Whenever economic slowdowns occur, the selling field will typically be impacted. This could mean that locating new prospects is somewhat more difficult and an organization’s sales goals could start to slip. In these scenarios getting the attention of potential clients will become more crucial than ever before. With this in mind, many sales companies are discovering new techniques that potentially provide more positive results. Your sales presentations are going to remain a key in determining your success.

Offering Increased Value to the Prospect

Taking care of your clients with no cost services or products, particularly in an economic slowdown, is a highly effective technique. An existing client or prospective buyer might need extra incentives when making final decisions. Many organizations increase sales through price-cutting as well as providing clients with more services and products than usual. For prospects that are undecided, it might be the difference between a sale and a non-sale. This is an effective way of adding more punch to a sales presentation.

Emphasizing Customer Service in Your Presentation

With the increased competition nowadays, servicing clients will play a big role. Sending out thank you cards to clients or prospects can be a great way for maintaining contact on a deeper level. Be certain you take time to contact prior customers each month and assess any needs they have. Always promptly reply should potential problems or issues arise. Many times top professionals can lose sight that a past customer will be just as important as newer ones. Also, increased customer service could lead to the client providing referrals.

Networking as a Resource

Because of the fact that many sales professionals don’t always have consistent lead generation techniques, networking can be a good resource. For a sales organization or individual, having new leads is vital for company growth. Despite how the current economy performs, you’ll always have new prospects available each day; some of these may even be accessible without the salespersons knowledge. This is why it’s vital to put aside time each day to contact existing customers and ask for referrals.

Stay Connected to Your Existing Clients

Even though an existing client is often very busy and doesn’t return calls immediately, it is necessary to try to maintain contact whenever possible. The more the sales professional corresponds or even meets with clients, the better the overall relationships will be. Additional attention given to prospective and existing customers illustrates a company’s value and added attention to details. Clients with continual contact ultimately will be highly lucrative as sources for even more sales via referrals.

Doug Dvorak is the CEO of DMG Inc., a worldwide organization that assists clients with productivity training, corporate humor and workshops, as well as other aspects of sales and marketing management. Mr. Dvorak’s clients are characterized as Fortune 1000 companies, small to medium businesses, civic organizations and service businesses. Mr. Dvorak has earned an international reputation for his powerful educational methods and motivational techniques, as well as his experience in all levels of business, corporate education and success training.

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Looking to go into Business? Why not check out our Certificate IV in small BUsiness Management Courses to help you ensure you are ready to start your business today.

Getting your new product into major retail stores can seem like an impossible task but it’s not.

The first thing you need to do is get in contact with a retail buyer.

When you are first starting out, the best and most cost effective way of contacting a retail buyer is by getting on the phone and calling them directly.

Cold calling can be intimidating but it’s one of the best ways of speaking with an actual buyer without spending thousands of dollars attending tradeshows.

Cold Calling Tips – How To Get A Buyer On The Phone

Before you call a retail buyer, you need to get their contact information and you also need to do research on their store.

There are plenty of online databases that have up to date information on all the retail buyers of major chains. These databases also have valuable insight such as the amount of stores, what type of products that carry and also multiple ways of getting in contact with the buyer such as phone number or email address.

Once you get the name and number of the buyer you want to contact, now you need to develop a script of what you want to say to get them interested in hearing more about your product.

Developing a Cold Calling Script

Knowing that retail buyers get hundreds of prospective vendors calling them every week, you have to say something to differentiate yourself and help you stand out from everyone else.

When I was sales director for a new sporting goods product, I had to call thousands of retail buyers. I developed a script that allowed me to sell over 1million units in the first year.

I got into major retail accounts that most people said was impossible for a new product with zero retail sales.

So what can you say to get a retail buyer interested in your new product?

You have to quickly build rapport by telling a brief but compelling story how you came up with your product.

Then you need to add all the benefits of how your product is going to make the retailer a lot of money.

You don’t want to fill your pitch with hype, but you do want to speak confidently about your product and how you are going to market it in such a way that everyone will be talking about it.

There are so many critical elements that you need in creating the perfect message to get a buyer interested in learning more about your product.

I have a lot more tips on my website… http://www.boostmyproduct.com

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Another great article brought to you from the team at eBusinessCoaching.com.au, give them a call for all your Small Business Coaching needs.

Sales managers are looking for a positive attitude that comes from successfully prospecting, warming up and closing new clients. Sales people gain confidence and a ”can-do” attitude after profitably closing new sales. You want that confidence and attitude to show when you get in front of a sales manager. As a sales person, you must sell products and services. You might have sold wireless services back in December and now in June you are selling vacation packages. You might have sold insurance in February and now in October, you are selling house cleaning services. Relate each selling job as a positive experience with something learned.

You have to be coachable. You have to accept the new product and service to the point where it shows to the client that you trust the product and service to do what it says it will do. For example, John has sold 135 house cleaning packages and now has a good handle on the words to use, the style and technique to use and the boss trusts him to close 95% of his appointments. You get to do a ride-along with him all day and learn his style and technique. If you do not listen, learn, watch, take notes and ask him questions, chances are that John will report back to the boss that you are not coachable.

You must know how to prospect for new clients. The hunt is always on for those people and businesses who are likely buyers of the products and services you are selling. Make your outgoing telephone calls to a targeted industry list. Do you sell widgets? Call up the list of companies that use widgets and get an appointment for a demo. Are you selling solar?

Go get a list of homeowners from the county you live in and call them up for sales. Be sure to create a little doorhanger to leave for those who are not home when you do the canvassing. If you sell electrical or plumbing equipment, get out there to the Las Vegas and Los Angeles trade shows and pass out your cards to all the exhibitors. Offer your neighborhood Joe The Plumber a 10% discount on his first purchase from you.

Send out invitations to all of the local dog grooming businesses and pet walkers for a demonstration in the community room at a local brewery.

You must know how to close a sale. Have you warmed up the client so they trust you? Have you done the product demo or shown the customer the value in all the benefits and options? Now ask for the sale. Take out your order form and begin filling it out. Ask for the correct spelling of their last name. Say “I will need a check for the first month’s premium.” Tell the client, “You told me that having the peace of mind for your children’s safety would be heightened with this new alarm system. Let’s make that a reality right now so you can sleep better tonight.” Get out the worksheet and fill in the blanks, tweak it to match their budget and double underline the amount they need to pay you today. Ask for the check. Close the sale.

You must show that sales manager that you have a strong work ethic. Always get the sales manager attention about a prospective sales encounter from a Saturday. Let that sales manager know that selling is never very far out of your mind. You want to show that you are mentally sizing up prospects and preparing for the next sale. Be in the office half an hour before starting time and leave half an hour after quitting time. Ask who is available for a couple or role playing sessions so you can smooth out the wrinkles before you hit the street. Show that you can physically do the job.

Sales managers like to see that their sales people are thinking outside the box. Set up lunch for two at a white tablecloth restaurant and send an invitation over to that elusive client that you cannot catch in the office. You can afford a $65 lunch if it means you will capture a $2,000 commission. Let’s say that the manager of a home owners association has been highly stand offish and completely rejecting your sales efforts. Buy a plain white greeting card and write on the outside “Columbus Took A Chance” and on the inside write “Take A Chance On Me!” Now put in 2 lottery scratchers and mail it over to that guy at heavy equipment rental office that will not give you the time of day.

Tell that prospective new sales manager that you need 8 hours of product training, a full day of ride-along with the top guy and a map to the limits and boundaries of the sales territory. Put those years of sweat, elbow grease and know how to work. Show that sales manager that you are not an inexperienced rookie and that you can ramp up and hit the ground running faster than the field.

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This article was brought to you by eBusinessCoaching.com.au you Small Business Coaching Experts

The business world can be extremely perplexing to work for. You really have to know what you’re doing in order to succeed and it is important to understand all of the ins and outs or advantages and disadvantages in any program. Many marketers are good at what they do, but they still make mistakes. Some of the best marketers or salespeople will really connect with a client, but then suddenly fall behind during the sales process and possibly lose the client.

To avoid delays and complications during the sales process, the appropriate questions need to be asked and it is as simple as that. It will either work out or it won’t, but to know for sure, the following questions should be asked if you want to close any deal faster. Asking these questions will also avoid you from getting ambushed in the long run.

·How do you feel about this idea, are you interested?

·How do you go about buying things like this?

·How do you implement?

·How is your timing/sign offs?

·When is a good time to discuss budget?

·Do you think this deal will work out?

·Does anything needed to be added?

·Are you interested in pitching it?

·Do you need assistance in putting numbers together?

·Do you want to add any other numbers?

·Who will be involved in this decision making process?

·Do you think they will be interested?

·What are their interests?

·Will there be any delays? If so, what are they and how can we overcome them?

·Do you need to know any other information from me?

·How much detail are you/them interested in?

·Will we be ambushed or surprised by anything?

·How do you feel about this deal?

Other helpful tips:

·Follow up with a phone call or e-mail to ask your client if they were satisfied with their purchase.

·Stay motivated and dedicated throughout the entire process.

·Ask as much questions as possible

·Be prepared for anything, you never know what you client will do or say.

·Offer engagement, to let your client know you are interested in what they are saying.

·Smile, to offer assurance and friendliness.

·Capture the client’s trust, so that they feel as if they are making the right decision.

·Have confidence, so the customer feels comfortable that they are doing business with the right people.

·Research everything before meeting with a client so that you are prepared for anything they might ask.

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This article was brought to you by eBusinessCoaching.com.au for all your business coaching Needs.

1. Your headline is everything.

Whether it’s for your sales letter, landing page, e-mail, blog post, and anything else in between… your headline is the most important aspect of copy. Seriously, it will make or break your sale. The best way to lock in your reader’s attention is to give him or her an emotional benefit in the headline. For example…

Using “How To Improve Your Life” as a headline is rather on the bland and generic side. Your readers may think, Improve what about my life? My job? My health? My relationship?

It pays to be as specific and to-the-punch as possible in your headline.

Now how does this sound?

“How To Eliminate Stress and Anxiety In Your Daily Life In Just 14 Days”

Much better, right? You have already recognized your target market’s problem by selling your product, which is a great start. It’s not enough to just think the product alone will sell by itself. You have to dig into the solution to their problem by capturing their attention within the first few seconds. If the solution is clear in the headline, you’ve scored a huge leverage to make your sale.

2. Make sure the body of your copy is focused on results.

It is said that people don’t buy products, they buy results. For instance…

People don’t buy ab workout programs just because. They’re spending money because they want muscular abs in 3 months.

People don’t buy vitamin supplements just because. They’re buying them because they want to live a longer, healthier life.

So the body of your copy shouldn’t be a long-winded rundown of the product. Yeah, the buyer needs to know all about the qualities of what they’re purchasing and that should certainly be mentioned throughout the copy, but it shouldn’t be the focus.

The end results should be.

That’s why it’s so important to try to get inside the mind of your target market. Learn about what exactly bothers them and what they need to feel better. An empathetic perspective into their plight, along with the use of persuasive writing, will bring out the best copy.

3. Your guarantee should be irresistible.

After the buildup of leading your reader to the point of sale, your sales copy has to be closed out with a guarantee strong enough to make him or her not have any doubts about buying your product.

And you must have a guarantee.

The potential buyer might say, “Wait… what makes this product different than the rest? What if this is just a waste of money?”

If your product isn’t converting, then this is part of the problem. Go through your copy again and ask yourself if it was convincing enough, if it was emotional enough, if it told a story, if it laid down a clear path to success.

If your copy doesn’t build immediate trust with the engaged reader, you’ve lost the sale in the end. Use your USP to your advantage, as well as to the reader’s benefit, in order to build trust and excitement.

If your audience can say your product is one of the best they’ve ever come across, it will translate into sales.

This article was brought to your courtesy of eBusinessCoaching.com.au for all your small business help

So what to do?

I was really concerned for both owners cause their businesses were really in a lot of trouble and their cashflow was being hit badly, so my plan had to be revolutionary and I needed to have 100% confidence that what we do would work.

The Plan – Give Something Away For Free to Get People In The Door

For both businesses we hatched a plan to get people in the door and most importantly get a boost for their cashflow.  In both cases we developed a plan where they would give away a free item, in the case of the Bakery it was to be a Free Donut and in the Coffee shop a Free Anzac Biscuit.

We placed adverts in both the local papers and free buy and sell mags in the area they operated. There were no catches for the Free giveaway eg. the advert didn’t say buy a coffee and get a free Anzac Biscuit it was just a free give away.

Why did we do this?  We simply wanted to get people into the stores and then have the staff upsell to the clients. For example in the case of the bakery,  we trained the staff to ask them if they would like to buy a loaf of bread and in the case of the coffee shop the customers were asked did they want to buy a coffee to go with their Anzac Biscuit.

When the owners first heard of this plan they thought I was totally nuts. They fought me on it tooth and nail, so I made an offer to them. If more than ten people actually came in and didn’t buy something else then I would cover the cost of the items sold.   With that offer the owners were absolutely estatic with that could they wouldn’t be out of pocket.

We ran the advert on the Saturday and the coupon in the paper, prospect could cut out of the papers would run for 5 days and then expire.

The potential costs to our clients was in fact minimal…. the cost of each of the items to give away was about 5 cents and we made about 200 of the anzac biscuits for the coffee shop and 200 donuts for the bakery. We ensured that on the coupons we had the start times and address of both locations.

We opened both stores early to see how they would go……

THE RESULTS …….

Well they were truly remarkable, before either store was open we had people waiting to get their free items.  Here is the good news though, at both sites neither had more than 10 people actually just come for their free items.  Everybody purchased at least one additional item as well with their free items.

Both sites gave away their 200 items and had to bake more before the end of the day.  The sales results were that both stores had increased their sales between 50 to 80% for the first day of the campaign.

The long term objective of this campaign was to get people in these stores and to get them coming back.  The campaign worked in that it did get people short term into the store and we found that over a period of about 6 weeks they had a consistent growth of 30% of the daily turn-over.  This helped ensure in both cases that their cashflow was inline with their expenditure and they started to make money.

Whilst this campaign worked for these two clients, we can never guarantee it would work for everyone but at the least you should try it out to see if it will work in your business.

So where do we begin?????

One of the coolest places to begin is simply on the web.  Get started with Google or Bing and type in a search……for example….

     Australian TV Adverts
     UK TV Adverts
     USA TV Adverts

What will happen is that it will send you to sites with a library of adverts that you can browse through or in some cases even buy dvd’s of old adverts which can help you see what creative people have developed in the past.

One of the sites that I really like is called Visit4ads.com which allows you to search for adverts by specific brands.  For example if you search on the brand Virgin, you will get to see all the adverts for various Virgin subbrands such as Virgin music, Virgin Holidays etc

Being able to search and look at these ads you can see what works, what you can apply to your business and more. 

What are the key things to look at?

   1. What is the brands USP?
   2. Who are they targeting?
   3. What is the message for the Client?
   4. What are the price points?
   5. Was there an upsell?

Theses are just a few things you can look at and gather ideas on how to develop your ads for your business.

Another way to see sample ads is to search on sites such as Youtube and Vimeo.  Most large companies are using these sites to host their ads and their marketing material. The sites are an awesome place to steal ideas.

How else could you literally steal ideas?

Well another very simple way is to search for your competitors and see what turns up.  For example if you were search for banner ads that your competitors may be using, goto Google and then choose images and do a search on your competitors name and see what turns up.

Google is such an awesome, FREE, research tool for looking for information to help you to grow your business and develop your adverts.  Take the time to search by various keywords. For example if you were a dog trainer looking for adverts for their business, I would search in Google images for terms like dog training adverts, learn to train my dog advert etc.

I would also recommend that when you search in Google goto the various different countries Google sites and see what other people in other countries are actually doing in your field.  See what their Unique Selling Points and see if you can harness what they are doing.

Some of the various Google sites you could try end with suffix’s like .co.uk for Google UK, .ca for Google Canada, .co.nz for Google New Zealand and so forth.  Bing also has other sites by country as well.  The reason I recommend to go to these countries is that you will get very different results compared to if you just simply go “New Zealand Newspaper Ads”.

You will be amazed at the variety of adverts that you will see and ideas that you maybe able to use to grow your own sales and marketing program.

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Chris Le Roy is the author and owner of eBusinessCoaching.com.au where you will find over 100 different companies types of marketing and advertising material that you can use to grow your own marketing campaign.  Chris also offers small business training courses through his company One-on-One Professional Business Training

Whilst I totally disagreed, I needed to find evidence that there is still real power and money to be made in email!

I was having a look on the web and came across this website and webpage where they talk about this issue – http://www.businessknowhow.com/blog/2012/12/how_long_do_peo.php

Janet Attard brings up the point that one of her clients had kept an email from 2007 for some posters that they were selling and contacted her in 2012 to actually buy them.  This one example does demonstrate how important emailing clients are.  Sometimes it may take an extended period before a client is prepared to buy.  I will say that this is an extreme case but I know personally I have kept many emails in my inbox cause I will know that I need the details in the future.

From a sales point of view, you should always assume that a client will keep the email and as such ensure that the email is engaging.  I guess in the end, one of the most important lessons to learn in sales is that “NO”, just simply means not now.

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Over the last few years in boom times, many companies have been sloppy in their handling of sales and in many cases people have done very little work to achieve their sales.  Now as the economy slows we really need to ensure that we take note of these 5 key sales tips:

Key Tip 1.  Make sure you get referrals from your clients
Key Tip 2.  Make sure you ask your clients for Testimonials on your products or services
Key Tip 3.  Make sure you use your Testimonials on all marketing material
Key Tip 4.  Make sure your staff are practicing their sales skills
Key Tip 5.  Monitor the performance of your sales staff

Many people around the world are stating how bad the economy is but sometimes half the problem with these companies is that they are not investing in training their staff to be more effective sales people.  It is crucial that you work with your staff so that you are not losing potential sales.

For the first time in a long time it is also going to be crucial that you prove to clients that you are the best company for the job. The days are over where you can be slack in your approach to sales.

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If you would like some assistance in developing a sales training program for your staff then I encourage you to contact Chris Le Roy and he will be able to work with you to implement a sales training and coaching program to enhance your teams sales.

One-on-One Professional Business Training also has sales courses available to help your staff develop. Click on the link to find out more information.

When you start out in the sales training process the first most important game or activity to play with your staff is to have them introduce themselves to each other.  The introduction process makes or breaks most sales processes. In fact research has shown that most sales will be achieved or lost in the first ten seconds of meeting with the client.

The first step in this game is to have each of your sales staff pair up with another member of the sales team.

Have each member of your team deliver their introduction that they would give when they meet a new client.  Once each person has done that, have the listening person give the introduction they have just heard.

Why would I want to have a sales person do that?

The key skill in sales is NOT talking, it is in fact listening.  This activity is as much about developing your listening skills as your speaking skills.

I am sure you have heard the old adage, god gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason, yet many sales people still believe that they have to be able to out talk the client.  This is a dangerous belief and that is why we need to educate our sales staff through this exercise on how important listening is.

The second sales game is to have your sales staff present a presentation on one of their products they sell.  Your team should listen to the presentation and look at whether the salesman has addressed the three key areas:

1. What are the Advantages of Your Products
2. What are the Benefits of your Products
3. What are the Features of your products

At the end of all the presentations, you then need to randomly select another staff member to give the presentation on the target product.

Why?

Once again to train the salesman to be listening to everything that goes on and not just focus on their own presentation or agenda.  Unless you are in an industry in which you are the only supplier, your staff will have to address from the customer why your product is better than your competitors. If you are focused on just your products then you are losing a great opportunity to know how to state why your products are better or maybe they aren’t.

Every week during your sales meeting you need to be investing in using sales games as part of you coaching plan and in doing this it will help your staff develop their sales skills and to be more effective in the sales process.

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If you would like some assistance in developing a sales training program then contact Chris Le Roy and he will be happy to come out and help you to develop a Free Sales Training and Coaching program for your staff. To make a free obligation meeting call 1800 66 00 00 or check out his sales courses available.

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