The Alternative Broadcasting Online News Station

How often do we see wrought iron doors in front of entrances to shops and business premise? Do we even ask ourselves the question “Why wrought iron?” These doors may be for just decoration or solid security in the case of burglars. These doors are very strong and one would certainly find it difficult to break or cut through them. These doors defer from place to place as they are many designs available. Beautiful houses or mentions need the best of all doors; these doors have been seen to add a great touch of beauty in most buildings.

Wrought iron doors are very cheap and are easy to make. Many companies also insist on the use of these gates as security measures. In most buildings you would find out that these gates are put in front of the normal wooden door. Certainly you would agree that these doors are also used to bar burglars from the premises. Another important aspect to not about these gates are the marvelous designs. The designs are carefully made using the general joining methods of metals. These gates are only admirable if the artist makes good designs. The marvel and wonders in these gates solely depend on the designs made on the gate.

Marketers from every niche have common ground when it comes to bills. Yeah, every month there’s a new stack of bills demanding to be paid. Will there be enough profit to slide right through bill paying time without a flinch? Or do you find yourself fretting about whether you’ll even break even? You don’t have to be victimized by envelopes and 8×10 sheets of paper. Implement these 3 techniques to boost your sales.

1. Find More Customers
The first thing that comes to mind when we think of making more money is getting more customers through our doors. In fact, the majority of advertising focuses on doing just that. There are several things you can do to entice more customers to buy from you.

Implement Follow-Ups
Marketing gurus have discovered that follow ups can increase your customer conversion rates by as much as 50%. Now, that’s a whopping improvement! Don’t let potential customers fade away. Keep the doors for future communication open, and watch the drastic growth in your profits.

Encourage Referrals
Every satisfied customer will tell 3 friends or family members about your business - without encouragement. Imagine what would happen if you start rewarding their efforts.

Get Free Publicity
Nearly everyone keeps a sharp eye on the local news. Hey, it’s funner to know what’s going on when you personally recognize the names and faces in print! Find ways to make your business newsworthy and catch the attention of potential customers without even paying advertising fees.

2. Sell More Per Customer
Think about it… how can you get every customer that walks through your doors to spend more money before walking back out the doors? Here are 3 sure-fire, profit increasing tips:

Increase your prices.
Hey, that might not be as bad as you think. Along with the price increase, focus on increasing the perceived value of your product. Yeah, we all expect to pay a little more for high quality stuff. Not everyone is bent on finding the absolute cheapest price in town… they may be more interested in lasting quality.

Add some higher end products or services to your business.
It’s never wise to put all of your eggs in one basket. That’s why wise marketers diversify their products and services. Think of it this way… higher priced products may not make as many sales, but each sale will bring in a much greater profit. You don’t need to make as many sales to come out on the best end of the deal.

Upsell
Offer every customer an additional product that accents his current purchase at the register. Hey, maybe they forgot they’d need batteries to go with the toy they’re getting for their niece’s birthday gift! You can be a hero… a richer hero.

3. Sell More Often
The fact that it’s easier to sell to the people who know and trust you is obvious. Sometimes we get so focused on new customers that we miss the gold mine in our own back yard. Take advantage of the hard work you’ve invested in winning the loyal customers you already have with these ideas:

Create a Special Deal
Show your customers you appreciate them and understand their needs with a special offer catered just for them. You’ll be thanking them, and selling more in the process.

Add New Products
Increase the number of products you already have available - especially products that your customers have asked for. They’ll know that you’re looking out for them, and you’ll take their thanks to the bank.

Communicate
Resell yourself on a regular basis. Don’t forget to let them know about upcoming specials that they’ll appreciate. Most of all… keep selling them on the benefits of the products or services you offer.

Who is Allyn Cutts, and why should you care?
Allyn has spent over 24 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales to current customers. Allyn is a marketing and sales fanatic, providing measurable marketing solutions that drive huge results for small-to mid-size business clients. Allyn works personally with clients to design and deliver off-line and on-line direct marketing strategies that focus on metrics and measurable results. You can learn more about Allyn Cutts at www.AllynCutts.com and you can call 610.437.4106 between 10 AM and 4 PM Eastern Time Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Submitted with Article Distributor.

If you’re a consultant with a growing business, you may find
that you’re out-growing the standard options for processing
payments online, and yet are not producing the volume level of a
particular service to justify the extra costs that a merchant
account would require.

This is one of the reasons why I was looking for alternatives
payment options. Sure, people who know and trust me already, who
are used to the standard options for processing ebook payments
won’t see a problem with being sent to a page that looks
completely different from the rest of my site, in order to
complete their transaction.

But since my business specializes in solutions for people who
aren’t marketers or search experts, and who rarely pay for
products online, I had to have another option. Not that I have
anything against PayPal or Clickbank - not at all.

But the way my business has changed has led me to find an
alternative, not just a supplemental payment processor.

But what’s so great about having a branded sales page? And how
does it increase your conversion rates?

It’s easier to trust the familiar.

Isn’t this one of the reasons people buy in the first place,
because the seller is familiar, and as such, more trustworthy
than an anonymous solution? More people stay with the sales
process when they are familiar.

Branded Sales Pages assure the client that they’re taking the
right steps to fulfilling their order.

Have you ever clicked on the wrong thing or realized that with
five windows open, you weren’t sure where your place was?

Abandonment rates are lower the smoother the processing
experience is.

If you’ve ever studied your web stats and seen people abandon
your sales process at the checkout page, you know that this one
aspect can totally kill the user experience, and sink your
conversion rate.

What could be more disheartening than the knowledge that you’ve
somehow gotten all the elements to making sales perfect -only to
have high abandonment at the last step.

In those cases, you know it’s the order page, but you don’t know
what to do about it.

Branded Pages tend to load faster and contain similiar elements
that are already on your site. Faster loading pages lower the
amount of people who may leave because your page isn’t loading.

50 % of Americans may be on high-speed, but there’s still the
other half, not to mention the rest of the world.

Branded sales pages can help you enhance your brand and make the
purchasing experience less confusing for your visitors. If
increasing your online conversion rate is one of your New Year’s
Resolutions, you will want to look into a company that can offer
this solution for you.

How do you get people’s attention and build their interest to take the time to read your sales letter? Let’s face it. If you can’t get the attention of prospects and keep their interest your sales letter will just fall flat on it’s face and thus not make you much money.

Today, I’m going to show you how to take that limp sales letter and inject more money making power into it. How? You make your sales letter more riveting. And you do that by creating a thread of curiosity and or surprising information that keeps your prospects on the edge of their seats. There are various ways to do this, but today I’m going to show you three simple things you can do right away to make your sales letter more riveting.

1) The 25% Rule: Simply stated, if the first quarter of your sales letter isn’t absolutely compelling and interesting enough your sales letter will bomb. So here’s what you do. You craft an irresistible benefit laden headline and subhead that pull people into the first sentence of your body copy. You write the copy in such a way that to complete the thought forces your audience into the next sentence. Next, your first paragraph will naturally flow into the second paragraph and then into the third and so on. The trick again, is to write the copy in such a way that you’re using stories, case histories, testimonials news or even descriptions that take several paragraphs to write. Then you break this huge block of copy up into multiple paragraphs. As a result, the first 25% of your sales letter should become riveting.

2) Sentence Enders: At the end of key paragraphs you can add a special sentence that beckons your prospects to read into the next paragraph. Here are several examples: “Stay with me.” “Let me explain.” There’s more.” “What happened next will surprise you.” “I was blown away by what happened next.” “Now here comes the good part.”

3) Preview: Have you ever noticed on talk radio or on various news programs that the announcer or radio host will give you a preview of what’s to come in their show in order to whet your appetite to know more? You can do the same thing throughout your sales letter. Note this technique is closely related to Sentence Enders. Here are a few examples. “As you read on, you’re about to discover how XXX can boost your sales by 30% to 400% in just 7 short days.” “I’m going to reveal my magic metabolism secrets that can peel off 20 lbs within 30 days time. But before I do … ” “In the next 5 minutes as you read every word of this letter, you will know the 7 secrets to exploding your online profits without paying a single dime in advertising costs.” “By the time you finish reading this eye-opening letter you will know how to take these three fighting techniques and stop any attacker foolish enough to get in your face.”

Here’s the bottom line. You must keep your prospects focused on your sales message. If your sales letter is like most people’s sale letters - boring - no prospect will take the time to read it and as a result you won’t get sales. Use these three techniques and try inventing some of your own to keep your reader focused and riveted on what you’ve written. Build suspense in your sales letter. As if you’re constantly dangling a carrot before them. Do this and you should see your sales boost.

About The Author

Mike Jezek is the creator of Mega-Persuasion Psychology the science behind “Irresistible Copywriting” which employs a powerful combination of results-producing influence techniques and psychologically persuasive sales devices — proven to increase Web SALES by 30% to 400% or more.

Sign up for Mike Jezek’s acclaimed “Confidential Psychological Selling Tactics” mini-course today at irresistiblecopy@worldresponders.com or enjoy more of his articles at www.irresistiblecopywriting.com

Hopefully you’ve taken the time to clarify the roles of your sales team and sales management. It’s a valuable exercise. Now you get to assess sales team strategy and culture. Regardless of your methodology half of your sales representatives currently perform below average. Fifty percent are performing below average! Think about that. This is an indisputable fact. So why even assess the team? Simply put, to sell more.

Successful selling organizations consist of three components; investment, activity and results. The first component is the investment in the sales team. The investment is measured in compensation, benefits, computers, software, training, hiring, meetings, sales material, phones and other related expenses.

The second element is the activity of the investment. Face-to-face meetings, travel, preparation, telephone calls and administration comprise the second element. The third, and vital, component stands alone; results. How many sales were generated? Profits? Current market share?

The glue that binds the three distinct parts includes your people, culture and customers. Is there a career path for salespeople? What is your turnover rate? Who are the sales heroes? What is driving the team to achieve?

The best sales managers and sales teams recognize four productivity drivers.

1. Sales research-information related to market trends, target markets, customers, trends, etc.

2. Investment and organization-size, structure and deployment of sales team allows you to get the right people at the right place at the right time.

3. People-selection, training, managing, motivating, evaluation and termination.

4. Sales systems and processes-compensation, incentives, benefits, internal support, etc.

Tests and surveys remain the most effective way to assess salespeople. Companies rarely assess sales management instead relying on results to determine effectiveness.

A successful selling organization operates in a progressive culture. What’s a culture? That’s best answered by the following story.

Six apes were placed in a room with a ladder. A bunch of bananas hung from the center of the room. One ape started to climb the ladder for the fruit and the entire room was showered with cold water. This happened a few times until any ape that wandered near the ladder was beat up by other apes. A new guy replaced one of the original apes. The new guy, wanting to be a hero, headed for the ladder and received a thorough beating. He learned not to go near the ladder. Eventually every one of the original apes was replaced. The beatings continued. The replacement apes were unaware why they were prohibiting others from going near the ladder. They just knew the ladder was off limits.

That’s a culture. Are there any new apes on your team following old practices without knowing why? Cultures evolve over time and their origins are rarely known. Does your sales team have a culture? I bet it does. Is it a good one? Sales cultures consist of three elements:

Norms-how individuals actually behave.

Values-how individuals should behave.

Work styles-diligent, tardy, professional, thorough, detailed, casual?

Changing negative cultures represents a significant challenge but is mandatory…if you want to stay in business. People are the agents of change and must be supported by management. Who are the heroes of your sales team? How long have they been the department hero and for what reason? Knowing these answers will help you assess your culture.

You must first formulate your vision of the sales team and evaluate all key contributing factors. Great companies communicate their vision clearly and frequently with all sales related personnel. Don’t leave anyone out that comes in contact with your sales team.

Next, you must put your vision in action by rewarding individuals for acting in concordance with your vision. This is a process not a destination but as it evolves your sales will increase and profits will soar.

This takes courage. You need to ask and answer tough questions. Dedication to a better selling team is required. Don’t give up until your vision is clarified, communicated and leads to rewarding the winners.

“Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.”
Confucius

Dan L. Schoepf is President of Prospects…to Partners, a firm specializing in assisting businesses align sales goals and sales management as well as a contributing member of http://www.adastrabusinesssolutions.com.

Our innate drive to maintain our “comfort zone” directly affects
how and what we purchase. Pain versus pleasure, similarity
versus unfamiliarity and comfort versus stress; self inflected
or not, are all feelings and emotions that affect most facets
of our lives. How we deal with such emotion volatility directly
affects our motivations to buy things that make us feel better.

Humans prefer pleasure, avoid pain, seek familiarity and would
rather be comfortable than stressed out. Jack LaLane’s famous
exercise philosophy of the 1960’s, “No Pain, No Gain” does not
apply to most of us.

We all like things to be “just so”, always in line with our
expectations. Anything that rattles our comfort zone generally
leads to an action response, a reaction, immediate pursuit of
problem resolution. Herein lies a fundamental basis for sales
professionals to leverage our natural tendency to seek and
purchase things that help us avoid pain.

Selling is truly a Painful Process

Most selling situations involve collaborative problem or pain
definition between a salesperson and a buying prospect. The
sales representative ultimately attempts to educate the
potential buyer about how costly it is to them of NOT having
his product or service to eliminate their pains.

Many times in a buy/ sell situation the buyer does not know what
his pains are, just the symptoms of the pain. Typically he
knows he wants to rid himself of the pain but needs more
information from the sales person to determine what it will
cost him to do that. Cost manifests itself in many forms, time
commitment, effort to be made or monetary investment to solve
the problem.

Get Answers to These 5 Key Pain Questions

A skilled sales person must systematically qualify, or better,
DIS-qualify the buyer early in the discussion to find answers
to five basic questions:

1) What are the prospect pains? (They may not know!)

2) Can I, my product or service effectively eliminate
the pains defined?

3) Is the buyer truly motivated to eliminate his pains?

4) Does the buyer have the financial resources to proceed?

5) Who ultimately decides to apply the available financial
resources to these pains?

It is most logical that a sales representative must secure
answers to these five disqualification questions BEFORE they
decide to present their pain solutions, products, information
or services to the buying prospect.

This decision to delay presentation, to postpone the “sales
pitch”, contingent on systematic disqualification of the
prospect takes extraordinary discipline on the part of the
sales representative. Most average sales people immediately
jump into their presentation having no idea what really are the
prospect’s pains, if he’s motivated to fix them, can afford the
relief or whether he has the authority to make the purchase
decision.

Prospect “Pains” are not Unique

With a “pain definition” perspective incorporated in your
selling approach you will quickly realize that many of your
sales prospects have similar pains. You can categorize these
pains, define their most common causes and solutions, then
prepare in advance of your sales calls written or visual
selling tools specific to each common pain. Each selling tool
would be used only for a specific pain.

It is also natural for your prospects to have appreciation for
others who had similar problems as they have. Anything you can
do to document how you as a sales representative addressed
another person’s like pains with your products or services will
go a long way to justify their pending purchase. Written case
histories of successful application of your product or service
with previous customers are excellent selling tools.

Not “Features and Benefits” - It’s about PAINS!

So many sales technique training programs emphasize product or
service feature and benefit “selling”. As a potential buyer it
is nice to know all this, but prospects want the sales person
to first listen to and understand their problems; how long
they’ve had them, what its cost them and what they’ve done
already to try to fix them. A potential buyer needs to do this
first before they can fully appreciate any form of potential
pain relief. (Again, save your sales pitch and get answers to
the five fundamental pain questions defined here.)

Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, once said, “We will
do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure”. This is
particularly true if we are fully involved in pain at the time.
With this prospect pain definition selling approach increases
in your sales results are certain, resulting in significant
pain relief for both the buyer AND the seller.

About the Author:

Mark Smock is President of http://www.business-buyer-directory.com,
the FIRST international business buyer directory of its kind.
Business Buyer Directory provides a non-traditional means for
proactive business buyers to locate businesses for sale
worldwide that meet their exact registered purchase criteria.

Do you know that some of the greatest salesmen do it on the phone?

Yet, I keep hearing how cold calling is a nightmare, how they hate it, and how even some sales gurus say “cold calling is dead.” Here are some of the reasons I’ve heard from my own sales trainees, at least in the beginning:

1) RejectionAll I got was No’s and the phone slammed in my ear.

2) All I got was voice mail jail and no one ever returns my calls.

And there are others, but most come back to the same thing: the obstacle you are facing isn’t out there in the cold cruel world. It resides right between your own two ears. Your own beliefs are the obstacle. It isn’t anywhere else.

For this article we’re going to deal with the “all” syndrome and rejection.

A client and I once developed a cold calling campaign plan. He was to make 200 cold calls in the next week. We developed the general idea of what he was going to say, who he was going to call, and how he was going to say it. Then we practiced it until he sounded natural.

When we got together the following week, I asked,
So, how’d it go?
“Horrible, all I got was phones slammed in my ear, P.O.’d people and No’s galore. It just didn’t work at all.”

How many calls did you make?

“30, and after all those No’s, I gave up.”

How many appointments did you get?”

“Only one.”

So, what was your success ratio? How many appointments for how many calls?

“Let’s see, I think that is….1 in 30, or 3%.”

And what was our original estimate. Wasn’t it 1 in 25? So, how can you say that it was a failure? You weren’t far off.

“…….but….but…all of those No’s, 29 out of 30. That was mostly failure!”

Let’s see, at 1-2 minutes per call for No’s, and maybe 5+ for the yes, how many minutes did you spend to get just one appointment? Isn’t that around 60 minutes to get an appointment? Not bad if you ask me.
What would have happened if you had made all 200 calls?

“Maybe 6-7 appointments….Wait a minute, didn’t we target 8 appointments for the 200 calls?!?!”

How many calls were necessary to achieve your goal of 8 appointments a week? (This is probably THE MOST important question since it tells you clearly what you have to do to get the needed RESULTS).

Another thing would have happened if he had made the 200 calls: He’d have gotten better and better, gotten over his fear, and probably would have seen his call success improving toward the 1 in 25 calls, or even better.

I tell most of my clients that they need to make about 500 calls to get good at it. The trouble is that most never reach 500 calls, or if you do it takes them 2 years to do it, and by that time either the boss has eliminated you, or if you are a business owner your overhead costs have eliminated you.

It all started with the “all” syndrome. In other words our belief that

• ALL we got was no’s,

• ALL we got were Voice Mails, and that NO ONE ever returned a call.

It’s the glass half full or half empty issue. That is a belief that in this case isn’t valid.

Use the Plan - Do - Improve/Optimize scenario.

• Plan what you are going to do,

• Do it (make sure to measure the results so you know what works and what doesn’t), make changes (new plans), and
• Go back through that loop over and over.

Let’s apply that to the scenario above.

• Develop what you are going to say, how you are going to say it and to who. Find the reasons why someone would even want to talk to you and develop it.

• Measure your success, measure how many successes you had out of how many calls. In most cases, it really isn’t as bad as everyone makes out.
• Now that you have the key measurementsfix them. That means, change what you say, how you say it, or who you say it to, and watch the numbers. Do they go up, or down? Capture what works, and learn from what doesn’t. You’ll see those numbers constantly moving up.
• Learn the best way from the experts…get every book you can, go to training classes, hire a sales coach.

You are always in control. Don’t be at the mercy of anything, someone else, the environment, the market place.

Sales Training — Get results not just Training

Some typical results

What is needed?

Skills or removing the barrier between the ears? We focus on measurable results.

Alan Boyer, President/CEO of The Leader’s Perspective, LLC

Helping People and Companies Worldwide Reach Further Than They EVER Thought Possible…FASTER

Check out our website, and sign up for our weekly newsletter “Hints and Tips to Increase Your Business.”

http://www.leaders-perspective.com
mailto:AlanBoyer@leaders-perspective

If you can get someone to mentally commit to a product or a decision, he is likely to remain committed even after the terms and conditions change. This is why when stores, for example, advertise very low prices on a television set, they include in small print, “Quantities Limited.” By the time you get to the store, all the bargain televisions are sold, but you are mentally committed to buying a new TV. Luckily for you, there are more expensive models available. So, you go home having spent $300 more on a television set than you originally planned, just because you needed to maintain a consistency between your desire for a new TV and your action of being in the store.

This technique is also often used when goods and products go on sale. For example, a customer may be lured to a store by an incredible deal on a pair of nice dress shoes. Upon inquiring, the disappointed customer learns from the salesperson that her size is not in stock. Just as the customer is about to leave, the salesperson miraculously displays another strikingly similar pair–but this pair is not on sale.

Think of a time when you purchased a new car. Have you ever noticed that when you’re about to sign the contract the price is $200 more than you expected? Well, someone conveniently forgot to tell you about the air conditioner or some other feature found in your car. You pay the extra $200 anyway because you’re mentally committed to that car, and you don’t want to go through the whole hassle and headache of trying to renegotiate the deal.

Often car dealers promise an incredible price, even a few hundred dollars below a competitor’s price, all the while knowing it’s not actually going to go through. The deal is offered only to motivate the buyer to purchase from their dealership. Once the customer decides to buy, the dealer sets up several conditions, each of them causing the customer to feel increasingly committed before finding out the real price: lengthy forms are filled out, great lengths are taken to set up specific financing terms, the customer is encouraged to take the car home and drive it to work, to run errands, to cruise the neighborhood. The dealer knows that while the customer is out joy riding, she is thinking of all the many reasons their purchase is justified.

Cognitive Dissonance and Public Commitment

Public commitments and dissonance go hand in hand. Even when we feel an action is not right, we still go through with it if we have publicly committed to such a course of action.

For example, when you ask that young lady to marry you and she says yes, there’s a commitment. The announcement of the engagement is a second commitment. All the other actions that follow suit increase your public commitment: telling your friends, getting the rings, asking the parents, setting the date, taking the pictures, sending announcements, paying the deposit for the reception location, etc. Each step closer to “I do” results in a greater level of commitment. Even if one or both of you decide you want to call it off, it actually feels easier to go through with the wedding than to stop the whole procession created by so much public commitment.

The more public our stand, the more reluctant we are to change it. A now famous experiment conducted in 1955 by Morton Deutsch and Harold Gerard demonstrates this principle. A group of students were divided into three groups. Each group viewed some lines and had to estimate their length. The students in the first group had to privately write down estimates, sign their names to it, and hand it in. The second group of students also had to privately write down their estimates, but they did so on a Magic Writing Pad. They could lift the plastic cover on their notepad and their figures would instantaneously disappear. The third group of students did not write down their estimates but just kept them privately in their minds. Not surprisingly, even when new information was presented contradicting their estimates, the students who had written down their estimates, signed their names to them, and handed them in remained the most committed to their choices, while those who had never committed anything to writing were the most readily swayed to change their responses.

It’s a challenge getting consumers to remain loyal to a particular brand. Unlike the good old days when brand loyalty was a given, times have changed. As a society, we no longer feel compelled to stick with a certain company or product. I grew up with Crest, Cheerios, and Tide being staples in my home. Now I change brands much more easily. I’m not likely to remain loyal to a brand unless they reward me for my commitment to them, for example, with frequent flyer miles, with the little cars you can buy for your kids at Chevron, or with a Unocal 76 ball to swing from your car antennae. Acquiring consumer loyalty is the reason the tobacco industry spends over $600 million giving away paraphernalia with tobacco logos. We constantly see companies putting their logos on coffee mugs, t-shirts, pens, and mouse pads, to name just a few promotional items. Even though you might not have paid for these items, owning them creates loyalty to the product advertised on them. Most people who wear a Budweiser T-shirt don’t drink Coors beer.

Understanding the psychology of commitment through publicity can be used to bring about good societal changes. Many organizations exist to help individuals conquer bad habits, patterns, or abuses. For example, weight-loss centers commonly encourage clients to share their goals with as many friends, relatives, and neighbors as they can, understanding that this public commitment and pressure often works when other methods don’t.

Everyone persuades for a living. There’s no way around it. Whether you’re a sales professional, an entrepreneur, or even a stay at home parent, if you are unable to convince others to your way of thinking, you will be constantly left behind. Get your free reports at Magnetic Persuasion to make sure that you are not left watching others pass you on the road to success. Donald Trump said it best, “Study the art of persuasion. Practice it. Develop an understanding of its profound value across all aspects of life.”

Conclusion

Persuasion is the missing puzzle piece that will crack the code to dramatically increase your income, improve your relationships, and help you get what you want, when you want, and win friends for life. Ask yourself how much money and income you have lost because of your inability to persuade and influence. Think about it. Sure you’ve seen some success, but think of the times you couldn’t get it done. Has there ever been a time when you did not get your point across? Were you unable to convince someone to do something? Have you reached your full potential? Are you able to motivate yourself and others to achieve more and accomplish their goals? What about your relationships? Imagine being able to overcome objections before they happen, know what your prospect is thinking and feeling, feel more confident in your ability to persuade.

Kurt Mortensen’s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; rather than convincing others, he teaches that you should attract them, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical within the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2 or 3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available!

Kurt Mortensen teaches over a hundred techniques to give you the ability to effectively work with every customer that walks in your door. Professional success, personal happiness, leadership potential, and income depend on the ability to persuade, influence, and motivate others. Learning how to persuade and influence will make the difference between hoping for a better income and having a better income. If you are ready to claim your success and learn what only the ultra-prosperous know, begin by going to http://www.PreWealth.com and getting my free report “10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands.” After reading my free report, go to http://www.PreWealth.com/IQ and take the free Persuasion IQ analysis to determine where you rank and what area of the sales cycle you need to improve in order to close every sale!

1. Gain free advertising by submitting your software to freebie
and freeware/shareware web sites. This will increase the number
of visitors to your web site.

2. If you created the free software yourself, you will become
known as an expert. This will gain people’s trust and they will
buy your main product faster.

3. Offer your software as an extra free bonus to the people that
buy one of your main products. People buy products quicker with
free bonuses included.

4. Publish your free software on disk or CD-Rom then include it
with your direct mail packages. This can increase the amount of
orders you’ll receive.

5. Build your opt-in e-mail list fast by asking your visitors to
give you their contact information before they can download your
software.

6. People love to get free stuff. They will visit your web site
to download the free software. Make sure the software is
attractive to your target audience.

7. Tell people they can download your software at no-cost if
they link to your web site. This strategy will multiply your
advertising all over the internet.

8. You will gain valuable referrals from people that tell others
about the free software you give away. Word of mouth advertising
can be very powerful.

9. Increase your e-zine’s subscriber base by giving away
software to people that subscribe to your e-zine. This’ll give
them an incentive to subscribe.

10. Give away software to your current customers as a way of
letting them know you appreciate their business. This’ll create
loyalty and repeat sales.

You may have heard about the “summer slowdown”. You may be experiencing it right now, or you may not be affected. Regardless it’s important to pay attention, and do something this time of year.

If sales are slow and weren’t in the spring, most likely this means your target market isn’t spending as much time online as they were before (this could be due to vacations, spending time with family/children out of school, etc). There are several different options you have now:

1. Do nothing - take a vacation yourself

While not the most practical for a growing business, if you need a break - take one while you can. Collect your thoughts and ideas and get ready for your busy season.

2. Reorganize and prepare for fall

Similar to the first option, except you are still active and preparing. Clean your desk, organize your files, brainstorm new ideas for all, write new ads, research new markets, redesign your website, finish a few marketing books you’ve been meaning to read, etc. There are lots of things you can do to keep yourself busy that will also help your business.

3. Find where your target market went - and go there

Is your target market the vacationing type? Get offline and go where the tourists hang out. Are there local events near by that you can join (such as business expos, craft fairs, etc)? Sign up! While you’re at it, make sure you check into your local Chamber of Commerce and pay attention to local events you can be a part of.

4. Start a new project with a new target audience

While it may be a little late in the summer to start a new project or idea, it’s possible to make up a few of those sales within a month or two. Just make sure you are organized, and can handle the extra work once your normal sales begin picking up again.

If your sales haven’t slowed down this doesn’t mean you aren’t completely immune to the “summer slowdown”. Your sales may have a different time of year where they drop off, such as Christmas or New Years. Even though you may be just as busy, now is a good time to re-evaluate and see where your sales are headed in the next few months. It’s a good idea to make preparations for your slow season right now before it hits. Follow the same ideas as listed above to completely avoided loosing any sales at all.

bout the author: Kara Kelso is a work at home mom of two, and the co-owner of Direct Sales Helpers, which is dedicated to helping mothers succeed in direct sales. For more information,
visit: http://www.DirectSalesHelpers.com