Most people starting a business forget about the most important part. They spend loads of time picking just the right product or service to sell. They'll carefully weight the best kinds of office equipment to buy. They'll even fuss endlessly over their workplace decor.
But none of that holds a candle to what is most assuredly the core of any new business: you can't succeed until you master prospecting and selling!
"But I'm really good at what I do. Won't word just get out and people will find me and want to buy?" you say.
Don't bet on it. We live in a busy, crowded world where thousands of businesses are shouting their marketing messages. If you don't get in there and promote -- and promote WELL -- your customer base will resemble a trickle more than an avalanche.
Here are several proven methods for finding lots of new prospects and turning them into customers. Then I'll show you an exceptionally EASY way to do all this on a shoestring.
1) Get a web site, get it listed on search engines, and let your site grab prospects 24/7. By now you've surely seen scads of small businesses doing this. For those who do it right, the Net can pull in lots of new customers with very little effort. But remember, it's not as easy as some make it look. Your site has to be good, your copy has to be right, and you must be visible in search engines to make the magic happen.
2) Sell over the telephone. I love email, and face-to-face meetings will always have their place, but good ol' telephone conversations are a top-notch selling strategy. Prospects feel like they've made a personal connection with you when you give them information over the phone.
3) Finally, method number 3 is the one to use if you don't want to or don't know how to build your own professional web site, or can't bear the idea of talking to hundreds of strangers on the phone.
Frankly, this 3rd method has become the only method I truly recommend to small businesses and individuals: OUTSOURCING. These days, you can OUTSOURCE all your online promotion and selling to companies that specialize in doing the work for you.
In the past, that would have meant spending tens of thousands per month to hire an outside selling team. Today, with online and telephone automation reaching new heights, you can have all the advertising, phone calls, and closing done for you by the pros for about what it costs to get a decent home office computer set-up.
Don't hesitate, do it! Getting a really good marketing, prospecting, and selling machine working for you is essential to your success! |
