Any marketers managing leads through a sales lead software for lead management should make sure their sales software can do the following tasks.
1st off, lead nurturing should have the ability to be handled via automated mechanisms such as:
1. Emails - Automatic emails that are triggered at specified time intervals, when leads reach certain milestones.
2. Reminders - Reminders that are automatically triggered based on specified software rules and follow-up times.
3. Posting & Routing - Leads may be automatically posted to a predictive dialer, a telemarketing company, another database, a marketing services company, etc. to attempt additional contact or take other actions.
Your software should effectively perform lead nurturing and drip marketing tasks by incorporating different content at different intervals. Some recommended formats include:
• Varying Format - Newsletters, personal notes, relevant articles and follow-up calls can all work well in combination.
• Adding Value - Effective lead nurturing comes from being consistent and relevant.
• Keep it Simple – It’s got to be easy. After all; that’s why we purchased the software.
How About This..
Can Your Lead Management Software provide..
- Dialers (Predictive/Progressive/Click-to-Dial) that offer built-in click-to-dial capabilities that integrates with Five9, Touchstar, Genesis, DialConnection and/or OPC Marketing
- Pricing and Instant Offers that integrate with NYLX, Mortech, LoanSifter, Optimal Blue & QuoteBurst.
- Loan Origination Tracking; bi-directional software solutions that can easily integrate with most applications using the Fannie Mae file format. Software is Calyx Point, Encompass, PCLender, OpenClose and Empower compatible.
- PDF Generation that can merge lead information into PDF templates automatically. PDF’s can be emailed or attached to leads for storage.
- Lead Routing, Lead Distribution & Live Transfers compatible with live transfer providers that integrates with DoublePositive & LeadQual.
- DNC scrubbing capabilities that can be enabled for all leads or for specific lead groups based on campaigns or rules.
- Email Marketing & autoResponder software for automatic lead follow-ups
- Marketing Automation solutions for enhanced rich media email and tracking capabilities compatible with SoftVu
- Lead Scoring verification technologies that integrates with TargusInfo, eBureau, iLeads
- Custom development & integration for those that need something ultra specific.
- Overall: A CRM solution to manage customer relationships, customer service and accounting. There are a variety of CRM solutions from Mortgage CRM, Insurance CRM & Enrollment CRM; all compatitble with SalesForce.com, RightNow Technologies (RNT)
So you’ve found the perfect domain name for your soon to be successful online venture. Your mind is drifting to the many variables that will play a role in that success - site design, marketing, search engine listings, and so on. Thoughts of web hosting cross your mind, but only briefly. After all, development and marketing are exciting directions, and where you host your site is a mere technicality - or is it?
Selection of a host that is suitable for your online business is something that requires more thought, and research, than many newcomers to the internet business world realize. Your host is at the very core of your operation - without them your business literally does not exist.
Imagine the following scenario:
You’ve worked many months developing your site, its product lines, and the marketing efforts relative to getting those products to your potential customers. You’ve recently completed negotiations for a short term partnership arrangement with a high traffic web portal that is guaranteed to bring volumes of targeted visitors to your online store. Just as the links to your venture are activated at your partner’s end, your hosting provider experiences an all-out server failure. Their backup systems are inefficient, and unable to manage the sudden influx of data requests. In the end, they fail as well.
Technical staff supporting your host are inexperienced, and cannot bring the server up in less than 24 hours. Once all system issues are corrected, and your site is again live, your short term partnership arrangement has concluded. The only achievement of this agreement has been the exposure of thousands of potential customers to an error message indicating your site is unavailable. Will these previously motivated buyers return? Perhaps, but achieving this will now require twice the effort initially necessary - which often means twice the financial investment as well.
Is the above scenario one that your online business can afford? The answer is obvious, but the potential exists if one decides to select a hosting provider without doing their homework first.
There are innumerable areas of assessment when selecting a host, and the requirements of each business model is different. Here are some of the most common elements you will want to review:
Reliability
* what is their average uptime? Aim high here - many experienced providers average over 99% uptime.
* do they offer any testimonials from satisfied customers?
* can they be contacted to very the information they have provided on site?
* how do they ensure server security?
Backup Systems
* do they have well laid out risk management plans?
* server failures are inevitable - what is the average length of the downtime involved, if any?
General Service Offering
* megs of storage space allocated at given price
* number of email accounts provided per hosted domain
* cgi bin access to allow for the installation and use of various on-site forms
* free access to ready to install cgi based forms
* sql capability for database oriented sites
* fully detailed site statistics, including hits, visitors, page views, referrers, keywords, geographical analysis, etc.
* autoresponder availability, number allocated per domain
* bandwidth restrictions per domain
* other add-ons, including ecommerce applications, site building tools, mailing list software, etc.
Pricing
* is the price reflective of the level and number of services available - how does it compare to the competition
* is there a scalable level of service/pricing - can you upgrade as your business grows
Investing the level of effort necessary to selection of a qualified host today can save the online entrepreneur a significant amount of frustration, and financial loss down the road.
Research each potential host thoroughly. If the answers specific to your operation are not clearly stated on their site, take the time to contact them with your inquiry. Any ethical hosting provider will be more than happy to respond promptly, and in detail regarding your questions. If they fail to do so, presume the worst, and move on.
There are many outstanding performers such as Cheap web hosting who will make every effort to host your online venture in a reliable, and customer oriented manner, assisting in your achievement of online success.
Successful submission of your site to major internet directories, such as Yahoo, Looksmart, or the Open Directory, require a specialized approach, significantly different from that necessary to success with the standard spider based search engines.
The evaluation of your site by these properties will be done manually, via either paid or volunteer editors, who are charged with the responsibility for ensuring that only sites of the highest quality achieve listings in each of the directories. In this circumstance, overall site quality, in the areas of presentation, content originality, speed of download, and general navigational ease will present themselves as primary in ensuring that a listing is achieved.
Rankings within that environment, once listed, will rely strongly upon only a few basic areas, including given title, description, and the category of listing. As many of these areas are entirely managed by the editor responsible for your selected category, ensuring basic site appeal and value can strongly impact their willingness to use your suggested title, and/or description, thus ensuring a high ranking.
The following outline the basics of ensuring an appealing site prior to submitting:
Rule #1 - Create Appeal
A site that is clearly put together quickly, and unprofessionally, does little to interest an editor who spends his or her day reviewing all manner of properties, including the very best. Take the time to develop your site properly, or utilize a skilled designer if you have not the time, or the interest to do so on your own. As noted elsewhere at Online for Success, keep the navigation intuitive, the pages quick to download, and the content well organized. All of these factors serve to assist in achieving an editor’s approval.
Rule #2 - Don’t Jump Too Quickly
Before submitting your site, ensure that all aspects of its construction are complete. There is little that will turn an editor’s eye elsewhere more quickly than a site with non-functioning links, or “under construction” graphics. If the property is not at a state of perfection, save the submission until you achieve it, as to submit early will surely result in the denial of your listing request, and potential difficulty with re-submitting down the road.
Rule #3 - Follow Their Rules
Each directory property has their own terms of submission, which is generally incorporated into their submission page(s). Take the time to read and understand these rules, as a failure to do so can result in either non-inclusion, or at worst, permanent banning of your property from the directory involved.
Once your site is fully complete, and of absolute value to the editor, and visitors it will achieve, it is imperative to understand the impacts of your submitted title, and description, as well as the category you select for the listing request. All directories follow a similar process, though the actualities of how listed sites are ranked during a search remain largely unknown.
The most important factors to consider when preparing your submission to Yahoo, Looksmart, or the Open Directory include:
Site Title
The title associated with your site is often dictated by the given name of your business. In most cases, directory terms of submission will inform submitters that all business sites must use their given name for listing. This is to help avoid scenarios where all ranking-aware site operators suggest names that begin with “A”, or “123″. As listings are generally alphabetical in the directory area, these issues can have a strong impact on traffic from that location.
It is also best to avoid listings that merely note your URL, such as onlineforsuccess.com . The combined format of this title would result in an inability of the search function to discern the keywords within that title, reducing the opportunity for search related success. Obviously, an important feature of your title is these incorporated keywords, which can often be dictated at the moment you select your domain name. Keeping this factor in mind early can be of substantial import at this juncture.
Site Description
As noted earlier, the final site description is always the decision of the editor involved in the evaluation process. It is imperative to recommend a description that will be effective, based upon standard keyword strategies, and satisfactory to the editor’s intent to provide only an accurate outline of your site’s content.
Incorporate carefully placed keywords that relate entirely to your site’s content, in as appealing, and efficient a manner as possible. Avoid suggestions that are mainly hype, as they do little to impress the area editor, and can result in a description entirely generated by them, which may miss the mark you were aiming for entirely.
Take the time to review other site descriptions in your category of interest, following their example to determine what the appropriate number of words, and keyword selections are effective for them. Do a search to see which sites rank highest, and determine the most potent mix of keywords and category to achieve that type of ranking for your internet property.
Due care taken pre-submission will ensure a positive impact on your business via the traffic, and thus sales, that can stem from a solid directory listing on sites such as Yahoo, Looksmart, and the Open Directory. Research thoroughly, implement carefully, and then prepare for your own version of online success.
The challenges of operating an ecommerce based enterprise have become clearly evident during the last few years of internet business closings, and the overall market adjustment that followed. The need to establish sound business practices, and expectations for the internet based operation is as imperative in this venue as in the brick and mortar world.
One area of considerable import in the planning of your new enterprise is the means by which your company will accept payment for your featured product or service. Many methods exist in the online world for accomplishing this task, but few are as widely accepted as payment processing via credit card. This is not to suggest that other options are of no value, as creating a menu of possible payment opportunities will serve to ensure the satisfaction of all potential buyers.
Historically, many online organizations have chosen to retain a level of simplicity on site by offering only the most basic forms of payment processing. Although initially an acceptable means for the relatively low expectations of the internet user of the day, these forms no longer meet the growing need of the internet savvy shopper for quick, efficient location, selection, and payment for online purchases.
To accommodate the current realities, credit card acceptance is a virtual must, regardless of the nature of your enterprise. The growing popularity of this medium has resulted in a flourish of enterprising minds releasing softwares and services to enable the ecommerce oriented business starting up on the web.
There are a variety of processes involved in each ecommerce transaction at your property. Some providers offer services which manage all of these steps, while other services offer only specific portions of the process, for organizations that manage some aspects on their own servers, or wish to provide only partially automated services. Some of the aspects of an ecommerce ready web site include:
* Shopping Cart - the means by which a client indicates an interest in purchasing a specific item, and records and submits personal and financial information relative. The “buy” and “checkout” buttons seen on all ecommerce sites are part of their shopping cart system.
* Merchant Account - a necessity for credit card acceptance by all businesses, online or off. An agreement between the business operator, and the bank responsible for a given credit card, to provide funds to the merchant via the customer’s account, less fees outlined in the agreement. There also exist services that allow you to utilize their merchant accounts established with the bank, for an additional fee.
* Gateway Account - an aspect of “real-time” credit card processing, which means that the purchase is reviewed, and approved or rejected automatically, before the customer is advised that their order is complete. Non “real time” systems require that the operator manually process each order via either an online form, or terminal located at the place of business.
* Security Certificate - a digital tool incorporated into all sites providing “secure shopping” environments. The certificate indicates to both the transaction processor, and to the customer, that the site accepting the financial data from the client is known, and trusted. The digital certificate must be purchased, and installed on the server where the shopping cart system is located.
Prior to finalizing your organization’s ecommerce direction, it is imperative that you understand the role of each process, and the costs involved with the various services. It is also important to recognize the technical strengths and/or weaknesses of your design group, most especially if it is to be an owner developed property. Many of the software and security aspects of ecommerce applications must be carefully managed to ensure overall integrity of your system - an absolute necessity in today’s online shopping market. If a comfort level with these applications is not available within your organization, then consideration should be given to either selection of a simplified service, or the outsourcing of the project to someone experienced in such areas of development.
In the end, the learning curve associated with offering an ecommerce ready site to your clientelle is unquestionably worthwhile. The future of online shopping indicates trends of substantial growth for some time to come. Placing your site on the technological forefront of this movement today helps to ensure your online success for many years to come.
The level of competition in domain name selection has grown fierce as interest in the internet has exploded. Single name intuitive domains are being valued, and purchased for figures in the millions of dollars. It has even become difficult to find multiple word domains that meet the phrase popularity criteria.
In reaction to the short supply, many creative organizations have developed new domain locations designed to allow internet focused companies and individuals to register names and phrases of value to them. Development in this field is both a factor of need, and potential profit for the organizations who control the locations.
Some of the most recent additions to this ever-growing list include:
* .biz
* .home
* .info
Without a doubt, there will be many more to come as demand creates potential for even higher earnings for both the registrars and sales agents for these locations. When considering an alternative location for your online venture, keep the following in mind:
Dot Com is King
Though the prevalence of alternatives to a .com location are increasing daily, the power of a .com domain continues to be unrivaled for its acceptance by consumers and search engines alike. The .com name generates a virtual sense of legitimacy, as the domain where it all began. Even old timers like .net, and .org have yet to obtain the general appeal of a .com name.
Without a doubt, everything has its time, and its place. Newcomers like .biz or .info may play a significant role in coming years, and they do allow businesses the flexibility to choose a far more intuitive location name than that which is available in the .com world. But with a limited appeal, and limited search engine recognition, one should likely consider them for additional location registrations, versus the cornerstone location for a new online venture.
My Own Dot Com
Rule number one when selecting your .com name is simply this - take your time! Getting this step right the first time can save you countless hours and headaches down the road. Some recommended steps are:
1. Do the research. Find out what your potential customers are looking for on the net. What keywords and phrases are they looking for? Try visiting Goto.com for help with this step. Goto provides a popular search tool that allows you to enter keywords and phrases, and view the number of searches done on that, and other related terms for a one month period. This can give you a very good idea of what your keyword focus should be.
2. Search the domain registry. Once you’ve narrowed down to a few specific terms and phrases, search the domain registry to check on what’s available in that area. Be creative, always keeping your potential client’s habits in mind. Online for Success provides a domain search area to get you started, located here.
3. Still having trouble finding a suitable name? Why not register with an organization that tracks about to expire domain names? Should a domain not be renewed in an area of relevance to your business, they will inform you of its availability. One never knows - perhaps luck will be on your side, and online success just around the bend!
There is little in the development of an online presence that is as imperative as design planning that is efficient, and keyed to the needs of your potential customers. Whether you develop your online location on your own, or through the assistance of a professional, a thorough understanding of your goals in this area must be achieved prior to the building of your property.
Success of any enterprise, be it web based or brick and mortar in nature, relies heavily upon the ability of the business operator to anticipate the wants of his or her clientelle. Doing so takes a keen understanding of the industry within which that operator resides, and a constant review of customer feedback and attitudes. This attribute is especially true in web design, as the ability to interpret the needs of your visitors is much more challenging without the face to face contact of the usual storefront scenario.
Key perspectives to keep in mind while developing your approach, then your design include the following:
* who is your customer?
* what does your customer enjoy and/or need?
* are they information or entertainment oriented?
* what standard site components will they require?
* would they prefer efficient downloads or heavy multimedia?
* what are their service expectations?
* how can we exceed those expectations on site?
* how can we ensure their return visits/purchases?
One of the most efficient means of understanding your potential buyer’s needs, especially if you are new to the industry, is to visit an array of online operations within your area of interest. Review each site with a keen eye for overall site design tactics and inclusions. Choose what you feel are the most effective target items, and incorporate the best from each of your competitors. This type of careful preparation, combined with an effective design process virtually guarantees you a seat at the top of your industry, and of course, online success.
To this day, many budding web designers preparing their own piece of internet real estate often neglect to incorporate well thought out keywords or descriptions into their site design concept. Some leave the area untouched, while others choose to include hundreds of keywords, which in the end can have as little value as none at all.
Keywords, though an aging aspect of search engine inclusion and end placement, continue to play a role in those engines that are entirely spider based, scouring the internet for newcomers offering content of value to their visitors. Many of these sites consider some, or all of the following site inclusions when determining their overall ranking within their listings:
Title
Your site title should be succinct, no longer than six or seven words, and must include selected keyword(s), in a logical order, and in as sensible and appealing a fashion as can be developed. When listed, this area will be featured on the spider-based engines as your highlighted drawing card, and must have appeal to your customers in order to be effective. Important keywords should be placed prominently within the title so as to indicate to the spider that these keywords play a significant role in the nature of the page.
Description
There are a variety of search engine expectations with regard to the description area, and the number of terms or phrases that should be included. To offer a simplified suggestion, keep your description to the point, within a reasonable number of words - say between six and fifteen. Utilize both the keywords placed within the title, as well as additional versions of those words, such as plurals, and other related terms felt to be common queries within your market. Prominence plays a role here as well, so keep your major keywords in mind when writing the description, and if the number of words is growing too large when all aspects are incorporated, consider moving the pluralized forms into the meta keyword, and body areas.
Meta Keywords
Determining the keywords of most value to your operation can be an arduous, but necessary task. Utilizing tools such as the Overture search frequency tool can play a strong role in simplifying this process. In the end, your quest should be the targeting of keywords that are popular, entirely relevant to your product or service, with as little competition as possible.
For example, a company in the area of alternative health would do better to focus on keywords relative to specific ailments, where the number of sites focused on these areas is low, versus targeting the keyword health, for which competition is in the millions.
As in all other areas, select and place your keywords in careful order, keeping overall prominence, and number of words in mind. Don’t overdo it in this area, as too many keywords are a signal to some engines to ignore a site that may simply be attempting to misdirect traffic through the inclusion of a barrage of keywords, versus actual content. A safe number of keywords would be in the ten to twenty range.
Body Text
Inclusion of keywords in your page’s body text, as well as the volume and placement of those keywords is an additional factor reviewed by search engine spiders. As they say, content is king, and a well written content page can please both spider oriented engines, as well as the keen eye of a manual review. Keep your keywords in mind throughout development of your page, targeting all forms of the keywords you are featuring. As prominence again plays a role, it may be of value to place your most potentially important words both near the beginning, and end of your content area.
Link Text
Search engines will also take note of your site’s linked text, as an indicator of overall relevance. Ensure that your incorporate keywords into both the text portion of the link that your visitors will encounter, as well as the actual page name that the link will transfer them too. In order for link page names to be legible to an engine interested in them, phrases must be broken up into blocks, as in the following:
http://www.onlineforsuccess.com/internet-marketing-directory.htm
In this example, keywords internet, marketing, and directory are utilized to the best advantage of the site development team. Other forms of breaking up phrases include the use of the underscore: _
Comments and Alt Tags
Site designers often incorporate keywords into their comment and alt tag areas as well. Comments are notes to the designer made while developing site areas to remind them of each area’s location and/or designation. Alt tags are placed alongside link text so that the site visitor who places their cursor over the link can see a quick summary of that link’s offering. Adding keywords to these areas is not an imperative, but assists in establishing the overall nature of the site with the engine. Keep the number of keywords to a minimum, as too many comments and/or alt tags can again be seen as abuse, and result in non-inclusion.
All of the above areas are of value in designing a site that intends to develop traffic flow via search engine listings. Other factors of recent importance include overall site popularity, which is a search engine measurement of the number of sites linked to your property, and the newest technique, theme indexing, which measures the overall nature of your site, versus the nature of individual pages within that site. Understanding these concepts, and applying them to your final stages of design are imperative to successful traffic generation, and your overall potential for online success.
In today’s increasingly competetive search engine environment, many creative and entrepreneurial spirits have directed their energies towards the development of both software and services designed to lessen the workload relative to achieving quality, traffic generating listings on the busiest search engines.
As in the selection of any software package, or pay per service arrangement, research into the applicability of that package to your specific needs and financial capabilities is essential. There are any number of opportunities available for improved rankings, ranging from those that require a concerted effort on the part of the property designer, to those that are entirely managed by an outside source. Naturally, the costs associated with all of these services can vary significantly based upon the level of involvement you require from that service, which can seriously impact the ability of any business to survive its launch phase.
In selecting a search engine optimization software or service, one must also give due consideration to the level of experience and success that organization has achieved in the past. In researching a product of potential value, maintain a keen eye for product references and testimonials, contacting businesses that have utilized the service and/or software in the past.
Examples of the software and services of this type, available in today’s marketplace include:
Search Engine Optimization Services
These services offer a range of options relative to achieving improved rankings within the most popular engines. Many will play a role in not only the submission of the property, but in the preparation of your site for that submission as well. This can include overall keyword selection, measurements within your property, and optimization of each page based on the keyword targets chosen.
There is generally a startup, and monthly fee associated with this process, as submissions and ranking adjustments will continue for a specified period following the initial application. Some services will offer guaranteed top ten placements, with customer payment then based on a fee per top ten search term or phrase achieved. Some examples of services in this genre include:
SearchEnginePosition.com Top-10.com
Search Engine Optimization Softwares
There are a variety of software packages on the market today that aim to improve overall ranking on a variety of search engine types. Their abilities range from complete site keyword evaluation and reporting, to submission capabilities that guarantee not to exceed engine terms of submission, as well as the development of doorway pages, and other techniques that are used as gray area means of achieving better rankings.
Without question, one of the strongest packages available today is WebPosition Gold. This software enables the newcomer to do a complete analysis of keyword strength throughout their site, comparitive analysis with current top ranking sites, guideline based submissions, and ranking analysis once listed. For your free download of this software package, visit the link below, or compare the features with the other packages noted.
You’ve given thought to your idea for some time. In the end, you’ve chosen to act upon your dreams, and began the planning process for development of your own online business presence. You have researched potential products, established your domain name, and arranged for, or completed construction of your virtual property. The site includes every feature your potential customers are looking for, is laid out in an efficient and focused manner, and is sure to convert lookers into the all-important buyer. Every conceivable aspect of design, construction, and consumer research is complete, and you are finally ready to launch your creation. Or are you?
With the hard work, and financial investment relative to the building, and establishment of a quality internet property, ensuring its overall popularity on the search engines is key. Without proper planning relative to achieving quality search listings, the launch of any new enterprise can turn into an anticlimactic affair.
Search engines continue to provide a potential wealth of traffic to the online entrepreneur of today - traffic that can make or break the newly launched e-commerce site. Preparing your site to deliver a top ranking search result for specific, targeted keyword(s) is imperative to a lower cost of operation, and a stronger business model.
There are a number of varieties of search engines out there today, each requiring a different approach in achieving a meaningful ranking. The three most common today are:
True Search Engines
These database sites scour the internet based upon both submitted recommendations, and links to new sites found through existing ones, adding properties that meet preset requirements, and categorizing them for future use. The largest example of this type of search engine is Google, the largest internet database anywhere.
Directory Based Search Engines
These portals attempt to provide greater usability and site quality to their visitors by manually reviewing every site submission before including the property in the search results seen by their users. Yahoo is the largest current example of a directory based search engine, with thousands of manually reviewed sites. Many directory operators now charge a fee for submission, to cover the expense associated with the manual review process.
Pay Per Placement Search Engines
These providers have taken a previously frustrating site owner experience, and turned it into a hugely successful enterprise. With the growth of the internet market, submission turnaround time was becoming increasingly slow, a strong negative to the site owner requiring traffic today, not six months from today. The pay per clicks delivered the ability for the newcomer to the market to immediately achieve top ranking on some of the internet’s most traveled sites, through successful keyword bidding. The most popular of these services is GoTo.com, whose top bidded listings are given priority placement on many of the large scale portals, including AOL, MSN, and AltaVista.
Achieving a popular, traffic generating listing within both the true and directory based engines is no simple task. The rules applied either mathematically, or manually in the case of the directories, are complex, and consistently changing. The constant shifts in requirements are applied regularly in an attempt to better filter out abusers of the system, whose sites offer little in the way of true content or quality. This reality has made the required effort on the part of the honest operator far greater than ever before.
Utilizing tools to measure your site’s potential for success within these different environments is an imperative to assuring that you are both successfully listed, and achieving strong search result based traffic numbers as quickly as possible.
With the increased demand for this type of specific and carefully measured targeting within one’s site design, there has been a significant increase in the number of service offerings in this area. The nature of these offerings vary from operations that charge a monthly fee to manage your site’s search engine preparation, and monthly submission, with guaranteed results for specific keywords, to softwares that analyze your site construction based upon the same algorhythyms utilized by the engines themselves to assess overall potential.
In the end, the product you select will depend largely upon the ability of your target market’s search potential to deliver large volumes of traffic if proper placement is achieved. If, however, your market is so niche that you feel the number of searches relative to be too low to justify the expense associated, you may choose to prepare your site on your own, utilizing some of the tools offered by Online for Success. This approach can be far more efficient, and effective, for the internet business owner who wishes to establish their listings within a non-competitive market, or one who simply cannot afford the costs associated with pay for service offerings.
I often wonder how the practice began of pretending to be someone else in order to market your business. You know what I’m talking about — it’s the marketing face, the selling voice, that you often put on in order to attend a networking event or make a sales call. Who taught you to do that? I have a suspicion where we learn this behavior.
Most of us spend a lifetime observing showroom salespeople, product spokespersons in the media, and hucksters on street corners. What we see demonstrated there is artificial enthusiasm, manipulative use of language, feigned interest, and in some cases outright deception.
Sounds awful, doesn’t it? So why copy any part of this distasteful way of selling?
Psychologist Abraham Maslow said, “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Perhaps we believe this is the only way we can sell because it’s the only way we know. I’m not accusing anyone of consciously deceiving prospective clients. What I’m suggesting is that what we do unconsciously and automatically is to behave nauthentically around them.
Intuitively, many of us feel as if something is wrong with this way of operating. When we have to sell ourselves, we find it unpleasant, disagreeable, even repulsive. But what if all those negative feelings were simply because we hate the artificiality and manipulation we think must be a part of selling?
Imagine what it would be like to go to a business networking event as yourself. No facade, no pretension, just plain you. When someone asks your reason for coming, you tell them the truth. You don’t have to claim you wanted to hear the speaker (if you didn’t). You can come right out and say, “I’m hoping to make some contacts that will lead to business for me.”
You wouldn’t have to invent reasons to start a conversation. You can walk up to someone who looks interesting and say, “Hi, I haven’t met you yet.” If you’re shy around strangers, you can tell the first person you meet, “I’m sort of a wallflower and feel awkward at events like this. Could you introduce me to some folks?”
Now imagine placing a follow-up call to a prospect where you are completely honest. You could say, “I have some days open on my calendar soon and I’m wondering if this would be a good time for that project we’ve been discussing.” Or, “We haven’t talked in a while and I’d like to find out if you’re still planning to start the new training program this year.”
I see so many professionals and consultants struggle with trying to find an “excuse” to call a prospect. You don’t need some manufactured excuse. You know the reason you’re calling. Most of the time THEY know the reason you’re calling. Just say what it is.
Let’s extend this same principle to making a cold call. Instead of stumbling around awkwardly trying to make a polished — but unnatural — sales approach, imagine yourself saying, “I’m not much of a salesperson, but I’m really good at what I do. Can we have a conversation about what you need and see if I’m the right person for the job?”
If you’ve been working from a cold-calling script that makes you flush and get a tight throat every time you read it, throw it out. Come up with one really good opening line that feels authentic and gets directly to the point. Then decide how you will answer — honestly — some of the typical questions prospects ask you.
My bet is that your calls will immediately get easier. In fact, the more you become honest, direct, and authentic in all of your marketing, the more appealing selling will be to you, the more effortless it will become, and the more success you will ultimately achieve.
Because most business results from building relationships, and how can you develop a relationship with someone when you never reveal who you really are?
