Sales & Marketing Consultant, Bestselling Author & Business Motivational Speaker

Alright, so you’re working on your telemarketing campaign and you’ve finally managed to get your prospect on the phone. What happens next?

Most people want to launch right into a script, babble about the benefits of their products and services, and attempt to make a sale. This is NOT an effective method of telemarketing.

What you should do is take the information you have about your product or service and use it to formulate a list of questions that will help you gain a better understanding of your prospect’s needs. Once you have a list make sure you ask one question at a time and then listen to the answer. Your prospects will tell you what they need without ever realising they’ve done so.

Another common problem is silence – as in, the lack of silence most telemarketers create. Silence is golden when you’re making phone calls. A silent moment or two means your prospect is formulating his or her answer and, when he or she finishes speaking, silently counting to two in your head before speaking will prove that you were listening instead of simply waiting for the next opportunity to speak again.

In your role playing practice (you do role play to prepare for telemarketing calls, right?) make sure you prepare not only to ask questions, but to respond to the answers. What’s the point of asking someone a question if you don’t do anything with the answer?

Lastly, don’t focus on presenting your product. Focus on listening to your prospect, asking detail-oriented questions, and then setting a follow up appointment where you can present a tailored proposal. Your prospects will appreciate the extra time you take to be attentive to their needs.

Telemarketing isn’t easy, but you don’t have to turn it into a terrifying ordeal for yourself. Simply know your product, relax, and enjoy getting to know your future clients!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Telephone 0800 849 6732

Your online presence is certainly important to the success of your business, but your website won’t do you any good if no one knows you’re online. Here are a few more online marketing tools you should add to your arsenal. They’ll help you to stay organized while promoting your Internet presence.

Feedburner

Feedburner is a must-have tool for anyone associating a blog with his website. If you aren’t blogging, you should be – it’s a great way to share valuable information with your clients, but I digress. Feedburner allows you to create RSS feeds, track the number of subscribers you have, and even provide email updates to your readers.

Copyscape

Copyscape is an amazing tool for anyone who is worried about duplicate or plagiarised content finding its way onto his website. CopyScape will allow you to input entire documents into the system and will in turn let you know how original the work actually is. The higher your percentage rate the better off you will be. I highly recommend this tool to anyone who might consider hiring a writer to take care of article marketing or any other type of promotional writing.

SEO for Firefox

SEO for Firefox is an incredible tool designed for anyone using Mozilla Firefox as an internet browser. The plug-in gathers information from a variety of sources in order to give you information about the market in which you’re trying to compete. The tool can easily be turned on or off so that you aren’t gathering data while casually surfing the web. You’ll learn about a website’s age, Google PageRank, how many links it has, and much more. Everything the plug-in provides can be used to help you determine the best way to position your future marketing efforts.

Building an online presence isn’t difficult but does take time and patience. With these tools you’ll be able to track your progress as you pave your own path towards online success!

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant - Internet Marketing Consultant - Sales Expert

This morning I’d like to take a step back and discuss branding in a little more detail. We’ve all heard of branding and the ways we can make it work for us, but do we really understand what branding is and why it’s used in business?

Branding is a way of turning a name, symbol, or some other design into something that the public will recognize as an authority in a specific area of expertise. It’s not about convincing the public to choose one company over another, but about convincing them that your company is at the forefront of the market because it’s the only viable option. For example, Coca-Cola is the ONLY cola brand with a taste worth your money; or, Sean McPheat is the ONLY marketing consultant with the skill to help you solve your marketing problems!

In order for your brand to be successful you must take the time to research and know your audience (an idea we discuss when reviewing almost all marketing techniques). If you know you’re audience well you’ll be able to give them exactly what they want, when they want it, and not a second too late.

I challenge you to take a few hours to sit down, either by yourself or with your marketing team, to discuss your brand. Start by asking the following questions:

• Does our company brand portray our company mission?
• Do we have a clear idea of who are target market really is and is our brand targeting those specific groups?
• Does your company have a tagline that accompanies the name or logo? If so, what is the first thing you think of when you see that tagline (be honest)? Does that message portray the image your company wants to present to the public?

These are just a few questions to help you get started, but I think you’ll find the discussion you have regarding your brand will open the door for many future conversations. Later on we’ll talk about the different things you can do to develop your brand if you don’t already have one and we’ll look at more ways to strengthen the brand you already have.

Until then, happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Telephone 0800 849 6732

Public relations is important to the success of any business, small or large. Public relations defines your relationships with the community, your current clients, potential clients, and even the medial

The art of having a good public relations plan is about much more than having a few well-written articles published in the paper or putting on a great fundraiser or “show” merely to convince the public that you mean well. A good public relations team will identify a cause that the company can relate to and use it to show how much they really do care about the community.

Sure, you want to gain publicity, but that publicity needs to be gained honestly. While you need to have a strong plan, you do not necessarily need to have a ton of money to launch a successful PR campaign.

For example, a friend in the US told a story about her growing martial arts business. They had a very limited budget and no way to get word out about their presence aside from word of mouth. They instead participated in a community run holiday event and dove right into the planning process, even calling other business owners to promote the event and solicit their participation. They not only spread the word about their business by participating in running the vent, but also earned the trust of their local township leaders and fellow businesspersons as well.

Here’s the challenge I have for you today. It’s time to define your public relations plan, no matter now complex.

• First, determine who your audience is. Are you looking to get in touch with other industry members, potential clients, vendors, family members, the government, or someone else?

• Make a plan that clearly outlines how you’ll get in touch with these people. Write out your goals, determine how you want your audience to perceive your business, and figure out what message you want them to hear. This part of the process includes creating strategies for getting your information out into the world as well.

• Finally, make friends with at least one or two members of the media. The local media is best, even if it’s a high school reporter or a small township paper. The more positive media attention you gain, the better.

Develop a strong public relations team and make sure your business is always in the public eye in some sort of positive manner. It doesn’t matter if you’re hosting a charity event or if you’ve won an award – the public should be hearing about you regularly!

Sean