Archive for the ‘Technology Sales Leads’ Category
What is E-Trading?
What is E-Trading?
I'm doing a project and I really just want to know the basics about e-trading: who does it, what is it, what people are involved in it…and why it's so important to the economy.
I know it's a lot of info…but anyone with some answers with mucho help…
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Yahoo! Answers – What are the key personal traits of a successful entrepreneur?
What are the key personal traits of a successful entrepreneur?
1. The ability to compromise.
You have to be able to appreciate many different points of view. A customer demand, for example might seem unreasonable, but by accomodating a point of view unlike your own, might bring an insight that benifits your company. I have a saying: In the Art of Compromise, 75+75=100.
2. You need to take a long Read the rest of this entry »
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Discuss the primary difference between selling and marketing concept? – Yahoo!7 Answers
Discuss the primary difference between selling and marketing concept?
Simple
Selling :- Goods are consumed by end customers
Marketing :- B2B process
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C-Level Selling – Quality Sales Leads Will Come Once You Build Your Opportunity Matrix
We will now prioritize all those boxes into marketing and selling categories. We will then assign energy actions based on their status which I’ll define later. Since we have limited selling time we want the biggest bang (most sales) for what little time we have. But we don’t want to ignore future opportunities. Therefore we have to proportion our energies based on (1) most likely to win and (2) timing of the purchase. Categorizing will help.
The Marketing Categories
Marketing prospects are distant sales opportunities. The clients exist and we sell what they could possibly use, but for any number of reasons we are a long shot away from a sale to them right now. I use “M” to designate “marketing” and the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 to indicate the remoteness of the opportunity.
M1 -”Way Out There” means this prospect based on demographics could use your products or service, but you don’t know anything about them and/or have never even made contact.
M2 – “Out There” means you’ve received some outside information that this prospect could need or use what you sell. It could be a competitors’ customer or a self-op. It could be a service for one of your existing account that they are just not interested in.
M3 – “Likely Prospect” means you’ve visited or talked with someone from the prospect and they have indicated a moderate / future interest. It could also be a response from a trade show, or a promotion, or a referral, …
M4 – “Suggestion of a Fit” means someone has called you to come in because they really have a problem in your realm and want to learn more how you can help them.
Selling Categories
These are opportunities with good potential to close in a relatively short time. For some businesses short can mean a week and for others it can mean 6 months to a year. Never put anything over a year in the selling category – no matter what your business. Keep strong potentials over 12 months away with the M4s.
S1 – “Qualifying” means rating this prospect against your Ideal Customer and Ideal Opportunity Profiles. In other words there are certain “who’s” that fit the way you do business better than others. Likewise there are certain products and services you have that fit applications better than others. The prospects you want to pursue are the ones that fit these profiles better/closer. These prospects have indicated strong interest and have asked for a proposal/quote.
S2 – “Interviewing and Presenting” This is where the prospect has passed the qualifying criteria and now you have to get beyond your initial contacts. If you’re in B2B sales, there are many people involved and there is a C-Level or profit-center leader that will give final approval. You will need to meet these decision-makers to learn and understand each person’s perspective and what it will take to win over each one.
S3 – “Closing” means you’ve interviewed and presented your proposal and pricing. Now is when you’re addressing any open issues and most importantly getting the top, C-Level or profit-center leader to commit to you.
These are the “prospect statuses” for each box in your matrix. Now go to your Opportunity Matrix, excel spreadsheet, and fill in the boxes with M1, …, M4 and S1,…, S3.
Prioritizing
The “who” ranking is (1) existing customers, (2) old and/or lost, (3) new. An S1 for an existing has higher priority than an S1 for a new customer. The ranking by categories is S3, then the M’s, then S1 and finally S2. M’s are high because they are your future.
Energy and Time Utilization
Every prospect (a who and a what) has to have (1) an action and (2) a date of completion associated with it. These should be updated daily by the sales person and reviewed with management monthly. If senior sales management doesn’t enforce and participate in this, the selling team will never reach its potential.
S3 and the M’s require the least time. Closing although extremely important is a few final meetings or phone calls. The M’s can be done in bulk – mailings, invitations to trade shows, phone calls, advertising, and networking. However, the M’s are your future and need to be attended to everyday for some finite amount of time.
An example of how this might work would be: A sales person would start the day by immediately addressing any open issues on opportunities that are in the closing stages. Then that sales person would spend 90 minutes on marketing activities. Then s/he would set up or attend meetings with the S1s to determine how well the fit between companies and the application are. Then set up or attend meetings with S2s or work on their proposals and prepare quotes.
As I mentioned M’s can be done in bulk and dated the same way. For example all the M1 – M3s would get a mailing from the marketing department that will be completed by October 15th. The M2’s and M3s will all get invitations by June 3 to the upcoming teleconference June 30th.
S2s take the most amount of time, and can overwhelm a sales person. That’s why S1 precedes it in rank. You want to qualify that you have a good customer and application fit before you decide to put forth all the energy needed to meet all the decision-makers and get to the leaders. If you attempt to close sales via your main contacts only and don’t personally cover the other decision-makers, you’ll close at best 30% of these S2 pursuits. S2’s should close at a 70% rate.
So set up your matrix, assign your categories, set actions and dates for completion and then implement. Update regularly as prospects move down from the M’s to the S’s to the final sale.
And now I invite you to learn more.
Bonus Tip: FREE E-Book “Getting Past Gatekeepers and Handling Blockers”. Just click this C-Level Relationship Selling Link. Sam Manfer makes it easy for any sales person to be successful and feel comfortable connecting with and relationship selling C-Level leaders.
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Sales Oriented B2B Marketing
§ B2B (Business to Business) transactions
§ B2C (Business to Consumer) transactions
§ B2G (Business to Government) transactions
B2B amount to the biggest part of transactions made online. Creating sales – oriented marketing plan and strategies is essential when starting some B2B online business. Sales – oriented marketing plan is the one aimed at generating sales, rather than creating just brand awareness or exposure. Here is how you can do that.
Choose your unique niche market:
Target some market segment which is less explored, and make sure you start by offering some product or service to this specific niche. You cannot create some product which satisfies all segments of the market. Instead of offering something which every customer will find less than satisfactory, offer some product which some of them will find exclusively designed for themselves. Isn’t it better to have a few loyal customers in the initial stage of your business than having little more unsatisfied ones, who will never buy from you again?
Credibility:
Customers are turning into practical and no-nonsense types in this age of information. These types of customers will not buy from you, unless you establish your credibility. All your marketing techniques will fail to provide you with sales if your customers are not having trust in you. Exhibitions, business magazines, testimonials and trade shows can all help you in achieving this much needed credibility.
Lead management:
Lead management is all about generating leads and then making the most of it. Lead generation and then a healthy rate of conversion can do wonders for instant growth. E-mail marketing, referrals, seminar, cold calls are some of the mediums used for lead generation. You can think of your own methods as well, depending on your business.
Landing Pages:
Leads alone cannot provide you with sales; you need to convert these leads into sales. The first step is to make an effective landing page (AKA lead capture page). This is the page on which some customer lands or arrives after clicking on your link at some referral page or advertisement. This is not necessarily your homepage; it can be a blog or sign-up page as well. You can include images, frequently asked questions, sales pitch or testimonials. Ideally the landing page should be focused on selling just one product or service. In case, there are many offers, customer will get confused and leave.
Train your sales staff:
An effective marketing practice combines the two objectives of retaining old customers with attracting new customers effectively. Train your sales staff for this purpose because, after all your costly advertisements and marketing campaigns, it is your sales staff that will actually be making sales and reaching your customers with the follow-up calls. Sales staff should be fully aware of the business and offers, capable of coping with customer’s initial resistance or hesitation and well equipped with presentation skills.
William King is the director of Baby Goods Suppliers and Wholesale Trade Suppliers He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.
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Sales Lead Sources
Sales leads are the lifeline of most small business owners, business professionals, and salespeople, especially in B2B marketplaces. Sales managers pressure their staff to get more sales leads and close more sales. But, you cannot close sales, even with the best sales closing techniques, without leads. It all starts with a lead.
So, where do you get sales leads? Where do leads come from? There are Read the rest of this entry »
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Is B2B Selling Different to B2C?
Many of my B2B clients voice the concern that a B2B organization cannot benefit from the same sales, marketing and ultimately copy writing techniques as a B2C organization. Most are already convinced that this is so.
Lately, I’ve seen a lot written for copywriters on the subject of the B2B market. It’s being pushed as a market that provides a nice, steady source of lower key, lower pressure projects. Read the rest of this entry »
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