Mr Shmooze Weblog

People learn more by doing than by just listening. Find ways to make your presentations interactive to increase your customers’ interest and buy in.

Daytime building security guards often know everything about everyone in the building. Befriend a guard and he will lead you to new business through backstories and anecdotes.

Any time you come into contact with a service employee who is wearing a name tag (or a service person on the phone who announces his or her name), be sure to use the name in conversation. Name tags are a shmooze gift and a wide-open invitation to better service.

Most prospects are wary of windy PowerPoint presentations. If you must use one, keep it short, and never read from it verbatim. The prospect wants to see the whites of your eyes.

If you cannot describe the ultimate benefit of your goods and services in one paragraph or less, your selling proposition is too wordy. Keep it tight, sharp, and to the point.

Next time a salesperson invites you to play golf or go to a game, ask if you can bring a friend. Then invite one of your clients. It’s a win/win all around.

The single most powerful way to ingratiate yourself with buyers of your goods or services is to introduce them to buyers of their goods or services.

A great way to disarm a tough or abusive buyer is to ask the following question.

“This is very important to me and I’m obviously not doing something right here. Can you give me some advice? How would you present these services if you were in my position?”

Abusive people like to feel big and powerful, and they love to give advice. This type of question disarms them, and you are likely to get a much warmer response.

The toughest buyers I know often have a soft spot — their families. They see themselves as fierce protectors, and their passion for their family is intense. Find a way to connect to one of their children’s interests, and watch a grizzly bear become a teddy bear before your very eyes. You will have a friend forever.

Humor can be a great icebreaker, but it’s dicey. We never know what the buyer’s perspective is, and there is a risk we will say something politically incorrect. If we are going to use humor, or tell a joke, the safest way to go is to tell it about ourselves. Self-effacing humor is the safest, and the most popular, humorous technique.