Posts Tagged ‘Business Tips’

5 ROI-rocketing Sales Tips

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

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Bisecting the Moonrise
Creative Commons License photo credit: jurvetson

Feel like your marketing tires are spinning in the mud? The amount of literature on how to be a good salesperson is so voluminous you might think that it’s nearly impossible to compete with other salespeople who have read all the books and listened to all the tapes. However, being a good salesperson comes down to being an approachable person who knows their product. Even if you’re a seasoned sales veteran, it never hurts to review and polish up on what works best. We’ve put together 5 top sales tips to get you unstuck, so you can get started on being an outrageously successful salesperson.

1. Speak with Confidence

Starting right now, eliminate every wishy-washy word from your vocabulary. No more saying ‘might,’ ‘probably,’ ‘maybe,’ ‘seems,’ or any other similar words. These words all indicate that you are uncertain about the prospect’s question. If you don’t know the answer to what they’re asking then simply say so. Respect your prospect as a knowledgeable individual and they will respect you back with their consideration of your offer. Try to schmooze over their questions with these roundabout responses and they will see right through you. And there’s nothing worse than getting caught acting like you know exactly what you’re talking about when you have absolutely no clue.

Plus, the words mentioned above also soften the strength of your pitch without adding anything. Eliminate them immediately and you’ll see the difference. As added practice for adding poignancy to your pitch, present your sales pitch to a business associate or friend and have them count how many times you say “um.” If it’s more than one it’s too many.

Use the Custumer’s Words

When you sit down with customers, they’re going to tell you what they want and what they are looking for. Instead of giving them your usual pitch, use their words within your pitch. This means listen to the terms they use and repeat them. You’ll be answering their needs specifically and it shows you’re attentive as well. Plus, you’ll be meeting customers on their terms, not yours, which makes them feel better about the sale.

This all falls under the classic approach of the two ears to one mouth ratio—listen to your prospects at least twice as much as you talk to them. Of course your prospects want to know how you can help them, but they also want to feel like you will give them attention and care on a personal and individual basis. Thoroughly listening to them will help you accomplish this.

Diversify Your Communications Portfolio

Most salespeople grew up making phone calls and doing in-person contacts. In this day, people use all sorts of different media platforms on the Web and through other means to reach and maintain contact with customers. Learn to use these low-cost tools as one of many ways to reach new customers and maintain contact with old ones.

Set Yourself Up as an Authority

You may already be working hard as a salesperson, but part of doing your job is positioning yourself to be a trustworthy resource for customers to come to. Write articles for websites and other sources to demonstrate your knowledge of business and to give to customers as an example of your acumen.

Stay Current

Of course, be aware of the changes in your business, but also stay conscious of the changes in your customers’ business as well. Remember to also keep up on the personal lives of your customers, sending them well wishes throughout the year and whenever they see big successes as well. It’ll show you’re not just about sales, but an interested and caring person who is well worth keeping in contact with.

To your success,

Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!

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Posted in Public Relations, Social Marketing | No Comments »

How to Build Brand Loyalty and Own the Marketplace

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

There are countless new marketing tools and online advertising practices that enter the marketplace on an almost daily basis and it can be fairly easy to get sucked in. You must avoid the temptation to try out every single one of these new approaches! You need to build brand loyalty for your company in order to achieve your business—you can’t build a sturdy brand upon a foundation made of different materials. The consistent provision of value and information online is one of the simplest, yet most effective ways of building an unbreakable brand. Have you ever liked the taste of something but didn’t like the consistency? The same can happen with your business marketing—maintain a consistent marketing message at all times!

Keep your marketing simple and hand pick just a few different marketing tactics to get you started. Once you get some killer ROI coming in, then you can reinvest some cash into your company and wave your magic marketing wand in a few other areas. Stay organized and you will stay within your budget. A chicken with its head cut off looks silly on a farm and in the marketplace—maintain composure through a highly targeted and efficient marketplace. Get back to basics and keep your head with two simple marketing techniques: article marketing and online forums.

Online Forums Make Credit-card Bearing Friends

By creating an online forum for your business you will achieve greater control over your marketing message. Your forum will eventually build up to a microcosm of valuable information for prospects and monitored feedback, questions and comments from your visitors. This controlled environment allows you to maintain consistent communication which builds a sturdy brand. You’ll also increase your exposure as any type of open information and idea exchange enjoys a higher propensity to be talked about and shared with outsiders, bringing more people into your inner circle.

Now, we’re not suggesting that you take on a massive propaganda campaign and dupe your prospects. Just give them enough information and value points to answer their questions and even entertain them—show them where the water is and they’ll soon be lapping it up. (Check back later for details on how to set up an online forum for your business.)

Article Marketing Leads to Lucrative Business Loyalty

Regular article submissions allow you to stay connected with your current client base and build brand loyalty. As soon as you let your guard down you’re susceptible to other companies swooping in with a value-added wedge and taking your clients. A consistent marketing message creates confidence in your prospects. As an example, consider listening to two public speakers. The first speaker constantly shuffles their notes, groping for the next point to address throughout their speech. The second speaker maintains an even flow throughout their entire speech. Which one do you give greater credence to? The same goes for your target audience—they’ll give their credit card number to the company with consistent flow over the note-shuffling guy every time. Consistent content is the king of kings!

Don’t Just Make Money, Save Money

It can be extremely exciting thinking of how much revenue you can bring in with all the latest marketing tools, but it can also be quite dangerous for your budget! By pulling back on the reins, limiting the quantity of marketing avenues you travel down, and establishing solid consistency with your business, you will avoid going broke. It will help you get the most out of your budget since you’ll be building off of your previous efforts instead of essentially starting over again each time you take on a new marketing venture.

To your success,

Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!

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Posted in Article Marketing, Article Marketing Tips, Article Writing, SEO and SEM, Social Marketing | 2 Comments »

Article Marketing Promotes Use of Your Core Strengths for Better Business

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
Michael Phelps wins 8th gold medal
Creative Commons License photo credit: bryangeek

Although we’d all like to think that we have fantastic abilities that span a great number of skill categories, the truth is that we’re experts in just a few areas.

Of course, you can write and you may have even found a few free article submission sites, but your business is guaranteed to suffer when you take time away from your core capabilities.

Employing the help of a professional article submission service ensures not only that your articles are well crafted and only submitted to verified sources for the greatest potency, it also promises that you’ll stick to your core strengths.

Highest Income-producing Activities

Take a few minutes and look through your accounts receivable—which factors produce the most amount of revenue for your company? Pinpointing these areas will help highlight the activities that you should invest the most time and effort into. However, there will be overlapping or several contributing factors to consider as well. Perhaps your article marketing produces the most revenue—this doesn’t necessarily mean you should dedicate all your time to that though. It might be the networking you’ve been doing with prospects that’s been getting people to read those articles. Get the picture?

Identifying Core Strengths

Is it more profitable to struggle at writing an article, dedicating five hours to what should be an hour-long task, or to employ your natural networking skills and actively generate new business contacts, taking just one hour to complete an hour-long task? Whether you want to refer to it as maintaining efficiency in the workplace or simply not wasting time, sticking to what you do best enables you to hit your target with less effort and greater strength. Do what you’re best at and then employ the help of others to supplement your core skills.

Improve Your Career Satisfaction

You can also look forward to a greater degree of career satisfaction when you work at what you’re best at. Of course, it can be very rewarding to overcome a challenge that falls outside of our usual realm of skills, but you’re sure to enjoy more consistent rewards when you build off of your strengths. Executing tasks that you excel at creates immense gratification because you’re using your top skills. An administrative assistant with a mind for management will feel like they’re suffocating in the workplace. Give them the opportunity to delegate a few tasks and they’ll breath easier.

Take a Mental Inventory

To help you get started you can take a mental inventory of what you’re good at. What comes easily to you? Start with a bird’s eye view such as determining that you’re good with numbers. Then take a closer look at this ability to see what tasks you most aptly use your number skills with. Keeping track of your business’ taxes is quite distinct from identifying statistical trends in web-user behavior. And what do you enjoy doing? Our enjoyment of activities is often linked to our ability to actually perform them. You can also look into services that are designed to help you identify your core strengths.

Confidence Booster

Not only will establishing your core strengths give your company greater clout in the marketplace, it will also create a confidence booster. A solid grasp on your abilities arms you against the anxieties that can accompany major business challenges. All you have to do in those situations is take a deep breath and remind yourself of how your core strengths will power you through to a successful end. You can also use specific successes in your past to bolster yourself for new challenges. For example, I ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain and now use that as my mantra when things seem to be stacking up against me. Find a point of power, a specific success you’ve experienced, and use it to fuel your next triumph.

To your success,

Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!

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Posted in Article Distribution Service, Article Marketing, Article Marketing Automation, Article Marketing Strategy, Article Submission Service, Blogs, Quality Content Writing | No Comments »

How to Increase Sales with Your Unique Selling Point

Monday, March 15th, 2010
He's not like you. He's not one of us.
Creative Commons License photo credit: nosha

When was the last time you took a good look at the actual number of search results returned by a search engine? Unless you’re searching for an exact, obscure phrase, the results easily number in the multi millions. Your first question should be why should potential customers buy from me instead of the million others?

Any business looking to increase sales in a saturated marketplace needs to distinguish themselves from all the other businesses. Article marketing provides an efficient platform for developing your Unique Selling Point (USP) and developing that lucrative distinction.

You must develop your USP now, so that you can start to create a niche for your business. A business without a well-developed Unique Selling Point loses a great deal of potency in its marketing. Without making clear what sets you apart, you run the risk of continuously losing business over the simple matter of price. And even if you offer competitive pricing, you forfeit a solid client base for one that constantly kicks tires and checks for better prices. As the old sales maxim goes: “If you get them on price, you’ll lose them on price”. Establishing a solid USP not only helps you get more clients, it also improves your client retention.

Why would anyone buy from you?

One of the best ways to develop your USP is to adopt your prospect’s perspective. What problems, challenges or needs are your prospects trying to address with your product or service? Be careful! It’s easy to let your own desires slip into this mental exercise, so be sure to keep in mind what prospects want, not what you want.

It will also help for you to establish pairings within your business. Do you combine specific elements to provide greater value to your customers? For example, perhaps you’re a small-business coach. Excellent! Small businesses need all the help they can get. However, business coaches and firms are steadily on the rise, so you’ll need to distinguish yourself here, too. What is unique about your coaching? Do you pair mental exercises and training with your business coaching? Bingo—we’ve got a USP!

Or perhaps you just can’t think of a unique factor regarding a relatively simple product—is there anything special about your production methods? Going green still attracts a great deal of attention—many businesses have paired a quality product with green production, packing, and shipping methods to develop their USP.

Make sure your prospects know what sets you apart.

Once you’ve established a solid USP for your business, you must make a continuous effort to tell prospects all about it. Regular automated article marketing lets the masses know why your business is the obvious choice.
Developing your USP will also help you rank higher in search engine results for your niche. Keyword-rich content submitted frequently throughout the Web automatically improves your chances of coming up in search engine results. This is because it’s more specific than a non-USP-based business message.

Potential buyers appreciate succinct information, and search engine algorithms, Web scrubbers and spiders also search for the most precise kernels possible. It’s important to note that search engines don’t just search, they qualify as well. You have to remember that search engines are in competition with each other and the better the results they return to you, the more likely you are to continue using their particular engine. Develop a clear-cut niche or USP and search engines will have an easier time of scraping your material and helping others find you. By targeting a few exact specialties and niches that your product or service can deliver, you will effectively slice through a huge chunk of your usual competition online.

A strong USP not only gets prospects in your door and helps convert them to buying customers, it also breeds loyalty. Your USP is a blockade to competitors trying to steal your business because it is what makes you special. Frequent article submissions aimed at your existing client base remind them how you provide a superior product or service, preventing other businesses from wedging in between you and your clients.

To your success,

Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!

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Posted in Article Marketing Tips | No Comments »