| |
| |
|
Sales Information |
|
|
|
Increasing Short and Long Term Profits
"I was at your site for all of two minutes before I bought one of your manuals. I'm impressed!" I love to get emails like this one sent by Vicki from Tucson, Arizona. Marketing my business would be easy if every client bought my products within two minutes of seeing my marketing materials, or signed up for my coaching services after a few minutes on the phone with me. Do you make most of your sales in 2 to 20 minutes from the time a prospect first reads your marketing copy, visits your web site or calls you? Neither do I. I make approximately 10% of my sales at the time of first contact, but most prospects take weeks, months and, in some cases, years to become clients. As I mentioned in my marketing blog, I track sales on the day I send out my marketing newsletter. Typically, orders for my books begin to come in within a couple of hours. Some will be from people who just found my web site and aren't even on my mailing list, others will be from prospects who signed up for my newsletter a couple of weeks ago, and still others will be from people who have been getting my marketing materials for a six months or even longer, sometimes as long as two years. When Do People Buy? Prospects buy from you when they know you exist, know which problems you solve, feel confident in your products or services and understand their value, and, most importantly, when they want to do something about their situation or are ready to solve a problem. Prospects looking for an immediate solution may buy your $149 product or $5000 service today, but most won't want to purchase it until next month or next year. Increasing Profits You need a marketing strategy that helps you increase immediate, short-term and long-term sales. Does your current marketing strategy do this? Does it prompt people to buy from you the first time they visit your web site or call you, make a purchase a few weeks later and in some cases buy from you years after their first contact? Would you like to improve your immediate, short-term and long-term sales? Below are marketing strategies you can use to accomplish this. Making Immediate Sales You want a prospect reading your marketing materials for the first time to immediately see you as an expert and understand the value of your products and services. Don't make the mistake of thinking the best way to do this is to describe products and services, credentials or list clients. Introduce yourself with a marketing message that describes how you help your clients, phrased in terms of their concerns, not yours. Follow this with a few testimonials from clients that focus on the results you've generated. Then describe the solution your product or service provides, again in terms of your prospect's needs. Finally, ask for a commitment, an order or contact information. Generating Short Term Sales Not everyone arrives at your web site or at the other end of the phone line ready to make a decision. In fact, 80% of people spend two or more weeks researching their purchasing decisions. What can you do to keep these people interested? First, get your prospect's contact information. Stay in touch and continue to demonstrate your expertise and the value of your products and services. You may have an interested prospect, but the prospect isn't clear on why or when they should use your product or service. When you follow up a prospect's initial contact, give them useful ideas they can use related to your product or service, and take advantage of this opportunity to educate them about the problem or concern you can help them resolve. Improving Long Term Conversion Rates I had one prospect that I'd talked to three or four times on the phone over the course of two months. When they didn't respond to two follow up calls, I stopped calling. Two months later, that is, four months after our first conversation, they called me to say that after researching a dozen other consultants, they'd finally decided to use my services and at the same time had expanded the scope of the project and the price I'd be paid. You've probably had similar experiences. Some prospects take even longer than four months to make a decision to buy. Why? Because people buy based on their own timetable, not yours. They buy when they have a need and when they want to act on that need. Even after deciding you want a new tax attorney or financial advisor, it might take you years to end your relationship with your existing advisor and place your trust in someone new. Most people use contact management software to remind themselves to call or write prospects. This is a first step in keeping a potential sale alive, but a strategy of using only follow up phone calls can fall flat when prospects don't have any news about a project to report, haven't made a decision or just aren't ready to make a purchase. One effective strategy for staying in the "front of mind" of your prospects is to use a newsletter or ezine to continually demonstrate your expertise and remind them of ways you can help them. Send it out biweekly or monthly, and they'll remember you when they are ready to make a decision or a purchase. To make sales today, next week and in months to come, give your prospects the information they need and the solutions they want immediately and continuously. Have a plan in place to follow up with those who don't purchase your goods and services right away. Keep providing the information they need to make a decision, and you'll increase sales and profits today, tomorrow and in the coming years. The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals and small business owners attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up for the Free Marketing Plan eBook, for small business owners and people responsible for marketing, '7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business' at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com 2005 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.
MORE RESOURCES:
Sales - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Keep the Referrals Coming A key method of our survival in the business and retail world is referrals. Referrals are always nice, because they come from someone on the outside of your company who has enough trust and faith in you to refer someone in your direction. How Can Fundraising Consulting Help Us Raise Money? If you need to hold a fundraiser and don't know where to begin there is help out there for you. It is time for you to seek fundraising consulting advice especially if your fundraising event is going to be on a larger scale. Looong and Boooring Sales Letters You have all seen them,the sales letters that never ends. They go on and on about how this product can do this and that. How to Give Your Customers a Choice Between You and the Competition and Have Them Choose You Instead of giving your customers or potential customers a choice between you and your competition and having them choose the other guy, have them choose you.Michelle Dunn's new book" Become the Squeaky Wheel," says creating a credit policy can have surprising results. Stuff We Make Up About Our Prospects ? Go through the "no's" to get to "yes." ? It takes X number of "no's" to get 1 "yes. Count Down To An Advert There are hundreds of books available to teach you how to write a good sales letter/advert. If you were to read them all it would be possible to distil all of the recommendations into a 'What to do list' similar to the one below. Cracking The Billable Hours Ceiling How many of you made as much money as you wanted to last year? Don't be shy; raise your hands. Hmm, I don't see too many hands out there. Female Mannequins: An Overview Female mannequins are very common in clothing stores. They are often found throughout the store, from the front window where they display the store's latest and greatest fashions, to all other sections that featuring women's clothing. How to Sell Your Products Without Competition Selling your products at shows can be difficult when you have a lot of competition. Although some show organizers are careful to have a good mix of vendors, it's not uncommon for other shows to have 20% or more of the booths filled with vendors in the same niche - which is a buyer's market and a seller's disappointing show. Write On The Money: The Ten Commandments (Plus Five) Of Profitable Sales Letter Writing According to the Direct Marketing Association, in 2003 U.S. Breaking the Ice and Winning Over the Client Wherever you turn these days you'll find articles covering every business strategy and tactic available to man from how to make a great presentation to strategies for success all the way to negotiations and prospecting and getting a client to commit. But hardly anyone touches on the subject of breaking the ice with a new client and winning them over. How A Simple Greeting Or Post Card Can Turn Into Cash - Guaranteed I've been using a technique that has helped me to get business I otherwise wouldn't. This will get you more business also. Increasing Short and Long Term Profits "I was at your site for all of two minutes before I bought one of your manuals. I'm impressed!" I love to get emails like this one sent by Vicki from Tucson, Arizona. 10 Important Things To Tell Your Prospects Hello everyone, hope your day is going well! I know this one is short but it is very helpful!1. Tell your prospects that you offer free delivery. Quotations Tell... Proposals Sell! The traditional "Quotation" was originally devised during the Industrial Revolution of the 1850's and has changed little to the present day. It is a totally Dickensian format and absolutely out of date in a situation where supply so completely outstrips demand. Building an Action Plan Going into your workday and waiting for things to happen, and then reacting to them is not a very productive way of doing things. You may as well be going into your workday blind. Lead Generation Sins - 7 Of Them! I really just don't get it.How can so many businesses be missing the lead generation boat by such a long country mile?Billions of dollars in profits, flushed away!Just because of 7 innocent, yet deadly, tactical lead generation errors. Where to Find Mannequins for Sale Any time a clothing store opens or expands, they must buy mannequins. There are many different places to find a mannequin for sale, including the Internet, companies that mass produce mannequins, and businesses that make unique mannequins one at a time. Want More Sales? Write A Barry Bonds Sales Letter I'm not a baseball fan. Never have been. Complacency and Fear are Sales Busters Prospecting is the engine that propels anyone in sales. Without consistently initiating contact with prospective customers to talk with, your sales will plummet and everybody loses.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
