My Own Business is a site designed to help you no matter what stage you’re at in your business.
They offer a free e-course that covers all the steps, from researching your market to projecting cashflows to expansion. Quizzes and business plan templates also included. Might be worth giving a whirl! I know I will be.
I kinda said it all in the title. http://www.justsell.com. Go! Darn near everything is free.
Let’s say you’d like to find out how many people in a certain demographic–let’s say parents, for this example–are interested in your type of service. One way to find out is to offer a free report on something that relates to your service, and to offer it via autoresponder.
What this means is, your website visitor will have to enter their name and email address to get the report. The report will then be automatically emailed to them, with no interference from you. (more…)
| Excerpted from an article by Tom Ninness, Vice President/Regional Production Manager for Cherry Creek Mortgage in Denver, CO. Ninness is the creator of the “The 90 Day Journey to Your Sales Success”, a powerful 90 day action plan for the sales professional. To learn more about The Journey and all what Summit Champions has to offer, go to www.90dayjourney.com or email Tom.The Law of Reciprocity.
The Law of Reciprocity means to give and take mutually, to return in kind or even in another kind or degree. The law of reciprocity simply means that when someone gives something, you feel an obligation to give back. Stephen Covey, author of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, uses the phrase “emotional bank account” to describe the principle of reciprocity and the corresponding credit-withdrawal process in relationships. Using the metaphor of a financial bank account, the emotional bank account describes the trust that accumulates in a relationship. Like the financial bank account, you must make deposits before you can make withdrawals. (more…) |
Lead Qualification: Getting to NO!
| from Go-to-Market Strategies
Lead Quality. This is the crux of most sales and marketing disputes, isn’t it? And, it is no wonder. Lead quality is possibly the most important element to sales success. Because, no matter how great your product, or sales skill, or tools, if the lead itself is not a good quality lead, you have NOTHING. Lead qualification is harder than it seems, which is quite possibly why it is so often skipped in the sales process. The problem with that of course is ….better lead quality directly relates to higher close ratios. So what is the trick to identifying quality leads? (more…) |
I’m a member of LinkedIn, along with other groups and sites, and this free report about finding the gold in LinkedIn is, well, a gem.
Many people are drawn to the promise of millions of connections on LinkedIn but suffer from the “now what” syndrome once they get signed up. There is gold in LinkedIn, but like any social network the secret lies in understanding how to open up access points and begin to make them pay off in mutually beneficial ways.
http://www.sellingtobigcompanies.com/content_display.jsp?top=8486&mid=76812
Start to tremble when someone asks what you do for a living? Want to join a networking group but don’t–simply to avoid that “30-second commercial”?
I found that I froze up when giving an introduction for my business…yet, had no problem introducing someone else’s. Why was this?
My theory was that I was simply not attached to that other person’s business–or what anyone thought of it. I couldn’t control whether people would be interested and my threshold of concern for that wasn’t as strong as it was for my own thing.
So I decided to pretend that when introducing my own business, I was actually just a rep for someone else. In doing so, I was able to detach and my concern for whether or not that person liked me, or my business idea, dropped dramatically. I took things less personally and was less worried about feeling rejected; I was able to embody the “my business is not for everyone” philosophy, and thus didn’t take it personally when someone didn’t join my group.
It’s always easier to refer someone else than to put your own best foot forward, so for those of you with this difficulty, try pretending you work for a nameless boss who owns your business when making the introductions. You may very well find that you speak more freely and without fear of rejection!
Brochures should be used–and only expected–to generate interest. If it could close the sale by itself, you wouldn’t need salespeople. Design your brochure to focus on key benefits (NOT the features of your product or service), use some photos, keep white space, make it easy to contact you. Don’t try to cram everything under the sun in there and blindly mail it to everyone thinking the calls will just roll in with people frothing at the mouth to buy from you. There’s a reason why brochures are only done on one sheet of paper!
Think of your brochure like a resume: you don’t expect to get the job by sending it in–only an interview. Treat your brochure the same way and you may very well land more interviews!
