Recently my marketing consulting firm was approached by the owners of a young organic tea company seeking guidance in piercing the retail product distribution channel. The entrepreneur’s behind the venture were hard working, passionate and fully committed; both personally and financially. They had an excellent product. They also had no sales traction.

After considerable consultation, and many questions about the history of the product and the owner’s backgrounds, the reason for their futile sales performance became crystal clear: They had not identified a Unique Selling Proposition to differentiate their teas from the numerous, established large, medium and small competitors that offer endless product choices in the category. This is usually the problem with any new product offering in an already mature consumer product universe.

What can the new startup do to counteract the existing advantages enjoyed by older, established competitors? The following are but a few options to consider when seeking a differentiation strategy to support a Unique Selling Proposition:

Create a Proprietary Process

Create a handling process that is positioned as proprietary, unique to the product. Another alternative is an enhancement that purportedly improves product performance. In cosmetics we often work with laboratories to craft a bio-engineering process or ingredient stability that we tag with an esoteric descriptive moniker.

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Do you fear the objection handling phase of the selling process? What do you say when someone raises a common objection such as, “I don’t have the money,” “I need to think about it,” or “I don’t have the time.”?
One of the biggest challenges I see sales professionals and network marketers face is what to do when they hear these common but dreaded sales objections.

We know that at the end of a sales presentation the prospect is going to say one of four possible things:

1. “I am ready to sign up.”
2. “I have some questions.”
3. “I am not interested.”
4. “I don’t have time”, or “I need to think about it”, or “I don’t have the money.”

Prediction is a form of power. Because we know what they are going to say, the key is to prepare a powerful, persuasive response that will overcome their objection and move them to buy.

Persuasion is about leading and moving people to take action. If you analyze great network marketing leaders, you will find that they are great at moving others to take action.

At the end of your presentation you are going to ask your prospect to take action and that is when the objection handling phase typically begins. They may say “I don’t have the money”, “I need to think about it”, or “I don’t have the time.”

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The sales force audit is a procedure for diagnosing a sales organization. It shows management the weak points and areas for development to improve business performance. A good sales management training course covers the keys aspects of how to conduct an audit. A sales force audit has three main aims. The first aim of a sales force audit is to discover existing problems in the sales organization. The second aim is to examine the relationships between the sales force and other areas in the process. The third aim is to recognize the factors influencing the success of the sales force.

The Sales Manager can conduct the audit themselves, or if time and know how are limited then an outside consultancy can be used. it can often be preferable to commission a critical, impartial and knowledgeable third party to carry out the audit.

The following is a summary of the most important areas to be examined in a sales force audit.

The first set of factors to be audited should be the external influences on the sales force organization. These would include factors external to the operation such as economic, demographic, political and legal developments; technological trends; competitors (strengths, weaknesses, business policy); markets (chance, risks); customers (the buying decision process, service expectations).

Also included in this first phase of the audit would be factors within the operation, such as organization (company targets, organization structure); relationship between sales and marketing management, relationship with other parts of the undertaking.

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Some of you will laugh at the very thought of direct mail, but I can assure you, it’s a great source of connecting with prospects and existing customers alike. Particularly in our overly-junked-up-email world where people tend to pillage their in boxes and delete anything that doesn’t require a personal response. People respond completely differently to direct mail that arrives on their doorstep than they do many other forms of media.

Direct mail can be as basic as a postcard or a letter on letterhead, or as complex as a full “shock and awe” box that has lots of stuff in it that gets your prospect really engaged like CDs, DVDs, MP3 players, books, magazines and just about anything you can fit in the box as we learned when we put a straight razor (sans blade), a shaving brush and more in our boxes that we mail out.

I sent out about 18,000 direct mail pieces last month, and I re-learned a few lessons, just like I always do. Maybe I can save you a few dollars, and a few lessons by sharing some of the most important things I’ve learned over the years about direct mail. And most importantly, if you’re not doing any direct mail, now is the time to start! Almost everyone else has backed off of it due to cost, and now you can swoop into people’s mailboxes and take new customers!

Below is a list of 10 very important things you should pay attention to when sending out direct mail:

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In a perfect world every part of your business would work flawlessly. You’d sell more product, schedule more services, make more money. Sounds great doesn’t it? The truth is that in real life, nothing ever works flawlessly. If you’re not selling products, or services you’re not making money. If your service is poor and you get a bad reputation, you’re not making money. If your product is breaking all of the time and word gets out, you’re not making money. This sounds more like real life doesn’t it? The truth is there are so many negative things that can affect your business that it’s amazing any company can make a profit in this day and age.

Does Microsoft spend hundreds of millions of dollars on TV commercials just for fun? Does Apple spend hundreds of millions of dollars on TV commercials just to slam Windows for being insecure? They do these commercials because they have found them to be profitable to advertising on TV. They do it because they developed marketing systems that work, and they stick to them. Why develop a marketing plan for just TV commercials? Well because it works! In fact they probably have a system for how their websites get updated, how they answer the phone, how particular problems with software or hardware are handled. In fact, I guarantee you that they have systematized absolutely every aspect of their companies.

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It’s a fact. More accidents, more crime, and more excitement goes on during the weekend than the rest of the week.

It’s bad enough that you have to take risks when you leave the house, but one thing you really need to be mindful of is the amount of risk, or perceived risk, you’re making your prospects take.

Especially new prospects who aren’t familiar with you.

Minimizing your customer’s risk isn’t just something you hear bantered about because “people say you should do it,” it’s something you really need to pay close attention to.

Especially nowadays when it comes to ordering stuff online. And especially if you’ve never done business with a prospect, or if you’re new in business in general, you really want to make people feel at ease about working with you.

So let’s talk about a couple of ways of doing this:

1. Testimonials. Most people think testimonials just credentialize your product, but they also speak to your integrity and your work ethic. That’s why they’re so important. And that’s also why having “big name” testimonials isn’t enough.

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Cold calling. Probably one of the things most business people hate the most. Unfortunately, it’s also probably one of the very best ways to build your business! So, if you want to build your business fast, you’re going to have to learn to love cold calling – and to make it a little easier, I’ve listed the top ten mistakes people make when dealing with cold calling.

1. Not making, and sticking to a schedule. The very first thing you should do is to commit to making a specific number of calls per day, or per week. That should be a part of your overall marketing plan, and you should aim to meet, or better, that number.

2. Calling at the wrong time of the day. Most people are tired, busy, or just plain grumpy as the day wears on. Catch them early in the morning, to avoid this, and to get in before their day gets started.

3. Not being friendly to the person who answers the phone. You never know who it is who answers – a senior exec may be standing in for the receptionist – if you are not courteous and polite, you could be killing any sales chances you had!

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Relationships are a powerful way to get business. A relationship will be established when each party feels the benefits for him or her self. C-Levels and senior executives are primarily interested in business benefits you can deliver that serve their careers. Deliver the benefits and secure the professional relationships. Delivering results are thing you can control.

Many get confused thinking that social relationships are the relationships that make deals happen. It’s extremely difficult to establish social relationships at the C’s and high levels. They give you little time and are basically not interested in them with most vendors. So you have no control over these social relationships. Professional results are what they care about which leads to professional relationships, and you have control of these.

Common Situation

People Say Relationships Close Sales.

This is true, but most sales people feel a relationship is a social connection. They then strive to become chummy which is very tough to do at high levels.

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