Successful Blog

10 Super Articles that Make Getting New Customers a Whole Lot Easier!

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Advice from 10 of the Best

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Last week, I wrote about

How to Get Customers to Sell Themselves (on You).

For today, I’ve gathered 10 super articles on attracting new clients or customers. I’ve read them all and added a summary to each link so that you can target the ones you’ll find most helpful. So here’s the list.

  1. Why Do People Really Buy? by Mike Sigers at Simplenomics A coaching session about how to understand your business’s sales story from one of the best sales and marketing guys on the Internet.
  2. #5.19: The “Steal From The Best” Issue by Andy Sernovitz for Damn, I Wish I Thought of That! Advice on how to learn from the research and development already done by the big guys.
  3. Features And Benefits And Sales, Oh My! By Diane Helbig for Ezine Articles “Stop talking. Stop thinking. And please, stop selling. Your prospect doesn’t want to listen to you ramble on about things they don’t care about. . . .
    Ask a few questions, listen, and then address only what you hear. Let’s explore this process.” [via The Top 10 Sales Articles ]
  4. Romance Your Customers By Making The Easy Sale First by Evan Carmichael An explanation of the most basic step of permission marketing.
  5. Put Passion into Your Sales by Niche Marketing by Brad Shorr for Word Sell Inc. How to sell more naturally by limiting your market.
  6. Don’t Overlook The Easy Sales from business know how Shows how to tap into the relationships you have to get help with your quest to find new customers who love what you do
  7. Easy Sales: The Trend for Small Business by Jack Yoest at Small Business Trends Here are the questions to ask so that you don’t find yourself investing too much time and too much of yourself in a deal you can’t close.
  8. The Art of Prospecting For Customers by Biz Info Library for SalesMotivation.net How to warm up cold calls.
  9. The Role of Leadership in Selling by Daniel Sitter How to show clients that your motive is provide a solution to their problem.
  10. How to Seize the Phone Even If You Fear Cold Calling by Tammy Stanley for Salesopedia The psychology of getting energized to make cold calls. “You would be hard pressed to find a sales professional who isn’t familiar with those trouble thoughts that talk him out of making calls now and convince him to wait for a better time to make sales calls or cold calls.” [via The Top 10 Sales Articles ]
  11. BONUS! Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques by Brian Clark for Copyblogger To use Brian’s own words, “Persuasion is generally an exercise in creating a win-win situation. You present a case that others find beneficial to agree with. You make them an offer they can’t refuse, but not in the manipulative Godfather sense.”

Selling, like any other new skill, takes practice to become natural. So don’t quit. A friend and her husband made a game of who would get rejected most.

People do say “yes.” If you follow the advice of the experts, folks will say “yes” even faster and more often.

What’s your reason for not telling “your audience” of potential customers about what you have to offer?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

Changing Assets

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Can we talk about . . .

changes and environment?

Autumn and Spring, times of change, are happening all over the world. My experience is that when the environment changes, I experience changes myself.

It’s also a time that I notice other people seem to be changing too.

fall colors

People seem to get misaligned with their environment. People who don’t like rules seem a little more independent. People who like order draw bolder black lines around things. Maybe it’s the change of seasons. Maybe it’s the approaching end of year. Maybe it’s all only me.

Last night, Ann Michael wrote about character traits, context, and their alignment.

When we’re aligned with our environment our character traits are assets. When we’re not aligned, they’re liabilities. –Ann Michael, Manage to Change

What a truth that is. I wonder whether she has the same experience of people changing that I do?

We change in response to our surroundings. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t still be a species. For most of the world, those changes are subtle and relational. We’re more likely to be left out than to find ourselves in dire need.

In corporations people are writing budgets. In home businesses people are seeing the fourth quarter slow down. Everyone is starting to realize the end of the year isn’t far away.

Are you changing? Are you noticing changes around you? How would describe the changes you see?

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3 Reasons Why You (and Your Boss) Want to Invest in SOBCon08

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Hey!
We’re working out the plan, and I’m so smiling. We’ve got a foundational year on which to build, and it’s taught us a lot. We’ve gained some “quick and smart.” We’ve more focus this year. What that means to you is . . . you’ll have plenty of reasons you’ll be glad you made the investment to come.

Here are just 3 of them:

  • SOBCon Quality. We’re keeping the size intimate — quality time with quality people.
  • Actionable Ideas We’re pushing every topic from the Theory into Practice — solid plans tailored to your needs.
  • Interactive format We’re redefining the word conference even further — authentic experience working together.

Last year, we were learning . . . we still are, always will be.

But we know a whole lot more already.
We’re kicking it up a notch . . . or twenty.

Come and see.

Liz

The Mic Is On: We're Asking Burning Questions . . .

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It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

The Mic Is On

Here’s how it works.

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.
The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.

. . . About Business

Here’s a few ideas to get us started:

  • Taglines
  • How to get customers
  • Managing time
  • Ways to promote and sell
flames.jpg

And, whatever else comes up, including THE EVER POPULAR, Basil the code-writing donkey . . . and flamenco dancing (because we always get off topic, anyway.)

Oh, and bring links about business to share!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time: It's Burning Questions About Business!

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Yes the Mic Will Be on Tonight

Join Us Tonight

.What’s Your Business?

We can talk about taglines, how to get customers, managing time, ways to promote and sell, and whatever else comes up — even flamenco dancing.

Oh, and bring links about business that you want to share!

The rules are simple — be nice.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

To Write a Review Folks Find Useful — Don’t Stick to the Facts

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Reviewers Who Think

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Have ever read a review and still wondered whether you’d like the product? Do you know any reviewer who you rely on because he or she has the opposite opinions of you? Sometimes a reviewer who thinks differently than we do is more valuable than one who doesn’t say what he or she thinks at all.

I’ve been reading a passel of product reviews all weekend. Now I remember why I don’t read reviews. In an effort to be unbiased, reviewers seem to be too distant, too flat — they give the facts. The facts aren’t enough.

Don’t Stick to the Facts

When you blog the facts only, anyone could write basically the same review. The differences will be in the writing only. When you blog the facts only people tend to read to the minute detail to make sure your facts are exactly right . . . and that they’re all there. Too many facts can be either distracting or boring. Would the VW Beetle have been a hit based only on the facts? What about McDonalds? the iPod?

If you want to write a product review that folks find useful, don’t stick to the facts.

  • Facts don’t tell me if I will love my future mate.
  • Facts don’t tell the story of history.
  • Facts are only a part of the whole picture.

Write your experience too.

The Two Key Reasons to Write Your Experience

Here are the 2 key reasons why you should write a review with both the facts AND your experience.

  1. When you add your experience, readers get to see you. They know you used the product. It’s your voice and your credibility.

  2. When readers hear talk about using the product, they can picture themselves. It doesn’t matter whether they agree with how you found it, If you explain what made you think as you do — they’ll decide for themselves.

Any customer needs more than facts to decide whether to buy any product. Sure the facts are important, but looking only at the facts doesn’t tell what it’s like to use it.

When you add your experience, people are more likely to remember both the product and you. A great review can save a reader a great deal of time and money.

Don’t be shy. Tell me what you think.

— ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar. Call her now!

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.