In order to sell your product or service, you need to keep in mind that it is all about filling a need. When you meet someone for the first time, you have no idea what they need or want and you will get yourself in trouble if you assume that you. Rather than spitting out a sales pitch that is focused on you and not on your prospect, your goal is to gather information by asking great questions. You want to get to know as much as you can about your potential customer. That takes time and it’s worth it, because successful sales and marketing is the result of building great relationships.

A sale is a process NOT a onetime event! Don’t be one of those people who naively believe that you will meet someone who has an interest in what you are offering and think that after just one meeting the deal is done. I wish! It is important for you to be realistic and recognize that on average it will take 7-8 touches to close your sale depending on the complexity of what you have to offer.

A touch can be defined in a number of ways…phone call, face-to-face meeting, email, etc. Your goal after meeting someone is to find ways to connect with your prospective client in ways that add value to them. This is a sure fire way for building your credibility and the relationship.

Here are just a few ways to reach out and “touch” your prospect:

• Send them an article that pertains to their industry or to a business challenge they are facing with a personal note care from you.
• Make a virtual introduction to someone who would be a good client for them.
• Invite them to attend a networking event with you as your guest.
• Offer to interview them for an article you are writing or connect them with a press contact that can get their company some publicity.

Finally, have a plan for what you want to achieve with your sales and marketing efforts. One of my all time favorite guru’s Napoleon Hill said it best when he said that achieving what we want depends on these things:

• Have a definite purpose.
• Back that purpose with a plan.
• Support that plan with intelligent action.

As he was to discover in doing his research for Think and Grow rich, the 2% of the population that is widely rich and successful all had a clearly defined purpose.

You’ve been there. At a networking function someone asks you what your company does, and you freeze like a deer in the headlights. You haven’t thought it through so what might roll off your tongue is a lengthy speech that says absolutely nothing. Worse yet, you might default to spitting out a feature/benefit dump that also does nothing, except perhaps turn off your potential client! Later, you cringe at the memory and beat yourself up for not doing better.

Learn to tell your story.

Here’s the real deal when it comes to marketing and selling your products and services. Your potential customers do not care about the process of how you get things done. Nor do they really care about the technical details. What they care about is the actual RESULT they receive when they buy from you.

Let’s say you sell SEO (Search Engine Optimization) services. The worst thing you can do is spend a lot of time droning on and on about the technical bits and bytes related to your service. What you want to do is hook them with something compelling that causes them to want to know more. You must tell them what’s in it for them if they buy from you. For example you might say, “We guarantee that our services will bring thousands of buying customers to your internet door each month.” Now if I’m talking to you and you tell me you can bring buying customers right to my doorstep and you guarantee it – you have definitely got my attention. So that’s the key. You want to get your prospect engaged and thinking…hum, I can certainly use more clients. Now they are wondering how you do that and more importantly they are wondering if you can prove it.

To be successful with your sales and marketing efforts, you need to determine the one compelling reason your target client would want to buy from you. That’s what you focus on whether you are talking to them in person or providing information to them in writing.

Here are a few more examples to help you:

• I help your company sell more, more often. More revenue, more of the time. That’s my promise!
• Coaching clients who work with me earn 3 times more than their colleagues. I can help you be a top earner in your industry with 6 months.
• Our graduates are 2 times more likely than their peers to earn 20% more income in their first year as a business professional.
• Readers tell us that when they advertise with us people call about their services.

Remember, find the hook. Take the time to think about what you are selling from your prospect’s point of view. What do they care about? What problem can you help them solve? What challenges do they face? Once you can answer these questions, you focus your message on “what’s in it for them” – the results you deliver.

So, stop talking about you and focus on what your prospect wants and needs to more effectively capture their attention. That’s the first critical step to getting them to buy from you and not someone else.

Yup, we all make them. Even seasoned professionals occasionally blow it with the sales process. It happens. Through the years – and especially right now – I see people make consistent blunders that hinder their ability to successfully bring in the business. There may be others but these are the ones that I see on a regular basis.

If you can learn to master the art of not blundering in these areas, I promise you – sales will increase!

So read on…

I don’t know what it is about the word “selling” that causes people to freeze up like a deer caught in the headlights. It seems that people will go to almost any length to avoid talking about the importance of selling. Yet the bottom line is that selling is a way of life!

We sell ourselves to get accepted into college. We sell our kids on doing chores around the house. We sell our bosses on why “we” deserve the promotion versus someone else. We sell our significant other on that piece of jewelry we are dying to own. We sell our friends on what movie to go see. We sell our colleagues on supporting our projects. We sell others on our charity causes. In short – we sell every minute of every single day of our lives.

Soooo…what is the problem with selling the products or services that we have to offer? Maybe something in the collective psyche that says “selling is bad”? All I know is that if you want people to buy your products or your services then you must master the art of selling what you have to offer. Granted, some of us – yes, that’s me! – enjoy it more than others. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t learn to love it also.

What it comes down to is this…if you believe that what you offer has value to someone one else or to a particular company then it should be pretty easy to sell. If you love what you do and remember that sales is simply about helping to solve problems for others then it’s pretty easy. Except…most people end up focused on what “they want” not what is good for their potential customer. I’ll talk more about that later.

Here’s the deal. Right now, people are constantly focusing on what they perceive to be the negatives  out there. That’s not helpful. Yes, I realize that the financial problems being played out on the national stage are a problem. Yes, I realize that people are out of work. But that doesn’t have to be your world. Focusing on the negative or using the economy as an excuse is NOT the way to attract new clients and close business each day.

In subsequent posts, I’m going to talk about the Top 10 Sales Blunders People Make and HOW YOU can avoid them. I love to help people sell more, more often so read on!

People ask me often what makes a great sales person. Is it their personality? Is it their knowledge of the sales process? Is it their attitude? Is it their habits? What is it really? The answer – simple as it is – is all of these things and more. Our habits, what we actually focus our time and attention on day after day, is probably one of the single biggest things that will lead to either success or failure. A long-time fan of Jack Canfield and his work, I decided to post his recent newsletter article on habits.

Where are Your Habits Leading You?
by Jack Canfield

You are an accumulation of your habits. From how you get out of bed, how you shower, how you dress, how you walk, sit, and talk, how you respond to the world, how you act in front of others, and how you think; you’re living out your habits.

Habits are necessary. They free up your mind so you can concentrate on how to survive day to day. You don’t have to think about how to drive your car so you can be on the lookout for danger while you are driving. You don’t have to think about how to walk so you can concentrate on where you’re going.

Unfortunately, habits can also keep you locked in self-destructive patterns, which will limit your success. To become successful, you will need to drop bad habits and develop new ones that are in line with the life you want to live.

People don’t suddenly appear in the life they want to live… their habits determine their outcome!

What are the habits you have that are keeping you from achieving your goals?

Really be honest with yourself here… Are you always running late? Do you return phone calls within 24 hours? Do you get enough sleep? Do you follow through on your promises? Do you plan out your day?

Imagine what your life would be like if all your habits were their productive counterparts!

What would your life be like if you ate healthy meals, exercised and got enough sleep? What if you saved your money, stopped using credit cards and paid cash for everything? What if you stopped procrastinating, overcame your fears, and began networking with people in your field? Would your life be different? I bet it would!

So, my suggested action step for you is to write down some productive habits you could adopt and visualize in your life, step two is to ‘act as if’ you were living these new habits right now!

I’d like to help you get moving toward creating more successful habits, so I’d recommend you develop four of your new success habits each year, one for each quarter.

Once you pick the new habit you’re ready to adopt, next you’ll want to create a method that will support your new habit.

Here are some ideas… You could write it down on a card that you keep with you and read several times a day. You could make it a part of your daily visualization. You could also enlist the help of an accountability partner who has habits to change, or work with a personal coach who can keep you on track.

It’s important to make a 100% commitment to your new habit, so be specific about the steps that you’re willing to take in order to drop an old habit and adopt a new one. Don’t be vague about how you will change your habits. Spell it out for yourself so you can recognize situations that motivate you to act out your new habit.

Just developing four new habits a year will dramatically shift your life to be more in line with your vision. And the more in line it becomes, the easier the other habits are to replace because your perspective is shifting and you can see more clearly how your old habits aren’t serving you anymore.

Make the decision. Make the commitment. Then watch your new, positive life unfold!

I’ll see you in another two weeks in the next edition of Success Strategies. In the meantime, take the time to implement just one of the strategies discussed in today’s issue.

© 2008 Jack Canfield

Jack Canfield, America’s #1 Success Coach, is the founder and co-creator of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com