Lysis Blog » Sales

Creativity Sells!

John Kypriotakis — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 04:47:04 +0000

If you are saying to yourself “But I’m not the creative type, this does not apply to me” allow me to challenge that notion for the moment and coax you to read on. People tend to like “familiarity” because in most cases it makes our life that much easier. Think about this. When you walk into your favorite grocery store, you know your way around, you know where everything is. You could run in, get what you are looking for and be out of there. But what if they were to remodel and move everything! You wouldn’t know where anything is, it would be quite frustrating and it would take much longer to shop. But, would anything good happen in the process? Your first incline might be to say no. But think about it a bit more. You couldn’t just shop on autopilot; you had to actively engage your brain. You were forced to employ all your senses. You had to take time to look, really look for items that you used to just absentmindedly throw in your cart. And what did you see? Most likely, lots of stuff you had not seen or noticed before. But was it really [...]

Managing the Time of your Life

John Kypriotakis — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 02:50:56 +0000

If your answer to “How are you?” seems to always be “BUSY”, this may be a good time to take a closer look at your most valuable resource. How can you make sure that “busy” also means productive? How can you take control of your time? First make the decision that now is the time and commit to the following: Your time audit When it comes to planning, there is only one thing worse than not knowing where you are going, and that is to not know where you are. The same is true of your time. All the time management tips in the world will not help you if at first you don’t identify where your time is currently spent. Here is one way to take care of this: The tool to use is a “time inventory sheet”. Nothing too sophisticated – there is no time for that. On the left side of a sheet of paper, make a column and list items you spend (or invest) your time such as: phone calls, meetings, reports, planning, sales calls, email, social media, etc. Remember to include idle time, personal calls, interruptions, waiting, travel time, etc. Make columns representing 15-minute increments [...]

Get closer to your customers…

John Kypriotakis — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:00:04 +0000

Encouraging the involvement of your whole organization in your marketing, selling and customer service efforts has this as one of its many positive results: the more integrated you become with your customer’s organization the more solid the relationship will be. The basic premise is that the more time you and your customers invest in understanding how to best work together, integrating processes, and developing effective communication channels for mutual feedback, the less likely they will be to switch suppliers when otherwise might be tempted to do so. This is due, at least in part, to the enormous learning curve that will be required to bring a new supplier “up to speed” in delivering the level of service you’ve been able to provide given your deep knowledge of your customer’s organization and their unique needs. An optimal condition for both organizations that results in managed costs, improved service quality and best use of both organizations’ resources. But think about this… Why would customers invest time to show you the way in the first place? What are you doing to justify such level of trust and collaboration? The right answer will open the door to a great long term and mutually beneficial [...]

Marketing in Tough Times

John Kypriotakis — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:45:23 +0000

… and one from the archives. I wrote this article a few years ago and even though the examples are a bit old, all of the principles are relevant and apply just as well today. ———- The effects of the severe economic downturn have been felt throughout the marketplace. This has lead to problems for companies in most industries, your customers included. All indicators to date show that we may not see significant improvement anytime soon. Times are still tough.So, what does your company do when the going gets tough? Most likely, if it behaves like the rest of the world, what normally happens is the obligatory reduction of all “unnecessary” expenditures, and sadly that includes most, if not all, of your advertising and marketing dollars. Although it sounds logical, “…we are in tough times so cutting expenses makes sense”, in reality this is a losing proposition that will get you nowhere. In fact, there is plenty of empirical data to show that, if you have the foresight to implement the right strategies, an economic slow down might be the best time for your company to grow. The first step… Don’t take your eyes off of your customers. We have [...]

It must have been those baby blues…

John Kypriotakis — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 03:09:01 +0000

This one is an old story and even though it’s not exactly a selling situation, it is a great example of just how important it is to 1) be prepared, and 2) ask the right questions. It seems that the wet-behind-the-ears reporter was on his first assignment covering the 1995 Grand Prix of Cleveland with his sights set on an interview with Paul Newman. After hours of hanging around the star’s tent for an interview, he finally had his chance. “Mr. Newman, what do you think of Cleveland?” squeaked the rookie as they walked along the tarmac. The salad-dressing king paused, focused his famous eyes at the newbie and replied, “Son, you’ll have to do better than that. I was born in Shaker Heights.” (a suburb of Cleveland) The reporter still has the audiotape, which contains his pleading last words, “But… Mr. Newman, please give me another chance. It’s my first day.” The sales lesson: When it comes to developing new business or keeping what you have, your time in front of key people is precious – and short. How can you make the most of it? Photo by classic film scans ### John Kypriotakis is the President of Lysis [...]