Three Fast, Short, Simple Ways to Escalate Your Sales
February 16, 2008
1. Sell an inexpensive product to sell an expensive product. If people like your inexpensive product, they will be persuaded to buy your expensive one.
2. Allow your visitors to decided how much they want to pay for your product. I only recommend it for products that don’t sell or ones that hardly sell.
3. Create an extra revenue stream with your web site’s articles or content. Publish the first paragraph of each article and charge people to read the rest.
Catherine Franz is a Marketing & Writing Coach, niches, product development, Internet marketing, nonfiction writing and training. Additional Articles: http://www.abundancecenter.com blog: http://abundance.blogs.com
Eliminating Objections to Increase Sales
January 21, 2008
You want to increase the flow of sales revenue, but you are stymied by prospects’ seemingly endless objections. Prospects say they’re not interested. They tell you your price is too high, or this isn’t the right time. You’ve heard all the objections. What can you do to get rid of these once and for all?
Engineering Your MarketingWhen I was seven one of my favorite ways to spend a hot summer day with my friends was playing a backyard game wecalled “waterworks”.
We’d use a trowel to construct channels in the dirt, put the hose at one end and watch the water flow. If we wantedthe water to go straight, we’d remove rocks and debris toclear a path. We became sophisticated engineers, guiding water around corners and across short aqueducts. We felt like masters of the universe, directing the water where we wanted it to go. (You can bet my mother loved seeing uscome into the house at the end of the day.)
Plan your marketing to take charge of increasing your sales. Your marketing can lead prospects to your products and services the way my friends and I engineered our waterworks; by making clear paths and removing obstacles. Channel your prospects’ attention and interests and eliminate objections. Below are the four most common objections and ways to eliminate them.
4 Easy Ways to Boost Your Sales
December 26, 2007
Here are 4 easy ways you can boost your sales for little or no new expense …and without making major changes in your selling process.
1. Focus on What Your Customers Really Want
Your customers really don’t want your products or services. They don’t even want what those products or services do for them. What they really want is to gain the specific feeling they get after buying and using your products or services.
Keep this in mind when you create web pages, sales letters and other selling presentations. Emphasize the feelings produced by using your product instead of talking about what your product is - or how it works.
Tip: Convert the benefits delivered by your product or service into vivid word pictures. Then put your prospect in the picture by dramatizing what it feels like to be enjoying those benefits.
Example, if you sell financial products, describe what it feels like to enjoy an affluent life style without debt.
2. Keep Communicating With Your Previous Non-Buyers
You’ve heard it before - but I’ll say it here again. Most prospective customers will not buy the first time they see or hear about your product or service. You’re losing a lot of sales if you do not persistently follow up with those prospects.
How to Sound Just Like a Salesperson
November 30, 2007
Prospect - “So now that I’ve told you what we are looking for, do you think that you can help us with this?”
You - “Absolutely!”
(or)
You - “Definitely!”
(or)
You - “You have come to the right place Mr. Prospect”
Answering questions about your capabilities with enthusiastic affirmative responses makes you sound just like a salesperson.
And in so doing, you impact your ability to close the sale, and your reputation.
Why? Because normal people don’t talk like this in normal conversations. People are more likely to trust you, when you come across as a regular person.
A regular person would answer the query with a simple “Sure.” or, “I think we might be able to.”
This sort of enthusiasm demonstrated above, puts you in the position of “chasing” the prospect. How so? Your enthusiasm level is higher than theirs is. This kind of confidence is not “catching”. Rather, it repels prospects. People are experienced and wary buyers today. They know when they are being sold. And they know that when the enthusiasm comes out, they are about to be sold. And the defenses are fortified accordingly.
Need A Sales Boost ? Try These!
November 6, 2007
The telephone is still the best and most effective way to reach people. It can help generate more sales and build your business. Unfortunately most people don’t like the telephone and don’t use it effectively. In order to become more proficient using the telephone, you need to follow some basic guidelines and then practice, practice and then practice some more.
Like everything else, selling by using the telephone has changed over the years. The hard sell approach doesn’t cut it today. With voice mail, answering machines, tele-zappers, and caller ID the old fashion way doesn’t work any longer.
If you are selling a high end product, trying to do it all on the first call doesn’t work. You need to go through a couple of stages to get your end result ? the sale. First you need to introduce yourself. Tell them about you, your business and your product. Next try to set up an appointment to go into further detail. Or maybe send some information before calling again. Moving one step at a time gives the customer time to become familiar with you and your product. It also gives your customer time to realize how important your product is to them.
Less is More: Quick Tips to Improve Your Sales
October 10, 2007
I’ll be brief. If not ? I’ll negate my own point. Got time to read a 12-page essay on sales improvement? You want to get back to making sales and money. Let’s go then.
Less time more pressure.
You prospects have less time and feel more pressure. Just like you, I’m sure. As a sales professional, you need to be sensitive to this. For your own good, have a clear, short and concise benefit statement. Don’t waste a prospect’s time or yours with lengthy (and boring) introductions. Observe people who go on and on at networking events when asked what they do or introducing themselves to the group. Is that you?
Less resources to get more done.
Your sales increase when you better demonstrate how much ‘leverage’ your product provides. Have prepared proof of substantial Return On Investment for prospects. The best ROI support is customer testimonials containing real numbers. If you don’t have any, use industry data and 3rd party research, or statistics, and proactively collecting your own. Start today.
Less contact more voice mail.
Sales Trap - We Love to Talk, But Need to Listen
September 16, 2007
My research has clearly shown that, when it comes to selling, the part we’re most comfortable with is talking about what we do - explaining our services and how we can help the client.
So what do you think happens in most sales encounters? That’s right? we tell ‘em what we do.
Problem #1 - Clients don’t really want to know what we do.Not to start with anyway. Usually they first want to know that they can trust us and that we comprehend their situation. They also want to understand ‘how’ we can help them. This is different to knowing exactly ‘what’ we do. To achieve this we need to look at what they want to achieve, and what their concerns are.
Problem #2 - When we’re talking we’re not listening.It’s a fact. People can think many times faster than they talk. This means that when you’re talking, your client can think about lots of other stuff (like their next appointment, or your unpolished shoes). So keep your client focused by getting them to do the talking.
10 High Powered Ways To Magnify Your Sales
August 21, 2007
1. Give your prospects a f~ree trial of your software product, service, or let them read the first chapter or two of your informational product.
Your f~ree trial or sample chapters will show your visitors that you are confident in the quality of your product and lead to more sales for you by demonstrating how valuable your product is.
2. Add a bonus for purchasing your product.
Provide a unique bonus such as an ebook you’ve written, a consultation with you, access to your membership site, or a resource that is only available through you.
Add to your bonus’s perceived value by placing an honest dollar amount to it, listing benefits for it, or by publishing testimonials for it.
You could also set up a joint venture with another business where you offer as a bonus an exclusive f~ree trial of their product in exchange for a percentage of the profits (i.e., by joining their affiliate program).
3. Provide a money back guarantee.
Your guarantee will help you to get more people that are unsure about purchasing your product to buy from you.
Your Sales Process Isnt
July 27, 2007
A lot of energy is expended within selling organizations as they try to identify, adopt, and administer a sales process that works for them. The holy grail of selling is to find a foolproof method for creating a customer, the ultimate finished product of the perfect sales process. Prepare to be disappointed.
Webster’s tells us that a process is “a particular method of doing something, generally involving a number of steps or operations.” By performing specific actions in a certain order on allowable inputs, we can produce a finished result that meets a predefined design specification. This works well in manufacturing, and in recurring activities that we find in other areas of our businesses.
We may even have certain processes that we use while we sell. But when we talk about the whole of selling, we need to avoid using the term “sales process” because no such thing exists. That’s because there is nothing we can do to reliably produce a customer as a finished result.
The Top Five Traits of a Successful Salesperson
June 30, 2007
If you’re looking for a successful salesperson to hire, a salesperson who not only can sell but will sell, look for a salesperson with PRIDE.
PRIDE is an acronym for 5 characteristics that will help ensure that the salesperson you hire will get the job done for you and make the revenue results you desire a reality. PRIDE stands for:
? Proven ? Respectful ? Innovative ? Decisive ? Enthusiastic
Proven refers to the candidate’s track record. Have they delivered results? More importantly, who else says so besides them? As you know, resumes can be fact, or they can be fiction. How can you tell the difference?
A person who has been successful producing results should be able to provide you with third party proof. Have the candidate bring in their sales awards. Have them show you the stack-ranked sales reports showing their name at or near the top of the field.
More importantly, what do their customers have to say about them? Can the candidate produce testimonial letters from their customers, indicating they were satisfied with the buying experience? Candidates should be able to furnish written recommendations proving that they were able to deliver tangible results.
