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Blog: how should we sell Huffs Listings on value versus price http://ping.fm/wRHgO

Huffs Listings: Price or Value. That is the question.

In our League of Extraordinary Salesmen class, our instructor and master salesman Hugh Liddle has asked us novice salespeople to list the three things about our product or service that are of value to our customers.

For most customers price by itself is not the key factor when a purchase is being considered. This is because most customers compare the entire marketing offering and do not simply make their purchase decision based solely on a product’s price. In essence when a purchase situation arises price is only one of several variables customers evaluate when they mentally assess a product’s overall value. KnowThis.com

According to Tessa Stowe, in 4 Secrets to Selling Value Versus Price, learning and applying her secrets will guarantee that your prospects will see the value in your products and services so that price is no longer the issue. Secret #1: Forget about selling and trying to get your prospect to buy your products and services. Secret #2: Have your prospect tell you the value (instead of you tell them). Secret Number #3: Have valuable conversations. Secret #4: Add your value to their value.

Wow! This is good stuff. Easy if I were communicating face-to-face with my customers. Much more difficult in the impersonal morass of the Internet. So how do I foster an online environment where independent businesspeople and solopreneur prospects tell me what the value is to them for having an optimized doorway to their entire online presence? That's a mouth full.

I face the following challenges on www.huffslist.com:

1. How does one create value for just another online business listing service?
2. How does one differentiate a Huffs Listing from social media?
3. How do we overcome the fact that this is a fledgling business directory and doesn't yet have over 1 million listings (which, by the way, is our goal)?
4. How does one make it imperative that, as an independent businessperson, if you want more visibility on the web, you need a Huffs Listing.
   

As a first step, I need to gather information. Would you please take a couple of minutes and complete the following questionnaire. Go to Questionnaire

Thanks bunches,

Linda

Huffs List welcomes Collins Management Services, partnering with clients to achieve and sustain high impact business results http://ping.fm/tnJfl

Customer service that makes us memorable

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. In the late 1940s, Dr. Joseph M. Juran inaccurately attributed the 80/20 Rule to Pareto, calling it Pareto's Principle. Dr. Juran's observation of the "vital few and trivial many", the principle that 20 percent of something always are responsible for 80 percent of the results, became known as Pareto's Principle or the 80/20 Rule.

In 20th century corporate sales, gurus applied this to doing business where 80% of your business comes from repeat customers and 20% comes from new. Today, you could almost re-phrase it even further as 80% of your business comes through referrals from satisfied customers and 20% comes from off-the-shelf new customers. Whittling it all down, this means that truly satisfied customers are your greatest source for new business.

So when you have an online business and someone actually finds you in this morass of the Internet and becomes your customer, the big question is how do you turn this customer into a 'satisfied' customer who will refer your products and services to their friends and associates? The answer? You need to give them customer service that makes you memorable.

In a League of Extraordinary Salesmen class, we sales novices brainstormed this very question. Words were brought up, such as follow-up, ask them what they need, be punctual, answer their questions, smile and be friendly (difficult to do in an online environment), serve, create a partnership, give referrals to them, give details, find your commonality, send articles, be available, and communicate. What these all have in common is communication. You need to communicate with your customer.

Now I have to say that I'm thoroughly human and, looking for the Golden Fleece, have signed up to find out how to make money. Now these guys COMMUNICATE. I'm not sure how effective it is, but I'm deluged with emails: "I'm throwing you a lifeline!", "UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!", "Exciting announcement of November Promotions", "Fall Asleep, Wake Up Rich!", "Some great stuff....", "Important (from my lawyer)", or even "I have THE survival kit you need!" And this is just a portion of my November's emails. The one thing all of these have in common is that they want to show you how to spend money to make money. Wow!

You must first capture your customer's attention. To do this, you have to separate your communications from the riff-raff. The best way is to have your communications be two way. 40% of successful selling today is building rapport with your prospect. So build rapport with your online customers. Following are some simple rules:

• Communicate, communicate, communicate.
• Always make your communications worthwhile.
• Share with them how you want to better serve them.
  
• Let them know how much you value them.
  
• Send professional looking emails.
  
• Apply the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid).
  
• Never ask for money.

In return, ask your customers to communicate with you by letting you know how they use your products and services. Ask them to tell you how you can improve your customer service to them. Make sure that, when they do reply, acknowledge their reply and state how valuable it is to you. Once you have built rapport with them, go ahead and ask them to help you by giving references by:

• Blogging about your product and services.
• Mentioning your products and services in their social media postings.
  
• Letting their friends know that they, too, can rely on you.
  

Huffs List welcomes Jonathan Wilkins of JWconsulting, offering marketing communications services. http://ping.fm/2qGQE