Do You Hate Being Sold To And Selling?
Do You Hate Being Sold To And Selling?
Do you hate being sold to? Do you hate selling? If you answered yes to either one of these questions, you aren’t alone. This article may give and idea or two.
If you hate being sold to, you aren’t alone.
To prove this to yourself, walk into any department store and see how fast a sales associate will approach you asking if they can help you find anything. Your response will probably be an automatic no because you haven’t found what you want.
Many shoppers want to check availability and price BEFORE they seek out a sales clerk. In addition to that, you don’t know, like or trust the sales person so you don’t know if they can answer your questions, if you have any.
If the person approached you and said, “Hi, How are you today?” You would probably respond out of courtesy. If that was followed up with “My name is John Smith and I will be in this area unless another customer needs my help. Please look me up if you have any questions or are ready to purchase.” You will probably be more seek them out when you have questions or are ready to check out.
By nature, we hate being sold to but we love buying what we want or need.
When you first approach someone that doesn’t know you, their primitive brain is in fight or flight mode. Say the wrong thing and all defenses are up and they want to get away from you as quickly as possible.
By approaching with friendship, you aren’t perceived as a threat so the higher functions within the brain are more open to hearing what you have to say.
If you begin the conversation by offering something that has a high perceived value, you put your prospect in the position where they subconsciously feel the need to reciprocate.
This gift takes you far away from the perceived role as a sales person.
Your prospect’s defenses are down so you can begin educating them to build the trust further. Your goal is to lead your prospect down a path where they answer yes to every question you ask. By conditioning them to agree with your statement and saying yes to your questions, you will find it MUCH easier to get them to say yes when you ask them for their business.
Many good marketers will have 3 different priced packages in their pocket so they can give a presentation that offers good, better and best solutions for the customer.
Most customers tend to choose the middle package when given three different options.
People love to buy what they want or need. When you get the defenses down and clearly show your prospects what they need without trying to sell them, they or much more inclined to buy the products or services they need once you educate them without making them feel like you are trying to sell.
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Does Your Business Need A Marketing Consultant?
Does Your Business Need A Marketing Consultant?
You are the only one that can decide whether you need a marketing consultant. Use the questions in this article to help yourself decide.
Do you have a marketing budget?
Do you put a set percentage of your revenue into marketing?
Do you track every advertising method you use?
Do you track leads generated by your website?
Do you have a lead capture system in place on your website?
Do you have any kind of call tracking system in place so you know which ad source generated the call?
Do you use coupons?
Do you have a system in place to track coupon redemption rates?
Do you have any idea how much traffic your website receives?
Do you know which keywords generate your website traffic?
Do you know what keywords Google is ranking your website for?
Is your website mobile friendly?
Have you claimed your Google Places page for your local business?
Have you claimed your Bing Business portal?
Have you claimed your Yahoo Local listing?
Do you have a YouTube video channel for your business?
Do you consistently add videos to your YouTube channel?
If you weren’t able to answer yes to the majority of these questions, your marketing efforts are less effective than they could be.
Tracking is vital to your success. If you aren’t tracking everything, how can you effectively manage it? When you track your marketing, you know what is working really well, what is working a little and what isn’t working.
Knowledge of what’s working and what isn’t lets you adjust your marketing so you spend more time and money on the successes and drop the failures. A team is usually needed to grow a successful business and a marketing consultant is often part of the most successful.
Leave a comment below then create a support ticket at my Help Desk so we can talk about growing your business.
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Does Your Business Need A Mobile Website?
Does Your Business Need A Mobile Website?
You are the only one that can decide if your business needs a mobile website but let me share a video and some statistic with you to help you decide.
This video will give you some very powerful statistics and something to think about.
Mobile Website Consumer Statistics
9 out of 10 cell phone searches result in an action such as purchase or visiting a business.
88% of local information seekers take action within a day.
65% of mobile users said they use their device to find a business to make an in-store purchase.
48% of users said they use their mobile phone to look up product ratings or to find promotions.
2/3rds of smartphone owners shop on their phones.
3 out of 5 searches are done using a mobile device.
Mobile coupons get 10x the redemption rate of traditional coupons.
Over 30% of all restaurant searches are from mobile devices.
57% said they would not recommend a business with a bad mobile site.
40% have turned to a competitor site after having a bad mobile experience.
95% of smartphone users have searched for local information.
61% of users call a business after searching.
59% of users will visit the location.
90% of these people act within 24 hours.
70% of users have compared products or product prices on their cell phones.
65% of users have read product reviews on their homes.
50% of mobile searches lead to a purchase.
There are many more stats from many reliable sources that I did not include in the text or video. Some analysts believe the number of cellphones will equal the number of people on the planet by 2015.
Do you think you will be able to remain competitive if you don’t have a mobile website in place in the near future?
Feel free to open a support ticket at my Help Desk and I’ll gladly talk to you about a mobile website.
Your bookmarks, comments and feedback are always welcome. Disclosure of Material Connection
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Are Your Online Marketing Efforts Getting Your Local Business The Customers It Deserves?
Are Your Online Marketing Efforts Getting Your Local Business The Customers It Deserves?
You know your business inside out but you feel that online marketing is like trying to navigate a maze while blindfolded. It’s a new world to you so here are a few pointers.
Online Marketing 101 For Local Businesses
You need a presence near the top of page 1 of Google to get the phones ringing more often. The image below was the result of a study done by Cornell University. The red, orange and yellows indicate where Google search engine users were looking most.
This clearly shows that the first four results on the page get approximately 90% of the eyeballs and that translates into more clicks.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is necessary and it will help you get one of the coveted spots over time. It is a long term time and financial commitment to get one of the prized spots then hold it against all challengers.
Local businesses with Google Places listing often get this prime real estate above your website.
Did you know claiming your Google Places listing is free and that it can and should be SEO optimized by a professional?
A professional knows how to properly name the 10 images you are allowed and they also know additional sites to share the images on to give your Places page more authority.
You are allowed 5 videos on your Google Places page and you should use 5 videos that are optimized and placed on video sharing sites that may help both your Places page and website.
Up to 5 offers can be placed on the page and these often have the potential to be optimized for search.
You need to be listed in other directories online and the number of directories your business can be found in needs to slowly and steadily increase.
Customer reviews on your Google Places page are a must and you need a steady supply of real and honest reviews from your customers. You also need reviews on the various business directory sites as well as a system to monitor them.
A Mobile Friendly Website
The printed Yellow Pages is being discontinued and they are being replaced by the smartphone or web connected cellphones.
If your business doesn’t have a mobile friendly website, it is unlikely to be found by your customers in the near future.
Google has clearly stated that websites that have a mobile friendly version of their site get a higher ranking placement when mobile searches are conducted.
Studies have proven that consumers use their phones to find coupons, to find product reviews and recommendations on social sites while they are shopping.
The smartphone isn’t just about calling your business or getting directions. It’s the focal point for many buyers.
Social Signals
Google and Bing are including social signals in determining how well your site will rank. This means you need testimonials, interaction on your site by visitors, they need to stay on your site as long as possible and they need ways to share the pages on your site with their friends on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and other social sites.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is still important but it isn’t as complicated as some like to make you think it is. The quality of your content is very important and the freshness of that content is also important.
Linking to other articles on your site using appropriate anchor text is important when it makes sense to link to them.
The search engines like to see links out to authority sites when appropriate. They also like to see sites use images, audios and video to engage their visitors.
Your Goal
Your goal is to get the phone ringing and new customers walking in the door as quickly as possible.
If you wish to accomplish that without online paid advertising that will cease to exist the minute you stop paying for the ads, you may want to start with Google Places.
Google Places done right also carries a monthly fee but you get much more than an ad targeting one keyword. Your optimized Places listing presents:
- A page that can, potentially, be placed in multiple related categories.
- A page that has a map so your customers can find you.
- A page with you company name, address, phone, website URL and other details.
- A page where you can use images and video to warm up your prospects.
- A page where customers can leave reviews about your business.
- A page that can help get your phone ringing and new customers coming in the door.
If you do a search on Google for the primary keyword you are targeting in your city, you may find the first 3 to 7 spots are occupied by Google Places listings.
Since 90% of small businesses either hasn’t claimed their Places page or it isn’t optimized and maintained by a professional that understands SEO, it is usually easy to take one of the first 3-4 spots in 6 months or less. (Google only checks the pages every 4-6 weeks so the timeframe can vary widely.)
Your page may be ranked by Google even if you haven’t claimed it or optimized it so it can be a lead generation machine. Visit Places Local Ranking Report now to see how you stack up against your competitors.
Your bookmarks, comments and feedback are always welcome. Disclosure of Material Connection
Is Google Places An Asset For Your Business?
Is Google Places An Asset For Your Business?
Google Places pages have been generated automatically by Google but less than half of them have been claimed by the business owners. Of the Places pages that have been claimed, only a small percentage of them have been SEO optimized. If your business hasn’t claimed your page and optimized it, you are losing customers to competitors that are optimized.
Google Places Pages
Google Places pages are extremely hot right now and they are going to remain hot for the foreseeable future. A few of the reasons they are so hot are:
- 60% of all searches currently being done on Google currently include a local modifier and that percentage will only increase as the number of mobile devices grows.
- Google Places pages are the first thing shown in the Google results below the paid ads regardless of whether the search is done from a mobile device or a desktop computer.
- You can place 10 images on your Places page.
- You can place 5 videos on your Places page.
- You can place up to 5 offers on your Places page.
- Customers can leave reviews on your Places page.
Reviews left by your customers are so important to Google that approximately one third of the Google Places page is made available for customer reviews.
Having one page with facts about your business, videos, images and offers to entice your prospects and social proof delivered by customers can be a HUGE business asset. This asset becomes even more powerful when you give Google and your prospects what they want and expect to see.
Your Places page can be optimized only so much. You also need to have an optimized website, YouTube videos that are optimized, citations, local directory listings and a plan to monitor all of these while adding new content in multiple places on a schedule.
No business owner can be an expert at everything so you must know when you need help to manage parts of your business for you. SEO, social media marketing, mobile marketing, website content and Google Places are all pieces in a complete online marketing strategy.
If one of the pieces is weak, the whole strategy may be less effective. Right now, many local and some national businesses are either unaware of the importance of a well optimized and maintained Google Places and citation network or they are too afraid to commit to a long term plan that could generate a much better ROI than traditional marketing methods.
Grab your free (no optin required) report titled Google Places for Local Businesses.
Your bookmarks, comments and feedback are always welcome. Disclosure of Material Connection
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