Every entrepreneur spends some time haggling, whether it is with customers, suppliers, investors, or would-be employees. Most business owners are street smart, and seem to naturally perform well in negotiations. You probably have a trick or two—some magic phrases to say, perhaps—that can help you gain the upper hand. But, often, the moment you get into trouble in a negotiation is when something careless just slips out. If you are new to negotiation, or feel it is an area where you can improve, check out these tips on precisely what not to say.
1. The word “between.” It often feels reasonable—and therefore like progress—to throw out a range. With a customer, that may mean saying “I can do this for between $10,000 and $15,000.” With a potential hire, you could be tempted to say, “You can start between April 1 and April 15.” But that word between tends to be tantamount to a concession, and any shrewd negotiator with whom you deal will swiftly zero-in on the cheaper price or the later deadline. In other words, you will find that by saying the word between you will automatically have conceded ground without extracting anything in return.

2. “I think we’re close.” We’ve all experienced deal fatigue: The moment when you want so badly to complete a deal that you signal to the other side that you are ready to settle on the details and move forward. The problem with arriving at this crossroads, and announcing you’re there, is that you have just indicated that you value simply reaching an agreement over getting what you actually want. And a skilled negotiator on the other side may well use this moment as an opportunity to stall, and thus to negotiate further concessions. Unless you actually face extreme time pressure, you shouldn’t be the party to point out that the clock is loudly ticking in the background. Create a situation in which your counterpart is as eager to finalize the negotiation (or, better yet: more eager!) than you are.

3. “Why don’t you throw out a number?” There are differing schools of thought on this, and many people believe you should never be the first person in a negotiation to quote a price. Let the other side start the bidding, the thinking goes, and they will be forced to show their hands, which will provide you with an advantage. But some research has indicated that the result of a negotiation is often closer to what the first mover proposed than to the number the other party had in mind; the first number uttered in a negotiation (so long as it is not ridiculous) has the effect of “anchoring the conversation.” And one’s role in the negotiation can matter, too. In the book Negotiation, Adam D. Galinsky of Northwesten’s Kellogg School of Management and Roderick I. Swaab of INSEAD in France write: “In our studies, we found that the final outcome of a negotiation is affected by whether the buyer or the seller makes the first offer. Specifically, when a seller makes the first offer, the final settlement price tends to be higher than when the buyer makes the first offer.”
4. “I’m the final decision maker.” At the beginning of many negotiations, someone will typically ask, “Who are the key stakeholders on your side, and is everyone needed to make the decision in the room?” For most entrepreneurs, the answer, of course, is yes. Who besides you is ever needed to make a decision? Isn’t one of the joys of being an entrepreneur that you get to call the shots? Yet in negotiations, particularly with larger organizations, this can be a trap. You almost always want to establish at the beginning of a negotiation that there is some higher authority with whom you must speak prior to saying yes. In a business owner’s case, that mysterious overlord could be a key investor, a partner, or the members of your advisory board. The point is, while you will almost certainly be making the decision yourself, you do not want the opposing negotiators to know that you are the final decision maker, just in case you get cornered as the conversation develops. Particularly in a high-stakes deal, you will almost certainly benefit from taking an extra 24 hours to think through the terms. For once, be (falsely) humble: pretend like you aren’t the person who makes all of the decisions.
 5. “Fuck you.” The savviest negotiators take nothing personally; they are impervious to criticism and impossible to fluster. And because they seem unmoved by the whole situation and unimpressed with the stakes involved, they have a way of unnerving less-experienced counterparts. This can be an effective weapon when used against entrepreneurs, because entrepreneurs tend to take every aspect of their businesses very personally. Entrepreneurs often style themselves as frank, no-nonsense individuals, and they can at times have thin skin. But whenever you negotiate, remember that it pays to stay calm, to never show that an absurdly low counter-offer or an annoying stalling tactic has upset you. Use your equanimity to unnerve the person who is negotiating with you. And if he or she becomes angry or peeved, don’t take the bait to strike back. Just take heart: You’ve grabbed the emotional advantage in the situation. Now go close that deal.
www.apexdm.net
By Mike Hofman

Wiki states that the average person remains at their job for 13 years.
Sounds good, right? I mean 13 years. True, it’s an unlucky number for some, but
better to be employed for any time in this economy. Heck, Uclue.com states that
the average US marriage only lasts 8 years.

So, maybe it’s the advertising industry that is averaging down the 30-year
gold watch anniversaries. A Spencer Stuart Blue Paper cites that: “It’s jarring
to note that the average tenure for CMOs at the top 100 branded companies is just
22.9 months. Based on our data, only 14 percent of CMOs for the world’s top
brands have been with their companies for more than three years — and nearly
half are new to the job over the last 12 months.”

Just as in the lifecycle of a marketing manager, I often hear about the “lifecycle of a client” with an ad agency. I took an informal poll with some peers, and most stated that they expect to work with a client for about 4-5 years and then poof – the client goes off to perceived greener pastures. In fact, a client of ours stated that 4 years for an agency / client relationship is long, (pause for reflective swallow, as we’re in year 3).

So, does a client have a lifecycle and why? OK, this is where the stats stop
and theories start, so jump off the bus now or open your mind…

Let’s say your contact at your favorite client makes it past the 22.9 months
and actually wants to make a career out of it. That doesn’t mean that everyone
else there does and he or she probably reports to a COO or CEO who may in fact report
to a Board or Shareholders. Results have to keep coming. Here is why they may
not be…

I hear things like, “the creative just wasn’t exciting anymore” or “no new
ideas” or “just time for something different”. Yes, often, the creative goes
stale, but it is not, in my opinion for a lack of creativity. Sounds weird huh?
I’ll explain. By year three, the creative should be more on target and yielding
much better results. I mean, you’ve been doing your unaided and aided branding
research studies every year right? What client doesn’t want to pay for
research? Never heard of such a thing…but, I digress. We’ll post about that
later.

Here is my theory…The creative is there, the account is known better than
ever and results should be increasing. But, you are now working in fear. What
fear you say? The fear of losing the client.

When agencies go after a new client, one of my most and least favorite parts
of being an agency principal, most go all out – balls to the wall – creative
juices flying everywhere. We do. Why? Because they’re really not invested
financially in the account. The revenue they could earn is “hope to get” money.
“Hope to get” money is fun. It’s like a lottery ticket before you check the
numbers.

But when an agency lands a client, it needs to staff up appropriately, buy
needed research studies/tools, join relevant associations, upgrade some
software, spend some time meeting with some new subcontractors – it’s time and
money. So, the new “hope to get” money gets spent quick. You start servicing
the client with all these tools, are in the new-relationship love affair with
the client and integrating the new tools or new people into your team.

After a year, you’ve produced some results, the client is loving you, but
you’re also loving the new tools, team members etc. Now, the money is still
there, but it’s no longer “hope to get” money, it’s “need to have” money. It’s
need “need to have” money because you’ve made all the commitments to service
the client and it’s not like you were out there going after more “hope to get”
money because you’ve been busy trying to get your new relationship off to a
good start, and your team was already running thin anyway in this economy and
you may not have the manpower to win new business and win over your new client
at the same time. You made a choice.

In your second or third year with a client, you’ve now gotten accustom to
running your shop with the new tools / resources etc. and have forged personal
relationships with your new team members. They are really part of the team now
– your family. You’ve met their families, understand their hopes, dreams and
really care for them. Now, you’re afraid. You’re afraid of letting them down.
You’ve put yourself in a position where the “need to have” money is “gotta
have” money. You know that if you lose the client, you’ll lose the revenue and
ultimately may have to lose some of your team members.

So, you as a manager may stifle the great ideas that are on the edge in
favor of more conservative ideas that are “mainstream.” You don’t push the
client anymore. You agree too much. You say you think “their ideas” are good
whether they are or not. All, because you’re afraid to lose the client and by
doing so, you do just that. You lose the client. No client wants a “yes man”.
They want new exciting invigorating ideas. That is why they came to you at
first, right? Are you afraid to give them what you feel they may not want? Are
you afraid to push the envelope?

Like most things, it revolves around money. I hate that part of the
industry. Really, I do. Most people who think they know me, think I’m all about
the money, but the people who really know me, know I’m not. I’m about family,
first, second and last, and my team at the office is part of my family.

Do I think there is a client lifecycle? Yes, for some clients, for some
agencies. But, I believe it is not because of the talented team of people in
your agency. It comes from fear and we, as leaders, need to be stronger,
bolder, more willing to take risks – even in today’s economy, especially in today’s
economy.

www.apexdm.net

By Larry Meador

]]> http://apexdm.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/the-client-lifecycle-reality-or-urban-myth/feed/ 1 apexdm client lifecycle http://apexdm.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/optimizing-the-call-center-through-improved-targeted-data-analytics/ http://apexdm.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/optimizing-the-call-center-through-improved-targeted-data-analytics/#comments Wed, 22 Jun 2011 04:28:16 +0000 Tyler Stapley http://apexdm.wordpress.com/?p=368 ]]>

Are you confident that your call center’s lead generation activities are targeted to reach out to the prospects that are more likely to respond positively? Often times, the answer turns out to be “What is targeting?” Let’s take a look a case study featuring call center lead generation efforts for commercial banking loan products.

In this case study, among the available prospect data records, only half were contacted each month, leaving the other half of the prospect data records untouched. The initial list selection was based on annual sales/revenue, which succeeded in eliminating the poorest performing prospects. However, those prospective customers were not further prioritized for their call center representatives to focus on the best prospects.

Adding marketing analytics to the mix improved lead generation results. Here’s a snapshot of the data analysis and recommendations made with the intent to increase the lead generation conversion rate:

Added filters to the prospect data to combine any call disposition history,

Created metrics that would track and measure lead conversion data,

Introduced third party demographics into the data to determine if prospect record prioritization
based on predictive modeling could improve their lead generation rates.

This analytical approach focused on leveraging important customer/prospect data history that the client maintains for each business. The historical data they were already capturing included: call outcome detail by month and lead disposition outcomes. As with any call center, leads could not be generated until a sales rep initiated a live discussion with a decision maker or buyer.

By incorporating an estimate (score) of each business’s likelihood to generate a live contact, the sales conversion model expected performance (aka “model lift”) to improve. The resulting scores enabled ranking that was not only reflective of the best prospective businesses but also of those most likely to generate a connection to a live person (instead of voicemail, ring/no answer, wrong number, and the like).

The initial results were quite encouraging, with a projected one-year increase in profits of $1.5+ million from the lead generation efforts. While maintaining consistent staffing and call activity levels, lead referrals for this client have increased 28%. In addition, the successful close rate of those leads has improved 10% and is expected to climb higher with additional time to book pending business. While a traditional method for building a customer look-alike model or a conversion model would have enhanced results beyond random calling, additional improvements were achieved by turning call disposition data into additional insights.

This is just one method of marketing analytics you can apply to your customer data to increase ROI through your call center or sales efforts. Optimizing your customer and prospect data before reaching out and scoring your prospects based on their interaction history and likelihood to respond can create efficiencies and enable your sales force to work more effectively on targeted lead generation efforts.

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Paul Raca is the Vice President of Marketing Analytics at SIGMA
Marketing Group

Phone Veified Sales Leads

We only offer SEM, Phone Survey and Phone Verified leads that are 100% permission-based, meaning that your leads have asked to receive additional information on products, services and topics in which they are interested.

We Offer a Wide Range of Opt-In Phone Verified Leads…

Opt-In Phone Verified EDU Enrollment Leads:

Utilizing our proprietary technology, expertise, experience and good ole fashion common on-line, inbound and outbound marketing, our sole focus is providing you with, week in and week out, consistent and reliable Education Enrollment Leads
with the pricing you want for the ROI you need.

We have the perfect mix of EDU Feeds for you which include our Full Form EDU Leads, Short Form General Interest EDU Leads (both types have been call center verified), Inbound Opt-In EDU Leads in both long or short form, also call verified and our highly coveted Opt-In Phone Survey EDU Enrollment Leads. Our EDU Leads are composed of the most consistent feeds in the market.

Opt-In HIPPA Compliant Long Form and Short Form Diabetic Leads:

If you’re in the Durable Medical Equipment vertical or a call center generating leads for your DME partners ApexDM has a multitude of HIPPA complaint diabetic lead generation campaigns in place to fit your diabetic lead needs.

We manage multiple diabetes lead data feeds and files ranging from Real-Time Long Form Diabetes Leads, Real-Time Short Form Diabetes Leads, 24hr Aged and older Long Form Diabetes Leads, Mid-Form Diabetes Leads, Short Form Diabetes Leads and our Medical Opt-in Phone Survey Leads.

The diabetic vertical is a competitive market, no doubt about it. If you’re reading this you’ve most likely experienced the sharp downturn in the diabetic lead quality these past few months. Because of this we decided to make every one of our diabetic lead feeds a call verified lead set to ensure you get only the highest quality Medicare and Non Medicare Diabetic Leads in the market today.

Drive your sales with our highly responsive Medicare and or Non Medicare qualified prospects who have shown an explicit interest in being contact about your medical supply or services offers.

Opt-In Long Form and Short Form Payday Loan Leads:

There is no better way for Payday Lenders to keep their pipelines full of qualified and responsible applicants then to use our Real-Time Payday Leads and 24hr plus Aged Payday Leads. Our Long Form Payday Leads are the apex of on-line Opt-in Payday, Personal Loan and Cash Advance marketing.

Just like all of our top-tier leads, our Payday Loan Leads are developed in Real-Time and Phone Verified. As soon as the prospective borrower completes an online application, their information is immediately sent to our call center to verify the consumer’s intent.

Additionally, as with all of our leads, you can set up customized filters to make sure you receive the payday loan leads that best suit your business.

Our Long Form Payday Leads are more than just a name, phone number and a bank account with references; they’re real
people looking for a personal loan that may have life emergencies anywhere from unexpected bills, car repairs, house repairs, or any other problem life can throw at us.

When you purchase your new leads you’ll be talking to real people who require a payday cash advance and a desire to be approved with little delay.

Why can’t I just use my IT group?” is a question many businesses ask when they are charting the course of their database marketing. It’s tempting to take advantage of an existing resource, keep the whole process in-house and save money. Sounds like a slam-dunk. Yet, after years of all kinds of different approaches to making these independently purposed resources fit into one smooth system, the same issues show up again and again. Here are the three top reasons not to use your IT department for database marketing.

1. Marketing’s Customer Intelligence Challenges are Unique
Customer Intelligence (CI) is a unique challenge for marketers and serves very different purposes than those for which most companies’ IT infrastructure has been designed. The IT system has been traditionally set up with the top priority of supporting business/customer interactions at customer touch points, because that is the closest point to customers—marketers’ bread and butter. The CI-type of analytics, critical but affordable, are often delayed compared to daily operations at customer touch points, and almost always treated secondarily whenever competing against customer-facing operations.

2. Valuable Intelligence Is Lost
IT is broad. When CI is lump-summed into IT, it often gets lost and misused by the talent that handles hardware, storage, software and networking. That is a huge loss.

The true value of CI needs to be tapped by those who understand loyalty programs and marketing ROI and how data is turned into impactful intelligence from meaningless bytes and bits. Then assemble and align those servers, disk drives, software and network devices to support those purposes. That’s where marketing services providers (MSPs) come in. Customer intelligence should always be the focus and product at an MSP, flowing in its culture and blood. No matter who you go to—strategist, analyst, database and Internet developers, and network and system administrators, they should all be able tell you how their work is related to acquiring and retaining loyal, good customers for a business.

3. Get the Attention You Need
For any marketers looking to avoid a fight with their sales and supply chain management for IT attention, or who don’t want to devote the resources needed to make their CI operation cutting-edge competitive, going to the right MSP is a logical choice. It is also important to remember that if a chief marketing officer is looking for quick proof that direct marketing is working effectively, it is unlikely to get the priority treatment and expertise from internal IT that you can from a dedicated MSP. (Judong Song)

www.apexdm.net

Increasing lead generation success is a top priority for nearly half of marketers in the U.S. The challenge, however, is to qualify them and know which leads are ready to convert to sales. This article will provide you with information about qualifying leads through surveys so that you can increase your ROI by delivering only sales-ready leads.

Spending too much time with people who cannot or will not buy is one of the top reasons sales people falter. That means improving your sales team’s performance is as simple as having a steady source of good leads. Easier said than done, you might think. Or is it?

“Gauging the Cost of What’s Lost” is a study that suggests companies may be good at generating large volumes of business leads, but most prospects fizzle because sales is focused solely on closing the most promising and qualified short-term opportunities. According to the study, 73 percent of respondents say their company has no process for re-qualifying business leads.

In today’s economy, it is more important than ever to attract new business and move leads through a qualification process. By qualifying your leads through surveys, you can cut down on the resources you’ve been wasting while chasing bad leads, and instead, generate qualified leads that are ready to take the next step in your sales process.

You see, every lead is different. Some of them may have already completed their due diligence and are ready to jump in; others may simply be searching for information and need to be nurtured into a true lead. That is why the first step in creating a lead generation survey is to define it with questions that qualify leads in different categories (i.e. hot leads, cold leads, bad leads, etc.). This act will allow your most qualified leads to get flagged for immediate follow-up, while the lesser qualified leads can fall into lower priority sales funnels.

For many businesses, lead generation starts with simple information, such as name, email address, and phone number. Unfortunately for some, the survey stops there. With lead generation surveys, however, you can qualify your leads and get much more information for your sales team. In addition to obtaining basic contact information, you can start to qualify your leads with targeted questions that will help you define where they are in your sales process.

When designing your survey, it’s best to keep your format very simple. Why? Well, the first reason is that most people shy away from completing a long questionnaire. If they are only asked a few questions on the page, your chances of receiving a complete survey are higher. A one-page questionnaire with a limited number of questions, really no more than 3 in addition to the basic contact information, is ideal. In some cases, there may be a need to collect more info and in this instance, a multi-phase approach should be used with a second survey deployed later in the process.

Remember to keep it simple – don’t let your leads abandon your survey. Two or three simple questions on the first page will allow your prospects to identify themselves. Even if they choose not to complete the survey, they can be funneled into a “soft” marketing campaign (i.e. a monthly newsletter). Those prospects that choose to complete the entire questionnaire will identify themselves as higher priority leads as they provide more targeted information.

One last thing, it is highly recommended to include some type of offer that gives the prospect an incentive to complete the survey. This will give you an even greater chance of capturing leads and lead to greater results. While not all people who complete the survey will be the right prospects right now, you’ll still get enough information for a soft lead – the offer is simply compensating them for the time that the sales person did not take to qualify them.

Surveys can be a powerful tool for qualifying leads if they’re done well. Identify your lead categories and design a multi-page process to increase better qualified prospects. By doing this, your sales team will become more efficient and successful.

 www.apexdm.net

Creating and Maintaining Sales Momentum During a Sluggish Economic Recovery 

No doubt about it, business is feeling the effects of the current economy. A few feel only the pain of unavailability of credit. But the majority of businesses are experiencing a slowdown in sales, too. Customers are cutting budgets and focusing on cost savings, and buying patterns are changing.

Your sales cycle is lengthening and customer projects are suddenly on the back burner. How can you keep up your sales momentum? Sharpen your selling strategies!

Narrow your target markets – A salesperson’s instinct is to go after any prospect that is breathing when sales are tough, but this is not the time to broaden your target market. If you have been targeting segments, stick with it, and take a laser focus.

B2B companies should identify recession-resistant industries that can use their products or services. (Healthcare and energy continue to do well at this writing.)

Identify the best-performing companies within the sectors you target.
In consumer markets, focus on demographic groups that are feeling the least pain.

Rethink pricing – Yikes, don’t cut prices just to undercut the competition unless you know that your margins will still be better than theirs. Go for profitability. More revenue at the expense of profitability is a dangerous move.

Update pricing models. If you have been selling bundled products, consider un-bundling and offering products a la carte. A smaller unit sale may drive up transaction volume which is better than no sale at all.
Experiment. Test pricing with limited-time offers and see what motivates buyers.

Take calculated risks. Be cautious with promotional pricing that produces a short-term spike in sales. You may accelerate purchase decisions, but the spike may be followed by an artificial sales slump when buyers’ purses are empty.
Consider try-and-buy offers. Give customers a taste of your product and, assuming your product is irresistible, you only defer revenue briefly.

Fine tune messaging – In any economy, your messages need to be customer-focused, as opposed to product-focused. Address prospects’ pain points. In a down economy, customers’ needs and concerns change, so adjust your messaging accordingly.

More than ever, it is time to demonstrate value and return on investment.

Show customers that what you offer extends their resources and makes their employees more productive.
If your product is exceptionally easy to use, demonstrate how that translates into saved time.
Decision-makers may be more wary about their jobs now, so show them that buying from you is a safe, reasoned decision.

Engage customers – Focus your marketing on “conversations” with customers. The days of one-way marketing are over. Customers want to talk with you on their terms, so narrow the gap between you and them. Make it personal. Be accessible.

Nurture prospects until they are ready to buy.
Encourage customers to be part of the conversation by building online communities that provide value to them while keeping you front-of-mind.

Stay close to existing customers and maintain the relationships. Consider customer appreciation events.
Focus on existing customers – It is more important than ever to nurture your customer base. They are more likely to buy from a trusted existing vendor if their customer experience has been acceptable. And, we all know, establishing new customers is a lot more costly than selling to existing customers.

Find other departments or locations in your existing customers’ businesses where your current product or a new product offers business benefits.

Contact previous years’ customers and see how they might benefit from buying an add-on to last year’s purchase. They may not be able to afford your latest product, but can gain value from enhancing what they currently have.
Consider using more than one of the above strategies. And remember that when budgets are pinched in uncertain economic times like these, you will still need to demonstrate hard-dollar ROI.

http://www.apexdm.net/



The Key to Getting Your Prospects Interested

A few months ago, I took on the task of conducting email campaigns for our organization. This was on top of everything else I was doing, and it proved to be real challenge.

You know how it is. You have limited time to get this stuff, everyone wants it done yesterday and all eyes are on you.

So, to meet the crazy time constraints, I resorted to what I call the standard operating procedure for creating and running email campaigns, appropriately called the email blasts.

Anyone out there ever conduct one of these?
This is where you compose a really generic email touting the benefits of your product or service, add some behavioral verbal spice such as, “Buy now. Limited time offer,” pull out your entire email database (because you know everyone just loves your product) and you let that puppy fly!

Yeah, I’m guilty of performing this travesty. I took to doing what was expedient and convenient for me over what was good for my clients.

I got the task completed with as little effort as necessary in the shortest amount of time possible. And when someone inquired if the emails were sent, I was able to say yes and cross the task off my list. Sound familiar?

By doing the email blast, I was able to complete the campaigns with no responsibility for the outcomes. Sort of like making cold calls just to make my numbers–not to generate results.

The problem with the email blast was that it didn’t engage my customer base, except to encourage them to click the opt-out link. What I sent didn’t specifically address any of their interests or needs. To them, it could have been SPAM.

Recently, I’ve taken a different tack toward these campaigns. I’ve started focusing on a specific audience and writing more directly to them about their specific needs.

Now, the email campaigns look more like a tightly focused cold calling campaign. They are sent to a targeted audience, highlight a specific challenge that their industry is facing, and outline how other companies, similar to theirs, are dealing with the challenges.

The responses to the most recent campaigns have been much better. They actually encourage client engagement, revealed by how many links they click. And the opt-out rate has dropped dramatically. These results will continue to improve with targeted testing and development.

Here’s the point: In your email correspondences, just like your cold calling campaigns, you need to segment your market and make your communication as specific and personal as possible. If you can’t engage your prospect or client, you won’t move them forward in the sales process.
One of the tools that we use–and you will find useful in engaging your clients–is called the credibility statement.

The credibility statement is a focused opening that targets your conversation on specific challenges over general product features. It will help you to focus your writing and vocal exchanges on the prospect’s or client’s point of view.

A few years ago, before social networking became a dominant force and faxing was all the rage, we used this technique to send out a fax to specific clients and prospects. Then, when we placed the phone call, the contact was prepped on the reason for the call. The same format can be modified and applied to your email campaigns or your voicemail messages.

Here’s what you need:
1. Identify your target prospect. It pays to know some things about your target contact up front. Familiarize yourself with some of the problems their company is facing. Understand some of the issues people in their position have to deal with. Remember, you want to move away from the general to the specific as much as possible. No one wants a generic, one-size-fits-all solution. They want something that is going to address their specific challenges and issues. And by moving the challenge and the solution closer to their specific situation, you will increase your prospect’s level of interest and engagement.

2. Try to honestly see things from the prospect’s point of view. Everything stems from getting out of your head and into your prospect’s head. Once you can do this, you can get an idea of the issues and challenges they face and what they want. If you can’t do this, then all of your correspondence, regardless of the channel, will take a product-centric or a company-centric view of the relationship you are establishing. You want to have a client-centric view.

3. State what you’ve done for other companies. When engaging your prospect, start off with a statement of what you’ve done for other companies in their industry. State the achieved benefits from the client’s perspective. And only use specific companies and names when you know that your prospect will respond in a favorable fashion. Oh, and to avoid starting your correspondence off with “I” or “We” take your client’s perspective. Begin with “Our clients tell us…” and your statement will take the form of a third-person testimonial instead of a statement from you that can sometimes come off as an empty claim.

4. State how you did it. More to the point, state how your client leveraged your processes and products to achieve their gains. This is a process statement that adds solidity to your previous statement of achievement.

5. State how you might be able to do the same for your current prospect. When I was in customer support, one of the principles we learned early on was to under-promise and over-deliver. With this one-line statement, you are suggesting that they may see similar results, not claiming that they will see the same results. You can’t make any promises at this point because you don’t know the details of the prospect’s environment, their challenges, or the requirements. You need to sit down with them and conduct an in-depth review and analysis, the next stage of the sales process.

6. Make the commitment to follow up. At this stage, as in a voicemail message, you want to retain control of the process. Let your prospect know the time and date that you will call them. Or you can ask them if they have time for a few questions. But always maintain control of the process and let your prospect know when and how you will contact them again.

The key here is to always talk from the client’s perspective, give them client-centric perspective of what is possible, and always stay in control of the sales process.

If you are writing email campaigns, writing emails to single prospects as an opening tactic, conducting link-building campaigns, or creating an opening statement for a phone cold call, always take the client-centric view. Know your prospect and try honestly to see things from their perspective. It will give you insight on how to conduct your process as you move the sale forward.

Good Selling!

www.apexdm.net
www.apexlivetransfers.com

Author: Larry Prevost

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