Selling With Cold Calling: The Most Profitable Method

Cold calling can be done in person or on the phone. Most salespeople avoid it like the plague. But it has benefits, and there is a method to the madness.
Years ago, I was selling vacuum cleaners. I was cold calling by knocking on doors. It was unpleasant work. Nobody is happy to see you when you are knocking on their door.
Anyway, it was the last day of the month, and I was in a contest. A storm was going to arrive within the hour, and canvassing in a storm is a no-no. I needed a sale. One more sale would give me a huge bonus for the month.
I kind of panicked. I started running from door to door. I wasn’t looking for someone to let me demonstrate my vacuum cleaner, I was looking for a sale. So all my training went out the window. I knocked on doors and said approximately the following "Hi, I sell vacuum cleaners. If you take a look at mine, I’ll give you this cutlery set. Are you thinking about getting a new vacuum cleaner?"
That last sentence was a killer. It made most people turn me down. But I needed a sale, not a demonstration. After about forty five minutes, a man said "Sure, if it’s good enough, we could use a better vacuum cleaner". After I brought the machine in their home, I told him and his wife that I was in a contest, and that I couldn’t spend time showing the vacuum cleaner unless there was a real possibility of a sale that night. He said "Sure, like I said, we’re interested in what you have".
Of course they bought (Thank Goodness). I won my contest. But what I gained that was far more valuable was the realization that there are actually people out there that want what you have right now. And as much as you are looking for them, they are looking for you. My job was just to find them. This changed my cold calling procedure forever.
Whether I was knocking on doors (this was in the 1970-1980s), or calling on the phone, I found that it was much more profitable if I concentrated on finding the one or two people tat day that were truly ready to buy what I sold. Rather than trying to convince prospects to let me talk to them, and then convince them to buy, it was easier to just quickly sort through the list, to find the ideal buyers.
This idea only works if you have a near unlimited supply of prospects. For example, in my area, we had 50,000 people I could call. If you sell a highly specialized product that is only bought by a very small segment of the market, I wouldn’t do this. Instead, I would concentrate on building a relationship with the few possible buyers you have to work with.
The big advantage of this "call quickly to find the best buyer" method is that you don’t really care if any one person is interested in what you have. You are actually trying to dis-qualify the people you talk to as quickly as you can. Phoning prospects rapidly is also a key to this. If you call three people an hour, you’ll spend an entire day, and maybe not even set one appointment.
If you call prospects as quickly as possible, you’ll find that time flys. You’ll also end up with several appointments with highly qualified and eager buyers.
A good book to read is any edition of the book Prospecting Your Way To Sales Success by Bill Good. It’s available at amazon.com. I’ve found this book to be invaluable in learning better cold calling methods.

And just so I don't forget... You can purchase my book for $19.95 at http://www.claudewhitacre.com/. You can also download your Free copy of the complete book at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com/

Positive Or Negative Ads: Which Is Better For Your Business?

Nearly every industry has used negative ads at one point or another. Negative ads include ads that compare one product to a competitive product, one company to another, one political candidate to another. But do these ads really pay off? Let’s see.
In hamburger ads, you will see one ad comparing their hamburger to another fast food chain’s hamburger. Do you know who loves these ads? The CEO of the fast food franchise company. These ads are designed mostly by advertising agencies to appease their client. They almost say at the end of the ad "So There!".
Some of these ads (in different industries) don’t even compare product, they just say something bad about a competitor, and then the advertising company’s name is mentioned at the end of the commercial, or print ad. The question I always ask is "Does this make you want to buy the product of the company that paid for he ad? In most cases, no.
It’s a bad investment to spend time proving that another company in your industry is giving bad service, or has a shoddy product. Do you watch negative political ads? Unless you live in a cave, you do. After you see a vicious ad about a candidate, do you think "This guy is so bad, the other guy must be great"? Do you know who react well to these ads? Core supporters of the candidate they are supporting. This is another example of "So There!" ads. I also call these "Take That!" ads. Can you imagine if one candidate had all of these negative ads, and the other candidate only talked about the good things he has done? Nobody would be talking about the other candidate.
Here is the bottom line. Negative ads about your competitor, don’t build desire to buy your product. They don’t make you look good to the public. They don’t build confidence in your company, service, or your brand. And the biggest reason (as if these weren’t enough) is that you are making the buyer aware that you even have a competitor. And savvy buyers know that if you didn’t think the other company was a threat to you, you wold compare yourself to them at all.
The ad "At Avis, we try harder" is brilliant. They say that they are number two, but don’t compare themselves to number one directly. And in the slogan is a real buyer benefit. "We try harder’ carries the meaning "We try harder to make you happy". Most people also identify with the "second biggest" more than the biggest in practically any area.
Can you imagine that if someone was asking you out for a date, and they said "Don’t go out with that guy, he has bad hair! Go out with me instead"? How would that sound? Like someone has low self esteem, like they feel like they are less than the other guy, like they feel threatened by the other guy. Is that how you want the public to feel about you, and your brand?
When people see your sd, what they want to know is; Is this for me? Will this help me? Is this a great solution to my problem? What do I get if I buy this?
Years ago, I had a local competitor that sold what I sold. Different brand, same product.
It was so long ago that I forget who started it. We started spending thousands of dollars a month in ads, whose sole purpose was to irritate each other. The only person who cared was him and me. The only person who profited from this was our ad rep.
Years later we met at the bank (on unrelated errands), we talked briefly. We both started laughing over how stupid we were to waste all that time and money irritating each other when we could have both been getting richer by advertising what we sold, and just ignored each other.
I’m a slow study. I hope you are a bit faster.

My book is available at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com It's free to download, or you can just buy it at http://www.claudewhitacre.com

Small Business Owners: Want A Flow Of Buyers In Your Business? Do This....

I learned this technique twenty years ago from a small retailer in Barberton Ohio. It literally brought...not prospects, but buyers into his store every day. Here’s what he did.
This is in the days of Videos, not DVDs. This man sold vacuum cleaners and air purifiers. I’ve seen this idea work with both..but let’s take the air purifiers.
He would put an ad in the newspaper describing how the indoor air pollution was up to five times as bad as the outside air pollution. He offered a free video, and gave that video a value of $89.95
the ad said something like "Stop in to pick up your free video "How To Instantly Make Your Indoor Air Clean And So Fresh It Will Make Your Nostrils Tingle!".
His first few ads said that he would mail them the video. He did, and nobody that received the video came in the store. Something was wrong. Eventually he realized that the video was answering the consumer’s questions, and there was no need to come in the store.
So here is the brainstorm; He said, in the ad, to come in the store and pick up the video.
Of course, the only people coming in to pick up the video were people who were interested in how to clean their indoor air. These were people who had a problem, usually pet or smoke odors, and wanted their problem solved as soon as possible.
So they came in to pick up the video. The salesman (sometimes me) told them that they could have the video, but could we ask a couple of quick questions first. The answer was always "Yes".
You see, nobody really came in because what they wanted was another video. What they wanted was to solve their problem. So we would find it very easy to simply anser their questions, find the right solution for them, and send the best product home with them for a no risk two week trial.
Id the air purifier wasn’t everything they wanted, they could return it within two weeks for a complete refund. Seventy five percent of the people kept the air purifier.
But they wouldn’t have come in the store unless we offered the free video.
Of course, if they asked, we gave them the video...whether they bought from us or not. They were duplicated in quantity for less than $2.00 each.
We ran the same ad, offering the free video, for over a year. It was the single most profitable marketing idea that we implemented that year.
So the formula is: Offer a free DVD (now) on a problem that really bothers some of your local market. Make sure you sell a great solution to that problem. Make sure they have to come in to get the DVD. You can also deliver the DVD. But never mail it, or you will lose the customer.
That’s it for now

OOOOPS! I forgot, you can download my entire book, The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual, by going to http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com You can also subscribe to my newsletter at http://www.unfairadvantagemarketing.com

The Real Way To Save Over 50% On Your Advertising Costs

If you own a small business, you advertise. There are ways to make your advertising more profitable. The easiest way is to simply pay less for the ads. Everything you read here, I’m doing right now in my business. These ideas are proven.

First, you should know that ad representatives are hurting now. Less business owners are advertising, and they are cutting back on the ads they run. So reps are willing to deal. Even if they tell you they are not willing to negotiate...they are.
I use two approaches that work. The first one is simply to call that advertising sales manager. Don’t deal with a rep, especially a new one. They may not even be aware that these deals are out there. The manager will have to approve this price anyway, so you may as well deal with them now.
Simply call the sales manager and tell them that you have figured out what it costs you to get a new customer and want to buy advertising from them. But you can only afford to pay them a specific price per inch, minute, ad placement, etc. I shoot for a third of their national rate. You can find out their ad rates in the Standard Rates And Data book at your local library. You can also simply offer them half of the rate they are asking for. The rep will tell you that they never negotiate, that the costs are too high, that nobody gets that rate. Listen patiently, and then tell them that you understand that they cannot do this deal, but if there is ever an opening, you’ll take it at that lower price. Make sure you tell them that you won’t share the rate with other advertisers.
They will always...always come back. In my experience, about half will just take the deal, and the other half will offer you another price.
You have to understand that they can certainly afford to advertise at your offered price. It’s not a matter of money, it’s a matter of them admitting that they will sell for that price, and the fear that you will tell other advertisers.
Two things you should know about advertising in almost any form.
1) Almost nothing has a lower cost to place than an advertisement. The newspaper pays for the paper no matter whether a story runs or your ad. The story doesn’t pay them anything, your ad does.
2) After the newspaper, radio time, direct mail magazine, or direct mail envelope is mailed, broadcast, or delivered...there is no way for the media rep to make money from that media slot. The space is either sold, or the value is lost. The three things that have to be sold right away, or they lose all their value are airplane tickets, hotel rooms, and ad space.
If the ad rep or ad manager comes back, and they are willing to deal with you, but not at your asking price, the following ideas will help get you what you want.
Ask if they can write an article about your business on one page, and your ad appears on the facing page. In their mind, you are paying for the ad, and they are providing content in their media. Of course, the article is really an ad, and flows into your paid ad.
Did you know that there are ad buyers that buy advertising space and advertising time for about twenty cents on the dollar and then resell it to their clients for a fair markup?
Just Google the term "Remnant Advertising Buyer". You’ll get the top three or four agencies right of the bat.
I saved the best for last. This is the way I get my advertising for 50-80% off the national rate consistently. I simply send a check for a fourth of the national rate with an ad ready for placement. My letter simply says that they can run the ad anytime they have the space, and they can cash the check. They always cash the check. Try it.
I should mention that direct mail advertising companies have a real cost to delivering your ad, and they can only cut about 40% off the going rate. They have to pay for printing and mailing. So be gentle.
That’s it for now.

Oh, I almost forgot...you can download a copy of my book for free at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com/.

Want to see what you can get that will shake you in your boots for only $5.95? Just go to http://www.unfairadvantagemarketing.com

Small Business Marketing With Customer Choices

Many of us just sell one product, or deliver one service. There are a few reasons you may want to create a second offer. Here are the reasons.
This idea was thought of for small business owners who own a retail store, but this idea will work with virtually any type of business. I make sure that I offer the prospect a choice of two, or rarely, three options, at different price points.
There are several benefits to this.
In discussing the features and merits of the two offers, you can quickly tell where they are comfortable financially. I show the two products and make no outward attempt to lead them to either one. They will begin to ask you more questions about one of your offers. They will begin to give you reasons why the one offer is better for them than the other. Sometimes this is for the more expensive offer, sometimes not.
This "discussing two offers" has the benefit of casting you in the image of an advisor, instead of a salesperson. The consumer tends to give value to your information, because it just sounds like you are helping, not pitching.
The idea of "whether to buy something" quickly becomes the decision of "which one is best for us". A far easier path to them buying.
You then have the ability to support whichever way they are leaning. If they like the more expensive model, you can tell them about all they get for just a little more money. If they start favoring the less expensive model, you can tell them how it has all the important features the more expensive one has. Either way, I make it a rule to let them know that whichever way they choose, that it’s the more popular choice with my customers. This gives them "social proof" that they are making the right choice.
This method of selling by offering options also allows the customer to feel more like the entire decision to buy was entirely their idea. You were just supplying them information. Of course, it really is their decision, but this method makes it faster for both of you, and gives the customer a better feeling after the sale is complete.
This method also dramatically cuts down on cancellations. After all, they chose what they wanted. It’s harder to go back on a decision when that decision was yours, and not the salesperson’s.
The reason you never want to make the choices more than three, is that now you end up giving them a tour of everything available. They become overloaded with information. The options cause them to stop the buying process until "they have a chance to digest everything". And remember, a confused mind always...always says "No".
That’s it for now.

As always, you can download my book for free at http://local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com You can also buy it at http://www.claudewhitacre.com

Small Business Advertising Tips To Double Your Ad Results

There are several ways to make your advertising more effective. These are not wholesale changes, or templates to design an ad. These are just several quick ideas that will make the print ad you run more effective in grabbing attention, and bringing buyers to your door.

Round the corners of your display ad.
A rounded corner will make your ad pop out from the rest of the ads on the page. The eye will be drawn to them, and it will not allow your ad to blend in with the ads next to it.
Put the headline in quotations. If you put the headline in quotations, it forces the reader to hear a voice as they read the headline. Also, a quote is much more interesting to read that a normal headline. If someone was quoted as saying something, it must be important, right?
Use words in the headline that pull the reader into the body of the ad.
Words like these, This, Which, Which of these, Why, How many, and How will bring the reader into the ad because their ind wants the answer to the question in the ad.
Use capital letter for the first letter of every word of the headline.
Which looks better: "Which Of These Cars Do You See Yourself In?" Or "Which of these cars do you see yourself in?". The reader won’t pick up that you are using capital letters, but your headline will stand out more. Do NOT use all capitols in the headline. It will look like you are shouting at them.
Put the name of your business and the directions to find you at the bottom of the ad.
This is hard for many business owners to hear, but nobody cares about the name of your business. The name of your business is never a headline. Your business name never causes anyone to want to read the rest of the ad. Nobody cares about the name of your business until after they have decided that they are interested in what you are selling. This is the single most common mistake advertisers make. It’s also the most costly, as far as formatting the ad.
Tell everything about your offer that the space will allow. White space doesn’t sell anything. The more someone knows about your offer, the more likely they will want to buy it, and the value you can build in the offer. Almost nobody will call you or come into your store, just because you made them curious. Tell them everything. Everything the ad doesn’t tell the customer, the customer will have to guess at. And they will always guess incorrectly. Tell them everything.
Use bullet points.
Bullet points in an ad draw the eye, and make whatever is after the bullet point sound important. A solid list of benefits your product has, with bullet points in front of them, will be the start of a powerful ad.
If you are using a magazine or newspaper, make sure you are "above the fold" and on the right hand side as the paper is opened. Odd number pages pull better than even number pages, because that’s the way we flip through the newspaper or magazine.
Make sure these things are in your ad;
You store or business website, your address, your store hours, credit cards you accept, directions to your business with a landmark if possible, any awards you have won, and any financing you offer.
That’s it for now.

Of course, you can buy my book at amazon.com for $19.95. It's The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. Or you can download a free complete copy at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com

You can also receive three ful months of my newsletter, some videos, audio interviews, and more for just $5.95 at http://www.unfairadvantagemarketing.com

The Advantage Of Using Direct Mail To Advertising

Advertisers have a choice of offline advertising media. Newspapers, Billboards, Yellow Pages, Radio, Direct Mail, and TV. Direct mail has proven to be the most dependable for my clients. Here’s why.
Most people won’t be listening to your radio ad when it plays. Most people won’t be seeing your cable TV ad. Most people aren’t tuned into the specific station or channel your ad is on, when it plays. But everyone in your area will get your Direct Mail piece. And when they get their mail from their mailbox, nobody ever just throws it all away without at least seeing where it is from. Market coverage is almost complete.
The reader can put your ad down, come back later to it, read some more, save the ad, and buy when they can get to your store. The information in the ad stays with them. Direct mail can be set down, looked at later, given to another buyer, used to find your store, and brought in as a form of shopping list. Unless the customer records the radio or TV ad, it’s gone after it plays.
You can say so much more in a Direct Mail piece that in a TV ad, Radio spot, Yellow Page ad.
You can list reasons to buy, use coupons, and make several offers, all in the same ad. Very difficult to do in other media. You can mail a five page direct mail ad for the same price as a one page ad. You can tell a complete story to bring them in your store (or get them to call)

Direct Mail can work as the "Backbone" of your advertising. I’ve noticed that we get a better total result when we have Direct Mail going out at the same time as a series of radio commercials. There is synergy in multiple media advertising.
Most people call this Junk Mail. So do I. But so what? If it creates a tangible profit for your business, what difference does it make what it’s called?
Here’s how I doubled my profits in one month.
I was running a full page Direct Mail ad in the Town Money Saver (my local Direct Mail company) for over a year. We would switch the ads every few months to "keep the ads fresh" in the reader’s mind. It finally dawned on me that there wasn’t a law that said I couldn’t have two pages in the Town Money Saver. Two completely different offers in the same magazine. I even got a price break for doing it. Very profitable. The most we have done is three ads in the same magazine. Our three main ads were running at the same time. Amazingly, no loss of response from any of them. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this idea sooner.
One of the things I like most about Direct Mail, is that I can know for sure if an ad is working or not. I just put in every ad "Bring this ad in for a free ___ with the purchase of a ___". When the customer comes in the store waving the ad, I know what brought them into the store. I just clip the ad to my copy of the receipt, and at the end of the month add them up. Very easy.
The Big Reason That You’ll Like Direct Mail
After you get a customer, you’ll be contacting them by Direct Mail for your additional offers. If the customer was brought in the store by Direct Mail in the first place, they will be much more responsive to your Direct Mail offers in the future. They have proven that they read their mail.
You aren’t going to contact your customers by TV, Radio, or the Newspaper.
In Direct Mail, a list of names of buyers , that bought from a TV infomercial, aren’t as valuable as a list of names of customers that bought by Direct Mail. People tend to respond the same media over and over again. In fact, I have taken money from the Yellow Pages and put it into Direct Mail with very profitable results.
If you make offers to your current customers by Direct Mail, your best results will come from building your new customer base by Direct Mail.

Want to know more? Download my book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com/ or just buy it at http://www.claudewhitacre.com/

The Small Business Owner’s Program To Create Employee Generated Sales

There are many ways to generate sales for a small business. One of the overlooked ways is to generate sales from your employees. Here’s how to do that.
Your employees are actually a great source for new sales. We call this New Employee Business.
You can do this with employees no matter how long they have been with you, but usually we concentrate on new employees.
Your employees have friends and family that are perfect prospects for your product. It’s simply a matter of making the idea a benefit to the employee, and feel like a great deal for the friends and family.
Basically what we do is have an Employee Bonus Campaign. It sure sounds better that the We Want More Money Campaign, doesn’t it?
We have the employees call their friends and family (on or off premises), and have them offer the friends a special offer to just come in and look at our product. It’s usually a free pizza certificate from a local pizza shop. Almost any pizza shop will sell you certificates for a free pizza for $2.00 or $3.00 each. They just want to cover their real cost to make the pizza, and they get a new customer. They also sell that customer soda, chips, and sandwiches.
The employee’s friend comes in our store (this will work in any business), and we explain that the employee gets a bonus if they buy our product. The first thing we do though, is give them the pizza certificate. If you hold back their gift, it’s what they will be thinking about until you give it to them.
We give the employee a 10% bonus on any sale made that day to their friend. Of course, the bonus depends on your markup, and what you are selling. It helps if the employee is there while you explain the program and show the friend or relative your product. Of course, there is no pressure from you...but there is considerable peer pressure for the friend to buy something.
Parents or other close relatives almost always buy something if they are even remotely in the market for what you sell. Friends will also buy, but not always.
We make a big deal about the new employee getting their bonus. The people we are showing are eager to help their friend or relative. They get a good product (it helps if there is a special price or offer just for them). The employee gets more money in their paycheck than they normally get. And you get a new surge of business at almost no marketing cost to you.
Isn’t that what we all want?

Like this idea? You can download a free copy of my book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com

Who Really Is The World's Greatest Vacuum Cleaner Salesman?

I belong to a forum that I posted that very question. I gave some of my records, and had a couple people post records that they heard.

Who is the greatest heart surgeon in the world? Is it the heart surgeon that did the most surgerys? Had the most good outcomes? Had the highest percentage of good outcomes? Has the perfect record? (meaning nobody ever dies after the surgery)

I submit that quality is better than quantity.
I used to work in the field (the sales field) with a lady thaet once told me "Do you know the difference between you and me? I'll give 10 presentations a week, sell two, and be happy as a clam. You'll give three presentations a week, sell two, and try to figure out why you missed the third one." She was absolutely right. And eventually, all this study, of the craft of selling paid off.

The last 3 or 4 years I was still in selling in people's homes, my closing rate was over 80%
I hear plenty of lies from salespeople, bragging about a 99% closing rate (or some such equally unbelievable lie). They then have to explain that the figure only counts the people who bought! or the people who called them to buy.

How could I consistantly sell 80% or more of the people I showed my product to? Simple.
I refused to show it to people I knew weren't likely to buy.

I asked qualifying questions in the form of a survey. If the answers led me to believe that they would be willing to buy...if the offer was good enough...I would show my product. If I could see that they just weren't going to be open minded about buying (or a condition like bad credit prevented them from buying), I would politely give them the gift that was promised, and go to my next appointment...or knock on my next door.

I relied heavily on refrrals from my past buyers. I only asked for referrals from people who bought from me. I also woul follow salespeople who sold a string of people through referrals.
I played "Follow the salesman". I only saw the people who bought from them, ad only asked for the referrals that also bought from them. I was only seeing buyers. People who have proven (by buying) that they would buy from an in-home salesperson...that day...and had good credit.

I also would see people who bought a high end vacuum cleaner from me several years before. I would take it as a trade-in with a generous discount. So I was only seeing buyers...and their close friends...who were also buyers.

If you don't know, this is alsothe One Big Secret of most direct mail companies. They buy lists of ...not just names...but names of buyers.
They buy the names of people who have shown a strong interest in the product area, by their buying habits. The names of people who buy from a certain media are also valuable. If you sell through direct mail, you want a list of people who have bought similar products to yours...by direct mail. Not purchases from infomercials, magazines, or internet shopping.

The last three paragraphs just gave you the whole picture. Got it?

Dedicated to your success, Claude