MOTIVATE ALL YOUR PROSPECTS, ALL THE TIME

When it comes to increasing sales for your business, it's all about building relationships between your company or brand and your customers. And since no relationship is based on hit-and-run tactics, you need a program that combines marketing with sales and "touches" your prospects repeatedly throughout the sales cycle.
If you generally rely on just one or two marketing tactics to reach prospects, this is a great time to break out of your old mold and adopt new ones that will help your company grow. Not only will it make life more interesting for you, it's just plain smart. You see, it takes multiple contacts with prospects - some studies say as many as eight are required - before a sale is closed. Of course, the actual number of contacts will depend on your industry and what you're marketing, but it's easy to see why a program that relies on a single tactic will fall flat.
The best marketing mix reaches your prospects throughout all phases of your sales cycle. So don't be a "Johnny one note." If you focus exclusively on direct mail or PR, for example, at the expense of other tactics, you'll lose prospects along the way. And it's also often essential to combine marketing tactics with sales for that final one-two punch.

Source : Big Marketing Ideas for small budget. Kim T Gordon. 2005

The Human Touch for Costumers, Where and How to Start

Any business can begin the journey to develop its human touch with small and simple actions that cost nothing yet have immense and immediate impact on customers. This journey could begin with the simplicity of a smile, direct eye contact, and the words ‘‘please’’ and ‘‘thank you’’. Encouraging employees to use these simple behaviors with customers more often and with genuine warmth will make all the difference in what the customer remembers about the business.
These simple actions communicate the message ‘‘you’re a real person and we care’’. Customers remember these little human touches because that’s what is important to them as a customer and as a person. These human touches satisfy the three primary human needs that impact the customer’s decision to buy –Acknowledgement, Respect, and Trust (ART).
A higher degree of consistency and unanimity in the desired humanness of a business requires increasing levels of focus and dedication in order to achieve greater business impact. The primary human needs of Acknowledgement, Respect, and Trust provide a common thread that helps keep efforts focused and aligned through any level of rigor a business wants to pursue.
The implementation complexity is determined by the scope and scale of the business and its customers. There are eight major areas on which business should focus:
(a) Leading the Human Firm.
(b) Acknowledging Customers.
(c) Treating Customers with Respect.
(d) Building Trust with Customers.
(e) Communicating Humanly.
(f) Implementing the Human Touch Consistently across Interactions.
(g) Understanding and Applying the Human Touch as a Process.
(h) Implementing Technology to Humanize (not Dehumanize).

Source : Costumers are People, The Human touch. John Mckean 2002

The Human Touch , What Are the Challenges of Actually Doing It?

The following questions and how well a firm answers them, and implements their answers, represent the major challenges a firm will have when evolving its human touch:
• What needs do customers have as people that will most influence their decision to buy?
• What leadership behavior best creates a firm and its culture to fulfill those needs?
• What types of employees best fulfill those needs?
• What employee behavior best communicates and fulfills those needs?
• What training best enhances those employees’ innate abilities?
• What communication methods and skills best deliver the desired messages?
• What employee treatment best enhances both employee and customer fulfillment?
• What approaches best create human touch consistently across each interaction?
• What processes best deliver a consistent human touch?
• What technology approaches maximize humanness, and do not dehumanize?

Source : Costumers are People, The Human touch. John Mckean 2002

What A Marketing Plan Should Include (part 2 - end)

3.) Your Strategy Include in your plan effective marketing strategies. Think about some of the largest companies in the world that are constantly brainstorming in an effort to keep the public attention. Notice how we are collectively bombarded with new commercials and announcements daily, in an attempt to make sure we never forget certain products or services. I don’t necessarily recommend that you do the same, but it does hold some weight. If you’re aren’t promoting yourself in some way, it’s easy to forget your company. Of course while most of us cannot compete with huge companies, there are many ways to promote your business without it costing a lot of money. It simply requires a bit of thought and creativity.
Since marketing is a process that never ends, have a few ideas already in place as to how you may reach your target audience. While you may hope for the day when you can sit back reaping the benefits of your efforts, you can never stop marketing. It’s a constant challenge determining various methods and tactics that will get you noticed but it can be fun.
For the majority of small entrepreneurial efforts, marketing can be a trial and error effort since some methods work for a while and then seem to dry up. Based upon my experience, when I find that one avenue isn’t bearing fruit, I simply recognize it as an opportunity to explore other avenues. For me, that primarily means getting back to basics, so I write a new article, send out a press release, begin an e-mail campaign or simply get quiet for a few days until I’m inspired. But I always have something in my plan that keeps me motivated. I suggest not putting all your eggs into one basket because if the well runs dry, you’re left with nothing. I also suggest staying open to new ideas. Very often we become set in our ways and feel afraid to veer in a new direction. You may not have considered a particular avenue until someone suggests it, so don’t say no until you’ve given it some thought.

4.) Setting Time and Accomplishment Goals. Generally your plan should cover a period of from six months to a year. Check the plan you’ve prepared on a monthly basis as a measure for meeting your goals and objectives. Ask yourself periodically if you’ve taken all the steps that you planned? Are you within your schedule? Are you attracting the client you had hoped? Are you making good contacts that return or send referrals? Are you building rapport with customers? Does the plan need some rearranging or rethinking? If you find that you’re on target keep the plan as it is. But if you obviously see that something isn’t working, rethink your marketing strategies. Primarily you want the world to beat a path to your door so keeping a good marketing plan updated and refined is crucial to the success of your business. Having a road map to success will both keep you on track and help to maximize your outcomes.

Source : Charlene Rashkow. www.allyourwritingneeds.com

What A Marketing Plan Should Include (part 1)

1.) Creating an Objective: As a strong proponent for creating an objective or purpose regarding any endeavor, I recommend starting with a clear objective for your marketing plan. Although it may mean spending a bit of time in contemplation, it’s best to be certain as to the overall purpose and objective of your company. Take some time to focus on what you really want to achieve. As an example, when I first began my consulting business while putting together a rough marketing plan, I thought long and hard as to what I intended. More than anything else, I wanted to share my skill in a positive and meaningful way. Focusing on what I felt about my expertise, I knew that I enthusiastically enjoyed the challenge of creating material that is powerful, well written and simple to read. I also relished in the idea of empowering other people so with those thoughts in mind, I created an intention that aligned with my purpose. It is as follows: “My intention as a Writer/Consultant is to fully succeed at providing my clients with high quality written material that uniquely reflects their objectives by helping them stand apart from the crowd!” That intention has taken me far on the road I contemplated many years ago.

2.) Targeting Your Audience Included in your marketing plan should be the strategies you intend to apply for specifically reaching your targeted market. Pay special attention as to which audience you are trying to reach. Are there particular trends in your industry? Are you aware of your competition? Are layoffs effecting your particular arena and if so is it to your benefit or detriment? Have your searched the need for your product? In other words, consider how the economy may effect people either negatively or positively when they consider purchasing your product or service? The economy does not necessarily influence some industries, but because it does effect many markets, you may want to narrow your focus.
Continue…

Source : Charlene Rashkow. www.allyourwritingneeds.com

Costumers are people, current situation (2 - end)

Only the business with the ‘‘human touch’’ that consistently demonstrates, ‘‘you’re a real person and we genuinely care’’ will stand out as noteworthy in the eyes of the customer. Product and price is easily copied; a business’s ‘‘human touch’’ competency is not.

The ‘‘human touch’’ competency should not be confused with the popular but misconceived notion publicized by most businesses that they have customer ‘‘relationships’’ or seek customer ‘‘intimacy’’. The truth is that most customers don’t want what the word ‘‘relationship’’ or ‘‘intimacy’’ implies – a certain degree of closeness or meaningfulness regarded by most as offensive and intrusive.

Customers want and need something more akin to an ‘‘understanding’’. An understanding has certain emotionally based expectations and exchanges without the implied closeness and meaningfulness suggested by the word ‘‘relationship’’.

Research has shown that this ‘‘understanding’’ is based on three primary human needs of customers and the resulting expectations:

1 Acknowledgement

2 Respect

3 Trust

How and why customers choose to buy, both initially and follow-on customer purchases, is eloquently simple. Here is a snapshot of how customers buy as ‘‘people’’ (through their eyes):

1 Build trust in me so I feel buying your product is the best decision for me.

2 Acknowledge me and my importance to you.

3 Respect me and my needs.

Initial trust is either confirmed and strengthened or is disproved and decreases based on the customer’s experience.

Source : Costumers are People, The Human touch. John Mckean 2002

Costumers are people, current situation (1)

Customers want the best product at the best price for them and want to be treated well in the process of buying and owning that product. In a market where competitive product and price offerings exist, customers will choose the business that best treats them like a ‘‘human being’’. An emerging body of evidence verifies the intuitive notion that a customer’s decision to buy is based more on how human his or her interactions are and less on subtle product and price differentiation. The latest research reveals that up to 70% of a customer’s decision to buy is based on interactions and only 30% based on product attributes. It is the ‘‘human touch’’ that stands out in the mind and memory of the customer.

Although many businesses advertise they treat customers as ‘‘relationships’’, ironically less than 10% of their resources are invested in how human they treat their customers. Over 80% of customer initiatives are focused on how to ‘‘sell the customer better’’ through matching products to customers rather than investing more resources in ‘‘treating customers better’’. The resources applied to ‘‘selling the customer better’’ for specific customer initiatives have little impact on a customer’s future decision to buy during subsequent campaigns whereas resources applied to ‘‘treating the customer better’’ have a strong annuity effect on successive campaigns. Resources invested in ‘‘selling the customer better’’ have little or no impact on the customer’s future buying decisions whereas resources applied to ‘‘treating the customer better’’ have a significant influence on future buying decisions. Matching customers with products only addresses 30% of the factors influencing a customer’s decision to buy in the competitive market. This 30% best indicates which product the customer will buy. It fails to provide an adequate framework to influence where the customer will buy it. Sales and marketing efforts based on this attribute approach often create equal demand for the product among competitors.

This is the common downfall of most Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiatives.

Continue ...

Source : Costumers are People, The Human touch. John Mckean 2002

Relate to Your Costumer

The critical skills of questioning, listening, positioning, and checking are the know-how skills. But the skill of relating—which includes rapport, acknowledgment, and empathy—is the feel-how skill. Building rapport is often connected to the opening of a call. But there are also other powerful ways and times to relate throughout the call. Many salespeople get into sales because they “like people.” As critically important as rapport is, it is only one part of relating to customers.
Rapport is the “like people,” chitchat part of relating. Many salespeople who are good at rapport limit their ability to connect with customers to that part of relating. They don’t reap the benefits of using acknowledgment and empathy throughout the dialogue. In a training session, a group of salespeople were confronted with an objection exercise in which an irate senior-level customer said, “Your people are always spouting formulas as if we know what to do with them!” They were asked to respond with empathy. They said, “What is it you don’t understand?” and “I’ll go over the process again” and so on. No one initially came up with an empathy statement. It took a while to arrive at “We certainly don’t mean to do that. I’m sorry we have not been clear. What specifically …?”
Acknowledgment and empathy are powerful skills. Although questions can be empathetic in tone, questions don’t replace empathy or acknowledgment. For example, if a customer mentions a problem, a good salesperson might ask, “How did you handle that?” A superb salesperson is likely to introduce the question with empathy to convey concern and, most important, encourage a more complete response—for example, “I’m sorry to hear that that happened,” followed by the question. Both acknowledgment and empathy are very important to an active dialogue. Empathy goes a step beyond acknowledgment in showing concern for the customer and, when used effectively, it can help form personal bonds.
Empathy is not easy for some salespeople to express. They may feel empathy, but are not comfortable communicating it. Verbally expressing concern and caring can help you reduce customer defenses and make you more persuasive. Especially when a customer is emotional or the topic is sensitive, it is very helpful to respond first with an expression of genuine empathy, to make the customer more receptive to your response. Empathy needs to be genuine, because phony empathy is usually transparent to today’s savvy customers.
Many salespeople are more comfortable using acknowledgment because it is more neutral. Using acknowledgment is also an effective way to connect with customers.
Here’s how to broaden your relating skills:
Acknowledge, acknowledge, acknowledge : Verbally indicate you heard what the customer has said.
Empathize: Express genuine empathy when your customer is disturbed, excited, or emotional.
Rapport: Develop your rapport skills by preparing how you will build rapport. Rapport is the first step in building a relationship.

Source : The Sales Success Handbook. Linda Richardson.2003

Sharpen your Sales Critical skill

“Salespeople are made, not born. For most salespeople, sales excellence does not just come naturally.”(Linda Richardson)

Top performers often say that their sales dialogues feel more like brainstorming with their customers than “selling.” These are the six critical skills that are fundamental to making their dialogues so fluid and productive:
• Presence—communicating energy, conviction, and interest when speaking and listening
• Relating—building rapport, using acknowledgment, and expressing empathy to connect with customers
• Questioning—creating a logical questioning strategy and effectively using probing skills to uncover needs
• Listening—understanding what the customer communicates in words, tone, and body language
• Positioning—persuasively demonstrating value and application to the customer by customizing your product knowledge to the needs of the customer
• Checking—eliciting feedback on what you have said to gauge customer understanding and agreement
These skills are the tools of selling. The sharper the skills, the more effective the salesperson. A weakness in any one of the skills puts a cap on effectiveness. For example, if the salesperson can’t establish rapport with the customer, it is unlikely the customer will open up in answering questions. If the salesperson is a poor listener, answers lose their value. And without an understanding of customer needs, it’s almost impossible to connect capabilities to customer needs.
Dialogue selling requires product knowledge and technical expertise, but equal to these is customer knowledge and skill. In dialogue selling, the salesperson becomes a resource person who, because he or she fully understands that particular customer’s specific needs, can meet the needs that relate to his or her product and also cross-sell and meet the customer’s broader spectrum of needs. To succeed in dialogue selling, you must master the six critical skills.
Here are ways you can sharpen these skills:
Assess your six critical skills: presence, relating, questioning, listening, positioning, checking. Force-rank the skills. Identify your strengths and areas for improvement. Work on one skill at a time to get it to the next level.
Commit to self-critique: At the end of each call, critique your skills as well as the content of the meeting.
Ask for feedback: Elicit feedback from your customers and colleagues.

Source : The Sales Success Handbook. Linda Richardson.2003

Creating a dialogue with your costumer

“Increase your sales dialogue to increase your sales results.” (Linda Richardson)

If you were to ask 100 salespeople you know whether their approach was customer-centered or product-centered, what would they say? Few, if any, would boast about selling “a box.”
Most salespeople believe that they know their customers’ needs. They believe they are positioning solutions, not products. They believe they are customer-focused. These beliefs are the biggest obstacles keeping them from making the changes they need to make in their Sales talk. Selling styles run the gamut. There is a sales style continuum. At one end of the continuum is generic product selling, basically a monologue, a “product dump.” At the other end is consultative selling, an interactive dialogue that focuses on the specific needs of the customer. 100% on either end is impossible. All salespeople are
somewhere in between.
Some salespeople are charismatic sellers who rely on their interpersonal skills and charm. Others are technical experts, substantive in content but weak in customer focus. There are the “killers,” always rushing to the close, often at the expense of the relationship. These characterizations of sales types are extreme, but they set the context for thinking about how salespeople approach sales.
The majority of salespeople today use a combination of approaches. They want to be liked, they want to be credible, they want to close, and they want to meet the needs of their customers. But for most salespeople, this amalgamation has resulted in a quasi consultative approach at best. While quasi-consultative salespeople identify customer needs and are productive, they fall short of what they could accomplish.
Salespeople who are at the consultative end of the continuum create efficient but robust dialogues with their customers that enable them to connect and learn more with each conversation. The dialogues are active, with balanced exchanges between the salesperson and the customer. What they do looks easy and sounds like common sense, but it is far from simple and it is not common practice.
The line between quasi-consultative selling and consultative selling is fine, but if all other factors are basically equal, the line means the difference between winning business or losing to a competitor. It can be the difference between being viewed as a technical specialist and being a trusted adviser. With relatively equal competitors, it is the sales talk of the salesperson or sales team that makes the difference
between winning and losing business.
Here are ways you can create a robust dialogue:
Assess your sales talk: How interactive are your sales dialogues? What is your give/get ratio?
Commit to do something different: Ask more probing questions.
Stop thinking in terms of educating customers: Think more about educating yourself about your customers.

Source : The Sales Success Handbook. Linda Richardson.2003

Sales Talk

Sales talk. What is it? It is more than you talking. Sales talk takes two. It is not a monologue. It is a dialogue. It is a customer-centered exchange of information that begins and ends with the customer whose needs must drive the conversation.

You have a sales approach you use consciously or unconsciously every day. How open are you to looking at your sales talk up close? If you are open, these lessons can help you assess yourself, spot your strengths and weaknesses, and change your sales talk. You will tap into your natural skills, leverage your knowledge, and sell more by creating compelling dialogues with your customers.

You are probably thinking, “But I already do all that.” And it is likely that you do. But how are you keeping up with the changes that are occurring everywhere around you—with your customers, your competitors, your markets, and your own organization? Relying solely on product knowledge or technical expertise doesn’t work in today’s environment. The Internet is a free and convenient source of knowledge, giving customers more information than ever before. Salespeople face a tough business climate in which they need to win all the good deals that are out there. In this environment, products—once the key differentiator—are the equalizer. Instead of talking about products, your role is to communicate a message in which you add value, provide perspective, and show how your features and benefits apply to and satisfy customer needs.

Most salespeople use a model for selling that has been the predominant model for decades. It primarily relies on the old, tried-but no-longer-true feature-and-benefit focus. Too many salespeople tell their product stories too soon, without necessarily meaning to do so, and invariably talk from a generic product vs. customer point of view. When they ask about needs, they don’t go far enough. When they identify a need, they jump to product, rather than create a rich dialogue to understand why, how, or when. Selling today is more demanding. As business becomes more challenging, salespeople need a higher level of skill. My experience, in more than two decades of working with tens of thousands of salespeople in some of the finest organizations in the world, shows that at best only 30% of salespeople truly practice need-based consultative selling and no more than one third of those achieve trusted-advisor level with their customers.

The bottom line is that too many salespeople are still too quick to tell a product story. While most think solution, they present product. Because they tend to talk more than they listen, they create an imbalanced

give/get ratio instead of a 50/50 dialogue. Overall, the level of preparation and questioning does not measure up. Most sales organizations have good salespeople, but they lack enough superb salespeople to drive the growth they need to succeed. As much as everything else is changing, the old formulas of selling features and benefits are still around, blocking dialogues and holding good salespeople back from becoming superb. The lessons in The Sales Success Handbook will let you tap into your natural talents by helping you take advantage of your personal strengths, build on them, and create Sales talk that sells.

Source : The Sales Success Handbook. Linda Richardson.2003

Finally, It's Started....

Finally, my first blog stated.

In this blog, i want to learn and share about sales.

so, let's learn and share together.