AfricanSisters SmallBusiness Center

Penetrate the Market with a Service Edge

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:10:00 -0500

Any seasoned business person knows that it costs five times more to sell to a new prospect than to an existing client.

Tele-Power!

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:00:00 -0500

The telephone is an often overlooked tool for home-based marketing success. You can qualify prospects, generate interest in your business and even close sales all with the touch of a few buttons. Imagine how much time and money you can save when you use the telephone to your advantage.

Generating Incoming Telephone Calls
If a prospect calls you first, the chances of you closing the sale greatly increase. So how do you get the phone ringing?

Create an incentive, such as offering a benefit for making a call.

Have a toll-free number. This can increase your response rate by 30-700%. However, if you're dealing exclusively with local clients, a toll-free number is not necessary.
Use telephone numbers that are easy to remember.

Find ways to get people to hold-on to your telephone number (magnetic stick-ons, memo pads, business cards, pens, etc.).
Maximizing Telephone Calls
Making calls takes time and as you know time is money. How do maximize you profit potential with your phone time?

Call only prospects who are pre-qualified, either through being a referral, a response to a direct mailer or other marketing promotion, having a "gatekeeper" to whom you can refer, etc.

Know who you are trying to reach. If you have to ask for a department head, such as the Director of Sales, you are not targeted enough for home-based telephone sales.

Ask the caller if it is a good time to call. Besides making sure that you do not irritate the prospect, you will appear considerate.

Be specific and get to the point. When you reach the client, state the reason why you are calling within the first 30 seconds.

Establish a relationship with the prospect before making the sales pitch.

Keep the sales process moving.

Telephone Tact

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You have one chance to make a good first impression, increasing your chances of a sale down the road. Here's how to do it on the telephone:

Answer the phone. Your telephone advantage as a home-based entrepreneur is that the client can reach you, the decision maker, without having to cut through secretaries and other buffers found in larger companies. You can't do that if your phone is busy or rolls into voice mail. Put callers on hold no more than 15 seconds to take call-back messages from other incoming calls. If a call goes to voice mail, call that person back immediately. Keep phone conversations brief. If using a Personal Information Manager (PIM) on your computer, time the sales call.

Be goal oriented. Know what you want to accomplish and what information you need before you pick up the phone.

Speak slowly, concisely and clearly. Avoid rambling.

Be enthusiastic. The biggest hurdle to staying enthusiastic is making numerous phone calls at one time. Pace your phone calls out, a little bit each day.

Speak in terms of benefits, not features.

Solicit feedback but avoid direct questions. Keep inquiries open-ended so that the caller has the option to make answers if he or she feels comfortable doing so.

Thank the person for their time.

Follow-up with a letter. Compu terized form letters can be easily personalized and even started while you are talking with the person on the telephone.

Tantalizing Testimonials

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Satisfied customers can be one of your best sales forces. Request that they write a testimonial on their letterhead. Include these in advertisements to lend more credibility to your offer and in a professional portfolio to show prospective clients during a sales presentation.

You may also want to request permission from a client to have prospects call that person about your products and services. This shows that you build relationships with your clients and you are confident in the quality of what you offer. (see "Add a Personal Touch to Dealing With Customers", page 45)

Network To Boost Your Net Worth

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:00:00 -0500

Use networking to leverage existing business contacts into new customers. Networking is particularly critical in local service businesses. For certain types of specialized professional consulting fields, such as engineering or accounting, networking makes the difference between success and failure.

Start with your family and friends and expand into business, civic and even political groups. If your company has a local focus, build relationships within the Chamber of Commerce.

Free Marketing! Public Relations And Publicity

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Favorable publicity in mass media is an excellent way to build credibility in the marketplace.

Catching Clients With The Web

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Imagine! You can have a salesperson working for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week even while you sleep for nearly pennies a day. A web site and effective use of e-mail can make your small-time, home-based operation into a major international force truly putting you on a level playing field with the big companies. And now with web page design software available, getting a web site up and running by yourself has never been easier.

How can you best use cyber-technology to boost your business image and profits? See Jeffrey Spencer's article, "Cyber Malls: 7 Criteria for Selecting a Successful Provider," on page 68, and "E-mail: The Most Important Online Communication Tool in Your Marketing Toolbox" by Terry Williams on page 28.

Direct-Mail Marketing

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For the price of a stamp, you can home in on almost any target market, be as detailed or brief as you wish, and expect relatively high response. "All other forms of marketing can help you immensely," comments Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the best-selling Guerilla Marketing titles, "but direct marketing can help you more." What can direct-mail marketing empower you to do?

Generate inquiries with potential clients. Mailing lists targeted to high probability contacts, home-based business owners can generate interest in their product or service. Following up the direct mail-letter with a telephone call or personal meeting will increase your chances of closing the sale.

Maintain communication with current clients. So many businesses, particularly larger ones, neglect ongoing client communication. Contact gets to be centered only on conducting business. Home-based businesses can bridge this gap with a letter in the mail.
Making Direct Mail Work

Here are the time-honored tips for effective direct mail (See also Hilton Johnson's article, "Ace Components of Good Direct Marketing," on page 34):

Mail to a person. Avoid mailing blindly to a company. If you cannot get an actual contact, address the letter to the appropriate department or title (i.e. Marketing Director).

Grab the reader's attention. You have about five seconds to generate interest before the letter joins today's junk mail in the trash. Use headlines and highlight benefits.

Write the way you speak; maintain a conversational tone to your letter.

Start the sales process. In most cases, direct mail is used to start the sales pro cess with a new or present client. Make it easy to continue with the sale, such as explaining what to do to learn more about the product (i.e. phone number to call).

Future Action. As the direct letter starts the sales process, show the recipient how he or she can take further action.

Study your audience. Learn as much as you can about your prospect before sending the letter. You will come across as having the reader's best interest in mind.

Follow-up. Follow up. Follow up! Often four or five letters are needed to clinch the sale or generate a telephone response.
Techniques for Designing a Direct Mailer

Use the estimated date that the recipient will receive the mail

Use first names for the "Dear" block.

Within the first few sentences of the letter describe key benefits, mention any businesses or points of contact who you can reference, and explain your purpose for writing

Deliver credibility by including customer testimonials. You want to show the recipient why he or she should continue to read your letter.

Provide a strong incentive for the recipient to act.

Ask for action.

Include a guarantee (if soliciting for a direct sale)

Reference any enclosures you have in the envelope, such a brochure or flyer.

Postscripts (P.S.): Use postscripts to maximum effect. Postscripts al most always get read, and provide an excellent place to make a written offer.

Regional & National Exposure

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 20:40:00 -0500

Magazines and trade journals are the Energizer Bunny of the advertising tools they keep going and going and going. Not only do magazine ads have the longest "shelf-life" of any advertising medium (giving your business exposure for as long as that issue is in circulation), but you can make reprints of that ad that will last you forever.

You could run an ad in a major national magazine (a cost-effective option for home-based entrepreneurs to build credibility and compete with larger companies) and then order reprints of that ad to use as powerful credibility pieces in sales presentations, direct mailings, or whatever promotional means you choose.

To find out if a publication will give you the exposure you want and fit in your marketing budget, call and ask for their media kit. Not only will you find out a magazine's ad rates, but you'll learn about its circulation, demographic focus, etc.

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

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Newspaper ads are very effective for home-based businesses that market their products and services locally. Not only can you reach a large number of people in specific metropolitan locations, but you can also target pros pects via their interests (e.g. sports, lifestyle, and business sections).

Go to your local library to study back issues of the newspaper in which you're interested in placing an ad. What would be the best day for you to run an ad? If you were running a catering business, for example, you would choose Wednesday or Thursday because those are the days most newspapers print their food sections. What section of the paper would be best geared to your target market? If your offer is directed toward males, the sports section would be one for you to consider.

Advertising costs depend on a number of factors including: the size of the ad, where in the paper it's placed, the day it runs, etc. As with magazines, call and request a media kit from the newspaper to determine what advertising steps you can take that will fit within your marketing budget.