Sales Information
Everything Follows the Pitch
If you asked me to point to the heart and soul of a startup company, I would not say it?s the people, the culture, or even the product. I would say it?s the pitch. The pitch is that one message that, when delivered, makes people say ?wow, that?s a great idea!?. The pitch gets everyone in the room excited about getting on board with your product and your company. It?s the inspiration that carries everyone along for the ride.
Sales People have an advantage as entrepreneurs
Zig Ziglar use to say in seminars and on tapes that nothing happens until someone sells something. I had never really understood how absolutely true that was until I got into franchising and saw how one franchise sale could add jobs to the economy, provide great service to a community and change the quality of life for the franchisee and their family. Sales people have an advantage over other folks in business. Our top performing franchisees were always the best sales people. Our toughest competitors, well their founders were great sales people too. To this point I would like to recommend a book to you, that makes this point:
How To Dramatically Improve Sales Closing Ratios
A closing question asks for a final decision. A trial-closing question is one that asks prospects for an opinion. Trial-closings should be non-threatening questions that ask how your prospective customer feels about what you have presented. Typical trial-closing questions can build in their directness as these examples illustrate:
Just Ask!
Instilling urgency in a prospective customer can make the difference between achieving a sale and losing it altogether. If your prospects cannot vividly see personal benefits from taking action, there will never be the sense of urgency needed to follow your suggestions.
Closing Sales Is Not A Problem, It?s A Process
In my opinion, the most overrated topic in sales training is the subject of closing. In year?s past, it seems the object of most sales training courses was to fill the heads of participants with as many closing techniques as possible. The logic was simple, if the ?Ben Franklin? close didn?t work, you could rummage around in your head for the the ?secondary question? technique, the ?order-blank? method or the ?forced choice? close to tie off your sale. Selling in the old school of training was basically learning 54 or 84 ways to close.
Why You Buy, Part Three
Still more discoveries from the recent studies in behavioral economics:
Business Lessons Learned At The Mall
Normally in this column I dispense highly-intelligent small business advice in response to thought-provoking questions submitted by future and fellow entrepreneurs. This week, however, I have a couple of questions for myself, one of which makes me wonder how truly intelligent I really am.
The Basic Secrets of A Million Dollar Sales Letter
?Accepting the consequences, good or bad, will free you; take a risk, but be aware that things sometimes turn out differently than you expected."-Marcia Wieder
9 Packaging Problems That Lose Sales
You have a great product, but it's not flying off the shelf. Is one of these packaging problems turning sales away?
Business is Great; I?m Just Not Selling Anything!
Awhile back you had a great idea. An idea that you thought could make you a decent income, with very little effort. Then, you had another great idea?to sell your first great idea on the Internet! What better way is there to market and sell your idea to the world, you thought. So, you bought a domain name, found a web host, and hired a high-priced web designer. Before you knew it, your new business was up and running on the web. With the help of a search engine optimization firm, your site shot to the top results of Google and Yahoo. Plus, you added an affiliate program, along with some other marketing ventures. Soon, tons of targeted traffic started flowing to your site?
How to Acquire More Leads
The most effective prospecting techniques were revealed inthe August 1st, 2002, issue of TIP (URL at end of article)that resulted from a survey of financial advisors earning over $200,000 annually.
Future Business Key Element In Sales
A challenge facing many businesses is how to maintain a constant stream of customers in order to provide a regular cash flow.
3 Ways To Sell and Have Fun Doing It
There are many ways to sell and have fun doing it, but some times we really need to step outside the box and do something a little different if not drastic.
The Hands On Approach
While living in the technology age where everything is computerized, digitized, and auto-responded, it is very easy to forget where we came from, and how all of this progress has almost completely wiped out the personal touch.
Going Back To Get Ahead
Have you ever run DOWN an escalator that was going UP? Well, I did at the Tampa Airport last week. Here's what happened:
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RELATED ARTICLES
Qualifying Your Prospect
How do you respond when an absolute stranger calls, at work or at home, and begins to ask questions? "Are you the person who??" "What is your marketing strategy?" "Do you own or rent?" Even, "How are you today?"
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With hundreds of direct sales companies out there, how do you choose the right one for you? Here are a few tips to make sure you choose the right one the first time:
The Risk of Being A Yes-Man
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Top Seven Ways to Write An Order-Pulling Sales Letter
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Plan For Your Next Trade Show Appearance To Be A Success
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Selling: an art of a skill?
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Recommending Products Vs. Selling Them
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10 Incredible Ways To Sell Your Products Now
1. Make your reader visualize they have already bought your product in your ad.
Another Warm Lead
Saturday morning, I sat in my pajamas, sipping strong, black coffee and petting Ms. Kitty Cat. The telephone rang. Usually on a Saturday morning, I screen my calls, but this morning, expecting a friend, I picked up.
To Buy or Not to Buy? Motivating Your Customers to Take Action!
All customers have a choice to make. Sometimes that choice is between your product and your competitor's, but sometimes it's not. Often, the customer's choice is simply whether to buy your product or nothing at all. If this is the actual choice your customer faces, it is important to determine this early in the conversation. Doing so will help you to use a tone and message that directly relates to your customer's emotional reasons for considering your product.
Complacency and Fear are Sales Busters
Prospecting is the engine that propels anyone in sales. Without consistently initiating contact with prospective customers to talk with, your sales will plummet and everybody loses. Studies confirm that 80% of all salespeople fail in their first year because of the fears associated with prospecting. 40% of veteran producers with more than five years -- experience severe sales slumps due to fears associated with prospecting.
Planning to Realize Your Goals
Recently, I wrote about about creating specific, compelling goals that pull you towards what you want in your business, career and life.
Lock, Stock, and Barrel!
The other night I was watching a classic western from 1969, Sergio Leone's "Once Upon A Time In The West".
A Quick and Simple Tip For Gaining Customers
In the course of my career, I've had to deal with a lot of vendors-software companies, sensor manufacturers, electronics distributors and more. Some of them have left lasting impressions on me, whereas others have been eminently forgettable. I'd like to talk about two of the more memorable vendors, and the simple technique that they used (perhaps unknowingly) which made them stand out in my memory.
Wholesale Secrets Revealed: The Holy Grail Of Wholesale!
Like the legendary search for the Holy Grail, the cup that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper, the same "holy crusade" goes on today by veteran and newly anointed business owners for the perfect wholesale, surplus, and drop-shipping resource. They believe that divine intervention will lead them to suppliers that can defeat the economic laws of "supply and demand."
How To Write A Riveting Sales Letter That Closes Sales
How do you get people's attention and build their interest to take the time to read your sales letter? Let's face it. If you can't get the attention of prospects and keep their interest your sales letter will just fall flat on it's face and thus not make you much money.
Selling -abilities : Part 2
In the last article I talked about different strategies for selling the 'reliability' aspect of your software or hardware. I mentioned how most high tech salespeople love to talk about their "-abilities": Reliability, Upgradeability, Compatibility and Expandability. In this article I want to discuss how to sell upgradeability. When is the right time to sell upgradeability? When do you mention the possibility of future upgrades? How do you position future upgrades to software or hardware with a new or existing customer without selling yourself short? How often should your company release upgrades? These are all great questions when it comes to the art of selling upgrades. Selling UpgradeabilitySo how do you sell upgradeability? Well, lets start with a basic question. What does the word upgradeability bring to mind when a salesperson mentions the word? If you're like myself, I think the product has room for improvement and in the future if I choose, I can upgrade to whatever new capabilities the software or hardware may offer. Microsoft Windows epitomizes the model for selling upgradeability. There are four ways to sell upgradeability:Strategy 1: Ernest Dichter a famous advertisement executive made a statement that talked about how we as sales or marketers must use the techniques of motivational thinking to make people constructively discontent. Dichter knew people would only buy a product when they are discontent with what they currently have. The job of marketing and sales is to make 'people constructively discontent' with what they're currently using. A good example of this is our migration from the audiotape to the compact disc. Marketers reminded us of that annoying 'hiss' sound with tapes and how time consuming it was to rewind or fast-forward to find our favorite song. They went on to promise the delivery of full 'fidelity' with the compact disc along with the ease and convenience of finding your favorite song. Consumers bought the argument and the age of the compact disc was heralded in. When selling upgrades, are you making your customer 'constructively discontent'? Strategy 2: When I hear upgrade in any sales pitch I immediately think of options. The task of the salesman is to give the customer a 'vision' of what could be possible if they chose your product and decide later on to upgrade. Upgradability indicates there are other features that can be purchased without having to absorb the cost for them all at once. A customer likes to know that if they are satisfied with the products performance that they could upgrade at any time to something more sophisticated or advanced. This piece meal approach is especially effective with customers who have limited budgets. Strategy 3: Upgradeability, especially second or third generation indicates to the customer that your company is continually improving on the product (i.e., responding to customer needs and investing in Research & Development). This is key; many customers want to be reassured that the product has not 'peaked in performance' and that you will be improving the product over time. Upgrades should be sold on average once a year. To many upgrades a year can be seen as 'product fixes' or another way of extracting further sales from a customer leading to 'buyer resentment'.Strategy 4: A major mistake made by many salespeople is not taking the time to show or prove to the customer how using your product will increase sales and effectiveness thereby leading to quick return on the buyer's Return On Investment (ROI). Customers want to see hard numbers on how the solution you're offering is going to positively affect the bottom line. Too often salespeople will say things like, "This is going to improve you productivity.", "This will make your employees more effective in their jobs." Or, "This is going save your company a lot of money adding this upgrade." All these statements are qualitative, not quantitative; the latter can be proven, the former is just an assertion. Customers want quantitative proof of how your upgrade is going to improve their profitability either by increasing sales or reducing their cost. Highly trained salespeople go into a customer meeting armed with quantitative proof of how upgrading to the next product level will achieve their profitability goals.Upgrades are a great way to add an additional revenue stream to your company's bottom line. Again, think Microsoft. Every year or so, a new version of Windows comes out and many of us technophiles rush out and buy it. How can you create this type of excitement or anticipation with your company's product upgrades? Victor Gonzalez, All Rights Reserved 2004
Take the Contract with You
I learned something very interesting this week. Thankfully, what I learned was really at no one's expense. What I learned is that when you are on a sales call and you believe there is a possibility (even a remote one) that you may close, always take your contract or letter of agreement with you! This does not apply if your contracts are so complex that it takes a team of attorneys to sort through it. If, however, your contract or letter of agreement is one or two pages long? take it with you.
Are You Selling What They Want To Buy? Is It An Appropriate Solution?
Let me tell you about my friend Peter who has four children. With a family of six, he finds buying cars rather trying.
7 Pitfalls of Using Email to Sell
* Are you sending e-mails to prospects instead of calling them?
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