Sales Tips and Marketing Strategies

There are several times in your sales process when customer follow-up is critical.

1. When your customer is in the decision stage of the buying process.

Perhaps your customer did not buy at the time you showed them your product. This could be for many reasons – maybe they needed to talk it over with a spouse, or maybe they needed to save up some money. Maybe they went on vacation and forgot about you. There are many reasons why your customer may not buy from you the first time you show them your product. You owe it to that customer to remind them that you are still there ready to help them.

2. After your customer has purchased a product from you, it is imperative that you follow-up with that customer to see how the product is working out for them.

Perhaps you would eventually want to show them some additional features that they may have overlooked or forgotten about. You need to assess their satisfaction with your product for two reasons. If they are unhappy with the product, you want to make sure you find a way to make it right. Either they should receive a full refund, or another product, or something so that the last experience the customer has with you is a positive one.

If the customer is happy with your product, you need to ask for a referral to other people they know who might like your product. You also want to ask for a testimonial from your happy customers. Testimonials are valuable to add to your marketing materials.

3. Finally, if a customer has purchased from you before, and they were happy with the experience, they are likely to purchase from you again if you have additional products or services that match their needs.

It is up to you to continue to follow-up with information and relevant suggestions for products that will help your customer.

You Need a Customer Follow Up System

Have you developed a plan for customer follow-up yet? If not, this section will help you get organized. Is the desk in your small business office overrun with business cards to search through every time you need a phone number? Perhaps you are using a day timer or on-line calendar. Perhaps you are using a contact manager. These are good tools but you need a better follow-up strategy.

If your customer follow-up system consists of boxes of business cards or names scribbled on writing pads I have a plan for you.

Continue reading ‘Customer Follow-Up is an Important Key to the Sales Success of Your Small Business’ »

The mortgage industry is in disarray, unemployment is up. Manufacturing jobs are leaving the US in large numbers while all of the auto manufacturers are being challenged for sales and profits. Our President and Congress are focused on Health care and cash for clunkers. There are signs that the economy might have some life but we are still in for some real serious challenges for the remainder of 2009 and maybe even 2010.

“Woe is me, woe is me,” says the salesman/manager that is attempting to make his sales objectives. When the economy gets challenging, companies look for ways NOT to spend money. Sales cycles stretch out and the average salesman/order takers do NOT succeed. When the economy is good and the market is growing, a back slapper can make his objectives. However, when times get tough, a good and successful salesman will be doing more than back slapping and telling jokes with his customers.

Continue reading ‘Selling in Tough Economic Times’ »

Since Prophet is a form of sales management software, it comes as no surprise to many that there would be sales management consulting features that are included with the software. The sales management consulting that is available on the software is self-explanatory. For example, there is contact management that is provided on Prophet. With contact management, individuals can perform several tasks. An individual can go into the program and arrange the customers due dates to their contact information or company information. This can lead to several different variations of how to work with the sales management consulting for the contact management area. Sales management consulting can be utilized from the information that is gathered by the messages between the main company and its clients, as well as the sales information. When a company can seek the overall sales history as well as company information, they can then hone in on what types of sales management consulting the company may be lacking. When contact management is readily available for the sales management consulting, a company can not only provide results that are aimed at specific details, but can often create faster results for sales management consulting too.

Sales management consulting does not end there. Sales management consulting is available with other features. Aside from the total contact management that is available through Outlook, there is the familiarity of the program, too. Avidian’s software provides sales management consulting works through Outlook, a program that many individuals have already become very familiar with. Many individuals will choose to download a Prophet toolbar into their task bar, which create ease on time, as well as making sales management consulting easy. All an individual would need to do is click on the task bar icon to open the Outlook and Prophet section on their computer and create a mode of easy access for sales management consulting.

Another reason why many individuals choose to use Prophet sales management consulting is because there are daily reports that can be created from this program. A company can review how sales management consulting has worked for individual companies, or for all of the companies provided as a whole. Every sale that had been generated through Prophet can be viewed on the report. This can help you to fine tune what is needed with the programs sales management consulting, or show where sales management consulting with Prophet has truly been marketable. Continue reading ‘Sales Management Consulting’ »

4 Ways to Say Good-bye to No-shows and Loss of Revenue

Although it’s impossible to eliminate all no-shows, there are many steps one can take to bring the percentages down … way down. Appointment scheduling and appointment management can become like clockwork if you put the right system into place.

1. Let Them Know the Cost to You – Whether you are a hair dresser, pet sitter or dentist, it’s always good business to let your new customers know up-front how important it is to you that they take their appointments seriously. Letting them know up-front will set the tone of your business relationship moving forward. Be personable about it; let them know there is only one slot for that time and many others who may desire that spot. If they don’t show up, not only have you lost money, but someone else was not able to use that slot because of that commitment from them. Giving them a personal picture of how it affects you will make this approach effective.

2. Phone Calls and Reminders – Many in the medical profession have implemented this strategy. What is required to make this method effective is consistency. If you call once to remind someone of their appointment, they will expect this in the future and use it as their “alarm clock” to their appointment. If you suddenly fail to call, they’ll miss their appointment. There are services available like ClientTell and CallPointe that will do the automated phone call appointment reminders for you. Again, whatever you do, you must be consistent. http://www.clienttell.net

Continue reading ‘Appointment Scheduling Management- How to Eliminate No-Shows!’ »

Very often the same mistakes are made in assessing suitable potential salespeople. The biggest issue is make sure that your feelings, whether for or against, do not to affect your opinions about the delegates. This is a chief concern that many people who attend management training courses want to develop. When your are selecting the most suitable candidate do try not to fall into these next categories.

The Halo Effect:

People who mould their opinion of somebody else on just one (often outstanding) trait. You are falling into the halo trap if, for example, you conclude that someone who has a very attractive outward appearance must, therefore, also be intelligent, successful and outgoing. Continue reading ‘Recruiting the Right Sales People’ »

I’ll give you a hint: It’s not their fault. CSO Insights conducted a study of 1800 sales executives and found that sales people only spend 37% of their time selling. Can you believe that? I can.

The sales process is designed with sequential steps that, if followed, should lead to qualification of an opportunity either “in” or “out”. If qualified “in” the next steps should lead to the sale. The sales person should have multiple deals working at the same time each following the steps of the sales process. That sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?

Sales people rely on the support of their entire organization to allow them to achieve the customer satisfaction that will ultimately result in the ’sale’. And, yes you guessed it, the ’sale’ will lead to the achievement of company revenue and profit targets. Continue reading ‘Why Do Sales People Waste 63% of Their Time?’ »

One of the most misused forms of sales and marketing is the testimonial.

This is a shame because it’s also one of the most powerful things you can do to promote your business to prospects. Testimonials are referrals or endorsements from your customers and serve as statements that testify to your competence, professionalism and ability to deliver a strong product or service. Testimonials are widely used not only because they’re effective but because they are low-cost or free way to promote you business and build its image.

By all means, use testimonials but make sure to use them properly or they won’t deliver much of a punch. There’s are easy ways around the classic mistakes made by so many users of testimonials. Just follow these seven rules to help ensure your testimonials deliver new customers in a big way. Continue reading ‘7 Rules For Electrifying Your Testimonials’ »

Are you hitting or beating your sales target or quota? If not, are you blaming the market, the customers or your competition? If you are making your target are you taking the credit for yourself rather than giving it to any of these factors? Regardless of actual sales performance, success or a lack of it will be due to a combination of things. Key within these will be the sales person and their approach and skills. A significant challenge in achieving sales success is that there is no let up! Month on month you need to keep getting orders. No market is constant. There are many variables changing and a lot of organisations, and individuals, do not adapt their sales approach to suit the current situation in their market. What I want is to encourage you to look at your sales approach and offer some thoughts about how you might change it to improve your chances of success.

Whether you are in a sales role yourself or are responsible for sales within your organisation, you need to think about how you are approaching sales. Most of the time people connected with sales are good at paying attention to the “what” – i.e. what the figures are. They forecast them, they report on them, they analyse and discuss them especially when there is a shortfall! (How much time is spent analysing sales success compared with missed targets?) Not enough is spent in looking at “how” the sales were achieved, or not. This is crazy as the “whats” are an outcome of the “hows”. This is going to consider the “how” of your sales approach with the intention of delivering the “what”. Continue reading ‘You May Be Taking the Wrong Approach to Selling!’ »