The wrong way to make a sales call

Posted by Jeremy L. Knauff on July 14th, 2009 in Sales & Networking

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Sales people have used a variety of unconventional approaches when it comes to their sales calls. Some are more effective than others, but more importantly, some can cause serious damage to your company’s image. Ineffectiveness is one thing, but you definately can’t afford to have staff damaging your company’s image. You’re probably wondering what approach could a sales person possibly take that would have that effect. It’s one simple thing:

Lie about their intentions.

Sadly, it happens all the time, but when people are hungry and desperate, it gets worse.

I was recently contacted by a local organization who wanted me to come speak at their event. The woman who contacted me went on and on about how much they admired our company and were impressed by the coverage we’ve received in the media. She raved about the work we’ve done for some of our local clients. She then went on to tell me about how beneficial it would be for me to speak at her organizations event because they would be heavily marketing the event and me/our company to their members and we would get tons of exposure. At the end of a 15 or 20 minute phone call, her true intentions came out when she said “I just realized you’re not a member of our organization; since we only allow members to speak at our events I could email you our application. It’s only $XXX to become a member, are you interested?” The funny thing is that I had been planning to become a member of this particular organization, but now I will never consider it.

Yesterday, I was contacted by the producer of a national television program that you’ve probably heard of. I got the same spiel from this guy; we’re really impressed with your company and your work, we’ve seen you in the media, we’d love to do a story on you, and so on…then came the truth. “Oh, and we’ll just need a $9,500 affiliate fee to get the program on the air.” No thanks.

Having worked in just about every facet of advertising, I’ve seen first-hand that this happens in every major newspaper, magazine, television and radio company.

While the FTC is strongly considering enacting legislation to force bloggers to disclose if they are being compensated in any way for writing a review, posting a link or in any way providing exposure for a company or product, they turn a blind eye to big media companies. Obviously, the impact of bloggers (Twitter, Facebook or any other social media users too) is taking a severe bite out of traditional media who is retaliating by turning their army of lobbyests loose to stop competition. I guess what’s good for the goose isn’t good for the gander, but I digress.

When you make a sales call, don’t try to shroud it in some false pretense. You’ll waste your own and the prospect’s time, come off as shady and lose to opportunity to ever convert them into a client. Instead, make your intentions clear, be polite but get to the point. You’ll save time, make more sales calls and most importantly, close more sales.

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But will it work?

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group on July 9th, 2009 in Marketing Strategy

It’s a question every business owner has asked at one point or another. Whether it’s developing that new product line you’ve been thinking about, launching a new marketing campaign or even something as aggressive as changing your business model, chances are you want to know if it will work before you take the leap.

If you give it a try it just might, but if you don’t, I can guarantee with absolute certainty that it won’t work.

The only thing you can do is develop a plan and then take action. Just remember, in this equation, action is more important than planning. Once you take action, you can start receiving real-world feedback and adjust accordingly. Until then, everything is just a theory.

Will you idea work? Find out!

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Is it time to rebuild your marketing plan?

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group on July 8th, 2009 in Marketing Strategy

When funds are tight, it’s easy for business owners to look for ways to reduce costs and that’s usually a wise choice. Rather than simply cutting your marketing expenditures though, a better option for most companies may be to scrap their existing plan and start from scratch.

Think about your two possible scenarios:

Scenario 1

You do your best to cut a little here and a little there to get your marketing budget down to what you can handle under your current circumstances. In this case, one of two things can happen; either you don’t save as much as you need to, or you end up wasting your money because your cuts have reduced or even eliminated the effectiveness of your marketing. You’ll also waste a lot of energy trying to prop your existing marketing plan up.

Scenario 2

You reevaluate your current circumstances in terms of finances, the activity in your market, your unique business situation and your goals, and then develop a marketing plan around that. In this case, instead of a marketing plan that looks like it was patched together by Dr. Frankenstein, you’ll have one that is tailored to what’s going on right now. You may end up using fewer marketing channels to promote your company, but your marketing will be more focused, less work will be required to execute it and most importantly, you will achieve better results with a lower investment.

Start with the right foundation

If you were building a home in a nice level field, the foundation would be drastically different than if you were building it in the mountains. The same applies to your marketing. When the economy is booming and clients are spending money like rock stars, you can market differently than when everyone seems to be tightly clenching their purse strings. In times like this, you need to determin what your immediate goals are and market like hell to achieve them.

• Branding is still important, but if your don’t have the revenue to pay the rent, you need to focus on that. Your ads should be to the point and include a specific call to action. Motivate your customers to take action now.
• Be competitive in your pricing, but focus on value instead of just the dollar amount, otherwise you’ll always be forced to compete on price. Regardless of what you offer, make sure that you’re making enough profit to make it worthwhile . If you spend all your energy just breaking even, you won’t have time to go after the jobs that can help you get ahead.
• Choose your marketing channels carefully. Email marketing can be a cost-effective and simple way to reach your consumers with a targeted message, however, if you haven’t done the groundwork to build a quality list, it’s going to take some time before you can harness it’s true potential. Outdoor media, such as billboards, can generate tremendous exposure, but if you don’t have the budget to reach a tipping point, you’re not going to see results. Focus on what you can afford to do right.
• Speaking of what you can afford to do right, you need to know what is and isn’t working so you can adjust accordingly, and the only way to do that is to track the performance of all of your marketing. If a prospect calls in, ask them how they heard of your company. Utilize web analytics. Use a phone number that isn’t used anywhere else for your print advertising. Put a CRM system, such as ACT or Goldmine in place to track interaction with your prospects and customers.

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What are you REALLY worth?

Posted by Jeremy L. Knauff on July 2nd, 2009 in Marketing Strategy, Sales & Networking

Regardless of the industry, the true professionals add tremendous value and as a result, demand a higher fee than the average. This works out well when a prospect is looking for value rather than simply the lowest price. Unfortunately, the true professional must contend with others in their industry who are willing to work for much less; of course lower prices come with less value because they are based on skills and knowledge.

• New entries in your field often undervalue their work or are desperate to scratch out a living, so they work for less than their skills and knowledge would justify.
• Those who have failed to stay up to date and evolve with changes in your industry will work for less because they don’t have the skills or knowledge to do otherwise.

Are you charging what you’re really worth? Do you know what you’re really worth? Don’t simply base that on what your current customers are willing to pay or what your competitors are charging. Base it on the value that you bring to the table.

Your time is obviously the first factor, but there are many more. You have a special set of skills that you’ve developed over the years. Skills that your prospects and clients don’t have; that’s why they’re coming to you. Along with those skills is your knowledge and experience. That has a tremendous value, but it’s still not the end of the equation. For every hour of work you do, you often spend hours or even days behind the scenes reading, researching, testing and planning. All of that work, even if your client never sees it, brings additional value to their project in the form of better results.

It’s been said that you train people how to treat you. The same can be said for setting expectations of the value of your services. If you base your rates on the value of your skills, knowledge and experience, you’ll earn what your really worth. If you don’t, you’ll simply become another commodity.

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4 reasons your business isn’t taking off

Posted by Jeremy L. Knauff on June 30th, 2009 in Advertising, Marketing Strategy

Business can be a fickle thing. Sometimes, what seems like a great idea fails miserably while some of the worst ideas take off and grow like wildfire. More often than not though, there are pretty obvious reasons when a business doesn’t take off or grow. Unfortunately, from the inside looking out, it can be tough to see those reasons.

This certainly isn’t an end all, be all list of everything that can cause your business to stagnate, but it is an excellent starting point to get you moving forward.

1. Your advertising sucks. It looks just like your competitors’ ads, tries to appeal to everyone and has no call to action. If you want your advertising to work, you need to differentiate your company from your competition, target a specific demographic and tell your prospects exactly what you want them to do.
2. You’re throwing away good leads and wasting time on bad ones. Let’s be honest, not all leads are created equal. Some people are just tire kickers, or worse yet, competitors trying to get information on the inner workings of your company. Others are ready to take action right away. If you’re not utilizing a CRM system like ACT or Goldmine, you can’t keep track of who is who; your prospecting and sales process will be inefficient and cost you valuable revenue.
3. You’re not using what you’ve already built. Chances are you’ve already got a website. If you put a little more work into further developing your site though blogging, SEO and online advertising, you can leverage your previous efforts and reap the rewards more quickly than if you had to start from scratch. The same goes for email or direct mail lists. Use what you have and build upon it.
4. You’re not tapping into your existing clients. You’ve already built a relationship with them, so it would be a huge mistake not to approach them about buying your products or services. Your profit margins will be higher since you don’t have to go through the typical prospecting and sales cycle, and they will generally make a decision more quickly. Keep in mind though, don’t push too hard or you may alienate them.

As promised, here is your starting point. You can easily see a dramatic increase in revenue if you implement these simple suggestions, but there is always room for more. What additional tips or ideas do you have?

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Thought Leader Thursday – Ryan Frazier

Posted by Jeremy L. Knauff on June 25th, 2009 in Thought Leader Thursdays

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us today Ryan. You’ve spear-headed Clear Channel’s digital billboard program, revolutionizing outdoor media by giving advertisers a way to reach their prospects with a much more targeted and timely message. Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you landed this unique position?  
 
I began my career with Clear Channel Outdoor in 2005 as an account executive selling traditional outdoor media. When Tampa Bay became only the fourth Clear Channel market to build a digital billboard network, they needed someone with a mix of sales, marketing and programming experience to lead the way. I couldn’t help jumping at the opportunity to be a part of such an innovative, exciting new medium, which I believe to be the future of outdoor advertising.
 
Outdoor media has been up against some serious challenges lately; new signage restrictions, environmental concerns and most of all, other less expensive forms of advertising. How has your digital billboard program helped you to keep outdoor media competitive with the other  choices business owners have for advertising their companies?  
 
Our digital products allow us to solve a much wider range of marketing objectives, which has brought in a whole new group of advertisers who have traditionally opted for more flexible mediums. Advertisers are no longer bound to using a single message for the length of their campaign. Now they can change by the week, by the day, or by the hour. Some of our detractors are starting to see billboards in a different light as well.  With the ability to aid the community by posting Amber Alerts, wanted criminals and hurricane evacuation routes on our digital billboard network, citizens are realizing the advantages of incorporating the technology in our community.
 
What unique advantages would an advertiser benefit from when using digital billboards instead of traditional billboards?  
 
The biggest advantage of digital outdoor over traditional vinyl billboards, is that advertisers have the ability to rotate multiple designs, and change their message as often as they like with zero production costs. This presents a world of creative possibilities. For instance, car dealers can rotate dozens of designs, each one featuring a car from their inventory with an updated price point. A restaurant could advertise choices from their breakfast menu in the morning, switch to lunch specials mid-day, and tempt people with their dinner offerings during the afternoon commute. We even have the ability to link elements of the design to the Internet, creating a live dynamic element on the board. For example, a news station could feature a headline that changes automatically as it changes on their website, or a radio station could show the song that is currently playing. We’ve had clients display countdowns to special events, live sports scores, current interest rates…The possibilities are endless.
 
Are there any disadvantages?  
 
A common concern is that of having to share space with multiple advertisers. Conveniently, Clear Channel Outdoor has a variety of products and programs to meet a wide range of marketing goals. If a business wants to reap the benefits of outdoor advertising, but has no need to change their message over the course of their campaign, traditional vinyl billboards are still as powerful and effective as ever.
 
Most  experienced marketers know that no one should rely on any single form of advertising, so in your opinion, what other forms of media best compliment digital billboards, and are there any that don’t work well with them?  
 
Technology has changed the way we consume media, which has negatively effected most advertising mediums. Conversely, the two mediums actually benefiting from the digital revolution are outdoor and the Internet. When you think about it, the two make a nice pair. Digital billboard technology isn’t much different from online banner ads in that there are no production costs, and changes can be made quickly and effortlessly. By combining the two, it’s possible to reach people at home, at work, and everywhere in between with a marketing tool that’s powerful and pliable.
 
Billboards in general can be relatively pricey for most small businesses. What do you recommend as a starting monthly budget for that small business owner who wants to launch an outdoor media campaign?  
 
When it comes to budget, the question used to be “How many billboards can I afford?” With the Digital Outdoor Network, the question becomes, “How many spots can I afford?” By changing the frequency with which your message appears, we can create programs so that advertisers with a wide variety of budgets can use digital outdoor. While national advertisers can spend hundreds of thousands on a digital campaign, we have programs starting at $500 per week that allow local businesses to enjoy the benefits of digital outdoor as well.

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How much are you wasting on marketing?

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group on June 25th, 2009 in Advertising

Chances are that you’ve taken numerous approaches in marketing your company, but do you know which ones were successful and which ones failed. Of your successful approaches, can you quantify how well they performed?

If you’re not tracking where your clients/customers are coming from then you can’t accurately tell which campaigns are performing and which ones aren’t, so you are almost certainly wasting money. The only question is how long will you continue doing so? Here are some easy ways to track the performance of your marketing:

• Take advantage of web analytics, such as Google analytics to see exactly where your visitors are coming from. You can tell which search or PPC keywords, links from other websites, online ads and email campaigns are driving traffic traffic to your website.
• Use a separate phone number for each print advertising campaign. When you receive a call on one of these numbers, you will know exactly which campaign triggered it.
• Implement discount codes for your shopping cart which can be used in your marketing materials. These discount codes will tell you exactly which campaign drove that visitor to your website to make a purchase.

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Get the most from your Wordpress RSS feed

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group on June 20th, 2009 in Internet Marketing

WordPress is one of the most popular blogging platforms, but it does have one weakness when it comes to RSS; there are multiple URLs where your feed can be accessed. This means if you’re tracking your subscribers through a service like FeedBurner, you’ll most likely have an inaccurate subscriber count.

You want this number to be accurate, both for your own information, and to help encourage others to subscribe.

The easiest way to do this is install the FeedBurner FeedSmith plugin, which redirects all your feed sources to your main FeedBurner URL. The results can be pretty dramatic for less than 3 minutes of work – often doubling your subscriber count.

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Thought Leader Thursday – Melissa Rich

Posted by Jeremy L. Knauff on June 18th, 2009 in Thought Leader Thursdays

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us today Melissa. You’ve been running a successful telemarketing company, Rich Enterprises, for over ten years now, helping to generate leads for your clients while they focus on running their business. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got started in this industry?

I have always been in sales and in a variety of industries. I worked as a telemarketing representative for two years and was able to learn the telemarketing side of business. I eventually decided to establish my own company so that I could run the business differently. I wanted to begin with a strong team approach where every marketer’s opinion is valued and the marketer can really take charge of the account and use their personality to enhance the campaign.

When we first started, we focused on business to government (B2G) campaigns and then transitioned to business to business (B2B) campaigns since the demand was much stronger for those services.

Most people have mixed emotions about telemarketing and are afraid to utilize it for marketing their business because of some of the questionable ethics that have become associated with it over the years. In your opinion, what are some of the differences between ethical and unethical telemarketing techniques?

It can definitely be a “rough and tumble” industry and most of the reputation and bad press comes primary from the business to consumer companies. We have all received those annoying calls at dinnertime with a telemarketer that is clearly reading verbatim from a script. But for the most part, the business to business (B2B) campaigns are not like that. Quite simply, you cannot have success if your team sounds like “telemarketers” and simply read the script.

Unethical telemarketing includes repeated contacts with someone that is truly not interested and using manipulative and coercive tactics for an immediate sale. Those unethical tactics simply would not work for our market. Our B2B audience is much savvier. The skills to reach decisions makers and present to business owners or managers are much more refined. The initial sales calls cannot sound like a 30 second infomercial, but rather has to be about assessing their initial interest level and potential needs in a conversational manner.

I firmly believe that business ethics cannot be legislated or learned. Ethics are ingrained in you. If you want long term business success, the ethics will either make or break your business and reputation.

Even though they have little, if any time available to dedicate to sales calls, most business owners are afraid to outsource it because they are concerned about how their company may be represented. What can you say that would ease their minds?

With the bad press that the industry receives, I can certainly understand their concerns. However, if outsourcing is done correctly, it will sound as though the calls are coming directly from their office (not from an outside telemarketing firm).

Business owners should only select an outsourcing company with a strong history and longevity, extremely qualified staff, and procedures that ensure the program is going as planned. Avoid using companies that have questionable reputations and companies that take shortcuts from the onset. Make certain that the outsourcing company has a solid plan for your program.

Any successful program begins with a true understanding of the client’s needs. There should be a written plan regarding the campaign including what types of companies should be contacted, the scripting or the approach, and how objections will be handled.

For the cash-strapped entrepreneur who can’t afford to outsource their sales calls, what advice to you have for finding viable prospects for sales calls?

The first step involves defining your target market. You should define your prospects in terms of company size, industry, and geographical markets. Of course, you can sell to a variety of markets so you should identify each market you would like to pursue.

Next, you should customize your approach to each target market. For example, you cannot approach attorneys and auto mechanics in the same way. Even though your product or service may be used by both markets, they may use your offering differently and have different motivations for their purchasing decisions. Be aware of the differences and similarities between each market and consider how best to reach that market.

Having a unique market niche (or niches) will greatly enhance your results. You can find new prospects through existing business contacts, local business associations (like the Chamber of Commerce), or you can purchase contact lists from lead list vendors.

I think the biggest challenge for people during a sales call is the introduction, and many find themselves bumbling along in an effort to get their prospect to like them. Do you have any tips for generating interest quickly and efficiently?

The key factor in initial sales calls is an understanding of your true goals. Of course, your long term goal is to build a relationship and secure the sale, but that usually does not happen in just one sales call or visit. Your immediate goal is to create an initial interest, so that you can continue building that relationship. It takes time to know your prospects and their needs.

Practice your 15 second approach. Know the three key points that you can say in less than 15 seconds that will entice your listener to want more information. Too often, we try to cram every intricate detail into that initial conversation, but details can wait until the prospect is ready. Just supply them with enough information to peak their interest.

Everyone has a different opinion on how many times to call a prospect before giving up on them. If you call too few times you may miss an opportunity just because they were busy or out of town. If you call too many times, you can waste your time and appear desperate. Without a doubt, each situation is going to be a bit different, but do you have any general guidelines?

With most prospects, we will make 3 to 5 attempts to reach them and during that time, we will also leave a few voice mail messages. It is critical that the attempts are spread out over a 2-3 week time frame. After 3-5 attempts, we then move that contact to an exhausted status and we will try again in another month or two.

You should also ask the receptionist for a good time to reach your prospect and follow their feedback. They may have staff meeting on Monday or maybe they don’t work on Fridays, so use this information to plan the best time to reach them.

How has the economy affected the telemarketing industry and your clients?

The last six months has been very interesting. We experienced a decrease in business during the fourth quarter of 08. However, we used that time to continue with new marketing efforts and now business is a strong as ever and still growing. I believe that the economic changes should force every business to re-evaluate their marketing strategies to make their business stronger – rather than just accepting the decline in business and waiting for the economy to improve. Now is the time to implement new initiatives.

Many of our clients are more aggressive with their telemarketing campaigns. In many cases, their competition has gone out of business, so our clients are often using telemarketing programs to secure those un-serviced accounts. We do have some clients that are holding until the economy improves, but for the most part the economy has resulted in additional business for us, so that we can help our clients secure new business – even in today’s economic climate.

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Email marketing is on the rise again

Posted by Jeremy L. Knauff on June 18th, 2009 in Email Marketing

You may have noticed that it’s getting more difficult to empty your inbox lately and that’s because in an effort to drum up business in these tough times, many companies are becoming more active with their email marketing campaigns.

On one hand, this is a sign of just how powerful and cost-effective email marketing is. On the other hand, the increase makes it makes it more difficult to get your message heard over your competitors. So how can you ensure that you get the most from your email marketing?

• You need to continually work at building your targeted opt-in list. The more qualified prospects you can reach, the better. Don’t be shy about asking people to sign up, and be sure to make it easy for them to do so.
• Send your newsletter frequently enough for people to remember you, but not so often that you annoy them. In most cases, once each week is about the maximum, and once a month is about the maximum.
• Offer different, or at least additional information in your newsletter rather than just a rehash of what you provide on your website. If people know that they will find useful, original information in your newsletters, they will be more likely to open and read them.
• Send your newsletter when it’s most likely to be read; Tuesday’s and Thursday’s are typically best for open rates, so they work well for branding. Weekends are typically best for click-through rates, so they work well for specific offers. The best time of day will vary by industry, so you’ll have to do some testing to see what works best for yours.

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