Ahad, 10 Oktober 2010

The Best Sales Strategy

Setting up a company is not enough. You have to be able to promote your business. You have to be able to sell your products.

What is the best sales strategy? The best sales strategy is finding out what your customers want? Not want you want them to buy, or what you want to sell your customers, but what they want to buy. Let's say you set up an online toystore. You offer your customers toys. Suppose they are not buying your toys?

People come to your website but nobody purchases your toys. So what's the problem?

You might then start asking your customers. What types of toys do they want to buy? Instead of you tellling your customers what to buy. You ask them what they want to buy.

Maybe you include a questionnaire online or a portal for commentary. Maybe you include an email address, asking your customers what type of toys are they interested in.
Your customers let you know.

Then you find those toys and include them on your website. You inform your clients that you have the types of toys they are looking for.

Suppose you sell Space Toys and your clients prefer novelty toys. Then you can include along with the Space Toys novelty toys.

Suppose you have customers who are interested in vintage toys, candy toys, mini toys, then you can include these types of toys on your website.

You can use this sales strategy with almost any kind of business.

You can also start a finder's business. Where you merely ask your clients what type of products are they seeking and your company finds those products.

For instance there's a book company that finds the types of books that their clients are seeking. You tell them the book you're seeking and they find the book. They charge more than the regular price for the book.

Of course with the likes of Amazon.com, most books can be easily located. You can also put the name of the book you're searching for in your favorite search engine.

However, a finder's company allows your customers to determine your products.
 
 

Ten Top Sales Tips for Sales Success

The following tips are tried and true … proven to be effective for companies across a wide diversity of industries and in many different geographic areas. Often, the key to success is being flexible and open-minded about trying something new. If you already have these tips in your arsenal of tricks, then consider this a refresher, akin to spring training in which the baseball pros reinforce and perfect already existing skills. Here goes:

  1. Don’t do the bulk of your business prospecting during prime business hours. Often the call that is placed at 8AM or 6PM will be received by a decision-maker that has more time to talk. And don’t under-estimate the value of leaving voice mail messages at night. These will be the very first messages that your prospect will hear in the morning, thereby increasing the odds of them placing a returned call.
     
  2. If you want to present products and services that are of value to the prospect and that meet their needs, you have to ASK questions. Ask the right questions and the prospect will tell you what they want and how they need to be sold.
     
  3. Too many sales reps launch into a conversation by discussing the features of their products and services. Features never sold anyone. The only thing that a prospect cares about is what these features will do for them. In other words, speak in terms of benefits and your prospect will be more pre-disposed to listening to your presentation.
     
  4. There’s no magic bullet. Prospecting takes time and if your sales pipeline isn’t always filled with prospects in various stages of being worked, then you are in for a future sales slump.
     
  5. Don’t underestimate the power of faxes. In these days of email, faxes have taken a back seat. Because of that, faxes get noticed. Carefully position faxes as part of your prospecting efforts.
     
  6. Follow-up and follow-through are keys to prospecting success. Just like gardening, if you don’t water the seeds, the garden will languish. And so it is with prospecting… if you don’t remain in contact, you will never break through.
     
  7. Give a prospect something for nothing. An article that would be of interest and value, information that you received online etc. and transferred to the prospect with a note "just thought you might be interested in this" indicates that you are thinking of them and wish to be a resource.
     
  8. Periodically tape-record a random sampling of your cold calls. Listen to the tape and assess your tone and voice. How did you sound? Would you want to speak with a person who sounds like you? What about your words? Were they clear and benefits oriented. Taping gives you the opportunity to self-correct your presentation.
     
  9. Pace yourself. Prospecting is a very time-consuming and arduous task. Allocate a specific amount of time each day (week?) and keep to the schedule. It is always easy to put something ahead of the prospecting activity but make an appointment with yourself and don’t break it.
     
  10. Last but definitely not least, maintain a good sense of humor. Make the prospect smile and you’re halfway there!

Konsep Jualan, Pemasaran, Pengiklanan dan Promosi

Dalam Menghadapi suasana ekonomi yang agak mencabar dan penuh halangan aktiviti jualan, pemasaran, pengiklanan dan promosi memainkan peranan yang amat penting untuk memajukan sesebuah peniagaan. Namun konsep jualan, pemasaran, pengiklanan dan promosi yang betul gagal dilaksanakan oleh Usahawan-usahawan SME khususnya Usahawan Bumiputra. Oleh yang Demikian Shahrizan Ali ingin berkongsi pengalaman dan kemahiran sebagai perunding Jualan, Pemasaran, Pengiklanan dan Promosi demi membantu Usahawan-Usawahawan IKS Bumiputera terus maju dan berkembang di masa hadapan. Oleh yang demikian konsep-konsep Jualan, Pemasaran dan Pengiklanan dan promosi yang terkini akan dikongsikan bersama untuk tatapan para-para usahawan.