‘How do you sell your way out of tough times?’ Bill Gibson shared his golden rules for selling at Nedbank’s Small Business seminar earlier this month. I add my thoughts on each of Bill’s rules.

Increase the number of right people that you contact. To me this would mean ranking potential clients according to the following criteria:

• How well your business offering fits their needs
• How big a portion of your net profit may come from that client
• Their payment record – if you deliver your products or services on credit. The bigger debtor the client will be on your books, the more important checking their credit record becomes.

Then make sure you speak to the decision-makers at each of businesses or households higher up on your list. But don’t shun the smaller clients either. They will bring in the cash over the short term while you work on bringing the larger, long-term clients on board.

Call potential clients more often and be well prepared for each call. Bill cites the National Dry Good Association of America survey, which found that the people who make more than three calls to potential clients are responsible for 80% of all sales. But I think there’s a very fine line between cheeky, but charming, and pushy and off-putting. Being able to read body language and tone of voice is crucial. And if your business is predominantly relationship-based, you have to be extra careful not to make a nuisance of yourself.

Increase the number of people selling. Remember, it’s not only your sales team that’s selling your products and services. Make sure all your employees know the basics of your product range and are enthusiastic about your offering. And if there are related, but not directly competing businesses around who could refer some of their clients to you, create incentives for these business to lead more clients to your door.

Increase your deal closing ratio. Bill has several techniques up his sleeve. Some of them are quite cheeky, in my opinion, but when used on the right customer, they will seal the deal. You could, for example, use the ‘assumed’ close, where you ask the customer what day would suit him best for the delivery before he’s even agreed to purchase your product. Or try the ‘puppy dog’ close, where you allow customers to take your product home and try it out before they buy.

Increase the average size of your individual sales. Try add-ons, e.g. “Hope you enjoy your new notebook. Do you have something to carry it in? Have you seen our bags and cases?” Or up-selling: “Hmmm, from what you’re telling me, the 1G package may suit you better. You may run out of bandwidth with the 500MB contract.”

Increase how often a client buys. Although not appropriate for all businesses, knowing your client very well usually enables you to sell to them more often. I have a friend who, unlike us mere mortals, buys most of her clothes at exclusive boutiques. She favours one particular designer, who phones her up every time he notices something in the new ready-to-wear range that suits her taste. She seldom leaves his shop without at least one purchase.

It’s happened again. It’s a new year and you’re dying to improve your finances and learn about generating and growing wealth. But every time you open a business paper or magazine, you start yawning and notice some cracks in your walls that you’ve never seen before. How does one achieve this level of dullness?

Try and be as stuffy as you can

Did the greyness enter when financial service providers starting branding themselves as serious businesses – believing that a little lightness and informality will lead clients to believe that they can’t be trusted with money?

Complicate things

Shall we blame the various financial professions: accountants, actuaries and financial industry lawyers? Did they consciously exclude clients from the inner circle of financial power by wrapping the industry in so much jargon and convoluted sentences? So that clients in the end could not make out head or tails of the products that were being offered.

Don’t give enough background information

Context keeps clients awake while they are reading about your new product or service. But there’s another reason why enough background information is important. The grey and seemingly stable austere of the financial industry hides a lively and unpredictable place. Things can change overnight and the more familiar clients are with the risks of their investment or insurance product, the less likely they are to do a bank-run or cancel a product when financial turmoil strikes. Institutions that realise this, will provide potential clients with plenty of background information, written in client-friendly language.

Steer clear of colour and beauty

At large, the financial media has been an aesthetic desert – not catering for more creative clients, or for those attracted by beauty. (Unless of course you count the long-legged blondes that have been used to attract a predominantly male clientele.)

Don’t bother with stories – they’re for children

Even adults are drawn to (and remember) entertaining stories that gives them more insight into the business, its philosophy and values.

Build no relationship with your client

Many global businesses attribute their success to their move towards not only strong and reliable brands, but brands that enter in a pseudo-personal relationship with the client – what Saatchi & Saatchi has coined ‘lovemarks’. (Think Apple, Mini Cooper and Levi’s). Financial institutions are slow to follow.

Think that money solves all problems

As in any other industry with lots of money going around, financial companies are sometimes guilty of thinking that just sourcing the most expensive leaders, consultants, or partners will give the best results, instead of searching for the people who are most passionate about the product and the company’s target market.

Mercifully, the industry is slowly changing. Many local financial service providers are following the UK, US and Australian trend of presenting all their documentation in clear, easy-to-read English. Allan Gray has used strong narratives in all their ads of the past few years to explain how they approach investment. Coronation’s creative ‘Vincent’ production grabbed the attention – maybe because it is exactly the opposite from what you expect from a financial services ad. Old Mutual’s has added some light-hearted illustrations to their handy online financial planning tools.

We may soon run out of sleep-inducing literature.

‘I cannot help it that my paintings do not sell. The time will come when people will see that they are worth more than the price of the paint.’ – Vincent van Gogh

Reading Dear Theo, a translation of Van Gogh’s letters to his brother, left me feeling rather melancholic. The one moment Vincent lets you soar on his beautiful lines of original and perceptive thought. The next minute he plummets down to the valleys of financial anxiety. In almost every letter the issue of money is raised. How expensive paint is, how much rent he needs to pay, how he can’t afford to eat properly… One of the greatest modern artists died at age 37, overwhelmed by debt.

Mixing the sacred with the profane, what are the business lessons to be learned from Vincent?

A fantastic product is doomed without good marketing: Until his death shortly after Vincent’s, Theo was his brother’s sole art dealer. In one of his last letters Vincent writes about all the canvasses lying under Theo’s bed; he had sold only one. It was only when Theo’s widow, Johanna, started translating and distributing Vincent’s letters that people began to notice his art. The letters brought the paintings to life.

Being different is difficult, but it’s the only way to create a memorable brand: When Vincent started using the impasto technique (applying oil paint very thickly, often straight out of a tube), his paintings were criticised for being too crude and unfinished. Now, 120 years later, a Van Gogh from this era (the last four years of his life) is instantly recognisable.

It’s lonely at the front – make friends: The Impressionists had a liberating influence on Van Gogh. Their love of working in the outdoors, use of broad brush strokes and primary colours and the almost ‘unfinished’ result gave him permission to follow his own style. He sounded much more confident and up-beat after meeting like-minded artists in Paris. He began to see himself as someone who is paving the way for future artists who want to break out of the traditional mould.

Find the kind of work that drives you sane: Vincent was completely puzzled by the idleness of his fellow patients at the Saint Rémy mental hospital. He noticed that painting was the only thing that could lift his spirits and focus his mind after each attack. So much so that a few people there did not believe that he was ill.

If he was still alive, Vincent would probably have thrown a glass of absinthe at me by now. He never painted to make money. He painted because he couldn’t imagine spending his time in any other way. In fact, he was terrified of success. In one of his letters, he even compared success with a glow worm through which Brazilian ladies stick a pin so they can wear the beauty in their hair.

Vincent, despite your ambivalent feelings about success, your paintings are selling.