Promote your Business

Once you have obtained the working capital or business finance to launch your business you will need a marketing plan in order to sell your service or product. The options are advertising and marketing, or employment of a PR firm and/or a telemarketing company to take your product to the consumer. It is not enough just having the perfect concept as it will be useless unless it is successfully marketed.

The following is an overview of different areas that you may wish to consider:

Your business is your business; most businesses need promotion in some shape or form and this is the area that can be left to the professionals whilst you handle the day to day running to bring profitability.

Your business success and credibility rely on the support of many different communities. Yet simultaneously communicating with multiple audiences can be a complex challenge.
 
Effective public relations can help drive your business goals and can establish and maintain your credibility. If you position your company and its offerings clearly and consistently to all of your audiences, you will begin to build credibility with them.  You will also gain their trust and attention when you interact with them again and again.
 
Most of us are influenced by the media and what it has to report. There is no greater benefit to your company than a positive mention in a printed article, a newscast or online publication. 

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The following are some ways in which you can grab and keep the media's attention:

  Take the time to build awareness - give key media targets enough information to build interest in your products and services.  Think ahead and start to build attention prior to product launches with online or local newspaper press releases for example.

  Focus on what differentiates you - prepare corporate messages that refer to exactly what your company is and how its products stand apart from others in the field.

Anticipate the media's needs - accurate, quality information provided in a timely fashion is fundamental to maintaining credibility.  By anticipating the needs of a busy editor or reporter, you become a valued resource and help ensure consistent press from your target publications.
 
Once you have established yourself as a credible source of information about the issues facing your marketplace, reporters will want to hear from you.

Only a communications expert can effectively navigate this delicate process to craft messages, develop a strategy and help you establish credibility with sensitivity and dexterity.  Make sure that you have a strong, media-savvy Public Relations Firm who can demonstrate thorough understanding of each of your target audiences and what it will take to build credibility with your future clients. 
 
Look for a solid P.R firm that has proven expertise in pitching stories to high-profile reporters at national business and financial as well as specifically targeted publications; select broadcast mediums; and vertical trade publications.  Start now to properly position your company and build your credibility for the future .

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Most of the successful businesses that are around today have increased revenue by concentrating on sales. Whether you are selling a product or a service the quickest and most effective method is to use an in-house sales team or outsourcing to a telemarketing specialist. With the adoption of different sales techniques, and after having spent valuable time and money trying to reinvent the wheel, you will discover that there are very little options, techniques or gimmicks that are able to overturn conventional wisdom and revolutionize how people sell over the telephone.

Fortunately or unfortunately the basics of telephone sales will always come down to two things; people like to do business with people they like and no matter how much they like you, a prospect will only buy over the phone if you have something that will benefit them. It is really that easy.

You might ask, "If telesales was really that easy why wouldn't everyone flourish at it?" The answer is simple.to keep the level of energy necessary to establish rapport, generate enthusiasm and have the courage to push for the sale on every call, is very difficult to maintain. As executives and managers we must realize the importance of motivation, maintaining a positive atmosphere and consistently emphasizing the importance of on-going training in order to facilitate teamwork, knowledge and enjoyment in a very difficult work environment. Telesales is not "rocket science" but if it is done correctly, with the heart felt enthusiasm that it requires, combined with a few simple straight forward telesales tools and techniques, then your team will succeed.

Managers and executives industry wide miss the opportunity to increase productivity and the overall success of any telesales initiative by failing to provide the ongoing support necessary to ensure success. Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. Enthusiasm is not only a necessity but should be a requirement in any telesales environment.

Telemarketing is a noble profession that has been unscrupulously dragged through the dirt by amateurs who think they have to lie, cheat and steal to have success. Your team should know their product, and the market for their product, inside and out, and at the very least, you need to make sure they have any requested information at their fingertips.

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Your telesales professional must be prepared for every call. If a person is surprised or stumbles over their words they are ill prepared and will have credibility issues with the prospect. Nothing is worse when you hear a person stumbling over their presentation, rustling through papers, or putting a prospect on hold thereby making a busy person wait because the telesales professional was not adequately trained to handle a question or objection. Now is it possible to totally prepare your team for any eventuality? No, but you can make sure that they can hold their own. How do you do that you may ask? Here are some of the steps to make sure your team is prepared:

We recommend that you work with these phrases and questions until you find a combination that works for you and each individual of your team. The key is, it must be a combination that each individual within your team can apply to his /her own unique personality. It is a difficult task because of the myriad of personalities that you encounter and rest assured "one size does not fit all" but their comfort or discomfort will be very visible to the prospect and their success will depend on your ability to help them develop a presentation that is tailor made for their unique personalities.

Being prepared includes preparing your team so they will know what to do when the customer replies with one of three general options. First, what will they do if the prospect says, "I can talk to you now"? He or she could say, "Not now, later." Or the response may be some form of, "Not interested." Your team needs to have a plan for at least these three basic customer responses.

Rapport building on the telephone is developed through "listening" not through talking. Asking clear, concise, appropriate questions that are geared to assisting and benefiting the prospect are the best way to build rapport. When you are tempted to interrupt, bite your tongue and when you are anxious to get your message across, stop yourself. Verbal clues are given by the client and in most instances he will direct your telesales professional exactly where he wants to go, which is closing. (Given your marketing department has done their job and put you in front of the right market). Also remember that it is within human nature to help people and as long as you present yourself in a courteous, friendly and respectful manner than you have won half the battle in building a rapport with your prospect.

Just asking questions does not work. It does not work to qualify their prospect, and it does not work to set their prospect at ease. If anything, this strategy puts them at a disadvantage and makes the prospect not want to speak with your Telesales Professionals!

The real truth is that in today's marketplace there are very few sales opportunities that are not complex. Economic fluctuations, corporate downsizing, reorganization, tighter budgets, consolidation and literally scores of other realities have dictated that even simple sales have become more complicated.

"Enthusiasm" is a communicable virus that should "flow" through your organization like an epidemic and will make your company a success you will enjoy!

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