Only Tim Sanders could come up with something like this!

I am a Tim Sanders advocate and love his books… if you have not read any of them, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy at your local book store.

His most recent blog posting entitled Don’t be a Wanksta, learn your client’s business, hit the nail on the head. And, his video is very engaging and entertaining.

Too often I see many sales people focused on the short-term objective of closing the deal that they forget the long-term objective of keeping the customer for life. I know the pressures sales people have and the targets that they have to achieve so I can’t really say I blame them.

Rather, the company that runs its sales department like this is doing itself a disservice. And for that matter, a disservice to its customers, its employees and its shareholders.

We live in a new world… competitors are everywhere and relationships are the strongest differentiatiors we have. The smart companies get this and focus on the personal sale.

Building strong relationships that transcend time is the key to any successful business.

How many times have you heard the term ‘never judge a book by its cover’? Every time I hear that I cringe… this could not be farthest from the truth. I mean lets face it, we live in a society that is (rightly or wrongly) interested in looks. How do I look? How does my car look? How does my home look? Do I look fat? Does my hair look okay? These are all questions that we ask (most of us) and these are questions that demonstrate our fondness with looks.

We are attracted to good looking people, we buy good looking clothes, etc. So why not buy a good looking book? Or anything else that is good looking for that matter?

Recently I was in the local drug store and as I was walking down the aisle I noticed a ‘different’ type of liquid hand soap. This hand soap really stood out from the rest of them… it looked really good! The shape of the pump and bottle were different, the label was different, and it just felt better to look at it. It was as if I felt a sense of calmness as my eyes picked it out in a sea of ‘regular’ liquid hand soap.

I knew we didn’t need more liquid hand soap but I just had to have it. It was not tested on animals, safe to use, no pollutants, biodegradeable, etc… all that good stuff!

So remember, people buy that which catches their eyes first. You can have the best product with the worst packaging and nobody will buy your product (because they won’t ’see’ it). But, you can have the worst product with the best packaging and people will buy your product (but only the first time - until they realise how crappy it is). The goal, is to ensure that you have a gret product with great packaging… then you create a reason to buy (the packaging) and a reason to buy again (the product).

For now, I have purchased a good looking container of liquid hand soap. Now we’ll have to see whether the goods inside can live up to the packaging on the outside!