Why only Google?

Something has baffled me recently regarding PPC search engines. Whilst much of the focus of PPC is based on Google little mention is given over to Yahoo search marketing! It seems to me an area that is starved of a good product ( a little like the Free Brad Callen product over on your right but aimed at Yahoo) as the traffic you can drive to your sites through Yahoo search marketing is well under estimated. For example, In the UK Yahoo Search Marketing reaches more than 80% of Internet Users many of whom are potential customers searching for company's products and services online.

You see, examples of Google traffic for a given keyword exceeding Yahoo's by up to 8 times are probably only relevant in the USA. Yahoo search Marketing in other countries like the UK gives more clout for your money than you first think when you consider they have an unrivalled distribution network including Yahoo, Wanadoo and Lycos.

Attention spans are short and this is why it is key your site is seen in the first 3 pages of results. You may or may not be aware that 90% of visitors give up if they don't find what they want in the first 3 pages. You need to make sure your customers find your website before they lose interest. Yahoo search marketing guarantees prominent positions on the results pages of the most widely used Internet search engines, so products and services can appear in front of customers expressly searching for what companies sell.


To get an account you can sign up here Remember, you only pay something when someone clicks on your ad.

Time Management

If you remember the article on the "Pareto Principle" you will understand that it is important to spend more time doing the 20% of things that produce 80% of the results and less time doing the 80% of things that produce 20% of the results! In fact, the whole idea of this Blog is to highlight what is important to the selling process and what is not. The more you manage your time to include the effective sales techniques the more successful you will be. Today, I would just like to point you in the direction of some useful resources so that you can manage your time to become more effective.

Firstly, time management tips for sales people - here you can find time management information relating to sales. The site is a portal site but none the less it gathers lots of useful time management information together.

Secondly, Discover Simpleology - a truly remarkable process for mastering your time. You can join simpleology 101 for free. Take the course and watch your life change.

Finally, a quick step by step guide to time management just to get you started on the basic principles.

To your success.

Sales Differentiation

Today on Sales Technique I would like to discuss differentiation.

No matter what it is you sell you need to differentiate your product from your competitors. This is unfortunately where a lot of sales people go wrong. They know a lot about their own product but know very little about the competitions product. In today's competitive world there will often be very little price difference between similar offerings. If that's the case then you need to know exactly what sets your product apart from the rest of the playing field. It's not just knowing the differences either; it's letting your customer know that you know the differences.

Try and get a good handle of your product vs the competitions in these four areas.

Competitive Uniqueness
-----------------------

What can you do that no one else can offer? Are there additional benefits in your offer? Try and understand the reasons why your competition has not addressed these issues.


Competitive Advantage
---------------------

What features do you provide that stand out from the pack? Why is your offer better than the rest? How difficult would it be for the competition to equalise the situation?


Competitive Equality
--------------------

Determine the aspects of your product that are equal to your competitors. Are these just standard features? Can they be improved?


Competitive Disadvantage
------------------------

Where does the competition have an advantage over you? Don't try and defend your position to a potential customer. In the long term they will always appreciate the honesty! Ok, you may even lose a sale because that was the feature or benefit they were looking for. However, you will always be remembered - especially for your ability to differentiate, simply because most sales people can't.


I am often looking for good resources to do with self improvement or power selling . If you have any good recommendations I would appreciate you posting. Thankyou.

Are you Still a Traditional Sales Person?

Today on Sales Technique I would like to ask a number of questions that may help you rethink your selling strategy.

If you receive complaints do you protect your product or the customer?

Are you more concerned with getting orders or relationships?

Do you look for a quick high income sale in the short term or back end sales in the long term?

Do you make the sale and move on or do you measure outcome and satisfaction?

Do you try to avoid messy problems/issues or work to solve them?

Do you see yourself as a supplier or a partner?

If you answered in the affirmative to any of the first options then you are following traditional sales techniques. Rather than working with your customer as a partner to satisfy their desires you would be more likely to try and overcome their objections to your latest offering. This type of sales technique just doesn't work any more! In todays society people are overwhelmed with choice. They have learned to shop around and look for quality so there is absolutely no point in fighting your corner if you are trying to justify why your product does not have a specific feature. Indeed, by doing this you are making your competitive disadvantage even more high profile in their purchase decision. You are better off accepting what is and playing to your strengths.

To become the best type of sales person you must think of your customer as your partner. Remember, that their success will have an impact on yours even if the relationship is not purely business based. By becoming their partner you will differentiate yourself from your competitors and will hold the key to a lasting relationship that will benefit both parties.

What are you selling?

Today on Sales Technique I would like to talk about product demand.

To often someone creates something to sell because 'it seemed to be a good idea at the time'. This is a fundamental mistake! The only things that really sell and sell really well are the things people want. It's as simple as that.

As a seller we should be finding out what people want and not what we think they want. The product should target their needs. Do this and you're likely to get more sales than you can reasonably handle.

You see, the product is the real power behind the selling. Ad copy, providing it's truthful and good, will make the product stand out from the crowd and provide the emotional trigger for someone to make a purchase. But a good product that meets the needs of the masses is like a viral selling machine! So, before you decide to sell anything, even as an affiliate, make sure you are selling a product that people want.

Where do we discover what people want? Here are a number of tips..

1. Find out what people are searching for. Discover the the popular trends. Try Google Trends or ZeitGeist. Another way is to get an account with someone like WordTracker and look for what keywords people are searching on.

2. Visit the Forums in your Niche and get a feel for what people are asking. Also visit Yahoo Answers to get a similar perspective in the chosen category. Here is a little gem. If you have a website in a particular niche and you post an answer at Yahoo Answers you can also post your website link. This will help get your site noticed.

3. Visit Amazon.com and look at the best selling books in your category. Get an idea for what people are looking for.

4. Pop over to this useful area at EBay.


These are a just a few of the places you can get the information you need but I guess you get the general idea? When you've identified a market you have won half the battle. If you can find a desparate need for something in a given niche where no one else is selling you've struck gold!

Split Testing

Today on Sales Technique I would like to talk about the value of Split Testing.

Split Testing is a well known but little practiced technique for improving sales conversion. It simply involves running Advert A against Advert B to determine the best performer.

Let's say you were testing the performance of your sales letter with a given headline. You would start out with your control (e.g Sales letter A) and make a copy of it (sales letter B), only changing the headline. Now, you can send an equal amount of traffic to both pages to determine which headline performs the best. When you have a winner, that becomes the control and you can either test another headline or any other part of your sales letter. Continuous testing like this should improve sales conversions.

Simple isn't it? So then, why aren't more Marketers or Salesmen using this technique to improve conversions? I guess it's because the perceived value is so low. However, looking into it further you will find that improvements to your sales conversions can make a significant difference to your earnings. For example, if we had 5000 visitors to our Sales Page every month and improved our conversions by another 1% we would have 50 extra customers. If our product sold for $50 we would increase our earnings for the month by $2500. When you look at it like this who can really afford not to be Split Testing?

Going back to the Pareto principle of 20% of the things you do give you 80% of your results, you will find that even testing your headline alone will improve sales conversions. However, to improve sales conversion even more it is wise to test other aspects of your sales page including pre-headings, sub-headings and opening paragraphs as well. This not only goes for content but color too. By the way, it has been proved over and over that Red is the best color for a headline but I guess it largely depends on what type of message you are conveying.

If you are new to split testing etc and would like a quick way of getting started with your sales/landing pages then I would suggest Simple Money Machines as a good starting point. For the more advanced I would suggest Kaizen Track. Check out the videos to see what it can do for you.

A Powerful Word

Today at Sales Technique I would like to talk about the magic word "because".

Ellen Langer, a Harvard psychologist carried out some experiments that highlighted the power of the word "because". She noticed that a 'request-because-reason' style sentence was far more effective in soliciting a favourable response than a mere request to do something.

When analysing further she noticed that the word "because" was key to this theory. This was discovered when she noticed that even if the given reason behind the request was superfluous or plain obvious, the word "because" still had the desired effect!

People waiting in line for a Xerox machine were asked, "May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?" They were still inclined to give up their place even though the reason given was obvious. It appears that a 'request-because-reason' style sentence (even where the reason is immaterial) outperformed a simple request by some 30%.

In Ad copy it is probably best to back up the word "because" with a strong reason "Why". People aren't concerned with confrontation when presented with the written word and will be less inclined to let an obvious/superfluous reason go unchallenged.

Improve your sales technique with the magic word "because".