BREAKING THE VOICE MAIL BARRIER

Written by C.J.Hayden, MCC


Even if you never place a cold call, you still have to reach people by phone. That customer who was so interested last month never called you back, and now you must call her. You call once, twice, three times, but you can't get her in person. How can you manage to close a sale if all you ever get is voice mail? Doing business inrepparttar age of voice mail can be extremely frustrating. While it is true that some people leave their voice mail on allrepparttar 120572 time, you can sometimes get through by calling off hours. Try calling before 8:30 or after 5:30. You may also find people at their desks duringrepparttar 120573 lunch hour. So should you keep calling or leave a message? Actually, you should do both. Assume that most people won't call you back, so just keep right on calling them. Josiane Feigon, principal ofrepparttar 120574 telesales training and coaching company, Telesmart Communications (www.tele-smart.com), suggests that you try pressing "0" or "0"# to transfer torepparttar 120575 receptionist. That way you can verify thatrepparttar 120576 person you are trying to reach is still inrepparttar 120577 same job position, and find out when they are expected to be in. Whether you reach your prospects or not, never make them wrong for not returning your calls. Rather than saying, "I haven't heard from you," let them know you are eager to speak with them, and wanted to try again while you were in your office. Feigon recommends, "As a rule, try not to leave any more than three voice mail messages over a 10-day period of time and then lay off for a month." Speaker and trainer Melinda Henning of Doing Business by Phone (www.melindahenning.com) says thatrepparttar 120578 way to deal with voice mail is to use it as an advertising medium. In other words, leave a voice mail commercial. Especially if you are cold calling, Melinda suggests that you compose a series of different commercials, each one revealing some new and interesting fact about your business, and another reason for someone to speak with you.

How to Use Public Speaking to Attract Clients

Written by Steven Van Yoder


When Robert Middleton moved his marketing consulting practice, Action Plan Marketing, to Palo Alto, California several years ago, he started his business from scratch. He had left his well-established client base several miles away and now had to find strategies to generate new clients. Because Middleton had always spoken to promote his business, he turned to public speaking with a vengeance. He researched local organizations whose members comprised professional business owners, his target clientele. He called chambers of commerce, business groups and others likely to be interested in his three-hour marketing workshop. Within a few months, Middleton had spoken at over a dozen organizations, establishing his reputation as a marketing expert for professional service firms. He quickly became a known entity, having personally introduced his business and credentials to hundreds of prospects. Better yet, Middleton's speaking strategy helped him land allrepparttar business he could handle in a relatively short time period. Overrepparttar 120571 course of sixteen talks, he averaged one new client each time. Today,repparttar 120572 seminars he conducts at business groups and, increasingly, teleconferences promoted through his web site generate more than 50 percent of his business. Speaking Is Selling Many business people never consider standing inrepparttar 120573 front of their buying public to share professional wisdom. If you're one of them, you're missingrepparttar 120574 boat. Speaking is a marketing strategy you can immediately embrace to get in front of potential customers. Speaking puts you within handshaking distance of your best prospects, many times helping you close sales before you leaverepparttar 120575 room. By speaking regularly you can endrepparttar 120576 uncertainty of knowing where your next client will come from. Speaking can help you reach dozens, and sometimes hundreds of your best prospects every time. Speakers report that speaking regularly continuously fills their prospect pipelines, ensuring a steady stream of new clients and customers. Speaking is effective because it showcases your knowledge before groups of people who eagerly show up to hear it. Your prospects may tune out advertising, but they'll pay attention to your talk because it presents your knowledge in polished form to people who think it will help them. Speaking gives you tremendous visibility and credibility that increases over time. Whenever you are inrepparttar 120577 front of a room, you get noticed. People will remember who you are and what your business does. The more people see you speak and see your business name,repparttar 120578 more successful people think you are.

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