Sunday
Mar212010

Boost Your Income With 2 Step Direct Marketing

The direct sales opportunity, with the current economic and market situations as they are, is fast gaining ground and popularity as an alternative source of income. Any direct sales consultant knows that marketing is fundamental to building any successful direct sales business.

Where many consultants stumble, struggle and fail; is by not knowing to whom they are marketing and how to market both online and offline!

You see the common urge in the direct marketing industry is to try and cram something down the throat of the potential customer.

When you get a potential customer, many will do an immediate sales pitch. It is unfortunately premature and turns people off! A better method and better business practice is the 2 step direct marketing.

Simply put, 2 step direct sales marketing is based on giving something away for free, or at low cost, with the purpose of getting something back in return. Of course that something is a sale, but beyond that is the relationship. The idea here is to start small and build. You want to obliterate concerns before you sell them anything.

Step 1: Give away something, time, free samples, free demos, a free report or a free session of coaching or consulting.

Step 2: Get their contact information and permission to market to them. This is called dripping information. No hard sells please. In this phase you are building rapport and trust so that you can begin to exert your influence.

So here is the psychology behind the 2-step process.  You get a visitor to your site or meet a potential customer/business builder.

You want to:
1.Get Their Attention
2.Ask Their Permission
3.Have Interaction
4.Gain Trust
5.Influence

You want to craft an irresistible offer, to peak interest. Your attention getting message must be compelling create a compelling giving just enough information about the product to get the prospect to take some sort of action.

A call to action is the desired action you would like the potential prospect, client or customer to make. For example Click Here To Order. Limited Time Offer. While Supplies Last. Get Your Free Copy Today!

The purpose of the call to action is an exchange of information. You are capitalizing on their desire to get their hands on what you have in return for their name, phone number, email address and where possible a physical mailing address! This is called getting people to raise their hand for information. Those who raise their hands for information become very hot direct sales leads. These are great business opportunity prospects and an excellent way to build a list.

As every direct sales representative knows, the “fortune is in the follow-up!” Once the information exchange is done and you have provided them with the requested information don’t stop there. Now you must initiate good follow-up. You all know of the dismal statistics

“95% OF PEOPLE FAIL WHEN THEY START A BUSINESS WITHOUT A SYSTEM. 

95% PERCENT OF PEOPLE ARE SUCCESSFUL WHEN THEY START A BUSINESS WITH A SYSTEM! ”

- Entrepreneur Magazine

These statistics are a direct result of lack of follow up and follow through! Once you have permission to market to people set up an email marketing campaign! If you don’t have an auto-responder, get one, this is the easiest way to follow up. Send them an email as often as necessary to create a relationship and remind them of your specials.

2-step direct marketing method is a time tested marketing method and will produce targeted prospects for your home based business. The idea here is work smarter not harder!

Tuesday
Mar022010

7 Effective Sales Techniques

Some of the best work at home business opportunities are direct sales. Whether you are selling CAbi, Silpada, Xango, or anything else, correct sales techniques can have a big impact on your earnings.

Effective Sales Techniques:

1. Know your customer. This is one of the most important sales techniques in the arsenal. Do some research and understand the types of people that you are selling to. Understanding their needs, desires and concerns is a great way to present a solution that they will surely go for. Different audiences have different problems, as a salesperson you are in essence a problem solver and are there to offer a solution that can change from one customer to another.

2. Know the product. Make sure that you know your business and the product you are selling. Often using the product yourself will allow you to convey a message of reliability, honesty and integrity. You do not want to come across as someone who does not know what they are talking about.

3. Read customer reactions. Another important sale technique is to read customer reactions. Watch the facial, body language and verbal reactions of the customer. Be able to detect interest and disinterest as well their general reaction to the pitch and the product. Hopefully, the reactions will be positive, because they are interested in what you are selling. If they seem disinterested, remind them of the more prominent points that your product has.

4. Listen to the customer. This sales technique can be crucial to your business success. Do not assume you know what customers want, listen for questions that are overt and covert as well. Be able to answer those questions with expertise and never convey that you don’t know something. Make sure that you know the product well enough and all its components and features that you can answer with competence.

5. Emphasize the benefits. Every product has its benefits, and those should always be emphasized. Also, some customers may have very different benefits from the same products, identify those and emphasize the ones that fit a particular audience.

6. Eye contact. This sales technique can go a long way to exhibiting honestly and credibility. Make sure to look your customer in the eye and not convey any kind of hesitation or non-belief in your product.

7. Be professional. Be respectful, speak well and clearly, smile, address the customer properly. Do not use slang, or bad words. Remember that you represent the product and all it has to offer and there is not much time in a sales pitch so first impressions really count.

Utilizing these sales techniques can vastly improve the success of your home business and enhance your earnings and sales.