Ad Efx Your Marketing Option

THE ART OF THE “CLOSE” 

There are many different methods of judging the effectiveness of an advertising campaign but the two elemental goals should always be getting new customers into your establishment and getting them to purchase your products and/or services. The methods of attracting new clientele differ in format and effectiveness but at the end of the process you always want to see your customer traffic, and your revenues, increase. The only thing that would better the experience of meeting a new client and highlighting your products and services is to take it to the next step, that of seeing revenues generated by their visit and money hitting the bank.

Where a lot of businesses fail to capitalize on the new client is in knowing how to treat your new client, learning what it was that made them come into your establishment and closing a sale. Closing a sale is the goal that we will work towards in this column.

 THE NEW CLIENT 

When a new client comes into your establishment via an advertising promotion or campaign they have several different questions on their mind. They are wondering if you can do the services you claim to do, if you can do them very well, if they’ll be treated properly and if you have what it takes to be their supplier of choice. One of the most common mistakes that businesses can make is to run a promotional campaign and then fail to capitalize on the opportunity they have been presented with. The main criteria that will determine if you will be able to maintain a relationship with the new customer is how they are treated. It won’t help if you provide the best service in your neighbourhood if you treat someone poorly. Imagine how someone feels when they come into a business for the first time and excitedly present a coupon they’ve received only to hear “Oh, you have a coupon. I’m sorry but we don’t honor these anymore” or call to book an appointment for a special offer and are told “Sorry, we only have space for three discount customers a day”. The impression that the customer will leave with is that they are second class and have been treated as such. If you run any form of campaign for your business that involves a special or coupon you must treat these potential customers from the first contact as if they are your oldest and dearest clients, and soon they will be. The first impression that many customers have of a business is the impression they receive on their first phone call. Make sure whoever answers the phones is properly trained on your services and products, the length of time needed to complete an appointment and is fully informed of any specials or promotions that your business is conducting. The first opportunity to generate revenue for the business begins at the same time as the first phone call. When someone is booking in for an appointment the receptionist should also take a moment and advise them of any specials that are in effect and inquire if the time can be reserved for that now as it is in high demand. For example, if a new client calls in to an automotive service garage for an oil change, the receptionist could take the opportunity to inform them of the special currently being offered on wheel alignments. They could say “Mr. Smith, we have the time reserved for your service at 4:00 p.m. While I have you on the phone I wanted to take a moment and tell you we are running a special offer on wheel alignments. We are doing this service at 50% of our normal price. It takes an additional half hour and I could book the time now. Will your car be due for this service in the next couple of months”? By using this type of questioning and suggestive selling you will be able to generate added revenue from any type of service appointment. Also, by inquiring whether the car will be due for the service rather than asking if they would like to book the time, we take away the opportunity for the caller to say no to the offer and now have them thinking about a needed service for their vehicle.

 DETERMINING YOUR CLIENTS NEEDS AND CLOSING THE SALE 

An often overlooked skill that many businesses fail to develop is that of properly training your sale representatives to listen. We often train salespeople on when to talk and what to say but we don’t train them on when NOT to talk. You must determine why someone chose your business over another because that will open the door to filling that need. When a new client calls your business they are doing so for a reason, whether they saw an advertisement or by word of mouth. One very effective way to determine why they called is to ask. You could say “How did you hear of our business” or even simply “How will we be able to assist you today”? and then closely listen. If they are calling in from an advertisement then you should reference the advertisement in your conversation. For example “Oh, you saw our ad for the free massage. That’s fantastic. Allow me to set an appointment for you to take advantage of the introductory offer we have running”. If the customer was referred by another customer then you can say “Oh, you’re a friend of Mr. Smith. He was just in last week and took advantage of the 2 for 1 entrée special that the restaurant is running. I know he loved it and I’m sure you will as well. What night did you want to reserve and for how many”? There is another sales technique at play here, that of the third party referral. When you mention someone that the customer personally knows who has used your business in the past you will make the decision to purchase a much more comfortable and safe decision. No one wants to be the first at anything and no one wants to buy something only to find out later that it’s not suitable or of inferior quality. When you mention a colleague or acquaintance that has purchased from you in the past you will greatly increase the likelihood of selling to the new customer. By using leading questions you will be able to quickly source out the need or motivator that made that person call into your business and begin to work towards fulfilling that need. By assuming the sale (assuming during your conversations that the customer is definitely there to purchase) you will be able to lead a customer towards the close. One thing that you want to do is to structure your queries properly so that you can take away the option of having someone say “NO”. You can achieve this by asking questions that are not able to be answered with a yes or no. Instead of asking “would you like to book in for a manicure”? you could ask “do you have any weddings or special occasions coming up that you need to look your best for”? or instead of asking “would you like to buy this car”? you could ask “which of your friends will get the first ride in your new car”? These questions will move a customer away from deciding whether they want to purchase a product or service and get them thinking about how they will best use the product or service after they have purchased. In this way you are taking away the decision making ability that every customer has and replacing it with a mental image of them enjoying the purchase. However, to realize this image they will need to purchase your product and they are now much closer to making that decision.

The last sales technique we will touch on is the timing of the close. A common mistake that many sales representatives make is that they will ask the customer for the sale and then get scared or nervous while the customer is deciding. They feel pressured and begin to chatter away with all kinds of (usually) repetitive or inconsequential talk to fill the silence and defuse the pressure. What we need to teach is that while the pressure is there and does build the longer that the customer takes to decide, the pressure isn’t on the sales representative alone. The customer is feeling the pressure as well and the longer it takes them to decide the more the pressure will build. There is an old sales theory that is quite true that states “The first person to speak after the close loses”. This statement basically is telling us, as sales people, to close the sale using whatever method works best for us and then ….. STOP TALKING! Let the pressure build and don’t be afraid of it, the pressure is working for us. Many customers will decide to purchase at this point because they feel that they owe it to the sales person for the time and care they have taken to help them. They would almost feel guilty to say no at this point.

 Teach yourself and the sales staff in your business these techniques and your sales will soar!

Author: Terry Fitzroy

Demographics is the statistical data on the human race. It includes information such as sex, age, and income, and it is used by business to identify the target markets for their products or services. Demographics are used to tell you who your customer is, where they reside, what sex they are, and whether your products are likely to be purchased by them.

You can use demographic data to study both your existing customer and your potential customer. Demographics allow you to target a specific demographic group with your marketing. It also lets you know when things are changing which then allows you to make changes in your marketing. Demographics is a critical tool for small business who have very little room for error.

You need to use your demographic data to identify characteristics in the population to determine who your potential customer actually is, and to locate the geographic area where the most potential customers live. This information is then used in your marketing to identify which products to carry, how to use your advertising dollars, and what the buying habits of these people are.

So for example, you wanted to market a new line of denture cleaners, you would want to know where the majority of elderly consumers live, how many wear dentures, and whether they were on fixed income. Getting the answers to these types of questions is what demographic data studies will do for you.

In the past we saw a rather shotgun approach used to attempt to market a product or service, by targeting a mass market. This was done by using the radio or television. The idea was not to find who wanted what you had to offer, but rather about spreading the news to huge numbers of people. This is by far the most ineffective marketing eve, yet it is still widely used today.

Do you know what that means? It means you can gain the upper edge with your open minded way of doing business. It means you can use demographic data to target your market and thus to a much more effective job of finding customers that are interested in your product.

Using demographic data in your marketing allows you to build a customer profile. This means you learn as much as possible about the customer you have now and the potential customer and they you act accordingly with your business. You can then run specialized marketing or advertising campaigns that are targeted at the demographic market you’ve identified.

Once you collect demographic data you sit down and review it thoroughly and decide which direction you now want to take your business. You can then decide which products you will carry or what services you’ll offer. You’ll decide what you’ll charged based on the demographic information collected. You’ll also decide things such as hours of operation, promotional campaigns, and advertising budgets.

Now that you why and how to use demographic data in your marketing, what are you waiting for?

Author: Devin T

What is a jump page or doorway page?

A jump/doorway page is like an entrance page or splash except that there are multiple versions of it distributed across the internet. A link to your home page will be provided on a page specific to what you are searching for. Typically a jump page is not optimized for content, but for search engine rankings. They are often “keyword rich” around a specific subtopic. For instance, if your site is about celebrity gossip, then you would have a jump page for every celebrity you gossip about with little keywords such as “new boyfriend” “court date” “pregnant” etc. thrown into the page in a garble.

Another type of jump page is the redirect page. that this is obsolete as search engines pick up on the javascript and meta tags and choose not to list your site. Ouch. The only redirect now accepted is the 301 redirect - meaning that your site has moved permanently to a different location.

So how can I get away with it?

The search engines want good, clean, new content on respected websites. Duplicate content is ignored. “Keyword stuffing” (having a page with a high density of keywords) is considered spam. This means that every one of your jump pages has to provide valuable information for the user. Also, you have to be willing to market and advertise every single one of those jump pages. That is a lot of work.

Is it even worth it?

There are many better ways of link building that take a lot less time and effort. Simply having quality blogs and updated content, being present in your niche, posting valuable content on other websites with a link back to your site is a much better use of your time than building a jump page empire.

To see in details see Ad Efx.