More Sales in Four Simple Steps
More Sales in Four Simple Steps
If you are on a two month vacation getting lost can be a fun and whimsical experience, but if you’re trying to go from Manhattan to Los Angeles in three days, getting lost and losing valuable time (and gas) is an unacceptable option.
To get from Manhattan to Los Angeles as quickly as possible you need to take the shortest, most efficient route. Using your map, you may choose to travel from New York to Cincinnati to Albuquerque to L.A., catching some sleep in each city. If you reach each city in accordance with your plan, you can rest assured that you will arrive in California in a timely fashion. Making a sale is no different than planning your trip. If you set and reach short term goals during your sales process, you can improve your ability to make more sales and save time doing so.
The trick is to set the right goals for yourself.
When you look at a map of the United States you can easily see that each of the cities mentioned above is along one of the shortest routes between New York and Los Angeles. However, you won’t always be able to see the shortest path to a sale. The following strategy will help you set your goals along the way.
Get Your Market’s Attention
The first part of the plan is to understand the general notion that you are in business because your product or service fills a need, satisfies a desire or solves a problem. Therefore, the first goal in the sales process is to get your market’s attention. Your market exists because it has a need for your service or product, but you can’t help them if they don’t know you are around to help.
There are many ways to pursue your market’s attention. Chief among them are:
* Opening a Store
* Internet Marketing
* Print Advertising
* Broadcast Adverting
Embarking on any of these endeavors will increase your ability to get your marketing message in front of a targeted audience.
If you’ve opened a store you better have picked a dynamite location. Opening your doors in a neighborhood that doesn’t need your product or service will set you down a slippery slope. On the other hand, setting up shop in the heart of your market will go a long way toward consistently helping you position your marketing message where you want it – in front of your prospects. What’s more, setting up a physical location for your business goes a long way in helping achieve the second sales plan goal: getting your prospects to contact you. All your prospects need to do to contact you is walk through your door.
Internet marketing is similarly beneficial. Instead of walking down the street, seeing an ad in your window and walking into your store, your internet client surfs the web, sees your ad and then visits your web site.
Both on and off-line stores generate business by marketing to well targeted passersby. They also offer the unique advantage over print and broadcast advertising of not requiring your prospects to switch media during the sales process. Not having to do so removes an obstacle to making a sale.
Once you’ve gotten your prospects to notice you’ve reach your first goal and are now considerably closer to making a sale.
Get Your Prospects to Contact You
The next goal is to get your prospect to contact you. It doesn’t matter if they are standing outside your store, looking at your ad in the local newspaper or surfing the Web, your ad has to be good enough to motivate enough people to contact you. They can walk into your store, visit your web site and complete a form or pick up the phone and call you, it doesn’t matter just as long as they contact you.
That’s a pretty big task to accomplish on a regular basis, but it can be done. Two things you can do to motivate your prospects are to offer a tremendous rebate and give away valuable information.
Offering a tremendous rebate is effectively giving something away for free. When you give something away people tend to respond in kind. If you offer a 60% rebate on a $1000 item for clients who order by phone (as opposed to buying on-line or via a catalog) you have a much better chance of making a sale than if you were to entice them with a lollipop instead. Giving away a lollipop adds no value to your offer. Returning $600, on the other hand, adds tremendous value. Of course, any discount you offer has to make sense within the confines of your price structure.
Another way to leverage people’s tendency to respond in kind is to give away useful information, in the form of an E-book or other electronic media, in exchange for your prospects’ contact information. People hunger for information. You can give it to them in return for their valuable contact information. This way you can continue to market to them and increase your chance of making a sale even though your prospect isn’t buying from you immediately. If you market to them consistently and well a percentage will ultimately contact you. Try sending a regular newsletter or E-zine to keep you and your business on their radar screen. When they decide they need help with their problem they will default their need to the solution most prevalent in their mind, namely you.
Once a prospect picks up the phone or walks into your store to learn more about your product or service you have completed your second goal and are one step closer to making a sale.
Find Out Exactly What Your Prospects Need
Whether you are talking to someone on the phone or standing with a customer in your store your next goal is to find out exactly what your prospect needs. As an entrepreneur you may make the common mistake of believing that your clients need what you have. This couldn’t be more untrue. Your (and my) clients want what they need. The best way to find out what they need is to ask a series of questions designed to identify the most salient factors about your prospects’ problems, needs, desires and concerns. You can also use questions to learn about your prospects’ decision making process - are others involved in marketing decisions? Are there seasonal considerations in making marketing decisions? Etc…
Once you have these answers you can use them as bullet points as you present how your product or service will handle each of your prospects’ concerns. Go through each of their issues and clearly explain how your product or service addresses their unique circumstance.
Once you use questions to present the reasons why your prospect is going to buy from you, you are just one step away from completing your goal of making a sale.
Ask for the Business
Once you have presented your well structured case for your prospect’s business do not hesitate to ask for it. When you reach this point in the sales process you have successfully:
* Won your prospects attention
* Convinced your prospect to contact you
* Gleaned the information you need to make the sale
So ask for the business! You’ll be happy you did.
Move Your Marketing Forward
If you keep these four goals in mind and combine them with a powerful and compelling marketing message, one that motivates your prospects to take the action you want, you will significantly increase your ability to generate new business.
More Sales in Four Simple Steps - To learn more about this author, visit Jeremy Cohen's Website.
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Trying to make a sale without a plan is like taking a cross country trip without a map. At some point you are going to get lost.
If you are on a two month vacation getting lost can be a fun and whimsical experience, but if you’re trying to go from Manhattan to Los Angeles in three days, getting lost and losing valuable time (and gas) is an unacceptable option.
To get from Manhattan to Los Angeles as quickly as possible you need to take the shortest, most efficient route. Using your map, you may choose to travel from New York to Cincinnati to Albuquerque to L.A., catching some sleep in each city. If you reach each city in accordance with your plan, you can rest assured that you will arrive in California in a timely fashion. Making a sale is no different than planning your trip. If you set and reach short term goals during your sales process, you can improve your ability to make more sales and save time doing so.
The trick is to set the right goals for yourself.
When you look at a map of the United States you can easily see that each of the cities mentioned above is along one of the shortest routes between New York and Los Angeles. However, you won’t always be able to see the shortest path to a sale. The following strategy will help you set your goals along the way.
Get Your Market’s Attention
The first part of the plan is to understand the general notion that you are in business because your product or service fills a need, satisfies a desire or solves a problem. Therefore, the first goal in the sales process is to get your market’s attention. Your market exists because it has a need for your service or product, but you can’t help them if they don’t know you are around to help.
There are many ways to pursue your market’s attention. Chief among them are:
* Opening a Store
* Internet Marketing
* Print Advertising
* Broadcast Adverting
Embarking on any of these endeavors will increase your ability to get your marketing message in front of a targeted audience.
If you’ve opened a store you better have picked a dynamite location. Opening your doors in a neighborhood that doesn’t need your product or service will set you down a slippery slope. On the other hand, setting up shop in the heart of your market will go a long way toward consistently helping you position your marketing message where you want it – in front of your prospects. What’s more, setting up a physical location for your business goes a long way in helping achieve the second sales plan goal: getting your prospects to contact you. All your prospects need to do to contact you is walk through your door.
Internet marketing is similarly beneficial. Instead of walking down the street, seeing an ad in your window and walking into your store, your internet client surfs the web, sees your ad and then visits your web site.
Both on and off-line stores generate business by marketing to well targeted passersby. They also offer the unique advantage over print and broadcast advertising of not requiring your prospects to switch media during the sales process. Not having to do so removes an obstacle to making a sale.
Once you’ve gotten your prospects to notice you’ve reach your first goal and are now considerably closer to making a sale.
Get Your Prospects to Contact You
The next goal is to get your prospect to contact you. It doesn’t matter if they are standing outside your store, looking at your ad in the local newspaper or surfing the Web, your ad has to be good enough to motivate enough people to contact you. They can walk into your store, visit your web site and complete a form or pick up the phone and call you, it doesn’t matter just as long as they contact you.
That’s a pretty big task to accomplish on a regular basis, but it can be done. Two things you can do to motivate your prospects are to offer a tremendous rebate and give away valuable information.
Offering a tremendous rebate is effectively giving something away for free. When you give something away people tend to respond in kind. If you offer a 60% rebate on a $1000 item for clients who order by phone (as opposed to buying on-line or via a catalog) you have a much better chance of making a sale than if you were to entice them with a lollipop instead. Giving away a lollipop adds no value to your offer. Returning $600, on the other hand, adds tremendous value. Of course, any discount you offer has to make sense within the confines of your price structure.
Another way to leverage people’s tendency to respond in kind is to give away useful information, in the form of an E-book or other electronic media, in exchange for your prospects’ contact information. People hunger for information. You can give it to them in return for their valuable contact information. This way you can continue to market to them and increase your chance of making a sale even though your prospect isn’t buying from you immediately. If you market to them consistently and well a percentage will ultimately contact you. Try sending a regular newsletter or E-zine to keep you and your business on their radar screen. When they decide they need help with their problem they will default their need to the solution most prevalent in their mind, namely you.
Once a prospect picks up the phone or walks into your store to learn more about your product or service you have completed your second goal and are one step closer to making a sale.
Find Out Exactly What Your Prospects Need
Whether you are talking to someone on the phone or standing with a customer in your store your next goal is to find out exactly what your prospect needs. As an entrepreneur you may make the common mistake of believing that your clients need what you have. This couldn’t be more untrue. Your (and my) clients want what they need. The best way to find out what they need is to ask a series of questions designed to identify the most salient factors about your prospects’ problems, needs, desires and concerns. You can also use questions to learn about your prospects’ decision making process - are others involved in marketing decisions? Are there seasonal considerations in making marketing decisions? Etc…
Once you have these answers you can use them as bullet points as you present how your product or service will handle each of your prospects’ concerns. Go through each of their issues and clearly explain how your product or service addresses their unique circumstance.
Once you use questions to present the reasons why your prospect is going to buy from you, you are just one step away from completing your goal of making a sale.
Ask for the Business
Once you have presented your well structured case for your prospect’s business do not hesitate to ask for it. When you reach this point in the sales process you have successfully:
* Won your prospects attention
* Convinced your prospect to contact you
* Gleaned the information you need to make the sale
So ask for the business! You’ll be happy you did.
Move Your Marketing Forward
If you keep these four goals in mind and combine them with a powerful and compelling marketing message, one that motivates your prospects to take the action you want, you will significantly increase your ability to generate new business.
More Sales in Four Simple Steps - To learn more about this author, visit Jeremy Cohen's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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