Towards A Healthy Economy + Marketing World

Corporate videos are an important sales tool that can often be overlooked in marketing budgets.

We look at the top nine tell-tale signs that indicate whether your company is in need of an innovative and effective way to promote itself.

1. No strong corporate “look and feel”

You’re in a highly competitive industry. Yet, what makes you really stand apart from your competitors is your people and the look and feel of your company.

So how do you show your state-of-the-art factory in action or your professional staff working in your appealing office?

And what about your idyllic location? What’s the best way to show picturesque vision of rolling hills, clean and green countryside or waterside views?

The solution is to create a marketing video that paints an appealing picture of those indefinable qualities that make your company unique.

2. Unique Presentations

You need to do a sales presentation and your company is up against some tough competitors.

How do you present your company in a way that is different to your opponents?

A proven method is to play your corporate video within your PowerPoint presentation.

Playing your marketing video at the start of a sales presentation is a great way to relax your audience. Interesting vision and upbeat music can make your audience feel more positive, even before you’ve spoken a word.

It’s an ideal way to show the look and feel of your company in a convincing and enjoyable manner.

3. Trade Shows/Exhibitions

Your organisation is always exhibiting at trade shows and needs a way to stand out from the crowd.

Setting up a television screen and a DVD/VHS player in your stand with your continually repeating corporate video is an easy way to get people to stop and stare. Moving vision and music easily stops people in their tracks.

Parents quickly learn that it is easy to distract a child by leaving them in front of a television. Adults are usually no different. It is easy to grab the attention of participants who may feel uncomfortable (or bored) walking around a trade show.

Continually playing your corporate video is an easy way for passers-by to learn about you without having to go to the effort of reading through brochures.

4. Increasing Export Sales

Travelling overseas to market your products or services to international buyers is risky business. Not just for your company, but also for your prospects.

Can they really trust you when you tell them how large and reputable you business is and that you have the right quality procedures in place? How can they get a real feel for your company that is located thousands of miles away?

Presenting your location, factory or office, production process and your dedicated staff at work is highly regarded by international buyers. It provides an extra a look and feel about your company that is often lacking from brochures and photos.

A concise marketing video that gives an interesting overview of your company is a proven method to increasing international sales.

5. Showing your Product or Service in Action

Sometimes you cannot actually demonstrate your product or service to a client because it is too large to lug around, it is located on the other side of the world or there is only one prototype that cannot be used.

New products or services that are suitable for use in a range of different scenarios are also difficult to demonstrate.

Using a marketing video that can exhibit how your product works and under what circumstances is a great way for prospects to understand what you are trying to sell.

This is a much better alternative than taking the prospect through lengthy operational manuals or worse still, having them rely on their imagination.

6. Extensive Product Range

Your product list is extensive. Not only do your clients not know all of the products that you sell, but even your staff have trouble remembering!

Studies have found that we are more likely to remember information if it is shown with pictures. The best way to inform people about your product range (and for them to remember) is to show scenarios in which the product can be used.

7. Your Production Process

Your product is made in a time-honoured tradition that takes hours of dedication. Or your product is made from the finest quality materials that are only obtainable from a scenic, rural location. Alternatively, your service was developed from years of research by experienced technicians.

Showing your product being made in a manner that is different to your competitors gives you a distinct competitive advantage.

This is one area that you do not want to leave to nice words and pretty pictures in a brochure. To do your company justice, showcasing your production process is an extremely important message to convey.

8. Believable Testimonials

There is nothing more potent than having your happy customers raving on about how wonderful you are to camera.

Written testimonials are often read suspiciously. We’re all guilty of reading through testimonials and laughing about their dubious authenticity.

Having a real client talking about you on camera is like having that person tell your prospects face-to-face about how highly they think of you. Of course, the testimonial has to look real. Uncomfortable clients poorly reading from an autocue fools nobody!

When done correctly, this is an extremely effective way to promote your business and one that has been used since televisions first appeared in our lounge rooms.

9. Winning Awards

Many savvy businesses know that entering awards can be a great way to cost effectively promote their company.

Submitting your corporate video in an award submission is also a clever technique to distinguish your company from the pack.

An added bonus is that your video material may also be included during any awards ceremony stretching your promotional opportunities even further.

Marie-Claire Ross is from Digicast Television Production. Digicast Television Production has helped many businesses win big contracts and projects by increasing more awareness and knowledge of their products and services. To get the FREE Digicast Ezine with marketing tips and the latest information on technology to help busy business professionals visit (http://www.digicast.com.au) to subscribe.

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Warren Buffet says that insurance is a commodity and price is the main factor in the market place. It seems that nowadays, lowest price wins, regardless of the other factors. More and more people are turning to direct writers because they believe that 15 minutes and a catchy commercial with a dancing lizard can save them some money. Forget the relationship, forget being able to actually see your insurance agent and forget you if you are $0.01 higher than the “other” guy.

So how do we as insurance agents take a stand and be able take back some of our customers? How do we improve our close ratio? How do we change our customers’ attitudes about price to the point that leaving you for a few dollars will never cross their mind? I can answer that question with one word: rapport. Rapport is a funny thing, it makes you memorable, it makes you likable and most importantly it makes you human. So how do we build rapport with potential or existing clients? In this article we will discuss how to hit the ground running with rapport, how to build it from the word go. I will show you how to make more sales, improve your close ratio, learn more about your clients and have fun while doing it.

Next time you get the chance call around to some of the competition in your area and ask for a quote. Listen and learn to how they interact with you. Do you like the person you talk to? Would you buy from them? What made them good or bad at making a connection with you? Take notes about what you liked and what you didn’t. Incorporate these ideas into your sales strategy and watch your sales increase.

Below I have three examples of how I have heard insurance agents talk to potential customers on their initial phone call. Keep in mind that I have not written any responses from the client since, in this example, only what the agents say is important. I will use the following scenario for an example:

Jill, a single mother of two, believes she is paying too much for her insurance and goes online to HometownQuotes.com and requests a free quote. She gets a call from three agents that are near her home.

Agent 1: Hi Jill. This is Tom from Big Insurance Company calling about your request for insurance. I wanted to follow up with you to verify some of this information with you and ask you a few additional questions. I will get this worked up and give you a call back.

Tom has done a nice job of being polite if he has the best price in town he might be the agent that Jill ends up using.

Agent 2: Hi, Jill, This is Nancy with Gigantic Insurance Company. I saw where you wanted a home insurance quote. Do you have a second? What is going on with you current insurance company? What are some things you like about your current company? What are some things that you don’t like? Alright, thanks for your time, I will call you back shortly.

Nancy was also polite but she took the time to ask some important questions about her current insurance company that she will be able to use to her advantage when comparing companies. If Nancy has the exact same price as Tom she would most likely have the advantage.

Agent 3: Hi Jill. This is Joe from Huge Insurance Company. Is this a good time for you? How is life treating you? Jill, I see that you live on Vine St. Do you know Bo Neighbor? He is one of my clients. It says on the paperwork from HometownQuotes.com that you are a writer? What type of writer are you? You know my wife was trying to break into that business, what sort of tips could you give to help her out? Anyway, sorry about my rambling there, I just find it important to get to know each of my clients on a more personal level than what kind of car they drive. It is also important for me to know that you feel the same way. I know you could call 1-800-555-Quote and get a price but I want you to know me and my family the same way I want to know yours. So, what is going on over at your current company? Oh yea? Well tell me Jill, what are some of the things you really like about your current company? I think we will be able to offer you some solutions that will be comparable to your current company in some ways and exceed them in others. I will take some time to prepare a proposal for you, when is a good time for us to get together so I can present that to you? Great I will talk to you then.

What has Joe done? He was polite, learned about what was going on with her current company and most importantly in the short amount of time he had with her he became her friend. He knows personal stuff about Jill and Jill knows the same about Joe. Sure he may or may not have the best price in town but as long as he is in the ball park he has a chance at the business. This is a chance that he probably would not have had if he had been even $5 more than the first two agents.

I can promise you this: There is no better felling than closing the deal on a new client than when you cost them more money that what they were currently paying and they came to your company because of you. Take a chance on this one and try to be way different that your competition for one week. All you have to lose is some time. If you are selling on price alone now you will still have the same price, you will just deliver it in a different manner. After all, my Dad tells me all the time that “if you put it in one end of the pipe, it will fall out the other.” In other words if you quote enough people you will eventually write business. I guess I just want more of my “it” to get to the other end of the pipe.

Matt McWilliams is one of the co-founders of HometownQuotes.Com, an online insurance quotes web site. He is originally from Pinebluff, NC and attended Middle Tennessee State University in 2002. He is considered an expert in the field of online insurance shopping and finding new ways to help consumers save money on their insurance. For more information visit http://www.hometownquotes.com

Different states call it different things: a discount reseller’s license, a seller’s permit, resale certificate, certificate of authority, application to collect/report tax… but in the end, no matter what it’s called, discount reseller’s licenses are all the same thing. A wholesale company asks you for a discount reseller’s license in order for you to get further price cuts.

There are two premises behind discount reseller’s licenses:

1. The government wants to make sure that businesses are reselling wholesale goods appropriately by collecting and rendering taxes legally, and
2. Manufacturers want to be assured that the goods they are selling to a discount reseller are not being used for personal consumption.

When a business is acting as a discount reseller but isn’t licensed, an item ends up being taxed twice: once when it is purchased from the wholesale supplier, and once when it is purchased by the end consumer. By purchasing a discount reseller’s license, middlemen businesses can avoid this headache and save some cash in the process.

To find out where and who to get these discount reseller’s licenses from, look in the blue pages of your local phone book for the local government business regulators. Give them a ring and ask if and how you can apply for a discount reseller’s license, and what the costs are.

Another option is to contact your local Chamber of Commerce to see if they have any relevant information on discount reseller’s licenses. Usually they can save you a lot of time and heartache by knowing exactly where to look for the information you require, with little time or expense.

Jim Staley is the is the CEO for WholesaleGopher, one of the most trusted dealer and distributor directories on the Internet, offering visitors wholesale items, import and export goods, surplus and closeouts from true wholesale sources. Learn more about wholesaling with his free, bi-weekly blog at http://wholesalegopher.com/blog/.

When I was in college, the curriculum offered several courses on speaking, but I can’t recall a single one on listening. Yet a minimum of 50% of communication is attributed to a person’s ability to effectively listen. So if you are looking for a way to improve your communications skills with customers, suppliers, coworkers, friends and family members, consider the following six techniques designed to enhance effective listening:

1. Ask well-designed open-ended questions. If you want to be more in control of your sales calls, talk less and ask more questions. When you’re talking, you’re learning nothing, but when you ask good questions, you’re getting inside your customers and prospect’s heads. You’re learning more about how they think and how they make decisions.

Here are several of my favorites:

Question: What criteria do you use when _____________? The reason for the blank is because this question is so flexible. You can fill in the blank with different words. For example:

Question: What criteria do you use when making a decision to change brands?

Question: What criteria do you use when selecting a supplier?

Question: What criteria so you use when making a buying decision?

Since I am a big believer in consulting selling, it is critical for me to understand what objectives my clients are trying to achieve. If you can help a customer make more money, be more successful or solve their most pressing problems, you will never again have to worry about your income level.

Here is one of my old standbys that should not be used until you have developed a good enough relationship with the customer or prospect to have earned the right to ask it.

Question: When the end of the year rolls around, what sort of evidence do you look for to determine if you’ve been successful or not?

Key: Ask the question and shut up long enough for the customer to answer. Too often, salespeople can stand periods of silence for too short a period of time. So be patient!

When you ask a customer for an order and the customer tells you that your price is too high, try asking this question:

Question: Are you telling me that if my prices were line for line, item for item identical to the competition, that you and I would be doing business?

This question enables the salesperson to determine the “real reason” for a “NO” answer. Here’s another:

Question: If it were not for __________, are you telling me that we would be doing business together?

Fill in the blank with words like PRICE or whatever reason (or excuse) the customer offers for not buying.

The best conversationalists have mastered the art of asking probing open-ended questions. People don’t care how much you know until they know you much you care.

2. Lip read. When listening, focus on the person’s lips. Because you are able to think so much faster than another person can speak, it’s natural for your mind to wander as you listen. Avoid actually moving your lips as the person speaks, but silently repeat each word that comes out of their mouth. This technique greatly enhances retention and reduces the tendency to allow your mind to wander.

3. Paraphase. When you are not quite sure that you got the precise meaning of a statement, use the paraphrasing technique; that is, repeat back to the person what you believe you heard him or her say. If you heard correctly, you’ll receive confirmation, but if you heard incorrectly, the other person can set your straight.

4. Ask people to repeat to repeat themselves. Let’s say that you accidentally do allow your mind to wander; we’re all guilty of this communication sin from time to time. Don’t try to fake it, but rather, ask politely: “I’m sorry, I missed your last point. Would you please repeat it?”

5. Resist interrupting. Especially if you are short on patience, you may have developed the bad habit of interrupting before others finish making their point. Get into the good habit of waiting until the other person finishes what they are saying before jumping in with your own two cents worth. Make a quick note to yourself if you want to remind yourself what you wanted to say when you thought about interrupting.

6. Love learning. Once again, when you’re talking, you are learning nothing. When you are listening, you are gaining insight into another person’s experience. If you ask customers and prospects enough well-designed open-ended questions, they will tell you everything you need to know to make the sale.

Bill Lee is a South Carolina-based consultant and sales trainer. He is author of Gross Margin: 26 Factors Affecting Your Bottom Line ($29.95) and 30 Ways Managers Shoot Themselves in the Foot ($21.95) http://www.BillLeeOnLine.com

When we talk about prospecting for the commercial/industrial sales professional we usually consider these facts. First, numerous studies have shown that sales are made after the 3rd call so the initial calls are simply relationship builders. Second, timely follow up is critical so that you can actually get to that 3rd call. Third, we have found that a low key and repeatable system for prospecting is easiest to measure and track effectiveness. That is also a brief description of our BLITZ CALL® System of Prospecting and Making Cold Calls.

In 1972, I developed what is now our Prospecting System, when I was working in the grocery industry. I was with a large national company at the time and they decided to introduce a new product in June. They told us to present this product to as many of our grocery store managers as possible in 5 days. I was an eager young sales guy then so I thought to myself, “If I have 300 stores in my territory and I have 5 days to present this product, then I will need to call on 60 stores a day.”

I made those 60 presentations and ended up selling more product than all the other sales people in Ohio combined. Not that I was so great at selling, simply because I asked everyone to buy. It was simply a Blitz Presentation with a lot of Blitz sales. After I made the presentation about 10 or 15 times, I could do it really really well. The entire presentation only took about 45 seconds and ended with a simple close, “Would you like to try 3 cases of our new …?” I learned early on in my career that is if you ask enough people to buy, you will sell a lot.

Now, the draw backs of this are obvious. You can exhaust yourself easily; I could not have kept up the pace of 60 calls a day. And of course I used a closed end question in my Close, so when someone said no the presentation was over and I was off to the next call, if they said yes I filled out the order and was off.

The whole idea of our Prospecting System today is to get you in front of lots of Prospects so you can begin to use your sales technique. But I find that there are still times when the good old Blitz Presentation is applicable.

This week I conducted our Prospecting Seminar and worked with a group of sales professionals who were blitzing their territory to announce two new services they are offering. They made as many calls as possible simply announcing the new services and inviting the Prospects to an open house at their new service center.

This was a great experience for me because I have not spent much time over the past few years focusing on this type of Blitz activity. I have been emphasizing the importance of continuous Prospecting throughout the year, making a specific number of calls each week to achieve my goals.

This Blitz Presentation can have many of the benefits of our BLITZ CALL System and I emphasized them to this sales force. They had a real exciting two days of heavy Prospecting; some people made 90 plus calls a day!

I strongly recommended that you make the same basic presentation each time. This way you get really good with your wording. Also, you can then concentrate on what the prospect is saying, read their body language.

Next, keep good records of who you call on. This is a great resource for the rest of your career. Once you have made that initial call you must follow up in a timely manner or you will have to cold call the company again! That is a waste of effort.

We hope that the folks I worked with this week will have a tremendous year with all of the new contacts they made during this Blitz Presentation effort. The more I think about it, the more I realize that many companies could benefit from an effort like this. But you need to do some prep work first so the individual sales professionals reap the harvest available to them.

In conclusion, if you want to give a jolt of excitement and success to your sales force, you should consider the Blitz Presentation and Sale.

Sell Well and Often

Bill Truax

Bill@BlitzCall.com

© Copyright 2006 WJ Truax

Bill Truax is a Sales Management and Field Operations Consultant living in Cleveland, Oh. He conducts Sales Team Assessments, Management and Leadership programs, and works with Field Sales Professionals and Managers both in the field and in workshops. He has written 3 books and recorded 2 CD’s on Prospecting and Making Cold Calls and conducts a variety of skill based seminars, workshops, and train the trainer programs.
Bill has spent literally thousands of hours in the field making cold calls with sales professionals to teach his BLITZ CALL System. When Bill is in the field he actually makes many of the BLITZ CALLs himself, regardless of the industry. This is to demonstrate that anyone can prospect you just need to know how.
Bill writes a Free weekly Prospecting Succes Tip for subscribers at his website http://www.BlitzCall.com The site also details all the materials and programs Trufield offers.

The use of linguistic binds in the therapeutic context is well documented and researched. The use of binds in the context of persuasion and influence is not nearly in such widespread use, yet. This obviously provides those of us who make our living in the business world an opportunity to once again borrow from the therapeutic.

Binds create the illusion of choice by using language that “normally” offers a choice, where either choice you choose, you still go along with what the speaker wants.

Inasmuch as there are several types of binds, we will concentrate on binds of comparable alternatives.

You can understand it better like this:
A choice is offered the listener where “A” is choice one and “B” is choice two and has the same meaning as “A ” only worded differently.

Examples:

1. Would you like to go ahead and set an appointment now or should we just jot down a time when we can meet?

2. I’m confident that before you leave today you will either buy our product or make the decision to take it home with you.

3. It is important to keep our employees happy and producing at their maximum capacity so perhaps you could manage your section by example or you could consistently demonstrate what you expect to be done.

Let’s look at Example 1: The first part or choice “A” is, “set an appointment now” and the second part or choice “B” is, “jot down a time when we can meet.” What’s the difference between these two suggestions? They both mean the same thing, only worded differently. What makes this so powerful is the use of the word, “or.”

Generally, the word “or” implies the opposite. For example, if I were to write Example 1 the way you would expect, it would go like this: “Would you like to go ahead and make an appointment now or should we just wait until you have more time?” It’s for this reason that this pattern has such impact.

Let’s practice coming up with binds that will work for you in your field of work. The way to do this is to first come up with an outcome. Then, create two different ways of saying your outcome whereby either way the person chooses, they do what you want.

1. Outcome:

Alternate way to say it #1

Alternate way to say it #2

This is a very effective pattern and yet we can go one better and double its effectiveness. The way to do it is through:

Hidden Double Binds

In order to better understand why hidden double binds work, let’s examine some issues on the periphery that will help make this more powerful.

Let’s first discuss the elements of confusion. When a person is confused, they will usually accept the first logical way out of that confusion. Confusion is not a highly valued state for most people or, I should say, people are highly motivated to stay out of confusion. When you use the word “or” in your binds, people tend to believe that you will offer the opposite of the first choice. When you don’t, people often go into a state of confusion.

The structure of a hidden bind is: While speaking, use a bind, but don’t stop after the bind-keep talking.- Here is the procedure for using a bind:

1. Come up with a bind you want to use.

2. Put it into a sentence.

3. After the bind, keep talking.

4. Use a question to “nail down” the response.

Examples

1. I’m confident that before you leave today you will either buy our product or make the decision to take it home with you; either way, the most important thing is that you become thoroughly aware of what we can do for you. Does that sound right to you?

2. I don’t know whether you will be really excited about using this pattern in your work or whether you have already begun to consider it to be as important as one of the events in your life that you look back on right now, positively, as having made you what you are today. I think we have all had experiences that have really pointed us in the right direction and helped us to become what we are now, don’t you agree?

3. I don’t know whether you will enroll in one of my programs now or just decide to be in my next one-day training, the important thing is to begin now to realize some of the important benefits of using this material. Have you started yet to gain the awareness of the power of this information?

In all of the above examples, there is no pause (for an answer to the bind).
Remember that we discussed what people do when they become confused?

Hiding binds in this way creates just that very effect. The bind serves to confuse the consciousness so they will accept the first logical way out-AND the question at the end provides the way out for the person (by re-focusing their attention).

To experience this effect, have someone read one of the above sentences to you and pay attention to the re-focusing you experience when the question is asked at the end. The question at the end also causes the bind to go straight into the person’s unconscious as a suggestion. They never need answer it because its purpose is to act as a suggestion. The question at the end also tends to create amnesia for the bind, so the person may never even know that you used one. In fact, it is my experience that rarely, if ever, does someone realize that a bind was used.

Because of the power of this technique, it is especially important to remember to use it in an ethical way that is considerate of the needs of the person to whom you are speaking.

Whether you incorporate this into your behavior or really enjoy using this to increase your skills while combining this with all the other patterns you are surely, by now, using from reading this column, pay attention to how much more confidence you are experiencing as a result of having these additional tools.

Kenrick E. Cleveland - is the “Top Secret - Goto Guy” for persuasion training for over 27 years. Check out MaxPersuasion Tips and get serious persuasion tips every 2 weeks - increase your power to persuade and put money in your pocket. Lots of it! http://www.maxpersuasion.com/

Let’s put to rest the fallacy that success, in sales or any
profession, is due to luck, chance, and/or hard work. There is
nothing further from the truth. Think about it, you and I both
know people who work incredibly hard, putting in long hours,
they may even have two jobs, but they are not consistently (if
ever) successful. Hard work certainly contributes to success,
but hard work alone will not make you top-flight in your
industry. Is success due, then, to luck or chance?

After years of study, in a multitude of industries, I have come
to the conclusion that success is an absolute science. In other
words, there are exact principles of thought and action that all
top performers universally and consistently exhibit. Let’s
examine seven of these principles more closely:

1. High achievers know exactly what they want. I was recently
working with top sales professionals on a seven-city tour of
Canada. In these seminars, I invariably asked people what they
wanted to achieve in the upcoming year. Many people had a vague
idea of what they wanted (or what they thought they could
achieve); and even more knew what they didn’t want; but the high
performers knew in measurable terms, what they wanted to
accomplish in every area of their life. Without a doubt, this
type of clarity and focus is power!

2. Top performers visualize themselves in possession of their
desired results. I have interviewed thousands of the worlds most
successful and without fail they see themselves winning every
single day. Whether in business or athletics: Jack Nicholas in
golf, Michael Jordan in basketball, the million-dollar sales
producer I spoke with last week, they all have this in common.
Visualizing is the key to realizing!

3. Highly successful have an unbending belief in themselves and
their abilities. Winners believe they will win in advance, and
it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. A common mistake among
would-be achievers is the notion that “if I become more skilled
in my profession I will succeed.” Yet how many highly skilled
people do you know that are not profiting every single day?
Often two people go through the same training course and acquire
the same skills — yet one becomes a huge success and one
accomplishes nothing. The answer lies in the individuals belief
system and the unshakable conviction that he or she will win.

4. Achievers take action “as if” they were already in
possession of the goal they desire. High achievers think, work,
talk, play, and take action like the person they want to become.
This means turning away from current results and focusing,
believing, and acting “as if” you were already there. Understand
that your current results are the direct outcomes of the past.
The past does not equal the future.

5. Winners take full responsibility for their own destiny.
Winners get results! Results are not equal to
no-results-and-a-good-story. Many sales professionals are better
at making excuses than they are at making money. “It’s the
economy, it’s the location, my prices are too high.” You can
always come up with a good story, but winners hold themselves
accountable. Only when you take accountability for everything in
your life can you be responsible to change anything.

6. Top performers build high-leveraged partnerships. No one in
today’s world can make it alone. There is just too much to learn
and things are changing too rapidly. High achievers always spend
time with other high achievers. Like attracts like. They attend
the same events, eat at the same restaurants, join the same
churches and clubs. Your business and social environment is more
important than your heredity, choose your relationships and
partnerships wisely.

7. Great achievers are great givers. Achievers ask: “How can I
provide more value? How can I give to others, to my teammates,
employees, clients. What can I do to make it better?” Winners
always give 10 times more value than they ask for in return.

Success happens according to universal laws and timeless
principles. Understand and utilize them and you will win. It
works for everyone….every time.

There’s an old saying, “Don’t air your dirty laundry”.

If you’re selling any product or service either online or offline this is horrible advice.

You see sooner or later, your customers are going to find out the negative aspects of your product. Call it kama if you like, but they will.

And when they discover it, at the very least you’ll lose credibility, generate higher refunds and lose customers for life. At the worst your business reputation will get entirely trashed.

This doesn’t even take into account your prospects. If your product raises objections with actual customers you can be sure your prospects will pick up on them too.

This is not voodoo. Every point of sale has a vibe. People pick up things unconsciously. If they get an adverse feeling then they back out and you lose another sale.

So what’s the answer?

Air your dirty laundry. In fact be proud of it!

If you point out any problems upfront then you’re in control.

Let me give you an example…

A friend of mine recently tried to sell his treasured classic car. Unfortunately after test driving it nobody would offer him anything near what he thought it was worth.

He came to me for advice. I asked him what were the things he loved about the car and if it had any quirks or problems. So he poured out his feelings about the car.

Afterwards I wrote down an advertisment for him to sell his car. The first sentence began,”The only thing wrong with this Classic Car is its Classic Brakes.” I then went on to describe the many virtues of owning a piece of automotive history.

He sold the car for the full price within 24 hours of running the new advertisment. He was amazed.

If your product is defective in any way a customer may take issue with, then bring it up in your sales copy early. You can even do this in your headline, like I did.

This method kills likely objections dead. And it’s these objections which will lose you customers and sales. You’ll sell far more product if you then reframe any possible problems as actual benefits instead.

Take a one page unattractive website for instance. Imagine it has no graphics, bare minimum sales copy and sells an ebook for $19.

How can this be easily reframed?

You simply point out this non-flashy website allows you to pass on large cost savings to the customer because you don’t need to hire a copywriter or web designer. That’s why the customer can get the ebook now at $19 rather than the $39 it would normally be.

You’re now providing your prospects with greater value overall and they will thank you for it with sales.

You could also point out your competitions more flashy more expensive product. Just ask the customer what’s more important, having more benefits for less money or less benefits for more money?

They’ll quickly agree your product must be better.

This then gets them to agree they should buy your product.

You’ll make many more sales airing your dirty laundry intelligently.

Copyright 2004 Clifford Mee

About The Author

Clifford Mee is an author, internet marketer, hypnotist and success life coach. If you want to discover little known ‘battle tested’ strategies to persuade more customers to spend more money more frequently, then please visit his main website at http://www.marketingpersuasion.com

“Value-added.” That word is used so much it has become a cliché in business circles. There may not be a business in the world that doesn’t claim to be a “value-added” seller.

The problem is that once a word or phrase becomes a cliché, it often losses it’s original meaning. This is true with “value-added.” What exactly does that mean?

Ask six business principles what it means when they say that they are a “value-added” seller, and you’ll likely hear six different explanations. One claims that they fulfill orders quickly, and that short waiting period is “of value” to their customers. Others claim that their experienced people bring value to their customers. Their customers do business with them because of the quality of their people. Others claim some unique technical expertise, others their sophisticated IT systems, some the breath of their inventory, still others reflect on the brand name products they handle.

I’m always a bit skeptical of this. Almost every business I work with claims to have better people, better service, and more technical expertise than all their competitors. What is puzzling to me is that their competitors say the same thing. Someone has an inaccurate perception.

The definitions grow even more obtuse when you ask salespeople what they mean by “value added.” Some will claim that their customers demand a regular visit by the salesperson. Their routine presence, therefore, is valuable to the customer. Others, like their bosses, claim expertise as valuable. Many point to the long term relationship as the factor that brings the most value to the customer. On and on it goes.

The truth that we often overlook is this: Value is defined by the customer, not the supplier. It doesn’t matter what you think your value is, it only matters what your customer believes it to be. And customers don’t always think alike, so that the operating definition of value-added varies from customer to customer.

As our economy has grown more complex and competitive, the demands of the customer and their subsequent definitions of value have grown more varied. What was more or less universally valued a few years ago, is not anymore. For example, local inventory may have been universally valued in the 1990s, but today some customers would rather buy direct and absorb a longer shipping time. Experienced people may have been valuable to everyone a few years ago, but some customers today would rather gather their information off the internet and pay lower prices. Technical expertise may have been universally valuable a few years ago, but some customers today would rather reduce their purchasing costs through an integrated supply contract administered by the home office 500 miles away.

It’s not that some of the things you have built into your business as value-added are no longer important, it is that some of then are no longer viewed, by significant numbers of your customers, as worth paying more for. They may be necessary, but they are not sufficient.

If you are going to be a true value-added seller in the 21st century marketplace, you must be flexible and capable enough to offer different things to different customers, responding to the individual customer’s definition of what is valuable to him or her.

That means that you must have some way of ascertaining what is valuable to each of your customers, and then some processes in place that allows you to package, present and implement those aspects of your offer that appeal to the customer’s individual definition.

The primary means of doing that is a highly trained sales force that is adept at the strategies and tactics that result in a deeper and broader understanding of what the customer really wants, what the customer really values, and what the customer will really pay for.

Unfortunately, much of the business world of is populated with technically-oriented salespeople who view their job as providing technical solutions to technical problems. While that certainly is a significant part of the job, and an excellent foundation for value-added selling, it is not sufficient. Others see themselves as face-to-face customer service people, visiting the customers on a regular, route basis in order to pick up orders and take care of details. Still others have evolved into comfort zones: working with the same customers, on the same product lines, in the same ways.

More and more, value is determined by deeper and broader issues than just those addressed by these limited perspectives. How the solution fits into the customer’s business systems, the philosophy of the customer relative to its vendors, the strategic plans of the customer, the potential integration of customer/vendor IT systems, etc. - all these and more are just as likely to be the issues that the customer values.

If salespeople are going to adequately uncover these deeper issues, they’ll need to excel at certain sales behaviors that go above and beyond just the ability to solve a technical problem, or show up regularly.

What must they excel at?

Specifically, value-added salespeople will need to enhance their ability to create positive business relationships with anyone and everyone. They’ll need to relate to a variety of positions and job titles, like CEO, CFO, Vice President, as well as production supervisor or engineer Additionally, they’ll need to expand their abilities to deal positively with a wide variety of personality styles. The sales person who remains in the comfort zone of production supervisors, purchasing agents and maintenance supervisors will severely limit his/her value.

Not only will effective salespeople need to create positive business relationships with everyone, they also will need to fine tune their skills in asking questions, listening constructively and ferreting out the deeper needs of those customers.

Those salespeople who can understand what each customer considers to be valuable to them, and then can bring creative solutions to those customers, will be the valuable value-added sellers.

What is encouraging about this is that each of these value-added selling skills is a learnable behavior. No one is born with the ability to ask penetrating questions, create positive relationships, listen constructively, or develop creative proposal and solutions.

These behaviors of the most effective value-added salespeople can each be learned. Once a minimum level of expertise is attained, sales people can continually improve on these behaviors of the rest of their selling career.

This is a great opportunity for the business who is intent on maintaining and expanding their position as a value-added seller. Those who develop systems that encourage the key sales behaviors, who train their sales people in those behaviors, and who stimulate them to continuously improve their implementation will be those who rise to the top as value-added sellers.

About Dave Kahle, The Growth Coach®:

Dave Kahle is a consultant and trainer who helps his clients increase their sales and improve their sales productivity. Dave has trained thousands of salespeople to be more successful in the Information Age economy. He’s the author of over 500 articles and five books. His latest is 10 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople. His “Thinking About Sales” Ezine features content-filled motivating articles, practical tips for immediate improvements, useful resources and helpful tips to help increase sales. Join for NOTHING on-line at http://www.davekahle.com/mailinglist.htm.

You can reach Dave at:
The DaCo Corporation
3736 West River Drive
Comstock Park, MI 49321
Phone: 800-331-1287 / 616-451-9377
Fax: 616-451-9412
info@davekahle.com
http://www.davekahle.com