customers etc. Thinking is crucial, it’s fundamental to the success of your business.
5. Come to sales meeting prepared with questions and ideas for your customer or prospective customer. Quit barfing out your corporate speak and corporate brochure on them at your first meeting (or any meeting).
6. Use music to get into a great place mentally before meetings.
7. Self confidence comes from belief in your self and preparation.
8. Develop a sales mission statement for your company.
9. Gitomer spoke about the importance of attracting customers and positioning. Competition sucks! Position yourself as the best in your industry/niche/category and communicate with customers once a week at least via email in addition to other means like facebook, twitter etc. Prospecting is stupid. Attracting business by taking advantage of the web is key. Work on your site daily. Attracting customers and staying in touch with them are the most important things you can do, the most challenging things you can do AND they are the same thing!
10. Want more sales? Make it easy on yourself and SELL MORE TO YOUR EXISTING CUSTOMERS!
11. Keep customers loyal by getting personal with them or someone else will and you’ll be out of luck.
12. Gitomer used the example of how Harley Davidson has the most loyal customers in the U.S – they tattoo Harley on themselves!! Do you customers do that?

HOW TO DOMINATE YOUR MARKET? –> PROVIDE THE BEST SERVICE. PERIOD!

Help customers sell more of their stuff. Go work at a customers business for a day. Add a customer philosophy of how you treat your customers to your website.

At Gitomer’s office, their unofficial mission is: Sell Jeffrey and Kiss Ass!

Practical Things You Can Do:

• Start and ezine and a blog
• Read What Would Google Do.
• Get on Facebook
• Get on Twitter (a large chunk of the audience did not use Twitter or Facebook surprisingly)
• Get a Flip Mino HD and use it to create content
• Double the number of testimonials you get – get them on Video!

You need:

• A great attitude
• To love your product
• Preparation
• Self confidence

Additional Points:

• Word of mouth determines your fate.
• Focus on the quality of the relationship with your customers.
• Make your relationships with them interpersonal
• The way you dedicate yourself to the way you think is your attitude. You have to believe the customer is better off being served by you, otherwise you should quit right now!
• You master establishing common ground and rapport when you laugh lots with customers. TIP: YOU ARE NOT LAUGHING WITH THEM ENOUGH RIGHT NOW!!!
• Watch The Family Guy for tips on humor
• Brainstorm ideas with customers on how to help them sell more
• What are you doing beyond sales? (in regards to helping your customers win?)
• Find out something personal about them and do something memorable with them (Example of the hotel who gave him a baseball where all the staff had signed it because he is a ball fan.)
• Be memorable
• Be friendly
• Give value first
• Train and educate yourself to be the best, then go out and do the same with your staff: teach them how to be the best
• Always answer in terms of what you can do, not what you can’t do for a customer
• Be the best
• Think of being the best
• Have a yes! attitude
• Work on your attitude for 15 minutes a day 1st thing in the morning
• Buy Gitomer’s books so he can put his kids through college

The end result of attending this morning? Well I sat down and wrote this post which I will also be sending out to my subscriber list. I also bought Jeffrey’s book, The Little Teal Book of Trust (see image at the beginning). The talk also inspired me to find more ways to get to know and serve my current customers. By doing so I know I’ll attract more business which is really what marketing is all about. Attraction and service.

To finish off this post, here’s a great video from Jeffrey on developing a positive mental attitude for those of you who stuck around to read this from start to finish:

Thoughts? Did you like this? Let me know in the comments section.

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If you’re interested in attending, I’ve secured a discount code for my readers (see details below).

The Art of Sales has attracted thousands of sales and marketing professionals from across Canada. On October 19th, 2009, North America’s largest sales conference is coming to Vancouver to present you with the key fundamentals and best sales practices required to ensure stability and growth for your business in a changing world.

Featuring an exceptional line-up of best-selling authors, speakers, and sales visionaries focusing on newly developed methodologies for relationship development, productivity and sales strategy makes this conference a must attend. Take advantage of this limited time special offer which is not available to the general public.

For more details, follow this link. (Opens a .pdf)

Register Today – 1.866.99.ART.OF Complete your registration in one of 3 easy ways; PHONE – Call toll free 1.866.99.ART.OF (27863) and ask for Richard ext. 29 FAX – Fax in your registration page to 905.266.9860 EMAIL - richard@theartofproductions.com Reference Code RPA-29

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