It's All About Selling

It's always the fundamentals

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:04:00 +0000

Picking up on my last post where I was talking about being in a slump I wanted to spend some time talking about the fundamentals of the sales process.

The first step in the sales process is the interview step and it's one that a lot of sales people blow through thinking they know what the prospect needs and they've been there done that.

Even though you think you know what they need that doesn't mean the prospect knows what they need. You need to bring them through the interview process so they can discover and understand their needs as well as uncover needs they didn't even know they had.

A key point to bring up right here is that if you say it they can doubt it but if they say it then it must be true. I learned that a long time ago from Zig Ziglar.

So what does that mean? Well, if you tell them the solution they may or may not believe it's the best solution for their situation. On the other hand if you ask them questions which guide them to the answer that they discover for themselves they're going to be a lot more likely to buy into the answer since they figured it out for themselves.

Something to keep in mind though is that the key for this to work is discipline and intent? What I mean by intent is you must be coming from a place of service where you genuinely have the prospects best interest at heart. When you do they will know it and ultimately come to trust you and your advice.

Don't rush through the sales interview process. The better you are at helping your prospect discover their needs the more sales you will close.

Keeping it fresh

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:05:00 +0000

Are you struggling to make sales? Does it seem like the people you thought were a sure thing are failing to pull the trigger for no apparent reason. Or that for some unexplainable reason they are going with you competitor or worse yet they aren't doing anything. Are you overall numbers down? Have blamed the loss of a sale recently you were sure you were going to get on the economy?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions you might be in the middle of a sales slump. Sales tends to have it's ups and downs so for some they just consider it a regular part of the business and they just work through it. For others they start questioning themselves, the products they sell or the company they work for. For the latter this begins a downward spiral that makes the sump worse as well as prolonging it.

So what's a person to do to prevent or correct a slump?

The answer: Go back to the basics.

Think about how you were when you first started in the sales job you're in right now.
You didn't know as much so you talked less.
You were excited about the opportunity so to the buyer you excitement came across as enthusiasm for the product.
Because you didn't know everything you asked more questions
You listened better since you hadn't heard the same thing a 1,000 times.

In many ways selling is like acting. No I don't mean you fake it about your products or services your selling. As far as I'm concerned you either truly believe in what you're selling or you need to find something else to sell. Anyway back to the point about acting. When you've been selling something for awhile you can become bored with what you're saying. This is were it gets really dangerous for a sales person. When you're bored you come across as disinterested which will be received many different way all of which are bad.

Think about what it would be like if you went to a play where instead of getting a great performance the actor was bored an you could tell. How would you feel? You'd feel like you wasted your time and you probably wouldn't enjoy the play. Part of the experience of going to a play is for the actor to get you to feel the sorrow or the joy of the moment. Something they can't do if they allowed themselves to come across as being bored.

Just as the actor can't allow themselves to come across as being bored neither can a sales person. You have to maintain your enthusiasm about what you're selling. You need to stick to the basics and ask good questions and listen attentively for the answer. You need to treat each client as an individual and even if you think you know the answer you still need to ask the question. The reality is that even if you do know the answer that doesn't mean the prospect does. The prospect or client needs to feel that you genuinely care about them. (If you don't get a new job.)

Keep it simple and stick to the basics. You owe it to yourself to be the best you can be and that takes hard work. Sales is the most rewarding hard work there is or the worst paying easy job there is. The choice is yours.

May favorite saying that I once hear Zig Ziglar say is: "Your raise becomes effective as soon as you do." Nothing I've ever heard does a better job of summarizing the opportunity a career in sales offers.

More calls, More presentations, More Closes, More Sales

The Words We Use

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:44:00 +0000

The words you use have the power to create or the power to destroy. When you're making a presentation to a prospect you want to stir their emotions so they will buy. Obviously this is assuming that what you have to offer is the right solution for them. The way you say what you have to offer will either help or hurt your chances of success.

A long time ago I was introduced to the power of word choice and as a consultant have had tremendous success with simply re-scripting a clients presentation. What I do is remove the weak or negative words and replace them with positive or power words.

You might be saying to yourself that it can't be that simple but in many ways it is. Obviously you need to have the right product for the prospect and you have to believe in the product plus they have to be able to afford it but in the end your ability to close the sale with have a lot to do with how you present the solution.

So what does this look like?

A great place to start with is how you discuss price. Many sales people use terms like price and cost which immediately set off the alarms in the prospects head to become defensive. Using words like investment or value have a completely different connotation and provoke different feelings. You tend to feel good about making investments and you are more likely to think highly of something valued at $$$$.

If you sell on payments don't call them payments call them monthly investments or for the down payment call it the initial investment.

In Zig Ziglar's book “Secrets of Closing the Sale” he spends some time talking about the importance of using the proper words in your presentation. He talks about how some words sell and other words un-sell. He goes on to mention a study conducted by Yale University that corroborates the idea and adds some additional selling words to the list.

In my own sales career, and as a consultant, I have experienced the truth and value of this easy to implement money making discovery and I guarantee you can enjoy the same results.

As you look over the list below you might notice that the last sentence was packed with words that sell. OK, maybe I over did it a little but I think you get the idea.

Words That “Sell”

Prospect’s name	Easy	Save	Right	Proud
Trust	Understand	Guarantee	New	Results
Profit	Value	Proven	Money	Love
Truth	Deserve	Fun	Health	Safety
Discovery	Comfort	Happy	Vital

Words That “Un-sell”

Deal	Sign	Lose	Bad	Decision
Liable	Cost	Try	Hurt	Sell
Hard	Fail	Pay	Worry	Buy
Sold	Difficult	Liability	Contract	Loss
Death	Price	Obligation	Failure

Here are five more “selling” words that came from a Yale University study:

You Security Advantage Positive Benefits

By the way the most important word you can use in your sales presentation is your prospect’s name. Nothing sounds better to your prospect than their name.

If you want to take your sales to the next level you owe it to yourself to replace all the negative or weak words in your presentation with positive or power words. By the way don't limit this to just your presentation make it a part of your everyday vocabulary. You are the only one limiting your chances for success so let's remove the obstacles, roadblocks and excuses so you can be, do and have all that you are dreaming of.

Get started today.

One Day at a Time

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:52:00 +0000

Ever have a sales month start slowly? Do you struggle with the idea of starting from scratch every month? Many sales people have a hard time with the idea the each month they're starting all over. For some it's a daunting task to start our each month back at zero. And many sales people struggle with having a month or a pay period start slowly which adds anxiety to hitting their quota for the period.

A conversation I had with one of the sales people working for me reminded me of the challenge. He was asking how he could overcome the slow start he has each month. My answer was simple "Take it one day at a time". I know it sounds like a simple answer but let me explain. When you have a big sales month or period the natural tendency is to relax a little bit once it's over. You want to celebrate and pat yourself on the back. There's nothing wrong with that you need to celebrate your victories.

The problem with relaxing after you hit your goal or have a big month is that when you relax you tend to stop doing all the things you were doing to be successful at the end of the previous month. Some sales people start to take short cuts fooling themselves into thinking they are good enough to get away with it. Usually this results in fewer sales at the start of the month or pay period and then as you get farther into the pay period they knuckle down and get back to doing what works and low and behold they pull it off again. Another month or pay period where they hit the goal even though they started slowly.

Some salespeople have done it like this for so long they have convinced themselves that people don't buy early in the month so it's normal. The fact is when you are doing your job properly people buy any day of the month and it has nothing to do with whether or not is the beginning or the end of the month. The sales person is the one that influences the cycle based on inconsistent work habits.

If you want to end the up and down sales cycle and be more consistent you have to work consistently and the best way to do that is to stop focusing on the pay period or the month and start focusing on each individual day. By taking things one day at a time and resolving to do you best each day you will find that the month or pay period takes care of itself.

Of course that's not to say ignore the closing of your pay period, month or qualification period. You can use these deadlines to create urgency and get business to close in a more timely manner than it would otherwise.

The key is to do your best each and every day and you will find that before long your sales are more consistent and for that matter much higher since the slow start will go away.

Just be patient and know that what you are doing will work because for many sales people it takes a few months to actually see the change in their sales since they have to fill the pipeline with additional prospects.

You might be skeptical if you've been in sales for a while and have always had a slow start each month or period but I can tell you from personal experience the key is in your work habits. I too used to have slow starts until I was shown how I worked differently at the beginning of the month compared to the end of the month. I decided to take it one day at a time and within 3 months my sales at the first of the month equaled my sales at the end of the month. For me that was a 15% increase in sales.

Would you like to give yourself a raise? Then work just as hard or even harder at the beginning of the pay period as you do at the end and treat every day as if it was the last day of the pay period.

Sales Lessons From the Movie Hook

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 23:12:00 +0000

Your emotions have a lot to do with how well you sell. It affects how other people see you and how they believe you feel about what you're selling. Think about it for a minute do you like doing business with angry people? How about doing business with people that are down or depressed? Or people that are self centered and could care less about you? Of course not. If you're like most people you like to do business with people that are happy and upbeat.

Zig Ziglar, one of the great sales trainers boils sales down to the transference of feelings. Basically if you can get your prospect to feel the way you do about what you're selling they are more likely to buy. Bryan Tracy, another great sales trainer, teaches constrained enthusiasm and points out that the last four letters of enthusiasm are I A S M which means I Am Sold Myself. So with that in mind maintaining the right attitude is essential in sales.

There's a valuable lesson to be learned from the movie Hook with Robin Williams that has helped me in my sales career more times than I care to count. It's also a lesson I've shared with hundreds of sales people that have benefited from it as well.

The movie starts in modern day England and Robin Williams is a busy executive married to his cell phone and so busy with work he's missing out on his own children's childhood.

As it turns out Robin is Peter Pan but he's grown up and gotten serious and has completely forgotten his childhood. So he doesn't remember that he is, or ever was, Peter Pan. Tinker Bell, played by Julia Roberts, brings him back to Neverland to remember who he really is and to fight Hook and save Neverland.

About now you might be asking yourself what on earth does this have to do with sales. Just bear with me and I will make it clear.

The sales lesson is in how, the now serious and adult, Peter who has no magic and can't even remember being Peter Pan gets his magic and power to fly back. You see, his power was a function of his imagination as well as being able to be carefree and happy. He'd forgotten how to imagine and he hadn't been happy in a long time.

When he first got to Neverland he was in denial and just wanted things to stay the way they were. Jumping ahead to that part that's relevant to the lesson. Peter first started to get his ability to imagine back when the whole gang was sitting down to an imaginary meal. Rufio, one of the lost boys, was upset because the real Peter Pan would have been able to have actual food for them to eat. He didn't believe this was the real Peter Pan.

In the process of the argument between Rufio and Peter, Peter starts to lose some of his adult ways and starts to have fun. Just as Peter is pretending to throw a spoonful of food at Rufio the imaginary becomes real and all of the sudden the table is full of food. Watch the clip for yourself its fun.

Now having an imagination and being able to have fun is important and it will help you in your day to day sales. But, that isn't the biggest lesson to learn from this movie. You see even though Peter remembered how to use his imagination he still wasn't "The" Peter Pan. He didn't believe and he didn't have the magic to fly.

In the movie Tinker Bell helps Peter remember and realize that the key to his magic comes from being able to be in his "Happy Place". As she helps him remember and realize that he is in fact Peter Pan his happiest memory is of the time when his first child was born. As the happiness fills him up he turns back into Peter Pan and now he can fly.

It's kind of funny as he remembers because without realizing it he is hovering in mid-air but when he starts to think about the fact that he's flying he gets scared. Of course he starts to drop like a rock but just before he hits that ground he remembers his happy place and stops in mid-air. Now, he's really Peter Pan and starts flying all over the place.

Once again I bet you are asking yourself what on earth this has to do with sales or selling. Well, the lesson is about having and being able to hold on to your happy place. Think about the times when an angry prospect or client has affected your mood which affects your performance. Think about the times you've had a setback personally and it impacted you work. The fact is we all get hit with bad news, cancelled sales, personal setbacks and trials of life. The key is how do you deal with it?

We all get upset or have our feelings hurt from time to time but if you take the time to remember a moment when you were extremely happy or a time that you felt totally successful you can use the memory, and others like it, to get back to a point where you can be effective and successful.

There have been many times I have used this to get myself or sales people I've worked with back into a good place to work from. I know it may sound a little out there but what have you got to lose by trying it?

One of the things I picked up from Tony Robbins is to work on remembering things in color with sound and to make them seem like they're on a life size or larger screen. It only takes a little bit of practice but it's worth it. For me and everyone I've worked with the intensity of the feeling or memory is enhanced by making it larger or in color or with sound. Different adjustments have different impacts for each person so experiment with it to see what works best for you.

Another thing Tony teaches is to anchor a feeling or emotion so that you can get into that state at will. For years, every time I made a sale I would stand up with my arms raised over my head in victory and then I would simulate the cheer of a crowd. This action has anchored for me the feeling of success I enjoy when making a sale. Now, anytime I want to feel this way I simply repeat the action and I'm in that state.

As a sales professional you must learn to be the master of your emotions. That doesn't mean ignore them or suppress them. So find a copy of Hook and enjoy being entertained but let it help you find you very own happy place and learn how to go there any time you want. Your sales will improve and so will your relationships with those around you.

Drive Tons Of Traffic To Your Site

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 22:06:00 +0000

I've talked a little about lead generation and using your website to get prospects but it never fails every time I talk about Internet marketing I get asked about traffic generation.

My first education in traffic generation started a number of years ago when John Reese came out with the original Traffic Secrets. I plunked down my $1,000 the first day it came out. I then had the good fortune to be invited by a number of my friends who were moving their businesses online to participate in a mastermind session going through the Traffic Secrets material.

What an education that was. not only did I have the benefit of the material but I got to hear what others got out of it as well. The session were invaluable and John really put out an incredible product. The list of things you can be doing to drive traffic to your site is quite extensive. You don't have to take my word for it you can go get his newest traffic course Traffic Secrets 2.0. John covers all types of way to drive traffic but in this course he really helps you understand how to take advantage of social media. Oh, don't worry, it isn't $1,000 like his first course was.

When it's all said and done with nothing beats organic traffic for sales.

Apart from becoming a student of traffic generation something you can do right now to drive traffic to your site while seriously boosting your search engine ranking is article marketing.

Article marketing works for the simple reason that it provides exactly what the search engines are looking for. Content. The key of course, is quality original content. Search engines are getting smarter and smarter. So, the better and more relevant your article are the more likely the search engines are to pick them up. The next thing you need is for your article to be in lots of places. The more places your article is the more back links you have to your site making the search engines believe your site is a good authority on the subject the article is written on.

You used to be able to submit you article to all the article sites and the rest would take care of itself. Webmasters would pick up your article and put it on their site so they have more content and the search engines would see your article all over the web.

Now it seems as though some of the search engines have figured out whats going on and they penalize the ranking when it's just a bunch of duplicates of the original article.

With that in mind the key is to submit a unique article to each article directory. That way you won't have hundreds or thousands of copies of the exact same article out there. The problem though is who has time to write that many original articles? I know I don't.

I've tried the submission services and they're alright. I own a number of programs to do it for me and they aren't bad.m But either way you're just submitting the same article over and over.

About a year ago I found the perfect solution Unique Article Wizard. It's nothing short of amazing the way it takes an article I write and then with a small amount of work on my part it actually submits a unique version of my article to hundreds of high ranking article directories.

Go see what Dr. Noel Swanson has to say about article marketing on steroids is like. At the very least be sure to sign up for the free article marketing course.

To your success,

Mike

Selling in a tough economy

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:11:00 +0000

So what do you do to continue selling and even increase your sales in a tough economy?

The simple answer is stick to the fundamentals. No matter how bad the economy appears to be there are always people ready and willing to buy what you have to offer. The fundamentals of sales don't change just because the economy is taking a tumble. In fact this is when they are the most important.

Some of you in sales probably have sales managers that are trying to tell you that the economy doesn't have any impact on your sales. I beg to differ. The fact is sales are down across the board for almost every single sector. Unless, of course, your goods or services are the type that are really popular and needed when the economy is going through a tough spot. Being in denial is not going to help you pull your sales out of a slump and it certainly won't help you take your sales to a whole new level.

So unless you're in a truly recession proof industry the economy is going to have an impact on your sales. The real question is what are you going to do about it?

That brings us back to the fundamentals. These are the things you should be doing consistently but when things are going well we tend to take short cuts and develop bad habits. The key to maximizing your sale efforts and making the greatest number of sale possible is to work each step of the sale to it's fullest. When you take the time to properly qualify a lead so that you genuinely know if it's a suspect or a prospect you are saving yourself time in the long run. When you work with a prospect to determine if they are a lead or not you are moving along the sale process.

The key to making more sales in a down economy, or any economy for that matter, is properly working the steps of the sale and paying particular attention to properly qualifying your leads. You can't afford to spend time with someone who will most likely never buy. The primary difference between top closers and the rest of the pack is their qualifying process. How else do you think they could have such a high closing ratio?

In order to properly qualify a lead you need to have your sales process mapped out so that you know where you at with a lead. If you're spending all your time educating prospective buyers about your goods and services you're not working smart you're working hard. Sales people need to spend their time with people that are ready to buy and the best way to do that is through qualifying and education based marketing.

It's marketing's job to educate the prospects to the point that when sales gets involved most of the major questions have already been answered. Look at it like this; if you are grading your leads on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being a sale then you really should only be talking to 7's, 8's and 9's. Anything lower than a 7 should be getting what they need from your companies marketing process. So, if you talk to a prospect and determine they are a 6 or less you put them back in to the marketing system and you follow up when they have done something to indicate that they are now a 7 or better. Occasionally you can work a 6 to a close and get the deal but that isn't the best use of your time.

Now, in order to do this you have to lay out the steps of your sale and determine for yourself what value to put on each lead based on where they're at in the process. For example just having their name might make them a 1 but if they filled out a request for information form and sent it in maybe that makes them a 2 or 3. Take a look at your sales process and assign values to each step of the process and start tracking your leads based on this system. When crunch time comes at the end of the month, quarter or year only spend your time working with 7's or better and you'll be pleasantly surprised at your increased sales.

If you don't have the luxury of a company marketing department then you need to automate a nurturing process on your own to free up your time so you can continue to prospect and work with leads that are ready to buy.

Don't' let the economy be the excuse for less sales. Look at it instead as an opportunity to capture more market share and hone your skills. Practice what you've learned and continue to improve your skills. Get out there and network. Be more diligent in your qualifying process and make sure you nurture your leads. Also, think about this. Tough economies have a way of eliminating the competition which puts you in the drivers seat if you are nurturing your leads and listening to your clients and prospects.

Champions meet and exceed their goals in all types of economies but usually have record breaking years when the economy is supposedly bad.

Go sell something and help the economy recover,

Mike McMahon

Lead Nurturing

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:56:00 +0000

It seems like these days everyone talks about lead generation and that the money is in the list. What most of them don't talk about is lead nurturing.

Below are some of the questions I get asked about leads on a regular occasion.

Now that I have the lead what do I do with it?
If they don't buy right away what good are they?
Can I really turn a lead into a client with marketing?

After you spend your money,time and effort to capture someones information into your lead base what are you going to do with it? Most people that are new to online marketing think they can just send out the sales letter or an email inviting the lead to a sales page and the sales are just going to flood right in. I wish it were that easy.

The reality is you have to nurture your leads. That means you have to feed them and prove you are in this game for more than just the money generated by the sale. Sure you might get some sales simply by email them and asking for the order but how would you like to get two or three times the sales how about eight times the sales or even more? Well, the way to do that is to care about your list and treat them accordingly. In other words nurture them.

So what does nurturing your list look like? One of the ways you can nurture you list is to give them great information on a regular basis for free. That's right I said free. Help them understand things in you area of expertise that they might not already know. Give them good advice and pointers to help them along the way. Don't be afraid to really open up. It shows them you care but it also shows them you are the expert in you particular area of knowledge.

As far as what to do if they don't but right away be patient. The fact is that most of your customers aren't going to buy from you right away unless you happen to be selling something people buy in an emergency or on the spur of the moment. For most of us we need to understand that the majority of our customers are going to get on our list and then evaluate what we have to say against what they already know. If you do a good job of nurturing you will overcome their fear of doing business with you and they will become a customer.

We all know of a Guru or two on the Internet that only sells their products or services using marketing. So the answer is yes you can sell just using marketing. With low ticket items you may find you have no choice but to build an automated sales team and get everything done with marketing. On the other hand if you are selling higher end products or services you are much more likely to make more sales if you blend your sales and marketing efforts.

Basically your marketing should get the prospect to the point they are ready to buy but maybe they need a little more information. This is where your sales team would come in to the equation. That means if your sales team starts working with a prospect that simply isn't ready to make a commitment they would go back into the marketing process until they indicate at a future time they're again ready to be contacted by the sales team.

Figuring out the points in your marketing that make sense for sales to contact the prospect takes time and effort but the pay off is huge. When you sales team is spending it's time with people that are ready to buy versus people still needing to be educated you will get a much higher conversion rate and greater number of sales.

In short use your marketing to educate your prospects to the fact that they have a need for your solution and how your solution will work for them. Use call to action steps to get the prospect to signify they are ready to take he next step and then have your sales team follow up and close the sale.

Marketing and sales should have a synergistic relationship where one ends and the other picks up. Both of them need each others feed back to continually improve their process.

Building a Marketing Funnel and Other Lead Management Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 01:36:00 +0000

"Chris Koch ckoch@itsma.com August 11, 2008

Brian Carroll wants us to get passionate about one of marketing’s most important tasks: finding and nurturing leads—80% of which wind up being ignored or discarded. “To me it's better to not be involved with a customer at all than to start a relationship and then drop the ball,” says Carroll. “What we are doing is just generating more leads. But it's not about more, it's about better.”
Here, Carroll, who is CEO of InTouch, a lead generation optimization services firm, gives us five ways to make B2B lead management more effective. For much more on lead management, you can read Carroll’s book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, and check out his popular blog, B2B Lead Generation.

1. Create a marketing funnel.

Most organizations don’t have a marketing funnel; they have a sales funnel that looks more like a bucket with lots of holes in it where leads leak out. Marketing needs to create its own funnel to understand whether leads are sales ready or not." ....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mike here. I grabbed this from a great article that I know you will enjoy.

Chris goes on to make a number of great points and there are some great resources you can downlaod for free so go to http://www.itsma.com/NL/article.asp?ID=401 and check it out for yourself.

Lead Generation

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:19:00 +0000

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. I got caught up in a new project that just consumed me. Anyway the in my last post I said I would get into lead generation so let's jump right into it.

Lead generation is the key to long term success in any sales operation. The important thing to understand is that while it's a critical part of your success it will only be as good as your follow up. So if you're going to generate leads you need to commit to following up on them.

For this posting I am going to concentrate on online lead generation techniques. I will cover face to face and direct mail in other post.

Many will say that you don't have to have a website to take advantage of the Internet. For me that seems stupid so I I'm telling you that you need a website and you need to be active in the social sites as well.

Having a website is just one part of your lead generation process.
The following are some things to keep in mind.

Website (User friendly content)

SEO - Validate your html and consider using Google Analytics or other tracking software
Pay Per Click (PPC) - Drive targeted traffic to your site to test your opt-in rate
Organic Search - Keyword dense pages with high value content
Cross Linking (High Traffic Portals) - Article marketing and forums are great for this
Site Design - Appealing to look at and SEO friendly
Landing Page - Unique landing pages allow you to track lead sources & match the visitors expectations more closely.
Navigation - Simple, easy to navigate. Follow the 3 click rule.
Opt-in Page - Tell them what you want them to do. Offer a real value to encourage (bribe) the opt-int
Credibility (client names) - Testimonials with real life results are more interesting and build real credibility.
ROI Calculators - If you provide a service or product that has a return on investment put up a calculator and let them do the math for themselves. (be sure to have proper disclaimers up though. I am not an attorney so you should check with one before you go putting up claims about making or saving people money.
Blog - These are one of the most SEO friendly things you can do. Keep it relevant and always provide high quality content.
Content - High quality is the key. Don't go buy a bunch of PLR (private label resell) articles that everyone else bought. Write it yourself or higher someone using E-lance or go to your local college and hire a student. Content isn't expensive to create but it is the key to the whole online process.

The above list is by no means complete but it gives you plenty to think about with your website. If you don't have one then get one. If you do have one take a look at your content to see if you have enough of the right stuff for your market. If you want a decent chance to rank well naturally you need at least 20 pages of quality content.

Having said that article marketing is a great tool for lead generation. It allows you to position yourself as an expert in your field and get high ranking back links to your site all at the same time. For some advanced article marketing techniques go to Unique Article Wizard. I think article marketing is one of the greatest ways to generate high quality traffic to your site that will convert at much higher rate than just about any other method out there.

I will continue talking about lead generation in my next post and hopefully it won't take as long as it did this time.

Who Am I Looking For?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:39:00 +0000

Obviously to succeed in business you need customers. The question everyone asks is "How do I find them?". Well the first thing you must do is decide who it is your looking for. It may sound simple but it's really hard to hit a target until you know what/who it is.

Almost every new client I start with tell me the same thing when I ask them to describe their ideal client or target market. They start telling me in general terms who their existing clients are. The key here is I'm not asking who they do business with I'm asking who they want to do business with. So answer the question for yourself. Who do you want to do business with?

Who pays on time with out any complaints?
Who refers you to others and sings your praises?
Who buys the most?
Who like to do business with you?
If you could do business with any one or any group who would it be?

While there are certainly other attributes to determine who your ideal client is I think you get the picture. Take the time to do a little research online for ways to determine your ideal client because once you do you can focus your marketing message to specifically target them instead of targeting the whole world.

You will find that you message is received much better and your conversion rate from stranger to friend will happen more quickly when you can speak to them instead of at them like mass marketing does.

In my next post I will start exploring lead generation both offline and online.

To your success,

Mike McMahon

Strangers - How do I find them?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:47:00 +0000

In the last post I talked about simplifying the sales process into four easy to follow stages. Now let's go deeper into the first stage which is the Stranger stage.

In the Stranger stage people have no idea who you are or what you have to offer. You're trying to capture their attention to bring them into your sphere of influence so you can move them from stranger to friend.

In this day and age with all the marketing going on it's hard to break through the clutter. One company that has done a great job developing an ongoing stream of prospects is Strategic Profits. The video below is one of their marketing messages that links to a free report. Check it out.

Share this video with your friends

Do you think they hit the nail on the head describing the problem? Did they get you to think about how important it would be to be seen as the expert in your industry? If they did then they accomplished the first two parts of the age old marketing equation which is Interrupt, Engage, Educate and Offer. If you followed the link and went to their site and downloaded the free report then they gained a new lead and successfully satisfied the goal of the video. Notice how they have made it viral? They built in the ability for you to share it with your friends with a simple click of the button.

I put this video up to show you one way to attract strangers and begin the process of moving them to becoming a friend. How can you apply this to your business? What would you need to adapt to make it work?

Whenever you see a technique working for another business be sure to ask yourself if you could implement it in your business.

In my next post I will cover more ways to attract strangers.

To your success,

Mike McMahon

What Do I Do First?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:59:00 +0000

Let's start from the beginning. Before you can make sales there are several things you must do. First and foremost you must identify the features and benefits of your goods or services. You must also make sure you have identified your target market.

With that foundation you are ready to begin the sales process. It's important to understand that making a sale isn't a single event it's a process.

Most people teach the sales process as a six or seven steps. If you are following a seven step process it would look like this;

1. Prospect
2. Interview
3. Analyze needs
4. Present
5. Negotiate
6. Close
7. Service and follow-up

While there is nothing wrong with the seven step process for a lot of small business owners who are wearing every hat in the company it can be a little intimidating. Especially for practitioners that can't stand the idea of selling.

My good friend and fellow marketer James Roche (www.infoproductguy.com) and I have streamlined the process into four simple steps. They are as follows;

1. Stranger
2. Friend
3. Client
4. Champion

Prospecting is covered in the stranger phase. This is where your are reaching out to people that don't know you or haven't heard of you. The idea at this stage of the game is to give them a compelling reason to raise their hand and opt in to your list. In other words become a lead in your sales process.

Friend covers the interview, analyze needs and present phase. We called it "Friend" because you are trying to take people from not knowing who you are to knowing you and trusting you. The friend process can occur over a short period of time or a longer period of time depending on the complexity of your offer and the amount that you need to educate your friends to give them enough information to move forward and become clients.

Client is the result of a successful close. For many people they think this is the culmination of the work when in fact the work has just begun. Now it is time to over deliver and so greatly exceed you clients expectations that they become champions.

Champion is the stage that incorporates service and follow up. In this stage as we indicated in the client stage your goal is to consistently over deliver your client expectation so that they become a champion. At that point you have someone who is loyal and loves telling other about you and what you have to offer. They will consistently bring you referral simply to show you their gratitude.

On my next post I will cover the stranger stage in greater detail.

To your success,

Mike McMahon

What Makes A Good Presentation

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:12:00 +0000

How many times have you been called and the person on the other end of the phone can't even say you name right and they don't even so much as ask a qualifying question? Worse yet they just plow into their presentation as if you have to listen. To make matters worse it's obvious their reading and not all that well either.

Is that your idea of a good presentation?

How about the last time you walked onto a car lot? Did you get swarmed like fresh meat? Then did the salesperson you were with proceed to do their best to get you to test drive something, anything, and then they want you to just see what the numbers work out to be. It's almost as if they are trained to ignore anything you say as long as they can get you to the table so you can be closed.

Or maybe you've had the pleasure of going on one of those timeshare presentations. You know the ones where they bribe you to spend 90 minutes to listen to a presentation that's supposed to make you fall in love with their offer especially when they grind you at the end and they make you and offer that's only good today.

Are these anybodies ideas of good presentations?

I sure don't think they are. With a blog called "Its All About Selling" you may be surprised to hear me tell you that not everyone is someone you should be selling. But the key to a good presentation is making it to someone that can genuinely benefit from what you have to offer.

The next and most important part of a good presentation is taking the time to find out what you prospect wants and needs. Then and only then are you ready to give your presentation.

We've all heard about the radio station WIIFM What's In It For Me. Well that's what a good presentation is all about... What's in it for them.

Many salespeople only get part of this right and what I mean by that is they don't go deep enough with the qualifying. For instance since I can help someone double their sales I might ask them what it would mean to their business if they were to double their sales. Then when they answer me I will ask them to tell me why that's important. The answer to the last question is the one that unlocks their hot button for me.

Think about what I just said. It is the key to their hot button. This is the way to find out what truly motivates them. Most sales people negotiate on price because they get enough sales to think that's the right way to do it. The problem is if you sell on price you die on price.

On the other hand if you find out what your prospect is motivated by and you can help them then a presentation built around solving their problems or helping them get what they want is a good presentation. No, make that a great presentation.

To you success,

Mike McMahon

If you want to Double Your Sales & Revenue then go to http://www.DoubleYourSalesAndRevenue.com

I Just Need To Know How To Close

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:16:00 +0000

It seems as if everyone thinks the only thing they need to learn is closing skills. The problem with that is the focus is on the wrong thing. Instead of focusing on closing you will get a lot more sales focusing on the client.

A perfect example would be one of my consulting clients I just finished a session with. We were celebrating his progress and he was excited that he had found a new confidence and was closing people who previously had been impossible for him.

Like most clients the first area he wanted to work on was closing. I suggested that we start at the beginning. I assured him that we would get to closing techniques but first we needed to lay the proper foundation.

As I have mentioned in other post most sales people give their presentation in spite of the prospect's needs instead of with their needs in mind. I talked to him about the questions he was asking and what he was doing with the information. He was really only asking what he was taught were rapport building questions. I'll talk about that in another post.

As it turns out he was relying on a tool his company had given him that exposed weaknesses in the prospects business but didn't tie the problem to their needs, wants or desires. I helped him understand that you must know what's important to the prospect before you can even begin to give a presentation.

To help him understand I shared a story I learned about from "Non-Manipulative Selling". I asked him what he would think of a doctor if he went to the doctor's office and without even being seen by the doctor the doctor had the nurse come out and give him a prescription for a heart condition. He'd said he'd think the doctor was a quack and I'm sure you'd agree. Well that's exactly what a sales person is doing every time they jump into their presentation without finding out what's important to the client.

Not everyone is motivated the same way. In fact what motivates one person can actually turn off another. With that in mind you have to ask good open ended questions to find out what motivates your prospect or you could be doing more damage than good.

As I previously mentioned in features vs. benefits once you know your prospects needs, wants and desires you tailor your presentation to them. Along the way you show them how your good or service helps them achieve what's important to them and you will find that the close is the easiest part of the presentation.

Of course all of this is based on your core belief that what you have to offer is genuinely the best solution for your prospect.

Mike McMahon

Helping Business Owners & Professionals Double Their Sales & Revenue

PS. To Double Your Sales & Revenue Click Here and claim your FREE 7 day audio eCourse. “Behind the Curtain…Strategies to Double Your Sales and Revenue”

Features vs. Benefits

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:18:00 +0000

In selling you will usually hear you need to pitch features and benefits. Sometimes people will tell you that people don't buy features they only buy benefits. If it's true that people only buy benefits what do I do with all the features? How can I know what to talk to my prospect about?

The key is understanding the difference between a feature and a benefit. The fact is, what may be a feature to one prospect can be a benefit to another. It's up to the sales person through the qualification process to learn what the prospect's needs are which will tell them whether or not it's a feature or a benefit.

Think of features and benefits like this. If the prospect sees it as a benefit then it's a benefit. Otherwise it's a feature. For example if you go to a car dealership (relax, this is just a blog you're not really at the car dealership) and you're looking at a red car. Is the color red a feature or a benefit? If you love the color red then for you it's a benefit. On the other hand if it isn't your favorite color and you believe that red cars get more tickets it's a feature that you're not to interested in. See how the color red can be a benefit to some people and not to others?

By the way the color red is always a feature but it isn't always a benefit. The inexperienced sales person memorizes all the features and benefits that they think their goods or service has and then proceeds to tell the prospect all about them. The problem is that as we've just discovered a feature that benefits one may not benefit all. So the presentation that tries to lump everyone into one group will actually create sales resistance with the prospects that don't feel the same way about the benefits you have presented.

That brings us back to qualifying. When you take the time to properly qualify your prospect so that you know what they are looking for you can highlight the features that are in fact benefits for your prospect. By doing so you will build tremendous value and truly help them see how they will benefit from taking advantage of your offer. Having done that you will have laid the foundation for the close which you will find goes much smoother with a client that sees the benefits of your offer presented to them from their perspective.

Ready, Fire, Aim

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:55:00 +0000

I'm sure you've heard the phrase "Ready, Fire, Aim". The question you need to ask yourself is; "am I running my business and sales process that way"?

In other words, are you following a well thought out plan or are you reacting to everything that comes up. Do you have a marketing and sales plan that you are following? Have you defined what you believe is your ideal client? When you approach a sale do take the time to properly qualify the prospect to determine their needs and whether or not you have the right solution for them? Or do you just wing it?

If you are out there winging it then you are practicing "Ready, Fire, Aim". For now I want to concentrate on how this applies to the sales process. When you go through your sales process and you skip the qualifying you're not even aiming. How many more sales do you think you could get if you followed the steps in the right order? When you follow the steps in the right order you will dramatically increase your sales.

Qualifying is one of the most important steps in the sales process. When you take the time to properly qualify your prospect you are finding out what their needs and wants are. You should also be finding out what their buying process or decision making process is. Then you tailor your presentation to their needs and wants. That way your features will be seen as a benefit to them and their resistance to your offer will go down dramatically.

Master closers are experts at qualifying their prospects. They are also experts and ending the sales call the moment the know they have nothing to offer the prospect or they know the prospect won't buy. This creates a huge time savings that can be invested in other prospects. It also helps you stay in control.

Take the time to think through your process and figure out the questions you need to ask to properly qualify your prospect so you can give them a presentation tailored to their needs and you will see your closing percentage go through the roof.

It's The Economy Stupid

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:01:00 +0000

Do you really think the economy is holding back your business growth? If you listen to the news is sure seems like that's what the media wants you to think. If you buy into the idea that the economy is the reason for fewer sales then guess what? You're going to get fewer sales. That's how excuses work.

It isn't the economy itself that matters. It's the way you react to the economy. If you let the economy get you down you will stop innovating and you won't try as hard to get new clients simply because you will accept the excuse that "times are tough" or "we have to cut back right now" or "how about we can't afford it right now".

In every economy there are companies that are growing and companies that are going out of business. You might try to say that some industries are hit harder than others by the economy and you would be right. But if you take a look inside those industries you will see some companies have record breaking years and others struggling.

Look around in your own market. Is every business suffering? Do you see signs that some are having one of their best years ever? I know when I look around I see some companies and individuals thriving. What's the difference?

The difference is how the situation is approached. Think about it like this. Right now most people in business are reacting to the economy instead of responding to it. Because they are reacting they aren't planning any expansion. Many are spending less on advertising because they have bought into the paranoia that people aren't buying.

Take the time right now to think through all that you have to offer and what your clients need. What can you do differently to help your clients? Is there a way to offer more value for the same amount of money? Can you provide additional services along with what you normally offer? What goods and services are your clients already buying that you don't offer? What have you been putting off doing that you can sell to your existing clients? What referral program do you have in place and how are you taking care of your clients to make them feel like champions? What are you doing to measure the effectiveness of your advertising and what program do you have in place to consistently test new approaches?

The list is hardly complete but hopefully it will get you to start thinking. It's not the economy it's what you do about it that matters.

By the way, when was the last time you contacted your clients for something other than a sales call?

Selling More In ANY Economy

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:11:00 +0000

It never fails. Every time I meet with a new client to help them double their sales and revenue they want me to jump right to helping them close the deal. There seems to be an idea out there that the only reason people don't buy is the sales person doesn't know how to close. Did you ever consider that maybe the sales person doesn't know how to open?

Maybe you're thinking to yourself what do you mean? They don't know how to greet the prospect? No, that is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a professional sales person taking the time before they even think about making a presentation to find out what the prospects needs and wants are. If you go into a presentation assuming you know what they are then you are making a HUGE mistake.

Most of my clients actually double their sales in the first 30-days I work with them and the first thing I always have them do is turn their sales process upside down. You see, the typical sales process is designed to spend more time on the close than any other part of the process. Most people are taught that the sale doesn't begin until the prospect says "no". What if we take a different approach?

Let's spend a whole lot of time (as much as necessary) getting to know the prospects wants, needs, desires and dreams. What we're looking for are clues to how they can use and benefit from our goods and or services. We're trying to find out what motivates them to buy. Once we have properly qualified them then, and only then, can we give them a presentation tailored to their wants, needs and desires.

When you give a canned presentation without taking the time to find out what your prospect really wants, needs or desires you will inevitably talk about features that they could care less about. In fact when you're telling them about features they don't care about you're making the cost of your product or service go up in their eyes, not the value. On the other hand if you tailor a presentation to their needs you will be talking about features they are interested in which means they will benefit from those features. By doing this you are raising the value of your product or service in their eyes.

Selling more in any economy starts with taking the time to find out what motivates your prospect, adjusting your presentation accordingly and you will definitely close more sales.

To your sales success,

Mike McMahon

PS. Go to http://www.DoubleYourSalesandRevenue.com and claim your FREE 7 day audio eCourse.
“Behind the Curtain…Strategies toDouble Your Sales and Revenue”

Double Your Sales and Revenue

noreply@blogger.com (Mike M.) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:15:00 +0000

A good friend of mine and I were talking last June about the state of the economy. His name is James Roche. I have mentored him over the last 4 years and have had the pleasure of watching James grow from a struggling entrepreneur to a highly success multiple 6 figure earner.

James is in the product creation businesses and goes by the name Info Product Guy. He can be found online at the same address. http://www.infoproductguy.com.

Anyway, James and I were talking and I mentioned that the recession is really all about fear and that the entrepreneurs that understood that would grow their businesses by leaps and bounds. James agreed but wanted to know why I felt that way.

I told him "It's simple really. The ones that get it will innovate and capture tremendous market share while the ones that don't will watch their business shrink or maybe even go out of business and they will blame it all on the economy."

You see I am a master salesman and I have 25 years of being at the top of any sales organization I ever sold in as well as a long track record of building sales teams and training sales people. I have taken companies from a few thousand dollars a month in sales to millions monthly.

I learned a long time ago that the way I choose to look at a situation would ultimately determine how successful I would be at finding a solution. That's what winners do. They figure out how to win. Whiners on the other hand seem to look for ways to fail. If that hurts I'm sorry. I'm not trying to sound mean. The exciting part is anyone can be a winner they just need to know what it takes.

James, and I continued to talk about the problems so many entrepreneurs are having right now and I pointed out that they needed to know how to double their sales and revenue in ANY economy.

I know from experience that most companies struggle with cash flow simply because they really don't know how to increase their sales. Well, that's a problem that's easily solved.

We decided that we'd draw from the 25 plus years of business and sales experience I have and the over 1,000 sales people I have trained and we'd build a step by step easy to follow program for any solo-entrepreneur, author, coach or small business owner to double their sales and revenue.

While we were going over the things we needed to cover James recorded the sessions so he could go back and listen to them. I've got to tell you there are some real nuggets in there you can use right now to start doubling your sales.

You can get a taste of what we are doing for FREE by going to http://www.DoubleYourSalesandRevenue.com and getting the 7 day audio eCourse we made. We're calling it “Behind the Curtain…Strategies to Double Your Sales and Revenue”

Go sign up for it and see for yourself what we're talking about.

Remember, It's All About Selling,

Mike McMahon