These important keywords can be discovered by using programs like Micro Niche Finder. Data gathered from this computer program or similar computer programs and software packages makes associated terms in a comprehensive list format providing worthwhile targets to have a good listing in an internet search and generate site traffic. Further data is supplied from Micro Niche Finder, for example how many searches every word or phrase gets, the number of other sites using the particular keyword or phrase, and how strong those sites are. Lastly, the data created should help you find appropriate domains, content for your site, and point out desirable goods for you to sell. Construction of a web site is next on the list; however it will require more than that. Getting the top ranking on the search engines involves the fine tuning of your website. Applications like SEO Elite can make this simpler. Your competitors’ sites are examined by Seo Elite information which then provides suggestions on how to better search results.

With programs like SEO Elite, information created from the application suggests where to look for links, which words to focus on, and even details on where to submit articles. In Brief, the results obtained are the same sort of information that a specialist in search engine optimization may provide. Once you know which niche market you want to sell in, design your product advertisements, and your internet site is completed, it’s time to get your web site up in the search results. You’ll collect a steady pay check and question why you always worried about making money!

These materials do not need any lamination to retain its colour, which can remain for three years because of the UV tolerant solvent inks. Nevertheless, you can have your banner liquid laminated for extra strength.

Custom banners can more often than not be screened in any size that will accommodate the necessities of your company. Banners can ordinarily be published using a 6 color, 600 DPI, complete resolution printing machine. You should merely be capable to send off you art to a Banner screening company and they should publish it out to your stipulations.

Numerous banner screening shops can significantly cut the cost of a banner to a business by extinguishing the wholesaler and distributing their banners straight to the purchaser. Prices can likewise be in effect lowered if an order can apply the maximum size that the printing companies printers will allow. This eliminates any needless banner textile that would otherwise be useless for the banner printing company.

A wide format banner is certain to draw in many clients to your business. On That Point there are genuinely not many negatives to made-to-order large format banners made for your company as they are screened Rapidly, smoothly, and affordably.

The fear of selling is something which most first time business owners suffer from. Selling is not something we are taught in school or shown by our parents (unless you are immersed in business from an earlier age!) and so the whole process is alien to us. In this article we are going to look at exactly why we have this fear of selling and what you can do to overcome it.

What Is Fear?

But first of all what is ‘fear’? One great definition I have heard is that fear stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. That really sums up what fear is – our mind has gathered all this evidence to back up our inner doubts. This evidence is usually false but to our conscious mind it appears real and so translates into fear! At the end of the day, our fears are mainly thoughts and that’s it!

When our fears grab hold of us we find every excuse under the sun not to do something to get a sale – “I’ll ring again because it’s too early/lunch time/too late”, “I won’t approach them now; they don’t look in a good mood”, “I have a feeling that it’s not the right time to get in touch – may be next week.”

Sound familiar? With these ‘blockers’ getting in the way, your business will never take off! This is why you have to conquer those fears. But what are our main fears when it comes to selling and how can they be overcome?

Fear of failure

Undoubtedly top of the list for any first time (and some experienced sales people!) is the fear of failure. We never like to fail, especially in a success-orientated environment. When we do, it makes the task even harder next time round. In school we are taught to fear failure (remember all those tests when the results were read out for all the class to hear?) and this stays with us in our adult life. Success has one fatal enemy and that’s the fear of failure!

But, don’t be like Homer Simpson when he tried to consol his son Bart who had failed in his bid to be class president,

“You tried and you failed. The lesson is … never try.”

So, what can you do to conquer your fear of failure? The bottom line is that you need a rock solid positive attitude. You must have an inner voice which is continually pushing you onto the next prospect and saying, “Come on, let’s find the one who’s going to say yes!”

Failure has to be seen as a learning opportunity. In every failure, there is a nugget of information, which next time, can point you in the direction of better success. James Dyson, the inventor of the revolutionary vacuum cleaner, summed up the need for a positive attitude, when he said, “Success is made up of 99% failure. You galvanise yourself and you keep going as a full optimist.”

Image Fears

We all have the image of a successful salesperson – self confident, well dressed, good communicator, knowledgeable. We are our own worst critic and we quickly see the supposed flaws in our characters, which are either not there, or are so small that most people cannot detect them. Yet we allow our poor self image to drag us down. We convince ourselves that we cannot sell. Unless you are confident about your own ability to sell then the task is twice as hard. Remember that you are not born with confidence – it’s something we learn!

Not everyone has boundless self-confidence. When you start out in business, there is sometimes a nagging doubt that you may have bitten off more than you can chew. This inner doubt chips away at your self confidence and soon you have a poor self image, which reflects in your sales pitch. To be a successful salesperson you have to have a strong self image.

To improve your self image follow these steps:

• Write down the qualities which you believe a successful salesperson should possess. Try and limit the list to 4 or 5 key qualities

• Find a quiet spot and relax your body and mind with deep and steady breathing

• Once you are totally relaxed recite the strong, self image qualities you identified earlier

• Imagine or visualise yourself possessing each of these qualities. See in your minds eye how you look, now that you have these qualities. See how successful you are, how you look, and the car you are driving, where you are living

• Repeat to yourself that you are assuming each of these qualities and becoming a better person with each day that passes

Repeat this exercise first thing in the morning and last thing at night and you’ll soon find your self image and confidence levels increasing!

Fear of Rejection

No one likes to hear the word “No”! The fear of rejection is another major stumbling block some people have to overcome when selling. Sometimes the fear of rejection is so big that their whole sales presentation is overshadowed. Their subconscious is saying “Why are you bothering? You know they are going to say no!” The presentation gets even worse; words are mumbled and product features are forgotten. The result? They get a ‘No’!

Hearing the response “No” is not a great motivator! The main way to deal with rejection is just to accept that it happens. Try and re-frame any rejection you get by saying to yourself that it’s the customer who loses out, not you. Walk away with a smug smile on your face and remind yourself that you are one step closer to someone who will say “Yes”.

Product Knowledge Fears

Successful selling can only be achieved if you know your product or service inside out. If you don’t know all the features and benefits how can you ever hope to persuade someone that your product can solve all their problems? You may have had one bad experience where a customer highlighted your lack of knowledge but for some reason you have not put it right. Your subconscious continues to recognise this weakness and does what it can to sabotage your future presentations!

A lack of in depth knowledge about your product or service quickly finds its way to making for a poor presentation. There is only one solution … and that’s to get learning! Absorb yourself in the product. Understand all the features and benefits, so that you can confidently talk about all aspects of your offering. Banishing this fear is one of the easy ones to put right.

Fear of Criticism

No one likes being criticised for what they do! We may do something to the best of our ability but our self confidence soon disappears when someone criticises our selling style or product. This links in with the fear of a poor self image. If you have a low self image then criticism can hurt even more. On the other hand, people with a high self image can usually bounce back from a critical comment.

If you carry out the exercises on improving your self-image, your ability to take criticism will also improve. Decide to view criticism more as feedback than a direct attack on you. There is usually some element of truth in the majority of critical comments and it’s important that you take the opportunity to learn and change.

Presentation Fears

You may be aware that your presentation skills leave a lot to be desired! Your sales pitch may be all over the place and lack any real structure, resulting in an inability to get the customer to commit. Your lack of confidence quickly shows up and the customer walks off with his wallet firmly in his pocket. This fear all boils down to lack of training. If you can spot this weakness or fear, then you are half way there. Many sales people don’t even know they have a training problem!

Your presentation fear can be down to a lack of structure around your sales process. Write a basic outline on how you wish a perfect sales pitch to go. Prepare a script for the key parts of the presentation and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!

Why not ask someone to help you role play a sales presentation? This will give you the opportunity to make all the mistakes you want but in a risk-free environment! You should also visit your local Business Link office and see what courses they are running on sales skills. Look out for books and tapes on effective selling. All of these actions will assist in improving your confidence and result in a more professional sales presentation.

Selling does not have to be a fearful experience! If you have the right attitude, a strong self belief, a full understanding of your product and plenty of practice, then you will have nothing to fear. So, take a look at each of these fears and put a plan in place to tackle them today!

© Robert Warlow
Small Business Success

Small Business Success is a resource dedicated to helping small business owners be more successful. If you are looking for a regular flow of ideas and tips then subscribe to Small Business Success a free newsletter, which provides you with quick tips, ideas and articles. Visit http://smallbusinesssuccess.biz

Rapport means harmony between people. When people share rapport, they speak the same language. When people don’t have rapport, it is as if one person is speaking Greek and the other person is speaking Chinese. There is no common understanding.

RAPPORT AND SELLING

Sales research has shown that over 90% of the sales process is based on having a good rapport with the prospect. You may have the best coverage for your client and you may represent the most reputable firm(s), however, if you don’t have rapport, your prospect will find a reason to buy from another agent.

We usually develop rapport easily with people who are like us. It is very difficult to understand or feel comfortable with people who are not like us. We perceive them as strange. We judge others based on how we see the world.

Before we can try to talk about how we can satisfy our prospect’s needs, we have to get him prepared to listen to us. We do this by getting him to trust us — by developing rapport.

BUILDING RAPPORT

How do we develop rapport? Most independent insurance professionals realize that rapport is an important part of the sales process, so they try to develop rapport with their prospects before trying to “sell them.” They try to establish a common bond by engaging in small talk. Unfortunately, only 7% of the words we use to communicate get through to others. However, 38% of our tonality and 55% of our physiology or body language are communicated very effectively.

One of the most powerful ways we can develop rapport is through physiology. There is a technique called mirroring which allows us to develop rapport very quickly. What you do is mirror the other person’s physiology or body movements. If the person leans back in the chair, you lean back. If the person crosses her legs, you cross your legs. If the individual sits forward, you sit forward. Your goal is to get your prospect to feel comfortable with you being there so she will be open to what you have to say.

Mirroring is very subtle. Wait several seconds before shifting your body to match your prospect. Mirroring is a continuous and fluid process so as your prospect moves around, you continue to change your body movements to remain in rapport. One word of caution — don’t mimic. If your prospect scratches her nose, don’t follow or she may realize what you are doing and get very insulted.

PRACTICE MAKES SALES

The technique of mirroring takes practice to learn effectively. Try it on your family and friends so it becomes a natural skill for you to use. When you become proficient at using this technique, your prospect will not realize what you are doing. He will only feel extremely comfortable with you because you are so much like him.

Remember, 90% of the sales process is rapport. Use the technique of instant rapport and watch your closing ratio soar!

About The Author

Della Menechella is a speaker, author, and trainer who inspires people to achieve greater success from the inside out. She is a contributing author to Thriving in the Midst of Change and the author of the videotape The Twelve Commandments of Goal Setting. She can be reached at della@dellamenechella.com. Subscribe to free Peak Performance Pointers e-zine – send blank e-mail to mailto:subscribe@dellamenechella.com.

Customers Buy Benefits

You want more sales? Customers buy for one reason. They buy because your product or service has a benefit they want. Telling your customer your product has a 10 year warranty is a product feature. Telling them that in over 400 roofing jobs last year, there were no leaks, no call backs and no broken tile is selling the benefits your customer wants. Sell customer benefits and you will increase your sales.

Why You Sell Features

Bottom line, selling features is easier. Features are the visible things you see about products and services. Features are the things you see, touch, feel and smell.

Selling features is your self-interest. The products and services are your life-blood. You live with them every day. You know them inside and out. You love talking about them!

Identifying the benefits each customer wants it tough work. Customers are unique. Each buys for his or her own reason. It is easier to talk about common product features rather than uncover unique customer benefits.

Your Five Minute Exercise to More Sales!

The five minute exercise is called “SO WHAT.” When you complete this exercise, you will change your from selling product features to selling customer benefits. Remember, customer benefits are what sell! Here is how it works.

You create a five minute dialogue between a pretend customer and yourself. It’s important to speak this conversation out loud. Start with one of your most popular business features. Explain the feature to your pretend customer. Then listen as the customer says, “so what?” Now answer the customer’s so what question. Then listen as the customer says, “so what?” to your response. Again answer the customer’s so what question. The customer again responds with a “so what” question. Keep doing this dialogue until the customer no longer asks you a “so what?” question.

Now, you have identified a customer benefit!

Check Out This Example

This is how an insurance agent used the exercise. I asked him, “What distinguishes you from other agents?” He told me, “I find the cheapest and best policy for my customers.” I responded, “So what?”

He said, “Well, unlike other agents, I customize each policy for my customer.” I said, “So what”.

He answered, “As part of my program, I promise to keep my customer informed about any policies changes that may benefit them in the future. ” I asked “So what”.

He responded, “The customer has the security of knowing that they have the best program and best costs for their insurance.” I said, “So you are guaranteeing me that I can go to bed at night and not worry that I am paying too much for my insurance?”

“Exactly,” he exclaimed, “That is the security I provide each customer with my insurance program!”

By using the SO WHAT exercise, the agent moved from selling the “cheapest rates” (business feature) to providing the customer the security of knowing he will always have the best rates (customer benefit).

Which agent would you buy from; the one with the cheapest rate or the one that provided you with security about your rate and policy?

Conclusion

Now, you have a simple way to make more money by improving your sales at no additional costs! Use the SO WHAT dialogue with each of your business features and start selling customer benefits. For a special report that shows how the five critical pieces work together in getting more customers for your business, Send an email to al@hanzal.com with subject line, “Special Report.”

Copyright Al Hanzal, 2004. All Rights Reserved

About The Author

Customers have been using Al Hanzal’s materials to improve their sales and marketing skills.

al@hanzal.com

Sadly, most superior sales performers, when promoted to leadership positions, are unable to truly lead. They have trouble analyzing and teaching their personal sales processes in such a way that their sales teams can properly digest. Solo reps who move into the management sphere tend to manage people versus coaching critical competencies and behaviors, which hurts the bottom line. To be effective, sales leaders must understand and know how to integrate knowledge of sales systems and processes to their staff. They need the majority of their salespeople to accept it, own it and benefit from it.

Going one step further, it is crucial for sales leaders to have experience in identifying and measuring critical core competencies and essential performance metrics. Sales leaders should understand that there are a finite number of scenarios in any selling process. If you identify, train to and measure each one of them, you are on your way to excellence. True sales leaders shine a light on the most critical competencies, enabling the highest percentage of their sales force to routinely win. Sales leaders train to each one of these competencies, but they do so by priority. They understand that training to multiple missions at once will achieve minimal results.

The importance of sales training comes into play for sales leaders, who must consider results-oriented training as a process versus an isolated event. They don’t just talk about it at sales meetings, or attend seminars that superficially touch on it; instead, they extract the most important critical competency, such as creating new opportunities, and peel back every element that comprises it. They break apart the elements into single scenarios and attach powerful routines to each scenario. Sales leaders, like great business leaders, spend time developing systematic approaches to essential competencies. And they do it so that their people can outperform the standard.

Sales training campaigns should be setup to improve the ratios of success in each core competency. Operational effectiveness equals better competency routines. Better than whose, you ask? Your competitors’, of course.
With the right systems in place, good sales leaders understand their essential competency ratios and performance numbers, and are able to relate them to revenue objectives. It is important to set realistic goals that are in line with performance ratios, then set “benchmarks” for each competency and train specifically to those benchmarks.

Jim Tressel, head football coach for the Ohio State Buckeyes, gave a preseason interview the year after winning the 2002 National Football Championship. He said, “We decided to identify a number of important performance benchmarks, and effect training to meet them each week. For instance, we found that over the last 15 years, when we gained at least 200 rushing yards in a game, we won the game 98% of the time. So we are training to routines that will help us get better at the competency of running the football on the ground in order to reach that particular benchmark more often.”

Sales leaders believe that sales reps will be accountable to results, provided that leadership:
(1) Identifies the important competencies required for success;
(2) Supplies targeted training with appropriate structures for learning and application; and,
(3) Measures the degree of improvement.

Sales leaders are dedicated to transforming “C” players into “B” players, and “B” players into “A” players. They hold themselves accountable to develop or invest in relevant training systems, learning structures and support tools. They want most of their people to routinely meet or exceed company revenue goals, as well as personal career objectives. They know that they must provide the setting and the tools that foster this kind of achievement.

While their seat-of-the-pants skill sets are excellent, the natural sales rep, when thrust into the role of sales manager, must learn how to convert these skills into transferable processes and routines that focus on essential competencies. Thereafter, it comes down to how effectively they can train, motivate and support their staff towards maximizing core competencies, which ultimately increases the odds of exceeding revenue targets.

Jeff Hardesty is President of JDH Group, Inc. and the Developer of the X2 Sales System®, a blended training system that teaches sales professionals the competency of setting C-level business appointments.
Jeff has been featured in numerous National publications such as Business First, Dartnell’s SELL!NG , Chief Learning Officer and Training Magazine with reference to Blended Learning Systems and improving sales teams Key Performance Indicators.
He travels the country conducting live X2 ‘Boot Camps’ and Train-the-trainer sessions helping sales organizations get more reps to Quota in less time, shorten new-hire ‘Ramp-to-Quota’ and eliminate Turnover costs due to low sales activity.

Jeff can be reached at jeff@convertmoresales.com.
To view a complimentary suite of sales training ROI calculators and determine your sales team’s Key Performance Indicators in line with your sales objectives visit http://convertmoresales.com/roi_calculators.php.

A large number of citizens struggle to find workable approaches to earn some extra cash from home, without having to worry over being tricked. Thus after a quick web search returns paid money surveys in their results, a person likely thinks they have found the answer to their inner prayers. Although true there are many paid online survey opportunities available, an interested party should analyze the details and work to find a legitimate survey company. Getting Best Paid Survey is simple. We’ll just say it’s under $40, read on more about Best Paid Survey. The reason I want to share this little tidbit of knowledge is because I have witness way to many people waste a ton of valuable time taking surveys for quarters dimes and nickels. Also see Paid Surveys Singapore. We see searches made daily like survey cash; get paid for your opinion online paid surveys and many more.

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Good Luck!

Apart from a satisfactory professional training level, your employees should have good communicational and interaction skills, good negotiation abilities, good decisional skills and so on. These traits can only be revealed during job interviews and testing periods. Elaborate individual evaluations are very time-consuming and few business owners can afford the luxury to personally assist in the process of recruiting new employees. The solution is to either assemble a reliable recruitment team that can take care of the recruitment process in your place, or better yet, ask for the help of a professional recruitment service.

Lots of businesses are nowadays turning to Sales Recruitment Services in order to find well-trained professionals with minimal time and effort. There is a wide range of reliable Sales Recruitment Services on the World Wide Web that can take care of all the aspects of employee recruitment in exchange for a previously established fee. If you simply don’t have the time to personally supervise the process of employee recruitment, online Sales Recruitment Services are best solution to your problem!

Once you have requested the help of a certain Sales Recruitment Service, you will be asked about the nature of your business and the exact profile of the sales persons you need in order to complete your business team. According to your instructions, the service will then take care of every single aspect of the recruitment process, frequently providing you with feed-back regarding the progress of the recruitment program. You will quickly start to receive appliances from well-trained professionals in the branch, allowing you to choose the sales persons that best fit your business. You also have the freedom to access the database of contacts at any time, in order to find the best candidates for your offered job vacancies.

Sales Recruitment Services are effective means of finding the most suitable candidates for your business. With the help of a professional online Sales Recruitment Service, you can enter in contact with a wide range of suitable candidates with a minimal investment of time and effort. Whether you are looking for a salesman, advertiser, telemarketer or a sales executive, territory manager, business development manager or sales director, online Sales Recruitment Agencies can quickly fulfill your requests!

* 1 percent died (makes you wonder how they responded)

* 3 percent moved

* 5 percent said friendships

* 9 percent said competition

* 14 percent were dissatisfied with the product

* 68 percent cited an attitude of indifference by employees

How many times do you think that employee attitude is communicated by phone? Very often the telephone is the first and only contact that people have with your organization. Make sure that this experience is the best you and your employees have to offer so that first-time callers become repeat customers.

Smile when you answer the phone. Even if your hair is on fire or the last caller chewed you out, pause for a moment to put a smile on your face and in your voice. Believe it or not, people can hear you smiling through the phone.

Answer the phone on the first ring, certainly no later than the third ring. If people have to wait through rings four and five, they begin to think that you have closed for the day, gone out of business or just don’t care. We live in a world that expects instant gratification. Be sure you meet your customers’ expectations.

Ask permission before you put someone on hold. You may have multiple lines ringing and a line of people standing at your desk, but wait to hear the caller’s response. It is that person’s choice to hold or not. Try not to turn this move into a power play. When you come back on the line, thank the person for holding. If you have to ask the caller to continue to hold, offer to take a number and return the call.

Transferring calls should be done with care. Before you connect the caller to someone else’s extension, make sure that person is in and able to help. There is nothing more frustrating than being transferred over and over again and having to retell the same story to a multitude of different people before finding the right one.

Before you send the call to co-worker, give the caller that person’s name and number in case there is a disconnect. Better yet, tell the caller who you are and how to reach you if there is a problem. You will have an extremely satisfied customer.

Always make an offer of help. It may not be your department, your issue or your job, but if it is the customer’s problem, you need to show concern. Never tell the caller ” ‘I don’t know’” or “I can’t help you.” The best response to a problem is a genuine “Let me see what I can do or who I can find to help you.”

You will win customers and influence people every time when you use good phone skills.

(c) 2005, Lydia Ramsey. All rights reserved. Reprint rights granted so long as article and by-line are published intact and with all links made live.

Lydia Ramsey is a business etiquette expert, professional speaker, corporate trainer and author of MANNERS THAT SELL – ADDING THE POLISH THAT BUILDS PROFITS. She has been quoted or featured in The New York Times, Investors’ Business Daily, Entrepreneur, Inc., Real Simple and Woman’s Day. For more information about her programs, products and services, e-mail her at lydia@mannersthatsell.com or visit her web site Manners That Sell.