1. A conviction that what they are selling will benefit or enhance the prospects life.
2. A belief that there’s nothing else out there that is better.
3. An absolute determination to communicate that they are 100% right on numbers 1 and 2.

All three elements relates to the fact that your positivity is contagious. When salespeople attempt to sell their products or services, they may walk away empty-handed. But when a superstar SALESPERSON strides in with an overwhelming sense of the mission and a focus on making the prospect see and experience the wisdom of what he’s offering, the prospect becomes a believer as well. This is what true sales are all about. It’s not about getting in front of the customer and hoping to make a sale. It’s about being truly positive in all situations and having the right attitude and beliefs. It’s about believing:

1. I will make a sale.
2. “NO” is not an option
3. If the prospect says NO at first, I won’t even hear it or acknowledge it.
4. I will get to a “YES”.

Once you have the belief in yourself, your skills and your product then your prospect will feel it as well. After that it’s as simple as figuring out how you’re going to reward your success. Enjoy yourself!

There is a very famous quote from perhaps the greatest Basketball player who ever set foot on the court, Michael Jordan, that states a very simple truth: “you will always miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take”. It seems like the most simple of facts and it seems so simple but it’s true. Fear of failure is one of the greatest problems that anyone will face in their lives, no matter what the challenge ahead may be. However, those who constantly find that they are being stopped in their progress by fear can find comfort in the fact that they’re not alone. Everyone gets nervous sometimes. It’s the ones who can keep it all in perspective and remember why they are doing what they’re doing who will always find the courage and motivation needed to leap ahead. Michael Jordan always knew that he had a tough road ahead of him if he wanted to play in the big leagues but he never gave up and he never stopped believing in himself. And the Law of Averages will always come into play, no matter what you’re doing, and you will always find a way to get that goal, sink that basket or make that sale as long as you keep shooting! You will never succeed if you stop yourself constantly and review the possible failure ahead. But if you take a moment before you shoot and visualize that ball going into the basket or that prospect saying yes, you will soon see that believing in success and believing in yourself will bring success after success after success. As in most things, you have lots to gain and little to lose. SO GO FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!!

There are many different methods of judging the effectiveness of an advertising campaign but the two elemental goals should always be getting new customers into your establishment and getting them to purchase your products and/or services. The methods of attracting new clientele differ in format and effectiveness but at the end of the process you always want to see your customer traffic, and your revenues, increase. The only thing that would better the experience of meeting a new client and highlighting your products and services is to take it to the next step, that of seeing revenues generated by their visit and money hitting the bank.

Where a lot of businesses fail to capitalize on the new client is in knowing how to treat your new client, learning what it was that made them come into your establishment and closing a sale. Closing a sale is the goal that we will work towards in this column.

THE NEW CLIENT

When a new client comes into your establishment via an advertising promotion or campaign they have several different questions on their mind. They are wondering if you can do the services you claim to do, if you can do them very well, if they’ll be treated properly and if you have what it takes to be their supplier of choice. One of the most common mistakes that businesses can make is to run a promotional campaign and then fail to capitalize on the opportunity they have been presented with. The main criteria that will determine if you will be able to maintain a relationship with the new customer is how they are treated. It won’t help if you provide the best service in your neighbourhood if you treat someone poorly. Imagine how someone feels when they come into a business for the first time and excitedly present a coupon they’ve received only to hear “Oh, you have a coupon. I’m sorry but we don’t honor these anymore” or call to book an appointment for a special offer and are told “Sorry, we only have space for three discount customers a day”. The impression that the customer will leave with is that they are second class and have been treated as such. If you run any form of campaign for your business that involves a special or coupon you must treat these potential customers from the first contact as if they are your oldest and dearest clients, and soon they will be. The first impression that many customers have of a business is the impression they receive on their first phone call. Make sure whoever answers the phones is properly trained on your services and products, the length of time needed to complete an appointment and is fully informed of any specials or promotions that your business is conducting. The first opportunity to generate revenue for the business begins at the same time as the first phone call. When someone is booking in for an appointment the receptionist should also take a moment and advise them of any specials that are in effect and inquire if the time can be reserved for that now as it is in high demand. For example, if a new client calls in to an automotive service garage for an oil change, the receptionist could take the opportunity to inform them of the special currently being offered on wheel alignments. They could say “Mr. Smith, we have the time reserved for your service at 4:00 p.m. While I have you on the phone I wanted to take a moment and tell you we are running a special offer on wheel alignments. We are doing this service at 50% of our normal price. It takes an additional half hour and I could book the time now. Will your car be due for this service in the next couple of months”? By using this type of questioning and suggestive selling you will be able to generate added revenue from any type of service appointment. Also, by inquiring whether the car will be due for the service rather than asking if they would like to book the time, we take away the opportunity for the caller to say no to the offer and now have them thinking about a needed service for their vehicle.

DETERMINING YOUR CLIENTS NEEDS AND CLOSING THE SALE

An often overlooked skill that many businesses fail to develop is that of properly training your sale representatives to listen. We often train salespeople on when to talk and what to say but we don’t train them on when NOT to talk. You must determine why someone chose your business over another because that will open the door to filling that need. When a new client calls your business they are doing so for a reason, whether they saw an advertisement or by word of mouth. One very effective way to determine why they called is to ask. You could say “How did you hear of our business” or even simply “How will we be able to assist you today”? and then closely listen. If they are calling in from an advertisement then you should reference the advertisement in your conversation. For example “Oh, you saw our ad for the free massage. That’s fantastic. Allow me to set an appointment for you to take advantage of the introductory offer we have running”. If the customer was referred by another customer then you can say “Oh, you’re a friend of Mr. Smith. He was just in last week and took advantage of the 2 for 1 entrée special that the restaurant is running. I know he loved it and I’m sure you will as well. What night did you want to reserve and for how many”? There is another sales technique at play here, that of the third party referral. When you mention someone that the customer personally knows who has used your business in the past you will make the decision to purchase a much more comfortable and safe decision. No one wants to be the first at anything and no one wants to buy something only to find out later that it’s not suitable or of inferior quality. When you mention a colleague or acquaintance that has purchased from you in the past you will greatly increase the likelihood of selling to the new customer. By using leading questions you will be able to quickly source out the need or motivator that made that person call into your business and begin to work towards fulfilling that need. By assuming the sale (assuming during your conversations that the customer is definitely there to purchase) you will be able to lead a customer towards the close. One thing that you want to do is to structure your queries properly so that you can take away the option of having someone say “NO”. You can achieve this by asking questions that are not able to be answered with a yes or no. Instead of asking “would you like to book in for a manicure”? you could ask “do you have any weddings or special occasions coming up that you need to look your best for”? or instead of asking “would you like to buy this car”? you could ask “which of your friends will get the first ride in your new car”? These questions will move a customer away from deciding whether they want to purchase a product or service and get them thinking about how they will best use the product or service after they have purchased. In this way you are taking away the decision making ability that every customer has and replacing it with a mental image of them enjoying the purchase. However, to realize this image they will need to purchase your product and they are now much closer to making that decision.

The last sales technique we will touch on is the timing of the close. A common mistake that many sales representatives make is that they will ask the customer for the sale and then get scared or nervous while the customer is deciding. They feel pressured and begin to chatter away with all kinds of (usually) repetitive or inconsequential talk to fill the silence and defuse the pressure. What we need to teach is that while the pressure is there and does build the longer that the customer takes to decide, the pressure isn’t on the sales representative alone. The customer is feeling the pressure as well and the longer it takes them to decide the more the pressure will build. There is an old sales theory that is quite true that states “The first person to speak after the close loses”. This statement basically is telling us, as sales people, to close the sale using whatever method works best for us and then ….. STOP TALKING! Let the pressure build and don’t be afraid of it, the pressure is working for us. Many customers will decide to purchase at this point because they feel that they owe it to the sales person for the time and care they have taken to help them. They would almost feel guilty to say no at this point.

 Teach yourself and the sales staff in your business these techniques and your sales will soar!

Business today does not happen based on chance. In fact, due to how insanely competitive businesses are these days, most start-ups don’t make it past their first year. For these and many more reasons, every business should have a solid business plan. A marketing plan includes numbers, facts and objectives, but it is not primarily numerical; it is strategic. It is your plan of action – what you will sell, to whom you will sell it and how often, at what price, and how you handle distribution.

1. Define Your Product Or Service

Moreover, define how you will differentiate yourself from the competition that is currently out there. The more clearly and succinctly you describe your product in your marketing plan, the better you will communicate with your target customer. Markets and products have become extremely fragmented. There are hundreds of special interest magazines, for example, each targeted to a very specific market segment. It’s the same with restaurants, cars and retail clothing stores, just to name a few industries. Positioning your product competitively requires an understanding of this fragmented market. Not only must you be able to describe your product, but you must also be able to describe your competitor’s product and show why yours is better.

2. Branding Also, Product Positioning

Of course, the sucess of products is not defined solely by their merits. Take for example Nike. Most people, when asked, have absolutely no idea what separates a Converse shoe from a Nike shoe. The answer is nothing at all, except an expensive brand name and a really expensive photo shoot with a famous basketball player.

Of course, even if you have a product with all the features people are looking for, and a great brand name behind it, no one will buy it if the price is too high. Similarly, your method of distribution, most commonly determined by where you locate your physical store (if you have a physical storefront model to your business) is critical. Many consumers won’t bother with you if it takes them too long to drive to. For example, people don’t mind paying more money for less food in the name of convenience – hence the fast food industry is formed.

3. What Is Your Target Market?

The final step is to define a profile of your target customers. You should be able to describe your customers in terms of demographics – age, sex, family composition, earnings and geographical location – as well as lifestyle. Ask the following – Are my customers conservative or innovative? Leaders or followers? Timid or aggressive? Traditional or modern? Introverted or extroverted? How often do they purchase what I offer? How much of it at a time? Are there peak buying periods or times of the year when people won’t buy my product or service?

4. Education Strategy

You can’t rely upon word of mouth to get all your customers in the door. While this might work for existing users of a particular industry, you will also want to appeal to people that are band new to your product or service.

1. Not Clarifying Who Your Ideal Clients Are

When you can clarify who your ideal clients are, you are better prepared to know where to find them and how to market to them. You can develop messages that will appeal directly to them.

What do you know about your best clients? Spend some time to put together as complete of a profile as you can on the clients you enjoy working with the most. What are the demographics and characteristics? How would you describe them to someone who has never met them?

Without clarity of your ideal clients, you’re likely to waste time, effort, and money marketing to the wrong crowd(s) and/or not getting your message across.

2. Not Spelling Out Your Unique Value
You must be able to clearly define what differentiates you from your competitors. If your prospects can’t differentiate you from all the competitive alternatives in the marketplace, then why would they come to buy from you?

Often for small businesses it’s not that they’re not unique, it’s just that they haven’t spent the time to evaluate and clearly describe how and why. What is it that you do better, faster, cheaper, or more effectively – whatever? Maybe it’s a unique model you’ve developed or the unique niche of clients you serve. Maybe it’s your satisfaction guarantee offered to clients.

Most important here is to spell out why your uniqueness is so important to your clients and prospects. Why should they care? What is it that they’ll get by coming to you for services?

Spend some time critically looking at these items for your business. It will be time very well spent. If you find you can’t see the forest for the trees, don’t hesitate to get some outside help.

Reverse marketing sounds like something complicated, one of those inexplicable concepts of internet marketing that are vague, and difficult to grasp at times. Reverse marketing is one of the more controversial of the marketing techniques out there in the internet marketing world. While some marketers swear by it, others feel exactly the opposite, dubbing reverse marketing as nothing more than another failed marketing ploy.

In all actuality, reverse marketing is a hidden gem; if you don’t know how to carry it out effectively it may be rather difficult for you to benefit from it but if you play your cards right chances are that you will be able to reap more benefits from this marketing ploy than you ever thought possible.

At this point, you are probably wondering, ‘what exactly is reverse marketing?’ While it can seem complicated, it is rather simple. It is a marketing strategy that is based on the principle of the law of attraction. It has to do with having customers look for you, instead of you looking for the customers. It seems that a great deal of marketing has to do with seeking out customers to give you business, so imagine what it would be like if customers came to you instead. This is what reverse marketing is all about, and why it has the potential to be such a hot commodity.

The most common method of reverse marketing is probably something that you have seen a lot of. If you sell gardening supplies on your website and you have a website that sells all of the different types of supplies, gloves, gardening seeds and other things on that site you want customers to be able to find your site so that they can place orders for your items that fit their needs. An example of reverse marketing in this instance would be to have something else on there like a ‘free bonus’ of sorts, like an e-zine or an e-book all about how to grow the best garden from home. When customers are looking for gardening supplies on Google, they will find your site eventually (if they do the right searching). They will read your e-book or e-zine and come to you for business because you have provided them with such a useful ‘bonus’ incentive.

Reverse marketing is not about fluff; it is not about having something on there just to get the customers to your site. It is about providing them with a useful product or service so that they can have some respect for you and your business and may even (hopefully) look up to you as an expert in that field. That is the best way to attract a good, solid customer base of people who believe in you and what you have to offer without having to be convinced.

Unfortunately, reverse marketing has been written off by many internet marketers as something that has no worth or value these days. After the principle of the law of attraction first hit the internet waves, people were swearing by this principle but that has left reverse marketing as a hidden gem for people like yourself to be able to reap the benefits. Those who dispute the validity of reverse marketing will just have to find other ways of finding customers, while you sit back and watch your customers come to you.

When sales slow down small business owners generally put their marketing hat on, try a new idea or two and hope for the best. I’ve been a small business marketing consultant for more than two decades and have come into businesses after owners have searched for answers to their marketing questions. When the subject of doing some marketing research comes up, they usually dismiss it as too expensive and/or of questionable value. And, actually, for most small businesses, I’d agree.

But there is a type of marketing research you can do that I’ve seen work time and time again: talking to your customers. Let’s call it “homework” and not marketing research—that’ll make it a bit easier for you to consider doing.

You probably have several ideas regarding what needs to be done to crank sales back up. However, you don’t have the time or money to try everything. Doing some homework first will help point you in the right direction.

“Homework” in this case is going out and talking with your customers, and in some cases, prospects. My experience is that when an owner starts to feel like his or her sales should be higher but aren’t sure how to change things, their marketing is starting to wear out. But which part?!

That is, their marketing is falling out of sync with their target market. When ‘s the last time you changed your positioning? Message? Distribution channel? If it ‘s been a while for any or all of those elements, your marketing may be aimed at where your customers were, not where they now are.

How to do your homework? Sit down either in person or on the telephone and ask your customers questions. About them. Don’t ask how you can sell more to them. Ask about them. Remember and also remember they don’t care about you, they care about them. In doing so you will get clues to how you can be of more service to them and, as a result, how you can sell more to them.

Ask:

• What ‘s going on in their market, with their customers? What kind of pressures or opportunities are they faced with?

• What are they doing about all that? What are their plans or focus for this year? Downsizing? On a growth spurt?

• Is anything happening specifically around how they use your product or service?

• How can a vendor like you help them right now?

• What criteria did they use when selecting you as their vendor?

• How would they expect to hear or learn about a new vendor such as you?

• What is important to them, right now, about your product or service?

• How would they suggest you let more people like them know about your company?

Best case, your customers will tell you how to change your current marketing approach. Worst case, they will give you clues that will suggest what changes can be made. Ask. Listen. You will be pleasantly surprised with what you learn and the changes you can make.

We all know what a computer virus is and how prolific it can become with just the click of a mouse. It attaches itself to anything and spreads from one computer to another in the blink of an eye. Before you know it, the virus has been transmitted to everyone you know and everyone they know – ad infinitum. This is not a good thing.

However, “Buzz” is a great thing and is the virus that makes Viral Marketing what it is today. It’s the virus of Internet and off-line marketing … it spreads to other customers and causes an epidemic of sales of your product or service.

By starting a buzz you can take your business to heights never dreamed of before. Your business can become the next topic of discussion and your products will be considered “must have” by everyone that knows about them.

Think of it like this – you need to turn your products and business into an Internet legend.

Everybody knows one or has even helped to perpetuate at least one urban or social legend. These have never been marketed, no one has spent a single dime to let the world know that you should never eat “yellow snow” or that there are alligators living in the New York City sewer system or that Big foot is happy and well in the backwoods of America, and my favourite legend as a child – the Moon is made out of Swiss Cheese – I loved Swiss Cheese!

So how is it that we all know stories like that?

Well, we may have heard some of these from our parents, maybe over a cup of coffee, or on the radio, the TV and maybe even read about them in a tabloid newspaper.

Possibly, one of your good friends or a friend of a friends friend saw something that he or she just has to tell everyone about. It might even be that cool product that your friend’s sister’s boyfriend has for sale that is a must have item for everyone.

Regardless of what it is that you have seen or heard, these types of statements, thoughts and products are the heart and soul of buzz marketing or viral marketing, depending on what you want to call it.

Maybe the question you should be asking yourself is what would it mean to you if it were your product or service that enjoyed this much enthusiasm and was known to so many people?

Viral marketing or buzz marketing has it ‘s place in today ‘s society. It ‘s why any successful business owner will put value on viral marketing and use it themselves when ever possible.

If you’ve not used viral marketing before then you should start to use it today. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a traditional brick and mortar business or a simple online based business. You need viral marketing to do the work for you so you can finally slash your advertising costs in half.

Viral marketing is one of the most cost effective means of advertising your business. Since other people spread your advertising message along, it cost’s you practically nothing.

It is unique among advertising techniques because it continues to work, even after you’ve stopped promoting it yourself. Often times all that is needed is an initial marketing launch for your marketing “virus” to spread.

2. Powerful

Since viral marketing is essentially a type of word-of-mouth advertising it is one of the most powerful types of advertising you can use. You are more likely to visit a webpage that is referred to you by someone you know.

This type of marketing is like having an instant testimonial or referral built right into your message because it is passed on to people that know each other.

3. Puts Your Advertising on Autopilot

Once you launch your viral marketing project it will begin to grow without your intervention. As more and more people share your message with others, the effect is that your traffic will grow exponentially. This literally gives you a “hands off” marketing program that will take on a life of its own.

If you create enough incentive to have your marketing message passed along, it is sure to spread without requiring further interaction from you.

Some reasons people pass along viral products include: an advertisement of their own in your product; a link to their website or product; a humorous story or anecdote; quality information that is personal to them.

4. Flexible

Viral marketing can work in just about any environment. Your viral marketing ad can take many forms. Informative ebooks, ezine articles, web pages, software programs, even audio and video clips can be used to get your message out. The important thing to remember is that you must give someone a reason for passing along your message. Remember, it’s what’s in it for them that is important.

5. It Works!

Even a small viral marketing campaign can create excellent results. Many successful companies have built their business completely around it. These companies leverage the power of viral marketing for their members each and every day!

Implementing just one or two viral tools into your marketing strategy can quickly increase your website’s traffic. Plus, with just a little initial effort on your part, your viral marketing will continue to spread long after you’ve stopped actively promoting it.

Before you even start the business, it’s a good idea to come up with a marketing plan which lays out all of the strategies that you plan to use when promoting your business.

Your marketing plan for your home Internet business must be consistent with your firm’s business plan or the opportunity for the two documents to help you succeed is lost. The business plan lays out the company vision for the next five years. The marketing plan dictates how you get to the achievement of that vision and the completion of the various goals along the way. A business plan will talk about the financing needed to start and grow the business, one of which will be the expense of advertising and marketing. The marketing plan will spell out the marketing opportunities you will take advantage of, and the cost of each, to get your home Internet business started and making a profit.

The marketing plan is a document that very specifically details all of the actions that will be taken to achieve marketing goals. It can apply for your entire business, or a new service you’re offering. Usually it goes over the plan for the next 1 or 5 years. Most of the time, entrepreneurs will write the marketing plan at the same time that they are working on the business plan, since it is an integral part.