Archive for the ‘Sales Skills’ Category

Madeleine Morgan

What is list building?

What I’m talking about here is building a database of people who it would be useful for you to stay in contact with because they may become customers or send you referrals.

Why is it important to build a list?

If you build up a good relationship with your list your business will grow much faster, with less effort and more cheaply than with any other marketing strategy.

Your clients will be more loyal. You’ve probably had experience of buying something from a company that has kept in touch with you, even if the product or service is more expensive, just because of the quality of the relationship they have with you. If you make that relationship special, no-one can copy it – that gives you an edge over your competition.

Building a list of clients and prospects who know, like and trust you will help you recession-proof your business and even out the flow of business to you (helping your avoid feast and famine cycles). If you’ve created the right relationship with your list, you will be top of their mind when they are in the market for what you have to offer. You won’t have to worry about being the right place at the right time when you need to sell to them. Nor will you need to invest in expensive product and service launches.

If you want to sell your business eventually, your list will add value to your business in the eyes of purchasers.

So, how do you build your business growth list?

To make this work for you, you need to:

•  make list building a priority by including it in your marketing plan, marketing systems and marketing tactics. Make it a key performance indicator in your business – in other words set a target for the number of people you will add to your list each day, month, year and how often you want to stay in contact.
• view your clients and prospects as important, under your care and protection, worthy of  quality time and attention.  Your relationship with them is like being a farmer, not a hunter.

So, now I’m going to share with you the basics – things you can put into action immediately.

There are 5 essentials to growing a profitable list of prospects and clients. They are:

1. Getting a list managing system (on-line and off-line)

2. Creating a free offer to entice your target market to sign up

3. Creating a system to capture the contact details (on-line or off-line)

4. Driving people to sign up to your list

5. Ways to stay in contact with your list of prospects and clients and keep them loyal

So, let’s get started:

1. Your Management System – The first thing you’re going to need is some method of managing your list.  If you want an online list, and your main way of contacting people is to send emails and an email newsletter, then you need something like 1ShoppingCart, Infusionsoft, Mail Chimp or AWeber. These list managers have a variety of features which enable you to  manage all of the sign ups, automated email responses and unsubscriptions for your list. If you’re going to be mainly following up with people offline, there are database managers like ACT and Goldmine. Even Outlook or a basic Excel spreadsheet will do to get you started if you are managing a tight budget.
2. Creating a free offer or ‘ethical bribe’ – one of the easiest ways to build your list is to offer something your target market will find valuable and will willingly exchange their contact details to get it. Think of it like this. If your prospects were birds you would have a choice – you can run around and hope to catch them or you can put out some birdseed and attract the birds to you. Which would you prefer? Which will save you time, money and energy? So your free offer is your birdseed. You need to think about the best birdseed for your product or service and target market. This could be a free report. For examples go to www.buildingselfconfidence.co.uk and www.growu.co.uk. Alternatively, you could offer a free video, CD or MP3 recording, free podcast, seminar, teleseminar or webinar with some valuable content, an ecourse, a free ‘health’ check or strategy consultation. This is better than sending them a brochure or other promotional material because you are starting the relationship with giving something rather than asking them for something. There’s an art and science to the way you present this free product or service that will make it an incredibly powerful sales tool without seeming to sell. For instance, give your free offer a compelling title. For now, don’t worry to much about perfecting it, just offer something. Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction. The offer needs to match your product/service and main marketing messages so if you offer an instant solution don’t make your free offer a 28 page report! Your offer should be cheap and easy to create and have a high perceived value. Once you’ve created it you will reap the rewards of the time and enegy it took over and over again. By all means sell something in it but give value first.
3. Your Lead/Prospect Capture System – now that you have something to offer you need to work out a system for capturing your prospects’ details. Online methods include: a sign up box on all the pages of your main website (including your home page); a special mini website or  landing, opt-in or squeeze page solely for the purpose of getting people in your target market to sign up for your free offer. The content for that special  site could be a video clip, audio recording or readable copy that sells your offer. The advantage of a mini site is that signing up is the only thing the visitor to the site can do and so they are less likely to get distracted or confused and just go away. You need to decide what details to ask for. The less you ask for the more likely they are to give you them to you. So,  you could just ask for name and email address if your offer is downloadable and if you intend to remain in contact mainly by email. Once they’ve been on your list for a while you might ask for more details. If it’s something you need to post to them, of course you’ll ask for their address details too. Reassure them that you won’t sell their details or bother them with spam. Off-line capture can be done through a  a returnable coupon, stamped addressed envelope, taking their phone calls, etc.
4. Driving Traffic/Propects to Your Sign Up – you need a way to direct quality targetted traffic to your capture system, whether you’re doing this on-line or off-line. Only do this once you’ve got the other 3 parts of your system in place. Avoid spending a lot of money on this until you know that you will be able to persuade a large proportion of your traffic to sign up. It’s a huge subject but here are a few suggestions. Online - buy a list and run an email campaign. Make sure your main website is optimised for the main key words your target market would use for online searches. Automate your web pages so that you can offer a bonus to everyone who signs up if they recommend another person. Another online way to generate traffic, especially to a mini-site, is pay per click advertising. You can set up a Google Pay Per Click Account for free. Just make sure that you know how to maximise your investment with this before you take the plunge. Other online ways are to get traffic through your Blog, Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media profiles. Write articles for online article directories like www.ezinearticles.com and add relevant comments on Blogs and Forums that attract your target market and include your contact details/website address etc. Off-line methods include: tell the people you network with about your offer; put your offer on your business card and other marketing materieals; submit articles/PR pieces to  magazines and newspapers that your target market reads (As a last resort, advertise in them – and negotiate really good rates first); buy a list and create a direct mail campaign; find other business owners in complementary industries who have the same clients as you who would be willing to contact their list on your behalf in exchange for you contacting your list on their behalf or some other reward.
5. Staying in contact – how to  build the relationship once your prospects have joined your list and keep them wanting to stay on your list. Stay in regular contact. I know many of my clients feel uneasy about doing this because they don’t like their inbox filling up with spam. But if your contact is useful and relevant, your list will welcome it. A good rule of thumb is to make 3 out 4 of your contacts mainly about just giving your list members some valuable and interesting information and the 4th one can be a sales letter about your product/service offer. Another way to make sure your messages are welcome is to divide up your list so that you can send targetted messages. For instance, one of my clients runs a picture framing business so he can divide up his list into artists/photographers and general members of the public. He can then target his offers and information to their particular needs. Imagine you have just one list member – how would you build a relationship with that person? Wouldn’t you listen to what they want, give support, talk about what interests them, build trust, show loyalty, be honest, be authentic, have fun, make them feel good, add value and be unique. That’s the way to keep people on your list. What would cause them to go away? Wouldn’t it be: lack of contact; being let down; coldness; being boring, being irrelvant, exploiting them and giving offence? Specifically, how could you keep your list interested?  They say being in business is about finding out what prospects want and giving it to them. So, how about sending them a survey to find out what they want? (You may need to give them another ethical bribe to actually fill it out). Endorse other products and valuable offers to them. Interview experts who can help them and send them the recording. Share some of your personal/business personality and events. Tell them when you’ve created a new blog post and send them the link to it. Keep giving them useful tips. A travel agent I know warns his clients when union strikes are likely to disrupt their travel plans – he normally knows before we hear it on the media and he can help them make alternative arrangements while there’s still time. Offer free prize draws to your list if it’s appropriate. The list is endless. Choose what suits your business.

So put these 5 list building basics into place and your business will grow quicker than you thought possible.

If you want expert help to put these and more advanced strategies into action please contact me, Madeleine Morgan, at madeleine@growu.co.uk or phone 01223 426392 for more information.

To your business and personal success

Warm wishes

Madeleine

The Coaching Room, 44 Chesterfield Road, Cambridge, CB4 1LN

Recently, I gave a talk at the Very Early Lunch Club, a  regular and lively business networking event in Cambridge, about overcoming objections. Here are some of the main points the audience found useful.

When I first started up in business the thing I most dreaded about selling my services was handling objections. I took a few courses on how to handle objections but the approaches we were taught always seemed  manipulative. I felt uncomfortable using them. Then I discovered more about the psychology of selling and NLP and I’ve built up a natural style that is successful and prospects enjoy. Now I have an 89% conversion rate from phone enquiries.

I’ve also shared these successful selling strategies with my clients. Recently a client who had been having difficulty selling a consulting programme for £799 made a sale the day after I had taught her how to have a sales conversation that was tailored to her business. That was an immediate return of 3 times her investment in her time with me and of course she can continue to apply that success formula in the months and years to come.

One thing that really changed my approach to objections and one that my clients have found really effective is to ask the question, ‘What’s my part in creating these objections?’ This may seem an odd question when the objections seem to be coming from the prospects. However, the great thing is that if you ask this question in a curious (not a guilty) way you come up with some really useful answers. Eliminate these objection creating habits and you will find it easier to make sales.

Here are some of my clients answers to how they have been sparking off objections in prospects.

1. They weren’t using strategies to create certainty in their prospects, e.g.     guarantees, trial periods and jargon-free everyday language so that prospects felt they understood the product/service. From my own experience, I know it’s no use selling a computer to me by talking in bytes, rams and roms because I don’t understand how they benefit me. If your prospects don’t understand they are unlikely to ask – they’ll just say it’s too expensive or some other phrase that hides their confusion.

2. They didn’t have a strong USP – unique selling point- that their prospects cared about. Some businesses offer ‘professional service’ as their USP but that is the very least a client should expect from a business. Although you can’t take for granted that businesses will be professional it is not something that you can use to define your businsess as special. No company will say they offer an unprofessional service!

When you don’t have a strong USP you end up making your prospects buy on price. That’s a difficult way to be in business – there will always be someone who can undercut you. You will hear lots of price objections.

Some companies have made a fortune out of strong USPs. I like the one Avis has used when Hertz were the market leaders in car hire, ‘We’re second so we try harder’. I know a leaflet delivery service, LDS in Cambridge, that guarantees that if their leaflets end up in a bin or river because of the negligence of their leaflet deliverers, they will pay for reprinting your leaflets and pay another company to deliver them. That sets them apart from their competition and gives their prospects confidence.

 3. Another sales prevention habits that lead to objections is to go into a sales conversation with negative or nervous mindset. Certainty sells so listen to the thoughts in your head about selling. Are they causing you to lack confidence? If they are your prospect won’t trust you and won’t buy from you. Root out any negative thoughts and self-talk.

Sometimes it’s difficult to get rid of negative beliefs and thoughts by talking logically to yourself. That’s when a good coach or NLP Master Practitioner can help.

4. Not finding out what the real objections are and how to overcome them.

Anyone who has tried to sell a service, product or even an idea will have come across these familiar objections:

• It’s too expensive
• I haven’t got the time
• I’ll think about it
• I’ll have to discuss it with my partner

One real objection beneath those statements might be:

• I don’t understand the value to me

Make sure that your sales meeting shows how the product, service or idea you are offering is way more valuable than the time, money and inconvenience of buying it.

5. Not finding out the hidden objections to your industry. There may be objections your prospects won’t admit to. For instance, many business need a virtual assistant because they can’t afford a full-time member of admin staff but doing those tasks for themselves is stealing quality family or fee earning time. But. they may not buy because those businesses may be suffering from ‘I’l clean the house because my cleaner is coming today’ syndrome. They are embarrassed to let someone see the chaos behind the professional facade.

What are the hidden barriers to people buying from your industry? Are there a lot of rogue traders in it for instance? Make sure that part of your sales conversation reassures the prospect even if they haven’t mentioned the objection.

6. Not ‘qualifying’ prospects. If you don’t ask questions to find out if your prospect is in your target market you could waste precious time and feel unnecessary frustration. They’ll come up with loads of objections.

7. Not adapting your selling style to the personality of the prospect. For instance, if you are the type of person who doesn’t like detail and you try to sell to someone who likes facts and details without giving the detail to them, you’ll not win the trust of your prospect. They’e unlikely to buy from you unless you adapt your style to theirs and give more detail. One way you can find out what your natural style is, is to take a personality test. A very good one is FACET5. Then you’ll also find out how you will need to adapt to sell successfully to prospects who are not like you. 

8. Presenting your product, service or idea before you’ve found out what the problems are and what they’ll cost if they’re not fixed. You can probably talk for hours about your products and services. But you can’t offer a credible solution before you’ve found out what the real problems are. ‘Prescription before diagnosis is malpractice’ and is likely to cause your prospect to find all kinds of objections or buy and then experience buyer’s remorse.

9. Answering the ‘What does it cost?’ question before you’ve demonstrated the value of your product, service or idea.

10. Offering too many choices. It creates confusion and uncertainty for your prospects and uncertain prospects don’t buy.

So, if you check your sales strategy and eliminate these ’sales prevention habits’ you are less likely to have to deal with objections.

To your Natural Selling success, Madeleine Morgan

You can also download free personal and business success tips at www.growu.co.uk