Category Archives: Cold Calling

How to sell subscriptions

Posted on by
Reply

selling magazine, digital and newspaper subscriptionsSelling subscriptions isn’t hard. However, you still have to apply the same sales and marketing rules if you want to be successful. And these days, subscriptions just don’t apply to magazines or newspapers. Thanks to the internet, we have seen an explosion of subscriptions other markets, including entertainment, technology, communication, and healthcare.

I’ve sold subscriptions to software and niche publications.

You would think that selling software subscriptions would be easy. You just do a demo, set up a trial, and the customer is impressed with what you have to offer, and then pays for your product.  However, like any sale, you still run into objections. And the higher the price point, the more objections you need to overcome and the longer the sales cycle you need to manage.

When I sold password security software, my sales cycle would run from one month to two years. This was because I was usually dealing with a lot of decision-makers in different divisions within the company that I had to convince.

With niche publications, the biggest challenge you face is all the free content available online. So it’s important to offer unique information that your average customer would have difficulty finding online or doesn’t have time to find through Google searches.

This is why I always laugh when telemarketers try to sell me print subscriptions to the Washington Post. I mean, really?!? With all the free news information online, I have no problem keeping up with international, national and local news. Sure, I may occasionally buy the print Sunday edition to read the comics, or get coupons, but beyond that, I just don’t need a print newspaper anymore.

Niche it down. The more unique your publication, software or service, the better chance you have of increasing and retaining your paid subscriptions.

When selling subscriptions, here are some good rules to follow –

1). Offer good marketing content on your website that attracts prospects. That would include blogs, white papers, case studies and interesting articles.

2). Create a good prospect list to contact by cold calling, emails and direct marketing. Obviously, target those that you feel will have the greatest interest in what you are selling. Also, it goes without saying, start with your potentially highest paid prospects and work your way down the list to the lowest ones.

3). Contact expired subscribers and try to bring them back on board. Maybe you could offer them a free trial, a special one-time discount or some other incentive.

4). Offer free trials for x-number of days.

5). Provide testimonials on your website. Or better yet, have a video collection of testimonials to send to your prospects.

6). Ask for referrals. Maybe offer a discount per referral.

7). If you are offering an online subscription with network licenses, make sure everyone subscribing to the license is using your service. Also, if someone leaves, immediately contact the key decision maker to find a replacement. Nothing hurts more than having a 20 user license and seeing it reduced in half because employees left, and you never bothered to quickly find their replacements.

8). Keep track of subscribers moving from one company to another. If an old subscriber lands a new job with a company that’s not currently subscribing to your publication or software, contact them and bring them onboard. Use LinkedIn to keep, Google Alerts and industry newsletters to keep track of your current subscribers.

9). Engagement. Create a discussion board to allow your subscribers to offer ideas and exchange information. This is also a good way to moderator what your subscribers are thinking that could help you make improvements. It also helps you to build a community. Customers today are not just interested in buying and using your products or services – they want to feel like they are part of your company, and they want to interact not just with you, but other clients too.

As mentioned in Zuora, Inc’s SlideShare presentation “Driving Success in the Subscription Economy”, there are 6 steps for a successful subscription campaign – Acquire, Nurture, Collect & Automate, Measure, Iterate, and Scale.

By Acquire, use the personal touch, offer value, and make it easy to access your information or services.

By Nurture, keep clients engaged and make it easy for them to renew and move through different subscription plans. In short, reduce the friction.

By Collect & Automate, make it easy for clients to pay and provide them with accurate billing information.

By Measure, use tools like CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to gain insights from your subscribers, and help you make smarter decisions about cross-selling and up-selling.

By Iterate, test to find out which pricing and feature strategies work best to enhance customer relationships.

By Scale, ensure your system is secure and scalable as you expand your client base and offerings.

And finally, below, I have compiled a series of articles I found on how to sell subscriptions. Please let me know what you think.

Alix Stuart, in her article “How to Sell Subscriptions – for Everything”, makes a good point of making sure your clients are committed to paid subscription model before you pursue that option.

Offering good content is obviously a key to your success, as pointed out by 3dcart in “How to Sell Magazine Subscriptions Online”.

Steve Burge from OSTraining, offers good advice in his article “Lessons Learned from 5 years of Selling Subscriptions.”  For example, he warns against using most payment processors and not to use PayPal directly.

Is there still a market for print magazine subscriptions? Rebecca Sterner in her article “How to sell Magazine Subscriptions” seems to think so. She outlines a series of strategies for selling both print and digital subscriptions.

MarketingSherpa makes a strong point in its article “Five Rules for Selling Subscriptions to Web Sites and Email Newsletters” about the need to survey your clients. How else are you going to sell and increase subscriptions unless you know what your readers want from you?

Please let me know if you have any comments.

Three (3) ways to distribute leads to your Sales Teams

Posted on by
Reply

If you have been in sales for a while, you know that sales leads are usually distributed to sales teams in three ways. Each way has its advantages and disadvantages.

1). Geographic territory: States and/or countries are assigned to salespeople. You are responsible for prospecting any leads in your assigned area. In addition, any incoming leads from your location are handed over to you. Sometimes lead transfer can be a little sticky, especially if you are dealing with large corporations with several global locations. In most cases, where the corporation is headquartered is usually the determining factor in whether that lead is assigned to you or another salesperson. In addition, I once worked for a small publishing company that actually assigned “fenced off” accounts, i.e., large national accounts would be assigned to other salespeople even if some of those accounts fell into your territory.

2). Market segmentation territory: Rather than assigned leads based on geography, you are assigned leads based on specific market segmentation. This type of distribution is common if you work for a large corporation. Examples would include law firms, academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, federal and state governmental agencies, etc. Sometimes market segmentation may be broken down further by employee size or estimated revenue. For example, one group of salespeople may be responsible for Fortune 500 companies, while others may be responsible for Fortune 100 companies, and so on.

3). Round Robin: This process appears to be most common in start-ups or small companies. Under Round Robin, leads are assigned to the sales team on a first-come, first-serve basis regardless of size or geographic territory. Usually, the sales manager oversees the process to ensure fairness. Sometimes the sales manager may use his discretion to fall out of the Round Robin process and assign specific leads to salespeople he feels will have a better chance of closing the sale. For example, you may have someone who has experience working with financial institutions, or someone else who has experience working with automobile companies.round robin leads

During the Round Robin process, if your lead bucket is too full, a sales manager may temporarily suspend you receiving more leads until you close more sales, or put leads on a back burner to contact them later.

Lead distribution is always a touchy subject. While there is never a full-proof way of handing out leads, salespeople need to be reassured that leads are being distributed fairly.

Please let me know if you have any comments or know of other ways leads are distributed.

Today is National Receptionist Day

Posted on by
Reply

receptionist for National Receptionist DayToday is National Receptionist Day – or has some of us in sales would like to call it “Gatekeeper Day.”

Seriously, receptionist tend to have a bad rap in our profession. We view them as being the enemy when really they are our friends. Treated right, receptionist can help guide us to the right decision-maker.

And when you think about it, the receptionist is not just an administrative worker. They are marketers. That’s right. They help market the right image to all visitors and callers.

So what is the purpose of Receptionist Day? First, the obvious answer is that the day gives recognition to a receptionist. While most of them are underpaid and sometimes treated badly by salespeople or angry clients, receptionists should be recognized because they help your company’s image, branding, and impression. A cheerful or smiling receptionist can make a visitor feel relaxed and at ease.

I’ve actually gone to offices where the receptionist would barely give me eye contact – I immediately picked up a negative vibe that may be uncomfortable for the rest of my visit.

No one really knows the origin of Receptionist Day.

However, the National Receptionist Association is taking credit for the day. According to its website, when the organization was created in 1991, they initiated the day. The association created the day “because we wanted to distinguish the role that a receptionist plays in business and note that it should not be combined with Secretaries’ Day or Administrative Assistance’s Day.”

So if you have a receptionist working in your office, give her a special thank you. And if you call and find yourself speaking to a receptionist today, try to be extra nice to her – after all, it’s her day!

Asking for the Sale

Posted on by
Reply

You have devoted a lot of time working with your prospect. You went through the entire sales process – asking qualifying questions, determining needs, establishing rapport, making sure you are speaking to the key decision-maker, and knowing they have a budget. You also properly handled all of the objections.

Check. Check and check.

But wait a minute. Didn’t you forget something? Oh yeah, that’s right. You forgot to ask for the sale!

It happens more often than you think. Some salespeople are shy. They assume the prospect is going to buy. After all, haven’t both of you spent so much time together – talking about your vacations, your kids, your hobbies, etc. You assume that the prospect is your friend. Your buddy. Of course, he’s going to buy from you.

But he’s not going to buy unless you ask for the sale. Why? Because no matter how great your product or service is, people hate to part with their money. Even if you are solving their problems, you still have to ask for the sale. Without that one question, all your time and efforts are for naught.

Below is a great video from YouTube that illustrates my point –

How to handle the Hang Up

Posted on by
Reply

It happens. You are making cold calls and a prospect hangs up on you.

What do you do? Well, if you are most salespeople, you simply scratch the prospect off your list and continue making more phone calls.

But should you? Maybe you should call the prospect back. That’s right! Because if you call him back, he may be so shocked by your persistence and guts, that he will give you a few minutes to make your pitch.

I’ve done this before in my sales career. I would call a prospect, he would hang up on me, and I would suddenly call back and say “Sorry Mr. Prospect, but it appears we got disconnected. Do you have a few minutes to speak?” About 90% of the time, the prospect will apologize and allow me to speak.

Below is a great video from YouTube that illustrates the same strategy that I’ve used. Check it out and let me know what you think –

5 ways to close more sales

Posted on by
Reply

handshake, closing salesClosing sales can be difficult. But it doesn’t have to be. Here are 5 tips to help you close more sales –

1). Be prepared:

The Boy Scout motto is “Be prepared.” The same applies to selling. You need to do your homework first. Research your prospect’s LinkedIn profile. Read his website – especially blogs. If they are available, download any relevant white papers, cases studies or e-books from your prospect’s website. Subscribe to your prospects newsletter. In short, you need to get inside your prospect’s head and understand his concerns and problems. Initially, you don’t have to spend a lot of time on research. But if you are dealing with a serious prospect who is trialing your service, or requesting a demo, that’s when you need to dig a little deeper to learn more about him.

2). Ask good qualifying questions:

If you really want to know what your prospect thinks, or how to help him, ask good qualifying questions. By qualifying, I mean open-ended questions that will result in more than the standard “yes” or “no” answers. You may be a professional salesperson, but start acting more like a professional journalist.

3). Be an expert in your industry: 

No matter what you are selling, you must become an expert in your industry. These days, prospects are looking for more than just order takers – they are seeking expert advice. They want you to teach them and show them the way. Frankly, most prospects have already done their research long before they contact you. They are now at the stage where they are seeking confirmation on what to purchase, or they want to use you as a sounding board. They want someone they can trust. The more you know, the more you will sell.

4). More empathy, less greed:

If you come across too desperate or greedy, it will show. Show some concern. Listen. Put yourself in the client’s shoes. Remember, you are not a telemarketer making a quick sale by credit card over the phone. You are a professional salesperson who is trying to close a large sale, but more importantly, one who is developing a long-term relationship that could result in more sales and referrals down the road.

5). In fact, don’t close at all:

Most clients are too savvy these days to fall for the stereotypical closing techniques. Contrary to the advice from Blake in Glengarry Glen Ross, you shouldn’t be closing all the time. That’s for con artists – not professionals. If you did everything right throughout the sales process – ask good qualifying questions, determine needs, making sure you understand the decision-making process, ask good trial questions, and handle objections, the close should actually be the easy part.

Surprisingly, some salespeople actually forget to ask for the order! Or, they are so shy, they assume the prospect will make the purchasing decision without their help. Wrong. You always need to ask for the order. If you don’t, you’re in the wrong business.

Closing should be easy. It’s getting to that point that may be difficult. As the self-help experts like to say “it’s not about the goal but the journey that matters.” Take your time. Do it right.