Explode Your Sales With Good Communication

These are simple and effective methods to increase your sales. You may think that you know what your customer wants, but do you really? Instead of assuming that you know, why not listen to the customer and ask questions to find out what it is that they REALLY want.

01. Give your customers benefits, not features. Your customers don't want to know the ins and outs immediately of your products, they want to know how it benefits them! Save the details of the product for a secondary page that's NOT on your home page. You can give some main selling points, but keep the minor details off the home page and just list benefits.

For example, let's say you've got a strategy to get your clients out of debt. Don't tell them step-by-step how it works on the front page, be vague and leave the small print for another page. Instead tell them how they can imagine a life with riches and being debt free! That's a benefit, not a feature!

02. Keep in communication with potential buyers. I read somewhere that it takes at least 7 views of your products to get interested parties to buy them. They're obviously interested if they've gotten to your site and requested information, why not keep them informed about your news and updates to the site? You just may have a future customer.

It's also a good practice to use a "bookmark this page" and "tell a friend about this page" tool so you can get potential buyers for the future. Even if they're immediately not buying it doesn't mean they won't be back! 

03. Encourage your site visitors to ask questions. Some people may think they're bothering you or wasting your time to ask you a question. Extend your open arms to each and every surfer that comes into your site and encourage them to ask about your site!

However if you see the same question coming up over and over again, it will benefit you and the client both if you create a "Frequently Asked Questions" page. People usually want immediate answers to their questions and it saves you the tedious same responses over and over again.

04. Make the buying experience easier. Don't ask for information that you don't need. Instead, ask for the bare minimum information from the customer so they can "get in, and get out". And then later on, you can send them a quick thank you note and a follow up to see how they liked your website.

Don't make your customer jump through hoops to buy your products. They'll only get frustrated and put it off for later - and later may never come!

By keeping these lines of communication open with your site visitors and potential customers, you'll find you gain more trust and credibility with them and in turn, more sales!

Leadership Skills: Delegating Responsibility

Support Strategic Objectives, by: identifying roles and responsibilities necessary to support strategic objectives; defining roles, responsibilities, and degrees of authority, needed by individuals and teams; designing policies and procedures for the management of delegated activities. The purpose of this is to review the distribution of roles and responsibilities at the senior level. The aim of the review is to ensure that the distribution is balanced and appropriate. This is also an opportunity to make certain that the senior, executive level management structure is appropriate for the strategic direction being taken. If mismatches are discovered at this point, then the leader(s) have an opportunity to adjust the organisational structure, at this level, to better match the demands of the strategies.

Make Decisions On Activity To Delegate, by: deciding which areas of work, routine activity, stand alone projects, absence cover, key operational decisions, emergency or business disaster events, and strategic level decisions, should have responsibility or authority delegated to specific managers. This is an essential stage, but a difficult one. It involves forecasting and scenario planning, in order to determine which activities, and in which circumstances, should responsibility and authority be given. It requires the delegating leader(s) to analyze thoroughly the planned activity and potential events, in order to identify where delegation should take place, and to whom it should be given to.

Selecting Managers And Specialists To Delegate To, by: identifying the current roles, responsibilities and authority of those individuals and teams; evaluating the skills, abilities, and development potential, of existing (senior management) individuals and teams; assessing the degree of responsibility and authority that can be given to individuals and teams; identifying coaching and-or training needs to prepare individuals and teams for delegation. Carefully profiling the existing senior management individuals is critical, because delegation will not be effective if it is given to an individual who is not capable of using the delegated powers effectively. Where gaps in capability are identified, training or coaching should be provided to fill that gap. If the corrective action needs to be long term, then the delegation should be delayed until that process is complete.

Agree Responsibilities, Levels Of Authority, And Objectives, by: identifying delegated responsibilities and levels of authority for each individual manager, specialist, and team; discussing these with the individual managers and specialists; agreeing the degree of delegation; agreeing the objectives delegated to the individual. One of the most critical stages, this is where the details of the delegated responsibility and authority are explained, discussed and agreed. It is at this point that the leader(s) should aim to gain commitment to the delegated responsibilities and authority, to targets and deadlines, both qualitative and quantitative.

Clarifying The Boundaries, by: defining the limits, the boundaries, of the delegated powers; discussing and agreeing these boundaries; agreeing action that should be taken when the boundaries are reached. This must be treated as a separate stage in the process, and applies to both the leader and the manager being given delegated powers. The leader must understand and accept that delegation does not mean abandoning responsibility. The ultimate responsibility lies with the leader, the one delegating to others. Delegated powers must be managed and supported by the leader. The individual being given delegated powers must be clear about the limits of those powers, and understand that when that boundary, that limit, is reached, they should refer back to the one who delegated to them.

Remove Or Reduce Barriers To Effective Delegation, by: identifying organisational policies, procedures, structures, practices, or cultural aspects, which work against effective delegation; discuss ways in which barriers could be weakened or removed; implement changes or adjustments to reduce or eliminate identified barriers. Most organisations have visible and hidden barriers that inhibit and hinder effective management. The role of the leader(s) is to introduce direction, strategies, structures, policies, procedures, and influences, into the organisation, so that managers and specialists can operate in a culture which encourages creativity, innovation, high quality performance, and success. In parallel with this, the leader(s) must also encourage managers and specialists to take local responsibility for activities and decision making. To do this, barriers and constraints must be reduced to a minimum, leaving an appropriate level of controls in place. 

Provide Support For Delegated Activity, by: discussing and agreeing the level and nature of support needed; adopting a leadership style that provides appropriate availability, support and guidance to those with delegated responsibilities, but also allowing them the freedom to carry out the delegated powers without unnecessary interference; reviewing levels of personal support and adjusting that support appropriately; consistently behaving in a manner that inspires and motivates those who have been delegated to. There are two most common reasons for delegation to fail. One is that the analytical and decision making process was not thorough enough, leading to the degree of delegation being inappropriate. However, the other most common reason for failure is that the leader delegates and then does not provide appropriate support to the manager being delegated to. Once the leader has delegated, they must then provide an appropriate level of personal support, encouragement, and resources, to the individual. This support should include: publicizing the delegated powers to relevant individuals and teams internally; informing other stakeholders such as suppliers, customers, clients, of the delegated powers; coaching, mentoring, providing training, as appropriate.

Reward Performance, by: openly praising consistently high quality operational performance and exceptional event performance; building performance on delegated powers into the organization's performance appraisal system. An important part of the process because delegated powers are, by default, in the highest group of demands made on the individual, and when performed well, are deserving of recognition and praise. Rewards do not have to be substantial, nor monetary in nature. Recognition and praise will be appreciated by the receiving individual and by their teams and other observers. The leader who delegated the powers must ensure that, when appropriate, high levels of performance in delegated areas, are achieved.

Monitor, Review, And Adjust, by: implementing regular reviews of the delegation process and of individual instances; reviewing the appropriateness of current and planned delegation, against the most current strategic objectives; taking corrective action where necessary. The leader(s) delegating powers to others should implement a monitoring and review process that requires them to review the whole process, and individual performance. Individual performance should be monitored continuously, with formal review points at least quarterly. The overall process should be reviewed at least every six months, at which point the success of the process should be evaluated against the original objectives and then adjusted to take into account changes in operational activity and in strategic direction.

In Summary: Leaders must delegate, but must delegate effectively. The most successful leaders treat delegation as an essential strand of their leadership approach. Senior management structures, processes, and objectives are reviewed to ensure suitability for delegation to take place. Areas of work, activities, routine and event-specific decisions, are analyzed, evaluated, and where appropriate the decision is made to delegate responsibility and authority. Delegated powers are explained, discussed, and agreed, and measurable objectives set. The leader then builds on this by adopting a consultative, supporting, coaching, role, as appropriate for each of the individuals delegated to. Individual performance on applying delegated powers is monitored and adjusted as necessary. Finally, the performance of the delegation process itself is monitored and reviewed by the leader(s) and the senior management team, to ensure that it remains compatible with the strategic direction being taken by the organization.
 

The four sins of advertising

 

Advertising is a very precise science. It finds its bases in many different fields including copywriting, psychology and even math. In recent decades, we have observed a slow but steady beautification of advertising.

For marketing experts this can work. For less savvy advertisers, it is a huge pitfall that draws attention away from the much more important aspects of a successful selling proposition. Faulty advertising costs its makers billions of dollars a year, and almost all are guilty of it, even the huge corporations.

You will see many of today's internet marketing "gurus" recommending volumes several decades old. There is a good reason for this. Many of those volumes were written by direct marketers that engaged in extremely costly mailings.

These ads have to produce optimal results or they produce losses. The upside is that results can be measured and broken down to a ridiculously precise extent. In fact very small fluctuations in these figures separate success from failure.

First and foremost is the written word. Nothing replaces a captivating headline and solid advertising copy. For headlines, the goal is to grab attention and qualify. Prospects must immediately recognize that the ad is Addressed to them and they must also be drawn into the main copy. Ad copy should be as abundant as needed to tell the whole story, or however much of the story is needed to lead to the action you are soliciting. Here are the four biggest mistakes you can make in advertising.

01) Being pretty instead of selling. This is really deadly. You don't need to impress with your design, you need to make a sale, and words sell.

02) Not following a formula. Formulas exist because they work. Use them.

03) Forgetting, even for a single instant, to concentrate on your MDA, Most Desired Action.

04) Not testing different models. This is one of the most painful shortcomings of many marketers. They try an ad and if it's not profitable the first time, they drop it entirely. If it is profitable, they continue to run it. Here, there is usually an enormous amount of room for improvement. Fluctuations in sales of the order of 500 to 800% are not uncommon…

Advertising comes in many shapes and sizes, with different costs associated to them. Do your research, purchase and read books by the likes of David Ogilvy and follow formulas that are aimed towards direct mailings. The results you get will far outweigh any effort you expend or money you invest.