Dear Archive Visitor, I hope all of you had fun on the fourth and had the opportunity to be with people you love. Our daughter-in-law's birthday is today, but we all celebrated it on the fourth. Naturally I did all the cooking. I keep thinking that some day I'm going to surprise everyone big time, when I say, "Oh, didn't I tell you? I've given up cooking." But considering that I just sent off a check for my 19th year subscription to Bon Appetit, that's probably not going to happen any time soon. Now if you're wondering whether anyone needs 19 years of Bon Appetit's monthly magazine... certainly not. Yet I continue to subscribe. Why? Well that's actually a great marketing story that I only share in live training sessions. But here's why I mention this to you today. When my monthly Bon Appetit magazine arrives in the mail, I get totally re-inspired to cook a quite few new savory meals. So, instead of dreading the kitchen, I often look forward to the time I work in it. That's what education does. It inspires us. One of the things I've always invested in is education. Whether it's magazines, ezines, books, audios, coaching, classes, or seminars, I've found that by investing into further education, I remain enthusiastic and motivated to keep on trying.

What If Customers Knew What They Wanted? By Tammy Stanley "Most people don't know what they want, but they're pretty sure they haven't got it." Alfred E Newman There's definitely more truth to that statement than MADness. I can remember quite a number of years ago when I expressed the deep frustration I was feeling in my life at that time to my personal coach. She then requested that I describe to her a typical day of what I wanted my life to be. This hardly seemed like a difficult task. I wanted to get up early, go work out, come back home to have breakfast with the family, but I didnÕt want to be left with the dishes, once everyone headed out the door. My coach said, ÒTammy, remember, youÕre supposed to be telling me what you want, not what you donÕt want.Ó Grateful for the reminder I continued. But it wasnÕt long at all before I was back to describing what I didnÕt want to see happening in my sales business. Each time I described what I didnÕt want, my coach reminded me to speak instead about what I wanted. By the time I finished describing my "ideal" day, I was acutely aware of how much I thought in terms of what I didnÕt want as opposed to what I wanted. HereÕs the rub Ñ most people think of me as a very upbeat and positive person; yet I struggled to describe an ideal day devoid of what I didnÕt want. So what does all of this have to do with your customers? Plenty. Consider that your customers might also feel frustrated, and if given the opportunity to describe their ideal day, theyÕd struggle to describe what they want. According to the economist Malcolm Gladwell, thatÕs actually quite common Ñ most people have difficulty describing what they want. Gladwell says this is especially easy to observe by asking people what they want in a cup of coffee. The vast majority of people will say that they like a dark rich roast. But statistics show that only 25% of people like dark rich roast and that many prefer milky, weak coffee. Yet I've never heard anyone say to the barista, "Tall, milky weak to go, please!" Gosh, remember the days when we had to meet at places like Village Inn and Denny's for a cup of coffee? And remember when meeting someone for a cup of coffee meant meeting someone for a cup of Folgers? Now you can walk into any coffee shop and realize that you don't even know what these concoctions are that people are ordering (apparently they're just variations of milky, weak coffee). What caused this change? According to Gladwell, we owe the abundance of choices in food to Howard Moskowitz, who discovered back in the 1970's that there isn't one perfect kind of coffee, mustard, or spaghetti sauce. There are instead various clusters of favorites. Back in the early 1980's the Campbell Soup Company hired Moskowitz to help improve the sales of Prego spaghetti sauce. Moskowitz had a theory based on work he'd done with the Pepsi company that they secret wasn't in finding one altogether perfect recipe. He tested thousands of people with 45 varieties of sauce Ñ some sweet, some spicy, some tangy, some chunky, etc. From that testing, three primary preference groups emerged Ñ plain, spicy and chunky. Who wudda thunk? Chunky? Yep. One third of Americans preferred chunky sauce although they had never even said that was what they liked. When the Campbell Soup Company put jars of chunky Prego spaghetti sauce on the shelves, they sold 600 Million dollars of it in the next 10 years. One lesson to take back to the office with you is that you canÕt afford to assume that you know what your customers want. Look at all the years food companies thought we wanted only thin spaghetti sauce, white vinegar, and yellow mustard. Take a trip into any grocery store these days and youÕll find something like 36 varieties of spaghetti sauce, ten plus kinds of mustard and vinegar, etc. Someone finally took the time to discover what the customers wanted. IÕve met business people at networking meetings who get my card and put me on their list to receive weekly or monthly emails. The irritating thing for me is, they never asked me. If they had only asked, I probably would have said, ÒSure.Ó It rubs me the wrong way that they never asked me, the customer, what I wanted. Does that mean they don't really care about their customers? It may not, but customers wonder things like that, when our actions imply it. Do you send out monthly correspondence to your customers? If so I applaud you. ItÕs good to keep in front of them. Now, have you asked them if they read the correspondence you send? By taking some interest in your customers you just might start the process of helping them and you learn what it is they want. Another lesson you can learn from this is that you can't assume that all of your customers know what they want. What would you do differently today assuming that your customers don't even know what they want? What would you need to do to help them find out what they want, and what would happen if you did that? If you take a few minutes to answer those questions today, you could put yourself in a category of one. That's what happened when the Campbell Soup Company first introduced Prego chunky tomato sauce. It was in a category all by itself. Hmmm... 600 Million in 10 years Ñ not bad for assisting customers to get what they were pretty sure they didn't have. WANT TO SEE MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE? WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER OR ON YOUR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Author, Sales Trainer, and Professional Speaker Tammy Stanley publishes the propelling 'Sales Refinery Insights' weekly ezine for direct sales professionals. If you're ready to jump-start your direct sales business, make more money, and create more value, get your FREE tips now at www.tammystanley.com/ezine/ezine_offer_ds.htm

As many of you already know from a previous issue, we sent our daughter, Audrey, off to ballet camp a couple weeks ago. The reason she attends a special school each summer for several weeks is to get the coaching she needs to become a professional. She's close to reaching this goal, but making that final 10% improvement requires incredible commitment, perseverance and coaching. Now you and I would never think she needs to improve her flexibility, but a good ballet coach can spot where she can increase her flexibility, which only improves her overall ability and appearance on stage. A coach helps you see the things you miss seeing either because you don't know what you need to know or because you're too close to the problem to see it. Several people have asked me lately whether or not I do personal coaching. The answer is yes, but I currently have only four openings, so I suggest contacting me quickly, if you want to work with me personally.

Tammy Stanley, founded and directs The Sales Refinery, a sales training company that assists direct sales consultants to generate more business and build long-lasting sales teams through powerful marketing, selling and leadership strategies.

Tammy has been coaching and training since 1994 and has a deep understanding of the challenges and needs of the independent sales consultant. While raising four children, Tammy built a multi-million dollar direct sales organization, reaching her company's Circle of Excellence 7 consecutive years in a row. She earned numerous sales and leadership awards, world travel, and promoted 11 offspring managers.

The Tammy Stanley Sales Refinery
Tempe, AZ 85283
Call Today: 480-775-4866
tammy@TammyStanley.com