Direct Sales Success Strategies!
Inspired Tips to Get More Leads, Customers & Profits
Today’s LESSON FROM THE FIELD comes from Jessica Swanson the Shoestring Marketer. Take your business to the next level with lessons from your local kiosk salesperson. Just remember the success of your transaction still rest on the basic principle–find the people for whom your product/service is the right thing for them right now.
Target your market then show them how your product or service works for them.
Need to look at the same old thing with a fresh perspective? Look around. There is always something amazing going on. See how you can recreate or repurpose your business or product or attitude.
Here are 3 ideas you can be on the look out for if you want to change your out look.
It occurred to me that putting a team together is more about letting each person’s natural talent shine than it is about drawing up a list of needed skills and then finding the right person.
I recently worked with a group of people at a local community event. Team members volunteered to work the event. We were all from the same company. The event ran so smoothly, it amazed me. Don’t get me wrong, there were delays and problems that popped up along the way. But, we didn’t fall apart. We didn’t give up. Left alone, each member came up with brilliant ideas on how to make the event successful.
Picture if you will, a team of 6 people from the same company. The goal is to increase brand recognition and serve our community. Our job is to serve our sports drink to participants in a weekend-long community sports festival. There were marathoners, 1/2 marathoners, 10K/5K runners and walkers, inline skaters (recreational, advanced and elite), and bikers. [Read more...]
Expand your reach–go from a local business to a world-wide business. Add Social Media to your marketing mix. It doesn’t replace your offline marketing and networking, it enhances it. Learn how all the pieces fit together to make a comprehensive marketing strategy.
If anything, look and see how active you can be in building relationships and your business. There is lots to do. Only do a little at a time. Start with a blog, add a social media platform that makes the most sense to you. When you get the hang of it, add another one. Move only as fast as you can manage the work and the relationships.
Your Blog is the hub of your operation. It is where the conversations happen. It is where you showcase your expertise and introduce your products. Drive traffic from other Social Media platforms to your blog. It’s where people decide if they want to do business with you.
Facebook is where you build your business relationships. You share links, articles, tips, photos and videos. People get to know you, how you run your business, what you value, how you treat people. You don’t have to be an expert; you can point them to the experts in your posts. Little by little you’ll build your credibility, and people will be pointing to you as the expert.
Know what your readers want to read, learn about, view, or hear about.
Twitter is an up-to-the minute communication tool. You build a list of followers and keep them updated with the business happenings and some personal events in your life. With 140 characters you can post a link to your blog, give a shout out to people who wrote a great article or delivered an over-the-top presentation. You meet like minded individuals with whom you want to learn from or do business together.
LinkedIn is a business networking tool. You can look for a job, connect with colleagues, join a business group, and join in on the conversation. It is a real-time resume.
Ezine Articles is an article submission website. Build your credibility in your niche. Write articles and post them on your blog or post a link on Facebook, Twitter, orLinkedIn driving traffic back to your blog.
You Tube is a video sharing website. You make the video and you upload it to their website. You can post the videos on your blog, and share the link on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Create your own channel – with short tips and how to info, interviews
The first step to better blogging is to blog. The more you blog the better you get at blogging, and the better you get at blogging the more you want to blog. Whew!
Stay focused on the reason you blog.
Keep your reader in mind when writing.
My reader is a busy professional turned work-at-home woman, and is looking for guidance from someone who has been there and done that. She balances faith, family, work and community. She is educated and computer savvy. She has her priorities straight (in her head at least) and looks for simple ways to get the word out about her business. My reader is a team player. Joining in on the fun is no problem for her.
Write to express not to impress. Keep your sentences short, and free from flowery prose. Learn to love bullets, lists, and white space.
Keep on blogging. Why not take a moment and share your favorite blogging tips.
Heard from a lot of people over the last few weeks that you have to have a marketing plan. Even though I prefer to just jump in and do it and then figure it out later, I know there is wisdom in the recurring advice I am uncovering. I am moving beyond–run 3-5 marketing ideas a month–the spray and stay method, and focusing on creating a purposeful and intentional marketing plan. [Read more...]
It’s amazing to see how many topics pop up online, in conversations, and in print when you are thinking about them for a blog post or article.
The topics seem to be swirling around in your subconscious for days. Then everywhere you turn someone is writing about the exact same thing.
So let me thank Copyblogger, Shoestring Marketing, and Rich Writing for their unknowing contributions to my post today. [Read more...]
Today’s blog tip comes from Denise Wakeman, aka The Blog Squad. Denise helps to answer the questions–what do I write about and how do I get it all done?
Create an editorial calendar
#8 from Top Ten Easy Steps to Starting a Business Blog
It’s no secret that content rules on a blog so it’s helpful to have a content plan going in to the game. A key element of a good blog is having a list of 7-10 keyword rich categories. Once you determine the categories (or sub-topics) of your blog, you can plan your content calendar.
If you plan on posting three times per week, then plot out post ideas for each of your categories. Make a list of 5 topics for each category. Then, fill in your calendar. 5 topics times 10 categories and you’ve got 50 blog posts in the pipeline. [Read more...]
Sticking with 5 Easy & Free Steps to Building Your List . . . find ways to start a conversation.
You have to be real whether online or face-to-face. You can spot a phony a mile away. You might not have body language online, but the language you use and your tone comes across quite clearly. Watch those exclamation marks and caps and the fill-in-the-blanks ——— with words your grandmother would not approve.
Comment on a post you like. It’s good to compliment the blogger, but go further. Tell them why you agree or disagree. Give an example. Tell them how their ideas could be made better.
Remember online etiquette. As an 8th grade teacher said to her graduating class, “Remember, your words have power. Like your favorite super hero, use your powers for good.”
Little by little, like anything else, you will learn and grow. Pretty soon you’ll be able to tell someone else how to start an online conversation. Just work your social media tasks into your calendar.
Others first.
Thought I’d pass this article along. I enjoyed it, and thought you would too. Until next time.
Marketing attracts your ideal client to you. But, once a prospective client shows interest, many small business entrepreneurs don’t know how to get through the sales process to get a prospective client to commit working with them.
Following are some simple sales tips to keep in mind when you are talking with a prospect, so that you identify their wants, goals, get them engaged with you—and you don’t spill your candy box by giving away your precious expertise free!
1. Shorter telephone calls are better than longer calls.
Keep sales calls no longer than fifteen minutes in length. Any longer than this, and you risk giving away too much information, excitement and energy fades, and you’ll have a tendency to give away free coaching. The result: the client talks herself out of needing you!
2. Prequalify candidates with a questionnaire.
I used to meet potential coaching clients for coffee, or even worse, lunch…spend an hour or two with them…only to walk away knowing this person was not a right client for me for any number of reasons. The result: I wasted a lot of time finding out this person was not ready for my services.
A better approach to prequalify candidates is when someone sends you an inquiry expressing interest in your services, send them a prequalifying questionnaire they must complete and send back to you, before your speak with them.
By doing this, if a person is truly interested in working with you, they will take the time to send the questionnaire back to you. Then, you can review their answers to the questions, prior to calling them for an interview. You will also have an idea even before you speak with them if they are a qualified candidate for your services. The result: you’ve saved yourself potentially thousands of dollars of wasted time.
3. Keep your candy in its box.
Save your knowledge and expertise, and don’t give away too much information too soon (this ties in with Tip #1.) Use time you are speaking with a prospect (after you’ve received the questionnaire) to fact-find, understand their situation, problems they need solved, and goals and results they want to achieve.
You will also ‘spill your candy’ by rushing into sharing aspects of your services your potential client may have no interest in, or does not understand. This moves them closer to saying “No” to your services, because they appear not to fit in with their needs.
4. Let your prospect do the talking.
Your prospect should be talking 70% of the time. If you are doing all the talking, you’re not discovering their wants and problems, and they are not articulating them. Let them discover how you can help them through the thought-provoking questions you’ll be asking them.
Also, don’t flaunt your expertise by using technical jargon or buzz words your prospective client may not understand. It makes you seem smart, but makes them feel less so.which is another reason for them to say “no” to working with you.
5. Ask your client what solving the problem will mean to them.
Asking this question gets them emotionally engaged with you, and the problem they are trying to solve. By tapping into the emotional reasons, you will hit a vein of gold when they discover how solving the problem they are experiencing will change their business, and their life for the better.
Keep these tips in mind during the next conversation you have with a potential client. By doing this you will be more successful in getting them to communicate their wants and problems to you, and getting them to say “Yes” to working with you!
Entrepreneur Bonita Richter, MBA, publishes the acclaimed ProfitZine
weekly ezine with 1,000+ subscribers. If you’re ready to jump-start your business’ growth and make more money, get your *FREE* MARKETING and BUSINESS-BUILDING tips now at http://www.BonitaRichter.com
Connect With Me