Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/123858
28 • MAY 2013 • WORLD FENCE NEWS Take the road less traveled through "niche" marketing LOGICAL DECISIONS, INC Operator parts Gate operators Support rollers Access control Roller covers Safety loops Timers Loop detectors S.O.S. sensors Safety edges Wheels, tracks, & rails Photo beams Battery backups Solar solutions Preformed fence ties 800-676-5537 www.LDI.com 225-274-1115 BY TOM LUBY, PROFIT BUILDERS INTERNATIONAL The ability to sell "ice to an Eskimo" or "sand in the Sahara" have long been touted as examples of ultimate sales challenges – daunting tasks to be undertaken only by the most fearless, skillful and resourceful of salespeople. The fencing industry is not without similarly daunting sales challenges. There are pockets and regions in the country where a particular style of fencing product seems as plentiful as sand in a desert or ice in the Arctic – if not in reality, in perception – and UNEXPECTED BENEFIT #46 HOW OUR FAMILY OF WAYPOINT™ PRODUCTS ALLOWS YOU TO FISH INTRODUCING THE FAMILY OF WAYPOINT™ Eco-friendly Solar Beautiful Style Tops Iconic Low Voltage Available In: Copper, Black, Stainless Steel, Forest, Harvest, Chestnut, Grape, Pearl tops (shown) YOUR BENEFIT: Selling high margin Waypoint™ products adds value to your bottom line. Adding value to your bottom line makes life easier, and when life's easier you get to go boating off the coast. And when you go boating off the coast time. YOU DESERVE TO TAKE A NAP AND FISH AT THE SAME TIME. Sell our family of Waypoint™ products and be one with nature. Waymark® Products Waymark Products, LLC. Always Right On The Mark.SM Toll Free: 877.652.6118 sales@waymarkproducts.com www.waymarkproducts.com 3851 Revere St, Denver, CO 80239 R almost impossible to sell at a reasonable profit. There are a number of sales tools and skill sets that can reinforce your sales efforts and make Value Selling more profitable for your company, but those tools and skill sets are not easy to learn and even more difficult to hone into a fine sales pitch. Not all members of your sales staff may have the ability or training at their disposal to handle the more difficult and competitive sales pitch. This can lead to failure and lost opportunities and that leads to loss of revenue; not a good thing in any business. In the past I have written about a number of sales training tools to help improve your capture ratios and profit margins: tools like "Value Selling," selling backwards, profiling, market segmentation tactics, and how to develop the very best personality based sales opportunities. I plan to review some of the more successful sales training skill sets and closing techniques again later this year, but another method to help improve both profit and sales volumes comes from management and not from the sales team at all. It is management's ability to understand the market in the area you sell to, knowing or learning how to best "pick your fights" and finding ways to win the most sales, regardless of the skill level of your sales staff. It is kind of like learning how to "dummy down" your sales efforts; eliminating the tough sales pitches and replacing them with less competitive and more profitable opportunities. One such method for improving sales volumes and profit margins is learning, understanding and optimizing niche versus fragmented sales channels. This is not rocket science, guys; a niche market or niche sales channel is like the road less traveled, the product and/or service less frequently provided, and/or sales channels or opportunities that are not as apparent and obvious, and therefore not as competitive. Fragmented marketing and sales channels are obvious ones that everyone and their brother are fighting to enter and are super competitive, therefore by definition, less profitable. In some instances, for example, you can even find yourself competing against large box stores or even worse, find your primary supplier selling to the same people you are trying to sell to and any dummy knows that makes continued on page 58