Uk Talent Agencies

Public liability cover is important because all corporations are at threat to some degree. Albeit nothing horrific has ever occurred to your companies premises, that is no assurance that it will not someday. If an individual is hurt, or their assets stolen, it’s your sense of duty to suitably refund them. The expense may be remarkably expensive, depending on the nature of the case. You can save money with Insured Risks by getting a quote for Public Liability Insurance.

Luckily, you do have numerous ways to look after yourself for this happening. Purchasing public liability cover allows you to breathe considerably easier. Even if a specific claim is expensive, the insurance organisation will be at hand to offer a security net. It is their responsibility to keep you covered from claims and legal bills brought against you. This leaves you free to focus on actually doing business, instead of thinking about what may well happen. Following are some examples of times when public liability insurance will come in useful.

CEOs of plumbing firms as a rule get the job finished quick and right. Though, from time to time something can go horribly wrong. For example, should you unintentionally damage a client’s tubes whilst on the job, destroying belongings such as desktops & carpeting, public liability indemnity will be there to pay the tab.

Another case study is that of a promotions company. If a customer were to sprain an ankle in your workplace, even if it is not your fault, you would be held liable. Nonetheless, with public liability cover you wouldn’t have to pay the claim whatsoever.

In a comparable circumstance, physical injury caused to a passerby by an employee on a construction site is the accountability of the organisation’s manager. This type of claim can grow to be exceedingly costly in fact, unless you procure the suitable cover.

You’ve heard the adages:

“KISS: Keep It Simple, Salesperson;” or “Keep It Simple, Stupid!”

“Selling is so easy that it’s hard!”

For a mysterious reason, we don’t abide by these watchwords, do we? Perhaps, on an unconscious level, we just don’t want to believe that we’re engaged in a task or a job that is not difficult or challenging.

Maybe, it’s way too easy, so feeling some misplaced guilt, we throw a wrench into the works, just so we can respect what we do for a living, and dramatize how arduously we’re laboring to our peers, friends, and family.

It’s not rational, but then, who said human beings are?

Try doing the following experiment.

Take out a piece of paper, and write down an ultra-brief introduction of who you are and what your company does, and then ASK FOR AN ORDER.

Leave out all features and benefits of working with you.

Don’t try to be consultative in your approach, asking clever questions to unveil customer needs.

Just forget about grunting your way to a two or three yard carry, or to a first down. Go for the goal line!

For instance, if you’re in the printing business, you could say:

“Hello, I’m Mary Jones with Galaxy Printing and I’d like to earn your business. How can I qualify for that honor?”

They key to this is its utter simplicity. It empowers the buyer to say, “Give me a great price!” or “You can’t; my wife forces me to buy from my brother-in-law!”

But you’re in the door, you stated your business, you were nice and humble, but professional.

All in two lines: can there be a better way to sell?

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

You can’t close sales unless you have access to the market! Market is defined as those who are ready, willing and able to acquire your products and/or services. Access to the market is known as leads. If your phone is ringing off the hook because of external conditions (inflation, interest rates, etc.), you’re getting good quality leads with a potentially high close rate. You should close 65% of those kinds of leads, particularly if you have a sensible benefit package.

The reason these kinds of leads have a high close ratio is because they came to you. In other words, these people were predisposed to hear about a deal. One of the three buying forces of want, need or fear motivated them to take overt action to investigate the value of the product or service. Close rates on an appointment of 25% to 35% are acceptable with most progressive telemarketing or direct mail companies. Since 65% of mail-in or call-in leads should close (they know that they want what you have), and since 25% to 35% of “you-go-to-them” leads close, it’s easy to see that the predisposition (or attitude of the client) is of paramount importance.

Example Referral:

Mr./Mrs.___________________
You have been referred to us by______________ They have recently acquired a ______. and feel that the value they received is something that you, too, would benefit from knowing about. Here is our information flyer. If you call us for an appointment, you will get a free gift worth $____ Look forward to meeting with you, _________________
, President
Call and ask for me personally (or call and ask for _________________.”)

Hint – Don’t give too much information in the flyer – stick with benefits, not specifics.

I know of a salesman who closes 90% of all referral leads. I also know of a national sales company which closes 85% of all referral leads. The company salespeople must be at every installation site during the day, because the neighbors come by (and buy!) to see what’s happening. I know of a dealer who was written up in a national magazine as a success story, who uses house parties at happy customers’ homes as nearly his exclusive means of lead generation. Referrals leads are gold and few companies are milking them thoroughly. Be sure to include referrals as a major part of your market plan.

There are 3 Kinds of Referrals

1) client calls you,

2) client stimulated by mail to call you, and

3) client was sent mail piece and was called in a follow-up effort.

The sale rates are 90%, 75% and 30%, respectively.

Say, by way of example, that some friend, neighbor or associate of one of your customers calls you out of the blue because he/she saw your product/service, was interested, and you did nothing to actively attract this new customer – these are 90% plus close rate leads. They want to buy. In the case of a stimulated call, in the event that you mailed information to the referrals that you received from a happy customer, the anticipated close rate of such leads is 75%. Although several factors can enter into this kind of lead generation, the close rate should still be well above 50%. In the third case of referral leads, you will have sent the information to the referral, but, having not heard back, will call them. You will find the close rate of such a lead generation method to be in the 40% to 60% range.

A great many factors come into play in this type of lead: actual need (application), affordability, how well this person knows the one who referred you to him, and how strong your sales appeal is. That’s a lot of factors. But there are basically three kinds of referrals. The first of them comes to you unexpectedly, the other two types are stimulated. “We have to spend money to generate leads. We’d rather pay you than pay the advertising companies.” “We’ll pay you $____ for any customer who does business with us” The “reward” should be something of high perceived value. You want to offer a reasonable incentive (consider the average cost of any other lead that you generate…).

Actual Referral Program

Customer Appreciation program

At Austin Photo-Lab, we have 2 ways to grow our business

1) We can pay the advertising companies
2) We can reward our valuable customers.

SO,

For every 1st time customer that calls and/or brings in a job and uses your name, we’ll give you a COLOR PRINT.

Thanks for your business and your referrals!

Austin Photolab
Austin, Texas, (555)555-5555

The bearer of this coupon, or a First Time Customer gets a
FREE 8×10 Color Print!

The person who referred me to Austin Photolab was:

Daniel Wadleigh is a nationally published marketing consultant and has programs for start-up and existing businesses including effective web sites, e-mail/database, other non-internet ways to drive them to your website, and low cost ways to get more new customers.

Go to: http://www.more-new-customers.com to get free copy of “Marketing to Men vs. Women- the 8 different responses” and a Free copy of “Market Research- 7 Questions to Ask to Start-up and 7 to Ask to Improve Any Business.”

Every product or service should offer a unique selling proposition (simply referred to as USP) to its potential customers. What’s a USP?

The USP is an acronym for “Unique Selling Proposition” or “Unique Sales Proposition.” Every business, product and service needs to have a USP.

The unique selling proposition is best described as the main thing separating you from everyone else who does what you do. It tells why your widget or service is a “must-have.” It’s so important many marketers consider it to be the #1 detail in successful advertising copy.

To begin thinking about a USP you should imagine you’re answering (as clearly, directly and simply as possible) a few questions for a potential buyer. Write these out on paper and your USP will be embedded somewhere in the contents.

Why should I buy from you and only you?

What can you offer me that competitors can’t or won’t offer me? (Could be a company or product guarantee, specialization or special service, number of years as an expert, better price, etc.)

Tell me why I should read your sales message – what does it tell me that I won’t find in other sales messages?

How will I personally profit (or benefit) from doing business for you (what’s in it for me… what do I stand to gain or what pain will you remove for me)?

What’s the single biggest benefit of your product or service?

Is there one thing unique or different about your product or service? Is there a unique combination of benefits you can create for me as your customers? (If not, how might you be able to make yourself unique?)

Now… pick out the most important elements of your uniqueness (or how you want to position yourself as being unique). List these in clear and simple language.

Okay. Thinking cap still on? Good.

Try to boil this down to a single statement. (And definitely no more than 2 sentences at most).

1) Make it benefit-oriented (tell your client what’s in it for her or him).

2) Be specific (avoid generalities).

3) Use simple language.

4) Be direct and to the point (be concise).

5) Make your unique selling proposition “unique” (tell her why she needs to buy from you and no one else… if your USP can be adopted by anyone else then you don’t have a USP yet).

“This food processor is the best?” is not a USP.

But…

“This food processor breaks down hard nuts and vegetables 16% faster than any other, and I promise you its motor will NEVER burn out or you can send it back for a free replacement.” … is a USP.

“The car-rental agency of choice.” is an empty slogan.

But…

“The only car rental agency in Florida open 24/7 with luxury models at discount prices” … is a unique selling proposition.

Here’s a unique selling proposition marketing expert John Carlton says could be used for a hamburger business in competition against McDonald’s…

“Best-grade hamburger grilled by owner-chef when you order, delivered hot and ready-to-eat within 2 minutes… or you eat for free!”

You see what he did here?

In this case a business owner would create his Unique Selling Proposition and then become what it states to his customers.

Well known copywriter Bob Bly created a helpful fill-in-the-blanks formula that might help you develop a USP. But only use this after you’ve answered the questions above.

“My (name of product or service)_______, (does what?)_______, for (whom?),_______, by (what method?)_______.”

After you develop your USP include it in every sales letter. If you have a service business make it a tagline in your signature on all Emails and business correspondence.

Leverage it to the fullest and make the most of it in your marketing.

a) Include it in every sales letter.

b) Put it on your business card.
c) Use it in your Email signature.

Doing it will set yourself apart from the crowd – - and clearly tell your prospects why they should come to you instead of going to your competitor.

Copyright 2006 Joseph Farinaccio

Joe Farinaccio helps business owners and entrepreneurs make money using direct response advertising. To discover how to create ads and sales letters for your product/service that really work visit his website at http://www.sales-letters-and-marketing.com.

If you are having difficulty knowing what to charge, then check out your competition and find out what they’re doing. Find out if they post prices or fees on their website or if they have “packages” or deals. Do they have payment options?
While you are researching, keep in mind just because your competition is charging one way it is not necessarily how you should be charging.

One of my clients is a business and life coach. Most coaches charge for a set number of scheduled phone meetings, which seems to be a standard for “the coaching industry,” but that doesn’t mean it’s the best way.

I encourage my clients to charge fees that match who their clients are and what they are trying to accomplish. It’s very refreshing to do what works for you and not necessarily follow the “industry standard.” If you don’t feel comfortable with the way your industry charges, by all means change it. Just because the industry’s doing it doesn’t mean that it’s right.
Another client of mine, Shelly, is a wedding planner. When we first began working together she had three “wedding packages” because that’s what “everyone else does.” She ran into problems with pricing because most of her potential clients didn’t fit into the standard package and therefore Shelly had a long list of “upgrades” and additional items. She also had to charge more for weddings above a certain number of guests and weddings with over a specific number of attendants in the wedding party.

Potential clients became fixated on the package fees and felt ripped off when Shelly began adding additional charges all over the place. The packages were supposed to make things easier for Shelly’s, but they actually created more problems than they solved.

Shelly was so relieved when she realized she didn’t have to use the standard pricing packages most wedding planners used. She never felt good about them, but didn’t trust her own instincts on how to charge. We worked on making a pricing structure that wasn’t based on hours or packages but on the value to the client. She was able to quickly raise her fees and increase her client base simply based on her fee changes.

Are you charging your clients based on the value you are providing them or based on the “industry standard”? Is the industry standard an effective way to charge or is just what everyone else is doing?

Take a good look at the way you set your fees and handle client charges. Is it right for you?

Kirstin Carey is the author of “Starving Artist No More: Hearty Business Strategies for Creative Folks.” Kirstin knows how much most creative people hate sales, contracts, and discussing money and she consults creative people on the business side of creativity so they make more money, get better clients, and still love what they do. She put together a resource full of proven strategies and insider secrets guaranteed to help creative types get the business help they need so they don’t have to starve anymore! Go to http://www.MyCreativeBiz.com

If you can use more new customers and sales, and I mean TONS of new customers to your site then start using this simple easy to follow 5 step system.

These powerful, inexpensive ways will help you to bring in all the sales you’ll ever need. The kind of leads that will rocket your sales right off the charts.

One of the most difficult and time consuming tasks in this internet marketing game is to get a continuous flow of traffic to your site.

Instead use these killer tips and try getting more and more sales from your website.

Here YOU Go…

STEP 1 – Bulleted Benefits.

Use bullets to highlight your product or services benefits. Benefits are the key to selling anything; make them standout in your ad. You can use dots, dashes, or circles to highlight them.

STEP 2 – Use a Killer Shocking Money Back Guarantee.

Give a money back guarantee that surpasses a normal one. Instead of the normal timed guarantee, give them extra back. Tell them they can keep the free bonus or give them double their money back.

STEP 3 – Give Your Prospects Surprise Bonuses.

Tell your reader they’ll receive surprise bonuses. This’ll raise your reader’s curiosity and make them want to buy so they can find out what the surprise bonuses are.

STEP 4 – Create a Sense of Urgency.

Let your reader know this specific package will not be offered again. You must create urgency so people buy now. You may always sell the same product but not with the same bonuses or price.

STEP 5 – Solve their Most Pressing Problems.

Give them a couple tips in your ad that will help them with their problem. This will give your business credibility and gain your readers trust to buy your products or services.

What if you could see your sales sky-rocket using 5 simple steps?

If you want to multiply your sales, profits and dollars in your bank account, then this might be the most important article you’ll ever read.

If you want to create life-time paying customers, then I urge you to check out these simple tricks that can BOOST your profits through the ROOF.

If you’re sick and tired of seeing low sales pouring in, then make sure you read this article once again and take action instantly.

Apply these 5 simple steps and I bet you will see your sales counter EXPLODE.

There’s never been a better time for you to drive bucket loads of sales, than it is today!

Competition is tough these days. Consumers and business customers know you have competitors who will charge a lower price. In fact, they don’t even have to check.

Customers have learned they can ask you for a lower price and often get it. If you don’t offer some kind of concession, a big percentage of your prospects will move on to another business who WILL give them a price cut.

Price cutting is more prevalent in some industries than others. I wouldn’t dream of asking my doctor to drop his fee for an office visit, but I wouldn’t think twice about asking the salesperson at the car dealership if they could knock a few hundred off the sticker price.

How do you drop your price without losing your profit? I mean, lots of sales are good (which you’re likely to get if you drop your prices), but lots of sales that don’t make a profit will bankrupt your business in a hurry. Here are a few tips:

1. If you recently dropped your price, point out that cut to the customer, then give her an additional 10 percent reduction. Note the total amount she is saving over your old price. When the economy is tightening and prices are dropping, this strategy can work well for you.

2. Vary the amount of price concessions. If you give the customer a $20 price cut, don’t give her an additional $20 price reduction the next time she asks. Your customer will immediately figure she can ask a third time and once again get an additional $20 off. Instead, make your second price reduction $15 or $10. This tends to stave off additional requests.

3. Most times, you already know how much you can drop your price without even being asked. Don’t give the customer your full price cut the first time. Instead, offer them a smaller cut first, then give a little more if they ask for it.

Many customers may not expect a huge price cut, and will be happy with what you offer them. They simply want a sincere gesture that you are willing to deal.

4. Don’t keep changing your firm offer. I saw a business person trying to sell a computer to a customer who seemed on the brink of buying. “OK, if you buy right now I can take $100 of the price but that’s as good as I can do,” he said.

When the customer still seemed reluctant, he added, “OK, if I talk to the boss we can make that $250 off, but that’s all we can do.”

I could see the light in the customer’s eyes. She knew she had the salesman on the ropes. She realized his final offer was far from final.

All this is contingent on your having a pretty good profit margin built into your products or services. If your business runs on a very tight margin, you may not be able to make any concessions on price.

Instead, offer an additional free or low-cost service. Provide free advice after the sale, an attractive guarantee, or additional bonus items you get or give at very low cost to you.

Frankly, if your price is already among the lowest, you may not need to drop it further to get sales from those who might otherwise want a price reduction. Simply point out how your price is already lower than what competitors charge, for a lot of people, that will be enough.

Many customers automatically assume that you’re not at your lowest price. By showing them you have already made strides to offer very attractive prices, customers will often drop the subject of a price reduction and buy without haggling.

Tired of sitting around twiddling your thumbs, waiting for that next sale to shake you out of a boredom-induced stupor? This article will reveal a simple 9-step plan to help you multiply your product sales in just a few weeks.

1. Make sure you have a hard-hitting headline on your sales page to draw your visitors in.

I know, I know. This point is SO played out. But, I’d be a bad, bad tutor if I didn’t at least mention it. Need help crafting a sure-fire, order-pulling headline? “Hmph! Not ME!” you say? Okay, so let’s pretend. Check out the following truly outstanding resources for help writing a sales-boosting headline:

Great Headlines Instantly! http://www.hypertracker.com/go/emag/ps/

Writing Effective Headlines http://eagle.cc.ukans.edu/~editone/heads.html

How to Write Headlines that Make Sales Soar! http://www.whosclickingnow.com/headlines.htm

Publicity Tips: Creating Captivating Headlines http://www.mindconnection.com/library/business/headlines.htm

2. Take 5-10 brief (1-2 paragraph) tips from your product, and cut them down to the bare bones best parts.

You don’t want to be giving away the only “secrets” from your excellent infoproduct. Make these tips powerful and informative, but don’t give away the farm. The purpose, (as you’ll soon see), is to convince your visitor that they NEED your product — not to simply provide CliffsNotes for it.

3. Sign up with a reliable follow-up autoresponder, free or otherwise.

Ideally, you’ll need one that gives you up to 10 follow-up messages — one for each mini-tip that you created above, minus one. (i.e. If you have 9 tips, you need to be able to send at least 8 follow up messages.)

Program your autoresponder to send that number of follow-ups, and make each tip its own follow-up message. Send your tips out about 3-7 days apart, depending on how many you have. The more you have, the more frequently you send them. Just don’t harass the reader.

If you need an autoresponder, try either of these:

http://www.AutoBots.net http://www.Biz-Reply.com http://www.AutoRespond.com http://www.GetResponse.com http://www.SmartAutoresponder.com

4. Put a brief sales message at the bottom of each mini-tip.

You don’t want this to be a sales LETTER. Basically, have it resemble a resource box that you’d see at the end of an article. The purpose of this sales message is to remind the reader of what your product is, and of any special bonuses or discounts that you offer, and to get them back to your site to order your product.

5. In your final autoresponder message, offer your readers something special for finishing your e-mail series.

You want to reward the visitors who haven’t cancelled your follow-up messages at the end of the message run, as these people have just become your hottest prospects! They were obviously interested enough in your product to keep reading your tips, and with the slightest extra push, they just might still buy.

Make the bonus time-sensitive, to increase the likelihood that people will buy. You can offer an article-length bonus report on your product topic, a list of 25 (or however many) links to top-notch resources as an add on to the product, or anything with a high value. Just be sure to make this bonus *exclusive* to the people still on your list, and NOT available to the general public.

TIP: If you use the resource links report as a bonus, you can usually find some really great and rare finds right in your own bookmarks. Quick report!

6. Get a “smart” pop-up code for your sales site.

You want a little box to pop up when visitors leave your website in order for them to sign up for your mini-tips. You CAN use a small notice at the bottom of your sales page for people who’ve decided not to order, but a pop up box would probably work best.

You don’t want the box to pop up when people are navigating your sales site — only when they’re LEAVING that particular domain name altogether. I’m not sure where to get a code like this, but I have one if you’re interested. I’ll give it to you for joining my ezine. Just e-mail me with the same address you use to subscribe, and let me know you’d like the code. It’s yours!

7. Create an ezine sign-up box in your pop-up window.

You can kill two birds with one stone here. If you have an ezine, tell your visitors that they’ll get X number of free tips taken directly from your product when they subscribe to your ezine. As soon as I implemented this technique on one of my own sites, I started getting 15-50 *additional* ezine subscribers every day!

By using this method, not only will you get more *pre-qualified* subscribers to your ezine, but you’re also following up ACTIVELY with these visitors with your mini-tip series. (You’re following up with them *passively* with your periodic newsletter.)

8. Set your pop-up box to appear only once, when visitors are leaving your sales site.

It’s best to also put another testimonial in the window, right before asking them to subscribe to your newsletter for the tips. See how I did this at: http://YahooSecrets.com/leaving.html

To add these visitors to your newsletter and your mini-tip series at the same time, simply put your list host’s subscribe address AND your autoresponder address in the “Recipient” field of your form. (If you need to screen your addresses for names like I do, this won’t work. You may need to enter subscribers in manually.)

9. Test your follow-up messages, your sign-up form, and your pop-up box.

This is a given, but I thought I’d list it just in case. I know how easily I forget to TEST to be sure my newfangled promotion will even work before I start using it. In all the excitement, sometimes we overlook the little things.

Be sure your messages are formatted neatly, your sign-up form is subscribing people to your follow-up series AND your ezine (if applicable), and your pop-up box is only appearing when people leave your entire website (NOT your sales page).

As soon as I started using this method of follow up, I increased my sales. You won’t be able to notice the benefits from this immediately. Instead, you’ll need to wait a few days (or weeks) while your follow-ups are doing their job. In time, you should see more sales of your infoproduct, and more sales from your opt- in list as a result of more highly qualified subscribers.

A REQUIEM FOR THE SALES MEETING SUPER-JOCK by John K. Mackenzie Copyright (C) 1980 All rights reserved

Victory via VHS

>From keynote speech to laser lights, technique and technology fuse to find a re-motivated, re-dedicated, and re-energized sales force charging out of the ballroom into a bright, shining world where never is heard a discouraging word, and everybody is a winner all the time.

How could it be otherwise? The rented videotape, featuring a famous football star, promised it would be: “Keep up that can-do attitude, team! Charge that line! Flatten your competition. Go for the goal and win, win, win!”

Sales meeting insertion of coaches and quarterbacks has been done so long, and so often, it’s become institutionalized. And nothing, be it steroid loading, gambling raps, rape, AIDS, public urinalysis or renegade racism seems to suppress our urgent need to move the locker room into the meeting room.

Citius, Altius, Not-So-Fortius

Sales meetings (and those who write them) are never permitted to consider the possibility that sales people are ever tired, discouraged, or uncertain. All reps are admonished to become relentless reservoirs of enthusiasm, commitment, and triumph. To support this directive, billions of dollars have gone (are going) into films, videotapes, and speeches designed to immunize them from such tedious concerns as doubt, hesitation, or fear.

A case in point: Every few years, Go For the Gold! is robotically resuscitated as a meeting theme. Millions of dollars are then hurled at presentations designed to convince sales people to emulate the qualities shown by Olympic medalists.

A grand idea: Were it not for the fact that most of the Olympic performances we admire are produced by insular mavericks. Dissident loners who sweat it out for years under conditions of fiscal deprivation and personal sacrifice no sales rep in the world would tolerate for 30 seconds! Hardly congenial examples to support those consecrated doctrines of teamwork and togetherness so fervently invoked during executive keynotes.

Celebrity Central Casting

Superstar invocations are not limited to the locker room. Presidents, statesmen, generals, admirals and astronauts have been stuffed into sales meeting presentations for decades. Often creating absurd and abrasive juxtapositions as product references and employee photos are jammed in alongside super celebrity shots. You haven’t encountered great writing until you’ve experienced the transition from General George Patton to a new laundry detergent or acid reflux pill.

Win or Else!

Myopic obsession with winning exacts a price: It atrophies the psychic muscle required to sustain self-worth during the rejection episodes all sales people must deal with.

When winning is the only option sales reps are permitted to consider, failure becomes an abhorrent personal malignancy: often perceived as a form of corporate sedition.

The transgressor is branded unclean, unworthy, and unpromotable. Year-end bonus dollars, along with company-paid Disneyland trips, vanish. The convicted party’s family slinks into seclusion as a scarlet F is sewn on their clothing. Decontamination and status restoration can take years.

An Idea Whose Time Should Never Have Arrived

During the 70s and 80s superstar scenarios gave sales reps a voyeuristic view of the individuality that mass marketing techniques denied them. But today’s market fragmentation and lifestyle diversity no longer justify the need for sales people to be force-fed surrogate achievement stories.

If the only way you can exemplify winning qualities is to employ paid testimonials — transparently alien to selling, and patently impossible for your audience to attempt — then you (and your company) have a problem. Instead, try for something your sales force can identify with.

If you can’t find a good internal achievement story to build on, try this one: “I’m going to tell you how I lost one of the best accounts I ever had, and what it took to get it back!” In the minds of your sales force, this will qualify you for beatification: above and beyond even that given unto Lou Holtz and Joe Montana. Amen. _____________________________________ Additional sales meeting monographs can be found at: www.thewritingworks.com/memos.html

1. Create a free ebook directory on a specific topic at your web site. People will visit your web site to read the free ebooks and may see your product ad.

2. Turn part of your web site into a members only web site. Instead of charging for access, use it as a free bonus for one of your products.

3. Add a free classified ad section to your web site. You could then trade banner ads with other web sites that have free classified ad sections.

4. Create two versions of your e-zine so people can choose if they want ads included with it or not. This’ll attract the people who hate ads to subscribe.

5. Publish your e-zine only on your web site. Have people subscribe to a “new issue” e-mail reminder. This could really increase your traffic and sales.

6. Sell advertising space in your product package. You could sell inserts, flyers, brochures, booklets, and digital ads for electronic products.

7. Offer daily or weekly visitor bonuses. This will increase your repeat traffic and sales because your visitors will visit regularly to get the visitor bonuses.

8. Allow people to download software or e-books from your web site at no cost. Just ask your visitors in return if they’ll refer their friends to your web site.

9. Build up the number of people that join your free affiliate program quickly by temporally offering your product for free to the people that sign up.

10. Negotiate with e-zine publishers to get free or discounted ads by letting them join your affiliate program and earn commissions on the ad you run.