The Lucky Cabin

This type of marketing is akin to an auction house. Different items are pushed on your website and in return, every last sale earns you cash. It isn’t as much effort, very few overheads, it sells whilst you rest, and it’s simple to learn.

Firstly, you must determine precisely which area you’d like to work in. A good way to go about this is, you need to find out solutions to problems a specific market segment is going through, and then discover a means to deal with those issues. An effective way of accomplishing this is to look for groups of highly drilled down words or phrases; there are less searches for these generally, even so greater proportion of these result in a sale. These lucrative keywords can be rooted out by using programs like Micro Niche Finder. Data gathered by this software or other computer programs and services gives you associated keywords in an extensive list format that you can target in order to achieve an advantage in the rankings on an internet search. Micro Niche Finder data will also let you know detailed figures on the words and phrases, exactly how many other web sites are exploiting them, and how successful that competitor is. Lastly, the information created can identify suitable domains, help you put together your internet site, and also draw attention to the best sales opportunities.

Next you need to build a internet site; but you still have some essential tasks to complete. Search engine optimization is absolutely fundamental. Products like SEO Elite should make this simpler. This program automatically examines competing websites and will offer you suggestions on exactly what you should do in order to get a good placing in the search engine listings. With programs such as SEO Elite, info generated by the software package advises you on links, what words to focus on, and information on how to upload articles. In summary, Seo Elite information is much like to the data that an SEO specialist may give.

When you determine your niche, have your product ads, and your website is completed, then it is time to aggressively explode your search results. You will collect a regular paycheck and question why you ever worried about making enough money!

Many years ago, I was the one starting a small business. I ran a part-time resume service out of my New York apartment. One client showed up on time for her first appointment, nervously clutching her notes.

“Can we just talk for awhile?” she asked.

“No,” I said firmly, amazing myself. “If you want me to work on your resume, there will be a charge. You can decide not to hire me. But we can’t just sit and talk.”

I remembered this incident several years later, when I greeted a neighbor in our local coffee shop.

“I’ve got a friend visiting,” she said. “He’s thinking of starting a business and he wants to talk to you. You do business coaching, don’t you? We’ll see you tomorrow when you walk the dog,”

“I’d be happy to talk to him for a few minutes,” I said, “but if he wants to work with me, I’ll have to charge. This is what I do for a living.”

Customers are rarely evil people who want to steal services. My neighbor did not realize that consultants earn real money for “just talking” about business.

Others have no idea what they are asking.

Coach Jane asked me to make a few changes to her website. In return, she offered “a couple of half hours of coaching or something.” After peeking at the source code of Jane’s site, I emailed, “This project will take two to four hours. Here’s what I will charge.”

Jane knew nothing of web design (a mistake — but that’s another article). She honestly thought I could accomplish her goal in less than an hour.

Customers bring their own experience to your service. One veterinarian will clip your cat’s claws after giving booster shots; another charges extra. Some hairdressers charge for a conditioning rinse or blow-dry; some say it’s part of the service. .

Pricing practices vary geographically. If your customer has just moved to your city, he won’t know what to ask. He’ll just fume quietly when he sees the bill.

Finally, customers can be nave. Janet ordered artwork for her brochure. When the designer offered an option for “one-fifty,” she Assumed he meant a dollar and fifty cents! Fortunately, she clarified the difference before signing an order for one hundred and fifty dollars.

Janet’s designer was uncomfortable talking about money — but not uncomfortable handing her a bill. Then it was Janet’s turn to be uncomfortable.

The time for a frank discussion of costs and contingencies is before you deliver the service. A book promotion coach informed me, on our second call, “I rewrote your copy. That will be an extra fifty dollars.” I refused to pay and will never recommend her firm.

A written schedule of fees and terms can avoid bad feelings. You can always offer discounts or extras to cement relationships with loyal customers.

And when you ask a customer, “Would you also like to have….” mention the cost. Otherwise, I believe, she has every reason to expect it will be free.

I offer one-to-one consultations on career strategy.

About The Author

Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., is an author, speaker and career/business consultant, helping midlife professionals take their First step to a Second Career. http://www.cathygoodwin.com.

“Ten secrets of mastering a major life change” mailto:subscribe@cathygoodwin.com

Contact: cathy@cathygoodwin.com 505-534-4294

The sales profession is the greatest occupation in the world. Salespeople have great personalities, have interpersonal skills, and super business aptitudes. Even the greatest salespeople in the world can use more selling advice or sales tips. Salespeople like to learn and they learn fast. Here are just a few sales tips:

Don’t use the hard sell: Made famous by sales consultant Zig Ziglar, the hard sell is a sales strategy that assumes that prospects will eventually buy from you as long as you don’t ever take “no” for an answer. Aggressive high pressure selling tactics don’t work. Consider your clients to be just as intelligent as you are and they will respect you for it. People buy more from people that they like and respect.

Use the team at your disposal: Don’t assume that you know everything there is to know about sales. Learning is a lifelong process and successful salespeople like to learn. Take advantage of people in your sales organization that have more experience than you, like your sales manager for example. Take him to meet your prospects and watch how he works. Ask him for advice on everything - sales lead generation, sales closing strategies, referrals, customer service - he’s been through it all; that’s why he’s the sales manager.

Work smarter, not harder: What do you call a sales professional that makes 120 cold calls, meets, with 5 prospects, makes 2 sales presentations, and attends 1 meeting every day? A burnout. It’s not about the number of times you do your sales activities, it’s about the quality of work that you do. Too many salespeople burn out trying to do too much, especially when first starting their sales career.

Interview your customers: Have a third party interview your past customers to find out what you did right, what you did wrong, and what you could do better. Salespeople must learn and what better way to learn than from past successes and failures?

Get business referrals: Do you ask all of your new clients for business referrals. You should ask each and every one to introduce you to their associates in their industry whom they think can use your product or service. If you have not been doing so you should call on these past clients and ask for referrals. The highest closing ratios come from referrals as a referral already has a trust factor built in.

Tino Buntic’s website, TradePals, provides B2B and B2C sales leads without cold calling to salespeople across North America - FOR FREE

Your eBay reputation is everything you are on eBay - without it,
you’re nothing. Your reputation is worth as much as every sale
you will ever make.

If you’ve ever bought anything on eBay (and the chances are you
have), then think about your own behaviour. Buying from a seller
with a low feedback rating makes you feel a little nervous and
insecure, while buying from a PowerSeller with their reputation
in the thousands doesn’t require any thought or fear - it feels
just like buying from a shop.

A Bad Reputation Will Lose You Sales.

In fact, a bad reputation will lose you almost all your sales.
If someone leaves you negative feedback, you will feel the pain
straight away, as that rating will go right at the top of your
user page for everyone to see. Who’s going to want to do
business with you when they’ve just read that you “took a month
to deliver the item”, or that you had “bad communication and
sent a damaged item”? The answer is no-one.

Your next few items will need to be very cheap things, just to
push that negative down the page. You might have to spend days
or even weeks selling cheap stuff to get enough positive
feedback to make anyone deal with you again.

It’s even worse if you consistently let buyers leave negative
feedback - once you get below 90% positive ratings, you might as
well be invisible.

You Can’t Just Open a New Account.

Besides eBay’s rules about only having one account, there are
far more downsides than that to getting a new account. You
literally have to start all over again from scratch.

You won’t be able to use all the different eBay features. Your
existing customers won’t be able to find you any more. Your
auctions will finish at a lower price because of your low
feedback rating. Opening a new account is like moving to a new
town to get away from a few people who are spreading rumours
about you: it’s throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

A Good Reputation Will Get You Sales.

When a PowerSeller tells me something, I tend to believe them.
They can be selling a pretty unlikely item, but if they
guarantee it is what they say it is, then I trust them - they’re
not going to risk their reputation, after all. This is the power
of a reputation: people know you want to keep it, and they know
you’ll go to almost any lengths to do so.

This is true even to the point that I would sooner buy something
for £20 from a seller I know I can trust than for £15 from
someone with average feedback. It’s worth the extra money to
feel like the seller knows what they’re doing, has all their
systems in place and will get me the item quickly and
efficiently.

You really will find selling on eBay so much easier, and there’s
only way to get a good reputation: make sure you please your
customers every time.

A “role” is defined as the characteristic and expected social behavior of an individual. We all play many roles in life, such as parent or salesperson, and it is not difficult to see how this sense of the word role is related to its meaning in theater, where a “role” was played by a character.

All of these factors have a significant negative impact on self esteem, professional self image and consequently resilience in the face of adversity. In short, without a clear definition of the roles you are to play, the amount of work you are to perform and how these roles intertwine, you may end up like the other thousands of salespeople a year who do not make it in the profession. I will now define professional selling roles and what is generally expected in each.

THE SEVEN ROLES OF HIGHLY COMPETENT SALESPEOPLE ARE:

1. “The Strategic Planner”
2. “The Client-Focused Positioner”
3. “The Persuasive Communicator”
4. “The Focused Catalyst”
5. “The Concerted Facilitator”
6. “The Effective Manager”
7. “The Value-Driven Guardian”

These roles are created by understanding the phases of building customer satisfaction and loyalty (as outlined by the United Professional Sales Association). Their model focuses on the entire transaction experience of a buyer, from initial needs identification, through decision-making, selection, and purchasing. More importantly, this transaction experience continues past the purchase into implementation — and beyond into measuring the quality and return-on-investment of the solution.

In this article, I will explain the second role in greater detail (please see my other articles for in depth explanations of the other roles.)

ROLE 2: “THE CLIENT-FOCUSED POSITIONER”

Primary Focus of This Role:

The primary focus of this role is to distinguish yourself and your company in a buying environment where buyers have large amounts of choice, information, and power. You will not only seek to understand your position in your prospect’s minds, but work diligently to ensure you stay truly-focused on understanding your prospect or client.

General Expectations:

In this role, you will build on the work of your Planner Role. You must gather enough customer, market, and business data to support your Positioner Role (the next role). You will take the more generalized information from the previous Planner Role and leverage it to find out what is important to a specific and unique buyer. Because consumers perceive solutions as becoming more and more similar over time, you must develop an approach that protects your solution from becoming a commodity if possible (a commodity is a product or service that is differentiated only on price). To do this, you must learn to create an approach that will resonate with the buyer — based on unique benefits as perceived by the specific buyer.

You will have to ensure that marketing and selling messages do not conflict with that “uniqueness.” To achieve this, you will focus on gathering as much knowledge as possible from your Planner role and refine that knowledge into a customized initial approach for the unique prospect. If you do not have enough information to accomplish this, you will leverage your Communicator Role to attain it. You will work diligently to ensure there that your prospective buyer has a clear understanding of your solution, a clear characteristic and feature message that the understand, and a clear understanding of a distinctive set of core benefits that you will (hopefully) leverage with your Catalyst Role (the next role) into a sale.

Pre-Sale Expectations:

Before the sale occurs, you will be extremely focused on what the buyer wants and needs and you will work diligently to consider your own company’s strengths and weaknesses as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the competition in an attempt to understand a gap your company might be able to fill. You will gather enough information to clearly, succinctly, and precisely understand the value your company will provide to the targeted segment of the market you identified with your Planner Role.

To determine needs and set expectations, you will actively seek out buying decision-makers and engage them in a way that synchronizes with their decision-making process. You will work with them to understand how your company’s solution is different than others in the marketplace while maintaining the flexibility to come up with new ideas or solutions if necessary (and attainable by your company). You will build a strategy that identifies a target market or prospect and then uniquely tailor an approach that maximizes your chance of success in creating a sales dialogue. To do this, you will develop “differentiators” (i.e. guaranteed aggressive response times, preferential rates on all goods and services, dedicated account and support personnel, escalation lists, access to the consulting firm’s senior management for problem resolution, etc)

If your company does not have a unique benefit or if your company sells commodities (paper, printing, office supplies, consumables, etc); you are required to differentiate your company through your own personal interactions with buyers - your personal positioning.

Post-Sale Expectations:

After the sale occurs, you will work to identify new opportunities by re-positioning or re-packaging new solutions to meet new needs that your Facilitator and Catalyst Roles uncover.

Required Traits of This Role:

You will be asked to be emotionally strong, customer-focused, creative, market oriented, strategic, conscientious, and curious in this role. You must also have the ability to improvise and take abstract ideas and make them “concrete.”

——————————–ABOUT BRIAN LAMBERT————————————–

Brian is the Chairman and Founder of the the United Professional Sales Association (UPSA). UPSA is a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington DC that has addressed the concerns and challenges of individual sales professionals. Brian has authored the world’s first universal selling standards and open-source selling framework for free distribution. This ‘Compendium of Professional Selling’ containing the commonly accepted and universally functional knowledge that all sales professionals possess. The open-source selling standards have been downloaded in 16 countries by over 300 people. Over 30 people have made contributions.

Because UPSA is not owned by one person or any company, it is a member organization and guardian of the global standard of entry into the sales profession.

Find out about the membership organization and understand the processes and framework of professional selling at the UPSA Website at http://www.upsa-intl.org.

Find out more about Brian at: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert_bio=Brian_Lambert

Or at http://www.brianlambert.biz

Everyone is given exactly the same amount of time each day. It
is up to us to manage this time as we would any other precious,
nonrenewable asset. In the world of commission sales, time is
indeed money! Time management is at the very core of being a
successful salesperson. Effective salespeople know how to
concentrate on results while ineffective salespeople concentrate
on just being busy. Counting time is not nearly as important as
making time count. Effective salespeople focus on task
achievement rather than tension relieving diversions. By
incorporating the use of proven time management techniques into
your daily routine, you will earn more money and experience less
stress in your life. Avoid procrastination in all of its
attractive forms. Learn to separate the important from the
unimportant and develop a “Do it NOW” attitude. People manage
time by managing their activities and managing activities begins
with planning. Effective time managers understand the importance
of “planning their work and then working their plan.” It is up
to us to respect time and give it both meaning and value. If you
want to know the value of a year, ask a P.O.W. that has lost his
freedom. If you want to know the value of a month, ask a mother
that has given birth to a premature baby. If you want to know
the value of a week, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper. If
you want to know the value of a day, ask a schoolboy on the last
day before summer vacation. If you want to know the value of an
hour, ask a criminal sentenced to death. If you want to know the
value of a minute, ask a person that just missed their fight. If
you want to know the value of a second, ask a person that just
avoided a serious car accident. If you want to know the value of
a millisecond, ask an Olympic silver medallist.

1. Plan your day the night before. List and prioritize the top
five objectives you desire to accomplish when you get to the
office. Start with the number one item on your list and stay
with it until it is complete. Try to do the most difficult tasks
first.

2. Your first priority as a salesperson is to make appointments.
If you do not have an appointment with a prospect, then get on
the phone and make one. I recommend you make your phone calls in
the morning when you are fresh and alert.

3. Let your friends and co-workers know when you do not want to
be disturbed. Close your office door and stay focused on the
task at hand. An open door invites continuous distractions.

4. Get to the office early. You will never be successful in the
sales profession if you get into the habit of coming to work at
the “crack of noon.”

5. Avoid long personal phone calls, lunches and coffee breaks.
How much of your day do you spend with a client or actively
prospecting for new business? You may want to start an activity
log and track how you spend your time.

6. Delegate, delegate, delegate. Avoid the temptation of doing
administrative duties and paperwork. Salespeople historically
tend to hide behind their paperwork. Focus your efforts on the
things that you are licensed or hired to do and consider
employing someone else to handle your paperwork. If you have any
doubt, ask yourself “What is the best use of my time right now?”