Nine hidden buyer questions

Here's what you need to do before you build a tele sales script or a sales presentation according to Colly Graham from Graham Associates Sales Training and Development. 
I call them the nine hidden buyer questions because these are the questions your prospective customers may not ask but do need answered to make a positive decision.
 

Nine Hidden Buyer Questions:
1. Why should I take your call now? 
2. Why should I take time to listen to you?
3. What's my problem?
4. What benefits you have for my business?
5. How will you support these benefits?
6. Why should I trust you?
7. Why should I trust your company?
8. Why should I make a decision to proceed?
9. Why should I proceed today?
 

Write out your answers to the nine buyer questions, you will discover it will keep your presentation focused and on track. It is just an easy-to-follow plan to build your script or a presentation!

One Click Contact Capture Solution for Small Businesses

In today’s fast-paced world, running a profitable small business warrants a lot of proven management practices. With limited resources, small businesses have to manage their day-to-day tasks effectively in order to achieve the desired goals and objectives on time. But the revealing fact is that small business owners face a lot of challenges that impacts the productivity and growth of their businesses.

Maintaining an accurate and up-to-date contact database is very crucial for any small business. Typically, contacts are available in web pages, email signatures, documents, and other sources. Manually typing each and every contact detail into the respective fields of the contact manager is not only time consuming but also a tiresome task. Manual data entry also ends up in typos and hiring an additional resource increases the overheads. This is where a data entry automation tool like AddressGrabber can offer a one click contact capture solution.

AddressGrabber offers one click contact capture solution for small businesses. AddressGrabber captures the address and transfers to your database in a single click. AddressGrabber helps you streamline data entry process and capture address quickly and effortlessly. AddressGrabber supports the most popular contact managers like ACT!, Outlook and even supports shipping and accounting applications.

AddressGrabber helps you save a lot of time and money, and helps small businesses raise the productivity bar.

Click here to download your free copy

Writing winning proposal

Never title your proposal "Proposal". 

That doesn't say anything. Clients can't figure out themselves. Instead, use a benefit statement as the title.
Focus on your clients' business needs or mission objectives first: 

Mirror what you have heard from them before offering a solution. That addresses what they care about the most, and it shows you've listened and considered their interests and are not offering a canned approach. Do not have lengthy corporate histories in your proposal. Nobody's really interested in it.
Avoid using jargon: 

Even if your contact at the client organization understands all of your jargon, others who might be reviewing your proposal may not understand it (decisions are seldom made by a single contact). However, it is good to use client's jargon.
Keep your proposal as short as possible:  

You may be tempted to throw in anything and everything that might be of interest, but decision makers really won't read it. At best, they'll skim through your document. Shorter the proposal the more likely it is looked at first, which means all others will be judged in comparison to it. That's an added advantage if you've done a good job.
Highlight your key points: 

Since the decision makers skim, make your document more "skimmable" by highlighting the main ideas. Use bullets, headings and sub-headings, boldface type, color, borders, graphics, and anything else that will make your key points jump off the page.
Quantify your benefits and payback: 

Show the decision-maker how much she or he will save, or how much more productive the organization will be. A convincing calculation of your client's return on investment is more compelling than a slogan or cliche.
Prioritize your uniqueness factors or competitive advantages: 

Think about what you have to offer and select a few qualities, prioritized in terms of what your client cares about. If possible, tie them to that ROI you're demonstrating.
Ghost the competition: 

If you know who you are competing against, raise issues in your proposal that strike at their weak points. Don't disparage them or mention them by name. But if you know their product has longer implementation time, make a big deal about the importance of shorter implementation time.
Ask for their business: 

Ask for it in the cover letter, ask for it in the Executive Summary, and ask for it when you deliver or present the proposal. Being passive doesn't work. You have to ask.

Differentiate yourself from your competitors

Do you sell products that can be purchased somewhere else? If you do, it is very important to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Are you different from competitors?

Below are the interesting statistics from a study conducted by The Sales Board in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 16,000 customers and 300 salespeople in 25 different industries:

=> 82% of salespeople fail to differentiate themselves from competitors.

=> 99% of salespeople set the wrong sales call objectives.

=> 86% of salespeople ask the wrong questions.

=> 95% of salespeople talk too much.

=> 62% of salespeople fail to ask for commitment.

Result?

They either fail to sell value, don't get their price or lose the business.

Why differentiate yourself?

Think about it. If consumers can buy the same products elsewhere, and if prospects can't see much difference between you and your competitors, WHY should they buy from you?

So, you should differentiate yourself

=> To give people a reason to buy from you!

=> Tactfully knock the competition

You will lose trust and credibility by criticizing your competitors - even if you are right and even if customers KNOW you are right. But there are ways to be tactful when you let customers know you ARE different from your competitors - WITHOUT naming the competition.

Some tactful phrases to differentiate yourself:

=> No other (company/product) comes close.

=> Unlike other (companies/products) . . .

=> Nobody can match our (quality/value/service/selection).

=> We give you more (value/service) than any other (company).

=> There's no comparison!

HAPPY SELLING!!

Looking for Contact Capture software?

For people who are in data entry profession, gathering information from different sources like emails, websites is a time consuming operation and it takes hundreds of man hours just to ensure the quality is top notch. To collect address information, organize them and most importantly, to assure that there are no duplicates or typos, was always a tough job for any individual. More clients to handle meant additional resources which in turn meant more effort and money spent.
Using traditional "cut and paste" contact capture method, is truly painful in both the time it takes and the repetitive strain it causes.
 

Here is a faster and more accurate way to capture contacts in a single click.
 

AddressGrabber, a Contact Capture software, intelligently figures out name and address details of any selected block of text and automatically enters them into the appropriate fields in your Address Book.
 

Benefits:
=> Increases sales productivity by saving 80% of address data entry time
=> No more re-typing errors and duplicate entries in your address book
=> Easy to use one – click contact capture solution

Reasons why prospects don't buy

Research shows it takes seven contacts within 18 months to win a new sale. But, when the phone calls have been made, the faxes sent and the sales letters mailed, what are the reasons prospects don't buy?

Some of the reasons are:
1. The prospect has no need right now
2. The prospect is happy with their current supplier
 
OR, for one of the following reasons:

Because the sales person is:
=> Not asking the right questions
=> Not listening to the prospect
=> Interrupting the prospect
=> Not showing empathy for a problem
=> Trying to sell features and not benefits
=> Not communicating the value offered
=> Not asking for the order

Persuade satisfied customers for testimonials

Ask them!!

If you market to companies, tell your client that testimonials are the lifeblood of your business. Add "isn't that true of yours, too?" They'll sagely nod their head. Then say "Would you be happy to give me a testimonial I can use?" It's hard for them to say No, and you urge them to dictate it to their secretary there and then on their letterhead.

Another way is to mail a client satisfaction survey, that asks: few questions on benefits of their relationship with you. Finally, ask "if your experience has been positive, would you care to jot a testimonial here that we can quote in our promotional materials?" Ask them to add their signed permission for you to use it.

Another idea is to draft your own ideal "testimonial" which they need only sign, with permission for you to use. If they need encouragement, pledge a sum to a local charity for every positive endorsement they sign. If you sell to businesses, then even tape record your client's testimonial. Playing a tape of your client's voice warmly approving you is a far more powerful sales close than even a written testimonial - especially at a group presentation. (If the client is shy about tape recorders, use someone else's voice to dictate their written testimonial).