I just read an interesting White Paper that said sales people are hindered cross-selling in existing accounts because they are out of their comfort zone. They are OK selling products / services they know well and avoid selling those they don’t know as well.

Now some of my clients argue that their sales people stick with one because they make more money vs. the other. I agree with both, but lean heavily towards this comfort zone observation.

Anyone who has been involved with my coaching knows that I strongly encourage prospecting extensively in existing accounts.  It is the easiest place to get more business and grow sales volume because you have contacts, credibility and access – if you choose to use them. 

However, sales management has to make this happen.  So if sales people are uncomfortable or don’t like the money they get from the cross-sell, what is an astute sales manager and profit-center leader to do?  I suggest “Effective Listening”.  Relieve the burden of promoting products / services and enforce the tasks of interviewing and listening for key words and phrases. 

If a sales person uses his or her contacts to get to the senior executives (C-Levels and profit-center leaders) and asks “Issues and Concerns” questions and listens for remarks that reflect challenges, problems and unmet opportunities, relative to the sales person’s total solution portfolio, they will learn a lot about other opportunities ripe for cross-sells. 

For example, one of my clients sells civil engineering and construction services.  Many of the people are very knowledgeable with environmental engineering and are connected to some powerful people in government agencies or corporations.  To get these people to sell roads, buildings or other engineering services would be a big mistake and a huge lost opportunity. 

Here’s why.  If they tried to sell these other services, they’d do such a poor job that they’d lose credibility with the executive relative to these other services.  As a result the company would lose a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.  However, if this person doesn’t use his or her credibility with the executive, the company will have to compete with all the other vendors. 

Now if this environmental person was conditioned (from training and role playing) to ask generalized questions, such as, “What are the issues and concerns you have with up-coming engineering projects” and be trained to listen for words, phases etc,  s/he could glean trouble spots from the executive where his/her company could possibly assist. The environmental person would then report the findings to a sales manager  who would assign someone to assist with expertise.

.

The beauty of this is that the environmental person wouldn’t have to worry about promoting.  S/he just has to ask some questions and/or listen for remarks spoken either in casual conversations, in meetings or in a formal interview.  The onus of “selling” would be removed and the risk of botching the deal would also be removed.  Yet, the qualified lead would be at hand along with a senior contact to work it through.

This being said, however, sales management has two key responsibilities to make this “Effective Listening” process happen.  First, they have to set up training sessions with the cross-sell services to teach people the keywords and phrases to be listening for. Most training that other services of a company do is usually “How to Sell” rather than “What to Listen For.” 

Second, management has to have a process of assignment and follow-up.  The qualified lead must be attended to and the person with the relationship networks (transfers his/her credibility) to the expert with the powerful leader.  If this process is not managed diligently it will fall through the cracks because the expert and the person with the contact each have other things to do and/or their own agenda.

So what about the money piece?  Stated more accurately, what’s in it for the environmental person or any sales person to use his or her contacts for cross selling?  Keeping one’s job is a good WIFM.  Recognition and money are other obvious incentives.  However, I strongly believe that if sales management makes it easy for people i.e. shows them how to interview rather than promote i.e. push services, and gives them the back-up talent as needed, sales people and/or professionals will naturally deliver good leads that will enable the company to cross-sell more.  See one of the biggest motivators for sales people is the close – getting that order is a real rush.  It doesn’t matter the size or the what.  It’s the yes.  Conversely, the thought of the “no” is the biggest deterrent.

Sale managers have to get out of their routine and be the trainers and managers for the cross-sell process.  Telling sales people they have to do more, training them how to sell it, throwing monetary incentives are 20th Century tactics that didn’t work that well then.  Relationship selling – using the contact, Investigative selling – learning about the contact’s issues, and Network selling, – using ones contacts to enable another is the 21st Century strategy for successful cross-selling.

Bonus Tip:   FREE E-Book “Getting Past Gatekeepers and Handling Blockers”.  Just click this C-Level Relationship Selling Link http://www.takemetoyourleaders.com/Antion/Ebookfreesignup1.htm Sam Manfer makes it easy for any sales person to be effective and feel comfortable connecting with and relationship selling C-Level leaders

Before starting home businesses, one needs to contemplate on his objectives and goals. How can you be able to fix up your plan if you are clueless on what you want to do?

Compare yourself to a student who is about to take the examination but who has unfortunately felt too lazy to brush through his notes? The end result will of course be the failure in the tests. If you are a newbie in the business world, you must pay careful attention to the drafting of your plan of action. What do you want to do? What do you want to achieve? What home business are you willing to take?

Starting home businesses follows that you conduct a careful research on what is in and what is out in the business market. Why will you start a home business dealing with products or services which are least liked and needed by the people? You are only wasting your funds and effort on it, so to speak. It helps a lot that you browse the internet for the most popular and rewarding home businesses there are these days. Actually, home businesses are in a way affected by the need and the season.

Two Possible Home Businesses to Start With

Because certain occasions call for greetings, you may concentrate on creating greeting cards! The greeting cards may appear to be personalized in comparison with the standard ones that can be bought from the stores. The content may bear poems from famous poets, short stories, anecdotes, quotes, and many others.

The designs can likewise be creative enough to set your greeting cards apart from the very ordinary ones that can be purchased in the malls. If you are creative enough, you may capitalize on your skills. Animations, graphics, and other images can be integrated into the craft.

Another worthy home business idea is the selling of vitamins and minerals as well as health tips to men and women. These people are too conscious with the status of their well-beings. Blame it to the adamant series of illnesses which mankind has been experiencing for the last decades.

Both the men and the women are really careful with their health. They seek ways to lose weight, improve their health status, discover new exercises that will direct them to the achievement of better health, and many more. They often resort to exercises, taking vitamins and minerals, eating diet foods, and cooking recipes which are nonetheless not harmful to them.

If you’ve taken due research on these matters, then you may very well think of starting your home businesses.

What You Need in Starting Home Businesses

Since the times of the today have paved the way to too much competition in the business industry, it is only proper that you keep up with the current trend. Starting home businesses will require you to advertise what you have in store for your customers. Therefore you will need a website to make advertising possible. Now this is simple. You just have to find your niche in the cyberspace and there you can maneuver things for your home business.

There is a certain way to go about marketing with forums though. Many people think that their sales will increase by adding more and more self-promotional material. Actually, constant self-promotion has the opposite effect. People will steer clear of you and you could be banned from the forum. Before joining a forum, it is very important to read through their rules and regulations.

To benefit from forums, you need to give as well as take. Answer questions in your area of expertise often. By doing this, people will come to see you as an expert in the field. As people read your posts and see that you are very knowledgeable, you will begin to see more and more forum members visiting your site.

If you want to increase sales or traffic, you need to join as many forums as possible, and take some time to read and answer posts. Look for questions or problems that are related to your field of expertise. If you can answer these questions, you will be viewed of as an expert in your field or niche. Everyone is looking for help on certain topics. By helping others, you will actually be helping yourself.

Forums are a great source to:

1. Promote your own product. Enter the URL of your website or sales page in your signature (sig) file. Each time you enter a post to ask or answer a question, make sure to include your sig file.

2. Find products to promote. The forums are filled with people who are promoting products. Look through the various posts to find products that fit your niche.

3. Find a profitable niche to develop products for. Examine post topics that have numerous questions. Typically, these are topics that people are interested in. Take note of the types of questions asked and the number of people asking similar questions. This can alert you to the need for a particular product. Make sure to go through these posts thoroughly. If the topic is filled with people answering a question, it is not a candidate for your ebook. If the topic consists primarily of questions, you may have found a profitable niche.

4. Get your website or sales page evaluated. Many forums provide areas where you can ask participants to review your site. You should be aware that you could sometimes get scathing reviews, so use this technique only if you can accept criticism.

5. Increase the page rank of your website. Posting in forums, especially well ranked ones, can provide the site that you place in your sig file with valuable back links. The search engines will see this information and reward your site accordingly.

6. Increased traffic to your website. I check my traffic regularly and I see consistent traffic to my sites from forums that I post to. This is a proven method to improve traffic.

7. Get information on a product, service, or company before you make a purchase. Many people are more than happy to give you their opinion on products or companies that they are familiar with.

8. Develop business contacts. In the brick and mortar world, business card swaps abound. Forums can provide a similar function. They offer the opportunity to develop business contacts without leaving your home.

9. Looking for someone to form a joint venture or some other mutually beneficial business deal. Forums are loaded with people who are open to joint ventures. You just have to get in there, make observations, and post when appropriate.

10. Find a mentor. Many people will assist those with less experience for free. I have seen many posts offering to help newbies.

Forums can be very beneficial to the experienced marketer as well as the newbie. The most beneficial forums are those related to your site or niche. Seek out those related forums and your business will surely benefit.

Product Description
29 Ways To Make Money For Those Interested In Cooking And Baking…. More >>

29 Ways To Make Money For Those Interested In Cooking And Baking

WPA franchisees provide private health insurance cover including policies designed specifically to help cover the cost of cancer drugs.

WPA’s Franchise Manager, Berkeley Harris, says: ‘There is a huge new audience for these products, among individuals, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and big corporates. It represents great potential for extra earnings.’

WPA has been central to the debate about topping up NHS cancer treatment and has had the products in place for some time, anticipating the recent announcement.

Its franchisees can offer a modular NHS ‘Health Top-Up’ policy which is aimed at customers who want to make the most of the NHS. As well as Wellness, Hospital, A&E Abroad, Cosmetic and Legal Advice, it includes up to £50,000 of licensed cancer drugs unavailable on the NHS and their administration in a private or an NHS setting.

Mr Harris says: ‘We are already seeing increased demand for these products, especially from the corporate market. Many companies are desperate to offer some form of health care to employees but feel that full-scale medical insurance is too costly.’

WPA is seeking another 15 franchisees to add to its existing network, to ensure that no customer is more than a few miles from one of its representatives.

’We do not look for previous experience in financial services, sales or insurance, but you must be committed to providing ethical, customer-focussed service. Energy, enthusiasm and attitude are key’ says Mr Harris.

’We look for positive people who understand our philosophy – the type who puts the customer before the pound. If ‘get rich quick’ is your style, WPA is not for you while if building a solid and sustainable business is your aspiration – in effect, get wealthy slowly – think about it’

WPA’s focus on customers reflects its roots. It was founded in 1901 by workers in Reading who pooled their savings to pay for healthcare, then only available privately. This was at a time before the modern day Welfare State was conceived; if you did not work or earn, food did not go on the table.

Now the majority of its 300,000 customers are companies or the self-employed, but it remains a not-for-profit provident association, ploughing its ’surplus’ back into customer care and services.

Its not-for-profit status also means that, unlike most companies in the financial services sector, it is not subject to the volatile demands of shareholders. WPA’s customers are at the centre of all that it does. A full member of the British Franchise Association, WPA has also been named as one of the UK’s top 100 companies to work for.

’Our franchisees are an eclectic team including former bank managers, optometrists and soldiers to name a few. All have an empathy with business clients because they too are managing and growing their business’ says Mr Harris, himself a former franchisee.

The £7,500 franchise fee includes in-depth training in WPA’s range of medical insurance products, in order to qualify as Financial Services Authority regulated Appointed Representative; WPA manages all the regulated aspects of the business so that franchisees can concentrate on the needs of their customers.

Also included is continuous business and sales training as well as a business mentor you can call on for help or advice during your first two years who, more often than not, becomes a colleague and ‘friend for life’ with whom to share ideas.

You can work from home or office, building your team and business at a speed to suit you. As well as new business introductions coming from WPA, leads come via word of mouth, financial advisors and networks such as BNI (Business Network International). ‘With a WPA franchise you get the genuine support of the team,” says Mr Harris. ‘It is a case of what you put in is what you get out.’

Linda Whitney is a freelance contributor on Franchising in the Daily Mail and has written about Franchising and Personal Finance for more than a decade.