You, Too, Can be a SalespersonWritten by C.J. Hayden
I am not a sales and marketing guru. I've written two books on marketing and taught thousands of people how to sell themselves, but really, I don't know more about sales and marketing than most of you. What I know how to do is talk to people, all kinds of people -- restaurant owners and waiters, CEO's and receptionists, entrepreneurs and kindergarten teachers. I don't try to sell these people anything; we just have a conversation. But sales happen as a result. In my book "Get Clients Now!" I define marketing as telling people what you do over and over. That's part of secret right there. I've seen too many business owners fail because they simply don't speak up about their business. Or else they tell someone once what they do for a living, and then think they never need to mention it again. But there's another piece of sales and marketing puzzle that often gets left out. When you talk to someone about your business, you need to be direct, authentic, and unattached to outcome. Clients and students often ask me questions like, "What do I say when I call Mr. Big to find out if he's ready to buy?" They're shocked when they hear my answer: "Hello, Mr. Big, have you decided to purchase our product?" Or maybe question is how to follow up with someone you met at last night's event who expressed some interest in your service. My suggestion is to say: "When we spoke last night, you seemed interested in my services, and I'd like to continue our conversation." What do you do when you fear that client doubts your qualifications? How about: "You seem a bit unsure of my qualifications to do job, and I'd like to address that. What are your concerns?" These are all conversations. You ask a question; they answer. They ask a question; you answer. It's like a friendly tennis match -- all you have to do is keep ball in air, and nothing is at stake.
| | How to Price Your eBookWritten by Dan Meiyers
You've written and compiled an ebook. Now you have to decide how much to charge for it. Finding right price is essential to success of your product. If you charge too little, people will think it's of little value, and they won't purchase it, or even it they do buy your book, you will have to sell thousands of copies to get to point where you can begin to see a profit. If you price it too high when compared with your competition, you will find yourself steadily lowering price, which will cause you all kinds of new problems in future. For example, if you sell your ebook at first for $39.99, and later reduce it to $24.95, don't you think people who bought it for $39.99 are going to be PISSED?Choosing right price for your ebook is one of most critical parts of marketing process. The first rule of pricing ebooks is to never underprice. Determine highest price your audience can afford, and then if you find your book isn?t selling, you can always reduce price. Before you take that step, make sure you are promoting your book like crazy on Internet and on websites. The price should be aimed at bringing in profits, but you should never forget that price is one of factors that people use in judging value of your ebook ? before they buy it. So always start with highest price, and then launch a mega-marketing campaign. Pricing an ebook is particularly difficult because ebooks are a fairly new commodity. Since they are digital, value of an ebook is as confusing as understanding of what digital actually is to average layperson. This means that we must look at ebooks in a different light in order to determine their actual worth in this brave, new cyber world. Let's look at difference between a book in print and an ebook. A printed book is an object you can hold in your hand, store on your bookshelf, even hand down to next generation. It is priced on factors such as paper stock, design and production costs, and marketing. But fact that unites ebooks and print books is that they are composed of ideas. It is ideas in these books that have ability to change, or possibly transform, people's lives. What do you think an idea is worth when evaluated against cost of paper and ink? It is IDEAS that are valuable! That is how you determine cost of your ebook. What should I charge for my ideas? There are all different formulas and methods for determining correct price for your ebook. Let's begin with honing in on your ultimate goals. Decide if your goal is to get wide distribution and maximum exposure. This goal is aimed at drawing customers to your business or service, or to establishing credibility of your reputation. If this is your main goal, you should aim to keep your price on low side. Some authors have even priced their ebooks at a profit loss to draw a high number of new customers. The key is to find a price that maximizes your profits and number of books you sell. This is an excellent pricing strategy if you are looking to acquire long-term customers. Long-term customers are extremely likely to buy from you again and again ? as long as first ebook they buy is of exceptional quality and beneficial to customer. However, if your book contains valuable ? and more importantly NEW information, references, or techniques ? then you should aim to price it on high end.
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