And it’s not a job for the faint-hearted. Selling is a communication-rich activity, with lots of verbal and non-verbal clues to simultaneously recognise, understand and respond to. It’s a tough job looking after the interests of the customer and the company at the same time. Especially when you have to do this many times a day, every day.

The sales process does not usually proceed in a linear, one-way direction. The participants will often meander along paths filled with associated ideas, go back to items already discussed, find answers for problems (overcome objections) and explore the features and benefits offered. An effective selling style will display a relevant and appropriate personal manner combined with a strong focus on the required outcome.

On many occasions handling a sale is much like steering a boat across a strong current. There is a need to constantly assess the amount of ‘drift’, making minor adjustments to stay on course for the destination.

A skillful sales person can handle these diversions and carefully guide the prospect to recognise why they should make the decision to purchase ‘this’ product from ‘this company’.

For those working outside the field of professional selling, it’s common for the sales process, and sales people, to be misunderstood. Indeed, there are those who think of sales staff as being universally pushy, overbearing, and making the customer feel ill at ease.

However this type of behaviour is usually the result of inexperience or poor sales training. Over recent years the art of selling has been transformed into a process now often referred to as ‘consultative selling’.

More than just a buzzword, consultative selling refers to the process of developing a clear understanding of your customers needs and following this with a logical presentation of how your product or service can help your customer be satisfied. In effect consulting with your client to determine their needs and develop a solution.

Modern, effective sales people have mastered the skill of identifying the needs of individual prospects, matching those needs with benefits offered by their product or service, and closing the sale by ensuring the customer can see real value in the deal being offered. It’s a win-win result.

Throughout the process an experienced sales person will generate a level of trust with the customer that can stand the test of time.

Here are a few tips to help you manage your sales team:

* Respect the personal barriers they must overcome on a daily basis.

* Have a territory management plan in place.

* Provide appropriate supervision to ensure good sales practices are maintained.

* Ensure the customer has regular contact with other people (or departments) within your business other than the sales person.

* Comprehensively train your sales people on company procedures, their responsibilities and your expectations.

* Have a procedure for listening to, assessing, and acting upon feedback from people in the field.

* Avoid involving sales people in non-sales activities such as deliveries and collecting account payments. These tasks will undermine the sales relationship and will adversely impact on your sales results. Keep your sales person as the ‘good guy’.

Selling is an art – the art of guiding the sales process to a mutually satisfying conclusion.

(c) 2005 MySalesTutor.com

Stuart Ayling is known as the ‘Sales Tutor’. Stuart offers a unique sales training eCourse at MySalesTutor.com. This 16-day course give you the skills and confidence to handle any sales situation and close more sales. Stuart has developed this eCourse specially for independent professionals, service providers, and business owners, based on sales “best practices” and proven trust-based sales techniques.

The houses engaged in the lead generation business act as a conduit between the product/ service providers and seekers. These houses develop their own websites as well as partner with several other websites to promote various products and services. A detailed list or directory of products and services appear which helps customers to choose their desired requirements.

A form is incorporated in the page so that customers can fill in their details. The detailed form is now provided to the concerned product/service providers. The both party, hence now can have direct access to each other and enter into a deal.

Are Leads Effective For All Business?

Yes, it is suitable for almost all the businesses but it is most suitable for legal services, insurance, mortgages, finance, academics, other service providers, bulk buyers and sellers, etc.

Is It cost Effective?

It is highly cost effective and the price may vary depending on the accessibility to generate the lead. But in comparison to other forms of acquiring clients it is not only economical but highly convenient as well.

Anurag Tyagi is a contributor and director with Yagoo Leads which is into lead generation dealing in all kind of customized leads.

I’m going to tell you exactly why you make a sale, and why you do not.

By doing this, I’m going to give you access to some extraordinary principles that seem to fly in the face of logic, but nonetheless are at work in your life every moment of every day.

There is a Law put in place that permeates the entire Universe. It is called the Law of Attraction. While this idea is generally associated with the new age and metaphysical communities, it is in fact, a Law. This means that there is not one entity in the Universe that is “immune” to it.

To understand the Law of Attraction on a practical level, you need to have a basic understanding of the building blocks of our Universe. Specifically, you need to know that at our most basic physical level, we are 99% empty space. We are in fact, pure Energy. And this Energy has a specific characteristic that if we understand it fully, we can use this characteristic to create a life beyond our wildest dreams. And that includes making more sales, with more commission, and more effortlessly than you would have thought possible.

The Law of Attraction is all about this characteristic that I mentioned. That is that Energy attracts like Energy. I understand that we’re talking about non-tangible things here, and that some of this is beyond the scope of what you’ve thought about before, thus this all might seem very far out. However, I urge you to continue reading so that you can see that regardless of what you think about it, it IS at work in your life, and thus you have the power to redirect anything and everything in your experience.

All Energy vibrates. Everything has a specific and unique frequency. You need to understand that EVERYTHING is Energy, including your thoughts, dreams, and passions. When two vibrations are in resonance, they attract each other.

This manifests in subtle ways in our lives every day. We’ll be thinking about someone and they will call. You’ll think about something you want, and suddenly you obtain it through completely unexpected means. How does this happen?

Every thought and feeling you have has a vibration. It’s resonating out into the Universe at a specific frequency, basically seeking a matching vibration. If you’re thinking about talking to a person, and really feeling what that would be like, you are literally attracting the circumstances for that feeling to manifest physically. You are attracting a situation that is in perfect resonance with what you’re vibrating. When you do that, the Universe WILL respond appropriately every time.

Given this, imagine the possibilities as it applies to sales!

First, you have to understand that this is not about making other people do what you want them to do “against their will”. To the contrary, it is about learning to literally ATTRACT the appropriate people who WANT to buy from you. Most people work far too hard trying to FIND the appropriate buyer, expending time and Energy on people who are not a vibrational match for them.

Think about that. Wouldn’t it be nice to NOT have to cold call all the time? Wouldn’t it be nice to know that nearly everyone you deal with is going to make a purchase, or even be a lifetime customer? Of course it would.

It’s actually quite a simple process, however not always so easy for everyone. Many people have all kinds of “stuff” (limiting beliefs) about what is possible or necessary with regards to succeeding in sales. They’ve learned that nothing short of hard work will result in success, and they have had many models in their lives that have demonstrated this to be “true”. However, there is NO Truth to it. It’s simply a belief. And if that belief runs through you, it affects your energetic vibration – your frequency – and limits what you can attract into your experience b>no matter how much you consciously want something different.

To attract something into your experience, such as a multitude of sales, you have to go from “wanting” it, to feeling that you already have it. There is a very specific vibration to “wanting”. It implies you don’t have it. The feeling that you don’t have it causes your vibration to attract only more of “you don’t have it”. It’s simply responding appropriately as it always will.

Instead you have to take the idea of “visualizing the sale” to a whole new level – because simple visualization without emotion does not serve to attract anything. The attraction starts at the level of your emotion. Changing your emotion is what changes your frequency, much like a radio, and thus changes what you will attract.

You will need to be clear exactly how you want to feel as a result of making a sale. Are you? Don’t make this about the money. Money carries a lot of “stuff” for many people. Besides, money is not the end goal here. What will you do with the money? How will spending that money make you FEEL? To the extent that you can conjure up that feeling, you then change your “attraction frequency”, thus you begin to attract to you the circumstances necessary to perpetuate or match that feeling that you have.

You’re going to makes sales from time to time whether or not you are intentionally trying to use the Law of Attraction. But it’s still going to be determined by what you’re vibrating. Depending on where you have your attention during the course of the week, and how you’re feeling, you will attract all sorts of people. Some will be a match and others won’t. However, you can be more intentional about whom you attract by putting yourself in the feeling of what it will be like to work with enthusiastic people who just can’t WAIT to buy from you!

What counts is how you feel.

Sometimes you’ll be confronted with issues of “deserving”. You’ll realize that somewhere within you, you have a belief that extraordinary success is beyond you, or that you aren’t worthy of it somehow. This is another limiting emotion and belief that CAN be eliminated with a little training.

Hopefully, you’re selling because you love selling. You’re selling because it’s who you are. Many people “sell” because they feel it’s a good way to make money, but it’s far from what they believe their purpose to be. This will always hold them back to some extent from the success they desire. Their vibrational frequency is all over the map as they go through various “roles” during their day. This is the recipe for mediocrity.

But if you believe you are here to sell I invite you to begin to intentionally envision unreasonable success for yourself. But know what success means to you. What do you truly want as a result of a successful sales career? Is it time? Freedom? Peace? For the most part, these are the types of things people are really seeking from financial success.

Again, I realize that this process sounds very bizarre to many. It doesn’t seem, on the surface, to make sense. But we are not talking at the level of “surface”. We’re looking much deeper level of what we’re truly made up of beyond the skin and bones we consider ourselves to be. When you can open your mind, you will begin to tap into an incredible power that has ALWAYS been at work in your life, and has always been at your disposal.

Unfortunately most people are never taught these things, because not that many people know anything about them. This doesn’t make them any less true. Further, there are many who DO intentionally use these principles every day and know unreasonable success in ALL areas of their lives.

And now, you know the “secret” as well. You can scoff at it, and go right back to doing things how you’ve always done them. Win some, lose some. Or you can just give it a try for a while and see what happens. It costs you nothing, and can gain you everything.

To summarize:

Feel the sale. Visualize EXACTLY how you’d like your sale to transpire, but pay total attention to how you FEEL about experiencing that sale in the “now” moment of visualizing it. Make the feelings as intense and realistic as possible. Imagine the transaction on every sensory level – any sights, sounds, smell, feelings, etc. that you can generate will help you “fine tune” the vibration so that you attract exactly what you want.

Bob Doyle is the CEO and founder of Boundless Living and the developer of the “Wealth Beyond Reason” program, which provides a continuing education of the physics of wealth, abundance, and joyous living through the Law of Attraction. http://wealthbeyondreason.net

The telephone is still the best and most effective way to reach people. It can help generate more sales and build your business. Unfortunately most people don’t like the telephone and don’t use it effectively. In order to become more proficient using the telephone, you need to follow some basic guidelines and then practice, practice and then practice some more.

Like everything else, selling by using the telephone has changed over the years. The hard sell approach doesn’t cut it today. With voice mail, answering machines, tele-zappers, and caller ID the old fashion way doesn’t work any longer.

If you are selling a high end product, trying to do it all on the first call doesn’t work. You need to go through a couple of stages to get your end result – the sale. First you need to introduce yourself. Tell them about you, your business and your product. Next try to set up an appointment to go into further detail. Or maybe send some information before calling again. Moving one step at a time gives the customer time to become familiar with you and your product. It also gives your customer time to realize how important your product is to them.

You need to be confident and positive. As we have told many of our students, if you don’t feel like getting on the phones – don’t. That negativity and lack of enthusiasm is going to come through on the telephone. Many years ago when I was working in corporate America as a receptionist my supervisor told me to always answer the telephone with a smile on. That smile carried over into the impression the caller received when contacting a company.

So be sure that a positive attitude comes through . Remember, the old adage, “you must first sell yourself, then sell your product”.

Also of utmost importance is to know what you want to say. If you use a script, have it handy, but don’t just read it. I can tell immediately when a call I get is being read from a script. Write down an opening statement (for example, Hi , my name is Susan from Home Business Solutions. I’m calling about the home you have for sale. Are you the person to speak with? What’s your name?). Make notes of points you need to cover. Practice saying what you want to say until it comes naturally. Be sure you make strong statements. Avoid the words: maybe, could, but.

You also need to know your product. You have to perceive its value before you can convince someone else. You have to know what it does, how it works, and be able to describe it in terms that the layman can understand. You also need to explain the benefits of your product.

One of the first things I go over with our students regarding our telephone script is that they must learn to listen, and I mean really listen. You can tell a lot about your customer just by hearing what they are saying. Also be sure you ask their name, and then use it now and then. Don’t overuse their name because this can become very annoying. My philosophy is if I hate it, so will someone else.

Be sure to ask questions to encourage them to talk about themselves. Empathize. However, don’t do a lot of talking until you are sure you understand. Let them do the majority of talking.

If you pick a certain time frame to make your calls, or do a certain number of calls in a row, try to say it a little differently each time. If you don’t you will start to sound stale, lose your happy voice and sound as if you are reading a script. So if this starts to occur, take a break, or stop for the day.

As we discussed earlier in this article if your product is a high end one you will make several calls to establish a relationship. Once you have done this, and they remember who you are, introduce something new about your product. Keep a record of your calls, and details of what you discussed previously, so that you know where you stand when you call again. When I worked for a franchise company, I kept a record of every call that came in from franchisees or calls I made. First, my employer was amazed at the amount of knowledge I had about franchisees at my fingertips, and more important the franchisees felt like they were the only one, I knew them so well.

Using the telephone can help you get repeat business. For certain products, you can call customers to see how they are doing with the product. Maybe there are additional questions you could answer or problems you might be able to solve.

If everything is going well, you have a excellent opportunity to introduce your newest product, and hopefully, make another sale. This is also a great time to ask for referrals. Even if the follow up call doesn’t pay off right away, you are building a relationship with this customer. Remember it is a lot easier to keep a customer happy than to find another one. Your follow-up also builds credibility with your customers.

Doing the above will give your business a boost.

Copyright 2003 DeFiore Enterprises

Interested in having your own successful, home based creative real estate investing business? Chuck and Sue have been helping folks start successful home based businesses for over 19 years, and we can help you too! To see how, visit http://www.homebusinesssolutions.com for the latest FREE tips and tricks, educational products and coaching in creative real estate investing and home based businesses. No time to visit the site? Subscribe to our “how to” Home Business Solutions Digest, it’s like having your own personal coach: mailto:subscribeHBS@homebusinesssolutions.com

There is a relatively simple, fun and inexpensive way to remedy this situation. It’s called a sales blitz. Unfortunately, few companies are even aware of it, and fewer yet use it.

Here’s the problem. Most B2B sales efforts are organized around a sales rep who is responsible for a specific set of accounts, or a specific geographical area. Typically, that rep is expected to grow the business with the current customers as well as to identify and develop new customers.

Clearly, most salespeople are better at one part of this two-part responsibility than the other. Usually, developing new customers takes second place in the salesperson’s priorities. Staying within their comfort zones and focusing on keeping the current customers happy becomes a higher priority on a day-to-day basis. As a result, few new customers are developed, and sales management is continually frustrated with the company’s poor performance. Rather than continue beating a dead horse by trying to motivate the sales force to create new customers, one alternate approach is to implement a sales blitz.

What’s a sales blitz? It’s an organized effort by the company to focus all of its sales force on a specific task in one specific territory. The most common task is to identify, qualify and engage potential new customers. But, a sales blitz could also be used to quickly communicate some hot new product or service to a market.

A sales blitz has the advantage of focusing the entire sales force on a specific task. That alone will bring you far greater results than if you’d just left it to each salesperson to do on their own.

But there are some additional fringe benefits. For example, the preparation for a sales blitz provides you an opportunity to thoroughly train the sales force in one identifiable step in the sales process. Their competency thus improves. Additionally, you can usually measure their activities more specifically than normal. So, they become more competent and confident, and you more knowledgeable in the activities of your sales force.

Let me illustrate with an example. Let’s say that you have group of eight salespeople who are each expected to build the business with current customers as well as create new ones. You are continually frustrated with their performance in creating new customers. Out of the group of eight people, you’re lucky to have one new customer a month. Since you are not satisfied with this, you decide to do a sales blitz for new customers.

So, you select one geographical area or market segment on which to focus. In this case, let’s say one of your salespeople has a relatively new territory, so you select that territory as your focus. You decide that for a period of three days, you are going to pull your entire sales force out of their territories and direct them into the new salesperson’s territory.

You bring them together, and explain the project. Their task is to identify, qualify and engage as many prospects as possible. The information gained and the doors opened in the process will then be provided to the territory rep, who will be expected to follow up and turn a significant number of these qualified prospects into customers.

You create a form for each salesperson. They must collect the information specified on the form from each prospect. The information could include such basics as the name and title of the key contact person, some information about the account, and a sense of the opportunity for your company.

You then train the sales force in how to do just that one aspect of the sales process – make a cold call, collect some qualifying information, and fill in the form. You spend a day role-playing and practicing.

Next, you provide them with a list of current customers (off limits) and a list of potential customers. You break the group into four teams of two people each, and on the map, outline four different areas for each. You announce that at the end of each day, you’ll hold a short meeting. At that meeting, you’ll recount success stories, share information and tactics that have worked for various team members, and count up the number of contacts made and forms filled out by each team. The team with the most completed forms will be the day’s winner, and each member of the winning team will be awarded a gift certificate for dinner for him and his spouse.

At this point, you have organized the group’s efforts by identifying the specific job to be done, provided the tools (forms and company literature), trained them in the task, focused them on a specific area, and added some structured time to learn and to be recognized.

On each day of the blitz, you stay in cell phone contact with each group, encouraging them throughout the course of the day.

At the end of the three days, you will probably have accumulated more prospects for your territory rep to follow up on than he/she would have done on his own in the course of a year or two.

Turn them over to the rep, keep a copy yourself, and watch the progress he/she makes in each account.

What have you accomplished? A number of powerful things:

1. You’ve created more qualified leads for the territory rep in a few days than he/she would have created on his own in a few years.

2. You’ve created a fun experience for all your reps.

3. Each rep has learned some new skills as they focused on just one part of the sales process and repeated it over and over. They will be better at creating new customers in their own territory as a result of this learning experience.

That’s a sales blitz.

Keep in mind that there is nothing new about this approach. It may be new to you, but it’s a time-tested, proven best practice. When I was 17 years old, I attained my first sales job working summers for the Jewel Tea Company. They were using sales blitzes as a regular part of their sales efforts. I won’t tell you how long ago that was, but you can measure the time duration in decades.

A couple of years ago, when I was working with one of my clients to establish a new sales force, we routinely used sales blitzes, rotating the blitz every other month from one territory to another. In the first two years, six salespeople created 638 new accounts.

Here are some dos and don’ts of organizing a sales blitz:

1. Have a specific task in mind, and make it as simple as possible. In the example above, the salespeople were to engage a prospective account, and fill out a form that indicated whether or not the account was worth the time. They collected some information, and attempted to have an introductory conversation about the company in order to raise some interest on the part of the account. So, in other words, the task was a cold call to qualify a prospect.

2. Focus everyone on a specific area or market segment.

3. Equip each person with the tools necessary to accomplish this task.

4. Thoroughly train them. Even with an experienced sales group, I’d spend at least one day role-playing, critiquing and practicing. Remember, cold calls are probably not the strength of any of your salespeople. Ignore their protests that they “know how to do it,” and train them as if they were brand new. You may be surprised at how far many of them have to come in order to be competent at it.

5. Keep it short and sweet. Three days in my example.

6. Break the group up into pairs or teams, and create a competition among them.

7. Have some kind of daily debriefing. A half hour meeting at the end of each day was my choice.

8. Offer a daily recognition and reward.

9. Post the results, and follow through on the leads created to make sure that they are not squandered.

A sales blitz, well designed and well managed, can solve one of your company’s biggest shortcomings and spin off a number of valuable fringe benefits.

Copyright 2006 by Dave Kahle

About Dave Kahle, The Growth Coach®:

Dave Kahle is a consultant and trainer who helps his clients increase their sales and improve their sales productivity. Dave has trained thousands of salespeople to be more successful in the Information Age economy. He’s the author of over 500 articles and five books. His latest is 10 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople. His “Thinking About Sales” Ezine features content-filled motivating articles, practical tips for immediate improvements, useful resources and helpful tips to help increase sales. Join for NOTHING on-line at http://www.davekahle.com/mailinglist.htm.

You can reach Dave at:
The DaCo Corporation
3736 West River Drive
Comstock Park, MI 49321
Phone: 800-331-1287 / 616-451-9377
Fax: 616-451-9412
info@davekahle.com
http://www.davekahle.com

It has long been accepted that “people buy people – not things”. If that is so, then
do you want to be able to build the strongest possible selling relationships? We’ll
show you how.

Values, Positioning & Selling

When you apply NLP in selling you will increase your customer satisfaction
rating and your repeat business. The approach enables you to ensure that you
match your products or services to your customer’s precise needs… …and ensure
that your customer is aware of how carefully you are attending to their needs!

By doing this you are positioning yourself differently in
the mind of your customer. You’re no longer just another ‘rep’ or even a
salesperson. In their mind you become ‘someone to be consulted‘ and
a valuable resource rather than a nuisance-to-be-tolerated.

< Pie in the sky? Unrealistic? Not so…

Customers respect salespeople who respect them.. . …and the
converse applies, too.

Who do you prefer to buy from? The pushy salesperson who talks at you or
the person who takes the time to discover your needs and then helps you find the
best match for these? Not a difficult choice, is it?

It takes a little longer to sell this way. And a little more care. And a
greater respect for your customer. And quite a bit more skill.

Yet it is not difficult to apply. NLP selling methods work equally well for
retail sales as for international salespeople selling high-ticket products and
services. Because customers don’t like to be sold to – they like to buy.

And the key difference is in how you treat them…

First they must buy you!

Experienced sales people know that customers are unlikely to buy your
product or service or idea if they don’t like you. First your customer must ‘buy’
you - only then will they consider ‘buying’ your product or service or
idea. NLP based selling is so powerful that, even where you are at a price or a
‘technical specifications’ disadvantage, you can often get the order if your
relationship with your customer is right!

‘Relationship Selling’

When we ‘model’ or extract the key ingredients of successful selling
strategies in order to apply NLP in selling we find there are two key parts of the
process:

The Task : to ensure that the customer recognises
the
value for them in your product or service or idea – and buys. Most sales training
courses and books on selling cater for this side of selling.

The Relationship : this is either ignored or given
minimal attention by most books, gurus, and training courses. Which partly explains
how tough a field selling has become – salespeople are inadequately equipped to
deal with an increasingly sophisticated, better informed and more demanding
customer base.

So sales people have begun looking for ways of becoming more skilful
at being ‘customer friendly’! Instead of simply becoming friendlier with their
customers!

Yet so many sales people hate selling. They actually fear their customers.
Because they see it as a numbers’ game instead of a people game!

When we model good sales people we find they actually like people. And
people pick this up and, if the product and terms are right, they
become customers!

***************************************************************************
Want to improve your Sales Performance? if you are a Sales Manager who
wants your team to perform better, increase your Direct Sales or Channel
Sales revenues and make your sales more profitable, Robert Neely can help
you.

If you are in sales and you want more confdence, better personal
management skills, better relationships with your prospects and clients – and
relationships mean sales – then I can help you.

See how here: http://www.andoverconsulting.co.uk

For years, I didn’t really have to hustle that much for business because my best-selling books did it for me. Out of hundreds of thousands of readers, a statistical few would always come through, and purchase seminars, audios, videos, and consulting from me.

But the model was by no means perfect. Inevitably, there would be good years and lean.

If you rely on indirect marketing, which is what books do, then you’re always at the mercy of the schedules, the whims, the needs, and the reading habits of other people.

Cold calling, making outbound calls, reaching out and selling someone, normalizes the marketing mix. It evens out the peaks and valleys, restoring rationality and predictability to one’s revenues.

And after living off the fat of the land for extended periods, when you feel you’re effortlessly printing money, it isn’t easy to downshift to direct selling. But the pain stops the instant the dialing begins.

As you’ve heard, fortune favors the bold, and this certainly applies to cold calling. Inevitably, when you finally strap yourself into your work space, you get lucky.

It has always happened this way for me. During college, my former Time-Life manager, himself a capable entrepreneur, knew I was rock solid on the phone so he hired me to pitch appointments so window and door security bar salespeople could uglify yet another neighborhood.

I worked on straight commission, so if I didn’t sell the appointment, and if it wasn’t later closed by a field salesperson, I earned the right to get skinnier. It was one of the hardest challenges I ever faced in selling.

But what’s amazing is that the first call went smoothly, and before long, I had actually set an appointment that the field salesman closed. Good news: we both ate!

The other day, I finally waded into a pile of ads that I had been collecting over the course of the year, ads that I intended to call to drum up business. I was so enthusiastic with my first prospect that he nearly closed himself!

Having done that, I went on to create an incredible opportunity for myself on the next call.

One of my clients, a savvy salesman and entrepreneur in his own right, said, “Selling is so easy, it’s hard!” Triple that sentiment for selling over the phone.

The hardest part is making the first call, but happily, that can be one of your best!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. Gary’s programs are offered by UCLA Extension and by numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. A popular guest on radio and television, worldwide, Gary is headquartered in Glendale, California. He can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

2. You could upsell to your customers. When they’re at your order page, tell them about a few extra related products you have for sale. They could just add it to their original order.

3. Tell your customers if they refer four customers to your web site, they will receive a full rebate of their purchase price. This will turn one sale into three sales.

4. When you sell a product, give your customers the option of joining an affiliate program so they can make commissions selling your product. This will multiply the sale you just made.

5. Sell the reprint/reproduction rights to your products. You could include an ad on or with the product for other products you sell. You could make sales for the reproduction rights and sales on the back end product.

6. You could cross promote your product with other businesses’ products in a package deal. You can include an ad or flyer for other products you sell and have other businesses selling for you.

7. When you ship out or deliver your product, include a coupon for other related products you sell in the package. This will attract them to buy more products from you.

8. Send your customers a catalog of add-on products for the original product they purchased. This could be upgrades, special services, attachments, etc. If they enjoy your product they will buy the extra add-ons.

9. Sell gift certificates for your products. You’ll make sales from the purchase of the gift certificate, when the recipient cashes it in. They could also buy other items from your web site.

10. Send your customers free products with their product package. The freebies should have your ad printed on them. It could be bumper stickers, ball caps, t-shirts etc. This will allow other people to see your ad and order.

All hurricanes seem to start out as a blip on a distant radar screen. It grows in size and intensity as it draws closer to the shoreline. They don’t follow a prepared script or take a predictable path.

At the center, is the famous eye of the storm. Surrounding the eye . . . well, you know the rest.

Some salespeople seem to behave like hurricanes, are you one of them? Answer these questions for a hurricane (style) check.

1. Are you completely organized at the start of every day?

2. Do you enjoy talking more than listening?

3. Does your enthusiasm spill over into loudness when you’re talking?

4. If preparation means “in writing” is more than 95% of your typical sales call not prepared?

5. After a sales call, are most of your customers thinking, “WOW” after you leave?

6. Do you have so much experience that you know what your customer’s need without having to ask them really good open-ended questions?

Here’s a sales tip. As hurricanes approach the East coast, few people are rushing to check-in to the ocean front hotels. Likewise, your potential customers won’t be running to open their doors for you if you approach them like a hurricane.

Jim Meisenheimer is the creator of No-Brainer Sales Training. His sales techniques and selling skills focus on practical ideas that get immediate results. You can discover all his secrets by contacting him at (800) 266-1268 or by visiting his website: http://www.meisenheimer.com

Your Elevator Speech must be short and concise and you must know it off by heart. It must come so naturally to you that you can repeat it in your sleep. Realise the difference between an elevator speech, which sells you and how you can help other businesses or people rather than a statement.

Introductory statements that are not elevator speeches include, “My name is Michael and I am a sales trainer”. “My name is Mary and I am a motivational speaker”.

None of these statements stimulate any conversation and will either drive potential clients to the other side of the room or bore them while they say to themselves, ’so what’.

Remember every potential client is thinking ‘what’s in it for me. Remember if anyone can say so wiifm (what’s in it for me) after your elevator speech, you’re selling any benefits. Rather change to, “My name is David and I help international expatriates with their offshore mortgages/help them retire early/maximise their investments.”

Remember your goal is to keep the conversation going and stimulate a response from the person you are speaking to. Your goal is not to talk about yourself and what you do but it is to find out what the other person does and what is important to them, i.e. what’s in it for them.

To prepare your elevator speech, first identify how you can help your potential clients. List at least five things that you could do to help your clients, and then list five reasons why people should be doing business with you. Make your elevator speech into two parts. Part one would describe what it is that you do, i.e. I help organisations to understand the selling process in a fun and educational way. Part two would describe how they would derive benefit from what you are selling them, i.e. so that they can exceed their sales targets – so that they can build a productive and motivated sales force. The part two should always include a phrase like, ’so that’.

This is an excerpt taken from my new E-book, ‘Finding New Business’ which is filled with proven ideas on finding new clients. At 50 pages it is easy reading and is available as hard copy or an E-book for $16 or £10. Please email me if you’re interested.

Frank Furness CSP CFP is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in sales and sales management. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 42 countries. His publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com or telephone+ 44 (0) 870 240 6505. www.frankfurness.com

NOTE: You’re welcome to “reprint” this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurness.com/ Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm