Successful Blog

Using Sales Techniques in Relationship Management

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Long Term Customers With New Needs

Most sales people have experienced that moment when a customer says, “Oh, you have that? I just ordered one from someone else!” Often this happens because we have failed to continue to treat existing customers as prospects.

Even with a reliable customer, we may miss opportunities when our product line or their responsibilities change.

woman-phoneOn every call be sure to:

  • Find out what’s changed for them since you spoke last
  • Alert them to any changes in your product line or services
  • Make sure they have your latest catalog or product list
  • Go back and ask again, “I know you said you don’t need _____, has anything changed since we last spoke about that?”

Even our most loyal customers won’t buy from us unless they know we can fulfill a need when they need it fulfilled, and they don’t have our catalog memorized.

Setting Goals for Your Business Website

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goal-postsThis is the question you should be asking yourself every day:

How effective is your website at achieving the goals you have for your business?

If you do not know the answer, it may be because you have not set your goals properly. Do you know what the purpose of your site is? What are the benefits for you and your business?

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Lets take a look at these questions, and potential answers.

  • Your website should position you as an expert in your field. Perception and reputation are everything to your potential customers and clients. Having a website that effectively conveys that expertise to your visitors improves your visiblity in the marketspace, your credibility as a business-person, and begins to build trust in your products/services.
  • Your website is a starting-point for the identity of your brand. It is a starting point because it is impossible to control all aspects of your brand identity anymore. Your customers have blogs, forums, and Twitter now – where they can and will discuss your product’s price and quality, your customer service interactions, even your advertising strategies.
  • Your website expands your marketspace beyond yesterday’s geographical boundaries. Depending on the products and services that you offer (shipping may be a consideration) you can now offer the services of your business to a global audience, not just the people within a few minutes’ drive.
  • Your website is a tool for expanding your list of potential clients. Due to the expanded nature of the marketspace and the rapidly growing number of people who do their research online before making a purchase. Having an e-mail capture/site registration application on your site can help you to build a list of self-selected potential customers.
  • Your website is a venue for providing value to your market before you ever make a sale. E-books, white papers, product reviews, service explanations – all of these marketing tools can be made available throught your site. For free, or for the price of an e-mail registration. When your visitors see your site (and your business) as value-added then doing business with you is an opportunity, not a risk.

Does your website do these things? If not, do you need help putting them in place? Let us know how we can help.

Does Your Product Have a User’s Manual

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Andy Sernovitz from Damn I Wish I’d Thought of That points to an article on Creating Passionate Users:

The Best User Manual Ever:
Focus on making your user manual easier to read (even enjoyable!), and you’ll find your customers get more use out of your stuff and are more willing to become repeat customers. Parelli Natural Horsemanship not only instructs customers on how to use their equestrian products, but they offer tips, solutions to typical problems, and even motivate customers to master new skills. Try replacing your boring manuals with pocket guides, instructional videos, and ways for your fans to track their achievements.

The Lesson: Turn your crappy user manual into something that encourages customers to use your stuff to the fullest.

“remember, all things being equal, he who gets his users past the suck threshold and into the kick-ass zone the fastest wins. “

It’s a long post but look at the pictures, then think about what you could do with your crappy manual…

source: Creating Passionate Users
source: Creating Passionate Users

Have You Seen YouTube EDU?

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Get your own dose of education through YouTube’s new sub-site, YouTube EDU, which aggregates thousands of free lectures from universities like MIT, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. With more than 200 full courses currently available through the site, you now have no excuse for not being familiar with quantum mechanics or the math behind Einstein’s theory of relativity.

Check it out: www.youtube.com/edu

If you have used it, what do you think? What did you learn?

SOBCon 2009 Link Roundup

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Hello everybody! SOBCon 2009 is over. I know that many of you are sad, but guess what? There is a ton of content out there for you to re-live and re-learn some of the experience. While David Griffith is busy compiling all of the video content, I have grabbed a few of the links to posts that our amazing attendees have put together.

Thank you again to our sponsors and all of the attendees who made this conference the best yet.

Please take a look at what these folks have put together and share your thoughts in the comments:

Well that should keep you busy for a while! As an added bonus, here is a short video from Denise Wakeman at Build a Better Blog,

(Turn on flash to see it)

If you have a SOBCon post link that you would like to share in this post, please let me know in the comments.

Sign Up for the Newsletter to Get Your Virtual Swag-bag

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sobcon-swagSOBCon starts this Friday! It is sure to be an exciting time, with over 100 attendees and some fantastic presenters. Our most excellent sponsors are providing some really cool items for all of the folks that will be there, as well as some virtual goodies that they would also like to share with the entire SOBCon community.

The SOBCon09 Virtual Swag Bag will include contributions from attendees, speakers, and sponsors in the form of ebooks, slideshares, presentations, product samples, case studies, contests, and exceptional discount offers. It will be available at the end of May. We’ll announce it here, in the newsletter, and on Twitter.

So, if you are not coming to Chicago but are interested in sharing in this SOBCon love be sure to subscribe to the SOBCon newsletter so that you can get the links to these goodies. Thanks!

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SOBCon09 Newsletter

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