All Posts Tagged With: "choices"
Closing a sale could be as easy as picking the right words
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Wed, Oct 21 2009 | 0 Comments
Closing a sale can be one of the most difficult things you find yourself doing in the workplace; especially if you really need the sale or it is a large sale. In a workplace situation where you are paid based on commissions from selling straight to the customer or even to other businesses, every sale is important. So, what are some helpful words to use to close a sale? Just take a look at the picture above…Two familiar faces (the Mac guy and the PC guy) are standing there. The PC guy is trying to use “words” to sell you on a PC.
Tom Niesen, a contributing writer for the Dallas Business Journal had a few interesting points to make when it comes to closing a sale with a potential buyer.
He first says to not put words into your potential buyer’s mouth. Some people may see this as you trying to manipulate them.
He then goes on to say that you really need to try to uncover the right words. You have to figure out what words are the best choices for what you have to offer.
“Begin by writing down three key features or benefits. They might be related to quality, customer service or lead times – whatever makes your offering superior. Make the language simple, easily understood and memorable.”
I think his next point is the most important point when it comes to making a sale. You have to be able to put yourself in your client’s position. Once you take each of the three features you have described, your potential customer will ultimately think “And???” or “So what?” Answering this question can be difficult so you need to know exactly how the service or product can benefit them. This is where you have to find a value statement that fits their needs.
“An advertising agency prided itself on a key sales point: ‘We are quick and responsive.’ We said: ‘So what?’ The agency responded, “We can make changes fast.” Again, we asked, ‘So what?’ The answer provided the agency’s ultimate selling point: ‘When you shut your eyes and envision how you would like your company to be perceived, we can make it happen — now.’”
Another interesting tip he has is to repeat the potential customer’s words back to them. He uses the example that a potential customer says “We’re not interested right now” and he would go on to say, “You’re not interested right now, unless my product is guaranteed to make you money, right?” It uses the customer’s own words to show that you were not only listening, but you can also guarantee your product.
Of course, all clients are different.
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Tags: advertising agency, workplace situation, choices
Mistakes that can cause your investments to falter
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Thu, Sep 10 2009 | 1 Comment
When you first start out investing or even in life, you don’t always make the best choices. After all, you usually have to make mistakes to learn from them. However, not learning before hand when it comes to your financials could prove to be costly and damaging to your long term wealth.
Here are a few mistakes that are often made:
1) Procrastination. College is over, and now it’s time to get out there are really make something of yourself…tomorrow. I know this one well. In college, when you procrastinate you may not lose out on anything at all, I often put papers off until the last minute and still did well because I wrote the best papers under pressure. However, when it comes to your finances, again, you can’t procrastinate or you will damage your long term financial goals. Here are some of the consequences:
Fail to start investing soon and you’ll miss out on years of compound interest.
Don’t keep a budget and you could sacrifice control of your spending.
Buy now with the intent to pay off later and you’ll dig a debt hole that’s tough to climb out of.
Pay your bills late and you could damage your credit score.
Put off saving money in a rainy day fund and you could be caught unprepared in a personal
emergency.
2) Not diversifying your portfolio. When people start out, they don’t always know how to diversify out risk from their portfolio. While you can’t completely hedge yourself against something like the current recession, you can help your portfolio out a little. Investing in a wide array of save investments can lead to steady returns. While you may not get the “super returns” that some stocks give, some mutual funds simply track the market and you may earn a fairly steady rate every year.
3) Over paying taxes. A Roth IRA grows tax-free and a 401 (k) is money taken out of your employment check before taxes. Both are ways to avoid and save money on taxes.
The idea of saving on your taxes may seem a tad obscure, but it really can pay off big. Say a 25-year-old contributes $5,000 each year for 40 years to an investment account, making an average annual return of 8%. If she used a taxable account, she’d have more than one-fourth less money than if she’d gone with the Roth. (Use this calculator to see how far your savings can take you. Enter “0″ in the tax-rate boxes to simulate the tax-exempt status of a Roth IRA.)
4) Going into debt is another big problem and mistake. Eventually, with the right investment moves and job, you will be able to have a fancy car and a big house full of “stuff” but right now, you don’t want to start out your life in debt. Any money you put toward interest is money that you won’t have later and you’re basically just throwing it out the window.
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Tags: financial goals, last minute, mutual funds
