You can write a great sales letter. Sure, you may have to learn some new skills. But keep in mind, the great copywriters of today weren't born writing great sales letters. They started right where you may be--having never written a sales letter. Or maybe you've written a few sales letters, but they have disappointed you. Take heart. In this article, I will show you step by step what you need to put in your sales letters to give them the structure and persuasiveness you may desire.
Every sales letter has a basic structure. Now, each sales letter may insert these basics in different orders or using a different method, but generally all sales letters will include these basics:
Headline:
Every winning sales letter should have an attention-grabbing headline, one that draws the reader into your sales letter. If they don't read your letter, they won't buy your product. They must read the sales letter first.
Make your headline exciting. What will your product do for the user? For example, if you sell a product that helps the user find discount travel packages, a few strong headlines could be:
How to Travel Like the Rich on a Pauper's Income
How to Travel for Less than Half-Price
Travel the World for Less than Traveling Locally
How I Travel Everywhere For Half-Price
Try to write some similar headlines for your product. Simply substitute your product and benefit for the keywords in those headlines. Try to write 20 or 40 or so headlines---some of them will be lousy, but some of them may surprise you. One thing about writing is that you will get more creative and efficient as you spend more time writing. Practice, practice, practice.
Benefit Bullets:
These bullets will be key points about your product. For example, if you are selling a product geared towards grade school teachers, your bullets might be:
Learn to manage your classroom with no effort Discover the keys to teaching vocabulary at any level How to teach math so that students learn the fastest What every teacher needs to know about discipline
Notice that these bullets promise a benefit to the reader. Bullets are designed to draw the reader to purchase the product, so that they can receive the benefits of the product. These bullets reveal the benefits to the purchaser.
Guarantee: Especially when selling online, you must include a specific guarantee. Online purchasers are already skeptical of purchasing an information product. By offering a money-back guarantee, you assure the buyer that if the product isn't what you say it is, they can receive a refund. Your responsibility, of course, is to make absolutely sure that the product does everything you say that it does. If you do that, you will have few returns. Here is an example of a guarantee: Your complete satisfaction guaranteed: If for any reason during the first 30 days after you purchase this product, you are not completely satisfied for any reason at all, simply return the product and we will cheerfully refund your purchase price, no questions asked.
Obviously that guarantee should be modified to meet the nature of your product, and the time frame altered. By having the guarantee, although you will have to give a refund from time to time, you should sell far more units than without the guarantee.
Close and ask for the sale: This step is critical! No matter how good a job you do describing the product, it will not sell itself. You MUST ask for the sale. Tell the customer to buy. Give them an easy link to your order or shopping page. If you don't ask for the sale, you won't sell much.
Try to write your first sales letter using this template. Write comfortable, as if you were talking to someone at lunch. A sales letter should be easy to read and feel like a friend discussing the product. It should not have stilted or awkward language, but should flow naturally---just write the way you would talk about your product.
Step by Step Process To Writing A Sales Letter
How To Increase Onsite Conversions - Leads, Sales, Etc.
A website that does not make conversions is a website that serves no business function. So let's talk about:
What a website conversion is and how you can increase conversions across your business website.
By way of definition, an "onsite conversion" takes place when somebody goes from being a website visitor to something else as well. For example, if a person visits your website and signs up for your email newsletter, an onsite conversion has taken place. The person has "converted" from a casual website visitor to a newsletter subscriber.
There are many kinds of conversions, and they differ from one website to another, and from one organization to the next:
• A non-profit website might seek donations or volunteer registrations. Those conversions are valuable to them.
• A service-related business like financing or consulting might seek website conversions of a different nature. Maybe they want people to sign up for a newsletter list or call to learn more. Those are valuable conversions for their business models.
• A product-based website like Amazon.com seeks one type of conversion above all else. They want people to purchase products, plain and simple. So that's the most important type of conversion for them.
Watch the “Website Conversion Analysis” Video
http://5star-inet.com/bbotrafficclub/sp/index.html
Increasing Conversions Across Your Website
So we have talked about the importance of onsite conversions, and how they are the end-product of your online marketing efforts. Now let's look at some of the ways you improve your onsite conversions to help grow your business.
1. Define Your Conversions in Advance
This might seem like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised by how many deer-in-the-headlight expressions I get when I ask a business owner, "What are your top three conversion goals on this website?"
Some will scratch their heads and say, "To get customers, I guess." That's not a specific goal for website conversion. It's the end-goal of all marketing efforts, sure. But it's not a clearly defined conversion goal.
Other business owners have it figured out better. For example, they might say something like, "I want my visitors to do one of three things ... download our featured report from the home page, click on the chat button to get in touch with a representative, or contact us by phone or email."
Now we are getting somewhere! Before you can increase your conversion rates, you have to know what they are to begin with. And everyone in your organization who has a role in supporting those conversions needs to know what they are too (such as customer service folks).
2. Be Visible Online
People cannot contact you (or purchase your products, etc.) if they don't know you exist. So you must strive to make your business visible, online and off. Internet visibility is a big part of this. After all, the more visible you are online, the more likely people will be to find you.
But there are other ways to increase your visibility as well. You can publish articles in your local newspaper, syndicate articles and press releases online, be active in your community, conduct free seminars, and many other aspects of PR. Visibility and awareness are the first steps to generating website leads and sales.
3. Increase Usability Across Your Website
Website usability is crucial to making onsite conversions. The two concepts are inseparable, because if a person can't use your website, you have no chance to connect with them or to make a sale. You don't have the luxury of personally guiding them through your website -- they are completely on their own.
Site menus and organization are two key areas where many websites falter. A poorly organized website is a website that will always suffer from low conversion rates. And the opposite is true as well. A well organized website with sensible navigation is a fundamental step toward stronger conversions.
4. Minimize Distractions Across Your Website
This is another element of website usability, but it deserves special focus. On a business website, the goal is usually to lead visitors down a certain path. You can't control where people will go or what they will click on, but you can at least offer your preferred path and make it easy to follow.
But when you overload your web pages with too many items, you end up dividing the reader's attention, creating unneeded distraction, and increasing the likelihood visitors will leave your website altogether.
Visit your home page and ask yourself, what is the most desirable action you want people to take? What is the second most desirable action? From a visual standpoint, does the placement and prominence of these two paths support their importance? Or do they battle for attention with a dozen other distractions?
5. State (and Restate) the Value of Each Conversion Point
In marketing, there is a direct correlation between value and response. If you want people to take a certain action on your website, you have to convey the value of that action. In other words, tell people what they get out of it. It's a simple rule to remember. If you want action, you have to explain the reason and value behind the action.
Instead of saying, "Click here to join our newsletter," say something like this: "Join our newsletter for exclusive offers you won't find anywhere else, plus a wealth of monthly tips and advice!"
Watch the “Website Conversion Analysis” Video
http://5star-inet.com/bbotrafficclub/sp/index.html
6. Increase Traffic to Website Conversion Points
Want the opportunity to convert more visitors into customers? Then just increase the amount of website visitors you get. Once you have some lead-generation and sales-generation techniques in place, you want to get as much qualified traffic to those conversion points as possible.
The first step is to increase your overall website traffic. The second step is to increase your traffic to specific pages of your website (your purchase page, your download page, your contact page ... in short, your conversion pages). You can do this by making your conversion points / pages more prominent and easy to find. See the following items for tips on doing this!
7. Increase the Prominence of Conversion Points
Once you've defined your conversion points (see item #1 above), you should try to make them visible from every page of your website. Put them into the main menu, right up near the top. Create eye-catching graphics to showcase them. Put them "above the fold" across all of your web pages.
8. Minimize Website Attrition
Marketing attrition refers to the number of people who do not take the actions you want them to take along the path to conversion. At each step in the marketing process, you stand to lose some people. You could also refer to this as "drop-off." The higher the attrition rates, the less successful the marketing program.
The good news is, each point of attrition can be improved -- that is, you can minimize the number of people who "drop off" at each step of the way. For example, by improving your website's usability and content, you can minimize the number of people who leave your site due to not finding what they're after. This is just one of many ways you could reduce the level of attrition in this particular marketing scenario.
My goal here is simply to get you thinking about marketing attrition and the various ways you might reduce it on your business website and blog. Less attrition equals more business. How's that for motivation?
9. Increase the Interactivity of Your Website
The more ways people have to interact with your website, the better your chances of converting them into customers. You can increase interactivity in a number of ways. And these days, there are all kinds of software products to make it extremely easy for you!
Here are a few examples of interactivity you could build into your website:
• Business blogs work great because readers can leave comments on ehe various blog posts. That's a form of interaction, and it's also the start of a dialogue that could lead to a sale.
• You could create some kind of Q&A forum on your website and grow your own Internet community. Forum software programs like VBulletin and phpBB make it achievable.
• You can also buy and install programs to help you create an interactive FAQ section of your website (also known as a "Knowledge Base"). Interspire's "Active KB" and Omnistar's "KBase" are two such programs.
• If you have customer support personnel, you could install a chat program on your website to encourage the all-important first contact from site visitors.
10. Overcome Skepticism / Encourage Trust
We are all naturally skeptical online. The reasons for this are obvious. The Internet can be an anonymous and scary place, used for deceitful purposes by everyone from con artists to pedophiles. Yikes!
Of course, these shady characters represent the minority (or so I'd like to believe). But it still poses a challenge you must consider in your online marketing program.
Take a look at your own website right now. What have you done to make the visitor comfortable in who you are? How have you demonstrated integrity? How have you encouraged trust and confidence?
Better yet, why not ask a half-dozen friends or colleagues to visit your website and navigate around like a potential customer would. Have them jot down on paper anything that makes them uncomfortable, uncertain, or just plain confused. Correct these things immediately, and keep them in mind through all of your Internet marketing endeavors.
What a website conversion is and how you can increase conversions across your business website.
By way of definition, an "onsite conversion" takes place when somebody goes from being a website visitor to something else as well. For example, if a person visits your website and signs up for your email newsletter, an onsite conversion has taken place. The person has "converted" from a casual website visitor to a newsletter subscriber.
There are many kinds of conversions, and they differ from one website to another, and from one organization to the next:
• A non-profit website might seek donations or volunteer registrations. Those conversions are valuable to them.
• A service-related business like financing or consulting might seek website conversions of a different nature. Maybe they want people to sign up for a newsletter list or call to learn more. Those are valuable conversions for their business models.
• A product-based website like Amazon.com seeks one type of conversion above all else. They want people to purchase products, plain and simple. So that's the most important type of conversion for them.
Watch the “Website Conversion Analysis” Video
http://5star-inet.com/bbotrafficclub/sp/index.html
Increasing Conversions Across Your Website
So we have talked about the importance of onsite conversions, and how they are the end-product of your online marketing efforts. Now let's look at some of the ways you improve your onsite conversions to help grow your business.
1. Define Your Conversions in Advance
This might seem like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised by how many deer-in-the-headlight expressions I get when I ask a business owner, "What are your top three conversion goals on this website?"
Some will scratch their heads and say, "To get customers, I guess." That's not a specific goal for website conversion. It's the end-goal of all marketing efforts, sure. But it's not a clearly defined conversion goal.
Other business owners have it figured out better. For example, they might say something like, "I want my visitors to do one of three things ... download our featured report from the home page, click on the chat button to get in touch with a representative, or contact us by phone or email."
Now we are getting somewhere! Before you can increase your conversion rates, you have to know what they are to begin with. And everyone in your organization who has a role in supporting those conversions needs to know what they are too (such as customer service folks).
2. Be Visible Online
People cannot contact you (or purchase your products, etc.) if they don't know you exist. So you must strive to make your business visible, online and off. Internet visibility is a big part of this. After all, the more visible you are online, the more likely people will be to find you.
But there are other ways to increase your visibility as well. You can publish articles in your local newspaper, syndicate articles and press releases online, be active in your community, conduct free seminars, and many other aspects of PR. Visibility and awareness are the first steps to generating website leads and sales.
3. Increase Usability Across Your Website
Website usability is crucial to making onsite conversions. The two concepts are inseparable, because if a person can't use your website, you have no chance to connect with them or to make a sale. You don't have the luxury of personally guiding them through your website -- they are completely on their own.
Site menus and organization are two key areas where many websites falter. A poorly organized website is a website that will always suffer from low conversion rates. And the opposite is true as well. A well organized website with sensible navigation is a fundamental step toward stronger conversions.
4. Minimize Distractions Across Your Website
This is another element of website usability, but it deserves special focus. On a business website, the goal is usually to lead visitors down a certain path. You can't control where people will go or what they will click on, but you can at least offer your preferred path and make it easy to follow.
But when you overload your web pages with too many items, you end up dividing the reader's attention, creating unneeded distraction, and increasing the likelihood visitors will leave your website altogether.
Visit your home page and ask yourself, what is the most desirable action you want people to take? What is the second most desirable action? From a visual standpoint, does the placement and prominence of these two paths support their importance? Or do they battle for attention with a dozen other distractions?
5. State (and Restate) the Value of Each Conversion Point
In marketing, there is a direct correlation between value and response. If you want people to take a certain action on your website, you have to convey the value of that action. In other words, tell people what they get out of it. It's a simple rule to remember. If you want action, you have to explain the reason and value behind the action.
Instead of saying, "Click here to join our newsletter," say something like this: "Join our newsletter for exclusive offers you won't find anywhere else, plus a wealth of monthly tips and advice!"
Watch the “Website Conversion Analysis” Video
http://5star-inet.com/bbotrafficclub/sp/index.html
6. Increase Traffic to Website Conversion Points
Want the opportunity to convert more visitors into customers? Then just increase the amount of website visitors you get. Once you have some lead-generation and sales-generation techniques in place, you want to get as much qualified traffic to those conversion points as possible.
The first step is to increase your overall website traffic. The second step is to increase your traffic to specific pages of your website (your purchase page, your download page, your contact page ... in short, your conversion pages). You can do this by making your conversion points / pages more prominent and easy to find. See the following items for tips on doing this!
7. Increase the Prominence of Conversion Points
Once you've defined your conversion points (see item #1 above), you should try to make them visible from every page of your website. Put them into the main menu, right up near the top. Create eye-catching graphics to showcase them. Put them "above the fold" across all of your web pages.
8. Minimize Website Attrition
Marketing attrition refers to the number of people who do not take the actions you want them to take along the path to conversion. At each step in the marketing process, you stand to lose some people. You could also refer to this as "drop-off." The higher the attrition rates, the less successful the marketing program.
The good news is, each point of attrition can be improved -- that is, you can minimize the number of people who "drop off" at each step of the way. For example, by improving your website's usability and content, you can minimize the number of people who leave your site due to not finding what they're after. This is just one of many ways you could reduce the level of attrition in this particular marketing scenario.
My goal here is simply to get you thinking about marketing attrition and the various ways you might reduce it on your business website and blog. Less attrition equals more business. How's that for motivation?
9. Increase the Interactivity of Your Website
The more ways people have to interact with your website, the better your chances of converting them into customers. You can increase interactivity in a number of ways. And these days, there are all kinds of software products to make it extremely easy for you!
Here are a few examples of interactivity you could build into your website:
• Business blogs work great because readers can leave comments on ehe various blog posts. That's a form of interaction, and it's also the start of a dialogue that could lead to a sale.
• You could create some kind of Q&A forum on your website and grow your own Internet community. Forum software programs like VBulletin and phpBB make it achievable.
• You can also buy and install programs to help you create an interactive FAQ section of your website (also known as a "Knowledge Base"). Interspire's "Active KB" and Omnistar's "KBase" are two such programs.
• If you have customer support personnel, you could install a chat program on your website to encourage the all-important first contact from site visitors.
10. Overcome Skepticism / Encourage Trust
We are all naturally skeptical online. The reasons for this are obvious. The Internet can be an anonymous and scary place, used for deceitful purposes by everyone from con artists to pedophiles. Yikes!
Of course, these shady characters represent the minority (or so I'd like to believe). But it still poses a challenge you must consider in your online marketing program.
Take a look at your own website right now. What have you done to make the visitor comfortable in who you are? How have you demonstrated integrity? How have you encouraged trust and confidence?
Better yet, why not ask a half-dozen friends or colleagues to visit your website and navigate around like a potential customer would. Have them jot down on paper anything that makes them uncomfortable, uncertain, or just plain confused. Correct these things immediately, and keep them in mind through all of your Internet marketing endeavors.
The basic philosophy behind the sales perspective is the more you sell the more money you make. This makes a lot of sense, so let’s take a look at bus
n part 1 we talked about the importance of getting leads to a successful sales cycle. But a lead that never reaches a decision to buy is ultimately just a liability. It's not enough to find a lot of interested people. At some point you need to get those people to decide to purchase something from you if you want to stay in business.
Conversion - Convincing People We Have What They Need
Conversion is the process of getting the customer, or lead, to a state of mind where they have decided they are going to get what you are offering. Let's be very clear on this because it's important. It is not the process of actually getting the customer to buy. It is the process of getting them to decide in their minds that they are going to buy; to get them to say "okay let's do it" in their minds and begin to picture themselves already owning it rather than continuing to debate with themselves about whether or not they really want it.
We are going to consider two critical aspects of conversion:
1. identifying the best solution for the customer, and
2. the fact that people buy from people
Remember that business is about helping ourselves by helping others. The best sales person (or conversion expert) is someone who is always genuinely trying to get the best for their customers. They do this by taking the time to understand what their customers want and then helping them identify ways to meet their needs and wants. As with all problem solving it is important to understand the question before offering solutions. Conversion through identifying the best solution for the customer follows these steps:
1. Identify the Initial Want or Need
2. Identify the Customer Motivation (refer back to the section on Why People Buy)
3. Isolate the Key Requirements
4. Offer Solutions (Focus on the Key Requirements and Customer Motivation)
5. Discuss the Benefits (Focus on the Key Requirements and Customer Motivation)
6. Overcome the Objections (Focus on the Key Requirements and Customer Motivation)
7. Reach a Commitment to Buy
Conversion is the process of getting through all these stages. It may happen in few minutes or over several months depending on the nature of the sale.
People buy from People. There are many sales courses out there that focus on the "Identify the problem, offer the solution" approach to sales. They cover the items listed above in one way or another and give valuable instruction on how to progress through each stage. People take these courses and get a lot out of them, but they are often still missing a crucial piece of the puzzle. People buy from people.
Remember the last time you went to the mall looking for something? You browsed through three stores. In one store the sales person was more interested in going on their break than helping you. In another you got no help at all. In the last store you were greeted with a smile and "Hi, what brings you in today?" Who did you buy from? The company you liked the best? The store with the best products based on your personal research? No, you bought from the nice person. We all do it. Unless there is some other very compelling differentiator we buy from the people that we like. This is true in consumer and business to business transactions.
In the people-buy-from-people school of sales conversion there are three steps:
1. Sell yourself
2. Sell your company
3. Sell your product or service
Establishing a personal relationship whether it is just learning a name, or spending months getting to know someone, is the first step to creating successful long-term sales relationships. If people don't like you it usually doesn't matter about your product or your company. If they don't trust the company, they won’t believe what you tell them about the product or service. Sell yourself, sell your company, and then sell your product or service.
Conversion - Convincing People We Have What They Need
Conversion is the process of getting the customer, or lead, to a state of mind where they have decided they are going to get what you are offering. Let's be very clear on this because it's important. It is not the process of actually getting the customer to buy. It is the process of getting them to decide in their minds that they are going to buy; to get them to say "okay let's do it" in their minds and begin to picture themselves already owning it rather than continuing to debate with themselves about whether or not they really want it.
We are going to consider two critical aspects of conversion:
1. identifying the best solution for the customer, and
2. the fact that people buy from people
Remember that business is about helping ourselves by helping others. The best sales person (or conversion expert) is someone who is always genuinely trying to get the best for their customers. They do this by taking the time to understand what their customers want and then helping them identify ways to meet their needs and wants. As with all problem solving it is important to understand the question before offering solutions. Conversion through identifying the best solution for the customer follows these steps:
1. Identify the Initial Want or Need
2. Identify the Customer Motivation (refer back to the section on Why People Buy)
3. Isolate the Key Requirements
4. Offer Solutions (Focus on the Key Requirements and Customer Motivation)
5. Discuss the Benefits (Focus on the Key Requirements and Customer Motivation)
6. Overcome the Objections (Focus on the Key Requirements and Customer Motivation)
7. Reach a Commitment to Buy
Conversion is the process of getting through all these stages. It may happen in few minutes or over several months depending on the nature of the sale.
People buy from People. There are many sales courses out there that focus on the "Identify the problem, offer the solution" approach to sales. They cover the items listed above in one way or another and give valuable instruction on how to progress through each stage. People take these courses and get a lot out of them, but they are often still missing a crucial piece of the puzzle. People buy from people.
Remember the last time you went to the mall looking for something? You browsed through three stores. In one store the sales person was more interested in going on their break than helping you. In another you got no help at all. In the last store you were greeted with a smile and "Hi, what brings you in today?" Who did you buy from? The company you liked the best? The store with the best products based on your personal research? No, you bought from the nice person. We all do it. Unless there is some other very compelling differentiator we buy from the people that we like. This is true in consumer and business to business transactions.
In the people-buy-from-people school of sales conversion there are three steps:
1. Sell yourself
2. Sell your company
3. Sell your product or service
Establishing a personal relationship whether it is just learning a name, or spending months getting to know someone, is the first step to creating successful long-term sales relationships. If people don't like you it usually doesn't matter about your product or your company. If they don't trust the company, they won’t believe what you tell them about the product or service. Sell yourself, sell your company, and then sell your product or service.
The Sales Business Cycle - Part 1
The basic philosophy behind the sales perspective is the more you sell the more money you make. This makes a lot of sense, so let’s take a look at business management from the perspective of a sales led organization.
The basic representation of business from a sales perspective consists of four main steps:
1. finding leads
2. converting those leads
3. closing the deal
4. delivering the product or service
The end goal, as always, is to provide a solution that the customer is happy with so you can collect payment.
In small organizations lead finding, conversion and closing may all be handled by the sales staff. In larger organizations these functions start to get split up and assigned to separate teams. The best way to split them up depends on the organization and the dynamics of the market you are selling to.
Lead Generation - Finding People To Help
Lead generation is all about getting potential customers to take a first look at you and your company. The objective is to make initial contact with people and determine if there is the potential for a mutually beneficial business relationship. You may not even have a specific product or service in mind during lead generation. Just an idea of your desired market and the type of people and businesses you want to serve is enough to launch lead generation campaigns.
It is important to recognize that the success of lead generation tactics is measured by the number of qualified leads generated by those tactics, not by the amount of sales. The money comes later. Some common examples of lead generation tactics are: broadcast advertising, direct mail, and networking at trade shows and other events.
Many people (myself included) believe the ideal business scenario is to first define your desired market. Then go get some leads and get to know them and the problems they are having. Only after gaining a deep knowledge of your chosen market’s biggest needs and wants are you in the right position to develop suitable solutions. You then get the added benefit of offering your solutions to a market that already knows and trusts you because you didn’t come in trying to get their money pushing whatever you happened to have before getting to know them.
Generating leads is where all new businesses start. Without leads you have no one to convince to buy. You can't get any orders, you can't deliver any solutions, and ultimately you can't get paid. Without leads to follow up on no other part of the organization can even begin to function.
In part 2 we'll look at converting those leads into customers.
The basic representation of business from a sales perspective consists of four main steps:
1. finding leads
2. converting those leads
3. closing the deal
4. delivering the product or service
The end goal, as always, is to provide a solution that the customer is happy with so you can collect payment.
In small organizations lead finding, conversion and closing may all be handled by the sales staff. In larger organizations these functions start to get split up and assigned to separate teams. The best way to split them up depends on the organization and the dynamics of the market you are selling to.
Lead Generation - Finding People To Help
Lead generation is all about getting potential customers to take a first look at you and your company. The objective is to make initial contact with people and determine if there is the potential for a mutually beneficial business relationship. You may not even have a specific product or service in mind during lead generation. Just an idea of your desired market and the type of people and businesses you want to serve is enough to launch lead generation campaigns.
It is important to recognize that the success of lead generation tactics is measured by the number of qualified leads generated by those tactics, not by the amount of sales. The money comes later. Some common examples of lead generation tactics are: broadcast advertising, direct mail, and networking at trade shows and other events.
Many people (myself included) believe the ideal business scenario is to first define your desired market. Then go get some leads and get to know them and the problems they are having. Only after gaining a deep knowledge of your chosen market’s biggest needs and wants are you in the right position to develop suitable solutions. You then get the added benefit of offering your solutions to a market that already knows and trusts you because you didn’t come in trying to get their money pushing whatever you happened to have before getting to know them.
Generating leads is where all new businesses start. Without leads you have no one to convince to buy. You can't get any orders, you can't deliver any solutions, and ultimately you can't get paid. Without leads to follow up on no other part of the organization can even begin to function.
In part 2 we'll look at converting those leads into customers.
Separate Orders from Sales to Improve Your Business
Sales is all about helping customers shop for and get what they need or want. It places focus on finding leads, converting leads, and closing the deal. Once those three things are done, all you need to do is deliver the product. So if sales minded people are focused on these 3 things, why separate the sales and orders functions within a business?
The fact is many businesses, big and small, combine the sales and orders functions under one organization (usually called sales). Well this can work in some situations; there is an important case to be made for separating getting sales from taking orders.
Management Tips for Creating a WIN-WIN Scenario
A widely recognized key to long term business success is building long term relationships with your customers. The simple fact is that it takes longer and costs more to get a new customer than it does to repeatedly satisfy the needs of an existing customer who already trusts you.
It is very important to give your customers what they want to encourage them to come back to you again. It is equally important to give your business what it needs to survive, or you won’t be around long enough to help your new customers a second time. You need to satisfy your business needs and your customer needs at the same time. This is known as a Win-Win scenario. The customer wins by getting something they need or want. The business wins by getting something that they need or want. If either side does not get what it needs or wants from the relationship, or feels they were dealt with unfairly, there is no incentive to go back and do it again. The only way you can build healthy long term relationships is with Win-Win transactions.
So what does this have to do with separating Sales and Orders teams? Everything.
Win-Win scenarios don’t just happen. They require negotiation. In a simple business the negotiation can take place between the customer and the salesperson. As a business grows it quickly becomes too complex and time consuming for the customer to negotiate effectively without someone to look out for their interests and be their voice inside the business. Without people specifically working on behalf of the customer the customer’s voice would not be heard inside most businesses. We call the people who argue on behalf of the customer’s best interests, the Voice of the Customer. The Voice of the Customer inside the business is generally the Sales team and the Customer Support team. Their counterparts, the Voice of the Business, are the Orders team and the Delivery, or Fulfillment team.
The Voice of the Customer and the Voice of the Business must work together to ensure a Win-Win scenario. The Sales team brings the customer message to the table. The Orders team brings the business’s message to the table. The customer can be as involved as they like, but they don’t need to be at every meeting and every negotiation because the sales team is working on their behalf to ensure they get what they need.
Management Tips for Ensuring a Balanced Negotiation
So it’s great to say that the sales team is the Voice of the Customer, and the Orders team is the Voice of the Business, but aren’t they really both working for the business? What motivates the sales person to truly act on behalf of the customer instead of just trying to get the most for the business? The answer to this is in how people are measured. Sales people are (or should be) measured on sell price. Orders people are measured on margin (how much money is left after all the costs are paid). This means the sales person is not rewarded based on whether or not the business makes money. It also means the sales person is rewarded based on something the customer can clearly see: sell price. They are free to discuss it with the customer in a completely open and honest way.
As a customer, if your sales representative is being paid based on profit margin then you must simply trust that they are steering you towards a particular purchase because it’s good for you and not just because they know it has a higher profit margin (and hence a better commission). As a sales person in this situation the temptation is always there to push a higher margin product that may not be in the best interests of your customer.
As a customer, if you know your sales person earns commission based on sell price then you can be sure that you are getting the whole story. Many organizations do not even reveal their internal costs to the sales people so that they will be put in the same situation as the customer, and openly and honestly defend the customer’s interests. The sales person is rewarded solely on how much the customer spends, and everyone knows the situation. As a customer, you know exactly what the sales person’s motivation is, and can respect that. It is the best situation for you as a customer. It may seem like a small difference, but the effects are huge. Now the sales person is motivated to get the most for the customer so they will spend again. They are put in the same situation as the customer with regard to price. They don’t have costs floating around in their head to make them wonder about whether the business will make money or not. They only know what the customer knows. They are only motivated to get the most for the customer. It is only in this situation that they can truly become the Voice of the Customer.
The other side of the coin is the Voice of the Business. You can well imagine that if a business gave their customers everything they asked for whatever price they requested they would be out of business very quickly. So across the negotiation table from the Sales team and the customer sits the Orders team. The Orders team is rewarded based on how much money the company makes after costs are paid. They are not in the same shoes as the customer. They are in the shoes of the business. The Orders team is also looking for a Win-Win scenario. The Orders team also wants a long term relationship. But the Orders team is not willing to give anything away unless there is some benefit to the business. A balanced Voice of the Customer and Voice of the Business results in the very best balance between customer interests and business interests. Separating the Orders team from the Sales team is an important step in building the foundation for long te
rm, mutually beneficial relationships between business and customer.
Summary
Separating the Orders team from the Sales team creates a balance that fosters solid, long term relationships between a business and its customers. The Sales team goes after what is best for the customer. The Orders team goes after what is best for the business. Worst case for both sides is a failure to reach an agreement (no sales, no margin). Best case for both sides is an agreement that leaves both sides happy, and ready to do more business in the future. And through it all the customer always has someone they can trust to look out for their best interests, because in large part their interests are shared.
The fact is many businesses, big and small, combine the sales and orders functions under one organization (usually called sales). Well this can work in some situations; there is an important case to be made for separating getting sales from taking orders.
Management Tips for Creating a WIN-WIN Scenario
A widely recognized key to long term business success is building long term relationships with your customers. The simple fact is that it takes longer and costs more to get a new customer than it does to repeatedly satisfy the needs of an existing customer who already trusts you.
It is very important to give your customers what they want to encourage them to come back to you again. It is equally important to give your business what it needs to survive, or you won’t be around long enough to help your new customers a second time. You need to satisfy your business needs and your customer needs at the same time. This is known as a Win-Win scenario. The customer wins by getting something they need or want. The business wins by getting something that they need or want. If either side does not get what it needs or wants from the relationship, or feels they were dealt with unfairly, there is no incentive to go back and do it again. The only way you can build healthy long term relationships is with Win-Win transactions.
So what does this have to do with separating Sales and Orders teams? Everything.
Win-Win scenarios don’t just happen. They require negotiation. In a simple business the negotiation can take place between the customer and the salesperson. As a business grows it quickly becomes too complex and time consuming for the customer to negotiate effectively without someone to look out for their interests and be their voice inside the business. Without people specifically working on behalf of the customer the customer’s voice would not be heard inside most businesses. We call the people who argue on behalf of the customer’s best interests, the Voice of the Customer. The Voice of the Customer inside the business is generally the Sales team and the Customer Support team. Their counterparts, the Voice of the Business, are the Orders team and the Delivery, or Fulfillment team.
The Voice of the Customer and the Voice of the Business must work together to ensure a Win-Win scenario. The Sales team brings the customer message to the table. The Orders team brings the business’s message to the table. The customer can be as involved as they like, but they don’t need to be at every meeting and every negotiation because the sales team is working on their behalf to ensure they get what they need.
Management Tips for Ensuring a Balanced Negotiation
So it’s great to say that the sales team is the Voice of the Customer, and the Orders team is the Voice of the Business, but aren’t they really both working for the business? What motivates the sales person to truly act on behalf of the customer instead of just trying to get the most for the business? The answer to this is in how people are measured. Sales people are (or should be) measured on sell price. Orders people are measured on margin (how much money is left after all the costs are paid). This means the sales person is not rewarded based on whether or not the business makes money. It also means the sales person is rewarded based on something the customer can clearly see: sell price. They are free to discuss it with the customer in a completely open and honest way.
As a customer, if your sales representative is being paid based on profit margin then you must simply trust that they are steering you towards a particular purchase because it’s good for you and not just because they know it has a higher profit margin (and hence a better commission). As a sales person in this situation the temptation is always there to push a higher margin product that may not be in the best interests of your customer.
As a customer, if you know your sales person earns commission based on sell price then you can be sure that you are getting the whole story. Many organizations do not even reveal their internal costs to the sales people so that they will be put in the same situation as the customer, and openly and honestly defend the customer’s interests. The sales person is rewarded solely on how much the customer spends, and everyone knows the situation. As a customer, you know exactly what the sales person’s motivation is, and can respect that. It is the best situation for you as a customer. It may seem like a small difference, but the effects are huge. Now the sales person is motivated to get the most for the customer so they will spend again. They are put in the same situation as the customer with regard to price. They don’t have costs floating around in their head to make them wonder about whether the business will make money or not. They only know what the customer knows. They are only motivated to get the most for the customer. It is only in this situation that they can truly become the Voice of the Customer.
The other side of the coin is the Voice of the Business. You can well imagine that if a business gave their customers everything they asked for whatever price they requested they would be out of business very quickly. So across the negotiation table from the Sales team and the customer sits the Orders team. The Orders team is rewarded based on how much money the company makes after costs are paid. They are not in the same shoes as the customer. They are in the shoes of the business. The Orders team is also looking for a Win-Win scenario. The Orders team also wants a long term relationship. But the Orders team is not willing to give anything away unless there is some benefit to the business. A balanced Voice of the Customer and Voice of the Business results in the very best balance between customer interests and business interests. Separating the Orders team from the Sales team is an important step in building the foundation for long te
rm, mutually beneficial relationships between business and customer.Summary
Separating the Orders team from the Sales team creates a balance that fosters solid, long term relationships between a business and its customers. The Sales team goes after what is best for the customer. The Orders team goes after what is best for the business. Worst case for both sides is a failure to reach an agreement (no sales, no margin). Best case for both sides is an agreement that leaves both sides happy, and ready to do more business in the future. And through it all the customer always has someone they can trust to look out for their best interests, because in large part their interests are shared.
How to Maximize your Virtual Sales
How to Maximize your Virtual Sales.
Let's say you have a beautiful website, good search engine listing and decent traffic but you haven't sold anything. This can be a very frustrating situation. In fact, your place in Google is not the only thing that determines your sales. The second most important thing after bringing a visitor to your website is making him perform an action. Action depends on the nature of your business, it can vary from drawing a credit card to giving up details for following sales work. Following article reviews some important tips that will help you achieve your website main goal.
Every website must have a good slogan to draw visitor's attention. Don’t be too modest, your slogan must emphasize the best side of you and your business. Slogan must include at least two things:
What do you offer?
Why choosing you?
Design and location are very important too. Slogan must be well combined in your website design and draw the visitor's eye and curiosity. Visit your competitor's websites and try to learn from other successful slogans.
The text in your website must be concise. Visitor must understand very quickly what he earns from your website and what he is supposed to do in order to get there. Some websites do not connect between those two things. Even when the visitor is interested in what the website has to offer, he cannot find the phone number to dial or a form to fill, this leads to a major interest loss.
Webpage too loaded by details can also wear out and scare away the visitor, so make sure to include the most important issues only. Visitors move from page to page very fast, therefore the text must be short and precise hitting the right buttons to make the visitor interested in what you have to sell without time wasting.
Some self glorifying can be useful for advertisement but keep in mind that no one came to hear about you, so emphasize on the client needs and not on yourself.
Make sure to have multiple motivators for action in your website. Word like Sign up now, buy now, download now. One of the best ways to motivate the visitors to do something is offering them a bonus, present or a discount. This is a trick all marketers use.
Internet shopping can repel some clients who afraid of fraud or lack of satisfaction from the product. In order to overcome this barrier, includes some details about data protection you offer to prevent credit card fraud and suggest money back in case of lack of satisfaction from the product.
If your business relies on web sales or Internet exposure you must create a good website. Many people with badly planned websites hope than multiple traffic will lead to multiple sales, even though it is far from the truth and make them spend more than required on web campaigns and optimization. By investing some time and afford to understand your client's way of thinking you can largely optimize your sales and profit.
Let's say you have a beautiful website, good search engine listing and decent traffic but you haven't sold anything. This can be a very frustrating situation. In fact, your place in Google is not the only thing that determines your sales. The second most important thing after bringing a visitor to your website is making him perform an action. Action depends on the nature of your business, it can vary from drawing a credit card to giving up details for following sales work. Following article reviews some important tips that will help you achieve your website main goal.
Every website must have a good slogan to draw visitor's attention. Don’t be too modest, your slogan must emphasize the best side of you and your business. Slogan must include at least two things:
What do you offer?
Why choosing you?
Design and location are very important too. Slogan must be well combined in your website design and draw the visitor's eye and curiosity. Visit your competitor's websites and try to learn from other successful slogans.
The text in your website must be concise. Visitor must understand very quickly what he earns from your website and what he is supposed to do in order to get there. Some websites do not connect between those two things. Even when the visitor is interested in what the website has to offer, he cannot find the phone number to dial or a form to fill, this leads to a major interest loss.
Webpage too loaded by details can also wear out and scare away the visitor, so make sure to include the most important issues only. Visitors move from page to page very fast, therefore the text must be short and precise hitting the right buttons to make the visitor interested in what you have to sell without time wasting.
Some self glorifying can be useful for advertisement but keep in mind that no one came to hear about you, so emphasize on the client needs and not on yourself.
Make sure to have multiple motivators for action in your website. Word like Sign up now, buy now, download now. One of the best ways to motivate the visitors to do something is offering them a bonus, present or a discount. This is a trick all marketers use.
Internet shopping can repel some clients who afraid of fraud or lack of satisfaction from the product. In order to overcome this barrier, includes some details about data protection you offer to prevent credit card fraud and suggest money back in case of lack of satisfaction from the product.
If your business relies on web sales or Internet exposure you must create a good website. Many people with badly planned websites hope than multiple traffic will lead to multiple sales, even though it is far from the truth and make them spend more than required on web campaigns and optimization. By investing some time and afford to understand your client's way of thinking you can largely optimize your sales and profit.
Learn How to Market and Sales in MLM Business
Introduction
MLM business opportunity is favorable to develop various kills and abilities, and you may display some hidden talents. There is no doubt that a multi level marketing MLM business is potentially a very profitable undertaking. There is no limit at all to how much you could earn from this venture. It all depends on how much time, commitment and hard work you invest. You must determine your needs and motivations to see if running this kind of business is right for you. One great method of building this business is using pre-interviewed mlm leads. The number one thing to make a business and easy mlm business is to stick to the plan. Remember that the backbone of an MLM business is sales and marketing.
Marketing
Marketing is a form of business practice that receives or has received a fair amount of bad press and to be honest in some cases justifiably so. Multi Level Marketing programs have always been a popular money making opportunity for many people. The beneficial compensation system employed by several programs today makes its easy for the enrollee to earn and receive the money he had gained. So, you have decided to take the plunge, gathered some cash, and enrolled yourself in a Multi Level Marketing program. You have grand visions of untold wealth flooding your bank account at such a brisk and consistent pace each and every month.
The basics of effective Multi Level Marketing MLM ring around patient listening, smart questions and objections handling, perseverance, diligence, smart sales skills and a great social network to name some. Well the very essence of a network marketing business or this business, is that you are your own boss, no security and guaranteed redundancy at some time in your career and probably no pension. Often the best marketing is the marketing that is spread by word-of-mouth.
Sales
Are you a manufacturer or a distributor of goods It does not matter if they re strictly digital or physical you could boost your sales by employing this system that would make your customers do the selling for you Amazing, isn’t it. Multi level marketing MLM involves the sales of a company s products directly to the end user through independent distributors Social network is the backbone of MLM Wider the social network, better your chances of success, as MLM works mainly on the Word o. The good news is sales and marketing is a skill set, and it can be learned. Most people don't know how easy sales and marketing can be. Once you've learned how to harness a great sales and marketing system and execute just like the teenagers at McDonald's do, day in and day out, you will be successful too.
Conclusion
In short, the MLM business is really a relationship or team business. One of the key factors in bringing success to your MLM Business is to hit the right target. However, the great thing about building an online business is its leverage income.
MLM business opportunity is favorable to develop various kills and abilities, and you may display some hidden talents. There is no doubt that a multi level marketing MLM business is potentially a very profitable undertaking. There is no limit at all to how much you could earn from this venture. It all depends on how much time, commitment and hard work you invest. You must determine your needs and motivations to see if running this kind of business is right for you. One great method of building this business is using pre-interviewed mlm leads. The number one thing to make a business and easy mlm business is to stick to the plan. Remember that the backbone of an MLM business is sales and marketing.
Marketing
Marketing is a form of business practice that receives or has received a fair amount of bad press and to be honest in some cases justifiably so. Multi Level Marketing programs have always been a popular money making opportunity for many people. The beneficial compensation system employed by several programs today makes its easy for the enrollee to earn and receive the money he had gained. So, you have decided to take the plunge, gathered some cash, and enrolled yourself in a Multi Level Marketing program. You have grand visions of untold wealth flooding your bank account at such a brisk and consistent pace each and every month.
The basics of effective Multi Level Marketing MLM ring around patient listening, smart questions and objections handling, perseverance, diligence, smart sales skills and a great social network to name some. Well the very essence of a network marketing business or this business, is that you are your own boss, no security and guaranteed redundancy at some time in your career and probably no pension. Often the best marketing is the marketing that is spread by word-of-mouth.
Sales
Are you a manufacturer or a distributor of goods It does not matter if they re strictly digital or physical you could boost your sales by employing this system that would make your customers do the selling for you Amazing, isn’t it. Multi level marketing MLM involves the sales of a company s products directly to the end user through independent distributors Social network is the backbone of MLM Wider the social network, better your chances of success, as MLM works mainly on the Word o. The good news is sales and marketing is a skill set, and it can be learned. Most people don't know how easy sales and marketing can be. Once you've learned how to harness a great sales and marketing system and execute just like the teenagers at McDonald's do, day in and day out, you will be successful too.
Conclusion
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