Kickstart Your Company

Where and how to get the best financing for your business - the right credit at a competitive price?

There are hundreds of financing options available in the market and it is vital that a financing instrument should meet your requirements and the stage of your business. This article simplifies your decision process.

Your main options are: Read the full article

A study shows that a sales person spend only 5 - 15% of their time on actual selling activities. Rest of the time goes on billing, implementation, confirmation etc.

If this is the case, why waste our precious sales time on leads that don’t give results?

Fire them.

I ask following three questions to qualify a lead and have found them very helpful in prioritizing my list:

• Am I having an open and honest communication?
• Are they willing to involve more/right people from their side?
• Are they allowing me an access to decision makers?

If I find myself answering “no” to any of these questions, I realize I am wasting my time on a sale that is not going to happen or I am talking to wrong people. I have to change my strategy or move on.

You can use the same technique to prioritize your list. This will improve your productivity many fold.

It is not your product or service that makes or breaks the deal. It is the customer perception of what your product/service can do for them that shapes their decision to buy from you.

Let’s see how I, a customer, buy:

Whether I am shopping for a solution for a business problem or some personal accessory, I usually have a good idea of what I want. When I find something that closely meet my ideal solution, I buy it.

Do you do the same?  A study shows that most of us follow the same pattern.  

This pattern gives us an insight into how to win more sales. We have to know enough about our prospects’ business — what they are trying to fix, accomplish or avoid — and match our service/product with their idea of an ideal solution!

The prospects’ idea is their way of framing a solution for their problem and it has nothing to do with what you and your organization is selling. By aligning your product/service with that concept you can improve your win rates for new business and generate continued added value for existing customers in today’s tough business environment.

1. Design for usage not for personal liking
   Decide how you want to use a marketing piece and what you will be asking people to do before you consider the format, size, number of colors etc. You don’t need an 8×11, 2 sided, 4 colors masterpiece when all you want is to mail it to 10,000 prospects.
    
2. Highlight the problem your product is designed to solve
   dedicate up to 30% of your space to assure reader that you understand the problem your product is designed to solve e.g.In today’s turbulent and troubled economic times your customers are not spending money and it is difficult for you to meet your revenue projections!
    
3. Benefits. Benefits. Benefits
   Talk about what is important for your customers, not you. For example, consider these two statements and decide which one you like:

   Beat the recession, Double your sales, RISK FREE! with our new 120 Day Sales Growth Program Or
   120 Day Sales Growth Program increases your sales RISK FREE
    

4. Say everything twice
   People read headlines first - text in big bold letters - if they are still interested they ready the body. Say everything twice, once in headline sub-headings, bold text, bullet points and once in the body.
    
5. If you have a Wal-Mart product don’t create Tiffney’s Brochure
   the design should reflect what you are selling. If you’re selling quality and accuracy to manufacturer the brochure should reflect that. On the other hand, if you are selling low price goods, your brochure should look like as if you haven’t spent any money on it!
    
6. Call for Action
   People will not buy just by looking at your brochure. Incentivize them to take the first step in the buying process e.g. give you a call, check your website to get some freebie etc.
    
7. Never send a brochure without a cover letter
   if you are mailing your brochure to prospects, make a point to write a cover letter and address this letter to the right person. No “Dear Customer”!

Kickstart Your Company… Here you will find resources to increase sales, improve profits, and acquire financing for growth.

Please downloand our guide books here:

Step by Step Action Plan to Double Your Sales

Secret Methods to Improve Your Profits

Action Plan to Turnaround Your Business

Online Sales Training for Offline Success.