Mastering Marketing on the Internet

I am sure that you have always wanted to improve your ability to market your business using the internet. The traditional ways of marketing will not be successful on the internet. If you want to dominate your markets online, sell more products and cultivate a tribe of raving fans online, you need to uncover innovative ways of giving things away to your target market, which they really want, for free.

There has never been a better or easier forum available, for building a community, delivering value to your market place, announcing your presence, selling products all over the world and for creating a tribe of raving fans, like is offered right now, by all the wonderful tools offered on the internet. There are businesses out there, who literally make millions, in seconds after launching them on the internet. Your business can be no different if you use the tools the internet offers properly.

The challenge for most businesses is that the internet can seem confusing, overwhelming, a source of delays and has the potential to cause technical headaches. The truth is that it has never been easier for any business, no matter how big or small, to become an international force to be reckoned with. The new social media platforms and search engine optimisation offer anyone, who is willing to work a little, an incredible way of marketing their business. These new technologies have literally levelled the playing field. Anyone can now be found, if they box smart and follow a few simple principles.

You don’t need to be a technical GURU

Here comes the best part of all. You can become very successful, without acquiring the latest plugin for your website, or those fancy graphics you thought you needed or even that herd of disinterested followers you thought you needed on all those social media platforms. OK so, you must now be feeling really confused. Surely you need to be a techno genius to succeed on the internet. Yes the advice I am going to offer you in this article may be contrary to what you have heard or believed in the past. Yes the advice may be different, but it is what has helped me to build my speaking business into a force to be reckoned with, within a very short space of time.

Using the Frank Kern Process

Frank Kern is a very well-known marketing consultant based in the USA. This technique I want to share with you in this article, is one he uses to support his           $ 100 000 consulting clients to take their businesses to the next level. He refers to this technique as the “Results in Advance Timeline” You can get more information on Frank Kern, by visiting his website at frankkern.com. 

 Action Idea: Start using this technique, by first drawing a horizontal line across your page. Next put an “A” on one side and a “B” on the other end of the line.  

Making this technique work for you

The secret when using this technique is to always remember that anyone, who is conducting a search on the internet, for a product or service similar to yours, is doing so because they are not satisfied with the results they are currently enjoying. For example, if someone is searching a term like “Sales Training” it means that he feels his team of sales people, need some support to improve their ability to sell. The person searching a term like that is looking for someone to support them to acquire an expert team of sales professionals, who are proficient at positively influencing people, prospecting, qualifying prospects, handling objections and ultimately closing sales. 

Using the horizontal line you have drawn. As you know, the person conducting the search for “Sales Training” does not have what they want, namely a team of competent sales professionals, so they are currently at position “A” on the time line. He or she would ultimately want to move to position “B” on the timeline, where they have the competent team of sales professionals they want. 

Competent Team of Sales Professionals

The secret to make this technique really work for you is to remember that to move you prospective client from point “A” to point “B”, means that they must embark on a journey, with a number of milestones along the way. 

Supporting your customer to get from point “A” to “B”

Look at the journey your customer must travel and identify all the crucial milestones along the way. Once you have identified all them and figured out how to support your customers to achieve them, you will have a tool which will allow you to get you heaps of new satisfied customers and you will get to make a fortune to boot. You will become the go-to authority in your industry and you will be become known as the person, who delivers incredible value to all your customers.

Turning this simple concept into Money

To make this process work best, try to stick to four major milestones, to get your customers from point “A” to point “B”. Do not allow yourself to get hung up on little details, which would only serve to overwhelm the prospect. 

The four major milestones to get someone who is searching for “Sales training” from point “A” to point “B”, would be: 

• Point “A” - Establish where you are currently. What level of sales is each team member actually achieving or capable of achieving with their current skill set? This is not related to their sales targets, at all, but is rather a true reflection around what they can achieve. 
• Milestone 1 - Conduct a Sales Audit – This is a process for understanding what is causing poor sales performance. Explore your current sales processes to uncover your unique sales challenges. This information is then utilised to tailor make a sales training process, to help you and your team develop the ideal sales skills necessary, to optimise your sales team’s sales results and performance.
•  Milestone 2 - Improved Sales Results – What outcome do you want to achieve - Decide on a measurable outcome, which you want to achieve after the sales training process is over? 
• Milestone 3 - Build a Practical Sales training Process to achieve the desired Sales performance and Results. Design a practical sales training process and activity management system, to train your sales team to introduce a new sales success routine, into their lives, to help them achieve their sales targets.
•  Milestone 4 - Guide Sales Team to Adopt and apply new Sales Routine.  
• Point “B” - Achieve Desired Sales Results. Leadership team is guided to introduce measurement criterion to monitor sales activity and the on-going introduction and development of the new sales routines or sales success habit set.  

Once you have identified and clarified each of the four milestones, the next step is to abbreviate them and place them on the timeline like this:

Point “A” is where they currently are and point “B” is where they would ultimately like to be, after engaging someone to train their sales team. The four milestones, which have been identified, offer the fastest way of assisting them, to get from one point to the other. This understanding gives you access to one of the most powerful marketing tools ever created, namely your completed “Results in Advance Timeline”.

Using the Power of the Timeline

As you know, your prospects practically demand and need to be nurtured, helped and educated, before they will ever consider buying your product or service. 

Action Idea: Stop for a moment and try to look at things from their perspective. 

• They may have bought a similar product or service to the one you sell, in the past, where they may have had a bad experience and not enjoyed the results they wanted. 
• They are constantly bombarded with marketing messages from your competitors, who are offering them the moon
•  They have a challenge and are merely seeking an effective solution. They do not want a whole lot of unnecessary hype. 
• They are more likely than not, suffering from information overload, because of the overwhelming amount of information out there. 

Your poor prospect is desperately seeking the right information and best solution to satisfy their needs or solve a challenge, but instead of finding the information or solution they need. What they get instead, is a whole lot of overblown promises and sales hype. This is where the greatest opportunity presents itself to you.

To really use the power of the timeline, you must genuinely want to help your prospects, to solve their challenges or to better satisfy their needs, long before asking them for a dime. Remember the closer you bring your prospects to achieving their desired results, the more they will trust you and what you have to offer.

Making this work for you

Clearly define and understand the four major milestones you have outlined. Next create a simple, easy to read e Report (PDF document), downloadable audio, such as an MP3 or even better a link to a YouTube video, which outlines the specific steps the prospect must follow to achieve each milestone. Your e-Report, audio or video recordings are effectively your money magnets, because they will equip you with a set of really powerful tools, to attract the perfect customers to you. 

On your Website

I am sure that you know the importance of optimising your website, so that you can attract the right prospects, who are searching for the product or service that you sell. Assisting you to optimise your website for Search Engine Optimisation, is not the purpose of this article, so I will not go into any detail here, on how you can effectively do this. As you can imagine, the only way you can use the process I am going to describe to you now, is if you either have a search engine optimised website or if you are using Google ads, to direct the right prospects to your website. 

When a prospect visits your website looking for the solution you offer. You provide them with opt-in webpages, which offer each money magnet individually. In exchange for the prospects email address, they receive the individual e-Report, audio MP3 and they get to watch the short YouTube video, related to that single milestone or money magnet. Automate your website to send them the single money magnet they requested, immediately. There are a number of customer resource management services, which will work for you. I recommend OfficeAutoPilot.com, as a great way of doing this.

Now that you have the prospect as an email subscriber, send them the other three money magnets, every two days. This effectively keeps you in the forefront of their mind and helps them to see the incredible value you bring and how you can support them to solve a challenge or get a better solution, to satisfy their needs. 

This process works can also work really well, for any prospect, even if you get a lead from a source other than your website. After sending them your initial proposal, follow up with them, by sending them the four money magnets to them, two days apart. This keeps you in the forefront of their minds and shows your commitment towards supporting and being of service to them.

Finally putting the money in the bank

Prospects buy from people; they know, like and trust. There is no better way to get them to do all three, than by helping them to actually achieve the results they want. Because you have shown your prospects that you actually have the right solution for them, with your money magnets, you are way ahead of the pack. The only warning I want to offer here is, to be careful to always remain in a modality of service and giving. As soon as you try to become pushy, like every other sales person, you will be pushed right back into the herd. Always strive to use soft sales pitches, in conjunction with your money magnets. 

Using the sales training example I used before, do the following: Right after giving them one of the money magnets, which moves them closer to their desired result, you can say something like this to your prospect. 

“I hope that you enjoyed reading or listening to it, as much as I enjoyed making it for you. If these tips and guidelines on how to equip your sales team for success were helpful, then you would find real value in my two day sales training workshop, which is split over two months. You can find a lot of additional really useful and valuable information, by visiting my website at sales-training-africa.co.za”.  

  

As long as you are supporting your prospect to move closer to the result or outcomes they want. The trust they have in you, will keep growing and the desire they will have to buy your product or service will keep increasing too. As the process continues, where you continue to deliver the desired results, you will move each prospect from customers to raving fans.

Sales Training

You can you Speak with confidence

One of the greatest fears we all have, is the fear of speaking in public. Some research I read a few years back showed that people feared public speaking even more than they feared death. Wow, that is quite an incredible result. It is crazy to think that someone, would rather die, than stand in front of a group of people and deliver a speech. 

This unnecessary fear is an instinctive primeval response, to our inbred fear of standing out from the herd. When we lived in a society, where there was a threat from predators. Anyone, who stood out from the crowd, was at the highest risk of being predated. So yes that fear you feel, when you are expected to deliver a speech in front of a group of people is real. It is primeval deep rooted fear of standing out. My question here is pretty simple. When last did you hear about a sabre toothed tiger eating someone, whilst they were speaking in public?

Time to deliver

I am sure that you have all experienced that incredible fear, as the announcer reads your introduction and signals you to come onto the stage to deliver your speech. As you walk towards the stage, your stomach is in your mouth, your mouth is dry and your hands are shaking. This is a very natural response. The challenge though, is that it is now time to stop worrying and to start delivering. 

This is your moment to shine, a wonderful opportunity to deliver your valuable message. It is your time to influence and inspire the people, who have come to listen to you. As you start to speak, “Your mind clears and you are able to deliver the best most inspiring speech of your life”. I know this is possible for you too, as I was probably one of the most nervous public speakers around and now I travel the world speaking to audiences of between 20 and 2500 many times a week. 

You can do it

I have experienced standing ovations from huge groups of people and also had a few really challenging experiences, where both the electrical power and my energy has failed me. Despite these challenges, I had to continue speaking, with a flashlight to a very unresponsive audience. All these lessons have helped shape me and have honed my skills as a speaker. I want to share a few secrets I have discovered during my travels as a public speaker. I hope these ideas will help you to become a persuasive, influential speaker too.

The talk you deliver, is never about you

Always remember that any talk you deliver is never about satisfying you. It is 100 % about the audience. No matter where you are delivering a speech, even if it is at a family wedding. The most important people are the audience members themselves. Start by putting yourself in their shoes, seats and mind-sets. 

Ask yourself the question, “If I were this audience, what is the most important, urgent message, I need to hear today”? Next take your persuasion objectives and align them with their expectations, needs, challenges and perspective, before you even start to speak. In other words, you must show complete, genuine interest in your listeners and they will sense your authenticity and in turn will show genuine interest in you and your message. 

Never write your speech out word for word

You can never deliver a really powerful speech, which is targeted at each audience’s needs and expectations, if you try to deliver a canned speech, which you have memorised word for word. You need to know exactly what your persuasion objectives are and then you need to build, your delivery around the audience and their needs.

Action Idea: Write your three key points out as precisely as possible. You can also create a mind map or pictures, if you are a more visual person. Once you have your key points clarified and the objectives of what you are trying to achieve is absolutely clear. The next step is to practice connecting all the points together, with a natural flow and pacing. Remember that no-one will know that you forgot something out or that you flubbed a line, unless you tell them.

Always expect the Unexpected

No matter what happens, always act like the interruption is unimportant. If a cell phone rings, a door slams, or any other major interruption occurs. Simply ignore it. If you focus on the interruption, the audience will move their focus away from you, to whatever you move your focus onto. So if someone sneezes and you say bless you. You will have lost your audience and will need to regain their attention, once again. As long as you stay focused on your message, so will your audience.

Death by PowerPoint

There is no worse way of delivering a message, than using too many PowerPoint slides, with too much text on each one. To compound matters, the person speaking then reads the slides to the audience. Nothing can lose an audience faster than that. If you find yourself reading your slides to your audience, save everyone some time and rather email them a copy. They can then read it themselves, without wasting everyone else’s time. 

Action Idea: If you must use PowerPoint, I suggest that you use one slide per five – seven minutes of talking, with a maximum of 10 words on each one. The best option is to use an appropriate picture or photo, to embellish or enhance your message. 

Close strong

When you close, include a message to your listeners, about why they are important. Stay focused on them and how your message will affect them, their jobs, lives or families. Try really hard to humanise your message at the end and people will leave with a connection, which goes way beyond the mere time you have invested together.

Even if you lose your footing and fall off the stage face down on the carpet. Simply say “I will now take questions from the floor” LOL. Speaking in public is not as hard as you believe it is. Enjoy the experience and it can become one of the most fulfilling experiences of your life.

Sales Training

  

Becoming the GO – TO Expert

Have you ever watched a so called expert doing a TV interview and thought “That guy or lady has no idea what he is talking about; they should be interviewing me instead” You are 100 % correct, they should be interviewing you. I want to share some valuable tips with you in this article, to support you to make just that happen.

Becoming a sought after expert

It is not as difficult as it at first seems, to become a sought after expert. The advantage of becoming that sought after expert is that doors will begin to fly open for you when you do. The media will begin to seek your opinion, business leaders will pay to hear your wisdom and you will become the go to person in your specific area of expertise. 

Overcoming the Three Expert Myths

Myth 1

You have to have a formal education with a master’s degree or a doctorate behind your name, to be classed as an expert. The truth is that tons of experts in virtually every field do not have any formal qualifications at all. Your own expert star will rise, based on the results you manage to create, not on where you went to school or the size of your formal education. 

Myth 2

You have to be present to act as an expert. The development of new technologies, such as webinars, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, can very quickly cement your expert status across time zones. The new trend, when assessing someone’s status as an expert, is often assessed by the size of their social media following. As your social media following grows, so too does your status as an expert.

Myth 3

You have to write and get your book published by a traditional publishing house to be regarded as an expert. This may have been true 30 years ago, but things have changed a lot since then. Look at your own circumstances. When last did you buy a book and read it cover to cover? I am certain that most authors would gladly trade their book rights, for a list of email addresses of 50 000 people, who want exactly what their message delivers. A person with a list of eager people, who want to hear their message, have access to an incredible amount of potential customers.

When you can debunk these three myths, you are in a position to start building your own status as an expert in your chosen field. The development of new technologies has made becoming an expert, easier and faster than ever before. 

Action Idea: Follow these few steps listed below and you too can become regarded as an expert in your chosen field.

Study what the masters, who have gone before have said. This is the toughest part of travelling the road towards becoming a master. It is the part of the process, where most of the heavy lifting is done. The more effort you put into this, the better equipped you will be to formulate your own opinion. This is where you learn the intricacies of your chosen topic and develop a general understanding around your chosen area of expertise. So when someone, quotes someone else’s work, trying to trip you up. You are equipped to answer them in an insightful way and even punt your own eLearning courses at the same time.

Find a challenge or opportunity, where you have a different opinion to others. To be recognised as an expert, requires you to have a very strong opinion, which is backed up by facts. Contrarian views always seem to get the most attention. Dare to stand out from the crowd, with a strong opinion. The challenge here is to not be contrarian for the sake of being controversial. Always be certain that you can back your view up with solid evidence or facts. Keep your opinion focused on helping and supporting people to solve urgent challenges and always looking for ways to add value to them. 

Constantly Test your Opinion. Keep refining and honing your opinion, by studying the results you are able to achieve. Keep repeating this, until you are able to test your opinion in many different situations. Once you have repeated this many times, you will become passionate and very confident with your opinion. This constant testing will allow you to refine and even change your opinion, if necessary. 

Get a megaphone. You cannot become the go-to expert, until people know you exist. Start building your network, through trade associations, the local media and social media. All three of these will put you in front of the people you are trying to reach. 

Action Idea: 

·         Engage with trade associations by offering to write articles for them, presenting a webinar or presenting a mini workshop at one of their meetings. The more energy and buzz, you can build around yourself and your work, the sooner you will be asked to be the expert you have become.

·         A similar approach will work with traditional and social media. Be engaging and give people something new to talk about and they will run with it.

Call yourself an expert. The sooner you start to call yourself an expert; the sooner people will sit up and take notice. There is no better way of getting people to recognise you as an expert than, self-proclamation. The secret though is to first ensure that you deserve the title first. Remember that you have studied the field extensively, you have tested your opinion, shared it in writing and in public places. Once you have started referring to yourself as an expert, so will everyone else too. The difference between an expert who charges $ 5000 and one who charges $ 25 000, is seldom more than simple perception. Build the perception around your expertise and you too will become the GO TO EXPERT, who will be earning the big fees.

http://www.sales-training-africa.co.za