Read Never Get a ”Real„ Job Online
Authors: Scott Gerber
Don’t waste time selling the unsellable. All you’ll be doing is alienating and frustrating quality leads for no gain whatsoever. If you wouldn’t buy your own product, then don’t expect that anyone else will. Modify your service offering until you would wholeheartedly fork over the cash in your wallet without a moment’s hesitation.
Principle #2: Tell Your Customers You Have “U.S.P.”
Nothing puts a bad taste in a customer’s mouth more than asserting blatant falsehoods and exaggerations to be absolute truths. I once walked by a doctor’s office that had a big sign outside his practice that read, “World Renowned Specialist.” Suffice it to say, I wasn’t exactly surprised when I Googled this supposedly prestigious individual later, and didn’t find so much as a street address listed online.
Yes, you need to stand out from the pack, but in no way is it a smart idea to base your differentiation on total lies or hyperbole. If you’re looking for surefire ways to never make a sale, simply proclaim your service the best or the world’s greatest service and call it a day. However, if you’re looking to stand out with real and substantial credentials, identify your unique selling proposition and sell
that
to prospective customers.
A unique selling proposition is something about your business that offers a strategic advantage over your competition. It’s often the vehicle that provides the results and benefits we spoke about a moment ago. Differentiating your company from your competition is the key factor in attracting your niche market to your product or service.
Nine Ways to Generate Thousands of Leads for Free (or Damn Cheap)
Selling is, above all, always a numbers game. The more targeted leads you start with, the more likely you are to succeed. And there’s no bigger pool of leads available than on the Internet. There are countless online resources that can connect with your niche marketplace in no time. Here is a list of my favorite no-and-low-cost lead-generating Web tools and tactics:
1.
BoardReader.com
allows you to find online forums where users are posting your brand language, commentary about your competitors, or information about your brand, effectively turning forum chatter into potential clients. Cost: Free.2.
Twellow.com
is the equivalent of the Yellow Pages for Twitter. Search hundreds of categories to find prospects interested in your industry or living in your niche marketplace. Cost: Free.3.
Search social networks
by typing your brand language into the search field on each of these sites to find prospects: Yahoo! Groups,
MeetUp.com
,
Ning.com
,
LinkedIn.com
,
Facebook.com
,
Ryze.com
, and
Biznik.com
. Cost: Free.4.
Flowtown.com
lets you find out more about prospects for whom you have limited information. Simply import an e-mail address to the Web site, and it instantly tells you the name, occupation, location, gender, and links to social network profiles that are associated with it. Cost: Free to varies.5.
Google Alerts
is a Web-based Google service that sends daily e-mails containing content from around the Web that features your selected queries, topics, and keywords. Cost: Free.6.
SocialMention.com
is a real-time social media search engine that shows users who, what, and where their brand language, keywords, and company are being discussed in the social media world. Much like Google Alerts, it also offers a free daily e-mail alert feature. Cost: Free.7.
Bump
enables you to exchange contact information with prospects instantly on the go. This iPhone and Android mobile application instantly shares contact information between two mobile devices when they are bumped together. Cost: Free.8.
Gist.com
connects your inbox to the Web allowing you to aggregate and view important information about each of your contacts, such as social media statuses, blog updates, and other business-critical information, in real time. Cost: Free.9.
Wufoo.com
is an HTML form editor that enables users to create and manage any kind of online form, such as invitations, contact forms, mailing list sign ups, and order forms, all without any coding or programming skills. Cost: Free to $29.95 per month.
Seize every opportunity to point out why your service is a better fit than your competitors’ for your targeted market. A competitor may tout its “multiservice one-stop-shop” approach, but your niche marketplace prefers a specialist. Your competitor may be a low-cost leader, but your niche marketplace might appreciate high-quality craftsmanship at low prices. Find out what customers don’t like about the competition and turn those downfalls and shortcomings into your advantages.
Principle #3: Pitch Prospects as If They Are Two-Year-Olds
Don’t expect customers to know or understand anything about your offerings or their benefits. They won’t have a clue. This is why your main role as chief salesperson
isn’t
to sell your prospect your products and services; it’s to educate. Taking the time to provide prospects with information and convenient educational tools—rather than simply trying to sell them products—is the most effective way to convert leads into paying customers.
First, you’ll need a sales pitch that will serve as your main hook. Your pitch should answer six basic questions:
1. What results and benefits does your product or service offer?
2. How does your product or service work?
3. What is your unique selling proposition?
4. How long will your service take to complete?
5. How much does your product or service cost?
6. What general special offer are you offering?
If you’ve done your job up to this point, most of your sales pitch will stem from your most recent One-Paragraph Start-Up Plan. As with all of your materials, keep your pitch direct, simple, and on point. Dumb down anything that might confuse or go over prospects’ heads. Spell everything out, speak in laypeople’s terms, and use small words that don’t require a thesaurus to be translated.
Once you perfect your sales pitch, the next step is to adapt it to multiple formats for each type of prospect your business will target within your niche marketplace. Much like figuring out the method of contact that best fits each of your leads, it is equally important to educate them using the mediums and channels they feel comfortable using:
. This will be used for phone calls, off-the-cuff elevator pitches, and face-to-face presentations. Your pitch should be no more than 30 seconds to a minute—and not because you’re speeding through it at 90 mph. Verbal sales pitches must sound natural, authentic, and hit all of your major bullet points without sounding like contrived sales scripts.
. This will be used for virtual meetings, e-mail pitches, and your Web site; it can be a PowerPoint slideshow, a Flash presentation, or a sizzle reel. Keep your presentations to less than 10 slides, and videos under 2 to 3 minutes.
. This can be a PDF download from your Web site or left behind after a face-to-face meeting. Longer documents will most likely get thrown out, passed over, or distract the reader from what’s important with excessive detail. Keep all of your print materials on one page. Yes, one page! Anything other than that one page might as well not exist.
Help customers help you. Bolster your sales pitches with supplemental materials such as FAQ sheets, online knowledge bases, sample products, demos, and tutorial media. As you gain more insight about your niche marketplace, consider producing multiple versions of each of your sales pitch materials to hypertarget each customer category.
Ten Things You Need to Know to Deliver a Power Presentation
Nothing is worse than a long, drawn-out meeting that feels like a trip to the dentist. The last place you want to find yourself is leading a snooze fest or a presentation that has people checking their watches every other minute.
To be an effective salesperson, it’s important to master your presentation skills and learn to engage your audience effectively with highly targeted information that gets results in the shortest period of time.
1.
Be prepared
. Always be ready for the people you’re meeting. Never make anyone wait for you.2.
Sell the jockey before the horse
. Every sale begins with your first impression. Demeanor matters. Be likeable, down-to-earth, and confident. Attract people with your enthusiasm, energy, and passion.3.
Say it in 30 seconds or less
. Get to the point. Your prospects and potential partners have other things to do, so get them to say yes as quickly as possible. The more you say, the more you’re giving people to consider. Make it easy for them: Say what needs to be said, and not a single word more.4.
Fit the pitch to the person
. Create the right presentation, not “your” presentation. Do research before any pitch to customize applicable portions and ensure that you have all of the necessary and correct information as it pertains to the person sitting across the table—or on the other side of the Internet.5.
Show, don’t tell
. Whenever possible, keep your presentations interactive. Demonstrate your product or service firsthand to show off your results rather than just talk about them.6.
Make it visual
. Don’t kill people with excessive text. Keep slides or videos simple and clean. Focus on creating visually appealing presentations using photos, videos, audio, and graphics with minimal body text.7.
The best presentations are conversations
. Talk
with
prospects; never lecture them, put forth mandates, or tout ultimatums. Engage and interact with the people in the room. Always encourage discussion and questions as you go.8.
Speak plainly
. You’re speaking to people, not robots. Don’t use jargon or clichés to make your points. Eliminate terms such as these from your vocabulary: innovative or innovate, out of the box, Web 2.0, next generation, original, and world’s greatest. Use the tools on
gobbledygook.grader.com
to keep your pitches in check and jargon-free.9.
Back up or shut up
. You are asking someone else to invest his or her time and money into your product or service. Show them that you deserve it by supporting your expertise with relevant experience and
real
results. Avoid hypothetical arguments or unsubstantiated claims. If you can’t do or promise something, then find another way to sell your services until you can.10.
Know what you are talking about
. Don’t say things to try to look smart or claim anything that sounds too good to be true to close a sale. Less is not only more—it also keeps you out of trouble. Remember, you’re accountable for every word that comes from your company. The smartest thing to do when you don’t know something is to admit that you don’t know—then figure it out within 24 hours and get back to the individual with an answer.