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Tag: sales

  • You’ll Never Guess Where We Found These Lookalike Walking Shoes On Sale For A Mere $18

    You’ll Never Guess Where We Found These Lookalike Walking Shoes On Sale For A Mere $18

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    Internet chatter recently led us to a particular pair of knit slip-on sneakers available in three wear-with-everything colorways and equipped with a bold white sole that gives it an elevated feel. Not only that, they are on sale for almost 50% off, marked down from $34.99 to a mere $18.

    Nearly 400 reviewers gave the shoe high marks for comfort and style, awarding it a rating that exceeded four stars.

    Thanks to the padded ankle collar and cushioned foot bed, it appears that these slip-ons offers a foot-friendly construction along with a streamlined silhouette that’s winning shoppers’ approval.

    Old Navy used a blend of recycled polyester for the fabric upper and recycled thermoplastic rubber for the cushy outsole, making these a lower-impact choice than a shoe made with exclusively “virgin” plastic materials.

    We rounded up some of the most insightful reviews from Old Navy customers, which you can review below — or you can go ahead pick up a pair for yourself before the rest of the internet gets wind of this unmissable deal.

    Promising reviews at Old Navy:

    “If you love Rothys you need to consider these. They are comfy, affordable, stylish, and last a long time. I have bought all colours, that’s how good they are.” — Tendai

    “I love the soft knit slip on shoe because my foot fits in it comfortably and I wear a wide width. I also like it because it’s easy to put on if your in a hurry and want to wear something that goes with almost anything. Very comfortable as well.” — anonymous

    “These shoes were exactly what I was looking for. High quality material, flexible and comfy but still hold their shape, and then have a crisp look to them. I wanted a sneaker that I could wear to work and still look professional, but also wear them day to day. These are it!” — anonymous

    “I wore these for travel and are great with ped socks through TSA. Simple to slip on and off. Very comfortable and easy for small or wide feet.I wore these for travel and are great with ped socks through TSA. Simple to slip on and off. Very comfortable and easy for small or wide feet.” — anonymous

    HuffPost receives a share from retailers on this page. Every item is independently selected by the HuffPost Shopping team. Prices and availability are subject to change.

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  • To Make More Sales, Improve Yourself First — Not Your Product. | Entrepreneur

    To Make More Sales, Improve Yourself First — Not Your Product. | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    People today are bombarded with messages from morning until night. We can’t check email or drive to the store without seeing flashing banners, mostly aimed at selling us something.

    Today’s consumers are experts at tuning these messages out, leaving salespeople with an important question: Do you ensure your message is seen and heard? Connecting with clients today is often about building trust. Here’s where you can start.

    Related: What Does It Really Take to Be a Successful Salesperson? The Answer Is Simpler Than You May Think.

    1. Get to know your customers as well as their goals

    Everyone has needs. Building lasting relationships with your clients is all about helping them solve problems. Customers are far more likely to buy from you if they see value in it. Your products and services should improve your customers’ lives in ways they want (not just ways you want).

    A great test for you is to make sure you know how the product you’re selling to someone enhances their life before you recommend it. If you can’t answer the question, “How does this really help my customer?” then you’re not ready to sell.

    How do you do this? Ask open-ended questions. Ask: “What’s most important to you right now?” or “What are some of your goals with this?” It doesn’t matter if you’re a travel agent, a financial advisor or selling makeup in a department store. If you haven’t figured out what’s important to your customer, you are not ready to sell.

    Ideally, you want to be able to say the following words: “You said” or “I heard.” If you’re the salesperson on the floor of a car dealership, it might sound like this: “You said that safety is your most important consideration because of your kids and gas mileage is number two because of your budget. Since those are your two most important considerations, I want to make the following recommendation.” Ultimately, your client should feel you care about them and their success (because you do).

    2. Be transparent

    Almost always, people can sense when someone isn’t forthcoming with them. When building a relationship with a client, level with them. If your product has a potential drawback, tell them. Don’t push it under the rug or gloss over it. Sure, it might be a year before that annual fee starts to hit, but don’t “forget” to mention it. It can be scary to present information that might hinder the sale, but strong, ethical salespeople with integrity do it anyway.

    If your client asks you a question that you don’t know the answer to, don’t bluff your way through it. Again, people can usually tell when this happening. Never say things like “probably,” “I think” or “my guess is.” If you’re only partly sure about how something works, seek more concrete information. Find a better answer. Usually, your client will respect you for having the courage to say: “I honestly don’t know the answer to that but let me find out and get back to you.” Making up an answer almost always comes back to bite you — and once your reputation has been damaged, it’s often hard to recover and rebuild it.

    Related: 5 Ways to Turn a Single Sale Into a Longstanding Relationship

    3. Ask tough questions

    All too often, we’re eager to hear what someone likes about us or our products. It’s not nearly as fun to hear what they don’t like. Ask anyway. It’s easy to assume that if someone hasn’t stated any reservations, they don’t have them. That’s not always true.

    Get comfortable with asking your clients about their concerns or what might hold them back from deciding to buy. You can’t address what’s not being said, so invite your prospective clients to be real with you and put it all on the table. Once it’s there, you can then respond to it. Don’t shy away from information you don’t want to hear.

    4. Make and keep commitments

    When you’re attempting to earn someone’s trust, there are few things worse than saying you’ll do something and then not following through. If you promised to send additional information over, make sure you’ll do it. If you promised a follow-up call to check in, make sure you do it.

    I can’t tell you how many times someone who’s trying to earn my business has broken a promise to me. People regularly promise to get back in touch, send a prospectus or brochure and then simply “forget.” Following through on what you said you’d do helps build your credibility. Most people want to believe the messenger just as much as they want to believe the message. So, be a reliable messenger. If you’re not true to your word, how can a prospective client believe anything else you said is true?

    Related: What Really Drives Sales Growth and Repeat Business?

    5. Remain patient and stay in touch

    Not everyone makes decisions on the spot. Some people need extra time after the initial conversation to think your proposal over. Sometimes this might take days or even months. People have different risk tolerances. Some want to consult with their spouse or the primary decision-maker in their household. Buying decisions can be difficult for people, as they sometimes involve a change to someone’s routines or life. Some like to consider other options. Some simply like to sleep on it. Embrace this.

    Great sales associates don’t get flustered or impatient when someone is taking time to decide what’s right for them. Don’t disappear. Stay in touch with your clients. When people are in the market for a product or service, they’re eventually going to give their business to someone — and usually, it’s the person who they’ve had the most contact with.

    Schedule follow-up calls with people or periodically send them relevant information. Reach back out and stay in touch. Make yourself available to answer questions. In general, familiarity breeds liking. Unless you’ve explicitly been told “no,” stay involved.

    Doing these five things will increase your chances that you’ll eventually earn the business. Not only will these steps help you earn the initial business, but they’ll help you retain your clients and keep them coming back for more.

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    Amy M Chambers

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  • New Amazon Sellers Must Avoid This Huge Beginner Mistake | Entrepreneur

    New Amazon Sellers Must Avoid This Huge Beginner Mistake | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    To say it’s easy for new Amazon sellers to make mistakes that cost them time and money is an understatement. With the complexity of Amazon algorithms, getting your first Amazon sales can be like trying to ice skate uphill.

    Luckily, you can increase your Amazon sales if you take this new Amazon seller advice and avoid the number one mistake I see as an Amazon consultant. Avoiding this common mistake will shorten your path to success.

    Related: 5 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Through Amazon

    Don’t copy big brand best-sellers with thousands of reviews

    This likely sounds like it goes against the grain right? You would think you would want to model your Amazon presence on a successful example. The problem? It’s easy to model the wrong things.

    The truth is, the big brand best-selling Amazon sellers make lots of mistakes that you cannot afford to make. What’s more, they are best-selling brands because of best practices and marketing mechanisms that you don’t see when examining their Amazon product detail page with your favorite Amazon tool.

    New Amazon sellers are inclined to follow this process:

    1. Make a list of competing products that sell the most for their primary keywords

    2. Evaluate their product detail page

    3. Write a product description derivative of the best-sellers

    4. Make A+ content that looks similar

    5. Create gallery images that are reminiscent of the best-sellers

    6. Run the best-sellers through Amazon tools and download the keywords they are ranking for in SEO and running ads on

    7. Add those keywords to their listings

    8. Run ads on the same keywords

    9. Get frustrated when sales aren’t flowing in

    10. Quit

    Here are the reasons why this technique doesn’t work for new Amazon sellers and Amazon Private Label sellers:

    • External Amazon marketing: What you’re not seeing when you evaluate an Amazon product listing is all of the marketing efforts they’re doing off of Amazon to build their brand and drive traffic back to Amazon. This includes showing up on every social media ad, Google ads, Amazon Influencers, PR, email lists and much more.

    • Reviews: They have hundreds if not thousands of reviews that you do not have as a new Amazon seller. This results in you having to work that much harder to earn a click and then earn the sale.

    • A10 algorithm: Since they’re doing significant marketing off of Amazon and even driving traffic from off of Amazon onto Amazon specifically for their products, they are getting a boost in their SEO and ad impressions.

    • Brand awareness: Another benefit of external Amazon marketing is brand awareness and the trust that goes with it. Many Amazon sellers believe that if they can just get their product to the top of Amazon searches, customers will buy as long as they have a good price and great features. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be farther from the truth and doesn’t make up the delta between a good product and brand awareness.

    The truth is, your favorite Amazon tools can only show you a small portion of what is actually making the big brand product successful. Amazon best-sellers can get away with fundamental mistakes that would otherwise sink the ship of a new Amazon seller because of their powerful marketing efforts off of Amazon.

    These common big brand mistakes often include:

    • Poor copywriting

    • Misaligned color psychology

    • Bad art direction

    • Targeting keywords that are far too broad

    • Lack of a focus on buyer intent keywords

    Related: 7 Things to Consider Before Becoming a Seller on Amazon

    What new Amazon sellers should do instead

    The best new Amazon seller advice I can give is to learn the fundamentals of sales and marketing. Then, make sure your listings and marketing efforts blow theirs out of the water.

    An all too common mistake is to not worry about your presence off of Amazon since millions of customers are on Amazon every day ready to buy. The thing is, your external presence and ability to drive external traffic from off of Amazon to your products on Amazon impact your visibility on Amazon. It’s part of their algorithm.

    That means how visible you will be when people search for keywords — in organic results as well as paid — depends on how good of a job you do at building your brand off of Amazon. So, what should you do?

    • Launch list: Amazon has a honeymoon period. Amazon watches how many sales you make and how much traffic you drive in your first 30-60 days, and this determines how easy or hard it will be for you to rank in product searches and get ad visibility. Build up a buzz before you launch, collect emails, and drive email traffic to your product detail page when you launch. This way, you can thrive right out of the gate.

    • Product descriptions, A+ content and gallery images: Don’t simply hand off your product to a graphic designer and say “make me Amazon A+ content and gallery images that will sell!” or to a copywriter and say the same about product descriptions. Arm them with a buyer persona, color psychology that will align with your buyer and critical information that will help with art direction and copywriting like FAQs, objections, competitive advantages and more.

    • External Amazon traffic: With the brand referral bonus program that gives Amazon sellers up to 10% cash back for driving external traffic in place, there is no reason not to drive traffic from PPC Ads, Amazon Influencers and more.

    • Brand building: It’s no secret that Amazon crawls the internet to learn about the products sold on its marketplace. Arm Amazon with as much information as possible to show them you are a brand capable of marketing yourself and driving sales intent on Amazon. Bolster your website SEO, get PR, and foster a community of passionate enthusiasts around your brand.

    New Amazon sellers can thrive early on in their selling journey by not copying the big brands and focusing on sales and marketing best practices instead.

    Related: 4 Ways to Sell (a Lot) More on Amazon

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    Tanner Rankin

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  • 5 Ways to Use Personalized Marketing Campaigns to Increase Sales and Retention | Entrepreneur

    5 Ways to Use Personalized Marketing Campaigns to Increase Sales and Retention | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Businesses are always looking for effective ways to boost sales and customer retention. Personalized marketing campaigns may provide the solution. Personalized marketing is a powerful tool that helps increase engagement with the right message at the right time. It makes customers feel valued by addressing them personally. Additionally, it allows businesses to create customized experiences. Here are five ways to use personalized marketing campaigns that will help drive more sales and loyalty from your existing customers.

    Personalize emails with customer data

    Personalizing emails with customer data has become a powerful way to increase unboxing rates. Using customer information can help create tailored offers that show customers you understand them and value their business. Use customer data to develop – special prices, discounts, and more – like Unboxing offers pricing customized to each customer’s past purchases. This allows you to share a unique offer with each person, building loyalty and encouraging them to become repeat customers.

    Related: 5 Tips for Better Email Marketing Performance

    Use targeted ads to reach the right audience

    Drawing the right audience to a product or service is essential to success. Leveraging targeted ads can help achieve this goal. These ads can be customized to focus on individual characteristics, such as location, demographics, and interests. This helps narrow down an audience. Businesses should avoid wasting money trying to draw in people who will not be interested in the broadcasted content. Knowing which platforms and devices the target market uses should also help craft better messages. It can also pinpoint what messages are well-suited for each type of device or platform. These practices can help reach more of the right kind of people. In addition, it can potentially save costs associated with ineffective lead acquisition.

    Create content based on user interests

    Creating content tailored to your users’ interests is one of the best ways to keep them engaged and returning for more. Understanding what type of content resonates with your audience is vital — extensive market research can help you decipher their preferences. Once you know what kind of content appeals to your users, focus on creating detailed, informative pieces that are well-written and visually appealing. Invest in video editing software or a quality camera if needed; in doing so, the impactful visuals will help capture the user’s attention while they consume the information you provide. Remember that user-generated content such as polls, surveys, quizzes, and questions can help engage customers effectively — seek out their opinions and reviews to understand their interests better. Keeping up with trends in technology is also essential in creating relevant content.

    Related: 6 Key Tips to Level Up Your Content Marketing Strategy

    Leverage automation to send relevant messages

    Automated messages with relevant content are a great way to maintain relationships and engagement with your customers and followers. Automating this process not only saves businesses or brands time but also allows them to reach out in an effective manner that capitalizes on the customer’s preferences. Many companies are finding success by leveraging automation technology to determine their customer’s interests and purchase habits, allowing the business to deliver more personalized messages for personalized marketing campaigns. Automated messages can reach customers at opportune times, helping turn possible one-time buyers into loyal and returning customers. As a result, businesses of all sizes can benefit from leveraging automation to deliver desirable and beneficial messages to create higher levels of engagement across their customer base!

    Utilize A/B testing to increase engagement with customers

    Businesses must engage with customers to develop a strong presence in their target markets. A/B testing is an invaluable tool companies can use to achieve this goal. This process involves creating two different versions of a website or advertisement, each containing different elements like different visuals or copy, which are then tested for the highest engagement rate from customers. Using A/B testing allows companies to experiment and find the variation that resonates best with their customers and increases customer engagement. Doing so also helps them save time and money, eliminating the need for expensive rework due to mistakes made when creating content without testing. A/B testing ensures that businesses don’t miss out on vital engagement opportunities by providing data they can use to make more informed decisions about how they reach out to their audiences.

    Overall, you can use the strategies above to create a successful customer engagement strategy. By personalizing emails and ads, creating content based on user interests, leveraging automation for relevant messages, and utilizing A/B tests for higher engagement, you can develop an effective approach to gaining customer loyalty. You can also track customer behavior to learn more about how they engage with your brand. This will help you identify what works and continually improve your customer engagement strategy. Optimizing customer relationships should be a top priority for any business that wants to capture leads and grow its customer base. Utilize these tactics today for innovation in customer engagement that will build lasting relationships between your business and consumers.

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    Under30CEO

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  • My Favorite Camping Tent Is 50% Off For A Very Limited Time

    My Favorite Camping Tent Is 50% Off For A Very Limited Time

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    HuffPost receives a share from retailers on this page. Every item is independently selected by the HuffPost Shopping team. Prices and availability are subject to change.

    When I got back into camping a few years ago, picking a new tent was one of the most daunting tasks. There is an overwhelming number of makes, models, types, sizes and features — not to mention reviews. The tent is the most critical choice you can make to ensure each trip is a success. No pressure, right?

    I ended up buying a few different tents for different situations, like backpacking and family car camping. But the tent I absolutely love the most, and keep choosing to use over and over, is the REI Co-Op Wonderland 4. And right now, along with its sister model Wonderland 6, it’s on rare sale for 50% off for REI members through March 27, making it much more affordable than usual.

    A lifetime membership to REI is $30, so if you haven’t joined yet, you’ll more than make up for the one-time cost with the savings on the tent, and enjoy benefits like coupons and cash back for literally the rest of your life.

    One massive advantage of the Wonderland 4 is that I don’t have to crouch. With a peak height of 75 inches, most people can comfortably stand up inside it, and the near-vertical dome walls make it especially roomy compared to triangle-shaped tents. (I’ve slept in it alone and with three kids, and the space never felt anything less than luxurious.)

    The bug-proof mesh roof means I can gaze at the stars from my sleeping bag when I don’t need the rainfly. I love its two massive rounded doors and the clever seam-sealed triangle windows that provide great ventilation even when the rainfly is attached. This combination, along with the seam-sealed bathtub-style floor, kept me totally bone-dry during a recent overnight Florida deluge that flooded my entire campsite. The Wonderland holds up like a champ.

    Another great thing about this tent is that it’s easy to set up, and instructions are sewn into its bag. I can do it by myself in about 15 minutes, including the footprint and rainfly, and the color-coded poles and tabs mean it’s simple to match up which poles go where for quick, uncomplicated assembly.

    Other handy features include interior storage pockets, a lamp-hanging loop in the center of the ceiling, and a carry bag that’s actually big enough to stuff the tent back into without swearing.

    There’s an optional mudroom attachment that’s also 50% off right now — it’s especially handy to have in rain — as well as a custom footprint you can set up underneath the tent to protect the floor and that perfectly hooks into the color-coded pole system of the tent. The mudroom works for both the 4- and 6-person tents.

    Here are a few promising reviews from other campers who bought the Wonderland 4:

    “I went on a big trip and used this tent. I was going to be out all day and saw halfway through the day that my tent site was experiencing 5 hours of high wind warnings, with gusts at 50mph. I promised myself that if this tent survived the day I would write a review. When I got back, the tent still stood like the American flag on the forth of July. After sleeping in it all night, enduring the same heavy winds, I felt like Matt Damon in the Martian when he feared his base would come apart and he would die. The tent held up like a champ and I could not have been more pleased. Even the mudroom attachment survived the attack. Apart from this, the tent just rocks! Easy to setup, easy to tear down, tall enough and spacious enough for my 6’1” self and my (slightly shorter) father to be totally comfortable. Highly recommend!” — Uhh Caleb

    “This tent exceeded my expectations. It was very easy to put up, even in the dark the first time. It is so roomy. Feels very stable. It withstood rain. I love the side windows. Perfect for stargazing. I can’t say enough about this tent.” — KellyC

    “Bought this tent for car camping and it’s great! Took it to Joshua Tree and it was easy to setup. Really like how it has two symmetrical faces for multiple entry points. Very spacious for two adults and can completely stand inside it. Didn’t need the cover for the night in the desert and it let in a nice breeze along with the beautiful stars. My brother was so impressed he just bought one too.” — Jeremy Fricke

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  • Entice Customers to Make Additional and Larger Purchases Using These Two Tactics | Entrepreneur

    Entice Customers to Make Additional and Larger Purchases Using These Two Tactics | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    If the subscription methodology utilized by many software companies has served a larger purpose, it is that companies will benefit financially by focusing beyond just one-and-done purchases. Instead, they want repeat purchases from engaged customers. To entice customers to make more purchases, marketers may choose from two approaches — the cross-sell or the upsell. Both of these tactics are viable and convince shoppers to purchase something they hadn’t planned to buy when they first interacted with your brand. But because they’re fundamentally different approaches, they’re best deployed with a few considerations in mind.

    Understanding two different animals

    Upselling is where a company promises an upgraded or higher-value product version to a customer. It attempts to move the buyer from something relatively basic to a bit more advanced. A classic upsell is McDonald’s asking if customers would like to supersize their meals. But other upsells might include moving a customer to a higher tier in a subscription plan, showcasing a featured product, or offering a discount or free shipping if the customer spends a set amount.

    Cross-selling promotes additional products that supplement what the customer has already purchased or is looking to buy. The classic cross-sell at restaurants is to ask if the customer wants to add fries to their order. On a company’s website, if a customer has given permission to offer personalized recommendations, they should see articles with products that align with whatever they just bought. So if they bought an investment that focuses on energy companies, they might be open to learning more about another investment that focuses on water or utility companies. Many companies do excellent cross-selling by showing buyers what other customers frequently purchase together, or by offering product or service bundles.

    Related: Customer Service Is the New Upsell

    The perception of value

    If upselling and cross-selling can both generate an additional or larger sale, how do you know which one to use with a customer? It’s all about their perception of value, rather than your own. If they would see something more advanced as valuable, you upsell. If they would see something supplemental as valuable, you cross-sell. This concept challenges many professionals who let their own preferences, biases or excitement around their innovations drive what they market.

    So then how do you know what the customer thinks is valuable? You go back to your data. Look at the history of what they’ve bought and try to anticipate future needs based on that information. Previous sales open the door to talking with them about purchasing an additional or enhanced product. With the information about what they’ve already done on hand, you can educate them on better uses of the product, advise them on new ones, and even validate their purchase decision with case studies that demonstrate the value of that choice.

    You have many good options for applying your customer data in post-purchase communication. You can have a sales representative contact a customer after the sale to see if they’d like to upgrade or purchase anything else. Another website-based option many companies use is to show customers other products they might be interested in once they’ve made their purchase. Even if you don’t have a website, you can track what a customer searches for on a landing page. Whatever they enter can direct you to make an offer within an email, call or personalized exit/confirmation page.

    Related: How Up-selling and Cross-Selling Can Increase Your Revenues with Minimal Efforts

    Personalization makes a difference, but permission counts

    Personalization works wonders with upselling and cross-selling because each buyer’s interests and purchase history give you insight into what other products they may find valuable. It helps ensure that your recommendations are relevant and useful.

    The key is to remember that personalization requires permission. Without permission, you run the risk of violating privacy regulations. Even if you stay within the legal boundaries, customers can perceive it as unnerving if you know information that they didn’t volunteer. Opt-in is vital. It ensures that when you look at their history or other information to produce a new offer, the upsell or cross-sell seems like a logical progression in the interaction they’re having with you.

    In both upselling and cross-selling processes, be transparent

    Getting permission and buy-in by nature requires transparency between you and your customer. Be clear and honest not just about how their additional purchases can add value for them, but also about the ways in which you use their data.

    On the back end, transparency also means pulling in multiple data sources so you can see the big picture around the information you have. Those sources might include which pages the client has viewed on your website, which emails they’ve opened, what landing pages they’ve visited, etc. It’s important to track interactions on both the sales and marketing sides to get the most complete picture of how your customers interact with your brand. Once you can see everything they’ve done with you, you’ll have a core sense of the best way to provide value to them.

    Related: Cross-selling Strategies and Data-driven Analytics the Key to Driving Business Growth in the Financial Sector

    Effective upselling and cross-selling create new opportunities

    Despite their differences, upselling and cross-selling can help to maintain a strong connection between you and your customers. The trick to choosing the best approach is determining what they will perceive as adding the most value. To make that determination, customer history is your best friend — so long as you’ve gotten permission to use this data. But if you’re transparent about what you’re doing and consider multiple data sources for the big picture, it becomes easier to figure out when and what to offer. Once you’ve mastered cross-selling and upselling, and when to use each approach, the potential within your sales is limitless.

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    David Partain

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  • J.Crew, I See That Surprise Sale—These Chic Items Are Temporarily Discounted

    J.Crew, I See That Surprise Sale—These Chic Items Are Temporarily Discounted

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    There’s nothing like a good sale, right? And when the said sale happens to be at one of our editor-favorite stores? Well, that’s perfection. Yep, I went over to J.Crew today and noticed a surprise sale right now through March 27 that offers 25% off your purchase. For reference, I’m talking about temporary discounts on many of the amazing new spring items.

    I curated an edit of some of my favorite items that are on offer during the sale. As a preview, you’ll notice everything from fantastic shirting to fresh tailoring silhouettes to pretty separates that will simply make you happy. Keep scrolling to check out the best items to buy from J.Crew’s spring sale. Oh, and note that you have to use the code SHOPNOW at checkout to receive that 25% off discount.

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    Bobby Schuessler

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  • 9 Keys to Leading Great Sales Team Meetings | Entrepreneur

    9 Keys to Leading Great Sales Team Meetings | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    At the end of a meeting, have you ever said to yourself, “That was a total waste of time. It could have been an email.” You likely have, since, according to MIT Sloan Management Review, only around 50% of meeting time is effective, well-used, and engaging.

    That’s a sobering thought because the impact of ineffective sales meetings extends far beyond wasted time.

    One of the many roles of sales managers is to lead team meetings that help build high-performing sales teams. New research found that top-performing sales managers are 42% more likely than other managers to excel at leading valuable sales team meetings.

    Furthermore, how a sales manager is perceived as a meeting leader contributes significantly to the team’s overall confidence in their manager.

    When sales managers aren’t successful here, the team’s performance suffers. This translates into lower win rates, more deals lost to competitors or no decision, and missed targets.

    Plenty of books, university-level courses and other resources promise to teach you how to run successful meetings. But like many topics in business, the secret to success is to do a common thing uncommonly well.

    To run successful sales team meetings, you must do these nine things:

    Related: 6 Secrets to a Successful Sales Meeting

    1. Create attendee value

    Your meetings may be valuable to you. You get what you need, find out what’s going on and drive the actions you want. But to get these outcomes, you must make sure people want to attend your meetings. For that to happen, give your attendees value in every meeting.

    One way to do this is to think through “Learn, Feel, Do” before the meeting.

    • What do you want attendees to learn? If they get something valuable, they’ll keep coming back.

    • What do you want attendees to feel? Is it motivation to succeed? Pride in their achievements? Confidence in you? Encouragement to step up and perform?

    • What do you want attendees to do? This may be something general, such as staying on top of their plans to hit their targets or something meeting-specific, such as completing a particular action item.

    2. Have objectives and an agenda

    You don’t want people wondering what the meeting is about. Make sure you explain the importance of it in a sentence or two. Objectives and an agenda provide a compass and roadmap for successful meetings.

    This doesn’t mean meetings need to be rigid. For instance, you might set aside some time to brainstorm a particular topic. But people need to know in advance the purpose of the meeting and what you’ll be covering. Anything that could be covered in an email, a call or a video is often better done that way.

    3. Manage meeting hygiene

    Start on time, end on time, make sure your technology is set up and working ahead of time — have a plan B for what to do if something stops working and so on.

    And if you don’t need all the allocated time, release people and gift them their time back. They will thank you for it!

    4. Grab and maintain engagement

    As the leader, it’s up to you to grab attention at the beginning and maintain it throughout. Remember to:

    • Start well: Use an icebreaker. Engage people early. Tell a quick story. Do something to start the meeting with good energy.

    • Involve people: The more a meeting is collaborative and has multiple voices, the more engaging it tends to be.

    • Remember the 30 + 3 rule: You have about 30 seconds to grab engagement at the beginning of a meeting, and you need to ensure it stays high every three minutes — especially in virtual meetings.

    • Take notes: If it’s an in-person meeting, use a whiteboard or flip chart. In virtual meetings, screen journal key points. It’ll help keep people’s focus.

    Related: 5 Tips to Make Your Meetings More Effective

    5. Stay MOSTLY on track

    As the leader, it’s up to you to ensure the meeting stays on track. Assuming you have an agenda, you can always say, “I’m going to stop here to make sure we’re able to cover everything on the agenda.”

    Meeting leaders that don’t do this allow others to divert the discussion, taking time away from critical topics. But be careful not to embarrass the off-topic person. Just jump in and keep the meeting going. Do it right, and you’ll gain the confidence of all the attendees.

    6. Facilitate, collaborate, and be inclusive

    Successful meetings are interactive. Facilitate. Ask questions. Draw out the discussion. Include team interaction.

    Before the meeting, give people roles to play or things to contribute. Allowing people time to prepare is helpful for any introverts on your team. Collaboration and interaction help make meetings more successful and engaging.

    At the same time, remember that meetings are a status arena. When people have roles, share ideas, ask questions and are involved, it builds their brand and reputation. Give people space to do this, and you’ll have a high-performing and engaged team.

    7. Motivate (and don’t demotivate)

    Research shows that the No. 1 capability of top-performing sales managers is motivating the team to achieve top performance. Give positive feedback, and highlight successes in meetings. When you do this, you increase motivation.

    Be careful not to demotivate. This doesn’t mean you can’t dive into problems and challenges — you can — but build a safe space where people can say what’s on their minds and feel they won’t be attacked or judged harshly. Otherwise, they won’t participate in your meetings. Focus on issues, not people, when discussing problems. Save critical feedback for one-on-ones.

    8. Be prepared, and show you’re prepared

    Imagine yourself as an attendee at a meeting. The leader shows up somewhat frazzled from previous meetings, shuffles through notes for a reminder of what this meeting is about, and then says, “Okay, what’s on people’s minds for today to cover?”

    Imagine the leader shows up on time as usual, has the agenda posted for attendees, and then says, “Okay, folks, for today, I’d like to start with a question” — and then engages the team on something worthwhile before moving into a set agenda with ease and efficiency.

    Most people get value from the second type of meeting, but not the first. And most people have high confidence and opinions of the second type of meeting leader, but not the first. If you are prepared and come across prepared, you put yourself in a stronger position to lead the team.

    Related: How to Make Meetings Less Tedious and More Engaging

    9. Finish with actions, drive accountability

    Finally, finish with actions and then drive accountability. Often, meetings result in action items: something important needs to get done, someone volunteers to do it, and you set a timeframe for it.

    Conclude your meetings consistently with a summary of actions — including what, who and when — and then review them at the next meeting. If you need to, follow up with an email after the meeting to help keep the team on track.

    Of course, within these nine keys to effective meeting leadership, there’s more to learn, think about and explore. However, if you keep these nine points in mind, your meetings, and your teams’ performance, will be more successful.

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    Andy Springer

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  • How to Identify Upsell Opportunities to Maximize Your Profitability | Entrepreneur

    How to Identify Upsell Opportunities to Maximize Your Profitability | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    For agencies and other service consultancies that specialize in small businesses, few things can be more helpful for increasing revenue and the lifetime value of your clients than making the most of upselling opportunities.

    The business-to-business equivalent of a McDonald’s employee asking if you’d like to upgrade from small to medium fries, upselling is your way of offering more to clients so they deepen their commitment to your agency. By better understanding what upselling opportunities look like, why they matter and how to better implement them in your own agency, you can maximize your earning potential like never before.

    What do upsell opportunities look like?

    There’s no one size fits all approach to upselling. Some of the most common types of upsells include a product or service upgrade, encouraging customers to buy products in multiple quantities, offering product or service customizations and extended service periods.

    For agencies, this provides valuable flexibility — and multiple ways to upsell.

    For example, an agency could offer monthly marketing service plans but upsell to its clients by also offering an annual plan. This annual plan could be offered at a slight discount compared to the monthly plan but has the advantage of keeping clients “locked in” with the agency for an extended period of time.

    Another option could be encouraging clients to purchase additional marketing services. For example, a small business client might come to an agency seeking a new graphic or logo, and the agency could also offer to provide web design services so that the company’s website matches its new graphics. With each of these upsell opportunities, the end goal should be finding ways to create additional value for your clients.

    Are there services adjacent to the ones you already offer that makes sense for clients but aren’t in your wheelhouse? For example, maybe your agency writes great content but lacks the ability to optimize it for search. Or maybe you capture new leads for your small business clients but don’t use triggered automation to nurture those leads. In cases like these, it might make sense to team up with other providers and technology partners so you can white-label their services.

    Related: Customer Service Is the New Upsell

    Why upselling matters for agencies

    In a survey of small businesses conducted by vcita, over 68% of respondents said they handle all of their own marketing, compared to under 24% that outsource their marketing to an agency. This is indicative of the fact that agencies often struggle to offer value to small business clients — or to effectively communicate how they can offer value — and it points to major opportunities for agencies that excel in this regard.

    Upselling is easier for agencies that are great at communicating their unique value propositions and that can tailor their packages to the specific needs of potential clients on an agile basis. Depending on the type of upselling offer you make, it can showcase the extent to which you’re paying attention to the needs of your clients. It also helps highlight the versatility your agency offers — how you can become a true “one-stop shop” for clients to effectively manage all of their marketing needs.

    Then, of course, there’s the fact that upselling can be a powerful driver of revenue. A survey by HubSpot found that 72% of salespeople who upsell report that it drives up to 30% of their company’s revenue.

    The 80-20 rule (or Pareto Principle) also applies here — where 80% of revenue is derived from the top 20% of clients. Upselling can help you maximize the profitability of your agency’s top clients, ensuring more focused sales efforts that deliver stronger results.

    How to maximize your upselling potential

    The previously cited HubSpot survey found that 88% of salespeople try to upsell their clients. Of course, this doesn’t mean that every upselling attempt is going to be successful. The most effective agencies focus on ways that their upsell offers create genuine value for the customer rather than just getting a one-time profit increase.

    This requires truly understanding the SMBs you work with and their unique pain points. Analytics are only part of the story. You need to take the time to talk to prospects and understand their specific needs. Listen to their feedback so you can build trust and strengthen your relationship.

    By taking the time to know your clients and prospects, and pairing that with a deep knowledge of your diverse network’s capabilities and services, you can then provide tailored, compelling upsell recommendations. When recommendations are truly aligned with a client or prospect’s needs and pain points, they will see your ability to provide relevant service that truly adds value.

    To do this successfully, Adobe recommends limiting how many upsell options you provide a client. Too many options can ultimately lead to analysis paralysis that makes it harder to reach a decision — or could drive a client away entirely. Upsell recommendations should also strive to remain within 25% of the SMB’s planned budget, as a dramatic price increase can similarly deter clients.

    Upsell can (and should) be a priority with current clients — those who already have some level of trust in your agency. Something as simple as a quarterly or semi-annual check-in can help gauge whether a client is satisfied with your agency’s services, as well as provide opportunities to identify new ways your agency can add more value through upselling. Active listening during these client conversations can be especially crucial for identifying upsell options your sales team can pitch at the moment.

    Related: 4 Things That Make for Unforgettable Customer Experiences

    Make the most of your sales opportunities

    Regardless of the client, you should consider potential upselling opportunities with every sales interaction. Whether that’s getting a client to order additional deliverables or having them upgrade to a higher “tier” of service, upselling isn’t just a chance to get a one-time bump in revenue from a client.

    It is also a way for you to further showcase your best work — and why you’re worth partnering with for the long haul. When you upsell effectively and then deliver on the promises you made during the sales process, you will set your agency up for lasting success.

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    Lucas Miller

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  • 5 Proven Strategies to Turn Your Sales Copy Into Real Money | Entrepreneur

    5 Proven Strategies to Turn Your Sales Copy Into Real Money | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Too many business owners and marketers expect their copy to click and convert, but only a few know how to get past the click part.

    When you’re selling something, you can’t fall into the trap of mindlessly writing about your offer without regard to why people don’t buy and without knowing how to present your offers.

    After reading this article, you should be able to go back to your copy, make sure it has the strategies you’ll peruse below and restructure how you write your future sales copy.

    Related: 6 Reasons Your Marketing Copy Isn’t Converting — and How to Fix Each One

    1. Learn why people don’t buy and work around it

    If you budget or “categorize” your expenses each month or quarter, you won’t be shocked if I tell you your prospects do the same.

    And thanks to the bottom-dollar effect, they’re probably not thinking about spending what’s left on your offer. The bottom-dollar effect is our tendency to be less likely to purchase products or services that would deplete our remaining budget. And even if we purchase, we are less likely to be satisfied with our purchases.

    Say you want to invest in an online program that you know can help you scale your business, but you’re so close to capping your education bucket that you wonder if the investment is worth it. You buy it anyway. Then you ask yourself, “Was this the best use of my money?”

    One effective way to help ease the bottom-dollar effect is by offering your leads a deal so that they feel that the product is worth it. This deal can be a discount, a free add-on, a payment plan or a 2-for-1. Add it to your copy!

    You can also ease their anxiety by adding a guarantee. But, of course, this depends on the space you’re in and who you serve.

    Related: How to Use Digital Consumer Psychology to Stand Out From the Competition

    2. Drop the sophistication

    If you want to form a real connection with your prospects, you might want to consider going easier on your sophistication and coming off as casual and sincere.

    An 18-year-long study showed that brands that show excitement, competence and sincerity have a more positive effect on customers than sophistication and ruggedness. In fact, the influence of sophistication and ruggedness has declined over those 18 years.

    Why am I telling you this? Because I know a lot of business owners who have shifted their entire brand voice and how they show up online. I’ve seen this time and time again, and I’ve unfollowed a lot of brands that I once looked up to simply because the spark that made me feel a connection with them was gone.

    So if you want to sell more, relax your fingers, drop your shoulders and be more casual.

    3. Use your humor

    I’m not asking you to become a comedian unless that’s your business model. But, throwing in some humor shows your awesome personality and hits the two big marks of persuasive communication: clarity and conciseness. Because humor is often punchy – and honest.

    By making people smile or laugh a bit, you’re connecting with them on a deeper level and they will feel inclined to trust you and buy your product — mainly because you made them feel something other than a reason to buy.

    With humor, you humanize your brand, your product and yourself. Although written humor might seem forced, adding it to your video sales letters and presentations will make a massive difference in helping your prospects make a buying decision.

    Related: You’ve Got 8 Seconds to Grab a Customer’s Attention. Here’s What to Do.

    4. Minimize your calls to action

    If you give customers many options to choose from, they will be more likely to hesitate. But if you give them fewer choices, they will make up their mind faster and buy.

    Simply put, when customers have many options to choose from, they buy less. But, unfortunately, this also leads to more dissatisfaction because their expectations of your product are higher.

    So, let’s suppose you have a sales page with three payment options, one of those being a “pay-in-full” and the other being payment options. They know they don’t want to pay in full because they simply don’t want to or can’t. So, how are they going to decide which of the payment options to choose from?

    During that thinking process, they’ll be burning extra brain calories while raising their expectations. So even if they choose to buy from you with a payment plan, they won’t be too thrilled.

    My rule of thumb when I work with clients is simple: one call to action is beautiful. Two are okay. Three are unacceptable unless absolutely necessary.

    Related: 3 Critical Principles of Effective Calls to Action

    5. Leave the essays to universities

    If it takes you 1,000 words to say something, make sure each word serves a purpose. This is crucial when it comes to conversion copywriting.

    Whatever you write must be as long as necessary and as short as possible.

    People’s attention span decreases yearly thanks to overstimulation and bite-sized content. That means you have to work smarter with the content and copy you put out.

    Your emails? Make them shorter unless they require all the details you’re including. The same goes for your sales page. Make it as long as absolutely necessary, so it tells your readers everything they need to know to purchase. Remove the fluff.

    If you’re reading this, you made it to the end. Congrats! Now you have a job to do. Go optimize your sales copy.

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    Elenny Frometa

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  • How to Increase Storefront Revenues in an Online Sales World

    How to Increase Storefront Revenues in an Online Sales World

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    With over 5 billion Internet users and $870.78 billion in online sales in 2021, storefront operations have struggled. They have had to raise the bar and the customer experience to survive. They can no longer get by with the same old, same old. There is some good news here, though. Even though the digital market is going to get bigger, baby boomers, Generation X and millennials are quite happy to participate in a shopping experience. You may even occasionally bump into a Generation Zer.

    According to Morning Consult, more than 2 in 5 adults prefer shopping in-store versus online. There’s something to be said about feeling the experience whether we’re shopping with a friend or want to try something on. So, it’s time for retailers to step it up and compete with the online sales world.

    As a corporate trainer, I’ve consulted with entrepreneurs through Fortune 100 companies, and I’ve found four commonalities in storefronts that increase traffic and revenues while dramatically improving the customers’ shopping experience. Here’s what you can do:

    Related: The 6 Essential In-Store Experiences That Your Customers Want to See

    1. Use employee meetings as a proactive tool to understand customers

    Customer reviews can be abstract in their content, sometimes contrived to get a 5-star rating. If you can’t cite specifically what your employees are doing to get five stars, there’s no meaning in that review. There’s no way it can help you solidify or refine practices. It becomes about numbers.

    To avoid this trap, add a few questions to your weekly agenda. First, “what can we do to attract more customers to our business?” It’s your employees’ collective creativity that will foster innovation. Adobe lives this mantra. Your employees are your front line. They hear what customers like, don’t like, what they want and what they need. These employees’ perceptions can lead you to do things differently. Then whether it’s showcasing a specific product, holding an event or advertising a new product launch, make it big. Create an experience customers want to attend with food, entertainment and free gifts — the bigger, the better.

    Second, ask employees to identify customers who left happy and what specifically made them happy. All of these happy feelings tell you what you’re doing right. Similarly, ask your employees to share a customer experience where the customer left unhappy. Ask your employees to specifically identify what happened that left the customer feeling this way. This will enable you to assess processes that need to be changed, inventory requirements or training that needs to occur.

    2. All hands on deck with all customers

    Instead of allowing employees to point customers to an aisle to find a product, have employees walk to the product area with the customer. During the walk, employees should ask customers two key questions: “How often do you shop with us?” and “What are your two predominant purchases?”

    Inventory lists may tell you what the customer is buying, but your employees can tell you why the customer is buying. When we know why a customer is buying, we can stay ahead of the trend. If customers buy a specific hair conditioner because it has proven effects to withstand humidity, new product offerings may reflect these reasons. These questions may even enable you to change up your store layout so finding these products is easier for the customer.

    Related: 3 Key Takeaways About the Future of Retail: Selling Online, In-Store and Both

    3. Share the revenue

    Pay your employees well. If your employees contribute to a bigger customer wave and your storefront is thriving, your team should thrive. Offer bonuses, incentives, an employee of the month and other awards. Buy lunch for the team. Let them know you see their efforts and appreciate them.

    4. Innovative training

    Training is your secret weapon. There’s no more room for greeters, floor associates, cashiers or stocker jobs. Your employees are now salespeople and should be trained to do so. Most likely, they don’t consider themselves salespeople. This is where training becomes critical because the heart of selling is delivering high-level customer service. Selling is about caring, and you’re asking your people to do that. You’re asking them to care — to treat the customer as a friend. To relate, ask them questions and then provide solutions.

    Recently, I called an airline to rebook a ticket. While the representative looked up the details, we conversed about the holidays. She shared a part of her life with me. It was a very positive experience, but unusual. Typically, customer service representatives are focused on the customer solely. But this time, she was connecting with me as a person. One of the most revolutionary topics noted in my book, Sell Like A Cockatoo, is that a relationship isn’t just about you getting to know the customer. The customer must also get to know you. There must be reciprocity in every relationship. That’s what a relationship is.

    Related: 4 Ways Brick-and-Mortar Stores Can Outsell Online Retailers

    Training will also teach your employees how to upsell. It’s the difference between a customer being directed to an aisle to get a screw for a ceiling fan and the employee helping the customer find the screw while updating them on the latest ceiling fan models that have arrived. Customers can’t buy if they don’t know — and the more your employees care and share, the happier your customers will be and the happier you’ll be with your bottom line.

    To keep your storefront going strong, maximize employee involvement. Today’s digital world offers so many choices that when a customer enters our storefront, it should feel like home.

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    Gail Kasper

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  • How Virtual Sellers Can Capture and Keep Buyers’ Attention

    How Virtual Sellers Can Capture and Keep Buyers’ Attention

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    For many, the transition to virtual selling went something like this: One minute you were a basketball superstar with pretty good moves and a decent field goal percentage. Then you were thrust into a baseball game, handed a glove and told to win. On a completely different field. Requiring a completely different skill set.

    Sound familiar?

    Where you may have succeeded in person before, buyers are now harder to connect with, more easily distracted and more likely to multitask in a virtual environment.

    A virtual selling study found that 91% of sellers said “gaining a buyer’s attention and keeping them engaged virtually” is challenging. So, here are four tips to keep buyers engaged during virtual sales meetings:

    Related: 4 Essential Imperatives of Virtual Sales Success

    1. Use tools

    Before 2020, you would’ve found yourself in a conference room with five to 10 people. A few represent your sales team, including subject matter, technical and industry experts. The rest are with the prospective client, including your internal champion and the decision-makers.

    With everyone in the room together, you could jump up to the whiteboard at a moment’s notice, engage, collaborate, bounce ideas off your team and remain fairly agile as you reacted to questions.

    In virtual meetings, we’re limited to a very small box — and, in many cases, buyers have already been focused on this small box for much of their day. It’s also much easier for people to opt not to attend virtual meetings or even duck out early.

    You must be much more deliberate in how you show up, capture attention and ignite engagement in virtual meetings.

    The key here is to plan. Arm yourself with the tools needed to make the meeting collaborative and interactive. You can:

    • Turn on video: Using video in virtual meetings helps create a personal connection, deepen relationships and build trust.

    • Share something on screen: From slides to stats to video, there are several supporting materials you can use to demonstrate your talking points.

    • Collaborate with virtual whiteboards: Use virtual whiteboards to take notes, collaborate, demonstrate ideas and more.

    • Use digital sticky notes: Sticky notes can be used to list agenda points, as a way to remember to go back to questions/topics or for something else entirely.

    • Launch surveys and polls: Especially if you have several buyers in the virtual meeting, anonymous polls and surveys are a great way to get a pulse on what’s happening at the organization.

    Takeaway: Practice with and plan to use available tools. Doing so on the fly increases the chances of tech issues, awkward silences and poor buyer experiences.

    2. Use visuals

    Adult attention spans are shrinking. Keep videos to less than 30 seconds. You must capture attention in the first eight seconds of an email.

    Most of us have heard these ideas in some form in the last several years. The truth is that people pay attention to 1) things they care about and 2) visually stimulating things. Think along the lines of action movies, scrolling through social media, the opening ceremony at the Olympics, etc.

    Your goal is to manufacture this in virtual sales meetings. We cover the first point in the second half of this article. For now, let’s focus on visuals. In virtual sales meetings, the easiest way to use visuals is by illustrating your talking points. But this isn’t limited to the design-savvy. Consider:

    • Movement: Incorporate movement in both yourself and your content (e.g., animation in PowerPoint or on-screen annotation).

    • Face: Watch your facial expressions, and don’t forget to smile.

    • Body: Use body language to signal interest (sitting up and forward), and use your hands to talk naturally.

    • Space: Use the available space in both your video and on your screen.

    • Timing: Frequent screen movement spikes dopamine and keeps people engaged.

    Most importantly, don’t overcomplicate it.

    Takeaway: Keep things simple by stripping back text and increasing visuals and the frequency at which visuals move on screen to keep buyers engaged.

    Related: 7 Ways to Avoid the No.1 Virtual Sales Meeting Mistake

    3. Use templates

    When selling in person, you’re typically sitting in a controlled environment with your buyer. You don’t have to worry about your internet connection, video and audio quality or the tidiness of your background. You can keep a list of the questions you want to tackle at the ready in your head.

    But when there are already so many things to focus on in a virtual meeting, it’s best to keep talking points, questions, slides to present, etc. at the ready in a pre-made template.

    RAIN Group’s Buyer Change Blueprint, for instance, is easy to pop onto the screen and fill out live while you’re discussing each area with the buyer.

    Even if you use a different template, the goal is to learn everything you need to create a differentiated solution. It’s even better if you can use a platform that allows the buyer to add their ideas directly to the template. For example, you could share a list of common needs and have buyers put checks next to their needs.

    After the meeting, you can clean up any documents shared and send them to the buyer. It’s then easy for them to share with their team or to generate additional questions for your next conversation.

    Takeaway: Use a template to ensure you capture all necessary information, collaborating when possible.

    4. Use collaboration

    As noted earlier, people pay attention to things they care about. That’s where collaboration comes in. Seven out of 10 buyers are open to collaborating, yet only 34% of buyers say sellers are effective at it.

    When sellers don’t collaborate, they diminish their opportunity to:

    • Build rapport and relationships

    • Discover and solve needs

    • Inspire buyers with new ideas

    • Change buyer perceptions

    • Gain and maintain the engagement threshold

    • Win more deals

    As suggested in the previous point, one way to collaborate, drive attention and maintain engagement is to use templates during needs discovery.

    Think about it: In person, you’d be having a conversation, making eye contact and signaling with visual and verbal cues (nodding, making affirmative sounds, etc.), but now you’re limited to your little black box, listening to what your buyer is saying and taking diligent notes on the notepad in front of you — while the buyer looks at the top of your head. In person, they’d know you’re taking notes. But in a virtual meeting, they have no idea what you’re doing.

    Related: How to Build Rapport With Customers Online

    Use this opportunity to collaborate. Open your template, Word doc, text pad or virtual whiteboard, and write on the screen in real-time so buyers:

    • See if what they’re sharing is being captured accurately

    • Remain engaged by reading the screen and making sure how you describe what they’re saying captures what they mean and how they feel about it

    • Collaborate, as you can go back and forth, addressing deeper questions and bringing new information to light

    Takeaway: Be mindful of the buyer’s experience, and look for ways to collaborate at all stages of the buying process.

    Again, keeping buyers engaged in virtual sales meetings is not an easy task. However, with these four tips above, you can effectively capture and maintain their attention. In your next virtual meeting, use tools, visuals, templates and collaboration to boost your chances of success.

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    Andy Springer

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  • 5 Steps to Build Your Irresistible Offer and Attract High-Paying Clients

    5 Steps to Build Your Irresistible Offer and Attract High-Paying Clients

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    I know everyone says you should relax and enjoy the holidays but here’s one thing I’ve learned about myself; I don’t idle well.

    It’s challenging for me to sit still and relax when I have so many ideas bouncing around my head that can help people (including myself) grow their business.

    So, here’s the compromise I made with myself. Instead of working in my business over the holidays I worked on my business. This allowed me to maintain productivity while also being present for my family.

    Specifically, I read a book that instantly improved one of my core service offerings, $100M Offers by Alex Hormozi. And in the most recent episode of the Launch Your Business podcast I shared how I transformed my offer and – more importantly – how you can make your own irresistible offer.

    But, I’m aware of the fact “knowledge, univested in labor, is wasted” so I’m also sharing the sales sheet I developed (which describes my offer in depth) so you can save time by leveraging a similar approach and quickly create your offer.

    Prefer to listen instead? Tune into this week’s podcast episode Alex Hormozi’s Blueprint for Entrepreneurial Success: The Irresistible Offer.

    Craft Your Irresistible Offer with the Value Equation

    I’ve never worked in the finance industry but the movie Boiler Room is one of my favorites. I don’t want to ruin it for you but the plot revolves around stockbrokers selling shady stock, one of them finally has a conscience and Vin Diesel yells a lot.

    Ben Afflect has a surprisingly small role in it but he delivered one of my favorite lines when discussing how to get a yes out of a prospective buyer.

    “If you were drowning and I threw you a life jacket, would you take it?”

    That’s an example of an offer so good people would feel stupid saying no. And like I said, that’s what we’re going to talk about today and it’s all based on Alex Hormozi’s book, $100M Offers.

    Developing your irresistible offer is important for you because I’ve seen people exhaust themselves – and lose money – trying to sell offers that had small, fundamental flaws. With a good offer, you don’t have to try so hard to sell it and your marketing will be much more impactful.

    Ok, so how can you make your irresistible offer? We’re going to walk through that now by breaking down Alex’s Value equation which consists of four parts.

    You can see each part below and I’ll share my example to provide context.

    Image source: $100m Offers

    Got all that? Great.

    One of my offers is providing LinkedIn training to teams at professional service providers. For example, digital marketing agencies. We’ll continue using this as an example so you can better wrap your head around the entire process.

    Step 1: Maximize Dream Outcome

    So we’ll start with the dream outcome your audience is searching for. As per the book, “The dream outcome is the expression of the feelings and experiences the prospect has envisioned in their mind.”

    Your goal is to accurately depict that dream back to them so they feel understood and explain how you will help them get there.

    People and clients generally want the following dream outcomes:

    • To be perceived as beautiful
    • To be respected
    • To be perceived as powerful
    • To be loved
    • To increase their status

    So, back to my LinkedIn training offer. I wrote down several potential dream outcomes.

    • Inbound leads
    • Increased revenue
    • Perceived as thought leader
    • Attract top talent
    • Increase team knowledge
    • Attract qualified candidates
    • More press and public appearances
    • Build strategic partnerships
    • Lower marketing costs

    But, saying all that is a mouthful so I decided to focus on clear outcomes that I’m certain I can deliver on and reflect the overarching theme of their dream outcome.

    I help teams create LinkedIn content that attracts leads and positions their organization as an industry thought leader.

    Your turn.

    Jot down the dream outcome for your target audience.

    Related: How to Start a Consulting Business: Get Ready to Launch

    Step 2: Maximize Perceived Likelihood of Achievement

    People pay for certainty. In other words “How likely do I believe it is that I will achieve the result I’m looking for if I make this purchase?”

    You can increase this perceived likelihood of achievement in a number of ways including:

    • Your messaging
    • Guarantees
    • Testimonials

    Your messaging can be as simple as how you describe the offer. For example “so easy even a seven year old can do it.”

    Guarantees are helpful since they reduce risk and prove you’re willing to put your money where your mouth is. Testimonials are even better since it involves a past client sharing their experience and outcomes.

    Now you might be thinking. “Well all that stuff sounds great but I’m just getting started and don’t have any testimonials yet.” If that’s the case, here’s another way you can increase your prospect’s perceived likelihood of achievement; create content on social media that highlights your expertise and personality. This will allow them to know, like and trust you even if you don’t have an established track record just yet.

    So, here’s how I incorporated this part into my offer.

    I described how anyone can create content, even if they don’t think they’re creative. And, I also included templates and prompts to help with the content creation process.

    I shared testimonials from previous clients who have worked with me on more than one occasion.

    And I added a guarantee. If you don’t feel your team is creating content that attracts prospects within 30 days, I’ll continue working with you until you get three qualified leads.

    Your turn.

    Based on the example and guidelines we just discussed, jot down how you’ll increase this perceived likelihood of achievement for your customers.

    Step 3: Minimize Time to Success

    The next driver in the value equation we’ll discuss is the time delay. How quickly can you help your clients achieve their goal?

    Now in some cases it’s impossible to quickly reach a goal. For example, let’s say you’re setting up some new process at a company that will take months to complete. That’s just how it is, but you can still deliver a quick win. So maybe it’s an audit or a custom roadmap that shows exactly what needs to be addressed in order for the organization to reach their goals.

    Here’s what I did for my LinkedIn training offer.

    I pre-recorded all the training videos as well as the associated exercises. Any client who signs on with me gets instant access and they can start reviewing the content well ahead of our live training.

    As a result they’ll already see signs of real progress before I even meet with them.

    Your turn.

    How can you reduce the time delay involved with your audience achieving their outcome? Or, what’s one quick win you can deliver?

    Step 4: Minimize Effort & Sacrifice

    Now let’s discuss the fourth part of the value equation, decreasing the perceived effort and sacrifice involved.

    And, this reminds me of a favorite quote by Eric Thomas “Everybody wants to be a beast until it’s time to do what real beasts do.” That sign is hanging at my gym and it reminds us all that we have to put in work to see results.

    Unfortunately, many of your clients or customers may not want to put in that work, so you need to develop and describe the process for how you make it easier. One option is a done for your service. And while that may be time consuming, you can also charge much more for it. Another option is to provide customizable templates and tools that make it easier for your customers to make progress on their own.

    For my LinkedIn training I provide tools that make it easier for my clients to determine, develop and schedule their content.

    There are several options available and they’ll all be unique to your business but do not skip this step.

    Your turn.

    How can reduce the effort and sacrifice involved with using your service?

    Related: 6 Key Tips to Level Up Your Content Marketing Strategy

    Step 5: Tying it all together

    So now that we have the core elements of your offer in place we just need to complete one more step, aligning your audience’s problems with your solutions.

    Start by listing out all the problems your audience will have before, during and after implementing your services.

    For example, here’s one problem companies may run into with my offer.

    “Some people on my team aren’t creative. How are they going to create good content?”

    I can address that problem and offer a solution as part of my offer.

    Rapidly create engaging content that attracts leads and partnerships (even if you’re not creative)

    We’ll do one more problem and solution.

    “How do I know if this is even working?”

    And here’s my solution.

    Clearly measure the revenue impact of your content (without complicated tools)

    You get the point here. Explain how your offer directly addresses any doubts or hesitations your prospects may have.

    Your turn

    Write down all the problems your audience may have and describe how your product or service solves these issues.

    This should be four to five bullet points and you’ll display them prominently on your website and socials.

    Next steps

    Look, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. This process is challenging. It took me about six hours and I was doing this while all four of my kids were home for winter recess.

    But, I enjoyed it, and it’s clearly paying off! I’ve already booked two deals with this new offer and they closed much faster than usual. The best part? I now charge more than before, my clients are happy and delivering the services requires less time and customization.

    And, speaking of less time and customization. I’m going to help you by sharing the assets I’ve developed to describe my offer. You can access the sales sheet I made for my program here. And, you can view the offer on my website here. Of course you’ll want to adjust to fit your specific offer but it will remove a lot of the guesswork. And if you need more help, contact me today.

    Was this helpful? Reach out to me on LinkedIn or Instagram with feedback or suggestions.

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    Terry Rice

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  • 30 New H&M and Mango Items That Are Fashion With a Capital F

    30 New H&M and Mango Items That Are Fashion With a Capital F

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    Yes, there’s a reason you see so much H&M and Mango content here on Who What Wear. It’s simply because our readers love shopping there. Both retailers offer an excellent mix of on-trend pieces and wardrobe staples, all at reasonable price points. Who could resist a $65 bomber jacket that looks like it came straight off the runway? I certainly couldn’t, which is why it’s already in my cart. 

    Below, I rounded up my favorite new arrivals from H&M and Mango that are fashion with a capital F. What does that mean? I think these items belie their price tags and look double or triple the price. If you don’t believe me, scroll down to shop my new picks. 

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    Erin Fitzpatrick

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  • Some of Allbirds’ Bestselling Shoes and Sneakers Are On Sale

    Some of Allbirds’ Bestselling Shoes and Sneakers Are On Sale

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    And it’s more than just running shoes that you can snag on sale. The brand has added tons of other eco-conscious and versatile styles to their storefront, like ballet flats, technical sneakers and even cushioned slides.

    Each design features some element of the brand’s core materials, such as the eucalyptus knit blend upper for an ultra-breathable wear or a water-resistant and temperature-regulating merino wool that’s perfect for all-season wear.

    To shop some of the favorites, keep scrolling, or shop the entire sale up above.

    HuffPost may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Every item is independently selected by the HuffPost Shopping team. Prices and availability are subject to change.

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  • 5 Ways to Tweak Your Business’ Sales Process to Generate More Revenue

    5 Ways to Tweak Your Business’ Sales Process to Generate More Revenue

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Is your sales process really helping your organization maximize its potential revenue? It’s a question well worth considering, especially when scaling your sales team. Complacency in sales can be problematic, to say the least — and failing to address known issues can be even worse.

    Regardless of the size of your organization, understanding the necessary adjustments to your sales process can go a long way in helping you land more customers and increase your revenue.

    1. Make demos focused on benefits — not features

    In their book Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days, Jay Conrad Levinson and Al Lautenslager write, “The latest and greatest equipment means nothing to a prospective buyer unless that feature translates into lower costs, quicker delivery or something else of value. Being established 100 years ago means nothing to a prospective buyer unless that feature can be translated into a benefit of reliability and a guarantee of being in business in the future. […] Benefits sell. Benefits clearly answer customer questions, such as “what’s in it for me?” or “what results will I get that will improve my current situation?”

    This mindset is especially pertinent when offering a sales demo to a prospect. Focus on all the features your product provides, and you can easily overwhelm them. Demonstrate its true value and potential impact by focusing on benefits, and you reveal how it will solve their problems.

    Making your sales process focused on benefits requires extensive buyer research. But when your team understands the actual problems prospects need to solve, it will be far easier to make a successful pitch.

    Related: 5 Secrets to Winning More Sales

    2. Shorten the free trial period

    Many SaaS companies offer free trials as part of their sales process, the idea being that giving prospects hands-on time with their software can be the most compelling sales pitch of all. This is true — to an extent. Most SaaS companies average around a 25% conversion rate from their free trials.

    While that conversion rate is certainly good, it can be improved upon. One common pitfall is that providing a full month for prospects to test the software can actually be too much time. This can reduce the sense of urgency, especially among prospects who simply want to get a closer look to see what your solution provided.

    Instead, offering a shorter trial period (such as seven to 14 days) can create that sense of urgency that drives prospects to actually use their free trial. This can encourage a deeper dive that makes them more likely to convert.

    3. Use CPQ (configure, price, quote) tools

    One of the best ways to enhance your sales process is to use a CPQ (configure, price, quote) tool to streamline your team’s ability to generate accurate quotes for prospects. These programs use automation based on a set of rules preprogrammed by your company, such as acceptable discount thresholds, product customizations and other factors.

    In a DealHub case study, one company was able to increase its average deal size by 15% while decreasing quote and contract errors by 95% by using a CPQ to enact automated pricing mechanisms. By preventing pricing errors and ensuring consistency in the quoting process, your sales team will have an easier time following pricing standards and guidelines so they can close deals faster and achieve appropriate revenue earnings.

    4. Offer additional plan options

    Most SaaS providers offer monthly plans, as lower prices and the lack of a long-term commitment can seem more customer friendly — in fact, it’s estimated that 70% of SaaS companies only offer monthly pricing options.

    In reality, you can improve your sales process simply by also giving customers the option to choose from annual pricing plans. An annual plan can lower customer churn and increase their lifetime value by ensuring that they will remain customers for an extended period of time. This will also improve your organization’s cash flow and make customer acquisition costs more manageable.

    Many of the most successful SaaS platforms understand prospects’ potential reluctance to sign up for a yearly plan and counteract this by offering a discount for annual plans. Providing more options (and offering the right incentives) can lead to more conversions and more long-term sources of revenue.

    Related: 6 Super Simple Tricks for Closing Way More Sales

    5. Focus on your existing and former customers

    It typically costs between six to seven times as much to acquire new customers as it does to retain existing customers. Needless to say, your sales team should be dedicating a significant amount of its processes to how it will generate more revenue from your current customers.

    One of the best ways to do this is through upselling or cross-selling. For example, if your business offers multiple subscription tiers, you could upsell a customer to go to a higher-paying tier.

    As with the initial sales pitch, upselling and cross-selling pitches must be tailored to the individual needs of the client. This time, however, your team has information on past interactions and how they are using your current services, making it easier to custom-tailor the pitch. Increasing the lifetime value of existing customers can be far less cost and time-intensive, and has higher odds of success.

    Creating a better sales process

    By following these best practices for enhancing your sales process, you ensure a better experience for prospects and customers, as well. This doesn’t just help you close more deals and earn higher revenue off the initial sale. It helps ensure that your customers will stay with you for the long haul — which will perhaps have the biggest influence on your lifetime revenue of all.

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    Lucas Miller

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  • 6 Tips for Tech Companies During an Economic Downturn

    6 Tips for Tech Companies During an Economic Downturn

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The technology industry has been hit hard by the economic downturn in 2021-22, with over 150,000 workers losing their jobs since June 2022. This presents a formidable challenge for companies in the technology sector. With proper guidance and focus, tech companies may avoid making costly mistakes that could harm their business in the long term. The projection is that the economic downturn will likely continue into 2023, and technology companies must be prepared.

    Nevertheless, technology companies can still make it through this challenging period with the right strategies and focus. According to Daugherty, Bolumole & Grawe (2019), one area that can offer a formidable edge in this regard is mastering sales and marketing. This article will examine sales and marketing tips that tech companies should consider in 2023.

    Related: 6 Recession-Proof Business Marketing Strategies

    1. Keep pricing and quotas reasonable

    Many companies try to raise their prices or sales quotas when they hit challenging times, but this is usually unwise. Companies need to recognize that customers feel the pinch just as much as they do, so they will expect lower prices and more reasonable quotas. Selling at a discount may be the only way to get customers to bite, so pricing should be adjusted accordingly. While low prices may hurt profits in the short term, it could be the difference between staying afloat and shutting down. Therefore, pricing must be reasonable to keep up with the game in 2023 (Holmlund et al., 2020).

    2. Put existing customers first

    When trying to bring in business during tough times, it is crucial to prioritize existing customers. These people already trust you and have done business with you. Make sure to nurture your relationships with them by offering discounts or even free upgrades or services. Additionally, focus on any unresolved issues they may have, and do your best to fix them. Smeeding, Romich & Strain (2021) propose that taking care of the existing customers could be one way to come out of the recession, as it will not only help keep existing customers happy but will also allow you to upsell or cross-sell solutions that meet their needs and ultimately help to strengthen your bond and ensure they keep coming back.

    3. Focus on solutions-oriented sales

    In a downturn, it is essential to focus on solutions that can help companies. Instead of just making a sales pitch and leaving it at that, listen to your customer’s challenges and pain points. This will allow you to offer solutions that are tailored specifically for them. It also allows for more strategic selling and an opportunity to ask questions to uncover clients’ challenges and pain points and craft solutions that will help them. This requires a more strategic approach to sales, so ensure you are well-prepared with the necessary data and insights.

    Related: How to Prepare Your Business For Economic Downturn

    4. Increase touchpoints for deeper relationships

    Sales processes now require more touchpoints to build trust and foster relationships. This means that companies must be proactive in reaching out and providing customers with the necessary information to make a decision. It also helps to follow up after each touchpoint so that customers know you are there for them and ready to help whenever needed. This means doing everything possible to offer world-class customer service, where a substantial difference is made.

    5. Leverage digital channels

    Digital platforms can help you reach a wider audience quickly, but it also pays to invest in more targeted campaigns. Social media, email and other online marketing tactics can all be used to connect with potential customers and build relationships with them. “The digital era has changed the way B2B businesses interact with customers, and leveraging digital channels is now essential for sales success,” says Sara Franklin, CMO at Salesforce. This lays bare the importance of leveraging digital channels to build relationships with customers, inform the product in the market and how it helps positively impact clients out there.

    6. Evaluate your processes

    When times are tough, you need to be able to measure and optimize the effectiveness of your sales process. Investing in a CRM system is a great way to do this, as it gives you visibility into the performance of each stage of the sales cycle. With a clear understanding of where leads are dropping off or not responding, you can make adjustments to improve the process. This will allow you to identify any inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement and ensure that your sales team is performing at its highest level. It will also give you a clearer picture of the ROI of your sales activities so that you can make more informed decisions about future investments.

    Related: 5 Entrepreneurs Share How They’re Hedging for an Economic Downturn

    Navigating the challenging times of a recession is not easy, but it can be done with the right strategies and tactics. Usually, sales teams endure most of the impact, and it is essential to be prepared and have plans in place so that you can weather the storm. First, there is a need to focus on providing solutions that meet customer needs. It is crucial to prioritize existing customers by nurturing the relationship, offering discounts or free services when possible and leveraging digital channels to reach a wider audience. By focusing on customer experience and understanding their challenges, sales teams can stay on top of the game and ensure their companies remain successful.

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    Steve Taplin

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  • Marketing Agency vs. Business Owner: Who’s to Blame When Leads Don’t Convert to Customers?

    Marketing Agency vs. Business Owner: Who’s to Blame When Leads Don’t Convert to Customers?

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    When something doesn’t go exactly the way we want it to, it’s easy to point fingers at external factors. We are not usually inclined to admit that we ourselves may be responsible for the undesirable outcome. Business owners — like myself and the dentists I work with — can have a lot of pride and don’t always like to think that they may be the reason opportunities are not turning into customers (or patients in our case), and so they typically only focus on the source (i.e., the leads or opportunities) rather than reflect on their own internal processes.

    I know this because I have witnessed it and have done it myself in the past. As a marketing agency, my company’s entire purpose is to generate opportunities for the dental practices we serve to capture new business, and to a large extent, we are responsible for the types of opportunities that the practices receive. However, are we to blame when those opportunities don’t convert into new patients? Maybe, but also, maybe not.

    Related: Ask These 5 Questions Before You Blame Your Company’s Failures on the Marketing

    Collaboration is key

    Marketing agencies get blamed often for producing low-quality leads, and the same is true with a highly specialized agency like mine that works only with dental practices. In theory, however, the quality of the leads we produce for a practice mostly depends on how specific the parameters are for those leads, and that is information we get from the practice itself. Naturally, the more precisely we can define the types of leads they want to attract, the higher our chances of being able to target that demographic within the area. That doesn’t mean that every single lead generated will be perfect, but many of them will be, or close to it.

    I’ve said it before, and I’ll never stop saying it: Marketing is a collaborative effort between the agency and the client. The more you can work together and develop a synergy, the better the outcome will be. Dr. David Pearce, a highly respected New York dentist who has worked with my agency and now works consulting with practices on this very topic, agrees with me. In a recent article, he wrote, “The better the dentist is at understanding the marketing company, and vice versa, the more they can help each other.” He knows that to get the leads the practice wants, they need to work with the marketing agency to help them understand the practice’s needs.

    Now, of course, some businesses might find it difficult to define their ideal customer or lead, and that is perfectly understandable, especially if you’ve never taken the time to really break it down. But that is also where a marketing agency can be a great asset. Marketing professionals are experts at drilling down to get answers. The more a business owner is willing to participate in that process, the better leads they will receive and the less “weeding out” they will have to do to get bad ones out of the mix.

    Related: Don’t Blame The Marketing: Five Reasons Why Your Company May Actually Be Struggling

    Put your process to the test

    What about when you’re getting a good number of leads, but those leads are not turning into customers? Is the marketing agency to blame then? If those leads don’t meet the quality parameters that you established with the agency, then the agency bears some responsibility. However, if those leads are consistently good quality, meaning that they check most if not all of the boxes, then you may need to look internally to understand the disconnect.

    Let’s take an example from my experience marketing to dental practices. Say a dentist has gotten 100 good leads from a marketing agency, but only 15 of those leads converted (i.e., became patients that followed through with treatment). That is decidedly a low number. But is it because the leads are not good enough, or is it because there is some sort of breakdown in the practice’s sales process? Again, this is where the marketing agency can be an excellent partner. If the dentist is willing to let the marketing agency scrutinize the sales process from start to finish, it can identify any weaknesses that could be keeping leads from turning into patients.

    Dr. Pearce explained this in his article as well, adding, “While the marketing company cannot make the necessary changes, the best marketing companies have internal mechanisms to help each of their clients improve this process.” So, while the marketing agency may not be to blame for the low conversion rate, they can still help increase that rate to a more acceptable number, as long as the dentist is willing to work with them.

    That said, in my experience, quality leads do not always turn into quality patients right away. You can contact them and get them to book their first appointment, but that is not where the work should end. As Dr. Pearce says, “Quality patients don’t just walk into the office saying, ‘Doctor, where have you been all my life?’ The best dentists have a system that meets each new patient where they are in their journey to saying yes to optimal dentistry. From this starting point, the team will nurture and grow the patient’s understanding and value of optimal dental care.” The same holds true for any type of business. Luckily, if a business owner is not used to thinking about leads and customers in this way, they have help. The marketing agency can work with them to identify areas of opportunity and convert more leads into long-term, quality customers.

    Related: 5 Things to Look For When Hiring a Marketing Agency

    Rely on your partner, but also do your part

    If sales and marketing don’t come naturally to you or your team, then finding a good agency to partner with will make a big difference. However, for such a partnership to work, you must be open to the possibilities and ready to change how you approach and handle leads. Be sure to ask your marketing partner if they offer sales training or resources to improve your sales approach. Sometimes, they will at least have some materials you can use and distribute to your staff with some tips on how to handle incoming leads.

    My company offers resources on how to properly handle new, interested leads to teach the office staff how to properly handle phone calls and form submissions from all digital marketing efforts. You can also ask your marketing company to record phone calls to further give you insight into how your incoming calls are being handled. This is a good way to provide concrete examples of what is going well and where your sales process may need improvement. In short, the more you make yourself and your staff available, the more productive your partnership will be.

    It is also imperative that you be honest with your marketing partner. It’s not enough to just express your satisfaction or displeasure with the service. If you want to really capitalize on the partnership, give details. Take notes, and tell your marketing agency what exactly you are not pleased with and why. Provide real examples of what you see is not working to your expectations, especially when the relationship is new. When you give detailed feedback, your marketing partner is better able to fine-tune and target campaigns to suit your specific needs, and you will generate more quality leads together.

    Once things are humming along and you have found the “sweet spot,” be careful not to get complacent. It is easy to fall back into old habits when things are going well, and then your results start to nosedive. To avoid this, request that your marketing partner check in periodically (if they do not do that already) for a status report. These periodic calls will help you and your partner keep your marketing strategies top of mind, plus they are a good time to talk about what is working and what is not. Meeting regularly keeps your marketing partner informed and keeps you and your staff accountable.

    So, who is to blame when leads don’t work out? The business or the marketing agency? In my experience, it’s never entirely anyone’s fault, and also playing the blame game just doesn’t get you anywhere. Pointing the finger at the marketing agency for not generating quality leads or the business for dropping the ball with its sales process does not resolve anything. Real progress happens when the marketing agency and the business come together as partners to get better results.

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    Jackie Cullen

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  • What Separates the Best From the Rest in Technology Sales?

    What Separates the Best From the Rest in Technology Sales?

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones in the technology space is tough. It’s a lengthy sales cycle, competition is stiff, and you’re dealing with decision-makers from up, down and across the organization. And there’s always at least one executive barking that familiar, dogged refrain: “Show. Me. The. ROI.”

    All of this means your salespeople need to be at the top of their game. As to what separates the best from the rest in technology sales, the RAIN Group Center for Sales Research conducted a global study on the skills and behaviors of top performers. Here’s some of what was uncovered:

    Related: The 10 Traits Every Good Salesperson Has in Common

    What characterizes a top performer in technology sales?

    Before I dig into the skills and behaviors, let’s be clear on what defines a top performer in technology sales. They do the following:

    Not surprisingly, salespeople earn top-performer status by winning more business. The average win rate of top performers in technology is 74% compared to only 47% for “the rest.” As such, top performers are more difficult to find. In our study, they represent only 20% of respondents. Most technology sellers (80%) belong in “the rest.”

    Related: 3 Traits High Performing Sales Reps Have That Average Sales Reps Don’t

    The 6 greatest differences between the best and the rest

    So, what sales skills should you look for in technology sales reps? More importantly, what skills most differentiate top performers and the rest? Our study found that the best sellers are much more likely to excel at these six specific skills and behaviors:

    • 2x more likely to focus on their agenda, not reacting to and getting derailed by others

    • 2x more likely to present overall value cases compellingly and persuasively

    • 2x more likely to tell good stories when selling

    • 2x more likely to have coaching to lead masterful sales conversations

    • 1.9x more likely to change habits when needed to improve results

    • 1.8x more likely to avoid distraction

    Three important themes emerge from this data:

    1. Driving productivity

    Three of the top six skills and behaviors relate to productivity. Top performers are much more likely to stay focused on their agenda, adapt their habits when needed and remain impervious to distraction.

    Despite the data, we see too little focus on productivity in the sales space. If you’re looking for top performers in technology sales, look for a track record of accountability, proactivity and time management.

    2. Effective coaching

    Top performers are much more likely to have managers who excel at coaching them to lead masterful sales conversations. They have the tools to succeed with virtual selling, too.

    Across the board, we found that top-performing sales managers in technology are more likely to have better coaching skills. The No. 1 sales management and coaching skill most separating top performers from the rest is “Coaching sellers to lead masterful sales conversations.” Indeed, top performers (47%) are significantly more likely to excel here compared to the rest (23%).

    The fact is sales are won and lost in the conversations sellers have with buyers. When sellers receive the coaching they need to lead effective conversations, it translates to results. To that end, sales managers should participate in ride-a-longs, listen to recordings of sales conversations and participate in simulations with their sellers.

    3. Making the case

    The second largest gap between top performers in technology sales and the rest is the ability of top performers to make a compelling value case. And this is not just about presenting an ROI case. There are five cases a seller must make to influence buyers:

    1. Priorities: Sellers need to influence buyers that this is important and worthy of the priority list.

    2. Approaches: Sellers need to show that this is the right approach to solving their problem. This is where telling good stories comes into play. Sellers who do this well show how their approach has worked for others and can and will work for the buyer.

    3. Return on investment: Most sellers talk about ROI, but few are skilled in making a strong ROI case. In fact, only 16% of buyers report that sellers are effective at making a powerful ROI case. This leaves a lot of room for improvement for most sellers.

    4. Decisions: Too many sales are lost to no decision. Sellers need to influence and persuade buyers to act.

    5. Partners: Sellers need to make the case that they are the best partner to help the buyer succeed. Relationships and value come into play here. The more value a seller can provide in the sales process and the stronger the relationship they’re able to build, the more likely the buyer will view them as the preferred partner.

    Related: 5 Tricks to Instantly Connect With Any Sales Prospect

    Final word: When it comes to B2B tech sales, trust the data

    To overcome the challenges of selling technology, your team needs to make finding and cultivating top performers a core competency. The data research clearly shows that people who know how to sell technology do things differently. They:

    • Stay focused on their priorities

    • Make persuasive value cases

    • Tell good stories

    • Have solid coaching

    • Adapt their habits as needed

    • Avoid distraction

    That’s the data-backed rubric for better tech salespeople. How does your team stack up?

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    Andy Springer

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  • How Retailers Can Ensure They’re Setup for Success This Holiday Season

    How Retailers Can Ensure They’re Setup for Success This Holiday Season

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Over the last couple of years, Christmas in July has taken on a new meaning for retailers — what once was an opportunity to offer a summer sale has now transformed into a critical time to prepare for the upcoming holiday shopping season.

    But the past few holiday shopping seasons have proven to be anything but ordinary. The past two years, the pandemic caused supply chain delays resulting in backlogs and undelivered gifts, a challenge for retailers and a lesson learned for consumers. As a result, this year, consumers began their holiday shopping earlier to avoid supply chain bottlenecks and to combat high inflation — with 25% of consumers starting as early as August or September. Additionally, the pandemic accelerated the online shopping trend, with new data suggesting that 24.5% of this year’s total retail holiday sales will come from online orders.

    With all of this in mind, some (myself included) may argue that July may be too late for retailers to start their holiday season planning, especially given that the holiday season can account for up to 30% of retailers’ annual sales.

    Related: July Is Just Early Enough to Start Planning for Holiday Selling

    So, how can retailers adapt their strategies to focus on holiday season planning throughout the entire year (as opposed to just the second half) to cover all their bases, increase revenue and prepare for the unexpected?

    Prioritize cash flow planning

    Consumers are currently facing the highest inflation rates in nearly 40 years and a halt in government stimulus payments, which in turn impacts how they approach their holiday shopping (e.g., how much they’re planning to spend, through what channels, etc.).

    As a result, small business retailers are entering a challenging and unpredictable time. To mitigate this uncertainty, they must look internally and assess their cash flow well in advance of the holiday season in order to be best prepared for what’s ahead.

    The most effective way retailers can approach this is by creating different cash flow scenarios early in the year that map out the business’ best-case scenario, worst-case scenario and most likely scenario for how the holiday season will pan out. Accounting for these three scenarios can help retailers create a plan of action for how they’ll tackle any challenges and how they’ll activate each scenario. Proper planning gives business owners the confidence needed to forge forward by removing ambiguity and unexpected situations (e.g., not having enough cash on hand, supply chain delays) come the most critical time of year.

    Whether you’re a big box retailer or a local mom-and-pop shop, it’s important to have a full understanding of your cash flow positioning year-round in order to make key business decisions and plan for various scenarios. For small businesses, leaning into technology such as Xero, a cloud-based accounting software platform, allows small business owners to keep track of their cash flow across the customer journey. Keeping track of this data in real-time can help retailers see their full cash position at any point in the year, which can help contribute to their holiday planning strategies.

    An important question all retailers should be asking themselves early in the planning process is: How will my product/service make out if the economy dips into a recession and budgets get tighter? Where does my product/service sit on the hierarchy of needs? If you’re a retailer selling non-essential items (e.g., jewelry, home decor) your planning strategy may look different than if you’re selling essential items like groceries. Having an understanding of your product and consumer purchase patterns will allow you to assess strategies such as how to price your product, how to manage the supply chain, how to effectively market the product/service and beyond.

    As retailers start their holiday planning earlier in the year, what factors should they consider during the planning process?

    Return policies

    According to the National Retail Federation, $218 billion worth of online purchases were returned in 2021 — more than double the year before. The uptick in returns is likely due to retailers offering more lenient return policies during the pandemic as they sought out creative solutions to address in-store closures/restrictions.

    Two years later, retailers (especially small businesses) are now facing higher costs for labor and shipping due to persistent inflation, requiring them to look inward for alternative ways to reduce costs (which for a lot of retailers is shaping up to include changes to generous return policies).

    My advice: Retailers should continue to offer lenient return policies around the holidays, including keeping the return window at least 30 days (in-person and online) and allowing for online-only purchases to be returned in stores. Keeping the window shorter (but still allowing for returns) can help alleviate the impact returns have on the beginning of the year’s cash flow.

    Supply chain

    Worldwide supply chain constraints have had a lasting impact on retail operations. If we’ve learned one thing from these challenges, it’s the importance of planning.

    Having an adequate supply chain strategy in place will reduce the risk of overspending on unnecessary items and the risk of running out of supply for highly sought items. Ordering inventory early in the year can ensure you have adequate stock for top-selling items when the holiday season rolls around. Not having a bestselling product available often means the product will get substituted by the best alternative.

    My advice: Consumer data is your best friend. Properly tracking and utilizing this data can help you have a better understanding of your consumers and their purchase patterns, and which products will likely be in high demand during the holidays (for inventory planning purposes).

    Related: Think It’s Too Early to Strategize for Holiday Ecommerce Sales? Think Again.

    Labor market

    A tight labor market and rising labor costs continue to cause challenges during the holiday hiring season. Failing to meet hiring goals can eventually lead to a loss in sales due to not having enough staff to help ensure shipments, inventory and in-person sales are accounted for.

    My advice: Retailers should consider revamping recruiting strategies, raising wages, offering flexible schedules and extending benefits in order to attract new or seasonal hires. For retailers who are rethinking their reliance on seasonal workers, consider more appealing offerings for regular staff to take on extra hours.

    Consumer behavior

    The current economic climate has impacted the way consumers approach brand loyalty, with many looking to shop for the best deal, even if it’s not through their preferred retailer. As economic uncertainty persists, consumers are experiencing behavioral shifts.

    My advice: Retailers should focus on loyalty strategies to reward customers for shopping at their stores (e.g., offering exclusive deals to loyalty members or offering a point system for each dollar spent rewarding customers down the line with credit or a gift). Retailers can also draw in new customers by offering bonus rewards for signing up for the loyalty program that encourage them to return to the store. Creating a connected omnichannel experience where the physical and online stores sync is also a big draw for consumers.

    Adequate planning and forecasting throughout the year is the foolproof way to ensure your business is best positioned for the most wonderful time of year. By preparing for the upcoming holiday season year-round as opposed to just in the second half of the year, retailers can directly apply lessons learned from the previous year, effectively plan for various scenarios based on different external factors (i.e., inflation) and get a head start on competitors.

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    Ben Richmond

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