Massmailsoftware Blog category Sales

The car salesman sits behind his desk, fresh from yet another meeting with the sales manager. As he slides the “four-square” worksheet across his desk toward you, you have no interest in what’s written there, and tell him…for the twelfth time this hour. “Okay, what would it take to get you to buy today? Right now?” he asks. “Nothing. I told you I was just looking; I’ll be in the market in a few months, but there’s nothing you can do or say to get me to buy today.” “I’ll be right back,” he replies, standing up and starting for […]

Your best potential customers are the ones you already have. Everyone knows that repeat business can be a big key to success, but there’s another aspect of your customers you need to keep in mind…the best marketing you can receive is a current customer recommending you to their friends, family and co-workers. I’m not talking about multi-level marketing…while many make a nice profit with that business model, talking your Great Aunt Mildred into buying her laundry detergent from you (no matter how much her clothes may smell) isn’t the point. What I am talking about is your customers selling your […]

Obviously, there was no such thing as “online marketing” in the 17th century (probably due to incredibly low bandwidth), but you can still learn something from marketing methods in that time period…specifically the town crier. When someone takes their business online, and especially if they have an online-only business, the impulse is to promote it online. That’s an effective idea, but there’s something you may be forgetting about your customers. They’re not “traffic”, “hits” or “vistors”…they’re people. Your goal isn’t to get more “traffic” to your website, it’s to get more people to your website. And that’s who you need […]

Everyone wants marketing for nothing and their traffic for free. (My apologies to Dire Straits.) And there are a lot of ways to get it done. But sometimes you want more for various reasons: You’re launching a new product. You’re offering a new service. You need your overall traffic numbers up. After months of using free traffic-building methods, you still have that “lonely” feeling every time you check your stats. If so, it may be time to take a trip into “Business ClichèLand”…”To make money, you have to spend money.” And there are a lot of ways to do just […]

When someone has a problem, need or desire, their first stop on the internet is usually Google.  For example, if a business owner is looking for a way to process credit cards for payment online (and they have no knowledge of this area), a trip to Google and a search for “credit card processing” will return a link to Authorize.net as the first non-sponsored response. Why? There are quite a few reasons, all of which are covered under the umbrella term of SEO, or Search Engine Optimiztion, and SEO is something an online business cannot afford to ignore. SEO basics […]

Most people have an image of “sales” as the process of convincing someone to conduct trade with you, whether you’re selling a product or providing a service…and that’s the wrong way to look at it. Effective sales is the process of solving problems. In 1938, the Dr. Roy Plunkett discoverd Teflon while working for Du Pont. Full-scale production of Teflon took another ten years to get going, and even then it was only for industrial applications. Then, in the early 1950’s, a Frenchman named Marc Gregoire (who was using Teflon to prevent his fishing lines from sticking) heard his wife […]