Page 144 - Paulisms: Gold Nuggets for Small Business

trust! Mission and vision statements don’t transpose into higher profits. It was our daily mindset of great service and the way we did things that set the platform for reputation, customers’ perception, long-term growth and profitability.
Reflecting on the way we operated and our USP, we had the highest market penetration in the world for our Solatube product. We sold more in NZ than the UK and many bigger countries around the world. Was it the way we operated, or the product?
Paulism: It is not the mission and vision statements that makes us a successful company. It’s our model – the way we operate and the way the company thinks – that customers experience and which determines the company’s reputation and its success.
5.6 The perception of value
Often in sales people are too quick to just sell on price (which is often discounted) without selling the value of what they are selling.
I often ask, ‘What is the hardest thing about making a sale?’ And most people say, ‘Closing the sale.’ Perhaps in theory that is true, but really there is a whole process that goes into making that sale – from the time the first phone call is made to the time we book an appointment to the way we give an insight into the product opportunity, as well as how quickly we get in front of people, how they follow the system and how the sales person is