Apr 24

Twitter Marketing Your Business to Increase Sales – The Right Way

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You’ve hear it before-adjust your message to your audience. It’s a trite saying, but what does it mean and how do you do it? Furthermore, if you have that part down pat and are not adjusting your marketing to capture your target audience’s eyes and ears you have missed the boat entirely.

There’s nothing worse than giving a talk to a group of ten-year-olds that was written for the scientific community. In effect, that is exactly what you are doing if you fail to target your message to your audience. The result of your speech falls on cement and the bottom line-you wasted a ton of time and energy, both yours and your audience’s to boot. While adjusting your message is vital to the success of any business, without adjusting your marketing as well your business will flounder and fail.

First, sit down and figure out who your target audience is. Where do they hang out? Do they still search the Yellow Pages or are they adept at using the online search engines? Do they get their news from the newspaper or TV, or do they get their news online? Do they read digital information products or in-hand books and magazines? What about Twitter, Facebook and the like? Once you have this information you will better understand the makeup of your target market. This will enable you to create a marketing campaign that will result in increased recognition and sales.

Now that you know where they hang out the next step is to use the mediums they prefer to market to them in a way that is compelling and clearly demonstrates how to take advantage of your product or service. Just knowing where to find them is a help but using these mediums incorrectly can be just as damaging as not using them at all-maybe even more so.

If you don’t know where to start, begin by following your competition around. Look at what they are using to market their businesses and how they present their case. This will tell you much about what works and what doesn’t. Try to glean from their advertising tidbits to help you better create your marketing message.

One such online medium that is gaining popularity among the 20 plus crowd is Twitter. Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central puts it this way, “Social media offers new opportunities to activate…brand enthusiasm.” So, if your audience hangs out on Twitter, then you too should be twittering. However, don’t just post inane messages and thus waste your time and theirs. Don’t just shout your message out, you could ultimately damage your reputation and repel your target audience all together.

Begin by listening to what your target audience is saying about your company or industry. Listen carefully and they will tell you what they want and need. Then gear your marketing message towards fulfilling those gaps. You may find that just offering direction or advice will cause them to sit up and take notice of you so that they are prepared to listen when you tell them how to fill their needs. My advice to you, be truthful, timely and most importantly, fun.

Once you have their trust you may be surprised how quickly they help you spread the word with what is known as re-tweets. Now you have a whole new set of avid fans who will take your message even further than you could dream of doing by yourself. Remember, it’s all about creating a ‘buzz’.

Use your knowledge to enlighten your audience and then offer an easily accessible solution. Be direct and clear as to how to obtain the help you are offering. Don’t take them down a path to your product or service. Rather, tell them exactly where to go to obtain it, not more information about it. Yes, you may also want to include a link to more information, but for those who don’t need it, don’t waste their time-you risk losing them along the way.

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Apr 24

Free Business Leads

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Every firm looks out for free business leads since they are free of cost. But getting free business leads requires a lot of effort on your part. Firstly, you have to define the business. Defining one’s business accurately is the starting point of getting business leads. It is the prime requisite for selecting the right opportunities and steering the firm in the right direction.

In addition, to make sense out of the multifarious changes taking place in the environment, to understand what a possible benefit is and what could be a hidden threat, a firm must first understand what business it is in, exactly. While preparing a business lead, a firm must know what its aspirations are, where exactly it would like to reach and what it would like itself to be in the future.

Proper definition of the business does bring several benefits to the firm. It reveals to the firm many relevant facts about its functioning, which it may not be aware of otherwise; many closed assumptions get tested. It brings to the fore the weaknesses, if any, in the very conceptualization of the business by the firm. It also highlights the errors in judgment that might have already taken place on any of these aspects. Most importantly, the exercise invariably brings the purpose and objectives of the business into a clearer focus.

Defining one’s business has become an exacting exercise today because of the fast changes taking place in the realms of technology, products and customer preference. When product-market boundaries get extended, when different product categories of yester years blend and merge and when new and substitute products keep invading the market, altering the existing business boundaries, understanding and defining one’s business becomes difficult. In other words, as business boundaries are becoming highly volatile, unless one is careful, one may err in identifying the nature and boundaries of one’s business.

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Apr 24

eBay Business For Sale – Finding Items to List & Sell on eBay!

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You have probably heard a lot about how easy it is to make money selling things on the internet over websites such as eBay. However, you might not know just how to get started doing this, or you might not want to risk a big investment in order to get items to list in your eBay business for sale. Don’t worry, it is quite easy to start one of these businesses without investing much money at all.

The first thing you will want to do is go through all of your own belongings to see what you might not want anymore. You can start your business by listing these items in your eBay business for sale. Rather than having a garage sale and getting very little for them, you can post them on eBay and have a good chance of making more money off of them. You can list these items as you have time, you don’t have to do it all at once.

After you have finished selling off all the things that you no longer want from your own home, you can see about getting some other items “on consignment” from your friends and family. Tell them that you will list and sell anything that they don’t want. Then you will give them a portion of whatever you make from the items they list on your eBay business for sale. This will help supply you with items without you having to put out a huge investment of money.

By the time you sell the items you can get for free, you will have a good idea whether or not an eBay business is for you. If you enjoy it and are making enough money for it to be worth the time you spend, you can start purchasing items to sell. Some people work through wholesalers in order to purchase products they can sell for more money than they pay for them. Other people buy things at garage sales to sell. Eventually, you can operate your own eBay affiliate website and drive traffic to eBay and make money practically doing nothing at all!

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Apr 23

Sales Strategy Techniques – Impossible For Client’s Response to Be No

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Most sales strategy techniques are only for the pros. This sales clients response strategy is for you. Find out how your questions can make it impossible for sales clients to say no.

Starting when they first can speak, children hear and say the word “NO” frequently. Children out of control like responding with “no” constantly. They are bartering and testing trying to use “no” for more positioning power. Often it works, and at least a compromise results. Upon adulthood your prospects have all mastered the advantages of responding with no.

NEVER ASSUME Until you are a sales professional that your prospect is genuine or not. Otherwise you just undermined all your sales ability. You are then a fearful sales order taker. Take up the challenge to stay ahead of your prospect. Here are 4 key sales strategy techniques.

THE WRONG SALES STRATEGY Never Ever word a question that can possibly be answered with a “No”. Asking “Don’t you think my product is great?” could get back “No, I really want to shop around”. Saying “Are you ready to buy now?” can be answered “No, I am not in any big hurry.” By remarking “Can I enroll you in this plan now?” can result in the prospect saying “No, we will let you know what we decide”

SALES STRATEGY: Giving compliments and a token gift, make you hard not to like. One way is, “I just bought a couple of these new quality pens. They seem to write great. I am going to give you this new pen. That way you can jot down any notes you want.” Here is one of the best to boost their pride. “My what a wonderful _______ collection you have. Please let me take a closer look at your favorite piece” Another one is, “How long have you lived here?, By the looks of your ____, you must be very talented to keep it in such good shape.”

SALES STRATEGY Never focus on just one benefit or emotion. You could be striking the wrong one. Why say “This product has the lowest price”, your client might demand the highest quality and be willing to pay for it. Remarking, “This shiny car will make you the ____ of your entire neighborhood.” Your prospect might hate the neighbors. Pointing out, “This ____ is ideal for removing any pet stains.” Your prospect might not own any pets.

Asking the wrong questions and phrasing them incorrectly gets you in trouble. Carefully wording the right questions, and asking them at the right time is different. You get the sales clients response exactly the way YOU want it. Upon getting the answer you want, then you move quicker toward the close.

THE BEST SALES STRATEGY: Make it almost impossible to get a no or negative sales clients response. Here were some that I used. “How am I doing so far?” This asks for a favorable opinion, and usually gets one. “I’m just curious, tell we what caught your interest to send back a reply? You now know what your client wants your product to do for them. “I did reveal my sales specialties, do you think I am a rookie or a little experienced”. Prospects want to buy from experienced sales people. Without revealing your background you just made yourself a professional in their eyes. So reply back with “Thanks, I’m glad you have confidence in me.”

THE ULTIMATE STRATEGY: Successful for me was using the option of choice. “I have shown you three ways you will benefit from _______. Could you please help me out? Point to the one that that appeals to you.” You now know exactly where to hit hard. You were given a buy signal, pump up the benefits in this area and close. “IF you decide to buy would you be paying by cash or check”. This tells you if the prospect is ready to buy or just needs some more convincing. You did not directly ask to make a decision, but to Gage how close you are.

MY ALL TIME FAVORITE is “which of these two options sound best right now? Keep you mouth shut until the prospect responds. If you are close to being good, you should get a positive response. Its very important in a husband and wife presentation to keep your visual attention entirely on the wife. She is usually the decision maker. She will often stop her husband and over rule him. Plus more often than not it is her that will go for the more expensive option.

Remember, you never asked them to buy. You just asked for an opinion. If necessary, you keep proceeding for the sale. You want to keep making your clients feel involved in the process.

Applying sales strategy techniques from above means you always stay in complete control. Go to the interview assuming the sale is already made, and your presentation is just a formality.

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Apr 23

Small Business Marketing – The Best Way to Explode Your Sales This Year

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I’ll bet you could get a hundred different opinions from a hundred different people when it comes to your small business marketing. Everyone seems to know what they’re doing. Everyone seems to be an expert. I guess it’s up to you to decide which opinions you’ll put your faith in and which ones you’ll kick to the curb.

As you read through this short article, you’ll understand the secret to making it all work. You’ll understand the key component to any marketing your small business does, whenever it does it.

Quite simply, as far as small business marketing goes, the best way to explode your sales this year is to adopt a direct response style attitude towards your business and show it off every opportunity you get. What is a direct response style attitude? It is the attitude that your primary objective with any form of marketing you do is to increase sales. That’s it. Forget about “branding” and building your image and all that other crap. Every time you write an ad, or update your website, or interact with a prospective customer, ask yourself what you can do to get a response now. Not tomorrow. Not six months down the road. Right now.

You can use tempting offers. You can use engaging copy. You can include strong calls to action in everything you do. Just be sure that it is designed to illicit a response and make a sale today. The whole point of advertising and marketing is to increase sales, so make sure your does just that. Build your brand through increased sales and repeat business. That’s the best way to explode your sales this year.

You may have to hire a copywriter, or an agency, but if you do make sure they are thinking along the same lines as you are. If you always keep the increase sales motto in your mind, this could be your biggest year yet.

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Apr 23

The Assumptive Close in Sales Training

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Now, all of my readers know by now that I am not a big fan of “closes”, especially taken out of context. Everyone knows how I feel. You should be closing continuously from the time you meet someone, forever.

Now I am going to elaborate and incorporate a style in the process of continuously closing… “The Assumptive Close”.

Quite the contrary to popular belief, the assumptive close is not just about assuming the sale and going for the paperwork. That is a small part of it. The real art of the assumptive close is to make EVERY WORD in your small talk and presentation imply that the sale is already done and that you are just discussing formalities. It is all about attitude.

I had the opportunity to call on a potential client the other day and truly it wasn’t whether they were going to do it but whether I had enough time in my busy schedule to accommodate them! I have mentioned before that sales professionals often invite me to make a sale with them and I thoroughly enjoy the occasional interaction. Well, on this particular occasion the prospect told me within minutes that they were shopping the product and I was lucky to come at this particular time. I did not take the bait! Quite the contrary. I politely informed them that since our company was the largest with the lowest rates that we really didn’t participate in that kind of business but I would certainly try and help them if I could. They then proceeded to tell me that I could take the information and come back at another time with the proposal. Again “The Specialist” didn’t take the bait. I assured the potential client that I could take care of everything in a few minutes IF I could help them. I then proceeded to present my proposal and informed them of what I expected of them, in fact I made a list of what I would need in order to make it happen for them.

The sale was done. There was really nothing else to talk about except small talk. Everything I did and said during that sales call was from beginning to end an assumptive closing technique! If you noticed the sale was closed and I hadn’t done any paperwork! In fact to show how powerful this technique is I informed them I didn’t have time to finish but I would TRY and come back the next day. Well needless to say before I ate breakfast the next morning they were calling me to see what time I was coming back and could I squeeze them in that day so they could enjoy the benefits of their product.

I don’t think I need to go any further! It is all about attitude! To be able to pull this off you really have to be a master of assuming you have made the sale the minute you meet the people, and every word you say has to be pointed in that direction all the way through. That customer knew from my attitude that they would be doing business with “The Specialist”.

Again this is just one technique in our wonderful profession.

“The Specialist”

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Apr 23

The Ultimate Sales Letter – The Ultimate Key to Success in Business

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Sales letters are important. They are what businesses use to convince their recipients to patronize a certain product or service. It is the most essential tool for communication apart from the actual sales talk done by a marketer to attract customers into a business. As such, the ultimate key to success in business is the ultimate sales letter.

In the recent years of economic expansion, companies throughout the planet have been experiencing such great competition. New enterprises are formed almost weekly throughout the world due to the convenience provided by the internet. The battle to catch the attention of customers never seems to end. As such, businesses try hard to come up with marketing strategies, without which their business cannot survive. So many strategies have already been invented. Companies have been trying out these new techniques to lure people but it seems that only a few have worked really well. And what has been seen to work most effectively is still the age-old sales letter.

Sale letters have become hot commodities these days. In fact, companies are shelling out parts of their budget to hire people that would write sales letter for them. The ultimate sales letter is a much coveted tool for businessmen because it is truly what they believe can lure customers and keep their businesses running

What the Ultimate Sales Letter Is For

The ultimate sales letter is a powerful tool – one that serves its purpose well. All sales letter are made in the hopes of convincing people to buy a certain product or avail of a particular service. But the ultimate sales letters is the one that actually allows a business party to achieve this goal.

That is why, the ultimate sales letter is one that uses words efficiently and arranges them into sentences that can make lasting, good impressions on the audience – the prospective customer. This is actually a simple concept. The ultimate sales letter just needs to have the basic components of an effective letter. There practically should be no other hullabaloo, just the time-tested basics. With this, a prospect would become an actual customer.

The ultimate sales letter must be straight to the point – no more wordy and flowery mazes for readers to just get bored. It must address directly the recipient into purchasing what is being sold without being too bossy that the customer thinks he or she is getting bullied. This of course implies that courtesy is of the utmost importance since people would not want to be commanded.

For a sales letter to become ultimate, it should follow the time-tested technical format. Most businesses send their letters with their big logos prominently displayed wherever they can, but this is not an effective format as people are more likely to just throw such letters in the trash. Now, where do you look for the right format? Where else, but in the letters that people do like to read – letters from friends and family. This is why studies have shown that the most effective sales letters are those that do not have company logos flaunted ubiquitously. People like reading letters, and the ultimate sales letter should appear like a real letter.

What separates the ultimate sales letter from others is its ability to offer the reader with benefits that other letters could not offer. Sure, there may be hundreds of similar products in the market, there may even be identical ones. But the ultimate sales letter makes the product it is advocating stand out from the rest. The ultimate sales letter lets the customer know how buying its product would be better than buying that of the competitor.

Lastly, the ultimate sales letter is one that people are able to absorb quickly, while informing them as much as they should. You would not want to send novel-thick letters to customers. You would want something they can finish within minutes. Thus, the letter should be interesting, brief, and informative. You can even leave them curious to actually try out your product to entice them to go out of their way and buy your product.

The ultimate sales letters is an important tool for any business who wants to succeed in these times. With the ultimate sales letter, you can easily turn your prospects into paying customers.

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Apr 23

New Trends in Sales

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Top-performing sales teams use these strategies to advance their success. The foundation of that success is Sales Force Automation. In countless cases, powerful Sales Force Automation tools have helped turn Underperforming teams into highly successful ones. It’s the fact that these tools give teams a transparent view of their sales pipeline. In doing so, they are strengthening their ability to achieve greater overall performance. Sales Force Automation tools were once reserved for very large companies with millions to spend on software. Today, the best Sales Force Automation vendors offer affordable, powerful alternatives-ones that have been designed specifically for small and midsize businesses.

Just what is Sales Force Automation? Commonly abbreviated SFA, it’s a powerful software strategy that streamlines sales-force management tasks into a cohesive whole. Using SFA, sales teams can see everything that’s going on with each sales prospect-from the first contact with your company through to becoming a customer. SFA helps sales teams save time, increase capacity and maximize productivity. Will the following strategies help your team achieve greater sales success?

We think so-and we’re confident you’ll agree.

Go for e-Sales

Make your team more effective by automating the tedious aspects of selling. Far too often, time is wasted setting up repetitive emails, tasks and appointments. Imagine instead a world in which each time a new lead is created a welcome email goes out, a task is created for a sales rep to call a prospect, and a follow-up email with a brochure is sent a few days later-all automatically. The right SFA tool lets you create an entire set of activities that can be triggered to run automatically, saving your reps countless hours of boredom each week.

Go for e-Practices

Standardize your most successful sales practices across your entire sales organization. Look for a Sales Force Automation solution that offers a built-in sales checklist to guide reps through the sales process modeled after the process used by your most successful sales people. This capability increases the chances that reps will bring in business more routinely.

Go for e-Direction

Eliminate lead sources that don’t produce revenue. A powerful Sales Force Automation solution can identify where good, bad and mediocre leads come from. This helps you strengthen your investment with productive sources and stop wasting money on sources that don’t bring in business.

Go for Mobile

In a competitive environment, sales reps can’t afford to be disconnected from prospects. Look for vendors that offer a mobile SFA solution. This will give your team instant access to all sales information on their mobile phones. They can work deals even when away from their computer.

Go for e- Competition

Successful sales executives know that “time kills deals.” Sales Force Automation immediately routes leads from any source to the sales rep best suited to close the deal. It can also be set up to ensure that no single rep has too many or too few leads to work on. As a result, leads stay warm, increasing the odds a deal will materialize with you instead of a competitor.

Managers to e-Managers

Some sales reps prefer to sell cheaper products because, frankly, they find it easier. The right Sales Force Automation solution can help by giving managers visibility into product quotations so they never have to wait to correct sales rep behavior. In addition, the most powerful SFA solutions include a sales knowledge base that you can load with valuable tips for up-selling and cross-selling.

e-Business

Businesses and consumers shop online, so you gain revenue by maximizing the lead-generation potential of your Web site. Sales Force Automation generally includes “Web forms” that Web site visitors can fill out. These can be automatically routed to the most appropriate sales representative. The sales rep is able to see immediately both the prospect’s contact information and interests, and follow up quickly while the prospect is showing interest.

e-Mail

Place your business in the most positive light by giving your team standardized email templates that offer a clean, professional look, with a personalized touch. Plus save your reps the time and trouble

of crafting them.

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Apr 23

Sales Manager Jobs – Skills and Requirements

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An insight into sales manager jobs

Sales manager jobs are considered to be one of the most important and glorious jobs in the world of sales and marketing. But reaching the job itself is not easy. Most people look at the working of a sales manager and think that it is an extremely easy job.

After all, you only have to manage a team, attend company meetings, set targets and relax while your team works. But nothing can be more wrong than this. A sales manager’s job is extremely difficult and challenging and requires the manager to take full responsibility for the working of his team.

There are a set of skills that every sales manager needs to have.

Skills and requirements

A sales manager heads a team that works in the field and interacts with the customers. So it is up to the sales manager to develop and garner the skills of the sales team.The sales manager is the one who administers the sales and it may involve complex decisions like pricing.A sales manager also needs to have excellent marketing skills.Maintaining the accounts of the team, product development and many other similar tasks.The manager is the person who overviews and reviews all the direct reports pertaining to accounting, shipping, plant production etc.A sales manager is also associated with Identifying key skills in a sales team member and thereby promoting him to the necessary department.

Do you have the skills?

Now that we have highlighted all the necessary skills in a sales manager, you need to pop yourself the golden question. Do you possess the skills and the expertise to lead a sales team?

If you think you do, then log on to one of the leading job portals and apply for sales manager jobs. Most job portals have a minimum of 8 to 10 sales manager jobs at any time.

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Apr 23

Increasing Sales Results through Appropriate Behaviour

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You can have a fantastic attitude, but a positive attitude alone is not enough to guarantee long term success. You need goals and an action plan to get where you want to go. The ‘B’ stands for behaviour in the ABC, 123 Sales Results System.

Behaviour is the manner in which you conduct yourself. It is the way you behave, the way you act, function or react. The 1, 2, 3’s are the goals and behaviours from a personal, organisational, and market targeting level. Without goals there is no reason to act, no motivation to take daily actions or go the extra mile.

1. Appropriate behaviour drives opportunities. Opportunities come from setting goals. What do you want out of life or out of your business? Who could determine this for you and who can make it happen? What are the daily behaviours that you must apply to live the life of your dreams?

2. It is those daily behaviours, and when you implement them, that will make a big difference in your level of business or sales success. For example, as salespeople we need to be constantly networking, calling on prospects, presenting ideas to them, helping them make decisions and following up with them. When is the best time to be conducting these behaviours? Naturally, it is when the client is available. So, let’s refer to these behaviours as “pay time” behaviours – those behaviours that lead us to the accomplishment of our business goals or sales quotas. What are the pay time behaviours that you need to conduct on a daily basis to meet your goals and when do you conduct them?

Now we all know that business and sales is about more than being in front of customers. In all professions we need time for internal communications, training, paperwork and other forms of administration. These are activities or behaviours that are necessary but do not directly provide us with revenue and direct results. Let’s refer to these behaviours as “no-pay time” behaviours.

When we look at our week, each day we must plan and determine time slots for both types of behaviours, pay time and no-pay time. What are the best times of the day for you to be in front of customers and clients or to be contacting them? What are the worst times? It is during these worst times that you should be conducting no pay time behaviours. Once you identify these behaviours and times and stick to them, watch your time management skills and results improve dramatically.

3. What about your market? Does 80 per cent of your business come from 20 per cent of your customers? If so, what does your 20 per cent look like? Can you clearly define them? Now, where should you be spending your time? I have found that in sales it takes more time to sell smaller accounts that produce less revenue than selling large accounts that produce more revenue. If you take the time to define your absolute, beneficial and convenient (A,B,C) criteria you will have a better handle on who you should be targeting, that is if you want a maximum return on your investment in time.

The Bottom Line! Behaviour is the manner in which you conduct yourself. Businesses today cannot succeed without appropriate sale behaviour. Without appropriate sales behaviour there would be no transactions. Without transactions there is no revenue. Without revenue, there is no business, no jobs, no bottom line. Sales, and your behaviour, is the bottom line!

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