The Ultimate Sales Machine.

Over the years, I have come to realize that the 2 less talked about marketing and sales principles still remains the most effective ways to market and sell a product effectively with little effort and maximum sales reward. – The Ultimate Sales Machine

The 2 principles include

1. Have a good product that delivers great value.
2. Build relationship with prospect and clients.

These 2 principles deliver wonder when you are being truthful while implementing them.

Knowing that your product will deliver the value it promises its buyers will motivate you to convince your prospects to buy your product.

The first step to having a successful marketing and sales experience is to be confident that your prospect will not have any regret for buying your product.

In all honesty, no matter how much you spend, advertising a bad product.

It will only take one purchase for prospects to find out the true identity of the product.

Now that you are sure your product will deliver the promised value.

The next step is to connect with potential buyers, build relationship with them, and treat them well.

We all like to be appreciated, especially when spending money.

Make them feel valued during the sales and after the sales.

When your client receives an interesting buying experience plus a product that deliver result, this will keep them coming back for more.

And also encourage them to recommend your product.

Having said that…

There are many other marketing and sales strategies that will help turn your business into a mega money making machine.

All of the major principles are explained in this article.

The goal of this article is to present to you a result driven marketing and sales guide that can be implemented by anyone who is passionate about increasing his sales and growing his business.

Marketing and Sales being one of the most important elements of a business, that needs to be carefully implemented.

This article will guide you towards planning, creating and implementing the most appropriate marketing and sales strategy that will work for your business.

YOUR MINDSET

Your mind is the most powerful element that determines your success in every activity you engage yourself.

Now, I want to shift your mind from the negative side of sales to the positive side of selling.

The ultimate goal of a salesperson is to help people get what they want and make them feel good about what they bought during the sales process and after-sales.

It’s all about 80% mindset, 20% strategy, and techniques.

Your success is determined by 80% of your mindset. A positive mind will always produce a positive result.

It’s about how you view sales and how you see yourself performing during your sales process.

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This will determine your success in selling.

Your mind is a powerful element that determine who you become.

A research was conducted on 2 salespersons and here is the outcome.

The first salesperson was trained based on the principle that people don’t like to buy so you have to find a way to make them buy from you by all means possible.

The second salesperson was trained based on the principle that if you make the customer understand what he stands to gain by using your product then treat them well during and after the sales.

You will win more customer and the entire sales process will run smoothly at all times.

Guess who made more sales

The second salesperson.

Because his mind has been conditioned to understand that he is out there to help people and not just to sell to them.

Once you have positive feelings about what you do, feel good about yourself, your performance will improve drastically.

This will help you increase your confidence and enthusiasm during sales pitch.

You will be able to connect with your customer naturally in a way that will make them buy your product.

I understand that some businesses need to do a lot of follow up calls to keep their prospect aware of their offer.

But when you do, always tell them how your product will be of help to them and not just about your products features.

Adding value to your prospect will make them want to do business with you.

My ultimate sales strategy has been to position my business where people who genuinely need my service can find me.

I always give my customers great value that will make them come back for more and even recommend me to their family and friends.

When my customers recommend my service to their loved ones, they don’t do it not only to help me make more sales.

But because they want to help their loved ones get the same great value they got from me.

This is a great principle I learned from one of Spencer Johnson’s books where he described this practice as the tombstone test principle.

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What do you want to be remembered for?

What do you want people to write on your tombstone?

He sold lots of products and made substantial income or He helped people got what they wanted and he got when he wanted in return.

Your goal in sales is to help people get what they want.

When people feel good about what they bought from you. They are delighted, they will tell their friends about their experience, and their friends will want to experience the same feelings which will lead to more sales for you.

These are some basic tips that can make your customer feel good, and keep coming back for more.

Deliver great value

You don’t need to be the best but do your best and make your customer understand that you are genuinely in business to serve them.

Be supportive and build a relationship with your clients beyond being a just salesperson.

Over-deliver: For instance, if you offer an item that needs to be delivered to your client and your website says 5 days delivery.

You could make the delivery process faster, let’s say 3 days.

You have just proved to your customer that you appreciate him and you are indeed in business to serve him and he won’t forget that experience in a hurry.

Quick and easy access

Always make your sales process easy and straightforward, instead of having a completed website that could possibly confuse your buyers, build a simple easy to understand landing page with a clear call to action.

Do something unexpected

Let’s say you sell home appliances.

For every washing machine you sell, you present the buyer with a free pressing iron with a note saying…

We celebrate you as you join our big family, here is your welcome gift.

More gifts are coming as we continue to do business together.

Return phone calls and emails as fast as you can

When you do this, it means you respect your customers enough to show a sense of urgency.

Having a live chat button on your website or landing page is also a good option.

Your customer can communicate with you if they have any issue buying from you and you can quickly guide them before they leave your website.

One sure way to have a positive mindset towards selling is to be confident about your product and services.

Knowing that it will deliver great value to your customers.

Then you will be able to confidently talk to people about your products in a genuine way that will make them buy from you.

Exercise

List 5 characteristics you will like a salesperson to possess when selling to you. – The Ultimate Sales Machine

List 5 ways you will like a company to present themself to make you want to patronize them.

Implement those characteristics during your sales process.

UNDERSTAND YOUR PRODUCT

I was in the gym with a friend who is an Orthopedic Surgeon.

During our conversation, he told me he has a patient who is coming for surgery in the next 2 hours.

I was surprised, wondering how an Orthopedic surgeon could still be having fun in the gym just 2 hours to a surgery.

I expect him to be calm, relaxed, and preparing for the surgery.

Although I am aware that his hospital is about 2 min drive from the gym

He has an apartment within the staff quarters of the hospital.

Yet, he still needs to be prepared, we are talking of someone’s life here.

I had to tell him my opinion, I said “you know, I thought you should be preparing for the surgery”.

He looked at me, smiled, and said…

You are right, but I’m more than prepared for the surgery.

I do this all the time, operate on about 1-3 patients per week and the process has become part of me, so now, it’s as easy as lacing up my shoes.

The operation is the same, the cases are the same, the only difference are the patience.

They are different individuals and need to be treated accordingly but the surgery is the same and it has become part of me.

In this short story, my Surgeon friend knows his job so well that he is so confident and proud of it.

You should know your product and services so well and be proud to talk to people about it any day, any time.

To become proud of your product, services, or idea.

You need to understand your business or product’s features and benefits so well and know when to pitch each of them to your prospect.

The feature and benefit that should be mentioned during sales are the qualities that make the product saleable or that make it stand out from its competitors.

Your Product Features are things your product has or is.

These are typically the characteristics that make up your product which include the design, style, materials, quality, function, and capacities.

While Your Product Benefits are things your customer stand to gain by using your product and how your product will benefit your customers.

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When it comes to selling

There are two primary approaches you can take.

The first is to focus on what your product or service is or does.

The other is to focus on how your product or service will improve its users’ life.

Just because you know why your product will make your ideal customer’s life better doesn’t mean they do.

In marketing a product or service, it is often of greater importance to highlight benefits rather than the features.

The benefits of a product show how it fits a customer’s need and the result your customer will get after using your product.

For example, a cell phone’s internet connection is a feature while the speed of the connection is a benefit.

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Let’s break this down…

Assuming you are the salesperson for a phone manufacturing company.

Telling your prospect that your phone has an internet connection does not sound unique to your customer.

Every other phone has an internet connection, so that doesn’t make your product stand out.

But if you had told your customer that your phone has a super-fast inbuilt internet capacity that automatically upgrades its browsing speed and makes its connection faster than other phones in the market.

Then you stand a chance of making a sale because everybody wants a phone with a fast internet connection and not just connection.

So what I stand to gain in this process as a customer is a fast internet connection.

And that’s a good value for my money.

Another example is telling your prospect that your phone has massive inbuilt storage.

That’s a feature and your prospect will not understand how massive the storage is.

But if you say, 500GB inbuilt storage for movies, music, and documents.

Your prospect will understand how massive 500GB is, and this will enhance his buying decision.

Describing benefits tends to have a greater emotional impact on the customer, making them feel the need for your product.

Before creating your sales scripts, try to put yourself in the buyer’s position, and ask yourself this question…

What’s in it for me?

Create your sales pitch in a way you will love a salesperson to sell your product to you.

If your sales pitch attracts you and makes you develop more interest in your product, then it will attract others too, and make them buy your product.

With this simple practice, it’s hard to go wrong when scripting your sales message.

Exercise

Write out 5 major feature that makes your product worth buying

List 3 benefits of each feature.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

It’s important you identify your position within the marketplace of your industry.

This will help you know your real value and worth among your competitors, so you can keep improving your craft.

Now that you understand your product’s features and benefits and how to pitch them to your prospect.

It’s time to find out who your competitors are.

What features and benefits do they portray and why do people buy from them.

You can find out about all of this by visiting their website, visiting their social media pages, google them to find out what people are saying about them, and also check their review pages to see customers’ feedback.

Their advertisement will give you more insight into how they position them-self.

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Buy and use their product to find out how it works.

You get to know if they truly deliver the value they promise their customers?

And factors that makes your product better.

Most times when I am invited to speak at an event where other sales experts are also invited.

If any of the speakers announce to sell his course to the audience, I’m usually one of the first person to signal that I’m interested.

Why I’m I doing this? Because I want to know the kind of content sales trainers are selling to the people.

This strategy has helped me study the best selling sales course from world legends like Brian Tracy, Grant Cardone, Dan Lok among others.

That is why I could present to you a detailed marketing and sales article that cuts across major selling techniques.

And that’s because I’m always eager to get better, so I never stop learning.

There are 2 major manufacturers in my city, they both manufacture almost the same products.

Mr. A’s product is known by the public as the best product in the market while Mr. B’s product is not as accepted by the public as Mr. A’s product.

In other, for Mr. B to scale up his business, he had to move close to Mr. A and become his friend, not just his friend but a close friend.

This gives him the opportunity to gain insight into Mr. A’s business model not in details but little enough to help him scale up his business.

Exercises

Write down the top 3 Competitors within your industry.

List 5 factors that helped them attain that status.

Write 5 practice you could implement to make your product or services widely accepted.

DON’T SELL, HELP

People don’t like to be sold to, they feel reluctant to pay you if your approach is focused on selling to them.

But they are more pleased with you when you try to help them.

Especially when you carefully analyze the value of your product and how it will be of help to them.

They will be glad to pull out their wallet and say “Take My Money”.

This strategy is widely accepted especially when selling online, and the same strategy is what I use in selling my product online.

The concept is to create a free training that will educate our audience about how our product will be of help to them.

We gave out profound selling tips for free and how you can implement it in your business.

If you come across any of my free training online and you find it helpful, that is a clear sign that my premium course will help you sell your products and make you more money.

Paying me for my premium course won’t be a problem because I already added value to you through my free online courses.

Let me share this store with you…

I was in a restaurant eating, not too long after I got there, a man walked in for a meal.

After his meal, he walked up to me, introduced himself and told me he is a salesperson for a real estate company.

He told me about some of their properties and the prices. So I replied to him by saying I am also into real estate and I told him the locations where I have properties for sale.

Immediately I told him that, he tried to round up with the conversation so he could leave.

I didn’t tell him I do real estate to scare him, I just wanted him to know.

Hopefully, we could do business together.

As the matter of fact

One of the areas he mentioned to have property is my dream location and I could have bought from him.

But he wasn’t patient enough to find out. His intention was mainly based on selling to me and not to help me.

If he had come with the intention of helping me, we could have talked a little longer for him to find out that I’m interested in one of his locations.

As a salesperson myself, I realize that his approach is strictly based on making money and not about adding value to his customers.

So I decided to help him by providing him with some sales techniques that will help him improve his sales pitch and make more sales.

Because If he had continued with his approach, I know he would make very little sales and he later confirmed to me that he is not making enough sales.

In-fact, other members of his team are doing far better than him and he is likely to lose his job if he doesn’t scale up.

I made him understand that selling is about helping people get what they want, then you get what you want in returns.

I told him some principles and strategies he can implement to help him boost his sales.

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The conversation lasted for over 30min

He enjoyed my ideas, because he knows that it will work for him when he implement them.

He didn’t want the conversation to end but I had to leave.

I had given him enough value that made him ask for more so I told him about my sales training coming up the following week.

He was more than happy to sign up and he made payment right away.

Let me analyze what this means in brief…

We met at the restaurant, he wanted to sell it to me but he couldn’t close the deal because it was so obvious that all he wanted was the sales and nothing more.

But I decided to help him without having the intention of selling anything to him.

He found my information helpful and he bought from me.

I only wanted to help him but that made him pull out his wallet and said: “Take My Money”.

In business, you don’t sell but you help.

Understand how your product or service will improve its buyer’s life and pitch that during your sales process.

Exercises

List 5 ways you can help your prospect without requesting money from them.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Defining your target audience is one of your most important task.

It’s the foundation of all elements of your marketing strategy, including the features and benefits that will interest them, to the marketing channels you will use to promote your business.

Everything you do to promote your business should be done with your target audience in mind.

Once you’ve done your research and nailed down your ideal customer, you’ll find it so much easier to create content and ads that resonate with your audience.

You will even be able to predict their questions and solve their problems before they ask.

There’s a common saying in the selling world that says: “If you try to sell to everyone, then you’ll end up selling to no-one.”

The better you understand your target audience, the better you’ll be able to target them (with relevant content, messaging, and ads).

A target market is the specific group of people you want to reach with your marketing message.

They are the people who are most likely to buy your product or service.

They are united by some common characteristics like age, gender, income, marital status, occupation, interests, and educational level.

The more clearly you define your target group, the better you can understand how and where to reach your best prospect.

A great first step in figuring out who is likely to need your product is to identify those that are already using similar product or services.

Once you understand the defining characteristics of your existing customer base, you can go after more people who fit the same category.

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If your product is being sold online

You might request some information on your sign-up page depending on your product.

You shouldn’t overdo this so you don’t annoy your customers.

About 3 relevant questions are adequate enough to help you gain insight on who is buying your product so that you can target your advertisement towards people within that category.

Some data points you might want to consider are:

Age, Location, Interests, Marital Status, Profession and so on.

Selling Business to Business

If you’re selling Business to Business B2B products, your categories will look a little different.

You might want to collect information about the size of business that buy from you and information about the titles of the people who tend to make the buying decision.

Are you marketing to the CEO? The CTO? Production Manager?

Understanding who within the company you need to speak to is a critical first step in crafting your advertisement campaign.

Now it’s time to see how you can put your target audience research to work.

The first step is to create social ads specifically targeted to the exact market you have just defined.

You need to categorize your audience into different segments.

Create ads for each segment, this will help you understand the audience that is more interested in your product.

The results of your test may provide an additional insight you didn’t have when you first created your target market statement.

Be sure to incorporate any lesson you learn, and revisit your target market statement regularly to make sure it still accurately describes your most valuable potential customers.

Targeting a specific market doesn’t mean that you must exclude people who don’t meet your specific criteria.

Instead, targeted marketing allows you to focus your message on the right market – and the people who are most likely to buy from you.

With a target audience definition to work with, you can spend less, and earn more by reaching the most valuable leads in your network.

So, why is the target audience important?

The simple answer is that the channel, language, and information you use to connect with your audience might not be effective if it’s targeted at everyone.

Your target audience definition will help you to create a tone of voice that really speak to your prospect.

When you target “everybody”, you’re making it very hard for yourself to resonate with anyone on a deeper level.

Remember, the more you connect with someone, the more likely that person is to become a loyal customer of your brand.

Essentially, a target audience analysis gives you direction for your marketing, and ensures more consistency in your messaging, so you can build stronger relationships with prospects that matter.

Exercises

List out 10 qualities of your ideal prospect.

Filter your list to select the 5 most appropriate prospects for your product.

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POSITIONING & REPOSITIONING

Do you ever wonder how you can make a name for yourself in an industry that is over-saturated with other talented and high-quality businesses?

That’s where your positioning in marketing comes to play.

What is Market Positioning?

Market position refers to the process of establishing the image or identity of a brand so that customers perceive it that way.

This can be created through the use of the 4 Ps: promotion, price, place and product.

The best way to do this is through a positioning strategy.

The more detailed a positioning strategy is at defining these 4 Ps, the more effective the marketing strategy will be.

For example:

Mercedes Benz positioned themselves as a symbol for luxury and durability.

McDonald’s positions itself as a place to get cheap and quick meals.

Microsoft positions themselves as a tech company that offers innovative and user-friendly products.

Apple position itself as the most ideal product for smart and creative thinkers

Positioning of a brand or product is a strategic process that involves marketing the brand or product in a certain way to create and establish an image or identity within the mind of the consumer.

Market positioning of a brand or product must be maintained over the life of the brand or product.

Rolex for many years has been the top luxury watch provider in the market.

Just like Rolex, you also need to create an ongoing marketing initiative intended to reinforce the target market’s perception of your product or brand.

So, how do you do that?

You would need to create a strong marketing positioning strategy.

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What is a Market Positioning Strategy?

Like discussed above, a good positioning strategy elevates your marketing efforts and helps a buyer move from knowledge of a product or service to purchase.

A solid market positioning strategy is crucial to the successful longevity of a business. The sooner you create, the better for your business.

Actively positioning a brand means the brand must truly position themselves with the right values, messaging and experience.

However, that is easier said than done because there are a lot of elements that go into positioning in marketing.

But let’s take a look at some of the things you should include in your strategy to clearly define your brand.

To get you started, create a positioning statement

A positioning statement is the identity your business is striving for.

The positioning statement, like a mission statement, becomes the basis for your business identity.

It helps identify who you are and what you stand for.

For example, MTN Nigeria position itself for “wider coverage”

There are a few things that go into creating an effective positioning statement, these include:

Defining your Target Audience: Those are people who need your product most.

Defining your Target Market: That’s where your target audience duels, where you can easily find them.

Creating a Value Proposition Statement: What your product represent

Just like Amazon

For internet users who want things fast and easy, Amazon.com is a retail database that provides instant access to millions of items.

Unlike traditional retailers, Amazon.com provides a combination of extraordinary convenience, low prices, and comprehensive selection.”

Once you have a strong brand positioning statement you can then create a tagline, or better known as a slogan, to use externally for potential customer’s messaging.

This is a shorter version of what you want your customers to know.

For example, here are some business taglines:

Nike: “Just do it.”

MTN Nigeria: “everywhere you go”

Walmart: “Always low prices. Always.”

By simplifying your positioning statement, you can easily use these in other marketing efforts to get your business point across a lot easier than a longer positioning statement.

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Repositioning – How to sell a product or service

What is Market Repositioning?

Unfortunately, no matter how beautifully craft your marketing positioning, people will have their own ideas of what your business is.

Positioning is the result of your customer’s perception of what you do.

So, like any marketing effort, you should be prepared to adapt and change your market position as needed.

By examining the essence of who you are and comparing it with what your customers want, things might need to change.

Market repositioning is when a company changes its existing brand or product status in the marketplace.

Repositioning is usually done due to declining performance or major shifts in the market.

It is best to see what worked and what did not work in your previous marketing efforts to best reposition yourself in the market.

Many companies, instead of repositioning, choose to launch a new product or brand because of the high cost and effort required to successfully reposition a brand or product.

Exercise – How to sell a product or service

Create a positioning statement for your business.

Create a tagline for your business

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PRICING

Pricing your products is one of the cornerstone decisions you’ll make because it impacts almost every aspect of your business.

Your pricing is a deciding factor in everything from your cash flow, to your profit margins, to which expenses you can afford to cover.

If you’re trying to find a price for your product, there is a relatively quick and straightforward way to set a starting price.

Remember, just because it’s the price you use to launch doesn’t mean it’s the price you’ll sell forever.

The most important element of your price is that it needs to sustain your business.

If you price your products at a loss, or at an unsustainable profit margin, you’re going to find it challenging to grow and scale-up.

There are various strategies that can determine your product or services price and the 4 common pricing strategies include.

Cost-plus pricing—simply calculating your costs and add a profit mark-up.

Competitive pricing—setting a price based on what the competition charges.

Value-based pricing—setting a price based on how much the customer believes your product is worth.

Penetration pricing—setting a low price to enter a competitive market and increase the price later.

Let’s analyze these strategies in detail.

Cost-plus pricing

This is the pricing strategy being used by many businesses.

For instance, if you produce bead, and the total cost for the materials used in producing a bead is $100 you could add $20 profit to each product.

Then your beard will be priced for $120 with a 20% profit merging.

But before adding a profit margin it’s essential to write down your business goal. We are all in business to help people and make money in the process.

You need to be clear about how much money you want to make yearly.

Plus the number of products you need to sell to help you achieve your financial goal.

This will determine how much merging that will be added to your cost of production.

The amount of money you will make depends on your ability to sell and not necessarily the price.

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Competitive pricing

This pricing strategy helps you blend with your competitors.

But what happens if you provide more value than your competitors?

Then this pricing strategy might not be the best for you. Your price is a reflection of the value you provide, the higher you charge.

The more benefits your buyers expect to get from your products.

Value-based pricing

Value-based pricing is a sure way to achieve your financial goals fast.

When engaging in value-based pricing you must have a product or service that differentiates itself from the competition.

The product must be customer-focused.

This means that any improvements and added features should be based on the customer’s wants and needs.

And the product or service must be of its highest quality.

The company must also have open communication channels and strong relationships with its customers.

In doing so, companies can obtain feedback from their customers to help keep delivering value, based on the customer’s expectation.

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Penetration pricing

Penetration pricing is a pricing strategy used by businesses to attract customers to a new product or service by offering a lower price during its initial offering.

This helps a new product or service penetrate the market and attract customers away from competitors.

The goal of a pricing strategy is to entice customers to try a new product and build market share.

Hoping of keeping the new customers once prices rise back to normal levels.

This can often increase both market share and sales volume.

Additionally, a higher amount of sales can lead to lower production costs and quick inventory turnover.

However, the key to a successful campaign is keeping the newly-acquired customers.

For example, a company might advertise a buy-one-get-one-free campaign to attract customers to a product or service.

Once a purchase has been made; ideally, a contact list is created to follow-up and offer additional products or services to the new customers at a later date.

However

If the low price is part of an introductory campaign, curiosity may prompt customers to choose the brand initially.

Once the price begins to rise to the price level of the competing brand, the product value will be essential to keep your new customers.

The best practice to achieve success with penetration pricing is to offer great value to your customers.

When you increase your price, they will stick with your brand because they are getting good value for their money.

The biggest mistake many businesses make is to believe that price alone drives sales.

Your ability to sell is what drives sales.

“The first thing you have to understand is that, the selling price is a function of your ability to sell and nothing else.

What’s the difference between a $10,000 Rolex watch and a $50 Seiko watch?

The Seiko is a good timepiece but the difference is Rolex’s ability to position itself for high paying clients and be able to sell to them.”

Most importantly, the value you offer is your worth.

Your branding and positioning determine how much you charge, your ability to sell determines how much money you will make.

Exercise

What pricing strategy is best for your product?

List 5 values you can add to your product to embrace the Value-based pricing strategy.

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TYPE OF CUSTOMERS

The customer is the actual boss, they are the one who uses the products and services and judges the quality.

Your customers determine your success in business and how fast you will be able to grow your business.

While selecting your target customers, it’s important you understand the 4 major types of customer and which category you are selling to.

Poor Customers

Poor customers are the group of customers that want great value but they don’t consider value when making buying decisions.

They make their buying decisions based on price. They are always looking for the lowest price in the market.

These are the customers that ask about the price even before asking about the features and benefits of a product.

They are always more concerned about the price.

They hardly get satisfied, no matter how hard you try to please them they won’t appreciate your effort.

It’s hard to sell to poor customers and it’s hard to grow a business when most of your customers fall within this category.

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Difficult Customers

These are people who are having personal issues with themselves and they let that reflect in every other thing they do.

Especially when dealing with others.

People like these usually use slogans like “their day sucks” or “they have a bad day today”.

Their day is always bad, and they are ready to make yours worse.

In most cases, they need your product and are likely to buy, but before they buy, they will make you a victim of whatever issues they are going through in their life.

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Sophisticated Customer

These are the customers that know exactly what they want and are ready to get it.

They don’t buy based on price, they buy based on value.

Once you are able to help them understand why your product will deliver the value they deserve, they will buy from you.

Sophisticated customers are a little bit inquisitive, they want to have a clear understanding of what they are buying and why they should buy.

They are likely to ask relevant questions that will help them gain insight into your product.

They are the type of customers that appreciate your product once it delivers the value it promises.

Sophisticated customers are loyal customers that will come back for more, whenever they need your product next time.

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Affluent Customers

They are the rich and wealthy, pricing is never a problem. – The Ultimate Sales Machine

In fact, if your price is too low, they consider your product to be inferior and it might not deliver the quality experience they deserve.

They don’t buy cheap things, they don’t buy based on discounts or promotions, they always appreciate the seller’s effort. 

Having a few Affluent customers can increase your turn over drastically. They are the dream clients of every business owner.

How do you attract the Affluent Customers?

You must have a good product that delivers great value.

85% of affluent consumers understand that quality is more important than the price.

They purchase a wide variety of items from different retailers, they are the ones shopping at upscale brands.

High spenders like to be appreciated for the time and money they spend.

The customer experience is also an important element.

Your price shouldn’t be cheap

The higher the price, the higher the perceived value of your product.

And when your product deliver the promised value, you have gained their trust.

They will be willing to do business with you again and again.

Your selling scripts must be well crafted.

You will learn how to write killer advertisement content later in this book.

Professionalism is key when selling to an Affluent Customer, you must always dot the I’s and cross the T’s

Treat them with utmost respect, care, and love.

Since they are willing to pay for high-quality products and special services, it’s important you go the extra mile to make them feel valued.

Affluent Customers are connected, delivering a good product or service plus memorable customer experience can attract many other  Affluent Customers just by a recommendation from one of them.

Exercise

What type of customer will you like to attract, and why?

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INFLUENCING CUSTOMER’S BUYING DECISION

If you want to get people to buy your product or services, you need to understand how consumers make purchasing decisions.

Product quality and seller reputation matters.

But what about when the product matches the customer’s needs and they trust the seller?

What influences a buying decision once those fundamentals are in place?

Influencing the customers’ buying decisions is a key factor in selling, and what are the factors that weigh-in on their decision making.

7 factors that influence customers buying decisions.

Marketing Campaign

Research shows that most people don’t buy a new product when it’s first advertised, continuous advertisement encourages them to give the product a try.

Brand Identity

The bigger you portray your brand the better for your business.

Many years ago when I set up my website development business, I didn’t have an office.

I was working from home, but my online presence was so big that I was attracting high paying clients.

I was able to portray my business so big to my clients and it paid off.

Recommendation

People trust products or services that are recommended by someone they know.

Recommendations are still the most effective way to build trust with new clients.

That’s why businesses around the world are using network marketing and affiliate marketing to attract new clients.

Social Trend

People often buy items they don’t need just because the awareness is massive and others are talking about it.

They will want to check what the project is all about.

Social media is a less expensive platform to create a powerful social trend for your product simply by being interactive on your social media platforms.

Post contents regularly and engage with your followers.

There are 3 types of contents that attract online users

Entertaining Content

Informative Content

Educative Content

Use any of these contents to attract online users.

Once you have captured their attention, selling to them will be much easier because you already built a relationship with them.

Post-purchase Evaluation

Post-purchase Evaluation is a powerful method to make your customer come back for more.

Everybody wants to feel good when buying an item. Apart from the fact that your product delivers the value you promise.

Make your customers feel good during the purchase.

Call them after the purchase to find out how your product has been helpful to them.

I understand that some people don’t like to contact their customers after the first sale, thinking maybe the customer might have complaints about the product.

When a customer complains about your product, it’s an opportunity for you to get better so other customers won’t have to complain about your product next time.

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Distribution

I was once in a store to buy a particular toothpaste which happens to be my favorite brand, but it was out of stock so I tried out another brand.

It turned out that I felt more comfortable with the new brand so I stuck with it.

I wouldn’t have found out if my old brand made sure his stores never went out of stock.

Distribution has to do with accessibility.

Make your product never goes out of stock so you don’t loss potential sales from any of your loyal customers

Need

There is no doubt that people buy what they need but, other factors mentioned above will determine which company they buy from

Exercise

List 2 Factors that can help you influence your customers’ buying decisions.

Describe how you would like to engage your audience through social media platforms.

COPY-WRITING

Copy-writing is a persuasive script that explains why a prospect needs to do business with you.

It helps you draw your audience into your content and drive more engagement.

Copy-writing is one of the most critical elements of all forms of marketing and advertising.

It consists of words, either written, spoken or demonstrated as video advertisements.

Marketers use it to get people to take action after reading or hearing them.

A good copyright script must have a heading that capture its reader

As we all know that “headline is the first, and perhaps the only impression you make on a prospective reader.”

This is why your headlines need to be magnetic.

On average, 8 out of 10 people will read your content headline, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest.

This is the secret to the power of the headline, meaning it highly determines the effectiveness of the entire piece.

The better the headline, the better your odds of beating the average and getting what you’ve written read by a larger percentage of people.

There are many strategies that have been adopted by professional copywriters around the world, the most effective strategies are:

Story Telling

Everyone loves good stories.

We like hearing about people — especially interesting people.

People who have suffered challenges we can relate to and they tell us how they overcome those challenges.

And the moral of the story is usually that a product or service was the catalyst to overcoming those challenges.

You might find this storytelling technique in an email series, a landing page, or a short video.

Whatever the format, you’ll get 3 basic traits in the story:

Opening

Show how the character of the story had a normal life, then how that life was shattered by a change or events.

Conflict

How is the life of the character being threatened if he does not respond to the problem? What does the journey look like as he tackles this challenge?

Solution

Finally, a product is introduced as a cure for the character’s problem, and they also mention the satisfaction the character got after using the product.

This is a strategy you should also adopt, and your story doesn’t have to be dramatic.

It just has to be interesting to your target audience.

Here is a typical example.

I was watching a lawyer on CNN share his story.

He was abused by the law, at age 17 he was mistaken for someone who committed a crime, he was arrested and jailed for a crime he knew nothing about.

After the first 3 years in jail, he tried to be courageous and turn his worry into strength.

He made a promise to himself saying that he will fight for his justice and also make sure to become a voice to other people who might fall in the same situation.

He told his sister to buy him some criminal law books and he began to study while in jail.

After spending a total of 10years, he gained his freedom at age 27, by now he has studied a lot about criminal law.

He went to a law school and became a criminal lawyer at age 32

He is now one of the most respected criminal lawyers in the US.

Genuinely telling his story has open doors to countless opportunities.

His story has been his major selling point. He has been invited by news channels like CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, and other top TV and radio stations plus countless magazine interviews.

Anyone who hears about his story and needs a criminal lawyer will prefer to hire him because people can relate with his story.

Identify — Agitate – Recommend Concepts

Identify a problem

Agitate that problem by making your readers feel troubled or nervous

Recommend your product as the solution

In this style of copy, you write as if there is a conversation between two people: the copywriter and the prospect.

A typical example of this concept goes like this.

Insecure? You’re not alone. Millions of people admit to being insecure.

Yet, remain that way and you’ll live a life in the shadows. Always wishing and never doing. Fortunately, there’s an answer.

Then recommend your product as the answer.

The speech that made Obama the president was more of this concept.

He introduced himself in an appealing way, pointed out the ongoing challenges in the US that need immediate changes, and finally he persuaded the people to vote for him to enable him to affect those changes.

The 1234 method also works pretty well

What I’ve got for you

What it’s going to do for you

Who am I?

What you need to do next

And this is a good example of the 1234 method

What I’ve got for you

A step-by-step home study course that teaches struggling entrepreneurs how to bring in more customers.

What it’s going to do for you –  You’ll have more confidence, less stress, and you’ll have a simple, proven plan to turn your business into a mega-money making machine in one month or less.

Who I am

I am a best seller author and sales trainer and I want to show you my most rewarding selling secrets.

What you need to do next – Call the number now or Click the link to gain instant access.

Exercise

1. What copy-writing strategy will you like to adopt for your product.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

Understanding how search engines work is the first step to improve a site’s search rankings. – The Ultimate Sales Machine

Actually, improving a site’s rank involves leveraging various SEO techniques to optimize the site for search:

Keyword Research

Keywords are the words your website will respond to if those words are typed in the search engines.

A property company in Chicago can choose to rank its website for “Buy A House In Chicago” or “Home For Sale In Chicago”.

You can rank a website for multiple keywords.

For instance, a furniture company in Texas that sells home and office furniture can rank his website pages individually.

He could rank the home page of his website for keywords like “Quality Furniture in Texas” while his office chair page could be ranked for “Best Executive Office Chairs”

He could continue to rand other product pages based on the product displayed on that page.

How To Rank A Page For A Particular Keyword

There are many practices that help search engines recognize a page as being relevant to be displayed for a particular keyword.

Website Title

This is the name of a website, for instance, your company name could be used within the title section.

But many website owners prefer to use keywords in the title section because it helps in search engine optimization.

Meta Name

The meta name is a tag placed in the head section of your code that helps define the content of your web page.

Keywords are recommended to be used within the Meta Tag Name to help improve a site’s search result.

Meta Description

It’s a tag that describes the content of a website in brief and its usually being placed close to the Meta Name withing the Code of a website.

The meta description for a hotel could be “Are you looking for a comfortable hotel to enjoy your weekend or a special location for your honeymoon, XYZ hotel has got you covered”.

During a search, a website’s title is the bold text being displayed for a page, while the Meta Description is the brief introduction note that follows.

Content Marketing

Once potential keywords are identified, content marketing through sales-oriented copy-righting comes into play.

Writing good content for your website is essential for search engine optimization.

Your content must be relevant to the title and description of your website.

If your content is not detailed or not explanatory, your website visitor will leave your website fast.

And that is not a good signal to the search engines because it knows the approximate time a reader should spend on each page of a website.

If your content is about 15min read and most of your readers leave within the first 3-5min that’s a signal to search engines that your content is not relevant to the title and description, this will reduce your chances of ranking high in search results.

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Link Building, also known as back-links

Creating quality back-links to your website is one of the core ranking factors on search engines, the more back-links you have the better for you.

This means that other websites are talking about your website.

This is a good signal to search engines, meaning that your website is relevant by being recognized by other websites.

Just like in the real world, the more people know you, the more influential you are and that describes how important you are.

The same applied to search engines.

How To Build Quality Back-links

Publish High-Quality Content on Your Entire Site.

Submit your website to directories and listing pages.

Share your website link on Social Media.

Write Articles for Blogs and Forums with a link back to your website.

Promote your content.

Build Internal Links by linking pages within your website.

Have A Blog On Your Website

A blog helps attract traffic to your website in the long run.

If you start adding relevant content to your blog today, after a while depending on how regularly you post “daily posts are the best”.

With little additional effort, search engines will start showing your content to a few audiences.

If they like your content and read more articles on your blog then the search engine will increase your visibility.

The more you write blog posts, the more content your audience can read on your blog and the more time they spend as well.

This makes your blog relevant and useful. Search engines will reward you by increasing your ranking in search results.

As much as this is a powerful way to generate a loyal audience that will stick with you for a long time.

It’s advisable you use another medium to promote your goods and services at the early stage while you build your blog because it takes time for blogs to rank high on search engines.

Your immediate social media presence and Ad campaigns will help you make sales while building your blog.

When your blog finally ranks high, your sales will increase and you might want to reduce your budget on paid advertising.

Concentrate on increasing your loyal audience through your blog.

Exercise

What are the Keywords that best describe your product or service.

Write an attractive Meta description for your landing page (not more than 25 words).

SALES FUNNEL

A sales funnel also known as the sales process is a relationship-building machine for selling.

This represents the marketing term for the journey a potential customer goes through on the way to purchase.

There are several steps to a sales funnel, usually known as the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel, although these steps may vary depending on a company’s sales model.

Here is an effective sales funnel you can adopt

Identify your target audience, who they are and the treats they have in common, most importantly what their needs are.

This will give you an insight into the right features and benefits you need to pitch to them.

Then select any of the copy-writing strategies described in the previous chapter to present your product or service.

Write your copy, your script could be delivered as an article, video or use a whiteboard presentation to demonstrate the content of your copy.

Select a digital platform to broadcast your message.

Call-to-action

What action do you want your readers to take after reading your copyright or after watching it in video format.

Create a simple landing page website not more than one page.

Include other important information you want your prospect to know about your offer. Include the related pictures, and video.

Then add the link to your landing page within your advertisement presentation.

Your landing page should guide your prospect towards making buying decisions and also guide them towards the right steps to take.

Provide a link where they can make orders or book appointments immediately.

It’s also important you caption their email address and phone number so you can use it for follow-ups.

There are two reasons why you need to caption your prospect’s data.

Use it to follow up with prospects who didn’t complete the purchasing process by sending them a followup email about what they miss by not buying from you.

Follow up with clients who bought your product, check on them to find out how your product has been helping them get better, and also inform them about related products that will be an additional value to them.

If you sell consumables, then you must keep a close relationship with your customers.

So that once the item they bought finishes you are always around to deliver another product.

This works not only for consumables but for other products as well.

Exercise

Create a sales funnel simply by.

Describing your target audience

Create your copy-writing using your most preferred copy-writing strategy.

Specify the action you want your prospect to take after reading your copy-writing.