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Your Direct Mail Sales Letters Must Differentiate You For two winters I heated my house with an old fashioned woodstove. I learned the art of reviving a bed of dying coals each chilly winter morning, adjusting the kindling, firewood and dampers just right so that the stove would heat my turn-of-the- century farmhouse for the longest period possible. Do You Have Enough Prospects To Make Your Numbers? Several years ago I worked with a CPA who wanted 20 new clients. We came up with a great direct marketing campaign that brought in 10 leads per 1,000 letters. His closing rate was 10%, so after his first few clients came on board, we calculated that acquiring new clients was costing him between $500 and $600. He liked the numbers (one client was worth about $8,000/year), but progress was slow. We advised him to open the spigot and mail 5,000 at a time, instead of the 1,000 he was sending. It worked, and he acquired the new clients he was looking for sooner rather than later. Sales 101: Handling The Angry Customer I am often reminded of the following true story whenever I encounter a hostile customer or prospect, witness a scene where someone is losing their cool or observe someone getting chewed out for something that they may or may not have done. Understanding The Corporate Buyer Selling your services to corporations is an attractive proposition. The contracts are larger than with small businesses and individuals, and often longer-term. There's the possibility of repeat business worth many billable hours at respectable rates. Give Up the Need to Sell Most business people will tell you that selling is not their favorite activity. Let's explore a way to look at the process of sales a bit more favorably. Sales People have an advantage as entrepreneurs Zig Ziglar use to say in seminars and on tapes that nothing happens until someone sells something. I had never really understood how absolutely true that was until I got into franchising and saw how one franchise sale could add jobs to the economy, provide great service to a community and change the quality of life for the franchisee and their family. Sales people have an advantage over other folks in business. Our top performing franchisees were always the best sales people. Our toughest competitors, well their founders were great sales people too. To this point I would like to recommend a book to you, that makes this point: 3-Levels Of Successful Selling Any selling approach that lacks a proven strategy, a practiced proficiency for its application and most significantly, a full understanding of its psychological, human behavioral import ? is at best, a wishful endeavor. ?Paul Shearstone 2003 Mortgage Leads, Choosing the Best Option When it comes to buying mortgage leads, there are many good companies out there for you to research, and many avenues to travel down when considering which lead type will work best for you. Can Barter Help Increase Cash Sales and Visability for Your Small Business? Barter is becoming an increasingly popular method of commerce. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that 20 to 25% of world trade is now barter. Corporate barter is now a 20 billion dollar industry. It seems as though everyone from the big corporations on the New York Stock Exchange to small home-based businesses are jumping on the barter bandwagon. Buying Mortgage Leads - Three Things to Consider The time comes for all mortgage brokers and loan officers to consider spending some of their hard earned money by testing the waters of mortgage leads. Building Relationships A conversation: 5 Ideas for Writing Effective Sales Letters Sales letters, sent via e-mail or snail mail, are an effective and inexpensive way to get your message out. Even if your letter goes out to thousands of people, it can give the feel of a personal communication - IF you write it in a direct and conversational tone. Going Back To Get Ahead Have you ever run DOWN an escalator that was going UP? Well, I did at the Tampa Airport last week. Here's what happened: How to Sell: Selling Tips of Master Moms "If you don't think well of yourself, no one will think anything of you." 6 Creative Questions To Move From HOW Are You To WHO Are You Imagine you just met someone new. The formalities of names, jobs and the like have been exchanged and you seem to be getting along famously. But before you know it, a few minutes pass ? and it looks like you're running out of clichés! Create a Magic Connection with Clients, Leads, and Business Associates Part II Part I of this article explored how strategies of Neuro-Linguistic Programing (NLP) can be used to gain instant rapport with clients, leads, and business associates, and more specifically, how to use physiology, matching and mirroring, to create instant magic communications. Money Does Talk! When buying something, you can buy in one of two markets. The first is buying on terms in the retail market and the second is buying in the wholesale cash market. This can be illustrated by referring to the biggest purchase we all make in our lifetime - Real Estate. The Top 10 Myths About the Sales Profession Myth 1: Sales People are all Shady! It Isnt A Sale Until Youre Paid Back in the days when I sold for CTV and CBC Television I had a manager that once said " It isn't a sale until you're paid." Most salespeople absolutely HATE calling their customers to ask for payment as they feel like the GOOD GUY and BAD GUY rolled into one! A Brief History of the Sales Profession The formula for defining a "profession" is similar throughout many disciplines, including: accounting, education, engineering, law and medicine. These professions all have codes of ethical conduct, a definition of their scope, and standards of practice for their members, which include some or all aspects of academic preparation, accreditation, certification and/or licensing. Morris L. Cogan addressed the definition of forming a profession in business in 1953. After reviewing all the literature on the topic, he offered the following comprehensive distillation, which is submitted here, as a fine summary of the previous definitions:A profession is a vocation whose practice is founded upon understanding the theoretical structure of some department of learning or science, and upon the abilities accompanying such an understanding. This understanding and these abilities are applied to the vital practical affairs of man. The practices of the profession are modified by knowledge of a generalized nature and by the accumulated wisdom and experience of mankind, which serve to correct the errors of specialization. The profession, that serves the vital needs of man, considers its first ethical imperative to be altruistic service to the client"(Vollmer et al., 1966).Why is the definition of a profession so important to selling? The professionalism of a group establishes the power that is recognized by others within the business community and outside the profession. With the sanction, approval, and authority intact, the profession attains higher status in the eyes of the clients. In this case, the clients of the seller would need to recognize and sanction, and approve the authority of the sales professional. Due to the nature of the buying-selling relationship, many individual buyers do not feel comfortable giving or otherwise recognizing this power in the sales professional. The question becomes: if doctors and lawyers receive money for their work, and indeed must sell and market their services, why then, are they seen as "more professional"?All of these definitions of a profession provide insight into the ideals and behaviors, which are needed to be considered "professional" by members of the business community. In learning to become a "professional", many occupations are taught in school. When a student studies any new subject matter, their first objective is to understand an overview of the entire subject matter. For example, when studying medicine, students first understand all the systems of the body, the different medical terms, and a high level overview of the entire field before they ever operate on anyone. Once any student studying a new subject understands this high level overview, they then move in depth into each specific area of that profession.Some sales professionals have entered the field by joining a large and established company. Others have grown up in the field by learning the "hard way". Still, others have done a combination of both. With over 15 million sales professionals, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the United States alone there was no set standard upon which to measure and advance the entire profession until the United Professional Sales Association standards were created at the turn of the century. With these standards, thousands of sales professionals are discovering that they are indeed a part of a "True Profession." |
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