If you have been in sales for a number of years – and have faced rejection when making sales calls – you will recognize these 7 painful selling mistakes. This information will be an “Ah-Ha” moment for you.
If you love what you do and deeply believe in what you sell, but you are still unconsciously using sales behaviors popular back in the 80’s and 90’s, you are going to burn leads rather than...
The perception of a “typical sales rep” is – unfortunately – a pushy person. You have probably met a few of those “pushy sales people.” The truth is, buyers avoid pushy sales reps. Think about this: there is a difference between being pushy and being persistent.
Is persistence important? Yes, but how much persistence is too much?
There are three ways you can be pleasantly...
This guest post – How Top Sales Managers Get Their Salespeople to Sell More Stuff – by Ralph Burns, makes so much sense, it is refreshing. All Sales Managers should read this – if you want to motivate your sales reps in a positive way.
Question: When do you do your best work? When you feel bad or when you feel good?
The obvious answer is when you feel good. No one feels like doing much of...
“Your Easiest Breakup Ever.”
Last week I saw this headline in the local newspaper and it almost seemed to jump off the page. It was a small ad in the bottom right-hand corner of the page. The headline immediately captured my attention, curiousity and interest. I wondered what it was all about.
Why it is Critical to Write Great Subject Lines
If you are involved in marketing and/or selling, you really...
You call a prospect and end up in voice mail. Should you leave a message or hang up? What do you think? This excellent guest post by Jill Konrath includes a must-see video that describes exactly – word for word – how to leave the right voice mail message and NOT sound like a self-serving sales person.
How Not to Blow It When Your Prospect Answers the Phone …
By Jill Konrath
“The use of...
One of my least favorite words is “telemarketing,” only because the word causes most people to cringe, thinking of those annoying sales calls received during dinner. Unfortunately, 95 percent of typical telemarketing calls are cringe-worthy calls from telesales reps who have not had effective training and who read from a bad script. 9 out of 10 telemarketers make a mistake that lets the potential...
Are you sending dozens or hundreds or thousands of emails to your customers? That number can be duplicated and multiplied exponentially if your email is funny, controversial or outrageous. It is called Viral Email Marketing. And it happened to a funny email I sent to my opt-in list a few weeks ago. The click-through rate was off the chart. Literally. My email was forwarded to people who forwarded to other...
What? Prospects lie? Well, think about it. Have you ever had a conversation with a prospect who seemed very agreeable, nodded her/his head and appeared to love your presentation? Your prospect may have said: “That sounds good.” Then . . . nothing happened. You never heard from them again. They did not call and when you called they were “not available.” You left voice mail...
Are they loyal to you personally or loyal to the company? Customer loyalty is one of the “must-haves” for any business. From the executive suite to the sales team to the call center, the drill is often the same: Engage customers enough to make them loyal to our product. But what happens when those employees succeed a little too well — when the customer ends up being loyal more to the...
While writing about the best questions to ask during the sales process, I did some research online and discovered four very good articles.
Questions Are Key to Sales Success
The question-answer game in sales is vital not only to find, qualify and close deals, but also to offer the best possible solutions to your prospects and customers. The key in asking the right questions is to keep them open-ended.
Statements...
Sometimes buying signals are so subtle, they may not be recognized until it’s too late. Buying signs can show up within the first few minutes of a conversation; or they may not emerge until the end of the telephone conversation or meeting. In short, they can show up at any time. It’s up to the sales person to hone in on these signals so that s/he can adjust the presentation accordingly and approach the...
What?
This is the claim in an entertaining TV commercial launched in January. Throughout the ad, the name of the sponsor is never mentioned. It is very funny and somewhat sarcastic. (Somewhat?) If you have not seen this, and would like a laugh, take a minute and watch it on YouTube .
This ad is using the same type of approach that Kodak used to market its printer on the basis of printer ink being much too...
It is undeniable that the most powerful form of marketing online today is email marketing. The reason is simple. Email marketing works!
According to research conducted by the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing generated an ROI of $43.62 for every dollar spent on it in 2009. The expected figure for 2010 is $42.08. As such, it outperforms all the other direct marketing channels examined. Source: Email...
Throughout history, international incidents have been created and resolved through the use of specific words. In sales, the right words can win over a new prospect, and the wrong words can alienate a good customer.
Recently, in a controlled experiment by a restaurant, servers were asked to use two specific words throughout customers’ meals. Cocktails, the menu, wine lists, fresh ground pepper, the dessert tray,...
Last week I received this question from one of my e-class participants:
“I have a customer that I’m selling a specific product to with a very low price. How can I increase the price without an objection? Also, if I happen to increase the price on the invoice, should I tell him or stay silent until he finds out? By the way, this product has been increased by the manufacturer.”
My answer to this...
Which part of a marketing email or direct mail letter do you look at first?
Studies show that customers pay attention FIRST to the headline or first sentence of an email or direct- mail letter.
The second thing most consumers look for is missing in many email campaigns and letters. But this critical component can increase your response rate by as much as 300 percent.
After the headline or subject line of a marketing...
The late financier J.P. Morgan once said: “People have two reasons for everything they do: the reason they give you and the real reason.” When you hear an objection from a prospect – a reason why they won’t buy from you – it is often not the real reason.
What is it that stops some consumers from buying? It is one four-letter word: FEAR. Fear of buying the wrong product. Fear...
Have you seen the Lexmark “Ink Monster” ads? They are cute and funny. If you haven’t seen the TV commercial, check it out on YouTube.
Lexmark created at least two “Ink Monster” television ads and also developed a version of the campaign that runs on the firm’s Web site home page.
From http://www.observer.lyra.com:
Lexmark’s decision to join Kodak on the “cheap ink” bandwagon is interesting...
Just as a carpenter needs the right tools to do his job effectively, a sales person also needs good tools, and your best tools are words. A telesales person needs to be able to rely on words because the prospect can’t see you smile or shake your hand.
After writing a recent article about words, I received some great emails from readers offering interesting word ideas. (Thank you to everyone who sent word...
When an admirer praised him for Walden, Henry David Thoreau insisted that a greater achievement was within every person’s reach. “To affect the quality of the day,” Thoreau said, “that is the highest of arts.”
This quote is from one of my favorite books, What Clients Love, by Harry Beckwith. There is a valuable nugget of information on nearly every page of this book.
I am often asked...
Has this ever happened to you? The prospect needs or wants your product or service. You’ve made a good presentation and s/he seems interested, but for some reason, the prospect hasn’t placed the order.
You think s/he wants to place an order, but you sense a hesitation. To check and see if you’re on the right track, ask an opinion-seeking question. The answer will tell you how the prospect feels about...
Well, I feel very lucky because I do know a Good Geek.
Here is the story: Last year I bought the domain name AnnBarrBlog.com and wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do with it. . . until I found someone who has literally built it from the ground up and turned it into precisely what I wanted. (Is she also a mind reader?)
For 10 years I searched for someone who could redesign and renovate my first site...
Astonishing. The number of outbound calls that end up in voicemail. Last week, seven different telesales reps from seven different companies told me that more than 80 percent of their outgoing calls wind up in voicemail. 80 percent!
That means – with every call we make – we need to be prepared to leave a voice mail message. But – to get a return call, the first few seconds of the message must be...
In the midst of a recession that has hit business and consumer spending especially hard, it may not be so surprising that retailer Office Depot is having a rough go of things: The No. 2 office-supplies chain lost money in each of the past five quarters and is expected to lose $96 million this year.
But the company, based in Boca Raton, Fla., is facing troubles that go deeper than reduced demand for paper and...
“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.” - Mark Victor Hansen
The word “motivation” has different meanings for different...
