Posted by: Daniel Levis
July 4, 2007
Issue #168

Selling High-Ticket Stuff
Over The Phone?
Part 1

In this issue:

• Why inbound calls are the only ones you should make …
• How to clone yourself, automating the top two-thirds of the sales funnel …
• Two ways to integrate print media with the Internet to cut costs and generate more leads …
• And more!

Dear Business Builder,

The other day I got to thinking. Hey, there are a lot of people out there still closing B2B deals over the telephone. I’m talking big 5, and 6 figure sales that are best closed with real time interaction, one to one. Heck I even do this myself, in my copywriting and marketing consulting business.

So why haven’t I talked about the methods of putting yourself in the driver’s seat when it comes to closing those kind of deals? I’ve been totally remiss.

Allow me to make it up to you, starting right now …

I’ve been selling for about as long as I can remember. And for a good part of my career, that meant spending the better part of each day cold calling to find new prospects. I was good at it. I had, and still do have, a natural knack for getting people to talk to me. And believe it or not, I actually enjoyed the process for years, until one day it occurred to me.

It just wasn’t working the way it once did.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to make contact with decision makers. When I did break through to initiate a new opportunity, I noticed it was taking longer and longer to establish the credibility that I knew I needed to make the sale. Something was up.

Hyper competition and effortless access to information had turned the tables on me.

The people that I called on were no longer information starved, and had more people calling them and trying to sell them stuff than ever before.

I realized that in addition to becoming extremely time consuming, using the telephone to drum up business was also setting me up for failure from the opening bell. The telephone was no longer an effective means of introduction.  But if not, then what?

Something had to be done.

So I went on a quest. I wanted to know what I could do to counter what I came to recognize as the new reality of selling in the 21st century.

Thinking back, I would never have guessed in a million years where it would take me.

The techniques and strategies that I adopted and adapted from the most unlikely places allowed me to not only kick-start my stalled career, but also sent me on a new and wondrous journey beyond my wildest imagination.

So without further ado, let me share them with you today.

Maybe you’ve guessed this already. Successful telephone and face-to-face selling is all about automation: Transferring your natural salesmanship into print, and reserving your live presence, only for the most qualified prospects that are ready to buy.

All of the techniques and strategies I’m about to reveal are only as effective as the words they’re made of. And so before I begin, I want you to keep this concept top of mind as you work your way through this article.

Selling in print, as you probably already know, is all about grabbing your prospects attention, captivating their interest, stirring up their desire, and getting them to take action. It’s really not much different than personal selling.

Nonetheless, what you are about to learn here WILL give YOU an unfair advantage over 99% of the sellers in your market. Believe me, almost none of your contemporaries selling high-ticket items are doing these things, yet they are profoundly effective. If you can master them, they’ll supercharge your results!

So let’s get started.

Action Item #1 – Write An Information Magnet

Your prospects are hungry for information. Give it to them without obligation, and you have an open door to start conditioning their minds to your proposition.

This is called “positioning”, versus “prospecting”. Positioning gives you infinitely more leverage. Think about it. The prospect reads your information, they find it convincing, they call you. Who is in the driver’s seat?

So what exactly is an “Information Magnet”?

An information magnet is a simple written report that documents a problem, and explores available solutions. You can call it a Whitepaper, a Special Report, a Quick Guide, an Executive Briefing, whatever your customers will relate to.

Your document is written in a plain and easy to understand, yet engaging style, and seeks to objectively outline the pros and cons of the available solutions, including your own.

The information magnet serves to identify prospects with a need, and qualifies them for the next phase of the sales cycle.

Notice I said “identifies prospects with a need”. You’re not going to make your information magnet available to just anyone.

Action Item #2 –
Place Cheap Passive Advertisements
That Entice Qualified Prospects
To Request Your Information Magnet

You’re going to be advertising your “Information Magnet” where people look for information. Think directories, yellow pages, search engines, online directories, content sites, newspaper and magazine classifieds, anywhere your target audience looks for information about what you’re selling.

I like using Google Adwords for this. It’s really targeted, quick, and can be done on the cheap if you know how.

Remember, you’re offering problem solving information, not your product or service. This is a crucial distinction. You’ll cut right through the clutter with this approach, and your response rate from such ads if you word them correctly will be through the roof!

Trust me on this one.

A tiny, inexpensive classified ad offering a no cost report sticks out like a sore thumb in many places … and will easily out-pull a large conventional ad from a known supplier by a factor of two to one, or more.

Here’s an example.

FREE Report

“10 Facts You Need To Know About Phone System Maintenance”

Including 15 ‘Must Ask’ Questions That Force Your Interconnect Company To Come Clean On The Real Costs Of System Ownership!”

Call 800 555 5555, or visit www.ippbxmagic.com to request your complimentary copy TODAY!

This kind of an unusual ad will pull like crazy, especially in the kinds of places where high-ticket B2B items are advertised!

Why bang your head against a wall trying to introduce yourself on the telephone when you can get them coming to you so easily with this simple strategy?

When your prospects arrive at your website or voice mail system, you then “sell” them on the benefits of requesting the report, and ask them to take the necessary action to execute their request. And it is here that you obtain their contact information and permission to follow up. If you’re delivering your information magnet online, offer a FREE newsletter “tied” to the report, not as an option.

And then do not call them. Continue to send them useful information and invite them to “call you”. From now on, your phone only works one way. Incoming. I’ll explain why in a bit.

Action Item #3 – Deliver Active Enticements
For Your Information Magnet To A Targeted List

Once you’ve got a number of passive hooks in the water, generating a steady stream of leads, day in, day out, you can start looking for active ways of targeting prospects.

Here are a couple of low cost, high quality ways to actively target a list of potential prospects for high-ticket items with your information magnet enticement.

1 – Naked Mail

Your prospects get all kinds of junk mail, and they sort it over the round file. But a post card is a novelty. They don’t have to take the envelope off to see what it’s about, so you have their attention.

In the space of three seconds they’ve got the picture, and if they have an itch there’s a good chance they’ll scratch it by requesting your report.

You can pretty much take your classified advertising enticement and use it on a postcard with minor modifications. Direct your prospects to the web to complete their requests.

2 – Broadcast Fax

Think fax is dead? Think again. In business to business, there’s nothing like it for getting your message through.

But you have to change your approach just a little. Instead of a short punchy ad like we’ve discussed so far, this time you need to write a short letter.

Think about it for a minute.

What happens when a personally addressed letter arrives on the fax machine at a business? That’s right, it gets hand-delivered, right to the desk of your prospect.

Now, how many faxes like that do you think the average prospect gets? Precious few compared to direct mail, and e-mail. Unlike direct mail, again he or she doesn’t even have to bother to open it before reading your benefit-laden headline. And unlike e-mail, you can use fax to make an initial contact (some local restrictions may apply).

Again remember, your copy should sell them on the value of your report, not your product or service just yet.

And whether you use postcards or broadcast fax to generate high-ticket leads, be sure to target your audience carefully. This could be something as simple as selecting only the section of a trade directory that is directly relevant to what you’re selling, or it could mean something as sophisticated as using “selects” made available through a list broker.

InfoUSA will allow you to slice and dice a list online in a matter of minutes.

That’s all for today. Stay tuned for part 2 in this series next week.

Until next time, Good Selling!

Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE

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6 Comments »

1. Comment by Julie Olague — July 4, 2007 @ 9:47 am

   [B]Fabulous~[/B]
   Just where I\’ve been stalled the last few months. Thanks for putting me back in the drivers seat-I\’ve been using postcards with tremendous success for a year now but the Google adwords had me at a loss, hats off Daniel!!!
   Julie

2. Comment by Dave Roitner — July 4, 2007 @ 1:16 pm

   Thanks, I\’ve been selling high ticket items for years and agree that it is getting increasingly difficult to get your message to the right person.

   To add to what you already suggested we find that Voice Broadcasting also compliments these methods.

   Dave

3. Comment by Mike — July 4, 2007 @ 2:19 pm

   Which phone or voice mail systems do you recommend for filtering incoming calls?

   Are you using a company you are happy with?

4. Comment by John Alec Schmitt — July 4, 2007 @ 2:25 pm

   Daniel,
   Any special steps when using this to get pre-qualified leads for an MLM product?
   John Alec Schmitt

5. Comment by John E. Fike — July 5, 2007 @ 6:53 am

   I\’m in the midst of preparing a campaign very much like this. Thanks for the confirmation that this is an effective marketing technique.

6. Trackback by [gel] — July 31, 2008 @ 1:12 am

   [gel]…

   Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it… [ ǂ]…