Creative professionals often meet with clients for “free consultations” with the hopes of turning that consult into a paying client. Though this thought process is common and may make sense on the surface, it’s actually contradictory to the behavior of great paying clients.

By giving away the initial consultation for free, you are diminishing the value of your talents and your services, and in turn hurting your chances of closing a great deal. Potential customers who get the initial consultation for free are less likely to value what you do and will more likely balk at your fees.

You should absolutely charge a healthy amount for your initial consultation. This approach will help eliminate “bad clients” or clients who are just price shopping or looking for free advise. It will also increase the value of your creative services in the mind of the prospect. Any potential client who is “offended” by paying for the consultation was most likely never really a potential client in the first place. Turning away these types of people will help reduce the number of wasted consultations you present.
If you are already charging for your consultation, you should re-examine the amount you charge. If you are not charging at least $100 for the consultation, you are probably going out on far more wasted meetings than you should. Increase your consultation fee and tell the prospective buyer that you will put the consultation fee towards their project should they choose to hire you. This approach reduces resistance to the higher amount. It also increases the quality of your potential client and your chances of closing the sale.

Try this approach out on the next person who calls to set up a consultation and keep in mind that a major part of effective marketing and sales is weeding out bad clients and wasted initial consultations. Stop giving away your consulting and you will change the value of your services in your mind and in the mind of your clients, which will help you increase your income, decrease your wasted time, and get better clients.

Kirstin Carey is the author of “Starving Artist No More: Hearty Business Strategies for Creative Folks”. Kirstin knows that most creative professionals hate sales, contracts and discussing money. She consults creative folks on the business side of creativity so they make more money, attract better clients, and love what they do. Get proven strategies and insider secrets to help creative types like you get the business help you need at www.MyCreativeBiz.com

1. Publish testimonials for your free stuff. It would increase
their value and if they’re viral marketing tools, you’ll have
more people giving them away.

2. Give your visitors a good time so they will visit your web
site again. Use a few jokes, humorous graphics and funny stories.

3. Make money from web sites that don’t have an affiliate
program, by doing a joint venture. Set up the affiliate program
through a third party for them.

4. Build rapport with your potential customers by teaching them
something new. Provide them with free ebooks, articles, tips,
courses, etc.

5. Allow your visitors to collect things from your web site so
they will stop back again and again. It could be a series of
software, ebooks or articles.

6. Keep each page of your web site consistent or similar. Use
similar text fonts, colors, graphics and background on every
page.

7. Build a popular directory of freebies. It will draw tons of
traffic to your web site and you can request that submitters
place your link on their web site.

8. Create traffic generators that people can add to their site
without doing all the work. It can be an article directory,
freebie directory, web tool, etc.

9. Challenge your visitors to buy your product or service.
People love a good challenge. Tell them if they can find a flaw
you’ll give them a refund.

10. Form a strategic alliance with other related but
non-competing businesses. You’ll be able to beat your
competition by selling to a larger audience.

In some situations, attempting to intimidate the other person will actually increase the amount of rapport you gain with them. CEO introductions, meeting other salespeople (and competitors), and sales job interviews come to mind.

Other times its just plain fun to assert a little power in a situation.

Here’s the technique for giving a “power handshake” that communicates that you are confident, in control, and not afraid to use it.

1. Reach to shake first, with you right palm open, tilted slightly to the right.
   
2. Wrap your grip around the webbing between his thumb and index finger, just past where his four knuckles join the fingers to the hand.
   
3. Squeeze firmly (squeeze really hard if you are greeting a competitor).
   
4. Give the grip a twist of about a quarter turn or so to the left of center.

The key is getting your grip first into the area past where the four knuckles join the fingers to the hand. Once your hand is in here, the other person will be unable to squeeze anywhere near as hard as you can. This establishes your dominance in the situation.

Use this technique carefully. Using this technique on people who are easily intimidated, will only make gaining rapport even more difficult. However in some situations it will actually increase your rapport.

© 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.

Shamus Brown is a Professional Sales Coach and former high-tech sales pro who began his career selling for IBM. Shamus has written more than 50 articles on selling and is the creator of the popular Persuasive Selling Skills CD Audio Program. You can read more of Shamus Brown’s sales tips at http://Sales-Tips.industrialEGO.com/ and you can learn more about his persuasive sales skills training at http://www.Persuasive-Sales-Skills.com/

Use these 5 powerful buying stimulators in your ads, web pages
and other sales messages to get more sales. They produce
immediate results without increasing your costs.

1. CONVERT BENEFITS INTO FEELINGS

People usually buy a product or service because they expect to
feel a certain way after the purchase. Keep this in mind as you
develop your ads, web pages and other sales tools.

Use vivid word pictures to dramatize the pleasant feeling your
customer will experience when enjoying the benefit produced by
your product or service. The following portion of a business
opportunity ad I saw recently illustrates this concept:

“No boss. No schedule. No debt. Money to buy what you want and
lots of time to have fun.”

2. DRAMATIZE THE FEELING OF LOSS

After telling your prospect what they will gain from buying your
product or service, tell them what they will lose if they do not
buy it. Most people fear loss more then they desire gain.

Strengthen your selling appeals by reminding prospects of what
they will lose if they do not buy from you. For example, the
above business opportunity ad becomes more powerful by adding
the following:

“Or… continue building wealth for your boss while you struggle
month after month just to pay your bills.”

3. REDUCE PRODUCT CHOICES

Promote only 1 product or service each time you advertise. Most
people have difficulty selecting one product to buy when their
decision forces them to delay or reject buying something else
they also want. When prospects cannot make an easy choice they
often make no decision at all — and you lose the sale.

TIP: Combine several products or services into one package for
one price. Eliminate the difficult decision of selecting and
rejecting items by not including an option to buy any items
separately. You will get more sales because your prospect’s
buying decision is limited to a simple “yes” or “no”.

4. INCREASE THE BUYING OPTIONS

Offering choices of WHAT to buy reduces your sales. But offering
choices of HOW to buy increases your sales. Offer many different
ways for customers to buy from you. The same method is not
convenient for everybody. Prospective customers are more likely
to act immediately when their favorite way of ordering is
available.

For example, many online marketers only accept orders online.
They could easily increase the number of sales they get by
including options to order by phone, fax and postal mail.

5. SIMPLIFY THE BUYING PROCEDURE

You get more sales when you make it easier for customers to buy
from you. Look for ways to make your buying procedure easier and
faster.

For example, many online marketers use a shopping cart to
process their orders — even when they offer only 1 or 2 items.
Don’t force your customers to endure the complicated process of
a shopping cart just to order 1 item. Some will abandon the
process …each one a sale you lost needlessly.

Use a simple online order form instead of a shopping cart when
you offer only 1 or 2 items. It generates more sales.

Each of these buying stimulators will increase your sales. Start
using them now in your ads, web pages and other sales messages.
They will produce immediate results without increasing your
costs.

In order to skillfully sell your product line, whether it’s digital cameras or houses, your staff needs to know the products’ features, inside and out. They need to know how a camera operates, what special features it has, the number of pixels; real estate agents need to know the square footage of the house, the school district it’s in, the amount of land involved, and so on.

But the features of a particular product are not necessarily going to be the main selling points. While you always have some customers interested in the technical details of a digital camera, or the specifics of a piece of real estate, you’re probably going to sell the product based on the benefits it offers to the buyer.

For instance, with a digital camera, you can talk to a customer about the number of pixels it has, or you can say, “This camera takes really sharp, clear pictures, so that if you get a really great picture of your grandkids, you can get it blown up really large, and it’ll still be sharp!” Instead of selling a camera’s autofocus features, you can say, “If you see a really cute shot of your grandkids (or your dog, or your grandkids and your dog), you can take it quickly without having to stop to focus the camera.” A residential home can have a great view, a really comfortable, easy to use kitchen, a big living room “with lots of room for parties and family get-togethers.” It can be only one block from the local elementary school or park, or from the most popular supermarket - convenience is a great benefit.

Appealing to emotions can be an effective sales technique: “This dress will make you look sexy”; “feel the power as you drive this sports car”; “this music will evoke a feeling of peacefulness”. Even bringing up a potential problem that evokes fear, and then solving it, can promote sales. “Burning wood can result in dangerous chimney fires; burning this special log will protect you from this.”

In sales meetings, don’t confine yourself to covering sales stats and the technical aspects of new products; hold brainstorming sessions and have the members of your sales staff come up with benefits of each product. Since each staff member comes with a different personal background and unique experiences, you’ll undoubtedly end up with a wealth of benefits and a variety of different approaches to attach to your products.

Don’t forget demographics; selling a digital camera to a teenager involves different benefits than selling the same camera to a 70-year-old grandma. But don’t make assumptions about the teenager or the grandma; the teenager might want the camera to take photos of the handbags she’s designed for sale on eBay; the grandma may be the local Annie Leibovitz and know a lot more about photography than you ever will.

Make sure your staff develops the habit of listening to your customers; they’ll tell your staff what benefits they want from your product. You’ll be able to match product to customer and, perhaps best of all, you’ll get to know your customer’s needs in a way that helps you develop a long-term business relationship.

Aldene Fredenburg is a freelance writer living in southwestern New Hampshire. She has written numerous articles for local and regional newspapers and for a number of Internet websites, including Tips and Topics. She expresses her opinions periodically on her blog, http://beyondagendas.blogspot.com She may be reached at amfredenburg@yahoo.com

You have permission to publish this article in your ezine or on
your web site, free of charge, as long as the bylines are
included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be
appreciated.

“Listen Your Way to Sales Success”

There are many factors and variables that affect our sales on
any given day. There is however, one key skill that will
increase help you increase your sales immediately.

Listen to your customer!

That’s it! That’s all it takes to close more sales. Sounds
simple doesn’t it? Unfortunately, the majority of salespeople
fail to do this.

In the countless sales transactions I watch, I notice that most
salespeople don’t ask their customers enough questions. Sure,
they generally uncover a few basic needs that the customer has.
They know what they’re looking for in a product with regard to
features, specifications, color, and price.

What they don’t do is probe to uncover additional information
about the customer. They don’t ask them why they want that
specific product, or why they’re considering our store. They
don’t learn where the customer has been shopping or what they’ve
seen. They don’t ask what they like and/or dislike about the
other stores they’ve been in to. They don’t find out what their
hot buttons are or what makes them tick or what will motivate
them to buy. They fail to gather enough information!

I believe that there are two primary reasons for this. First, we
don’t believe that people will give us this information. The
fact is, people will tell you anything you want to know
providing they trust you and as long as you ask the right
questions in the appropriate manner. For example, if a customer
tells you that they are buying a product because they are going
on a vacation, do you ask where they are going? Do you show
interest in their holiday or are you too concerned with closing
the sale? Are you more interested in your personal problems or
watching the clock to care? In many cases, we are so preoccupied
with something else that we miss vital clues customers give us.

An amazing thing occurs if you demonstrate even a tiny bit of
interest in your customer. They’ll begin to open up! They’ll
provide you with information you may not have learned otherwise.
They’ll talk. They’ll tell you everything you need to know in
order to close the sale. People love to talk about themselves
and they’ll start to feel more comfortable with you as they
talk. When people feel more comfortable they relax. We all know
that a prospect who is relaxed will be more likely to buy than
someone who is tense and uptight.

The second reason for not gathering sufficient information is
that we feel it takes too much time. In my training sessions I
frequently hear that this time is better used overcoming
objections. My response is that if we gain more information and
fully understand the customer’s motives and needs, we can often
overcome objections before they occur. Use your time more
effectively during the sales process. Instead of spending so
much time overcoming objections find out what your customer’s
true concerns are beforehand. This will help you adapt your
sales presentation to meet their specific needs, address their
concerns, and move you closer to closing the sale. Ask yourself,
“What information do I still need to help the customer make the
appropriate buying decision?”

We’ve all heard the expression that information is power. Gain
the extra leverage in the sales process by investing the time
gaining extra information from your customer. Do it consistently
and you’ll develop stronger relationships with your customers,
which, in turn, will help you close more sales.