Super Size Your Sales https://www.supersizeyoursales.com Fri, 29 Aug 2014 02:05:55 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.0.5 Why a Quality Database is Important https://www.supersizeyoursales.com/2014/08/why-a-quality-database-is-important/ Fri, 29 Aug 2014 02:05:55 +0000 http://www.supersizeyoursales.com/?p=1947 Don’t take your database for granted When planning a marketing campaign that includes direct contact – by phone, email or letter – you need to start with your database. Why? Because without quality, up-to-date leads you will not achieve the success you expect. Using out-of-date or obsolete information will only waste your money because significant […]

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Don’t take your database for granted

When planning a marketing campaign that includes direct contact – by phone, email or letter – you need to start with your database. Why? Because without quality, up-to-date leads you will not achieve the success you expect.

Using out-of-date or obsolete information will only waste your money because significant time and resources will be spent contacting people who may have moved, changed their email address or are no longer available on the phone number you have listed. Keeping this list current is one of the many reasons you should consider a customer care programme, in which all your customers or clients, past or present, are phoned on a regular basis. This allows you to check that their contact details are current,  they are happy with your service and, if it’s relevant, tell them about your latest service or product.

How you store your database contacts will depend on what type of business you are in and what programs you already run. For example, Xero has a database as part of its setup. It allows you to segment your contact by suppliers and customers, and probably a great deal else besides. You can keep a huge amount of information about people on Xero.

Capsulecrm.com is a free cloud-based CRM system that has many functions, most of which you may never use. But it is easy to set up and operate.

If you wish to have something far simpler, an Excel spreadsheet is perfect. You can determine yourself what information you wish to keep and can search for a specific contact or email address simply by sorting the data within your columns. If you want to segment your database simply add another worksheet and copy your column headers from your previous worksheet. Another advantage of Excel is that your information can be saved directly onto your hard drive rather than in the cloud. Although, having a second copy in Dropbox, say, is always sensible provided you update to the latest version regularly.

We have also begun using MailChimp to hold our information. That way we have it immediately available should we want to email a list or a segment within a list. But again, it is cloud based.

When accessing a database to make calls you will need to segment your contacts into what we call As, Bs and Cs. Your A contacts are those who are existing customers or, in the case of cold calling, your hot leads. Bs are those who are considered warm (maybe they are previous clients) while your Cs are those who are cold leads and may not have done business with you before.

The reason you need to segment like this is because the call you make to a cold lead will be different than the one to an existing customer. If you were to try the same call to both you would either confuse people or alienate them. Your existing customers want to be made to feel special, your cold leads will want to know about what you can offer them.

The time taken to ensure your list is current is never wasted. For many businesses it is one of their major resources. For you, it could be the difference between booming profits and bankruptcy. Never take your database for granted. Allocate time each month to enter new contacts and weed out the old ones so that when you come to call or contact them, you will have a better success rate.

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Quality versus Quantity in mail-outs https://www.supersizeyoursales.com/2013/07/quality-versus-quantity-in-mail-outs/ Mon, 08 Jul 2013 22:38:21 +0000 http://www.supersizeyoursales.com/?p=1439 Many companies give insufficient thought to the contents of the mail-out. Some put in too much material, others too little. Either can be damaging if it’s not what the recipient either wants or expects to receive. Recently, for my sins, I have been rediscovered by Reader’s Digest. When I moved five years ago, I attempted […]

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Many companies give insufficient thought to the contents of the mail-out. Some put in too much material, others too little. Either can be damaging if it’s not what the recipient either wants or expects to receive.

Recently, for my sins, I have been rediscovered by Reader’s Digest. When I moved five years ago, I attempted to shake them off but somehow they have found me again.

The overwhelming contents received in an envelope from Reader's Digest.

And in this morning’s mail were two envelopes from them, glued together. Inside these envelopes were no less than 10 separate mail pieces, ranging from an envelope to a multi-page brochure for their latest book. Each of these was covered in text – including the envelope.

Now, apart from the fact I thought Reader’s Digest had gone broke, I simply don’t have time (or the necessary will, to be fair) to wade through all the documents and to make head or tail of them. I know they are a ruse to get me to buy product (in this case a book) but I also know that if I do, my letter box will be flooded with mail from them once again.

Lessons to be learned

There are several lessons here that are relevant to your business. First, unsolicited mail is less likely to receive a positive response than mail promised during a skilful telephone call that has identified your need. Second, sending lots of irrelevant pieces may result in the recipient binning it all without reading any of it. Sending only what has been identified during the call as meeting the recipient’s need makes it more likely to be read and acted on.

The material you do send should be able to be easily understood. In order to really understand what to do with all these pieces of paper from Reader’s Digest, I am going to have to invest some time in reading them and working it out. Time I don’t have. Time I would rather be spending on other things more important to my life than the pathetically miniscule chance I could win however many millions of unclaimed prizes that my unique number claims are just sitting in a vault awaiting my reply.

I love to receive mail, but this package did not give me any great feeling of anticipation – rather it filled me with dread and a confusing range of emotions.  This is not what you want from your mail-out. You want people to  look forward to receiving it, and for there to be something inside that makes them feel special. In most cases this would be a hand-written note or card.

Five top tips for successful mail-outs:

1. Make every page in the envelope relevant to the call your recipient received from you. It should not be generic.
2. Make sure the material is easily able to be understood and not the least bit confusing.
3. If you want them to take action – say so. And make it easy for them to do it.
4. Give them a deadline for this action (Reader’s Digest is very good at this) so readers don’t put it off, which means it is unlikely to get done.
5. Do not try to impress your recipient with too much material, keep it simple and keep it honest.

 

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Integration more than just a social media term https://www.supersizeyoursales.com/2013/06/integration-more-than-just-a-social-media-term/ Tue, 25 Jun 2013 23:30:40 +0000 http://www.supersizeyoursales.com/?p=1421 One of the buzzwords attached to social media is “integration”. We’re constantly told how important it is to “integrate” our efforts but in a practical sense what does that mean? It means we need to write complementary not contradictory posts, updates and tweets. In other words, one hand has to know what the other is […]

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One of the buzzwords attached to social media is “integration”. We’re constantly told how important it is to “integrate” our efforts but in a practical sense what does that mean? It means we need to write complementary not contradictory posts, updates and tweets. In other words, one hand has to know what the other is doing.

Have you ever written a post only to find out too late that you wrote a very similar one a few days ago you’d completely forgotten about? (Guilty as charged your honour.)

Integration has become a key word in social media marketing, but how much integration is going on in the marketing efforts of most small businesses? In the experience of Matthew Mewse, the Telephone Man, and myself – not a lot! Time and time again, we find that one department or division doesn’t know what another is doing. Customers will receive calls that promote a particular product or service but the material sent out in response to the customer’s request bears no relation to the call, or simply doesn’t answer the customer’s questions. Often they receive generic marketing material that could be used in any marketing campaign. Result? No sale.

Integration between sales calls and written sales material is essential. It’s one of the ways you develop a relationship between the customer and your business. Social media isn’t the only way to do this – businesses also need solid, everyday communication that shows customers you care. (You do, don’t you?)

Because where that communication is lacking, customers will go elsewhere. For instance, you’re standing in a queue in a shop waiting to make your purchase while the sales assistant attends to something trivial that could easily wait until later (like a personal phone call). Result – you walk away without the item you wanted to buy.

You call a company only to be left on hold listening to endless repetitions of “your call is important to us” and Shona Laing moaning about not being a Kennedy. Result – you give up before your call is even connected.

You try to make an online transaction only to be dumped off the page every time you get to the same question, because your particular circumstance doesn’t fit the rigidly defined form. Result – you can’t finish what you set out to do.

There’s another result, too. You’re also frustrated, annoyed and really want to take your business elsewhere. If you’re really disgruntled, you’ll take your ire online, maybe even setting up a Facebook page about it. Then, not only are you an ex-customer, other people might become exes as well. Definitely not good for business!

This disconnect between what your customer wants and expects, and what your business is providing is called “minimising your sales”. And that’s precisely what you’re doing when you’re not paying attention to the way you interact with your customer.

It may be something as simple as a form that’s convoluted and time-consuming. It may be the person answering your phone who is not warm and pleasant. It may be the material sent to your customers which is not relevant to their needs.

If you’re in business, think what it would take to stop minimising your sales, and instead “super size your sales” by ensuring that all your marketing efforts are integrated.

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Super Size Your Sales Launched https://www.supersizeyoursales.com/2013/06/super-size-your-sales-launched/ Thu, 13 Jun 2013 03:00:37 +0000 http://www.supersizeyoursales.com/?p=1181 By Lynnaire Johnston, Word Wizard It has been some considerable time in the gestation, but the first marketing book on how to combine effective written marketing material with proven telephone technique to boost sales has finally made it into print. The idea for the book came after we received a phone call from our electricity […]

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By Lynnaire Johnston, Word Wizard

It has been some considerable time in the gestation, but the first marketing book on how to combine effective written marketing material with proven telephone technique to boost sales has finally made it into print.

The idea for the book came after we received a phone call from our electricity supplier trying to sell us telecommunications services. When the promised follow-up material arrived it bore no resemblance to the information we requested, nor did it in any way alleviate the concerns we voiced during the call.

That got us thinking!

If a national organization didn’t understand the importance of dovetailing written material with the content of a telephone sales call to ensure a seamless sales process, it seemed highly likely other companies were missing this key ingredient in their marketing recipe, too.

When we thought about our various clients, we began to understand this was happening much more often than we’d realized. Businesses weren’t consciously dovetailing their written communications with their telephone calling.

Given that Matthew’s skills are in telephone sales and mine are in copywriting, there seemed to us there was an information gap we could fill.

The result – our book, Super Size Your Sales – we are proud to introduce via this website.

We know you don’t have the time to read a War and Peace-length tome, nor are you likely to care for an overly  technical manual. We have therefore kept Super Size Your Sales short (just 110 pages) and easy to read. You won’t find it full of jargon or technical terms that are difficult to understand. We explain what we mean simply and clearly, and provide you a model you can follow to set up your own marketing strategy using the pen and the phone.

To begin with we are offering Super Size Your Sales in two formats – softcover book and ebook. We’ll have it available for ebook readers such as Kindle and Kobi soon.

Information about what’s in the book can be found here. Pricing and other purchasing information is right here. We invite you to potter about the website and discover other information you might find useful – including the free resources we offer here.

Here’s to super sizing your sales. Enjoy!

 

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