Archive for Author: lmye-admin

Guide to a close with assurance, confidence and direction

Guide to a close with assurance. “Kujaribu ni bure” (Try it on for free); and being human, the lady might say, “Thanks, but I’m not buying”. The inexperienced seller will be sold on this and say, “Hata kesho ni siku”. Not the experienced one… If you don’t close the buyer on why he should, he’ll

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Big brand name not automatic selling advantage

Selling a big brand name? Just as with glowing academic papers, that reputable name won’t work for you, if you don’t. Could you be wallowing in the miasma of your company’s renowned brand name? “Watakuja tu” you reckon. (Customers will always come). “We needn’t put in much effort in selling. After all, we are (insert

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Three lessons in selling from writing a weekly column

Language, editing and persistence are your tools of trade. Today’s piece starts the sixth year of this column. And today I wish to universally respond to those who desire to sell their ideas through writing for a publication like this one. Lesson 1 First. Readers of this blog know that it challenges salespeople and institutions

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Will Telkom’s T-kash survive let alone thrive?

How really is Telkom’s T-Kash different from ubiquitous, evolving M-PESA? And how is it different from struggling Airtel Money? And is M-PESA really the problem? I don’t think so. So Telkom Kenya wants a piece of the ‘mobile money’ pie with T-kash. That pie is so near, yet so far. And, if approached in the

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Mitigate the buyer’s uncertainties by probing like a doctor

You notice that the damaged machine belongs to a competitor. You start salivating. Don’t! It is not an invitation to a sale. Buying means changing and chancing. Abandoning the familiar and risking. The risk could be reputational (Will we end up with egg on our face partnering with this new firm?) or financial (will we

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Plan to convert complaints from client into sales

Don’t just cower and hope for the best-see this as an opportunity to make a sale Covert a bad customer experience into a sale. How? By going beyond accepting responsibility, and offering potential sales alternatives. This is especially relevant to office based customer facing staff. For instance, a fire-breathing customer, incensed by how he has

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Exploiting the customer’s inexperience for personal gain is short-lived

And many formal sellers (consultants, for instance) would be happy to charge, than show you, how to resolve a problem you can, yourself. I love my plumber. As for my (former) mechanic, not so much. Twice my plumber has refused a job, instead insisting that I resolve it myself. No, he wasn’t being rude; just

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Make what you can sell, don’t sell what you can make.

Imagine how frustrating it must be selling the process of getting a sacco loan complete with guarantors to tech-savvy Generation Y. Make what you can sell, don’t sell what you can make. This is the mantra start-ups are forever reminded of. It is also relevant to existing businesses overtaken by time. The curse of many

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