Friday, June 7, 2013

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Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Five Steps To Online Copywriting Success

One of the most important priorities of evey online business should be their copywriting. Online copywriting skills are a "must have" for anyone who is thinking about real success with their online business.

It doesn't matter if you're marketing a product, a service, a network marketing opportunity, or if you're an affiliate selling someone else's products; you need to know a little bit about online copywriting. You don't need to be an expert at it, but you should know some basics to help with constructing landing pages, content pages, or just simple ads for advertising.

When I bought my first car, I made sure that I knew how to do some basic repairs. I wanted to, at the very least, be able to do the regular maintenance to help save money. Things like changing the oil, air filter, spark plugs and wires, being able to flush the radiator, add any fluids necessary, change any hoses, and even put in new brakes. I saved a lot of money by not having to go to the garage every three thousand miles or when any basic repairs needed to be done.

Five Steps To Online Copywriting Success

The same thing can be said about basic copywriting skills. Here are five copywriting tips for you to keep in mind when doing any type of online marketing.

Know Your Audience

The first thing to consider when writing anything on the Internet is to know who you are writing it for. For example, when I am writing an ad for a client I write it for a specific targeted audience. I don't like "generic" ads that appeal to everyone. The more focused your ads, web copy, articles, ezine, special reports, or anything written is, the response rates are much higher.

When you know your audience you can write from certain angles. You can identify their problem and present your product as the solution. People are looking for solutions to problems to everything from cake decorating to finding out how to advertise for effective results. If you know your audience you know their problem and can aim your writing at them.

Remember Benefits

A lot of times when we're writing we get into the "add as many features as I can" frame of mind, when we should be thinking in a different direction. People want to know "What's In It For Me?", and they want to know now. They don't want to have to read a bunch of crap about you before they get to them.

By listing exactly what your product, or service, will do for them within your copy people will be much more apt to do what you are leading them to do. Which leads me to the next copywriting tip

Have A Direction

Know where you want to go with your copywriting. Here's and example of what I'm talking about. I was contacted by a prospective client about rewriting some web copy that dealt with a pretty good piece of exercise equipment. Of course, with the initial look at the copy I knew the problem, but to make sure I asked to see the traffic stats for his site.

The site got great traffic, but hadn't made a sale in over two months.

The copy was all over the place. There was no real direction that can take a hold of the reader and take them directly to where you want them to go. The key to online copywriting is that the person reading your copy does what you want them to do while thinking they're doing what they want to.

Once I explained to my client that his copy needed a direction to make it flow, did the necessary rewriting, his response shot through the roof.

Showing people where to go, without them knowing it, is essential to great copy.

Give A Call To Action

Having direction to your copy is great, but if you don't take the next step and tell people what to do, you'll be missing out on enormous profits. This is called a "call to action". It's getting to the bottom of your copy, or anywhere you feel will help, and saying "Click here to buy now", or "Take the time now to subscribe to our free ezine".

This is a must in your ads. Especially in ads like solo ads. People are reading through and, if left without a compelling take action now statement, will delete the ad or just click off it. Ads are a vehicle to get people to your site. A call to action is the way to get them there.

Give A Guarantee That Can't Be Refused

People still need to be left with a sense of comfort. Especially when dealing with people they don't know. A guarantee the ensures people that if they are not satisfied, or don't receive what they thought, or any other number of reasons don't want your product, can get their money back.

And doing it with a smile, at least in your correspondence, will go a long ways toward maybe keeping them as a subscriber or as a customer down the road. People like guarantees.

Basic Tips For Great Copywriting

Of course, like auto mechanics, there are a lot more advanced strategies and copywriting techniques that you can use to further increase your website's effectiveness. But, if you use these five steps towards your own copy you'll see a major improvement in your overall advertising strategies and/or website conversion.

Five Steps To Online Copywriting Success
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Monday, February 25, 2013

Top 6 Jobs For 14-15 Year Olds

When you are 14, you may need more pocket money to buy what you like. But ,how can you earn money? so, you must get a job, not only for money, but also for experience. According to Child Labor, it's not so easy to find a job for age under 16. How to find Jobs for 14 Year Olds? if you'd like, I'll tell you the jobs you can get and how to earn money .

Teen Writer

If you are talented in writing, you could be a teen writer. And, you can get paid from magazines or websites. If you are not good at writing, you can practice writing. Write whatever you feel like writing, whether it be teen fiction or anything else. It really doesn't matter what you write, as long as you're writing.

Top 6 Jobs For 14-15 Year Olds

How to start? You can try to start out writing for your school paper (articles, opinions or short stories). You could also try submitting to local writers' club anthologies & teen magazines often have a reader submissions section for poems, short stories, etc. These won't be paying jobs, but they might get you noticed. Also, if you are good at basic copywriting & layout, you can get people to pay you to prep their resumes. You'd be surprised how many people can't manage that on their own.

Babysitter

How can you get a babysitting job? it is not difficult to get one , just give it some time. Make flyers and put them around your church or community. If you have any daycares around your neighborhood you might want to advertise there. Sittercity.com is a great place where you register and parents looking for babysitters look at your profile and can contact you.

In order to be successful in the babysitting business you need to know the following tips, hints, and tricks.When you're ready to go in the babysitting business, don't be afraid to ask questions about the child you will be caring for; always be prepared. Walk through the house and do a safety check. Close the doors to rooms you don't want the children in. Look for hazards such as matches, hanging electrical cords, medications or other things children can get hurt with or get into trouble with. The most important thing is that keep an eye on the kids, and don't get distracted.

Camp Counselor

For getting a job as a camp counselor, you can try your local YMCA.They may still have openings for summer counselors or assistants. Otherwise, go to your neighborhood boys and girls club. It helps to have those certifications and some do require CPR.

Although the minimum age requirement for many camp counselor jobs is 16,but if you do not meet the minimum age requirement to become a summer camp counselor, you might have the opportunity to apply for the counselor-in-training program or junior counselor positions.

As a C.I.T. (Counselor in training), you would be working but not get paid. Or even, you have to pay for your work(not all camps). It seems very unfair, the camp charges you to work there! However,it's a great way to spend the summer instead of sitting home all day, and you will be paid when you are old enough.

Be a Tutor

If you have a good understanding of one subject, you can find a job as a tutor.Try go to your local youth center. Many youth centers pay tutors for math, English, History and Science in their after-school programs.

If you'd like,ask your counselor at school if they pay tutors for after-school programs at your school.

Also, you can advertise on your own and once you get a following the word of mouth referrals will start coming in quickly. You should advertise your offer in places where parents will see the advertisement. The parents are your clients.

Grocery Bagger

More and more supermarkets and grocery have opened up in the past decade. So, they often need many part-time or full time baggers. If you'd like, you can get extra money as a bagger.

Apply to the store or stores you are interested in working at.You can call them, and ask if they need a bagger.Of course,you can also go to store to ask one by one in person.Usually, you will find a job soon.

Lifeguard

Find a lifeguard class in your area. Most lifeguard training classes are often offered through the YMCA. If you can't find one, call your local red cross and ask them. If you can't find your local red cross, call a local pool and ask how they go about hiring lifeguards. They may have a private program. If you have a particular place you want to lifeguard, call them first to see if they have any special requirements.

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Wei King is a web administrator of Jobs for 14/15 Year Olds, If you are 14/15 years old, and you want to find a job, watch my articles, these articles will help you.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Example Sales Letter - Five Examples of Persuasive Sales Letter Elements

I'm about to share with you an example sales letter I wrote for a real product, and I'll show you some of the elements I used to "hook" people in to keep reading, and to compel them to buy - which is the ultimate purpose of a sales letter.

Examples you see will help you to write your own sales letters, and it always helps to have a copywriter like myself explain what we're doing so you get a "behind the scenes" look, as it were.

As you read, you might want to follow along with the actual sales letter by clicking the link at the bottom of this article, either now or later, so you can see how these examples all fit together.

Example Sales Letter - Five Examples of Persuasive Sales Letter Elements

Pre-Headline To Reassure

I often use a pre-headline before the main headline, which reassures the visitor that the material to follow is going to be relevant to them, assuming they're my target audience. So the pre-headline in this example sales letter reads, "If you're a writer, ghostwriter, copywriter or article writer..."

The Headline Hook

The purpose of a headline in a sales letter is to grab their attention, and to get them to read the next paragraph. For example: "Here's how to ask for, and get, more money for your writing service right now..."

In this headline, I focused on the biggest benefit of the product, which is to get more money from your writing service. However, it doesn't have to be the biggest benefit, as long as it grabs their attention and compels them to read on. Notice how I also phrased the headline: "Here's how to..." You only get the solution IF you read on!

Paragraphs Of Power

The first two or three paragraphs are critically important, because it's where the visitor will decide whether or not to give you their full attention. So in this example sales letter, I DON'T first talk about myself - instead, I ask the reader three "Have you ever..." questions, examples of which are:

"As a writer, have you ever found yourself frustrated..."
"Have you ever felt you wanted to charge more..."

This gets them involved, and if they answer "Yes!" in their minds to any of these, then I've got them thinking they want to find out more. Then I say, "If you've ever felt or experienced ANY of these things, then pay careful attention to what I'm about to tell you in the next 5 minutes." This gives them a reason to keep reading. Remember, your visitors will read only so long as it's INTERESTING and RELEVANT to them.

The Subheadline Story

My next section immediately starts with a subheadline: "I promise this will help." In fact, I use subheadlines throughout my sales letters, and you'll want to tell the story in your subheadlines too, because many readers will first SKIM THE SALES LETTER to determine whether they want to even bother reading it.

So I always make the subheadlines tell their own story. For example, these are the first four subheadlines in the example sales letter, and notice how they tell a story for the skimmer:

"I promise this will help."
"It's time we did something about it..."
"We face two big problems."
"How to tackle them both, and make more money..."

Each one is also designed to "hook" the reader into wanting to read that section. For example, if you're a sales letter skimmer and you saw, "We face two big problems", you might want to know what those problems are! If so, you'll read the sales letter more carefully.

Bullet Points Build Desire

I consider bullet points to be one of most important aspects of a sales letter, because they are easy to read, and they can "sum up" the benefits and reasons to buy, in an easy to view format.

Each bullet point should highlight a particular feature of your product or service, and the ultimate benefits of having that feature, or the consequences of not having it. For example, here's a bullet point from the example sales letter:

* How Would You Like No Competition? How to COMPLETELY distinguish your writing service from everybody else, so clients want to use YOU, and ONLY YOU! (p44-54)

I have 19 bullet points in that sales letter. Personally, I recommend you have a bullet point for each feature of your product, convert them into benefits, and be sure to make them compelling!

These are some of the critical elements of a good sales letter. It's great to able to see more examples, and to see what goes on "behind the scenes" of writing a persuasive sales letter.

Example Sales Letter - Five Examples of Persuasive Sales Letter Elements
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You can view the example sales letter we've been talking about at WriteToMoreMoney.com

You've seen how I write copy, and now I'd like to share with you free copywriting videos showing you how to quickly and easily write persuasive sales letters. In my video series you'll even see three example sales letters written right in front of your own eyes, so claim your free videos now before I remove them.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

The Meaning of XING

When my wife and I took our first trip to California before we moved here, we saw a large population of Asian Americans in San Francisco. We had come West from Massachusetts, partly because the state we lived in felt like it was still attached to a round world, and we were seeking the new flat world.

California fit that more modern heterogeneous model of a flat world state.

As we were driving down to Big Sur, we passed a number of schools where the crosswalk had the letters "XING" stenciled onto the roadway in large white letters.

The Meaning of XING

After seeing them a number of times, I turned to my wife and said "See all those "XING" words in the crosswalks?"

"Yes I have," she answered "and I've been wondering what they mean."

Now by nature, and hopefully nurture as well, I am not a nasty person prone to pranks or wisecracks, put-downs or practical jokes. But for some reason I couldn't resist. Maybe the devil made me do it ...

"Well "XING" is Chinese for "Be Careful". It tells all the Asian American kids who can't speak good English yet that they need to watch out when they cross the road."

"That's really nice. I knew I liked California, they would never do something like that back home."

"That's right," I told her. "Only in California."

For the rest of the trip, every time we passed a school and drove across a crosswalk, we would sing in unison "XING" (sounds like Shing, only hold the end for a few seconds).

Until she finally figured it out. "XING"was nothing more than a shortened version of "CROSSING", like Xmas is a shortened version of Christmas.

After that trip, whenever one of us would fake the other one out, the Faker had the right to say "XING", as in "Gotcha", to the Fakee.

Now what on earth, flat or round, does this have to do with Internet Copywriting?

Simple...

If you've read this far, you were hooked by the story. And if I was selling "XING" soap or, more likely, a "XING" web marketing scam, you might be well on your way to becoming one of The Converted.

So here's the lesson and the real meaning of "XING".

Great or even good storytelling is one of the most powerful and seductive ways a Copywriter can take control of your mind. So be careful where you put your brain.

If you let a great Copywriter lead you down the garden path, if you give your self over to someone's compelling story, before you know it you'll be hitting that "Buy Now" button.

Then again, it might just be worth it to pay for the entertainment.

P.S. I'd also bet you won't forget the new meaning of "XING" for a long time.

P.P.S. I also know that if you tried to sing it the way I told you, you'll probably hear it inside your head the next time you drive across a crosswalk marked "XING".

The Meaning of XING
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I am a highly successful copywriter whose work you have more than likely read. I am currently copywriting for my own information products, under the banner of KnowledgeStar, providing advice for The Boomers - from living healthier lives using alternative medicines to making money investing in disruptive technology.

I want to share what I have learned with other aspiring online copywriters and people trying to make money online with web marketing.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Copywriting - Its 3 Purposes

1 To persuade.

The prime purpose of copywriting is to get the reader to take a specific action. The reader needs to feel that the creator of the copy is speaking directly to them, personally. So, being able to use a visitor's name is useful here.

Also, the reader wants to feel that through the copy, the writer can show his understanding of the reader's predicament or problem. The copy may describe how the writer has a similar past history, providing quite precise feelings. In other words, the writer is identifying with the reader, and then getting the reader to identify with him.

Copywriting - Its 3 Purposes

2 To interest and enthuse.

If the reader immediately sees that his problem is being addressed and that it is being understood, then he will be interested. But to follow through to persuade him to act in a specific way, the reader also has to be enthused. Therefore, the writer can show evidence of his financial success in his, for example, PayPal (TM) and ClickBank (TM) accounts. Of course, FTC rules now mean the writer has to point out these may not be average earnings and that the reader may not make the same amounts. Still, this can be got round to some extent by emphasising that the writer has discovered a system.

3 To get to take specific action.

The action is clinched by the guarantee by which the visitor can't lose. Also there is, importantly, the clear and exact call to action by the writer, such as "Click the button now for instant access!"

Copywriting - Its 3 Purposes
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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Adjective Order - Teach Your Students the Correct Order of Adjectives

Did you know that when more than one adjective is used in a sentence, that they need to be written in a specific order?

Most English speakers, including your students do this automatically. When they speak or write they use what sounds correct to guide the order of adjectives. They know that "the brick last house" sounds odd and can quickly and confidently adjust it to "the last brick house". This is fine for commonly used adjectives.

However, if your students need to use adjectives that are not as common, especially ones that are not used in everyday conversation, it can be very difficult for them to determine what the correct adjective placement is.

Adjective Order - Teach Your Students the Correct Order of Adjectives

Give your students opportunities to explore and practice how adjectives should be placed in a sentence and their skills and confidence will increase.

Here is the correct order for adjectives.

1) OPINION (lovely, useful)

2) SIZE (big, enormous)

3) AGE (mature, ancient)

4) SHAPE (square, oval)

5) COLOR (red, burgandy)

6) ORIGIN (American, English)

7) MATERIAL (wooden, cotton)

8) PURPOSE (typing, sun)

Use these exercises to get your students practicing adjective placement.

1) Write the order of adjectives on the board and ask your students to suggest examples. Write two examples for each type of adjective.

2) Ask your students to copy what you have written on the board and include two more examples for each adjective type.

3) Write 3 or 4 adjectives on the board and ask your students to use all of them in a sentence. Here are some adjectives that you could use (hairy, big, yellow), (cold, silver, English), (roasted, salty, chilli), (fluffy, young, white). This activity could be done a few times.

4) Write 3 or 4 adjectives on the board. Include one or two words that your students will not know. Here are some examples (re-hydrated, orange, African), (dusty, brown, marsupial), (acidic, salty, Greek). Ask your students to look the words that they don't know up in a dictionary and then use all the words in one sentence.

5) Ask you students to find three examples of adjective order in books that they have been exploring in class.

6) Write a sentence on the board that includes at least three adjectives. Ask your students to write the opposite of that sentence. When they do this it will become clear that even though the meaning of the adjectives can change dramatically the order of adjectives stays the same.

For example, "The boy saw the long, dusty, dirt road" becomes "The boy saw the short, clean, concrete road".

Adjective Order - Teach Your Students the Correct Order of Adjectives
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Print out an adjective order worksheet and link to other adjective resources for the classroom at
http://www.free-teacher-worksheets.com/adjective-order.html

Find a wide range of free printable classroom resources at
http://www.free-teacher-worksheets.com/

Friday, January 25, 2013

Article Writing & Copywriting Secret - How To Make Your Article TITLE Sell

Most authors are wasting their time producing dozens to hundreds of high quality articles that never reach a fraction of their traffic potential. It's a darn shame.

When I review the behind-the-scenes traffic statistics on millions of articles that have produced millions of monthly page views in my article content lab...ONE thing is clear: All articles are not created equal even when everything about them is identical except for the TITLE.

The reason is probably not what you think.

Article Writing & Copywriting Secret - How To Make Your Article TITLE Sell

If you've been schooled on traditional copywriting, you know that in the offline world, the headline determines as much as 95% of the success of the book or article. This statistic takes into consideration what makes the book title successful: Whether a human buys it or not.

Article Writing on the Internet is a whole different story because of the way your articles reach humans who have an interest in them.

MYTH: Most people will read your articles because they came to a website and started browsing just like they do if they were to have gone to a local book store to find a book of personal interest.

FACT: Wrong! Most people will search the Internet using one of the major search engines and they will be putting in between 1 to 5 keywords that are related to the topic of the article or information they are looking to locate. The search engines will then deliver results that best match the human's interest.

YOUR GOAL: To have your articles show up in the search engine results for the keywords and topics that are most related to the content of your article.

HOW?

You must embrace this TITLE creation & traffic-building truth:

The first 3-5 words of your TITLE determine the success of your article in terms of how much traffic your article will generate back to your website. Success can only be had when you create keyword rich titles for your articles that match the most commonly searched keywords for your topic.

How to determine which keywords are rich and the right ones to use for your article?

You'll need a keyword research tool. Some are free and some are fee-based. Overture.com has a popular keyword research tool that shows you the most common search results from the Yahoo search engines directory. If you want to see what's on "Google's Mind" you can try one of their current beta tools called "Google Suggest":
http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&complete=1

Whether you use a web-based keyword research tool or invest in one of the more advanced application level software keyword research tools, it's critical that you learn know how to do keyword research.

A "Good" vs. "Bad" TITLE Example:

Here is an example of the difference between a non-keyword rich TITLE vs. a very keyword rich TITLE that is proven to perform better in terms of traffic creation:

Bad TITLE Example:

"Top 9 Ways You Can Acquire Fractional Jet Ownership"

Excellent Keyword Rich Title Example:

Fractional Jet Ownership - 9 Strategies to Help You Acquire Your Private Jet

Why is it more effective?

Because it does not waste the first 3 words of the title with meaningless garbage words like "top" or the number "9" or "ways"...and gets right to the important words that might be found when someone is using a search engine to research a topic related to your article.

You'll also notice in my example that I included the word "Private" Jet. Why? Because my keyword research said that people who search for fractional jet also search for the word "private jet" and therefore I wanted to boost the chances that my title would be found by a larger number of potential visitors to the article.

Two recommendations on what NOT to do:

1) Don't include garbage characters in your TITLE such as quotes, tildes, asterisks or anything else that a search engines has to work hard to discard in order to understand the TITLE of your article.

2) Do not engage in any search engine spam technique by having keyword rich TITLES that have nothing to do with the topic of your article. You'll only be hurting yourself as the search engines already aggressively filter out bad behavior like this.

YOUR INTELLIGENT KEYWORD RICH TITLE COPYWRITING CONCLUSION:

If you want to maximize your results from any article writing strategy, you must master keyword research so that you can create keyword rich and intelligent article TITLES. Your pay off will be massive amounts of traffic to your articles and website thanks to the search engines who love smart keyword rich TITLES!

Article Writing & Copywriting Secret - How To Make Your Article TITLE Sell
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Christopher M. Knight invites you to submit your best quality original articles for massive exposure to the high-traffic http://EzineArticles.com/ expert author community. When you submit your articles to EzineArticles.com, your articles will be picked up by ezine publishers who will reprint your articles with your content and links intact giving you traffic surges to help you increase your sales. To submit your article, setup a membership account today: http://EzineArticles.com/submit/

(c) Copyright - Christopher M. Knight. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Top 10 Qualifying Fact Finding Questions That Will Earn You the Sale For Consultative Selling

Qualifying fact finding questions are directly connected to your industry, your products, your services and most importantly your customers. In consultative selling, I find that asking these 10 insightful qualifying questions early in the selling phase of the sales process saves me time.

First, before you can ask these 10 questions, you need find the right people be them the decision makers, the project managers or even a centers of influence (sponsors). Invest some time building the relationships because relationship selling begins here with mutual trust and respect.

During the fact finding meeting, here are 10 qualifying questions that I ask:

Top 10 Qualifying Fact Finding Questions That Will Earn You the Sale For Consultative Selling

Question #1: Where do they see their business or department going in the next 6 months to 3 years? Here you must engage in active listening to have a clear picture of what is really happening. One good follow-up question is to use a balance score card where you focus on general areas such as customers to financials to leadership.

Question #2: Why is moving in this direction important to them? The importance will vary depending upon the individual's role and function within the organization. By asking this question you are becoming aware of the emotional drivers directing the goal.

Question #3: What is driving this goal forward? This question is important to listen as to who truly owns the goal, are there any additional emotional drivers and helps to determine if you have all the decision makers at the table.

Question #4: What forces are keeping this goal from being successful? The response to this question can become quite detailed from global marketplace to individual behaviors or even the overall culture of the organization. A follow-up question may need to focus on priority, as this is a force that derails many potential sales. Sales Coaching Tip: Do not confuse priority with urgency.

Question #5: If this goal is not achieved, what does this mean for you as well as the organization? Again returning to the emotions, this question is very important. Sales Coaching Tip: Since you have an established relationship, you can ask this very personal question.

Question #6: How have other significant goals been supported specific to the resources of time, allocated budget, people and overall commitment? By not directly asking about money and expanding this to resources provides you more information that many sales professionals generally do not receive. You may also learn that the goal is not as significant as originally suggested.

Question #7: What expectations do you have with your existing vendor relationships? When asking this question, your goal is to learn of any unknown established relationships and the sales prospects' relationship preferences. A follow-up question may center on the current goal and if there will be additional expectations. Depending upon the situation, I may ask a very direct follow-up question specific to the satisfaction the potential customer has with its current vendor.

Question #8: As you move forward in your decision making process, what do I need to do to help you? Instead of asking what is your decision making process the question asked by many salespersons, you have asked what I call a back door question that places you in what I have termed a position of pull instead of a position of push. By answering the question, the sales prospect is figuratively pulling you to her or him instead of you pushing him or her. Sales Coaching Tip: Pulling is much better than pushing.

Question #9: Do you expect a formal RFP or RFI or RFQ to be issued? If so, will you or someone else be the author of this request? This question may not be necessary for all organizations and truly depends your early fact finding information as well as the type of organization. Many not-for-profits issue these documents as standard practice even for small consultative selling engagements.

Question #10: Where do we go from here? Sometimes, this question can earn you the contract right on the stop. Other times, you will receive additional information or request such as a statement of work (proposal) to scheduling another meeting.

As selling is truly both generic and specific, these are not the only qualifying fact finding questions. However, I have found them to helpful as I have grown my consultative selling practice. Additionally, one of the benefits is by asking these questions early within the sales process, you will truly learn if this goal is really important or if you have a tire ticker engaged in planning a budget for two years down the road.

Top 10 Qualifying Fact Finding Questions That Will Earn You the Sale For Consultative Selling
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Are the sales behaviors of your team or even yourself where you want them to be? If not, then you may discover an easy read on how to increase sales in this book, Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, the Keys to Unlocking Sales Success including looking at your sales approach.

Chicago Sales Coach Leanne Hoagland Smith helps with selling skills through this free sales assessment along with sales coaching, leadership to sales management development.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

The 5 Stages of a Sales Call

You might be a business owner or self employed or someone who through force of circumstance has moved into sales. This article will give you a structure to work from which will help make you more successful in sales. First a bit of Psychology, when people meet for the first time, there is always some stress particularly for the potential buyer. Stress levels which start at a high level at the beginning fall throughout the call only to rise to a peak again during what we all know as "The Close". What this 5 stage approach does it to try to make this psychology work in your favour to improve your chances of making a sale.

Stage 1. The Ice breaker

This stage relates to the first key minutes of the meeting at this point stress levels are high and we need to bring them down. It's a conversation which takes place between the two parties but which has nothing to do with business. It helps to establish ease and rapport before the business meeting proper starts. It literally breaks the ice. Obvious isn't it, well why do we often not use it. Well it's that word stress again which pressures us to get on with it, and don't you know it - when we rush straight into the business content we're less successful. What do you talk about? Well look for clues, people tend to publicise what they're interested in, even if they do so unconsciously. So if you see lots of golf pictures on the wall, guess what; he likes golf, there's your starter for ten.

The 5 Stages of a Sales Call

Stage 2. The Opening

As it suggests, this is the start of the business portion of the meeting, it's a series of opening statements which should outline the agenda for the meeting, make sure you always have one. At this point you won't know what specific issues your prospect faces so you have outline the list is issues that a typical prospect for your product or services might face and relate that to the specific benefits that your company's product or service provides. This is the most talking you should do at the meeting.

Stage 3. Qualification or Questioning

By now and in a few short minutes by following these simple steps you'll have managed to reduce much of the stress levels, both you and your prospect will feel more comfortable and they will be ready to discuss the issues surrounding their business. There an old saying in sales which goes "you have two ears and one mouth use them in that proportion", basically and especially during this stage only ask questions and let your prospect do the talking.

Qualification is a much undervalued part of the sales call, but if you don't qualify properly and understand your prospects issues and rationale you've dramatically reduced your chances of a successful close. This section is by far the longest and should represent at least 75% of the time you spend with your prospect. Don't at any point during the qualification stage offer any solutions; just make note of the issues and problems raised and how your solution can solution can help. Start with easy questions like "how did you start your business?" and "who do you sell to?"or "why did you buy this machine?" Then ask more searching questions once you've uncovered some issues like "why is that a problem for you?" or "what are the implications of not addressing this problem?" Having gathered your information and understood his problems we go to...

Stage 4. The Close

It's the term that strikes fear into the hearts of many sales people, just the mention of the word has probably increased your heart rate and you're not even at a meeting! So as we enter the close our stress levels really start to spike. One of the side effects of high stress is that we have a tendency to talk too much and frankly just babble. This is a real danger because by talking too much we let our prospect off the hook and leave without a sale. So as we move into the close keep calm, try to deliberately talk a little slower, then sum up the qualification session by identifying each issue and how you can help. You then ask for the order and stay quiet and you stay quiet until your prospect answers. Don't worry if it takes what seems like an eternity for him to respond it's only likely to be 5-10 seconds, and remember your prospect will be feeling just as much stress as you. If you start speaking first you'll have lost; the conversation will avoid directly the issue of purchase because you'll have given your prospect a chance to talk anything other than the most important - will he buy.

Stage 5. The Consolidation

Congratulations you've held your nerve, you've asked for the order and you've answered a couple of objections and he's said yes. So what do you do next? Well you could run around waving your arms in the air saying Yes! Yes! - but that's probably not the right thing to do. Let's look at the stress levels, they've collapsed you've both taken a huge sigh of relief and there's a great tendency to get out of there just as fast as you can. Don't. Stick around the consolidation stage is there for you to allow the prospect to be comfortable in his own mind that he's made the right decision. There is something called "buyers blues" which relates to circumstances where after a purchase the buyer becomes disillusioned with what he's bought. It often manifested by the unexpected cancellation of an order.

The Consolidation is designed to minimise this, you need to find a reason to stick around for 10-15 minutes, if you can, get him to fill in some documentation relating to the sale, alternatively if you haven't already suggest a look around the factory or site, your intention here is to get them back into their comfort zone, I've even suggested a celebratory cup of tea. So there you have it, a simple five step model for being more successful sales, happy selling!

The 5 Stages of a Sales Call
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Laurence Ainsworth has a background spanning 20 years as a successful Senior Manager and Director. He has over 25 years sales experience in the B2B environment. He also has extensive international business management experience in Europe, Asia and Australia. As Sales & Marketing Director of a 60 person business, he increased T/O by 40% and profit by 35% in the first year. As Divisional Director (Asia Pacific) of a FTSE100 company with responsibility for 300 staff and 5 operational units, he reversed a monthly operating loss of AUD0,000 and returned it to break-even in 6 months. He founded Exigent Consulting in 2002 and since then has performed a number of successful turnaround assignments and has worked with numerous companies to develop and implement successful growth strategies. He is skilled at working with, and getting the most from, owner managers. He can be contacted at http://www.exigent-uk.com/contact%20us.html

Thursday, January 17, 2013

7 Essential Elements of Successful Case Studies

Case studies are essentially problem - solution narratives. However, to flesh out a case study and make sure it communicates the messages you want to get across to your target audience, make sure your case study writer includes these 7 essential elements.

1. The problem or challenge

Define the problem clearly. Detail the situation the company (or customer) was in. What does the customer have to overcome? What stood in the way? Grappling with a problem adds conflict - an essential element to any good story. To heighten impact, conflict needs to be meaningful so highlight the stakes involved. Why was it so necessary for the company to overcome this challenge?

7 Essential Elements of Successful Case Studies

2. The customer or company

Whether the case study centers on a person or a company, they become a character a protagonist in the story. Add details that develop the character. How long in business? Does the person have an intriguing background? What about setbacks, ups and downs? When the reader becomes interested in a character (person or company) the chances for a successful case study are much higher.

3. Process

What did the customer go through to find a solution? Highlighting the solutions that did not work is a way to contrast your product or service with the competition.

4. Discovery

How did the customer find out about solution? The discovery moment is not just another fact. It's a classic moment in storytelling that adds dimension to the journey the protagonist went through to find an effective solution.

5. Solution

Here is the opportunity to put a spotlight on your product, service or company. Show what it can do. Detail some of the top features and benefits, but be careful to keep it educational instead of promotional.

6. Implementation

How long did it take before the solution was up and running? How much training was involved? Were there any rough patches? These are details your potential customer wants to know and answering them honestly will only add to your credibility in their eyes.

7. Results

Of course this is the part of the story that people really want to see. Be as concrete as possible. Use measurements that are meaningful to the audience or which paint the solution in a brighter light. For instance, EBITDA may be very important for some audiences while revenue gains may have more impact to others.

The specifics of case studies will differ, but making sure your case study writer includes all these essential elements can help ensure they do the job you want them to do.

7 Essential Elements of Successful Case Studies
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Leon Altman is a b2b copywriter and consultant with over 25 years of experience. For case study writing and other b2b writing and consulting projects, check out his website at http://www.b2bwriterconsultant.com