You may be one of the growing number of people who want a home that has the quality and craft that only architectural plans can provide, without investing the time and/or money necessary to have an architect create a custom design for you. To quote Sarah Susanka -- author of the highly acclaimed book The Not So Big House -- from an article she wrote for Fine Homebuilding titled 'Why architects should sell house plans' (something they've never done before), 'Many of these people [potential stock plan purchasers] want the quality that comes with the Ralph Lauren or Liz Claiborne label, without having to hire Ralph or Liz themselves.'

Until recently, people wanting to build a new home have had just two choices: hire an architect or a professional designer; or purchase one of the tens of thousands of generic stock plans available in magazines and on the Internet. Now there is a new and exciting alternative that provides the quality of an architect-designed home plan for the price of a stock plan.

First the definitions: Our (architectural) plans are complete working drawings by licensed architects and designers, created for a specific family, that enabled that family to build a one-of-a-kind home. The plans originally cost tens of thousands of dollars to create (architects typically charge 10 to 15 percent of the total cost to build!), and took six months to a year to produce. The vast majority of stock plans, however, were created as inventory, to be sold to builders, developers and private parties via stock plan websites and magazines. In most cases there was no client involved in their creation, and no house was built from the plans prior to them being offered for sale. The plan's 'cost' is the time the designer spent drawing them with a CADD (or similar) software program, with slight changes made to produce many different versions. Both types of plans include enough information to enable a builder to construct a house. But the similarity ends there.

It starts with the way they were created. Architectural plans are the product of countless hours of conversation, interpretation, drawing and design. A family with specific real-life needs worked with the architect, who then translated those needs into a beautiful and functional home design. Neighborhood surroundings, climate, topography and personal aesthetic are all taken into consideration. A design is created from scratch to fulfill that family's requirements as well as their dreams.

Our dreams are often larger than our bank accounts, so an important part of the architectural design process involves highly efficient use of space and resources, to help clients stay within their budgets. Serious thought is put into the size and location of rooms, doorways, stairs and hallways, and into choosing construction materials, fixtures and building techniques. The reduction of unnecessary square footage that results from efficient design provides immediate and significant savings (click on the question titled 'Why is space-efficient design so important?' for a more complete explanation). The architect's training, past experience and ingenuity are all employed to satisfy his or her client's needs and desires, while staying within their budget.

Architectural plans also provide much more detail than stock plans. The builders start with much more information, saving them quite a bit of time and effort, and thus saving you quite a bit of money. [Please note that 'detail', as it's used here, refers to the amount of information the builder is given to work with, not to how complex and intricate the designs are.]

Lastly, there's the aesthetic difference. Architects often refer to their drawings as the 'artwork', and the homes created from them are often as much sculptural as structural. Interiors and exteriors express a quality of thought and ingenuity not found in standard designs. Architects go through extensive education and training to be able to think and design in 3D, creating spaces that are balanced in scale and proportion, that 'feel' right, and that provide for views and lots natural light. The result is a home that is beautiful, space and energy-efficient, functional and comfortable. There is nothing generic about architect-designed homes. Each is unique, and each has character.

We are proud to represent an ever-growing number of award-winning architects, and the exceptional designs they have created. Hopefully one of their homes plans will fulfill both your needs and your dreams.

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

If you've ever watched QVC, Home Shopping Network, or seen an infomercial, you know about the power of testimony. It's our experience that your sales will increase when customers are seen or heard testifying to the benefits of your product or service

It helps potential customers to imagine themselves as proud owners & users of the product or service you offer. They want to experience the same benefits as the person who made a testimony to it. The best way to get prospective clients to buy from you is to introduce them to other satisfied customers. Since you won't be taking customers around on sales calls testimonials will take their place

To do this, first you will need to ask your best customers whether you can interview them about the positive experience they've had with your product or service and record it either with a digital camera or a tape recorder. Be sure to inform them how you're going to use the information so they can be at ease knowing that you're going to be using their words and images in front of perspective customers. Once you have this, in a digital format, incorporate it into a PowerPoint presentation and playback to prospective customers.

For example maybe you know a situation where the cost of your product or service was initially an issue for a customer and they instead decided to buy from a low-price competitor. After discovering that the selected vendor wouldn't be able to deliver, the customer came back to do business with you. They realized that the low price paid in the short run would actually cost more in the long and the value of providing quality and service is worth the extra money.

The best kind of customer is one you can give you a testimonial. Then, should you encounter another prospect that voices similar concerns, you can simply say ' I understand how you feel and other customers to felt that way. In fact, here are some comments from a customer who had the same concerns you have now '. Once you play the PowerPoint presentation, they can see exactly what you mean.

Ask your best customers to talk about the benefits they receive from using your product or service. If you have a number of different testimonials, you can always use the one that best fits the sale scenario. One sales rep we know show pictures of customers using his product. A picture of a happy, satisfied customer is worth a thousand brochures (and a lot less expensive).

Nothing sells better than truth and you can get closer to the truth and when it comes from someone who's had a real life experience with you, your product, your services, and your company.

Good luck

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

1) Presentation is a logical and orderly method of separating prospects from suspects. There's a logical sequence to selling.

That involves asking the right questions to the prospects and get the right answers. Many sales people failed to boost their sales because they ignore this important technique. Through asking questions, you can achieve the followings:

- problems faced by your prospects
- what do your prospects really want
- provide solutions for your prospects

There are sales book, audio and video products on selling. Buy them and invest in yourself. It is worth it. Prior to sales appointment, read up some techniques from the sales book. Try those techniques during the sales appointment and review your results.

2) Successful people are always taking action

When successful people get an idea, they try it out quickly. They don't wait and see. It becomes a good habit to keep trying out new things and being able to review the results.

3) Luck is law of probability

Driving home means you have a probability of success in reaching home safely. You also have the probability of failure, which means meeting with an accidence.

How to make your own luck? The answer is to take more actions and try more things.

For example, if you only have one dart to throw on the board, you have lower probability or chance. However, if you have more darts and you throw dart after dart on the board, your probability of landing at least one dart on the board is higher. Even if you are an idiot, you will eventually hit the board.

The more you try, the more failures you will face. The good thing is you learn more and faster from failures but not so much from success alone.

Author: Aaron Loh

About the author:
Aaron Loh is an avid learner and is always in the pursuit for success in what he's passionately involved in - helping others to constantly learn and upgrade themselves. He faced many setbacks and challenges in this journey. With his strong commitment and determination, plus God's blessing, he successfully changed the lives of thousands and thousands of people. Get your FREE training video provided at http://www.wealthlearning.net

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

Catalogs generally range from small pamphlets to large bound books that contain hundreds of pages. By and large, catalogs consist of images or photos, the description of the products and their prices. If you are new to the catalog printing process there are several things you need to consider. First off, you have to carefully plan your catalog design and printing process. You need to decide what kind of catalog you want to create. Would it be a catalog for your individual customers or for other businesses? What products should you included in every page? How many pages will your catalog have? And how many catalogs will you need to be printed?

Likewise, you need to consider the printing technology that you will use. Keep in mind that using the wrong printing equipment can cause damage to the final print out. Thus, if you want high quality catalogs, asking the help of a printing company can be a good idea. You can go with you local print shop or go online and select from the hundreds of companies there the one that will do the job for you.

If you are concerned about the design of your catalog you can ask the help of a professional designer. As there is a huge amount of skill and technical knowledge needed to design and create a catalog, the services of professional graphic artists can be helpful. Make sure though to look for a company that has experience in catalog printing and designing. But when considering a company for you catalog printing, do not merely look on their styles and designs but look at the quality of their work. Chances are the past works of this company were created to match the need of their clients so their portfolio may not necessarily show the style of catalog that you are looking for. So focus more on the quality rather than on the design.

As a business owner it is important that your catalog should look a lot like a quality magazine printing. This way your customers will more likely keep your catalogs or keep them in the open. When customers do not like your catalog they will most likely keep them buried under their magazines. Keep in mind that keeping your catalog visible can increase the chance that readers will contact you immediately and place an order.

Hence, there are many things you need to consider when creating a catalog. It takes more than the need and willingness to create a good quality, professional-looking catalog. You have to have creativity, determination and patience. Likewise, you need to keep in mind what your customers need and want when producing an effective catalog. After all, it is your customers whom you created your catalog for. So, the look and feel of the catalog should reflect the mood of your products and services.

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

How to price garage sale items is always a source of concern. If your pricing is too high, then the stuff won't sell, pricing that is low means poor profits. What you want is a nice balance so that you will get the most money for your garage sale items, and leave you with a cleaner house too.

The purpose of this article is to give you a couple of quick ideas that will help you determine good garage sale pricing levels so your items will sell and produce the best possible profits.

The biggest challenge you will need to face is the challenge of 'pricing from the heart'. Some items are useless to you, but useful (valuable) to others. And of course some things that you value may be absolutely worthless to anyone else on the planet.

The easiest garage sale pricing tip we can give is to use color-coding. Choose several different coloured stickers (or tags) and then give each colour a price. At the sale, in plain view, post a large sign with the price scale for each colour of sticker you use. Then, simply mark all of your items with coloured stickers. This is one of the fastest and easiest garage sale pricing techniques around.

Be sure to have a smaller version of the price key at the cashier's table - this garage sale pricing tip will make your life much easier. The color-coded method as a garage sale pricing tip works really well if you are having a two-day garage sale and you advertise that you will be reducing prices on the second day. Then, instead of changing the price on every single item, you can simply post a new sign or make changes on the one you have up already.

Pricing the stuff you want to sell at your garage sale does not need to be a stressful event. Just think about how much you'd be willing to pay for that item if it were used and had no special meaning to you. If you do that, you'll be in the right ballpark and will have much better success at selling all your stuff.

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

When it comes to selling your products it is important to ask your potential customers probing questions as well as open ended questions.

These types of questions are geared toward gathering information. They commit your customer to giving you anything but a yes or no answer.

For instance, an open-ended question would come across like this:

What is it that you like so much about your current bank?

Now, if you are a banker trying to get a customer to bank with you, you will now be able to compare your products and benefits to what your customer has just told you about their current bank.

Also, by finding out about what they like, you will also find out what their needs are.

Another name for selling a customer what they need is 'needs-based selling.'

All sales people have goals and we have a tendency to sell things to people even though they have no need for the product just so we can have our numbers inflated so we can talk about it during the weekly sales meeting or conference call.

The downside to selling something to someone that they have no need for is that your customer will quickly figure out that they don't have a need for it and will never consider you in the future for your services.

This is the reason why it is so important to find out what your customers needs are before you sell them something.

When you sell a customer something that they need or want, they will be truly happy with the product and the service and appreciate your help.

As we all know, a happy customer is a good customer and will always come back to you for your services and refer friends and family to you as well.

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

Most consultants are like cab drivers. Cab drivers run the meter. They throw the luggage in the trunk (that's a $1.00 bag charge). They may or may not be personable. If you have extra passengers, that's $1.50 each on top of the mileage. No smoking. And the radio is tuned to their favorite station - not yours.

Most consultants charge by the hour or the day. The meter is running. When you need a special report or their attendance at an onsite meeting, there's your bag charge. They may or may not be personable to anyone other than the executive who hired them. If you need additional work or facilitation or expertise, there's a fee 'on top of the mileage.' And most times, you're locked into their 'radio station' - tuned to their methodologies, their licensed tools, their processes - not yours.

What if you came across a dramatically different kind of cab driver? Let's call him Ike.

1. Ike has his own business card with his personal cell phone number, a rocket logo and a humorous tagline, such as 'Strap in. Hang on. Here we go!' One of his cab's notable features is the Hot Wheels steering wheel cover. Your initial impression might be that he is direct and, most importantly, fast.

2. In addition, Ike is a great listener. This would be in contrast to some 'real character' cab drivers, who are great talkers.

3. Ike takes credit cards and proudly displays the Visa and American Express decals inside his cab. A credit card transaction costs him between 2 and 4% of every sale. (The cab company does NOT subsidize this fee - it's up to each individual driver to decide whether to accept credit cards or not.) But it also makes him easy to do business with - and, coincidentally, increases the likelihood of getting a nice tip.

4. Ike is proactive and offers suggestions. For example, when a passenger asks Ike for a good restaurant recommendation, he has a few of his favorite places in mind and a restaurant guide available right in the front seat of the cab. Ike will offer to take his passenger to the restaurant, and also to come back at an appointed time to save the hassle of tracking down another cab. He is never late. Does Ike profit from this? Sure. Does Ike's passenger? Sure. Will some cab drivers refuse to come back at a set time for fear of losing a juicier fare or a longer ride that may or may not come along? You bet.

5. When picking up or dropping off from the airport, Ike always finds out a little bit about his passenger. Is this his first time in town? How long is his visit? If Ike discovers that his passenger has come for business and hasn't any time to see the sights or experience the city, he offers to take the passenger on a 10-minute sightseeing tour of downtown. Pointing out the highlights, sharing a little history, and telling a few stories, Ike has his passenger back on his way with a real flavor of the city that he loves. Is this a gimmick to add 10 minutes to the meter? With some cabbies, it might be. But Ike's passion and knowledge and eagerness to share it with his passengers cannot be faked. Would a friend do the same for you on your way out of town? Absolutely.

Let's turn our focus to the lessons for consulting. Feel free to compare these consulting tips with the corresponding lessons from the taxi business above.

1. Successful consultants stand apart - both in form and in substance. Sales trainer, consultant, and author Jeffrey Gitomer uses a half-dollar sized coin with his image and contact information (and some clever slogans like 'In Sales We Trust') engraved on it as his business card. People not only remember it, they keep it and they show it to their friends. Your initial impression might be that he is successful, funny, creative, and different than every other 'me-too' sales trainer wearing a nice suit and carrying sharp white business cards (yawn).

2. Successful consultants are not good listeners. They're DEEP listeners. 'Good' listeners use surface tricks and techniques like 'active listening' and 'matching and mirroring.' Deep listeners listen with no agenda. Your listening focus should be on empathy - literally 'feeling WITH' the client - and understanding the issues behind the issues. This isn't a trick you learn in 'consulting school.' This comes from your heart and your genuine interest in helping the client improve their situation. Deep listening will help you understand the real value that the client seeks from you.

3. Successful consultants are easy to do business with. One of the world's finest consultants, Alan Weiss, says in his book Million Dollar Consulting, 'you have to spend money to make money.' Part of that money should be spent on things that will make you easy to do business with. Some of these things are almost trivial - being able to accept credit cards, having an 800 number, etc. And some of these things will be a major investment of time, effort, thought, and energy. Like designing a resource-rich web presence or moving to value-based fee-setting so people get you and your expertise without concern over when you punch in and out on the time clock.

4. Successful consultants are proactive and offer suggestions. Flexibility is a great source of strength. So is forward movement. When consulting with large organizations, it is easy to fall into their trap of 'analysis paralysis.' Especially with all the hype around 'getting close to the customer.' The danger for consultants in getting too close to the customer is that you'll get mired in the same quicksand you've been brought in to rescue them from! Keep moving, and always offer options. It could be as simple as 'Plan A or B or C,' but giving choices always enhances collaboration and provides a sense of shared responsibility for outcomes. And it's harder to say 'No' when asked 'Chocolate or Vanilla or Strawberry?' Ideally, your clients will say 'Wow, they ALL sound delicious.' Then you are in a position to make a recommendation based on your deep listening (See #2!)

5. Successful consultants work from passion, knowledge, and eagerness to help. The irony of this is that the more easy and effortless the work for the consultant, the greater the value it has for the client. For the consultant, the intersection of joy and business is called profit. Marketer, speaker, and author Seth Godin believes that in any business relationship, the sooner you ask for money, the less you will get. This has interesting implications for the consulting business, where knowledge and expertise (and to a certain extent, even conversation) has monetary value.

I happen to believe in the concept of value-first selling. In other words, you should give clients valuable information and point them to resources they need, even before you're hired. You should work to make prospects think, 'Wow, this guy is a goldmine. Imagine what we'd get if we actually HIRED him.'

Now a lot of sales and consulting experts call this 'spilling the candy in the lobby' and they advise strongly against it. And I would advise against it too - if you're only carrying one bowl of candy. But without bragging, I can safely say that among great consultants (people who work at the intersection of passion and knowledge and eagerness to help), we're a veritable candy store and are not likely to run out anytime soon by sharing our gifts with clients that are hungry for what we have to offer.

Would you help a friend with your knowledge and expertise? Sure you would. Perhaps clients are simply friends that pay you money? Think about it.

Beep, beep. 'Hop in!'

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

We hear all the time about all sorts of techniques for closing people in sales situations, and other approaches that are designed for us salespeople to gain more business with our customers and prospects, too. While some of these approaches can be useful, there's just no substitute for what's considered one the best sales techniques around. That being:
Building great rapport with your customers and prospects, and having them feel you're 100% committed to helping them attain their needs, wants, and desires .

But this is not how many salespeople are doing it in their own businesses right now, is it?

Frequently people will get into sales because they see it as a way to make big money. But they then fall into the routine of being forceful in their sales approaches, trying to move the customer in the direction that's best for the salesperson.

The unfortunate reality is these salespeople don't realize their customers can see what they're up to. Somehow these salespeople feel they're not telegraphing what they're doing in any way that can be detected by the customer or prospect they're working with.

With this in mind, just once I'd like to be in a clothing store and hear a salesperson say to the customer, 'You know, that doesn't look very good on you at all.'

Any salesperson that would tell me this would instantly raise their level of credibility!

Yet there are a great many salespeople out there trying to steer their prospects towards doing deals that may not be the best ones for the prospects, but they're the best ones for the salespeople instead. And once your prospect picks up on this behavior, your relationship with the person is sunk. Now you've become just someone who 'sells' to them, but they know now that they can't trust your judgment and opinion. They have to determine whether or not the product or service will work for them completely independent of anything you now say to them.

The type of salesperson we all want to work with is someone we like who we feel has their number one priority being serving our best needs. When we both like someone and feel they're committed to serving our best interests, we naturally just feel ourselves wanting to work with them.
The same applies for you, too, in your own business.

As an example, do you think if you were the one looking to buy or lease product or service that you could sense if the rep you were working with had your best interests in mind above their own? If your answer to this is 'Yes,' don't you think the same applies with your own customers and prospects, too? Don't you think they can sense if you're serving their best interests or looking out for your own commission?

Sometimes, for whatever reason, we don't feel our customers and prospects share our same intuitive qualities in this arena. And it can cost us big time, too, if we haven't already become the kind of salesperson who always puts their needs before our own.

Make sure you're adept at developing great rapport with your customers and prospects, and make sure they always understand that serving their best interests is constantly your number one priority.
Once you've mastered this in your own business, people will sense that you're the best choice they could ever make when it's time for them to buy.

Best of luck to you out in the field

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

1. Explore New Advertising Methods
The first sign that you might need to explore new marketing strategies, is a sharp decline in the effectiveness of your advertisment campaign. Yeah, you shell out a lot of hard earned cash to advertise, and the public turns its nose up! Don't wait until your profits are plunging to start hunting for new marketing strategies.

Wouldn't it be great if you could foolproof your selling techniques? Yeah, no more customers walking out with empty hands... no more profits disappearing into thin air! Here are 4 secrets that will help you put money in your pocket, and lengthen your current customer list.

1. Make It Easy
There's an old adage that says variety is the spice of life, but hey, too many choices can lead to indecision and procrastination. We all know what happens when customers procrastinate... yeah, you lose a sale.

When a customer walks into your business ready to purchase, and suddenly sees several options he didn't know were there, he'll stop then decide... which one? If he's uncertain... well, you lose a sale that was already in your pocket.

Make it easy for your customers to decide... yes, I'll buy it... no I won't buy it. Yes and no decisions are a lot easier to make, and are more likely to put cash in the drawer.

2. Offer Several Ways To Buy
Too many choices can overwhelm customers and cost you sales, but options of how to buy open up avenues for customers to purchase the product they've decided they need. They say there are different strokes for different folks... your customers don't all use the same methods to buy. It just makes sense that if the method they prefer is available, they'll be more likely to take advantage of it.

Convenience it the key to attracting buyers in today's fast paced society. What will be the fastest and easiest for them... credit card, phone, fax, Internet, or cold hard cash?

3. Keep it Simple
You remember the frustration of spending 10 minutes pushing buttons on the phone just to get through a pain-in-the-neck automated ordering service. Heck, you just wanted to buy one item! Maybe it was the time you had to click your finger raw, just to jump through the hoops of an online shopping cart. Yeah, the temptation to just forget it is right there!

Don't frustrate your customers with intricate ordering processes. Most likely, they just want to place the order in a few minutes and be done. Let them get frustrated, and they'll go elsewhere, or just abandon the idea altogether.

4. Follow Up
One of my favorite catalog companies always closes out the sale with a special buy that is available only at the time of purchase. I'm not an impulsive shopper by any stretch of the imagination, but it stops me in my tracks every time. I know it's a one-time shot, and I really consider whether I want or need it before I hang up the phone.

How many items would your customers buy if you were to follow up every sale with a special offer? Internet marketers have a world of options at their fingertips. The products you offer don't even have to be yours... and you can still make a profit!

Affiliate marketing is sweeping the Web. Think about it... would your customers benefit from an ebook that deals with the product they are purchasing? You can offer it to them, and let the owner handle ordering process while you collect the commission. It's as easy as 1, 2, and 3 and profitable too!

Boosting your sales numbers and profit dollars isn't as tough as it sounds. Implement these 4 simple selling techniques, and watch your sales steadily climb... and just think... they didn't cost you a penny!

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

Most people will always think of eBay when they ear or read about online auction software or online auction system. It is obviously a very well know website that uses an online auction software to sell goods all around the world.

But what people do not always think about is that you can get an auction system on your own website and sell whatever you want in it. We see nowadays more and more websites using an online auction software to sell any kind of products like cars, boats, properties or even industrial equipment.
Getting an auction system on your website could really help you cut down costs and get a very good price for an item. On top of that, you can easily reach buyers from all over the world. Being able to reach a worldwide audience means that the items you are selling will reach a much higher price than if you had sold them in only one country. On top of that, you can sell somebody else's products and get a commission per sale which will get you more money without having to deal with storage or shipping of the items sold.

A good online auction software obviously need to have useful features that will make it easy to use for the buyer as well as for the seller.

A real time bidding system where the user does not need to refresh the webpage to see the live price and whether or not they are winning the item surely is a great feature. It is probably one of the most important features that will make an auction software good.
Another great feature to have is for the site owner to be clearly able to see in real time whether you are making a profit or a loss on an auction.
Having a secure payment system is obviously crucial and should never be neglected as buyers will certainly not trust a website where your payments are not secured. On top of that, it is always good for the buyer to have the opportunity to buy the item straight away without having to enter a bid by using the 'buy it now' for example. The more options you will give the better.

In the end, if you want your website to perform as well as eBay for example, you will need to use a very good auction system to make sure that you and your users can easily navigate through the website and bid on items.

Author: don rev

About the author:
The author knows a lot about online auction software and auction system. Find more about auction software.

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

If you are a loan officer or mortgage broker, you may be on the market for mortgage leads. You may even be considering purchasing them exclusively.

Purchasing exclusive mortgage leads may not be such a bad idea if you want to cut out your competition.

Most mortgage lead companies will sell their leads up to four times, and some as many as five times. This is known as selling the lead non exclusively.

Not only will you want to purchase your leads exclusively, you will also want to make sure that the lead is being sold in real time, or what is known as fresh.

A real time lead is one that arrives in your hand within seconds of the potential customer hitting the submit button on the on line application.

If a lead company is selling you old or recycled leads, than you can hardly call these leads exclusive because it has gone through the hands of many loan officers before it reached you, so be careful.

The most effective way to make sure you are receiving real time exclusive leads is to call the lead company you are considering investing with.

Speak with someone in customer service and find out where they obtain their leads and how they are delivered, as well as how quickly they are delivered.

Your best bet is to go with a lead company that obtains their own leads through sites in which they own and operate.

Steer clear of the mortgage lead companies that buy their leads from third party vendors. There is no way to know how many times that third party vendor sold that lead to other companies or loan officers.

Remember, you work hard for your money. So if you are not happy with the answers you receive from customer service, than more than likely you will not be happy with the leads they send you.

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

Do you sell to the government or to large companies? Do you regularly get purchase orders that stretch your company's ability to deliver? Lastly, if you had financing to cover all your supplier costs, could you sell more? Much more?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then purchase order financing could help your business grow.

Purchase order financing is a way of financing sales that has been gaining popularity with US and Canadian businesses. It offers a very simple proposition. If you have an order from a large credit worthy business (or government agency), then the financing company will provide you with the necessary funding to fulfill your supplier payments and make the sale. Call it sales based financing. It works well for resellers, distributors and wholesalers, although it can also be used in other industries.

Here is how purchase order financing works. Let's say that you own a company that has been getting progressively larger orders, tightening your cash flow. After setting up a purchase order financing agreement, this is how your sales financing would work:

1. You get an order from a client
2. The purchase order finance company handles up to 100% of your supplier payments (by direct payment or letter of credit)
3. The order is fulfilled and the goods are delivered
4. The transaction is settled, once the client pays their invoices

As you can see, purchase order financing allows you to leverage the resources of the financing company and allows you to increase your sales. With PO financing, lack of cash flow will never be a reason to lose a sale.

As opposed to a business loan from a bank, purchase order financing is very easy to obtain and can be set up in days. The main requirement is to have valid orders from good commercial or government clients. Most banks won't offer this type of financing, but you can get it from a factoring company. As a matter of fact, purchase order financing and invoice factoring are frequently combined to help reduce the costs of the transaction.

So, if your purchase orders are piling up, be sure to consider financing with purchase order funding.

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

Achieving success after you open a dollar store business involves a relatively simple formula. The formula requires you to increase the number of sales transactions made in your store. As sales transaction numbers climb focus on increasing the size of the average sales transaction in your store. To this you blend continued focus on reducing the cost-of-goods-sold. In this article I present proven tactics to grow bottom line results after you open a dollar store. We will examine each component of this equation.

First let's examine how to increase the number of sales transactions in your store. There are basically two ways this can be achieved. First you can increase the number of new shoppers who enters your store. If all other variables remaining unchanged, the more shoppers coming through the front door, the greater the number of sales transaction in your store. The second way to increase the number of sales transaction is if you increase the frequency with which existing customers return to your store. The more often they return the greater the number of purchases they will make. Let's take an example. Let's assume your average traffic is 200 visitors per day and you make 100 sales. For this example we'll also assume the average sale in your store is $10.00. What if you could get an extra 50 people to enter your store each day? All things remaining equal, that should mean 25 extra sales in your store. 25 extra sales with a $10.00 average sales size equal $250.00 in extra sales per day or about $91,250.00 in added sales per year.

Next let's examine increasing the average sale size. Now intuitively it makes sense that we will increase our total sales just by increasing the number of sales made. However if you open a dollar store and then take that approach you are leaving sales on the table. You are failing to focus effort on increasing the average size of your store sales. Increasing the average sales size requires that the number of items (or the total dollar value of sales if you are greater than $1.00 price point.) in the average sales transaction increase. For example, if your store completes 100 sales during an average day and you total sales for the day total $1,000.00, then your average sales transaction size is $10.00. What if you completed the same 100 sales, but your average transaction size increases by just $1.00? All of a sudden your total sales are $1,100. You've just increased your total store sales by a whopping $100.00 per day, or about $36,500.00 per year!

Increasing traffic and also increasing the size of your average sale should be enough to positively impact your bottom line results after you open a dollar store. The reality is they aren't enough. You need one other important ingredient; lower cost-of-goods sold. In fairness, you are losing money if there aren't continuous efforts focused on reducing all costs associated with your business. In fact this is so important that it should become either a strategic objective each year, or a part of your business plan, or both. Lowering the cost-of-goods-sold by even one-cent can have immense results. If you are selling at the dollar price point and total sales for the year were $365,000 with a 50-cent cost-of-goods-sold, what happens if you do reduce COGS by 1-cent? In our example you have a 50-cent COGS or $182,500 for the year. A 1-cent reduction means COGS would be reduced to $178,850. That's an amazing $3,650.00 to the bottom line!

If you open a dollar store be sure to place emphasis on all three components discussed here. Each is a piece of the puzzle that can really pay huge dividends for your business. While each requires different actions, they must all receive your attention. Invest the time, effort and money to make them work for your business. Give it a try!

To your dollar store business success!

Author: Bob Hamilton

About the author:
Find out how you can open your own dollar store business.
Bob Hamilton is an entrepreneur, author, writer, business consultant and trainer.


Article source: Free Sales Articles.

Many creative professionals such as event planners, interior designers, and decorative painters are frustrated when potential clients steal their ideas and take them to cheaper companies. They present their ideas in a proposal or presentation and later find that they didn't get the client and their designs are being used by someone else.

PROTECT YOUR IDEAS

In order to protect your ideas and still get the client, you have to change how you deliver your concepts and specifically what you present. Keep in mind, your creative ideas are the most valuable part of what you do, so stop giving them away for free.

The first thing you need to do to protect yourself is to focus the initial meeting with the prospect on her ideas and her needs, rather than on your ideas and your suggestions. Spend at least 95% of the meeting asking questions rather than presenting solutions and ideas.

Find out what the client wants and what she envisions. Discover why she wants what she wants and uncover what her experiences have been in the past with this type of project. Focus on her, not on you and your services.

Build a relationship with the client and let go of the idea that you have to put on a big show of creative ideas to impress her. Contrary to what most people think, the client would rather talk about what she want then listen to your ideas. Really.

PRESENT THE WHAT BUT NOT THE HOW

Next, present the potential client with a proposal that becomes a contract once the prospect signs it. The proposal should include goals that the client told you she wanted in your first meeting. It should include payment terms. The proposal should include what you will do, just not HOW you will do it.

Let's look at examples of how and what:

Event Planner:
WHAT: 'Incorporate an island theme in event decorations, music, catering, and location.'
HOW: 'Use pineapple centerpieces, bamboo tables, island shaped invitations, coconut flavored cake, and an entry way filled with palm tree leaves and bananas.'

Interior Designer:
WHAT: Design a functional and easy-to-tidy space for use as a family room where there is ample storage for children's games, a television, and other entertainment.
HOW: Rubbermaid storage containers will be used in a specially designed 17-piece wood cabinet that can be converted into a television stand, a workspace, and table.

Wedding Consultant:
WHAT: 'Create an intimate, upscale, evening reception for approximately 40 guests.'
HOW: 'Decorate facility with purple flowers and linens, a four-tier chocolate and raspberry wedding cake, and a 6-piece band.

Decorative Painter:
WHAT: Create a jungle-themed mural for child's bedroom.
HOW: Paint walls with 'garden room' green, add 25 rainforest trees throughout walls and incorporating ceiling space, paint 5 Colobus monkeys, 7 chimpanzees, a gray parrot, 9 green tree frogs, and a stream running across the door.


WHEN AND HOW TO PRESENT YOUR IDEAS

You can present your ideas in several ways and still protect them.

First, you can present your ideas in detail after the client has signed a simple proposal with you. You should work together with the client to create what he wants through your creative talents.

Another way to present your ideas is through sample boards or renderings, but only after the client has either signed a proposal for the project or paid you for your ideas. If you chose to charge the client for the samples, agree to put the payment towards the amount of the final contract amount should the client agree to hire you to do the project. If the client chooses to use someone else for the project, then at least you were paid for your ideas and your suggestions.

Never present specific ideas, sample boards, or drawings to a client unless you've been paid for that part of the project or the client has signed a contract. By continuing to submit ideas and formal suggestions to potential clients, you are short changing yourself and your creative talents by lowering the value of your concepts in the mind of the buyer.

By learning how to effectively manage the first meeting with a potential customer, how to protect your ideas, and when and how to present your ideas will help you gain better clients, better projects, and have a better income!

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

If you want to consistently capture the attention of top decision makers you must learn to speak their language. One of the many things I learned from my years of working with Tony Parinello, the author of the best selling business book Selling To VITO, is 'You will end up in a company with the person you sound the most like.' That is so true! For example if you call and speak 'cost cutting' and 'techno- babble' you will be sent to the IT department. On the other hand if you speak the language of top line growth, strategic and competitive advantage you will be sent to the C-Suite.

I know what you're thinking: 'I've tried to get folks from the C-Suite involved in my sales process and it's impossible!' I appreciate your perspective. I really do, because at one time that was my perspective as well. However here's the reality. The majority of sales people do not pause and take into account who they are approaching and then adjust their language and focus based on that individual's position. This is one of the reasons why the majority of sales people get 'toasted' when they do try to start their sales cycle high.

Here are 3 things you can take as absolutes:

1. Executives are under significant pressure to make the right decisions and get results.
2. As a result of number one they are constantly on the look out for ideas, information and insights that will help them make effective decisions and gain a competitive advantage.
3. If you present information to an executive that offers them effective ideas on how to deal with the trends, issues and threats they are currently facing in their industry, they will talk with you.

The opportunity that lies before you is to differentiate yourself by taking your business acumen and communication skills up a notch. The bar has been raised for all of us today and the day of the 'one dimensional' competitor is gone.

Any and all time you spend in learning the language of top decision makers will be well invested in your present and future success.

Author: Duane Cashin

About the author:
Duane Cashin is a motivational speaker and sales trainer who focuses on helping sales and business people differentiate themselves and gain a competitive advantage in today's crowded and competitive markets. Duane's knowledge of how to penetrate the C-Suite was solidified when he worked with Tony Parinello the author of the best selling book Selling to VITO. As a keynote speaker and sales trainer Duane is known to have the perfect blend of content and humor. www.duanecashin.com

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

Increasing Sales Through Strategic Internet Marketing

Now the Internet become an important medium for product and service advertisements. Almost every company that can afford print, radio and TV advertisements have also ventured into placing ads on the Internet.

But with millions of websites out there being visited by millions of computer users, how can you make sure that your ad can be seen by your target customers and that your leads will be followed by these users? Here are a few tips.

1. Place an ad on the websites frequented by your target customers. Before doing this, you need to define who will be your target customers. Placing an ad on sites that they usually visit will increase the possibility that your ad will gain the attention and will be followed your target customers.

Also, consider the website's search engine placement, traffic, external linking and the other ads placed on it. External linking will determine if there are other sites that link to this site. This will mean that people can get to the site where your ad is placed, even if they are browsing a different site. Check if many of your competitors have ads on this site.

2. Placing ads on some sites cost some money. However, there are also sites that can place a link to your site, product or service in exchange of having their link being displayed on your site. This is also true about the newsletters sent by site owners to its mailing list members regularly.

Also, having helpful links placed on your site and having sites link to your pages help in boosting search engine ranking. This is similar to making a statement that your site's content is important that other sites have links to your web pages.

3. Pay-per-click (PPC) is also a good method in Internet marketing. You will only need to pay for the ad if the link is clicked. If you prefer this method of advertisement, make sure that you are using services that set limits on daily expenses. There are also services that help you determine effective keywords and monitor the PPC results.

4. Choose your domain name wisely. It is still being debated if domain names matter when it comes to search engine placement. Whether it does or not, having product related domain names help consumers remember your domain, that they can go back to your site even without the links.

5. Make sure you have useful content on your sites. While keyword density is important in search engine placement, having useless information or annoying repetition of keywords will not increase your customer's confidence in your site. It may even affect your sites traffic and can get your site removed from search engines. So make sure that keywords are used strategically.

6. When thinking of keywords, think like your target customers. What do you think are they going to search so they can get to your site? Also, use specific keywords or key phrases. Submitting a single word or a very general phrase to a search engine will not get you to the top of the search results compared to submitting specific keywords that describe your product and services perfectly.

7. Track your ads. Always check how much you have spent on placing links on frequently visited sites and on PPC. There are services that allow you to monitor PPC transactions and how many of these end in sales. You always need to consider if the ads that you have placed on these websites are getting you to your target consumers and if these ads can lead to revenue.

One final tip on marketing products and services, sell the benefits. It will help your marketing strategies a lot if you highlight the benefits of choosing your products and services instead of merely discussing the product specifications. Product specifications may not mean much to customers, unless they know what these stand for (how these specifications affect the quality of the product or service).

Many people say getting to the top of search engine results is difficult since millions of websites exist, which can be using the same keywords. While this is true, this doesn't mean that your website has to stacked under your competitors' websites when presenting search engine results. Strategic advertising and linking, together with useful content, can also get you to the top of the search results.

Author: Alice

About the author:
http://www.simplyrichsg.com/sns

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

Many party plan merchandisers also use a letter. They write a letter extolling the fun and excitement of the parties, explaining briefly the opportunities to receive free gifts of their choice or big commission checks. Then they invite the letter recipients to call for complete details on how they can stage a party. These letters are usually printed in volume, and then slipped inside the covers of the catalogue these merchandisers give to each person attending the parties. Sometimes these letters are handed to each guest as the party breaks up.

Some party plan merchandisers also run small classified ads in the area newspapers. Their advertising plays up the opportunities available to make regular commission checks (extra income) simply by holding parties in their homes. People interested are invited to phone for more details. Response to this kind of ad is generally very good, with the conversion rate better than sixty percent!

Most people tend to feel party plan merchandising is exclusive to women, but don't you believe it! It's true that women generally establish themselves more rapidly than men with this kind of sales operation, but over the long haul, there are just as many men operating successful party plan sales operations as there are women.

Men are usually not as adept in establishing social 'chit-chat' relationships as women. Therefore, the man who wants in on the vast potential of party plan merchandising should consider working with a woman.

A husband and wife partnership is an ideal working arrangement. An acquaintance, girlfriend or relative will often work out just as successfully. The basic requirement is simply that the 'couple' must function as a team, with the individual talents of one complementing those of the other.

Probably one of the greatest secrets of success with this kind of sales operation is that in order to make the sales, and talk about $400 parties, you must have the widest selection of merchandise possible.

Many beginners, not understanding that offering the potential buyers a wide and varied selection of items to choose from is what builds your profits in a hurry, base their entire merchandising plan around a selection that's of special interest or particularly appealing to themselves. It's all right to include the items that you especially like, but don't base your entire merchandise line on the things you like; you're selling to others, not yourself!

Most successful party plan merchandisers advise that you should display at least forty different items and more if you have the supplier contacts or the buying expertise. The actual decisions on which products to carry and display at your parties should be based upon these four factors: 1) The kinds of gift items, personal decor articles, and general merchandise the people in your area are buying; 2) The styles or fads currently in vogue in your area; 3) Contacts with enough sup pliers who can furnish you with the kind of merchandise your potential buyers want; 4) Your ability to shop among the various suppliers, and verify that you are getting the very best merchandise value obtainable.

Still another important point to consider before buying merchandise to display and sell: Do the prices you have to pay for your products wholesale allow you enough room for a reasonable profit when compared to your time and expense?

Do some market research relative to your ambitions; get answers to the questions we've set forth for you, and when you're satisfied that you understand the workings of Party Plan Merchandising, grab the opportunity and run with it!

Author: Uchenna Ani-Okoye

About the author:
Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor and co founder of Top Affiliate Programs

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

Over the past 30 years, the consulting engineering business has become increasingly competitive. Advances in technology from Fed Ex to Fax and, of course, in all aspects of computerization have allowed almost unimaginable increases in efficiency and the speed with which information can be analyzed and delivered to clients.

The 'hazardous waste boom' in the 80's and the increasing need for infrastructure in growing economies led to more entrants to the market and increasing, more efficient competition in consulting engineering.

As competitive pressures increased, hourly rates for services were forced downward. The multiplier of raw salary to billing rates continued to free fall from numbers on the order of 3.5 in the late 70's, to the high two's in the 80's, to the present range which is on the order of 2.5 or less. The net result of falling rates has been increasing pressure to keep billability high and overhead low.

The largest firms (those with over 1,000 employees) can do more with lower overhead because of efficiencies gained from having the same internal services distributed over larger numbers of employees and gross revenue. Mid-sized firms (those with 500 employees or so) still need internal services such as dedicated senior management, human resources, marketing, accounting, etc. but must distribute these costs over lower revenue. Very little overhead money is left for people dedicated full time to developing new business. To control overhead, almost everyone has to be billable.

Given this situation, it's become increasingly necessary for technical staff - otherwise billable scientists and engineers - to develop new business. Unfortunately, scientists and engineers seldom see themselves as 'salespeople' and are seldom trained and coached in business development skills. Their daily routine is not geared to visiting potential clients they've never met - and they are usually very uncomfortable doing this. So, it doesn't happen.

What can be done? How can mid-sized consulting engineering firms give their technical staff the skills necessary to become effective 'seller / doers'? Even more important, how can scientists and engineers be motivated to make business development a key part of their professional life?

Our work at MBDi, where we specialize in teaching scientists and engineers to sell technical services, has shown that several factors are critical. Most of the problems that people have in business development can be characterized as either 'mechanical' (they don't know what to do) or 'conceptual' (they know what to do, but they won't do it). In our experience, the vast majority of people (60%) that fail in the role of business development fail because they cannot overcome conceptual problems. Because of this, we find that it's important to work on these 'conceptual' problems first.

The first task is enabling technical people to understand that building a professional practice is the key to their success in consulting. We can give them all the business development skills they'll need, but if they don't believe in it, they won't do it.

The first thing that scientists and engineers must understand is that as 'professionals' it's necessary for them to develop a 'professional practice' like the other professions - attorneys and physicians, for example.

Second, developing a professional practice gives them the ability to manage their own destiny. They will be able to 'take care of themselves' rather than putting their future in someone else's hands.

Third, the key to security in a mid-sized consulting business is the ability to bring in new business. Unpaid work that may be required is an investment in one's self and in one's security.

Finally, and probably most important, is that business development is ethical. Their purpose in business development is to help their clients get the services they need - they should never have to 'push' anything that won't help their clients.

Engineers and scientists must truly believe in these principles or they won't choose to take on the role of business development. If they accept this, training can begin.

Once past the 'Conceptual Problems' we can start working on the four 'cornerstone' competencies that are essential for success in business development: Technical Knowledge, Money Knowledge, Business Knowledge and People Knowledge.

- Technical Knowledge is understanding the problems that the services we offer can solve for our clients. It is the ability to translate what we provide into the specific issues and concerns that the client has.

- Money Knowledge is understanding how your client makes money, how their business develops a profit, and the issues that affect that profitability.

- Business Knowledge is understanding your client's business as well as understanding your client's customers' business. It is knowing their business strategically and tactically from their perspective.

- People Knowledge, in addition to understanding ourselves, is organizational and client knowledge, understanding why the organization is structured the way it, assessing the leadership capability of the individuals and understanding the issues that drive the behavior of those in a leadership position.

In our experience, the least understood of these cornerstone competencies is 'People Knowledge', but it's essential for success. It's much more important to know how and why clients buy services than to learn how to sell services. So, it's important to train people in the 'psychology of the sale'.

We believe that it's the one who best understands a client's problems from the client's perspective who will win the business. Therefore we also concentrate our training efforts in the skills necessary to elicit, completely understand and develop clients' problems.

Because it's important to control overhead, it's critical to qualify prospective clients. Those who don't have problems that your firm can solve don't need your services. The sooner you can find that out, the less expensive it will be - so, qualify 'early and often'. If a client can't convince you that he has a problem, you shouldn't try to convince them that you have a solution.

Young engineers and scientists in a consulting company have lots of opportunities to practice these skills before they try face-to-face cold calls. As they develop professionally, they should be getting an understanding that it's up to them to keep themselves billable - at first through developing their practice internally. Understanding whom in the firm needs their skills and joining these teams will keep them billable.

As their careers progress, technical staff often begin managing projects. For many, this is their first client contact and the first real opportunity to develop new business for the firm. Nevertheless, it's surprising that even though Project Managers are sometimes on site and have frequent contact with clients, they often don't develop any new business. In most cases, this is because they work 'with blinders on' thinking that 'sales' is someone else's job. Often, they don't have the imagination to see a client's problems that their firm could solve. Obviously, their first priority must be to deliver high quality service, bringing in the project on time and on budget. With training and coaching, however, they can be taught to develop any firm's most important source of new revenue - repeat business.

Finally, as they reach senior level, scientists and engineers must learn to develop new business with new clients-ones that they have never met - while they maintain some billability. We find that in many cases this is a half-hearted effort at best. It's often reactive, not proactive. Answering the mail. Bidding. Finding 'opportunities' by reading Commerce Business Daily. Anything and everything -- but not frequent, effective business development calls that qualify clients and proactively identify problems and develop them in a way that results in new business.

But it doesn't have to be this way. With effective training and coaching in the necessary conceptual and mechanical skills, scientists and engineers can become highly 'effective seller / doers'. But senior management has to make the commitment to give their staff these skills.

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

If you are a loan officer or mortgage broker looking to score some more customers the easy way, here are a few good ideas for a marketing strategy.

During the entire process of getting a loan ready for closing, you and your customer are met with more than one reason to celebrate other than at the closing table.

For example, before you can proceed with a loan, your customer must have an appraisal done on their home.

Once that appraisal comes in, both to the liking of you and your customer, send your customer an inexpensive congratulatory gift such as a tin of pretzels, cookies, or candy.

But make sure you send it to their place of employment.

Why do something so cheesy you may ask?

Because when you send someone a gift at work, all of their fellow employees want to know why they got it and who it was from.

So when they ask, your customer will tell them all about you and the products and services you are providing them with.

Also, if you have sent some of your business cards along with the gift, you better believe they will be handing them out.

Don't forget to use the same technique once the loan is approved and than again once the loan is closed.

This is a perfect way to get your customers selling you and your products to co-workers, friends and family.

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

Most websites exist to sell something in one form or another. OK, so you might not be selling something directly from your site via shopping software, but if you run any form of commercial website then you are trying to sell goods or services to the visitors that come to your site, and telling them what you do is not going to gain you the maximum return on investment of your website. You must sell your services or goods, not tell people about them.

The job of a web site is to give the visitor (prospective customer) all the information they need to make that buying decision. The simple phrase is educate, inform, motivate.

There is a well know acronym of AIDA
Attention
Interest
Desire
Action

These are the four stages everyone goes through before they buy. If your web copy is not doing this, and you are missing calls to action, then you are losing money. Lack of a call to action is one of the most common errors on a page. 'Click here for FREE information' is a simple instruction that will get people taking the action you want.

So how about educate and motivate? How do you get the ninterest and desire? A simple re-write of your site can have a dramatic effect on its success, and it can pay for itself in no time at all. So what is the difference between selling and telling?

Product descriptions:-

Available in black
In stock
Next day delivery

----------------------

Available in jet black, allowing you to wear this beautiful necklace with almost every outfit you own. This can be delivered to your door overnight if the order is placed before 3pm, and the item is : in stock

It is plain to see which of the above tells, and which sells!

The plain fact is that as a web marketer it is your job to sell yourself, your services, or your products, and you need to understand the difference, if you don't, then your orders/enquiries are going to someone else.

Article source: Free Sales Articles.

Sales techniques
A Google search on sales techniques or strategies (including more specific searches like a search on real estate sales technique or prospecting techniques or marketing tips or motivation strategies) will yield over a million results instantly. Even with so much information at your finger tips it is not any easier to perfect your sales techniques or advertising techniques. Even when you refine your search to terms like sales closing techniques, motivation techniques, presentation techniques, sales skills, and so on and so forth, it is rather hard to narrow down your search any further from among the million odd articles.
A Crisis of Individuality
The more one depends on the strategy 'gurus' or experts whether online, in books or wherever, the more one loses that individual touch, those carefully tested out personal skills and strategies. And it is this quality-individuality-that is very important in the environment we now live in-one of extreme competition. Your buyer would be looking out for that something extra, something off the beaten track, as it were. There are going to be numerous conventions, seminars and the like; breeding conformity. The gut feeling that makes you successful in dealings is your key to success. The important thing is to follow your instincts rather than blindly emulate the jargon spewing sales advisors.
Pick and Choose
That is not to say that all such sales tips should be avoid-far from it. Do learn from as many sources as you can but without forgetting your own self, because that is what makes you different from l the rest of the huge crowd. Business dealings depend on trust. So it is important to focus on your human side. Only then can you convince the other person that it is going to be a fair deal. As some put it, 'the trust factor that is the bedrock to any sales or selling relationship'. It is here that modern sales strategies fail. Their failure lies in their negligence of the human elements. To be convincing and to build up trustfulness, you have focus on your own personality rather than worrying about various external factors.
Focus
The focus, and we simply can not say it too many times, should be on making your buyer feel good, convincing him, ergo, trust building. Selling is essentially, when reduced to its elementary, most basic precepts a deal or a pact between two like minded people or parties. Let us also not forget that trust goes a long way. The same buyer, if and when convinced and satisfied with the sales, will come back and maybe also bring in other buyers. This is a very fundamental precept of the sales technique. And the one on which you can always fall back up on in times of trouble!

Article source: Free Sales Articles.