Houston, We Have a Problem!

“Is Anyone Actually Listening?” Sequel

This is the perfect place for the sensitive and thin skinned sales representatives to stop reading. I will not be mincing any words in this article; that’s not really what you need me to do anyway. We have an issue in the luxury marketing space: a lack of sales accountability and education! Do we know how to sell the product? ABSOLUTELY! Do we know how to warm people online up so they will come in to buy? Not hardly. Oh there are random shining stars out there who can fill a pipeline and keep the online people coming into the store or gallery but they are few and far between. Why? mostly because the sales associates in the luxury marketing space aren’t listening and duplicating the success the few have proven can be achieved. Why? Your guess is as good as mine, but we need to change that paradigm. 

I believe in self-examination. I use it on myself and my company and it fuels our quest for efficiency and excellence. If you’re more of a “I sell because I need to do something constructive to make a living, but I’m not going to make it a lifestyle” individual, bail now. The waters are going to get rough. I’ve written many obligatory sales support articles with all the necessary diligence and diplomacy but this is not one of them. This part of the article is more personal between myself, my team and those we serve and I have to get something off my chest, so read on at your own risk:

The title of my last article was born out of pure frustration. I was asking myself the question, ”Is Anyone Actually Listening?” We are an agency driven by our passion to serve at the highest possible level. Clyde and I are sales professionals in our own right; my daughter Lauren grew up at the dinner table listening to how service oriented her mother Tammy and I were. We have always believed that if we did our level best to serve our clients that it would create a “win-win” situation. That if we took good care of them, they would return the favor. That has proven itself to be true “year after year.” 

With the team we have currently, we are uniquely qualified to serve in today’s selling environment. I believe we are in an exciting time where sales and marketing tools are abundant and, dare I say, more affordable then in years past when TV, radio, newspaper and billboards were very expensive. They were also not nearly as targeted as the tech tools we have at our disposal today. In those days, there were more store and gallery visitors and demos were easy to come by. If a sales person was personable and could demo well, they could make a good living but those days are over. The new normal has your online presence “front and  center” or you are invisible. This day and age is screaming for a new sales culture that many luxury marketing retailers have had serious challenges wrapping their arms and heads around. Some have already left in defeat, some are struggling but working hard enough to still make a good living, and a not large enough portion have embraced the new tools and become proficient and profitable. This is where my frustration comes into view...

We are a switchboard for the industry and are blessed to be able to see what is and isn’t working. We do our level best to share these profitable methods and techniques, and I believe that some of our clients actually value the interactions we have begun to facilitate and treasure the nuggets they can add to their sales belt from networking with us and others. The truth is though, there are times when we ask ourselves, ”Is Anyone Actually Listening?”

We’ve been in meetings where the energy was so low we were pretty sure those folks were just wanting to get done meeting with us so they can get back to not examining sales ideas. I saw Clyde give an hour-long sales session and two-thirds of the participants were sitting there in a Zoom, with a guy trying to share some wildly successful sales methods, while they looked into their smart phones and didn’t track the content of the session. I KNOW they retained little or nothing because they didn’t respect his investment in their career success enough to give it their undivided attention. The next article will be about an efficient sales culture… I won’t go there now. This isn’t sour grapes or an appeal for sympathy. Consider this more like Paul Revere yelling, ”the British are coming, the British are coming!” except they are already here. The entire consumer world is online already and we have to, together, figure out how to turn as much of it as possible into a new revenue stream. Are you hearing me? Don’t act like we have it all figured out yet, because if we are being honest with ourselves, we know we only have it partially figured out and we’re leaving way too much meat on the bones that we could eat if we get closer to perfecting the customer journey.

The summary: To illustrate the purpose of this writing…allow me to write it as if it were a letter of appeal.

Dear Luxury Sales Colleagues,

We have found a formula that will allow you to convert over 10% of your leads into a sale. It combines the traditional phone call, text and emailing protocol with a social media presence. The social content will apply credibility and trust to your prospects' searches for the person to help them make their best buying decision. It will encourage them to choose you.

Our “proof of theory” is our GM Claudio Ochoa aka “Clyde the Guy.” As a piano sales professional, he attained a 15% “day to day” and 20% percent lead-to-sale ratio in events. He sustained it over a several year period of time. 

I will be honored to build an 8 session series with him. It will be offered complete with a quiz per session to see if you retained the content at the end of each session, and a “Direct Success Lead Follow-up Specialist” certificate for those who graduate.  

I implore you to experience the series. A ton of studying, research and personal experience is being leveraged with which to build it. We want it to be fun and informational. Something that will allow old pros to brush up and incorporate new tools and give newbies a track to run on that will get them to profitability faster than “trial and error” ever could. 

It will be entitled, The ”Is Anyone Actually Listening? Leads Follow-up Course.

We look forward to your participation upon its completion. We are committed to serve your lead generation needs and thank you for the privilege.

Sincerely,

“Papa Jack” Klinefelter, 

Clyde “the Guy,”

and the “A” team at DSD

I guess what the summary letter means is that we are committed to helping figure out the most efficient ways we can discover to grow our client’s businesses with online sales revenue. The good news is that with the tech and communications outlets we have available today, we can harness the interest and out-execute our competition and the other choices they have to spend their discretionary dollars with.

I’ll end by saying it again: my friends, this is not an optional mission we are embarking upon. If we are to “thrive and not merely survive” we MUST figure out how to dominate the online interest and figure out how best to talk as many prospects as possible out of cyberspace and on to the showroom floor. 

Are you hearing me? Is Anyone Actually Listening?”

“Multi-tasking is a practice in losing focus and not performing your best work. It is also a recipe for missing out on some really important, educational stuff.”

-Jack Klinefelter