Global Public Articles

Holidays and the end of the year_combined with an economic recession_offer some revenue possibilities to smaller business owners and managers that may not be immediately apparent. Let us consider advertising first.

The deluge of mega store pre-printed ad circulars and broadcast commercials - replete with HUGE never-before-seen price reductions - are already being stuffed inside newspapers and replacing the political clutter on the airwaves.

Joseph A. Banks clothier for men TV ads feature prices that are simply not believable. When and to whom does this outfit ever sell anything at regular price? My guess? Rarely if ever.

Other big box chains shout P-R-I-C-E and then cover their fannies with paragraphs of qualifiers printed in 2 point type that make actual purchase by real people difficult at best.

The measly 14% of consumers who buy on no other factor than price will have their way and you had better get out of their way when they are grazing for the lowest prices.

I say let the big boxes have these price hawks. Smaller businesses should focus their ad efforts on the remaining 86% of shoppers who seek real value.
Show and tell (about) the TOP of your line products and services.

Sprinkle plenty of benefits (what is in it for me?}in your ad copy. Reinforce what you say and what you print with meaningful verbal assistance at point of purchase.

Toss some genuine enthusiasm into the mix. This recipe will not work for everyone, but your results in general will improve.

When honest down-to-earth benefit ad copy is reinforced with an enthusiastic and informative verbal presentation, good things happen . . . like not only selling your best stuff but also knowing that the buyers will return again and again because they are genuinely pleased with their purchase(s).

There is a second small biz opportunity: trading up. The silent majority (86%) of consumers buy from people who provide solid reasons (benefits) to buy.

If you and your staff are prepared, you can turn benefit talk into profitable sales.

Much easier said than done.

Recently I was shopping for a household appliance. I found my way into a business and a shelf in that business that displayed the item I sought in the standard good-better-best fashion.

The opening price point appliance was $129; the step-up model was $169 and the top of the line $199. Except for the color, all three looked pretty much the same to me.

May I help you?_the young lady asked. The normal reply to this lame question is_No, I am just looking_ but in this case, I really was ready to buy.

What accounts for the difference in prices of these three models?_ I asked. Hesitation . . . silence . . . then a response: (Pointing at the middle of the line product)_This one has more features than the cheapest one.

(Pointing next at the top of the line unit)_This one has the most features of all three. I waited for the explanation of exactly what these features might be . . . how they might benefit me . . . but it never came.

That was it! That was the sum total of the sales pitch!

Sound familiar? The sad fact is that this kind of selling is being tolerated in too many businesses both mega and mini.

The opportunity for the smaller business owner or manager is to set their own standard higher and do the necessary training and follow through to make it happen.

Training and follow-through do not exist in the big box chains.

Mega store managers consume 50% of their time trying to hire warm bodies to replace the ones who do not show up. The other 50% of their time is spent in front of a computer screen dealing with all manner of Emails fired from corporate cubicles in far-away offices by people with strange titles after their names.

Very little time left for training!

Smaller businesses need to lead, coach and train every member of their staff how (benefits) and what to sell (top of the line).

Better yet, they need to provide a monetary incentive for superior performance. They do because 86% of the people who call or come through the door are looking for value and information.

Good information builds confidence. Confidence invites a purchase.

Not easy to do but well worth doing. How many smaller merchants will do it? Try 14%! Be among them.

Bob Schumacher books and articles give entrepreneurs a clear coffee-shop English perspective on how to steer their business or profession into the top 20% who achieve 80% of the business and profits. Visit http://www.RedMeatMarketing.com for a complete directory of his articles and books.

Changes in the economy have affected many communities within the country. This has caused negative financial consequences to businesses, families and individuals.

Homeowners are a group that has been hit especially hard because of these changes. Loan modifications are one way for homeowners to get financial assistance and give business to companies that provide it.

If you or your company is in the mortgage or real estate business, then now is the time to gear up for new customers in need of your services. One way to get the most out of selling your services is to purchase loan modification lists and pre-foreclosure lists.

These specialized lists can help you to narrow your potential customer list by providing information on individuals that may need your assistance. Loan modification lists contain information on people who may need to refinance due to a bad loan, changes in the credit market, poor credit, lack of equity or income or other situations.

If your business specializes in working with people in these circumstances then you can save time and money by purchasing these lists. Otherwise, you waste the time and effort of your sales representative by calling on people outside of your target area.

Pre-foreclosure lists can also be a time saving and sales producing product to buy. If you are in real estate or a business that can help homeowners in financial difficulties pre-foreclosure lists can help to target those who may need your business.

These lists give you comprehensive information on those who are in danger of foreclosure. By purchasing these lists, you can give your sales representatives leads on those who are most likely to need and want your services.

Loan modification lists and pre-foreclosure lists are a few of the specialized mortgage lists available for businesses to purchase. By buying these lists, you can save time by only targeting those that fit the criteria for your product.

These lists can contain the valuable information you need to give your sales representatives a jump start to bringing in more business. Information such as contact information, geographic location, current type of loan, mortgage payment information and more is available on these lists.

This information is highly valuable because it gives your sales representatives the information they need to efficiently find new customers and skips the time-consuming step of identifying target customer.

Purchasing lists such as loan modification lists and pre-foreclosure lists can help to identify people that are in need of your services. By having a list that immediately identifies those in need of your services you can help them and grow your business.

Wendy Moyer is a professional writer. Martin World Wide offers comprehensive, quality mortgage lists such as loan modification lists and pre-foreclosure lists .

Automotive products such as warranties are big business in this market. If your business is geared toward automotive owners, buyers, enthusiasts, or automotive consumers of any kind, then you should consider purchasing automotive data lists.

Automotive data on consumers in this market can help to jump start your selling efforts. By specifically targeting only those that are likely to buy your products you can be more efficient.

If you use outdated lists or send out mass mailings to large areas, you are likely spending money on people who don’t meet the criteria of your target audience. Why spend hundreds, even thousands of extra dollars on advertising campaigns knowing a large percentage of recipients may not be in your target audience?

Most sales representatives only make a sell on a small percentage of those they call on or work with. By purchasing automotive data on those that are most likely to buy your product you can make your sales representatives more efficient.

The more sales they make, the more your business grows. This basic principle is the foundation of good selling. By starting out with a good automotive list you are giving your company a great competitive edge in the market.

Automotive data can include all the information you and your sales team need to make more sales. Information such as contact information, purchasing history, etc. can help to narrow down your targets and save time in research. The less time you spend searching and compiling your own lists, the more time you have to sell.

Automotive data is also helpful for your marketing efforts. The more information that is available to your marketing and advertising team, the better they can focus your message to your target prospects.

If your company sells to consumers of automotive products, you should consider buying automotive data and automotive lists. Not only can this help to make your sales effort more efficient, but it can also help to keep your leads organized. Having a list of automotive data in your target area allows you to call on those likely to buy, and then keep track of those you have contacted.

Make sure that when you buy your automotive data, you purchase from a reputable company that has a lot of data. The more data they can offer, the larger your lists will be. Also, check and make sure that the lists are updated frequently to ensure the accuracy and quality of the information you are buying.

Wendy Moyer is a professional writer. Martin World Wide offers comprehensive, accurate and high quality automotive data such as automotive lists to help give your company a competitive edge.

Is cold calling dead? And if laws are being passed to put it to rest once and for all, how do we generate business from now on?

Opinions on the subject vary greatly depending on the background of the individual. For example, most of the old-timers are vigilant in preaching their belief that the only possible way to succeed in the world of selling is to make no less than fifty calls each and every day. On the other hand, younger salespeople tend to become frustrated with this rather quickly and begin looking for more innovative ways to generate business.

I was just reminded of how ingrained this cold calling belief is. I spoke with a friend who left a sales position with a major merchant processing bank only a few weeks after starting. The reason? He was required to make a minimum of 400 cold calls each and every week and to document his activity with business cards. He is highly experienced and knows how to generate business without knocking on 400 doors per week and decided to discuss the strategies that have worked for him in the past with his managers. Their response? This is how we’ve done it for forty years and we’re not about to change.

That response, in my opinion, is the reason we’re seeing record business bankruptcies today. The world and our economy have changed and are breaking into bold, unchartered territory. But the management of most business organizations insists on doing things the old way, even though the old way produces less and less results as time goes on.

The concept of “Permission Marketing” is slowly but surely gaining popularity as the old idea of “Interruption Marketing” becomes less efficient and more wasteful. There are several reasons why cold calling in particular has become less effective as we move further into the Information Age. It destroys your status as a business equal. It forces you to spend time with unqualified prospects while the qualified ones are buying from your competition. It annoys people and is increasingly considered to be rude and disrespectful. Moreover, it may now be illegal (and in several states it’s been illegal for quite some time). But, most importantly, it destroys sales peoples attitudes.

Where is the good news in all of this? Well, the great news is that if you begin using new, innovative, “Information Age” methods for prospecting, you’ll be miles ahead of your competitors who are wasting their time annoying people with cold calls. In this age of the Internet and vast communication networks, why on earth would anyone knock on doors or make cold phone calls to look for business?

Think of the power at your fingertips: there are literally dozens of ways to use the Web and e-mail to let the idea of Permission Marketing do its magic. Allow customers to raise their hands and let you know they’re interested. Begin finding, implementing and reaping the benefits of this bold, new Information Age we are in. Your competitors will be the ones standing in bankruptcy court and explaining their “do-not-call” violations to the government while you are happily taking orders.

Frank Rumbauskas, the New York Times best-selling author who revolutionized selling, is the founder of FJR Advisors, LLC, which teaches people how to get more sales and stop cold calling forever! For 10 free chapters of Frank’s breakthrough book, please visit http://www.nevercoldcall.com.

Perhaps the biggest challenge faced by salespeople is the problem of chasing prospects. In this article I’ll explain exactly why that happens, and how you can avoid it entirely and make prospects chase you instead.

I once heard Donald Trump say, “In selling, you must never appear desperate. As soon as you look desperate, it’s over.”

A friend and I were talking about the dynamics of a cold call the other day. When we make that call, we usually hope and expect that the prospect will be receptive to hearing what we have to say. However, salespeople face increasing resistance to cold calling, as well as increasing flakiness on the part of prospects who do meet with them. Instead of thinking, “Ok, this may be interesting,” here’s what most prospects actually think when they receive a cold call: “Great. You don’t know me and I don’t know you. You have no idea what my goals are. You don’t even know if we need what you’re selling, and in spite of all that, you’ve decided to waste my time anyway with this call.”

What is increasingly becoming the norm is to be rejected by the good, solid prospects everyone wants, and to get appointments with flakey time-wasters who will never buy. Flakiness, in particular, is a growing problem thanks to the fact that prospects are increasingly bombarded with endless advertising as well as endless salespeople. When you consider the fact that few prospects actually have the courage to say “no” and instead choose to blow us off and make excuses, it becomes even more frustrating.

One of the main themes I try to teach salespeople is two-fold: 1) You must be supremely confident. 2) You must get into the habit of qualifying prospects OUT instead of merely qualifying them. It is the appropriate response to ever-increasing flakiness and evasiveness on the part of prospects. It’s our way of communicating to them, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen” in a non-verbal way. The idea of taking the lead and qualifying prospects out is scary at first, and as a result most salespeople aren’t willing to do it, but it will save you lots of otherwise wasted time with prospects who aren’t really serious, and will free that time up to be spent with prospects who are going to buy.

It’s important to start all sales relationships from a position of power, and you do this in two ways: 1) Through your outward presentation. This is easily accomplished by acting very professional and dressing better than your prospects, rather than taking the wrong advice of “dressing like your prospects.” It’s easy to say “no” to someone with whom you’re comfortable, but much more difficult to say “no” to someone who intimidates you. 2) Through your actions. A great example is someone who is squirrely about agreeing to an appointment with you. In many cases, these are the people who finally agree to meet with you but eventually blow you off without buying. When I found myself in this situation, I discovered a great way to overcome it. It goes back to the idea of confidence bordering on mild arrogance, and puts you in the position of power. When you’re getting the runaround, something like “Well, we’ll let you know when we have time to pencil you in,” say something like, “Great, let me know. I’m very busy so I need to know either way - NOW.” This will get rid of time-wasters, and with serious prospects, will clearly communicate that you’re a serious businessperson, should be taken seriously, and will not tolerate having your time wasted and otherwise being disrespected. It will also set you apart from the competition and greatly increase your chances of getting the sale.

As time goes on and I work with more salespeople, I’m realizing that this idea of being powerful really overrides everything else, and once you can pull it off, it overshadows everything. You can do a poor job of presenting and selling and yet this can carry you all by itself. For anyone who is doubtful about this idea of presenting yourself as overconfident and even a little bit arrogant, I’ll go back to Donald Trump since he’s famous for his giant ego. I saw him on Larry King, and as they were taking live calls, one of the callers openly confronted him about his massive ego and Larry King jumped on and questioned him about it as well. Donald Trump simply replied, “Have you EVER met a successful person who didn’t have a big ego?” After some hemming and hawing from King, Trump repeated the question to him, and King finally said, “No.”

Moving on from the idea of avoiding an appearance of desperation and creating an appearance of power, there’s another very good reason as to why prospects who are uncovered via cold calling are flakey. This one has nothing to do with us and everything to do with a particular prospect’s mindset and level of sales vulnerability to begin with.

Most of us have noticed, at some time or another, that prospects who absolutely refuse to take cold calls and have giant “No Soliciting” signs plastered on their front doors tend to be the easiest to sell to once you manage to get in front of them. There are a few popular theories as to why this is so, the most common one being the idea that since so few salespeople get through to begin with, there is little competition and therefore a better chance of getting the sale. However, I know the real reason behind this.

The reason those people are so defensive against sales pitches and have all those “No Soliciting” signs is quite simple. They are AFRAID of salespeople. They know very well that they have a very difficult time saying “no,” and as such they are highly vulnerable to sales presentations and know very well that if a salesperson gets to them, they’ll probably buy whether they need to or not.

(I never figured this out until I spoke with an expert on social dynamics who has studied the subject of human social interaction in depth. He explained that the people who act the coldest and most unapproachable in social settings do so because they’re overly vulnerable to being seduced and falling in love and therefore are afraid of what someone’s advances may lead to.)

Now that we’ve explained why those people are the easiest to sell to, let’s look at the opposite type of prospect: those who willingly take your call and willingly agree to set an appointment.

If those who are easily sold won’t take your call and won’t agree to meet with you, why would someone be so agreeable to taking your call and meeting with you? Exactly. It’s because they have no fear of salespeople. They know right from the start that there’s little chance of them being sold. Their openness and receptiveness to your call puts us off-guard. We think we have a great shot at a sale, but in reality we’re meeting with someone who is 99% certain not to buy.

Since the people who willingly take cold calls usually don’t buy, and the people who usually buy don’t take cold calls, what’s the solution? Since those who are easily sold almost always meet with salespeople only when they’ve called the salesperson first and not the other way around, you must get your message across to these people in creative and effective ways other than cold calling.

To those highly desirable prospects who are easily sold, all salespeople seem the same. The only way to win with them is to separate yourself from the rest of the crowd.

The first way to accomplish this is to be that powerful businessperson who needs nothing and deserves respect. I think most of us were taught and have gotten into the habit of treating prospects as superiors and as a result we tend to do whatever is convenient for prospects and otherwise kiss up to them. We are used to rearranging our schedules just to meet with that one prospect. Stop this, and start expecting your prospects to treat YOU with the respect and consideration you deserve as someone who is not only a business equal, but who has the knowledge and wisdom to help them and improve their businesses and their lives.

The second way to stand out is to stop cold calling. Nothing will stereotype you as a typical salesperson faster than a cold call. The way to win with prime prospects is to get your message across to them in ways that don’t use cold calling. You’ll get in front of the easy sales, and you won’t have any competition once you get there.

Frank Rumbauskas, the New York Times best-selling author who revolutionized selling, is the founder of FJR Advisors, LLC, which teaches people how to get more sales and stop cold calling forever! For 10 free chapters of Frank’s breakthrough book, please visit http://www.nevercoldcall.com.