Top 8 Steps to Guarantee Closing Sales

Author: Sam Manfer

It’s best to have the goal in mind – the sale. So let’s start from the end and work backwards.


8. Get all the powerful people – especially the most powerful person to commit to your offering. If it is a business sale, there may be lots of people involved. If it is a consumer sale (car, house, personal item), determine who has the power – husband, wife?


7. Ask for the commitment. i.e. “Since you’re feeling good about what we’ve just discussed, can I have your commitment today that you will support me/my company. If “yes”, you’ve won a vote - not the sale yet. If “no”, ask “How come?” i.e. “Seems like you have some concerns. Please explain”


6. Ask the magic question – “How do you feel about what I’ve just presented?” If good go for commitment. See above. If not good or hesitation, ask “What’s the issue.” See above.


5. Ask questions about what’s wanted/expected. “What would the perfect solution look like to you?” Stop talking and listen. Base your presentation on what’s said.

a. The biggest mistake is to ask others what someone else wants/expects.
b. If nothing is said about what should be a concern, expose and entice to sense if there is any interest. Otherwise let it go.


4. Make answering your questions a condition before presenting. i.e. “I know you’re expecting me to tell you about our stuff, but before I do, can I ask you a few questions about your wants and expectations so I don’t bore you with information that is of no interest to you.”
a. People reveal more one-on-one and you have to appeal to this person to win is/her vote.
b. Rescue strategy, when you can’t resist the urge to present, is to ask each person the magic, feeling question. See above


3. All the people who are touched or impacted by your product, especially those in high places are the vote you have to capture. The powerful will make the final decision. It is what it is. Besides, what would happen if your competition gets to the bosses.


2. Interviewing and presenting to all these individuals is a lot of work and should only happen after you qualify that this is a good company and a good opportunity for you to pursue. Anything with life is not good for you. Use history to determine the profile of those who are most likely to do business with you. These are your plumbs. Leave the rhubarbs for your competitors.


1. Have a systematic prospecting program. Your easiest prospects are current customers if you have developed C-level relationships, Read TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER$at www.sammanfer.com/productpage.htm. Your toughest prospects are new account, cold call, types. Prospect for those that fit your profile.


See selling is systematic and can be easy. People make it tough by pushing product, going after everything, and trying to beat the competition. Best case these people close 30%. Do the above and you’ll soon be closing 70% of those you choose to pursue.

Article Source: www.articlesbase.com

About the Author:
Sam Manfer provides powerful selling information through articles, books, and seminars for Relationship Selling at C-Levels, Effective Sales Calls and all other selling skills. Visit www.SamManfer.com to see more inspiring articles and to register for his free Selling Wisdoms E-zine.

Direct Mail or Email Marketing?

Author: Steven Sellwood

It's an emerging debate that looks set to become more widespread in the future - which direct marketing method is most effective: traditional direct mail campaigns, or new generation email marketing?


Direct mail is sent to businesses and consumers every day and is used by a very wide range of organisations and industries. A mailing in the post, often accompanied by a letter, has become a proven and accepted way of targeting your audience, with consistent conversion rates of about 1-5%. However in recent years direct mail has attracted criticism over the environmental impact it can have, and the annoyance caused by misdirected mailings.


Email marketing using opt in data is less widely used at the moment, but is growing more rapidly in popularity than almost any other direct marketing tool. A growing range of good quality opt in, and in some cases double opt in lists are becoming available, as are a wide range of email broadcast services. But this new marketing medium has already been tainted by abuse and association with the practice of spamming or junk mailing.


So what are the relative merits of each of these contrasting direct marketing methods?


The Benefits of Email Marketing

Email marketing is direct marketing at its most impactful. Your message lands directly in the inbox of your recipient, your message can be personalised, and even targeted to individual recipients.

Email marketing can be timed not just to the day, but to the hour and minute, in order to reach consumers just when they are likely to make a buying decision. Email marketing can also be tracked in detail, even to the amount of people who open and read your email, or who forward it to a friend.

Because it is solely a digital medium, email marketing is more environmentally friendly, and has a far lower carbon footprint than other marketing methods.

Email marketing can be very cost effective as it does not need costly mailing houses, production, postage and so on. However data costs can be higher that traditional list rental for direct mail, and email campaigns also require the use of a broadcasting partner.

Email marketing is highly effective in growing online sales for e-commerce sites - in just a few clicks the recipient can act on impulse and buy from your site. It can also be used to drive traffic to b2b sites that aim to collect leads and enquiries.


The Benefits of Direct Mail

Direct mailshots are a tangible and physical representative of your brand, which can be held in the recipient's hands. A mailer with high production values can say much about your brand, just through its size, feel and texture.

Direct mail is well established and proven as a marketing tool. Consumers and businesses are used to sending and receiving marketing messages in the post, and are receptive to the messages they convey.

Direct mail can also be used to increase your online sales from your website - increasing numbers of mail order companies are finding that their offline catalogues sent in the post are becoming increasingly effective at driving consumers online to order, instead of by mail or phone.

Quality direct mail data is generally more affordable and more widespread, and does not come with fixed broadcast costs and fewer issues over the opt in procedure. The direct mail industry is also far more mature with a wider range of lists and suppliers available.

Direct mail does not have to fight its way through complex spam and junk mail filters used in many email programs.


One fact is universal - any direct marketing campaign using direct mail, email marketing, or for that matter telemarketing, needs great quality data that is accurate and well targeted.

Article Source: www.articlesbase.com

About the Author:
Steve Sellwood is from selectabase.co.uk , leading UK suppliers of quality direct marketing lists for all uses, and for both business-to-business, and business-to-consumer campaigns. Selectabase also provide a range of affordable list cleaning services to keep your in house lists up to date and ready to use.

How Can Direct Mail be Used With Other Marketing Tools?

Author: Steven Sellwood

Direct mail is sent to businesses and consumers every day and is used by a very wide range of organisations and industries.


A mailing, often accompanied by a letter, in the post has become a proven and accepted way of targeting your audience, with consistent conversion rates of about 1-5%.


However many direct mail users don't realise just how much of a friend it can be to many other marketing methods and tools. And combining more than one marketing tool together in the same campaign can also reap bigger benefits and increased response rates.


The experts might call it ‘Integration' but to everyone else its just common sense - marketing activities work best when they are used to support and complement each other. Carried out in isolation, marketing activities just don't have the same impact or resonance with the target audience.


Here are just a few examples of how you could use direct mail alongside, before or after other marketing communication activities:


Before you exhibit at an event or exhibition, send out targeted invites to your stand to your own list of contacts, prospects and existing customer. Or rent and mail a mailing list of previous visitors from the event organisers to attract plenty of new business, especially if the mailing is combined with an offer or incentive.


After you return from exhibiting at an event or exhibition, use a direct mailshot to follow up on your new list of stand visitors, leads and prospects about a week or so later. Thank them for visiting your stand and ask if there's anything else you can help them with


Push new traffic to your website by mailing a list of prospects. One big advantage of this technique is that you can increase direct traffic to your site without having to worry about losing potential visitors to natural or paid search activity by your competitors. This strategy works equally well for gaining b2b leads online as it does for gaining b2c ecommerce sales.


Use direct mail to follow up on telephone or coupon enquiries you may have received as a result of above the line promotional activities such as press advertising, radio advertising, competitions or public relations. You may need to mail these lists several times over a period of time before getting a response.


When you are running a sales promotion or incentive campaign, perhaps in your own outlets or in retailers, make sure you also promote it with a mailing to potential or previous contacts and customers as well. This will help drive traffic to stores and ensure the success of your merchandising campaign.


Before you start a field sales or telemarketing campaign, do a mailing first to soften up your prospects and open doors. Depending on your market, you may also want to give recipients a chance to decline receiving a sales call in advance.


Likewise, after your telemarketing or direct selling campaign is over, follow up on your lukewarm prospects with another mailing - often it can take several contacts using different forms of media before a lead turns into a customer.

Article Source: www.articlesbase.com

About the Author:
Steve Sellwood is from selectabase.co.uk , leading UK suppliers of quality direct marketing lists for all uses, and for both business-to-business, and business-to-consumer campaigns. Selectabase also provide a range of affordable list cleaning services to keep your in house lists up to date and ready to use.

Lead With “you” for Proactive Relationship Selling

Author: Sam Manfer

What do you say when you call on potential buyers or the top executives of your clients organizations? If you’re like most, you’ll do some chit chat and then say something similar to, “I just wanted to check on how we’re doing with the XYZ project.” Then probably before you leave, you’ll say, “Are there any new projects coming up that we can help with or participate in?”


Both questions are self-centered, reactive questions. Yes, reactive. Even though in the second question you’re asking about future business, you’re not causing change. You’re waiting for the person to tell you what he’s going to do and hopefully allow you in. That’s reactive. Self centered because you’re asking how “we” are doing or how “we” can help. This is all about you even though it relates to his world.


To become more effective on your visits (that is leave with something tangible), get into your clients worlds, as if you were just trying to learn about it. Ask questions that will reveal their current state of mind relative to their job or the project - not as it relates to you or your company. Once you understand their concerns, you can determine if you can fit and if so you’ll be able to offer suggestions to help create the desired changes.


See if you understand the difference between the following questions from the questions in the first paragraph.


“How’s the XYZ project going?” vs. “I just wanted to check on how we’re doing with the XYZ project.”


The difference is it lets the person think of the XYZ project as it relates to him rather than how it relates to you. As he answers you’ll get a broader understanding of this person’s mindset beyond your participation. If you use the “we” then he’ll start thinking of you’re involvement, which narrows his focus. Then to minimize time and to spare your feeling he’ll be brief, “You’re doing fine,” or “It’s OK, but I wish we had something.”


In other words you won’t learn much, not even about you’re participation. However, if you just ask about the project, using the “you / your” focus, his mind is free to go anywhere related to the project and you’ll get more information about his feelings. And this information can be useful later to sell him more of your other services. You’ll also get a better understanding of your position relative to his bigger picture.


“What are some of your issues and concerns with upcoming projects?” vs. “Are there any new projects coming up that we can help with or participate in?”


The difference here is it gets the person to reveal what’s on his mind about his job as it relates to the upcoming project, etc. If you listen, he’ll say what’s bothering him or what needs to be done in the future (changes). These may be areas where you can offer ideas and solutions before he finalizes what he’ll do. And if you’re prepared to pepper him with other ideas you can get him thinking beyond his original boundaries into other services (that you offer) he hadn’t thought about. Now that’s proactive.


Based on his answers, you can decide if you want to participate, and if so, you’ll be seen as a consultative sales person rather than a vendor. You’ll be able to offer solutions to a broader area of pain, which enables you to sell more. You’ll also be able to determine if he’s a looker or a doer. That is, willing to exert the effort required to produce the changes. If he’s not, you’ll get out quickly. But if he is, you’ll be the resource he’ll want to use.


The differences in the questions are subtle, but profound. Most people genuinely feel they are asking the other person to talk about themselves and their situation. Yet the way they ask the questions, unconsciously limits the responder’s answers. Once you put the “I” or the “We” into your questions, the other person feels it’s all about you wanting to sell him and consequently becomes guarded with his answers.


Test yourself. Next time you leave a voicemail, play it back before you hang up and see if you are “I” oriented or “you” oriented.


So keep it all about him. Start all you questions with the word “You”. This will be extremely difficult at first. Just try it. You’ll quickly see it is not easy to just focus on the other person.


For more selling insights go to www.sammanfer.com and review other articles.

Article Source: www.articlesbase.com

About the Author:
Sam Manfer provides powerful selling information through articles, books, and seminars for Relationship Selling at C-Levels, Effective Sales Calls and all other selling skills. Visit www.SamManfer.com to see more inspiring articles and to register for his free Selling Wisdoms E-zine.

A List Of Effective Network Marketing Strategies

Author: Brian Garvin And Jeff West

Network marketing strategies are going to serve as the core of your home-based business. The best and most effective one is prospecting. You never know where your next sale is going to come from, so prospecting becomes the most vital aspect of your business. Of all the network marketing strategies available to you, prospecting is the one you will use every single day no matter what. It always works. You'll always get results when you enjoy prospecting every day for new customers and those interested in a home-based business opportunity.

There's a right way and a wrong way to prospect. In order to learn how to prospect the right way, you have to be a lifelong learner because good prospectors always continue training this skill. You really can't learn enough when it comes to prospecting. Of all the network marketing strategies available to you, this is one that will evolve over time for you because it's one you need to practice in order to make perfect. Keep training your prospecting skills as time goes on no matter how good you think you are at it. There's always room for improvement and more practice as you gain new skills and insight in prospecting.

You have much to learn about network marketing strategies, so it's very important that you look up to those in your upline so you can learn their tricks. Think of your upline as your mentors who can teach you what has worked for them. You're learning from the masters when you pay attention to what has worked for these high earners.

One thing that always works is staying organized. It may not sound like the most profound of network marketing strategies at first, but organizing information about your phone calls and conversations with prospects can be enormously helpful. In addition to keeping detailed notes about your prospects, you'll always want to keep integrating new information you learn into your prospecting. You never know what you can learn next that is going to help you achieve your goals.

A statistic about who makes a good prospect could really make the difference in your daily routing. Or a tip from a top seller in your upline could make all the difference the next time you need to seal the deal. Everyone learns from one another in a collaborative environment. The network of people in your upline will be enormously helpful to you as you prospect new people.

Can they look at what you're doing and tell you what isn't working?

Can they tell you what actions they took to get more sales?

When they started seeking out prospects, where did they have the most luck?

What, in the experience of experts in your upline, helps to land prospects faster than what you're doing now?

There is so much to learn about network marketing strategies that you can incorporate into your business to make it grow. Remember that practice makes perfect, so don't be afraid to put in some extra effort to learn more about prospecting.

Article Source: www.articlesbase.com

About the Author:
You can read our Unbiased, expert review of articles such as Carbon Copy PRO from Brian Garvin and Jeff West at http://www.MLMreviewKings.com . This article may be used royalty free provided bio & links remain intact. Copyright © Mission Billion, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide