Welcome to Business Consultant Weekly

Vol. 2 Issue # 26 June 28, 1999

In this issue:

1) Tip of the Week

2) FEATURE ARTICLE: Effective Sales Persuasion 'Know-How' is Important for Selling Success by Paul Barton

3) CLASSIFIEDS

4) FREE Resources

5) TIME SAVING TIP

6) MOTIVATIONAL MESSAGE: The Fear is False by William N Hodges

If you'd like to read previously ran tips and features, go to http://netcheckspayroll.com/newsletter.html

Today's feature article offers us some thought-provoking ideas for making sales to our prospects. Since pulling in visitors is the first step toward closing the sale, here's a suggestion from Harvey Segal for bringing traffic to your site:

Win customers by giving away FREE information by Harvey Segal

What is the best way to attract visitors to your site ?

Everyone agrees on this point - it is by providing Free Information.

Let's see how to do this and why it works so well.

Suppose you are a supplier of video recorders. Hopefully you will be the owner of a professional sounding domain name, such as www.VCRworld.com

You write an informative article entitled "How to Choose a Video Recorder" which explains:

* the key features of video recorders * a guide to prices * handy tips for using video reorders * useful accessories * potential problems * future developments

Put this article on your web site or have it available by Email (on an autoresponder if you expect a big response).

While your competitors are all posting similar ads which say "Buy, buy, buy our cheap video recorders" or sending unsolicited bulk Email to thousands, you will be posting short ads which say Our Free Guide "How to Choose a Video Recorder" explains the key features to look for, prices and handy tips. Visit http://www.VCRworld.com

And whenever you contribute to any group where there are potential customers you include in your signature "How to Choose a Video Recorder " (FREE guide) http:// www.VCRworld.com

Your visitors will be impressed by the quality of free information you are providing and your well chosen domain name: they will regard you as an authority on the subject.

They will be easily influenced to buy from your site while your competitors' unoriginal ads are consigned to the Email waste bin.

From Harvey Segal, the author of the very popular FREE book "The SuperTips book of Internet Marketing" http://www.supertips.com

Effective Sales Persuasion 'Know-How' is Important for Selling Success by Paul Barton

I don't know anything at all about you, but, if you are in the business world, I can make a pretty good guess at two things:

(1) No matter what you do, your job is selling -- selling your products, your services or your ideas.

(2) If you are like most people, you are probably lacking in one of the most important requirements for selling: A real understanding of what it takes to persuade.

As a sales seminar lecturer and a consultant, I have talked with hundreds of business people and at least 90% have freely admitted to knowing little about the techniques of persuasion. The other 10%? They both know and apply them -- and profit by the results. People like:

-- A restaurant owner who makes an extra $10,000 -- with just a piece of cake.

-- A salesman who convinces people at a free "opportunity" meeting to invest $1,900 before they leave -- based largely on their nodding heads.

-- A Realtor who persuades clients to do $25 million worth of business with him -- mainly because "everybody" does.

The restaurant owner uses the "reciprocity" technique. People have a need for social acceptance or "belonging," so we do what is "expected." If I do something nice for you, you do something nice for me. Experiments have shown how powerful this technique can be.

In one test, a supermarket increased sales of cheese from 50 pounds a day to 1,000 pounds, simply by placing out free samples along with the sign, "Please try this with our compliments." The result: Customers "reciprocated" by buying 20 times as much!

The owner of the restaurant, located near a major toll highway exit, reasoned that, if he could persuade the toll collectors to refer hungry travelers to him, he could increase his business. Three or four times a year, he takes them a piece of cake. In return, they refer about 500 travelers a year who spend about $20 each -- for an additional $10,000 in revenue.

The salesman who convinces people attending a free opportunity meeting to invest $1,900 applies the "commitment/consistency" technique. Again, our need to be socially accepted causes us to act in a "consistent" manner.

University researchers demonstrated this when they asked about 100 homeowners to let them mount a large "Drive Carefully" sign in their front yards for two weeks. Every one turned them down.

Then they went into another neighborhood, asking homeowners to place a small "Drive Carefully" sticker in their windows. Nearly all did. Later, they asked the same people to mount the large sign in their front yards. Startlingly, nearly 60% consented. They had agreed to the "small" request for a sticker in their windows and, to be "consistent," almost 60% agreed to the second, larger commitment.

The salesman in the above example uses this technique by asking people at the opportunity meeting a series of small questions that are easy to agree to. "Is financial independence important?" (Nods, yes) "Would you like to make $75,000 working from home?" (Nods) "If you could get in that business for just $40 a month, you could certainly afford that, right?" (Nods) He then, invariably, signs up a lot of people for his $1,900 program -- getting small commitments, leading to the much larger one. (Of course, he first does a complete presentation to create desire. The technique then helps overcome buyer inertia and makes it easier to say yes.)

The Realtor applies the "social proof" technique. He does business where homes sell in the $400,000-plus range and he sells about 70, or more than $25 million worth, each year.

Researchers illustrated how "social proof " works by placing a dog in a playpen with pre- schoolers and asking the kids to climb in. They wouldn't; they were afraid. Then they showed the kids a film of other children playing with a dog in a playpen. After that, 70% of the kids climbed right in -- having received "social proof" from their peers that this was OK.

How does the Realtor use social proof? He joins upscale organizations and makes it known whenever he lists or sells a high-priced home; he calls owners of similar homes. He enlists former clients to make sure every potential client knows he is "THE Realtor" for such homes.

Clearly, when you use sales persuasion techniques, you are influencing people. But, that is the is the real job of everyone selling any product or service.

As long as you deal honestly with customers, offering them products or services of real value that meet their needs at a fair price, persuasion techniques such as these are WIN/WIN facilitators for both the seller and the buyer, by making it easier for the seller to sell, and for the buyer to buy.

These are used every day by some of the world's most successful companies -- large and small. Every business can profit from them.

-----------------

Paul Barton is principal of W. Paul Barton Associates, Marketing and Consulting, producer of "Effective Sales Persuasion -- A How-To Seminar In Print." http://www.salespersuasion.com

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"Letter Rip!"

Okay. Your employees have all gone home early. You've finished your phone calls in record time. Now it's time to handle that backlogged correspondence that you've been putting off.

Clean off your desk. Pick up that stack of mail that needs attention. Sort it fast, into four piles.

Stuff that can be thrown out immediately. Stuff that might be interesting later. Stuff that needs answered. Bills that need paid.

Now, throw the first stack out.

Pay the bills. Don't balance your checkbook after each check is written. You know where you stand. Just write the checks and put them in envelopes in the outbox. Record the payment, and move on.

Grab a note pad. Post-Its are good for this. For each letter that needs answered, do a quick outline of the points that you need to answer. Answer them, stuff the replies into an envelope and move to the next letter. Repeat until that pile is done. Doing the outlines will focus you on your purpose, and make things go much faster.

Another way to handle it is to do an outline on the Post-It and stick it on the outside of the envelope, then do the next outline. When those are done, answer the mail.

Now, one stack left. "Stuff that might be interesting later".

Pick them up one at a time, tear them in half, and throw them in the trash. You'd never bother with them later, and you know it. Except to use them as a procrastination technique. Rip 'em up and toss 'em!

Didn't that feel good?

Now go enjoy some extra time with your family. You deserve it.

So do they.

Reprinted from TalkBiz News. To subscribe (It's free), send any email to mailto:Newsletter@TalkBiz.com

THE FEAR IS FALSE Copyright 1998 William N Hodges, used by permission.

It is ironic how many faces fear can wear. Fear is all around us and permeates our very society. Yet fear vanishes in most instances when we shine the light of truth on it. Someone said that the word "fear" was an acronym for "false evidence appearing real." They were right; most of our fears are false.

An example of a false fear came to my attention while I was standing on a corner waiting for a bus in a large North American city. It was getting dark and, as I waited with several other people for the bus to come, I noticed a very large young black man had joined us. Almost immediately the others at the bus stop moved away. I, on the other hand, tried to engage him in conversation. On my third attempt, he finally started to talk to me. He told me what it was like to see people tremble at the sight of him, and he said the fact I had not shown fear actually caused him to be fearful. Strange, but true. He turned out to be a very nice young man who was working his way through college. The people who moved away from him will never know this intelligent young man because they let a false fear control their actions.

Another false fear is the fear of the laughter of others. I decided I wanted to learn to cross country ski. So, with my skis, I headed off to Michigan, and took to the trails. Very slowly I moved along. My progress was not what I had envisioned, and I asked a friend for advice. The friend replied, "fall down." "Fall down," I said, "I am trying not to fall down. I don't want everyone to laugh at me."

My friend said my fear of looking foolish was standing in my way of learning to ski. I was thinking so much about not falling that I could not relax. Well, for the next hour I spent more time picking myself up than I did going forward. My friends did not laugh, but rather cheered me on. Now I have a grasp of the skills necessary to participate. Remember that the saddest reason for failure is not to try for fear someone else will laugh.

Probably the fear that is most destructive is the fear we will lose the love and affection of family and friends. I listened to a man talk with a radio psychologist. He told her he was in love with a woman who had a child out of wedlock when she was 15 and that child, now 11, was also a delightful part of his life. Having dated the woman for about 10 months, he was now thinking about marrying her. He said she was everything he wanted in a wife and more. So what's the problem? His mother and father did not want him to marry what they considered a "fallen" woman. He feared the loss of their love if he married the girl of his dreams. The host told him that if his folks really loved him, they would stand by his decision.

She went on to say that it was his choice to make, and it should be made on the basis of how he and the love of his life felt rather than some fear of rejection by other parties. Those who love us will stand by us even if we are wrong, and maybe that is the true test of love. Do not let the opinions of others cause you fear that will steal the happiness from your life.

Think back over the past 12 months. How many things in your life have caused you to react with fear or have caused you to have a sinking feeling in your heart? Now, how many of those situations actually caused you pain beyond the worry you felt when you anticipated them? In other words, how many of those fearful situations really materialized?

I can't stop you from worrying, but I can suggest a few quick tests to determine a real worry from a false one. If you are basing your worry on a stereotype as the people at the bus stop did, or on whether others will laugh at you, or if family or friends are emotionally blackmailing you, you have real reason to believe the fear is false.

***********

Bill Hodges is nationally recognized speaker, trainer, and columnist. If you enjoyed this article, you will enjoy his book Within Your Reach which contains 60 such articles on positive thinking available either in print or a three cassette audio tape. If ordering from your local bookstore, .reference ISBN #0-9622717-0-5, or you may order directly by sending your check for $4.95 USCurrency plus ($1.30 USA $3.00 Other)for the printed book or $20.00 plus ($3.00 USA $6.00 other) for shipping to Hodges Seminars International, P O Box 22 Fairborn OH 45324. Or order by Visa or Mastercharge at his Web site http://www.BillHodges.com

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