Authentic Selling Secrets

March 16th, 2010

How to be yourself, have fun and sell a ton on stages and teleseminars!


I want to introduce you to a friend of mine, Lisa Sasevich, also known as the Queen of Sales Conversion.  She’s about to rock the “speak to sell” industry AGAIN with her BRAND NEW teleclass!

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
9pm UK * 2pm Pac * 5 PM East

Lisa is going to reveal a BIG AH-HA she recently had about what she REALLY did to sell over 7-figures speaking last year (and it’s the OPPOSITE of what you’ve likely been taught!)

Here’s what you’re going to learn on this revealing free call:

• Discover the ONE THING Lisa did differently than everybody else that caused her to not only have a 7-figure year but ALSO enjoy the most amazing clients. (She did the opposite of what you’ve likely been taught to do when you speak-to-sell…and it worked!)

• EXACTLY what you need to have in place to putting together a life-altering talk that feels GREAT to share without giving away the store! (AND has your ideal clients WANTING to invest with you.)

• How to instantly create hunger and desire for your products and services without being “salesy”

• Lisa’s BIG secret to attracting 100% of EXACTLY the perfect clients and none of the, well, not-so-perfect ones

• A simple technique that Hollywood uses to capture attention and sell tickets all the time that will work for you too!

And much more….

Here’s the link to reserve your spot in this complimentary teleclass…

http://bit.ly/sellingsecrets

Best Wishes,

Bernadette Doyle
www.clientmagnets.com

Authentic Selling Secrets

Create Irresistible Products

March 14th, 2010

“I want to buy that.” This is the immediate reaction you want people to have when they first see your offering: You want them to have that reaction before they even know the price.

To make that happen, you need to create products that are irresistible. There are a few universal principles to develop truly appealing products.

1. Find a hook. Recognize the “miracle cure” the public is looking for, and present your product as the closest thing possible to that miraculous fix.

One example is Yanik Silver’s Instant Sales Letters product.  Yanik has achieved great success with this product. They are his “miracle cure” for people who need to create effective sales letters, but don’t have enough time to write them. So he put together some fill-in-the-blanks templates to make it easy to prepare sales letters.   Of course, clients may have to do some tweaking to make a template work for their specific purpose. But the point is, they work.  Even if the template needs to be revised, they’ve still got a Sales Letter. And that is very attractive to people with little extra time.  The Instant Sales Letter product is a hook for them – the “miracle cure”.

2. Focus on the content first and the format second.

When you are planning your content, think about what you’re going to cover rather than how you’re going to cover it. Don’t decide that you are going to offer an e-book or a teleseminar until you know what information you will be including.

The format should be secondary. It should be based on what makes the most sense for your market, and what fits best with the product.

As you are mapping out your content, outline everything that your product will cover. You don’t need to include every single detail you know about the topic. Include the information your prospect needs in order to get the results they want. Include the detail that will get their immediate attention because you’re providing the solution they need.

Brainstorm all of the things that your end user will need to get the results that your product will deliver. Write the question “what will they need” in your journal, or put it up in your office. It will act as a prompt for your subconscious mind to come up with the answers.  Use can these answers to create your outline.

3. Use the “why-what-how-what if” format.

Why is each particular point important?
What is the specific item or step in the process?
How will the user implement it?
What if things don’t go according to plan?

Using this format helps you to bring the pieces of your product together.  It allows you to edit as you plan. You are assembling what you already know, putting it together quickly and editing it quickly into a usable format.


4. Be flexible and open to the fact that your outline may change.
That’s okay. You will still have the main outline, the “bones of the structure”.  You can always move the main elements around until you get the right fit.

5. You don’t have to create your product in the order that you’re going to deliver it.

Create your product in the way that will allow you to get it done quickly. Start with the areas that are easiest for you. That will give you some momentum to keep going with the more challenging elements of your product.

Once you’ve paid careful attention to these points, you will be able to quickly create a product that clients will be clamoring to buy because it resolves their needs and wants.

Use these steps to get started on creating your irresistible product.  Give your clients what they are asking for, give them what they WANT!

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. She publishes a free, weekly newsletter for trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Create Irresistible Products

Establish Need and Greed with Your Free Report

March 12th, 2010

“The purpose of marketing is to make selling obsolete” said marketing icon Peter Drucker. If you are seeking to increase attendance to your live events, your goal should be to have prospects seeking you out to sign up, not the other way around. An effective marketing technique which accomplishes this precise goal is the free report.

Write your Free Report as a Sales Letter in Disguise
When the content of your free report is so interesting that the reader cannot put it down, they have likely become so caught up in the content that they didn’t notice that they were being sold to. A master of accomplishing this feat is Richard Schefren, who so clearly accomplishes this in his Internet Business Manifesto. His manifesto effectively works as a sales letter in disguise. How does he accomplish this? He follows the rule of thumb; he establishes need or greed in the eyes of the reader.

Establishing Need in the Eyes of Your Reader
One proven method of selling is to satisfy a consumer’s need. But, how can you accomplish this within a free report? The first step is to help identify the prospect’s need. If you are offering a course in time management, your goal in the report will be to discuss case studies of individuals and professionals who have dramatically improved their lives by implementing time management techniques. By building a clear need in the prospect’s mind for time management techniques, you can offer your solution as the answer they need.

Establishing Greed
The other angle that you can take is to establish greed. When a prospect salivates at the success possibilities outlined in a free report, they often strive to find out how they may be able to accomplish the same results within their own lives. To establish greed, share stories, testimonials and results that can be achieved with your system or by attending your seminars.

You don’t always have to limit your examples to existing clients, or even individuals who have attended your seminars. For example, if your seminar provides valuable time management techniques and you happen to know that Alan Sugar utilizes this exact technique, you can mention legitimately, that “This is just one of the things that Alan Sugar, powerful leader, has used to help him build an 800 million-pound business.”

Consider examples you can draw from to include within your free report to build credibility and to establish greed among your readers. This is especially important when you are just beginning, as you will not have the wealth of stories and examples of which to draw from. But, this fact does not have to limit you. Build a powerful association with your techniques and teachings by including relevant stories into your report.

So, you can utilize your free report to establish need or greed. As you sit down to map out your free report, ask yourself, “What can I include in my report to get people recognizing that they need the ongoing solution that I am going to offer to them?” Or, ask yourself, “What can I be adding into my free report that will get people excited or inspired regarding the possibility of acquiring and mastering the techniques and skills that I will be teaching to them?”

Answer these two questions as you create your report content, and you will be creating a powerful and effective marketing tool.

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. She publishes a free with invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease. Register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Establish Need and Greed with Your Free Report

Do You Need To Change Direction?

March 4th, 2010

You’ve worked hard to define yourself and your business. You have distinguished your area of expertise and identified your niche – and business is good.

But, somewhere along the line, as you work within your niche, serving those specific clients who are benefiting from your services and products, your business may start shifting in a slightly different direction. Keep a look out for this shift in direction.  It can be a very positive step – presenting more opportunities available than you’d realized.

If this starts to happen in your business, it maybe time to reposition yourself. If you’re noticing that your skills and expertise lend themselves beyond the niche you created, don’t be afraid to refocus your vision.

For example, a client of mine initially established herself as an expert in helping working moms and moms who wanted to start a business.

She noticed the same things coming up over and again in her target market – guilt, confidence, work-life balance. She did a lot of research and gathered a lot of information because she was coaching, mentoring, and advising her clients.

Although she was very successful and very satisfied with her business, she uncovered an opportunity for corporate work. Though she is still working within her area of expertise by offering workshops and services for working mothers, the corporate niche is totally different.

What she is selling to companies isn’t mom coaching. She’s selling them the end result of retaining working mothers. This is a really important distinction. She isn’t abandoning what she’s been doing with her coaching of moms, but the corporate client is really a new direction. In essence, she has two clients – the corporation who hires her and the end user, the moms that she’s already been working with in the other part of her business.

In this case, the opportunity to expand and work outside her niche led her to reposition herself to accommodate these additional opportunities.

In some cases, you might find that certain aspects of your niche aren’t working for you. This is another instance of the need to reposition your business in order to find a more suitable direction.

Another of my clients spent more than 18 months putting large tenders together to submit to government organizations, where a particularly strict type of bidding process is required by law. It’s very difficult to establish personal relationships that lead to a sale in that type of environment. Though he’s had some success in his business, he began weighing whether it was worth the enormous amount of effort he was putting in. All of the bidders are essentially on the same level, with no personal rapport with the potential client to help win the bid.  He was essentially operating in a buyer’s market. And that is not where you want to be. To attract clients, you need to turn that traditional sales dynamic on its head so that you’re operating in a seller’s market. You want to be the one with all of the advantage, and position yourself so that there is no competition. In his case, looking to private companies with whom he can establish relationships would put him in a better position.

Look for markets where it will be easier for you to build those personal relationships, and where you can position yourself as an expert.

Whether you have noticed the opportunity for additional business, or recognized the need to shift from your current niche, repositioning is an excellent way to expand your options.

You can still work within your area of expertise, but by repositioning yourself, those same skills could be very valuable on a larger scale.

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Do You Need To Change Direction?

Create Packages Instead of Customizing

March 3rd, 2010

When a potential buyer makes an inquiry, have you found yourself responding with an answer similar to this:

“Well, our process is that first, we find out about your needs. Next, we’ll put together a proposal and then we’ll let you know how much it costs. And then, you can take it from there.”

Why is this a mistake? The problem here is that you’re doing an alot of work – work that you’re not getting paid for – without even ensuring a sale. In addition to not closing the deal, this type of business practice also makes the sales process very labor-intensive for you. You have to take the time to find out the client’s specific needs. You have to write a proposal and you have to work up a cost for them. Then, they’ll decide if they want your product or services.

By customizing your approach for that client’s individual needs, you could conceivably put in a day’s work or more, and have nothing to show for it in the end.

So, the first thing you need to do is stop customizing. Instead, start creating packages of your services and/or products – packages that people can see and buy, right off the shelf.

This is a practice that can work really well for you. By creating a package, you are specifying what your product or service is, setting specific prices, and actually quantifying the benefits of your offer. It forces you to make your intangibles tangible. Customers are more apt to purchase when they can see, touch, taste and smell what they’re getting.

You can also create a variety of packages at a range of levels. Begin with a starter package. You might even consider creating a budget package, to make your services even more accessible.  In addition to your base packages, I encourage you to develop a first class program or product – call it The Rolls Royce program – for those people that want the absolute best.

You don’t have to develop hundreds of packages. Two or three range levels are enough to begin with. By offering a range, you’re creating the illusion of customizing. People can basically ascertain their needs, look at your different packages and say, “Yes, that’s the one that’s right for me.”

When you develop your packages, design them so that your solutions match the client’s ideal end results. You want to highlight the benefits, not the features. Your clients don’t care so much about your process as they do about achieving their desired solution. If you’re a coach, for example, you probably focus on the coaching process, but your clients are interested in what that process will do for them.

Maybe they want to simplify their life. Maybe they want to find the confidence to apply for a promotion or find the support to start a new business. Or, maybe they want to find a new relationship or get through a difficult divorce.

There are many different things and many different end results. The important thing is to keep your client’s desired end result in clear focus when you create and describe your packages. Your packages need to clearly show clients how what you’re offering is so closely aimed at that desired end result.

You can still deliver the same quality results you would by customizing, but by turning your expertise into packaged information, you can spend a lot less time, get a lot more clients, and help a lot more people at the same time.

Create Packages Instead of Customizing

How to Make Your Pitch To Corporate Clients

March 2nd, 2010

If you could put a figure on the net results your programmes, coaching services or training would have on a company, when implemented,  what would that price be?

How much money can what you are offering save or make your client? This is what larger companies and corporations want to know.

When you are pitching your product or services in a corporate environment, always emphasize and focus on what the net benefit to the company will be. Will your offering increase their overall sales? Reduce expenses and costs? Will it make their staff more efficient and productive, thus saving the company valuable time – and money?

It’s relatively easy to calculate straightway the cost that lost sales have on a company. However, there are other factors by which companies need to measure net results.

Maybe your business specializes in softer skills, such as leadership, management and employee development. To quantify that, you need to zero in on the tangible results the company will receive from your skills. Show corporations how they will be able to conduct more effective meetings because of your trainings; how they will receive more productive feedback because your workshops will teach staff to communicate more clearly.

Highlight the long-term implications that services similar to the ones you offer have on other companies. Gather statistics and give examples of how retention rates in companies improve because of the type of workshops you present and the skills you teach.

Statistics for all sorts of elements come into play here. Lost sales, sick leave, lack of focus, clique problems. You can gather research on many different challenges and problems that big companies face, then use that as a starting point and connect the dots to the cost savings for the company.

You can start gathering your statistics online.  Search relevant phrases and you’re sure to find that someone, somewhere did a survey and quantified the results that can be achieved.  Obviously, you should quote your source.

Here’s an example to demonstrate …

“This survey from _____showed that 45% of employees who leave an organization reported poor management as the main reason for leaving. When asked to clarify “poor management” it turns out that one of the things identified was poor feedback.”

After you state the facts, you then share the conclusion that poor feedback is costing their organization X amount of dollars.

Though you may deliver your product or service to a different end user than the head management of a company, in the end, your corporate clients will make the decision to go with you based on the impact your services will have on their bottom line.

That’s why when pitching your service or product in a corporate environment you need to spell out the net results that will be achieved.  Back it up with the data and statistics that support your offering. Show your prospect how they will benefit – bottom line -  and watch the sales flow in!

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

How to Make Your Pitch To Corporate Clients

Convince Potential Clients To Hire You

March 1st, 2010

“Out of all the people I could hire, why should I hire you?” How would you respond, should a potential client ask you this question?

Simply telling them that you will work really hard and do a really good job isn’t really telling them anything at all.

You’ve got to be able to give clients practical, tangible and unmistakable reasons to choose you, and you’ve got to be able to pull those reasons out of your pocket at a moment’s notice.  Here’s how …

•  Identify the end results you have achieved for other clients. Whether your product or service can save a client thousands of dollars, help them to finally quit smoking for good, lose 15 pounds, or increase their business by 50 percent. Clients make their decisions based upon what’s in it for them. Spell out the benefits.

•  Make it clear that what they see is what they get. State the fact, in your marketing material and at sales meetings with potential clients, that the person they meet will be the same person who will deliver the service to them or their end users.

•  Stake Your Reputation. Make it clear that since you are quite literally staking your reputation on the services you provide, your standards, your efforts and your attention to detail are far greater than a provider who draws a paycheck from a larger company.

•  Be able to give the implications of the results your client can achieve in terms of time and/or money. For example, your ability to help other clients quit smoking saved them the cost of a pack of cigarettes a day; over the course of one year, they save X amount of dollars. Or, by purchasing your product, another client gained valuable hours of time, which he used to implement other practices that netted him X amount more dollars.

•  Cite statistics. Potential clients want to know that you are well-informed. Keep up on the latest trends and happenings in your industry. Be able to routinely give examples of studies that show the need for the type of product or services you are offering and the difference the implementation of them made to users.

•  Declare your expertise. The broader you claim your skills to be, the fewer clients you will attract. Clients want assurance that you are the authority on their area of need. Once they know you are, they will view you with confidence and place greater value on your knowledge and skills.

By the time you’ve finished answering their question, the only question potential clients should have left is why they haven’t hired you sooner.

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. She publishes a free, weekly newsletter for trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Convince Potential Clients To Hire You

Help Clients Make The Decision To Buy

February 25th, 2010

You may be fully aware of the tremendous difference that your services make to an organization or an individual, but you have to find a way to link that difference to end results.

One of the really important things you need to do in your business is identify the results you achieve.

One way that you can ascertain the results you’ve helped a client achieve is to go back and ask them. If your contact has told you that since they used your services or product, they got X number of results, find out the implications of those results – in terms of time or money.

I did some negotiation skills training for a client, who told me, “it really made a difference.” That’s all fine and good, but I asked them to quantify what difference it made.  In their case, they were able to measure what their goodwill budget had been the year before compared to the current year, and I was able to get a statistic from that.

If you’re a coach, and you’ve been able to save a particular client 2 hours every week in their work week, that’s valuable time over the course of a month or two. But, if you factor those hours at the rate that client gets paid, it could work out to your helping the client make additional thousands of dollars a year.

You have to look at what you’re doing in terms of increasing sales, or reducing cost, or saving time, and then work through it that way. Calculate what the net benefit is for the client. Always remember, clients make the decision to buy something based on the benefits.  You may need to do a bit of research to make those connections.

Think of yourself as a salesperson who is putting together a presentation that quantifies all the benefits. Or, as a bit of a lawyer, arguing in court and putting together a case. You have to bring together different pieces of information and statistics to make your argument.

It’s not that you’re stating you are definitely going to help a client save this amount of time or money, but you’re getting people to think in terms of end results for their business.

To get your potential clients those results, you must first prompt your existing and satisfied clients for a specific answer about how your service benefits them. Be willing to go back to your contacts and talk to them about the difference you’ve been making. Ask them to quantify it.

They won’t think about it until you ask them. But, by asking the question, you’re also raising your value in their eyes too.

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. She publishes a free, weekly newsletter for trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Help Clients Make The Decision To Buy

Make More Sales By Gaining Trust and Confidence

February 22nd, 2010

You know that you’re the best, but your customers need to believe that too. There are several ways for you to gain their confidence and trust so you can earn their business.

Sway potential clients in your favor by taking away the risk of doing business with you and making your offer irresistible.

•  Offer a  guarantee. Personally, I have a guarantee when I’m offering my products or workshops. There is some grey area here, however. Some of my higher-value coaching services are more time intensive for me and don’t include a guarantee. The reason I don’t offer one is that I don’t want to give people an opt-out clause. When these high-caliber people step up in a big way and want to get the results that a high level coaching from me can deliver, I want to know that they’re fully in the game.

It’s a big challenge to make a massive transformation or a big leap in business. You don’t want clients like these to be running for the door or the emergency exit the moment the going gets tough. So, in some cases, guarantees are counter-productive and could actually end up helping clients resist what you’re offering.

So, you have to decide whether or not a guarantee is right for your market.

•  Alleviate their fears. Sometimes people won’t sign on or purchase something because they’re skeptical that what worked for other people won’t work for them. You need to show them how, even if they may have failed in the past, this time they will succeed. Include additional follow-ups or features that your competition doesn’t provide to show that you can help them accomplish their goal or fulfill their need. Be creative and really give some thought as to how you can remove the risk for your potential clients.

•  Make your offer irresistible. Pile on so much value that there is just no way they can lose. Include all the things your targeted clients could possibly want so that they just can’t pass your offer by.

There are few different ways to do this. Quantify the benefits of your services. For example, if you’ve got a program where for a $1,000 investment, your client will be able to make or save $10,000 in the next three months, you need to tell them that. Don’t assume that they will figure that out. Quantify the benefits specifically.

If there isn’t an easy financial comparison in your business, you do need to dig a little because this can really help you and help your clients. They will be able to wrap their heads around what you’re offering and make an informed decision because you’re giving them all the information they need.

The more you quantify, make your offer irresistible, and remove risk, the more successful you’re going to be.

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Make More Sales By Gaining Trust and Confidence

Get A Better Response From Your Joint Venture Partners

February 21st, 2010

You’ve chosen your potential joint venture partners. You’ve sent them a compelling email that gives them all the information and creates lots of excitement about your promotion. Now you’re waiting for the positive responses to come in.

But what if they don’t?

There will be people who say no, who aren’t interested in the partnership. There may also be some who don’t respond at all – maybe they didn’t receive the email.

Don’t be discouraged. They aren’t necessarily lost causes.

If someone says no, or doesn’t respond, try to maintain the personal connection you established in the email. Phone them and say what you put in your email.

During the call, outline your idea. If they express interest, get into the details of how the promotion works. And then just ask them, “Are you onboard?”

Don’t assume the answer is negative if you don’t get a response. You’ve got to follow up. This is your business. This is you thinking big and wanting to partner with big players. So you’ve got to act big to do that, and you’ve got to take what you’re doing really seriously.

There are also times when a little creativity might help. For example, you may work in an industry where there aren’t many potential partners, and those you would like to approach are really “big fish” who might be too busy to work with you. Sending an email probably won’t make much of an impression on them. So be creative about how you get their attention.

You could mail them something catchy. I’ve seen people mail things like fake money or fake checks with a note saying, “This is play money but I’m hoping to send you real money soon. All the details are inside.” Wrap it up in a box so it stands out from the other mail and gets noticed.

I don’t recommend sending an actual product without permission. Some people get totally bombarded with products that they haven’t asked for and that take up space in the office. You don’t want to do something that will be a nuisance to them.

Also, some people may want to view your product before they endorse it. But do ask permission. Don’t just send it to them unannounced.

Unfortunately, you are going to get some no’s. Not everyone you contact will say yes. But don’t get discouraged. Just keep going and don’t give up.

Expect that some people will say no.  Aim for more partners than you think you’ll need. Update and add to your jv list constantly in order to be sure you’ll have enough joint venture partners on board.

Once you get the ball rolling the excitement will really begin. The promotion and partnership will build momentum.  And it will become a self-fulfilling energy that will keep you inspired to continue with future partnerships.

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Get A Better Response From Your Joint Venture Partners