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An Introductino to Insurance Lead Generation It is vital that insurance salespeople have a steady stream of leads. Often, people don't even know about a particular type on insurance and it is up to a salesperson to explain it to them. The salespeople must have good leads in order to know who may be more open to purchasing certain types of insurance. The Prejudging Predicament There's a direct correlation between sales experience and prejudging. The more sales and marketing experience you have the greater the tendency to prejudge your customers and prospects. Top 10 Ways to Sell your Product or Service While you Sleep - Part 1 Have you wasted valuable time and money on promotion that doesn't work? Have your announcements and news releases been ignored? Have you been too quiet about getting the word out how your product or service will help solve people's problems? Nothing Happens Until Someone Sells Somthing You can always tell a good salesperson, they are always on the look-out for opportunities to do exactly that. Every chance they get they'll promote whatever it is they offer. They are driven through their need to either make money, they're passionate about the goods and services they offer or both. How To Shorten The Selling Cycle And Reduce Buying Stalls The main reason for buyer resistance and selling stalls boils down to one simple fact: the reasons for not buying are bigger to the prospect than the reason to buy. Impotent Questions - How Much Are They Costing You? Last issue we talked about what motivates people to buy something. A person or a business is motivated to buy when they perceive that a change needs to occur to fix or avoid a problem, or to enable a greater vision for their future. They buy when they believe that a product or service will bridge this gap for them. Selling More CDs at Gigs, Case Study: The Rogues A few weekends back, the Brobdingnagian Bards performed at the Austin Celtic Festival. We shared the stage with some amazing bands, but at the very top of my list were The Rogues. How to Leverage Your Influence Why do we get into sales? Typically it is two reasons for most people. One is to make money, and the other is often that we like working with other people. Create A Killer Product by Writing Your Sales Letter First! You may not realize this, but when if you are in the early planning stages of developing a product, the best thing you can do is STOP and write the sales letter first! Use Pain To Get Commitments Whenever I speak with new salesreps and entrepreneurs, I hear a similar frustration: Ten Tips for Choosing the Right Direct Sales Company Direct sales can be your ticket to a profitable home-based business. There's low risk and low overhead - and you'll find lots of conversation, creativity, and cooperation among the company's representatives. But how do you know which company is right for you? Here are ten things to look for as you research your options. Selling -abilities : Part 2 In the last article I talked about different strategies for selling the 'reliability' aspect of your software or hardware. I mentioned how most high tech salespeople love to talk about their "-abilities": Reliability, Upgradeability, Compatibility and Expandability. In this article I want to discuss how to sell upgradeability. When is the right time to sell upgradeability? When do you mention the possibility of future upgrades? How do you position future upgrades to software or hardware with a new or existing customer without selling yourself short? How often should your company release upgrades? These are all great questions when it comes to the art of selling upgrades. Selling UpgradeabilitySo how do you sell upgradeability? Well, lets start with a basic question. What does the word upgradeability bring to mind when a salesperson mentions the word? If you're like myself, I think the product has room for improvement and in the future if I choose, I can upgrade to whatever new capabilities the software or hardware may offer. Microsoft Windows epitomizes the model for selling upgradeability. There are four ways to sell upgradeability:Strategy 1: Ernest Dichter a famous advertisement executive made a statement that talked about how we as sales or marketers must use the techniques of motivational thinking to make people constructively discontent. Dichter knew people would only buy a product when they are discontent with what they currently have. The job of marketing and sales is to make 'people constructively discontent' with what they're currently using. A good example of this is our migration from the audiotape to the compact disc. Marketers reminded us of that annoying 'hiss' sound with tapes and how time consuming it was to rewind or fast-forward to find our favorite song. They went on to promise the delivery of full 'fidelity' with the compact disc along with the ease and convenience of finding your favorite song. Consumers bought the argument and the age of the compact disc was heralded in. When selling upgrades, are you making your customer 'constructively discontent'? Strategy 2: When I hear upgrade in any sales pitch I immediately think of options. The task of the salesman is to give the customer a 'vision' of what could be possible if they chose your product and decide later on to upgrade. Upgradability indicates there are other features that can be purchased without having to absorb the cost for them all at once. A customer likes to know that if they are satisfied with the products performance that they could upgrade at any time to something more sophisticated or advanced. This piece meal approach is especially effective with customers who have limited budgets. Strategy 3: Upgradeability, especially second or third generation indicates to the customer that your company is continually improving on the product (i.e., responding to customer needs and investing in Research & Development). This is key; many customers want to be reassured that the product has not 'peaked in performance' and that you will be improving the product over time. Upgrades should be sold on average once a year. To many upgrades a year can be seen as 'product fixes' or another way of extracting further sales from a customer leading to 'buyer resentment'.Strategy 4: A major mistake made by many salespeople is not taking the time to show or prove to the customer how using your product will increase sales and effectiveness thereby leading to quick return on the buyer's Return On Investment (ROI). Customers want to see hard numbers on how the solution you're offering is going to positively affect the bottom line. Too often salespeople will say things like, "This is going to improve you productivity.", "This will make your employees more effective in their jobs." Or, "This is going save your company a lot of money adding this upgrade." All these statements are qualitative, not quantitative; the latter can be proven, the former is just an assertion. Customers want quantitative proof of how your upgrade is going to improve their profitability either by increasing sales or reducing their cost. Highly trained salespeople go into a customer meeting armed with quantitative proof of how upgrading to the next product level will achieve their profitability goals.Upgrades are a great way to add an additional revenue stream to your company's bottom line. Again, think Microsoft. Every year or so, a new version of Windows comes out and many of us technophiles rush out and buy it. How can you create this type of excitement or anticipation with your company's product upgrades? Victor Gonzalez, All Rights Reserved 2004 Im A Second-Story Man Can you say who you are and what you do in twosentences or less? Hurrican Selling Styles As I prepare this issue of this Newsletter, at 37,000 feet on my way to Greenville South Carolina, the east coast is being battered by a Hurricane. Tips for Increasing Your Profits with Gift Certificates Offering gift certificates is an excellent way of increasing sales by solving your customers' gift-giving problems. Often people would like to give your products as gifts, but are hesitant to choose a specific item for someone. Casual Networking What comes to mind when you think of networking -- cocktail parties? Shaking hands and exchanging business cards at a Chamber of Commerce events? Endless lines of people anxious to make you a customer? Sweaty palms and panic? Sell YOU With Your Small Talk (Yes You Can) Want to build a relationship -- sell yourself for a job -- get ahead -- make a sale? Lock, Stock, and Barrel! The other night I was watching a classic western from 1969, Sergio Leone's "Once Upon A Time In The West". EXHIBITORS - Check Your URL How many of you have a corporate web site? Everybody says "Yes". Lessons Learned At Gunpoint "If you do anything foolish or try to get out of the car we will shoot you" were the terse words which hung in the air like a bad smell. |
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