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Sales Information
Selling Services
Selling a service isn't the same as selling a product. Your prospect is buying an
intangible. There are no shiny buttons to show off. You and your company are the
visible representations of the service. You need to live up to them in your image.
(marketing) And in how you "court" the prospect. (sales)
Psychological Tricks in Selling
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Five Keys to Make Your Cold Calls Sizzle
Do you clam up on the telephone? An advertising rep called the other day to sell some ad space in a local news magazine. After I said, "Hello," there was nothing but monotone dialog until I interrupted him a minute later. It sounded like he was reading a script... but he wasn't (I asked).
Your Ad -- Who Cares?
Junk mail. We all get it. And it goes straight to the trash can. How do you make sure your marketing piece doesn't end up in the round file?
9 Ways to Keep Clients Coming Back For More
A lot of effort is put into getting new clients. We all know our client base will change. Previous clients can move to a new area, sell their business, close down, or change their priorities. So finding new business is always important - but so is keeping your previous clients. Here are nine ways to keep previous clients coming back for more!
The Art Of Cold Calling
I know, don't groan. You have to do them if you want to get properties and make money. Believe me, I used to hate cold calling. For those of you that have read our book, "Who Makes It Happen: Back On The Road To Success With Creative Real Estate", remember it used to take me an hour to get on the phone and then after 30 minutes I was ready to hang up.
Forgive All Ebay Sins!
And did so in this case. But it would have been customer friendlier for this seller to accept my retraction to be replaced with a bid. He would have gotten repeat business from me and my friends. His "Buy Now" price is 30% over the retail price for this item. Lesson learned by me again - that there are way too many sellers on Ebay out to grab a buck and the hell with fair practice.Lesson learned yet again."
BobAnn
End quote?
The operative phrase here is "repeat business from me and my friends". There is no better endorsement of your product or service than word of mouth advertising. Lack of flexibility on the part of the seller, not only cost them one customer, but also destroyed the possibility for future business. Good news travels fast, but bad news travels faster!
As an auction seller, (Ebay auction ID: LevelBest77) I would have accommodated her request right away. And while I have never had anyone use "Buy It Now" by accident, I have had several people over the years ask me to retract bids. The number of people who have made that request can be counted on one hand! Some, did not even understand the process, (bid retracting) and I was more than willing to guide them through it.
Do Your Words Betray You?
What do the words that you use say about you? What is your basic message? Do your words support that basic message?
Doomed Before You Dial?
Several weeks ago, I conducted a ?Mastering the Cold Call? seminar for the Printing Industries of Connecticut and Western Massachusetts. At the end of the seminar, a participant came up to me and said, ?Thank you! I learned so much! I learned ?Don?t Take No for an Answer.?? Another participant standing to his side exclaimed, ?No! What I learned is, ?Don?t Make No Your Answer!??
Eighty Percent of Success is Showing Up
The above quote, ?Eighty percent of success is showing up.? is from Woody Allen. It was particularly appropriate this past weekend.
Qualifying Your Prospect
How do you respond when an absolute stranger calls, at work or at home, and begins to ask questions? ?Are you the person who??? ?What is your marketing strategy?? ?Do you own or rent?? Even, ?How are you today??
Building Relationships
A conversation:
Take the Contract with You
I learned something very interesting this week. Thankfully, what I learned was really at no one?s expense. What I learned is that when you are on a sales call and you believe there is a possibility (even a remote one) that you may close, always take your contract or letter of agreement with you! This does not apply if your contracts are so complex that it takes a team of attorneys to sort through it. If, however, your contract or letter of agreement is one or two pages long? take it with you.
Talking To A Prospect As If To A Friend
While working with a new coaching client, I asked to hear her sound bite. Everyone needs a good sound bite. A sound bite, sometimes also called an ?elevator speech,? is a 10- to 15-second commercial on what your company does, offers or stands for. Use it when you meet someone new in business, use it at networking meetings, and use it on the telephone as part of your introductory calling script.
Your Voice is Your Instrument
On an introductory call, your voice is your instrument. During a face-to-face meeting, you have visual cues and body language available to add layers of meaning. On the telephone, you have only your voice and the words that you use. The way that you use your voice can make or break your conversation.
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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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