Sales & Marketing Consultant, Bestselling Author & Business Motivational Speaker

Marketing strategy and execution can be two of the most exhausting elements for just about every businessperson. With the endless ways that your business can be marketed, it becomes even more difficult to know which outlets are truly worth your time, energy and money. How many of us have ended up spending 80% of our time marketing our business and 20% of our time actually doing the real work? When we get caught up in the quicksand pit of marketing, it is extremely important to take time for one simple thing. You need to revisit  your “why”.

Know Your Why
Why did you start your business endeavor? Even the most seasoned business owners often forget what their initial motivation was. Did you want to be financially successful? Did you want to produce the best product in your niche field? Regardless of what your ultimate “why” is, you must revisit the foundation that you put in place when you first began your business. When we take time to remember why we are working so hard and what it is we are working for, this fuels our motivation to continue down our current path. Likewise, we can also see which marketing tactics we are using that don’t serve our ultimate purpose. Revisiting our “why” puts our current division of time and labor into a very real perspective.

Keep Your Eye On The Goal
Marketing and businesses are very similar to sports. When we play sports, we keep our eye on the goal at all times. Even when our backs are turned away, we still know where the goal is located. The same theory works for your business. You have revisited your “why”, now it’s time to make that goal large as life. Keeping an eye on your goal allows you to push forward with making sound business decisions. It also allows you to keep your head up, which is necessary for success.

Make A Map
You have your “why”. You have your eye on your goal. What’s the next step? Just like any other journey, you need a map. A map will keep you on course, allow you to see everything that surrounds you and tracks how far you have come. I would suggest researching project management software. Using project management software allows you to track your on-going projects. It also allows you to keep a historical of your past projects. This feature is great for looking at your business as a whole, just like a map, to see where you were, what you have accomplished and where you are heading.

Every business owner feels the weight of being pulled in too many directions. We can’t determine what efforts are worthwhile and which efforts are a waste of time until we step back and look at our initial goal. This is the perspective all business owners must visit on a regular basis.

Thanks!
Sean

Sean McPheat
Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

Earlier this week we looked at a few of the best sales tips that I’ve accumulated over the years from friends, mentors, and acquaintances. Today I have a few more tips to add. Let me add: these aren’t suggestions that you should just put in a closet and pull out on a rainy day. These are sales tips which you should start working into your sales pitch today. This minute. Read on for the best of it…

Know Your Product

This should go without saying, but I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve seen salespeople start to stumble when asked provide anything above the level of basic information about their products. I can’t stress this enough – if you aren’t confidant about your product, your customer will definitely not be confident about your product.

Perhaps over the internet you can get away with being less than well informed with some of your products. However, in person, nothing less than perfect will suffice.

Know Your Customer

Knowing your own products is only the beginning. It is also essential to know the needs of your customers, and to fit this in with your products. Know what your competitors are doing, how they’re approaching your customer, and make sure that whatever they’re doing, you’re doing better. Put yourself in a position where you’re the one who can serve the interests of your customers most successfully.

When you are making a pitch to a customer, it should be focused on the customer, with mentions of how your products can improve his business or his life. Don’t focus on yourself, with passing mentions of your customer. Too many business owners do just this, and its not way to win business.

Avoid Negativity

This is key. Avoid any traces of negativity when you’re making a sales pitch. Most significantly, don’t talk badly about your own competition, or even your competitor’s competition.

Nobody wants to do business with someone who gets ahead on the backs of others. Convince your customers that they should do business with you because you’re the greatest thing that the industry has ever seen, not because the rest of the field is made up of a bunch of losers.

With these three tips, and the three that I gave you earlier this week, you should be set to make some big changes to your sales pitch, and to your overall selling style. Now get out there, hit the pavement, and put them into practice.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

Everyone can use a bit of sales advice now and again. Sales come naturally to some of us, but others among us don’t take very well to the prospect of actually selling things face to face.

For you, I’ve put together a short list of a few of my favorite sales tips, collected over the years from my mentors, friends, and acquaintances. Read on for the best ones.

Ask Questions – I can’t stress this one enough. The most important part of selling any product or service is to establish rapport with your buyer. If they don’t like you, they’re probably not going to buy from you. Not only does asking a lot of questions (and actually listening to the answer) help you build rapport, but it also keys you into your buyers’ preferences so that you can design your next product with those in mind.

Don’t Sell On Price – Selling on price is common mistake of novice salespeople. Customers are actually much less sensitive to price than you would imagine. Consider your own actions at the store. When you’re purchasing something, do you often buy the least expensive version of the product? Probably not. We use price as a signal, and assume that the least expensive product is also the lower quality.

The restaurant industry gives us a nice example. The least expensive bottle of wine is typically one on the wine list to sell. People are much more sensitive to quality than they are to price.

Sell Results – This is much more important than price. Rather than telling people how cheaply you can provide them with something, sell them on the expected benefits that they will reap from using your product. Will they see higher sales volume, a clearer picture on their television, or more free time on the weekends? Possibly all three? Whatever your product can do for your potential customer, make sure to stress that point.

Start putting these into practice today, and check back in next week for part 2!

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

Whether you’re starting out with a new business, launching a new product from an established business, or seeking to expand the customer base of a product or service that has already been launched, it is absolutely essential that you’re creating and implementing a quality marketing plan!

I can’t tell you how often I see even the most established and successful marketers miss this crucial process. Even if you’re already a successful marketer or business owner, there’s something in here for you.

Identify Your Audience

This is the most crucial step, and why it’s so important to draft up a marketing strategy plan before you initiate the launch of a new product or marketing campaign. As is always the rule, a product should be developed for a market. You should never just develop a product because you have an interest or an area of expertise, and then hope that some people are interested enough in your product to buy it.

Make sure that you include in this section the ways that you, or your company, can reach this audience. Its not good identifying your target audience as the native tribes of the Congo if you don’t have a plan to get your product to them.

Identify Your Goals

Just as important as identify your audience is thoroughly identifying your goals. What exactly do you want to do with this product/service/company/campaign? It doesn’t matter what you’re launching, the key is identifying the purpose.

Sitting down and really thinking about what you want from your campaign can provide incredible insight into what steps you should take in your campaign. For instance, the marketing moves that you’ll want to make to increase your conversion rate are different from the moves that you’ll want to make to reach your market and make a profit, as well as what you hope to get from the product, or from your company at large.

Quantify Everything

This is so important, I can’t say it enough. Put everything that you’re thinking about in numbers ,and write it all down. Marketing is a creative industry, but the number that drive it aren’t creative at all. The numbers have to match or your bottom line will suffer. Which means that you’re either cutting into your profit margin, or you’re making somebody in another department of your company very unhappy.

Establish what your budget will be, and map out several different scenarios, determining the impact on your bottom line and profitability of each one.

In addition to helping you avoid overspending and market overreach, itemising your budget and putting everything down in writing can help you to identify unforeseen places where you can cut costs and save a bit.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker