Tip for July 1, 2006

Launch one battle at a time Your online marketing plan will eventually include a number of weapons used on a number of different fronts. You may operate a web site, use an auto-responder, run classified ads, post articles, conduct online conferences, run sponsorship notices, and conduct a publicity campaign, for example. When you're starting out, though, focus on getting one of these running smoothly before moving on to the next one. It's much better to fight one battle well than to fight several of them half-heartedly.

Tip for July 2, 2006

Traits of a winner. Persistence, genuine enthusiasm, a desire to help others, the ability to maintain momentum when on a roll, the guts to bounce back from rejection, hard and suddenly, you get lucky. You make your own luck - you write your own paycheck in sales. It's not just the commission or the bonus you receive for opening new accounts and servicing your customers well. If you cultivate the "traits of a winner" you'll write your own ticket to a fantastic career in sales. Things don't just happen. It's up to you!

Tip for July 3, 2006

Southwest Airlines sped up its turnaround time not by studying other airlines but by studying pit crews at the Indianapolis 500. The main idea: learn from the real experts and those experts may not be your competitors.

Tip for July 4, 2006

Make trade show connections If you're in a discussion group whose members will be interested in attending a particular trade show that you're planning to attend, offer to meet with other group members at that show. In-person contacts do a lot to cement relationships you've begun online.

Tip for July 5, 2006

A special "TIP" Join or form a "TIP" club with salespeople from other industries. The leads you exchange could be significant. There are a number of salespeople who also call on the same people as you do. Find salespeople in office machines, travel, insurance, long distance service, printing, etc. Form a breakfast or lunch club on a regular schedule, meet and exchange information. The group should consist of only one representative from each industry. The leads you exchange will bring you unexpected sales

Tip for July 6, 2006

Push the envelope The direct mail letter gets 70% of your orders, the brochure 20%, and the order form 10%. But none of these items will be seen if the envelope doesn't grab their attention. Personalize with stamps and hand-written addresses. Try using bright colors, rubber stamp and post-it effects.

Tip for July 7, 2006

Acronyms conserve bandwidth Since time is the most precious commodity on the Net, anything you can do to conserve it for your readers will be appreciated. Using acronyms to shorten your messages saves your readers time, and it saves you time when creating the messages. Some common acronyms are: IMHO (In my humble opinion) IMNSHO (In my not-so-humble opinion) BTW (By the way) FWIW (For what it's worth) YMMV (Your mileage may vary; i.e., your experience may differ) RSVP (Reply, if you please; usually an invitation to a specific group member to respond to a point in a discussion group posting). A little experience in your favorite discussions will help you learn about more acronyms in common use. Just be careful not to make up acronyms on your own that nobody but you understands.

Tip for July 8, 2006

How to involve the prospect. Questions work because they don't communicate phony enthusiasm or desperation. They require involvement on the part of your prospect. You can also control the flow and direction of the sales interview by answering a prospect's question and then asking a question in return. Asking questions, probing questions is only half of what you need to do. Don't ignore the answer. Listen - listen - qualify and paraphrase

Tip for July 9, 2006

Checked your signatures lately? You don't see your outgoing e-mail or discussion group signature in many programs, and out of sight often means out of mind. Check your signature today and make sure it's still correct and that it conveys the right marketing message. It's all too common for people to forget about an old signature and find that they've been broadcasting an old address or phone number for weeks. And be sure to check all your signatures: e-mail and newsgroup signatures on every computer you use.

Tip for July 10, 2006

Don't hinge your future on vague promises. The secret selling statement: "Mr. Prospect, I have a problem and I need your help. I keep telling my boss that you've promised to give me a job order and he keeps asking me when I will hear from you." Too many salespeople spend too much time calling and calling again on the large accounts, hoping to snare volume business which if it ever comes, is many times at a miserably low gross profit. Statistics show that it may take eight contacts to open an account

Tip for July 11, 2006

What influences people the most? 28% of adults say articles about a product; 8% say advertisements. 95% say they believe newspaper articles publicizing a product; 89% say they believe magazine articles; 71% say they believe TV talk shows that are publicizing a product.

Tip for July 12, 2006

Relate your experience Anyone can claim to be an expert on the Net, and a lot of people do, but the proof is in the doing. When sending or posting messages or creating content for your web site, refer to experiences with previous customers wherever possible. It adds veracity to your claims and shows you're as much action as you are talk.

Tip for July 13, 2006

There comes a time when you must move on. Diversify your selling efforts. Don't hinge your future on vague promises that someday you will be getting job orders from the big accounts. Lay it on the line. "Mr. Prospect, you've told me several times that you like our program. Just what do I have to do to have you pick up the phone and give us a job order?" Some people never intend to give you an order. It's up to you to determine when it's time to move on and not waste your time

Tip for July 14, 2006

Small business flexibility One advantage of a small business over a large one is flexibility. Capitalize on this by reacting quickly to market changes and newsworthy events, using competitive plays, employing new media, and providing last-minute offers.

Tip for July 15, 2006

Repackage your message People get bored hearing the same message over and over again, yet repetition is one of the keys to visibility online. What to do? Create new versions of the same message that present your product in slightly different ways. To do this, come up with a list of benefits for your product or service and then think of a message that focuses on each benefit separately. This way, you'll be able to promote the same product in several different ways. Soap manufacturers have been doing this for decades. Soap is basically soap, and the main message is that it cleans things. But soap makers have used benefits ranging from smell to healthfulness to appearance to biodegradability to sell the same product.

Tip for July 16, 2006

Your second best prospects after your customers. What would happen if you made a sales call and follow-up to all customers who have not placed an order in the past six months? If you've waited six months to call on an inactive customer, it's been too long, but this inactive customer is still a better prospect than a prospect who has never used your firm's services. If your approach is framed in the style of a customer service call and handled properly, it can turn into an order on the spot. At the very least, it could re-establish your company as a possible source for the customer to consider. How many customers have you lost because you did not follow up when they stopped giving your company job orders? When you did not come by and your competitor did - guess who got the job orders? Inactive customers are your best prospects

Tip for July 17, 2006

Two exclamation points are weaker than one. Really? Yes! And I mean it!!

Tip for July 18, 2006

Same product, new markets Another way to repeat your basic marketing message without wearing it out is to seek new audiences for it. As you consider the benefits of your product or service, think of specific groups of people who might be interested in that benefit. For example, an auto polish product might initially be sold to groups interested in cars, but it could also be sold to groups interested in motorcycles, boats, airplanes, or travel.

Tip for July 19, 2006

Guerrilla Doug Hannan came up with a promotional offer that helps others to become Guerrillas themselves. He was looking for ways to improve response to a newsletter for North Star T-Shirts in Kimberley, British Columbia, when he came up with an offer for a reverse phone directory. Response to the offer was tremendous. Many readers reported using the reverse directory to confirm information before returning unclear phone messages. Doug says the easiest way create a reverse directory is by using one of the many popular CD ROM phone books, exporting it, sorting on phone number, and then printing.

Tip for July 20, 2006

Never end a page of a direct mail letter with the end of a sentence. It may make the reader think you're finished saying what you have to say. Instead, rearrange your copy so a page ends with things like "You can save more if you.."

Tip for July 21, 2006

Leverage the news Current events of the day or week get more exposure to more people than most other messages anyone puts out. Guerrillas leverage the news by tying their products or services to it. You see tax experts quoted in the first quarter of the year, for example. Or jury-selection experts got a lot of free publicity during the O.J. Simpson trial. When you hear of a news event for which your product or service is a natural fit, create a press release tying the event to your business, and use the "news hook" as a lead-in for discussion group messages or classified ads.

Tip for July 22, 2006

And...what was you company name? Every time your prospect sees or hears your company name, you come one step closer to making the sale. Look for articles of interest, such as a business or human resource article to send to a prospect with a note. If your firm has a customer newsletter, hand deliver the next issue to your prospects and ask for a job order. Why not send a "resume" mailing to your best prospects? Keep your company name in front of your prospects. Make it the name to remember when competition falls down on the job

Tip for July 23, 2006

The right attitude for business: Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's, said, "I believe in God, family and McDonald's and, in the office, that order is reversed."

Tip for July 24, 2006

E-mail aliases focus your attack An easy way to collect e-mail addresses for a focused attack is to add them all to a group or alias in your e-mail program. These functions are standard features in stand-alone e-mail programs such as Eudora, Pegasus, and Claris E-Mailer. For example, suppose you market three products (call them A, B, and C), and you have a new, improved version of product A. To reach only the people who have previously requested information about product A, add all their e-mail addresses to an alias or group as you receive requests for information. Then, when you're ready to do a mailing to that specific group, all you have to do is send it to the group or alias name. Since the individual addresses you want to reach are already part of the group, you don't have to waste time finding them and addressing messages individually. To find more about using groups or aliases, consult the manual for your e-mail program.

Tip for July 25, 2006

The saturation approach Focus on the top 25 prospects in your territory. Develop a sales call and follow-up program of phone calls, personal call-backs and direct mail over a period of eight weeks. How many of these prospects become customers will depend on your thoroughness. How about you? Brainstorm and follow up.If you still don't get a job order, be direct and ask for the prospect's business

Tip for July 26, 2006

You wouldn't plot down in a chair or slouch so your head is barely visible while presenting face to face, so don't do it on the phone either. People can actually hear how you are sitting. Honest? Yes -- honest!

Tip for July 27, 2006

Icons beat imagemaps The last thing you want to do when presenting information on the Net is to make your customers wait for it. Graphic designers have gotten carried away with home pages that feature large imagemaps--big graphics that can be clicked in different areas to lead to different parts of a web site. But big imagemaps take a long time to load, and your customer can't do anything in the meantime except sit and wait. If you want to use graphics to jazz up your home page, use one or more small icons rather than an imagemap. You can use an icon to represent each of your site's departments, and because the graphic files used for the icons are small, they'll load much more quickly than a single large graphic.

Tip for July 28, 2006

Control yourself How you control a prospect's thinking , in direct proportion to how you control your own thinking. Think positive. Remind yourself of your successes

Tip for July 29, 2006

If you stand to present and use visual aids: prospects are 43% more likely to be persuaded, prospects will be willing to pay 26% more for the same product for service, learning is improved up to 200%, retention is improved up to 38%, the time it takes to explain complex topics is reduced by 25% to 40%. So stand up.

Tip for July 30, 2006

Get physical One way to add some solidity to the electronic ghost you create online is to mention physical realities about your company. For example, if you've been in business since 1978, add "Since 1978" to your e-mail signature or web site, or include your physical address. Tangible facts like these help your customers realize that you didn't start into business yesterday and that you're not doing business from a corner of your kitchen table. Another reason to mention your physical location is to attract in-person visits or phone calls from online correspondents who may be in your geographical area.

Tip for July 31, 2006

Southern New England Telephone Company rewards its non sales staff every time they generate a lead for the sales force. If friends of staffers express any interest in any product or service, staffers give the company the lead by calling a toll-free number. The lead is processed and the salesperson contacts the prospect within a few days. For generating the lead, the employee receives a certificate for lunch at a local restaurant. If the lead becomes a sale, the employee can win up to $25 in award points or a gift certificate for selected stores. In l993, the program generated $1 million in revenue. The message of the program should be the message even without a program -- "You can make the difference." Related item: Southwest Airlines hires employees based on their sense of humor.

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