Tag: Sales

Start a Small Retail Business with Multiple Sales Channels

Starting a small business with several sales channels maximizes your chance of success

In those tender first few years after you start your small business every sale is significant. It’s unfortunate that many entrepreneurs attribute a small start up budget with a single outlet for sales. In the past this may have been true. Few entrepreneurs had enough capital to open even a single store. Two or three stores in different neighborhoods was well beyond most budding entrepreneurs. Today, there is no end to the different sales avenues available to imaginative start up retailers, despite limited budgets.

Channel One: Start a small retail business with a mall kiosk

Don’t let the high cost of starting a bricks and mortar store keep you from making sales to live customers. An attractive kiosk can be purchased for less than a decent used car. Utility and Maintenance costs are also inexpensive. Mobility is an added bonus. If one location fizzles out you can always pick up and move.

Internet options may be less expensive to start up but they also take much longer to be noticed. Depending on your experience, they also take a lot longer to build. A well placed kiosk can be fully operational and generating income the moment you wheel it in the door.

Channel Two: Start a small retail business with an ecommerce site

Once you have your kiosk in place, you’re going to find yourself with a lot of free time between customers. You could spend this time talking to your neighbors or reading the newspaper. You could also boost your future sales potential by starting an online store.

Ecommerce sites can be created quickly but they do take time to fine tune. Once you’ve worked out all the bugs it may still be a while before many customers start to notice your small retail business. There’s no reason you can’t handle an ecommerce site from a notebook at your kiosk.

If you merely started an ecommerce site, you would have to wait months until your site was noticed or pay for expensive advertisements. Instead of sitting in your basement, frantically checking your server log, you could be positioned at your kiosk with an opportunity to speak face to face about your products, and hopefully sell some of them.

Not only can you continue making money while you start your ecommerce site but you also get a chance to promote it at practically no extra cost. Stamp your small business website address on your kiosk, shopping bags and reciepts. Be sure to mention the site to everyone that stops by your kiosk. Even offer a chance to browse, or beta test, your ecommerce site from your notebook.

Channel Three: Start a small retail business selling products on E-bay

E-bay and Pay-Pal take a hefty chunk out of your profit margin but E-bay still has some redeeming qualities. Almost any product you put onto their website will be noticed. In addition, once you’ve completed several transactions successfully your seller profile will indicate that you can be trusted. It takes a long time to build up trust for your ecommerce site. Like your kiosk, you can advertise your ecommerce site at no charge.

Unlike your kiosk and online store, your products can be sold on eBay with practically no startup cost. Also, there are a lot of savvy internet shopers that make online transactions exclusively through auctions. By opening up this third channel your potential customer base skyrockets!

Shamus Brown’s Top 5 Sales Presentation Tips

When its time to give your next sales presentation, here are my favorite tips for delivering powerful, charismatic, and engaging sales presentations.

#1 – PLANT YOUR FEET SQUARELY ON THE FLOOR

How you hold your physical body during your sales pitch communicates a tremendous amount of information about you to your audience. Studies have shown a person will unconsciously interpret approximately 55% of the meaning of your message from physiological cues in your body position, stance, and facial expressions.

Deliver your presentation from a position of confidence. Stand with your feet squarely between your shoulders. Distribute your weight evenly between your legs, and plant your feet firmly on the ground. Keep your arms relaxed at your sides, until your are ready to make a gesture.

Shifting your weight from one leg to another communicates to the audience a lack of confidence. This comes across unconsciously in that if you were to ask someone, a typical response might be “he didn’t seem like believed in his company” or “I not sure that I can trust her”.

Try both the balanced and the unbalanced speaking postures right now, and see which one makes you feel more confident and ready for your next sales presentation.

#2 – GET PUMPED UP

It is your job to lead the audience. The reason they are there to get something from you. So you must lead them where you want them to go. If you want people to get excited about your product or to feel a sense of trust towards you and your company, you must first create this emotion within yourself.

How do you do this? Simple. Do whatever it takes to get yourself excited. Jump up and down. Clap your hands. Play your favorite music loud. High five your sales partner. You can do this where you won’t be seen by the prospect (in your car, in the customer’s stairwell, bathroom or outside the building). What do you think a rock star or an actor does to warm-up before going on stage?

The idea is to begin your presentation in an absolutely great state. Do this right and the audience will follow your where you want them to go.

Special tip: Use this technique before making important phone calls so that you are “on” when you make the call.

#3 – WARM-UP THE AUDIENCE

Another thing big rock stars do before coming out on stage is they have warm-up acts. The job of a warm-up act is to get the audience in a mood will be receptive of the main act’s energy.

You can accomplish this same effect by simply playing music before you start your presentation. Many laptops have CD players these days, or you can use a boom-box. The type of music you play will depend on your audience, and the emotional state that you want to warm your audience up to. Just think about how this will set you apart from your competition’s stale PowerPoint slide show.

#4 – BEGIN WITH AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

The more rapport you have with an individual or a group, the more receptive they will be to your message. One way to build rapport with your audience is by asking questions of your audience during your first few minutes on stage.

Ask a question or two that most people can easily answer (but don’t put anyone on the spot too much). Questions such as “How far did you come to get here?” and “How long have you been working in this field?” easily get conversation going and begin creating a relationship between you and your audience.

#5 – SUSTAIN EYE CONTACT WITH INDIVIDUALS

You probably know you should do this. Now here’s why and how.

The more frequently you change the location of your focus, the more new information your brain is taking in. Your eyes are the visual sensory input system for your brain. Change focus fast enough and frequently enough, and you overload your brain to the point where you forget where you are at in the presentation. Aaaaggh!

Maintain your concentration on what you want to say next by fixing your visual focus for short periods of time. Do this by completing a thought or a sentence (whichever you find easier) while sustaining eye contact with one person. Move eye contact to a new person with each new thought or sentence.

© 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.

The Sales and Marketing SWOT Analysis

The S.W.O.T. Analysis, where you evaluate your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, is well known in the business planning process. Many companies use this method during strategic planning exercises as a way to form strategies and make decisions on new business ventures or initiatives. It is powerful because it looks at both internal (strengths, weaknesses) and external (opportunities, threats) forces.

As powerful as the S.W.O.T. Analysis is for business planning, it is equally powerful in sales and marketing decision-making. By employing this traditional tool to each of your sales and marketing activities, you can take advantage of your strengths, uncover new opportunities, minimize your weaknesses, and eliminate your threats in amazing ways. That is, however, only if you can be objective. Otherwise, the exercise falls flat.

While the S.W.O.T. Analysis can be applied to decisions about business planning, product development and other strategic decision-making tasks, consider using it for the following two sales and marketing activities:

1. Deciding Marketing Vehicles: Use the S.W.O.T. Analysis to evaluate each marketing vehicle in your marketing plan. This will allow you to focus marketing efforts on the vehicles where you have the most advantage or opportunity and the most minimal amount of weakness or threat.

2. Developing Sales Presentation/Proposals: Apply the S.W.O.T. Analysis to the development of each of your sales presentations and proposals. Be sure to focus the analysis on evaluating each section based on issues specific to the customer you are pitching.

As you approach your S.W.O.T. Analysis, consider the following questions.

  • Strengths: What advantages does your company/product have that no one else has? What makes you most unique? Focus on those things that make your offer most compelling to a prospect or customer.
  • Weaknesses: Where can you improve? Where have you made mistakes in the past? What do you not have that other companies/products in your industry have? Focus on those things that most detract from your offer.
  • Opportunities: What trends lend to your strengths? What is the potential “expansion” potential over time? Opportunities are external factors that represent why your company exists or should/can growth.
  • Threats: What challenges do you face? What are your competitors doing? What is the overall competitive landscape? Threats are external forces that could impact your success, such as competition, operational capacity, cost of goods increases, etc.

    • No matter the purpose, using the S.W.O.T. analysis can force thoughtful, strategic, and creative thinking. And, when used properly, the S.W.O.T. Analysis not only helps you identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, but it also helps you determine your strategies for addressing each.

    7 Things to Do to Prepare For Your First Sales Call

    Whenever you have a sales call scheduled with a new sales prospect – treat it like a golden opportunity.

    Because in fact this first sales call, could be a golden opportunity for you. What if your new sales prospect has the potential to become your largest customer.

    What would the lifetime value of your largest customer add up to?

    Here are seven things you must do before calling on every new sales prospect.

    Thing you must do # 1:

    Be sure to do your homework and that means making Google your first stop. Do a search on the person’s name, the company name, and the name of their best selling product. You might be surprised with the results you get.

    Thing you must do # 2:

    Now this is a little thing that can have a big impact. It can create a powerful first impression for you.

    Go to an office supply store and buy a dozen red file folders. While you’re at the store buy Avery product #8366 which are white file folder labels. Prepare a label with the name of your new sales prospect.

    Imagine your prospect’s reaction to seeing his name on this red file folder. He will immediately consider you professional, organized, successful, and different from most other salespeople he has experienced in the past.

    A little thing with a big impact.

    Thing you must do # 3:

    You must have a written sales call objective for your first sales call. Your written objectives for this sales call can include: to build rapport, establish credibility, to ask 3-5 open-ended questions, to identify one common interest you share, and to secure agreement for your second meeting.

    Your written sales call objectives will scream “Professionalism.” By contrast most salespeople arrive like a tourist just taking in the sights – pity the poor sales prospect who must put up with this display of mediocrity.

    Thing you must do # 4:

    To get the ball rolling, building rapport and establishing credibility, I suggest you prepare and practice 3 – 5 open-ended questions.

    Nothing shows your interest more than the questions you ask – so be sure to ask good questions.

    You can start with… tell me about your business… what are your responsibilities… in addition to you who else is involved in making decisions for… what are the biggest challenges you’re facing growing your business?

    Once again asking these questions will demonstrate your interest and professionalism and differentiate you from most salespeople.

    Thing you must do # 5:

    If you enjoy playing the telephone tag game you can immediately proceed to # 6. It’s absolutely amazing how many salespeople neglect to secure the meeting time and date for the second meeting.

    Once you have qualified your sales prospect as a potential customer don’t forget and never hesitate to ask for the second meeting. Do not attempt improvisation. Prepare and practice how you will ask for the second meeting.

    Thing you must do # 6:

    This next thing is especially important if you happen to be a serious person. Before you get out of your car check your rearview mirror to make sure you’re smiling.

    Trust me, when you’re caught in traffic, running a little late, just ended a telephone call with a disgruntled customer – please don’t think you have a happy face on. Check your mirror to check your smile.

    Thing you must do # 7:

    Try this affirmation on for size “This will be my best sales call ever to a new sales prospect.”

    Right after you check to make sure you’re smiling saying this affirmation fills your mind with positive thoughts and words squeezing out any potential negativity.

    You may not realize this but you are in complete control of your thoughts. And of course you know how you think is everything!

    There’s a huge difference between self-doubt and self-confidence and both are controlled by your thoughts.

    This affirmation creates the perfect mindset for a very successful sales call.

    Just try it once and see how much better you feel.

    Now you know the 7 things you must do to prepare for your first sales call. Believe it or not you now have a 7-point system for making sales calls on new prospects.

    Use this system to make every sales call better than the last one.

    Let’s go sell something…

    How To Optimize Google My Business Listing To (Generate Sales)

    20% of your local optimization efforts will give you 80% of your results.

    Wondering how?

    With Google My Business.

    Google My Business (GMB): A free listing of your business’ operating information, reviews, posts, images and much more.

    Google My Business

    Most of the people you’d come across; consider GMB as just another place to display information about the business.

    But that’s not true!

    If you haven’t used Google My Business to its core, you are leaving money on the table.

    If used correctly, Google My Business is such a powerful tool that can bring you more and more business!

    How?

    Here it is…

    1) Ensure The Information Is Complete And Consistent

    Don’t let your audience guess or assume about you. Make sure your listing details communicate enough facts. Try to provide as much information as GMB asks for.

    If you’ve just entered NAP (Name, Address, Phone) on your listing and waiting for wonders to happen, then let me tell you, this is a complete waste of your time.

    Also,

    Ensure the information you’ve entered on the listing is EXACTLY THE SAME as on your website.

    Inconsistencies in the information will negatively impact your search ranking.

    Google-my-business2

    2) Verify Your Listing (If You Haven’t Done It Yet)

    This is the key to unlock all the GMB features.

    To verify your listing, you’ll be required to submit a code that is sent to your business address.

    If you’re expecting some business through GMB, it is highly important to verify your business. With so many fake business registrations every day, a user would not prefer to make a purchase from an unverified listing.

    After verification, you’ll need to keep an eye on the inbox associated with your Google My Business Listing, for any emails from Google. Google may unverify any listing if it determines that the account is inactive for a significant duration of time.

    3) Google My Business Descriptions ARE BACK!

    Google My Business had descriptions back in 2015-2016. They were suddenly gone and since then businesses had no descriptions; which left the users assuming your products and services.

    Well, the good news is…

    Business Descriptions are back!

    With Google My Business descriptions, you have the chance to describe your business to your audience and explain what makes you different from your competitors.

    Google My Business Descriptions come with a character limit of 750. So, you can get your message conveyed to the people and simultaneously optimize the listing by using relevant keywords.

    Optimize Google My Business

    4) Get More And More Reviews (And Respond To Them)

    As described by Neil Patel in one of his articles,

    Good reviews = sales. More good reviews = more sales.

    90% of people read reviews before purchasing because everybody likes the second opinion.

    Ask your customers to review your business. But just gathering reviews won’t help. You need to acknowledge them.

    All of them!

    The positive ones, the negatives, the neutrals.

    5) Update Your Business Hours And Payment Options

    Make sure your business operating hours are accurate. Update your working hours for any special events. Make sure that you don’t lose any customer because of incorrectly listed business hours.

    Also, update your listing for any changes in the payment options.

    Also read: 7 Reasons Why Businesses Need To Invest In SEO 2018

    6) Choose Best Google My Business Category For Your Business

    Be specific while picking a category for your business. Consider your targeted keywords.

    Be careful though. Don’t stuff your listing with keywords.

    Remember to be specific. Don’t put “Cosmetology” if you run a “Nail Salon.”

    7) Pictures, Pictures, And More Pictures

    Pictures speak volume!

    According to Google, businesses with photos see 35% more clicks to their website and 42% more requests for driving directions on Google Maps.

    Adding photos of your business is a great way to let your customers get a “behind-the-scenes” look at what your company is all about… AND it can go a long way in promoting your business.

    People don’t want to see stock images but the real face of your business – who you are, what you do and where you’re located.

    The most important image in your GMB listing that gets the most exposure and has the most impact, is your ‘Profile Picture’.

    However, the cover image is also of paramount importance, as it shows up front and center on your listing. You can also add other pictures based on the business you operate in; this might include pictures of interior and exterior of the business, goods and/or services your business, your staff or employees or any other picture that can summarize or describe your business.

    8) Google My Business Videos

    You can also add videos. Videos must be:

    30 seconds or shorter

    100 MB or smaller

    720p resolution or higher

    Unlike images, videos are not a ‘must have’. However, adding one will make you stand out among other businesses.

    Creating a video will not take you any extra equipment or any video editing software. Just pick up your smartphone; take, save and share the video. This video must be taken at your location. Any commercials or advertising videos will be removed.

    9) Add Posts To Share Business Updates

    Google launched its ‘POST’ feature on all businesses in 2017. With this feature, you can post updates and offers to your listing. You can advertise the latest offers, share updates about new products/services or any special event for free.

    Google Posts allows you to add text, photos, gifs, and even call-to-action buttons like ‘Buy’, ‘Sign Up’, ‘Learn More’, ‘Get Offer, ‘Reserve’, etc.

    You can create posts only after you’ve verified your Google My Business Account.

    However, Google My Business Posts disappear after seven days unless you set a shorter time frame. So, be time specific while crafting the post.

    Conclusion:

    Google My Business presents your business information to potential prospects. It gives you an opportunity to interact with your customers.

    Not optimizing your Google My Business listing is like not opening door to a customer knocking at your door.

    It’s an opportunity!

    Local SEO takes time but can give you a big payoff. On the top of everything, it’s FREE!

    If you need any help with your Local SEO or wish to optimize your Google My Business Listing, you can contact us.

    3 Easy Ways To Increase Sales For Your Small Business

    Having started my business career using the more traditional bricks and mortar business route I know only too well how difficult it can be to increase sales for a small business. Sadly, nowadays it is even harder for local businesses to survive as more and more of us opt for the more convenient route of ordering our goods online… But are there any “tactics” that small businesses can employ to lure more of us to buy their goods or services?

    Mobile Marketing-Promoting To The Converted

    Many local businesses miss out “big time” as they waste too much valuable time and resources chasing new customers when the real money (and consistent income) comes from marketing to existing customers. After all, people who have already bought from you will already be aware of the quality of your product or service and providing that the buying experience that they had with you was good, then chances are that they will buy from you again and even encourage others to buy from you as well… They just need a little prompt or reminder that you are still open for business.

    One of the easiest and most instant ways to promote to existing customers is to use mobile marketing. Let’s be honest most of us now carry our mobiles with us 24 hours a day and more texts are opened straight away than any other form of communication.

    Indeed, most of us now provide a mobile phone number as our first point of contact as opposed to the more traditional landline contact number. Therefore all you small business owners out there need to make a point of storing these valuable mobile numbers and start using them to promote your business via a cheap text messages. Don’t worry of you don’t know how to get started as there are affordable training packages out there that will show you step by step how to set a mobile marketing campaign.

    The best way to achieve instant results for your business by using this method is to promote an offer or a promotion. Let’s be honest we all like a bargain so simply offering, for example, a free glass of wine to customers who book a table at your restaurant on a quiet evening will help to attract more business. Even though it will cost you a glass of wine, you will more than make up for it by filling empty tables with paying customers.

    Mobile marketing can benefit other small businesses too including texting appointment reminders for businesses like dentists or doctors, luring people into car showrooms via Bluetooth messages, promoting special offer up sells for businesses like beauticians or health spas. There are endless benefits that using mobile marketing as part of your local business marketing can offer, not least of all that it’s cheap, quick and offers instant results.

    What Is A Business Without A Good Website?

    I am amazed by how many local businesses are still not online. Given the ever growing popularity of the internet, small business that are not promoting their business online are losing out on massive income potential and are passing that business onto other business savvy owners instead.

    Creating a website for your business does not have to cost a fortune… In fact some websites even offer free templates that you can use. You then simply need to purchase a domain name and some hosting for your website. If you lack the confidence or knowledge to do this yourself, there are websites out there that offer a way of outsourcing this task to others quite cheaply, simply check out outsourcing sites for that offer that type of service. Often you can put a bid on the outsourcing websites that will invite people to bid for the work. This can be a great way of getting the best value for your money.

    Again, there are training packages available that offer step by step training on the best ways to create a website for you business together with the cheapest ways to drive traffic to the website including how to get onto page 1 of Google.

    Without a doubt, regardless of what small business you own, it is vital to have a good internet presence to ensure consistent sales for your business.

    Business Blogs- Seeing The Bigger Picture

    It’s often quite challenging to persuade small businesses to start blogging. They fail to realise that writing a blog can significantly increase sales for their business; most sadly fail to see the bigger picture.

    Blogging takes time but if you are consistent, your business will begin to see dramatic results. Blogging for your business can help you to connect with people, especially if you are careful to write in a style that is unique to you and that you offer valuable content. If you are careful to offer useful advice within you blog, then you will help to promote yourself as an expert who people can trust, which will result in the reader buying from you rather than your competitor. It doesn’t matter what business you own, whether you’re a dog trainer, a piano teacher, a shop owner or a driving instructor, writing a blog can offer an affordable and fun way of getting your business noticed.

    You can then drive traffic to your business blog by sharing the link to your blog on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. There are also opportunities available, (for a small monthly fee) for small businesses to use existing high ranking blogging sites to promote their business.

    These are the 3 ways that I personally consider to be the most effective way to increase sales for your small business. They are methods that I have personally used, with success, within all of my businesses as they are affordable and create instant results.

    The Importance of Asking Permission in Sales Calls

    I talk a lot about establishing and maintaining control on sales calls – it’s important for us as sales professionals to steer the conversation in such a way that we obtain the information we need to determine if the prospect is a fit for our offering – and if so, how best to position it to them. In this post, I’ll be discussing one area in where a small and easily implemented adjustment can make a measurable difference in results: asking permission.

    Why Bother Asking Permission?

    On the surface, asking our prospects for permission seems like a weak play. We’re temporarily forfeiting control – handing the reigns of the conversation briefly to the prospect, and giving them an out if they’re really looking for one. So why do we do it? Before looking at the benefits, let’s take a look at the potential drawbacks to understand why they aren’t all that disastrous after all.

    You’re giving control of the call to the prospect.

    Are we? Asking permission most often takes the form of a close-ended (yes or no) question to which we are fairly certain the answer will be yes. We have given the prospect control of the call in the way a McDonald’s employee has given a patron control of the menu by asking if they’d “like fries with that?”

    You’re giving the prospect an easy out!

    Absolutely. This concept of ‘giving prospects a way out’ is dated, and worth getting away from entirely. Your call should strategically incorporate ways for the prospect to get off the hook if they’re not interested for two reasons:

    1. It is a litmus test against the prospect’s interest – if they are looking for ways out, you haven’t done your job in piquing their interest.
    2. The corollary is that if we are giving the prospect outs and they are not taking them, we know that they are interested – and we are subtly reinforcing that interest in our prospect’s minds by forcing them to repeatedly demonstrate it!

    Having addressed the apparent disadvantages, let’s take a look at the benefits:

    We reinforce our image as a polite professional.

    Asking permission is the polite thing to do – and with the vast majority of prospects, being polite will go a long way in establishing trust and respect.

    We give the prospect the ability to provide input while restricting their ability to misdirect the conversation.

    No one wants to be on the receiving end of a one-sided conversation. Even if the prospect has shown that they’re okay with us leading the call, we still want them to feel included in that conversation. Open-ended questions have their role as well, but a simple ask for permission can go a long way in making the prospect feel involved while keeping our grip on the wheel.

    We are getting the prospects to further engage in the conversation, and in our service offering by escalating the consent we seek.

    This is the most important benefit – closing a deal is simply the last step in a chain of escalating consent. Ultimately, we need the prospect to say “yes” when we ask for the business – it therefore works to our benefit to “get them in the habit” of responding in the affirmative before we go for that close. Asking snaps the prospect’s attention back where you want it, and makes them feel more invested in the call. Subtly – subconsciously, even – they think to themselves “Well, if I weren’t interested I could have just said ‘no’, so I should pay attention.” Asking for the business should ideally always be framed in a context of prior consent. We start by asking their permission to pitch them – to show them our website, do a live demo, send them a proposal, call them back at a specific date, and ultimately – we ask for their permission to get working for them.

    To illustrate these benefits, I’m going to run through a couple examples of situations where a salesperson might ask for permission, and highlight how it benefits them:

    Opening The Call

    Rep: Hi, John – my name is Bill with XYZ Company – I’m reaching out because I took a look at your website, and believe I can help improve its lead generation capabilities.

    Prospect: Thanks, but I haven’t got time for this right now.

    Rep: I certainly understand, John – would it be okay if I took two minutes to briefly explain what we can do for you? If it sounds interesting we can schedule a follow-up call, and otherwise I’ll leave you alone.

    Prospect: Sure. Two minutes. Shoot.

    It would have been easy here to just blow through the “I’m busy call me later” objection and just start pitching anyway. But then, you’re not being very polite, are you? You also have no idea whether the prospect is listening to you, or if they’re mentally checking out to return to whatever they were doing before you called. Finally, we’re missing out on the opportunity to begin establishing “yes momentum” – at the end of the day, if the prospect stands firm and doesn’t give you two minutes, you’ve lost nothing – you can still call them back later (maybe they were really busy), or cross them off your list. There’s virtually no down-side.

    Segueing into Demo

    Rep: John, are you in front of a computer?

    John: I am.

    Rep: What I’d like to do, John, is take you to a website we’ve worked on for a client of mine. He’s in your industry, and I think it will give you a more concrete idea of what exactly we can do for you. Does that sound fair?

    John: Sure – what’s the site?

    Again, it would be easy to just ask if they’re in front of a computer and, if they are, direct them to the site – but we would be missing a great opportunity to ask permission. We make ourselves look polite – we’re not forcing anything on the prospect – merely suggesting a course of action that will allow them to better-evaluate our service. Again, if the prospect turns down your request, it’s not because you didn’t bulldog them – it’s because you hadn’t done enough work building interest on the front-end of the call before you attempted your segue (or maybe they just have legitimate time constraints, in which case they should be willing and eager to arrange a follow-up call). Either way, you are getting them to lean in – to further engage, and admit to you (and to themselves) that yes, they are interested in seeing a live demo. Subtle, but powerful.

    The Close

    John: Well, this all looks great – what are the next steps?

    Rep: Glad to hear it John – how about I run a few packages past you, and you can tell me which one makes the most sense – work for you?

    John: Sure thing – shoot.

    This is just one example of a way to work permission into our close. Here we can see our intrepid hero has opted for a multiple choice close (a form of closed-ended closing question in which we present the prospect with a series of options to choose from – none of which are “no thanks”, or “give me some time”.) It’s a powerful close by itself, but adding an ask for permission is the perfect complement. One of the problems with closed-ended closing tools is that we can make the prospect feel boxed in – they get cagey, and even though everything lines up, and they want to buy, they put up last-minute walls for that reason. In this case, we’ve side-stepped that concern by giving them an out. We’ve said, “Hey, Prospect – I’d like to multiple choice close you. Is that okay?” And they have acquiesced. BOOM! That’s power. We’re also slicing the close up into more digestible chunks that will be easier for the client to swallow – “Yes, it sounds good.” “Yes, I want to work with you.” “Yes, I’d like to hear your options and choose one.” By escalating the consent we ask for slowly, we warm the prospects up more and decrease the likelihood of scaring them off by asking for the business.

    These are just a few examples, but there are many more ways in which asking permission can be worked into your sales calls. As with any tool, it should be sprinkled throughout the presentation so as not to sound forced or scripted, but it’s an effective litmus test of the prospect’s interest, and it helps bring us closer to the close with minimal risk of rejection. Do you ask for permission in your calls? What are some of the questions you like to ask, and why? Any comments or questions are welcome in the section below – and as always, if you’ve found this information useful, please share it with anyone else who might enjoy it as well!

    Creating An Original Brand Identity For Network Marketing And Direct Sales Industry Distributors

    In the network marketing, MLM, and direct sales industries there is some conflicting information about how to go about establishing a personal brand in the industry.

    Lets look at what a personal brand is. A personal brand is a way of attracting business to you by promoting yourself in addition to or in place of your product. In these industries people do business with individuals they like or feel they can relate to. They also do business with people who come across as having insider knowledge or leadership skills.

    While I do not recommend portraying oneself in false terms to establish a powerful brand, it’s a good idea to play up your strengths. If you are just starting out, your brand should be based around the strengths you bring to your new business, not the fact that you are just starting out and haven’t made any money yet.

    Portraying oneself as a strong leader does not necessarily mean posing with a sports car or even dressing up for a photograph. It means telling a story that will invite people to relate to you and be curious about your business.

    The fact is – there are 100s of income opportunities on the internet these days. They are mostly marketed in very similar, and unoriginal ways. A very effective branding technique is to look at what other people are doing, and do something very different.

    In this particular industry there are basically two general types of branding I see a lot.

    • The first is the “money and cars” type of brand which portrays success in the business as a pleasurable experience and encourages site visitors to imagine having nice things and a lot of money as a part of the home business experience.
    • The second is the “soft” brand. With this type of brand, often used with health and wellness MLM products, the financial rewards take a back seat to having a “feel good” product. While this type of branding is often instigated by MLM companies to build product loyalty, it often functions to conceal a weak compensation plan where few distributors make much money.

    Neither of these types of branding are particularly original. I would suggest that on the internet it’s a good idea to build a brand that goes against the grain of these two types and establishes a more unique sort of image for the distributor.

    This is a creative process. The secret to building a loyal following and attracting customers is building a deep brand on the internet. This sort of branding cannot be bought, it must be earned.

    How is a deep brand established on the internet?

    Through the written word. Distributors who wish to brand themselves but are unwilling to write web content on a regular basis will struggle to create a brand. Blogging is perhaps the most familiar form of content distribution, but getting traffic to a blog requires comprehension of how information is actually distributed on the internet – the sort of marketing knowledge that is never taught in most company-provided marketing training.

    In fact, some companies in the industry actively discourage or even prohibit discussion or content marketing on the internet. My only advice is – avoid these companies like the plague.

    Branding with content takes time and patience. Distributing the content effectively requires specialized knowledge of how the internet really works.

    Who said building a brand is easy?



    Building a brand does not have to be hard, but it does take time.

    For this reason, brand-building should be piggy-backed with other marketing activity. It is unwise for an independent distributor to invest money in branding-only activity. Still, most promotional activity should be done with an eye to increasing visibility of the brand.

    Tim Sales – Insiders Review of Professional Inviter and Professional Presenter

    Tim Sales is a leading authority in Network Marketing and has developed great products such as Professional Inviter and Professional Presenter.  If you are looking into purchasing these materials in hopes that it will help you build your business, read this article so you know what to expect and make sure it is right for you.  

    Tim Sales’ Professional Inviter is geared towards people who are in the Network Marketing industry and are looking at sharpening their skills in approaching prospects.  Tim has a formula which he calls the ‘Inviting Formula’ and it breaks down how you can invite a prospect (whether it is for a product customer or and business partner) to see if what you have to offer is a good fit for the person.

    The Inviting formula is:

    1) Greet the prospect.  The purpose is to have people talking openly and freely.

    2) Qualify the prospect.  The focus here is to see if they need or want what you have to offer.

    3) Invite.  Which means to invite the prospect to have a look at what you have to offer.

    4) Close into action.  Which means to schedule a time to talk for example.

    5) Follow up and follow through.  The focuse here is to make sure you are following up with your prospect.

    In Tim Sales’ Professional Inviter he says that there is another ‘step’ that could happen anywhere in the formula, and that is to handle and questions and / or objections.

    Tim Sales’ Professional Presenter is set to hit the market very soon.  As we have a look at the inviting formula Tim has said a number of times (on different training calls) that the formula is very much the same, it just changes as to what you are INVITING your prospect to.  In Professional Inviter you are inviting the prospect to a future meeting, where in the presenting formula you are inviting the prospect to get into a CONVERSATION (the presentation) about the product / service / opportunity you have.

    Now obviously I cannot do the training materials Professional Inviter or Professional Inviter justice in this short article.  This is one training material I would highly recommend if anyone is serious about building a home business.

    If you are looking for new strategies to find QUALIFIED prospects, that’s a whole other game.  I recommend you check out the link below where you will find the 7 Fatal Mistakes I have made in my business.  I also share with you how I am now able to open my home business doors for business… to the world!

    Tim Sales Professional Inviter and Professional Inviter are great tools, but the link below will show you how to go from part-time struggling network marketer to full-time success.

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