Seeing the results of advertising your business can be like watching a roller coaster. The day you run your ad you see a flurry of activity; your ph0ne starts ringing, your web site traffic increases and/ or potential clients visit your store. Your hopes soar. sales go up. Two or three days pass and the response goes down. You look at the bill for the advertising and your jaw drops. Your hopes descend.
Many people today simply prefer the convenience of paying by credit card. If you want their business, you must be able to accept their credit-card payments.
These 4 marketing myths can cause you to lose sales if you base your marketing decisions on them. But the related marketing tips I included with each myth will boost your sales if you act on them instead.
I remember moving my family to Argentina as Vice President of Sales for Latin America. I was in charge of managing five regional offices, Argentina of course being one of them.
I just finished a phone call with a potential client who had called to discuss a problem. His 18 person sales force was paid on straight commission. All had been with the company for 8 - 15 years and were earning healthy incomes. His problem was that he couldn't get them to do what he wanted them to do. Here's the example he shared.
As you are reading this sales article, read very carefully. Because I wouldn't want you to think of a pig right now. No, do not think of a fat, brown, smelly pig right this moment. What are you doing? Do you have a picture of a smelly, fat, brown pig in your head right now? I thought I just told you not to do that. What are you doing then?
This month I want to share a success from a friend and customer of mine. You'll find in this story two important sales tactics for beating your competition.
I don't even like saying the word d---------g. I have literally obliterated it from my dictionary with a black marking pen. I'll bite my tongue until it bleeds, before I say the word.
In the past, if you said the word ?plan? to me, I would bolt and run. I?m the ?creative type,? a former ballet dancer and choreographer?I?m terrible with details. When I was dancing professionally, all the details were taken care of; all I had to do was show up and dance. Even when I was choreographing, as long as I met my deadline for when the dance needed to be complete, I could go with the moment, go with the impulse and see where the dance led.
Twiddling your thumbs and waiting for some business to come in? Why not use this downtime to set yourself up for greater success in the new year? Here are my 10 picks, but you don't have to do them all. Even doing just one will get you another rung higher on your business ladder.
The best way to get a new customer is to clearly identify
who you want
to do business with and then get in front of them. They can
then see what you look
like, possibly see what your product looks like and also
examine any data or
statistics you might have. It gives you the ideal
opportunity to start building
a positive working relationship with your potential
customer.
Good sales people can close, but few "step up" for even more sales from that close. Yet stepping up should be one of the easiest accomplishments in sales ? that is if you know how to build the staircase.
Sales Pipeline Forecasting Is There A Better Way?
To put it mildly most companies sales forecasting just isn't delivering, a staggering 90% of the deals do not close as forecasted even when the close probability is 75% or over. Even more astonishing is that 54% of forecasted deals are lost to competitors or to a no decision.
Promoting Your Private Label at Industry Trade Shows
So everyone thought you were crazy when you announced 6 months ago that you were quitting your "real job" in hopes of chasing starting your own Private Label Clothing Line. Your house is a disaster, blank shirts and line sheets everywhere, your living room has been transformed into a makeshift production lab. You've bled and sweat, investing every last of ounce of time, effort and inevitably?your life savings. At last, you're first sample line is complete and your line sheets are nothing short of spectacular. Congratulations! But wait?better take a deep breath as the real work has only begun. What next?
Disclosure Laws Favor International Terrorists
The Federal Trade Commission has rule that are supposedly in place to protect franchise buyers from fraud from franchisors who might attempt to mislead them into purchasing a franchise. Part of the franchise rules are addressing required disclosure paperwork. In this disclosure document, which is required to be given to franchisees 10 days before any purchase is made are the names, addresses, phone numbers of all franchisees in the system. For smaller home based franchises this means home numbers, addresses and personal information.
6 Common Mistakes in the Sales Hiring Process
Is lack of sales results, more sales training costs, months of
unearned salary and damage to your company's image or
reputation your company's method of NOT finding good
salespeople? For most companies it is!
How to Organize a Seminar or an Event
Seminars and events have always been implemented as a holistic experience to participants. Thus, organizing an event requires extensive planning and preparation with most work implemented at least a few months before the actual event. Most of the time, seminars seem to run like clockwork with all events flowing smoothly according to schedule. In reality however, much groundwork has been worked on with the purpose of developing the right atmosphere in addition to a beneficial experience to partipants.
The Top 5 Issues Facing VPs of Sales
A recent study of 2,663 sales organizations by Think Training, Nightingale Conant and Trainique uncovered five areas that shed light on what separates the best from the rest
(visit http://www.revegrowth.com/free_articles.htm for a copy)
Transforming Your Sales Force by Creating Specific Expectations
I just finished a phone call with a potential client who had called to discuss a problem. His 18 person sales force was paid on straight commission. All had been with the company for 8 - 15 years and were earning healthy incomes. His problem was that he couldn't get them to do what he wanted them to do. Here's the example he shared.
Retail Operations - Effective Branch Manager Support and Guidance
Performance and behaviour management is by far the most difficult aspect of any manager's job and the reluctance to 'grasp the nettle' when performance or behaviour issues emerge is certainly a concern in many organisations. But at the end of the day that is what managers are paid to do and not doing so will certainly affect service, team morale, sales and ultimately the bottom line.
Increasing Business Through Distributors
You're a small company with a good product. You are confident that the product can sell, but you don't have the financial resources to hire a team of fifty salespeople to market and sell the product for you. You also don't have the staff resources to support those that purchase the product. How do you make your good idea and good product create success for you?
Franchise Sales; Recruiting of Laid Off Employees
Because of corporate downsizing, many people have been laid-off or voluntarily taken early retirement packages and/or incentives. This happens when times are good due to mergers and acquisitions or when the economy is in the dumps and corporations are working to cut payroll costs. Almost all of these people have absolutely had it with corporate life; they feel burned and unappreciated. They realize that there is no such thing as job security. If a franchiser sales team gets the lead in time, they may still have good credit. If not, these laid off employees will have spent their savings on family crisis type emergencies and day-to-day living expenses. They will have either taken a job for less pay somewhere else out of necessity or be in a line of work totally foreign or unrewarding. Once this happens, they may no longer be in the market for a franchise.
The Effective Executive
What does it mean to be an "effective executive"? Well very simply it means achieving the goals you set out to achieve in an efficient, creative and effortless manner. Some of the benefits that ensue from this self efficacy are: feelings of self confidence, self esteem, self worth, a sense of personal empowerment, feeling invigorated and passionate about everything you choose to do, a sense of resilience, more energy, personal emotional and physical health and for some a great sense of purpose.
The Spirit Of Change
A Highly Conscious Approach To Business Management.
For more on this topic please link to Innerwealth Web Site
100% Commission Equals Zero Percent Control
The temptation to use straight (100%) commission plans never goes away: "Let's put our salespeople on 100 percent commission. Then, if they don't perform, we're not out any money." For small, start-up organizations, the lure is irresistible, especially when money is tight and the company or the products they sell have no track record in the market.
Commodity Sales Prospecting - How to Stand Out From Your Competitors
I have received a number of requests for advice from salespeople and sales managers that sell "commodity" products and services. When I refer to commodities, I don't just mean pork bellies or frozen concentrated orange juice. A commodity is any product or service where the target prospect is likely to be thinking:
Determining Sales Fit; the Key Growth Process for Your Business
Help your organization grow by assessing the right indicators in individuals slated for revenue-generating positions within your company. "Growth Talent", such as sales, account executive, consultant, sales engineer, or other individuals responsible for top-line revenue growth. The SalesFit processes addresses the individual uniqueness of your organization and the candidate. The power of the methodology is its ability to ensure an objective understanding of where the candidate is a good fit within your company.
Sales Tactics to Beat Your Competition
This month I want to share a success from a friend and customer of mine. You'll find in this story two important sales tactics for beating your competition.
Free to Succeed: Effective Sales Leadership Using A Coach Approach
About 2 years ago, I participated in a training program I'll never forget. The leader divided us into two teams. Each team's task was to fire a whack of darts into each number on a dartboard. The leader of Team A was given instructions that his team had to hit the numbers in a certain sequence. He then related the sequence, number by number, to his team.
Energize Your Organization
No matter what you do, it seems, your employees do only what's absolutely necessary to get along. You've handed out raises across the board year after year. You've been as generous as you can be with various incentives. Now you're at wits end. You ask in frustration, "What will it take to motivate my employees?"
