Michael Wallace of the Wall Street Journal Report interviews Steve Martin

WSJR: Every Wednesday at this time we focus on small business, how to launch your own firm and how to make it thrive. When you run your own business you know it’s a daily battle trying to master the art of selling. Maybe you get a lot of potential customers to come through the door and you wish you could make the sale to more of them. Joining us now is Steve Martin the author of Heavy Hitter Selling. Steve, you say a lot small businesses owner’s maybe come on too strong when trying to make a sale, you should be yourself and hopefully come across as likeable?

SM: You’ll find that people will buy from people like themselves. People naturally, like animals in the wild, herd together. So if I wasn’t the world’s greatest salesperson, the first thing I would try to do is figure out what type of people buy from me and why. And then, I have a model. From there I would go on to say, “How can I market to that particular cross-section of people.” Quite frequently small businesses defocus themselves. They try to be all things to all people when in fact, there are a lot of products and a tremendous amount services out there. The differentiation between products and services today is very small. Therefore, you have to know exactly where you’re going and who you are selling to.

WSJR: So let’s say you figured out your target audience or customer base and they start coming in the store or the business you’re running, once you get them in the door take us through how you actually close the sale. Give us some ideas for moving the process along.

SM: My philosophy is that many people who think they’re selling to someone aren’t actually selling because that customer is not yet ready to buy. So they are persuading them at the wrong time. You have got to develop a relationship over the long-term with customers so that when they are ready to buy, they buy from you. Think about it for a second, when was the last time you were pressured into buying anything? It doesn’t happen. The natural response to sales pressure is to resist.

WSRJ: But the pressure tactics must work sometime. Somebody must cave because a lot salespeople seem to do it.

SM: Yes, I think there are specific instances where pressure tactics make sense. For example, if I am street corner vendor selling lemonade and a person is walking by lemonade stand only one time. When you have only a one-time shot to get their attention, you need pressure to do that. However, if that person walks by my lemonade stand everyday, do I want to pressure them? No. I want them to know I am there, I want them to know that I have a great product, I want them to know that I am trustworthy, and I want them to know that I will be here in the long-term. As a result, that’s why you have the corner coffee shop, the bakery, etc. Places where people continually and regularly go --they get into comfortable habits.

WSRJ: I wonder if you might go over some common business mistakes that small business owners or salespeople may make?

SM: I thought it would be interesting to close with this. First and foremost, always use customer examples and references, not “buzz words.” For example, if you tell your customer that your product is “reliable,” “scaleable,” and “cost-efficient,” what have you really communicated? Remember, your competitors are saying the same thing. But if you talk about how one of your customer’s increased productivity by 10,000 units because of improved uptime and how another saved $350,000 of expenses in the first 6 months alone and offer to introduce the person to that customer, that’s a winning strategy.