|
|
|
7 Simple Ways to Boost Your E-Book Sales
You can often dramatically increase your E-Book sales by making a few minor adjustments to your sales page. Here are 7 ways to increase your E-Book sales: (1) Make sure your 'Order' link appears at least 3 times on your sales page. (2) If your...
Insurance, Financial Services Sales Tactics
If you sell insurance, financial services and the like, consider the following low-cost marketing strategies to help grow your small business. It's important to first acknowledge some of the natural barriers to acquiring new clients within the...
Sales Channel considerations for the 21st century
Increasingly, small and mid size company CEO's and marketers wake each morning to a barrage of bad news despite their best efforts. Chaos is everywhere and in everything we do. How can thinking CEO's and senior marketers create more shareholder...
Turning Problems Into Profits And Solutions Into Sales
TURNING PROBLEMS INTO PROFITS AND SOLUTIONS INTO SALES! By Noel Peebles People don’t buy products or services - they buy solutions to problems. They buy what those products or services will do for them. People don’t want you to sell them...
Want A BIG Boost In Sales? Market To Lots Of Niches.
When most of us think of racking up massive sales, we imagine a product or service that EVERYONE will want. The person who comes up with the next paperclip or comb will strike it rich, right? Mass appeal products do garner massive sales, BUT...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Why People Buy: The Psychology Of Sales And Marketing
Did you know that when people make a purchase, they generally buy with their emotions and then justify their decision with logic later on?
What? You didn't know that? If you truly want to succeed in business, you need to learn and understand how using psychology can set you apart from the rest of your competition and take your business to the next level.
Psychology can be applied to all aspects of your sales and
marketing efforts and will give you that all important "edge" over your competitors.
When you write an ad or sales letter, seek first to
understand, then to be understood. In other words, first
strive to understand what's going on in the readers mind,
and attempt to allay any fears or doubts.
When you do this, the reader will have the perception that you understand and care about him and he in turn will begin to care about and understand you--thus greatly increasing your chances for making the sale.
People desperately want to feel cared for and understood more than anything else, and the businesses that understand this vital pyschological factor will gain a major advantage over their competitors.
Also, when writing your marketing materials, bear in mind, people respond more to what they are going to lose than to what they are going to gain. It's called "fear of loss."
Ask yourself: What will my customers stand to lose if they
do not buy my product or service?
In your sales letter, mention to your readers that it will only take a few minutes, to show them how they can benefit from what you're offering. This will mentally slow them down and partially alleviate any hesitation on their part.
In addition, reward them for taking the time to read your letter. Offer to give them a free gift. For example: free reports or gift certificates work extremely well as freebies. Why? Because they're low-cost with a perceived high value--and perception is reality.
Did you know you can increase your sales by using pictures of attractive people using your product or service? It's true.
Why is this? Well, first of all, it humanizes your product or service and prospects perceive you to be more professional and trustworthy. Again, perception is reality.
Secondly, people like looking at attractive people. Big business has known this for years. Just look at how attractive those people are in magazine ads and on television commercials.
You can also use this knowledge to your advantage on your business cards, brochures and website. This is especially true for small "mom and pop" businesses. If you're reasonably attractive, always include your photo on your website and marketing materials.
The reverse also holds true. If you're not attractive, you're better off not using a picture. You risk losing customers and turning people off. The same rule applies if you're a minority. You're better off not using your picture, regardless of how attractive you are.
Why? Unfortunately, we still live in a world where people have prejudices. That's just the way it is. You don't want to lose sales because someone has a problem with your nationality or the color of your skin or the shape of your eyes. Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not suggesting that this happens a lot--but it does happen. Why take the chance.
No matter
what type of business you have, in your marketing materials you MUST sell benefits, not features. People only care about one thing, "what's in it for me?"
A feature is a characteristic of your product or service. A benefit is what that feature does for a customer. Here are a couple examples of features and benefits:
Feature: At Consolidated Bank, there's NEVER a charge for using other bank's ATMs.
Benefits: You can get cash wherever you are, when you need it, and save money.
Feature: At ABC Employment Service, we test applicants office skills, such as typing speed.
Benefits: When we send you an applicant, they meet your minimum requirements, and you don't have to waste valuable time testing them yourself.
Here's a little trick for finding the benefit within the feature. List a feature then ask yourself, "So what?" What does that feature do for my customers? For example:
Feature: Personalized service.
Benefit: The benefit of our personalized service is that we take the time to understand your needs."
Don't stop there. So what? What does working with people who take the time to understand their customers needs do for your customers?
Benefit: Since we take the time to understand your needs, we can better anticipate potential problems and save you time, money and aggravation.
Bingo! Almost everyone likes to save time and money, and less aggravation is always good, so this is a real benefit statement.
Benefits Categories:
Though benefits can be described in a million ways, there are really only five main categories:
1. Convenience: Saves time or effort.
2. Saves money or increases money.
3. Provides peace of mind.
4. Appeals to image or ego.
5. Fun or enjoyment.
In addition, one single feature can have lots of benefits to one customer. Benefit statements don't necessarily have to include one feature and one benefit, each.
Also, keep in mind, just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so too are benefits. One person might buy an SUV because he needs room to transport five kids; another person buys the same SUV because she likes the comfortable ride and enjoys sitting up high overlooking other cars.
Another powerful psychological strategy is using
a technique that appears to lower the price of your product or service, without actually doing so.
For example, if you charge $1000 per year for your product or service, you can break it down for the reader so that they understand it's really only $19.23 per week." It's the
exact same price, however, $19.23 per week is a lot easier to psychologically digest and justify than $1000.
If you would like to start utilizing the immense power of psychology immediately in all your marketing efforts, I highly recommend the following books:
"Compelling Selling: A Framework for Persuasion," by Philip R. Lund and "Secrets of Closing the Sale," by Zig Ziglar
Since they're all-time classics, you should be able to find both both books at your local bookstore or on Amazon.com. Enjoy!
About the Author
Marketing Basics specializes in writing articles that teach,
explain and define basic marketing principles and
techniques. http://marketingbasics.blogspot.com
http://allsearchengineoptimization.blogspot.com
|
|
|
|
|
| Sales - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Dubious selling practices may occasionally result in a sale if the ... These can be slightly influenced by the salesperson, however, the sales person knows ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| Sales Jobs .com Worlds Largest Sales Employment Site |
| Sales Jobs features thousands of sales jobs for sales professionals. |
| www.salesjobs.com |
|
| Manage Smarter - Performance Gateway |
| Manage Smarter is the online home of sales & marketing management, incentive, potential, presentations and training magazine. |
| www.salesandmarketing.com |
|
| Oracle Customer Relationship Management Solutions |
| Oracle's products cover the breadth of CRM functionality—from sales, ... With Siebel CRM On Demand, you can accelerate sales, improve marketing and deliver ... |
| www.oracle.com |
|
| Sales and related occupations |
| Sales and related occupations. Advertising sales agents · Cashiers · Counter and rental clerks · Demonstrators, product promoters, and models ... |
| www.bls.gov |
|
| Sales Jobs - Search Sales & Marketing Jobs at Monster.com |
| Sales Career Paths: This field offers many different options. ... Manage Your Sales Career: Get expert tips for developing your sales career and handling ... |
| sales.monster.com |
|
| Government Sales and Auctions: FirstGov.gov |
| Official site for information on all sales and auctions of government surplus property and assets. |
| www.firstgov.gov |
|
| Sales and Marketing Executives International |
| Worldwide association of sales and marketing management. |
| www.smei.org |
|
| GPO U.S. Government Bookstore: Main Page |
| Purchase Federal information products for sale through the United States Government Printing Office (GPO). Browse by topic, keyword, or special collections. |
| bookstore.gpo.gov |
|
| Sales |
| Sales is a major aspect of product management. Therefore, after reviewing information in this topic, you might also benefit from scanning the topic ... |
| www.managementhelp.org |
|
| Sales Resource Center - Business Sales Web Site - Small Business ... |
| Sales resource center at Inc.com, small business sales and marketing information. |
| www.inc.com |
|
| Sales - Wex |
| Transactions for the sale (and leasing) of goods is governed mainly by sales ... Federal law has a limited impact on transactions for the sale of goods. ... |
| www.law.cornell.edu |
|
| Sales Jobs, Marketing Jobs, Advertising Jobs on CareerBuilder.com |
| Looking for sales & marketing jobs? Start your job search at CareerBuilder, the leader in job search sites, and access hundreds of thousands of jobs today. |
| sales-marketing.careerbuilder.com |
|
| Compare prices for retail store sales at SalesCircular |
| SalesCircular shows what's on sale at local retail stores every week by collecting data from Sunday newspapers and other ads. |
| www.salescircular.com |
|
| Sales Jobs in Canada - workopolis.com |
| Sales Jobs - Find sales Jobs online with workopolis.com. ... CSR (84), Office Equipment Sales (5). Call Centre Opportunities (109), Real Estate Sales (12) ... |
| www.workopolis.com |
|
| free online sales training articles, sales & selling processes ... |
| Sales and selling terms explained. (Scroll down a little bit to find this set of terms.) |
| www.businessballs.com |
|
| Music Sales Group |
| Music Sales Group - Eight Offices and three distribution centres worldwide bring you the world's best music. The Music Sales Group is Europe's largest ... |
| www.musicsales.com |
|
| Sales Autopsy |
| A collection of the best of the worst of negative selling experiences. Sales horror stories to use for learning, training and managing salespeople. |
| www.salesautopsy.com |
|
| REALTOR.com: Real estate listings & homes for sale |
| REALTOR.com is the world's largest real estate database of homes for sale and the official site of the National Association of REALTORS. |
| www.realtor.com |
|
| Marketing Jobs / Sales Jobs - NationJob.com Careers, Work ... |
| Marketing Jobs / Sales Jobs - detailed job listings and company profiles - Updated daily. |
| www.nationjob.com |
|
|