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	<title>A Rare Think &#187; Sales Mart</title>
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		<title>Internet Marketing &#8211; Finally Be Number One</title>
		<link>http://rarethink.com/2011/10/10/internet-marketing-finally-be-number-one/</link>
		<comments>http://rarethink.com/2011/10/10/internet-marketing-finally-be-number-one/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:02:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Infos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet Search Engine Optimization Resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sales Mart]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet Promotion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web Marketers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web Marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rarethink.com/2011/10/10/internet-marketing-finally-be-number-one/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Internet Marketers that generates an improvement to any ecommerce business, making your web site achieve your goals via search engine optimisation.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> Choosing <strong>Search Engine Optimization</strong> professional services has now grown to become the most effectual course of action for increasing and improving upon the quantity of prospects to a site on organic search results. Consequently, business organizations of all sizes are getting increasingly more eager in the chance to maximize their online publicity. <a href="http://www.melbourne-internet-marketing.com">internet marketing</a>, the problem is not all services to choose from in the world-wide-web today are reputable and productive.  </p>
<p> Melbourne <strong>Internet Marketing</strong> is a most suitable option for this problem. The provider is rooted with full SEO expertise which is proven versatile and adjustable to the net?s ever changing environment. It truly is constantly on top of the most recent approaches along with affordable SEO to drastically raise the targeted visitors and significantly improve the organisation?s <strong>internet marketing.</strong>  </p>
<p> The firm, founded in 2007, has worked with specialists to make sure you have superior quality performance and faultless returns. Melbourne <strong>Internet Marketing</strong> has revealed the preceding variables are extremely important to most web site owners for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7eJh_RBr38">website marketing</a> functions:Keyword &amp; Key phrase Research. Keywords are the most significant aspect in Search engine optimization. Keyword research must be performed carefully or the efforts will be useless. There preferably should be substantial study on the keywords within the industry niche.  </p>
<p> Keyword Implementation. This is where the keyword research end results are used. There?s an examination made on the website content of the page and the code composition of that webpage. They advise the critical things on each and every single page of an internet site are titles, headlines and keyword density throughout the site content. </p>
<p> On-Page SEO. This is the addition of keyword implementation which is only significant to the website. This can make it possible for the search engine quantify or efficiently recognise just what the website is about enabling in the placing of your web-site in the best search engine result pages. </p>
<p> Forum Discussions. It is important to attain online credibility to targeted clients. It&#8217;s also necessary to build up an image on discussion boards. Consequently, you will produce impressive benefits for the organization.  </p>
<p> The major aim of a typical organization who has a web-based presence is to be better than its competitors. So, increasingly more prospects to the business?s web page thus there are more prospective clients and sales. It ensures no waste of resources just absolutely incredible returns.  </p>
<p> In conclusion, for any organization with which has a websites and would love to pull in potential customers from the web community, <strong>Search engine optimization (SEO)</strong> or at least <a href="http://sa.kewego.com/video/iLyROoaf2Xt1.html">affordable SEO</a> is beneficial, in this regard affordable SEO is of great interest. People today may accomplish it by themselves, there is a lot of web data that could be found online to show best ways to do their SEO, on the flip side it&#8217;s possible to hire a professional to acheive it for you.  </p>
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		<title>Buy Stamps Wholesale: 75% Discount!</title>
		<link>http://rarethink.com/2009/04/10/buy-stamps-wholesale-75-discount/</link>
		<comments>http://rarethink.com/2009/04/10/buy-stamps-wholesale-75-discount/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:44:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Bartering]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jewelers Hall]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sales Mart]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jewelry Wholesale]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Salehoo Wholesale]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wholesale]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wholesale Directory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wholesale Suppliers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Worldwide wholesale]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rarethink.com/2009/04/10/buy-stamps-wholesale-75-discount/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Get 100% verified wholesale suppliers and find Buy Stamps Wholesale. The only way to start a business is to get your products cheaply and from 100% verified wholesale suppliers. Read on about where you can find: Wholesale $1 T Shirts, Fake Designer Purses Wholesaler In Us and Buy Stamps Wholesale, and where to get them!]]></description>
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<p><img src="http://www.wholesale-dropshippers.net/images/salehoo1a.jpg" width="410" height="300" alt="salehoowholesale"></p>
<p><strong>Endorsed by FORBES: <a href="http://pilkster.salehoo.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=SH">Wholesale Dropshippers</a> <br />
      <span class="style1"><span class="style3">The ONLY eBay 100% Approved Wholesale Dropshipping Suppliers Online</span><br />
      Get Salehoo at 75% Discount, Only From The Above<u> Discount Link!</u>      </span></strong></p>
<p><strong></p>
<p>  </strong></p>
</div>
<p>Get Wholesale $1 T Shirts at Salehoo wholesale directories and help your online and offline business. They will maintain inventory assemble pick pull pack and ship. Read on about Wholesale $1 T Shirts, Fake Designer Purses Wholesaler In Us and how Salehoo Wholesalers can help. Find a diamond that is clear and sparkling with hints of reflective color. More on Wholesale $1 T Shirts and Fake Designer Purses Wholesaler In Us at Salehoo wholesalers. Also see <a href="http://www.wholesale-dropshippers.net/real-below-wholesale/index.html">Real Below Wholesale</a></p>
<p>A Middleman-chain occurs when a business purchases its resale products from one wholesale company, who in turn purchases the products from another wholesale company, which may also purchase the products from yet another wholesale company, and so on. Note: I am using the term &#8216;wholesale&#8217; very loosely here. Read on about Wholesale $1 T Shirts and Fake Designer Purses Wholesaler In Us. The rest is to be done by the wholesaler which is to pull pack and mail the order to the customer which is known as order fulfillment. More on Wholesale $1 T Shirts and Fake Designer Purses Wholesaler In Us at our Wholesale Review website. Find out more about Wholesale $1 T Shirts and how Salehoo directory can help you start your own business from home. Wholesale $1 T Shirts, Almost ALL legitimate wholesale sources require a tax id or resale number. </p>
<p><span class="style5">Get: Wholesale $1 T Shirts at Salehoo wholesale directories, and get a head start in your own startup business. The only way to thrive in your startup business is to get quality products cheaply, and from 100%, weekly verified wholesale suppliers from all over the world. <br />
<span class="style1">100% Endorsed by CNN Networks, Forbes, Business Networks and Many other TOP Business Journals! </span></span></p>
<div align="center">
<p><img src="http://www.salehooreviewed.info/images/salehoo1b.jpg" width="410" height="400" alt="wholesale"></p>
<p><strong><span class="style2"><span class="style3">100% Verified Wholesale Suppliers.</span><br />
  The ONLY eBay Approved, 100% Verified Wholesaler &#038; Dropshipping Supplier Directory</span><br />
  Endorsed by CNN Money Network As The Top Wholesale Directory Online <br />
</strong></p>
</p>
</div>
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		<title>Fewer Calls, More Appointments, and, Best of All, No Script!</title>
		<link>http://rarethink.com/2009/01/14/fewer-calls-more-appointments-and-best-of-all-no-script/</link>
		<comments>http://rarethink.com/2009/01/14/fewer-calls-more-appointments-and-best-of-all-no-script/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:52:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Sales Mart]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rarethink.com/2009/01/14/fewer-calls-more-appointments-and-best-of-all-no-script/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You have a telephone in one hand and a well-rehearsed script in the other.  You&#8217;re ready to begin teleprospecting.
You&#8217;ve planned the delivery of your message so well that you&#8217;ve anticipated your listener&#8217;s objections and can fire quick responses. Finally, you pass the infamous gatekeeper and have your chance to talk to Mr. Big.  [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You have a telephone in one hand and a well-rehearsed script in the other.  You&#8217;re ready to begin teleprospecting.</p>
<p>You&#8217;ve planned the delivery of your message so well that you&#8217;ve anticipated your listener&#8217;s objections and can fire quick responses. Finally, you pass the infamous gatekeeper and have your chance to talk to Mr. Big.  You feel so close to making that sale&#8230;</p>
<p>Then reality kicks in: Mr. Big gets annoyed, and before you know it, it&#8217;s all over.  No appointment, no sale.</p>
<p>Time to pick myself up, dust myself off, and try again, you think.</p>
<p>But aren&#8217;t you sick of this cycle by now?  Aren&#8217;t you tired of calling numerous people to gain only a handful of appointments (if you&#8217;re lucky)?</p>
<p>YOU can yield more appointments with fewer calls by just adding a few steps to your teleprospecting process!</p>
<p><b>Step 1:  Get over yourself</b></p>
<p>The prospect you are trying to contact is not waiting for your call, so stop acting like it&#8217;s a privilege to speak with you.</p>
<p>Realize that you are interrupting your prospect&#8217;s very busy day.  They could be doing other things besides listening to a salesperson try to sell them something that they already have or think they don&#8217;t need.</p>
<p>When interrupting a prospect, make it worth their while.  Don&#8217;t feed them the same carefully crafted script they hear from every other salesperson.  Your prospects don&#8217;t want to be sold anything.  They do, however, want solutions to their business problems, and want to be more productive and more profitable.  If your message doesn&#8217;t meet their need, they won&#8217;t want to hear it.</p>
<p>The best and easiest way to show your prospect that you have solutions is to talk about them, not you.  Focusing on their company will show them that it is probably in their best interest to set up an appointment with you.</p>
<p><b>Step 2:  Identify your target</b></p>
<p>You can&#8217;t expect great results by using the same garbage on every company on your list, and it&#8217;s impossible to offer solutions to a company you know nothing about.</p>
<p><b><i>You must individually identify each prospect:</i></b></p>
<p><b><i>What is their business?</i></b></p>
<p><b><i>What is their current situation?</i></b></p>
<p><b><i>Who is the real decision maker?</i></b></p>
<p><b><i>What are their likely buying motives?</i></b></p>
<p>You can find the answers to these questions by speaking with the gatekeeper, a program administrator, or, if all else fails, someone from their sales staff (salespeople are born to talk and will tell you everything you need to know!).</p>
<p>The more you know about your prospect, the better chance you will have at talking about their company intelligently and thinking of original, personalized solutions.  This will increase your chances of staying on the phone longer, making that appointment, and eventually making the sale.</p>
<p><b>Step 3: Engage the prospect</b></p>
<p>After some preliminary research about the company and the decision maker, your next step is to find way to effectively get their attention.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re able to speak with the prospect over the phone, try asking them interesting questions about their business, their company, their needs, anything that keeps them engaged in the conversation.  Again, the only way to engage your prospect is to talk about them and things that relate to them.</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t forget that there are several ways into an office: fax machine, snail mail, e-mail, telephone.  Don&#8217;t just settle with one method!  If a phone conversation isn&#8217;t possible, leave voicemails that will capture their attention!  Use all the mediums available to you in different and engaging ways that complement each other and prompt your prospect to get in touch with you.</p>
<p>Be persistent!  Continuously give these engaging pieces to the decision maker, while also following up with them over the phone.  Don&#8217;t give up!  Your next call may be the one that gets through and leads to the appointment!</p>
<p><b>Step 4: Sell the appointment</b></p>
<p>If you&#8217;re only trying to get an appointment with the decision maker, then don&#8217;t sell anything but the appointment!</p>
<p>After your prospect answers the phone, you only have about five seconds to get your message heard before the prospect stops listening, gets annoyed, hangs up, or says they aren&#8217;t interested.</p>
<p>Skip all that garbage about you and your company and get to the real reason of why you are calling.  Use the brief time you have to tell them why you are calling and why it matters to them.  If they want more information, they will ask.  And when they do, they are showing you their interest in what you have to offer.  This is the perfect time to try to close for the appointment!</p>
<p>Learning how to use these steps to get an appointment will also help you relate to your prospect during the actual appointment.  You won&#8217;t feel tempted to rely on a disappointing sales script if you get to know the prospect and learn how to effectively engage them.  Using these steps early in the process will save you time later, when you are face to face with your prospect and trying to make the sale.</p>
<p>Sure, you added some steps to the process, but you&#8217;ve significantly cut down on the time and frustration of calling number after number in hopes to get one appointment.  With these steps, you&#8217;ll get twice as many appointments calling half as many people and have what it takes to later make the sale!</p>
<div style="float: right; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color: white; background-color: white"><img height="90" width="63" src="http://ezinearticles.com/members/mem_pics/Tom-Richard_6347.jpg" border="0" alt="Tom Richard - EzineArticles Expert Author"></div>
<p>Tom Richard is the author of a weekly ezine on selling skills.  To subscribe to this free ezine, send a blank email to subscribe@tomrichard.com</p>
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		<item>
		<title>How Do I Get More Business?  Where&#8217;s The Magic Wand?</title>
		<link>http://rarethink.com/2009/01/08/how-do-i-get-more-business-wheres-the-magic-wand/</link>
		<comments>http://rarethink.com/2009/01/08/how-do-i-get-more-business-wheres-the-magic-wand/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:19:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Sales Mart]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rarethink.com/2009/01/08/how-do-i-get-more-business-wheres-the-magic-wand/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here it is again the end of the relaxing summer. Here comes the bills for school, back to school accessories, the count down to the holiday gifts and the searching out of that perfect holiday getaway. The common theme is Money and plenty of it. There was a time when any business just needed a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Here it is again the end of the relaxing summer. Here comes the bills for school, back to school accessories, the count down to the holiday gifts and the searching out of that perfect holiday getaway. The common theme is Money and plenty of it. There was a time when any business just needed a sign outside their door and poof, people came in to buy from you. Twenty or thirty years ago it was unheard of for a lawyer, doctor, dentist and accountant to advertise for business. These were safe professions. Get into grad school and you were set for a comfortable life. Those days are over! Welcome to the cold hard life of the twenty first century.</p>
<p>Yes there is competition these days in every field but the successful people are those who don&#8217;t sit back and get complacent. What this means today is that you must reward your present customers and give them a reason to stay with you and also entice new customers to give you a try. The first problem is dealing with your existing customers. Never take a customer for granted. A long with great service people appreciate when you let them know they are special and not just a number. Salespeople used to take customers out to lunch. Outside of a handful of people, most people I know have incorporated their lunch hour into their standard working hours. If you do take a lunch, chances are it is a quick one and you&#8217;re back to the office or doing some personal errands. How then do you thank your existing customers. The market for promotional products has exploded in the last 15 years. Buying buyers today is not acceptable, what is acceptable is giving them branded gifts or moderate token gifts at periodic times like holiday periods or product launches.</p>
<p>If you want to get into the game, you must come up with clever give away which is useful to the recepient and which doesn&#8217;t scream your compnay name to the point that they won&#8217;t use it. The most repeat impact you can have is with coffee mugs or calendars. Even with computer programs a lot of people still like to have a nice agenda where they can write important names, that won&#8217;t be wiped out with a computer virus. There are literally close to one million different items available. On my company web site you can browse over 700,000 items. My web address is <a href="http://www.solutionsink4u.com." rel="nofollow">www.solutionsink4u.com.</a> How about giving out a thank you gift for long time patronage. Think of something personal they might like and have the packaging branded, either with a label or custom bag or box. Today the biggest companies, The Gap, Sharper Image, Coach, Movado, Mont Blanc, American Apparel, Bella, Cutter and Buck, Cross, and Nike are all in the promotional product industry. Hotels have gotten in the act giving their better clients umbrellas when it&#8217;s raining and customized chocolates on their bed before they retire. Going the extra mile really does help you retain your customer. Everybody must be competitive but you don&#8217;t have to be the cheapest. People remember the nice touches.</p>
<p>The second use is to attract new customers. Here you have the conventional way of advertising, newspapers, magazines, flyers, direct mail and cold calling. These are effective but tend to be expensive and the return rate you get for your investment tends to be low. A mass mailer with a response rate of 1.5% is considered a success. Consider for a moment that 98.5% of the people ignored your message. For the large companies it&#8217;s built into their advertising budgets. Tricks for medium and small business are to target smaller more defined prospects and spend more per prospect. The overall cost of your campaign will be much smaller and the response rate can be as high as 10 to 15%. An effective way to peak interest is to offer a specific discount to some or to come up with a contest with a prize where no purchase is neccessary. Contests are fun, people always like to win something and win or lose they tend to remember your company&#8217;s name or message associated with the contest. Today there are exciting ways to hold a contest on the web. People like the annonimity, have the freedon to register on their timetable and tend to see all the other stuff you have on your web site. Create your website in a way like an IKEA store, where the customer must see all your product before they can leave.</p>
<p>Other ways to capture this defined prospect market is to have give aways at industry conventions. The captive market are your ideal customers . Firstly give aways bring people to your booth and secondly nice give aways are retained in their possession for a long time, reinforcing your company name. There are products today to meet any budget and are well worth the investment. if you land 1 or 2 good customers because of the promotional product it tends to pay for itself, ten fold at least.</p>
<p>If these ides make sense, but you still are unsure of what to do next, give me a call at 514-337-2238 or visit us on our web site at <a href="http://www.solutionsink4u.com" rel="nofollow">www.solutionsink4u.com</a>, yes we have a contest on our web page. We practice what we preach. Best of luck with your magic wand.<br />
Steven Schneidman</p>
<div style="float: right; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color: white; background-color: white"></div>
<p>Steven Schneidman has a B.A. in Psychology and an M.B.A., he has worked as a finance professor and at a major Canadian Bank. He has owned and owns 2 successful printing and promotional product companies.</p>
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		<title>Anybody Can Write A Script!</title>
		<link>http://rarethink.com/2009/01/07/anybody-can-write-a-script/</link>
		<comments>http://rarethink.com/2009/01/07/anybody-can-write-a-script/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:48:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Sales Mart]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rarethink.com/2009/01/07/anybody-can-write-a-script/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I was having a conversation with a couple of prospects the other day.
The afternoon sunlight cascaded through their ground floor conference room, but it was the only source of illumination in the place.
Otherwise, we could have been in a cave, tens of thousands of years agothis is how primitive the conversation was.
After I assessed the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I was having a conversation with a couple of prospects the other day.</p>
<p>The afternoon sunlight cascaded through their ground floor conference room, but it was the only source of illumination in the place.</p>
<p>Otherwise, we could have been in a cave, tens of thousands of years agothis is how primitive the conversation was.</p>
<p>After I assessed the lack of quality in the script they&#8217;re using for handling inbound sales prospects, one of them snapped:</p>
<p>&#8220;I can get anybody to write a script!&#8221;</p>
<p>Of course, that&#8217;s exactly what you did. You got just anybody to write the current version, and that&#8217;s why:</p>
<p>(1)	It is not producing results, enough conversions of inquiries to appointments;</p>
<p>(2)	Your people aren&#8217;t using it, because it doesn&#8217;t flow, like natural conversation; and</p>
<p>(3)	You&#8217;re shopping for professional help, right now. If the script was good, or you were effective at putting it to work, and managing your folks so they performed it consistently and well, I wouldn&#8217;t be sitting here, right?</p>
<p>Before you get the idea that all my prospects are stupid, let me say quite clearly, they aren&#8217;t. Usually, they&#8217;re quite successful, and their problem isn&#8217;t intelligence.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s DISRESPECT.</p>
<p>As my professor, famed management guru Peter F. Drucker said: &#8220;We won&#8217;t succeed in any area that we don&#8217;t respect.&#8221;</p>
<p>Frame these words!</p>
<p>Most people disrespect customer service, telemarketing, and sales work; largely, because they don&#8217;t understand it, and they think it&#8217;s easy, entailing not true ability, but a &#8220;knack.&#8221;</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there isn&#8217;t a school that you can attend that will teach respect. This is supposed to happen in one&#8217;s upbringing, along with its behavioral manifestation: good manners.</p>
<p>As long as people disrespect the work I&#8217;ve described above, they&#8217;ll be powerless to improve it.</p>
<div style="float: right; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color: white; background-color: white"></div>
<p>Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out &#038; Sell Someone&#174; and Monitoring, Measuring &#038; Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC&#8217;s Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.</p>
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		<title>Start Your Sales Engine!</title>
		<link>http://rarethink.com/2009/01/04/start-your-sales-engine/</link>
		<comments>http://rarethink.com/2009/01/04/start-your-sales-engine/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:10:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Sales Mart]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rarethink.com/2009/01/04/start-your-sales-engine/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Does your business run on a sales engine or a sales effort?  A sales effort is something that has to be done every time you want to make a sale.  But, a sales engine is something that, once put into place, can bring you sale after sale without added effort.  Here are [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Does your business run on a sales engine or a sales effort?  A sales effort is something that has to be done every time you want to make a sale.  But, a sales engine is something that, once put into place, can bring you sale after sale without added effort.  Here are a couple of examples &#8230;</p>
<p>A photographer gets to know a handful of bridal consultants that refer every new bride they meet to him.  Each time they get a new client, he has the opportunity to get a phone call from that bride without having lifted a finger.</p>
<p>A home cleaning company establishes a relationship with organizations that provide temporary corporate housing for companies with newly relocated employees.  The temporary housing companies contact the cleaning company each time they have a person vacate one of their units so they can prepare it for the next resident.  Since the nature of the residences is temporary, they have a continual need for cleaning services.</p>
<p>In both of these examples, instead of spending valuable (potentially billable) work time on marketing, these companies are earning money.  And during the time they do spend on marketing, they are focused on developing long-term relationships with sources of continual referral instead of tracking down each individual purchaser.</p>
<p>In the cleaning company example, they could be running classified ads, taking calls, visiting individual homes to provide cleaning estimates, etc.  But all that effort only results in one job.  There is an opportunity to clean each temporary residence 3-4 times per year.  Multiply that figure by the number of units the temporary housing company manages, and you&#8217;ve got some regular business rolling in.  And all from one relationship.  Now, that&#8217;s a sales engine!</p>
<p>In the case of the photographer, the service is not being performed for the bridal consultants.  It&#8217;s being performed for their clients. So, rather than being a repeat-service relationship, it is a referral relationship.  However, it is not reciprocal.  By the time the photographer hears from brides, they have already started planning the other elements of their wedding, so it&#8217;s too late to refer them to the bridal consultants he knows.  But, he could reward the bridal consultants with a referral fee that he creates by either discounting his services when dealing with those brides they refer to him or by marking his services up by 15%.</p>
<p>Despite all the stories you hear, most business owners are honest people who have the desire to treat their customers fairly.  In the case of the photographer, the bridal consultants provide the brides with a list of photographers that they can choose from.  This allows the bride to make her own decision based on quality/price rather than being pushed into a relationship with a particular photographer.</p>
<p>Would you prefer to invest your time in building a relationship that brings you sale after sale or one that brings you a one-shot sale?  It&#8217;s not magic.  It&#8217;s not a get-rich quick scheme.  It&#8217;s a simple key to business success.</p>
<p>So, the question is .. are you going to spend this afternoon pitching one account that could lead to one job or building a relationship that could lead to several jobs?  Don&#8217;t get me wrong &#8212; it can take more than an afternoon to establish the most ideal relationships.  But, in more cases than not, it&#8217;s no more difficult to form this one relationship than it is to form any other.</p>
<p>Start your sales engine!</p>
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<p>About The Author</p>
<p>Kimberly Stevens is the author of the ebook series, *The Profitable Business Owner: A Step-by-Step System for Starting &#038; Running a Successful Service Business*.  Download Sample Chapters &#038; get her free MiniCourse, *The 10 Most Common Mistakes Business Owners Make &#038; How To Avoid Them* at: <a href="http://www.askthebizcoach.com/ebooks.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.askthebizcoach.com/ebooks.htm</a></p>
<p>kim@askthebizcoach.com</p>
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		<title>Sales Trap &#8211; We Love to Talk, But Need to Listen</title>
		<link>http://rarethink.com/2008/12/21/sales-trap-we-love-to-talk-but-need-to-listen/</link>
		<comments>http://rarethink.com/2008/12/21/sales-trap-we-love-to-talk-but-need-to-listen/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:38:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Sales Mart]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rarethink.com/2008/12/21/sales-trap-we-love-to-talk-but-need-to-listen/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My research has clearly shown that, when it comes to selling, the part we&#8217;re most comfortable with is talking about what we do &#8211; explaining our services and how we can help the client.
So what do you think happens in most sales encounters? That&#8217;s right&#8230; we tell &#8216;em what we do.
Problem #1 &#8211; Clients don&#8217;t [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><P>My research has clearly shown that, when it comes to selling, the part we&#8217;re most comfortable with is talking about what we do &#8211; explaining our services and how we can help the client.</P><br />
<P>So what do you think happens in most sales encounters? That&#8217;s right&#8230; we tell &#8216;em what we do.</P><br />
<P><STRONG><EM>Problem #1</EM></STRONG> &#8211; <STRONG>Clients don&#8217;t really want to know what we do.<BR></STRONG>Not to start with anyway. Usually they first want to know that they can trust us and that we comprehend their situation. They also want to understand &#8216;how&#8217; we can help them. This is different to knowing exactly &#8216;what&#8217; we do. To achieve this we need to look at what they want to achieve, and what their concerns are.</P><br />
<P><STRONG><EM>Problem #2</EM></STRONG> &#8211; <STRONG>When we&#8217;re talking we&#8217;re not listening.<BR></STRONG>It&#8217;s a fact. People can think many times faster than they talk. This means that when you&#8217;re talking, your client can think about lots of other stuff (like their next appointment, or your unpolished shoes). So keep your client focused by getting them to do the talking.</P><br />
<P><STRONG>Control the sales encounter with questions.</STRONG> By using a structured questioning sequence you can move from initial exploratory questions to high-impact outcome oriented questions. When done properly this creates a harmonious exchange between the seller and the client. It&#8217;s not a matter of interrogating the client, or forcing them to make a quick decision.</P><br />
<P>As the salesperson (whether you be a consultant, partner, owner or manager) the overriding temptation is to start explaining what you do. Often this includes mentioning previous clients and interesting outcomes you have achieved. But does the client care? Not always. And not ever if what you are saying is not relevant to them.</P><br />
<P>The secret to selling like a professional is to <STRONG>listen closely</STRONG> to the client. Find out as much as possible that might be relevant to your service. Ask questions about their expectations. Then when you have that knowledge, discuss only the aspects of your service that have a direct bearing on your clients stated needs. Use this &#8216;inside knowledge&#8217; during your presentation to highlight why you are the best choice as service provider.</P><br />
<P>And when you finish your presentation and need to <STRONG>gain a commitment</STRONG> from the client, ask another question, or suggest the next step. &#8220;Would you like to sign the agreement tomorrow?&#8221; or &#8220;Can we meet next week to finalise these last few issues?&#8221;</P><br />
<P>With a bit of practice you can replace your old sales monologues with a meaningful exchange of information that leaves your client wanting to work with you.<BR></P><br />
<P>(c) 2004 Stuart Ayling</P>
<div style="float: left; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color: white; background-color: white"><img height="60" width="40" src="http://ezinearticles.com/members/mem_pics/Stuart-Ayling_412.jpg" border="0" alt="EzineArticles Expert Author Stuart Ayling"></div>
<p>Stuart Ayling runs Marketing Nous, an Australasian marketing consultancy that specialises in marketing for service businesses. He helps clients to improve their marketing tactics, attract more clients, and increase revenue. For additional marketing resources, including Stuart&#8217;s popular monthly newsletter, visit his web site at <A target="_new" href="http://www.marketingnous.com.au" rel="nofollow">www.marketingnous.com.au</A><BR></p>
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