Build Relationships Don't just go for the Sale

According to BigCommerce data, 42% of online shoppers want more testimonials from ecommerce sites. And according to Rapt Media, 63% of consumers also said that they think positively of a brand if it provided them with content that was more valuable, interesting and relevant. So how does that apply to the modern-day sales person?

Well, it reveals that the key to sales is relationships. Successful relationships occur when two or keep customers happy, you first must know what they want. Building relationships with your customers, therefore, can pay off with big rewards not only in the short-term but also in long-term business relationships.

more people can keep each other happy. And if you want to

So, how can you build successful relationships with your prospects and turn them into customers? In today’s post, we examine that question.

Get to Know Their Needs & Desires

All relationships are built on the same foundation—getting to know one another!

As a salesperson, your goal is to keep customers happy. To do that, you must know what they either:

• Need
• Desire

Everyone has basic needs like clothing, food, and shelter. But what other needs does your target customer have?

Do they need a safe vehicle to drive their kids to school? Or maybe they need better software to be more efficient.

Regardless of what your selling, if you get to know your customers you can understand their needs and desires, rather than assuming you already do.

 Give them What They Want

Now that you know what their needs and desires are, the next step is to use that to your advantage.

Every relationship is a give and take, even one between a salesperson and a customer.

Your job is to give them what they want.

Brainstorm and think of ways you can reward your customers with things they actually want. Use the information you’ve learned to take strategic action. Think rewards points, gift cards, and coupons they can use on the item you know they want or need.

Building a relationship with your prospects can seem like a lot of effort for little return, but if want to make more sales, it’s a time investment that pays off in the end.

Creative Ways to Ask for Review from Customers (and actually get them)!

Review AddressTwo CRM?

In today’s world, running an online business can be a difficult task to tackle. A lot of online business or online products will live or die by the customer review and if there’s one thing that many businesses will experience is that customers tend to complain far more often than they’ll leave a compliment.

Is that the fault of the company? Is it the fault of the product? We are living in an age of instant gratification and people will look online for services or products, do their research and make a choice based off of the information presented to them. In the United States, 55% of shoppers start their shopping journey online through giants like Amazon. Those that buy products, between 5 and 10% of them will actually leave a review. Furthermore, 20% of the sales for that particular product are driven by reviews and a third of all online shoppers say that they won’t buy a product that hasn’t been reviewed positively. These are some disturbing numbers, but let’s not forget another absurd statistic: if customers don’t see a few negative reviews, they’ll think the system is flawed. These statistics are from the same research that shows the optimum Amazon rating for products is between 4.2 and 4.4.

Leave AddressTwo a Review?

 It then becomes quite a massive task for smaller online retailers or products to compete with the likes of the giant companies and they’ll look for new and creative ways of asking a customer to review the product or service. So how do you go about doing that? We’ll tell you.

Ask in a Different Way

Perhaps one of the most underrated methodologies, you could ask your customers in a different way. Most people won’t feel compelled to write a review, especially if it’s positive, if the product or service does what it says on the box. This is why you should approach the customer in a different way. If you can, ask them in person. If you only have a few customers, there’s nothing wrong with a phone call, especially if you’re a small, family business. Failing that, there’s always a personalized email. Any of these methods can go a long way and even if they still aren’t interest, worst case scenario, you’ll get to know your customer and more likely, have a repeat customer.

Incentivize

While it may sound simple, incentivizing customers is a really effective way of asking customers to leave a review. Studies have shown that offering some kind of financial incentive is 18.5% more likely to end up with the customer leaving a review. It’s not a huge number, but it definitely helps with conversion rates. Not only with their online reviews do magic for your company, should you be open to the criticism, but it will also help you in keeping customers happy.

Make it Easy and Timely

This is perhaps one of the most important aspects. You’ll want to ensure that leaving a review is very easy for the customer. Make sure login details are remembered and head back to the product or service they purchased so they don’t need to go through the list. Timing also matters with this. You’ll want to wait until the customer uses whatever they’ve bought before they review it. Sending out a request for review before the parcel has even arrived at the client is just bad planning.

Mobile is the Key

Mobile is definitely the way of the future and it should come as no surprise that customers are more likely to respond to a review request on a mobile device. Phones and tablets have a far higher conversion rate than desktop, so it makes the most sense for you to ensure that your request for review is mobile friendly.

Respond to Reviews

More often than not, customers will be more interested in leaving a review, whether it’s positive or negative, if the company in question responds. It may seem like you’re opening up a can of worms at times, but there is no secret to a successful business here, you want to create an open and honest line of communication with your customers.

Review our Simple CRM?

One may think that there is some sort of trick to keeping customers happy or getting more customers to your business but it’s relatively straight forward. You need to ensure that you as the business are open and honest with customers and clients, you offer the service you promise and you put yourself in line with expectations.  You’re asking a customer to take time out of their schedule to leave a review for something you’ve given to them, make sure it’s an experience they can do quickly and easily, and still get something positive out of it. 

Oh, and if you don't mind... Please Leave Your Favorite Small Business CRM a Review?

Who Is The Mystery Person Behind Support@AddressTwo.com?

If you’ve ever wondered who is behind the “Regards, Support” signature (and let’s be

Hi I'm Ann!

honest, you probably haven’t, it’s cool though) it’s me. Hi, my name is Ann. /waves.

A little bit about me, my passion is behind-the-scenes problem-solving. If there is a solution, I will find it, darn it. Things that really bug me (pun intended): things that should work, don’t. Seriously, one time a friend couldn’t get their fancy-smancy alarm clock set correctly and wouldn’t let me give it a go. When we were leaving, I faked a reason to run back inside and fixed the alarm clock in under one minute. Again, that kind of thing drives me bonkers. Yes, I used the word “bonkers”.

My background, I grew up playing a fair amount (a lot) of video games (aka puzzles, aka problem-solving), played a variety of roles in tech theatre (sound board operator to backstage manager), and once owned a copy of a book on ethical hacking.

I have a number of classic game favorites such as Super Mario, Sonic, Toe Jam & Earl, etc. However, one of my all-time favorite game series is Portal. It’s a humorous puzzle game in which you are a mere test subject at the behest of an AI entity known as GlaDOS, who relentlessly mocks you but keeps promising cake at the end (it’s a lie). I heart puzzles and sardonic humor. And no, I don’t have a Portal mug, doormat, plushie, action figure, sound scheme for my phone and computer, or plan to one day run the Monumental Marathon (half) cosplaying as the main charachter…

Anyway…

Because of gaming, I received my first lesson in tech at a young age. It was simply how input/output worked by learning how to connect the NES and VCR to the TV simultaneously. I consider this my starting point on my path to logic and technology. I was five.

When I wasn’t at home playing games, I could often be found at the local library on the computer. I did everything from playing games, exploring the file system, to typing my homework, even math. I spent so much time on the computers there (pre-internet, gasp!). I might have even been occasionally scolded by the librarian for hogging them. Consequently, it’s one reason I have been able to clock myself at  90 wpm on a good day (a really good day); I’ve never taken a keyboarding class (another story, another time). Related, my first computer class of any kind of was Computer Programming I as a senior in high school; it was a piece of cake.

Our family purchased our first home computer around 1997 (age 12); I set up everything. It also just so happened that right at that time the “world wide web” was becoming more accessible, courtesy of the AOL disc torrent. Hello young internet and plethora of information. Also, a lot of arguments about tying up the phone line.

Now, with the internet at my fingertips, I started playing around with making personal web pages, tinkering with HTML and some Java applets. Remember geocities? That. My flavor was Sailor Moon fan pages. I learned to love playing with code. Little did I know how those ridiculous fan pages would come into play 20 years later.

Despite all that fun, art was my focus, specifically drawing. No, I totally didn’t draw a lot of Sailor Moon fan art (yes, yes I did). The aspiration was to become an animation artist. However, as life goes, my attempt at a college degree in art fell through due to funding.

After a brief hiatus and turning 24 (now an independent in FAFSA’s eyes), I began to explore other career choices. I may have also realized that the art degree was unlikely to get me far and starving artist was no longer as romantic as it once was in high school. I looked into academia, biology research, and more, feeling a bit clueless about my direction.  As the Cheshire cat once said, “Oh, you're sure to [get somewhere], if only you walk long enough.”

Then it finally dawned on me, “Derp, computer science.” /facepalm. I’ve always had an aptitude toward tech and problem-solving but I thought of it as more of a hobby. As much as I like to problem solve, this took me a while to figure out; it’s difficult to be objective about your subjective experience. With some outside objective help, I explored various computer science fields, system admin, security, database admin, etc.

And then, I rediscovered code. It resonated with me; I remembered the countless hours I spent tinkering with code on those silly fan pages. This was it. I made my decision, I am now an aspiring software developer.

Through happenstance, I fell into Ruby as a language and ran with it. If it was the “wrong” language for me, then I still learned something and could continue to move forward. As a self-described autodidact, I made use of local and online resources and started teaching myself, because yah, student loan debt, no thank you.

Since a lot of trial and error (which is exactly what software development is) and odd jobs (retail, banking, office manager, barista) I somehow navigated into AddressTwo as your CRM support specialist and switched to front end coding languages. I finally have my foot in the door of the tech industry. And for the first time, I absolutely love what I do (unlike retail), not that it doesn’t come with it’s own unique set of problems and headaches, but the problems I like to solve and the headaches I can handle.

If there is a solution, I will find it.

Can't get a prospect to answer the phone? Try drip email marketing to make them call you.

The focus of this article is email drip marketing for lead nurturing campaign. In today’s busy times, potential customers rarely have the time to learn everything about your company. So this is where the drip email campaign comes in. Today’s buyers want to make an informed buying decision, so why not take advantage of this and help them out.

Your prospects are your main source of income, and you constantly have to look for new ways to approach them the right way. When you’re cold calling people the chances they’ll be interested are slim. The ideal situation is to have them call you. But that sounds a bit far-fetched, doesn’t it? Maybe not.

Drip marketing is a direct marketing strategy where you come into contact with your potential clients prior to contacting them directly. It’s called ‘drip’ because you send emails to your prospects bit by bit before actually getting them on the phone. The only difference being that you’re sending out promotional emails over a period of time to get them to call you.

Crucial flow of email drip campaigns is as follows:

Find out who is your target audience  
Knowing your target audience is the crucial part of any marketing campaign, and drip email
campaign is no exception to the rule. Identifying your audience and their profile is the key to your approach and successfulness of your campaign. If you want to spark their interest, you need to understand them and their pain points. There’s no chance they’ll call you unless you offer them something they can’t refuse. That is only achieved if you truly know who you’re talking to.

What is your offer/message/goal that you want to convey to end user 
Second most important thing is formulating the message that you want to convey. Your message has to incorporate all the important elements that will trigger their interest and get them to call you. Remember that your message will be delivered in several ‘drips’ so it makes sense to distribute the bits of information evenly so as to retain their interest.

Create a strategic plan - how many emails, what triggers you want to include in each
The third thing you have to figure out is how many emails you want to send out and what to include in each. This depends entirely on your message, of course, but also on your target audience. If you have more than one trigger you can distribute the triggers into several emails. Also, think about the timing and how long you want to wait before sending a follow up email.

Measurement
As with every other marketing endeavour - always measure. Measuring is crucial if you want to learn from your mistakes, and you’re bound to make some, especially in the beginning.

Drip marketing campaign is a great way of sparking interest and ultimately making people call you. This type of campaign allows to gradually build rapport and stay top of mind with potential prospects without being too pushy. If your content and timing is good enough, they will eventually come to you.  Here are a few more email marketing tips we have for you.

5 Tips for Marketing To Cold Leads

Marketing to cold leads can be tricky but it is a necessary part of selling. It is not everyone’s cup of tea, and it takes the right person with the right attitude to do it, otherwise all the efforts may be ineffective. Cold leads are a tough crowd, and you need to put on your brave face when you’re marketing to them because oftentimes you will be rejected. 

As you know, it isn’t always pleasant to be sold to. What’s more, most of the time it’s actually annoying. But when you’re at the other side, you start to see things differently - or at least you should. Your approach has to reflect your goal and not your feelings. 

When marketing to cold leads, it’s all about the approach. The right approach can work wonders on cold leads. Here are some tips that can help you make the most out of it: 

#1 Find quality leads

No matter how good you are, if your leads are not even remotely interested in your product or service, it’s simply a waste of time for both parties. So, the rule number one is to do your homework and find people who may be genuinely interested in what you have to offer. 

#2 Be confident but not pushy

When it comes to selling, nobody likes pushy salesmen, at least not anymore. On the other hand, nobody likes insecure people either. If people are supposed to buy something from you, it means that you have to earn their trust and respect. And trust is best earned if you’re confident but not imposing. Your message has to be clear, and if you’re delivering it in person, you have to believe in it too. Otherwise, how can you expect others to if you don’t? 

#3 Set the timing right

Timing plays a huge role in how well your message is going to be received. The exact same message may be received quite differently simply because the timing was bad. For example, if you’re cold calling, according to the data from 100,000 calls, if you call your leads from 4 to 5 PM you have 164% more chances of closing a sale than 1 to 2PM. But this also depends on the industry that your in and the medium of communication. 

#4 Know your lead - get personal

In the world of generic email messages and calls, potential customers are less and less interested in hearing or reading what you have to say. Not necessarily because they are not interested in what you have to offer (because sometimes they don’t even know what you’re selling) but because they dismiss whatever you’re trying to say because you’re too generic, or let’s face it - boring. If you’re really interested in making that sale, you need to do some homework and find out something about the person/company you’re pitching to. 

#5 Always follow up

Don’t let your warm leads turn cold again. That’s exactly what happens when you don’t follow up. Just a short email or a phone call can suffice, you don’t have to repeat everything all over again and risk being annoying. Before you finish the call, conversation or email, do tell them that you will follow up with them in a few days, just to confirm what you talked about. This way they’ll know and there won’t be any surprises on both sides. 

Let’s face it, marketing to cold leads is hard - it’s probably one of the hardest things about selling. On the other hand, it is an infinite pool of potential customers who are just waiting to be sold to. Through the right combination of timing, skill and luck, marketing to cold leads can be quite lucrative.

How Do You Know Your Business Needs CRM?

"I just need a Simple CRM"

CRM systems are no longer an option, they’re a necessity. Customer Relationship Management systems are now used by businesses of all scales and sizes. How do you know you need one? It’s simple, just ask yourself: Are you selling services or products? If your answer is yes, then you definitely need a CRM software. If you’re still not convinced, here’s why else you need a reliable CRM system:

You’re losing precious data

When you don’t have a CRM system you’re bound to store data in emails, Excel spreadsheets, paper files, and notes. The worst thing is that all that pieces of information are scattered, and as such they become meaningless because you can’t have them all at once when you need them the most. The process of storing customer data becomes laborious and even impossible.

You’re having communication problems

When you don’t have a centralized data system available to all your employees in real time, it’s difficult to communicate and pass on important information and decisions as they happen. The communication gets delayed and the results of that are missed opportunities and clients gone elsewhere.

Your sales team isn’t doing much

If you feel like your sales team isn’t making any progress despite their best efforts, then you know you desperately need a CRM system. Today, there are so many things you can find out about your potential customers that can help you transform your business into something more prosperous. The key lies in managing and using your data more efficiently.

Leads turning cold

When your once hot leads start to turn cold and there’s nothing you can to do reverse that, again, you know you need to get a CRM system. Sure, there will always be leads who turn cold for no apparent reason, that’s not the point. The point is that in the majority of cases you lack the knowledge that would make them change their mind. You lack the details about your customer behavior and their habits that you could use in your advantage.

You lack data access at all times

When your sales people are gathering information about the customers, if they’re storing it on their own laptops or even papers, you don’t really get to see that information right away. Plus, with a CRM it’s easier to keep everyone updated on all the changes and new data entries. The ability to access your data at any time can significantly improve the quality of your work.

The Importance of Following Up with Sales Leads

AddressTwo, The Simple CRM, has
built-in follow up plans using smart tech.
to make sure your best opportunities are
never forgotten...

Leads won’t be of any value to you if you let them slip away. Generating sales leads is not done when

you’ve accumulated a number of leads. You’re only halfway through. But don’t take my word for it.

Did you know that up to 79% of leads never convert into sales? Why? Because brands and companies don’t nurture their leads.

When everything's going great, business owners get too comfortable thinking they are invincible. And then after a while, everything stops. All those leads start drying up, and before you know it you’re back to square one.

When you follow up on your leads (no matter how hot or cold) you’re making sure that:

You’re increasing your chances for conversion and repeat buying

You’re improving your ROI

You’re building a rapport with your audience

You stay top of mind -- if people don’t hear from you long enough they may forget about you

You keep your leads updated

Failing to follow up on your leads will turn them cold, and with today’s competition it won’t be long until they’ve replaced you with someone else. Not necessarily because they are better than you, but because they were persistent enough.

Looking for more great ways to Follow-Up?  Check out our blogs on Sales Tips.

Sales Debriefing

Let's face it, as small business owners you have to be a 'sales person' whether you want to be or not. While you would rather be focusing on the bigger picture, if you want to be successful you need to engage in sales conversations on a regular basis. So, how did your last sales call go? Did you make the sale? Why, or why not?

Taking the time to debrief after a call can help you do a much better job the next time. So, what types of questions should you be asking?

• How did the prospect react to the information provided - People process information in several different ways; some need to ask a lot of questions, others just want the top line summary. Some prospects need visual examples, others need a hands on experience to fully grasp your offering/product. So, did you adjust the call to their style, or did you simply run through the same presentation as you always do?
• What was the mutually agreed "yes" - Was everyone clear on the purpose of the call? Too often people pick up the phone or drop by to chat, and at the end of the day they say goodbye with no clear next step. While it is helpful to keep your name in front of people, going into a call with a plan will help you move toward a desired outcome. Making sure the other person knows the outcome options on the front end helps as well. If you are hoping to get an invitation for an office visit, did your prospect know that at the beginning of the conversation?
• Did you provide a USP? - Be different. All businesses must have a Unique Selling Point. If you do not stand out from the crowd, why should a prospect choose you? Make sure to send a clear message as to what you offer that others do not. Focus more on what makes you unique, as opposed to simply what you do.
• What pain indicator made you relevant - Did you take the time to find out what they really needed? Or do you have a one size fits all solution you are trying to shove at every prospect, regardless of what they need? If you are unable to empathize or relate to your prospect, they will not see the relevance of you or your company.
• What is their budget? - This is a tough one. Most people don't like to talk about money, but it is important to get this on the table early in the sales process. Do they have the funds? Is this something they are willing to invest in? You don't have to nail them down to an exact amount in the first conversation, but you should have an idea if you are playing in the same ball park.
• What happens next? - After you hang up the phone, is there a clear next step? If not, review the list of other questions. Do a better job of getting these answers and the next steps will be obvious.

About the Author:

As Creative Director or Roundpeg, Lorraine Ball is typically at the center of the managed chaos that keeps this agency on it's toes. With more than thirty years as a marketing professional (lie, tell her she doesn’t look that old) Lorraine is a native New Yorker, and a Hoosier by choice, committed to fostering growth and entrepreneurship in her adopted city. 

When not at Roundpeg, Lorraine can be found sharing what she knows in seminars and presentations around the country. She has a BA from Queens College, City University of NY, and an MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Follow @lorraineball | Connect on LinkedIn

Reaching out to a Prospect: How Much is Too Much?

So you have the perfect prospect who fits all your target criteria, and you decide to reach out to them. You get their voicemail, or the receptionist, and after several attempts you get no return call, no messages, no emails, nothing. What do you do next? How long should you keep trying before coming off as annoying and irritating? How much is too much when it comes to reaching out to a prospect?

When you are selling a product or service, you need to be persistent. But, there is a fine line between persistence and annoyance. If you are uncertain where to draw the line, here are some tips to help you out.

Email versus phone; which is better? You can choose between using an email or a phone call, or both - depending on the type of product or service you are offering, and what you think will resonate more with each specific prospect.

Reaching out via Email

In today's tech savvy world, emails are a great means of getting a message across. It doesn’t put too much stress on the prospect, or on you, and it can be saved for later reading. But if you choose to start the communication via email, as most businesses prefer, do not be too surprised if you do not get a response after the first email. People receive a plethora of emails on a daily basis, and many of those emails end up in trash or junk mail. That being said, if you decide to use the email approach, go ahead and schedule several follow-up emails without the fear of coming off as a pest. Make sure to space them out by a few days to a week.

Tip: Make sure that you are targeting to the appropriate contact with relevant information. Small Business CRM can categorize prospects and update the status of various prospects so you do not have to waste your time finding out what your prospects have been up to. With the use of a Simple CRM you will get this done much faster and with a more precise message.

Reaching out via Phone

If you decide to proceed with a phone call, be prepared for reaching voicemail or the 'gatekeeper'. If you do manage to get through, you need to be natural yet to the point. Remember that politeness is key; "Hello Mr/Mrs [name], how are you? This is [name] from [company]...". It is always good to ask if they are busy or if they have a few moments. Again, you want to be brief, especially when making a cold call. People are busy, and you do not want to come across as wasting their time. Time is important in today's busy world, let them know you are cognizant to that fact.

 

Phone and Email Combination

The best method is, of course, the email/phone combination. Start with a phone call. If you leave a message, feel free to let them know that you will follow up with an email if there is information you need them to review, or if you are attempting to set time for a meeting. With this method, it allows them to follow up with their preferred communication message. When making cold calls/contacts with little information, wait at least 48 hours between the two combinations if you do not want to be perceived as a bother.

When You Should Stop

When you are getting into your follow up calls and emails, make sure to give a value proposition and modify your follow up messages. Always reply within your initial message sent. If you are saying the exact same thing each time, you have a higher rate of losing their interest. After sending the two (slightly different emails) the third one should be the final email. Let them know in a non-direct and non-threatening way that this is your last contact. As opposed to saying, "this is your last chance for a discussion", or "I will no longer be reaching out", try modifying your message to, "if you get to a point where a conversation makes sense, please feel free to reach out". If you do not receive a response after three emails or three phone calls, then it is probably time to stop.