James Yuille Marketing | Lead Generation | Selling -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What your phone number tells me about you… September 5th, 2006 There’s an ever-increasing trend, especially with small and solo business operators, to only promote a mobile phone number on stationery and marketing pieces. There are several reasons why you might do that; most are to suit you not your client. As a client, here’s what I see when all you give me is a mobile phone number… An amateur. Someone with no support mechanism behind you. In my opinion, it makes you look desperate to get my business. It also makes me think that you haven’t considered that it costs me more to ring you than someone else. So you’d better have a really good reason for me to call you.. OK, so you have a home-based business and you want to keep the business calls off your home phone line. So get a second landline. By all means, publish your mobile number so that if I need you in a hurry, I can reach you on it if your service is one where immediate contact is necessary. You can always divert your landline to a mobile of course. Alternatively, use either a voicemail service or divert to a live answering service. Why? If we’re discussing business together and your mobile rings during our meeting, or while you’re performing your service, that’s rude and it downgrades you in my eyes. When you’re with me, your phone stays off, especially if I’m paying for your time or you’re trying to do a deal with me. The customer / client you’re with right now is the most important person on your priority scale so take other callers to a voicemail, please. While we’re on the subject of voicemail, whatever you do, don’t make these two major mistakes… 1. Have your domestic voicemail answer your business phone. I don’t want to hear “You’ve dialled the Robertson family. If you want to leave a message for Tony, Sue, Christine, Jackie or Robert, please do so after the tone. If you want Mike, he’s moved out and his new number is 0400 111111. OK, now here’s the tone.” 2. Have your phone answer with a pre-recorded message provided by your carrier. ”The person you’re trying to reach is busy and your number will be recorded if you press # now. If you wish to leave a different number, press * and record your new number from your keypad followed by the # key. Getting back to using a mobile as your business number… Mobile’s aren’t trackable and all too often, shonky operators hide behind them. On TV just this week was a story about an unethical operator scamming people on the web with fake holiday home bookings. He only had a mobile number on his site and the bank account wasn’t even his; it was one of his “employees” accounts. Yes, they interviewed her and yes, he had emptied it. The regulative authority the TV program spoke to said this about any website promoting only a mobile number, “Don’t walk away; run - and certainly don’t trust them with your money.” At a recent business opportunity / franchise exhibition, I interviewed several attendees while on a clint’s site and asked what they were, and weren’t interested in and how they made judgements. All said they immediately discounted any business without a landline. All this adds up to an insurmountable weight of evidence; landlines provide credibility and enhance trust. Mobiles don’t. Do everyone a favour; make yourself look professional, get a landline, or a second landline and get a real voicemail. Divert your calls to voicemail or your mobile when you’re out. Check your voicemail from your mobile after each call and return the important calls. Here’s another option: hire someone really professional to answer your phone and SMS the messages to you so you can call them back. Check out OfficeHQ You should hear the way they answer the phone; believe me, as someone who does phone skills training, these guys are as good as it gets… You can even test them out for 7 days for free and you have everything to gain by doing so. Tell them I sent you! Posted in Marketing | 9 Comments » Are your leads costing you too much? August 21st, 2006 Why do people continue with high-cost, high-risk lead generation when there is a better way? Let me ask you a simple yet profound question: If I banned you, effective from today, from making another cold call, would your business survive? A cold call is any unsolicited sales call or visit you make. In other words, where you intrude upon or interruct the prospect to make your “pitch”. Like this one I just received… Hello this is Gina, I’m calling from XYZ telecom. Can I speak to the owner of the business please? (Me, knowing what was coming next) She isn’t here right now. OK, I’ll speak with the manager then, is that you? Yes. As the manager then, you’d be able to make decisions about your telephone calls then. I’m calling to tell you how… (I interrupted) Gina, I’m sorry, I’m not prepared to do business with telemarketers. I don’t know who your Company is or where you are, and I have no interest in changing carriers, thank you. But sir, you must listen to me… No, I mustn’t. Thank you, goodbye. I hung up. How many times every day does Gina get this? What’s more to the point, how many times every day are you or your staff getting this? Let’s assume you have a target market of 250,000 people. You employ five telemarketers to each make 200 calls per day; that’s 5,000 calls per week. In 12 months, you’ve called every prospect in your marketplace. Let’s assume each telemarketer makes just one appointment per day. That’s 25 appointments made per week, not quite enough to keep your two salespeople busy, but too much for two. They each make a sale for every three calls which is about four sales each per week. Eight sales per week equates to 400 sales per year. Out of 250,000 marketing messages, 249,600 have said “No”. You’ve had a 0.15% conversion rate. Low, isn’t it? And at what cost? Five telemarketers at $20 per hour is $100 per hour. With each working 30 hours, that’s $3000 per week in wages, or $150,000 per year. Now add call costs, rent and all the other employment overheads. This takes the total to around $200,000. That means that each of the 400 sales cost you $500 in telemarketing costs alone. Now add cost of goods sold, commissions for the salespeople and your other overheads and costs… Not looking very pretty is it? Let’s say your average sale is $4,000 and your cost of goods is 50% or $2000. Add 10% commission and cost of telemarketing (totals $900); add all your other costs and you’re on a hiding to nothing. Is there another way? Yes. Several in fact; and they work very well. What’s more, they can reduce your cost per lead down to a few dollars or in some cases, a few cents. If you’re in Australia and would like to know how to get leads quickly, for lower cost and with higher conversions rates than with telemarketing (or just about any other form of marketing), call us now on 07 3344 6566. Posted in Marketing, Lead generation | No Comments » Why do they make it so darn hard? July 30th, 2006 I’m in the market for a new car. The mere process of driving around to different car yards and showrooms fills me with terror; it’s an unpleasant process for most of us, isn’t it? Undaunted, my two sons and I set off last Saturday morning with the goal of driving several vehicles we had on our options list. None of us knew what was ahead…The first venue was an outdoor new vehicle yard in the southern suburbs. We walked around, opening and closing doors on five or six vehicles for about 20 minutes before a young male salesperson came out of the office to talk to me. I started by asking him to differentiate between the different models and their prices. His answer was short yet adequate. The only differences were cosmetic and the price varied by around $15,000. “When are you in the market and why did you want to buy {this brand}?” he asked next. “I’m in the market now and I won’t know if I want to buy this brand until I’ve driven it and discussed all the options” I replied. “Have you a manual (stick-shift for those in the USA) I can test-drive?” I asked. No, they didn’t. He added that they didn’t have manuals because they didn’t sell. “Is that because you don’t have them here to sell?” I asked. It seemed a reasonable question. You’d think I had insulted his mother. “You’re a very rude man” he told me. “I’m not going to let you drive one of our cars. Goodbye.” We left. What’s that line from the Julia Roberts movie, Pretty Woman, remember when she goes back into the store that snubbed her when she went shopping with his credit card: “You on commission? Big mistake…” Of all of the yards we visited, both new and used, only one offered anything like a professional sales approach. Most were disappointing. Of the four salespeople who got my name - I gave it when asked - only one has followed up and that was to say someone else was looking at the car I was interested in; did I want to put a deposit on it? No, I didn’t. I’m no closer to buying a car. For years, the automotive industry has been criticised for it’s poor salesmanship. I don’t think it has changed. It’s still “Hello, let’s get married and have kids” instead of a courtship. There’s no process, no name capture, no structured follow-up; it’s hard selling all the way. I know why we tread cautiously with car salespeople. It’s because they don’t trust us. Instead, they treat us with contempt and suspicion. When that changes, so will the image of the car industry. I want to buy, not be sold. No wonder Internet car sales sites are flourishing… Posted in Selling, Managing salespeople | No Comments » It’s the little things you do (or don’t do…) July 16th, 2006 This is a quick one… Having a chat with a friend last week and he spoke of a recent trip to Melbourne where he does a lot of business. He goes there for several days at a time; often staying up to six nights. He’s a tea drinker; six to ten cups per day and after two nights in the hotel, he’s out of tea bags. They hadn’t replenished his supply so he asks for more. Here’s what they told him… “We only replenish the free tea and coffee every third day but you can buy more tea bags at 5 cents each if you like.” At $150 per night and they want 5 cents each for a couple of extra tea bags? Guess where he won’t be staying next time… Are you being as short-sighted as this when you charge for ”extras”? Posted in The "Wow!" factor, For travel agents | No Comments » What are you supposed to do? July 9th, 2006 Have you ever asked yourself the question - what am I supposed to do? What’s my purpose; my mission? The answer is a secret revealed in this amazing video someone has posted at Google video. I encourage you to set 89 minutes aside and watch this with a notepad and pen; you’ll want to make lots of notes. Frankly, I’m not sure how it got to Google video or how long it will be there so you’d be doing yourself a huge favour by reacting quickly to this. It’s called The Secret - watch it and let me know what you think. It certainly moved me… Posted in Humanity | 7 Comments » Travel Agents Reach Crossroads July 1st, 2006 And, unlike Alice, the direction they chose is crucial… Australian travel agency group Jetset recently forecast a 35% profit increase for the financial year ending June 2006. This news flies in the face of declining profits from other travel companies. The first question is, “Have Jetset taken market share from other majors in the industry such as Flight Centre?” but the bigger questions is, “What have Jetset done to arrest the global decline in the travel agent sector, and what can the smaller, independent agents learn from their success?” Let’s take a look… Jetset state that their increase is due to three factors: 1. Access to the FlyBuys rewards program partners 2. Higher incentives from suppliers, and 3. Sponsorship of Australian Channel 7’s TV morning show, Sunrise. These three points of difference undoubtedly contribute to their success, and Jetset’s franchisees would be well advised to promote them for all they’re worth. But what of the rest? Both the smaller travel agencies, and those aligned with less rigidly controlled franchise or affiliate groups may well cry poor. “We don’t have loyalty schemes, TV sponsorships or access to those products” they say. And that’s true… It’s difficult as an independent to deal with the Big Boys with deep pockets who can advertise and sell on price. Here’s where the inexperienced make some mistakes, so a word of caution… they try to compete on price when they advertise, “Sydney – Hawaii with three nights’ 5-star accom. from just $999.” You and I both know anyone can probably get that from the Internet from any number of airline booking engines. They know it, too and that’s why most domestic airline bookings are done online and you, as an agent get paid 3/5ths of nothing if they make the booking through you anyway. Even when they walk into your office, the pretty booklet you hand them has sufficient information for them to go online and book it themselves. You lose again… Next you discover that Suzie Creamcheese, the bright-eyed young travel grad you just hired won’t sell the most profitable affiliate package (also the most profitable; the one that pays her wages) to the most popular destination because she broke off with her stupid boyfriend (or for some other, equally irrelevant reason) in the bar of the hotel tour patrons stay at on the second night of the tour. As for TV sponsorship, the best you can do is the late-night revhead auto show on the local community channel. What has to happen is for you to look closely at how you, too, can create your own uniqueness. Let’s take loyalty programs. For a small investment, you can join an independent loyalty program such as Dynamic Rewards and issue your own points. The advantages of Dynamic Rewards are that points can be used for both on and off-line purchases and that points can be redeemed anytime, anywhere from any participating merchant. Dynamic Rewards provides it’s merchants with their own client database which enables you, the merchant, with the power to regularly email your client base with news, information and specials. The beauty of this system is that you can promote anything you want whenever you want and, if you’re too busy, Dynamic Rewards will do it for you. A travel agent in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley sent her May email broadcast out and, within 24 hours, had nine enquiries back about the offers she had promoted. All of them were prompted to call by the email. Without the Dynamic Rewards email, they probably would not have called. Nice… Now we need to look at your sales process. All of us have heard the horror stories about travellers being badly treated by the Majors. Left on hold with airlines long enough to do both the washing and the ironing. Given wrong information about the time it takes from the airport to the downtown bus terminal where you catch the bus to your conference venue. One recent case saw a passenger land at Rome airport with 30 minutes spare to get to the CBD for a coach. A tragic beginning to a long-awaited holiday. Travel is an emotional experience. As the travel agent, you need to take the time to make the emotional connection with the passenger. Understand what they are going through; feel their excitement or anxiety and behave accordingly. Learn and understand the consultative sales process. Simply knowing how the process of the sale really works can make a huge difference to your sales results. Remember that the people you’re dealing with have been planning, dreaming and saving for this holiday for months, sometimes for their entire life. Ask simple questions like “What prompts you to go to…?” or “What do you plan to do when you get there?” Simple phrases to get them talking about themselves. You’re building a relationship here. Look to provide them with additional information to support the sale. Take the time to write an insert sheet to slip inside the standard brochure so that when they sit down to read it, they remember your uniqueness and book through you. Not sure what to write? Here are a few clues; • 8 things to do before 10am in Auckland • The 7 best coffee shops in Brussels • How to save money on Duty Free – even in Singapore • Four places to eat Mexican food in Saigon • Where to find the best breakfasts in the mid-west when driving across the USA • Secrets to survival in a Siberian Winter • The clothing you’d need on South Africa’s Blue Train • How to have a great family holiday at Disney World • Everything you need to know about public transport in Brisbane Start by adding tips sheets to places you’ve been yourself. Write 10, then another 10 and another. It takes 30-minutes to write a simple page of tips; the result will be well worth the effort. Struggling to find inspiration for articles? EzineArticles.com is one of the best article websites you can find. Of course, as members of WITIA, you can use the membership resources to find really relevant, topical local information. OK, so I haven’t provided you with a TV sponsorship deal or mass preferential pricing. What I have done is shown you how to provide personal service at low to no cost. Personal service generates referrals and gets people talking about you. Referrals cost you nothing and again, it brings them back. Jetset didn’t state “Personal Service, local knowledge and customer care” as their strengths, did they? That’s YOUR unique point of difference. Use it, exploit it, monetise it. Note: Both WITIA and Dynamic Rewards are clients Posted in The "Wow!" factor, Marketing, For travel agents | 1 Comment » Why price IS an issue, and when… July 1st, 2006 I was discussing price points with a client last week . As the conversation continued, the client referred to the company that provides their IT support. Ironically, the IT company is a client of mine… this gets interesting! Her point of view was that this company undersell themselves. “Their hourly charge is way too low” she told me. I asked why it was of concern. her response was really interesting. “I need my suppliers to charge me a fee sufficient to allow them to stay in business in order that they can continue to provide me with the level of service I both expect and need. “If they don’t charge enough, they go out of business and I’m left with no support and I have to re-educate another supplier. I trust these guys and I don’t want to have to go through the process of building trust with someone else.” Powerful words indeed. Frances indicated that she was happy for me to relay the message so I called the IT company today. My previous conversations with them had been about their fee structure; I had recommended an increase. They told me that they had increased fees by 10% this year and that their clients hadn’t even noticed. My recommendation? Put them up another 10% or even 20% until someone notices and complains. Here’s the thing… Most people entering a service business start with a theory that they must charge a low fee initially because they have no track record and have to compete. They start to win some business and develop a reputation. Now they’re busy but not making any real profits. As they get new customers, they put their fees up but fear that charging their older clients more, the client will object and leave. So they keep on charging the lower fee and gradually begin to resent the client because they’re unprofitable. Ultimately they part company because the client is unhappy with the service. “They were good once but they got too big” is the response. The moral? As a start-up, charge fees that will sustain a business, not fees that keep you in a job. A recent article in an electrical contracting magazine (I can’t remember which; it was something I read casually) reported that the minimum sustainable hourly fee for an electrician billing 38 hours per week was about $90 per hour. That amount is necessary to cover wages, taxes, his vehicle, tools, insurance etc. Sounds about right to me… What are you charging? Enough to sustain a business or just enough to survive? Posted in Selling, Pricing | 1 Comment » A stupid thing to do… June 27th, 2006 My Mother, like yours I guess, has always been a fountain of wisdom. Like most sons, I didn’t recognise how wise she really was until I was well into adulthood. Mum is still with us; well into her 80’s now and she still has a very active mind thanks as she says, to being a very active Bridge player. (Don’t Bridge players get upset when you call it ‘playing cards?’) I can always remember her saying this, “If things don’t change, they’ll stay as they are.” Mum always had laughter in her face when she made this statement and as I sit and wonder about the stupid survey my ISP sent today, I know she is right. The stupid survey came not from the ISP, but from a research house they have appointed to follow up on customer complaints. You see, some weeks ago they sent me a grandeous message saying they were offering to provide me (at extra cost) a plug-in to stop SPAM getting to my inbox. Hello? It gets to me via them in the first place… I hit Reply on the promotional message and sent a question to that effect back to them. An autoresponder replied to me saying that a human would call me to discuss my issues. Three weeks later, with no call in the interim, this message from the survey firm arrives, asking me to fill out an online customer satisfaction survey. Being game, I took the link and lo and behold, after telling me that the process would take 6 minutes, the first question was this, “Was your problem solved to your satisfaction?” When I selected No, the next screen told me that my survey participation was complete and closed me down. Wouldn’t they want to know why my problem wasn’t solved? Apparently not. It doesn’t stop there. Some hours later, another unwanted email, this time offering me online gift cards, arrived. Clearly an unsolicited circular, I forwarded it to the survey company with a comment about this kind of email being what I was unhappy with. Guess what? Three minutes later it bounced back with a message saying it had been blocked by their SPAM arrestor as being an unsolicited circular. They use the same ISP I do for Pete’s sake. Why did it bounce back when sent to them and not to me I ask? Don’t you hate it… I’m darn sure this is one of things Mum was referring to when she said, “If things don’t change, they’ll stay as they are.” Posted in What my Mother taught me, Email marketing | No Comments » Are You an Effective Sales Manager? June 27th, 2006 A client called to discuss with me that he’d not been getting the results he’d wanted from a salesperson. The salesperson’s reports had shown lots of active prospects and that sales from many of them were “just around the corner”. However, when the client decided to examine what that meant a little closer, he found out that in most cases, the “corner” was months away. The impact on cash flow projections was significant to the point where the viability of the salesperson had to be questioned. The salesperson was enjoying a base salary plus allowances to cover vehicle, phone, etc and had the added incentive of commission on sales. The base salary was enough to live on but was unsustainable for the employer without the revenue from sales. The result was that the salesperson was, in effect, eating from profits before they were made. He was comfortable but at his employer’s expense and wellbeing. He was faced with no option but offer the salesperson a “Commission only” package. Guess what happened when he did? That’s right, the salesperson fled. Read the rest of this entry » Posted in Managing salespeople | No Comments » The Perils of Email Marketing June 25th, 2006 If You’re Using Email As A Marketing Tool, Then Failing To Read This Could Cost You Thousands… (This is a lengthy article so if you prefer to print and read, take this link to a pdf version - Perils of Email Marketing ) Due to the enormous levels of email abuse by the unscrupulous, Governments both here in Australia and overseas (especially the USA) are legislating against unsolicited emails, commonly know as SPAM. “SPAM” mail is the practice of sending massive amounts of e-mail promotions or advertisements (and scams) to people that have not asked for it. Spam mail is controversial and there are many levels of definitions for it. Many times, spam e-mail lists are created by “harvesting” e-mail addresses from discussion boards and groups, chat rooms, IRC, and web pages. (Source: Pugmarks) Many business owners recognise these tactics as unacceptable but fail to see one common practice in the same way. What is that practice? It’s when you meet someone, take their card and add their name to your email broadcast list, sending them promotional material without their permission. While you may not think this to be a serious offence, let me tell you a true life story that happened just this week… A client of mine had a stand at a trade show. On the stand they ran a competition offering a substantial prize. To enter, you had to place your business card into the entry box. On the front of the box was a clear and distinct message saying, “By entering this competition, you agree to receive promotional material about our upcoming events” Hundreds of people entered. Over the next few days, the client transferred the entrant details into their database and began sending promotional materials. All was going smoothly until this email arrived (names changed to protect their identities)… Hi Graham I would just like to point out we did not stop by your stand and provide our contact details or request to be sent any information. Our details must therefore have been obtained from our stand Therefore the 2 emails you have sent regarding your business constitute SPAM and make you potentially subject to heavy fines under the Australian Anti SPAM laws. Please remove us from you mailing list until such time as we specifically request to be added to it In addition your failure to provide an Opt Out facility in your emails is a further breach of the Anti SPAM laws, again leaving you subject to a fine Best regards Paul Graham doesn’t know how their card got into the entry box. He states quite categorically that he didn’t put it there himself. We can only assume is was put there by a third party – whoever that was and for whatever reason, we don’t know. Several emails were exchanged until fortunately an apology was accepted. Think it won’t happen to you? That the legislation doesn’t have teeth? Think again… Read the rest of this entry » Posted in Email marketing | 3 Comments » « Previous EntriesSubscribe and receive article updates, news and information Simply enter your details into the boxes below, click "Submit" and watch your inbox for your confirmation request. Name: Email: Like you, I hate SPAM and you have my guarantee that your email privacy will be respected. Pages How to contact James Yuille How to Gain and Retain Customers - the book Recommended resources Seminars and Workshops What others are saying What we can do for your business Categories About referrals Email marketing For travel agents Humanity Lead generation Managing salespeople Marketing Pricing Retail sales Selling Telemarketing The “Wow!” factor The need for training What my Mother taught me Writing adverts Recent Posts What your phone number tells me about you… Are your leads costing you too much? Why do they make it so darn hard? It’s the little things you do (or don’t do…) What are you supposed to do? Travel Agents Reach Crossroads Why price IS an issue, and when… A stupid thing to do… Are You an Effective Sales Manager? 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