Cross selling

Cross-selling is the conscious strategy to switch your customers across your product range to see if there is a match. It is often a natural process - if you are selling a skirt, you might offer a belt that matches it. Often all it takes to gain that extra sale is to tell the customer about the product or service. Here's how to do it more successfully.

How to find new customers without neglecting existing ones

What's more important: finding new customers or keeping the old ones happy? Of course, the answer is that both are equally important. What's more, you can attract new ones by keeping the existing ones happy - word spreads. Here's how to use customer service to drive in new business.

How to work better with sales staff

How to motivate and encourage your sales staff to do a good job. A brief overview of one element of sales management - managing people.

How to deal with rejection when selling

Selling is a real roller-coaster - deep lows when it goes badly, ecstatic highs when the sales come through. Here are some ideas to help you keep going when you come up against the 'Thanks but no' responses.

Proven tips for landing more business

The sales process today touches all points of an organisation - and everyone in the organisation needs to acquire some basic selling skills. After all, there is nothing to stop an alert technical support person selling an upgrade if occasion arose. Here are some tips to improve your technique.

Bazaar selling - what Middle East merchants can teach us

You might think that street hawkers and Middle East merchants are a far cry from the rigours of selling in a hard-nosed business environment. But there's a lot we can learn from them.

Telesales - getting it right

Telesales can be an effective marketing tool to pull in new business - but it isn't as easy as it might seem. We highlight the perils and pitfalls including the legal traps to beware of and how to find good sources of leads.

Using three flavours of added-value to land more clients

In today's over-competitive world you need to be seen to offer the best value you can to customers. And you create value in the eyes of your customer when the benefits of doing business with you outweigh the time, effort and costs of getting them. Here are three simple ways to add value.

Getting past the castle guard on the phone

In today's over-competitive world you need to be seen to offer the best value you can to customers. And you create value in the eyes of your customer when the benefits of doing business with you outweigh the time, effort and costs of getting them. Here are three simple ways to add value.

How to cold call

Whether you like it or not, at some stage, you are going to have to pick up the phone and ask a complete stranger if they want to buy your products or services. Here is how to do it.

Writing a proposal? Seven things you should never forget

A written proposal can be a vital step towards landing a contract. How do you make sure it earns a reading and wins the business? The seven steps to make yours stand out from the crowd.

Five easy steps to plan a successful exhibition

A stand at a good show attracting the right prospects can be extremely effective for generating leads. This is particularly so for exporters. However, exhibitions can be expensive marketing exercises in money, time and materials. Here's how to prepare to make the most of an exhibition.

Four ways to run a more successful trade stand

Having decided to attend a show and gone to the expense of hiring space and building a stand, you need to milk the opportunity for everything it has got. Here is how to make the most of your precious time.

Sex makes all the difference when it comes to selling

Sex is used to sell everything these days - but how well you sell will depend upon the sex of your customer! We look at the differences in selling to men and women and how you can make the most of those differences.

Getting your message across

Getting your message across: it's not what you say, it's the way that you say it that clinches deals.

Selling to the retail chains

Would you like to sell to the supermarkets and chain stores? In your dreams, you might think, but it's not as difficult as you might think?

Making that first contact at senior level

Sales classes teach the importance of asking questions to understand client 'needs'. Good questioning is described as being the best approach to consultative selling at executive level. But what if the executive doesn't want to answer your questions? Here are some quick ideas to get them talking.

How to sell crafts wholesale

Making or selling 'craft' items is an ideal small business. An alternative to selling direct to the public is selling wholesale to shops. Here are some tricks of the trade from the 'pros'.

Outsell the competition

In a world where customers are more knowledgeable and have more choices than ever before, and where almost anything can be copied, how do you differentiate your business and outsell the competition? Personal selling in this fast-forward, wired marketplace requires a new mindset. Understand the seven distinct psychological stages through which a buyer moves when making an important purchase. Discover techniques to help you outsell your rivals.

Using the telephone more professionally to get results

The telephone is a tool, albeit a vital one for dealing with prospects and customes. Yet it is one of the most misused tools in business. Here's how to use it more effectively to get your own way!

Warning - terrible client!

Hindsight is great but not as good as foresight when it comes to spotting problem clients. Forearmed you can at least choose to turn down a client who might end up costing you money, time, stress and even tears. Here are seven warning signs of potential trouble.

The golden keys to winning more, and higher, fees

14 ways for service providers and consultants to boost earnings plus tips on how to avoid the common pitfalls.

How to sell more to an existing customer

The three chief factors of cross-selling are timing, a choice of complementary products or services, and of course, a well-judged delivery. We look at how a power company, a plumber and a market researcher cross sell services and products successfully and the techniques you can put in to practice as a result.

Making a tender proposal

Tendering is never easy, but the first time round it can seem a daunting process. We look at what it takes to put together a successful competitive tender.

Let me try to persuade you

One of the most important ground-rules of any sales pitch is to be persuasive - and that doesn't just mean talking more loudly! But selling is not just telling, and many things have to be right before a sales conversation can be closed. Here's how to be more persuasive.

Harness the power of the phone

One of the most astonishing things in business today is that there is still so much controversy surrounding the use of the telephone as a sales tool. Here's how to make cold calling successful.

The power of 'how' to clinch sales

This short article is worth it's weight in gold. It has helped me many a time to take discussions forward with a sticky prospect. 26 questions to help you gather facts, deal with objections and close sales.

No more pinball wizards

Fed up with the 'pinball' approach to sales? If you want consistent sales success, then planning is critical. Try this new approach.

New ways to make that sales call

Do you ever despair about those prospects you just KNOW should be buying from you, but you've run out of new ways to approach? Here are just a few ideas to spice up these difficult calls.

You'll never win them all!

Do you beat yourself up every time you come away empty-handed from a sales call? Well don't! You can't win them all. Here's help to keep your morale up when you face rejection.

Gaining commitment from a prospect

It's not just relationships where it's hard to get someone to commit - it happens all too often in sales, too.

How not to do the 'talking mailshot' on sales calls

Do your sales calls sound like a 'talking mailshot'? If so, it's time to start getting professional. Here's the low down on the right approach.

Beware of cheesy opening gambits

You make or break a sales call in that opener - don't blow it by trotting out something cheesy. Here's how to avoid that pitfall.

How to use telemarketing effectively

Telemarketing is a great way of building prospect lists, boosting customer loyalty and clinching sales. Used correctly, it delivers sales conversion rates that hit double digits - in contrast to the 1-2% typical of direct mail. However, there is degree of consumer antipathy towards the medium. Discover how to make it work for you.

Preparing your sales plans for the year ahead

Any time of year is a good time to take stock and check that your business, particularly on the sales side, will be on course in the months ahead. However there are two key times when it's particularly useful. At the start of a new budgetary year, or at the New Year. Here's how to get your sales forecasts off to a kick start.

How to get those opening seconds of sales calls right

How to get those first few seconds of a sales call right so you get your foot nicely but firmly in the door.

How to handle sales objections like a pro

Sales is the probably the hardest part of running a business - unless you're a 'natural'. Here are some tips on how to overcome a few of the classic pitfalls you will meet along the way.

How to use alliances to prospect for clients more effectively

Finding new sales leads is never easy, especially in this age of information over load. This is where we need to rope in some unpaid sales staff - by using our friends and colleagues. Here is how to use work with colleagues for mutual high returns.

How to handle questions to land that sale

How you handle questions - both giving and receiving - is critical in sales. Discover what you can learn from TV talk shows.

Think positively and get results

If you go into sales calls with a half-hearted attitude, you will get nowhere. Think positively, and you will get the results you are looking for.

Don't ask daft questions!

Do you ever deal with sales objections by asking dumb questions? There are easier and safer ways to plant doubt in their minds!

How to sell professional services

Traditionally, professional practices have never liked to think about 'selling'. Today's competitive marketplace means you can no longer afford to take that attitude. This article aims to give you some ideas for how you can be more proactive and more effective in generating revenues. If you start to apply these principles you can build a more sustainable business with more guaranteed revenue flow.

Keep a grip on your leads!

UK businesses spend a fortune on marketing to generate sales leads. However, most of this spending is wasted if the firm receiving the inquiry then does nothing about it, and has no idea where it was generated. Research shows that many leads are wasted. We explain how to make the most of your cash.

Competing on price? Think again

Setting prices for your products or service is never easy - especially in today's crowded marketplace. We outline some pricing strategies and explain why competing on price is rarely the answer.

Show some empathy for your client!

The hard sell rarely works - you are much more likely to make a sale if you show some empathy with your client. Discover what's involved.

Leave the milk-round to the milkmen!

Sales shouldn't become a 'milk-round' of regular customers, or you will never grow your business. We look at how software can help you adopt a more scientific approach to sales. Find out how to wean your people off 'comfort selling'.

Using internal referrals to make a sale

What happens when your contact on a sales call seems to want your products or services, but doesn't have the authority to make the final decision? Find out how to handle this tricky situation.

How to target B2B sales

Business-to-business sales are by far the most profitable for most small firms - but what is the best way to target them and get results? We look at the best approach.

Think before you answer that question!

When you're making a sales call, are you prepared for any unusual questions that may crop up? We give the inside line on how to tackle them.

Selling is easy - just do it on a beermat...

If the thought of selling secretly scares you, then you need to do something - no business can survive without sales. Here are a couple simple of the techniques that can transform your sales success. This guide offers a particularly good way of managing sales forecasts.

What value do you put on sales?

There's more than one value to sales. It's not just about the bottom line - it's also about what you stand for, and how your business is perceived. Nowhere is there more opportunity to use or abuse - your personal values than in selling. Here's how to manage perceptions.