Customer For Life » Sell More http://www.customerforlife.com/blog Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:21:35 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc Selling in a Bear Market http://www.customerforlife.com/blog/salesforce/2009/02/02/selling-in-a-bear-market/ http://www.customerforlife.com/blog/salesforce/2009/02/02/selling-in-a-bear-market/#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:52:20 +0000 bwoelkers http://www.customerforlife.com/blog/?p=13 Selling when there is a downturn in the economy can be difficult, but there are plenty of people that still get rich during times like this.  Keep in mind, in a bear market, business owners don’t need to follow the market, and scale back, they only need to do better than the completion.

Here are some tactics you can employ, not only to survive a recession, but flourish as well.

  1. Keep selling….but with more effort
    When the economy is good, it’s easier to sell, that isn’t news to anyone.  Selling is easier as people have more money to spend and less economic worries. Studies have shown that a buyer will view, review, and reconsider a purchase an average of seven times.  Whereas sales staff often gives up after only one.  This inst enough persistence even when times are good. This is why you need to try harder, and put forth more effort during a bad economy.
  2. Focus on your target market
    In tough times, a company should narrow its focus on what it does best.  Now is not the time to have weak product lines or distracting ventures.  Business should focus on strengthening its core products and services.  These are what contribute the most to sales volume and margin.
  3. Increase the marketing budget
    Marketing isn’t a cost, rather an investment that generates revenue from new customers.  If businesses look at marketing in this perspective, it should be easier to increase the amount spent on marketing.  This is especially true when times are tuff.  Remember, you need to reach more people to get the same sales volume.
  4. Make it easier to do business
    It’s all over, tightening credit.  It’s easy during downturns to tighten credit policies, shorten hours, etc. but what you are really doing is making it more difficult for customers to do business with you.  If your competition is making these types of cut-backs you should do the opposite; Offer terms, ship for free, extend warranties, provide better service, and watch their customers come to you.
  5. Clarify your Value proposition and ROI
    Recession or no recession people are always going to spend money.  The only difference is many will be more frugal.  But people needs have not changed, and they are still going to spend money on goods and services that they perceive as having value.  Now is the time to show them exactly how they will benefit by buying from you.  You may want to consider creating case studies, product demonstrations or webinars.
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]]> http://www.customerforlife.com/blog/salesforce/2009/02/02/selling-in-a-bear-market/feed/ 0 Use Social Media to Sell More: LinkedIn-Facebook-MySpace http://www.customerforlife.com/blog/salesforce/2008/06/03/use-social-media-to-sell-more-linkedin-facebook-myspace/ http://www.customerforlife.com/blog/salesforce/2008/06/03/use-social-media-to-sell-more-linkedin-facebook-myspace/#comments Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:40:21 +0000 admin http://www.customerforlife.com/blog/?p=10
CRM is built on the premise of fostering long term relationships. Often however, personal information on prospects, customers, vendors, partners and suppliers eludes us. Most CRM systems have static information. The resulting profiles inevitably lack information about hobbies, interests, and relationships outside our native CRM. Applications and networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace are changing all that.

Imagine being able to find relevant information about a new prospect instantly and before making your first sales call. You can discover common bonds such as a sports team, music, favorite books and restaurants. Clearly the probability of a successful sales call increases significantly when we are able to establish and share interests.

The FaceForce connectivity

In a similar way an existing customer who has a relationship with a new prospect can help us establish rapport and increase our success rate. Simply we can ask our client for an introduction. As we know referrals are the strongest means to new business.

Faceforce for “Appexchange complements traditional CRM data with dynamically updated personal data and photos. The integration pulls Facebook profile information into your Salesforce Account, Lead, and Contact records in real time, providing a full view of customers, prospects, and business associates.”

The LinkedIn Company Insider widget allows you to paste a Javascript into your HTML page to instantly discover relationships. Try it and also use the script for your own site.



See the LinkedIn Widget page for more information

Example HTML using the popup method:

 <html>
  <head>
  <script src="http://www.linkedin.com/companyInsider?script&useBorder=yes" language="javascript"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
  LinkedIn <span id="li"></span> is a wonderful networking tool for professionals.
  <script type="text/javascript">
     new LinkedIn.CompanyInsiderPopup("li","LinkedIn");
  </script>
  </body>
  </html>
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