Successful Marketing Tools Blog

Networking and 60 Second Commercials--Non-verbal Communications

Here’s a list of things you need to be aware of that will cause your prospect to pay attention to you and truly learn from you.

Vary the speed of your speech

Your speed of delivery must vary - meaning you have parts of your presentation that are faster and other parts slower. Why? Because this is how you stress importance. I’ll go into details about this on the conference call. Vary your voice tone and volume A varied tone of voice and volume are very important if you want to keep your prospect’s attention and have them understand what you say. It’s what gives your prospect a clue about what is important and what is very important.

Create strategic pauses

Extremely effective so the audience feels that you are speaking right to them. Use set-up words and sentences Set-up words are words you say that prepare your prospect for what you’re about to emphasize. Like if I were to say, “If you learn nothing else out of tonight’s presentation…” that would be a set-up sentence to emphasize what I’m about to say.

Build bridges

Another topic is the use of what I call bridges. Bridges are words and or sentences you use to transition from one topic to another. When you’re shifting topics - you need to use a bridge - otherwise your prospect doesn’t follow you and there’s a gap. Many prospects get lost in this G A P between topic 1 and topic 2. It’s not that they don’t understand topic 1 or 2, it’s that they didn’t hear you move from topic 1 to topic 2 and they don’t see how the two topics relate.

Be easily heard

You need to communicate with a volume that each person you’re talking to can hear easily but not so loud that it causes the prospect to feel you’re shouting at them.

Make frequent eye contact

Make frequent eye contact with individual people. I used to practice this at my kitchen table with stuffed animals. I would talk to one animal sitting at the table and then to another one. If you’re talking to a husband and wife, you should talk directly to the wife for 5-10 seconds and then directly to the husband for 5-10 seconds. When speaking to 10,000 people, you look at ONE person and talk to them for 5-10 seconds then pick out another person. Never talk to a crowd.

Tim Sales Support @ FirstClassMLMTools.com
First Class MLM Tools
742 North 1890
West Provo, UT 84601

Your comments are welcomed...

Networking and 60 Second Commercials--Non-verbal Communications

So far, we have looked at the best ways to make a good 60 second commercial. The first four elements were:

        Preparation
        Who is your perfect customer    
        What are you offering
        Why should I believe you            

The final component of a good commercial is the glaring fact that your words are only 7% of the communication process. The remaining 93% of your communications comes from non-verbal elements. Let's take a look at these elements.

It starts with a smile. Everyone responds well to a smile. A smile encourages other to open up to you. A non-smile encourages them to move away from you.

Making good eye contact with another person shows respect and good manners. The eyes have been called the window of the soul. Have you even been in a conversation with someone here and they keep looking over your shoulder trying to see someone else? How did it make you feel?

Remembering a person’s name is important. Dale Carnegies said that a person’s name is the sweetest and most important sound in any language. Repeat the name several times in the conversation.

How you shake someone’s had tells a lot about you. The hand cannot conceal messages like people’s words. Good posture, standing tall reflects confidence.

Honor other people’s space is also important. 18inches is an acceptable norm for most Americans. Other cultures have different notions of personal space.

Why are these items important? Because perceptions play a huge role in how people buy and from what businesses they buy. In today’s competitive market place, you cannot afford to let any perception cast a negative pall on you or your business. Improving these skills can add to your bottom line and it will not cost you one dine to make the changes.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed...

Networking and 60 Second Commercials--Your Credibility

Personal Beliefs

Beyond the climate of distrust, each of us has personal beliefs that screen out what others are saying in their commercials. If you have a belief that western medicine is the only answer; then any form of eastern medicine will get through our belief screen. If a person believes that you need to be rich to use an interior design service, Marilyn will never get business. If you believe that you must be a geek to have a website, you will screen out any commercial to the contrary. Part of your job as a business owner is to recognize that personal beliefs bias what people have about your business. So what can you do to prove yourself? Here are a number of different ways you can use.

Social Proof

 You drive in a strange town and its supper time. You’re driving down the street and on the right side there is a restaurant with ten cars in the lot. On the left side there is another restaurant with two cars in the lot. Which one will you go to? Most will go to the more crowded restaurant because they want feel more comfortable with what others have found. This is called social proof.

Celebrity Status

 What if you have a famous celebrity supported your business? Did you know that Shac O”Neil the famous basketball uses acupuncture to help heal his injuries. Would that make Nick’s work more believable?

Expert Evidence

 American Family Insurance gets the highest rating of all insurance companies in the country—does this make Jennifer more believable?

Personal Testimonials

 Last week Amy told us what a great job Danny did with fixing her neck. Jennifer told us what a great message she received from Denson. Both of these personal testimonials help with credibility.

A Guarantee

 Jen offers a guarantee with her program—they will beat any price. That helps give credibility to her program. These are just a few of the ways you can get more believability for your business.

Published Articles

 Publish an article or have an article written about you or your business. When people see things in print, it makes everything more believable.

What Proof Does Your Customers Want?

The key to making your commercial more believable is to know what proof your customer wants. It makes no difference what you think makes you more believable. What really counts is what proof your customers want. Some customers don’t care about expert opinions. They are more interested in personal testimonial. Some customers want a guarantee; others don’t need them. What type of proof does your customer want to make you more believable? Find the answer to this question and give customer what they want.

Conclusion

 To be effective, your commercial needs to offer proof why people should believe you. Make it proof that customers want. Here’s a wonderful exercise to make you more credible.

Write a ½ page business resume on why your business is qualified to do the work. Include expertise, experience, skills, credentials, licenses, awards, standards of performance and other elements inspiring a potential customer to buy from you.

In the next blog, I will deal with the fifth and final component of a good network commercial.  Your comments are welcomed...

Networking and 60 Second Commercials--Your Credibility

Believability is a Process

Believability is a process. It is not accomplished by one shot credibility techniques. Every prospect has beliefs about himself and his world. Those beliefs help him make decisions. Being consistent with one’s owns beliefs is a powerful motive for every human being. For a customer to buy your product, they must give up their present belief (which prevents him from buying) and accept a new belief which will allow them to buy. Creating believability means removing the gap that exists between the current state of the prospect’s beliefs and the set of beliefs he must have in order for him to buy your product. You do this by getting a sequence of smaller agreements or acceptances from the prospect as you move him along the path to the new belief.

For example: Let’s say you are selling a home study course on your website that can be used to make website changes. You promise this home study course will help the business owner make 20% more sales from his website. You start with the assumption that most business owners do not believe they have the capacity to change their website. Website changes can only be done by a professional website person. Your job is to change the prospect’s belief.

You might start with a statement such as “Are you an owner of a website that has been built within the last five years?” Most prospects would fit this description. Just as importantly, you have started with a first step of agreement, “Yes, my website was built within the last five years.” Then you might then follow up with statements from experts:

Experts tell us…
• 80% of current websites owners are dissatisfied with their website
• Only 25% of website designers remain in business beyond three years
• Average webmasters charges $200.00 per hour to make website changes.

The prospect would probably nod in agreement with these expert statements based on their experiences. This makes sense to him. You might move the prospect forward with additional expert opinions:

The experts also tell us…
• Children in grade school are now building websites,
• New web software makes web changes as easy as word processing
• Websites updated monthly, experience a 20% increase in sales

If the prospect accepts these “expert facts”, he has now begun to move away from his old belief that only a professional can make website changes.

You may go on to restate your original promise. “The experts show that if you want to increase your sales you need to make monthly changes to your website. Software is now available that makes this as easily as operating Microsoft Word. You choose: pay $200 for each change or make the changes yourself.”

Do you see how you have moved the prospect to a point where if he wants more sales he needs to make monthly changes to his website. He can do this himself or spend $200 doing it. You have opened the door to the possibility of making the changes himself.

At his point you might add a testimonial “I have no formal computer training and yet I was able to use your XYZ home study program to create new changes to my website. I created a special monthly sales page on my website that takes me less than one hour each month. I increased my sales by 10% each month. I will continue to create these new monthly sales pages. I love your home study program.” Bob Smith, Atlanta Georgia.

This is a simple example on how your original promise of 20% increase in sales wouldn’t move the prospect because he did not believe this was possible for him to do. By taking the prospect on a journey with a sequence of smaller agreements, you changed his beliefs so he could see himself actually making the changes to his website. He now has embraced a new belief about himself and would be ready to buy. He believes you.

More on credibility in next blog entry. Your comments are welcomed...

Networking and 60 Second Commercials--Your Credibility

The Cost of Distrust Will Cost You Sales

Before we dig deeper into techniques you can use to improve your credibility, there is another issue called the “Cost of Distrust.”’ Steven Covey has written on this subject. Bottom line, mistrust slows everything down and increases costs. For example, When two people have trust with each other, a transaction can go very quickly. Mistrust slows down this process.

It takes more time, more energy to complete the transaction when the two sides don’t trust each other. Each sides wants to be sure. They don’t want to make a mistake. When they feel the conditions are not right, they slow it down. This increases the cost in time and energy to complete the transaction. Whenever you have distrust, expect the transaction to go slower and consequently cost more. Perhaps this explains why businesses today say it takes 8-10 contacts to make a sale. This is up from the 3-4 contacts five years ago.

Credibility Scale

In my pricing materials, I described a pricing scale that everyone carries around in their head. On the left side of the scale is the cost of the product. On the right side of the scale is the perceived value of the product. If the perceived value of the product clearly outweighs the cost, the customer buys. The scale image also applies to believability.

Everyone carries a credibility scale in their head. It’s part of the conversation going on in our heads. It comes into play with every purchase. On the left side of the scale you have doubts, questions, suspicions, and the baggage of our climate of uncertainty. These qualities weigh down the scale and become obstacles to overcome in a purchasing process.

On the right side of the scale is your credibility and believability. With a stranger, you probably start with the scale totally weighed on the left side. With someone you know your scale may be more balanced. Your challenge as a seller of products or services is to move the right side of the scale so it becomes weighed in favor of your creditability. You do this two ways: reduce the lack of credibility and enhance your believability.

More on credibility in the next blog entry.  Your comments are welcomed...

Networking and 60 Second Commercials--Your Credibility

Networking Commercials and Your Believability

The fourth criteria of a powerful 60 second commercial is your believability. Michael Hepworth said it best. There are only three reasons why you don’t make a sale. Your prospect doesn’t want what you are selling. Your prospect can’t afford what you are selling. Your prospect doesn’t believe you. If you have either of the first two conditions, you don’t have a market for your business.

If you have a market, the number one reason for your lack of sales is prospects don’t believe you. You can have a wonderful product. You can sell at the lowest price. You can run a first class business operation. But if the prospect does not believe you, you will not make the sale. Let’s explore and what you have to do to overcome the credibility factor with network groups.

Believability Crisis

I cannot speak for other countries. Certainly in the USA we suffer a credibility gap. For generations we put trust and confidence in people with authority. No more. Political leaders, church and school leaders, business leaders, doctors, police, sport heroes—people we trusted have let us down.

As I opened my morning paper, here is what I found. The headline on the first page, “Friend of Police Chief Indicated in Slaying of Girl”. The Local Section of the paper: Ex-priest gets new trial on molestation charges.” On the Business Section first page: “General Mills recalls 5,000 Pizza.” Finally in the Sport section: “Tennis hero tested positive for steroids.”

On a daily basis we are flooded with images of fallen leaders. Stories parade before us on TV, on internet blogs and newspaper articles about people and institutions that have abused their credibility. We have become dull to scandals. The words our mothers taught us, “Don’t talk with strangers” have a deeper and wider meaning.

Your can relate your own examples of today’s crisis of mistrust. My purpose is not to beat the proverbial “dead horse”. It’s to remind us that we live in a climate of distrust. Institutions are working hard to regaining their trust. They hire PR firms. They change their policies to re-establish trust. They have a long road to travel.

The climate of uncertainty affects each of us. It affects every customer. Unless your customer has been living under a rock for the last ten years, they carry believability baggage. It is something you must address as a business owner if you are going to be successful with your commercials.

More on credibility in the next blog entry.  Your comments are welcomed...

The Spirit of Selfless Selling

The Spirit of Selfless Selling

The words "sell, sales and selling" may be the most misunder- stood in the English language.

We see selling as a necessary evil, something to be avoided at all costs, an undertaking that's rather unsavory, maybe even unethical, and certainly beneath the dignity of a professional service business owner.

Over the years I've asked this question of thousands of people: "When you think of selling, what is it that the sterotypical salesperson sells?" The answer is always the same: "Used Cars!"

We equate selling with selling used cars. And because we see it that way, the negative associations are very strong. In the

InfoGuru Manual I make a distinction between two very different kinds of selling - Selfish Selling and Selfless Selling. We tend to put most selling into the Selfish Selling category.

Selfish Selling includes these attributes: The focus is primarily on making the sale, not serving the customer; the attitude is primarily self-serving; the agenda is some level of deception, and the perspective is that of "win-lose."

If we think that this is what selling is about, of course we wouldn't want to associate ourselves with that activity.

Selfless Selling includes these attributes: The focus is primarily on serving the customer; the attitude is one of generosity; the agenda is to educate and inform, and the perspective is that of "win-win."

When we encounter a sales person with this perspective, we don't even think it's selling. It feels more like natural communication. The experience is of being educated and assisted in making the right decision. There is no pressure, only possibility.

Well, Selfless Selling is REAL selling. And Selfish Selling is just a kind of manipulation. It has nothing to do with real selling. When you see this, selling becomes more approachable, more interesting, more fun, more fulfilling and also more successful.

When you are doing Selfless Selling, you are serving the prospect, working with them to discover their aspirations and dreams, uncovering challenges and offering powerful solutions.

To discover the spirit of Selfless Selling inside you, here are some questions to ask yourself in any selling situation:

- How can I be of service?
- What do I need to know to help this person?
- What is their current situation and what is their biggest challenge?
- What information would be most valuable to provide?
- What stories would be most useful to share?
- How can I be clearer and demonstrate the value and the benefits?
- How can I make the choice easier?

When you discover this spirit or mindset of Selfless Selling you don't have to worry so much about sales and closing techniques, you make such a powerful connection with the buyer that the sale happens so naturally that it doesn't feel like selling.

The More Clients Bottom Line: Real selling is Selfless Selling. It isn't about manipulation and it certainly isn't about techniques. It's about connecting authentically with another human being and discovering how you can work together creatively.

Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing Products and Programs for Attracting More Clients
http://www.actionplan.com
210 Riverside Drive Boulder Creek, CA 95006 831-338-7790

Business is Selling

Business Is Selling
By Michael Masterson

As we keep telling you, just about anyone can start a business. But there's an important caveat - and it jumped to mind when I got an e-mail from Lynn, who wants advice on starting a newsletter. She writes:

"I've worn many hats, juggled them off and on in my years as Mother, Grandmother, Realtor, Concessionaire, and Artist Retailer/Wholesaler. Love, divorce, custody issues, death, inheritance, bankruptcy, accidents, health issues, friendship, betrayal. I've either been through it or carried someone through it.

"What I seem to do best is calm nerves and give good advice, to the point where it often interferes with other endeavors. I've seriously thought about ETR's copywriting/ Internet ideas, but I'm wary of selling things. It seems that, among family and friends at least, I am the oracle of issues, the witchy woman matriarch with the final answer. The trendy term 'life coach' isn't quite it. I want to be like an e-mail comforter. A listener of last resort. A sounding board.

"It's the only thing I think I'm really quite good at. Could this be a business?" Yes, it could be a business. But not if you are leery of selling. Business is selling. You can't make money unless you sell something. As Robert Louis Stevenson said, "I find it useful to remember, everyone lives by selling something.

" So the first thing Lynn needs to determine is what it is she is going to sell. People will pay for comfort... but not if it's billed as comfort. Think about what therapists do. They charge pretty good money to give people comforting advice. Yes, there are some who deliver discomfort, but they don't stay in business very long. People pay money to have their therapists make them feel good. If you've ever been in therapy with a successful therapist, you already know that.

But if therapists said that they were in the business of comforting their clients, no one would take them seriously and no one would pay them good money for their comforting advice. Rather than advertise what they are really selling, therapists advertise their methodology (Freudian, Behaviorist, etc.) or the type of "problems" they deal with (addiction, obsessive compulsive disorders, etc.).

Since Lynn isn't a trained psychotherapist, she can't honestly advertise those sorts of things. So she will have to come up with her own ideas about why people get themselves into trouble and how they can find solutions. These ideas will form themselves into a unified whole, if she thinks about them long enough. This unified whole is what we call an "intellectual franchise." That's what Lynn needs to develop. And then she needs to test it and see if it sells.

Remember, starting a business and making it a success is not just a matter of having a good idea. The idea has to be one that people will be happy to pay money for.

So if you are in Lynn's position - looking to turn your idea into a profitable business - you have to become comfortable with selling. How do you develop the skill of selling when you are "wary" of selling, as Lynn puts it? The first step is to understand that there are really two kinds of selling:

1. pushing people (to buy things they don't want)

2. helping people (to select those things they do want to buy)

Pushy salespeople - the telemarketer who calls you while you're eating dinner, the broker who calls you on the weekend with a "hot deal," the proverbial used-car salesman - take delight in persuading you to do what you don't want to do. Such salespeople see the selling process as a kind of battle where they bully and beat you into submission. It's an ego game for them, and your acquiescence - even if you really do want the product - is an indication of submission.

Such salespeople should be tarred and feathered, run out of town, dunked, and pilloried. They are the same people who delight in not letting you merge in traffic and cutting ahead of you in the supermarket line.

Helpful salespeople are actually more common than their obnoxious cousins.

If you understand that the job of a salesperson is to solve a customer's problem or help him meet a need, selling won't seem so odious to you.

Let's say your prospect's main concern is the future of his marriage. What you would do, in this case, is ask him questions about it and find out, in as much detail as possible, what his worries are. Having done this, you are then in a great position to address each one - to explain how your product (in Lynn's case, her advice) can give him effective solutions. By driving home the benefits of your product that the prospect cares about, you are making a very strong sales presentation. You are telling him exactly what he wants to hear.

Remember - your prospect wants to be sold. So long as you help him understand how your product can help him achieve his desires or solve his problems, he will be prejudiced in your favor. You lose your prospect when you start talking about other things - your interests, for example, or product features that he doesn't really care about.

So don't sell him, help him. Begin by finding out what he wants and needs. And then (if and only if you can really help him), make the strongest, most specific case you can make to convince him that his desires will be achieved and his problems solved.

Once you've figured out how to sell your product, and have gotten over your distaste of selling, you need to start testing... preferably on the Internet... until you find some way to position the product that catches on.

And then, to grow your business, you will have to produce lots of products that tie into your initial business idea and lots of sales letters to convince people to buy them. Does this sound like something you can do? If so, you are on your way!

Early to Rise, The Internet’s most Popular Wealth , Health and Success Newsletter. November 10, 2009

Selling

“Understand that you need to sell you and your ideas in order to advance your career, gain more respect, and increase your success, influence, and income." - Jay Abraham

Networking and 60 Second Commercials--Making an Offer

Quid Pro Quo

Business can be reduced to a simple formula. I give you something. You give me something in return. Quid pro Quo.

In trying to improve your 60 second commercials for your networking group, we talked about preparing your commercial and in the last blog entry we talked about profiling your idea customer to have a very specific target for your commercials. The third ingredient in a powerful commercial is a business offer, a business transaction, a selling proposal—“I will give you this, if you give me that”.

Many small business owners say, “I hate to sell.” If the heart and soul of business is I give you something, you give me something in return. Then selling is part of every business. If you are in business, there is an exchange that must take place. All forms of business demand the Quid pro Quo.

So how do you make an offering in your 60 second commercials? There are four questions you must answer with every commercial. They are the four questions every prospect has when they are considering to buy. These are the same questions you bring to the table when you are doing your own shopping.

(My thanks to Mark Joyner and his treatment of this area in his book, The Irresistible Offer, How to Sell Your Product in 3 Seconds or Less.)

Questions 1 and 2

 What are you trying to sell me? How much does it cost?

These two questions are taken together because they are the heart of the selling process. Is what you are offering a good and fair price for what I will receive in return? Check out this example.

Give me a dollar and I will give you a candy bar. You might say to yourself, “I don’t have enough information to determine if this is a good deal.

Give me a dollar and I will give you a chocolate candy bar. Now you have some more information and I happen to know you are a chocolate lover. Still you might hesitate.

Give me a dollar and I will give you a king size chocolate candy bar. Now you say to yourself, that’s a good deal. I get my chocolate that normally cost $1.25. And I don’t have to drive to the store to get it.

So here’s my dollar, give me the king size chocolate candy bar.

Cost is not always in terms of dollars and sense. It could be the cost of time; the cost of convenience. Which of us has not bought a product because it was more convenient and a time saver? The prospect is weighing the cost; you must address it.

Question 3

The third question is “Why should I believe you?”

All buyers have insecurity. We buy from people we know, like and trust. You will never buy from someone you don’t trust unless greed takes over. How can I believe you? Why should I believe you?

Because this is so essential to making a good commercial, I will devote a future blog entry entirely to the subject of believability.

Question 4

The final question is, “What’s in it for me?

How will I benefit from this product or service? People buy products and services not for what they are but for what they can do for themselves. You don’t buy a drill to just have a drill. You buy a drill to make holes so you can complete a wood working project that makes your house more beautiful. Products and services are means to an end.

Answering this question is essentially giving the prospect reasons why they should buy your product. If you did your homework last week, you should have as part of your ideal customer profile why customers want to buy your products or services.

Do you think a guy buys a truck with a 365 horse power because it has 365 horse power? No, he buys the truck with that much horse power because he can pull his boat and motor up north and go fishing with the buddies. That’s the end results of his purchase.

When you dig deeper into the benefit side of your commercials, then you realize there are only about 15-18 benefits that drive people’s purchases--health, safety, self esteem, security, save money, etc. If you are able to capture people’s benefits in your commercial, it will go a long way towards making it more effective. Let me give you some examples of classic commercials.

Domino’s Pizza

“Fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, or it’s free”.

You have three ingredients here. What is it--fresh hot pizza; what the benefit--immediate; the believability—the guarantee. This commercial does not give the cost because there are too many pizza options to specify one cost.

Federal Express

“When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight, Federal Express”

 What do you get—package delivery; what’s the benefit--security of knowing you will be off the hook. What could be more believable than Federal Express? Again, the price is not mentioned because it is assumed you will pay any price to just get you package absolutely delivered on time.

So in your 60 second commercials remember you are making a business offer--I will give you this, if you give me that. Make sure it includes answers to the four questions:

    1. What are you selling?
    2. How much does it cost?
    3. Why should I believe you?
    4. What will I get from it?

In a future blog entry, I will deal with the believability factor of your networking commercials. Your comments are welcomed.