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

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

 THE NEW CLIENT 

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

 DETERMINING YOUR CLIENTS NEEDS AND CLOSING THE SALE 

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

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

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

I blame my Mom.

I mean, she’s a sweet lady and I love her, but somehow she let me get through 30 full years on this planet still believing that ostriches bury their heads in the sand (she also let me believe that Santa Claus existed until an embarrassing age and filled my head with strange ideas about the Easter Bunny and classic economics theory. Like I said, she’s sweet.)

The ostrich thing is a lie of course . . . a pop culture myth perpetrated by Tex Avery cartoons and science teachers who don’t believe in evolution (since any ostrich that *really* did bury it’s head in the sand would be eaten right quick.)

What an Ostrich *really* does when it feels threatened is kick you hard in the mouth and run . . .fast.

But still, every day I meet otherwise smart and savvy business owners and marketers who seem to run their businesses on “Mythical Ostrich Marketing Theory . . . ”

What The Heck Does That Mean?”

It means that they bury their head in the sand (or in spreadsheets, over-mined data a big ideas) and utterly fail to notice all the other ostriches (or businesses) all around them.

And that they forget that *nobody* buys in a vacuum . . . and that by the time a customer talks to them, they’ve probably already talked to just about every other ostrich in the field.

Here’s What This Is All About

If a customer clicks on your PPC ad, clicks on a link in an email or stumbles onto your page in the wild and gets funneled into your lovingly crafted sales page you *don’t* just have to convince them to buy from you . . . you have to convince them to buy from you *instead* of somebody else.

And have to quiet the little voice in the back of their head that’s doing backflips and throwing a fit wondering if they’re making the right choice.

So how do you do that?

By hitting the objection head-on, making it really apparent what separates you from the other guys and telling your customers in no uncertain terms what your product or service is *not.”

Your weight loss pill is *not* “just another unhealthy scam that’s going to wreak havoc with your body and leave you fatter than ever six months down the line.”

Your real estate seminar is *not* “more recycled, overpriced drivel you’ve already heard and ignored before.”

Your seduction ebook is *not* just more sleazy advice telling you how to trick girls into going home with you . . .and making you feel like a loser and a creep.

By throwing copy like that up nice and early on your page you accomplish two big goals:

1. You establish that you’re different than all the other ostriches out there.

2. You subtly (or not so) intimate that if this is what you’re *not,* maybe it’s what all those other folks are.

However, many make the same mistake over and over again when using their chosen media for marketing their business. That is, if they do any marketing at all!

However, this costly marketing mistake can be avoided with a little understanding, knowledge, and wisdom of how to appropriately market your high tech rep firm.

I guarantee that if you implement these simple, yet highly effective marketing and business strategies, you will find greater opportunity for your high tech rep firm in any other business you start.

So let’s get started!

Disparate databases spread across several field sales reps.

I’ve worked with several high tech rep firms and this is a common problem and presents several other problems as well. For instance, if one, God forbid two, of your field sales engineers leaves your company, so does a percentage of your database. This should never be!

The simple solution is to centralize your database. You can manage your database, massage it to tailor your business needs and mass market to your client and contacts via email as soon as a new device come out or some other hot issue comes up. In fact, your database system should also provide automated marketing and follow-up for your products and services over the Internet.

All the contacts from every OSR should be within the database including their name e-mail address and phone number at the very least. This is critically important because you are going to use e-mail as a marketing tool to disseminate information. By doing this you are going to leverage speed in which you communicate information faster than your competitors can even think about.