Selling Your Service:
When you do get an interested customer who wants to sit down with you, how do you convince them to hire you?Be Prepared:
For those of you who have never done face-to-face sales, be prepared! You need to know every aspect of what you're offering. If you can't explain it to the client, they wont buy.
Make sure when they ask you questions you answer honestly and that means if they ask you a question you don't know, don't panic and tell them whatever. Tell them calmly you don't know off the top of your head but you will get back to them (and then get back to them).
No matter what product or service you're selling, it's very important to become the expert. You are the "go to" person when people have questions.
Don't Be Pushy:
Don't try to push for a sale. It's okay to ask for the sale but don't try to push for an answer. Keep it casual, be relaxed, and don't keep glancing at your watch. Just pretend you're talking to your good friend or a family member who is interested in your service.
If they like your service and see the value of it, they can then make an informed decision and that is basically what face-to-face sales is - helping someone make an informed decision.
It's not playing mind games with someone and trying to box them in or making them feel pressured.
Take A "NO" As Gracefully As You Take A "YES":
If a client tells you no, that's okay. I can take a no as gracefully as I can take a yes. It's those maybes that I don't like. If someone tells me maybe, my next question is something like, "What can I do to help you decide?"You can ask that question in many different ways. For instance, is there anything that doesn't quite make sense? Maybe I can help you understand better.
If someone says maybe, I will keep talking until they give me a yes or a no. Never being pushy, just keep it conversational. The longer you can engage someone, the better your relationship will be with that person.
What To Do If You Are Being Rushed:
If a possible customer is rushing you, simply explain to them that it takes a little time and perhaps it would be better to re-schedule. Don't let your customers push you around.
What To Do If You're Being Pushed For A Price:
Often times, you will hear your customers tell you they just want a price. They don't want a sales pitch.The best way to deal with this is to just tell them, "I'm not here to sell you anything." I'm here to explain our services and if you like the services we offer, I will price them for you and let you make the decision whether or not that meets your needs.
Some people will still just insist they just want a price. You have to be firm and explain to them it does neither of you any good to quote a price if they don't know what the price is for.
I have often used buying a car as an example. I will say, you wouldn't ask for a price on a car before you knew what kind of motor was under the hood and what options it had on it would you?
Thank You
I hope this has been helpful, feel free to ask question =)Join the Discussion
veronica.l
Premium
Nice training. Quick question, what is your conversion with the email that you send out?
Reply
DABK
Premium
If by conversions you mean what percentage of people I email to contact me, then it's 0-25%.
If you mean what percentage of people I email to contact me and take me up on whatever offer I'm making, 0-6.2%
Depends a lot on list quality, offer, product/service. I get low email response to free consultations/presentation, but once I make them, 3 out of 4 are convinced to try me out.
I have high response to offers to write seo'd articles and get them high in Google for a local keyword (31.57%), and high conversion (1 out of 3 want it).
I get low response to SEO and low conversions too... close to 0%, unless I call SEO something else.
Problem, I don't do enough of them. Further problem, I do small campaigns, don't have thousands of emails sent out, so the results might just be not too reliable.
If you mean what percentage of people I email to contact me and take me up on whatever offer I'm making, 0-6.2%
Depends a lot on list quality, offer, product/service. I get low email response to free consultations/presentation, but once I make them, 3 out of 4 are convinced to try me out.
I have high response to offers to write seo'd articles and get them high in Google for a local keyword (31.57%), and high conversion (1 out of 3 want it).
I get low response to SEO and low conversions too... close to 0%, unless I call SEO something else.
Problem, I don't do enough of them. Further problem, I do small campaigns, don't have thousands of emails sent out, so the results might just be not too reliable.
Ty Johnson
Premium
DABK
Premium
If you have the funds to sponsor a meeting/seminar, etc., do it.
I found out about this in 2005, when I had a real estate appraisal business.
Some guy called me to ask me to sponsor a day-long seminar that would be attended by 100 mortgage brokers and loan officers. Back then, they could hire appraisers.
I did. Cost me $1,200 and, though they promised 100 attendees, there were only 77, I was clueless about marketing, so I had my business card and a list of appraisers working with my company and how long they'd been appraisers, I got close to $40,000 out of that over the following 2 years.
As regards to chamber of commerce meetings, you don't have to join to attend... At least in my neck of the woods. They let you come to a couple of their events to get a feel for them, see if it's something you want to do.
So, join as many as you can afford but also try out others, or, if you can't afford, attend a few meetings anyway.
Don't go with regular business cards. Give out something useful. You know, online, you ask them to download your free report. What's to stop you to give them the same courtesy offline?
Give a couple of points from your free report on the back of your card and invite them to visit your website or email you to get the rest.
Follow up. They're there to make connections, to increase their area of influence, so after a meeting, sort through the cards you get, call the ones that interest you to meet with them for 30 minutes to find out what they do, how they do it and to see if you can refer any business to them.
One of the best questions you can ask them, How do I know if someone I know is a good fit for you?
As regards emails, my best subject line was
Looking for jeweler in (name of suburb or neighborhood)
I got 72% open rate and 25% contacted me.
It doesn't work with a lot of things, works with SEO. Because though you can increase a lot of people's internet presence, you can't rank more than 1 at #1 per keyword.
Be prepared to meet a lot of people who're going to tell you, I tried internet marketing and it doesn't work. Or, I tried SEO and it doesn't work.
Speaking of SEO, it's Chinese to most people (if you're in China, it's Romanian to most people) you're going to meet.
When Ty says don't sell, listen to him. If you go in there with the notion that you're there to find out what the business does and how it's working for them so as to see if you have any tools you can use to get them the results they're after, you're ahead.
1st job I ever got, I talked about how they could increase their internet presence for free. I talked to them about blogger.com. Had the owner sign up right then and there. Told her how easy it would be for her to post things about her company... (Disclosure, this was my insurance agent and she used to be friends with my wife... But the 2nd job I've done, I did the same, except I met the guy at a chamber of commerce event... and then another, and then another... After the 6th one he asked to meet with me.)
The next time I met her, I asked her if she'd blogged. She had not, did not have the time. I told her about facebook... every 4th or 5th post could be about her business. Gave her an example about her husband's business... independent insurance agent who'd just signed up with Traveler's insurance.
He'd just say, Hey, I just signed up with Traveler's Insurance. I'm excited because they have a great program for x type of people.
Next I know, her husband wants to give me $2,777 to get him some clients off the internet.
I took the money and... regretted it... He's still a paying client, but he's cheap as hell, so every meeting he complains about prices and asks for mutually exclusive things: like tons of leads that don't require him or anyone in his office to talk to them... He just hasn't got the time to convert them.
Since then, I've put in place screening criteria.
Sorry for the long reply. I think I could have said it, don't go to meeting looking to take, go to meetings and give something.
I found out about this in 2005, when I had a real estate appraisal business.
Some guy called me to ask me to sponsor a day-long seminar that would be attended by 100 mortgage brokers and loan officers. Back then, they could hire appraisers.
I did. Cost me $1,200 and, though they promised 100 attendees, there were only 77, I was clueless about marketing, so I had my business card and a list of appraisers working with my company and how long they'd been appraisers, I got close to $40,000 out of that over the following 2 years.
As regards to chamber of commerce meetings, you don't have to join to attend... At least in my neck of the woods. They let you come to a couple of their events to get a feel for them, see if it's something you want to do.
So, join as many as you can afford but also try out others, or, if you can't afford, attend a few meetings anyway.
Don't go with regular business cards. Give out something useful. You know, online, you ask them to download your free report. What's to stop you to give them the same courtesy offline?
Give a couple of points from your free report on the back of your card and invite them to visit your website or email you to get the rest.
Follow up. They're there to make connections, to increase their area of influence, so after a meeting, sort through the cards you get, call the ones that interest you to meet with them for 30 minutes to find out what they do, how they do it and to see if you can refer any business to them.
One of the best questions you can ask them, How do I know if someone I know is a good fit for you?
As regards emails, my best subject line was
Looking for jeweler in (name of suburb or neighborhood)
I got 72% open rate and 25% contacted me.
It doesn't work with a lot of things, works with SEO. Because though you can increase a lot of people's internet presence, you can't rank more than 1 at #1 per keyword.
Be prepared to meet a lot of people who're going to tell you, I tried internet marketing and it doesn't work. Or, I tried SEO and it doesn't work.
Speaking of SEO, it's Chinese to most people (if you're in China, it's Romanian to most people) you're going to meet.
When Ty says don't sell, listen to him. If you go in there with the notion that you're there to find out what the business does and how it's working for them so as to see if you have any tools you can use to get them the results they're after, you're ahead.
1st job I ever got, I talked about how they could increase their internet presence for free. I talked to them about blogger.com. Had the owner sign up right then and there. Told her how easy it would be for her to post things about her company... (Disclosure, this was my insurance agent and she used to be friends with my wife... But the 2nd job I've done, I did the same, except I met the guy at a chamber of commerce event... and then another, and then another... After the 6th one he asked to meet with me.)
The next time I met her, I asked her if she'd blogged. She had not, did not have the time. I told her about facebook... every 4th or 5th post could be about her business. Gave her an example about her husband's business... independent insurance agent who'd just signed up with Traveler's insurance.
He'd just say, Hey, I just signed up with Traveler's Insurance. I'm excited because they have a great program for x type of people.
Next I know, her husband wants to give me $2,777 to get him some clients off the internet.
I took the money and... regretted it... He's still a paying client, but he's cheap as hell, so every meeting he complains about prices and asks for mutually exclusive things: like tons of leads that don't require him or anyone in his office to talk to them... He just hasn't got the time to convert them.
Since then, I've put in place screening criteria.
Sorry for the long reply. I think I could have said it, don't go to meeting looking to take, go to meetings and give something.
Ty Johnson
Premium
You bring up some great points here, I like this replay, don't be sorry for the length, it's a very helpful reply.
It's a lot easier to get clients than people think, the hardest part is just showing up to meetings, or contacting people, you really have to be self motivated for this type of business
I have just downloaded that seo suit, I am going to give it a try, and see how I like it, it will have to wait till tomorrow tho, getting late here, but it is at the top of my list for tomorrow
OH thank you for liking it =)
It's a lot easier to get clients than people think, the hardest part is just showing up to meetings, or contacting people, you really have to be self motivated for this type of business
I have just downloaded that seo suit, I am going to give it a try, and see how I like it, it will have to wait till tomorrow tho, getting late here, but it is at the top of my list for tomorrow
OH thank you for liking it =)
Ty Johnson
Premium
I start with finding great keywords, by just doing a normal keyword search, from the keywords I find, I see who is ranking for them, and that's where I find who to approach, if you watch closely you will start to see the same companies ranking for similar keywords, on various pages, of course.
If anyone knows of software, that you can plug in a URL and see where they rank for different KWs I would love to hear about it, that would be a really handy tool to have, priceless even.
I hope that made sense, if not just let me know, I will try to explain it further
Thank you for the complement btw =)
If anyone knows of software, that you can plug in a URL and see where they rank for different KWs I would love to hear about it, that would be a really handy tool to have, priceless even.
I hope that made sense, if not just let me know, I will try to explain it further
Thank you for the complement btw =)
tommo1968
Premium Plus
I see, if you find a low QSR keyword you already know you can push it to 1 without much hassle. So you target other companies on page 2 and below to see if they are interested. They then look at you as a SEO guru and pass on the word. Excellent.
Have already found a few good keywords locally just need to hone my skills on pushing pages to 1 still on the leaning curve on that one.
Have already found a few good keywords locally just need to hone my skills on pushing pages to 1 still on the leaning curve on that one.
Ty Johnson
Premium
Ty Johnson
Premium
DABK
Premium
http://www.link-assistant.com/rank-tracker/check-rankings.html
This is the link to download SEO power suite. It's free. One of the things that comes with it is Rank Tracker. You put in a URL, add the keywords you want to see if it ranks for, select search engine, hit enter, and a few minutes later you have the results.
It only checks the top 10 pages.
Google is not fond of it, thinks you're trying to spam it. It lets you do some 50 keywords at a time.
After you use it, if you use it for more than 5 or so keywords, Google will ask you to decipher a capcha.
If you check all 3 main search engines and have more than a dozen keywords, it takes forever (at least 4 minutes).
You can do only one domain name at a time... It doesn't show you which page on the domain is showing up in the search engines.
This is the link to download SEO power suite. It's free. One of the things that comes with it is Rank Tracker. You put in a URL, add the keywords you want to see if it ranks for, select search engine, hit enter, and a few minutes later you have the results.
It only checks the top 10 pages.
Google is not fond of it, thinks you're trying to spam it. It lets you do some 50 keywords at a time.
After you use it, if you use it for more than 5 or so keywords, Google will ask you to decipher a capcha.
If you check all 3 main search engines and have more than a dozen keywords, it takes forever (at least 4 minutes).
You can do only one domain name at a time... It doesn't show you which page on the domain is showing up in the search engines.
