Kind Pointers to Info Streams

Getting Search Engine Optimization expertise has now grown to become the most efficient procedure for growing and making improvements to the numbers of site traffic to a website on organic search results. Consequently, business organizations of every size are getting ever more eager in the potential to increase their internet publicity. internet marketing, the problem is not all services available in the internet today are reliable and effective.

Melbourne Internet Marketing is a leading solution for this challenge. The business is rooted with strong SEO awareness which happens to be proven versatile and accommodating to the net?s ever varying environment. Its constantly on top of the newest techniques along with affordable SEO to significantly boost the visitors and radically improve the organisation?s internet exposure.

The company, set up in 2007, has partnered with experts to make certain that superior quality performance and faultless results. Melbourne Internet Marketing has revealed the preceding aspects are important to the majority of web site owners for marketing online functions:Keyword & Key phrase Research. Keywords are the most fundamental factor in SEO. Keyword research must be done effectively if not the tasks could be for nothing. There should be thorough analysis on the keywords within the business niche.

Keyword Implementation. This is where the keyword research final results are implemented. There?s a review done on the website content of the page and the code configuration of that web page. They strongly recommend the important elements on every individual page of a website are titles, headlines and keyword density through out the content.

On-Page SEO. This is the addition of keyword implementation which is only appropriate to the web site. This can assist the search engine quantify or rapidly figure out exactly what the website is about aiding in the placing of your web page in the most suitable search engine result pages.

Forum Discussions. It is important to build-up online reliability to intended targeted customers. It’s also essential to create a reputation through the user discussion forums. Consequently, you will deliver positive outcomes for the business enterprise.

Internet Marketing Really Does Matter

In conclusion, for almost any organization that has a internet site and needs to pull in potential consumers from the web community, internet marketing or at least affordable SEO is beneficial, in connection with this affordable SEO is of great interest. People today may either undertake it by themselves, there is lots of information which could be obtained by searching online to show techniques to do their SEO, or it is easy to pay a pro to do it .

Standing out at a Career Faire can make a difference in your job hunt. Job Faires are starting to pick up, and a major job search company is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a Bay Area Career Faire in January, 10 companies as showing up, and Dice has 82 job fairs scheduled for this year across the States.

How do you rise above the crowd at a Job Faire? The contention can be considerable, but you can help yourself leap out from the gang with early preparation. At AA-Careers, we have a simple 6-step process to prepare. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:

First, research the companies that are going and pick your targets. Use the web to check out the organizations that are there ahead of time. Go to their websites and see if they have their job openings posted. Pick a rational number to target, and get ready to spend about an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than 8 in a day, and four to six is a much more reasonable target. For each hiring organization, you want to know: key product lines, recent news, and executive names. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You’ll end up with a page or two of research for each company/job.

Second, if there are job openings on the web, read them to see what the company is looking for. Create a mapping of your accomplishments and skills to the demands of the job. Make the terminology match. If the hiring organization calls customers "clients", your resume should do the same thing. The accomplishments should be written in the style of the hiring company.

Third, create a ‘brief sales pitch’ for each potential company/position combination. Write down a 60 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud depicting why you are a good candidate for that job. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the team from the company at the job stall.

Fourth, modify your resume for each opportunity. The objective on your resume should exactly match the position you’re targeting. The executive summary should be a written form of your “mini sales pitch” for the job. Then choose the accomplishments and skills that most clearly match the job requirements. Especially at a Job Faire, the purpose of your resume is a sales tool for you – to get you on-site job interviews. It should be a no-brainer to see that you’re a match based on your resume.

Fifth, practice your ‘mini-sales-pitch’. Collect your research and the resume for each position - bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a intelligibly labeled folder. Keep them in a light briefcase or folio.

Finally, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress well and be well groomed. Avoid strong cologne or perfume…use any eau de cologne or scent sparingly, if at all.

Remember to smile, and good hunting!

Doing business over meals is a ritual that has existed for centuries. Taking clients to breakfast, lunch or dinner has long been an effective way to build relationships, make the sale or seal the deal. These business meals are essentially business meetings. Knowledge of your product or your service is crucial to the success of the meeting, but so are your manners. Too many people jeopardize an opportunity because they fail to use good dining etiquette. Here are a few basic rules to make the experience pleasurable and profitable.

Know your duties as the host. You are in charge. It is up to you to see that things go well and that your guests are comfortable. You need to attend to every detail from extending the invitation to paying the bill.

Plan ahead when you issue the invitation. Allow a week for a business dinner and three days for lunch. Be certain that the date works for you. That might sound obvious, but if you have to cancel or postpone, you can look disorganized and disrespectful of your clients’ time.

Select a restaurant that you know, preferably one where you are known. This is no time to try out the latest hot spot. Being confident of the quality of the food and service leaves you free to focus on business.

Consider the atmosphere. Does it lend itself to conversation and discussion? If you and your clients can’t hear each other over the roar of the diners and dishes, you will have wasted your time and money.

When you make your reservation, let the staff know that you will be dining with clients. If your guests suggest a restaurant new to you (perhaps you are hosting clients out-of-town), call ahead and speak with the maitre’d. Make it clear that you will be having an important business meal and picking up the check.

Confirm the meal appointment with your clients the day before if you are meeting for breakfast or that day if you are having lunch or dinner. Things do happen and mix-ups occur.

Arrive early so you can attend to last minute details. This is the perfect time to give your credit card to the maitre’d and avoid the awkwardness that seems to accompany the arrival of the bill.

Take charge of the seating. Your guests should have the prime seats-the ones with the view. As the host, take the least desirable spot-the one facing the wall, the kitchen or the restrooms.

Beyond being polite, where you seat your guests is strategic. When you are entertaining one client, sit next to each at a right angle rather than across the table. With two clients, put one across from you and the other to your side. If you sit between them, you will look as if you are watching a match at Wimbledon as you try to follow the conversation.

Allow your guests to order first. You might suggest certain dishes to be helpful. By recommending specific items, you are indicating a price range. Order as many courses as your guests, no more and no less, to facilitate the flow of the meal. It is awkward if one of you orders an appetizer or dessert and the others do not.

As the host, you are the one who decides when to start discussing business. That will depend on a number of factors such as the time of day and how well you know your clients. At breakfast, time is short so get down to business quickly. At lunch, wait until you have ordered so you won’t be interrupted. Dinner, the more social occasion, is a time for rapport building. Limit the business talk and do it after the main course is completed.

When you know your clients well, you have more of a basis for small talk. However, because you have established a business friendship, you can eliminate some of the chitchat when time is an issue. When you don’t know your clients well, spend more time getting acquainted before launching your shoptalk.

Sometimes you simply need to use your own judgment about when to get down to business, realizing that if you wait too long, your clients may start to wonder why they were invited. If you begin too early in the meal, your guests might suspect that you are more interested in their money than you are in them.

Keep an eye on the time, but don’t let your guests see you checking your watch. Breakfast should typically last an hour; lunch an hour and a half. Wrap up your business dinner in two to three hours, no more.

Handle any disasters with grace. With all your attention to detail, things can still go wrong. The food may not be up to your standards, the waiter might be rude or the people at the next table boisterous and out of control. Whatever happens, make sure you are not the one to lose control. Excuse yourself to discuss any problems with the staff. Your guests will feel uncomfortable if you complain in front of or to them.

Limit the amount of alcohol you drink at the business meal. The three Martini lunch is mostly a thing of the past. However, cocktails and wine are still part of the business dinner. Since alcohol can have the same effect as truth serum, keep your consumption to one or two glasses. When guests are drinking liberally and you sense trouble, excuse yourself and discreetly ask the server to hold back on refilling the wine glasses or offering another cocktail.

Your conduct over the meal will determine your professional success. If you pay attention to the details and make every effort to see that your clients have a pleasant experience, they will assume that you will handle their business the same way. Before long you could have them eating out of your hand.

(c) 2005, Lydia Ramsey. All rights in all media reserved.

Lydia Ramsey is a business etiquette expert, professional speaker, corporate trainer and author of MANNERS THAT SELL - ADDING THE POLISH THAT BUILDS PROFITS. She has been quoted or featured in The New York Times, Investors’ Business Daily, Entrepreneur, Inc., Real Simple and Woman’s Day. For more information about her programs, products and services, e-mail her at lydia@mannersthatsell.com or visit her web site www.mannersthatsell.com

You’ve polished your sales page over and over againuntil it’s gleaming with benefits. You’re gettingplenty of traffic. And still - no sales.

What’s wrong?

It could be the recession (although that’s debatable).

With thousands of people losing their jobs each week,consumer confidence (and therefore consumer spending)is down.

But on the other hand, if thousands of people arelosing their jobs, there is without doubt a growingarmy of people out there who are looking to theInternet to make their living.

But let’s leave aside the recession, and look at twoother reasons you may not be getting sales:

(1) People very rarely buy the first time.

You must have heard the statistics - people have tosee your product an average of 7 times before they buyit. When I cast my mind back to the marketing eBooksI’ve purchased, in each case I saw those booksadvertised for months - on websites, in newsletters -before I bought them.

So if you want to make a sale, you must find a way tostay in contact with your visitors - and bring themback.

The easiest way to do this is to offer your visitors afree subscription to your newsletter.

Another way is to offer your visitors a freeautoresponder course that educates them about theproduct or service you are offering. Create a seriesof 5 emails about your service or product and put themon an autoresponder that provides automated follow-up.

Getresponse is a free service that allows you up to 20follow-ups (you specify the intervals between eachmessage):

http://www.getresponse.com/

The point here is that if your visitors leave yourwebsite without taking anything away (a free versionof your E-Book, an autoresponder course, yourNewsletter), you’ve probably lost them for good.

(2) Allow people to feel they already own it.

If you give your visitors the feeling of what it wouldbe like to own your product or service, they’re muchmore likely to buy.

Here’s a real-life example of this principle (a ratherdisturbing one).

It’s a well known fact that if a burglar can see intoyour house, they are much more likely to rob you thanif they can’t. Why?

Because by seeing into your house, the burglar hasalready ‘owned’ it psychologically.

If a burglar can’t see into your house, you are muchless likely to be robbed (you can’t psychologically’own’ what you can’t see).

Here’s another interesting fact. If your house hasbeen burgled, there’s a very high probability that thesame burglar will return - 6 or 8 weeks later. Why?

Again, it’s the same principle. The burglar has seenthe inside of your house - and has psychologically’owned’ it.

It’s because of this same principle that car salesmentry and get potential customers to sit in the new car.Once you’ve smelt the inside of that new car, you’remuch more likely to buy it. You’ve imagined owning it.

So give your visitors a free download of one or twochapters of your E-Book, or a free trial period ofyour service. Let them imagine what it would be liketo own it.

————————————————————
Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over 3
years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this
simple technique to build a successful online business. Click
here to find out more: http://ezine-writer.com/
————————————————————

What are you doing now to try and set up an appointment with your prospect? Calling? Is that all? Guess what? Every other salesperson is doing the same thing. They’re trying to get the appointment that could be YOURS!

So, what are you going to do about it?

Stand out!

If you want the prospect to believe that you and your company are different, then you must prove it to them from the beginning! Your initial contact with them should show that you are creative, that you are persistent, and that your business is the better choice for them.

Calling your prospects is only one of the many resources you have for establishing contact with them and setting up the appointment.

Not only are you limiting yourself to one option, you’re also using the method that may leave the worst impression on your prospect. When you call, you are assuming that you are important enough for your prospect to stop whatever they are doing at that moment and talk to you so that you can try to sell them something.

How inconvenient and annoying is that? VERY.

So let’s use our imagination, shall we? Let’s think of some creative ways to get in front of your prospects and grab their attention. There are many obvious modes right in front of you, like snail mail, e-mail and faxes.

This doesn’t mean you should stop calling your prospects. It means that you should stop relying on this method to gain that appointment. Using a variety of mediums (like those mentioned above), and learning to match them with the right message, will get you through to your prospect and capture their attention.

Got guts?

Have the courage to try something fun and new with your prospects. Too scared? Think about it this way: if your boring method isn’t working with them now, don’t you think it’s time to try something new? You might as well have some fun with it, anyway.

Your level of comfort and unique style will help determine how risky you will allow yourself to be. If you’re not ready to take the full plunge, there are still ultra-safe solutions that bring remarkable results.

For example, create a customized document with creative business ideas and solutions that your client can use to become more productive or more profitable.

Sound strange?

Take a step back and look at the idea objectively. Your prospect will only buy from you if you can prove that your product and company will make them more productive and more profitable. So that should be the primary purpose of your contact.

A result-based document like this will be sure to stand out among the many brochures your prospect gets from other salespeople. It will be read. Even if your ideas stink, your prospect will notice and remember your name because your approach was different from others.

Important: Never send your client a brochure about your company. Nobody wants to read about how great you think you are. Prospects want to read about themselves and how they can improve to gain better results. They will consider you when you show them how you can fit into that equation.

(Don’t send brochures? Well, what else can I do? For more ideas, send a blank e-mail to appointment@tomrichard.com.)

Keep standing!

Some prospects, in an effort to be polite, may simply try to wait you out. They will ignore your voicemails and e-mails, and wait for you to get bored and go away.

You must have the longevity to remain pleasantly persistent with your prospects, or you may lose the appointment and the sale!

Being pleasantly persistent means that you are NEVER annoying or pushy (pleasant) and that you apparently will NEVER go away (persistent). When faced with this type of person, your prospect has only one logical option left, and that is to finally meet with you.

Make it personal

If you want to have pleasant contact with your prospect, you must establish a relationship that is personal. A call from a salesperson is a nuisance, but a call from a friend is always a pleasure.

Send your prospects personalized e-mails, or handwritten notes to set the tone for the transaction. Regardless of your company, your product, and the nature of your situation, you can still find ways to make your contact with your clients as personal as possible. Your effort to contact them in this manner will show them how important their business is to you. This sets the tone for your relationship, and this relationship sets the tone for the sale.

Focus, focus, focus

It’s too easy for prospects to wait out inexperienced and overzealous salespeople! The only thing separating you from your competition is your ability to decide that you are going to win. You will get the appointment with the prospect because you have the creativity to stand out and the determination to remain persistent!

Throughout this entire process, keep a clear objective in mind. See your transaction as a series of goals. Sure, you may want that appointment, but first you must work on getting your prospect to pick up the phone and call you, or finally take your call.

When you represent your good ideas creatively, personally, and persistently, you will not only get the appointment, you will get the SALE!

Tom Richard is the author of a weekly ezine titled, Sales Muscle, as well as the book Smart Sales People Don’t Advertise: 10 Ways To Outsmart Your Competition With Guerilla Marketing. To view his works please visit http://www.tomrichard.com

The story

A few weeks ago, I met Chris at a networking event. We chatted about what his
company was doing and what my business was all about. He quickly realized that
his company’s online solutions could be beneficial for us and said, “Charlie, we
should really meet soon so that I can show you our solutions that can lead you to
more business.” We had fairly good rapport and my company was then currently
considering improvements to our online approach, so I was willing to respond to his
suggestion.

A few days later, Chris called me and we set a meeting. During the meeting, he
showed me a brochure with all his company’s solutions and kept asking whether
this or that solution would be of interest to me.

We finally nailed down one area of immediate interest and three areas for future
consideration out of the list of around 10 solutions. Then I asked a few technical
questions that Chris could only partially answer, so he suggested that I meet one of
their software engineers for further clarifications. This was fine with me, especially
because the engineer provided me with more satisfactory answers.

Before I left, Chris promised to send me a quote for the more immediate
requirement, including some of the options that were briefly mentioned by the
engineer. I received the proposal a couple of days later, and after a few more days,
Chris called me to check if I received the quote and if everything was clear.

Let’s see which aspects of Chris’s approach are in line with the “Stop Selling!”
approach, and then I’ll discuss what a person with the “Stop Selling!” mindset would
have done differently:

In line with the “Stop Selling!” approach

The responsiveness and reliability that Chris displayed was perfectly fine and gave
me, his potential buyer, the feeling that his is a credible, trustworthy company.

Even if Chris did not have full technical competence, it was not an issue for me as a
buyer - I appreciated his efforts in having the engineer answer my questions.
Furthermore, the situation assured me that in future dealings, he wouldn’t suggest
solutions unsuited to my expectations, and that he would understand my
expectations in the first place.

The way I was received at his office was very welcoming and certainly immediately
improved the already existing good rapport - an important basis for building trust.

What I would have done differently

It actually started at the networking event. As a potential buyer, I found it way too
premature for Chris to claim that his company’s solutions will lead my company to
more business. If he would have shared that his company’s solutions helped other
companies similar to mine, it would have been much more attractive and believable
to me.

Also, instead of saying “can show you our solutions”, I would have preferred if he
said something like “I would like to discuss with you what you are doing today and
what your potential is for more online business in the future.” This way, he would
have focused on my interests (potentially more business) as opposed to his (their
solutions that he wanted to sell).

During our meeting, Chris immediately presented his company brochure with his
company’s products to see whether any of them would interest me. I would have
preferred if he asked about my business first and what kind of online solutions we
already had in place. He could have helped me discover which aspects of my current
solutions work for me and which aspects create difficulties. Also, we could have
developed a vision for my online business for the next couple of years and then
together work out a plan on how to get there. His company’s products could have
been tools to make this plan a reality, and if they turned out unsuitable or
insufficient, I would have been grateful for his suggestions on who else could help
complement their solutions. As a next step, we could have discussed how to create
the cash flow from the online business to pay for the necessary - perhaps high-cost
- tools. Eventually, it could have even ended up in a strategic partnership with his
company.

Chris was not able to deepen the trust to a level that would have made this kind of
exploration possible. To me as a buyer, it was quite obvious that his main interest
was to sell any of their products even though he didn’t do it in a pushy way. Instead,
we stayed at the product level and in situations such as this, customers end up
either buying a small solution, which will lead to some improvements, or buying
nothing at all.

Conclusion: If you are focused on selling your product rather than on the
best possible outcome for your potential buyer, you might miss out on great
opportunities and will become a mere product consultant. Instead, if you coach your
buyer through his best buying decision, you will not only create first-class
relationships but will also expand the potential for doing business with your
prospective buyers.

Charlie works with executives who are already successful and want to stay at the
leading edge. They are often challenged by issues like:
- How to improve staff retention, especially how to keep top performers
- How to achieve a corporate success culture that guarantees longterm success
- How to create new levels of excellence through high employee engagement
- How to transform the business results through a different approach towards sales

Charlie, an executive coach & trainer who is known for his innovative approaches
towards leadership, change processes and sales, assists his clients in mastering
these challenges. They achieve outstanding results through Charlie’s unique
application of latest findings in research combined with his own experience in
international management and leadership.

Charlie is the author of numerous articles and of the book The Groupness
Factor. He delivers speeches and keynotes on sales, leadership and coaching.

Have you ever been in the position where you are getting, what you think to be, close to concluding the deal only to find your client comes up with objections?

Some would argue, as salespeople, we have not handled all the possible objections upfront, in other words we have not demonstrated our value proposition fully. However, in the real world objections at the last minute happen to all of us regardless of what we think we have done to conclude the deal.

What objection?

It is what we see as an objection and how we manage that objection that will give us the edge in closing the deal. I have been asked many times about how to handle objections and my initial stock answer is usually, “Have you fully demonstrated your value proposition to the client?” However, this does not serve a great deal of good if the salesperson feels inclined to think, “Of course I have.”

It may be true that the salesperson has indeed not identified some of these objections when going through the sales cycle, but that does not mean the end of the deal. The prospect is talking to us because they have a need and I would suggest that any objection is in fact an “Implied Need.”

Whilst the majority of objections are ‘Implications of Need,’ there are some that will be described as real; the ‘price objection’ and the ‘product objection’. These real objections are handled by reducing their impact with the value argument. Set them against the benefits that have been agreed already and their affect is minimised.

So, get into our minds that there are only two “real” objections behind why a prospect may not buy and you will find that any other objections can be handled - which will allow you to further demonstrate your value.

Prescriptive Reflex!

Many training courses promote the use of prescriptive reflex responses to the typical objections that a salesperson will encounter. Unfortunately such methods preclude us from seeing the objection as a positive contributor to the sale. As we have discussed, objections are really needs in disguise and by using the ‘reflex statement’ we are in fact ignoring the prospect’s views and needs.

Before we go on, let me give you an example. Read the statement below and consider the reflex response from the salesperson.

Prospect; “Right now we do not have the resources internally to manage such a complicated solution.”
Salesman; “If we could show you how easy it could be to make this possible would you buy from us.”

The prescriptive response from the salesperson will only harm the sales cycle. This is a wasted opportunity. There are real needs behind the prospect statement. In fact it is not an objection at all but a series of ‘implied needs’ which, if explored and developed, would enhance our chances of addressing all the customer’s requirements. Can you name all the “implied needs” in the prospect’s statement? Could you turn these “implied needs” into “benefit statements” which will help close our deal?

If you can’t see the implied needs, it does not mean you are bad at selling, it usually means that you may need to improve or hone your skills. Why not write down some of the “objections” you have encountered in the field over the last few months. Look at them and see if you can pull out the implied needs. If you want, email them to us and we will reply with the implied needs.

You could also read about BlueEskimo’s sales methodology, Real Value Selling©. It is all about the value proposition. This primarily describes the only reason, motivation or justification for an organisation or company to purchase any product or service. These values are also described as the ‘Buying Criteria’ - the reasons for choosing a particular product or supplier over another. These justifications are commercial and can only be described in financial terms, or the payback but not the price!

And if nothing else, next time you encounter an objection, remember it is only an implied need in disguise.

Kevin McLaren - Sales Trainer and business development
http://www.blueeskimo.com

If you will do small business did you may realize how important is to set goals and if you work with others who are also in business with you then you know it is important for the whole team to stay motivated and to set objectives. You see, in business it is a competitive environment like sports and dually get out what to put in. If you fail to play out you have inadvertently planned to fail.

Many people dream of a business of their own and many of those who take the plunge to start their own business and risk their own capital and hard work dream of rags to riches and living the good life. However, simply dreaming of all these wonderful things that you may have in the future is not necessarily going to bring them to you. You must set goals.

An interesting case in point; Reverend Doctor Martin Luther king Jr. had a dream. It still has not been accomplished yet, some day hopefully it will. But had he had a goal with quarterly objectives that dream may have been accomplished sooner. You can sit back a dream about conquering your regional market, but if you want to win that market you need a definite and definitive game plan.

What you did yesterday is great, what you will do tomorrow may seem too many to be impossible to others. Your only enemy is not the competition it is procrastination. You must believe in yourself in your team and if you want to achieve the dream you must set goals. Consider this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Ever heard of something called “conversion rate”. You may have but are you measuring it all the time, or are you just guessing what it might be?

If you don’t know what conversion rate means you’re missing out on the most powerful strategy there is in the world to increase sales, without spending a cent. Plus, by increasing your conversion rate your net profits always go up!

So what is conversion rate?

Conversion rate is the difference between how many call, walk in or contact your business and then how many of them end up buying. For example, if you had 10 phone calls to your business and you took their name and phone over time you simply track how many of them actually spent money with you. So if you have 3 people buy from you your conversion rate would be 30% or 3 out of 10.

This simple measurement is life changing for business owners when they see the power of it. If you don’t know your conversion rate and “guess” it’s about 50% I guarantee you’re wrong! Almost everyone thinks their conversion rate it higher than it actually is. The reason being is that the people you talk to that say they’ll come back and buy later or that sound like they are very interested in buying often don’t. But you don’t know that if you don’t measure all inquiries because you assume they have bought.

When you measure your conversion rate be prepared for a shock. I’ve worked with retailers who thought it was 75% and found it was 38%. I’ve worked with service businesses that thought it was 50% and we found it to be 13%.

They get a bit depressed when they realise its only 13%, but I get excited! That’s because it’s impossible to double 50% conversion rate, but with 13% you can triple it and still have room for improvement!

Did you know that increasing your conversion rate proportionally increases turnover and net profit? That means if you increase your conversion rate by 50% (e.g. from 24% to 36%) you have just increased your turnover by 50% as well! That’s because you get 50% more paying customers than you have right now. And you can increase your conversion rate, turnover and profit without spending a cent on advertising or promotion.

So how do you measure it? First of all you need 2 to 3 bits of information on every person who contacts your business. Things like their name, phone number and what their inquiry was about.

This then gives you information to refer back; to see how many people actually ended up buying that contacted your business. With your business it may take days before you can tally inquiries to customers. For some service businesses you may need to wait a month from the inquiry date to purchase due to the time it takes people to make a decision.

You’ll notice your conversion rate will be different for each of your staff. Why is that? Good question. But when you realise the difference you can do something about it, but until you have measured it how can you do anything about it?

So now, onto the magic question, How To Improve Your Conversion Rate!

There are at least 80 ways! Want to know the best ones? Here they are…

1. Learn DISC profiles. DISC profiling has to be the most unknown method of understanding people there is, yet in business it’s the most powerful tool you can learn and use. DISC is an insight into 4 major differences in people’s behaviour. When you learn DISC profiles you understand some people want to be friends with the person they buy from, while others find friendly sales people annoying and don’t buy from them. Some people (about 50%) make all sales decisions very quickly, usually on the spot. While 50% of people always want to think about it, usually over a day or two. DISC is something I teach to all my clients and all who learn it from me increase their sales (turnover and profit) by 20%-300% in weeks!

2. Offer guarantees in writing. Everyone has some level of apprehension about parting with money, so a guarantee helps to overcome that apprehension and helps people to make confident decisions. What can you guarantee in writing that you have not be offering now? What about not to leave a mess if you’re in a service business? What about being completely happy with your purchase of you will gladly allow refunds? Retailers often don’t want to refund so they scare away dozens of potential customers for the sake of a very few possibly wanting refunds. (To learn more about DISC see the article ‘How to Build Rapport in 7 Seconds’ by Tim Stokes at www.ezinearticles.com)

3. Make your business appear unique. This again is a powerful tool as when you “appear” unique or different you stop losing sales to price shoppers. It’s not hard to do, in fact when you use guarantees like those above it makes you very unique!

4. Learn body language. Body language is responsible for 55% of what you communicate before you open your mouth! Everyone has heard of it but how many people use it? Almost none! Go read a book on it and try it. Body language is a form of flattery and people buy from people they like or relate to.

5. Try different words you use to greet people face to face or on the phone. Retailers are notorious for saying things that elicit “no thanks just looking”. That’s because they set up that response by what they say. Try saying different phrases on greeting and see what happens. Its the same on the phone, if you finish off your greeting with “name speaking” you often get people who think you’re a dummy and respond with, “I’d like to talk to someone about…” In other words you can’t help me so can you get me someone who can. Try not using speaking and see what happens.

Are you starting to get the picture there are dozens of ways you to improve what you’re doing now with your conversion rate? First you have to measure it, before you can improve it. Collate it over a day, then a week then a month. When you do you will have a powerful Key Performance Indicator.

Working with business owner’s conversion rates I have had dozens and dozens of fantastic profit improvements in weeks and months. My record is a blind manufacturing company that had a conversion rate of 3.5% and then 6 months later we took it to 75% and that was with a 35% increase in prices along the way! What percentage increase it that in profit? I don’t know, but it’s massive!

I did the same with a retailer. They had a conversion rate of 68% and using a sales system I wrote with them they hit 100% conversion rate the week we started using it. It never dropped under 82% again.

If you don’t increase your conversion rate your marketing will rarely make you a good profit return, or enough to pay for itself with profit from the sales from the promotion. When you double conversion rates you double your turnover and advertising responses, so you can run your ads half as much saving you profit as well.

I’ll leave you with this thought… You can’t improve something if you haven’t measured it. Measuring is the secret to all of your success in business.

Tim Stokes has achieved fantastic profit increases in countless numbers of businesses using conversion rate strategies along with hundreds of other strategies. Tim is available for assistance if you’d like to grow your business faster, increase your profits, take home pay or even if you want to overcome any limitation to growing your business.

See Tim’s other articles at http://www.ezinearticles.com or go to his website at http://www.bbms.com.au and check out his impressive client testimonials. Tim is one of the world’s best business builders and was awarded the title “Worldwide Business Coach of the Year 2000″.

Whatever your challenge or desire in business Tim can help you to achieve it rapidly! Why wait?

Recently, I was asked to spend some time on the telephone, coaching a client’s administrative assistant on how to check out an employment candidate’s references. After each in-person or telephone conference, I complete a brief written report going over the information discussed. The information that I gave this worker was so vital to the company’s overall sales management success that I felt impelled to share the report in my periodic client e-mailings, feeling that it might be of value to others that I serve. The information is so vital to the management process, I decided to reproduce it here as well.

After over 22 years of advising managers, I’m convinced that the hiring process is the primary key to management success. If you hire right, your job of managing staff is made much easier. Here are the suggestions I made along these lines:

Julie:

It was good to talk to you yesterday.

As we discussed, the assignment you’ve been given by management to call each sales support candidate’s references, is vital to the company’s future sales success. As I teach in my coaching workshop, if you work hard at the hiring process, it makes managing staff members much easier over the long term.

You were right when you commented that calling references “is not that easy.” I agree that there is resistance by many business owners and managers to giving out information in today’s litigious business environment. However, the process we discussed can help you overcome this refusal to help you complete this important assignment.

The Steps To Checking References:

1. You need to obtain from three to five business references from each of the candidates approved by management.

2. Call the candidate’s references and use the following script in your own words to obtain the information needed to make an informed decision in hiring a given candidate:

“We plan on giving (candidate first name) extensive training to help her (him) to be successful in this new position. Could you please help me with several suggestions on areas we need to train (candidate) so she (he) can make a smooth transition?”

3. Next, ask the reference to give you two or three names of other managers or co-workers who could give you insight into helping the candidate make the transition.

4. Then, call the reference’s references and use the same script outlined in step two above to elicit additional information about the candidate.

It’s so easy to make a couple of calls and then give up on finding information. You really need to work hard at this process to help management make sound decisions about the top candidates for a given position. This assignment is vital to producing consistent sales success.

VIRDEN THORNTON is the founder and President of The $elling Edge®, Inc. a firm specializing in sales, customer relations, and management training and development. Clients have included Sears Optical, Eastman Kodak, IBM, Deloitte & Touché, Bank One, Jefferson Pilot, and Wal-Mart to name a few. Virden is the author of Prospecting: The Key To Sales Success and the best selling Building & Closing the Sale, Fifty-Minute series books and Close That Sale, a video/audio tape series published by Crisp Publicantions a dividion of Thompson Learning. He has also authored a client acclaimed Self-Directed Learning series of sales, coaching & team development, telemarketing, and personal productivity training guides. To obtain a substantial discount on two of Virden’s new manuals, 101 Sales Myths and Organizing For Sales Success, check the listings on The $elling Edge, Inc. website at: http://www.TheSellingEdge.com/book1.htm.

Note: You can contact Virden at: virden@TheSellingEdge.com