Once your new lead has entered their details and clicked “submit”, they will usually find themselves on a conversion page which will say something like “Thank You, you will receive your report shortly”, confirming that they have been successful in their submission.

Even though these leads will no doubt be followed up through one method or another, for some businesses this is where the importance of the conversion page ends…but should it?

Here are 4 key ways you can optimise your conversion pages to ensure they do much more than simply say thank you and wave goodbye.

Add A “Download Here” Button
These leads have taken the time to fill out your submission form and given you access to their important contact information so the least you can do is give them access to the content they’ve signed up for there and then.

This instant gratification will bode well with some of your new leads, who are very busy and just want everything now. For those who don’t want to have to view and download your content there and then you must, of course, ensure that you email this out to them anyway.

Don’t Just Have A Call To Action – Shout It From The Rooftops!
Your conversion page should already have some type of call to action within it, which encourages your new leads to access further information you have on offer or suggests they enquire for further information – but could you be doing more?

Start by bringing back any navigation on your site which you may have removed to encourage the lead to sign up in the first place – this will give your new leads a chance to have a browse around your site and learn more about the company and your products and services.

On top of this, encourage your new leads to link up with you on your social media sites, and – depending on whether these leads have landed on your company website or your blog – direct them to any alternative sites you may have to encourage further interaction with you.

Make Your Social Sharing Buttons Pride Of Place
The leads which have made it to your conversion page obviously thought enough of the content or deal you were offering to part with their contact details in order to get their hands on it so why not give them the option to share this great offer with their social media followers?

By displaying all manner of social sharing buttons on your conversion page you are allowing your new leads to pass on your information for you BEFORE they leave your site, ensuring that you squeeze this extra advertising from them while they are still enthused about you and your company.

You Have The Gold, Now Make It Valuable
The way you choose to follow up with each of these new leads will be different depending on each company’s current sales and marketing processes, but where possible you should feed all new leads into an on-going email campaign, to ensure that they are consistently being updated with new content and ideas which will make sure they remember you and don’t just take your content and run.

The whole point of a lead generation page is to generate leads so ensure that these are properly monitored and followed up through whichever method suits your company best.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert – Motivational Speaker

BORING

Sadly, if your only plan is to hand your prospect a business card you might as well just dump all of your business cards into the nearest trash bin. Your card will likely make it into the pile of “business cards from networking events” this gentleman already has on his desk back in the office. Your card will not stand out from the rest and, as a result, you will be forgotten.

So what should you do?

Make a show out of not just giving your business card but of taking out a pen and writing something important on the card. Write your personal email address (as opposed to your business address), your home phone number, your cell phone number – something that isn’t pre-printed on the card to begin with.

Doing so will make the person you’re working with feel special – as though he or she has access to you on a level not many others share. You will have personalised the experience and, as a result, given yourself a better chance of hearing from that person again in the future.

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker

What it illustrates, though, is that in many cases more than one person will be involved in the process of purchasing the product you are trying to sell. In some cases one person may embody all five of these roles, but in others you may have to deal with 2, 3, or maybe even all 5 different people.

Are you prepared to appeal to that many different mindsets?

The five main buying roles are as follows:

1. The Initiator – the person who decides to start the buying process.
2. The Influencer – the person who tries to convince others they need the product.
3. The Decider – the person who makes the final decision to purchase.
4. The Buyer – the person who is going to write you the check.
5. The User – the person who ends up using your product, whether he had a say in the buying process or not.

If you’re smart you’ll find out who all of these people are well in advance and prepare a presentation that can be tailored to all of their interests at the same time. If you’re lucky you will only have to deal with one person, but in the event that more than one person needs to be in on the decisio you’ll need to be ready to answer all of their questions and objections.

Are you prepared?

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker

Fortunately, I have good news for those who are a bit shy. Building rapport with new people is a skill that can be learned. Your conversations with new people and strangers don’t have to be strained and jilted. Besides, if you can build up a personal rapport first you’ll have an easier time discussing business later on.

So what can you do to build rapport? Try these approaches:

• Dress to impress. The first thing a person will notice about is is the way you look. As a matter of fact, they’ll look at your appearance before they even greet you. Make sure your hair is done, your clothes are clean, and that you are dressed in a style similar to what your customer wears daily.
• Be disarmingly honest. What I mean is that you shouldn’t answer the standard greeting questions with the same old “Fine – how are you?” responses all the time. Occasionally you should be honest when answering this type of question. Laugh the question off and tell them about the rough start you had that morning or relay a funny story about your children. Your answer, while honest, will be completely unexpected.
• Incorporate a sincere complement into your conversation. The next time you meet with a customer, prospect, or peer pay special attention to him and his business. Let him know if you see something that really makes a positive impression. He’ll appreciate the compliment and it will open up doors for continued conversation.

These are just three simple tips for establishing rapport but you can see from these how easy it really is to strike up a conversation with someone you know very little about. Try to make a connection on a personal leve and the rest of your prospecting experience will go much smoother.

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker

There are nine key factors that usually motivate a person to buy a product. They are:

1. Ambition – they want to move their businesses forward and will buy whatever it takes to help them do so.
2. Status – they believe that their social and economic statuses demand they have the latest and greatest products.
3. Ego – they take great pride in their organisations and want to have nothing but the best, fastest, and most effective products and services.
4. Greed – they simply want to collect new products, be the first to have them, and be better than the competition.
5. Security – having the newest products and services makes some business owners feel as though they are secure in their position in the marketplace.
6. Fear of loss – no one wants to be the last one to get a new product – or to be the last one able to offer it to his clients or prospects.
7. Prestige – will having your product make this organisation stand out from the rest?
8. Pride of ownership – some organisations simply take pride in owning new products, make the most out of their function, and take care of them properly. They want to add something functional to their arsenal.
9. Desire – some people care less about the product than they do about having it before their peers or competition.

As superficial as some of these motives seem, they still drive certain people to buy. Find a prospect that falls into one of these categories, act quickly, and make a great presentation. You’re almost guaranteed a sale.

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker

Sadly, life isn’t that simple and no one is going to hand you a list of prescreened prospects. You’ll have to find them yourself, and in order to do so you’ll have to try a few of the following methods:

Networking

I like to think of networking as building a list of contacts that will work for you over time, but in this case I mean you need to ask about and rely on the networks of your clients. If one of your clients calls or emails his friends to talk about your work, the chances of you making a sale are much higher than if you had approached that other company’s CEO on your own. In short, ask your current clients to refer you to their counterparts.

Get on the Phone

We all hate cold calling, but for some reason this often avoided sales technique is often the most effective. Pick up the phone, dial a number, make your presentation, and then repeat the process. Cold calling takes time (probably one of the reasons so many people avoid it) but it works.

Just Ask

Ask for referrals. This is not the same as networking because you aren’t asking your clients to contact their friends on your behalf, but you are asking them if they know anyone who might need your services. Don’t limit yourself. If you’re speaking to a prospect ask him if he or she might know someone who’s interested in what you have to offer – just because they aren’t ready doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate or understand the value of what you do.

There are dozens of prospecting techniques and you’ll learn about and try to implement many of them. I highly encourage experimentation, but whenever you find yourself in a rut remember one thing. These three prospecting methods are the oldest and most frequently used for a reason – they work. Whenever you hit a bump in the road, return to one of these methods and you’ll find yourself back on track.

Enjoy your weekend!

Sean

Sean McPheat

With that in mind, here are five more tips you should keep in mind as you continue on your path to prospecting success.

Study Yourself

Get a small tape recorder and turn it one when your potential prospect answers the phone. After the call is finished, listen to the recording. Did you sound natural or did you sound like you were trying to push a sale? The more natural and conversational you sound, the better your results will be.

Don’t Waste Time

When you get on the phone with a prospect you’ll likely have a series of qualifying questions that will help you to determine whether or not what you are selling is really right for them. You’ll be able to separate your “high-probability” prospects from your “low-probability prospects.” Low-probability prospects will drain you of time and ultimately not buy. High-probably prospects need what you have – spend more time with high-probability prospects while politely ending your low-probability calls quickly.

Pay Attention to the Numbers

Prospecting is about reaching as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. You need, specifically, to keep track of how many people you can call in an hour and how many of those calls turn into actual sales. If you make a sale, you obviously won’t make as many calls in that hour, but how many calls must you make before you find a prospect that is really interested?

Keep Records

Grab a notebook, start an Excel spreadsheet, or create your own record keeping system. Make sure you keep accurate records regarding the number of calls you make during each prospecting session, the time of day you made the calls, the results you achieved, and any other information you may find helpful when reviewing your results versus your goals. Having detailed records will help you to identify areas of success as well as areas that need work so that you can tweak your prospecting plan accordingly.

Keep Calling

While putting together a mailing may seem like an easier route, prospecting over the phone is actually the most effective and productive way of building a book of business. It costs less than putting together a mailing and eventually you won’t have to make as many calls – especially once you have a book of business that regularly sends you referrals!

Don’t shy away from prospecting. It’s difficult in the beginning, but only gets easier with time. Before you know it you’ll have a million dollar book of business and you’ll need to hire a team of associates to make those prospecting calls for you!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert

Today I’ve put together a list of five tips you can use to jumpstart the prospecting process. Consider the following:

Use a Targeted Prospect List

Consider purchasing a list of prospects from a list broker, but don’t just buy any old list. Make sure that the names or companies on your list are those who are likely to want or need your product. It actually costs less in time and manpower to purchase a list than it does to attempt to build your own list. The only time you should use your existing client list is if you have a new product you feel they might be interested. Otherwise, stick to finding brand new clients.

Develop a Winning Offer

When your potential prospect gets on the phone you will have no more than 20-30 seconds to convince him to speak to you. You need a clear and concise statement telling your prospect who you are, the type of product you’re selling, and why he needs your services. Work on devising a simple statement and don’t start cold calling until you have one. A strong statement will keep people on the phone; faltering will result in hang-ups.

Don’t Pressure Your Prospects

Listen to your prospects carefully. If they tell you that they are not interested simply thank them and hang up. You will leave a positive impression because they won’t remember you as being a nasty aggressive salesperson, and they may respond differently when you call again later on.

Be Consistent

Which brings me to my next point – being consistent. You should call every name on your list at least once per month. Just because someone was not interested at the time of your first call does not mean that have not identified a need since then. It may take 3 or more calls, but your prospects will respond. Remove them from your list entirely only if they ask you not to call again.

Don’t Burn Yourself Out

You do have clients to take care of, so don’t spend all day prospecting for new clients. Schedule prospecting sessions of 3-4 hours at a time and make sure you take a 10 minute break every hour or so, especially if you’re not having a productive day. Don’t dwell on your prospecting session once it’s over – simply move on to the next task and go back to prospecting the next day.

Prospecting doesn’t have to be a difficult or stressful task. Remain consistent and dedicated and after a reasonable amount of time you’ll begin to see results!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert

It’s simple: Make efficient use of the telephone and setting good qualified appointments and you succeed. Fail in this one area and you fail. No matter how great your product, or how professional your sales presentation or how enticing your offer is, if you do not have a consistent stream of qualified prospects to listen to your story, you are doomed to mediocre sales at best.

It is essential for a professional sales person today to be able to get through to qualified prospects and set solid appointments. However, today’s consumer has changed. It has become increasingly difficult to pick up the telephone and set appointments.

To set an appointment, is to make a sale. You must “sell” the appointment as if it were a completely separate product or service. And, as with selling any product, you must have an effective and comprehensive sales process. Therefore, you must have a distinct and detailed selling process exclusively designed for setting appointments. This template will systematically lead you to design your own telephone sales process to set appointments in abundance. It does not matter if you need to set up meetings with Mr. and Mrs. Consumer in the dining room or Mr. CEO in the boardroom. Once you have the tools and the confidence to pick up the telephone and create sales opportunities, you will begin to top the sales charts with consistency!

The Prime Objective
The most important issue in setting appointments on the telephone is to remember your primary objective: to set an appointment. While this focus may sound obvious, most sales people routinely lose this focus while making sales calls. You have to refrain from selling your product or service or from selling yourself or your company. What you are selling is the appointment. You must keep your focus on the one objective of setting up the meeting. It is during that meeting that you will sell your product, self and company—but not before.

Sell the Appointment
As with selling anything, the basics of a sales presentation apply when selling appointments. To effectively sell anything, you need to:

1. Uncover a problem, thereby exposing a need
2. Present the solution to the problem to solve the need
3. Ask the prospect to take action now for a mutual benefit

However, before you can sell the appointment or anything else for that matter, you must get through to the prospect that has an open mind and will listen to your story. Before you get into your sales presentation to sell the appointment, you must develop an approach that will allow you to spend your time with prospects that are receptive enough to warrant your time as a professional sales person. To do this, you will “qualify” the prospect. You are going to screen all of the people you call so that you spend time on calls that you are reasonably sure will be worth your valuable time as a professional.

Get Rid of the Smile & Dial Mentality
One of the main problems sales people have on the telephone setting appointments or selling is the way they “sound.” When a “telemarketer” calls you, you can tell within the first three seconds that the caller is a sales person. There is a distinct sound affiliated with a telephone solicitation call that acts like a warning beacon to your potential customers. It is an abnormal tone of voice and pace of speech that is primarily due to a big phoney smile and an unnaturally overenthusiastic attitude. You must get rid of the fake, forced, façade and sound like a normal person; like a businessperson. So first, lose the big smile and tone down your enthusiasm.

PULL, Do Not PUSH
Next, you must reverse the old cold-calling philosophy of the “push” or “pitch” mentality. Stereotypical cold calling methods and “scripts” teach you to force your telemarketing script on anyone who will sit still long enough to listen. The idea is that if you can keep the prospect on the telephone long enough, perhaps you can get to the “good part” before they hang up. The typical script is designed to suppress or smother responses from the prospect until much later in the call.

You do not want to push or force your presentation on anyone. Nor do you want to spend your time with people who sincerely do not want to spend their time with you. What you want to do is simply find people who are receptive and in a state of mind to listen to you when you call. If a person were truly unreceptive or too preoccupied to listen to you, then why would you want to spend your time trying to force him or her? Instead of pushing your story on unreceptive people, you are going to put all prospects through a short series of tests that will let you screen out calls that may prove unproductive. You might call these trial closes that you will use within the first few seconds of the call. If the responses to these trail closers are positive, then you move on. However, if the prospect exhibits too many negative traits, then the possibilities of setting the appointment are weak. Therefore, you can choose to terminate such calls before you invest a lot of time.

The Screening Process
You are going to create a telephone presentation that will screen your prospects during the first few seconds of the telephone call so that you spend most of your time only speaking with prospects that provide the highest percentage for setting an appointment. The following is the “structure” and outline for you to design your presentation. It is not a script. It is a process. Your actual words can and should change depending on with whom you are speaking. You are going to pre-qualify prospects before you invest your time in a full presentation and closing for an appointment. For those prospects that fail to qualify, you will terminate the call and go on to the next call. You can decide which people you will re-call at another time and the ones you will not. For those who pass your screening, you will move to set an appointment. With this process, you will save enormous amounts of time and set more appointments.

Time
Your first trail closes or tests for the prospect are to determine if you are calling at an opportune time. If you call someone at a time when they are legitimately preoccupied with something else, they may not hang up or even tell you, but you will not have their attention. In such a case, it is better to get off the telephone and call this prospect at a better time. Within the first few seconds of the call, you want to determine if the call is convenient for the prospect.

Attitude
Then, you want to determine if the prospect has the right attitude toward you, your company and the product or service that you sell. You want to find out immediately if the prospect may have any pre-existing reasons that may prevent them from setting an appointment with you. If the prospect has some preconceived negative feelings about your product, you want to find out within the first eight seconds, not after eight minutes.

Technical
Finally, you want to technically qualify the prospect as to your target market and specifications. Does the prospect need to own a home, a business or a new car? Must your potential customers have a certain amount of employees or earn a particular amount of money? Before you go any further, you want to be sure this prospect has the capability to do business with you.

Presentation
The prospects who pass those first three brief qualifying stages are the people you want to talk to. Now you will make your presentation as you will uncover the problem, expose the need, present the solution and close for the appointment.

Questions, Pauses and Stutters
To elicit these responses from the prospect you will of course ask a few questions. But you will also use deliberate, strategically placed pauses or stutters to give the person a chance to respond.

The Introduction: Time and Attitude Testing
First, listen intently from the moment the telephone begins to ring. You want to pay special attention to how the prospect answers the telephone. If you are going through a receptionist, then still pay close attention to exactly how the prospect answers the line. You can easily tell if someone is preoccupied, by the way they answer the telephone, if you just listen. Usually, the sales person is so concerned with what they are going to say to the prospect that they pay little attention to the first sounds and words the prospect makes. Listen for clues that reveal the prospect’s mental state. In your introduction, you want to test the prospect as to the convenience of the call and their response to your company name.

Prospect:
“Bill’s Automotive. Bill speaking”

Sales Person:
“Ah, Bill Johnson, please.”

Our sales person realises that the person is more than likely the owner, Bill Johnson. But the key is to elicit responses from the prospect. So, the sales person asked to confirm, thereby getting an additional response.

Prospect:
“Speaking.”

Sales Person:
“Yes, Bill, John Harris with ABC Life Insurance… (Pause)…how are you?”

You want to pause and listen intently to the prospect’s reaction to hearing your name and the company you work with. You also want to listen to the response to the question, “How are you?” This is not a rhetorical question, as you really want to know if the prospect is in a good mood. If this prospect has not offered any negative responses thus far, it is likely the call is relatively convenient for the prospect and so far there are no ill feelings about you or your company. Remember, you are giving the person as much opportunity to object if they have an objection.

Go to the last page of this document and design YOUR PERSONAL INTRODUCTION. You want to be sure to pause, giving the prospect ample time to respond to your name and the name of your company. Note, that if the prospect wants to engage in a little bit of friendly banter at this point, that is ok, but do not force it.

Introduce Product or Service – More Attitude testing
Now you want to make it very clear exactly why you are calling. Let the prospect know your purpose. You just want a brief statement that explains what you do and sell. You also want to make it clear that you work with other people similar to the prospect; you work with their peers.

Sales Person:
“Yes, Bill, ABC Life, we work primarily with independent business owners like yourself on tax favourable insurance plans, and … (Pause)… or “do you have a quick minute?” And pause

Prospect:
“Yeah, sure”

Pause again and allow the prospect the opportunity to raise an objection to the idea of insurance. You can also ask the prospect if they have a moment, though this is not always necessary. If the prospect still has not raised any negative feedback at this point, you can be reasonably certain that this person is at least open to the idea of talking to a life insurance sales person. This does not mean that they are guaranteed to set an appointment, but you did not run over the prospect. You allowed him time to offer a negative response or an objection and none came forth

Design your own INTRODUCTION OF PRODUCT OR SERVICE statement.

Sales Person:
“Bill I am talking to all of the business owners in your area, are you the sole owner there, Bill?

Prospect:
“Yeah. Well, just me and the bank”

The sales person uses a quick question for the final technical qualifying stage. Design your TECHNICAL QUALIFYING question now.

Now, that this prospect has passed the psychological and technical qualifying stages, you can go into your presentation. Remember the steps to a sale: Uncover a problem, present the solution and ask for action

Sales Person:
“I’m sure you are aware, Bill, that often independent business owners usually end up paying too much money for their machinery and property insurance. The large corporations save money because they insure millions of dollars, but usually the independent business owner pays way too much, you know what I mean?”

Prospect:
“Yeah, well it’s no walk-in-the-park anymore that’s for sure.”

The sales person presents the prospect with a problem. It is a problem the prospect will easily understand and recognise. It is also a problem that all of his peers share. The problem has to be one that all prospects in the peer demographic can relate to.

Design your PROBLEM STATEMENT now.

Sales Person:
“Well, Bill we have a program that helps the independent owner like yourself save tens of thousands of pounds in premiums and offers tax savings as well. You don’t have to have a million pounds worth of assets to save 20, 30 or even 40%…(pause)”

Prospect:
“Oh yeah?”

Sales person presents that he has the solution to the problem. Design your SOLUTION. Remember, your objective is to sell the appointment ONLY. Do not get into detail on your solution. You HAVE the solution to the problem, but a personal meeting is necessary for you to present it.

Sales Person:
“Anyway, the reason I’m calling is that I am getting together with some business owners in your area next week, basically to introduce myself and to show you how I can help you save a little money….

Sales person asks the prospect to take action now because he is seeing other “like” people who share the same problem, next week.

Sales Person:
“Anyway, I’d like to get together with you Bill, say this Thursday, at 2:30, or would you have a couple of minutes around 4:00?”

Always use a simple “alternate of choice” to close for the time. Design your CLOSING QUESTION.

Prospect:
“Well, I don’t really need any more insurance right now. I have plenty. Why don’t you send me some information in the post?”

If the prospect offers some objection here, don’t panic. Remember that you are NOT in an adversarial relationship. You already screened out those prospects that would have offered strong resistance in the beginning. You are speaking to someone who is open-minded. Do not hit him over the head. Most important, DO NOT TRY TO SELL THE PRODUCT OR SERVICE. Stay focused on the appointment only.

Sales Person:
“That’s great, Bill. We only work with successful business owners who are ALL well covered. We’ll sit down for a few minutes and I’ll share a few innovate ideas with you. The information that I leave with you in itself, be of great value to you. Are the mornings good for you, we can chat over a cup of coffee Bill, or is it easier to get a short break in the afternoon?”

Also, remember to always end that objection response with alternative choice of close. Design your OBJECTION Answer. You may wonder how you can design an answer to an objection that you have not heard yet. Understand that any objection from the prospect at this point is going to be about buying the product or service. So, in almost every case, you can use nearly the same response to get back to focus on the appointment.

Prospect:
“The mornings are out, I mean it would have to be after 4:00.”

Sales Person:
“No problem, Bill. Let’s say we get together this Thursday, at 4:30, will that work for you?

Now simply rap it up by confirming the date and time. Design and complete your presentation keeping in mind, that this is a process not a pitch. You want a presentation that is PLANNED NOT CANNED.

Happy Appointment Setting!

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant - Sales Expert