Yes your sales really can be improved and it will cost you nothing. That's not completely true it will cost your your time, but the results are worth it.
It doesn't matter what kind of business you run, online, offline, lots of employees, or self employed. This concept works for everybody.
The amazing thing is most businesses don't do it and it's guaranteed to increase your sales.
What is it? Testing!
Testing is pure profit information; lets' think this through for a minute.
Let's pretend that you don't own a business you are just a salesperson for one. You are making phone calls and face-to-face presentations with prospects everyday.
So when you have these meetings are you keeping track of the results? Most sales people just go on to the next call thinking about what an idiot that last prospect was for not buying.
The first thing you must have when you test is what I call the "MWR", which stands for "most wanted result". This is the main goal of the sales call. It's the what do you want the prospect to do next.
When you track that you will at least know if you hit your goal at the end of the call.
Next you need to have a scripted presentation. I can hear you now, "oh no I hate scripts, it's not natural, it's not me, it doesn't let me flow with the prospect. That my friend is a load of crap and if that's how you feel, you are holding yourself back.
You need a script because you need a place to start from to accurately measure your results. If you are saying something different to every prospect you talk to how are you going to know what works and what doesn't?
The way you get around all of your objections is to have a script down so cold that it doesn't sound like a script. If you get off the script you can easily move your prospect back to it.
With a script it's real easy to test. You have your main points that you want to cover with your prospect. You'll be saying the same thing to every prospect so you can now record how many calls you made and how many times you got your MWR. This will give you a percentage ratio of your results.
After you have some good solid numbers you can begin to improve your results. You do this by making very small changes to your script as you keep tracking the results.
You may find out as you listen to your prospects that they have the same questions or objections so you start to answer them in your script. If your MWR increases leave it in, if your MWR goes down take it out or change what you are saying or how you are saying it.
You need to do this all of the time until you get to the point where you just can't get better results, then just keep using your best script over and over again.
You can do this with anything written or verbal that your prospect reads or listens to.
Here is an idea for you. Do you have a receptionist for your business? How does she answer the phone? How does she handle different call situations? Have you trained that person what to say and when to say it? If you are just letting her wing it you are losing business.
The bottom line is you need to have a plan and test everything you do in your business. Most things in a business that are not sales and marketing related use a formula or a system to get done. Why don't you use a sales and marketing formula?
Test everything!
Friday, February 8, 2008
How to Start a Drop Shipping Business
There are so many ways to start a home business online. One of the challenges most people who want to start a business from home face, is the lack of space to carry inventory. Fortunately, there are businesses that do not require sellers to store products. This is a "drop ship" type of business.
What is drop shipping?
Drop shipping is the method of retail merchandising which allows business owners to sell products without first purchasing and stocking the items they sell. This arrangement is made between the seller and the supplier. In other words, a seller would display a product, either on a website or on a mail-order catalog, without having it in their inventory.
How does it work?
The seller charges a certain price, which is over what the supplier is selling. The difference between those two prices is the seller's profit.
When a buyer purchases that product, the seller can go to his/her supplier's website or call the supplier and place the order which will be delivered directly to the customer's mailing address.
In this way, the seller is responsible for the promotion of the products and the supplier takes care of fulfillment.
As with any other business, one should do thorough research before starting. Probably the most important thing to consider is whether there is a market for the product. A mistake that many marketers make is to start with a product they think will sell, only to be disappointed down the road when they lose money.
How do you find a hot market?
The beautiful thing about the Internet is that all the research being done by multi-million dollar corporations is readily available. You just need to know where to look to simply take advantage of the online giants' technology.
Two great, free examples that can give one tons of niche ideas for products to sell are eBay and Overture.
eBay trends about what is selling can be observed by visiting eBay pulse at http://pulse.ebay.com. One can then drill down by categories and sub-categories and find niches of interest.
With Overture's tools you can establish demand and supply in an instant. Simply type in a phrase in their keyword suggestion tool: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ to see the demand.
If there are advertisers spending good money for products, then it's a good sign that the people in that market are spending money on the items. Overture's bid price tool shows this information: http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/USm/search/tools/bidtool/
Another important aspect of the drop shipping business, is to find reliable suppliers. Some things to look for are:
1. Are they charging a handling fee per item?
2. Are they using reliable shipping methods?
3. How are they handling returns?
4. How long have they been around for?
By using "drop shipping" + product of interest, in Google's search, one can locate many drop shippers.
In conclusion, drop shipping is a great business model for anyone who does not want to deal with carrying inventory and fulfillment. However, it is very important to identify a hot market where customers are already buying and to locate a reliable drop shipper before starting a drop shipping business.
What is drop shipping?
Drop shipping is the method of retail merchandising which allows business owners to sell products without first purchasing and stocking the items they sell. This arrangement is made between the seller and the supplier. In other words, a seller would display a product, either on a website or on a mail-order catalog, without having it in their inventory.
How does it work?
The seller charges a certain price, which is over what the supplier is selling. The difference between those two prices is the seller's profit.
When a buyer purchases that product, the seller can go to his/her supplier's website or call the supplier and place the order which will be delivered directly to the customer's mailing address.
In this way, the seller is responsible for the promotion of the products and the supplier takes care of fulfillment.
As with any other business, one should do thorough research before starting. Probably the most important thing to consider is whether there is a market for the product. A mistake that many marketers make is to start with a product they think will sell, only to be disappointed down the road when they lose money.
How do you find a hot market?
The beautiful thing about the Internet is that all the research being done by multi-million dollar corporations is readily available. You just need to know where to look to simply take advantage of the online giants' technology.
Two great, free examples that can give one tons of niche ideas for products to sell are eBay and Overture.
eBay trends about what is selling can be observed by visiting eBay pulse at http://pulse.ebay.com. One can then drill down by categories and sub-categories and find niches of interest.
With Overture's tools you can establish demand and supply in an instant. Simply type in a phrase in their keyword suggestion tool: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ to see the demand.
If there are advertisers spending good money for products, then it's a good sign that the people in that market are spending money on the items. Overture's bid price tool shows this information: http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/USm/search/tools/bidtool/
Another important aspect of the drop shipping business, is to find reliable suppliers. Some things to look for are:
1. Are they charging a handling fee per item?
2. Are they using reliable shipping methods?
3. How are they handling returns?
4. How long have they been around for?
By using "drop shipping" + product of interest, in Google's search, one can locate many drop shippers.
In conclusion, drop shipping is a great business model for anyone who does not want to deal with carrying inventory and fulfillment. However, it is very important to identify a hot market where customers are already buying and to locate a reliable drop shipper before starting a drop shipping business.
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