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Add You - Overcoming the Objections That Keep You from Achieving Massive Success
I would like you to image for a moment that you are walking out of your front door today and you have a destination in mind – but no idea of how you are going to get there, when you will arrive, what method of transportation you are going to use, or if you will be able to reach your destination with what you have in your hand, on your back, or in your briefcase. The idea of taking a journey of this nature is so unlikely that you may decide to stop reading this article now. But I ask you to bear with me just one moment longer. The trip I have just described is exactly what occurs when an entrepreneur or dedicated team or group of like-minded and dedicated individuals start a business without first committing to a written business plan.The greatest ideas in the world may have never been put to use or seen the light of day in the marketplace not because of lack of vision, but because of lack of direction and definition. If having a written business plan is all that it is cracked up to being, then why don’t more people just sit down and write one? The answer is usually wrapped up in fear. It is easier to take the trip into business without a set goal and direction that someone might actually hold us accountable for than to just start out and see what happens. If we are incredibly lucky, the lack of business plan will not hold us back – or will it?I would have to respond that with my experiences in business for over 25 years, it is exactly the lack of business plans in several of my endeavors that have cursed the success that I so longed to achieve. I believed success without a road map was inevitable as long as I believed in the
Phone calls are crucial in running a business, and telephone etiquette is integral to the success of a business communications. The telephone is one of the primary points of contact between customers and dealers for most businesses.Millions of business calls are made everyday. Proper telephone etiquette is imperative in order for a business to succeed. Etiquette means to present oneself favorably through proper conduct. Good phone etiquette helps improve the lines of communication between a customer/client and business associates.One should always answer al phone calls before the third ring. When you answer you should convey a sense of warmth and enthusiasm. Always speak in a clear, slow and direct manner, and always identify yourself and your company to the caller. Avoid using jargon or euphemisms while speaking. Replace "I don't know" with "let me find out." Take telephone messages completely and accurately. Don't leave people on hold for too long. Don't use a speakerphone unless absolutely necessary. Leave a suitable updated message on your answering machine. Finally, train all your employees to adhere to the above phone call protocol.Mobile phones have their own special rules of etiquette that include not taking a personal call during a business meeting. Try to maintain a distance of ten feet from others while having a cell phone conversation. Do not talk on your phone during a movie, on an elevator or in a museum. Never use the phone in while dining or in a place of worship. And, never drive and talk on the phone at the same time. Avoid loud and annoying ring tones. If you maintain these few pointers of etiquette you can
1. Fear of failure—“Can I do this? Will this really work?”
2. Lack of support—spouse, parents or friends unsupportive
3. Can’t make the commitment—don’t have time, conflicts with existing obligations, childcare concerns, etc.
4. Not enough motivation—the discomfort of the prospect’s current situation is not great enough that s/he wants to make changes
5. Financial concerns—fear that the prospect can’t afford it or will be extremely stretched trying to. Is it worth the investment?
Notice that I listed financial concerns last. Cost is often the first objection that is put up, but usually it’s not the true reason, deep down, for rejecting a product or service. I’ll explain more about this topic later. With an idea of where objections stem from, let’s talk about when the optimal time is to handle them. As I already mentioned, the ideal scenario is for all your prospect’s questions and concerns to be answered as a natural course of your exchange—not after you’ve gone through your entire presentation. Nothing de-energizes your persuasive efforts more than lingering doubts and concerns that remain unresolved in your prospect’s mind. When you are “interviewing” your prospects, use your open-ended questions to help them open up and shed light on any possible areas of concern. With this approach, you are opening the door to bring up and cover such issues on your terms. This persuasive strategy is not a matter of manipulation; by virtue of the roles you each play—you as the one offering a solution and the prospect as the one seeking a solution—it is more practical and effective for both parties to get what they want.
There are two challenges at play when, after you’ve gone through your presentation, a prospect still voices concerns. First of all, you did not discover enough information to accurately anticipate and diffuse concerns while they were still seeds in your prospect’s mind rather than rooted plants. Secondly, if the prospect has to bring it up and begins questioning you, merely by nature of the dialogue, you are now on the defensive. This flipping of roles will never place you in a strong persuasive position. Worse, if you do project even a hint of defensiveness or insecurity toward your prospect or product, that in and of itself can breed more doubt in the prospect’s mind than perhaps the original concern did. How awful to lose a sale based on mi
Having a marketing strategy and marketing approach is very important. Thus, instead of recreating the wheel, here is a short, sweet, easy-to-understand marketing strategy template to help you place your ducks are in a row in designing your marketing strategy. MARKETING STRATEGY FOR INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONALS ...coaches, consultants, accountants, lawyers... GENERAL OVERVIEW Business Strengths Our extensive knowledge of the adventure travel industry is our greatest strength, in addition to our positioning in the region. Business Weaknesses The greatest weakness our business faces is our ability to handle new competition. Currently, we are the only providers of our services in the area, and any competitor that moves in will pose a threat to our stability. BUSINESS GOALS Profit Our current profit goals are: Year Two: $__________ post-tax profit Year Three: $________ post-tax profit We have not established any other long-range profit goals at this time Sales Our long-term sales goals are to operate at or close to cash flow break-even by Year Two and to be profitable from Year One onward. We would like our profit margin to be 7 percent by Year Three. Marketing Our long-term marketing goals are to develop an extensive Web site, to increase our public relations activities, and to create an informative store window to draw in customers. POSITION IN THE MARKETPLACE Description of Our Customers Our customers are ___ to ___-year-old professionals, married or unmarried, without children, who are ___________. Our Customers’ Ne
Notice that I listed financial concerns last. Cost is often the first objection that is put up, but usually it’s not the true reason, deep down, for rejecting a product or service. I’ll explain more about this topic later. With an idea of where objections stem from, let’s talk about when the optimal time is to handle them. As I already mentioned, the ideal scenario is for all your prospect’s questions and concerns to be answered as a natural course of your exchange—not after you’ve gone through your entire presentation. Nothing de-energizes your persuasive efforts more than lingering doubts and concerns that remain unresolved in your prospect’s mind. When you are “interviewing” your prospects, use your open-ended questions to help them open up and shed light on any possible areas of concern. With this approach, you are opening the door to bring up and cover such issues on your terms. This persuasive strategy is not a matter of manipulation; by virtue of the roles you each play—you as the one offering a solution and the prospect as the one seeking a solution—it is more practical and effective for both parties to get what they want.
There are two challenges at play when, after you’ve gone through your presentation, a prospect still voices concerns. First of all, you did not discover enough information to accurately anticipate and diffuse concerns while they were still seeds in your prospect’s mind rather than rooted plants. Secondly, if the prospect has to bring it up and begins questioning you, merely by nature of the dialogue, you are now on the defensive. This flipping of roles will never place you in a strong persuasive position. Worse, if you do project even a hint of defensiveness or insecurity toward your prospect or product, that in and of itself can breed more doubt in the prospect’s mind than perhaps the original concern did. How awful to lose a sale based on m
Open houses are the best way to convince parents to sign their children up your centre. But for an open house to be an effective marketing tool, there are some pre open-house preparations to be made and a budget allocated. What you want to is create a memorable experience for both the parents and the child.1. Timing Open houses should be over the weekends so that the working parents can check out your centre at a leisurely pace. It can be over one weekend or if resources permit, offer it over two or three weekends.2. Promoting your open house There are a number of ways to ensure that news of your open house is spread. - Put up a banner, with the date and time of your open house, about two weeks before your actual open house. - Take up an advertisement in the local papers announcing your open house. - Put up notices in as many high traffic areas as possible such as local caf?s and eating places. Do not forget to put it up your own centre so that the other parents are informed. Nothing beats word of mouth advertising. - Print flyers and distribute it at high traffic areas in and around your neighbourhood a week before your open house.3. Pre event preparations - Do some spring cleaning. Ensure that the centre is neat and tidy, no wires exposed, the books and notes neatly stacked, dirty stains painted over, etc. - Frame up all your the licenses and awards and put them up. Pin up nice photographs of children’s activities and their drawings. - Ensure that all the necessary materials are ready and inserted into nice presentation folders. Items include curriculum, time table, food menu, etc
There are two challenges at play when, after you’ve gone through your presentation, a prospect still voices concerns. First of all, you did not discover enough information to accurately anticipate and diffuse concerns while they were still seeds in your prospect’s mind rather than rooted plants. Secondly, if the prospect has to bring it up and begins questioning you, merely by nature of the dialogue, you are now on the defensive. This flipping of roles will never place you in a strong persuasive position. Worse, if you do project even a hint of defensiveness or insecurity toward your prospect or product, that in and of itself can breed more doubt in the prospect’s mind than perhaps the original concern did. How awful to lose a sale based on m
In marketing communications, it is almost always better to write in simple English than in what some people perceive to be ‘grander’ or ‘more sophisticated’ language. This short article illustrates what can happen, using a real example.Here we have a simple sentence in English: “ Inspired by her visit to London, Mary redecorated her house.”The subject of the sentence (Mary) is followed at once by a concrete verb in active voice (redecorated), followed by the object (her house). The phrase describing the subject is placed as close to it as possible: it is also logical that this comes right at the beginning, since the inspiration clearly came before the redecorating.However, in business communications, many people find this sort of language too simple; not ‘formal’ enough. So they turn the sentence round and use the passive voice. This very often leads the writer into the common trap in which the adjectival phrase now describes the object and not the subject. Obviously it is Mary, and not her house, who visited London.Now, if we really want to make it sound ‘learned’, we can swap the concrete verbs for abstract nouns plus neutral verbs (do, make, perform, etc). So instead of ‘having been inspired’ we write ‘inspiration having been gained’, and instead of ‘redecorated’ we write ‘the redecoration was performed’. However, we have seen that there is some sort of problem with the adjectival phrase, so we change it (unfortunately the phrase, not its position!) to make it clear that Mary did the visiting. Of course, ‘house’ is a bit ordinary too, so we could call it a ‘dwelling’ or perhaps a ‘residence’. Now we have:“Her
There are two challenges at play when, after you’ve gone through your presentation, a prospect still voices concerns. First of all, you did not discover enough information to accurately anticipate and diffuse concerns while they were still seeds in your prospect’s mind rather than rooted plants. Secondly, if the prospect has to bring it up and begins questioning you, merely by nature of the dialogue, you are now on the defensive. This flipping of roles will never place you in a strong persuasive position. Worse, if you do project even a hint of defensiveness or insecurity toward your prospect or product, that in and of itself can breed more doubt in the prospect’s mind than perhaps the original concern did. How awful to lose a sale based on m
It is truly amazing when you are the Founder of a Company how many times you are approached by Venture Capitalists who have funded your competition and wish to buy your company. They wish to use such an acquisition to grow their market share without earning it. Indeed such a strategy is worthy of mention and yet these Venture Capitalists are often arrogant and assume everything is for sale.Somehow they believe they can buy their way into success. They fail to understand that winners and losers in the market place are due to customer services, bundling, pricing, marketing and delivery on said promise. May I please ask what on Earth would a Venture Capitalist know about that?Additionally if something is not for sale, it is not for sale, you see? A company at the top of their game, with good cash flow can outlast a Venture Capitalized company and their funded companies until their burn rates catch up with them. We all know that under funded companies generally do poorly in the market place and I would submit to you, so do over funded companies with poor discipline to customer service and the bottom line.Should a company sell out to the Vulture Capitalists? Well, only if they make an offer one cannot refuse, but more often then not, I sure had a great time of swatting them out of the sky and smushing them into the Earth. Venture Capitalists and their persnickety young arrogant executives are living in a completely different world to those of use who live in reality. Consider this in 2006.
Let’s talk about price for a moment. It seems to be everyone’s top concern, doesn’t it? Independent researchers found that 68 percent of prospects admitted that price was not the determining factor, but they also admitted that they knew by experience that stating that the price is too high is the best way to get rid of a salesperson. Price, in fact, is seldom the sole reason for buying or not buying something. When asked the reasons why they did buy something, 94 percent of interviewed customers mentioned non-price issues as being the most important factor for their purchase. If you think about it, it doesn’t make sense to buy something just because the price is good. What if it’s not something desirable, useful or necessary? Would you buy it just because of its price? When you do a good job of helping people see how your product will improve their lives, change their lives or move them from their current situation to their desired situation, price is usually the least of their concerns. It all goes back to the emotions—the pain of their current situation sharply contrasts with what they want and hope for in the future and is thus the true motivator. At that point, you could name almost any price and they would buy. I say this not to suggest in any way that you should take advantage of that psychological tendency but simply to underscore that price is not the issue.
Now, let’s look at the worst-case scenario: Even after the best presentation you could muster, your prospect still has issues. If you ever find yourself in this situation, there are a number of considerations to bear in mind. First and foremost, ask yourself if this is a conflict you can even resolve. Suppose you find out the real reason why your prospect is hung up on the price is that s/he just declared bankruptcy. In that case, obviously, no matter what you do or say, you have no control over the situation. If it is an issue that is sol
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