Ad Efx Affiliate Marketing Weblog

THE ART OF THE “CLOSE” 

There are many different methods of judging the effectiveness of an advertising campaign but the two elemental goals should always be getting new customers into your establishment and getting them to purchase your products and/or services. The methods of attracting new clientele differ in format and effectiveness but at the end of the process you always want to see your customer traffic, and your revenues, increase. The only thing that would better the experience of meeting a new client and highlighting your products and services is to take it to the next step, that of seeing revenues generated by their visit and money hitting the bank.

Where a lot of businesses fail to capitalize on the new client is in knowing how to treat your new client, learning what it was that made them come into your establishment and closing a sale. Closing a sale is the goal that we will work towards in this column.

 THE NEW CLIENT 

When a new client comes into your establishment via an advertising promotion or campaign they have several different questions on their mind. They are wondering if you can do the services you claim to do, if you can do them very well, if they’ll be treated properly and if you have what it takes to be their supplier of choice. One of the most common mistakes that businesses can make is to run a promotional campaign and then fail to capitalize on the opportunity they have been presented with. The main criteria that will determine if you will be able to maintain a relationship with the new customer is how they are treated. It won’t help if you provide the best service in your neighbourhood if you treat someone poorly. Imagine how someone feels when they come into a business for the first time and excitedly present a coupon they’ve received only to hear “Oh, you have a coupon. I’m sorry but we don’t honor these anymore” or call to book an appointment for a special offer and are told “Sorry, we only have space for three discount customers a day”. The impression that the customer will leave with is that they are second class and have been treated as such. If you run any form of campaign for your business that involves a special or coupon you must treat these potential customers from the first contact as if they are your oldest and dearest clients, and soon they will be. The first impression that many customers have of a business is the impression they receive on their first phone call. Make sure whoever answers the phones is properly trained on your services and products, the length of time needed to complete an appointment and is fully informed of any specials or promotions that your business is conducting. The first opportunity to generate revenue for the business begins at the same time as the first phone call. When someone is booking in for an appointment the receptionist should also take a moment and advise them of any specials that are in effect and inquire if the time can be reserved for that now as it is in high demand. For example, if a new client calls in to an automotive service garage for an oil change, the receptionist could take the opportunity to inform them of the special currently being offered on wheel alignments. They could say “Mr. Smith, we have the time reserved for your service at 4:00 p.m. While I have you on the phone I wanted to take a moment and tell you we are running a special offer on wheel alignments. We are doing this service at 50% of our normal price. It takes an additional half hour and I could book the time now. Will your car be due for this service in the next couple of months”? By using this type of questioning and suggestive selling you will be able to generate added revenue from any type of service appointment. Also, by inquiring whether the car will be due for the service rather than asking if they would like to book the time, we take away the opportunity for the caller to say no to the offer and now have them thinking about a needed service for their vehicle.

 DETERMINING YOUR CLIENTS NEEDS AND CLOSING THE SALE 

An often overlooked skill that many businesses fail to develop is that of properly training your sale representatives to listen. We often train salespeople on when to talk and what to say but we don’t train them on when NOT to talk. You must determine why someone chose your business over another because that will open the door to filling that need. When a new client calls your business they are doing so for a reason, whether they saw an advertisement or by word of mouth. One very effective way to determine why they called is to ask. You could say “How did you hear of our business” or even simply “How will we be able to assist you today”? and then closely listen. If they are calling in from an advertisement then you should reference the advertisement in your conversation. For example “Oh, you saw our ad for the free massage. That’s fantastic. Allow me to set an appointment for you to take advantage of the introductory offer we have running”. If the customer was referred by another customer then you can say “Oh, you’re a friend of Mr. Smith. He was just in last week and took advantage of the 2 for 1 entrée special that the restaurant is running. I know he loved it and I’m sure you will as well. What night did you want to reserve and for how many”? There is another sales technique at play here, that of the third party referral. When you mention someone that the customer personally knows who has used your business in the past you will make the decision to purchase a much more comfortable and safe decision. No one wants to be the first at anything and no one wants to buy something only to find out later that it’s not suitable or of inferior quality. When you mention a colleague or acquaintance that has purchased from you in the past you will greatly increase the likelihood of selling to the new customer. By using leading questions you will be able to quickly source out the need or motivator that made that person call into your business and begin to work towards fulfilling that need. By assuming the sale (assuming during your conversations that the customer is definitely there to purchase) you will be able to lead a customer towards the close. One thing that you want to do is to structure your queries properly so that you can take away the option of having someone say “NO”. You can achieve this by asking questions that are not able to be answered with a yes or no. Instead of asking “would you like to book in for a manicure”? you could ask “do you have any weddings or special occasions coming up that you need to look your best for”? or instead of asking “would you like to buy this car”? you could ask “which of your friends will get the first ride in your new car”? These questions will move a customer away from deciding whether they want to purchase a product or service and get them thinking about how they will best use the product or service after they have purchased. In this way you are taking away the decision making ability that every customer has and replacing it with a mental image of them enjoying the purchase. However, to realize this image they will need to purchase your product and they are now much closer to making that decision.

The last sales technique we will touch on is the timing of the close. A common mistake that many sales representatives make is that they will ask the customer for the sale and then get scared or nervous while the customer is deciding. They feel pressured and begin to chatter away with all kinds of (usually) repetitive or inconsequential talk to fill the silence and defuse the pressure. What we need to teach is that while the pressure is there and does build the longer that the customer takes to decide, the pressure isn’t on the sales representative alone. The customer is feeling the pressure as well and the longer it takes them to decide the more the pressure will build. There is an old sales theory that is quite true that states “The first person to speak after the close loses”. This statement basically is telling us, as sales people, to close the sale using whatever method works best for us and then ….. STOP TALKING! Let the pressure build and don’t be afraid of it, the pressure is working for us. Many customers will decide to purchase at this point because they feel that they owe it to the sales person for the time and care they have taken to help them. They would almost feel guilty to say no at this point.

 Teach yourself and the sales staff in your business these techniques and your sales will soar!

Author: Rick London

Realizing the internet gave businesses the ability to reach new customers on a global scale; they have devised a way to reach all those buyers, Affiliate Marketing. Businesses found that giving people like you and me a cut of their profit was the most economical way to reach as many potential customers as they could. If they get a sale to someone they would have never normally reached, it is beneficial to them to give you or me a cut of the profit for the sale. The got the customer for FREE, so sharing the profit is a no-brainer to them.

Profits can come in the form of a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of a sale. After you sign up to be an affiliate for a company, you “sell” a product or service for that company and they give you a commission for your effort. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, in theory, it is. In practice, it can be an altogether different story.

Affiliate Marketing in its simplest form is signing up to a business or company to sell their product(s) and/or service(s) and they give you a custom link or number that you use to refer your customers back to the business. You place the link on your website and tell your customers why they should buy product X from you. Your customer clicks on your link and goes to Company Y and purchases product X and you get a commission for your work. The more customers you drive through that link, the more money you make and the more of product X the company sells; everybody is happy.

“What happens if I don’t have a website?” you ask. This is where things start to get really interesting. Ever heard of a little company called Google? In the infancy of Affiliate Marketing, enterprising marketers realized they could plug their affiliate links into Google AdWords and send customers a running without even owning a website. Massive fortunes were made overnight, and I am so sorry I missed the rush, it was similar to the gold rush in California in the 1800’s. It didn’t take long for even more enterprising souls to realize they could package their little “secret” and sell that to people that wanted to make money. They made a killing too! But, like the gold rush, it only lasted a short while and when the real miners; Affiliate Marketers, showed up is when the real work began.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are still huge, huge amounts of money to be made on the internet; but the low hanging fruit has been picked, well for the most part. There are still nuggets to be found; but you have to know where and to look. By the way, there are products you can buy that show you how to do that too! There really is money everywhere on the internet.

Google quickly picked up on the fortunes that were being made and took their piece of the pie as well. Today, if a product is really hot, the cost of buying keywords on Google goes through the roof very quickly and it becomes difficult to make a profit that way. That’s not to say money can’t be made; but you have to educate yourself on how to do it or you’ll go broke, quick.

A lot of the products you see offered to Affiliate Marketers today are still geared toward the “Gold Rush” days, from a few years ago. You see, greed is an amazing thing, people are always looking to “Make Money on the Internet” and those products sell, they sell like hotcakes; but, the results are just not quite as good as they were a few years ago. But, if you are to truly make money on the internet; you must be willing to look past the “Get Rich Quick” persona and be willing to fall back on your “Why” statement. If you are serious about making money on the internet; you are going to have ups and downs, just like in any business.

I’m preparing you now, that the hype that you read about making X thousands of dollars in a day, a week or a month are real; trust me they are very real; but the folks making that kind of money are playing on your greed! If you are just starting out and planning on making that kind of money next week; you are in for a rude awakening. A guy didn’t show up at the hospital one morning and say “I’m a brain surgeon,” he went through years of training, successes and failures and earned his salt. You will need to do the same.

So; if I haven’t scared you off by now, Affiliate Marketing is simply this; selling the products and services of other people. Products and services of which you never have to own, inventory, ship, return, perform, answer emails about, deal with customer complaints or otherwise be involved with, and getting paid (and getting paid well, I might add) to sell said products and services. Like any business endeavor, there are financial risks that can be associated with operating a business, but; the rewards of Affiliate Marketing are far greater than any other business I have ever been involved with.

Next time we will look a little deeper into Affiliate Marketing and explore some of the different marketing plans that provide you the best financial benefit.

Author: Snook2

For many folk today, a nice less house job sounds suitable. By working from house, moms can remain house with their children, dads can have to recognize the kids best, and everyone can determine what days and what hours they seek to make.

No much punching the moment clock every dawn at seven! You can make whatever hours you look sweet and involved. Well, yes and no. The accuracy is that starting a house job normally requires much hours of job than you require and entails hidden annoyances that can have punching the moment clock feel pretty better. What are some of the popular mistakes think folk take when they begin a house job?

1. Getting overly far into debt overly shortly. This is a popular error that is difficult to loosen. Some house job opportunities take unconscionable claims. For example, they might publicize that you will be making a six number income within the best year if you come their instructions. Of class, you have to repay over a thousand dollars just to have with the party.

Some folk go a jump into a position like this by taking away a big loan and so finding away they can’t have any money with it at all. The ethical is, wear’t put often much than you already have. If you’re truly penniless, you might require a tiny loan to begin really tiny. Even best, though, is no loan at all! Many job opportunities cost little than a hundred dollars to have started.

2. Not realizing how more job it will need. Many potential house workers are amazed by the amount of hours of job it takes to have a job off the soil. Again, the advertisements can be misleading. Like any new accomplishment, when you are learning an original job, everything takes longer. Deciding who to ask, researching advertising options, and nearly everything requires much moment and attempt in the start. This means that the work that promised to need simply ten hours a week might go twenty or thirty hours a week in the best few months.

3. Expecting to have a plenty of money fast. Like any new character of job, a house job frequently takes months or still years to be operating in the dark. Most productive job owners will say you that they didn’t make more money in the best few months. This is another cause that it is significant to rescue going into debt for things that are really vital.

4. Picking a job that is not a better burst for them. If you are truly a loner quite than a cultural butterfly, you could be kidding yourself when you begin thinking you would love doing house parties for a company program party. In your dreams you can view yourself as a sure merchandise protester, but when the world comes, all your shyness will go backwards with a retribution.

5. Not making allowances for the interruptions of house living. We’ve all seen the ads with the beautiful inexperienced mother making money on her computer while her toddler plays softly at a plaything desk nearby.