Spend More of Your Time Selling

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The majority of people in the sales force spend an average of no more than two hours out of their day actually selling.

This fact is astonishing for two reasons. One, how do we as sales people manage to meet our goals. And two, why on earth are we in sales to begin with?

The lack of hours spent selling in our work week is understandable. Lets face it. The paperwork alone can take up half of your day. Not to mention the phone calls, the problem solving, putting out fires, etc.

There are many challenges to be faced throughout the day.

Why is this? Why does this happen?

It is all believed to be a mind set, and a very dangerous one at that if you plan to survive in the world of retail.

Because problem solving and handling customer complaints is a difficult challenge we must face on a daily basis, we automatically believe that this should take priority over our selling, because we see the selling as fun and rewarding.

All the other issues can be stressful, so we tend to want them out of the way so we don’t have to worry about them.

Yes, dealing with current customers and building the relationship is very important, but your goals don’t go away. So we must obtain new customers through new sales.

Probably the key ingredient to spend more of your time selling is time management.

Put together an action plan for each day of the week where you allow at least four hours of your day to be spent selling.

It is very easy to put an action plan together, but it is extremely critical that you stick to it in order to succeed.

Another key ingredient to spending more time selling is delegation. If you have the luxury of a staff, why not delegate some of the operational issues to other people.

Plus, you know the rush you get from a sale, the thrill of closing the deal. This can have a psychological effect on your work day. Making a sale is a great feeling and certainly out weighs the depressed feeling that comes with dealing with operational issues all day.

Remember, you are a sales person, and it is very important to spend the majority of your time selling.

There is not a problem that your current customer is having that cannot be fixed by either you or the person you delegate it to. So concentrate on sales.

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Increase Sales With These Innovative Tips

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1. Show your prospects how much enthusiasm you have for your product and business. If you’re convincing enough, they will be enthusiastic too.

2. End your sales letter or ad copy with a strong closing. It could be a free bonus, a discount price, a benefit reminder, an ordering deadline, etc.

3. Please your complaining customers. You can refund their money, give them a discount, give them a free gift, solve the problem quickly, etc.

4. Make your customers get excited about your business and they will tell their friends. Give them a free vacation certificate, a coupon, etc.

5. Give your prospects extra confidence so they will order. Use endorsements, testimonials, a strong guarantee or warranty, etc.

6. Build your opt-in list by allowing your visitors to sign up for a free e-zine, ebooks, software, contests, sweepstakes, etc.

7. Give your prospects or customers a breath of fresh air. Don’t be afraid to design your web site and ad copies different from everyone else.

8. Allow your customers to get part of your total offer right after they order. If you have to ship the item, make one of your bonuses available online.

9. Write and submit articles to e-zine publishers or webmasters. If you want it to be published, it should be like an article and not like an ad.

10. Show your prospects that you are an expert, because authority can persuade people to buy. You could publish an article, write an ebook, etc.

11. You could cross promote your product with other businesses’ products in a package deal. You can include an ad or flyer for other products you sell and have other businesses selling for you.

12. When you ship out or deliver your product, include a coupon for other related products you sell in the package. This will attract them to buy more products from you.

13. Send your customers a catalog of add-on products for the original product they purchased. This could be upgrades, special services, attachments, etc. If they enjoy your product they will buy the extra add-ons. 14. Sell gift certificates for your products. You’ll make sales from the purchase of the gift certificate, when the recipient cashes it in. They could also buy other items from your web site.

15. Send your customers free products with their product package. The freebies should have your ad printed on them. It could be bumper stickers, ball caps, t-shirts etc. This will allow other people to see your ad and order.

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Sales Techniques & The Death of The Sales Call

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Sales techniques

A Google search on sales techniques or strategies (including more specific searches like a search on real estate sales technique or prospecting techniques or marketing tips or motivation strategies) will yield over a million results instantly. Even with so much information at your finger tips it is not any easier to perfect your sales techniques or advertising techniques. Even when you refine your search to terms like sales closing techniques, motivation techniques, presentation techniques, sales skills, and so on and so forth, it is rather hard to narrow down your search any further from among the million odd articles.

A Crisis of Individuality

The more one depends on the strategy ‘gurus’ or experts whether online, in books or wherever, the more one loses that individual touch, those carefully tested out personal skills and strategies. And it is this quality—individuality—that is very important in the environment we now live in—one of extreme competition. Your buyer would be looking out for that something extra, something off the beaten track, as it were. There are going to be numerous conventions, seminars and the like; breeding conformity. The gut feeling that makes you successful in dealings is your key to success. The important thing is to follow your instincts rather than blindly emulate the jargon spewing sales advisors.

Pick and Choose

That is not to say that all such sales tips should be avoid—far from it. Do learn from as many sources as you can but without forgetting your own self, because that is what makes you different from l the rest of the huge crowd. Business dealings depend on trust. So it is important to focus on your human side. Only then can you convince the other person that it is going to be a fair deal. As some put it, "the trust factor that is the bedrock to any sales or selling relationship". It is here that modern sales strategies fail. Their failure lies in their negligence of the human elements. To be convincing and to build up trustfulness, you have focus on your own personality rather than worrying about various external factors.

Focus

The focus, and we simply can not say it too many times, should be on making your buyer feel good, convincing him, ergo, trust building. Selling is essentially, when reduced to its elementary, most basic precepts a deal or a pact between two like minded people or parties. Let us also not forget that trust goes a long way. The same buyer, if and when convinced and satisfied with the sales, will come back and maybe also bring in other buyers. This is a very fundamental precept of the sales technique. And the one on which you can always fall back up on in times of trouble!

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Keeping Sales Simple

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For those of us working in the exciting world of sales, we are all too familiar with the pressures of meeting our daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly goals. This pressure can sometimes cause us to lose focus on the simple things that made us successful to begin with.

When we make a sales presentation, it is all too essential to look and sound the part. A professional appearance and product knowledge are to very important ingredients involved in sales.

But don’t ever loose sight of the fact that sales is supposed to be fun!

A personal story . . .

I can remember a time a few years back, when I was managing a bank branch inside a supermarket, otherwise known as In-Store banking.

At that time, we had daily goals that we were required to meet, and those goals were unit and dollar driven. It was a fast paced environment and every technique we could think of was incorporated into our sales. Nothing was taken for granted.

Including the simple stuff.

One particular afternoon I received a phone call from a woman who informed me that she was new to the area, and she was shopping around for a bank.

We had a pleasant conversation, and I explained to her all of our products starting with our free checking, and ending with our more exclusive products.

Once the conversation was over, she thanked me and told me she would consider us.

I thanked her as well, and ended by telling her my name again, and that she could ask for me, if she decided to come in.

The next day, that same woman walked into my branch and asked for me, she reminded me of the conversation we had the day before, and than proceeded to tell me that she came in because I was so nice on the telephone.

The fact is, I was really nice on the telephone, I knew I had a potential customer on the phone and I killed her with kindness. Not because I was being slick, but because it was easy, it was simple, and I had fun doing it. And it worked.

There was no selling involved in that conversation. I was just being a nice person.

Salesmanship is important, but people want kindness to.

My point is, take some of the pressure off of yourself and start having fun! Be nice, smile. It is not always necessary to act and speak so professionally, it can come off fake, and worst of all boring.

So starting tomorrow, take a load off, roll up your sleeves, smile, laugh out loud, and most of all have fun and keep it simple!

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Business Cards with a Big Bang

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Ever felt how wonderful it is to have your name in print for the first time? This is not just any ordinary printing with your name and details in them. They are your own business cards. Any other of these cards would contain names, addresses and contact numbers. That would be the typical business card.

These days, business cards are made into marketing tools to promote the owner’s business and a source of advertisement that serves as reminders for people reading them. As small as these cards may see, they have been a necessity for information getting since then. These have become the perfect equipment for entrepreneurs to be able to get clients and stay of their competitors.

As a marketing tool, these small prints need all the marketing strategy they can get to maintain effectiveness. Using all the right techniques with the modern machines, you have made the perfect business card. This would mean that you have gotten the attention of the holder. The next big thing to be considered is the content of the card. Does it appeal as much as the designs do? The most commonly overlooked marketing factor in business cards is the message that the card conveys. What does it say to the people reading them?

Having the perfect look and designs does not always guarantee customer response using these cards. It is important to note the words that are used to describe the business, its products and the services rendered.

To begin with, the slogan or logo should be able to make the reader isolate your card from others. People tend to just set aside these cards along with other cards and files, to be searched on later when the need arises. Making your card as unique and a standout would distinguish it from those others. When the time comes for it to be of use, something about the card that the readers have seen would come to mind and they would remember that certain card. It could be the printed words, or the drawings that are inherent in them, or a design that was stuck to memory. Or the contents. It gives them a good reason to choose and call you.

A bottom line that is irresistible would definitely arouse enough interest to set you apart from the rest. An example is phrases that offers discounts, new products and promos. These can guarantee customers coming and going back to know more. Putting motivational lines that opens the door for them to respond to you is also a must. It is best to not let customers left hanging in confusion as to what to do next after reading your cards. Guide them on what to do next by giving hints about it in your cards. There is always no harm in a bit of guidance.

Business cards may be small and seemingly insignificant, but they are also easy carriages. What’s more, they are continuously being passed on. You never know who its next holder would be.

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Back-End Offers – Make Real Profits

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Often the real profits lie in back-end sales.

Once you have a customer, you simply offer additional products, add-ons, upgrades, a super-deluxe version of the original product purchase with all the bells and whistles. The customer is already “sold” on the product or service, based on your sales material or presentation.

The back-end offer should supply the answer to “what’s next?” It should be related in some way to the original product, and the most successful back-end products are higher-priced accessories that makes it easier of better for the buyer than simply having the original.

A back end product should further enhance the product that the buyer intended to purchase. Whatever the original product does, a good back-end product will make it faster, better, more detailed, more complete or easier to use and benefit from – in essence it is far more helpful to the prospect in satisfying his wants, than is the original, more basic product.

Keys to Success

The success of back-end products can be attributed to having a captive, highly targeted audience who is definitely interested in achieving a specific result or solving a specific problem. The add-on product makes it easier to solve the prospect’s problem, quickly.

Another factor is to further sell the customer while he is still in the buying mode and while he is feeling good about solving a problem or moving closer towards a goal.

Examples

To come with examples of back-end products simply ask “What product or service could I also offer that would be a natural match for what my customer is buying now? A self-publisher could offer a booklet on a specific topic. As a back-end, he could offer the same topic covered in greater detail and presented in a multi-media format complete with audio cassettes, videos, manual and CD.

Opportunities for back-end or additional add-on products are easy to find. A shoe store can offer shoe buying customers, laces, polish, protectants or, other accessories, based on the type of shoe sold. Ever visit a theatre to watch a movie and not order popcorn, chips, soft drink, or some other refreshment? Those items are all back-end products. First you bought your tickets, then you went to the snack bar.

My local video store now offers “tape protection” as an extra option. It’s basically insurance against returning a damaged video. Since most videos rented out these days are new releases, tapes being returned in damaged condition are a rarity. Yet, many people gladly pay the extra twenty-five cents to “feel” secure. A clever new profit center for the video-rental industry.

How?

Always be mindful of products, services or ideas that your customers will willingly pay for. Anything that can make it easier or hassle-free for the customer, could be a good candidate as an add-on product. Convenience is a wonderful thing and many will willingly pay you for it.

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10 Low-Cost Sales Boosters You Don’t Want To Overlook

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You don’t have to spend a fortune to boost your sales!  Take a look at these 10 quick and easy ways to send your profits to the moon without digging into you advertising budget.

1.  Test and Evaluate
Have you ever wondered just how much of your advertising budget should go toward experimenting with the latest marketing strategies?  Marketing gurus say… spend 20 percent looking for new and improved marketing methods, while the remaining 80 percent uses the “tried and true” marketing strategies to keep the profits flowing.

2.  Capture Attention on your Website
Use headlines that leap out and grab the reader’s attention to moment they open your Web page.  Hey, they’re just like you… if their attention isn’t caught immediately, they ‘re ready to surf on the more exciting things!

3.  Use the Best-Kept Marketing Secret – Postcards
Postcards are quick and easy to read, not to mention the fact that you can shave off a great deal of wasted advertising expenses by targeting your market.  Hey, they’re cheap and convenient for you, and they get read more than other types of advertising materials… a winner all the way around!

4.  Let Customers Sell You
Some things sound better coming from someone else.  Yes, it’s hard to brag your business up as effectively as a satisfied customer.  Testimonials are evidence that you deliver what you promise.  Paste them across ads, your Website, and any other sales copy you happen to distribute.

5.  Just Ask
Great salesmen take the time to listen to the questions the customer has, identify their wants and needs, then ask for the sale.  That’s right, they’re not afraid to just ask them to buy!  Sometimes customers just need that little bit of pressure to cement the deal.

6.  Raise the Value
Sometime value is only in they eyes of the beholder.  You can raise the perceived value of your products by pointing out benefits that consumers may have overlooked.  While you’re at it, raise the price.  Yeah, we all know that more valuable items have higher price tags!  Don’t be surprised if your profits skyrocket.

7.  Make it Easy to Decide
Have you ever had a hard time deciding what to buy?  Uh-huh, you don’t always come to a conclusion immediately.  Every time a customer walks out of the store without making a decision, you take a big chance on losing the sale.  Keep the options to a minimum to maximize the sales numbers.

8.  Break it Down
Got a big ticket item?  Break the price into bite sizes for more appeal.  Yeah, 90 cents a day sounds much cheaper than $325!

9.  Create Bonuses
An unexpected bonus with a purchase makes it seem like you got a lot more for your money.  Keep customers smiling when they walk away from the cash register, and they’ll keep coming back for more.

10.  Handle Customer Complaints With a Little TLC
Don’t waste time getting to the bottom of the problem.  Customers want to feel they are being heard, or they wouldn’t take the time to complain to you.  Are you afraid that you’ll be losing profit, if you have to bend too far backwards to accommodate them?  Think of it this way… an unhappy customer you turn into a happy customer will become a loyal customer.  Yeah, it’ll pay in the long run.

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4 Ways to Use Auto-Responders to Build Sales

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Auto-responders, email systems which are built to deliver multi-step messages over time, will add value to your business in four ways: auto-responders can educate customers about your products and services, auto-responders can build rapport with your prospects, and auto-responders can carry much of your customer support and customer training load. These systems are always working for you delivering important and valuable information. Please see several ideas on how to do this below:

1. Communicate with Customers: Enter company data and product information into a series of auto-responders. Messages should be informative for your customers and should include an offer of value which the recipient can respond to. The auto-responder cycle can add value by making your company information more accessible to your clients.

2. Increase New Business Sales: Put a lead management system in place with auto-responder functionality. This will solve a common problem. Sales people will work a lead list, and burn a lead if it does not respond. The multi-step auto-responder system keep your company in your prospects’s mind. The AR system spark a low fire into the mind of your prospect and build mind-share touch by touch.

3. Distribute Training: Training is critical to customer adoption and customer retention. Training is expensive and can eat up valuable sales and operation time. Distribute training to customers, new and existing, with an AR. The messages can range from the “Welcome on-board” basics and can evolve to advanced learning. Why not create advanced usage streaming videos and content and load up a 7 or a 10 message AR and put this Advanced Training offer to your customers for a fee?

4. Distribute Support: Set-up  an auto-responder with Frequently Asked Questions. Determine what customer queries are asked and put a series of answers into your auto-responder. Put your AR to work for you by distributing your FAQ to your customers and your trial users.

The auto-responder sequences are fluid: work always to improve your messages and your offers. Your auto-responders can differentiate your business by optimizing customer communication and getting the most from your lead generation and marketing systems.

 

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Why It Seems So Hard to Get Hired for Your Services!

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To answer this question let’s first take a look at the difference between promoting products VS services.

Products often have cool features that show results quickly. Talk about the benefits of a feature and how it’ll make your customer’s life easier and you’ll probably get a sale.

Services on the other hand, are intangible. There are no buttons to push or “before and after” pictures to see. Services often get categorized as “luxury items” we can usually survive without.  They are more challenging to sell because the “results” of a service can be difficult to quantify measure or prove.

Many “hard sell” sales trainers shy away from working with service providers. It is easier to train someone to sell products with features you can see and results you can prove.

After four years in the corporate world selling products (Electronic telephone systems), I transferred into yellow pages advertising.  Many of the “sales” techniques we used to sell telephones wouldn’t work at all in advertising!  I quickly found out that I needed new sales techniques to promote the intangible results of advertising.

Authors, Coaches, Consultants, etc. produce results that improve the human side of life and business and “Alternative Healers” deal with subtle energies that may take longer to produce quantifiable results.  To the average consumer, these are luxuries that, although desirable and beneficial, can be “done without” if money is tight.

Most of my clients haven’t got a clue how to tell people about the benefits and results of their good services. They feel frustrated and wonder why clients are so hard to get. Many are good at explaining how they work and what tools they use. The problem is that most consumers couldn’t care less about how you work. We care more about the benefits we’ll experience after hiring you. We want to be clear on what results you can deliver in exchange for our hard-earned money.

“What’s in it for me?” your customers are asking. It is time to stop feature-dumping!  Features only imply that a “process” is beneficial, or a “technique” is going to help…. As service providers we must be able to describe clear results to potential clients.

Success Story:

One client arrived in despair.  She had a great service as a professional organizer and sadly, few customers to show for it.

I asked her to give me the top 10 benefits of her good service…alas she (like many others responding to this request) provided a list of top 10 features instead.

She listed “features” that describe how she gets to a result. Features like:
– Customized quotes
– Office flow organization tweaking
– Created new filing systems
– Ergonomic layouts for offices, etc.

Sound pretty good, don’t’ they?  Sure, and her customers seemed interested and keen, BUT they were not following through and hiring her.

I helped her articulate a more effective sales list of the benefits and results of her good work. Results like:
– Added value of charging only her client’s specific needs
– Improved and streamlined office procedures
– To save time and decrease frustrations
– Ability to provide better customer service
– Increased efficiency with improved filing structure
– Less time wasted due to poor office layout
– Resulting in increased productivity all around.

We created a list of 6 good questions she can ask to uncover if a client needs organizational help.  Why waste time telling clients all about our services if they don’t need them?

Now, my client will always ask questions to find out first if someone seriously needs her service. If they do, she tells them with confidence about the results she can provide and is more secure asking for their business.  By following these guidelines you too can get hired faster with more confidence practically every time!

“Anna Kanary’s Sales class was exactly what I needed! As someone with very little sales background and who struggles to close the deal with potential clients, this class gave me the format, confidence, clarity and momentum I needed to get out there and get more clients!  Anna’s expertise combined with her warmth makes this class not only exceptional but necessary…you will get more than you ever expected!”

Sarah O. Bloomquist, Personal Life Coach, Innermost Coaching, http://www.innermostcoaching.com

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Purchase Order Finance – Your Tool For Unlimited Sales

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Do you sell to the government or to large companies? Do you regularly get purchase orders that stretch your company’s ability to deliver? Lastly, if you had financing to cover all your supplier costs, could you sell more? Much more?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then purchase order financing could help your business grow.

Purchase order financing is a way of financing sales that has been gaining popularity with US and Canadian businesses. It offers a very simple proposition. If you have an order from a large credit worthy business (or government agency), then the financing company will provide you with the necessary funding to fulfill your supplier payments and make the sale. Call it sales based financing. It works well for resellers, distributors and wholesalers, although it can also be used in other industries.

Here is how purchase order financing works. Let’s say that you own a company that has been getting progressively larger orders, tightening your cash flow. After setting up a purchase order financing agreement, this is how your sales financing would work:

1. You get an order from a client
2. The purchase order finance company handles up to 100% of your supplier payments (by direct payment or letter of credit)
3. The order is fulfilled and the goods are delivered
4. The transaction is settled, once the client pays their invoices

As you can see, purchase order financing allows you to leverage the resources of the financing company and allows you to increase your sales. With PO financing, lack of cash flow will never be a reason to lose a sale.

As opposed to a business loan from a bank, purchase order financing is very easy to obtain and can be set up in days. The main requirement is to have valid orders from good commercial or government clients. Most banks won’t offer this type of financing, but you can get it from a factoring company. As a matter of fact, purchase order financing and invoice factoring are frequently combined to help reduce the costs of the transaction.

So, if your purchase orders are piling up, be sure to consider financing with purchase order funding.

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