Prospecting

Sales Training:

Prospecting:

Every sale begins with someone or something trying to find a prospect to sell their product or service too. In days gone by, the common method was to find a list of potential prospects or buyers and then pick up the phone and call them. In some cases, they would knock on a door and try to make their presentation.

Today there are several different methods to prospect for a new client or customer. Technology has advanced to the point where you can prospect for your client without ever really talking to them or meeting them in person. It should be mentioned that this is no always the best way to prospect. Talking directly to your prospect has always proven to be the best way to sell. You get feed back that you can not get from a sales letter or ad.

Of course, technological prospecting can still be used to provide better quality leads for sales people that still need to meet in person to sell their wares and services.

The days of Yellow Page advertising are quickly ending, mainly due to search engines and online directories and services. Proof of this exists in the fact that the Yellow pages already have a complete on-line presence and sell this as part of the Yellow Page hard copy directory. They have seen the light, as some would say.  I no longer even get a yellow pages delivered to my home.

The world has become everyone’s oyster. You can deal with people in other cities or countries as easy as you can deal with the person or business next door.

Depending on your product or service you can become successful in a short period of time. You are limited only by your knowledge and willingness to test new methods. These methods seem strange at first but can be molded to fit your prospecting needs with a few tweaks.

Old Prospecting Methods:

• Cold call from a telephone directory or a list provided by your employer
• Knock on doors
• Referrals from past and present clients
• Paid advertising in TV, Radio, Newspaper and magazines (usually for warm leads)
• Billboard or other outdoor advertising (again for warm leads)

New Prospecting Methods:

• All the ideas work from the Old Prospecting Methods but can be enhanced with today’s technology.
• Internet technology can provide fast results and unlimited reach to new clients and prospects
• Email
• Texting
• Sales pages or Landing pages
• Websites
• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• Videos
• And much more all of which will be reviewed.

There is a tremendous amount of information and training available on every aspect of using the new technology to provide you with new leads or prospects.

In many cases, you can use these processes in combination to enhance the experience of your client or customer and further your cause. These methods can take your prospect completely through the whole sales process from the first step right to the follow-up once the sale is complete.

A good marketer will learn to use these methods and test the ones that work best for them in their chosen field. They will try and fail and try again to find that specific formula that creates sales and profit.

This will not happen overnight as it takes time to set up and try these methods. Patience is a virtue that you must learn to cultivate and master. You will not succeed in every attempt you make. The chances are, you will fail more then you will succeed. If it was that easy, everyone would do this job.

Sales is a tough career with a large failure rate. Persistence and Action are the keys to success. This website is designed to help you learn about the many options that are available to you in your search for profits

Let’s Review Prospecting methods:

 Old Prospecting Methods:

 Cold Calls:

This is one of the oldest methods of prospecting that I was taught. The list came from your boss or if self-employed normally from the local phone directory or Reverse directory.

You simply pick up a directory and begin calling names one by one, crossing them off your list with each negative response.

This is a demoralizing experience to say the least. If you have never done this then you have not missed anything. I spent many days calling people that normally hung up on me or even worse, insulted me or got angry at my intrusion.

I sold carpet cleaning and I was good at doing this. But I did see more money in the actual work of cleaning the carpets. I was taught to upsell products and services to my clients. I was paid well to make these upsells.

I found myself quickly at the top of the pile for the cleaning crews. My superiors noticed this as well and promoted me to trainer. I soon wanted to expand my sales skills to more profitable and less physical sales situations.

Knocking on Doors:

This too was a terrifying experience when not confident of your abilities. Even with training beforehand you never had the negative feelings sometimes expressed by prospects when invading their homes with your prospecting.

I moved to selling vacuums when I first experienced door knocking. There was some help provided by a call center team that normally secured a brief appointment.

It was your job to convince the warm prospect to allow you to make a full presentation. You needed to sell the features and benefits of the vacuum. Demonstrate its capabilities and make the clients want to own your vacuum.

This was not a difficult job since this was a very good vacuum. It was capable of almost ripping the rug off the floor and was very good at getting more dirty off the same piece of carpet the prospect had just vacuumed.

The big issue was convincing people to allow me to make the presentation. The use of free products and discounts was used to help make the sale happen. The cost of the “Freebies” was minimal even if the prospect would not allow a presentation.

It all began with a knock at the door or phone call. A difficult way to make a living.

Referrals from past and present clients:

Bar none this is the best way to get a prospect. Many may argue this, but I have been selling since I was 16 years old for business and for my own businesses and a referral is worth its weight in gold.

When a current or past client refers you to a friend or colleague this is the best method to allow you to begin your sales presentation. In most cases these folks as partial pre-sold by your past of present client. There are many techniques that can be used to have your past clients or customer help you in your sales presentation.

You cannot afford not to try to master this prospecting technique. It will pay dividends well into the future and can become a key in your eventual success. Mastering asking for a referral is too important not to study and learn techniques you can use every day.

My largest mistake in my sales career is not spending more time working this valuable source of business. I have studied from the best Dan Kennedy, Bill Cates, Tom Hopkins and Brian Tracy. Each one of them stresses the need to work the referrals from every sale you make.

By becoming an expert in this field, you can easily never have to make another cold call in your career. With a goal to get at least 2 or more referrals from every sale you can quickly master any sales field and become a top sales person in your field. If you own your business, this becomes even more valuable.

I don’t just recommend you read study and implement the advice from these sales experts mentioned above. I suggest you make it your life’s work to master this single method of marketing and it will pay dividends you can’t imagine.

Below are the courses you can take that I recommend you at least review.

I want you to know that I will review each program or product that I have recommended. I do not want you to buy anything that I have not already reviewed and tried. I will say that sometimes I have failed to give it the best effort but I have always learned a few items that I can use in my businesses.

Perhaps my second largest mistake was not mastering the techniques and steps that were provided, always trying to find the next shinny object with an easier way to riches.

I admit, that I too am attracted to the “Get Rich” offers that are promoted every day in almost every media. The promise for quick cash has always been my weakness in my search for success. I admit my weakness and have spent years trying to master this weakness.

I still try to chase the rainbow and likely always will even after 35 plus years of selling. I have in fact used many of these techniques to build a variety of successful business including my current business of Mortgage brokering in Canada.

Another failing is that I choose to deal in very competitive businesses with very lean profit margins.

Learning to stop selling “Price” has been a lifelong lesson. I believe the best source of information on how not to do this is by reading Dan Kennedys and Jason Marrs “NO B.S. Pricing Strategy” This is a must read for anyone that faces having to sell on price. You will be surprised that there are many options where you can use price to upsell and increase your profits.

Paid advertising in TV, Radio, Newspaper and magazines:

These methods are the most known group of all advertising and marketing methods. Every business will have used one or all of methods of advertising. Every large business uses a combination of all of them usually more for a branding effect.

The draw backs of these types of marketing methods are:

• Cost: normally it is expensive unless you can shop for off hours for Radio and TV and Run of the press for newspapers and magazines. These are the non-prime times and areas that you can run your marketing message. The problem here is that your ads run in non-prime time space. Fewer readers or viewers and listeners.
• Readership and Viewers: All of these methods have lost significant readership and viewers due to competition and the internet.
• Production costs: The cost to even prepare your ad or message is expensive. For TV and radio this can run into the thousands of dollars. Newspapers and magazines charge more for color over black and white.

Billboard and outdoor Advertising

We all love to read them, comment on them and even laugh at them. If done correctly, they can provide Branding and lead generation opportunities for you.

Types of options:

• Billboards large and small
• Bus Benches
• Stadium advertising banners and such
• Bus Advertising (exterior)

These methods work well when you have the budget to fund them. They too have large production costs that must be paid up front.

These marketing methods are used very well for Branding and general awareness advertising. If your budget will allow it, they can be designed to work well. Focus on your local market and remember that “Less is Better”.

If you use too many words you lose your audience as they only have seconds to look and read your message. Make it easy to remember your message, connecting it with a picture.

The more outlandish the better, people remember weird and outlandish things. A trick I learned late in my career. Outrageous advertising may make folks tell weird stories about you, but who really cares. The fact they are talking about you is the important point. Becoming interesting and informative is critical in the world of advertising. Stand out, be outrageous in your marketing and advertising. Link it back to your business somehow and you will find you have an new winning ad, it may become your new “Control” ad.

Do not put long messages on your billboards or bus bench or other forms of outdoor advertising. Your prospects have only a second or two to really see and absorb your message. Unless you have a large budget these methods will drain any budget quickly.

Every Ad needs to have a CTA or Call to action

We are not Coke or Pepsi, we have small budgets so every ad you do must have some type of CTA or Call to action. We need to entice the readers, listener or viewer to do something after seeing your ad. Pick up the phone to get more information, free valuable information. Give them a reason to reach out to you. Do not just say “call me at 000-0000”.

Your first way to stand out from your competitors is to make a CTA in every ad you do moving forward. Find something of great value that you can give to them in exchange for their contact information. At the least get their email address. If you have a product you can ship to them, a book, a sample, a report or anything that can be held, offer it free or free plus they paying the shipping cost to get it.

Getting a prospects address opens up a long future of marketing opportunities to them. Having an email and the full contact information on all your clients is a ticket to print money. Jut remember always treat these folks like gold. Provide as much free valuable information as you can to them. Give them extra bonuses when they buy from you. Build up your relationship to the point they feel it would be a great loss not to deal with you.

You do this by giving first, asking later. Provide great value, even if it means a little loss in the beginning. This single action can build you a very good and loyal customer list. Your customer list is your business heart beat. Protect it as if it is a gold bar, treat it with deep respect and honor your original promise to not share it without it benefiting them greatly.

New Prospecting Methods:

 Not all of the following methods are new, but the way they are currently used could be classified as new. These methods all revolve around using the Internet. The internet can be used for prospecting, follow-up and closing of the sale. You can use it to help service your prospect or client for years to come and at a fraction of the cost of old methods of follow-up. This doesn’t mean it is the best way. It only provides a lower cost method to reach out to your client.

In today’s internet, instant information age people seem to get their information faster. Unfortunately, this means looking at a large portion of garbage. Today we get dozens of garbage e-mails everyday. Remember, you MUST stand out from all this garbage.

Call centers

Call centers can be used for prospecting and for servicing and problem solving. Outsourcing to call centers here in North America or overseas can provide you with more time to market and sell. We overseas call centers being used everyday here in north America why would you not use them in your business? Outsourcing to a 3rd world english speaking country is easy now. You can hire virtual assistants that can do many jobs that you used to have to do. Th cost to use these folks can be less than a hours wage for a full day’s work. Check out our resource section for more information.

The ideas below can be used in conjunction with all the old methods of prospecting. The Internet can work as an additional sales and information source for your prospects and clients. The cost is much less than the old methods of prospecting. Do not stop using direct mail though. Direct mail will never lose its usefulness. In fact, with all the garbage email we get, it is refreshing to get mail. I still look forward to getting my mail each day. The trick with direct mail is once again to be outrageous, stand out from the crowd. Check or Direct marketing section for more ides.

The Internet is worldwide and your message can and will be seen by prospects all over the world. You can focus on your area and most search engines will automatically focus on search requests in your area for your business. The reality is that once your message is posted it can be read by people anywhere in the world for those with and internet connection.

I will not go into posting numbers on how many people now have access to the internet as this information is changing and readily available everywhere. What is known by almost every business person that I have talked to is that the internet is growing exponentially every year. More and more people start and end their search by using the internet. If you do not recognize this opportunity, then you will face a tough future.

This is not to say that old marketing methods are lost and will no longer work. In fact, this whole book/website is designed to promote using every method discussed, if you budget will allow.

Combining these methods can be a powerful marketing method. Master the internet and the other marketing methods and you will be able to profit immensely.  Ignore the internet and you will watch your competitors pass you by. You do not need to spend all your budget on the internet but to ignore it and not have some type of presence on it is a mistake.

The fact the yellow pages and white pages have virtually come to a stop in many cities is a leading indicator that the Internet will always be used as a search tool. If you want to find more business you must at least have a simple website for people to find. Learn how to build a presence on the internet today. We have many suggestions and ideas how to use it and provide you with dozens of resources to make the internet work for your business.

E-Mail Prospecting:

The use of e-mail has blossomed and become a normal part of the whole marketing process. In the early days, it was used to mass market. There are now many legal issues that forbid doing this and the government frowns on it.

It is never a great idea to have the government chases you. If they are doing it to punish you for making a sale, this is not an expense you want to face. Plus, your Internet service provider or website host can be black balled and they hate this and will quickly ban you from doing this. Spamming is sending emails to people that have not asked for your information. In Canada, you must have their permission to email them. The USA may not be their yet but they still frown on spammers. Never spam your clients. Every message you send should have an option to unsubscribe to your emails in the future.

I know you are thinking “What the heck” I do not want to lose them. The fact is, if they are not responding to your messages and only get angry due to getting them. You no longer want them on your list. They will cost you time, money, and possible reputation. One bad customer can poison many others. Better to let them get off your list.

The answer to this issue is permission based marketing or Opt-In marketing. This simply means that your prospect or client allows you to send an e-mail message to them. They grant you permission to send them emails in the future.

When they do this, please be careful to ensure every follow up message will have some extra value to it. Not just a sales message. Send two or three emails that do not even have a sales message. You can still refer to your website or store but do not try to sell anything. Give them valuable content that will help them or teach them something new.

You can gain this permission in several ways:

• Offer a FREE report or E-book
• Offer a free video message
• Offer an audio recording or podcast ( I will expand on Podcasts later)
• Simply ask for permission to send them a message
• Give them a survey or questionnaire
• Ask their valued opinion in exchange for a discount or sample

I imagine you have already seen these offers and may have already participated in requesting more information in this manner.

These methods allow you to build a LIST of e-mail addresses that you can market to in the future. You can build new joint venture or swap deals with other internet marketers selling information or products that you think your prospects or clients may consider valuable. Remember, nothing goes to your list that doesn’t have some form of extra value. Never share your list unless what they have to offer provide great value to your customer list.

E-mail marketing is the key to internet marketing. Using it to your advantage is a critical step in profiting from the internet. Throughout this book and our website you will see a recurring use of this primary method of advertising and marketing.

Texting messages

If you have children, then this relatively new method of communication has become more important to them then the phone they use to do it with.

I have grandchildren that can use it and they are not yet in grade school. With the invention of voice recognition software many phones now have a small microphone icon that they can touch and then simply talk to the phone and it types the message and then sends it to the recipient.

We do not even need to type the message any longer, simply speak into the phone or computer and your voice is converted to text and then sent to your friend or prospect in our case. Many of today’s innovators are trying to exploit this process now.

If you have a relationship with your prospect or client. You can instantly pass on new and interesting information and links to them. This is a very personal communication method so be sure you have permission to do this, do not send un-requested text messages or your customer will quickly end your relationship. Only very important information should be shared using this message system. Your customers will appreciate you understanding this simple etiquette.

You can get instant results and responses to your questions and even sales presentations. Not the best way to close a sale but I have used it in my sales career many times. You must have a good relationship before attempting this.

It allows for a tremendous way to upsell or sell add-ons to the original product or service. You have 140 characters available per message so you must become very good at getting to the point.

You can brain storm ideas on how to use it to your advantage. Hopefully some of the ideas offered on this website may help you create a great offer you can implement today.

Sales Pages and Landing Pages

Now we are getting into some new areas of internet marketing. There is a whole science around using these things. The resource section and Affiliate sections have great sources you can follow-up with to learn more specific techniques in creating Sales pages and Landing pages.

A Sales Page or Landing Page is a simple website designed to entice your prospect to provide his e-mail address or other contact information in exchange for more information.

You offer a free report, e-book, video, or audio recording with more detailed information on the subject or product you are promoting. If they want this information they must provide a contact method to you to get it.

Once they request this information they are giving you permission to market to them in the future because you are providing them with more information at no cost. It is critical to make this information valuable and useful. You need to start selling your expertise immediately.

A Sales page or Landing page is just a mini website you set up to sell the idea of them giving you their e-mail or other contact information.

You then use Autoresponders to automatically deliver your free product or information. This same autoresponder will then begin sending them a series of e-mails over the following days or weeks that offer your product or service that you want to sell them in order to make your profits.

Autoresponders are like little sales people that work for you to follow-up with your prospects and help secure the sale. Their use is a must when marketing on the internet. You will learn all about them in later sections.

With each contact, you should offer more advice or information to help them in their search or in the eventual decision to buy your product or service. The more FREE information you can provide to them the more they will begin to trust you. Your relationship is in its infancy and it is important to reassure your prospect that you are there to help them.

A sales page or Landing page has its own URL just like a normal website would. The difference is that it is not multiple pages of information and resources. The whole design is to make your prospect give you their contact information in exchange for more valuable information you can provide them. The landing page needs focus on the free product or sample you are offering. Why having it is necessary for your prospect.

Do not make the mistake of selling multiple things or having multiple options or links to follow. Your sales page or landing page should have one call to action. Focus on it. Get their contact information and let your follow up program do further selling. Get them to order your Free product or Lead Magnet as i like to call it, son does Ryan Diess, as master of selling on the internet.

There are many Hosting services such as HostGator, BlueHost. You can set up a site in minutes with these hosting companies. They have multiple options to build that sales page or landing page. I use Leadpages for my landing pages for my free books. There are some very good companies that offer great services to help build your sales pages and landing pages.

Your goal is to build a list of e-mail addresses that you can send future offers too.  The better you build and maintain it the more money it will produce for you.

Websites:

This is today’s market place. Anyone can have one and it can be created about just about anything you can imagine. The internet has created a central meeting area for business and consumers worldwide.

Once you set up a website for business you are saying to the world “I’m here and this is what I do, come and see me”. The issue is that many people think once they do this everyone will beat a path to their door. Unfortunately, this is not what happens. The creation of the website is only one step in your marketing program.

You must now spend your time driving prospects to that website. Making them want to buy your service or product. You must do this based on today’s marketing techniques. Your goal is to build a relationship with your prospect over time. Your website must offer more information on your product and service. It must use testimonials, free samples and reports and guarantees of satisfaction.

Other than a personal sales presentation this an important sales tool. You need to spend time in creating a website that offers all the answers to every question or concern your prospect may have.

Offer free information, in exchange for their e-mail or contact information. Use reports, White papers, e-books or samples of products.

Your website is your selling platform so it must represent your business as if you were standing in front of your prospect.

Websites need:

• Product information sections
• Order sections
• Frequently Asked Questions sections
• Product or service specifications
• Testimonials
• Guarantees
• Shipping and return information
• Contact information

Depending on your business, your site can be a few pages or hundreds of pages. Your product or service will define how large your site will be. Remember, it is all about getting your prospect to the sale.

Website design can be simple or complicated. Today people want simple and easy to understand sites that help them find their answers to their problems or needs quickly. They want information that can help them instantly. If your site does this quickly, you have a very good chance of selling your product or service. Remember getting to the point fast it critical to your prospect. Hook them fast then move them through the sale.

Websites can be easily changed to adapt to your market. In fact, change is good in the Internet world. The more content and information you can add over time the better. The search engines thrive on providing more information to people who use their services. When you add more to your site, you provide more information for the search engines and they reward you by ranking your website higher in future searches.

Today you will be left behind if you fail to develop and learn how to market your website. This single marketing tool can help you succeed as it becomes the foundation of many of your future marketing efforts. A website is a place where your prospects can come to see your offers and reasons why they should buy from you.

Search Engines:

Marketers are fast becoming experts on the use of these amazing information gathering systems. Google, Yahoo, MSN and dozens more are sites that allow people to type in a simple sentence and get multiple answers. In fact, page after page of answers.

You can find a variety of answers to any problem or question that you may have. These answers may not be correct or accurate but they do at least provide the searcher with another starting point. They can then continue their search in multiple directions using Keywords or phrases.

These same keywords or phrases can be used to sell your products and services. Each time a person types in a word or phrase these search engines match your products and services to these inquires and place a small ad of yours in front of them.

Sites such as Google, Bing and Yahoo allow you to bid on specific keywords. The more you bid on the specific keyword the more times Google or Yahoo will place your ad in front of anyone requesting a search with your keyword

You can limit how much to spend on this bidding process each day or hour or time period. You can choose who will see your ad, at what time and place you desire. The specifics you can choose are specific and totally your decision.

You can dig deep into your niche or market and can have your ad place in front of your best prospects at your chosen time. Your ad campaign can run for hours, days or weeks or continually. Using keywords to identify your prospects.

A keyword is a single word or a group of words the target you product. They can be general words or very specific words.

If you use general words you will have a lot of competition, if you use a phrase or group of words you will have less competition and will pay less for bidding on these words.

Learning how to use keyword advertising and Google and other big internet websites will take time and effort. One of the best teachers in this area is Perry Marshall he has teamed up with other experts to write some great books on the subject. There are many courses online as well. Check out the resource section for more details.

Facebook:

If you are not familiar with this name, then you have been in a cave the last 10 years. Facebook is a marketing machine that is in its infancy and is quickly learning to be a marketing giant. This single site has millions of members worldwide and continues to grow every minute of every day.

It allows you the ability to communicate with friends, family, and peers around the world. You can inform them of your every move or decision if you desire. These days most people use it to continue to communicate with other people. We as marketers use it to place our ads in front of a very defined group of people. You can use their platform to advertise to your customers. You can refine exactly how gets to see your ads by a number of different demographics.

It is amazing how far you can drill down to define your demographics. Perry’s book on Facebook advertising is very good at teaching this. Wilco De Krieg has a great software program to help you target and re target people on Facebook. A very interesting program that can help you master Facebook advertising.

You build your list of friends and then you share your thoughts and actions with them and them with you. These groups of friends also make very good prospects, especially when they choose to follow folks on Facebook that are interested in your products and services. You can build your own Facebook account for your business and then attract friends and followers to your Facebook page.

They can become your live testimonials and supporters for your business and services. They can also use this against you, so it is important that you offer top quality services and products if you plan to use this type of marketing. People can make comments both positive and negative so you need to monitor your Facebook page in case there is a negative comment.

You build a community around your business with your current, past and future clients. This marketing platform is very useful for building your business and adding a personal touch.

There are many books and courses on using Facebook to help your marketing efforts:

Twitter:

I must admit, this simple communication program was never my favorite. It is designed to allow a person or business the ability to set up a free account to simple send a message to a group of people that want to follow you.

You type in a message which can’t be more than 140 characters long. This message can be on just about any subject or topic that you desire. Your followers can then do the same thing on their account which of course you can then read as well. You end up following other people using Twitter. This is handy for local news and traffic stations.

The part I don’t like is that much of this typing is mundane and of little interest to your followers. As a business, you can build a large following if you ensure that your message can be beneficial to your followers.

There are millions of people and businesses that have used this platform to their advantage and built massive audiences and followers. With smart marketing, they have learned to use this technique to their advantage.

You too can learn these techniques to help promote your business using the sources below:

YouTube:

The newest addition to the marketing world is YouTube. The internet has brought video to everyone’s doorstep. Anyone with a video camera, cell phone or web camera on their computer can now upload a video to YouTube and other video websites.

You can make a video on just about any legal subject and then add an enticing title and description then place it on YouTube where it can be watched by anyone on the Internet. Even better you can drive traffic to the video to help promote your products or services.

The video itself can become viral and spread throughout the internet without any of your involvement. You have likely already seen this happen on your local news channel. The cute duck or house fire or storm video. These videos can be sent to YouTube or as you have seen, directly to a media outlet.

The use of YouTube videos is a secret for marketing gurus today. You want to learn about every facet of making then posting videos. It is easy to find very credible sources for training. I have used the fellows at Video Genius they not only make and produce top quality videos, but they will train you through a series of videos on how you can easily do it as well.

A professional looking video can be used to promote and demo your products and services. You can include it in all your marketing by adding the link or the link address.

• Newsletters
• Websites
• Business cards
• Flyers and brochures
• Press releases
• Direct mail pieces

Do not make the mistake of discounting this method of marketing. It allows you to look professional no matter what size of business you have.

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn is more of a Business to Business social website. It is designed to link business people to other business people. It is allowing a similar look as Facebook but from a business perspective.

It continues to grow with each passing month as more and more business people begin to realize the power of the internet and the vast amount of marketing opportunities that it provides.

LinkedIn works the same way as Facebook with each person allowed to discuss any topic. Since it is a professional or business website it is proper to make your comments in this area. Since business is a vast subject, your comments can be on just about anything business related. Post good content and you will find a loyal group of followers.

As LinkedIn grows they too have discovered the power of advertising on their website. You build a profile just like on Facebook only more detailed. This allows LinkedIn to send very specific advertising to your account each time you log on. Herein lays your opportunity to market to all the members that follow you.

You can build a list with all your current clients and business associates and slowly build a larger list of prospects and clients.

The word LISTS will become a common thread on this website as your list of customers or list of prospects is your businesses most valuable assets. Your main job in your business is to build your list of prospects and clients or customers. Then to service them well with valuable information and excellent service.

Then learn how to market to them in a variety of ways. Getting your message in front of them is critical for your business profits and success. You will learn how to do this and can research multiple ways to reach them. The better you get at doing this, the more profit you will make.

In Summary:

Prospecting has changed over the years but still involves some very basic challenges. How do we get our message in front of our prospects and potential clients? The old methods are still as valuable today as they were back in the late 1800’s.

The same principles that worked then still work today. The only real difference today is how we can spread that message. The Internet has allowed the small home business person to compete on a new level.

Your goal as a business person is to learn all the options and methods that you can. Then evaluate which options work best for you. Testing is the key, constantly testing your marketing methods and finding the opportunities that work for your business are your primary goals as a business person.

Selling is the life blood of your business. When you stop selling, your business stops growing. If you stop growing eventually your business dies.

There are many ideas that are written about on this site and the resources you need to further investigate just about every one of them. You can read about them and think about how they will benefit your business.

The trick is to implement, act on one of the ideas. Finds out everything you can about that marketing method then begin taking steps to implement it into your business. Test it out and record the results. If it increases sales, you have found a winner. If not, you have also gained by that knowledge. Remember one or two tests do not always mean the idea or method will not work. It just means you are not doing it right.

Record the costs to test and the profits made from the test, find out your ROI or return on investment. Once you find a method that works, try another using the first one as your control to measure all the other marketing opportunities against.

If a new option works and makes more profit or a better ROI (return on investment) then it becomes the new control. You continue to test other opportunities against that control. You don’t have to quit using the first one or any of the ones that have worked. But focus all new tests on the most successful control or method.

Using this method of testing and expanding on a constant basis will grow your business. Your profits will grow and so will your business. It is all up to you as to how this works. Taking action each day in anyway that you can to increase your marketing efforts. Slowly building into massive action and more profits.

You will fail along the way, this is only to be expected. Not every method you try will work this can happen for numerous reasons:

• The method just doesn’t work for your business or market place.
• Your test was not timed well
• Your test was too small (this is a common reason due to limited budget, you will read about ways to fix this problem in the Joint Venture and Strategic Alliances section.
• Your sales copy did not do the job
• You did not target the right audience
• You failed to make your prospect take action to start the buying process or close the sale.
• Your follow up program was weak or non-existent

Failure is only a stepping stone to your ultimate success. You are only a failure when you stop trying. If you continue to try you will eventually succeed. This is how it works, if it were easy there would be a lot more winners and successful business people. Persistence and Action are the two habits you need to succeed in business.

Never give up, its hard to do, but anything worthwhile is hard to get. A certain level of accomplishment comes from having failed and then risen to success. Everyone faces failure in life. How you react to it and respond is the real sign of success. Get up, dust yourself off, move forward. Try again.

You determine your success by your efforts and willingness to fail. Destiny is provided to those who try and keep trying. I believe if you are this, you are already demonstrating your desire to succeed.

You can contribute articles and ideas to our website as we are always looking for new ideas, especially if proven to work. Your contributions can be rewarded in recognition and in possible future business opportunities. You are allowed to promote your opportunities in a variety of ways.

• Articles and e-books
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• Feature articles on website updates.

Your participation on this site is welcome and encouraged. We all can learn from each other just like the social networks of the day that you will learn about. Join our free membership and help yourself and others master the world of sales and marketing.