SALES RESOURCES - SELLING TECHNIQUES, SALES TOOLS, SALES TIPS ...

The False Promise Of Word-of-mouth Marketing

Weve all heard the advice: turn your clients into your mini sales force by encouraging them to tell others about you and your business. Word of Mouth Marketing is touted as being the easiest and best marketing any salesperson, professional, or business can hope to get. Not only does it get your word out, but nothing is more powerful than a customer telling others about how great you are. Customers will flock to your door if your clients create a buzz about you. There is some truth to those statements. If you can get your customers to create enough buzz, you will see an increase in your business. Customers will come. Sales will increase. Nevertheless, for most small businesses and salespeople, the hype about word of mouth marketing is a false promise of easier, less stressful marketing and increased business. The problem isnt with the concept. A broad, expansive word of mouth marketing campaign can work wonders for a business. If you can get enough people talking

Projecting An Expert Image

Virtually every salesperson with any experience what so ever proclaims him or herself to be an expert in their field. Their business card, their fliers, their door hangers (if they use them), their cold calling spiel, their brochures, and everything else they have tries to communicate this expert status to prospects and clients. Why is everyone so anxious to get the word out that they are experts and their competitors arent? Simply because they recognize that prospects want to work with people who know and understand their needs. They want to work with people who are fully up-to-date on the best ways to solve the prospects problems. They want to work with people who know how to get problems solved in the most effective, cost efficient and advantageous manner possible. They want the best advice and best solutions in the marketplace. In other words, they want to work with an expert. Yet, knowing this, most salespeople seek to attract new prospects by using methods that sh

Who Are You Marketing?

Take a look at your business cards, your brochures, your filers, and your other marketing materials. What sticks out to you? What do you say when you introduce yourself to prospects? Are you marketing yourself or the company you for which you sell? Is the emphasis on you or the company? There is a tendency for many salespeople, especially if they work for a well-known company, to place the emphasis of their marketing identification on the company they sell for rather than on themselves. They identify their sales efforts with GE, IBM, or Sun Microsystems more clearly than they identify themselves. However, despite what we tend to think, and certainly, what the company believes, the prospect isnt buying GE, IBM, or Sun. Theyre buying the salesperson. The relationship isnt between the company and the customer. It is between two human beings-the client and the salesperson. Companies continually market their name, whatever that name may be. Whether its GE, Ford, or U

The Power Of The Press Release

Open any newspaper and youll find mention of thousands of companies and products. Most typically the same names are mentioned over and over-Sears, Old Navy, GM, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and the list goes on. Many, if not most, of these stories relate to some event or product these companies want to expose to a broad audience-earnings reports, new product releases, record sales for a particular product line, promotions, and a myriad of other items, all reported as hard news. And within the same newspaper, on the same page, youll find some small companies youve probably never heard of. Of course, there is probably little in common between Wal-Mart and Joes Handy Cleaners, except most all of the stories on the page were planted by the companies themselves. Most mid to large companies have long ago learned the value of the press release, but the vast majority of small companies and individual salespeople in particular are still left in the cold. The image seems to be that one

Marketing At Any Cost

"Will this marketing approach be worth my while?" Its a question independent professionals often ask. But theres a related question that, unfortunately, they ask much less often: "How much will it cost compared to what it brings in?" Surprisingly few professionals know the answer to this crucial question, and many admit it had simply never occurred to them. Every marketing approach has a set of costs attached. Display ads, pay-per-click campaigns, and trade show exhibits come with a price tag. Association meetings, networking mixers, and business lunches have registration fees, incur food and travel expenses, and take up your time. Websites, brochures, and flyers consume time and money to design, launch, and print. And so on. But what is the relationship of this spending to the new business its intended to generate? How much does a new client really cost? Lets explore some examples. This will require a bit of math, but dont let that scare you off. Instead, pull out your ca