Develop a Marketing System to Collect Testimonials
by Wendy MaynardOffer proof to your prospects. It's not enough to say that you solve problems - you have to show that your customers are getting results from your business. Testimonials are one of the most powerful and cost effective selling tools you can implement in your arsenal of marketing. Why? Because you are offering evidence to your prospects from their peers attesting that your services/products actually work.
Providing testimonials from current and prior customers that demonstrate their actual problem and the specific results from your company enhances your credibility. Testimonials offer proof that you are the real deal. People receive a lot of information and they are often skeptical. But, they will be much more inclined to buy from you if you show examples of their peers who have achieved positive results. These third-party endorsements work to sell for you - even when you are not around.
If you are offering a new product or just starting your business, you can contact business associates and friends to offer them a free session or product sample to try. If you have been in business for a while but haven't collected testimonials, make a list of all of your customers who you know have had a GREAT experience with your services or products. Even if you already have a number of testimonials, don't stop collecting new ones. You can replace mediocre praise with the incredible ones. You can also keep your testimonials up to date and current.
Here are some ideas and opportunities to obtain new testimonials:
1. Write down the praise: Whenever one of your customers gives you a compliment in person or via e-mail, thank him or her and then ask if you can use their comment as a testimonial. Make sure he or she understands that you will be using it in your marketing materials. If someone sends you a testimonial that requires editing, go ahead and edit it, but be sure to send it back to ask if the changes are okay - explain the editing was for brevity, clarity, grammar, etc.
2. Create a website link: Another easy method to help you collect testimonials is to include a link on your website that lets people click on it to give their feedback. "Click here to let me know what you think." Put this link next to testimonials you've already placed on your site to provide other examples.
3. Offer an incentive: Periodically you can have a "testimonial drive." Send out an e-mail and offer an incentive for your customers to provide a testimonial. Depending on what type of business you run, it could be a coupon, discount, free services, and so on.
4. Make it part of your sales cycle. As you wrap up an interaction with a customer, ask them for a testimonial. BEFORE you complete your work with a customer, ask him or her to provide a testimonial with tangible and specific results from working with you or from your products. If you wait until your work is complete, you may have a more difficult time getting a testimonial since your customer can move into an "out of sight, out of mind" place. For example, if you are a financial planner, you could ask them toward the end of your sessions together. If you run a Garden Center, have cards by the register and a drop box.
5. Ask your "star performers" for testimonials. Almost every business collects raving fans. These are the individuals who buy every book you sell, the customer who you see in your store three times each week, or that individual who gets an incredible result from using your offerings. Make a point of asking these individuals to give a testimonial. If they have just had a BIG result, be sure to ask them right afterwards.
6. Follow-up after a purchase: Use an autoresponder like www.mavenmerchant.com to automatically follow up with a customer who has purchased something from you to ask them how they are doing. Ask them to provide a testimonial.
Here are some specific ways you can use testimonials to enhance your marketing materials:
** Use testimonials in a sales letter or on a postcard that you send out to acquire new prospects.
** Incorporate testimonials into your advertisements.
** Place testimonials and success stories on your website and in your ezine.
** When you are talking to a prospect, use success stories of other clients to help show the prospect how your other clients have excelled.
** During a seminar, presentation, or teleseminar, use testimonials and success stories to illustrate points and inspire people to take action.
Wendy Maynard publishes MAVEN MARKETING, a weekly marketing ezine for business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs. If you're ready to skyrocket your sales, easily attract customers, and have more fun, subscribe at
http://www.gomarketingmaven.com/ezine_3.html
Business Success Is All About Sales
by Bob UrichuckDo you want to Up Your Bottom Line?
The world market is heating up. Competitors are appearing out of nowhere and expectations are high, especially from the top. In today's market both the business owner and seasoned professional salesperson have to be producing at their absolute best to stay up with the industry leaders.
Business people must also be sales professionals who today have to be pro-active, highly energetic, entrepreneurial, self-driven and really concerned about efficiency and the bottom line. He or she needs to be honest, sensitive, a master problem solver and above all, a personal marketing genius with a win/win philosophy. Only having all these qualities can the business people have the slight edge to win in today's fast growing economy.
The profession of being a salesperson is no different than any other profession. All business professionals go through years of training and continuous learning. The main difference of the sales profession though, and one that you must learn to deal with, is the changing times and how no one likes the same old traditional approaches.
Traditional sales training has taught us many sales techniques and how to handle objections, but not how to stay in control of the buying process or creating and maintaining long term relationships. In order for salespeople to be successful, they must maintain control over the sales process, while the customer believes they are in control.
To do that, they must have a step-by-step sales results system to follow. This is the main reason behind why salespeople succeed. Buyer's have a system and that is why they have been in control, and salespeople are being rejected.
All business professionals benefit from a sales system or sales process because it is vital to always be focussed and goal-orientated in order to achieve bottom line results. Most businesses are customer focussed and service driven and usually, no matter what your profession, you have something to sell whether it be a product, a service or an idea. Everyone needs sales if they want to survive. Without sales, there's no business to talk about.
The Bottom Line! Sales people need to follow a proven Sales Results System, or sales process. Businesses today cannot succeed without sales. Without sales there are no transactions. Without transactions there is no revenue. Without revenue, there is no business, no jobs, no bottom line. Sales is the bottom line!
Bob Urichuck is an International Speaker, Trainer and Best-Selling Author. Learn personally from Bob in the areas of Sales, Motivation, Leadership and Team Skills. Bob presents a series of great ideas and strategies with combination of facts, humor, and practical concept in a high-energy and self-discovery process that you can apply right away to achieve results. Subscribe to Bob's Free Newsletter, worth $297, visit
http://www.BobU.com Now!
Make More Sales
by Omar MartinThere are so many people out there nowadays claiming to be sales guru's. It seems like every where I look I see some self proclaimed "sales master" telling me I can become a millionaire if I just read his "free" report! These guys crack me up. The sad part about it is that they're still around because people fall for their cunning sales pages and buy their products. What actually qualifies you to be a sales "expert" worthy of selling your secrets to someone anyway?
Have you ever done hard core, 100% commission, door to door sales in 115 degree weather (or -20 degrees for that matter) wearing a 3 piece suit? Have you ever built a power house team of cold contacting sales experts from scratch, selling pizza coupons door to door none the less? Let me guess.. "NO!" . . . to that one as well.
I would love to do an experiment one day and take one of these "sales gurus" let him pick the time, place and product, then put me on one side of the street and him on the other and lets see what happens. No need to wait for the results, I'll can tell you right now what will happen, I will BLOW them away! That is a fact. I'm not trying to be cocky or arrogant here I 'm simply stressing a point. I 'm an accomplished professional, hard core sales expert and I 'm available to prove it any day of the week.
I believe what sets me apart from the rest of these clowns is my attitude. I am always in sales mode, I am relentless in my pursuit of buyers. That is the key. I don't just find the closest human being with a pulse and try to cram my product down their throat whether they need it or not. Instead, I bust my hump and move from person to person until I identify my buyer.
Here's the best part... when I do find a buyer, I've struck gold! This is because I'm not just going to sell him one item. I'm going to sell him (or her) everything I can! Thats the difference between me and them. I smarten up, I open the market up! I don't try to turn a "NO" into a "YES" because that will only turn around to bite me in the ass later. Instead, I quickly identify buying and non-buying signs to determine whether or not this prospect is worthy of my sales pitch.
Here's 3 simple things you can do to increase your sales regardless of what you sell or where you sell, Internet, face to face, telemarketing, whatever... It doesn't matter. This stuff works everywhere and if you're not doing it your just missing the boat!
#1 Always be in a hurry. This is called "Urgency" I've got no time to sit down and have a cup of coffee with you Mr. Prospect. I've got BUYERS to get to. So lets get this deal closed and we can both get on with our busy day.
#2 Be prepared for EVERY objection. A sale without an objection is like a bowl of cereal without the milk. Expect several objections during every presentation. Thats whats supposed to happen!!! Edify the prospect, give them your pre-rehearsed rebuttal and CLOSE the deal!
#3 Take Control! No one is going to stop you in your tracks and say "Are you a salesman?? Here's my money I'll take everything you've got!" You have to get over the fear of rejection and TELL them it's time to pay for their product. Train your customer to say yes to you throughout your pitch with close ended questions. This way they wont hesitate to reach for their wallets when you tell them it's time to pay.
Omar Martin is a sales expert dedicated to training and developing high performance sales leaders in every industry. He is an internet marketer and sales page designer whose sales experience, skill level and coaching ability has benefited thousands of sales professionals across the USA. He posts free sales advice and products on:
http://www.omar-martin.comHis latest product is:
http://www.HighPerformanceSalesSecrets.com
10 Simple Ways to Follow Up with Prospects
by Katrina SawaIn any business it's important to develop simple follow up systems to keep on top of your prospects', customer's and referral sources' minds. If you don't do your follow up; you are wasting valuable marketing dollars and time you've already spent on gathering new leads.
I do a lot of networking at chamber events, women's organizations and biz expos and I generally collect about 25-50 business cards from new contacts on a good week. I pay an assistant to enter them all into my computer database for me so I can easily mail merge them when I want to send out a mailer. I also enter them into my email database because I usually ask them in person if they want to receive my free marketing tips and they always say yes. I follow up right away by email and for the hot prospects I send a postcard in the mail or a note too. Then they will continue to receive my emails every other week plus usually, if I've met them out networking, I see them out again very soon. Follow up can be done in many ways now: email, fax, phone, mail or in person right? So, what do you do after you meet a potential client or even a potential referral source? Do you pile up those business cards on your desk until they get so old you have to just throw them away since they wouldn't be of any use anymore? Or do you follow up and how?
Follow my 10 simple steps below and you will for sure build better relationships with those you meet as well as have more top of mind awareness with them. Here are 10 Simple Follow Up Procedures you can implement in your business TODAY! (for service, product or retail):
1. Take immediate action:
Always call or email within 24 hours of meeting someone telling them it was nice to meet them, asking about their business and offering a little more info about yours and what you could do for them or their referrals.
2. Take more than one action:
In addition to doing #1, also slip something in the mail to them ' an introduction letter and a brochure, a thank you note (handwritten of course) or a flyer about your special promotion.
3. Use email wisely:
Add them to your email database (if appropriate and IF you are heeding correct spam laws in your correspondence) and make sure they get an email notice within 2 weeks.
4. Keep your ears and eyes out for others:
Drop in the mail or attach by email a document or article you found that you'd been discussing or something you recently read that would be of interest or pertinent to them.
5. Keep your database up to date:
Enter them into your database (in the computer) so when you send out your next mailer they will be on the list to receive it. If you don't have a database, you should get one (ACT, Goldmine, Outlook) or start an Excel spreadsheet for starters. You can outsource this task.
6. Send more than one mailing:
Send out another piece of mail or email within 2 weeks of when you sent the first one; this can be more casual, a postcard, flyer or another follow up letter asking for referrals in case they don't think they can use your services right now.
7. Call again:
Call, not necessarily to make the sale, but to further build that relationship, have coffee, meet for lunch, drop something off for them, etc. but another in-person meeting would be good in case they forget what you look like.
8. Make a creative impression:
If you're really trying to get their business and you're not getting anywhere, drop by a promotional product (s) with your card and brochure again or send it in the mail. Make sure your promotional product stands out from your competition and is unique or memorable.
9. Systematize your follow up:
Make sure you sort your database by Hot, Warm and Cold leads and then also by either where you met them (i.e.; Your City's Chamber of Commerce, professional or service organization, etc.) or some other system (like referral source vs. prospect) so that when you mail to them regularly you can mail to small groups at a time with a unique message. Mail to your database quarterly and email them monthly at minimum.
10. Plan year-round promotions:
Send out holiday cards not only for December, but maybe for Easter, the 4th of July or which ever holidays you feel like and then possibly their birthdays too. There are companies who send out cards for you, online sources you can use easily and there are websites that remind you when someone's birthday is to make this easy. Ask me for info on these companies by sending me an email to katrina@ksawamarketing.com!
These tips are for any type of business, retail, service or product. I am always curious as to how a store is going to follow up with me. I shop there, I write a check, and they have my address and phone number ' yet 9 out of 10 times ' absolutely NO follow up marketing! Only do the larger stores put me on their mailing list and send me mailers and/or emails (like Linens & Things, Cost Plus and Fashion Bug); these retailers know just when I come in because I normally always get another coupon in the mail right after to come back again. The one that does follow up with me understands that repeat business is 5-10 times easier to get than new business.
So, not only do you need to follow up after new people you meet to GET their business or referrals and build those relationships, but you also have to cultivate those relationships over time so they keep you on top of their minds in case something comes up where they need your products or services or someone they know does.
(c) Copyright 2008 K.Sawa Marketing Katrina Sawa is an Award-Winning Relationship Marketing Coach who's helped hundreds of small business owners take dramatic steps in their businesses to get them to the next level in business, revenues and life. She offers one-on-one coaching, group coaching and do-it-yourself marketing planning products. Go online now to get started with her Free Report and Free Audio at
http://www.jumpstartyourmarketing.com
