Sales Marketing: 12 Sneaky Tricks To Help You Outsell Your Competition
September 2, 2010
Business can be like war sometimes.
You may have to fight hard to survive.
The winner takes all.
But that doesn’t mean you have to destroy your competition in order to survive and win.
But you can do one smart thing: outsell them, with a few smart tricks I will reveal below.
One of the tricks to outsell your competition is to compare your product to theirs.
When you find the differences between products, use your findings to improve your product.
Below are 12 things you can compare and improve upon to outsell your competition.
1. Price- Can you offer a lower price? Can you offer a higher price and increase the perceived value of your product? Do you offer easier payment options than your competition?
2. Packaging- Can you package your product more attractively? Do the colors of your package relate to your product? Can you package your product into a smaller or larger package?
3. Delivery- Can you offering cheaper shipping? Do you have a high enough profit margin to offer free shipping? Can you ship your products faster?
Sales & Marketing Plan Strategies
July 6, 2010
Design and Implementation of a new Sales & Marketing campaign must be carefully thought through from the beginning. What message do you want to send about your company, products, and services? What are the anticipated results? What is the execution strategy? What is the cost ratio versus expected return?
These are just a few of the questions that run through our minds in the early stages of planning. If your goal is revenue growth and expansion, I believe you need to design, develop, and implement your Sales & Marketing plan on that foundation. Here is some criteria to consider while planning:
? Identify your markets and your profit potential in the selected markets
? Segment your markets by customer, service, etc.
? What type of penetration is desired: existing, new, different, or all of the preceding
? Design a plan to include procedures and controls to monitor and evaluate market penetration by segment
? Determine and build internal and external sales strategies
? Evaluate and plan staff training to generate internal monitoring controls, evaluation processes, and customer education if necessary
? Plan to control revenue growth with product mix, product promotion, and customer pre-qualification
How Your 60-Second Elevator Script Can Transform Your Staff, Your Sales, & Your Business
May 7, 2010
When attending a Chamber of Commerce breakfast networking get-together, I’m always perplexed by the lack of thought and preparation many business owners display when giving a 60-second overview of their business. These people have spent enormous amounts of time, money, and energy on their businesses. Yet, when asked to give a quick synopsis, they fumble for the right words, they ramble, they go off on a tangent, the information is disjointed, or the words are boring and seemingly unimportant.
Their performance creates a very poor representation of what is otherwise a very good business. Listeners have forgotten the pitch before it’s even over!
Some people have a natural gift for speaking well extemporaneously, and they manage the process with great self-control. But, for the other 80% to 90%, it’s a different story. They muff important opportunities over and over in many daily situations. They frequently miss the chance to make valuable business connections or to develop brand new prospects and customers.
Very few business people make the effort to script out a compelling 60-Second Elevator Script (60 seconds is the time you have to meet someone new in an elevator!) that’s committed to memory and is able to be delivered at a moment’s notice. However, it’s so simple to do, and it’s one of the most effective marketing tactics you can employ.
Commodity Sales Prospecting - How to Stand Out From Your Competitors
March 10, 2010
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:
“I get contacted by (X) salespeople a day that sell (whatever they perceive your product or service to be). Why should I spend any of my time with you?”
How can salespeople prospect successfully if their target prospects see them as just one of many possible (and nearly identical) sources for a product or service?
The key challenge when prospecting in a crowded field is finding some way to capture enough of a prospect’s attention to convince them to meet with you. This all-important first meeting is the starting point for building a relationship, which in turn is a crucial element of success in “commodity” sales. Here are four strategies that will help you win more of these elusive first meetings:
1. Write and distribute Special Reports.
8 Procedures to Take Control of Sales and Marketing
January 9, 2010
The Cash to Cash Cycle Part Three of Series
We’re sprinting toward that million dollar mark…and we’re only a couple strides away?
Decreasing inventory carried us over the first hurdle, and last week reducing Accounts Receivable sped us through the half-way mark. We’re making great time, so let’s bring on the next mile marker ? marketing and sales.
Increasing Overall Sales and Marketing Effectiveness
If you are an organization spending $500,000 or more on marketing expenses (e.g. advertising, trade shows, print materials, direct mail, etc.) then STOP! We found it again. Why you ask?? Because marketing has the greatest potential of being very unproductive. In fact, many marketing programs struggle to break even, and actually frequently lose money. So if we increase the overall effectiveness, then we can eliminate 50% or more of your wasted marketing efforts, which translates into $250,000 in cash.
So now, let’s see how this actually works in a real-life scenario.
Sales and Marketing Company Policy Case Study
The Art of Sales (And Tips On How To Manage Your Sales Team)
November 12, 2009
Selling. Cold calls, introductions, interviews, appointments, proposals, referrals, call cycles, building rapport, listening, asking for the order, overcoming objections, closing the sale, and rejection. There’s a lot to know about the business of selling. No wonder many people are a bit overwhelmed when they are asked to do it.
And it’s not a job for the faint-hearted. Selling is a communication-rich activity, with lots of verbal and non-verbal clues to simultaneously recognise, understand and respond to. It’s a tough job looking after the interests of the customer and the company at the same time. Especially when you have to do this many times a day, every day.
The sales process does not usually proceed in a linear, one-way direction. The participants will often meander along paths filled with associated ideas, go back to items already discussed, find answers for problems (overcome objections) and explore the features and benefits offered. An effective selling style will display a relevant and appropriate personal manner combined with a strong focus on the required outcome.
On many occasions handling a sale is much like steering a boat across a strong current. There is a need to constantly assess the amount of ‘drift’, making minor adjustments to stay on course for the destination.
How To Use A Powerful Leadership Tool To Step Up Sales Results
September 15, 2009
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.
Do it by applying a leadership tool I have taught thousands of leaders worldwide during the past 20 years. The tool is simply to foster a particular viewpoint, which is this: Challenge people not simply to do a task but to take leadership of that task.
The difference in results-producing effectiveness between doing a task and taking leadership of a task is the difference between the lightning bug and lightning.
This change in viewpoint may seem simple even simplistic; but when put into action many times daily, it can work wonders.
For instance, I worked with a manufacturing leader whose workers were constantly falling short of productivity goals. I told him he was leading the workers in the wrong way; he was ordering them to get productivity advancements. I told him that he should have the workers sign on as leaders of productivity advancements. When the workers began seeing themselves as such leaders, they started hitting the goals consistently.
3 Steps To Getting A Sales Meeting
July 18, 2009
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.
Advertising, direct mail, web sites and telesales all have their place but nothing beats the face to face interview. The first challenge is, of course, getting to speak to your prospect and arrange a meeting.
When you phone your prospect’s organisation it’s highly possible you won’t get through initially even if you have their direct number. There’s always an assistant, a colleague or voice mail to deal with.
# 1 Deal with the other person
1. Always be pleasant and polite. Use the person’s name as soon as you know it but not over familiar.
2. Use your prospects name and your name; say - “Will you please tell John Smith that Alan Fairweather is on the phone for him.”
10 Things to Help Your Business When Sales Are Slow During the Holidays
May 22, 2009
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.
1. Evaluate your virtual team and make changes if necessary.
Are administrative tasks taking up most of your time and keeping you from working ON your business? Then hire a virtual assistant. (See my article on this topic at www.EzineQueen.com/everything.htm.) Are you paying too much in taxes? Meet with your accountant to talk about getting more aggressive with write-offs, or make appointments to interview new accountants. Same goes for your lawyer — do you love him/her? If not, take this time to ask around for referrals.
2. Learn how to get more business via your Web site.
Would you like to be getting business leads and sales 24-7? Then look at how your Web site could be working better for you. For help in writing copy that sells, sign up for Red Hot Copywriter Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero’s e-zine at www.Red-Hot-Copy.com. To get more targeted Web visitors, sign up for Marc Harty’s free e-course at www.StrategicTraffic.com. It gave me tons of new ideas!
Sales Plan? Whats a Sales Plan?
March 20, 2009
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.
A hearty dose of reality hit when I began to run a dance company. All of a sudden, I had people-employees, volunteers and dancers-waiting. I had to know where we were going and how we were going to get there. It was a different world. Every decision had impact down the line. If we were going to have a spring season, I needed to know what we would be performing and where we’d be performing it. How many dancers would I need? What about costumes? Were we going to commission music? What would it cost? How would we pay for it all?
