Over the years, clients and friends have talked to me about their desire to improve their sales presentations and closing ratios. Your sales presentation, closing techniques and tactics can make or break your marketing. Therefore, it is not enough to do launching effective marketing campaigns to obtain new customers and to continually market to your existing database for more referrals and repeat business. In addition, you must be able to ask for and close the sale. Otherwise, it is a waste of time and money!
How is your sales ratio? Is it 50%, or 1 out of every 2? Is it much higher like 85%, or 8.5 out of every 10? Your sales presentation and process can play a large role in your ability to increase your total number of closes.
It is okay to obtain help to improve your sales but it is not something people usually consider when they think about their marketing approach. Instead, they just assume the advertisements (or other marketing) are not working (not bringing in the 'right type' of person. In fact, even the best salespeople listen to CDs, read books and attend presentations that teach salespeople how they can improve. Why an average salesperson chose NOT to do this as well? It probably has a lot to do with the fact that he/she does not believe that he/she is a good salesperson or that he/she does not have ample time to do so.
These days, you do not have a choice; you must make the time to brush up at least 2 - 4 times a year in order to learn new strategies. The market is not the same as it was 5 or 10 years ago where it was all about where a business placed its advertisements and what the advertisement said. Now, it is all about personality and if the potential customer likes you or not. .Those old car salesperson tricks are going to work as they did 5 years ago. In fact, your prospect will laugh you right out of the room if you try these techniques, or he/she will talk negatively about you once you leave. The following are a few closing techniques that you can use in your sales process. However, remember, it needs to be real, you cannot be a fake. They will see right through you and move on to the next person if you are. Use these techniques with caution as they may increase your sales!
The following are 5 of my favorite Closing Techniques: 1. Assume the Sale Assume they are going to buy and be shocked if they tell you no. 2. Fear of Loss Make them feel like they will really be missing out if they do not buy from you. Make them want to have your product and/or service. 3. Sense of Urgency Create a sense of urgency. Make them feel that they need to hurry up and buy before the product and/or service is gone. 4. Optional Close Give them a choice. Try asking them which product they would prefer to purchase - "this one or that one?" Another option is to ask if them if they would like to pay by check or credit card. 5. Indifference Make them feel that it does not matter to you whether they buy or not. Explain that it is not a big deal and that the sale is up to them. This will help to ensure that they do not feel the pressure and will allow them to believe that they made the decision on their own.
The following are 10 Sales Presentation Tips. 1. Sell the outcome, not the product - instead of telling them what you want to tell them, tell them what they want to hear and how the product and/or service will benefit them. 2. Ask questions to find your prospect's 'hot' buttons. 3. Only talk about their 'hot' buttons. 4. Do not 'feature dump'. Do not talk endlessly about all your products or services; instead, focus. 5. Listen to the prospect more than you talk to them. 6. Dig deeper when the prospect gives you objections. Cautiously dig to find the real reasons. Next, only address those reasons. 7. Ask for the sale at least 4 times before you give up. You can do this in a variety of ways so that most likely they not even notice throughout the presentation. 8. Build relationships and nurture them during and ongoing well after the presentation. 9. Understand whether your product or service will likely require a long or short sales process. Next, work it accordingly and do not expect a miracle right off the bat with a long sale. Do not let yourself get disappointed. Remember, the cold calling average indicates that it takes an average of 10 calls to get one sale. 10. Be sure to send thank you notes or emails before, during and after the sales process.
Some of you might be wondering where I got all of this information. Seriously, from my many years of experience in a variety of fields, I compiled a list of techniques that I devised and found to be effective. In addition, I have learned much from my participation in numerous sales training programs and seminars.
I used to do door-to-door sales. I used to sell oil change certificates and restaurant coupons door-to-door in residential neighborhoods and to businesses. "Do you want a $5 oil change?" was my big opening line; I made a killing back then!
There are various methods through which targeted website traffic can be driven to a website. Some of them are conventional while others aren’t exactly. Some are expensive while others are cheap or even free. This four Part series will look in depth at what a business entrepreneur needs to drive highly valued traffic to his website.
1. Drive targeted Traffic by leaving comments on high traffic blogs in your niche. In this case, don’t fall into the trap many people fall into –just leaving comments like “Wonderful write-up", “superb advice. Thank you". The reason is people will hardly visit your website or blog if they feel you do not have much to offer. Instead, make your comments contributory. For instance, if you see a blog where the user pasted high quality information but missed some other things, you could include it in your post. Posts like “the idea of using articles to achieve high ranking is good. But can I chip something in? You could also boost your search engine ranking if you just leave your comments on about 100 high traffic blogs with PR 5+". That will surely get people to notice what you have to say. Since you included your link either as the heading or at the end of the post, it will make it easier for people to visit your website via clicking through the link you provided.
2. Use the Yahoo! answer portal to generate traffic to your website.
This is easy in that every conceivable question you could think of has been asked somewhere and answers have been provided to it. So, go to answers.yahoo.com and look for possible questions that could be answered by you, your website or your blog. The key to this simple strategy is providing informational posts. DON’T SPAM. Don’t just post comments like “The answer to your question can be found at www.yourblogaddress.com". This comes across as advertising. Instead offer one or two tips and then go ahead to include the link to your website at the end of the post or include in your profile. Avoid making it look like an obvious ploy to get them to visit your blog or website. Let’s assume someone asks a question on diverticulitis, you could go ahead and answer the question and leave the link at the end of your post. This will result in targeted website traffic because of the fact that you are providing specific answers to problems.
3. Submit your blog to as many high profile blog directories as possible. This may take a while so be ready to put in at least one hour a day to do this. In the short term, it might look hectic, but pays off in the long term. If your blog is highly ranked on high traffic blog directories, you’ll get traffic from the directories and an increased search engine ranking for your websites because of the high quality one-way links coming from your blogs.
4. Post your links in forums. Don’t post blatantly on the forums as in “visit www.yoursiteadd.com for more info". Instead offer useful advice and then, leave your link in your signature. Pretty simple tactic right? And it work like magic. If you don’t have any question to answer, ask one in various categories and in various question forms. Spend about an hour doing this daily. You’ll get results. People have been known to drive about 100 visitors to their websites or blogs using this tactic alone.
Both Katrina Sawa & Aurelius Tjin are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Katrina Sawa has sinced written about articles on various topics from Website Traffic, Internet Marketing and Start Online Business. (c) Copyright 2008 K.Sawa Marketing. Katrina Sawa is an Award-Winning Relationship Marketing Coach who's helped hundreds of small business owners take dramatic steps in their businesses to get them to the next level in business, revenues and life. She off. Katrina Sawa's top article generates over 18100 views. to your Favourites.
Aurelius Tjin has sinced written about articles on various topics from Website Traffic, Email Advertising and The Internet. Aurelius Tjin is The Publisher of The 'Unstoppable Profits Blog' With Over 22,000 Readers. Discover His Secret Strategies To Skyrocket Your Internet Marketing Business. To Get Free Internet Business Videos, Tips, and Strategies Go To. Aurelius Tjin's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.