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Today's Feature Article

Selling Techniques
Michael Campbell

Is fear of selling keeping you from converting your prospects into buyers? Here are my top 10 techniques for squashing fear and transferring your confidence to create happy lifetime customers.

Selling... probably one of the most feared words in the English language, right up there with public speaking. But if you've ever persuaded someone to see things from your point of view, you're already a salesperson. Here's how to nip the fear of selling in the bud.

What are you afraid of? Fear of success, fear of failure, acceptance, judgment, what everyone thinks about you, your clothes, your haircut, the car you drive? You know what? Forget about it.

Fear has to do with punishment. Don't worry, no one is going to punish you for having an ugly web site, or lousy selling techniques. You might not get many people converting to buyers, but how can you get good at something unless you practice?

If you think about it, fear is just an absence of love. The only cure is to add love and compassion. That's why the first newsletter I wrote in the summer of '99 was... love what you do. If you honestly add value and truly want to be of service and help people, it's a far more abundant attitude than a mere sales mentality.

If you are truly helpful, people will want to buy from you. All you need to do, is transfer your confidence to them. That's all selling is really. To make someone as comfortable about their choice as possible. But they won't be confident if you're not.

That's why, you need to know as much as possible, about what you are selling. Suppose I come to you and say, "This where I am now, but this is where I want to be."

That measure, or distance between the two, is your opportunity to make the sale. This is where it's crucial to understand, which product will best fulfill my needs. Sometimes, it's not your product. But I expect you to know that.

That's one of the biggest mistakes that salespeople make. Going after the short term, or single sale, rather than building the lifetime value or relationship with the customer. That said, here are a few rules we can apply to conquer the fear of selling, whether it's a product, service, or selling ourselves.

1) People love to buy, but hate to be sold. So sell what people want to buy, not what you want to sell. One road leads to riches, the other to poverty.

2) Believe in your product. Know the features and benefits. But also know when it's not right for a particular situation. People will respect your honesty.

3) Say the right thing on a continual basis. Stick to the truth, what you've experienced, the facts, and first hand proof. Avoid hearsay or stories you've heard others tell. In other words, keep hype to a minimum, or better yet, remove it completely. Hype doesn't work anymore, especially on customers less than 30 years old.

4a) Don't use the tired phrases and wording that everyone else is using. They don't work anymore. (Words and phrases like; skyrocket, through the roof, amazing, fantastic, incredible, outrageous, ground-breaking, special, time limited, never again, powerful, reveal, exposed, moneymaking, fortune, profit.)

4b) All of the words in the list above, should be permanently banned from your sales vocabulary - and your sales letters - if you want to reach todays buyers. Todays buyers have their hype meters on full alert, and are quick to say, "bullship" totally ignoring the rest of your message. In fact, these hype words are so associated with spam that they won't even get past most email filters.

5) Go after the long term relationship, even turning away business that's not a proper fit for you, your company, or your personality. If there's something that bothers you about a prospect, even if its a small thing, it will seem 10 times bigger down the road. Choose your clients - your relationships - carefully.

6) Don't train your customers to wait for a sale. Offer good value at a fair price at all times. Above all, offer exemplary customer service. People will always return to someone, or a place, that made them good.

7) Think service, not sales. Ask what you can give in any situation, not what you can get. Start by being compassionate towards your customer.

8) People buy on emotion and later use logic, to justify a purchase decision. If you appeal to the emotion, the end result, how something will make someone feel, focusing on benefits, or feelings, as opposed to features, your conversion rates will be much higher.

9) Sell what you know. For knowledge is certain, not mere perception. Help customers make a wise decision. Make them feel good about their decision, by transferring your confidence to them.

10) Finally, when the time is right, don't be afraid to ask for the order, with a strong call to action. Say, "Can I wrap one of those up for you?" or "Would you like to take one home with you?" On your web site do the same thing, "Click here to have it delivered to your door." or "Click here to download it to your computer immediately."

Follow these top 10 techniques to squash your fear of selling, and you'll be well on your way to more confidence, which when transferred to your prospect, will make them a happy customer. One that rewards your desire to learn, inform and serve, with a long term relationship, returning time and again, as a customer for life.

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Did you like this article? Get more just like it when you subscribe to Michael Campbell's free Internet Marketing Secrets Newsletter. Click => http://www.InternetMarketingSecrets.com

Today's Motivational Reading

Stop Chasing Success And Let Success Find You
Robert Moment

One of the major problems that many business entrepreneurs have is that instead of following their own goals, ambitions and interests to gain success, they choose to chase after success by working to establish themselves in a hot business market that may not be of any interest to them.

Although it is possible to achieve success by running a business that holds little interest to you, before long, you will find that this sort of venture will drain your ambition, and ultimately have a negative effect on you both personally and professionally.

Think about it: What would keep you more motivated - Being in a job you enjoy, or in a job that you find boring? Not a difficult question to answer right?

Naturally having a job you enjoy is something that almost everyone strives for; however, the problem that many new business entrepreneurs are faced with is that they have a hard time figuring out what they want out of life. Thus, they proceed to fumble around in different professions, desperately groping around in the dark for their one true calling. This leaves them constantly chasing after a success that is always two steps ahead of them.

To avoid this from happening to you, the following 7 key points will help you stop chasing after success, so you can use your interests to let success find you.

1. Find your life’s purpose and true calling: Remember when you were a child and you had such high hopes for your future, when you used to dream about all of the great things you would do once you were older and able to make your dreams a reality. Well even if this was not one of your childhood fancies, it is time for you to take a serious look at those dreams you lost and hid away in the back of your mind, and find out how you can make them work and grow in your business.

2. Did you choose your work or did your work choose you? Surprisingly, many people fail to take this into consideration, and instead choose to keep their focus on making fast money with the current popular market. By following this type of career, you have given all of your business power and control to a market that can offer you nothing but quick cash until that market dies, or you lose interest and move on to search for hopefully the next big thing.

3. Are you using your natural talents or “gifts” that you enjoy and do so well? Ask yourself if you are using your expertise to benefit your business. Your talents will help make you creative, innovative and keep you challenged. It is your “gifts” that make you an expert of a particular field. Use this to your advantage, and success will find you.

4. Are you ignoring your passions and values? Most people have values, and regardless if these values are religious, personal or so on, the values that you follow say a great deal about your character, and your passions. Therefore, if you are running a business that you don’t believe in, and that is personally unfulfilling, you will never achieve the success you are after, because you don’t have faith in your own business.

5. All of us have gifts but sometimes many of us have a difficult time identifying them: Finding your own talents may take time, but it is time well worth spending. If you have a hard time thinking of things you are good at, make a list of all the times you did really well in school, sports, arts and various life experiences. It may also help to speak with those who you are close to. Often your most trusted friends and family can clue you in on what you excel at. Another option is to begin by exploring options in business fields you like.

6. How do I find my life's work? You can find your life’s work by making a list of all the goals you wish to accomplish, and by discovering how many of these goals are similar. Keep in mind that your life’s work is something that you enjoy whole- heartedly, and is a continuous goal that you will always be trying to work towards. It should not be something that can be achieved quickly.

7. Be able to connect who you are with what you do: Once you know your life’s work, it is now time to go out there and discover the business opportunities that speak to your ambitions, values and interests. Remember, when you like something and are truly good at it, you will soar to fantastic heights.

The bottom line: Use these seven key points as a guideline to get yourself on the right track. Love what you do, put everything you have into it, and let success find it’s way to you through your wise decisions and passion for your work.

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Robert Moment is a small business coach and author that specializes in teaching entrepreneurs how to turn passion into profit and successfully start a small business. Visit Robert below and take the FREE 7 day e-course titled, Turn Passion into Profit. http://www.HowToStartYourSmallBusiness.com

Today's Subscriber Article

Make Yourself Stand Out In The World Of Free Information
Ana Ventura

Take a minute to think about your daily encounters with the media: you wake up to your alarm clock that is tuned into a popular radio station, catch a glimpse of the morning news while you brush your teeth, and it only gets worse from there.

The average person is surrounded by thousands of messages each day, and those are only counting the ones they aren't looking for. In a world where logging onto the Internet anytime someone needs a quick answer for anything is the norm, it's hard to deny that free information is everywhere.

So what does this mean for you, for business? It means, unfortunately, that your public relations and advertising attempts have less impact as the days go by.

Don't get me wrong, targeted public relations campaigns are still effective. But even with consistent PR attempts, it's not guaranteed that the same people will read every exposure.

Getting your name out there is the first step in standing out amidst the crowd. Writing a promotional newsletter is a great way to do this. First of all, you're not selling anything, so the customer doesn't feel that immediate sense of pressure and unease involved with most sales pitches. However, with the repeated exposure to your name involved, the client will remember you when the time does come to send out other forms of sales communication, such as print ads or sales letters.

If you run a mid to small business, a newsletter should be published with a frequency of about one every three months. This creates a good balance, because it's not too frequent, nor infrequent enough that the client forgets he subscribes to the newsletter.

So where do you find people to send these newsletters to? Current clients, past clients, and people that have previously inquired about your business should be at the top of the list. Other contacts include colleagues, prominent members of your industry, and trade publication editors.

A promotional newsletter should not be charged a subscription fee. After all, this is a part of your PR campaigning, an effort to get your name established and recognized out in the crowd. Content should be a mixture of company information, production news, and sales talk. The information should be interesting and helpful, but remember that the purpose of your newsletter is to educate customers about YOUR company and to get them to buy YOUR products.

If you should choose to send out your newsletter by snail mail, it will be a bit more costly considering you have to pay for paper, printing costs, and postage. Frequently, though, email newsletters have become very popular. It's much easier to type and send directly from your computer, and best of all-- it's free.

It might take a few issues for people to remember your name, but you will have so much more impact the next time you decide to send a sales letter or brochure to that company. Even with all the access to free information out there, there are ways to promote your yourself and your business.

********************************
Ana Ventura specializes in helping businesses, organizations, and individuals get media coverage. She is a PR expert at DrNunley's, a site specializing in affordable publicity services. Reach Ana at mailto:ana@fullservicepr.com or 801-328-9006.
http://FullServicePR.com

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