How happy are you with the quantity and quality of the contacts you receive from your Web site?

Many businesses complain that their Web sites do not generate enough contacts and sales leads to justify the cost. They want a better ROI for their Web sites.

We were also getting very frustrated because our Web site was generating very little e-mail and/or phone contact information. After testing a few different web design ideas, and finally decided to insert a bright, attractive, attention getting box on each web page.

This box contained our phone number and e-mail contact information.

As a result of this change, we started to receive many more calls and e-mail leads. This simple change made it very easy for anyone to contact us, and made those who did contact us feel more secure and willing to give us their business.

How can you make your business more accessible and available to new prospects and clients to generated many new sales.

As you know form experience, people will leave your Web site if they have to put too much effort into navigating it, or if they run into trouble trying to figure out how to contact you.

When a future client needs more information from you and your contact page is buried somewhere deep in your site, then it may never be found. If this happens – and it does at many sites we all have visited – then the customer is gone, maybe forever.  The sale is essentially lost. Don’t let this happen on your Web site.

What can you do to make it very simple for visitors to your Web site to find your contact information?

How would you like to be on the top of a best-seller list?

Well, then, why not create your own “best-seller list”
and feature it prominently in your marketing efforts?

People buy what is popular.

The higher up on the best-seller list that an item is—i.e. the more “popular” that it becomes—the more that sales for the item will climb.

For example, if you own an ice cream parlor, create a best-seller list of the most popular flavors of ice cream that you sell.

Post the list at several highly visible locations.
When folks come in, watch the sales of your best-selling ice cream soar!

You can create a best-selling list for any
product/service that you offer.

The power of suggestion helps people who do not know
what they want as well as those who are having trouble choosing what they want.

Many people just can’t make a decision
(sometimes even a life-saving decision), so why not help
them along by showing them what other folks like the best?

Some clients of mine (a husband-and-wife team who run a
carpet-cleaning service) were having trouble selling their service.

We created a best-seller list of the services that
the company offered by using good, better, and best offerings.

This list helped the couple’s prospects to choose the
services that they wanted based on what other people had done in the past.

The sales and profits on these “best-sellers” have increased dramatically.

This means that the sales and profits for the company
are up overall, which was our goal in the first place!

How can you create a “best-seller” list for your products/services?

How many of your clients Love You?

How many people send you a complimentary letter or email?

Your love letter may arrive by way of the U.S. Postal Service, via a fax or e-mail, or through a voice-mail message.

There are two great reasons why you should save a copy of every love letter or “white mail” (positive messages) that you receive.

Here’s the first:

When clients tell you what they like about your product or your service, you’ll discover you may have the ability to improve the things that they like.

If they approve of a product, then you can make or acquire more of it.

If they like your service, then you can make sure that you maintain its quality.

Odds are good that if one customer takes the time to send a message to you, then the way that they feel would apply in a similar way to many other customers.

Negative comments can also be turned positive.

How? They show your honesty.
They show you are not perfect.
They show you are human.
People know mistakes happen and that nothing is perfect.

The second reason for hanging on to your “Love Letters” is to use its comments as positive testimonials about your product/service.

Unsolicited remarks tend to be more open and honest than testimonials for which you have to ask.

If you want to use a customer’s comments in your promotional material, you should ask for his/her permission.

Oh. By the way. It’s okay to paraphrase and/or edit a testimonial so long as you do not change the meaning of the message.

Or you could pull out a short phrase. Even a word or two and use as a testimonial.

Give him/her credit in your marketing by including name, city, and state.

Phone numbers, e-mail addresses and photos also are extremely beneficial.
However, only use them when your client gives you specific written approval.

Sometimes, I’ll use a stock photo of a different person that fits the same age range if I can’t get permission.

Some people are overly concerned about their privacy, but most people probably will grant you the permission that you seek.

I can’t stress it enough:
Testimonials are a great tool. Use them to your advantage.

When you talk about how great your product/service is, people assume that it is part of your marketing and salesmanship—and rightly so.

However, when someone else praises your product/service, it sends a much more powerful message.

Now, what are you going to do with the Love Letters that you receive?

It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

This statement also applies to your business.

What if you have developed a marketing campaign that is working well?

What if your marketing is bringing in all kinds of sales leads and increasing sales and profits for your business?

What if you have tested and proven your list and your headlines?

What if your offers in this campaign are the best that they can be?

What if no other marketing effort that you have tried has beaten its results?

Wouldn’t it be insane to change it?

You would think so.

However, many business owners get bored with using the same marketing message over and over again.

Consequently, they change their campaign midstream.

These owners never get the full benefit of their campaign.

This, folks, is insanity.

Sometimes the reason that these business owners change their approaches is that they listen to their spouse, employees, family members, friends, clients or someone else who has gotten tired of the campaign.

As a result, the business owners changes his marketing before they should.

Whatever the reason, if something isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
If a marketing campaign is working, then stick with it!

A profitable marketing campaign must be allowed to run its course.

You will know when it is time to change or develop something new when your current campaign stops working.

Again, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

You can see this mistake made over and over in many businesses.

Advertising and direct-marketing efforts that are working are abandoned midstream for the “next big thing.”

Don’t waste the money, time, and effort that you have invested in creating a marketing campaign by making this same mistake in your business.

How sane are your marketing efforts?

What marketing efforts are your competitors using?

• Call your competitor on the telephone and pose as a prospective client.
• Talk to their sales staff
• Ask the right questions and most salespeople will tell you exactly what you want to know about their business. Many salespeople love to talk about themselves and their business. This can help you with your research.
• Collect your competitors’ brochures, ads, and sales letters.
• Record their voice messages and their radio and TV commercials.
• Visit their booths at trade shows and go to their showrooms.
• Also, check out their Web site(s).
  Most Web sites will give you a lot of information about how the company does business with its clients. The site may even provide a list of clients, which can become a great “target list” for your own sales efforts.
  While visiting the Web sites of your competitors, request more information regarding their companies and their products/services. Then, keep an accurate record about how quickly they respond.

Here are the fatal seven “selling mistakes” that many people make.

They are not in any particular order.

You will know which ones are costing you money and need improvement.

“While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.”
-Henry C. Link

Fatal Mistake 1:
Failing to become a welcomed guest.

Bonding and rapport is critically important part of every sales call. It does not matter if it’s a first call, fifth call or a milk run call.

Look around, find something that you have in common with your prospect/client. Find a way, anyway, to link with him/her. It could be a mutual friend, a business associate, or a leisure activity.

Try talk about your connection long enough to become comfortable with each other before talking about business. It’s far better than wasting time talking about the weather. People like to do business with people with whom they feel comfortable with.

Fatal Mistake 2:
Thinking that the prospect doesn’t have enough money.

A prospect almost always can find the money to purchase what you are selling if they need it badly enough. Explain all of the benefits that your buyer can begin to get from what you have to offer. Ask questions to create or expose needs. Find things that are so important that solving them overrides the cost.

If you can show someone that s/he can’t live without what you are selling, then that person will find the funds to purchase your solution.

The bottom line is that it’s up to your prospect to come up with the funds. It may be wise to offer them some creative payment options if that will help you close the deal, but your main job should be to create, expose and have the perfect fit solution to their needs.

Fatal Mistake 3:
Failing to ask the right questions.

Ask prospects specific questions to find out if you actually can solve their problems with your products and services. Ask questions to qualify them as decision-makers. Ask “Who else besides yourself will be involved in the decision-making process?”

Ask questions about financial matters, such as “How will you pay for these services?” Ask questions that separate you from your competition. Try beginning most of your questions with the words: When, What, Where, Who, and How.

As an experienced sales person, you’ve heard it all before. You here common problems and objections from everyone. Use that common information and ask questions to get the real problems out on the table.

If you are just getting started in sales, ask a successful sales associate for help. Ask your mentor what questions have been successful for him/her, it will shorten on your learning curve and lead to faster sales growth.

Test and track what questions work and what questions fail. Once you have discovered the perfect questions, keep using them, hone them razor sharp and keep using them until they stop working.

Fatal Mistake 4:
Talking too much.

Ask questions. Then shut-up and listen to the answers. Talk no more than 37% of the time (even that may be too much). Get your prospect to do most of the talking. Ask pointed questions, and keep your prospect answering.

Keep full control of the conversation, but let the buyer think that s/he is controlling it. The more that you let your prospect talk about himself or herself, the more that s/he will like and trust you. This may lead him or her to close the sale for you—all you have to do is listen.

Fatal Mistake 5:
Putting down the competition.

Sell for yourself and not against someone else. Substitute the words “industry standard” for “competition.”

NEVER say one bad word about your opposition. If you have to talk about them at all, praise their work and position in the industry or community.

Then point out how you do things “differently.” What makes you, your products and services unique or unusual. Slamming the competition only comes off as sour grapes and will never help you close a sale.

Fatal Mistake 6:
Failing to follow up.

If you say you will call back at 2 p.m. on Thursday, then do it, no matter what. People WILL remember when you DON’T keep your word. Always let your customer know when you will get back to them, and make sure that you do.

Also, consistently follow up all your marketing efforts. It’s proven that one-shot marketing rarely works. It’s also proven that it takes seven or more contacts to finalize many deals. Be patient, be persistent and be profitable.

Fatal Mistake 7:
Failing to use your time wisely.

Know the difference between “pay time” and “no pay time.” “Pay time” is the time that you spend talking to or meeting with prospects and clients.

“No pay time” is when you stop at the car wash, eat lunch alone, fill out paperwork, or do anything else that does not contribute directly to the creation of income.

Beware of email and the Internet.

They are sneaky time wasters. How many times have you open a email and follow a link to a Website… the next thing you know, you’ve waste a half-hour that you can never ever get back.

Spend 100% of your time doing those things that lead you to making money. This will separate you from the pack and increase your year-end bottom line. Schedule a given amount of time every week to spend prospecting for new business. “ABC”—Always Be Prospecting. Always have prospects in your “pipeline.”

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Fatal Bonus Mistake 8:
Placing blame on everyone and everything but yourself.

Take a look in a mirror. Most of the shortfalls of selling start from the six inches between our ears. We must commit to working smart.

Many of us are afraid of failing and forget that we learn from failure as well as success. Blame ourselves, but don’t be afraid of failing. Everything is on the other side of FEAR.

How many of these selling mistakes are you making?
How will you correct them and prosper this year?

Do you know any of the “little things?”

Do you know her birthday?

Do you know the name of his spouse or kids?

How about hometown, favorite store, or favorite sport?

What about your client’s hobbies?

Do you have similar musical tastes?

Do he like cigars? What is her favorite adult beverage, or is she a nondrinker?

Does your client have a favorite perfume or cologne?

When you learn even the smallest detail about your clients and prospects, record those things into your contact management system.

It is especially important to note the details about your clients that are unrelated to business.
You can use this carefully gathered information in many ways-for example, sending them cards on their birthdays or anniversaries; alerting them to newspaper stories, magazine articles, and Internet links about things in which they are interested; giving them tickets to events that they enjoy; and many other things, all of which are related to your discoveries of their interests.

When you remember the smallest details, you will be amazed at how your clients will remember and appreciate your thoughtfulness. These acts of caring on your part can lead to a genuine, longlasting relationship with your client.

Everyone is different, and each relationship has a different dynamic that builds and changes over time. Marketing is relationship building. Every great business person understands this and works at building longterm relationships with his/her clients.

The most important sale that you ever will get from a customer is the second sale because it is the start of a lasting relationship. In addition, the second sale can lead to a profitable future, perhaps as much in friendship as in business.

How well are you getting to know your clients and prospects?

]]> http://sellmoreofyour.com/secret-no-25-what-details-do-you-know-about-your-newest-client/feed/ 0 http://sellmoreofyour.com/secret-no-3-what-is-the-difference-between-sales-and-marketing/ http://sellmoreofyour.com/secret-no-3-what-is-the-difference-between-sales-and-marketing/#comments Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:59:00 +0000 http://97marketingsecrets.wordpress.com/2007/03/12/secret-no-3-what-is-the-difference-between-sales-and-marketing/

What Is The Difference Between Sales And Marketing?

There is an important distinction.
Successful businesses know how to use both.

Selling is interpersonal, one-on-one human communication. It includes telephone calls, networking, and face-to face meetings between you (or your sales staff) and your clients and prospective customers.

Marketing is developing various programs designed to reach out to and persuade prospects to raise their hands and say, “I’m interested in what you have to offer.” Marketing includes public relations (PR), advertising, direct mail, e-mail, and more. Marketing efforts are designed to target a specific group of people who have a need for your products or services.

Your efforts will educate these prospective customers about the features and benefits of what you have to offer and move them toward taking action – usually (but not always) making a purchase.

Salesmanship takes over after your marketing does its job. The job of sales could be handled by your clerk at the counter, or by customer service on the telephone, or through a face-to-face sales call to your prospect’s office. Closing some sales may require several contacts with the prospect. These contacts could include a marketing effort or a combination of marketing and an interpersonal sales call. Others sales are simple to close: just send one marketing message or make one personal sales call and it’s done. Sold.

Building a successful business takes the combination of marketing and sales efforts working together to reach out and persuade people to buy your products and services on an ongoing basis.

For example: You receive a letter or postcard mailing from your local phone company with some strong offer (marketing effort). A week later, you get a phone call from one of their sales reps asking about the mailer, offering to answer any questions that you might have about it, and trying to close the sale (salesmanship). This is marketing and sales working together in a coordinated way.

How do you handle your marketing and sales efforts?

Is your plan in place?