There’s one area of sales that everybody hates to do…Cold calling – the dreaded task of picking up the phone and calling someone they’ve never spoken to before. Why? ?Because they’re afraid of being rejected.
So What!
The Top Experts Reveal Small Business Marketing Strategies
That Get Results In This Economy
3 Simple Marketing Resolutions To Make In 2011
The presents have been opened and there’s no more eggnog. Instead of having the cheery holidays to look forward to, the only thing that’s coming up is snow, winter, and spring…and that’s a few months from now.
This is THAT time of year. The time of year when resolutions are made…and broken.
How To Reach Your Goals In 2011
Want to know how to make 2011 your best year ever?
At the end of the year some people indulge in making New Year’s resolutions. They promise themselves they’re going to stop digging into the cookies or ice cream before bed, go to the gym more often, get more sleep, close more sales and a whole lot of other stuff.
Have you ever done this?
4 Ways To Get Traffic-Boosting Reciprocal Links
Reciprocal linking is exactly what it sounds like – linking to someone’s website and having them link back to yours in return. Although reciprocal links don’t rank as high on search engines as one-way links, you’ll still notice an increase of traffic from having your link in various places.
10 Sales Killers To Avoid In 2011
Any sales veteran can tell you a story about the one that got away. Veterans who are successful today learned valuable lessons from those situations and, hopefully, never repeated them. As challenging as the business of selling might be for some, losing sales is unbelievably easy. Learn from the mistakes of others so you won’t have many of the sad stories to tell.
Sales Killer #1 – Lack of professional appearance. If you want people to listen to you and heed your advice regarding your product or service, you have to come across both in appearance and demeanor as a professional expert. This includes grooming and the level of confidence you exude. People will buy from you based more on your conviction and enthusiasm for your product than they will your product knowledge.
Sales Killer #2 – Talking too much. When you’re talking, you’re telling. When you ask questions to get clients talking about their needs, you’re selling. You’re finding out what they want to own. Only then can you guide them to the right product or service.
Sales Killer #3 – Your vocabulary. Words create pictures in our minds. Certain words that are inherent to selling turn people off. For example, I caution people in business to avoid using the word “contract” when handling the details of a large sale. We all know that contracts are legally binding documents and require legal efforts to get out of them. If appropriate, call your contract an “agreement,” “form,” or “paperwork.” The mental image is less threatening. Think about other words you use and replace any negative word-picture images with gentler, more positive ones.
Sales Killer #4 – Not investing time in building rapport. Establishing good rapport builds trust. No one will want to make a purchase from someone they don’t like and trust. Don’t just jump right into a presentation on your product. Get to know your client a bit.
Sales Killer #5 – Lack of a qualification system. A certain percentage of the people you talk with will not be good candidates for your product or service. Your challenge is to figure this out as early in your communication with them as possible. Come up with at least 3 or 4 questions the answers to which will tell you if they’re qualified to own your offering.
Anyone who’s ever sold anything – whether toothbrushes, printers, or stocks – can tell you a story about “the one that got away”. You know that story – the sale you were this close to closing – the one that would’ve made your year -only to have your potential client interrupted by an all too familiar distraction.
If you’ve ever sold, you also know if you had changed just one thing – your story might have ended up a lot differently.
The Simple Key to Successful Time Management
If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you work long hours to pursue your dream. But you can’t work long hours forever. You need to have a plan in place that sets clear goals about reducing your work time—while simultaneously increasing your wealth, happiness, and freedom.
Ok, don’t panic; this doesn’t require any hard work. I’m going to give you a step-by-step plan you can follow. And you can do this in 10 minutes on a notepad.
How Can You Make 2011 Your Best Year Ever?
Whether 2010 was a good, bad or an indifferent year for your business, you’d like to make 2011 even better. What’s your plan?
I was about to call it quits for the day when the phone rang. It was George calling from Delaware. He told me…
How To Make A Profit From Your Photograph
Whenever I send a news release about something I’ve done to my local newspapers or trade journals, I hardly ever hear feedback from my neighbors or peers, even when I know it’s been printed.
But when I send my photo with the release and it’s printed, I hear a chorus that sounds like this:
“I saw your picture in the paper!”
“Did you know you’re in the most recent issue of PR Tactics?”
“Hey, I was Googling last week and your photo showed up on a website for writers. I thought your article was terrific.”
That’s music to The Publicity Hound’s ears. That’s because in the majority of cases, a photo attracts readers’ attention and draws them to the news item.
Yet journalists remain continually frustrated by the inability of publicists and others who pitch to understand the incredible power of photos. Freelance writer Pat Luebke, who writes for the restaurant and aviation industries, says a lack of photos is one of her top pet peeves.
“People keep trying to get into more and more newspapers and magazines,” she says. “If they’d only understand that especially with the digital cameras that are available today, making photos available to editors automatically DOUBLES the space you receive.”
Gina Spadofori, who writes a syndicated pet page for Universal Press Syndicate, says she has a continual problem finding good images to fill a small hole on a page.
“The availability of high-quality, high-resolution art can tip a ‘maybe’ item into the ‘yes’ category,” she says.
In fact, one good-quality photo that accompanies your story pitch can automatically move a story from Page 21 to Pages 1, 2 or 3 in a newspaper or magazine. Craig Saunders, editor of Prism, Canada’s magazine for eye care, echoes what many other magazine editors say:
“In the front section of our magazine, nothing gets in without good photos–nothing!”
I have my own pet peeves regarding photos. A man in a photo looks as though he has a plant growing out of the top of his head. One woman gave me a photo of her in a sleeveless blouse, with her bra strap showing. One person gave me a snapshot of him and his dog. The dog had the dreaded “red eye” problem that we see so frequently, leading us to wonder if all dogs and even people have red eyes.
I became so frustrated with these problems that I wrote “How to Use Photos & Graphics in Your Publicity Campaign,” a 138-page ebook that walks you step by step through the entire process of how to take your own photos and create your own graphics. The ebook includes everything from a thorough explanation of camera equipment and the elements of great photos to things such as the pros and cons of prints versus digital photos, how to optimize photos for your website so it loads quickly, how to take photos at your own special event if the media refuses to cover it, and how to use creative photos for routine announcements like births, weddings and anniversaries.
Those of you who need to hire a professional photographer will find an entire chapter devoted to saving you time and money finding the best professional for the job. It also lists the important questions to ask photographers so you don’t find yourself in a legal battle over the use of photos years later.
You’ll find tips for pitching “stand-alone” photos, ideas on how to get an entire page of pre-event coverage, and 18 ways to stay on a photographer’s good side. Learn about dozens of bonehead mistakes you shouldn’t be making. You can download the ebook and be reading it in just a few minutes. Read
Whenever I send a news release about something I’ve done to my local newspapers or trade journals, I hardly ever hear feedback from my neighbors or peers, even when I know it’s been printed.
But when I send my photo with the release and it’s printed, I hear a chorus that sounds like this:
“I saw your picture in the paper!”
“Did you know you’re in the most recent issue of PR Tactics?” Read More »
What You Need To Change In 2011
I’ve got good news and bad news for you.
The bad news?
You’re probably suffering from at least one of three guaranteed success killers – procrastination, perfectionism, and lack of focus – and don’t even realize it.
8 Local Search Links That Will Get You Traffic
Here’s the good news about local search: If someone is new to your town (i.e. recently relocated or visiting, for example) they have no idea who your competitors are. The yellow pages are a thing of the past – consumers now go to the internet to find new resources in a city. Read More »
