Hello, it’s Mike Grady from business fuel.

I’m answering that question of the week.

All right, so the question we got is how to add a sales funnel to your existing website?

Well, the short answer is click funnels.

So yes, you can add a sales funnel to your existing website or you can actually turn a traditional website into a big sales phone.

This works just like hiring a train salesperson to nurture leads and to convert them into sales 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

See, adding a sales funnel has never been easier. As an entrepreneur, you’ll never have to feel like you’re handcuffed by technical people ever again.

Yes, you no longer have to rely on tech people to get your lead magnates and your offers live online.

See in the past I’ve had to rely, I’m, you know, programmers and graphic designers just to set up a very basic sales funnel.

And typically it would take them two or three months to get it live.

Once I gave it to them. Most times it wasn’t done exactly the way I wanted it, but I invented, I invested a lot of time and money.

Today I use a software my men are created called click funnels and I can actually build out a funnel in about 10 minutes.

I get an idea, I create an offer, I create a funnel and then I see if it works.

If it doesn’t work right away, then I can make quick changes and then publish them and then wait and see if it starts to make sales.

See this program was created for non tech technical entrepreneurs like myself that aren’t programmers.

We don’t know how to be designers, so we can easily build pages inside of a sales funnel that are proven to convert.

Yes, you can stop paying tech guys in their ridiculous prices like I did.

It gives you the power to turn your ideas into reality and then turn those offers into money. And to do that quickly, I create a video that walks you through the core steps, which is the lead magnet, the offer page, the thank you page, the sales page, and of course the most critical part, which is the followup phone, the video.

I will show you how you can, as an entrepreneur, you can literally take the power back from the tech guys.

I’ll put a link in the description below of the video and then you can actually watch it later and you can learn from it.

So whether you’re on vacation or you’re at the office or you’re at home, your funnel will be working for you just like a full time salesperson.

Also, my mentor, Russell Brunson, wrote an industry changing book on how to create a mass movement of people who will pay for your advertising, pay for your advice and your products.

So I’ll put a link to the description below about that. You can check that out for yourself.

So hopefully this answer helps on if you can actually put a sales funnel into your website or actually just make your website into a sales funnel so that you can have people coming and getting your message and checking out your products and buying your products 24 hours a day.

A new survey by MepReps looks at how much medical sales professionals make and factors like product and market impact their salary. There’s so much stuff we’re going to split the review up into two articles.

Later we’ll look at information from the survey on how much medical sales professionals travel, how job titles affect salary, and how where you live, along with age, gender, and education levels impact your bottom line.

Average Medical Sales Salary

Let’s get right to it, how much money do medical sales reps earn on average? According to the newest MedRep survey the average medical sales rep salary in 2016 is $145,147, with an average base of $88,038, an increase in both numbers since 2015. Of those who responded, the majority of work for manufacturers while a third of respondents sell medical or surgical devices, and one quarter sell pharma or specialty pharma.

Average Medical Sales Salary by Product and Market

There are differences in salary among the type of product sold. And its important to note that medical sales jobs include not only the more famous pharma and medical device positions; medical supplies and disposables, capital equipment and DME, even health IT products and services, are also included in the professional category of medical sales. In fact, product may be the key factor in determining the size of salary.

In 2016, biotech sales professionals claimed the top spot, earning $165,028, (with a median income of $155,000) in total compensation. Surgical sales professionals were a very close second earning $163,654 (median was $155,000). Often the median income may more helpful than the average as a few high or low salaries can skew averages.

This year’s report also examines how the specific market a professional sells to impacts earnings. Those who sold to hospitals, and specifically surgery/OR, earn the highest salaries while home health and rehab markets fell on the lower end of the spectrum. Good to know as you are considering your next job!

Income by Job Satisfaction

While money isn’t everything, income satisfaction does seem to correlate with job satisfaction, according to the survey. In general medical sales people seem to be very happy with their careers with more than three-quarters of respondents reported being very or somewhat satisfied with their overall job, which was similar to the 75% who reported being very or somewhat satisfied with their income. Those who said they are very satisfied with their incomes earn an average of $177,319, while those who said they are very unsatisfied earn an average of $100,903.

Individual Medical Sales Salary Increases

At the individual level, more than half of respondents reported receiving a pay increase in the previous year. Those who received the increase as a result of a job change reported an average increase of 13% while those receiving the increase due to a promotion reported an increase of 9%. The overall average increase (including those who received routine increases) was 6.4%.

For more information on the survey please visit MedReps. Look for our next article highlighting survey results on travel, job titles, location, age, gender, and education levels and their impact on the bottom line.

During the Sales Call ( Visit to the Customer ), the most important task of the Salesman is to Generate Order. Here we put stress on word “Generate” instead of “Take” order. To take is passive way by definition of the word. This means that in this case Salesman mostly just pick the order given and prepared by the outlet owner. To generate is an active process where the Salesman leads the process. He assess the needs, propose order quantity, create back-up Profit Story that will support him with his proposal, overcome objections and conclude the sales.

In order to really master this process, the Salesman must be equipped with specific tools and sets of knowledge. One of the most important thing is the skill and knowledge of Inventory Management in the outlet. By default you may think that this is the job of the outlet owner, since he orders, he pays product, store it, sell it further etc. The truth is that outlet owner is managing too many things at same time: outlet premises (rent, utilities, maintenance ), staff (employment, training, supervision), legal obligations (accounting books, taxes ) and on top of all this he have many product categories, among whom your portfolio is one out of many.

From this it is clear that the outlet owner can never be more focused and trained than your properly trained Salesman. During the process of Order Generation, for every SKU individually, it is important to take many things separately: sales history, trends and expectations, seasonality, strength of the brand, safety stock, etc.

The Inventory Management model of “Rule 1.5” offers you a good balancing of Order Generation, taking into account History, Trend and Safety Stock. The Formula for the Rule 1.5 is:

ORDER = WEEKLY SALES x 1.5 – STOCK

Explanation: Order is created on the base of the last week sales, but is increased by 50% for case that sales increase, than is reduced by the current stock. This is in accordance with the policy of keeping of Safety Stock. In case that sales increase in the next period, the stock is safe until the next sales visit. If the opposite happens, meaning that the sales in the next week is lower than in previous, there is no fear of overstocking, since the formula will balance the next order (reduce it).

The orders are increasing while the sell-out goes up, but also decreases in the period when the sell-out is declining. This makes this mechanism of Inventory Management very useful for both, the Supplier and Customer, since it secures fluent supply of products, avoid OOS, balance capital invested, decrease obsolete stocks, increase consumer’s shopping experience and maximize profit.

This model is suitable for all FMCG products. The model is explained in more details in a free tool kit at [http://www.biz-development.com/Sales/4.6.%20Sales%20Call.htm]

None of these take much time, but any one of them can add consider sales to your bottom line. Or try all six, and see your sales explode.

Your Prospects Are Afraid…

Provide your real contact information, including name, company name, snail mail address (physical is better than P.O.) and phone number.

Why? Because your prospects are afraid you are not who you say you are.

On your ‘about me’ page, provide all of this info again, along with photos of you, any employees you have and maybe even your location. Make it super easy to trust you and you’ll get more sales.

Elevate Your Prospects’ Status to Make More Sales

People want to prove they are better than others and have people look up to them. This isn’t bad, it’s just human nature. And you can use this tidbit of knowledge to make more sales, too.

Play up to this tendency to feel more important. Show prospects how buying your product will raise their status among peers, friends, family, etc. Show them how important they will become as a direct result of buying your product.

Have Your Sales Message Come from a Peer

One of the ‘secrets’ to boosting response of your sales message is to have it come from a peer of your ideal prospect.

In other words, you want your message to come from someone of the same group you are selling to.

Are you selling to women in their 40’s? Have your message come from a woman in her 40’s. Selling to investors? Have your message come from another investor, and so forth.

You can likely take any promotion you are running right now, change the message to come from the prospect’s peer, and increase your response considerably.

This technique is even more important when you are selling to someone who is highly skeptical. Nothing melts resistance faster than hearing a message from someone you perceive to be very much like yourself. Split test this and see the response – I think you’ll be shocked at the increase in sales you experience from this simple technique.

Focus on the Benefits of the Benefits

You already know how important benefits are to the selling process. Features are great, but it’s the benefits that sell. For example, that weight loss book is pretty and it has 300 pages – those are features. The benefit is the reader will lose weight if they follow the plan laid out in the book.

But what are the benefits of the benefits?

In the above example, ask yourself what are the benefits to losing weight? For example:

• Looking better
• Feeling better
• Becoming more attractive
• Living longer
• Fitting into clothes they already own
• More confidence
• Turning heads and getting dates
• And so forth.

Talking about just the main benefit – in this case, losing weight – isn’t enough. You want to dig deeper and expound on all the benefits your customers is going to get, and then paint a picture of their new life after they use your product.

Find the Story

Every product has a story buried somewhere – you just have to dig it out.

For example, look at this headline from John Carlton:

“Amazing Secret Discovered by One-Legged Golfer adds 50 Yards to Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks and Slices… And Can Slash up to 10 Strokes from Your Game Almost Overnight!”

I have zero interest in golf. None. Yet after reading this headline, I want to know about the one-legged golfer.

Now imagine if I did golf – and imagine what all the golfers who read this headline did. Yup – guaranteed, they couldn’t help but keep reading to find out about that one-legged golfer.

That’s the power of a good story.

Get More Micro-Commitments

The more a person commits to something, the less likely they will change their mind.

For example, if you can get someone to opt-in to two or more of your lists, they are more committed to staying on your lists.

And get this… they are also more likely to make purchases, too.

It’s a principle of psychology that the more a person commits to something, the more likely they are to stick with it for the long haul.

For example, someone might say they are going to start running. But all they do is say it – they don’t do anything else – and within a week they’ve forgotten all about it.

But if that same person buys new running shoes and clothes, visits running websites, subscribes to a running magazine and joins a running club, then I can about guarantee they’re going to run.

It’s the same with your lists. If you can get subscribers to opt in to multiple lists, they become more committed to you and to the niche or topic itself.

So let’s say your niche is dogs. You might ask your new subscribers to opt in to a special course on potty training, another course on bad behavior modification, another course just on their particular breed of dog and so forth.

By getting more of these micro-commitments from your readers, you greatly increase the odds they will become your customers and even purchase from you multiple times.

Now how great is that?

One of my biggest influences, Tony Robbins, has a saying that’s extremely relevant if you run an expert or client business:

“People tend to major in minor things.”

What does this mean?

People have a weird, gnarly tendency to focus all their attention on stuff that does very little to grow their business.

Or improve their life in general.

Case in point:

A couple of months ago, a reader wrote me a “helpful” email pointing out a spelling mistake on page 5 on a 7-page sales page.

But was this actually helpful? Not really.

Here’s why:

Yes, I did indeed make a spelling mistake on that sales page.

But, that sales page still sold regardless of the spelling mistake or not.

In fact, that spelling mistake could actually have resulted in more sales if I had bothered to test it. How? Because, when you’re selling anything through the written word (i.e., a sales page or sales letter), a simple spelling mistake can inject a human element into your writing.

Copywriting is not so much about proper grammar.

It *IS* however all about persuasion… and… about making people *FEEL* a specific emotion at a particular moment in your sales message.

The brutal truth is that the right people (your buyers) don’t care about one measly spelling mistake.

They care about your understanding of the problem they’re struggling with.

And your product should, of course, help people solve that problem.

With that said, your sales message should still be clear and free of as many grammatical errors as possible.

But, you shouldn’t stress about them.

Focus on what really matters:

Which is your clients and how your product or service can help them change their lives.

Today, where people have more options than ever before, it’s not enough for you to talk about your product, features, and how awesome you believe it is.

Kristian’s #1 rule of marketing:

Nobody cares about your product.

They care about how that product can help them change their life.

So focus on how you can communicate the value your product will bring to your clients.

As the old adage says:

“People don’t buy a drill they buy a hole.”

Translation:

“People don’t buy your product they buy the result your product will give them.”

P.S. Normally, I would run an article like this through a spell check and check for grammatical errors.

But, today, I just sat down and kept writing until I reached the end.

And if you’ve read up until this point, you probably didn’t care either about the few mistakes sprinkled throughout. True?

The Commerce Department reported on Wednesday, February 14 in its US Census Bureau January Retail Sales report that sales increased 0.3% in January. Moreover, they revised December sales figures downward from the 0.4% rise initially reported to unchanged. This was followed Wednesday, March 14 by another report indicating sales had dropped 0.1% in February. After a strong 2017 fourth quarter, this continues a trend of stagnant sales from January to August 2017. Sales during those 8 months had the lowest standard deviation for that time period since data collection began in 1992. To highlight the problem, sales growth was lower than it was prior to major market drops in 1997, 2000, and 2007 or the follow-up recessionary years 2001 and 2008. In fact, only 2008, when sales were negative, had a lower January – August sales growth. Interim reports may have raised a glimmer of hope, but now that the good news from December have been rescinded and with January and February adding to the negative trend, these sales report should give pause.

Some, like Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West in San Francisco, have attributed the weakness to bad January weather putting building projects on hold and keeping consumers away from auto dealerships. Maybe the weather did not cooperate again in February but I suggest there is an alternative explanation – the shortfall of peak spenders I have previously written about.

In fact, slowing auto and building project demand serve as confirmation of the shortfall since this is precisely what one would expect from a reduction in the peak spender population. Demographically, peak spenders are 46-50-year-olds whose kids have moved out and no longer have to shell out money for college. These are folks who suddenly find themselves with a lot more disposable income and use it to purchase big-ticket items such as cars, new homes or a home remodel. A reduction in that population would, therefore, affect those industries directly.

Unfortunately, the impact of this trend is being swept under the rug as wage increase and inflation fears take the limelight. The focus is now on Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics reports which saw January hourly earnings jump 2.9% on an annual basis as compared to the 2.7% rise in December. That was the largest rise since June 2009. Hourly earnings moderated in February but still gained 2.6%, above the Fed's 2.0% inflation target. Regarding inflation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported its Consumer Price Index swelled 0.5% in January, as compared to December's 0.2% climb, although CPI moderated in February back to 0.2% growth. The only reason the year-on-year CPI increase for January and February remained at 2.1% and 2.2%, respectively, is that some of last year large price gains dropped out from the tabulation.

This is no time to ignore sales figures. Once the shortfall in peak spenders takes hold in earnest later this year, sales will be forced on a downward trend. Given that the shortfall is not transitory but will persist and even exacerbate in future years, the slide in sales will precipitate. By contrast, the current inflationary pressures ARE temporary. Eventually, we will see less demand for products, more layoffs, lower wage increases and as a result, lower inflation.

Considering those prospects, we should be seeing measures aimed at curtailing a major economic downturn. Sadly, we have been feeding at the trough of easy money for too long and the Fed is, understandably, itching to take away the punchbowl. What we will see instead are continued Fed rate hikes like the one we saw March 21, which will raise borrowing costs for both corporate and government debt. The first will put pressure on corporate profits even as their top line goes down. The second will increase federal government debt payments on our ballooning national debt giving it less wiggle room to help during the approaching economic storm.

What do you, as a sales representative, do when your prospect says, "Looks great, but the price is too high." "I want to talk it over with X," or, "Looks great, call me in a few weeks?" You must understand when selling, managing objections requires you to skillfully isolate the real objection and create a bridge that keeps your conversation alive even when the prospect throws the curveball in the form of an objection. From Sales 101 training, you know the first objection is rarely the real one, so if you are trying to answer the first objection, you are probably taking your sale, right to "the graveyard of dead sales." Objections should be welcomed as they are a way to allow the potential customer to share valid input and concerns. Objections are just a higher level version of two-way conversations.

It is natural for the intended buyers to offer objections. A great example is when you go to the store, do you instantly send the helpful sales clerk away with "just looking" rather than allowing them to help your find the perfect solution to the reason you came to their store in the first place? Everyone seems to be conditioned to do that so they are not rushed into a decision.

So before you, as a sales representative, get caught up in how to overcome an objection, there is a sales step you must do to make sure it is a genuine objection. Before you go down the path of answering that first objection, recognize that the first objection is rarely the real one. You need to keep control and respond with transition statements and open-ended questions to get to the real issue. Transition statements and questions might sound something like these two samples.

1. "Obviously you have a reason for feeling that way, can you share some details about your experiences with me?"

2. "Just suppose that were not an issue, would what I have been talking about be something you might use?"

A great sales person will identify objections and concerns early in the sales process. If you are getting objections at the close of the deal or after you ask your prospect to buy then there is a good chance, you missed a step in your sales process. A sales representative must have the ability not only to capture the prospects information in a way that is interesting to them. This is done by asking thought provoking questions that create a mental image of what might occur versus telling them about their problems and pains. If you tell people what their problems are so you can present your solution, they may not believe you. If you ask questions in a way that get them to think about their situation plus share their opinions and experiences, you are more likely to get out objections very early on in the sales process. That is the time to manage objections, not when trying to close the deal.

When you are looking for the objections of your desired customer, do not argue with them as this will immediately turn them off. Remember your words do make a difference and there are words that connect with your prospect and other words that may turn them off. There are two words that can put you right in the heart of a fight with your prospect. Those two fighting words to avoid are "but" and "however." Too often sellers use these words when someone has an objection, concern, or complaint.

How can bad word choice happen so often? The customer states their possible objection, you feel you know they are not right or your idea is much better so you respond quickly. You do not mean to get on the customer's wrong side. Yet without thinking and instead of transitioning correctly, you might wrongfully say something like "I understand how you feel, but …" Once you say "but," it is at this point that all your customer hears is "you are wrong" followed by pushy "blah, blah, blah."

So remember not to put your customer in a fighting situation by using the wrong words. Before pushing your product or service as their best solution, allow the prospect to have input into your sales process. Instead of always presenting, you need to manage their objections to closing the deal by being more persuasive and learning to really understand their need.

We’ve prepared a report with “101 Closing Techniques to Help Buyers Say YES!” but frankly, not all of those will work in an online setting.

But if your business is like mine, most of it’s online… not all of it.

So, we need to be good at all the closing techniques.

And if you’re like me, you’re a lot more comfortable with some techniques than others.

But before we get to those, why do you need closing techniques when making sales?

One word: Objections.

Brian Tracy, arguably the finest sales trainer in the world, says,

“The fact is that objections are good. Objections indicate interest. Successful sales have twice as many objections as unsuccessful sales.”

Unfortunately, objections feel like rejection to a lot of folks who don’t like to sell. That was me. For a few years, sales was an area that scared me to death.

It felt a lot like being on a stage with immense pressure to perform.

Sales as Service!

Flipping the script though, like Tracy has done in his comment above, encourages even the non-salesperson to provide the best service to the prospect.

If the salesperson understands that service is ultimately their job, they not only have permission, but a duty to help people solve their problems – in exchange for money.

Closing techniques are not sneaky tactics to separate the buyer from his wallet, but persuasive tactics to get prospects to take action on something they already want and need, and to move toward that solution.

Sometimes, they’re not ready, but waiting only makes their situation worse. That’s where the right closing technique can help them take action – and hopefully implement that solution to make the necessary changes.

Closing in sales letters – especially online – presents a special problem.

We can’t be face-to-face to establish the physical rapport. Online business people struggle with that as evidenced by the rapid adoption of video on-camera sales letters.

So, we rely on closing techniques proven to work online.

Below, we review the top 10 sales closing techniques used by the most successful online marketers.

One or all of these may work for you. You may think none of them will work because your niche is “special”.

Nonsense. I used to say that too. The truth was simpler: I was afraid to ask for the sale.

My love of staying in business (which means making money) was greater than my fear of asking for a sale, so that’s finally gone. (If you’re in my community, you may have noticed that.)

Let’s review closing techniques those below.

Closing techniques proven to work online

Bracket Close

This is commonly known as a pricing panel. The prospect feels like he is making a choice among three products or three service levels when in reality, she will pick the one the owner wants 90% of the time.

Usually, the panels are set up like the one above:

· A low-cost, stripped-down version. (nobody wants to go slumming!)

· A high-value option in the middle that suits the needs of nearly everyone with a slight price increase over the low-cost version.

· And a premium, high-cost version for those buyers who always go deluxe.

Of course, the middle one is the one the seller wants nearly everyone to buy.

Cost of Inaction Close (COI)

Hat tip to Alex Mandossian for this tip. He advises coaching students and clients to focus on COI, not ROI when presenting options to prospects.

But ROI – return on investment – is inherently positive. It will give prospects the feeling of hope and possibilities, right?

That may be true, but COI – cost of inaction – triggers the more powerful emotion driver – fear of missing out (FOMO).

Cost of Inaction needs to be spelled out: Here’s what’s going to happen if you DON’T take advantage of this today.

A great analogy is wanting to play the piano for 10 years, but never taking lessons. To continue to do what you’ve done is get what you’ve got. Still won’t be able to play the piano in 10 more years.

It’s totally emotional and psychological, but works like gangbusters.

FOMO will show up quite a bit in these closing techniques as the primary driver, but let’s just say it taps into that dark place we all go when we feel like someone else is getting a better deal.

Deadline Close

Many, many online marketers love this closing technique because it’s very tangible, and works like nothing else if…

… you enforce your deadlines.

A good countdown timer like Simple Countdown Creator allows marketers to schedule promotions and automations to ensure that the deadlines and sales actions happen as advertised.

Prospects and customers get accustomed to purchasing your products before the deadline because the deal will be gone after the deadline.

There are a couple of types of deadlines:

1. Fast-action – like the one on the left, the timer shows the visitor that they can save an extra 20% with a special coupon code in the next 14 minutes and 40 seconds before the countdown timer expires.

2. Sale period – this can be hours, days or weeks, but there is a deadline looming. And of course, the further out the deadline, the less urgency the prospect feels to take action.

The issue with deadlines and timers (other than enforcement) is getting the timing right. As the graph below demonstrates, sales over a period of time has a predictable pattern with a spike in the beginning, a lull in the middle, and a massive spike at the end.

Often, the final spike as the deadline closes in can be 70-90 percent of sales.

So, the seller has two choices:

1. Collapse the time of the sale to remove as much of the lull as possible, or…

2. Figure out a way to spur sales during the lull period to improve conversions then.

Some techniques for that are:

1. Incremental price increases

2. Reducing bonuses

3. Sales contests during specific periods of the sale

And others, of course.

The big driver behind deadlines are intense scarcity and more FOMO.

Demonstration Close

My favorite was the Rainbow Vacuum salesman who came to the house when I was a kid and demonstrated to my fastidious mother how dirty her carpet was by demonstrating how great the water-filled vacuum was. She was mortified to see the mud in the container swirling as he vacuumed. We bought the Rainbow Vacuum.

We use the demonstration close often on a bridge page to pre-sell our viewers on software or training programs.

Getting a customer to do a quick demo showing the power of the solution with real results helps prospects see how a “real person” has used the solution and easily translates the possibilities for themselves. That’s the Holy Grail of the demonstration close, and it has been mastered by the QVC folks.

It makes the close a simple process of revealing the price, the value and the buy button.

Directive Close

This is a very popular closing technique, but often forgotten.

Tell prospects EXACTLY what to do.

By showing the prospects a step-by-step process, you’re walking them through the process of buying. And you’re also setting the expectations, reducing the fear of the unknown and removing the hesitation.

Often, this takes the form of:

Step 1 – Click on the button

Step 2 – Input your Name, eMail and Address

Step 3 – Enter your credit card information

Step 4 – Click Submit

Step 5 – Watch your email inbox for delivery of the product…

As you’re demonstrating this process, the prospect is often taking the action steps and following along – making the purchase.

Empathy Close

I was just like you.

I had the same problem as you.

I understand completely how you feel.

I almost went bankrupt when that happened to me.

All of those are examples of statements that prospects may identify with.

The empathy close is necessary in nearly every sales presentation. If you don’t identify with the prospect, they seldom become your customer because they don’t trust or relate to you.

With an empathy close, you identify, relate, and trust the prospect first because you understand their problem.

Exclusivity Close

Everyone wants to be special.

And your prospects are special, of course, but you can point out exactly how special they are.

“Only a few people will take action on this because most people are afraid to change their lives. But that’s not you.

You are a special kind of person who sees the possibilities, imagines the future, and makes it happen. That’s why you’re one of the very few that will take action on this. And it’s why we only want to work people like you in our private group… “

You get the drift.

Another way to do this is to tell people who this product is NOT for. For example, we have an exclusive live event coming up in October.

There are only 50 seats available.

And it’s limited to people in our 200 or 300 groups. In other words, you have to have a business up, making some sales, and serious about your niche.

If you don’t have a business established yet, this is not for you.

That’s an exclusivity close.

Money Talks Close

With this close, the marketer demonstrates the cost of the problem. It can be tallied up in a spreadsheet-like table.

The prospect can see the numbers and understand the cost of the problem.

If the numbers are correct, the prospect will agree with the cost of the problem.

Then, you propose a solution that will reduce the cost of that problem.

Take Away Close

This is exactly what it sounds like. And it’s incredibly effective.

As the process is revealed, the offer is amended to remove something you’d previously given. In other words, your bonus or extra feature will be removed if you don’t close now.

For example, if you’re selling software online, you may offer 6 extra months of upgrades if they purchase now. If they come back to the site tomorrow, the 6 extra months is gone.

You’ve taken it away.

This takes advantage of the fear of missing out effect so well, it’s almost painful to the prospect, which is exactly what you want…

Testimonial Close

Are prospects going to believe what you say about the effectiveness of your product solution?

Or are they more likely to believe someone who has used it, and gotten rave results.

Of course, they can more easily believe the testimonials because they appear more impartial.

That’s the beauty of testimonials.

And testimonials can be the element that moves the visitor from prospect to buyer.

These are the top online closing techniques.

And we’ve only scratched the surface.

Any businessperson will want to master these closing techniques and more if they want to make more money. The great thing about an online business is that you can test which work best with your people easily.

There are hundreds of closing techniques, but we narrowed it down to the 101 best sales closing techniques in the report “101 Closing Techniques to Get Buyers to Say YES!” before it goes away.

When its time to give your next sales presentation, here are my favorite tips for delivering powerful, charismatic, and engaging sales presentations.

#1 – PLANT YOUR FEET SQUARELY ON THE FLOOR

How you hold your physical body during your sales pitch communicates a tremendous amount of information about you to your audience. Studies have shown a person will unconsciously interpret approximately 55% of the meaning of your message from physiological cues in your body position, stance, and facial expressions.

Deliver your presentation from a position of confidence. Stand with your feet squarely between your shoulders. Distribute your weight evenly between your legs, and plant your feet firmly on the ground. Keep your arms relaxed at your sides, until your are ready to make a gesture.

Shifting your weight from one leg to another communicates to the audience a lack of confidence. This comes across unconsciously in that if you were to ask someone, a typical response might be “he didn’t seem like believed in his company” or “I not sure that I can trust her”.

Try both the balanced and the unbalanced speaking postures right now, and see which one makes you feel more confident and ready for your next sales presentation.

#2 – GET PUMPED UP

It is your job to lead the audience. The reason they are there to get something from you. So you must lead them where you want them to go. If you want people to get excited about your product or to feel a sense of trust towards you and your company, you must first create this emotion within yourself.

How do you do this? Simple. Do whatever it takes to get yourself excited. Jump up and down. Clap your hands. Play your favorite music loud. High five your sales partner. You can do this where you won’t be seen by the prospect (in your car, in the customer’s stairwell, bathroom or outside the building). What do you think a rock star or an actor does to warm-up before going on stage?

The idea is to begin your presentation in an absolutely great state. Do this right and the audience will follow your where you want them to go.

Special tip: Use this technique before making important phone calls so that you are “on” when you make the call.

#3 – WARM-UP THE AUDIENCE

Another thing big rock stars do before coming out on stage is they have warm-up acts. The job of a warm-up act is to get the audience in a mood will be receptive of the main act’s energy.

You can accomplish this same effect by simply playing music before you start your presentation. Many laptops have CD players these days, or you can use a boom-box. The type of music you play will depend on your audience, and the emotional state that you want to warm your audience up to. Just think about how this will set you apart from your competition’s stale PowerPoint slide show.

#4 – BEGIN WITH AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

The more rapport you have with an individual or a group, the more receptive they will be to your message. One way to build rapport with your audience is by asking questions of your audience during your first few minutes on stage.

Ask a question or two that most people can easily answer (but don’t put anyone on the spot too much). Questions such as “How far did you come to get here?” and “How long have you been working in this field?” easily get conversation going and begin creating a relationship between you and your audience.

#5 – SUSTAIN EYE CONTACT WITH INDIVIDUALS

You probably know you should do this. Now here’s why and how.

The more frequently you change the location of your focus, the more new information your brain is taking in. Your eyes are the visual sensory input system for your brain. Change focus fast enough and frequently enough, and you overload your brain to the point where you forget where you are at in the presentation. Aaaaggh!

Maintain your concentration on what you want to say next by fixing your visual focus for short periods of time. Do this by completing a thought or a sentence (whichever you find easier) while sustaining eye contact with one person. Move eye contact to a new person with each new thought or sentence.

© 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.

While many businesses make efforts to improve production, distribution, and various administrative work processes, it is less common to find organizations that focus on applying the fundamentals of Continuous Improvement to the sales process.

However, our research and experience indicate the selling process is more complex than many people realize. In addition, we have consistently found that the largest waste in most commercial and industrial organizations is lost gross margin that results from sales not made, sub-optimal pricing, and excessive costs in sales-related processes.

So, leaving aside the “selling skills” or “charisma” associated with those perceived as the most successful sellers, when you consider the day-to-day activities required of field-based or outside sales professionals, there are some proven best practices that can help boost field-day efficiency, which include the following five:

1. Pre-call planning: by planning each sales call in advance, in writing, sales people can position themselves to accomplish more in less time, thus increasing personal productivity as well as accelerating overall cycle-time. Not only will running more comprehensive sales calls increase efficiency, but the habit will also make a stronger, more positive impact on customers. Many who have embraced this best-practice report that their customers recognize the difference and, over time, become more willing to schedule meetings or sales calls, thus enabling them to more easily make more calls each day, an important part of the job as noted in the next bullet.
2. Set a daily call volume goal. This may sound like an unnecessary step, but a surprising number of sales people are unable to quantify the actual average number of sales calls they make each day. As author Jack Falvey has said, “Want more sales? Make more calls.” By setting a personal goal, which will vary depending on the nature of each territory, sellers are often able to self-motivate more effectively and make more calls per day.
3. Geo-plan: by creating a strategic geographic or travel plan for each day, outside sales people can minimize drive time and optimize “face” time. The best plans will begin by creating territory quadrants and then mapping the locations of customers and key prospects. The rule-of-thumb is to avoid traveling beyond two quadrants in any given day, so when an appointment is set in one area, try to schedule meetings or plan to visit others in the same general region to enable a maximum number of interactions in a minimum amount of time.
4. Bookend each day by scheduling an appointment early in the morning and another late in the afternoon. This will promote “staying the course” as opposed to deciding to drive back to the office early to do administrative work. This best-practice might also help to achieve item #2 above.
5. Try to schedule next steps (i.e., follow-up meetings, conference calls, etc.) “on the spot” before the conclusion of each sales call. This simple best practice can significantly boost efficiency for two reasons. First, it helps sales people more easily populate their calendars for future selling days in the field; and second, it can help shorten selling cycles by securing time with buyers sooner than could be done otherwise.

But the sales process extends well-beyond a day in the field, as it encompasses everything from identifying a lead to delivering a solution.

Considering this broad spectrum, it is really not surprising that the largest waste within most businesses can be found in the sales area.

The first step toward improvement – that is, moving from “where we are now to where we’d like to be if everything were right” – is to identify specific areas of sales process waste, and a good way to start might be to answer the following 20 questions:

1. What is our current market share?
2. What are our customers’ requirements?
3. How well are we meeting these requirements?
4. What would it take to truly delight our customers?
5. How long does the sales process take from lead to sale?
6. What is our lead conversion ratio?
7. What were the top 3 reasons for lost sales over the past quarter?
8. How many calls do our sales people make, on average, each day?
9. How much time do we spend talking with uninterested or unqualified leads?
10. How do we continually improve our sales team’s skills and habits?
11. What percentage of prospects contact us first?
12. How does this percentage (#11) compare with industry data?
13. Does the sales process take less time to complete for inbound leads? If so, how much less?
14. What is our response time to customer or prospect inquiries?
15. How many customer complaints do we receive?
16. How much time do our sales people spend interceding or responding to complaints?
17. What is done with the information associated with customer complaints?
18. How do customer complaints or how does customer dissatisfaction impact our ability to make sales?
19. How often are discounts extended, and what is the average discount?
20. Are discounts offered due to competition or in response to dissatisfaction?

Clearly there are many ways to analyze and improve the productivity of an organization’s sales process, but these five best practices and twenty questions are good starting points.