Записи с меткой «promote»

How To Expand Your Salesforce Without Hiring Anyone

We all know that all businesses have to sell to survive, let alone prosper. Most businesses will have some sort of specialist sales function, but this could be a small percentage of the total number of employees. If non sales people, who have contact with the customer, could be trained to promote your services or products in an appropriate way, how much extra business could that generate?

Those not directly involved in sales often have preconceived ideas about selling and sales people and a lot of those ideas are negative. The word, ‘salesperson’ itself has certain connotations. Pushy, spivvy, lack of integrity, questionable honesty to name just a few. And what’s a good salesperson? Well maybe someone who can palm you off with something that you don’t want. We think of such things as double-glazing and time-share and there are lots of horror stories about people’s experiences from dealing with such unscrupulous sales people. The word, ‘selling’ conjures up all of these images and it’s not an image that many want to be associated with.

So the first thing that we need to make clear is that relationship selling is a very different thing. With relationship selling, you do not sell anything as such. You ask the customer what they need or want and show how this can be achieved with the use of your services. This is something that non-sales people can feel comfortable with and therefore do.

There is no place for those high pressure selling techniques; no place for tricks; no attempts to force the customer to buy and no place for the guilt trip so often used in the pensions and insurance industries (‘…if you had died before I arrived here tonight, what kind of mess would you have left your family in? Yuk!)

If the customer does not, at the moment, need what you have to offer, then you have nothing to sell. If you do manage to palm them off with something that they don’t really want, then they will be dissatisfied and they won’t buy from you again. Whereas if you just say that, unfortunately, you don’t seem able to help at the moment but that you’ll keep in touch, even promising to come back in three months time, perhaps, then you’ve been honest and you’ve still got a contact. If you sell encyclopaedias, then you only sell to each customer once, so it doesn’t matter so much if you’ve conned them. With relationship selling, you are selling an ongoing relationship, hopefully for many years. If you con your customers at any time, the relationship is lost.

Businesses need to grow to survive so they need to sell. And by selling more, they increase the job security of their staff as well as the probability of providing more interesting work in an expanding company. Everyone understands this, but to conquor the inertia non-sales people have to promoting their products and services, they need to develop the skills to sell in a ‘non-salesey’ way.

Something that all businesses are searching for is a Unique Selling Point. What is it that makes you different, better than your competitors? You have to be honest with this one and say, ‘Nothing really’. You can bet your competitors know as much about the service that you both provide as you do. You can bet that they are as technically able. You can bet they try as hard. It’s a truth of life that any time you do find yourself one step ahead, your competitors will soon mimic what you do and thus close the gap. (You must, of course, keep on searching. If you don’t search for something extra, then you will soon fall behind.)

So, if the products and quality of service you sell are more or less identical to your competitors, why should a prospective customer choose you rather than them? Well, assuming you’ve got your product and pricing about right, then the only difference is the people. Business is about people. One company does not do business with another company. People from one company do business with people from another company. To be successful you need to get on with your contact. You don’t have to be bosom buddies and slap each other heartily on the back each time you meet but you do need to get on well enough to do business. Your customers need to trust you.

Training your customer support, accounts, quality control, transport etc functions in Relationship Selling techniques will strengthen the relationship with your customers and provide opportunities for additional business. Your salesforce has just grown dramatically!

To quote from Mark McCormack, ‘All things being equal, people will always buy from a friend. All things being not quite so equal, people will still buy from a friend!’

How to Start a Tanning Salon

Start a tanning salon and you will have a very successful business in the palm of your hands! That is the outlook that a person in this type of business search needs to have. Yet you do need to be realistic about it all as well. While there is no argument that you can make money with a tanning salon due to the demand for it, there are quite a few expenses involved as well. Too many of them go under due to the overhead being more than what they bring in.

One of the biggest problems you will find when you start a tanning salon is that equipment can have an unbelievable price tag associated with it. On one hand you don’t want to get too in debt with what you buy. Yet on the other hand you already know that consumers want a good variety of options. So if you can’t offer them at the tanning salon they will go some place that can. You will have to decide which approach you want to take.

You need to look at quality models of tanning equipment that aren’t at the high end of the price range as well. Take the time to read reviews and you will find there are some great buys out there. You may want to get new equipment due to the warranties or you may find it a great investment to pay less for used equipment that still has plenty of life left in it.

When you start a tanning salon the atmosphere needs to be in place as well as the equipment. If you lag in customer service it will show and you will lose customers. They need to feel welcome the second they come into your tanning salon. Their questions need to be answered from staff that is friendly as well as well informed. They also want to be assured they can get in for their scheduled appointment time. Remember that time is a very precious commodity to people and if they are wasting it waiting for their turn to tan they won’t be impressed.

If you really want to start a tanning salon then I encourage you to do so. This could be the business opportunity you have been waiting for. Having the right information before you start though will help ensure you do enjoy every bit of it. You will avoid the common issues that many people fail to realize in this business. Pay attention to the problems others have had so you can avoid them.

You may want to open a brand new tanning salon or buy one that is already in place. Give plenty of thought to your location for the business as it can significantly impact you. Convenience is a fact that must fit in for people to commit to going there all the time. Be willing to advertise and to promote various aspects of your business. That way you have a great chance of capturing the business of those that want to tan. They do have a choice about where they do it though so give them a reason when you start a tanning salon to come to you for their needs.

How to Create Loyal and Promotable Staff by Freeing Up More of Your Own Time

«There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly»- Buckminster Fuller.

Effective delegation is both a skill and an art. Having and using this ability has many significant benefits and is of the utmost importance. It is a vital component in the toolkit of any leader. And yet, time and time again I come across leaders who do not use it effectively or anywhere near enough.

I hear many ‘reasons’ (read ‘excuses’) for this:

* ‘My team already have too much on their plates. I cannot pile on any more. It wouldn’t be fair on them and they would resent it. So I do it myself.’

What evidence do you have that they would resent it?

How can you help them to empty their plates a little so that they can take on delegated work?

If you delegate the right task, at the right time, to the right person and in the right way, the more likely reality is that they will show gratitude. They will be happy at the increase in their sense of responsibility, they will feel empowered and trusted. And as they begin to act up rather than act down they will notice themselves becoming more promotable. All of this will inspire more loyalty not less.

* ‘It’s easier and quicker if I do it myself.’

This may possibly be true the first time and it may not.

It may take a little time to explain or teach a member of staff how to complete a particular task the first time, but once they’ve got it and can finish it unaided this can only save time for you.

And is this ‘reason’ completely accurate in the first place? Or are you just using this as an excuse because there is some other reason you don’t want to give the task to someone else?

Ask yourself ‘What is honestly stopping me from delegating this task?’

* ‘If I’m truly honest I just think I’ll do a better job of it than any of my team. So it’s best if I get on and do it.’

Well done for being this honest with yourself. It’s a tough one to own up to! But what evidence do you have to support that statement? How do you know for sure unless you give them a try? How sure are you that you’re not just finding another excuse to hold onto something that you now need to be letting go of?

* ‘I know it’s not my role to do that any more, but I really enjoyed that part of my job before I was promoted and I want to carry on getting involved to that extent.’

Mmm. As you continue to climb your career ladder it is imperitive for both you and your staff that you act at the level you have reached plus spend time acting up to the next level. If you act at levels below your position you use up time unnecessarily (which can result in severe effects on your work/life balance, plus stress caused by impending deadlines and overwork). Importantly it also inhibits the progress of your staff’s climb of their own career ladders.

So how do you delegate effectively?

Well that is too lengthy a discussion to go into here, but if I have raised your awareness and you have accepted that delegation, properly done, actually leads to more loyal and happier staff who have a willingness to go that extra mile; and you have also realised that you need to be delegating more effectively and more often, then that is a very good start!

If it Looks like a Pyramid and Acts like a Pyramid

Who gets the Pyramid Quack award?

On our conference call the other day, people wondered how to talk and act so that people would stop asking «Is this a pyramid/one of those things?»

One way is to stop, forever, saying and doing the things that evoke this image in the minds of others — i.e. people «who abuse their friends and try to sell them stuff, and get them to sell and take a percent.»

For years, it’s been all about getting people to sell and recruit. That’s the reason countless people discouraged (and ridiculed) my customer-oriented students, «There’s no money in customers. All the money’s in the recruiting.»

I’ve taught hundreds of classes to those who prefer to amass customers. It’s lucrative in some companies, and many stayed in the business because they learned how to do that, instead of quitting.

But some companies pay you to act like you’re a pyramid type. We will bestow upon them the «Pyramid Quack» award. Yes, here. To encourage them to change their pyramid quacking ways which make their people look bad.

If it quacks like a pyramid…

«a pyramid scheme is…[where] the need to subscribe newcomers outweighs whatever benefits the products or system has to offer. Many MLMs sell distributorships more than cosmetics [name your product or service — KK].» -Coercion: Why We Listen to What «they» Say

Some people don’t know it from the way the business is promoted, but we do two things to make money in the network marketing business:

1) get customers (earn a percent on their orders)
2) Get sales reps who want to get customers and more sales reps (earn a percent on their orders)

So based on what they pay people to do, which companies get the Pyramid Quack award?

One gal, Phyllis, a Tahitian Noni rep for years, told the group this:

Typical order: $120 for the Noni juice per month.
Pay for getting a customer (who doesn’t sell it) to buy it: 6%. That’s like $5 for getting a $120 order.(!!)

With such puny pay, who’d want to go after customers? They don’t, and haven’t, for years, she said. This pay plan tells it all: We pay you to get recruits — people who sell it. We don’t care about customers who just buy it (and who don’t sell it).

So, we were about to bestow upon the Tahitian Noni International pay plan, the Pyramid Quack award.

Then with great pride, she announced to the group: «But Kim, this past year they’ve worked to change it — because I think they heard you. As of May 1, 2006, they are paying 20% for customer orders. So now we get $24 for each of those orders!»

That’s what, 3 days ago? After almost 10 years of being in business.

(This conference call will be up on the Talking about Your Great Thing podcast site later this week, so you can hear the juicy details for yourself.)

Tomorrow’s blog: The story on the pay plans of two more companies: Young Living and Life Wave. Do they get the Pyramid Quack award or not?

Send in your company plan plan info and see if it gets the Pyramid Quack award. (Use Comments below.) Here’s what info to submit:

1. What’s the typical customer order amount? And what do you get (range) if you find them, front line them, and they do NOT sign on to sell anything?

2. Name of company. And YOUR NAME.

Then we’ll check it out, and award the Pyramid Quack award to your company, or not.

After all, if it quacks like a pyramid…

How to Raise Your Income Level

How often do you sit around and wonder how to make more money and get more people to buy more from your company? It’s one of the most basic problems every company faces.

The answer is astonishingly simple. Too simple maybe. But I’ve seen it work over and over again with our customers in every line of business you can imagine.

You have to promote. Your income is determined by how much marketing you do.  There are many effective marketing methods and you shouldn’t do just one.  Even those whose products are strictly sold on-line, you still need to utilize those other methods of promotion.  Your income is definitely 100% affected by how much promotion you do.

So raising your income is simply a matter of keeping in touch with your existing customer base, reminding them you are there, offering them goods or services they might be interested in, in such a way that they
want to buy more and more often from you. And increasing the size of your customer base by finding and contacting potential customers and persuading them to buy your products or services and then adding them to your customer base and keeping in touch with them in the same way.

If you have a good service or product and you make sure you service your customers well, you cannot fail to raise your income.

How rapidly you raise your income depends on how rapidly you do these actions, how much you promote.  Handling the quantity or volume of promotion is definitely the most obvious thing you can do on an immediate basis.  Believe it or not, if you send out crappy, crappy promotion, your income will go up.  You may not be happy with the Return on your Investment (ROI) for that marketing effort, but definitely it will raise your income.  Once quantity is handled and you are sending out loads of promotion, you want to tweak it and raise the quality of your promotion.  And here are some things you can do.

Use Offers to Improve Your Response.

One of the barriers to buying which you work hard to overcome is «no hurry.» Why buy it now when I can think about it for a few weeks, shop around a little and get back to you, maybe?  Familiar with that «I’m
interested. I’ll get back to you.» Or the card you have designed and mailed out gets put in a drawer somewhere for possible follow up, maybe next year some time.

One way to deal with this is to reward those who buy now and penalize those who don’t. How? With some special offer and one that is attractive and one which has a time element attached to it. «Order your new
lawnmower now and we’ll give you a free edger. Offer good until the end of May.» (Or whatever, you get the idea). Obviously the offer must be financially feasible for you so you’ll have to do some number crunching before you make the offer.

You can tie these special offers in to some particular event or season (like jewelry for Valentine’s Day or flowers or chocolates or just about anything for Christmas) but you don’t have to.

Special Offers help you maximize on your direct mail marketing and keep your customers ordering from you when you want them to.  It’s just one more way to be in control of your promotion.

You can control how much and how fast your company grows.