How to Close a Sale by Turning the Conventional Sales Process on Its Head

by Stephen Craine on January 5, 2010

With one simple change to your sales closing techniques you can bring out the majority of real sales objections, and smoke screens, at the start of a sales meeting. By making a simple change to the traditional sales process you will only be faced with objections related to your products or service when you try to close the sale. These are objections that you can overcome. Objections to sales that are related to the buyer, or their company, are not in your control and can be very difficult to resolve.

Make more effective use of your sales time because you will know from the start of the meeting whether the buyer can buy from you. Think abut the difference that will make to your sales conversion rate. From the introduction stage of the sales meeting, or even from the sales appointment making call, you will be in a position to decide if you are making the best use of your sales time. Working with the sales teams I manage and train we have developed this sales closing technique in real sales situations, not just in a classroom. These successful sales skills are used by working sales professionals that rely on their results to earn a living and keep their job.

In a traditional sales process the sales person usually starts the meeting with an introduction of themselves, their company, and the reason they are meeting with the prospect. This will be followed by questions to discover the buyer’s needs, and then a sales presentation of the features and benefits that meet those needs. Then the sales person tries to close the sale, or gain agreement to the next stage of the process. After all this time and work the seller can then be hit with an objection to the sale that they have no control over, and no way of overcoming. These are sales objections that are related to the buyer or their company.

These objections can be: There are other decision makers. The buying process involves their head office. The company is tied into a contract. Budgets are over spent, and many others that stop the sale dead.

By turning the traditional sales process on its head, and using sales closing techniques at the introduction stage of the meeting, you can bring out the buyer related sales objections. When presenting sales training, on how to close a sale, I focus on gaining the strongest agreement near the start of the sales process, rather than at the usual closing stage, after the sales presentation. At an appropriate point near the start of the meeting explain to the buyer the sales process you would like the meeting to follow. Tell the buyer how you will establish their needs, wants, and desires, and then present the best proposal you can offer. You will then ask them if they are happy with the benefits of the proposal, and if they would like to do business with you.

Present this as a win-win situation. There are great benefits for the buyer. They can relax, and communicate with you freely, because they know you’re not going to pounce on the smallest sign of interest, or buying signal, that they may show. Many people you sell to may not be full time buyers. By setting out the agenda you will help them with their buying process. When you do try and close the sale there will be no need for linguistic trickery or manipulative sales techniques. All it requires is a gentle direct question. You will find it easy to ask, and the buyer will appreciate your directness and honesty.

Setting the sales meeting agenda is the important point on which you want to gain their agreement. You are asking, if they like what they see, are they are in a position to buy from you, or to agree to the next stage of the buying process.

The strength of your agreement gaining question will vary depending upon the type of sales you are making. You can use stronger agreement gaining question with a one-time sale to a customer you will never see again than. With a repeat business prospect ,that you want to build a relationship with, you will be more tactful. Assessing the strength and directness of the closing techniques you use is a sales skill that comes with experience, practice and good sales training.

You’ve seen how to close a sale at the start of a sales meeting. If the buyer raises an objection to the sale, a reason why they can’t do business with you, you can now make a decision on whether it is good use of your time to continue with the meeting.

Once you have gained their agreement to the sales process you know that the objections, which may arise when you try and close the sale, will be related to the sales presentation you have given. These are objections you are more likely to be able to answer or resolve with your sales skills.

Closing a sale by gaining agreement near the start of the meeting requires confidence. Like all change it may be uncomfortable at first, but the results make it very worth while becoming competent at using this sales closing technique. Once you’ve mastered this sales skill imagine what else you can add to it.

Author: Stephen Craine
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Smart cooker

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Improve Your Employee Hiring and Screening Practices

by Jim Sirbasku on January 4, 2010

Did you know that an estimated two-thirds of employee hiring decisions may be mistakes? This article will provide you with information that can help you improve your employee hiring and screening practices so that you can cut costs and maximize productivity in your organization. Whether you’re an owner, an executive or a manager, the following information will be beneficial to you.

From your experience you know you have hired some excellent employees and some who failed. Now take a moment and think back. Did you use the same employee screening method to hire both? Typically we find that employers do employ the same methods for each position. This suggests that your existing employee selection process may produce inconsistent hiring results.

Assessments are invaluable employee screening tools for increasing consistency in your employee selection system. What makes them so invaluable? Job Fit technology. By combining tested and reliable data derived from pre-employment screening assessments with a customized job analysis survey, you can create a benchmark by which you can hire an employee who best fits your job and company.

How does it Job Fit technology work? Based on objective criteria, the management team selects top performers in a given position. The top performing employees are assessed on their mental ability, behavioral traits and occupational interest, which include the following 20 core characteristics:

- Learning index
- Verbal skill
- Verbal reasoning
- Numerical ability
- Numeric reasoning
- Energy level
- Assertiveness
- Sociability
- Manageability
- Attitude
- Decisiveness
- Accommodating
- Independence
- Objective judgment
- Enterprising
- Financial
- People service
- Creative
- Technical
- Mechanical

This data is used to create a unique Job Fit profile that lays the foundation for the skills and characteristics required by your company for screening and hiring talented people.

With the job profile analysis, multiple managers have the ability to weigh their opinions and express views regarding a specific position. Once the 57-question analysis has been completed, managers’ responses are entered into the assessment center for processing. The result is a unique Job Fit profile.

In addition to providing information about a candidate’s personality type and behavioral characteristics, the Job Fit Assessment will provide customized, tough interview questions that are prepared specifically for a particular candidate based on their assessment results. These Department of Labor approved, specific interview questions can be used in the second interview. This gives managers a critical advantage in the hiring process.

Including Job Fit as a key factor in your employee hiring and screening process will make your allocation of human capital significantly more effective and give you a competitive edge in your industry as you increase consistency and success in hiring talented employees. Matching people with the work they do creates a solid workforce that has the right people in the jobs they were born to do.

Most employee hiring decisions are made with inadequate information; however, assessments will deliver the information you need to know before tendering a job offer and making a hiring mistake.

Author: Jim Sirbasku
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty

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Writing Effective Sales Messages

by Dr Anubha Singh on January 2, 2010

A sales letter is a document designed to generate sales. It is a distinctive type of persuasive letter. It persuades the reader to place an order, to request additional information, or to lend support to the product or service or cause being offered. For most sectors other than retail, a sales letter is the first and most important way of reaching new customers. The purpose in writing a sales message is to sell a product. It influences the reader to take a specific action by making an offer-not an announcement-to him. Sales letter attempts to persuade readers to spend their time and money on the value being offered. To sell, the sales letter must be specific, go to the right audience, appeal to the readers needs, and it must be informative.

Before writing the sales letter you need to plan about the type of sale campaign that you will conduct. Whether you will send a letter only or will you include brochures, reply forms, special inserts, samples, response cards etc.? How do you plan to market the product or service? Through the Internet, direct mail, email, direct sales, print advertising, etc.? Do you need other advertising or literature to support the sales letter? Who is your competition? How are they marketing this product or service? What is your advertising budget? Are your marketing hopes realistic? Another important decision is to determine the specific purpose of your letter. Whether you want your reader to call for a free video, presentation or demonstration? Or you want your reader to fill out an order form? For these you need to know and analyze your audience and the purpose for writing. Try to form a mental image of the typical buyer for the product you wish to sell. Ask yourself:

Who is your prospective buyer?

What motivates a person to buy this item?

What might the reader want to know about this product?

What does the product or service do for the one who needs it?

What can the reader gain from buying it?

What is unique selling point of the product or service?

Does your offer appeal to the reader?

Can you transform him from prospect to buyer?

A sales letter is one of the important instruments of sales promotion. The principles of effective sales letter depends on your communication skill and your ability to convince your reader to accept or act on your recommendations. You may be promoting a product, a service or an idea; your sales letter should catch the readers attention, build interest, and motivate him to buy the product or service offered. A good sales letter should possess the following qualities:

Emphasize good looks

Design your document for visual impact. Make it easy to navigate so your reader reaches for it first-ahead of the competition’s. You can create professional-looking templates for your sales letter that use your company logo, branding and colors.

You Attitude

The most effective word in a sales letter is “you”. Never begin a letter with “I” because chances are the reader won’t get to the second word. It all comes down to selling benefits – your prospects are not interested in the features of your products services, but in what how your products or services can benefit them. Then it must build a reader’s trust. It should make generous use of “you” and “your” – so it is clear the customer’s needs come first, not your desire to sell something.

Use bullets

The body of your letter should contain key points, shown by bullets. Use bullets because it makes the letter easy to read. As the writer or seller, you benefit by immediately pointing your reader in the direction of the important points you want to make.

Keep your letter brief

It’s rare that someone is going to read anything past the first page, so keep your letter to one page. Staying at one page will also force you to be to the point, since a wordy letter is an ineffective letter.

Use statistics

Using statistics shows that you understand the issues of their business, while demonstrating that your product or service can solve a problem. It also gives your prospect a reason to support your product or service within the company.

Show your prospect’s needs

Your sales letter is a very brief sales proposal, so you need to show that you are thinking about your prospect’s needs. You might be hesitant to put your best ideas in your letter, fearing that your prospect will use them but not hire your company. That’s a mistake. By putting your ideas in your letter, you will make your prospects feel like they are getting something already, and that they will benefit from your products or services. More importantly, you will be demonstrating that you are creative and have your client’s best interests in mind.

Use right tone

Use the right tone in your writing. Use active voice. Use the present tense. Be positive. Avoid negatives. Keep sentences and paragraphs short.

Proof read

Proof read your letter before you send it out. This will help you determine if your letter is clear and if you’re getting your point across. Also, misspelled word or other careless mistake will give bad impression to the reader.

One of the most effective strategies to plan and write effective sales letter is to follow the four steps in your letter which are:

Catch attention

Build interest

Establish credibility

Motivate action

Catch attention

To be effective, a sales letter must catch readers attention. Design your document for visual impact to catch the readers attention by using graphics such as layout, colour scheme or illustrations. You can grab attention with an eye-catching headline or an interesting opening. This might be a question or statement. The opening should be short, honest, relevant, interesting and stimulating. Keep it quite general to appeal to as many people as possible. There are many possibilities for opening your sales letter that could persuade the reader to buy. Make a compelling promise for the reader, tell a story that the reader can identify with, make an announcement of a new product or service showcasing your unique selling point or ask a question.

The headline encourages your prospects and leads them to your next line. There you start to build their interest and ensure they read the next sentence and each subsequent one.

Build interest

Besides a powerful headline, your sales letter must have an immediate clear benefit for the intended audience. To build interest in your sales message you should highlight your products central selling point, the single point around which you will build your sales message. Be upfront and bold about promising a prize or a tangible reward in exchange for time and attention. Whatever product or service you are selling you need to position it so that its benefits provide one or more of the following common desires:

- To make or save money

- To be healthy

- To be popular or to maintain a social status

- To have security

- To have free time or save labour

- To get entertainment, comfort or amusement

- To take advantage of opportunities

- To be good looking

- To achieve inner peace

Show them how your product will benefit them in making their lives better, safer or easier. How will it save them time, trouble, worry or money? Look at their ultimate goal and relate it to that. Why should they buy from you?
For example, state what makes you an expert in your chosen field. How can you prove what you are claiming is true? Once you have listed down the key benefits of the service or product and positioned yourself as the person to deliver it, the time is right to deliver your sales pitch. Persuade your reader to buy based on the grounds of what the product or service does for him or her (benefit), not what the product or service is (feature)!

A benefit is what the product or service does, and what the buyer gains from the feature. A benefit is the specific outcome of the feature. A feature is something the product or service already has. Benefits are what motivate people to buy. Bullet point each benefit to make it easier to read. Think about every possible benefit your reader may derive from your product or service. In many cases, people will buy a product or service based on only one of the benefits you list.

Besides the benefit stated at the letter’s opening, you can bolster interest by adding high-profile testimonials from associates or former clients. Testimonials from happy customers are very useful for this purpose, as are quotes from established third parties such as industry leaders or reputable specialists. Opinions, figures and independent statistics are also likely to reinforce your message. Ultimate motivations are what people really want. The product or service is just a vehicle to providing these benefits so make sure your sales letter focuses on these motivational factors.

Establish credibility

You need to establish credibility and be believable by the second paragraph. You must anticipate the readers objections and doubts and offer counter arguments. There are several ways of overcoming readers doubts which must be used with good judgment and should be related with the main appeal of the letter. You can provide testimonials, money-back guarantees, trial offers, attractive warranties or free samples. Using too many points to establish credibility will not be effective. To gain credibility for you and your request, present just one fact, strengthened, if necessary, by an opinion or fact as a proof.

Motivate action

Its important to remember that people are motivated to buy based on their emotions and justify their purchase based on logic only after the sale. This means that each step in the sales letter process must build on the readers emotions to a point where they are motivated to take action. Encourage the reader to act by an easy and clear method of responding. Close with summarizing the central selling point and clear instructions for an easy action to be taken. To motivate, you can offer a gift, limit the offer, guarantee satisfaction, or promise an incentive.

End with an action: What result do you want from your letter? Are you looking to get a face-to-face appointment? Are you answering questions raised at a previous meeting? Do you want to make your prospect better informed? Do you need to get a signed contract? You need to close your letter by requesting a specific, quantifiable action. For example: “I will call you on Thursday, May 18 at 10 a.m. to schedule meeting” or “Please return the enclosed contract by Friday, April 21, or call me if you have any other questions”.

WRITING A SALES LETTER:

Like any other business letter, a sales letter has three parts introduction, the body of the letter and the concluding paragraph. Let us examine in detail how to draft these three components of a sales letter. The important thing in a sales letter is the sequence which is as following:

Introduction

Body of the letter

Conclusion

Introduction

The introductory paragraph of a sales letter starts with an opening sentence which has a vital role to play. In many instances, the opening sentence is the only sentence that is read, so it must immediately appeal to readers interests. There are several ways of writing an opening sentence in a sales letter, some of them are listed here with the examples:
A provocative question: What would the leaning tower fall for? The leaning tower of Pisa would only be put to shame by architectural splendor that outshines its own like the new range of luxury bathroom accessories.
What can you get these days for Rs. 15? Enjoy the finest that life has to offer just for Rs. 15 every month!

A striking information: We are the Number 1! We are the number 1 in revenue, customer base and customer satisfaction.

A story or an anecdote: Mr. Bala went shopping with his saving with our VISA credit card. What will you do with yours? Our credit card offers 5% bonus savings on all purchases for first six months.

A significant fact: Hearing Loss you may not be aware of Only about 25% of people who need hearing aid use them.

Most people have a vocabulary of 2-3,000 words and even a scholar uses no more then 5-6,000 words in his daily life. But there are around 500,000 words in English language and you can use many of them to enrich your vocabulary by using our Vocabulary Builder.

Split opening: You know English, but are you quite fluent in it? It may sound incredible but classrooms cant help you achieve fluency. No, they cant. No! Nor can audio video sessions. Nor translation. But Rapid English Fluency can help you.

A conditional sequence: If home is where the most number of accidents take place, think of Woodcoat Paint as insurance.

Special offers: Free gifts! Yours for giving the digest as a gift this Puja and Diwali free diary for the year 2005 whether you order several subscriptions or just one will receive this big, handy year 2005 desk diary free.

Wings to give your childrens career a head start! Avail the special offer of financial assistance for spectrum of educational opportunities in India and abroad.

Body of the letter

You may have a lead paragraph in the body of the letter. This part of the sales letter can be used to expand the promise made in the headline or used to deliver a second major benefit of the product or service. A sub-headline can also be used as the second part, to answer a question posed in the headline. For example, Part 1 could say: “Want to learn Kannada in 30 days? Part 2 could say: “Well, here’s how to . . .

In the body of the sales letter you will begin to offer proof. You expand the theme, fill in details, offer proof, and show how you plan to fulfill the promise you made in the headline. Here, you give details of your unique selling point. You continue talking about the benefits and offer proof of the claim you made early. You share the details of the benefits. Prove your claim or statements by facts, logic or testimony. There are several ways of doing so, choose one that suits your products best. Following are some examples:

Trial offers: Get on the fitness trail! Enjoy our free offer to use our machine in comfort of your house for a week. If you are not satisfied we will take it back, no questions asked.

Guarantees: Guarantee of satisfaction

You always come first with us and your complete satisfaction is our prime concern. If you are not delighted with our product you may return it anytime for 100 % refund.

Free samples: To enable you to see for yourself how convenient it is to handle closet organizers, we are sending you a free sample.

Testimonials: Ritu Sharma, Bangalore: How the web changed my world! It can change yours too. The Sify internet connectivity provided me the ability to communicate with people all over the planet and gave me access to information all around the world.

You need to explain the qualities of your product and its special features and convince your reader that your claims are true. Remember, by the end of the body, the goal is to create an emotional response that will cause the reader to do what you are now going to tell him to do.

Closing:

In the closing part of your sales letter your goal is to motivate action. Recapitulate your points and make a final appeal. You may give a limited time offer, or limited quantity offer or special bargain etc. Use a Post Script. For example, “If you order before March 1, we will include a free . . .” Or “Money back guaranteed . . .” Or “Discount is good until . . .” If you ask the reader to order, support, or to contact you for the specified reason you must make it easy for him to reply. Support the sales letter with a post card or an order form. If appropriate, supply a toll free telephone number, an Email link, and or your URL. Always close with a thank you and use a signature at the end of the letter. Save one of the best points for last.

Author: Dr Anubha Singh
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty rates

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Hiring the Right Person – 8 Proven Strategies You Need to Know Before Your Next Hire

January 1, 2010

Hiring “the right person” is one of the top frustrations of entrepreneurs and small business owners. They want to make sure they’re hiring people who will stay, fit in, and support them so they can do their genius work – what they started their business for in the first place.

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Merchant Funding

December 29, 2009

Merchant funding can be a daunting but necessary task. By doing your homework and asking tough questions you can find what you need. Making a list of your needs will keep you on the objective.

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Selection And Assessment Hiring Mistakes – What’s Wrong With Most Hiring Practices?

December 28, 2009

Most companies, law firms and accountancy firms could improve their hiring practices. Interviews are frequently poorly done and psychometric assessments are not used to help predict success.

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The Five Myths That Slow Down Sales and How to Avoid Them

December 27, 2009

Time is money, yeah, yeah, we’ve heard that before. But if time really is money, why do so many professionals squander it chasing anyone with a pulse, including their most horrible prospects? Because they still embrace one of the Five Myths of selling, common mistakes that drain profit and energy from a sales organization. Read on.

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The Sales Process – How Not to Come in Second

December 27, 2009

As CEO, company president or business owner, have you ever thought about how ineffective your sales department may be? Imagine a sales department that spends hours and hours developing proposals, rehearsing presentations, creating marketing materials only to lose the deal. The only good sales presentation is one where the customer says yes; otherwise, you’re left only with wasted time, effort and money. This article is not about sales technique. It is about how a CEO, company president or business owner may want to think about the process of selling.

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A More Responsible Hiring Approach — Contract For Services

December 26, 2009

Contracting with new employees instead of hiring them outright offers many advantages to employers. The approach permits more time to evaluate employee performance and protects the employer from bad hiring decisions and the unpleasantness associated with documenting and terminating employees.

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Human Resources Tips – 3 Tips For Making That Final Hiring Decision

December 25, 2009

Perhaps the hardest part in the hiring process is making the final decision. This is no surprise. Countless hours of resume reading, preliminary interviewing, and background checking have been done in order to find that perfect new employee to fill your organization’s needs. It’s true, in some cases, that making the final hiring decision is made easier by a standout candidate; however, many times there may be multiple candidates who you think could make a valuable contribution to the organization. With this in mind, here are few ways to make the final hiring decision a little bit easier…

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