Reference for Sales People Student Lecturer Practitioner Marketing And Sales

Test Your B2B Direct Mail Offers To Boost Response Rates

2008-12-27T09:51:00.000-08:00

by: Alan Sharpe

The secret to success in business-to-business direct mail lead generation is testing. I have hunches. You have hunches. But testing settles the debate. When you test your package against my package and we measure the results, we know for certain which package performed better.

Assuming your list is good (in other words, assuming you are mailing to people who are likely to buy), the first thing you should test is your offer. Your offer, after all, is the second most important ingredient of direct mail success. And as Axel Andersson says, “If you want to dramatically increase your results, dramatically improve your offer.”

How do you “dramatically improve your offer?” By creating an offer that is different from the one you are using now, and testing both at the same time. Basically, you mail two packages, one with Offer A and one with Offer B. You test nothing else. Then you measure which offer outpulls the other. Here is how you do it.

Test a hard offer against a soft offer

A hard offer asks for an appointment. A soft offer invites prospects to request more information (such as a white paper).

Test a product literature offer against an educational offer

Product literature includes brochures, catalogs, sales sheets and technical specification sheets. Educational offers include white papers, special reports, books and article reprints.

Test one educational format against another

Some prospects prefer their information on paper. Others prefer going online to a special page on your website. Still others prefer watching a video, or listening to a CD.

Test offer descriptions

Should you say “Buy two for the price of one” or “Buy one and get one free?’ Test and you’ll know.

Test a deadline against no deadline

Giving your potential customer a deadline for responding might boost response. And it might not.

Test one premium against another

Offer an Apple iPod in one mailer and a Blackberry in another. Offer a gift certificate to Amazon.com in one letter and a CD player in another. See what happens.

In all your tests, remember to test one thing at a time and to make your tests big. Keep all the other variables (timing, design, list and so on) the same while you test just the offer. When I say “make your tests big” I mean that you should test two very different offers. If the offers you test are too much alike, you will not be able to trust your test results. And that’s not just a hunch.

About The Author

Alan Sharpe is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter and lead generation specialist who helps business owners and marketing managers generate leads, close sales and retain customers using business-to-business direct mail marketing. Learn more about his creative direct mail writing services and sign up for free weekly tips like this at www.sharpecopy.com.

Does it Pay to take Survey's OnLine?

2008-12-26T09:49:00.000-08:00

by: Gary Whittaker

Everyone wants to make money with little effort. There are infomercials, books, magazines, and websites promoting how you can make a year's worth of salary in just one week. All you have to do is spend a week's salary to purchase the material that will change your life!

Get rich quick schemes have been around since Cain slew Abel and will be around until the 2ND coming, there's no getting around it. There is also a saying about there being no substitute for good, honest, hard labor.

We decided to take a chance on the internet's latest version of making big money with little work; taking surveys. We noticed the opportunity on Google Ads and clicked to check out www.paidsurveysonline.com. Sites like the aforementioned paidsurveys charge a price for membership to their exclusive money making club. Sites such as these promise to reward you taking just a few hours a day of your time with hundreds of dollars in compensation, or trips, or other prizes. Very leery of giving out my credit card to any Tom Dick or Harry, we decided to look for scams associated with that site. To no ones surprise, a huge list of sites or entrees were found. In reading some of the commentary, some paid survey victims mentioned that you can found the same service for free, at sites like www.surveyclub.com. So, I spent the next few hours signing up not just to surveyclub.com, but about 10 other free survey sites that are linked with it.

2 days have gone by and I finally got my first free survey pay off. For a 2 week participation on a panel about coffee, I would be rewarded with 20 cups of coffee, and a free coffee grinder. I need only supply my credit card in order to pay for the shipping and handling charges. Too bad for me, I only drink tea.

I will be providing weekly updates on my progress, so make sure to check back.

About The Author

Gary Whittaker

www.TENWEBZINE.com goes under cover. Check out the blog for weekly updates to see if it is worthwhile to spend your time in online money making schemes.

editor@tenwebzine.com

14 Serious Mistakes Of Your Tourism Brochure Marketing Strategy

2008-12-25T09:46:00.000-08:00

by: David Kan

This useful article is published for global tourism marketers who want to enhance the travel brochure and Ebrochure marketing. Revise these mistakes for better brochure and electronic brochure marketing result and efficiently entice global visitors.

This is a long article with many parts of interesting skills and knowledge and up to now is the best article about brochure marketing in the world; In fact, it's the first chapter of Advanced Tourism Brochure Marketing Package published by T-IM.com (http://www.tourism-internetmarketing.com/ebook/TOURISM_BROCHURE_MARKETING_EBOOK.htm); therefore, its content is also great for any businesses which have a marketing brochure.

This article is so comprehensive and has 2 parts:

Part 1: The first 7 serious brochure marketing mistakes

Part 2: The second 7 mistakes more to be revealed.

Due to the length of the whole article make difficult to read and remember for reader , I just supply the part 1. At the end of this article, there will have a link to the part 2 and Friendly print version of the whole article.

Keep reading.

Part 1: The first 7 serious brochure marketing mistakes

A well- planed and carefully-designed tourism brochure will indeed increase the services business; especially it is the business of tourism. But many tourism marketers don’t make effective use of their brochure and leave out important elements. That is a cost, a real damage for your business.

If you have a marketing tool to use, you must ultimately exploit its profit; if you can not take advantage of the promotional tool, the money and time of publishing the tool is one of the biggest costs. The second cost is the lost prospects caught by your competitors who use this same tool at its most power. And the third created by the weakness of your integrated marketing plan – you do not know how to use one among many of your marketing tools effectively, how can you use the rest to get the most benefit of your marketing mix.

Mistake 1: Brochure is created as a sole fighter in the battle field of marketing. It is use lonely, separately with no support from other tool of marketing. There is no marketing plan as a base for your brochure. We create the brochure because the other has it, even a lot of it. And second reason is if we do a travel and hospitality business without having a brochure, it seems not to be a tourism business.

- In fact: Any advertising, including brochure, should be a part of the total marketing plan for a business. If your marketing strategy determines that tourism brochure are an effective method for reaching your target audience, then carefully design the best brochure possible.

Mistake 2: The most expensive misconception is that brochure sell- that a prospect will read the entire of the brochure with glowing adjectives, and sign a contract as a result of it.

- In fact: A brochure, in this context, is a pamphlet or booklet that describes an organization and its function, or a hotel with its services… it maybe used to explain all or a segment of an organization or a services supplier.

For example: we can design a brochure about our travel company, includes company’s mission, portfolio and all kinds of services …we supply.

We can also design a brochure about one of its favorite services, such as a special tour-to promote it only!

A good tourism marketing brochure should finish its duty as a good overview of an origination, a destination, a hotel or travel company, inspires the reader to the next step if he (she) is interested in the supplier’s services.

If a brochure catch the eyes of a random visitor or traveler who has no exact determination of buying or using, get him reading and put a good impression on the services supplier’s image, often is the feeling about a professional, it can be perceived as a good marketing brochure, although the reader do not take the next step then- just because he has no demand at that time.

That is the situation when a brochure does its responsibility of branding in the mind of a future client. It is a good job for a normal brochure.

Mistake 3: Another familiar trap in the mind of a brochure publisher is the concept that people read brochure thoroughly and carefully.

-In fact: A brochure, no matter how attractive or thorough, is usually simply glanced at. It maybe read in conjunction with other materials, to get an overall impression of a company. But it rarely devoured like a novel.

Mistake 4: The brochure doesn’t contain all the elements of a competent marketing message.

-In fact: Bit and pieces of information aren’t enough. Your brochure should take your prospects through your message from the beginning to the end. It should provide all the facts and persuasion necessary to get your prospects to take whatever action you want him to take.

Mistake 5: The brochure doesn’t contain a detailed list of services you offer.

-In fact: A prospect often looks at your services list to sees if you provide what they need. It they don’t see what they want, they may assume you don’t provide that services and call another one. Make sure you list all the services your visitor looks for.

Mistake 6: The brochure doesn’t explain how you differ from other competitors. There is no advantage of unique selling position for you. You look like the rest, and the rest is same you.

-In fact: If your prospects don’t know your competitive advantages, they often don’t have a clear reason to use or buy your services than another supplier’s.

(Here I tell you more about your competitive advantage:

A competitive advantage, in nature, is your unique selling position which is the foundation of your marketing strategy. All the marketing tools are used interactively in a period along a strategic plan of marketing your services. This marketing plan originates from many factors, such as the holidays season, the target visitors, the marketing budget, the stander of our services, the market trend, the competitors’ marketing strategy…but the most important is your target group.

Therefore, if you can figure out exactly what your target group of a marketing plan is, focus tourism attract them by a target brochure, you will know how to create the competitive advantages for your brochure marketing campaign.)

.........................................

All articles of David Kan published in this website can be reprinted or posted on other website as well as the author 's biography keep intact.

Read the part 2:

Part 2: The second 7 mistakes more to be revealed.

http://www.tourism-internetmarketing.com/brochure_marketing/tourism_brochure_marketing_index.htm

About The Author

David Kan is the CEO of T-IM.com

T-IM.com is the largest global Free tourism internet marketing resources with 57 & more online tools and forum to help tourism business enhance their internet marketing result.

Website URL: http://www.tourism-internetmarketing.com

Quickly join in the Tourism Internet Marketing Forum to enhance your internet sale as well as help other partners.

http://s12.invisionfree.com/TOURISM_MARKETING/index.ph

Do You Want to be Correct or Do You Want to be Rich

2008-12-24T09:45:00.000-08:00

by: Stuart Lockley

I was speaking to a business owner recently who was having difficulty growing his business. Turnover had been static for a few years while costs had been creeping up as they do. Interestingly he claimed to have tried every marketing idea going and none of them worked. He had arrived at the idea marketing was a waste of time because nothing worked, nothing allowed him to increase his turnover to the next level.

In one sense I sympathised with him because we have all been in a similar position in our lives. I know I have felt frustrated in the past when nothing seems to work in different areas of my life. With marketing we can sometimes find ourselves in the position where nothing seems to work.

How many people have tried direct mail. They spend large amounts of money preparing a letter, buying a mailing list and sending out the letters. The result they receive is a pitiful response. This is a painful situation, as I know from my own experience experience. Being disheartened they conclude that direct mail does not work. Point out to them that direct mail works for other businesses and they will inform you that it does not work in their industry. They know because they have tried it.

Then they try advertising. They hire a firm to create some expensive advertising. The advertising is run in various media and once again they receive zero enquiries. The advertising agency claims you are building brand awareness but you conclude advertising does not work for you.

Of course if you point out that advertising seems to work for other companies they will assure you that advertising does not work in their industry. They know because they have tried it. So it goes on with trying various methods of marketing and concluding that none of them work.

Of course other companies are growing. Your turnover may be static or only increasing slowly, but other companies have turnover growing at 10%, 20% or even faster so various marketing ideas must be working for them. If you have tried various marketing ideas and they did not work it is time to give up the idea that these ideas do not work in your industry. If you have tried everything and nothing works the more likely explanation is that your execution is faulty.

If you want to grow your business and none of the things you have tried have worked, or you wish to grow faster but do not know how then seek outside help. Ask yourself a simple question. "What is more important to you - being able to say you have tried everything and nothing works in your industry or having a growing business.

About The Author

Stuart Lockley is a UK based Business Growth Specialist. To obtain further great ideas and information to help you grow your business visit http://www.stuartlockley.com and download the “Six Keys to Double the Value of your Business” Free

stuart@stuartlockley.com

Turn Your Business Card Into Something of Value

2008-12-23T09:43:00.000-08:00

by: Tom Domin

Have you ever wondered what people actually do with your business card? Wouldn't it be great if you could follow your cards and see where they ended up?

Suffice it to say, it may not be where you intended and, the long and the short of it is, your card may not be working for you. As you know, your business card is an integral part of a good marketing plan. For its size and cost, it's probably the most powerful part of all.

The last thing you want is your card tossed into a drawer full of old, coffee stained, tattered and smudged, stack of forgotten cards with long forgotten contacts. Worse yet, you card could even get dropped into the nearest circular file...and, in an instant, it's gone forever!

So it's especially important that your card be one that is memorable and makes a favorable impression. We have all seen magnetic business cards, laminated cards, letter openers that incorporate a business card, sports schedule/business card combinations, and the old standby, the infamous calendar/business card combination.

As a Mortgage Professional you should always be looking for an "outside-of-the-box" original, fanciful or extravagant presentation which can draw extra attention to you and your message. Remember...creativity knows no bounds - except for the amount of money you wish to spend.

Business Card Note Pad from EMBA, Inc. may just fit that definition. It's new, outside-of-the-box, innovative, simple, refreshing, and affordably priced. Using your existing business card, they spiral bind your business card to the front of a forty (40) sheet note pad with a calendar-at-a-glance on the back side of the pad. The note pad fits conveniently in a purse, pocket, sun visor, or briefcase.

Every time people write a note, they'll see your name and mortgage message. It's like turning your business card into a pocket sized personal billboard. Place a pre-printed label near the back which reads: "Call Joe Smith ABC Mortgage, Inc. (123)456-7890 for a free refill," adding even more value and life to your note pad.

If your note card is going to a Real Estate Professional, add a pre-printed label in the back containing Amortization Factors...they'll love you for it. Adding a simple label with valuable information will make your note pad in demand and indispensable.

You can review he details of this offer and how simple it really is to order by going to the following web site: http://www.businesscardnotepad.com. Check out their guarantee...it's first class.

About The Author
Tom Domin is the author of "Tom's Mortgage Tips" a twice monthly Mortgage Newsletter that is geared for Mortgage Professionals. You can sign-up by visiting http://www.mortgagemarketingtoolkit.com/.

Consumer Styles: Research Review

2008-12-22T20:54:00.000-08:00

by: Darrin F. Coe

According to research done by Elizabeth Sproles and George Sproles (1990) in the Journal of Consumer Affairs, there is a significant link between peoples learning styles and their “consumer styles”.

1. The perfectionist consumer style, which describes a consumer that searches carefully and systematically for the best quality in products tend to learn through serious, analysis and through both active and observation oriented learning. These types of consumers are highly goal oriented.

2. The brand conscious, price equals quality consumer tends to be oriented toward buying the more expensive, well known brands tend to find choosing known brands an expedient strategy that replaces thinking and learning in their consumer choices.

3. The novelty and fashion conscious consumer seems to line new and innovative products and gains excitement from seeking out new things. This consumer tends to not be concerned with the implications or consequences of purchasing new or innovative products and services.

4. The recreational shopping consumer finds shopping a pleasant activity and engages in it because it’s fun. This consumer engages in shopping as a social experience or because they like to be involved in their shopping.

5. The price value consumer tends to focus on sales and lower prices balanced against quality. This consumer tends to focus on active, fact acquisition. This consumer tends to shop the market in-depth and do many comparisons to find the proper balance of low price and quality.

6. The impulsive consumer buys at the spur of the moment and are unconcerned with how much is spent. This consumer does not want to be bothered with new information or learning about products or services..

7. The confused-by-overchoice consumer perceives too many brands and stores and experiences information overload in the market. This person is overly detailed and fact oriented in their consumer process and becomes mentally overloaded, especially in a complex multichoice market.

8. The habitual, brand loyal consumer repetitively chooses the same brands and stores. This consumer engages in a serious learning process to find products and services that provide them with positive experiences and then stick with them.

Research Implications

Know thy consumer. This research indicates how important it is to develop a psychological profile of your ideal consumer. You need to know what consumer frequents your market and from this you can begin to develop, first intuitively, then through ongoing research, a profile of your target customer’s consumer style.

For instance if you sell your product or service over the internet you can be pretty sure that you are marketing to people who operate out of a limited number of consumer styles such as the perfectionistic; the novelty/fashion; and

the price conscious consumers. These are all information oriented consumers who engage in seeking information before they purchase.

If you are marketing to other businesses then you’re once again probably going to need to market with an orientation to providing sound information coupled with powerful and relevant benefits because you’ll be dealing with perfectionist and price conscious consumers.

Also, realize that with this information you can work to turn people from one style to another. For instance you may be able to convert a price conscious consumer to one who is brand loyal by providing consistent quality for a lower price. You may be able to convert the confused-by-overchoice consumer into a brand loyal consumer by providing simple, straight forward information combined with quality that cuts through the information overload.

Conclusions

Study your target market and actively work to know how they think and this will open up new marketing creatives that will better target their particular consumer style. This should prove to increase your bottom line if done thoughtfully and consistently.

Sproles, Elizabeth & Sproles, George (1990). Consumer Decision-Making Styles as a Function of Individual Learning Styles. The Journal of Consumer Affairs. Vol. 24. Issue 1.

About The Author

Darrin F. Coe, MA holds a master’s degree in professional psychology and specializes in consumer thinking. His latest report, “The Internet Consumer Exposed” is packed with eye-opening insights about the psychology of the internet consumer at http://consumer-thinking.com/exposed1.

coe@ris.net

Internet Marketing Success

2008-12-21T09:29:00.000-08:00

by: Charles E. White

Information products are easily sold via the internet today in such forms as audio, video and ebooks.

In order to be successful on the internet super highway, you must first find a unique information product and find a target market.

Ebooks are much easier and much less expensive to create than a printed book. First, your customer can download the ebook immediately and secondly, there is no shipping cost as in a printed book.

Take action by gathering ideas from such places as magazine ads, tv commercials and searching for hot topics on the internet. Large companies spend large sums of money on print and tv advertising. You can bet they know their target market. So, why not let them help you find that target market.

After finding a niche market, it is time to test market your idea. You will make mistakes and try things that just don’t work, but don’t get discouraged. Learn from your mistakes. You will be amazed at the results that come from the school of hard knocks.

Having your own internet marketing business is exciting and very rewarding and you may even make lots of money.

Good luck and TAKE ACTION NOW!

About The Author

Charles White is an Internet Marketer and you can learn more about internet marketing concepts at http://www.internetprofitmastermind.com where you will be among the first to be part of an awesome project.

atozemail2006@yahoo.com

What’s Your Advertising Style?

2008-12-21T03:35:00.000-08:00

by: Charen Smith

Advertising is actually a complicated process. It takes a lot of resources and effort on your part to make sure that you send out an effective ad, like your advertising posters, and then make certain that your messages are well understood by your target clients.

And it all depends on the advertising style that you use. When done right, your advertising style in your poster printing pieces for example, can adequately convey your message and get you the response you expect from your marketing campaign.

Are you the visual type? If you are, then most likely that your advertising style is guided by elements that create mental pictures for your target audience. Those people who are visually oriented are often dictated by what they actually see. They often interact with the world via the pictures they create in their minds. Statements that have the words ¡look, ¡see, ¡imagine, ¡picture, and ¡visualize are very common with these people.

If you have a visual type of advertising, your campaign is more likely to have pictures and graphics to explain what you would want to say to your prospects. This style is very effective if you’re targeting those who respond more readily to images rather than words. So when presenting new information to your customers, the more colorful your presentation, the more likely you’ll get a positive response from your target market.

Are you the auditory type then? Words such as ¡hear, ¡sound, ¡listen, and anything to do with your sense of hearing are often used by those who react to the world by using their auditory senses. As an advertiser, this type of ad is more likely to present your offer in recorded fashion and in a musical approach. When applied to your target audience, those who receive your message through your posters for example, would often repeat your message out loud for them to be able to understand better. So when using the auditory type of advertising, make sure that you take the time to explain new information to your target audience, as well as be able to answer all the possible questions that your target audience might put forward.

Or are you the kinesthetic/tactile type? If so, then your advertising is often made to propel your target clients to act and move on your message. To interact, action-oriented words such as ¡feel, ¡touch, ¡hold ¡grasp, and ¡move are very common in this type of advertising. You would want your target audience to get in touch with his or her emotions and the action involved in your message. Hence, when conveying new information, it’s better to provide activities that would make your target clients go through the motion of completing a process or a procedure.

Learning the type of advertising you’ll use to reach out to your target clients can help you provide a better and more effective marketing campaign that will surely have a positive response from your prospects.

For more information, you can visit this page on http://www.printplace.com

About The Author
Charen Smith writes articles about Internet Marketing. She has an extensive knowledge and experience when it comes to business strategies, techniques and business solutions.

Publisher Referal Program Chitika

2008-12-20T17:31:00.000-08:00

The Publisher Referral Commission Program rewards you for bringing new business to Chitika. Refer new Publishers to Chitika’s eMiniMalls service and earn 10% of what your referral earns. The referral makes the same revenue that they would normally and Chitika pays you for your efforts. It’s that simple!

You’ll earn 10% of what your referrals earn - the more friends you refer, the more you make!
You’re eligible to earn commissions for each referral for 15 months following each referral’s approval date.
Chitika will pay you 30 days following the end of the month that your commissions are earned provided that your total revenue has exceeded $10 (for PayPal) and $50 (for check where PayPal is not available).
You will be paid based upon audited revenue.
You will find your Referral reports in the “Reports” section when you log into your account. Reports are updated on a daily basis.
The referral program is only available for Chitika’s eMiniMalls service at this time.
For more information, please read our program FAQ’s and the Program terms in our eMiniMalls Terms and Conditions.

Click here to join Chitika

Adsense + Chitika ! Premium Contest Win : A Google Android G1,Blackberry Storm,Or Iphone

2008-12-20T17:17:00.000-08:00

We’re giving away 1 of this year’s hottest phones, along with $400 cash in this Adsense+Chitika | Premium placement contest!

What are the Prizes?
There are 3 prizes:
GRAND PRIZE - Winner will receive their choice of:

Google/T-Mobile G1 Android phone
Blackberry Storm
Apple iPhone 3G 8Gb
RUNNERS UP - 2 runners up will receive $200 each

How do I enter?
You can submit your entries by posting a link to your site in the comments below, or send an email to “specialprojects [at] chitika [dot] com” with the subject “AdSense + Chitika contest”.
All entries must be received by 11:59 pm US EDT on Sunday, Dec. 21. We look forward to seeing what you all come up with!!!

If you don’t have Chitika | Premium code yet, you can grab it here. Also - if you are unfamiliar with Chitika | Premium, you can learn how it works here.

Spread the word about this contest and earn revenue!
You can link to this page with your Chitika referral ID and earn referral revenue from people who sign up. Just use the link below, and substitute “username” with your Chitika username:
http://chitika.com/blog/2008/12/12/adsense-chitika-contest?refid=username

A Common Problem

2008-12-20T09:57:00.000-08:00

by: Adam Buhler

During a survey of my new subscribers, I heard many common challenges facing online marketers today.

I could spend hours rambling on about this problem or that, and what can be done to minimize the difficulties that each presents but, instead I will focus on what has proven to be “your most difficult challenge.”

My inbox has been flooded as of late with many problems found in affiliate marketing but, one stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of frequency, “I would like to make more money from my affiliate programs”.

This is a problem every internet marketer will unavoidably face at one time or another. There are many contributing factors in the struggle to maximize your efforts from affiliate programs however, the single greatest cause I see occurring almost regularly (remember, 95%-98% of affiliates don't make a dime!) is a website that is not optimized to “create” a sale!

That's right! You can make every effort to direct traffic to your site and you may even be quite successful in doing so but….

If your website is incapable of bringing in the sale once your visitors have arrived, you will have very little to show for your efforts. Statistics show that on average 99/100 visitors to your website WILL NOT buy from you! And that's an average, chances are that if your having problems pulling sales your average is much lower, probably somewhere in the area of 0.5% or 1/200 visitors!

A recent article featured in our newsletter discussed the importance of “Pre-Selling” to your visitors, which means you have to provide quality content relevant to the specific needs of your visitors.

Once you build your website around your specific theme and add good content, you should see your clickthroughs AND sales rise dramatically.

Good Luck!

About The Author

Adam Buhler is the owner of Affiliate Programs Directory: http://www.smokesoft.net Adam is the author of the weekly newsletter "Affiliate Secrets". He is offering a free copy of the ebook "Internet Cash Machines" For a limited time to anyone who subscribes at: http://www.smokesoft.net/newsletter.html
smoke@dwave.net

Learn Successful E-Mail Marketing Tips!

2008-12-20T09:54:00.000-08:00

by: Stephen Woessner

E-mail marketing campaigns can be integral parts of any organization’s marketing strategy. That’s because e-mail marketing can be a powerful tool for differentiating a brand, driving targeted traffic to a Web site, and increasing sales. In addition, one of the greatest benefits of an e-mail marketing campaign is that online reporting tools make measuring results easy and data is available nearly instantaneously after launching a campaign.

The keys to success are the relevancy of the content provided to the target audience as well as the quality and segmentation of the sender’s e-mail list. Organizations that pay attention to these critical points will increase the probability of accomplishing their goals.

This article contains practical tips that you can use to develop and implement an e-mail marketing strategy.

Developing your e-mail marketing strategy

Who is your audience? What is your message? How often will you launch a campaign? Develop a clear strategy that answers these questions while remaining consistent with your overall marketing strategy. Consider the following four components when developing your e-mail marketing strategy:

Set realistic goals.

What specific, tangible benefits do you want your e-mail marketing campaign to help your organization achieve? Some examples might include:

Increase sales leads from A to B.

Increase product or service sales from A to B.

Enhance customer relationships by increasing the number of times that your organization connects with customers from A to B.

Differentiate your brand by providing customers with expert advice they can apply to their business.

Drive traffic to a specific content section within your Web site.

Analyze and segment your e-mail list. Get to know your customers and determine what topics grab their attention. Then segment your e-mail list into smaller lists based on the identified commonalities. Remember to update e-mail addresses that have changed.

Develop relevant content based on your segmentation.

A segmented e-mail list gives you the freedom to develop customized content, increasing the odds that your audience will respond. Provide your audience with content that is interesting to them. Highlight product and service features that are highly relevant to your audience and unique from your competitors. These types of features are called drivers.

Providing relevant content also reduces the risk that your audience would consider your e-mail marketing campaigns to be distractions, or even worse, spam.

Measure your results.

Most leading e-mail marketing distribution tools provide real-time data as part of their package. The AVS Group uses Constant Contact for our campaigns. For a broader view of your Web site’s performance, Webtrends is a leading Web analytics tool that generates detailed traffic statistics.

Differentiating your brand

Can e-mail marketing be useful in differentiating a brand? Absolutely, and here’s how.

Focus on drivers.

Earlier we recommended highlighting the features of your products and services that are highly relevant to customers and unique from competitors. These features are called drivers. Drivers are any organization’s true points of differentiation. Drivers are so powerful, they actual drive customer choice toward one brand versus another. Your e-mail marketing campaign should communicate your drivers.

Share your expertise.

Share your organization’s knowledge with your e-mail list. Offer recommendations based on your experience. Write papers based on your organization’s research. Comment on industry or marketplace trends. Sharing your expertise makes your brand different – you are not communicating the same message as competitors.

Brand consistency.

Your team has invested time and effort toward developing your organization’s logo, tagline, graphic standards, and overall brand identity. To protect this investment, create an e-mail template that can be used for all of your e-mail marketing campaigns. Your audience will receive a professional looking message that is consistent with the positive attributes that your brand identity represents. For each issue, you simply update the content.

Timing consistency.

Set specific intervals to distribute your e-mail marketing: weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. and stick to them. It takes a commitment to consistently develop and distribute relevant e-mail marketing campaigns. Remaining consistent will provide your organization with differentiation from all of the organizations marketing themselves inconsistently.

Driving targeted traffic to a Web site E-mail marketing is a proven method for driving site traffic. In fact, experiencing traffic increases of 100 percent or more on days that an e-mail marketing campaign is launched is realistic.

Targeted e-mail marketing campaigns can also deliver impressive open and click-through rates. For example, 50 percent of the recipients of an e-newsletter may open the e-mail and 30 percent of those people may click into the Web site to learn more.

Why are these numbers so high? The sender provided relevant content to people who already knew of the organization. The recipients may not have been very familiar with the organization, or even current customers. However, they at least gave the organization their e-mail address.

Use teaser content to trigger interest.

Do not provide all of the information within your e-mail marketing message. Support the content in your e-mail marketing campaign with more content on your Web site. Encourage people to click and learn more.

Intuitive design.

Drive traffic by using a layout and design for your e-mails that is intuitive. Are the links easy to locate? Is the navigation and overall layout and design simple? Is the content easy to read?

Use references to build credibility.

People generally do business with organizations they trust. Highlight your work, press releases, or case studies to serve as evidence of your achievements. Your audience may be more apt to click into your Web site if they perceive your message to be credible.

Increase sales

We have witnessed e-mail marketing campaigns that have generated online sales within minutes after being sent. These campaigns created a sense of urgency and promoted relevant products. However, if online transactions are not a good fit for your organization, consider using e-mail marketing to generate sales leads.

Create a sense of urgency.

With a segmented list, you will be able to create special offers based on what will appeal to each segment. For one segment, you might offer free shipping. For another segment, you might offer a discount. Get it right, and you could experience sales increases of 100 percent on the days that e-mail marketing was used.

Promote relevant products.

Because your list is segmented, you have the opportunity to feature the most relevant products. Create multiple campaigns based on the product preferences of each segment within your overall list.

Generate leads.

Encourage your audience to go online and fill out a contact form or upload a request for proposal to you. For example, we receive requests for proposal from customers and prospects visiting AVSGroup.com. To help facilitate this process, we added a Discuss Project form making it easier to connect with our team.

In closing, any organization can be successful with e-mail marketing campaigns by implementing the right strategy. Developing an e-mail marketing strategy will lay the groundwork to reach your goals. E-mail marketing can be a powerful marketing and brand-building tool for your organization.

About The Author

Stephen Woessner

The AVS Group is a marketing, training, and communications company. AVS is in La Crosse, Wisconsin. AVS helps clients communicate and market effectively. AVS can be found online at http://www.avsgroup.com

swoessner@avsgroup.com

Neofuse Affiliate Marketing - What The Hell Was I Doing On Madison Avenue All Those Years???

2008-12-20T09:53:00.000-08:00

by: Kevin Browne

The Neofuse Affiliate Marketing model is one that must be looked for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that it DID NOT START AS AN AFFILIATE PROGRAM.

In fact Neofuse was borne out of a very real need for small to mid sized businesses to share information that WORKED! It was started in the Midwest (Ohio) by business professionally who saw clearly that too many online and offline business owners were continually trying to reinvent the wheel.

And in doing so, they were wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars. And getting little to no results.

Neofuse is a B2B social networking site that pushes REAL CONTENT, real value from one business owner to another...that content is all about results. What has worked for one florist, it can be surmised, will work for another florist, no matter how far apart.

It is about the cooperative exchange of those SUCCESSFUL business methodologies that makes Neofuse so singularly unique and powerful.

Now...and brace yourself for this one kids...add on top of that a business opportunity that literally pays THREE LEVELS DEEP and now you're talking about an affiliate plan that works ON TOP OF an amazing product!

Forget the juices and the pills and the soaps...when you are working and dealing the Neofuse world, you are operating at peak efficiency with a site that exceeds the expectations of its users. Daily.

Not a bad way to run a site, huh?

The Neofuse affiliate program not only accomplishes what the best affiliate programs can boast, but it does so as a by product of all of the things it accomplishes at the site level.

Ask that blue green algae pill if it can say that.

To me, the breakdown of the affiliate model starts when the goods and services either become stale or become saturated throughout the marketplace (a la Clickbank.)

Neofuse does not officially launch until Feb 2, 2008.

So if it's the "answer" to the greatest advertising questions of all time, answer me this...what was I doing on Madison Avenue?

About The Author
Kevin Browne is 19 year Madison Avenue veteran, and now owner of Infonetting.com. He and his partners are now teaching people how to SPECIFICALLY make money online. To replicate their success, visit http://infonetting.com/PUSH/push_sq3_neo.html and FINALLY make the money you know you should be making online!

Is Your Paid Search Advertising Generating Positive Financial Results?

2008-12-20T09:41:00.000-08:00

by: Kevin Gold

As an online business, you may be familiar with or currently utilize “pay for performance” search engines to send visitor traffic to your website. Also known as pay-per-click, PPC or paid search, it has literally taken the online marketing world by storm especially the two largest players, Overture and Google Adwords.

A 2004 “New Methods in Search Marketing” study by Piper Jaffray stated that “paid search constitutes more than 87% of U.S. search market revenues.” This staggering statistic begs the question, “Are advertisers achieving a positive return on their paid search investment?” In other words, are sales being generated or is money just being spent?

The answer to this question may stem from understanding the role of the two critical performance metrics generated by all paid search campaigns (1) click-through rate and (2) website conversion.

The click-through rate is defined as the percentage of times a paid search ad is clicked on out of the total number of paid search ad views within a given period of time.

Click-throughs (i.e. Total Visitors) / Impressions = Click-through Rate (a.k.a. CTR)

For example, if your paid search ad is seen by 10 users and one user clicks on your ad, the click-through rate is 10 percent.

Website conversion is defined as the percentage of users who visit your website and complete your primary objective (i.e. purchased a product) out of the total number of users who visit your website in a given period of time.

Sales / Click-throughs (i.e. Total Visitors) = Website Conversion (a.k.a. sales conversion)

So what role does each play in understanding the effectiveness of a paid search campaign?

Standard practice among advertisers is to concentrate on writing ads that achieve a high click-through rate to send more visitor traffic to their website. Unfortunately this general assumption, “more traffic equals greater positive results”, is flawed.

Consider this. Which click-through rate is better?

• A 20% click-through rate for a paid search ad that achieves zero sales (0% website conversion.)

OR

• A 0.2% click-through rate for a paid search ad that achieves 10 sales (10% website conversion).

The answer is obvious. The click-through rate, especially for newly setup PPC campaigns, is relative – it is the website conversion rate resulting from visitors clicking through a particular paid search ad that defines success or failure.

Successful paid search advertisers take a different approach. They start with the end in mind by asking, “what primary objective do I want a visitor to complete on my website?” and then they work backwards. They identify the type of visitor and buying behavior that will most likely result in a completed action (i.e. sale, registration, etc.)

In addition, they perceive their ads as automated salespeople who “qualify” visitors. Regardless of a high or low click-through rates, the focus is on generating a positive return from the advertising dollars spent.

For instance, let’s review two different ads. Ask yourself, which ad best qualifies visitors?

A. Pride Scooters

Low prices and huge selection of

scooters and other mobility equipment.

B. Pride Scooters

From $1850 while stocks last.

Houston, Texas, USA.

If you selected B. you are correct.

Ad B. qualifies visitors based on their buying behaviors and customer type most likely to purchase a Pride Scooter from the business’ website.

First, the ad states a price point (i.e. from $1850) to attract visitors seeking the website’s premium product while disqualifying ones seeking discounted or lower-priced scooters. A user researching scooters does not have to click-through the ad to find out a general price range.

Second, the ad targets a geographic region since the majority of people who buy scooters demand an actual test ride. If the company is located in Houston, Texas then users from other locations will not feel compelled to click-through the ad. (Ideally a geographically-targeted PPC campaign like using Google Adwords Regional-targeting works best in this situation).

In essence, ad B.’s goal is to pay “per click” for only visitors most likely to purchase their product. This ad attempts to “filter” unqualified visitors thereby increasing the return on investment per click-through.

Ad A. instead spends money on attracting and generating click-throughs from all visitors and relies on the website to filter qualified versus unqualified ones. This is not a wise economical approach especially if no “visitor exit strategies” are pursued.

Last, successful paid search advertisers rely on testing different ads to determine which appeal generates the best website conversion for a particular keyword. They rely on actual visitor feedback to help them determine which appeals are most effective. Once a positive return is achieved then focus is shifted to increasing the click-through rate for the best converting keywords so more sales can be realized.

So “Are you spending money to bring just anybody to your website or visitors ready to buy from you?” Think about ..is Your Paid Search Advertising Generating Positive Financial Results for your website?

About The Author

Kevin Gold is CEO of Enhanced Concepts, specializing in turning website visitors into leads or sales, co-editor of WebSalesability.com and published writer. Get a free report, “12 Sure-fire Ways to Increase Your Website Sales” and an exclusive 5-day website conversion email course by visiting www.enhancedconcepts.com.

Into The Limelight

2008-12-20T09:37:00.000-08:00

by: Steven Van Yoder

To stand out in a cluttered world, become a recognized expert
There are millions of small businesses vying for our attention. Yet, because the marketplace is more discriminating and skeptical, it's hard to get noticed. To enjoy the greatest return on your marketing efforts, you need to rise above the crowd. You need an edge over the competition. In short, you need to become slightly famous by establishing an expert reputation.

Not so long ago, expertise was equated with the number of years you were in business or the college diploma that hung on your wall. That has changed as people have come to be more interested in results. If you can deliver, people will be interested in you no matter how brief your business experience or how bare your walls are of diplomas.

Experts are sought after. They get more business with less effort and command higher fees. Journalists come to them for information. They are asked to speak at conferences. They out-position their competitors and break out of the anonymity trap because they know more and are recognized as knowing more.

Becoming an expert can help you achieve "top of the mind" awareness among members of your target market. By packaging your knowledge into articles, speeches, and workshops your name can immediately come to mind or be the first one mentioned when members of your target market turn to others to find what they need.

Publish

Publishing articles, columns and books are powerful techniques to establish your expertise. Publishing pre-sells others of your abilities and exposes you to thousands of prospects. And reprints of published articles make excellent, low cost sales literature, easily replacing expensive brochures, mailers, and newsletters.

Kimberly Stansell says publishing created tremendous name recognition for Research Done Write, her Los Angeles-based consulting and training firm. Her syndicated column "Bootstrapper's Success Secrets" appears in dozens of entrepreneurial publications, association newsletters and business web sites. "The name recognition my column has given me is tremendous," says Stansell. "I get invitations to participate in events and other business opportunities. And I can automatically charge higher fees because people assume I'm expensive."

There are endless opportunities to publish your expertise. Thousands of business, trade and Internet publications covering every imaginable industry and audience are fairly easy to break into, even for beginners. If you have a good idea, tailored to a specific readership, there are thousands of publications hungry for articles from business professionals.

Find A Podium

When Robert Middleton moved his marketing consulting practice a few years ago, he had to find ways to generate new clients. He immediately contacted local chambers of commerce, business groups, and organizations likely to be interested in his three-hour marketing workshop. Within months, Middleton not only had plenty of clients but also made a name for himself in Silicon Valley as a marketing expert for professional firms.

On any day, there are thousands of speaking opportunities available to small business owners who take the time to seek them out. To find an available podium to promote your business, contact clubs and groups in your community that conduct speeches and workshops. If you have a good topic that is relevant to their membership, most will be happy to hear from you.

Middleton sends each group an introductory package. It includes a cover letter naming other groups that have sponsored his presentations, a biography, a short description of his suggested talk, and comments from those who have attended his seminars. Middleton now conducts three to five such presentations a month, tailored to individual audiences.

Virtualize Your Expertise

Have you noticed that many high paid, respected professionals publish information materials? You can establish expertise, generate additional income and develop a compelling brand identity by developing books, booklets, e-books, audiocassettes, special reports and other information products based on what you already know.

CJ Hayden began life as a professional coach ten years ago in San Francisco. After years of delivering her "Get Clients Now" program to local audiences, she franchised her ideas and took them to a national marketplace. "I trademarked the name, taped a workshop, and wrote a 50 page workbook. I created an "out of the box" package so others could produce my program on their own." The success of her "brand extension" strategy even helped her land a book deal to publish Get Clients Now! A 28-Day Marketing Program for Professionals and Consultants

The best strategy is to create synergy between your products, services and reputation. Send information products to prospects. Use them for "back of the room" sales at speeches and workshops. Boost your profile by promoting products in articles, press releases, and at networking events and trade shows. Also, list your products in the catalogues and directories of trade associations, book clubs and business groups.

Keep It Going

Investors know that the best returns go to those who are patient. Not every article, speech or workshop or information product will make your phone ring off the hook. But, if you are consistent, you will develop an expert reputation that will help you land new clients and customers while making your business a recognized and reputable name in your marketplace.

About The Author

Steven Van Yoder is author of Get Slightly Famous: Become a Celebrity in Your Field and Attract More Business with Less Effort. Visit http://www.getslightlyfamous.com to read the book and learn about 'slightly' famous teleclasses, workshops, and marketing materials to help small businesses and solo professionals attract more business.
steven@getslightlyfamous.com

Business Promotion in a new Way - ClipsID.Com

2008-12-20T09:33:00.000-08:00

by: Paul Linder

If you are running a business or providing a service, it is most certain that you will be alarmed at the rate, which your competition is growing. Yesterday, it was you and your school chum who were running the online store to sell tattoo designs (or used jeans or whatever) and today you see that two more guys have opened up much better stores. Hey, they got all the products you are selling and something more. You are surprised. Tomorrow, it is certain that you will see few more stores popping-up and you will be, yes we all know, ALARMED!!

It is time for you to wake up from that comfortable couch and start singing those marketing songs about your business on all the available channels. If you are one among the royal lot, throw those investor backed marketing campaigns to woo your prospective customers. The bottom-less purses give you the freedom to experiment and take risks to utilize all media streams for promoting your business. However, if you are serious about each dollar that goes out of your wallet, you will be checking for the right cost-effective mediums for your business promotion as the first step.

Search Engine optimization and postings, Link Exchanges, Affiliate Programs, Banner Advertising are some of those techniques that has been used for this purpose by most of the online business owners for long time. Though this had been enough for your market presence and brand building few years back, times have changed and these mediums have become so common that everyone is into it and so are your competitors. It is high time you think of a new way, a niche area for wooing in your customers, a system that helps you to easily express everything about your business and make your customer feel the way you want them to feel.

The answer is in a new system that has been built to utilize the latest technological advancement in Internet media transfer, Video Streaming. ClipsID (www.clipsid.com) is a new entry into the list of fast growing online video streaming sites. However, this system has been developed to answer the constant yearning in the market for a better business promotional system and the way the system works is a perfect match for anyone wanting to promote their business online.

What is ClipsID?

If the system has to be described in a single phrase, the best one would be "The Largest Internet Theatre For Online Video Advertisements". Business Promotion is achieved by automated marketing of promotional videos of businesses currently within the system.

According to ClipsID.Com, "ClipsID is a powerful way of promoting yourself or your business with the aid of video presentations. Upload your videos into the system and the system will assign a unique number to your video. This is your video's ClipsID. It is a simple number just like your telephone number". The uploaded commercial videos are displayed on the system in various areas inviting customer interests. Also viewers can search for videos, watch them and invite others. Since the businesses can link their business contact details with the video, the prospective customers can directly contact these businesses, thus providing immediate results.

Currently, anyone can register for a free ClipsID account, which gives a free account with 10Mb video upload space plus access to all business promotional features currently available. All the promotional tools are easy to use with minimum technical know-how.

How to Promote your Business with ClipsID?

Some Power Tools that we will be using are:

Upload Tool
Associate Business Links Tool
Video Banner Creation Tool
Email Signature Tool
Webmercial Showcase
Invitation System

Upload Tool

The first and most important step you need to take in making this new promotion tool to work wonders for you is to upload your promotional content into it. Just make sure that you have an eye catching promotional video of your product, business or service. Remember, your response would be as good as your promotional video.

Once you have a promotional video, the rest is easy. Create a free account with ClipsID by clicking on the Sign-up button you can find on the home page (www.clipsid.com). All they ask you to enter is your email address (this is your username), a desired password and your first name. It is so very simple.

When you sign-in for the first time, you will be shown a welcome page with a button on it, asking you to upload your promotional video.

Clicking on it will pop-up the Upload Video tool where in you can upload your promotional video. You have two options for uploading the video, a Quick Upload option as well as a Complete Upload option. I suggest you choose the latter (Complete Upload) option, where in the first step is to provide details about the video/your business.

Note that the first 28 characters of your title as well as the first 64 characters of your description are very important. Please read the Webmercial Showcase section to know more about it.

This upload tool accepts video in AVI, MPG and FLV format only. If you have any other video format, you can use the free ClipsID Encoder tool (available in the Downloads section) to encode it to FLV format and then upload it.

Read the Associate Business Links Tool section for completing the second step.

Once your video is successfully uploaded, the ClipsID system will process the contents and generate a UNIQUE identifier for your video, called ClipsID, which is a simple number just like your telephone number.

Once you have your ClipsID for your video, you can exchange it with your friends, customers and prospects, who will be watching your video just by entering this number on the ClipsID player.

Associate Business Links Tool

Now, direct all your viewers to your website or online business using the Business Link tool, which is the second stage mentioned in the Upload Video Tool earlier.

Copy your website (or online business system) address (URL), and paste it on the Business Links section appropriate column.

If you go through the various options available, it is now easy to associate any Internet link or email address to your video so that all those viewers who are interested in your business can contact you or go directly to the online link where you want to redirect them.

When your promotional video is played on the player, your business link will be displayed as a click-able button on the player bar. The key is that it is really enticing for the viewer to see a button below the video being played that shows something like "Order Now!" just below a video that shows the promotional video below a product he would like to have, and not leaving without clicking on it.

When the button is clicked, the user is taken to the web-link you are associating with the video using this tool. The web-link will be opened in a separate window and this can be a direct link to your product details page or ordering page or whatever.

Video Banner Creation Tool

Banner Advertising has given users a new avenue for putting promotional content as fast paced advertising matter that is customized for the online crowd that can take prospective users directly to your online businesses. However, there is a single problem. Most of these ads were BORING!! And making those viewers clicking on it is becoming hard.

Use the ClipsID generated earlier, for creating your own Video Banners, where in you can show your promotional video in the banner, and thus making your advertisement much more interesting.

It is very simple to create your video banner. Click on the "Generate Banner" link that will open the Banner Creation tool.

All you have to do is select your promotional video and ask the banner creation tool to make it as a video banner in the size you want. It generates the code and you can use it where you want to place the banner. It is that simple.

Email Signature Tool

Did you ever know that your email client is your greatest marketing tool? Not your telephone, not your PowerPoint presentation. Without you even knowing, you are sending many pieces of digital information to a person who is analyzing it and forwarding most of them to others.

According to a research, around 68% of the emails sent throughout the world will have a lifetime of more than 3 hops from the originator. It means, that there is a high chance that your email might be copied or forwarded for two more people than whom you intended. If you know about the multi level marketing basics, then you would definitely understand the chances that your emails would be ready by people whom you might never have thought of.

Now you can leverage this hidden prospect for your Business Promotion, without much efforts and any irritation on the intended recipient.

Place a small HTML code generated by the Email Signature tool on the signature part of your email client. Each time you send an email, your video's ClipsID is sent as a link when clicked shows your promotional video on the ClipsID player in a separate window.

Click on the "Generate Email Signature" link and select your video that needs to be associated with all your emails. Once you click on the Generate button, you will be provided with a set of HTML code that can be copied and pasted to the signature section of your email client.

This will be a single word link identifying your ClipsID. If your email client supports HTML content, the signature will be displayed as a click-able link.

Be sure that the majority of your email recipients are going to click this link and once they click, they are going to be shown with your promotional video and most of them will want to see a video, which is unlike a promotional text message that will require efforts from their part to read it. So be sure that these viewers will sit back relaxed and watch your video.

Webmercial Showcase

The Webmercial Showcase is a selected catalog of promotional videos that will be displayed on ClipsID Home page, Search Page, Public Video page and even on Signature Video Display page. Listing your promotional video on this showcase means exposure to thousands of unique viewers for your advertisement video.

Webmercial Showcase contains a marquee like display of some of the promotional videos that has been uploaded to ClipsID, with part of title and description displayed below the video thumbnail.

To get listed on this Webmercial Showcase all you need to do is inform ClipsID about your wish. They have provided an almost hidden link on the Manage Videos page, where there is a small piece of text on the top of the form area, where in you can fill up your request and send to them.

Normally it takes less than 48 hours for your video to be listed on Webmercial Showcase.

Invitation System

Larger the number of Views for your promotional video, the larger would be the number of prospective customers that would be interested in doing business with you. How can you make some immediate viewer base for your video? The answer is ClipsID Invitation system that would help you to send invitations to your contact base telling more about your video as well as inviting them to view the video.

The process is very easy. Once you have your working ClipsID, create an Address Book of all your contacts and then proceed to the Invitation tool (you can find it in the Manage Videos section) for selecting your video, choosing the address book and for creating a small invitation message, which will be added a personal note to the invitation. The tool will add the rest of the invitation message and then send it to all on your selected address book.

Conclusion

So, by investing a small amount of time, you can use this innovative marketing system to promote your business to new heights.

It is a relatively new approach and hence it is the right time to experiment with this system. If you are stuck at any point of time, you can rely on the ClipsID support forum for your answers.

By the way, I am also interested to know more about your experiences with this innovative system. Please feel free to contact me at paul.linder@yahoo.com. I would be delighted to hear more about your experiences and share my thoughts.

All rights for the logo, name and other materials mentioned in this document belong to ClipsID.Com LLC (www.clipsid.com).

About The Author
Paul Linder is a veteran in creating Online Marketing & Promotion campaigns with more than 12 years experience in advising medium to large-scale businesses the strategies for creating successful online businesses. He lives in San Francisco, CA mostly hugging his Dell 700m Laptop or iPod. He is currently working as the Vice President of http://ClipsID.Com and you can reach him at paul.linder@yahoo.com

How Exactly Do You Market Your Niche Product or Program?

2008-12-20T09:22:00.000-08:00

by: Gaz Hutchinson

I was brand new to this nice product marketing thing less than 2 years ago and I have to say that if you feel lost and overwhelmed I know exactly how you feel. (By the way "niche product" and "niche program" are one and the same - both things you are aiming to sell to your niche market) I made many mistakes and lived to tell the tale - and boy did it pay off!

I was the number one computer phobic, clueless dumbo when I first came across this way of doing business. All I knew was this seemed like a way to ditch my 9 to 5 job (that I'd been stuck in for 26 years!). So I took a deep breath and dived in.

If you are like me you will read everything you can find and soon learn that opinions are like rear ends - everyone's got one. But I realized after a while that I kept coming back to some very basic ways go about marketing niche products - and it is these that are the key to your success.

1. Find a niche market

2. Find a niche program or product.

3. Sell the product to the market.

The first and maybe not so obvious is find your niche market. Notice I said first find your market - not your product. I remember frantically looking for great products I thought would set the world on fire. Guess what? No one else thought the same. Result - no sales. Eventually the penny dropped and I started finding the market first and then finding a product to match.

How do you find a hungry niche market? Find what they are typing into search engines. How? Well there are many great products to help. The one I use the most (Good Keywords) also happens to be free! Just go to Google and type in "Good Keywords Softnik Technologies" and you will find where to download it free.

A great place to find your niche products once you have established your hot market is Clickbank.com - If you are not a member then join now, and you will have access to over 10,000 digital products that cover every niche there is. And it is digital products that are easiest to start selling if you are new. Clickbank deal with all the order processing and delivery so you just have to concentrate on sendng your customers.

The established way to go on and sell your products is through pay per click advertising or having a website. Both these work but can be difficult to learn in the your early stages - and why make it difficult for yourself?

There is a 100% effective niche marketing strategy, almost "undercover" way to get to the top of the search engine rankings using articles about your niche products. It is a system put together by Nathan Stark and it enabled him to bring in over $3 million in sales in one year. This is something I was totally skeptical about - until I tried it! I have to admit you need to put in a bit of effort, but it soon became apparent that this new technique rewards you thousands of times over in the form of sales. For only 60 - 90 days work an ongoing stream of customers is created for life! Wow - was I taken aback!

I hope you pursue your niche product marketing business because I have to say, hand on heart, it is the best thing I ever did - but remember it's not something for nothing. Do the basics right and you will be richly rewarded.

Gaz Hutchinson Internet Marketer

For details on Nathan Stark's Niche Product Marketing System visit http://www.realmoneysite.com

About The Author

Gaz Hutchinson

I am an Internet Marketer living in England. For more details on my favourite program visit www.realmoneysite.com.

gazzie12000@yahoo.co.uk

Top Ten Getting Started Tips to Market your Book and Business

2008-12-20T09:19:00.000-08:00

by: Judy Cullins

Want to sell a lot more books? Want clients calling every day to find out more about your service? Most emerging businesses forget the #1 way to promote anything--the Internet. Specifically, writing and submitting articles.

These ten Tips will help you write a winning article that top ezines and Web sites will want to publish.

1. Include your non-fiction book's chapter how to's or your fiction’s juicy chapter excerpts in your articles. Your book coach encourages novelists as well as self-help authors.

2. Keep your articles around 200-800 words each. Remember today's audience likes short copy. They want it one, two, three.

Online writing is so different from what print magazines want.

3. Keep your article focused on just one thesis or point. That means mindmap your article or make a linear outline what points to keep before your write it. A plan helps.

4. Create a hook for your two or three-sentence introduction. Notice this one asked you a few questions to engage you.

5. Forget the old school of writing for print magazines and getting paid. Follow the Internet way-- give your article away like Mrs. Field cookie samples, so people who read them and notice your signature file will want to visit the site where you sell your book.

6. Keep yourself out of it. Your audience wants to know what you can do for them. Replace those "I" constructions with "you." "If you are like me...."

7. Number the main points for clarity. People love easy to read tips. Remember tips have a format that pros know. Start with a command, follow it with a benefit for doing it, and follow that with examples of how.

8. Collect ten well-edited articles before you blast off. Online readers will look at you more seriously when they see you offer more than one quick thing. They will see you as the savvy expert and click to where you sell your book.

9. Leverage one article into five. Change your audience. Change your number of how to's. Three Tips to... or Five Tips... or The Two Best Ways to....

10. Remember free information is the reason people go to Web sites, so put your articles there as well as in a blog.

Once you get dozens of short articles or fiction excerpts out to no spam ezines or top web sites in your field, you will notice the search engines optimizing your site because they see your important key words that link you, your book, or your service together. Your submitted articles lead to the magic of "viral marketing." The thing is that this is attraction, natural marketing at its best. Your coach's URL and signature file is now on over 33,000 Web sites.

Judy Cullins ©2005 All Rights Reserved.

About The Author

Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works with small business people who want to make a difference in people's lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income. Judy is author of 10 eBooks including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast, Ten Non-Techie Ways to Market Your Book Online, The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Your Targeted Web Traffic, and Power Writing for Web Sites That Sell. She offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, "The BookCoach Says...," "Business Tip of the Month," blog Q & A at www.bookcoaching.com and over 185 free articles.

Email her at Judy@bookcoaching.com or Cullinsbks@aol.com

Phone: 619/466-0622 -- Orders: 866/200-9743

Get More Clients Now!

2008-12-20T09:18:00.000-08:00

by: Kimberly Stevens

Although David has been a graphic designer for a decade, he’s only been a business owner for a little over a year. He was becoming increasingly discouraged with his clientele. “I'm the only person in the business, and even though I’ve been in business for a whole year, I’m still having to spend a lot of time marketing to get new clients. And the ones I do get usually only have one small project for me for the entire year. To top it off, I don't even get to do the kind of work I really enjoy They all just want the basic logo, business card, letterhead job. I really want to work on full-scale marketing campaigns where I’m designing print ads, direct mailers & media kits. How do I get more of the right clients?”

As you are discovering, David, building a stable of long-term clients with needs that match your interests can be a time-consuming and ongoing effort, but it's worth it in the long run. It's up to you to build a company that attracts clients with higher-end needs. You can't blame the small businesses for whom you are likely working for having a small budget and basic needs. As a sole proprietor, you can certainly understand working on a restricted budget.

So the first thing you need to do is to focus on how you want to position your company in the marketplace. What types of work do you want to do for clients? Do you want to avoid business card layout all together or will you do it if it's for a client who does or will have larger needs in the future? Do you want to develop a niche in which you specialize in doing full-scale marketing campaigns within a specific industry, such as restaurants or high-tech companies? You get the idea - begin by determining what type of work you want. The world of graphic design is big and broad, so it's your job to narrow your focus which will make your company more attractive to potential clients in that field because you spend more time working on projects similar to theirs as compared to a jack-of-all-trades graphic designer.

Next, you need to make sure that everything you use to present your company to the marketplace reflects your new positioning. This may mean revising the content of your web site and brochures and re-wording the tagline on your business card. If you don't already have a tag line that you splatter on all of your collateral materials, create one. This is a terrific positioning tool. And, as a graphic designer, you know that you can impact the image someone gets of your company through the design of your company's materials. Do you want to present your company as high-tech, friendly and affordable, or hip and cutting edge? Create a consistent image across the board on everything a prospect would see when encountering your business. If you want to do full-scale marketing campaigns, start with your own. Enlist the help of a designer friend or marketing friend if you tend to have trouble applying your designer brilliance to your own company as many of us do.

Once you know how you want to position your company in the marketplace and you have updated all of your materials, the only thing left to do is present yourself to the people who want what you have to sell. This may be a very different group of people than the ones you've spent the last year with. Many of us cut our marketing teeth at the local chamber of commerce, but they can be full of small, one-person businesses that may not have the need for the services you want to provide.

The best thing to do is to identify what types of companies are going to be attracted to what you are providing. Are they of a certain size, a certain geographic location, a certain industry? Once you've identified the parameters, it's time to determine how you are going to reach them. What associations do they belong to? Can you write articles for that association's newsletter? What networking groups do they attend? Can you join? Do they usually find their vendors from advertisements, referrals, or direct mail? Who else already provides services to them that could potentially provide you an opening into the companies in exchange for a finder's fee or reciprocity (these are called Centers of Influence)? Develop contacts with marketing companies who could potentially bring you in as a subcontractor for their clients' marketing campaigns. Although, they will generally take a cut or mark up your services, perhaps, you'd enjoy focusing on building these relationships so in the future you could focus just on the graphic design aspect of your business, not the client-building part.

This may seem like you are starting from ground zero as you pull away from those groups that you've been networking with during the past year and begin again as a new member in new groups, but soon you will be reaping the rewards of a thriving business working with people you like and doing what you want to do. What could be better?

Once you've established yourself in these new communities, you can't continue to spend half of your week trolling for new clients or you'll cap your income in relatively short order. Your next line of attack should be meeting some Centers of Influence. Read more about how to do this at: http://www.askthebizcoach.com/ezines/061802gettingclients.htm

About The Author

Kimberly Stevens is the author of the ebook series, *The Profitable Business Owner: A Step-by-Step System for Starting & Running a Successful Service Business*. Download Sample Chapters & get her free MiniCourse, *The 10 Most Common Mistakes Business Owners Make & How To Avoid Them* at: http://www.askthebizcoach.com/ebooks.htm
kim@askthebizcoach.com

Construction Marketing: 7 Tips for Success

2008-12-20T09:15:00.000-08:00

by: Mark Buckshon

Here are seven creative ideas to get your construction industry marketing strategy off to a great start.

1. At the beginning, throughout the project, and in the end, it is all in the work you do.

Ultimately, you’ll succeed at marketing because you do your work well. Any amount of ‘selling’ will just fall apart in practice if you don’t do the actual work you are selling well – and excellent on-the-job results give you the basis for repeat business and referrals, and a network of connections that lead to future work.

2. Great marketing gives you change-order power in conventional price-sensitive areas.

As an example, consider the story of an electrical contractor working in a mid-size U.S. city. The local hospital has lots of work, but everything must be publicly bid, and the lowest price always must win the job. How can the well-established contractor make money while coming in low. The key is in the unwritten contract terms which the hospital administrators know and understand. The electrical contractor bids low with qualifications indicating that change orders will truly be necessary for a totally satisfactory project. The hospital, knowing the contractor’s reputation for reliability and integrity, knows that the change orders are to be expected. The contractor wins the job, legitimately, on price, and equally legitimately, change orders are processed allowing the contractor a reasonable margin for the work. Note this only works if there is a relationship of trust and integrity – low balling with the intention of pushing through change orders regardless of the cl!

ients’ expectations at the start is simply uncool and will sour any future business relationships.

3. Your employees, especially your project managers, are your best marketers, but don’t ask them to be your sales reps (unless they really want to do that type of work.)

A lot is made of ‘cross selling, and “getting everyone involved” but the reality is that most people don’t like selling – if they did, they would be in charge of the marketing department (or become the company president). Nevertheless, if you have staff who show ‘spark’ for marketing, give them business development responsibilities – and compensation that matches their contributions. And if they aren’t business developers, encourage them to report on interesting news and client requests to gain insights into marketing opportunities. And, of course, train them in the basics of client service – it is always good to return calls promptly, no matter how busy your employees are.

4. The name of the game is quality AND quantity

A fast growing engineering firm (sales increased by 25 per cent to more than $20 million in one year) discovered its sales volume increased even though the number of proposals it submitted declined from more than 200 per year to less than 100. As well, after several months of expense implementing a sophisticate database system, the company reduced the preparation time for proposal documentation by two-thirds. Theoretically, this means the company could have (at no additional staff or time costs) increased rather than decreased the number of proposal documentations it submits. But this is not the way to go. Focusing on highly targeted and thought through niches, with expertise, the company can turn around high quality proposals without straining its resources, and the ‘hit rate’ has doubled to approximately 50 per cent.

5. Outrageous often works – and can be really effective (but do it right!)

Take for example the Canadian roofing contractor that bought an old Cadillac stretch limousine and uses it as its work vehicle. Lots of room on top of course for ladders and equipment, and reasonably comfortable seats for the staff. And of course the used stretch limo purchased for $4,000 is a shocking billboard for the company. A reporter saw it, and the company ended up with national publicity.

(Unfortunately, this publicity will do the company absolutely no good. Outside of hard-to-find corporate registration information, you can’t find ANY contact information about the business – no phone listing, no website, nothing!)

6. Indirect often works better than direct, especially when the matter is really important (but you nee to be patient and you still need to ask for the business.)

The dance in developing romantic relationships has an echo in the marketing field. You often find you meet the person you love (or the person that you really want to go out with, is ready to go out with you) when your behaviour changes and you connect in ways far away from the individual concerned. Same goes for marketing. Hard rock cold calling and responding to public advertising with RFP submissions can work, and certainly will keep you busy, but the real stuff happens off stage. The challenge is to develop projects and initiatives that bring you close to the decision-makers you really wish to know, without being manipulative. I’m doing this, for example, with my series on marketing ideas and concepts. The research opens the door to suggesting the advantages of our own newspapers and websites – but I know this won’t work if I am just insincerely using my marketing research work for out-and-out selling of my specific service.

7. You’ve got to have fun.

It is really hard to keep going if you aren’t enjoying the work. This means you need to tailor your marketing approaches to your own personality. Perhaps you are sports and social orientation; in that case, you want to look at how you can use tickets to sporting events to draw yourself closer to clients. You may love golf, or in my case, I enjoy writing. Now the challenge is in dealing with potential clients who love golf but don’t like reading. No problem. I would interview the golfers for a story and learn about their golf passion; and, if appropriate, would refer a colleague who loves playing golf to work with the clients to work with them on that level. Whatever, it is very difficult to do it well if you don’t like doing it.

About The Author

Mark Buckshon is president of the Construction News and Report group of Companies, which publishes regional construction industry trade newspapers in several U.S. and Canadian cities, and operates a network of approximately 100 regional websites. He can be reached by email at Buckshon@constructionnrgroup.com or by phone at 888-432-3555 (ext. 224). For other construction industry marketing ideas see our website at: http://www.washingtonconstructionnews.com/marketingadvice.htm

buckshon@constructionnrgroup.com

Internet Marketing And A Future Financial Focus

2008-12-20T09:13:00.000-08:00

by: Scott Lindsay

One of the prime motivations for Internet marketing is that you don’t want to be in the same place you are right now - in 12 months.

In every business the predominant idea is to set goals that help you conduct business smarter, learn lessons faster and bring more business to your site.

The problem is many entrepreneurs tend to stay focused on their bottom line and to product fulfillment issues. By doing so they may indeed find themselves in the same place 12 months from now. They may also find their business has declined in total sales revenue.

How is that possible?

This is an interesting question especially when, from all appearances, the business owner IS paying attention to their business and that the sales are brisk. It can also seem baffling when it appears that the business owner is busier than they have ever been.

The problem may be that some of the details of business should be delegated to other employees, especially if the business is of significant size.

The sad truth is some business owners are spending too much time in the mailroom and not enough time in long-term strategic planning. Online business grows as new ideas are developed and implemented.

It is not unlike an architect spending all his or her time developing the entryway of a new luxury hotel while failing to draw up plans for the rest of the building. It looks nice from the outside, but the inside is in disarray.

What this means, in the broadest terms, is that you need to pay attention to all aspects of your online business. If you don’t feel adequate to manage certain aspects of the business then find someone who can. When you neglect certain aspects of your business you will almost always run the risk of a loss of long-term business. You will also be subjected to feast or famine cycles where you may have more work than you can handle for a period of time and not enough work for an equal or greater length of time.

It’s a given that you find your business to be an important part of your life. You have invested a lot in the success of your business and that investment is too great to simply allow glaring marketing omissions to go unchallenged.

Sometimes business owners adopt an out of sight - out of mind mentality. They avoid those things that are not on their immediate radar. They push back all those things that are not fires to attend only the tyranny of the urgent.

Internet marketing is one of the very first things to be cast from view for many businesses. The reason this is true is because the role of marketing seems to have little intrinsic value for those online shops that are currently doing a brisk business. It appears to be a sign that they did everything right and can move on to the role of bean counter.

Learn the art of balancing your business interests and include marketing as a prime component for achieving future goals.

About The Author
Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. Make your own website in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites at: http://www.highpowersites.com or Build A Website at: http://www.buildagreatsite.com. Start your own ebook business with BooksWealth at: http://www.bookswealth.com

Internet Marketing Companies, Online Marketing Degree, Online Marketing Service

2008-12-20T09:09:00.000-08:00

by: Jan Michael Balasa

ONLINE MARKETING SERVICE

Online Marketing Service, also referred to as Internet marketing service is about using the Internet as another channel to market your business or organization. It’s about broadening your Web visibility, attracting qualified visitors to your website or getting interested people to email or call without even needing to come to your site. When visitors do come, through on-site marketing efforts and strong features, you lead them to do what you want them to do: fill out a form, register for an event or make a purchase from you through the internet usage. Some people would be eased to make their necessary work about their company by providing online worker from other place to make their job more easy to do.

Online Marketing Service builds, executes and measures direct response strategies using the Internet. Some key areas that the company should consider to concentrate on are acquisition of specific information, retention of the data being given on the site, awareness of how the site should be handled, optimization of the site content and behavior, and conversion of details through a more useful resource to the users online.

Here are some of the processes that the company should consider in getting their online marketing more effective:

1. Define Your Goal - work together with every member of your company to help clearly define exactly what it is you want to accomplish towards a more fruitful future using the online marketing service and how to set up goals which are important to the company.

2. Develop the Plan – the company should develop strategic, effective and measurable direct response marketing plans designed to achieve the company goals. Through the company's efforts of each member, a more suitable and easy way of conducting the plan can be performed.

3. Execute the Plan - provide capable and experienced project management throughout the entire implementation process. Each member of the company should be reliable, thorough, well-connected, and determined to make satisfied clients that are connected to the company. With these at hand, satisfied clients are willing to cooperate and pay more for the efforts of the company.

4. Measure the Results - No online marketing campaign is complete without measuring the results. Internet marketing strategies take tracking and measuring of the clients website advertisements before implementation occurs. This way, the company can measure their effectiveness to the clients as well as how better they know their company's effectiveness in the process. With the good results that the company is displaying, more and more clients are willing to be with the company and won't have second thoughts of paying a good amount for a good service that the company offers. Clients' satisfaction are very vital when it comes to consideration about the company's main goal.

ONLINE MARKETING DEGREE

Online Marketing Degree generally refers to the degrees that are offered in the internet through advertisements and well-presented by different courses that are being offered by the colleges and universities throughout the globe. It most likely want to prepare individuals in undertaking and managing the process of developing consumer audiences and moving products from producers to consumers by the use of the internet.

A more easy way to determine whether you're making the right decision in improving and pursuing your career as student is to continue studying and taking one of the major courses that the college or university offers. Online Marketing Degree includes instruction in buyer behavior and dynamics, principle of marketing research, demand analysis, cost-volume and profit relationships, pricing theory, marketing campaign and strategic planning, market segments, advertising methods, sales operations and management, consumer relations, retailing, and applications to specific products and markets.

Many colleges and universities have come up with the idea of advertising their different online courses because through this, a more practical, faster and easier way of advertising through the web can be seen and noticed. They will no longer have to make certain advertisements through television and radios just around their country but through online marketing service. The degrees that they offer will be seen by anyone from anywhere around the globe by the use of the internet. An effective way of advertising without the high costing.

A slight example on the online marketing degree is the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration – Marketing (B.S.B.A./MKT.) which puts working professionals on a clear path to lifelong learning and success. Maximizing their career opportunities, making important contributions to the profession, reaching the potential—that define success.

Through a program that combines academic theory with practical application, and includes courses in Ethical Leadership and in Social Responsibility, the students will gain knowledge and experience in areas vital to business and society. This concentration will help the students develop insights into an organization’s marketing effort by learning not only the traditional disciplines of alternate marketing channels, sales management, advertising and research, but also emerging marketing approaches related to consumer motivation, global customer management, customer relationship management, and marketing on the Internet.

Another example of an online marketing degree is the Master of Business Administration in Marketing (M.B.A./MKT.), it provides students with the ability to examine the relationship between marketing and corporate strategy and the tools necessary for developing and implementing strong marketing tactics throughout the companies in which they work. Through a hands-on curriculum including case analyses, this specialization lays the practical groundwork necessary for students interested in strengthening or furthering their career as a marketing professional or decision maker.

INTERNET MARKETING COMPANIES

Internet Marketing is a broad term that can include everything from pay-per-click management to a full-blown online marketing campaign that builds traffic and tracks site visitors to increase conversions from all mediums. Internet Marketing can be thought as encompassing all of the following disciplines: search engine optimization, pay-per-click management, link building and affiliate marketing.

Internet Marketing Companies work solely towards getting their client’s product or services marketed online, and this is really becoming something that modern businesses can’t live without. Obviously, an Internet marketing company can’t use the same techniques that a traditional advertising agency would use, such as television commercials and special promotions.

The things that an Internet marketing company can do are pretty amazing, though, because the costs are fairly low and the results can potentially reach a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, which allows businesses to draw out an instant response from potential customers, is a unique quality of the medium. Internet marketing companies can bring creative and technical aspects together, including design, development, advertising and sales. Internet marketing methods include search engine optimization, pay per click management, display advertising, email marketing, interactive advertising, blog marketing, and viral marketing.

The services that an Internet marketing Company offers aren’t always something tangible that people can see, although things like banner ads and social media marketing (using sites like MySpace) are quite visible. Things like search engine optimization and pay per click management are more intangible, but they help promote a website by placing it where people will see it when they are looking for that type of product or service. Internet marketing companies grow and promote an organization using online media.

An Internet marketing company does not simply build a website or promote a website… They make that website visible to people who are likely to become real paying customers. For some reasons, people are making easier ways of advertising their products and news through the Internet because of its lower cost and its effectiveness. Consumers can see the products and massive orders and requests could be in any instant on line with the company which provides the products.

An online marketing campaign is necessary these days with the Internet become bigger and bigger by the day. Therefore, it is crucial to hire an effective Internet marketing company to help your business achieve the online results you are looking for.

Since the advent of the World Wide Web, there have been many new evolutions to online marketing. Thankfully, there are many Internet marketing companies that can show you the ropes about the industry so that you can capitalize with your online venture.

There is a wide variety of items that a quality Internet marketing company can provide to your business. One of the main sources of online marketing is in search engine optimization, commonly referred to as SEO. This process simply refers to the act of ensuring that your website appears in the top of the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. This is achieved by submitting articles and keyword phrases all over the Internet because the more links that your website has on the Net, the higher your search engine ranking will be. Since most customers will choose to use the services of a company that is among the top ten in the search engines, SEO can work wonders for your online venture.

However, an Internet marketing company also has many other services that can benefit your business. Many of these particular companies also provide website designing and graphic design help that will make your website much more appealing to the public. If you search hard enough, you will be able to find a quality company that will produce your website from the ground up and then use SEO to ensure that your site gets the recognition it deserves.

About The Author
Jan Michael Balasa is a link builder for http://Agentsofvalue.com. I'm an Electronics and Communications Engineering graduate. I have a good written and communication skill when it comes to research and projects.

BASIC - SALESMANSHIP

2008-12-20T08:37:00.000-08:00

BASIC SALESMANSHIP - LESSON ONE

This is a lesson on Basic Salesmanship or, more specifically, on understanding the process of selling and buying. Most of our customers come from an installation background. They never had to make a living strictly from selling, and have probably never had any extensive sales training. Therefore, I will start with some of the most basic concepts to help you fully understand how this series of lessons all fit together logically.
Are you a salesperson?

First, who is a salesperson? The correct answer is EVERYONE! We are always presenting (selling) ourselves, our ideas or our opinions in every conversation that we have. If we are presenting our feelings, it is usually done in such a way as to solicit a desired response (e.g., happiness, empathy, sadness, compassion, etc.). We have been doing this all of our lives, and it is a natural part of our daily routine. Once this is understood, the thought of having to sell something to someone should be a little less frightening. You will notice that the word "selling" will be used very little in these lessons, compared to the word "presentation". Are they the same? The answer is "No"! The actual term is a sales presentation. The presentation starts with your first introduction to the customer, and continues until the contract has been signed. The end of a successful sales presentation is the sale.
The next step is to understand how someone buys a product or service.

How Does Someone Buy Something?

When someone buys something they are usually happy and excited about it. When you get into the basics of selling, it is very important for you to understand exactly how someone buys something. This is a lot easier than it sounds. To understand how, you simply have to ask yourself a question: How do you buy the things that you buy? I'm not talking about the necessities or impulse items, I'm talking about anything that you have ever purchased which cost you over $1,000.

Think about it.......

If you had to go to a store to buy the item, was it a professional looking building with a number of choices all on display for you to choose from, or was it a "back room" operation which had only a few items on display and needed a good cleaning?
Did the salesperson present a good appearance, and not in need a shave, a bath and some clean clothes?
Did the salesperson that you bought from know what they were talking about and answer all of your questions, or did you know more about the item than they did?
Did you buy the item because you could see (or understand) that you were getting a good quality (value) for your money, or was it simply the cheapest thing available?
Was the item under a manufacturer's warranty that would be honored, or were you "on-your-own" the minute that you received the item?
Since we are talking about an item over $1,000, I can assume that you purchased it from a professional looking facility which gave you a number of choices, and from a knowledgeable person with a professional appearance who knew what they were talking about. I will also make the assumption that because of the amount of money you were going to spend, you made sure that you would get the highest quality for your money, with a good factory warranty in case of any problems. Surprise! This is exactly the same process that your customers go through when they buy your security system.
In the above example, you probably think that I neglected to mention price as one of the factors of why you purchased the item. You are wrong, the price was covered with the question: Did you buy the item because you could see (or understand) that you were getting a good quality (value) for your money, or was it simply the cheapest thing available? Price is never based solely upon the amount of money that you think you want to spend, it is based upon the perceived value that you will get for your investment.

Let me give you an example:

You and I have a meeting in my office because you want to talk about your accounts. You only have $20.00 with you, and you have no plans of spending a penny during our meeting. During the meeting I tell you that I have an immediate need for $500, and I show you a Rolex watch that my father left to me. It has diamonds on it, and I have the original receipt which shows the purchase price was $2,500. How fast could you get $500 to purchase the watch? I would assume that you would get the money very quickly, and once you had it in your possession you probably would think that you made the deal of the century.
But, wait a minute! You did not come to buy anything, and yet you ended up buying, and to do it you had to get $480 more than you had with you. And, you are happy about it! Why? Well, in this example, it would probably be because you would get a considerable return on your investment by reselling the watch ( perceived value for your investment).
Important points:

Everyone is a salesperson

The end of a successful sales presentation is the sale.

The things that are important to you (and your potential customer) when you purchase an expensive item are:

-The environment where you purchase the item.
-The overall appearance of the salesperson.
-The knowledgeable presentation that the salesperson made.
-The quality (value) that you would get for your money, and
-The warranty if there are any problems.

Price is never based solely upon the amount of money that you think you want to spend, it is based upon the perceived value that you will get for your

BASIC SALESMANSHIP - LESSON TWO

In the last lesson, I gave an example of how the store where you purchased your last $1,000 item gave you confidence that it was the right place to buy the product. This was because of the way that it looked on the outside, and the layout of the interior.
You do not have a retail store for the customer to come to; however, you do have a truck which is going to be parked in front of their house for their neighbors to see. What statement is the vehicle going to make? Does it look clean and professional, with a good advertisement for your company so that the neighbors will be impressed enough to also call you for an alarm system? Does it make your customer feel like they have made the right choice because of the professional appearance? Or, does it look as if you have been using it in the demolition derby on the weekends, and your potential customer is embarrassed to have it in front of their house?
Is this really important? You bet it is! Always remember, you can never take back your first impression. You do not have to have a new vehicle that looks as if you just drove it out of the showroom, but the customer will look at it with a certain judgment. Before I expand on that, let's put in the next piece of the puzzle, which is you. (The word "you" in these lessons will refer to everyone that the potential customer will see who is representing your company.)
When your potential customer meets you for the first time, what do they see? Do you present a professional image, or do you look as if you just crawled out of an attic and forgot to clean up? This is just as important as the impression your vehicle will make, and is vital to the first thing that your customer MUST have, if the presentation is going to continue with any success: a feeling of confidence. This is the same feeling that you had when you entered the store to buy your $1,000 item. You don't know exactly what you expected to see; however, everything that you did see made you comfortable and gave you a feeling of confidence. The opposite of this is seeing something that looks out-of-place, and immediately you get these "danger signals" which make you feel as if you should immediately start looking for a way out. If your customer gets this feeling, forget the sale. Anything beyond this point is futile.

Why Does A Person Buy Something?

When you are trying to persuade a person to buy something (especially when it involves a great deal of money), is it important to understand the reason that person would buy anything? This might sound like an easy question, but remember we are exploring the very basics of salesmanship, and this is the part that most people understand the least.
Let's go back to you, and the last $1,000 item that you purchased. I want to ask you a question about it: Right after you bought it, what did you think about it? That might be hard to answer, so let me ask the question another way: Right after you bought it, how did you feel? That should be a very easy question to answer. You probably felt happy, joyful, proud, excited and very eager to use the product. Why does the second question make more sense? Because buying is an emotional experience.
A basic rule of salesmanship is that people buy with their emotions, and justify their purchase with logic. Do you remember the feeling that you had when you decided to purchase your $1,000 product? It was probably a feeling of confidence in your decision. This is the same feeling that your potential customer must have before they will agree to purchase your security system. That feeling of confidence, which leads us to another basic fundamental which has to be understood.

How Do People Get Their Feelings?

If you are going to instill a positive feeling in your potential customers, a very basic understanding of what causes feelings is necessary. First, all feelings are initiated in your brain (computer), which receives its input (data) from your senses. These are sight, sound, touch, smell and taste. These senses are at work at all times, and are sending the data which informs you of everything that is going on around you. It is an automatic process, and there is nothing that you can do to stop it.
The initial sense that occurs in any new situation is the detection of danger. If potential physical danger is detected, a number of physiological changes occur. First, your skin actual begins to tighten, which gives you a feeling that your hair is standing on end. This also strengthens the skin so that it is more resistant to cuts or abrasions. At the same time adrenaline is secreted into your system, which increases your heart rate, gives you energy, heightens your senses and acts as a coagulating agent for your blood if you are wounded. This automatic function has prepared your body for "fight and/or flight", depending on how you analyze the physical danger.
We are not putting our potential client in any physical danger when we give a sales presentation; however, this is a new situation, and all of their senses are going to be operating as normal. Since we do not involve taste, smell or touch in our presentations, everything is going to be determined on what they see and hear. The conscience mind will be listening and watching, and the subconscious mind will be analyzing the information. Most of the time the results will manifest themselves as feelings.
As a practical example of how this works, let's go back to your purchase of that $1,000 item. How did you feel:
When you drove into the parking lot and looked at the outside of the store?
When you walked into the store and looked around for the first time?
When you met the salesperson?
When you were watching the demonstration of products?
When you made your final selection, and decided to buy?
The normal feeling in a professional sales presentation is that of being in a comfortable situation. You feel at ease so that you can relax your defenses and enjoy the experience. The environment gives you confidence, and the presentation is non-threatening.
If the situation was different, you would not feel at ease because the environment is not what it should be, and you have an ignorant salesperson who is trying to high pressure you into buying what they want to sell you.
In that case your senses would give you an uncomfortable feeling, and would prepare you for fight or flight. The fight would be you telling the salesperson that you are not interested in their product, and the flight would be you getting away from this person and out of the door as soon as possible.
It is only when you get far away from this situation that you begin to get back your peaceful feelings. This has happened to all of us more times than we would like, and it will happen to our prospective customers during our presentations if we are not aware of their automatic responses and are able to maintain a comfortable feeling throughout the presentation.
Important points:
Always remember, you can never take back your first impression.
A basic rule of salesmanship is that people buy with their emotions, and justify their purchase with logic.
Your potential customer is going to have to feel that they are safe (no sense of danger) throughout the sales presentation. This sense of well being will be caused by everything that they see and hear

BASIC SALESMANSHIP - LESSON THREE

I would like to start by reviewing some of the main points which have been covered in the previous lessons. These are:
Everyone is a salesperson: you are always selling yourself, your ideas or opinions.
The things that are important to you when you purchase an expensive item are the same things that are important to your potential customer.
Always remember, you can never take back your first impression.
A basic rule of salesmanship is that people buy with their emotions, and justify their purchase with logic.
Price is never based solely upon the amount of money that you think you want to spend, it is based upon the perceived value that you will get for your investment.
Your potential customers have to feel they are safe (no sense of danger) throughout the sales presentation.
This sense of well being will be caused by everything that they see and hear.
We can now turn our attention to the sales presentation. This presentation starts with the first contact with someone representing your company, and continues until the system has been installed and the last person is walking out the door. You might ask: "Why so long, I thought the presentation was over when the contract was signed?" You are partially correct. The sales transaction is over; however, there are a lot of other factors to consider.
First, there is always the three day "right of rescission" (or buyer's remorse) law, which gives the customer a chance to re-think their decision and to change their mind.
Second, you want your customer just as excited about their new security system when you finish the installation, as they were when they signed the contract. What would stop this from happening? A number of things, such as:
Your customer has a perceived standard of quality which was derived from everything they have seen and heard up until now. Unfortunately, when your installers arrive, they looked and acted like the three stooges!; or,
Your installers look acceptable, but they hooked up three infrared detectors and are unable to get any of them to work properly; or
The system works properly, but the installers left the house a mess, etc.
The best sales representative that you will ever have is a brand new customer. They are happy and proud of their new purchase, and they want to tell people about it. (Remember how you felt when you purchased your last item over $1,000?) Unfortunately, if anything negative happens from the time the contract is signed until the installation is completed, the customers enthusiasm to spread the word may be lost.

The Sales Presentation

Please remember, this is an article on the basic concepts of selling. Your presentation will be based upon your customer's actual needs and budget; however, all presentations are basically alike because of the factors involved. These start with who you are, which includes:
The initial introduction of yourself (and/or salesperson), and
The introduction of your company, which would include showing your license from the Bureau of Security and Investigations, (for California only), and explaining the license, including the background criminal investigation. This educates the customer and establishes you as a licensed professional which starts to build confidence in you, and
A statement of what you have to offer them (why you are there, or more correctly, what's in it for them).
Is this opening sequence really important? Yes!, it is. There is a general principal that states: "Even a brand new salesperson will be able to close 1 out of 10 sales presentations." That sounds encouraging; however, the new salesperson may have to talk to 100 people before someone will let them make a presentation. Whether or not you get to make the presentation may (and often time does) depend upon the potential customer's initial evaluation of you and/or your salesperson, and this may occur during the first few seconds.
When I was in submarine school in New London, Connecticut, I joined a company that sold very expensive waterless cookware. It was a "high ticket" item, especially for military families, and the presentation took a minimum of one hour to cover all of the points (which included the close). Every part of the presentation was critical to building value.
After I got out of the navy, I spent a few years in cable television marketing, and then became the Director of Operations for the first pay movie channel in California. The years I spent in this field gave me a wealth of experience, both from training of door-to-door salesman (including taking them all in the field to show them how it is done), and the many seminars that my company sent me to. Door-to-door selling would seem like a fate worse than death to some people, but it is a fantastic experience once you master the techniques.
The first thing we had to know was how to control the impact of the first appearance. When a person came to the door, there were a number of negative factors which immediately had to be overcome:
The person who came to the door was doing something when you rang the door bell, and you disturbed them, and
Usually when you are disturbed, you try to get rid of the disturbance as quickly as possible, and
The person definitely did not get up and go to the door to buy anything.
Based upon these factors, many psychological studies have been done in order to develop successful techniques for door-to-door salespeople. These studies were very interesting and determined two very important factors (laws). If you were to get inside the residence to give your presentation:
1)You have approximately 20 seconds to introduce yourself and your company, explain why you are there (why you disturbed them), what you want to do for them and how long it will take. This basically is one statement, and it must be given in a way that is totally non-threatening; and,
2)Usually what the potential customer sees and hears in the first 10 seconds will determine if they will open the door and let you in to give your presentation.
You are not under this type of immediate scrutinization, however the same factors apply, and by understanding more of how your potential customer perceives you, the more you will be able to control that perception in a way that will be beneficial to you.

BASIC SALESMANSHIP - LESSON FOUR

What is a sales presentation?

Giving a sales presentation can be compared to moving a building that is made out of stone. A foundation would have to be laid at the new location to put the building upon, and then the building would be disassembled, the stones numbered, then moved to the new location and then reassembled upon the new foundation in reverse order so that the building is the same as you started with.
You have a certain end result in your mind when you meet a perspective customer. This is usually a picture of a happy customer that feels good about their new system and is excited enough to show it to their neighbors and family. And, someone who feels very good about the investment that they have made in providing safety and peace of mind to their family. The presentation would be taking this result, and moving it from your mind to theirs.
There is an example used for sale training to demonstrate how to close a sale by asking only four questions. This example makes the assumption that an alarm salesman has been called to give an estimate. The questions are:
1) Why did you call me? - This has the potential customer tell you why they think you can do the job (establishes your credibility).
2) What do you want me to do for you? - The customer will tell you the type of security system they want (establishes their emotional need).
3) How much would you be willing pay for a system that can do what you want? - The cost the customer wants to pay will be based upon two things: First, how much credibility they place in you to do the job; and second, how much emotional satisfaction that system would bring them. The higher your credibility and their emotional need, the higher the price (value) they will put on the system.
4) When can I install your system for you? If the customer has decided you are the person for the job, the system is what they want, and the price that they are willing to pay will give you a fair profit, then the only thing left to decide is how they will pay you, and when you will do the installation.
This is a very simple example; however, these four questions establish all of the elements of a successful presentation. The only problem is that you can not ask these questions, because in most cases the potential customer does not know the answers. It is your presentation that will educate the potential customer, which will expand your credibility, and establish the emotional desire and build the value of the system. (Note: a successful presentation will build the value of the product (system) so high that when the customer is told the price, they feel it is less than they expected and is a real bargain.)
Here are the steps of a successful presentation.
1) The Introduction (laying the foundation) - This would include a history of your company, your experience, some of the accounts that you have and what you want to present to them. This has to be done in a way that puts the potential customer at ease while building credibility.
2) Establishing the need. Here you could give some statistics about crime in their city (or their neighborhood) which is available at the police department, and ask them if they personally know anyone who was burglarized or robbed. This starts building confidence in you as a representative who knows what they are talking about.
NOTE: Once this dialog is established, this is a perfect time to qualify this person to see if they are a potential customer (if this had not been done over the telephone). This can easily be done with a few questions; such as:
Do you rent or own this residence?
Would you be the one to make the decision to acquire a security system, or is there another individual that should hear the presentation, etc.
These qualification questions should be a part of this initial introduction stage. In my first year of selling, I made my best presentations to people who were not in any position to make the decision to buy anything. This was done because I forgot to qualify the person, and it resulted in a tremendous waste of time.
3) Showing the potential customer the features and benefits of your system, and making sure that they understand these points. This is where you start building value for your product (system). (NOTE: THE PRICE OF A SYSTEM IS NEVER DISCUSSED UNTIL YOU HAVE THE FINISHED PROPOSAL AND ARE READY TO CLOSE THE SALE.)
4) Survey the area that will be protected (take notes, and free-hand sketch the building), and establish the customer's main concerns (hot buttons). In each of these areas, give three or four general ideas on how the area can be protected. Also, use examples from other systems where the same type of protection was installed. This continues to build confidence (peace-of-mind).
5) Unless the potential customer has called you to come and put in a system right now, make an appointment to return at least one or two days later with your proposals. Why? Because you are a professional, and you want to take some time to consider all of the possibilities to properly protect the premises.
6) Present your proposals. Have three plans to present to your potential customer, each with a drawing showing the location and coverage of each device. The most expensive proposal should be given first, as it has the most protection (including the long range radio options). Make sure that each proposal is completely understood before going on to the next one. Note: If each device is thoroughly understood (both purpose and coverage), the potential customer will be more reluctant to delete items as the proposals get simpler and less expensive.
7) Close the sale. Once the potential customer has decided when the system that they want installed, establish the cost, manner of payment and get the contract signed.
8) Install the system.
9) Turn you new customer into a sales representative. Personally make sure that the customer is thoroughly trained on their system and is delighted with it. Offer a tangible incentive (some free monitoring, cash, gift certificates, etc.), for each of their friends or family that get a system from you.
Establishing the need (hot buttons)
It is very important at the beginning of the presentation to establish the concerns (needs) of your potential customer. These concerns are referred to as "hot buttons". These are the reasons that this person wants a security system, and will have to be addressed both in your presentation and in the close of the sale.
One of the BIGGEST mistakes that a salesman can make is to assume they know the motivation (emotional need) of their potential customers. This need is established through the most powerful tool of a salesperson: ASKING QUESTIONS!

BASIC SALESMANSHIP - LESSON FIVE

Why does your potential customer want a security system?

One of the BIGGEST mistakes that a salesman can make is to assume they know the motivation (emotional need) of their potential customers. This need is established through the most powerful tool of a salesperson: ASKING QUESTIONS! If their concern is for safety for themselves, their family and/or their property, then I would proceed to the next part of the presentation. If their need is not emotional (e.g. because it is required by their insurance carrier, to lower their insurance rates, because other people in the neighborhood have one, etc.), then I would spend some time here to establish an emotional desire (remember that your customer buys with their emotions, and justifies their purchase with logic). This emotional desire could be established by any combination of the following:
For residential systems:
Adding a smoke detector for 24 hour protection for family and property, giving facts about residential fires, and/or
Adding a "Medical Emergency" zone to the system, if there are elderly or physically impaired people at the residence, and/or
Adding a "High Temperature" zone to the system, if they have a wine cellar, and/or
Adding a strobe light on the roof to clearly show the police where the alarm has been activated, etc.
For commercial systems:
Add a "Medical Emergency" zone to the system for immediate dispatch of paramedics if an employee is injured, and/or
Finding out if there is equipment vital to the continuing of their business which can also be protected (e.g. high/low temperature alarms, a/c failure alarm, high/low pressure alarm, etc.), and/or
Adding a strobe light on the roof to clearly show the police where the alarm has been activated, etc.
An emotional desire can be induced by showing the potential customer that they can get more than they thought because YOUR system will protect lives (medical alert, fire detection, etc.), special assets (wine, jewelry, guns, etc.), their business (pressure, temperature, humidity, etc.). and, get faster law enforcement response due to a strobe light guiding law enforcement officers to your location. Whatever you tell them that created (or intensified) their desire will be more "hot buttons" that will be referred to during the presentation and in the close of the presentation.
Features and Benefits
At this point of your presentation you should have been able to establish good credibility for your company and yourself. You should also know their emotional needs (hot buttons) which you will relate to throughout the presentations. The next part is to establish a high perceived value for your system, while increasing your potential customer's emotional desire for the system. This is done through the presentation of the features and benefits of having YOUR system installed and monitored. It is very important to understand the differences between features and benefits, as they serve different purposes for your potential customer.
A feature of your system is something that will build confidence and value in your system.
The benefit of that feature will build emotional desire for your system, and answer the question, "What's in it for me?"
There should be a benefit for each feature that you show, and you should make sure the potential customer COMPLETELY understands the value of the feature and why it is a benefit to them.
You can have all of the features in the world, but if the benefits to the potential customer are not understood, it will mean nothing. For example, if you were trying to sell a new Cadillac to someone, and you told them that one of the features of this model was that it had a "Northstar System", it would mean nothing until you explained the benefit of that feature, which was that the engine did not need to be tuned up until the car had been driven 100,000 miles.
What are the features and benefits of your system?
That should be an easy question for you to answer. The features of the equipment that you use are the reasons that you buy that equipment. Because of your knowledge and experience, there are reasons that you buy the brand and model of the contacts that you use for windows and doors (or you may have different types for different purposes). These reasons may be: ease of installation, more reliable (will not break due to the vibration of the door closing), sensitivity, etc. Each of these reasons is a feature of that contact, and should have a benefit for you. A simple way of looking at this is to make a "Features & Benefits" chart.
DEVICE: Door Contact
FEATURES:
Easy to InstallMore ReliableSensitivity
BENEFITS TO YOU:
Less LaborNo Service CallsMore Flexibility in the Location
BENEFITS TO THE CUSTOMER:
Faster InstallationDependabilityLess likely to flase trip if the door moves slightly due to the wind blowing
The customer is not interested in the benefit to you; only the benefit to them. And, they will only find out about the features and benefits of your system by what you show and tell them. Most people would make the assumption that the potential customer knows what a door contact is, and that is one of those fatal mistakes that cost companies a lot of business. Do you remember the first time that you saw a door contact, and someone demonstrated how it worked? You were probably fascinated how small and complex it was. Your potential customer will have the same reaction when you hand them one and show them how it works. To add more impact, also hand them one of the "old style", or one that is not reliable, and explain the differences.
They may have had some other companies bid an alarm system with door contacts, but you would probably be the only one that had enough consideration to educate the customer by letting them see and touch the contact and explain the features and benefits. This gives you more credibility as a professional, and that particular contact gives the customer confidence in you and your system (builds value). There is an old rule in selling that states: Show and tell; when you stop showing and start telling, you stop selling!
There is a reason for your buying everything that you put into your systems. Try to make up a "Features and Benefits" chart for each item, and use the "show and tell" method in your presentation.
When it comes to items that cannot be demonstrated (e.g. a keypad, communicator, motion detector, etc.), a picture is like 1000 words. One of your best sales tools is a Polaroid Camera. This allows you to SHOW the customer the actual device installed at a number of locations, and to TELL why it was installed at that location and what purpose it serves. A picture will also show the potential customer the results of your installation, which will give them confidence in your ability to install the system to their satisfaction.
(NOTE: The more features that you show the customer, the more confidence they will have in you as a professional. The more benefits that you tell them about, the more emotional desire they will have to buy your system and the perceived value of the system will increase.)
Each feature presented does not have to be a long drawn out process. The presentation of the door contact could be a simple statement like this:
"Mr. Jones, this is the contact for the door that I use in my system (hand it to the customer). You will notice how small is it is, which means that it can easily be concealed, while at the same time it is designed to withstand the constant vibration that it receives from the door opening and closing. In all of my experience, I have found this to be the most dependable contact. The last thing that you need are service calls to replace equipment that will not stand up to daily wear and tear. Right?"
The following things happened in this presentation:
The customer was involved (full attention) because the contact was handed to him.
The statement "it can easily be concealed" will start to build confidence in your installation. (Note: the customer has probably never mentioned the quality of your installation, and how well the system is concealed; however, the question will come up at some point, and if it is addressed throughout the presentation, the customer will have full confidence in your ability to install their system without having to verbalize it.)
The statement "it is designed to withstand the constant vibration that it receives from the door opening and closing" paints a picture of the kids running in and out of the house slamming the door. The customer now "sees" the system installed, and understands that there is a quality in the design needed to withstand frequent vibration.
These are good points, but does the customer really understand them? (Remember, the customer is always subconsciously asking the question: "What's in it for me?) By asking the question: "The last thing that you need are service calls to replace equipment that will not stand up to daily wear and tear. Right?", informs the customer that the quality of this product is designed to keep them from having problems (disappointments) with your system, and prevents service calls. By them answering you question, you know that this point has been made, and it is time to move on to the next one. If their answer is, "What do you mean?", then some more time should be spent on this feature. (NOTE: Never move on to the next feature until you make sure that the potential customer fully understands this feature, and the benefit to them).
When you have shown the potential customer the features and benefits of having your system installed, the next part should be the presentation of the features and benefits of CSSS, INC., as your monitoring facility. Our web site has a page for "Our Facilities" and "Our Central Station Team". These pages (or any other pages on our web site) can be printed out and included in your presentation. (NOTE: Do not just hand these pages to the potential customer and assume that it will be read and understood. You SHOW the customer the various pictures (features), TELL the customer how these are a benefit to them and ASK QUESTIONS to assure that each benefit is fully understood. This should help continue to build credibility for you, your company and your system)

BASIC SALESMANSHIP - LESSON -SIX

Let's start by reviewing a few of the points covered in the last lesson.
A feature of your system is something that will build confidence and value in your system.
The benefit of that feature will build emotional desire for your system, and answer the question, "What's in it for me?"
There is an old rule in selling that states: Show and tell, when you stop showing and start telling, you stop selling!
The more features that you show the customer, the more confidence they will have in you as a professional. The more benefits that you tell them about, the more emotional desire they will have to buy your system and the perceived value of the system will increase.
Never move on to the next feature until you make sure that the potential customer fully understands this feature, and the benefit to them.
The next part of the presentation would be to custom design their system. This is done by examining all areas that will need to be protected (take notes, and free-hand sketch the building). This is a perfect time to listen to the potential customer to establish their main concerns (hot buttons). Look at every area of the residence or business. In each of these areas, give as many general ideas as possible on how the area can be protected. Also, use examples (or pictures) from other systems where the same type of protection was installed. Sketch the areas, and make notes. This continues to build confidence (peace-of-mind).
After you have surveyed the inside of the building, then go check the outside perimeter. Your potential customer is depending on you to be their "security specialist", and as such, there are many other things that you may be able to bring to their attention, such as:
Point out every window or door which is hidden from view from the street or the neighbors, because of plants, trees or a fence. These would be perfect points-of-entry. (NOTE: Up to now these areas may not have been a concern; however, this would give justification to have interior protection added to these areas because of their vulnerability.)
A ladder left in the back yard or beside the house (or business), which would give a burglar access to a window, the second floor or the roof.
A large tree with the limbs so close to the structure that it could be climbed and would give a burglar access to the second floor or roof.
Bricks, milk crates or other objects lying around readily available to use to break out a window or door, etc.
This service also shows that you care about their safety, and you know what you are doing. This helps to build that important "peace of mind" feeling, and will increase their confidence in you and your system.
(Nothing more will be written about the design of your alarm system. Why? Because you are the expert in this matter. I have never designed or installed one! CSSS does not compete against our customers: You install it, and we will monitor it.)
If the customer has given indications that they are ready to immediately sign a contract, then I would sit down with the customer and get the contract signed. This indication might be:
Asking you how quickly the system can be installed, or
Telling you that there is a deadline for the installation (e.g. vacation, business trip, etc.), or
Asking you if you take a credit card or check for payment.
This can happen, and if it does, the presentation should be stopped at that time. Always close the sale when the customer is ready to buy. A mistake that is often made is trying to continue to presentation past that point, and in some cases, at the end of the presentation the customer has lost their enthusiasm and wants to think about it. That is called "selling it to the customer and buying it back". The purpose of the presentation is to convince the customer to buy. When the customer is convinced, CLOSE THE SALE!
In most cases, this will not happen at this point. You may be one of many companies that were called to make a presentation. If so, I would make an appointment to return in a day or two.
It is also good to get a verbal commitment (promise) from the potential customer that they will not make any decision until you have had a chance to present your proposal. This is protection against a "high pressure" or "low-baller" salesperson from getting the sale.
PRESENTING YOUR PROPOSALS
I would recommend that you have three plans to present to your potential customer. Your proposal should be in a binder with your company logo on the front. The proposal should be done on a word processing program, and printed out on a laser printer. Each proposal should have a one-line diagram of the premises, with all detectors indicated (with their coverage). If you do not have this capability, then find a business center that has these services available. The potential customer is still judging you by what they see, and how they feel after they have seen it. You may have presented yourself as a professional who can do a quality job, but if you hand them a hand written proposal, with a freehand drawing, their confidence may diminish. Why? Because, professionalism is expected in every phase of the presentation and through to the completion of the installation. Also, if you have to leave the proposal and it is compared to others, the non-professional ones will probably be immediately eliminated because they appear to be at a lower standard than the others. The most expensive proposal should be given first, as it has the most protection (including the long range radio options). Make sure that each proposal is completely understood before going on to the next one. If each device is thoroughly understood (both purpose and coverage), the potential customer will be more reluctant to delete items as the proposals get simpler and less expensive. Make sure to relate each area covered to the customer's concerns (hot buttons)! Everything that you have done both in your presentation and system design should clearly answer the question, "What's in it for me?"

BASIC SALESMANSHIP - LESSON SEVEN

CLOSING THE SALE

This is the part that most salespeople dread....asking for the money. What is the best way to do this? Sunrise!, you have already accomplished the hard part: the presentation. From your initial introduction to the prospect, to your presentation of the proposals and drawings, everything that you have done was to build desire for your system and to instill confidence in you and your company to be the one to install it. One basic rule to remember is:
IF PEOPLE WANT SOMETHING BAD ENOUGH,THEY WILL FIND A WAY TO GET IT!
Do you remember the example I used in the first Basic Salesmanship lesson? I had an immediate need for $500 and you only had $20.00 with you. I showed you a Rolex watch that my father had left to me. It had diamonds on it, and I had the original receipt which shows the purchase price was $2,500. How fast would it have taken you get $480 more to purchase the watch?
The purpose of the presentation is to educate, and to build value while doing so. At the end of your presentation, your potential customer should know that:
You are a professional, and
Your company is fully capable of installing a quality system which will meet all of their needs, and
The system is guaranteed, and will have routine scheduled maintenance, and
The system will protect their lives and property, and someone will be monitoring their system 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
If they know this, they will want the system, and the only thing left is to tell them how quickly the system can be installed and how the payment will be made. The rule here is to have as many types of payment available as possible (which includes credit cards).
If there is an objection, the first thing to do is to understand exactly what the objection is. By asking questions you can determine exactly what the objection is, and then overcome it by going back to the part of the presentation which addressed that subject. If there is an objection about something that was not covered in your presentation, then you have to address it as best as you can.
The best way to do this is to address the features and benefits that your system offers. And, later on, you can change your presentation so that it will address that situation the next time that you give it. Objections are great indicators to show the things that were left out of your presentation, or the things that were not covered properly so the customer did not understand the features or the benefits. A good salesperson will always reflect on their last sale and determine things that can be changed or added for their next presentation. In about one year of doing this, your presentation should be perfected to the point that it covers every feature and benefit of your installation and service, and includes sections that have been designed to overcome the majority of objections that you have encountered. The success for you presentation will be determined by your closing rate.
I found out the hard way how important the presentation is through experience. When I was selling waterless cookware at 19 (while in submarine school) we had a sales meeting twice a week. The motivation was terrific! However, there was one rule at the sales meetings that kept everyone sharp: the last five people that arrived had to give one of the five parts of the presentation to the rest of the salespeople (talk about a hard audience!). While you were doing your best to look and act professional, your audience would be continuously forming opinions about what the saw and heard (e.g., "you do not sound very sincere, you do not look enthusiastic, your not very sure of yourself", etc.). It was a very frightening experience at first, but it sure motivated you to learn the presentation (not only learn it, but to know it well enough to be able to deliver it with confidence and sincerity, even to your peers). By the time that I was able to do this, my closing rate had tripled!
About ten years later, I began selling motivational courses. My sales increased to a certain point, and then leveled off. I had an opportunity to meet a sales trainer who had been the best vacuum cleaner salesman in the nation. When I was alone with him, I asked him if he could give me some tips on increasing my sales. Instead of giving me the "magic phrases", he sat down and told me to give him my complete sales presentation. I was not prepared to do this, since I basically made it up as I went along. When I told him that I did not have a prepared presentation, and he told me to prepare one and learn it well enough to give it confidently and professionally at a moment's notice. After I had done this, he would listen to my presentation and give me some advice. Then he added: If you are prepared to give a complete presentation at a moment's notice, you will not have time to come to me for advice because you will be to busy making sales. When I developed a complete presentation, based upon my prior training, I was so busy selling that I never got a chance to go back to him.
When do you give up?

These are:
45% of all leads turn into a sale for someone.
Within one year 45% of all leads that you receive will turn into a sale for you or your competitor. 22%-25% will convert within the first six months.
Great salespeople follow up every sales lead until the prospect buys or dies.
Great salespeople don't give up. They call and call until the prospect answers. They visit, write and follow up until the person says that they bought another product, or they are no longer in the market (they have literally or figuratively died).
The older the lead, the less the competition.
When the lead is six months old, there is a 50% chance that the decision is still pending. At nine months you still have a 25% chance of making the sale.
Some of Jim's other facts are:
76% of the people who inquire intend to buy.
40% of the time your prospect does not call your competitor.
More than 50% of sales leads are not followed up. Some research indicates that number could be as high as 87.5%.
The odds are always with the salesperson who continues to work the prospect when others give up.

BASIC SALESMANSHIP - LESSON EIGHT

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE INSTALLATION?

You have a signed agreement, the new security system has been installed, the customer has been taught how to properly use their new security system, you have been paid in full and now it's "Miller time". You want to go back to the office, kick back and enjoy the fact that you have a new customer and more monthly revenue coming in . . . . WRONG!
You have just successfully converted a potential client into a customer, and at this point you have more credibility with this person that you will ever have again, so you use this opportunity to make a new sales representative. A personal recommendation from this person to a trusting friend is a more powerful persuasion than anything that you could ever do on a cold call.
When I was selling waterless cookware in the Navy, I would give the new customer a book on waterless cooking recipes that was valued at $35.00, if they would give me ten names of their friends I could contact. It worked great, because these referrals were from people who had bought the product and were excited about it. Most of the time, the customer had called their friends and relatives to tell them about the product before I had a chance to call, and in the majority of the time, the prospect was waiting for my call and was anxious for a demonstration. Some of the people did not want a demonstration and were only "bothered" by a polite telephone call; however, the majority did want to see it and I was closing 6 out of 10 demonstrations. That wasn't too bad for a $35.00 investment.
WHAT DO YOU DO FOR YOUR NEW CUSTOMER?
How much is an account worth to you? If you had to pay a commission to a salesperson, you might have to pay $100.00 to $300.00+ depending on the number of openings, type of equipment, number of keypads, etc. If you gave 1 or 2 months of free monitoring to your new customer for every referral which resulted in a sale, how much would that cost you? Obviously a lot less than a commission, and the leads would have the power of being personal referrals. If you don't want to give away monitoring, how about:
Gift certificates to a store that is sure to be useful (e.g.Home Depot, Walmart, Sears, Petco, Toys-R-Us, etc.), or
A gift certificate to a very good local restaurant, or
A gift certificates to a local theater or playhouse, or
A beautiful bouquet of flowers, or a box of candy, etc.
Whatever you give, it should be something that is useful, has a good value (not token) and will state clearly that you appreciate their referral. The gift (or free monitoring) would only be given for each new system installed. THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS CAN NOT BE OVEREMPHASIZED! This sales program will produce the following results:
The leads generated will give you the best likelihood of closing a sale.
The gift will be only on systems sold and installed, and is less than a sales commission.
Your customer is going to feel appreciated, which will build up a loyalty to you and your company. This is very important with all of the competition that is trying to get your customer's business.
Does this really work? Ask yourself! How would you feel about a company that was giving you a tangible reward for your referrals?
CONTINUING THE RELATIONSHIP
When does the relationship end? Hopefully never! Companies that loan money on your accounts, have found that the average length of time that a security system is active is approximately 7 years. If your customer moves within your area during that time, you have the potential of installing their new security system, and maintaining the old one with a new customer. HOWEVER, THAT IS DEPENDANT ON THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU, AND HOW THEY FEEL ABOUT YOU AND YOUR COMPANY.
It is essential that every contract has a provision to physically inspect the system at least every two years. This is necessary for the backup battery replacement, and gives you a chance to re-establish the relationship with a face-to-face meeting. At this time you could also present the customer with a gift, such as:
A simple bouquet of flowers (purchased from a local grocery store), with a card from your company that says, "Thank you for your business", or
A self defense device, such as a small canister of pepper spray for each member of the family, etc.
This will show that you are not only fulfilling the obligations of your contract, but that you also appreciate their business. Remember, there is nothing different between the way that your customer does business and the way you do. You do business with people who have proven their ability to do the job (trust), and people who have shown that they appreciate you and your business, and are ready to be of service to you anytime they are needed (confidence). That is why your customer will continue to do business with you.
I hope that this series has given you a new understanding of the sales process, and how to present features and benefits. According to one of our alarm companies, "The problem is that I know what to do, I just need someone to get me off my butt to do it". I cannot do that, but as a motivation I can provide the following basic sales program:
IF YOU NEED TO MAKE 4 SALES A MONTH, AND YOU CLOSE 2 OUT OF 10 PEOPLE THAT YOU PRESENT TO, AND YOU NEED TO TALK TO 5 PEOPLE TO FIND ONE THAT YOU CAN PRESENT TO, IT WORKS LIKE THIS:
100 PEOPLE TALKED TO = 20 PRESENTATIONS = 4 SALES
DO THE MATH!, AND JUST GO OUT AND DO IT!
If you follow this program for two months, you will be amazed at what happens! You will find that you have to talk to less people to be able to make a presentation, and your closing rate will increase. Why? Experience! After you have given 40 presentations, your delivery will be more professional in your introduction and delivery, and by making more new sales, you will be more confident.
But, this only applies if you have a complete presentation, and you are able to properly point out the features (value) and benefits (desire) of your system.
One last suggestion: join a service club (e.g. Kiwanis International, Lions Club, Rotary Club, etc.). These clubs service the community, and consist of the best businesses in the city and community and often include local political leaders. Besides the good that these organizations do, it would establish you and your company with a new level of credibility and recognition, and open up a new market for referrals.

How to upsell and cross-sell to achieve rapid sales growth

2008-12-20T08:35:00.000-08:00

Maybe That Post very important for SPG,
That Post I Get When I Browse at the internet

January has been a busy month of sales seminars, sales training and motivational speeches so I hadn’t had any time to think what I was going to write about this week until about half an hour ago…
I was sat at my PC in my home office, tidying up some emails when one of my good friends called. It’s been a while since I have spoken to him so I was delighted to hear from him. After a quick catch up we quickly focused our attentions onto setting the world to rights! He said that he has something he thought I would be interested in hearing…

This story starts with my friend’s 18 year old son who is currently enjoying a gap year, getting his head down and working. He has a job in major UK supermarket and he is really enjoying it.
Based in South West London the store he is working in is busy, affluent and diverse. It’s not huge but it’s a decent size. They have around about 150 staff and shifts would mean that at any one time there might be 40 or more people working in the store.
Like most retailers the store chain in question are keen on their customers owning and using store cards. This creates loyalty, allows the store to compile details on personal shopping habits and group trends and, perhaps most importantly, allows them to extend credit to their customers.
And as any business who has cards like these knows, customers on credit are worth far more than those paying cash!
So back to our little store…

Like most stores they have targets and goals and their most recent “push” is on encouraging customers to sign up for more store cards. Each member of staff, whether individually or as a group, is trained to “upsell” these cards and are then let loose on the customers. Not particularly ambitious, their target number of take ups is 4 cards per week… for the whole store.
So for the next week our young hero, despite not being on the till much of the time, asked every customer he could if they would sign up. Despite his lack of experience or formal sales training and techniques our hero signed up… 18, in one week. Now I have to admit that I have no idea how this rates or how many you or I would have signed up but it is obviously well over the target of 4 that was set for the whole store.
At the end of the week our young salesperson goes on his holidays, returning two weeks later to find out that in his absence the whole store, 150 people remember, have upsold exactly … zero.
Zero in 2 weeks. So what do we learn from this?

1. Upselling and cross-selling to existing clients is critical if you want to sell more and make more money.
Clients who have already bought off you, who are in a buying mood and who believe in and see value in what you do are great prospects for upselling and cross-selling. There is every possibility that they will buy something else if you make it known to them.
I remember as a young salesman one of my best clients buying something off someone else. I rang him to ask why he had not bought from me and he told me that he would have but that he was unaware that I could help in this area! Ouch! I never made that mistake again!

2. Know what you can upsell and cross-sell.
Up to date knowledge of what you can upsell is critical. Upselling the wrong or irrelevant products or services will just alienate your clients. Upselling and cross-selling the right stuff at the right time is your duty. How many times have you bought something only to get it home and realise that you wish you had bought the more expensive option because it has features or benefits that you would have preferred. If only the salesperson had told you about it!
A reader rang me yesterday to tell me that he was running a short training session on upselling. The first thing that he had done was outline for his team all of the options they had for upselling and how these would benefit the client. This knowledge is critical if you want to maximise your sales.

3. Make sure that you ask.
Perhaps the biggest block to upselling is that salespeople do not ask. Maybe they feel scared. Perhaps they feel cheeky. Maybe they think that they don’t have the right. Perhaps they “already know” that the client will say, “No”.
Whatever! The biggest problem with upselling, as with asking for referrals, is that most salespeople quite simply just do not ask.
Call it the McDonalds affect if you like… you have to ask! They upsell on everything and they get a lot of “Nos” but they also get a lot of “Yeses”! You need to make just asking part of your sales process too. You could significantly increase your sales results over night.
Yesterday morning I met my sister and her kids in the afternoon. I only wanted a cup of tea. As I ordered the woman said, “I’ve just baked some home-made scones. They’re still warm. Can you smell them? Would you like one whilst they’re still warm?”
“Yes please”. An easy sale!

4. Learn how to "ask" properly.
Once you know the benefits of upselling and cross-selling, know what to upsell and commit to asking you need to improve your upselling techniques. McDonalds ask if you want a bigger drink or fries but they have no idea whether you are thirsty or hungry or neither. That’s fine in Mcdonalds, they don’t have the time but you do. And you have the relationships to do this too.
As you are selling ask questions that uncover the need for an upsale. They needn’t be complex but they do make a huge difference to the relevancy of your upsell and the final result.
When booking keynotes I don’t just suggest that people buy the books or audios as well, I ask a few questions first to identify what exactly is needed and how it would add benefit for my client.

5. Keep it simple.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again but 80% of selling is about turning up, maintaining the right attitude and playing the game.
Many salespeople walk in to my seminars and demand the advanced stuff because they are so experienced yet, when you follow them around, they have forgotten or are not doing many sales basics.
Without the basics you are screwed!
My friend’s son may not know the intricacies of selling yet. He may not have the skills or the experience. He may not be as subtle, as sophisticated nor as cunning as his more experienced friends yet. But subtlety, experience and cunning are no substitute for action and if he keeps on taking action he will outsell his more established but less proactive peers.