http://www.artwoo.com Returned search results for sales prospects Copyright 2008 Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:16:40 +0000 http://www.artwoo.com/rss/sales+prospects http://www.artwoo.com/article/consistency-in-prospecting-allows-you-to-do-more-with-less http://www.artwoo.com/article/consistency-in-prospecting-allows-you-to-do-more-with-less#comments Sat, 29 Sep 2007 02:25:01 +0000 prospectstarget clientlead generation systemdaunting tasksales personsoftware programcrm software http://www.artwoo.com/article/consistency-in-prospecting-allows-you-to-do-more-with-less prospects to improve their chances at winning the business. A few of the reasons might be no process once they identify a prospect, too many hard to handle clients, or they are just consumed with following up on too many prospects that waste their time.

On the whole though, it seems to be that it's primarily lack of a process. A sales person should have a way that they want to communicate with their prospects,and it should be proven. You can see great examples with real estate agents who consistently send information. It might seem like a daunting task to remember, but what makes it possible is a good CRM software program. Good prospecting software programs will allow you to layout the steps that you'd like a prospect to go through. Then, when steps are due, you simple have your assistant take action on them when they don't require you making a phone call or a visit. Using a good CRM software program, it can keep things in your pipeline moving towards those all important 6 contacts and keep your lead generation system running. By the time you place the phone call or make the visit, your prospect is at least warm from having seen your material.

But that still doesn't solve the problem of having customers that take up too much time though or too many prospects that are not our target client. Getting rid of customers can be done, but not always. But one thing that every sales person should be doing is cleaning up their prospect list to identify only the ones with large upside potential. If you combine that with a good process for prospects that you can follow, then you will be successful at brining in more sales to your company. Dave Roth runs http://www.elitecrmsoftware.com, a site that focuses on reviewing CRM programs for sales professionals. The site features reviews of popular hosted CRM solutions, software for small businesses, and many open source solutions. ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/a-salespersons-guide-to-direct-mail-follow-up http://www.artwoo.com/article/a-salespersons-guide-to-direct-mail-follow-up#comments Mon, 28 May 2007 20:19:56 +0000 direct mailprospectssales pipelinerelationshipsend greeting cardsequity incomecrm programs http://www.artwoo.com/article/a-salespersons-guide-to-direct-mail-follow-up sales pipeline and customer list is your equity. Income today gets spent tommorow, but a solid pipeline is something that you can tap into in the future because you have laid the foundation for a potential relationship. The problem that most salespeople have, though, is that there is not enough time in the day to keep the sales cycle going with people that seemingly have no interest to purchase at any point in the future. Why spend time and resources devoted to a relationship which may or may not pan out when there are active deals you are working right now?

Well, there is an effective way to do both. Nobody will ever be able to convince me that a salesperson is too busy to spend 10 minutes a day touching base with those prospects that, if landed, would become high value customers. If you can't find time to put a phone call in to a business owner to keep the sales cycle moving, then you need to rethink your position. After your top level prospects, it does get a little tougher to find time to make the phone calls to keep you on their mind.

That's where direct mail follow-up comes into play. The internet has made it so much easier to stay in touch with customers on a semi-automated way. Some high level CRM Programs even send out your monthly follow-up automatically at a predetermined schedule. But even if you wanted to do it the 'low tech' way, you could just create your spreadsheet of prospects, type up your monthly letter, and then merge the names in to somewhat automate the process. Better yet, there are some companies that will allow you to send greeting cards from your desktop and write a personalized note that gets sent through the US mail. These personal touches in an automatic way can help build the relationship with your prospects when you have too much on your plate to put a phone call in.

So, we all know that follow up in sales is key but nobody seems to do it. With the advancements in technology, it has made follow-up exteremely easy for sales professionals. My advice would be to write out your plan of follow-up with your prospects and then work the plan. You will absolutely see great results and when it comes time to put a phone call into those prospects, you will be thankful that you kept the sale going through direct mail. Dave Roth is a sales coach and trainer and runs a site at http://www.elitecrmsoftware.com which reviews popular CRM Software and lead management solutions. The site also includes training on prospecting and effective marketing techniques. ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/how-do-your-prospects-see-you http://www.artwoo.com/article/how-do-your-prospects-see-you#comments Tue, 12 Jun 2007 04:14:59 +0000 prospectssalespeoplesalespersondropping namesbreak the iceshe livesmetro area http://www.artwoo.com/article/how-do-your-prospects-see-you
By way of background, she lives and runs her business in a small town on the edge of our metro area. It' s a stand-alone town that has become a suburb. But there's still a strong sense of independence there, a sense of community that says "we're not a part of the big city".

Many people who own businesses there get called on by a never-ending stream of salespeople from "the big city".

The lady I was working with sells a service many of these business owners could use. After talking with her, we both concluded that a lot of the people she called on might assume she was just another one of "those city people". If they didn't already know her, this might be a natural thing to assume.

If they did see her as a salesperson from the "city" then they were more likely to be cold and resistant to talking with her. They labeled her as "one of them."

So we talked about ways she might prevent this labeling. Anything she could do to let people know she was one of them (and not a big city salesperson) would help her break the ice with her prospects. For example, she might wear a shirt with their town name on it. Or she could talk about any local activities her family was involved in. Maybe start the conversation talking about the local happenings. I suggested she get good at dropping names of local people who are well-known in her town.

How do your prospects see you?

If your prospects see you as just another face in a long line of salespeople calling on them, you'll get resistance. This is especially true if you're in a highly competitive business or one where your prospects get a lot of sales calls.

On the other hand, if your prospects see you as like them or part of their "group" (such as being local rather than being from the city) they might treat you better. They'll probably be more willing to talk with you. Their natural sales defense shields will not be as strong nor will they stay up as long.

The key is to find ways to get "on the same side of the fence" as your prospect. The more they see you as similar to them, the more quickly they'll trust you and accept you. The faster you can begin to develop a relationship that may lead to doing business with them.

What can you do to help your prospects see you in the best light? How can you get on the "same side of the fence" as they are so you can start building a relationship better and faster?

If you manage salespeople, how can you help them break down some the pre-conceived ideas that they may be victim to as they call on new prospects? Kevin Stirtz is the "Smart Marketing Guy". He helps people get more customers without spending a fortune. Get a free copy of his latest ebook, "The New Rules of Public Speaking" at his website: http://www.stirtzgroup.com ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/building-cold-calling-confidence http://www.artwoo.com/article/building-cold-calling-confidence#comments Sun, 27 May 2007 20:24:58 +0000 prospectscold callingfearsalespeoplejobbrave menlonely game http://www.artwoo.com/article/building-cold-calling-confidence fear in selling is by far the cold call. Salespeople hate calling on people they don't know so they convince themselves that it's a waste of time and effort to do it. But, I think anyone who has been around long enough would agree, while not the perfect way to gain new clients, it has its place. The problem is that far too often salespeople talk themselves out of calling on prospects because they let their fear take over. What is it about cold calling that makes normally brave men and women tremble with fear?

Well, for starters, it's a lonely game. Ever notice how much easier it is to go cold calling in pairs. You go in, you get shot down, and then you leave and make a joke to your partner on the way out. When the same thing happens when you're on your own, you begin to doubt yourself, your company, your products. Then you have all the time to your next appointment to think about how dreadful this job is. This is not the state that you should be in to sell effectively and there are some ways to get your head straight and keep confidence high.

For one, remember it's nothing personal. Wait, I know you've heard that and you think "It feels personal to me!". Well, that's absolutely true. Everyone has a right to take it personally, but just realize that nobody can possibly make a judgement on you as a person in 3 seconds. I don't think you could possibly offend someone that quickly (Although I know people that come close!). Second, keep in mind that sales is part numbers and part conversion of qualified prospects into customers. At the cold calling stage, they aren't even prospects, they're suspects. Realize that your goal isn't to do any selling that day most likely. Your job is to take that large list of people and put them into 3 categories. Either they are hot prospects, prospects that aren't ready yet, or they are not qualified. If you look at your job as to just categorize them then you realize that it's less about selling and more about intelligence gathering.



Finally, don't get down on yourself. Sales is and always will be a numbers game. While you might convert a very small percentage of people into appointments and eventual sales, just remember that there is always room for improvement. And let's face it, time spent meeting people and making an impression on people is better than time spent in the office. So don't let the fear of cold calling keep you from reaching higher sales success! Jim Dunne is a sales and trainer who coaches clients on effective sales prospecting techniques and strategy.

He runs a website at http://www.prospecting-secrets.com which offers free resources to sales professionals and managers. ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/a-tale-of-two-salesmen http://www.artwoo.com/article/a-tale-of-two-salesmen#comments Wed, 23 May 2007 18:34:53 +0000 born salesmanquality prospectsmidas touchreferralspersonalitycenter of attentionweeding http://www.artwoo.com/article/a-tale-of-two-salesmen born salesman!" at one time or another. The saying implies that there are some people that are more apt to being successful at sales than others. These people walk out the door, open their arms, and deals just fall out of the sky and into their arms because they have the Midas touch. Without question, there are people that actually are born salesman. They have the personality, charisma, and confidence that it takes and people are naturally drawn to them. But can you only succeed in sales if you are one of these people?



The answer that that question is a resounding "NO!". The fact is that most people that are successful at sales don't fit this bill. Most people who are successful actually have many other things working for them rather than they are the center of attention and the life of the party when they show up. The truth is that a systematic salesman will beat a natural salesman, any day of the week.



A salesman with a system is more effective because if you break sales down into two parts, there are qualified prospects as well as converting those prospects into customers. Born salesman tend to be more of the 'fly by the seat of their pants' type and they largely live off referrals from people that like doing business with them. Sure, many successful salesman ask for the referrals, but there is nothing systematic about it at all. They might bring it up, they might not. It depends on whether or not they remember. A salesman with a system actually has a process for everything so it's consistent. They excel at bringing quality prospects into the funnel and working them down until they convert into customers. They have a process for weeding out unqualified customers, putting prospects on follow-up campaigns based on the situation, and for asking and receiving referrals and testimonials. While the born salesman might win at converting more prospects into customers because of their winning personality, the systematic salesman will do a better job at bringing more leads into the sales funnel, staying consistent to turn them into customers, and then leveraging the new customers in a systematic way to ensure they can get more referrals from those customers.

So don't fret if you aren't as personable as the next guy. The key is to know what is the ideal way to convert prospects into buyers and to get referrals. It might be that it takes an average of 12 contacts to get a new customer. Most salespeople will stop at 2 because they can't remember when or who to call, but by setting up proper systems using CRM Software, you can be the person that gets to 12 and wins the customer. Sales is about numbers, no matter what sales trainer tells you. By knowing your metrics and knowing what the most efficient way to obtain a customer, you can setup your system so you always have a consistent and full pipeline. Why rely on your charm, when you can rely on your brain! Dave Roth coaches and trains salespeople to develop systems that converts prospects into customers and to free themselves from the pain of cold-calling. He runs and manages a website at http://www.elitecrmsoftware.com which reviews CRM Software and trains salespeople how to effectively leverage it. ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/tips-for-increasing-your-web-sales http://www.artwoo.com/article/tips-for-increasing-your-web-sales#comments Mon, 26 Feb 2007 08:27:03 +0000 prospectsntlworldtestimonialsherd mentalitylifebloodvisual representationssales message http://www.artwoo.com/article/tips-for-increasing-your-web-sales lifeblood of a business is the traffic of a site. More visitors equal more sales.

However, here are some ways that you can tweak your sites with to improve sales without the need to get more visitors.

The first method is to weave in your personal touch in your sales message.

Nobody wants to be sold to by a total stranger, but many people will buy what their close friends recommend to them.

If you can convince your audience that you are a personal friend who has their best interest at heart, they will be convinced to buy your products.

Remember to speak to an individual in your salesletter, not to your whole audience.

The second method is to publish testimonials and comments from your customers.

A good idea would be to publish both good and bad comments; that way prospects will be really convinced that these testimonials are real.

When prospects see testimonials on your website, they will have the confidence to buy from you because human beings follow the herd mentality; when others have bought and proven it authentic, they will jump on the bandwagon and buy too.

Use visual representations for the problems and solutions that your product offers.

Not everyone will read your text copy from the head to the tail, but most people will pay attention to images on your website.

Offer quality bonuses to accompany the product. When you offer bonuses that complement your product, your prospects will feel it's a very good deal and it would be stupid to miss it.

Be sure to state the monetary value of your bonuses so that people will be even more compelled to grab your good bargain.

Lastly, ask for the sale!

Many people entice their prospects with the benefits of their product, sell to them with stories of how it has solved many problems, even offered killer bonuses but forget to ask for the sale. Find out how you can build a large list very fast: ntlworld.com" >http://www.7dollarsecrets.com/?=geri_mason@ntlworld.com ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/the-keys-to-online-success-measuring-your-marketing-campaign-prospects http://www.artwoo.com/article/the-keys-to-online-success-measuring-your-marketing-campaign-prospects#comments Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:16:15 +0000 multi level marketingprospect letterton of brickssales prospectfree email marketingmarketing opportunityprofessional sales http://www.artwoo.com/article/the-keys-to-online-success-measuring-your-marketing-campaign-prospects multi level marketing opportunity. Locating and measuring your marketing campaign prospects can make or break your business. It is difficult to market your opportunity to people who are not interested in entrepreneurship.

The most common thing most new marketers do is to run to their family members and try to sell them on their opportunity. The harsh reality of marketing to friends and family usually hits like a ton of bricks to your dreams. Success in any online business doesn't have to be that way and you don't have to market to friends until you are already successful.

Email marketing programs are one of the answers to solving your internet marketing woes. There are a lot of free email marketing tips and resources available on the internet. The problem with these free services is that they offer free list of email addresses that have been given to thousands before you. The most effective measure in building your email marketing list is to build your own opt-in list. Building your own opt-in will ensure that the prospects that join your list are interested in your product. Once you have a large number of prospects you will need to master the art of preparing sales prospect letters.

Preparing a professional sales prospect letter is a crucial step in increasing your marketing campaign prospects. You have to know what motivates your prospects to take action. After all, building a large list without converting that list into sales is a total waste of time. There are several components that go into writing a professional sales letter to entice your prospects; one of the most important is the headline. Being able to capture your reader with a headline that evokes curiosity is key. Once you have captivated your reader you must gain your prospect's attention by asking and answering questions within your letters body. The final step is to continuously follow up with your prospect until you earn their trust.

The whole process of measuring your marketing campaign prospects needs and building your email marketing list can a little time consuming. You will need to strengthen your writing skills to be able to turn leads into conversions. If you are someone who lacks the time to put into this particular part of your internet business, you can hire a copywriter to handle writing your email follow up letters. Reliable Contact is an internet based advertising company that provides its members with fresh leads every month and pre-written auto responder sales letters. They measure your marketing campaign prospects according to your niche.

Marketing online has little to do with your experience, your level of education or your financial background. Online marketing has everything to do with the system you are using to promote your business. Make it a habit to measure your marketing campaign prospects to avoid wasted advertising time and a lot of money.Marc Marseille is an internet marketing and list building expert who has many websites on the internet providing resources to fellow internet marketers. If you would like more information on this topic you can visit Email Marketing.]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/theres-money-in-your-site-stats http://www.artwoo.com/article/theres-money-in-your-site-stats#comments Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:24:59 +0000 prospectsemailtraffic historytraffic statsright place at the right timeinboxpurposely http://www.artwoo.com/article/theres-money-in-your-site-stats
Some years ago, I had a conversation with a friend who had developed a very successful offline business. When I asked him what accounted for his success, the very first thing he said was, "I made it a practise to be in the right place at the right time. And it was never an accident."

He went on to explain that he purposely made an effort to "accidentally" bump into his prospects at lunch, or run into them at social functions. "I often learned were they were, he said, "and I learned when they were receptive. I was always amazed at how few of my competitors bothered with this".

The exact same thing holds true on the internet. Do you know where your prospects are? And do you know when they are most receptive to act on your offer?

The goal is to send your offer when it is most likely to be read and acted upon. You certainly don't want your latest newsletter sitting unopened in someone's inbox, collecting both dust AND more and more email competition.

You want to maximize the possibility that your prospects are at their computers (or soon will be) when you send out your offer or newsletter. But how in the world could you possibly know this?

LOOK AT YOUR TRAFFIC STATS

The truth is, you can't know for sure. But you can put the odds further in your favor by analyzing the traffic history in your site logs.

Do you see a pattern? You will likely find that there are certain days where you consistently get more traffic than others. In other words, your particular prospects may well be more active on certain days and at certain times.

If, for example, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays are weaker in traffic, these sure wouldn't be the best days to send out your newsletter or offers. They would likely end up competing more fiercely for attention because fewer of your prospects are online. This increases the possibility of a "quick scan" or even a "delete" when your prospects get to their fuller mailboxes later.

How about time of day? Are your leads visiting more heavily around lunch (11 am to 2 pm) and dinner (5 pm to 8 pm), for example? Is there a fairly consistent pattern? If so, you certainly don't want to send your offer outside of these key time ranges. Again, to do otherwise would be to unnecessarily increase your mailbox competition.

LOOK AT YOUR SALES STATS TOO

Now, take a look at the days and times of your actual sales. Do you see a pattern here as well? If you do, it can be quite a valuable lesson.

When are your prospects in the buying mood? What days? And what times during the day? Clearly, you want to make contact at their most receptive times.

So, be ready when your prospects are. Be in the right place at the right time, "accidentally on purpose", to increase your response rates. Study your site stats and coordinate those marketing efforts within your control (particularly when you send out your newsletter) to coincide with "peak prospect receptiveness" for your particular business. Joshua Rose shares affiliate marketing and internet marketing tips at http://www.internetprofitwizards.com. An example of where he puts his tips into practice, can be seen at http://www.auto-broker-magic.com/carbuying.html. ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/is-cold-calling-really-a-waste-of-time http://www.artwoo.com/article/is-cold-calling-really-a-waste-of-time#comments Tue, 29 May 2007 18:14:54 +0000 leverage your timecold callingcontactwaste of timeprospectshave never heardfunnel http://www.artwoo.com/article/is-cold-calling-really-a-waste-of-time cold calling is a complete waste of time is because they know that's what the audience or readers want to hear. Nobody wants to prospect so it's kind of nice when 'an expert' agrees that it's not valuable, that way you don't feel guilty not doing it. The fact is, that some cold calling is a waste of time. The trouble is knowing the difference so you can leverage your time.



Let's talk about all the reasons you should cold call and start with the most obvious reason. I don't care how well you position yourself, how many referral sources you have, or how big your customer base is, you should always be adding prospects to your marketing funnel from a lot of different sources. It doesn't matter if you spend 10 or 20 minutes a day doing it, calling people that have never heard or seen of you should be a best practice for any sales professional. Even if you have limited time because of a large customer portfolio, then you should make a top 20 list of prospects you would like to do business with and put a plan together to contact those people regularly. Whatever your level, it's a salespersons job to be getting more and more people into your marketing funnel using all methods available.

I will agree, however, that cold calling is not the most efficient way of gaining business. There are statistics available that prove that referred business closes a higher percentage of the time and the sales cycle is much shorter. But just because one method is more effective than another doesn't mean that the other is a waste of time. Efficient cold calling is the way to go. What I mean by efficient is to stop calling on prospects that have no interest in doing business with you. If you've called on them for a year and you've never talked to the decision maker, then remove them from the cycle and move on. Maybe just put them on an annual mailing list so they see your name. If you have limited time available to prospect, then you want to make sure you are identifying the companies you want to do business with and putting more quality effort into your marketing efforts. Instead of the shotgun approach, come up with a more personalized way of reaching these companies and you're bound to see more fruits for your efforts.

As with everything, setting up systems is so important to make sure you are extracting as much value from each prospecting source as possible. So, in other words, make sure you have systems and a process in place for getting customer referrals and testamonials. Make sure that you have a system in place so backend sales are automatic and you are keeping in contact with existing clients. And make sure that you have a prospecting system in place so you aren't wasting time. Even if you decide to target 20 new prospects per year, that would probably work out to be less than 5 minutes per week of cold calling activity. If you convert only 1 of those prospects to a customer, you would have experienced a fantastic ROI for the time that you spent doing it. Plus, the great thing is that it has a multiplicative effect in the sense that the more quality prospects you call on, the more you will convert into customers, and the more backend sales and referrals you will get from those customers. Do that over a sustained period of time, and you'll see dramatic effects in your sales numbers. Dave Roth is a sales coaching professional and runs http://www.elitecrmsoftware.com which reviews popular CRM Softare. The site also discusses best practices for sales and marketing strategies that are proven to add more prospects to your sales funnel and convert more into customers. ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/2-ways-to-transform-phone-inquiries-into-clients http://www.artwoo.com/article/2-ways-to-transform-phone-inquiries-into-clients#comments Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:34:59 +0000 business marketing strategiessmall business marketingbells and whistlesphone inquiriescritical goalhot prospectclose sales http://www.artwoo.com/article/2-ways-to-transform-phone-inquiries-into-clients hot prospect on the line and can smell a new sale.

You have an extensive conversation. You tell your prospect all about the bells and whistles of your products and services, how long you've been in business and who your biggest clients are. You get great feedback. Everything seems to be going great, but when you ask for the business, the answer is "no."

Why would someone who has made the effort to call and is seemingly very interested in your products and services, decide not to buy? What's going on here?

Having prospects pick up the phone and call is a critical goal for many small business marketing strategies. Use these two steps to convert more of this valuable interest into cold hard cash.

Assess Urgency In general, there are two types of prospects who will call for more information =96 prospects with urgent needs and prospects with latent (non-urgent) needs. Maximizing sales to each group requires a different approach.

The key to either approach, though, is to quickly assess urgency. You want to offer something valuable to prospects with urgent needs who are ready to buy but, at the same time, you don't want to seem pushy and end up alienating prospects who are just doing some research and would have bought from you in the future.

If you've ever been told "no" after a seemingly encouraging conversation with a prospect who called you, it is likely you didn't properly assess urgency and wound up trying to sell to someone who wasn't ready to buy. His or her real answer was probably, "No, not now."

How can you quickly and properly assess urgency and close sales?

The answer is, use questions.

Make sure your strategy for handling phone inquiries uses questions to carefully identify the underlying urgency for your prospect's call. When you know how urgent a prospect's needs are you can close more sales by providing what they want =96 the right solutions today or ideas for possible solutions for when they're ready act.

Another way to close more sales is to demonstrate value with your response. This tactic will help increase sales to prospects with either latent or urgent needs.

Demonstrating Value Prospects don't buy products and services. They buy the benefits and results =96 what they value.

It follows then, that a prospect won't buy if he or she doesn't understand the value of what's being paid for.

For example if you're in the plumbing business, don't simply tell your prospects with leaky pipes (urgent needs) that you'll fix their pipes. Tell them you'll have them fixed within the hour and that any costly water damage will be avoided.

If you're a personal trainer speaking with someone researching possible training gurus (latent need), use questions to uncover your prospect's weight and fitness goals, how often she wants to work out and what time of day is best. Then tell your prospect that when she's ready, you'll have her whipped into shape ahead of her expectations with a custom, schedule-fitting workout.

During a conversation with latent needs prospect, make sure you gather contact information so you can regularly stay in touch with useful information about anything that demonstrates your expertise and your value.

When you assess urgency properly and demonstrate the value of the results you provide, as opposed to the details of your products and services, you'll watch sales soar. The author, Jeremy Cohen, will help you boost response to your online and print marketing so you can close more sales. Start marketing smarter with the ideas in his free marketing guide, Jumpstart Marketing. Visit: http://www.moreleadsandsales.com?utm_source=aboutandutm_medium=Articleandut= m_campaign=RB3 ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/setting-up-an-automatic-sales-funnel http://www.artwoo.com/article/setting-up-an-automatic-sales-funnel#comments Fri, 21 Dec 2007 22:25:00 +0000 customer relationship management crmsales funnelcustomer relationship managementcustomer relationship management crm softwaremail piecesdirect mailanniversary card http://www.artwoo.com/article/setting-up-an-automatic-sales-funnel sales funnel is one that many salespeople do not think of. It is also very likely that a lot of them do not even really understand what setting up an automatic sales funnel actually means. In short, it is done by using customer relationship management (CRM) software to automatically send out direct mail pieces, holiday cards, or other specific announcements to important prospects. One software program, called Infusion, does this, but there are others as well. It is important, when setting up an automatic sales funnel, to find the best program for the salesperson and what he or she is looking to accomplish.



Most of these software programs work very well for setting up an automatic sales funnel, because a salesperson can input enough information to allow the program to `remember' important dates and why the date is important. In other words, customers do not want to get an anniversary card on their birthday or a congratulations for an event that was not a happy one. Because of this, salespeople must be careful when setting up an automatic sales funnel so that they put in the right information. They should also be careful that they do not use the sales funnel to send out `spam' emails, such as using each and every holiday, however insignificant it may be, to send out something trying to sell more products or services.

One of the things that makes a CRM program robust, is that it's not only good at reminding you of things, but it's also a capable lead management program. What I mean by that is that some CRM programs are more geared towards management and reporting. What you want your program to do is allow you to define your ideal sales cycle, input that into the system once, and then be able to add prospects to that cycle. So if you determine that you want 5 contacts before your first sales call, you want to make sure that you don't have to input the reminders for every prospect you call, you want to be able to set that prospect on the `prospect track' and have letters and communications go out automatically. This will save tremendous time and energy on your part.

When setting up an automatic sales funnel, sales people should also be sure that the people who are receiving these emails want to receive them. If they have not agreed to receive emails from the company, they should not be included. This is true for major holidays, and also for `personal holidays' such as birthdays, etc. By setting up an automatic sales funnel in the right way, the largest number of prospects can be marketed to without upsetting individuals that do not want to receive company emails. This is a fantastic way to grow your sales automatically. The more that you can automate in your process, the more that your company's sales and personal sales will grow.

If you can automate these things, you are eliminating a point that most people fail on, which is consistent follow up. Dave Roth runs http://www.elitecrmsoftware.com which is a site that reviews popular CRM Software solutions for both small and large companies. In addition to reviews of the latest CRM products, his site also includes sales tips and training for sales professionals. ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/how-to-make-your-web-site-easy-to-buy-from http://www.artwoo.com/article/how-to-make-your-web-site-easy-to-buy-from#comments Sat, 24 Feb 2007 12:27:06 +0000 prospectspaypalmoney back guaranteecontactencryption technologyhassle freecumbersome http://www.artwoo.com/article/how-to-make-your-web-site-easy-to-buy-from prospects to purchase from you is a hard job, but have you ever thought that you're making the process twice as difficult for both parties if your prospects are convinced but don't know how to buy from you?

No matter how good you are at convincing your prospects, they won't buy if they find the process cumbersome.

First, you will want to check that people can find your order form easily and hassle-free. You can write a clear, concise paragraph to direct your prospects to your order form so that you can minimize the chances of them getting lost.

You can also reduce the chances of losing prospects by putting a prominent link to your order page from every other page on your site.

Also, do you offer multiple payment options? Some people may feel comfortable paying via Paypal, some may only want to pay with their credit card and others might want to send a cheque. The more options you offer, the better your chances of covering your prospects' desired payment method.

After all, it wouldn't make any sense to sell hard to a prospect only to find that they won't be able to pay you when they want to.

On the other hand, you will want to prove that you are a credible merchant. Is your order form secured using encryption technology? You would want to look into SSL for this.

You can also offer a money back guarantee so that people will feel confident about buying from you. How about after sales support? Who do they contact when they have problems after purchasing?

Alternatively, you can add customer testimonials, your contact information, address, and so on to boost your prospects' confidence.

Make them feel safe about buying something from you, a total stranger to them on the other end of the Internet.

As a conclusion, it would be very pitiful if you sold hard and sold well to a prospect and something goes wrong when he or she is ready to pay. Eliminate any chances of that to maximize your profits! Find out how you can build a large list very fast: http://www.7dollarsecrets.com/?=geri_mason@ntlworld.com ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/giving-your-business-a-boost http://www.artwoo.com/article/giving-your-business-a-boost#comments Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:25:01 +0000 brick and mortar businessbrick and mortarsales prospectsinitial trafficautomated salesstarting an online businesstraffic generation http://www.artwoo.com/article/giving-your-business-a-boost brick and mortar business but Internet marketing is still a growing and developing field. This can make it difficult to know where to start, unless you have a clear path drawn up in advance. There is a system available that will help you to be able to take your marketing to the next level, not only by providing you with the tactics but by providing you with a step by step system that will guarantee your success.

The 1UptoWealth business package helps you on a number of different levels. Not only can they drive the necessary traffic to your website, they can help you to pull those initial prospects through your sales funnel and turn them into clients and customers. This helps you to be able to concentrate on the more important parts of your life and to build your business instead of just working for it. Here are some of the ways that 1UptoWealth can help you to walk away from the table a winner.

The first way that you will find a benefit is in the traffic that you can get from this system. None of us would expect a store that we owned to make it if there was nobody walking through the door, we should'nt expect our online business to be any different. The main problem with starting an online business is that you can get so bogged down with traffic generation that you can let the other important parts of your business go. The 1UptoWealth system helps to pull people into your website, allowing you to concentrate on other parts of your business. Of course you could always send more but the initial traffic will be there automatically.

Another way that you will be benefited is through automated sales. As with any business, there are some things that are better left to those with experience. The 1UptoWealth system gives you the opportunity to send your sales prospects directly to a sales number, one that has been proven to generate sales from sales prospects. You will also get your first 30 days of prospects for free, a benefit that could add up to thousands of dollars, right in your pocket.

There are many reasons why you should choose an automated sales system, such as 1UptoWealth but the one that stands out the most is probably the simple fact that it helps you to build your business without burying your life into it. It gives you the opportunity to find your success on your own timeframe, even allowing the system to run on autopilot while you handle the more important things in life. So if you are considering building an internet business, make sure that you start with a system that will help you for the long run. Not only can it give you a helping hand into your online business, it can give you success that will last a lifetime. Mickey Burton is a successful internet marketer to get a copy of the free ebook on how to boost your online marketing visit http://www.easy1uptowealth.com ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/affiliate-marketing-creating-residual-income http://www.artwoo.com/article/affiliate-marketing-creating-residual-income#comments Tue, 20 Mar 2007 01:48:02 +0000 interested prospectsaffiliate marketingsales pipelinenicheemailcontactspectacular way http://www.artwoo.com/article/affiliate-marketing-creating-residual-income affiliate marketing is one of the quickest and easiest ways to make money from your own home based business.

The product is already created so there is no need for research and development. As the affiliate you have only to deal with the marketing end. Usually the merchant will even provide sales material for you.

This is great for fast profits, but what about the long term?

Think about this for a minute. The affiliate does all the work on getting interested prospects to the product sales page through their affiliate link. Hopefully the prospect buys and the affiliate gains the commission.

But what happens after that?

The affiliate must then repeat the process all over again to bring more prospects into their sales pipeline. All for a one off sale and commission.

This can turn into a costly proposition depending on the cost of getting the leads to the sales page and the conversion ratio of said sales page.

With that in mind, what can an affiliate do to increase their return on leads and qualified prospects?

Two things.

First, as an affiliate marketer in any niche you must set up your own lead capture page and build your own list of targeted prospects.

This can be done simply by using an autoresponder to capture names and email addresses that is set up with seven to ten follow up messages extolling the benefits of the product you are promoting.

Follow up is extremely important because studies have shown that most sales come after the seventh contact with the prospect.

Give away a free report or a review of the product as an enticement for the prospect to leave their information.

This way you can send endorsements of other related products as well if they don't like the original product.

Second, find membership sites or services to promote in your particular niche.

This is a truly spectacular way to maximize your advertising by gaining recurring income instead of a one-time sale.

Think about what is happening right now with cell phones. You can purchase a phone with all the bells and whistles - camera, Internet ready, text messaging - the works for very cheap. Heck, you can even find some going in a two for one deal.

So what is the catch?

You have to sign up for two years of service.

That is where they make their cash. The recurring income model.



That is what you, as an affiliate marketer, should be looking to promote.

It has been said that it is as easy to make $100 a day, as it is to make $5 a day. That is especially true when you already have money rolling in from previous sales.

By promoting services with a recurring monthly charge, you will set yourself up with a nice residual income. Discover the andquot;$100 A Day Systemandquot; and put an extra $35,000 a year in your pocket. http://www.onlinewealthsolutions.com/presents/residualincome ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/why-your-leads-arent-working-and-what-you-can http://www.artwoo.com/article/why-your-leads-arent-working-and-what-you-can#comments Tue, 20 Jun 2006 12:32:12 +0000 leadsgoogleprospectsleadprospectautoresponder messagesopt http://www.artwoo.com/article/why-your-leads-arent-working-and-what-you-can Google, you bought leads" rel="tag">leads by the thousands from a service, you even had a sales letter sent to a big opt-in list. Then you couldn't believe it when nothing much happened.

Your site probably got a LOT of hits, but nobody bought anything. How could that happen?

Experts have been arguing over that one for years. If you had that experience, you're not alone. Adsense, opt-in, and purchased leads often deliver poor results. Why? Most often the reason is these leads aren't NEARLY as powerful as leads you build yourself.

Send out an article like this one, get people to read your good information, then come to you as warm leads -- and you'll have a HOT lead that WILL buy something. What's the difference?

The prospect read your information, got to know and trust you, THEN came to you sales information. At this point, the prospect has created a mental bond with you and your ability to help them achieve their goal. This lead, gathered with YOUR lead building system, is FAR more prepared to buy than any other kind of lead.

Don't believe me? Look who is making good money online year, after year, after year. It's people who have a big weekly newsletter, have sites filled with good information, spend a lot of time talking with prospects on the telephone, offer an e-book, or send repeated autoresponder messages. These methods all build a RELATIONSHIP with the prospect, making them 20 times more likely to buy. While Adsense might get you thousands of hits, building your OWN leads can get prospects who will actually BUY something.

"But I can't write an article and don't like to talk to prospects on the phone," you say. No problem. Today there are lead building systems that pull in huge numbers of prospects, then use advanced Flash web movies to convert the best of these prospects into hot, pre-sold leads.

These systems are the new cutting-edge of online marketing. They have become so highly developed and easy to use that thousands of people just like you are earning big commissions non-stop with them.

It's not at all unusual to set the lead building system in place, then watch the sales stack up at $1,000 per pop.

Clearly, building your own leads, then using an advanced Flash selling system is the easy way to profits these days. Don't pass up this marketing method for your business. Keith Scheafer is a veteran online entrepreneur who offers a complete automated lead-building system at http://www.leadbuildingsystem.com Earn THOUSANDs per week with almost no work. Reach Keith at Keith@KeithScheafer.com or 541-368-7315. ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/how-to-increase-b2b-sales-without-increasing-your-marketing-budget http://www.artwoo.com/article/how-to-increase-b2b-sales-without-increasing-your-marketing-budget#comments Mon, 05 Nov 2007 02:30:01 +0000 marketing campaignsdirect mailspend more moneymarketing techniquesallocatedcontacttime and money http://www.artwoo.com/article/how-to-increase-b2b-sales-without-increasing-your-marketing-budget contact with leads that are already "warm."

A business can boost sales without having to spend more money, simply by working with the leads that are already active. Instead of spending additional time and money on yet another lead-generation campaign, why not go through the current database, to make the most of what's already there? Like the majority of companies, there are probably a number of "warm" leads from previous marketing campaigns. People at these companies have expressed interest in your offered product or service, but for some unknown reason, they weren't ready to buy at that very moment. They are most likely just lying idle in your database. If you need motivation to act on these leads, just consider that when this prospective customer is ready to buy, your competition may instead have a good chance at swooping in and closing the sale instead of you.

Unfortunately, it seems that most business-to-business companies who sell products or services spend about 90% to 95% of their marketing and communications budgets on enhancing their company profile or searching for new sales leads, while only 5% to 10% of their budgets are allocated for efforts to turn known prospects into customers. This is not the right approach to take.

We recently worked with a company that was successful in increasing its annual sales by 43%, all without spending a penny more than the allocated budget which they used before we implemented our recommendations. How were they able to achieve this?

First, we recommended specific advertising, public relations, direct mail, trade shows, database and Internet marketing techniques, all of which helped the company generate more high-quality sales leads per dollar of investment. Next, we allocated the money that was saved into programs which are designed to foster sales-winning relationships with existing and known prospects.

We also urged that the company consider targeting customers who had purchased in the past, but not recently. Sometimes it only takes a bit of follow-up to get these inactive customers back. It's often a good idea to send a message thanking them for being a valued customer, while acknowledging that they haven't purchased recently - this is a good opportunity to ask if they experienced some kind of problem or if some corrective action needs to be taken to bring them back. It may also be wise to consider making a special offer or discount on their next purchase.

To put it in another way: we were able to cultivate the sales leads which the company already had. Nurturing leads is simply the practice of keeping in good contact with "warm" prospects by hosting events such as webinars or seminars, sending direct-mail and e-mail business offers including white papers and reports, e-newsletters, and other marketing activities, until the prospect is finally ready to buy. For complex B2B products which have multiple influencers in the equation, this process can take months. However, the end result is well worth it, more sales and an ongoing, growing business to business relationship.

In the case of the company which we helped to implement the lead-developing and nurturing process, the salespeople and service representatives now spend far more time following up on existing sales leads with high-quality, ready-to-buy prospects who are in effect some what pre-sold on the company and its products. This is exactly how they have been able to turn more of these prospects into lasting customers. Mac MacIntosh is president of Mac McIntosh Incorporated, a sales and marketing consulting firm specializing in helping companies get more high-quality sales leads and turn them into sales. See: http://www.sales-leads-experts.com ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/split-testing-the-most-powerful-marketing-strategy-you-will-ever-learn http://www.artwoo.com/article/split-testing-the-most-powerful-marketing-strategy-you-will-ever-learn#comments Sun, 21 Jan 2007 16:27:04 +0000 mail salesdirect mailmarketing strategykey codeletter campaignsales letterswhat the heck http://www.artwoo.com/article/split-testing-the-most-powerful-marketing-strategy-you-will-ever-learn marketing strategy that works like magic to grow their business. Well, I hope you're sitting down because I am going to tell you the most powerful marketing strategy you will ever learn. The strategy is called split testing.

"What the heck is split testing", you ask? Split testing is the process of comparing the results (sales, leads, etc.) of one marketing piece against another marketing piece to see which generates the most sales. Clear as mud, right? To make split testing easier to understand, I will show you an example of split testing using direct mail sales letters.

You write 2 sales letters to sell the sales training course you are offering. Both sales letters are identical except for one thing -- they each have a different headline. Sales letter "A" has the headline, "How to easily double your sales in 180 days with this little known marketing strategy" and sales letter "B" has the headline, "Learn the marketing secret twelve small businesses recently used to increase sales by over 173% in less than 180 days." Then, you send letter "A" to 2,000 prospects and letter B to 2,000 prospects. You then track which sales letter produces the most leads and sales. The results tell you which sales letter is the stronger sales tool -- letter "A" or letter "B".

"But how do you track which sales letter is producing the most leads/sales" you ask? Easy. You add a unique key code to each letter campaign so you can track it. So, for letter campaign "A" you use the key code 111 at the bottom of each letter and for letter campaign "B" you use the key code of 222 at the bottom of each letter. When a customer calls (or places an order), you simply ask them for the key code in their sales letter. Then you track these codes in a spread sheet so you know which letter produced the lead and the sale. After a few weeks to a month, you will know which sales letter is producing the most sales and you can feel confident sending the stronger sales letter to the rest of your prospects.

"What happens if both sales letters bomb and produce poor results?" Then you write two more sales letters and test them against each other on a small scale (sales letter "C" versus "D"). Testing like this is far less expensive than sending a single, untested sales letter to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of prospects. By split testing different messages on a small scale, you can test the pulling power of a sales message without breaking your bank. And, you learn which sales message is the one that generates sales like crazy and will grow your business. If you want to be successful in marketing, always test on a small scale and once you find a winning message, then market on a large scale. NEVER market on a large scale with an untested sales message or you will almost certainly lose a ton of money.

While testing the headline is one of the most important things you can test when testing marketing pieces against one another, you can also test things like price, ($99 per widget in letter "A" and $79 per widget in letter "B"), coupon versus no coupon, promotional specials (get 3 widgets for $197 versus get 4 widgets for $249). But the key is to only test one thing at a time. Do not test a headline in one letter against a price in another letter because you cannot compare the two. Only test a headline against a headline and a price against a price.

"This sounds like a lot of work" you say. "Explain to me again why is split testing so important because I still don't get it?" First of all, you are right. Split testing is a lot of work. However, the reason it is so important and worth all the work is that it is the one market tool that allows you to significantly increase your marketing return on investment while greatly reducing your financial risk. Split testing allows you to determine which sales message (campaign) is producing a profitable result while eliminating marketing campaigns that are not producing profitable results. Using the sales letter example above, let's say that the results of your split test of letter "A" versus letter "B" showed that letter "B" produced 34% more leads than sales letter "A"? Wouldn't you rather use letter "B" for marketing to the rest of your clients instead of letter "A"? Of course! That is why you do split testing. You do it to find out what sales message is going to generate the most sales and make you the most money! So, split test your way to success. Peter Geisheker is the CEO of The Geisheker Group Marketing Company. Peter develops and implements strategic marketing programs for small businesses. For more information please visit http://www.marketing-consulting-company.com ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/microsoft-dynamic-crm-and-sales-magic http://www.artwoo.com/article/microsoft-dynamic-crm-and-sales-magic#comments Tue, 01 May 2007 09:10:00 +0000 microsoft crmprospectscontacttelephone salessales force automationtime spentcrm software http://www.artwoo.com/article/microsoft-dynamic-crm-and-sales-magic CRM software in conjunction with effective telephoning, you are tapping into a powerful magic for making sales. With the sales force automation capabilities of Microsoft CRM, your telephone calls become more precise, more targeted, and more rapidly dialed. You also get more cost-effective client servicing.

Traditionally, telephone sales have been one of lowest-cost ways for businesses to contact new prospects and get repeat sales from existing clients. However, there were a lot of inefficiencies involved. Telephone calling programs now have gone to another level thanks to Microsoft CRM which allows for deeper client penetration and stronger prospect conversion. The CRM software greatly enhances the strategic effectiveness in all segments of contacts, from leads to prospects to clients to repeat buyers, by providing an unprecedented amount of data with precision alongside automatic sales and marketing processes.

Especially if you are a smaller business, you simply don't have the profit margin or the sales potential to be effectively compensated by field sales forces. In the field, the cost of a single sales call is quite high, as any business owner knows all too well. Consider commuting time back and forth between the office and the place of a prospect or customer. Think about time spent just having to wait around in a lobby of someone's office, and time spent in office meetings of 20 or 30 minutes. The lost hours of production time add up quickly and get piled high, resulting in jaw-dropping losses to the company.

On the other hand, an inside or telephone salesman can talk to at least 50 or so prospects or clients per day, and might be able to handle 1000 clients on his own. The cost of making a sale goes way down while at once the volume of people talked to in a given time goes way up, and the high percentage of new sales or closes needed by the field agent is no longer a worry. Telephone sales have it all over field sales when it comes to economies of scale.

With Microsoft Dynamic CRM software, the power of the telephone at least doubles. The software stores huge amounts of data on every contact that can be retrieved at a moment's notice while the salesman is still listening to the telephone ringing on the other end. A salesman can effortlessly call up and find the most relevant data that he needs on the spot while talking to the client or prospect, thereby assuring that he sounds professional, knowledgeable, thorough, and like a good listener instead of just a talker. Microsoft Dynamic CRM makes the telephone sell so much more. Sayed Ally, is the lead CRM Analyst. His company provides, http://www.crmsoftwareprovider.com. Sayed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email: aSayed@cqsolutions.com. ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/lead-generation-avoid-the-one-mistake-that-will-kill-your-sales-productivity http://www.artwoo.com/article/lead-generation-avoid-the-one-mistake-that-will-kill-your-sales-productivity#comments Thu, 12 Jul 2007 21:30:00 +0000 sales productivityproudfoot consultingproductivity reportsalespeoplebusiness performance improvementaccount receivablessales rep http://www.artwoo.com/article/lead-generation-avoid-the-one-mistake-that-will-kill-your-sales-productivity Sales Productivity is a factor of two things: Available time and effective use of time.

To increase a Sales Rep's productivity we can: Decrease time spent on non-selling activities Increase time spent on selling activities Make better use of selling-time

Salespeople like other professionals, have a fixed amount of available hours during the year. Although you may put in far more hours, I'll base this number on 40 hours per week with 52 weeks in a year, and arrive at 2,080 hours total for the year. Your utilization of those 2,080 hours will determine your sales productivity and whether or not you'll hit your revenue targets.

Non-selling Activities

All Salespeople are burdened with activities that don't have a direct impact on revenue.



Sales forecasts, weekly sales meetings, chasing commissions, assisting with account receivables collection, travel and a myriad of other activities all contribute to a reduction in selling time.

Business-performance improvement firm Proudfoot Consulting conducts an annual survey with consistently shocking results. In their 2005 Proudfoot Productivity Report a whopping 79% of a salesperson's time was spent on non-selling activities. Using the 2,080 hour/year figure, only 437 hours remain to be spent on actively selling to or prospecting for customers.

If you're a Sales Rep or a Sales Manager, you won't find this surprising. If you're in marketing, this will give you more insight as to why Salespeople guard their time so judiciously, and chafe at following-up on leads of unknown quality.

Companies should take an inventory of tasks which divert Salespeople from being in front of customers. Then systematically create processes that will return valuable hours to the pool of selling-time. More time to sell is a good thing.

However, it's not just the amount of selling time that's important, it's how the time is used.

Selling time

What types of activities would you consider to be selling activities? Of the 21% of selling time found to be available by the 2005 Proudfoot study, only 11% was spent actively-selling while a full 10% was spent prospecting.

Why wouldn't Salespeople spend all of their selling time with qualified prospects rather than prospecting? Why do they spend 10% of their available selling time cold-calling and following up with leads of un-known quality (think trade-show leads)?

Because there aren't enough prospects!

Stuffing the funnel with leads

In an attempt to bolster the amount of time spent actively-selling, we generate leads. Leads are the life-blood of sales. Leads keep our pipelines full. Leads are the source of all revenue. As Martha Stewart might say "leads are a good thing."

But leads aren't necessarily prospects and if they aren't prospects, they won't be buyers anytime soon. Too many non-qualified leads will kill your sales productivity, lower your revenue potential and limit your ability to exceed sales quota.



Leads: The Sales Productivity Killer?

The answer isn't to provide more leads, it's to provide more qualified prospects. Don't stuff the sales funnel with leads. Stuff the marketing funnel with leads. The marketing funnel is where leads should be shaken and sifted, helping qualified prospects fall through to the sales funnel where they can be closed. The more unqualified leads that make their way through to Sales, the less productive salespeople will be.



Lessons from the Gold Rush

I live in one of the historic California towns where the 49er gold rush took place. You couldn't find gold unless you had good techniques either panning for gold in rivers, or blasting through vast layers of earth. Gold seekers were of course, known as "prospectors".

Prospectors couldn't find gold without a laborious search. And like prospecting for gold, finding qualified prospects requires the right techniques. However, a division of labor for executing those techniques is crucial if prospectors are to maximize their return. If assayers were asked to haul and mill the ore as well as inspect for content and quality - investors would receive far fewer gold coins at the end of the day.

Copyright =A9 2007 Smart About Sales, Inc. Nancy Shawver is CEO of Smart About Sales, Inc a How to site for implementing a winning Lead Generation, Lead Management and Lead Conversion system. http://www.smartaboutsales.com ]]> http://www.artwoo.com/article/the-dread-of-cold-calling-is-finally-over http://www.artwoo.com/article/the-dread-of-cold-calling-is-finally-over#comments Fri, 10 Aug 2007 21:19:59 +0000 cold callingincrease your saleswikipediamarketing strategynetwork marketingcold callsstressful experience http://www.artwoo.com/article/the-dread-of-cold-calling-is-finally-over Cold Calling?

Network Marketing cold calling is a marketing strategy for obtaining new prospects by calling them via phone and speaking to them directly about your products or services. Cold calling is a way of introducing yourself, your company, your service or product to others. According to Wikipedia, cold calling is the process of approaching prospective clients, typically via telephone, who have not agreed to such an interaction. This form of marketing is tough whether it's on the phone, in person or at a networking event. It is an aggressive tactic that demands initiative and perseverance. Cold calling is disliked, particularly by individual consumers, and is an inefficient way of selling, as the take-up rate is very low. Marketing in this fashion is the most universally despised aspect of sales.



What Are You Saying When Cold Calling?

By making cold calls, you're saying: you simply don't value time (theirs or your own), you've done no research to know anything about the individual prospect and you naively think your solution is for everyone or your product works everywhere - it doesn't. Most people hate calling unsuspecting individuals and there is a cottage industry of people making a profit by selling ideas on how to generate business without cold calling. Combine the discomfort and awkwardness of making an unsolicited phone call to a complete stranger with and you can get a pretty stressful experience. Usually you will face rejection.

Effective Cold Calling?

Cold calls can be used to obtain quality sales leads, references, and testimonials. Effective cold calling is suppose to result in good sales leads for your business. However, I have found that leads generated by cold calling are on average between 2 to 4 times more expensive than a company or sales rep can generate via the Internet. Cold-called leads are the least qualified, and they're the ones most likely to die in the pipeline. There are better ways to get prospects and increase your sales. What's more, the cold call leads seemed to be less qualified than leads generated by other means, for example the Internet. Even though the Internet leads were smaller opportunities and they closed faster and more often. Thus, in the short term the web leads closed better and seemed more effective.



Use the Power of the Internet

Cold calling prospects is dead in today's economy and is an expensive waste of your time. So why would anyone put themselves through the agony of making cold calls when there are other alternatives such as the Internet? Cold calling is not the most efficient way of recruiting prospects in your MLM. The primary argument is that cold calling is a time consuming prospecting technique that has seen its day and in our modern age, today's technology gives sales professionals new and better approaches to finding prospects to sell.

Take it from me stop wasting your time with cold calling and use Internet marketing to get qualified leads and referrals. Aside from a waste of time, cold calling is an ineffective, obsolete sales technique that has no place in today's Internet-based economy. I think this new era of young entrepreneurship has ushered in a new way of communicating and reaching out to clients and cold calling is out and the Internet is in. Forget everything you've ever been taught about building a solid income in Network Marketing from the "gurus". Let this 25- year old "unknown" marketer show you how he built an organization of over 4,120 in 14 short months without making one phone call! ==> http://www.EZWealthStrategy.com ]]>