3September2010
Posted by sns under: General.
7 Ways to Sell Value – Differentiate Yourself
By Grant Cardone
Learn to Sell Value by Differentiating!
The reality is your prospect sees your product to be very similar, if not identical, to others offered and then places much of his/her decision on the price rather than the value. The salesperson, unable to differentiate between price and value, will not successfully handle the difference between the two.
Unless you can create a powerful and distinct difference between your offer and the competition’s offer, the customer will be left to make a decision on who is lowest. How do you separate yourself and your offer is what distinguishes you from the competition? You’ve just got to be different and price is the most costly way to make you different!
Seven Ways to Sell Value
1. Product Differentiation
You must come up with ways in which your product is different than the competition. Even when the product is identical your product presentation is what will separate the perceived differences in the buyer’s mind. You have to know your product knowledge and combine that knowing with what it is the buyer wants to accomplish.
2. Price Differentiation
Untrained sales people believe price is the deciding factor but this is not true. Price is a myth when a true sales person builds value and desire and urgency. Thin margins and sales people that believe price is the only solution has put more companies out of business than any other single factor. If your company elects to be the low-price provider, your company better have every expense category cut to the bone, including sales commissions, and better be able to make it up with large volumes, which is highly suspect in this environment, or you will perish in short order! I can give you an almost endless list of companies that have failed using this strategy.
3. Relationship Differentiation
If there is a solid relationship between you and your clients based on high trust, you have an inside track on the value presentation. In my book Sell To Survive I discuss how to identify and utilize each individual employee’s powerbase. People would rather do business with people they know than people they don’t know. This dependence upon who we know and these relationships have not been correctly farmed over the years and we must get back to it.
4. Process Differentiation
Companies typically get into a rut about how they handle customers, with management assuming that the processes of yesterday will continue to work today. While the basics never change you have to accommodate a changing market and buyer expectations so your processes do differentiate your company. The Mac Daddy Rule with processes today is make it easy, friendly, fast, different than your competition and lastly make sure your process is consistent with your marketing message.
5. Technological Differentiation
New modes of communication encompass a wide variety of options, from using podcasts, social networking pages, the use of video online, video emails, blogs, electronic negotiating solutions, CRM’s and combining direct mail with electronic scrub campaigns to target select customers.
6. Experiential Differentiation
Provide customers with knock-your-socks-off service and experiences so that they tell friends and family. Ask yourself, how can we “WOW” our opportunities based on what they may experience shopping somewhere else? Warning: be sure your process supports the experiential differentiation.
7. Marketing Differentiation
Gimmicks like no money down, free credit, and lowest price are lazy attempts at marketing and typically fail. Direct your marketing to potential buyers of your products in a manner that hits each of them as individuals and be sure that the process can deliver it. Remember the game is to outsell, not just out market your competitors.
Make yourself different by making the sales staff different, your processes different and the customer experience different. Don’t think in terms of sales training; think in terms of sales effectiveness. Good luck and good selling!
About the Author : Grant Cardone is a speaker, author, sales trainer and CEO of Cardone Training Technologies. Author of Sell To Survive and other Audio, Video, and training programs, for more information on Mr. Cardone visit grantcardone.com.
30August2010
Posted by sns under: General.
How To Turn Prospects Into Clients : Peter Meyer’s Seven Step Sales Process
The Seven Step Sales Process Peter has developed enables him to:
» protect his hourly rate,
» raise his price when asked to discount,
» avoid having to quote his hourly rate,
»charge double what others do, and
» uncover more sales opportunities.
The key parts of the process are the survey and the design session. This focus differs from what many people are used to because it removes emphasis (and pressure) from the Propose and Close steps.
By the time you complete the Design Session, the framework (and possibly the details) of the proposal have been developed.
Peter has practiced and refined this sales process from his experience as a salesperson and then as a sales manager and now as a speaker, writer, and consultant. Peter almost never shares this sales process with others.
Peter Meyer’s Seven Step Sales Process follows Peter Drucker’s lead. “My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions,” Drucker said. Peter Meyer enlarges upon Drucker’s statement: “He did not say ‘pretend to be ignorant;’ he didn’t say ‘be a little ignorant.’ If you walk into a sales situation thinking you are anything but totally ignorant of your customer’s needs, you will leave money on the table. I don’t like to leave money on the table.
“The key component of the seven step sales process is listening,” Peter said. “And the key component of listening is actively trying to discover the problem or problems that keep the potential client awake at night — whether or not they are ones you can address. “And then you help them understand that you are helping them uncover these issues. Then you use this process to involve them in the solution.”
Here are the seven steps of the process:
1. Prospecting
2. First Call
3. Survey
4. Design Session
5. Propose
6. Close
7. Follow-Up
This process is proven in high-ticket items and intangibles. It is perfect for consulting and personal services.
We at Hanson Marketing have used the process in a variety of consulting situations, and we got significantly better results than with any other process we have tried.
Step 1 - Prospecting
The prospecting step is straightforward, and it is both reactive and proactive.
Prospecting is reactive, for example, when somebody calls and gives you a referral. And it is proactive when you help the prospect uncover his or her problems.
“You cannot create a need,” Peter warned. “All you can do is uncover needs and get your prospects to understand them.
“If the need doesn’t exist and you do create it, what you end up with is the customer coming back and saying, ‘I didn’t really have this need. You forced me into it, and I don’t feel good about it.’ And that’s not good if you believe in building long-term relationships.
“If you are trying to convert somebody to a client whom you are already dealing with in another way,” Peter said, “you don’t skip the first step.
“Or if you are trying to prompt an existing client to sponsor new work, you would start with this step. You are proactive here, too. A prospect is created sometimes by changing his or her awareness.”
During the first five steps Peter moves the process forward by asking high-gain questions. For instance, during the prospecting step he may ask:
“If you had a magic wand to wave over this problem, what would be the perfect solution?” or
“What keeps you awake at night?”
Peter’s wife, Eva, who works with him, asks feeling questions such as, “What would make you feel better about this?”
Step 2 - The First Call
“The first call is much more than building rapport,” Peter said. “It is the spot in which you set the relationship.
“If you want to be perceived as being self centered, talk about your own products and services.
“If you want to be perceived as offering value, do not talk about your products and services. Ask your prospects to talk about themselves. If they ask you for solutions, don’t provide them yet unless they believe that you really know the problem. Since you probably don’t yet, you would be doing a disservice by attempting to consult.”
The first call is for listening. And it’s for moving the process forward.
As he begins this step, Peter keeps three questions in mind:
1. Does your prospect have a problem that is important enough that he or she will take immediate action?
2. Can you help them to solve that problem?
3. Do you really want to work with this person?
If at any time the answer to one of these questions is no, you stop right there. If, for example, the important problem or problems are ones you can’t solve, you could say something like: “I don’t do that sort of thing, but Mary Consultant does it very well. I suggest you call her.”
A good high-gain question to ask in this step is: When we are done, what will have changed? There will be both positives and negatives. Negative things may happen, and you have to allow for them to come up. It almost always causes people to stop and think because it moves them beyond the short term.
Here is Peter’s example of how you can use high-gain questions to move from first call to survey. You can say, “Tell me about your business.” You listen. Then you may ask a question such as “When you are done, what will have changed?” or “What makes you more competitive than your competitors?” You listen.
Then you ask the magic wand question. You listen. You may respond, “I’m not sure we can do all of that. If you want to work on that we need to get more information.” You schedule the time and move along in the process.
Step 3 - Survey
“Here you are working inside the prospect’s organization to understand what needs to be done. That might include a day or several days of interviewing employees and even customers. If there is a problem to be solved, this is the time to make sure you touch each stakeholder and get them to tell you what that problem is from their own perspective.
“You need to earn the right to make suggestions and ask money for it. You earn it by listening and understanding.
“The survey is an important step. You can’t skip it,” Peter said. “If you do, you can’t do the next session.”
We sometimes stumbled during the survey phase. Until we began to learn and follow Peter’s Seven Step Sales Process, we threw out ideas right and left during the survey. It didn’t seem to work, but we didn’t know why.
The law of reciprocity is a powerful one that almost always works, but you need to keep it in balance. “If you flood people with idea after idea,” Peter explained, “they start losing their sense of responsibility for solving their own problems. You need a balance. You need to ask and make sure they understand that you’ve given them something. Then they need to ask themselves what am I going to do with it?
“If you tell yourself you have a problem because of questions I ask, I become a hero. If I tell you that you have a problem, I become a jerk. I am discounted.
“It is not until you say it yourself that it has weight.”
Your prospects may ask during the survey phase, “What would you suggest?” Here’s one way Peter would answer, “There are a lot of things we could do. I don’t know yet. It’s too soon to talk about them now.” You can continue, “I have heard this…. Is that right? We’ll talk more about that later.” (”Later” refers to the Design Session.)
If you mix the survey and the design session (by providing solutions as you ask questions), Peter explained, “People lose track of what they are supposed to be doing and they don’t do anything.”
4 - The Design Session
The design session is a group process. It works best if all the relevant decision makers in your prospect company are present. “As a group you prioritize the problems,” Peter said, “and as a group you decide what the best mix of solutions will be. Rarely will you have the total answer. Whenever you think you do, you are probably headed for a disaster. The customer will need to be an active player in the solution.
“The design session is very informal. Often you fill the entire white board with gibberish before you get to anything useful. It’s part of the process.” Peter reflects back to his prospect what has occurred so far, “Here’s what I think you said to me. Here are five options we have to fill those needs.” Then it becomes your turn to do a good job of explaining the options to them. “Based on what I heard, it sounds like option two is the one that will meet your needs. You tell me what you think.”
As Peter said, “You can never know every- thing. Don’t make recommendations without understanding distinctions.”
Also, keep in mind that in going over the options with them you may get new information that can lead them to choose an option you don’t think is optimum. Find out the reason why they are making that choice. You may be able to move them along to think in broader terms with a statement, “I don’t know all the parameters. In an ideal world is there a way we can do both _________ and _________?
“Often your outside perspective, tempered with what you learn from the survey, results in your coming back at the design session and stating something that should be clear to everyone, but only you saw. You are providing, in the design session, the flash of the blindingly obvious. This is normal.”
Here’s how a design session can work. In the survey phase by active listening you may uncover a list of five, ten, or fifteen different issues. In the design phase you prioritize them with the potential client in some sequence.
“The sequence I always choose,” he said, “is to start with the most painful problem with the worst downside, then the second worst downside, then the third.
“It’s rare that you get much farther than that without something happening because people get so excited about this one dramatic problem they sort of beg you to please fix it. Maybe you can, maybe you can’t. You do not try here. You get back on track with this long list of things to work on.
“Once you have gone through the list, you discuss solutions. Each one includes a price in time, people, and money, and that price needs to be identified. Then you and those in the design session tear the solution apart to build a better one. Everyone in the group has a stake in it…and in helping to make it succeed.
“Then with the list you say we can do this on this one and we can do that on that one. Would you like me to work on it?
“And if the answer is yes, then tell me before we get started the definition of success. Then tell me what it would mean to have that definition of success. And tell me what would happen if you don’t have that success.
“What would happen if we don’t get success is important because that tells people how much they can afford to spend. A part of the design session has to be dollar trade-offs.
“And then you say O.K., now if we get success, what is it worth? How much if we win and how much if we fail? If it is worth that much if we win and that much if we fail, then your prospect may ask how much will your work cost.
“At that point you can set a price and a prospect can consider a price without the pressure of price negotiations and the hassles with it.
“In the design session you may uncover things that are best done by outsiders other than yourself. If so, don’t be afraid to say, ‘Look, I am not the right person to do that. Who would you want?’ Or you can recommend someone if you trust them.”
“And that is the risk in this step. You may wind up with a solution that does not include you.
“This is hard for many of us to consider, and we tend to want to do things to keep the discussion from heading there. I tend to push it there. One of two things will happen: The prospect will decide to do it without you, or he or she will make a strong commitment to work with you.
“The first of those two situations happened recently. An exec with a large software company decided that he could do the work internally as well as we could. I congratulated him and encouraged him to replace me with internal resources. This made him feel better.
“It made me feel better, too, because I give an unconditional guarantee for my work. If I do not add value to what his internal team can do, should he pay me?
“The second one occurred the last time I pushed that idea with the same exec. He said loudly and clearly in front of his people that they could not do it and that he absolutely wanted me to. The idea of my not doing it frightened him. It was not until after he had made that loud and public declaration that we discussed price. He never questioned my fee and neither did his team.”
Peter sees the design session as a change for most sales people. “They will go from prospecting to qualifying to closing, and during closing they will do a demonstration of their product. After years of experience I tend to stop doing demonstrations. It’s counterintuitive, but the results are usually very good.”
People who are selling a consulting service may want to do a demonstration. In Peter’s terms this means “an explanation of what you do and how wonderful it is.” Peter often advises against it. What does he replace it with? A design session.
The design session succeeds because you and the prospect interact and together work out what the solution might be. “They have a sense of ownership,” Peter said. “And it is more likely to work. And it is more likely to be implemented.”
The design session becomes a series of steps, and as you are going through the process you are, in fact, demonstrating your skills and ability.
Your prospect may ask, “How does option two work?” And then you respond, “Here’s what happens . . . .” In this case, it is your prospect asking for a demonstration, instead of you setting up a formal demonstration.
Step 5 - Propose
“If you do a design session really well, the proposal can be matter of fact and anticlimactic,” Peter said. He has seen it become a “nuisance” with the customer saying, “Come on, come on, give it to me so I can sign.” The prospect has designed the project and agreed on the payment. All you need to do is reflect accurately the outcome of your design session in your proposal.
Step 6 - Close
The closing is organic to the design session, too. The client may be ready to sign. Maybe not. If not, you need to ask “What else do you need to do before you sign?” If he or she has to talk to someone else, you will have to work that person into the process now. Even better is to find out much earlier in the process who the decision makers are and to bring them into the design session.
Step 7 - Follow Up
You make certain you have a happy customer or client to create the opportunity for your being involved in future work.
“Look at the cycle this way,” Peter said. “If most of your profit comes from clients who repeat, and you live by the guarantee, why would you not sit down with your clients after you are done and ask them if they are happy. Then ask what the next steps are.
“If they have none, whose fault is that? Define and integrate a process into your work so that two things happen whenever you finish a project:
- the customer is planning the next step and
- you have a set of questions designed to focus the customer on his or her success.”
Both the survey and the design session require a commitment of time on the part of your prospect to participate. And if you have worked well with your prospect, he or she has made a major commitment towards generating an acceptable solution to a nagging problem. And you are well placed to become part of that solution.
The Seven Step Sales Process focuses on your prospects, not yourself and your services. By not approaching your prospects with preconceptions and ready-made solutions, you are open to their unique situations and true needs. By following Peter’s sales process step by step you will uncover more needs and generate many more opportunities for consulting jobs. And it will help you convert more prospects to clients.
That’s exactly how it worked for us.
The framework is extremely flexible — the steps unfolded in a form that each of our singular prospects felt comfortable with. (And that happened because of our active listening.)
Guided by the seven steps, we were able to develop with one prospect, for example, an innovative marketing pillar and an intricate financially rewarding results-based agreement. To arrive there we engaged in a lengthy survey and an intriguing (almost as lengthy) design session. The propose and close became a matter-of-fact result of the strategy we generated together and the relationship we built in the process.
19August2010
Posted by sns under: General.
How to Get Referrals and Close Deals Faster
By Robert Coorey
Question
——————-
I’m trying to improve my life insurance practice. I work in a country where life insurance is not popular. I’d like to receive your advice about how to receive referrals smartly and how to get people to make decisions without postponing?
Answer:
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Let’s start with referrals. You need to start with the basics:
1. Always ask for referrals from every customer. For example, “Mr. Customer, congratulations on your decision to take up life insurance. As you know, I’m trying to build my business up and was wondering if you could help me by providing the names of two or three of your associates who might also be interested in life insurance?”
2. Always ask for referrals from every non-customer. For example, “Mr. Prospect, I can understand that you don’t feel that life insurance is right for you at this moment, however I’m sure that you would agree with me that many other people have a need for life insurance. As you know, I’m trying to build my business up and was wondering if you could help me by providing the names of two or three of your associates who might be interested in life insurance?”
3. You can give referral rewards. For example, you could provide a discount off life insurance premiums for every new customer that someone refers to you, or give some of the commission to the person who referred you. Check what’s allowed in your country.
4. Why don’t you try giving a free financial analysis in a local raffle? You get great publicity, it might not you cost too much and the customer might end up buying your insurance anyway! Many businesses have started their fortune at local raffles.
My new eBook has a full chapter on referrals. Referrals are the best type of business, because a referred customer buys faster, doesn’t negotiate as hard on price, pays more and is more loyal. The more referred customers you can have in your business, the better!
If you focus on a specific industry market, you might even find that they talk within themselves and you can receive a lot of referrals just by looking after your existing customers. When selling to the Education Market, I found that all Principals talk on a regular basis and try to influence each other! It’s unbelievable. A loyal customer can be your best salesperson and provide a golden stream of referrals that will bring plenty of business to your door.
For your next question, how to get people to make decisions without postponing, this is also known as how to close the deal faster. To close the deal faster, the customer has to feel little or no risk by using your insurance. The more you can make them comfortable with you and feel like they trust you, the faster you can get the deal.
There are many books and articles written on “how to close the deal.” Most of these have techniques that are uncomfortable and awkward for you and the prospect. The secret is, once you have established the prospect’s problems and shown how you can help solve them, the sale should almost close itself. You will still need to ask for the business at the end (e.g. “Would you like to go ahead with this?”) but it will be so much easier, because their mind is already made up.
Also, you can introduce time-limited offers. For example, “This offer is only for the next week, and after that insurance premiums are rising.” If they are a qualified prospect, this can lead them into faster action.
Remember: You can’t close if they’re not ready to buy!
4August2010
Posted by sns under: General.
Top 10 Dumb Mistakes Sales Reps Make
By Geoffrey James
Sales mistakes may be inevitable but they’re not unavoidable. To eliminate them, and sell at the highest level possible, you must:
* Identify the mistakes you’re making.
* Understand why you’re making them.
* Visualize the consequence of repeating them.
* Know how to avoid them in the future.
I’ve gathered the 10 most common mistakes that sales reps make, along with the easiest way to correct them.
This could be the most important article on selling you’ve ever read.
Mistake #10: Neglecting to develop sales skills.
* Why you do it: You’re too busy with the day-to-day pressures of making your numbers to spend the time necessary to learn new skills and hone old ones.
* The inevitable result: You will plateau at a certain level of selling, and never fulfill your potential as a sales professional.
* How to avoid it: Ask a respected peer to monitor your sales interactions and provide advice about where you need work. Then schedule a regular time every week to work on those skills.
Mistake #9: Forgetting to prime your pipeline.
* Why you do it: When you’ve got plenty of prospects and customers, it seems like a waste of time to generate more opportunities.
* The inevitable result: When your current slate of clients runs out of steam, you’ll have to hustle to build your pipeline… and experience some lean weeks without commission while you do it.
* How to avoid it: Schedule quality time for cold-calling and asking for referrals and other lead generation activities. Then execute those activities until you’re certain that you’ll have customers to work with… no matter what happens in the future.
Mistake #8: Failing to qualify prospects.
* Why you do it: You’re so excited that the “customer” is willing to talk that you don’t want to burst your bubble by discovering that they’re not really a customer.
* The likely result: You’ll spend hours and maybe days developing an “opportunity” that will generate exactly zero revenue for your firm and zero commission for your wallet.
* How to avoid it: In the very early stages of the sales cycle, ask questions that will reveal if the prospect really needs what you’ve got to offer and (more importantly) has the money to buy.
Mistake #7: Delaying follow-up on prospects.
* Why you do it: You’d rather enjoy the fantasy of winning the deal rather than the (much more gritty and possibly disappointing) reality of actually selling to them.
* The likely result: What WAS originally a hot prospect becomes a cold prospect, and, eventually, a dead prospect.
* How to avoid it: Schedule follow-up activities immediately after the customer contact. Check your calendar every day to ensure that follow-ups don’t fall through the cracks.
Mistake #6: Proposing a generic solution.
* Why you do it: You don’t have the time to customize your presentation or solution, so you just propose what worked last time or (worse) something concocted by the marketing group.
* The likely result: The prospect will be less than enthusiastic (to say the least) when it become clear that the solution is just a cookie-cutter intended for anyone.
* How to avoid it: Don’t fool yourself into thinking that your generic solution will fill the bill for everyone. Instead, ask questions that uncover real customer needs, then build and present a solution that matches those needs.
Mistake #5: Trying to negotiate too soon.
* Why you do it: You want to close the deal, so you enter in discussions of price, delivery, etc. before you’ve secured agreement that a financial transaction is going to take place.
* The likely result: Rather than negotiating terms, you’ll negotiate price, which means that you’ll get a lower price than you otherwise would have secured.
* How to avoid it: Before final negotiation, establish an overwhelming need for your product, and your product alone. Ace out the competition and leave no other option that can satisfy the customer’s requirements.
Mistake #4: Delaying too long to close the deal.
* Why you do it: You’re afraid the answer will be “no” and want to avoid that horrible feeling of losing the deal.
* The likely result: If you miss the right point to close, the deal may never close. Other priorities and roadblocks will eventually emerge, making it harder (and perhaps impossible) to close the deal.
* How to avoid it: Throughout the sales cycle, position for the close by confirming that the discussions are on target. When there are no substantive issues left to address, make a final check for agreement and then ask for the business. Just do it.
Mistake #3: Continuing to sell after closing.
* Why you do it: You’re expecting the customer to say “NO!” so you don’t hear the “YES!” when it happens.
* The likely result: Best case, you’ll end up offering discounts and perks that will degrade the profitability of the deal. Worst case, you could accidentally surface objections that could completely scuttle the deal.
* How to avoid it: Listen to the customer (See mistake #5). When you get a “yes,” stop talking, smile, and take the order. It’s that simple.
Mistake #2: Forgetting the post-sale follow-up.
* Why you do it: You’ve moved on to other opportunities and can’t be bothered with last week’s news.
* The likely result: You’ll slowly destroy your reputation, because customers will think you’re only in the business to make a quick score.
* How to avoid it: Same as following up on prospects (Mistake #4). After each sale closes, schedule a series of follow-up phone calls and email to check on the customer’s status.
Mistake #1: Failing to build long-term relationships.
* Why you do it: Too many opportunities, and too little time.
* The likely result: The easiest customers are always repeat customers. You’ll be constantly be building your pipeline from scratch, which means more work for less money.
* How to fix it: Think of selling as a way to help people, and to change the world for the better. Honor your customers and your relationships, just as you honor your friends and family.
28July2010
Posted by sns under: General.
How to Sell Consulting - 5 Comprehensive Secrets to Sell Your Consulting Services
By Sean R Mize
This article is for freelance consultants who want to increase their sign-up rate in as little time as possible. Here’s what you need to do:
1. Outplay your competitors. You can win the business of your prospects if you can convince them that you are way better compare to your competitors. Keep yourself posted on the things that these people are doing so you’ll know exactly what you need to do to outplay them.
2. Reach out to your prospects. Be very aggressive when promoting your consulting services. You can visit organizations where you can distribute your business card. You can also do cold calling or resort to direct mail marketing to connect with your potential buyers.
3. Get your prospects to respond. This is very important to jumpstart the selling process. But how can you get people to contact you? The answer to this is very simple; you can offer them with incentives should they call you up or respond to your email marketing campaign. Offer them with exclusive discounts or freebies.
4. Offer free consulting services. Your goal here is to convince your prospects that you have exactly what they need in solving their problems or in improving the quality of their lives. If they are impressed with your free sessions, you can be assured that they’ll sign up in no time.
5. Recommendations and referrals. Get industry leaders to recommend you and get your previous customers to refer you to their friends and family members. As you know, word-of-mouth advertising is still the best form of marketing so this will surely pull up the number of your sign-ups in a heartbeat.
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Sean Mize teaches coaches, consultants, and small business owners how to package their knowledge and sell it in high priced coaching, consulting, and online class packages, and is an expert at using articles like this to drive traffic to his website, and has taught hundreds of clients his secrets.
14July2010
Posted by sns under: General.
Selling Consulting - Highly Successful System to Enroll Clients
By Paul Godines
When selling consulting, you will need some highly successful methods to get clients. Because one of the most difficult issues that every business owner has, especially during a recession is getting clients. This might make you wonder if there are even enough clients to make it worth staying in business for.
When in fact that’s not the case, especially during a recession, business consultants are HIGHLY needed. Whatever you service or product you are likely the answer to someone’s problem. Even if your product is an audio made with your kids digital recorder, you can make an impact on the world.
More importantly its not how much you give but the value you offer that will earn you tens of thousands of dollars of income. So, lets start with creating a simple method you can use to sell your consulting.
Begin by realizing your not a business consultant, or a transcriptionist, or a virtual assistant you’re a teacher. That’s your job, whose primary role is to discover your prospects needs and than if applicable educate your client about exactly how you can bring value to them with your services and or products.
With that in mind, lets move on. All you need to do is create a comfortable conversation which helps you discover their needs. I suggest you do that by using just a few well placed words.
Here’s a simple dialogue you can use to uncover opportunities and enroll clients;
• So tell me what’s going on - use this to discover opportunities.
• What result do you want - find out exactly what they want.
• What’s the evidence you will use to know you have achieved your goals - determine if you can deliver those results.
• What’s that worth to you - find out to what degree they value those results. I use a scale of 1 - 5 for example.
• It sounds like - here you help them see the possibility of reaching those results.
• We can help you achieve those results - here you actually make a statement with confidence that you can achieve the results they want.
• Is this something you would like to move forward with - here you are asking them if they would like to actually achieve those results.
• Ok here’s the next step - here you take the time to take them to the very next step, usually the procedure involved with enrolling.
• Confirm - get them to confirm to you the nest step, make sure they know exactly what to do next, and when to do it.
Now what makes this system so successful is in how you use this list. Start using it with friends, clients, prospects and family, force yourself to ask them what’s going on. What they would like to see happen, ask them how they would know they achieved their goal.
Than ask them what its worth to them to achieve their goal, tell them what it sound like to you. What’s most important is to be casual and very relaxed. Once you have some practice - you should do this at least 50 times - you will find enrolling clients extremely easy.
6July2010
Posted by sns under: General.
High Priced Consulting - Latest 4 Secrets to Improve Your High Priced Consulting
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Are you having difficulty getting people to sign up to your consulting services? Then, it’s about time that you improve what you are offering to attract more clients. Here’s how you can do that:
1. Establish your expertise on your chosen niche. If you want people to even consider doing business with you, you’ve got to convince them that you are really good at what you do. Don’t worry as with the help of the internet, doing this can be relatively easy. Invade forums and blogs and provide answers to the questions of your target market. Make sure that each of your posts is well thought-out, well-written, useful, and highly informative as people will most likely to judge you base on what you have written. You can also share a piece of your expertise on relevant blogs and by hosting free teleseminars that your prospects can take advantage of.
2. Offer risk-free trial. If you have been doing this business for quite sometime, you must already know by now that the competition in your chosen field is very stiff. To increase your chances of attracting more clients, I recommend that you offer risk-free trial especially to those people who are very apprehensive to work with you. Take this as an opportunity to show them how you can bring difference to their lives or to their careers/business. Earn their trust by convincing them that you are very knowledgeable and that you are genuinely interested in helping them out.
3. Impress your current customers. If you want your customers to help you get the word out about your consulting services, make it a point that you impress them all the way. Aside from giving them the most appropriate solutions to their pressing issues, strive to offer them with more value-added products and services that can improve their overall experience. For example, if you are helping people who would like to improve their page ranking, you can offer them with free SEO tools.
4. Be different. Set yourself and your consulting services apart from the rest by offering your clients with something different. Think out of the box and let your creative juices flow. Introduce new concepts and methods and don’t just copy what your competitors are doing to easily make a name for yourself over the internet. Keep in mind that if there is an element that can help you get farther in this field, it would be originality.
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Sean Mize teaches coaches, consultants, and small business owners how to package their knowledge and sell it in high priced coaching, consulting, and online class packages, and is an expert at using articles like this to drive traffic to his website, and has taught hundreds of clients his secrets. Sean says “If you have an existing marketable service or skill that you can teach others, I can teach you to package it into a high-priced class or coaching program, guaranteed”
29June2010
Posted by sns under: General.
Asked For A Discount? Raise Your Price
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by Peter Meyer for DM News
Does your sales force discount more than you would like? Does it need to be that way? Consider this true story.
Pat was in a new territory selling computerized switches at an average price of $150,000. It took only a month to find a prospect who literally wrote and held out a check for a $187,000. Pat refused it.
The prospect was William, who ran his high volume electronics company in an intensely personal way. He is the kind who spends nights on the couch in his office. The only time he would give Pat was at 10 p.m. Friday.
William wanted Pat’s switch, but at a discount. William’s way of offering to buy was to write a check on the spot from his personal checkbook, but for $17,000 below Pat’s price.
As Direct Marketing professionals, we use DM to get to high-tech decision makers like William. We work to be cost effective. We measure cost per lead, cost per sale, the effectiveness of lists. We measure down to the cent.
Then, the salesperson sometimes discounts away thousands of dollars. Does it need to be this way?
No, it does not. Pat got this deal, got it that night, and for $230,000. Just as important, the customer thought he got a great deal. Your team can do the same, and DM can play a part.
Raising The Price When Asked For A Discount
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Pat’s company used a mail and phone Direct Marketing campaign to get to William. Here is where Pat changed the rules.
Most DM leads your reps to a situation where they focus on their own needs and on your company. The mail or phone campaign creates product or company interest in the mind of your prospect, and the prospect gives your rep a few minutes to expand on it. The prospect expects your salesperson to talk about the product, and your rep is ready to do exactly that.
Pat didn’t. The maxim asks: “If we all come with two ears, two eyes, and one mouth, what do we always keep running?” Pat asked about William’s business. Not about how the switch would fit, but about the core business. Then Pat shut up and listened.
Pat was looking for two things that DM doesn’t do well. Pat wanted to find both the hot buttons of the owner and the places where software would make a difference. After listening for about 30 seconds, Pat knew that William would want a discount. Software was the key to avoiding it, and Pat planned to get a higher margin.
The best way Pat knows to do that is to understand the business, and Pat used questions designed to make sure that the owner learned as much as Pat did. Both learned a lot from that conversation. But, Pat wanted to know things William didn’t.
The Next Steps - Survey and Design Session
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Pat went to six key managers and two key salespeople and asked them about the business, seeking information that the owner might not have. There was, and always will be, plenty of this. It took four hours, but Pat left knowing the business inside out.
That Friday night William had his defenses up, waiting to be sold. But Pat’s first response was to talk about key levers for William’s business.
Stop here and ask yourself: How would you react to this? Most of us would do what William did, get very interested in finding new knowledge.
Pat knew the business’ opportunities very well and described some benefits that the firm could use. Pat did not describe the software, only the benefits and the cost to get that benefit. William started to weigh those costs against the benefits. Although he asked about the software, Pat could see that he really didn’t care. What William cared about was what the benefit would do to his business.
At the end of the session, Pat totaled up the benefits, and the costs, and asked for the $203,000. This is when William smiled and wrote out the check for a $187,000 switch.
Pat said no.
The Close
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Pat’s area manager was there as well. It was Fred’s first call with Pat and it was a struggle but Fred kept quiet. He watched and thought about how he might have to fire Pat on Monday.
But Pat said that William could have an even better deal. By moving up to the next larger platform, William’s business could have access to software that William wanted his business to have. Pat suggested that list price on that configuration would be $280,000. Pat offered to take a check for that machine at a price of $230,000 and try to get it approved over the weekend.
Fred was doing math in his head. Most of the additional price was high margin software. In fact, the discounted $230,000 deal had more margin than the original $203,000 package at full price! It was a great deal for the company, Fred knew he could approve it.
William did his own math. He wanted the software’s benefits, and knew it would help his business do things worth well more than $43,000 difference. William knew it was a good deal for his company.
Pat knew it too. The close was a simple question: “Is this a good deal for your business?”
Pat and Fred walked out with a check for a high margin deal. William became one of Pat’s biggest references.
Using DM to Reduce Discounting
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This worked because Pat used a process to sell the business benefits, not the product features. You can use DM to help your reps do the same. The process is simple (please see the Sidebar) and the DM steps are simple as well.
The function of a Direct Marketing piece or call is to create interest leading to action. That interest needn’t be in your product. It might be in your ability to change or improve something about the prospect’s job or company. Instead of focusing your marketing on the needs of the product division, you can use DM to focus the marketing on the needs of the target and his or her business.
These needs may be job focused. For instance, you might have an ATM switch that has great routing software. What the customer buys is not always that routing, but the business benefit of needing less work to keep costs down and reliability up.
Or you might have a 3.5″ drive with substantially better MTBF. You want to sell it to PC manufacturers. The benefits to present could be technical specs, or they could be the business’ ability to increase the sales of the PC that the disk goes into. Which will help your customer’s business more? If you can prepare your prospect so the rep can discuss this, you will make it possible to raise prices when asked for a discount.
If you want to support your own reps using that sales process and raising prices, lead them with DM that focuses the rep and the customer on the business, not the product. Then get ready to raise margins.
Sidebar - The Seven Step Sales Process
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Pat followed a basic sales process that enables a sales person to raise the margins of a high tech deal. The process runs something like this:
Step 1 is cold calls, whether from referrals or a list.
Step 2 is the introductory call. Where most of us spend this call talking about us, Pat gives a short description of what the company has done for others and quickly goes to the problem that the prospect needs resolved.
The problem the prospect needs resolved is the only thing that really matters. His or her most important problem is paramount above all, even if it does not directly involve our product. Pat works to find that.
Step 3 is to survey the stakeholders. Pat, as an outsider, talks to the key stakeholders in the operation to get a view of the problem from several sides. This is a key step. The whole picture leads to the whole solution.
Step 4 is a design session. Pat wants buy in from the stakeholders or stakeholders so that the work actually results in solution, not just a nice binder. In this session Pat shows these key people what came out of the survey, and how the results might define the problem. These become the success criteria for the project.
Now, Pat and the customer are focused on solutions and not on costs and fees. This is key to avoiding last minute discounts and building margin.
At the end of the design session, the stakeholders have defined the severity of the issue, the need for solution, the criteria for measuring success, and a plan to solve it. The costs are a small part of the discussion. They are insignificant compared to the value of resolving the problem.
Step 5 is to document the meeting. This becomes the proposal.
Step 6 is to get a contract both parties like. If Pat has done a good job at identifying the most important problem and showing a path to resolution, customer executives want to bypass this step. For important issues, who wants to slow for papers?
Step 7 is to do the work, and follow up.
Remember that the principle is simple. Focus all your marketing on the customer’s business and not yours. In a short while, you can return to high margin sales.
17June2010
Posted by sns under: General.
100 Ways to Promote Your Business
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Do you feel “stuck” trying to develop your business? Here are some ideas on how to promote your business. Not all ideas are great for your business, but they can get you thinking about what you can do.
Need to build business right now? Need to make a different impression with your customers? Need to build sales in one area of your product line? Let’s get busy!
(1) Give Away Freebies With Your Business’s Name and Contact Information.
Go to where your target customers hang out and set up a booth or table. Give out some freebies and a flyer or leaflet as well. Some examples of freebies include free magnets, rubber bands, rulers, note pads, etc. All of these items should have your information printed on them.
(2) Create a Targeted Sales Brochure.
It is better to deliver a targeted message to a few people than a general message to everyone. Identify what you have to offer to specific groups of customers, and make your sales pitch to them specifically.s well.
(3) Make Yourself Available for Speaking Engagements.
Contact local schools and associations about classes, colleges, seminars, lectures that you can speak or teach at.
(4) Go to Your Local Library or Book Store and Place Business Cards in Relevant Books.
Okay, here is a real “guerrilla marketing” tactic. Go to your local book stores and libraries and find books that a potential customer might read and place your business card in it.
(5) Shave Your Logo into Your Hair or Get a Logo Tattoo.
(6) Get Involved with Flyer/Business Card Exchanges.
(7) Incorporate a Referral Incentive Program.
Offer your customers an incentive for referring customers to you. An incentive could be a discount on future business, a gift certificate, a gift, or whatever you decide that they incentive should be. You might also consider implementing a referral fee.
(8) Hold a Contest.
(9) Get Listed in Directories.
(10) Wear Your Business Information.
Create t-shirts, hats, buttons, and bags with your company’s information and Website listed on them. You might feel like a walking advertisement, but that is the point.
(11) Put a Magnetic Sign or Advertising Wrap on Your Vehicle.
(12) Sponsor a Charitable Event.
(13) Sponsor a Client’s Event.
Sponsoring a client’s event can get your name out to all of the client’s contacts as well as remind your client that you are a valuable resource to them.
(14) Offer Free Consultations to Potential Customers.
(15) Use Your Friends and Family.
Ask friends and family to spread the word about your business.
(16) Print a Coupon on the back of your business card.
(17) Promote Your Business in the Press.
Find interesting angles about your company to send press releases about your business.
(18) Set Up An Account on Flickr and Other Photo Sharing Sites.
(19) Print a Calendar for Your Customers.
(20) Get Networking.
Continuously give your business card out to as many people as you can. The easiest way to do this is by asking people that you talk with for their business card. Take notes and if you were able to get a business card, take the time to send them a short email to thank them for their time.
(21) Print a Newsletter.
(22) Buy a Yellow Pages Ad.
Get yourself a yellow pages listing. Many people rely on the phone book.
(23) Promote Yourself on Printed Materials.
Promote yourself by placing your contact information on all of your printed materials.
(24) Join and Attend Professional Groups.
(25) Contact Local Companies Which Could Refer Business To You.
Consider paying a referral fee for business referrals.
(26) Participate in Trade Shows.
(27) Create a Holiday Promotion.
The holidays are a great time to send out a card or gift to past and current customers to show them that you appreciate their past business and to remind them that you still exist. Be innovative and you can think of a low priced option, even if it means homemade cookies with your logo baked into the middle.
(28) Write a Book.
(29) Get Involved in Social Events.
(30) Make Sure to Incorporate ‘Thank You’ into Your Marketing Plan.
(31) Stay in Contact with People You Used to Work With.
(32) Newsletter Cross-Promotion Works.
(33) Learn More and Get More Business.
(34) Market to Past and Present Clients.
(35) Offer an Online Newsletter.
(36) Start and Write an Informative Blog.
(37) Launch a Website.
(38) Offer a Lower Cost Version of Your Services.
(39) Offer a Discount for Orders Via Your Web Site.
Offer a discount for orders place through your web site.
(40) Offer a Very Low Price on One Service in the Expectations of The Customer Buying More.
(41) Incorporate Video on Your Site and Go Viral with a Video.
(42) Post Free Ads on BackPage.com.
Post free ads on BackPage.com to see if this gets you any work.
(43) Improve Your Website Content..
(44) Implement Social Bookmarking and Social Networking Tactics.
(45) Placing ‘Invite Friends’ or ‘Send Article to Friends’ Buttons on Your Web Site.
(46) Get Articles Published in Online Magazines/e-Zines.
Try to get your articles published in online trade magazines and e-zines.
(47) Use Google AdWords or Similar Advertising Services.
(48) Start an Affiliate Program.
(49) Ask for Testimonials.
Ask for testimonials from existing clients. Good testimonials are perfect for your web page and promotional items.
(50) Send Promotional Items for Your Services Along With Your Invoices.
(51) Join a Word-of-Mouth Referral Club.
(52) Visit Topic Specific Chat Rooms..
(53) Create Your Own Locally Published Directory.
Create your own local business directory to get to network with other local business owners and to get your name out there in a unique way, online or off.
(54) Find an Agent to Promote You.
(55) Utilize Special Media.
Have you thought of getting the word out of about your special event to visitor information centers, published event calendars, clubs and chambers of commerce? Add to the list influential contacts for your potential attendees.
(56) Start Podcasting.
(57) Submit Abridged Articles to Article Banks.
(58) Submit Helpful Tutorials.
(59) Offer Free Information; Write an e-Book.
(60) Pull a Publicity Stunt.
(61) Use a Signature on all Emails.
(62) Get Listed with Trade Associations.
Sign up with relevant trade associations and get listed in their online and offline directories.
(63) Comment on Blogs.
Visit blogs and make thoughtful comments to lead people back to your business’s blog or web site.
(64) Call into Radio Shows. Free PR.
(65) Write a Useful Guide that People Must Subscribe to In Order to Read It.
(66) Exchange Links.
(67) Cold Call Potential Customers.
(68) Ask Questions on Your Site and Hide the Answers in the Site’s Content.
(69) Write a Column in Your Local Newspapers and Magazines.
(70) Ask to Be a Guest Blogger on Other Blogs.
(71) Submit Your Web Site and Blog to Directories and Search Engines.
(72) Join Listservs for Related Business Professionals.
Listservs are a great way to network with other professionals.
(73) Create an Online Video Seminar and Invite People to Attend.
(74) Create Positive Testimonials for Services and Software You Try.
(75) Create an Elevator Commercial.
You may have 10-seconds to give it, so make it short and sweet.
(76) Offer a Guarantee.
(77) Get a List of New Businesses in Your Area and Contact Them.
(78) Host or Join a Blog Carnival.
(79) Provide Monthly Advice Chats.
(80) Positive Profiles on Customers on Your Blog.
(81) Link Back to Your Web Sites and Profiles From Social Networking Sites.
(82) Link to As Many Other Similar Blogs from Your Own Blog.
(83) Use Linkbait.
Create useful and fun top 10 lists (or top 100 lists) to bring in lots of traffic. Submit these articles to social networking sites like Digg.com and see if it goes viral.
(84) Make Sure to Provide an RSS Web Feed.
(85) Go Controversial.
Say things that are really controversial to strike up free publicity.
(86) Try Getting a Review.
Use ReviewMe.com to get reviewed.
(87) Build a Funny 404 Page.
(88) Sponsor a Local Little League or Other Sports Team.
Buy uniforms for a local sports team with your branding on them.
(89) Place Your Business Card in a Restaurant’s Card Bowl.
(90) Offer an Exchange of Services..
(91) Get on the Radio.
(92) Get Articles Published in Magazines.
(93) Forwarding Viral Emails.
(94) Stand on a Corner with Balloons and a Sign.
(95) Become an Expert on Q/A Sites.
Some Q/A sites are:
· AllExperts.com
· Yahoo Answers
· Answers.com
· Experts Exchange
· Wiki Answers
· MyLot
· CareerBuds
(96) Hang a flag, banner or magnetic sign.
A friend of mine says, “A business without a sign is a sign of no business.”
(97) Promote Sales with a Two-For-One Coupon.
(98) Send Out a Direct Mail Piece.
(99) Sell Gift Certificates.
(100) Brand Yourself.
Define your business with consistent graphics, business style, and messaging.
Not all of these ideas are right for your business or organization. Evaluate what you want to do — build marketplace awareness, promote sales now, position your company differently — and adopt a tactic which will help you do that. Fine tune that tactic, and test the results. You will be on your way to business promotion!
5June2010
Posted by sns under: General.
7 Ways to Sell and Retain Your Integrity
by Ari Galper, Founder, Unlock The Game™
Making more sales while retaining your integrity — is it possible to do both?
Based on e-mails I continue to receive daily, the answer is a resounding “yes.”
Eliminating traditional sales thinking and tactics does take effort, because the messages of the sales “gurus” you’ve read over the years can continue to bubble up in your mind, especially when you’re in the sales process.
Despite your good-hearted intentions of helping others with your service or product, do these traditional “sales tips” still pop up in your mind?
• Focus on “closing” the sale and it will happen
• When you feel rejected, brush it off and get ready for more
• If a potential client says “no,” it’s your job to turn it into a “yes”
• When a potential client challenges your product or service, just sell harder
These ideas reinforce the traditional sales message that your only focus should be on pursuing the end goal of making the “sale,” regardless of the personal toll it might take on you and your potential client.
It is possible to sell without compromising your integrity.
Here are seven suggestions:
1. Focus on the getting to the “truth” of your potential client’s situation. You may or may not be a fit for each other, so focusing on the end goal of making the sale only derails the trust-building process. Without trust, you compromise integrity.
2. Eliminate rejection once and for all by setting realistic expectations and avoiding traditional sales behaviors such as defensiveness, persuasion, and over-confidence. If you’re not trying to sell, you can’t be rejected.
3. Stop “chasing” potential clients who have no intention of buying. How can you do this? Shift your mindset and boost your truth-seeking skills so that you can quickly, yet graciously, discern whether the two of you are a potential “fit” or not.
4. Avoid calling people “prospects” or even thinking about them that way. People are people, and when you label them in your language or your thoughts, you dehumanize them and the sales process. “Prospect” reinforces the notion that sales is only a “numbers game.” Train yourself to think about “potential clients” instead.
5. Take the “cold” out of your cold calling. Don’t start with “Hi, my name is… I’m with… We do…”. When you begin a conversation by making it about you, instead of about the other person, you immediately cut off the possibility of opening a dialogue. Try the more humble approach of asking “Maybe you can help me out for a second,” and keep in mind that you’re really calling to help them solve their problems.
6. Don’t try to “overcome” objections. Instead, determine whether the objection is the client’s truth or not. Then you can decide whether to continue to open the conversation.
7. Avoid using “I” or “We” in your e-mail communications to potential clients. These words indicate that the focus of your communication is on satisfying your needs rather than solving their problems. This sets the wrong tone for a potential relationship.