The Most Common Client Objections and How to Deal With Them

The Most Common Client Objections and How to Deal With Them
"A desire can overcome all objections and obstacles." --
Anonymous

Think about the above quote for a second. When you want, I
mean REALLY want something, you can almost always
rationalize getting it. You find a way to overcome that
nagging little voice whose job it is to object and throw up
obstacles.

I want you to view objections as a good thing. Yes,
seriously!

If your prospects have objections, it means they are
considering hiring you or purchasing your product. If they
weren't interested, they wouldn't waste their time
inquiring -- especially in today's world where they can be
on your website one second and on someone else's the next.

Chances are good that prospects are visiting your site
because they have a problem. Chances are even better that
they've had this problem for a while and may have even
tried to resolve it themselves.

You are in the problem-solving business -- it doesn't
matter what you do, if you own your own business, you need
to recognize that you provide solutions. For example, a
virtual assistant gives her clients back their time to work
on higher-revenue-producing activities while she focuses on
the administrative details of managing a business,
Nutrisystem delivers diet-conscious meals directly to your
door so you don't have to think about portion control or
cooking, I provide my clients with simple and proven
marketing and systems solutions so they make more money
while enjoying more freedom.

Your job is to identify the solutions that your business
provides, anticipate what your prospects objections are and
have those objections answered *in advance*.

If you are selling a product, your sales page/letter should
anticipate and address objections. You can check out
www.VAGuideToMoney.com to see how the sales page answers
questions before readers have a chance to fully ask them.
Prospects need to have their questions answered - - even at
3am -- or they will go elsewhere!

If you are selling a service, you want to be sure that your
website/marketing materials address objections throughout
the copy.

While there are hundreds of objections, I've found the most
common to be:

1. It costs too much.
2. It's too hard -- will require too much effort.
3. It's some type of gimmick and won't work (think weight
loss pills).
4. It's going to take too much time, my situation isn't
THAT bad and I can fix/change it before this [insert your
product name/service here] will work (think credit
counselors).
5. I know it worked for Mary, but it won't work for me,
because my situation is special/unique.

We all have that same nagging little voice whispering in
our ear and the fact is, there will always be objections to
any service or product you provide. Chances are, you've
thought of at least one of the above in the last week -- I
know I have!

I want you to take a good look at the SOLUTIONS you provide
your clients and then write a short response to each of the
objections above. Read your responses until you are
comfortable saying them (practice in front of a mirror if
you need to) and then pepper them throughout your marketing
materials and keep them by the phone for when you are
talking to prospects.

You provide solutions to at least one problem. You owe it
to your prospective clients to help them help themselves by
hiring you sooner rather than later.

----------------------------------------------------
For the past 5 years, Sandra Martini has been showing
self-employed business owners how to get more clients
consistently by implementing processes and systems to put
their marketing on autopilot. Visit Sandra at
http://www.SandraMartini.com for details, compelling client
testimonials and her free audio series "5 Simple and Easy
Steps to Put Your Marketing on Autopilot".

The Always-Win, No-Lose Option at the Speed of Light

The Always-Win, No-Lose Option at the Speed of Light
The great problem with creating many wonderful ideas for
improving competitive position is that many will have a
hard time choosing among them. Pick wrong, and you may miss
an opportunity to create a gigantic success.

Here is where looking for the best always-win, no-lose
options makes a difference. Let's consider the Disney theme
park business.

Disney could probably find a large number of potential
partners to develop many new services. If the partners
would pay for all of the development and the initial
implementation of the services as well as the time of
Disney employees working on the tasks, Disney could go
after a large number of alternatives. Not wanting to
inundate its customers with new services, the company could
then simply pick those that did best in tests.

Partners would probably be willing to go along with this
way of working with Disney as long as the partners felt
that they had a good chance of succeeding.

How hard would it be to fund an Internet start-up that had
a development contract with Disney? The experience of Pixar
in providing animation for Disney movies suggests that this
would be easy to do.

What if you do not have the appeal of Disney? How can you
find always-win, no lose options?

Partners will usually not be willing to fund your
development and start-up costs, but you can certainly
emphasize projects where those costs will be quite small.
Once you find many low-cost projects, you can then evaluate
them for how hard it would be to recover your expenses.

Some will pay off in a few days, others in decades. Go for
those with the fastest benefits. You should still have a
long list at this point.

Now compare the choices for the size of the long-term
benefit, net of any on-going costs you will have.
Here are some categories that should emerge. Anything that
builds the recognition of and reputation for your
enterprise should be near the top.

This means that existing customers are more attracted
(making them easier to retain), plus you get new customers.
Anything that enhances your proprietary advantages in
knowledge about your customers should also be attractive.

Eventually, marketing, products, and service will be
totally unique to each customer. But you cannot create the
right individual solution that unless you know what is
uniquely attractive and useful to the customer.

A third category is where the customer can provide the
service they want better for themselves and at lower cost
to both of you than you can provide it to them. An example
is the tracking of packages by overnight delivery
companies. You can usually get the information faster,
better, and cheaper on the Web site than by calling the
toll-free line. You will probably think of better ideas.

Copyright 2008 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved

----------------------------------------------------
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a
strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is
coauthor of seven books including Adventures of an
Optimist, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The
Ultimate Competitive Advantage. You can find free tips for
accomplishing 20 times more by registering at:
====> http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

Are You Focused On Your Goals Enough?

Are You Focused On Your Goals Enough?
Do you feel like you're not really moving forward within
your career? If you feel this way, or you're discontent,
you should know that you're not alone. Many business men
and women, even if they're wildly successful, feel as if
they are standing still rather than moving forward. One of
the questions you should ask yourself if you feel this way
is, "Am I focused enough?" In order for an individual to
move forward and thrive, they must be focused and strategic
as far as their business goes. If you're not focused
enough, you can be moving and moving but not going forward
at all. One of the best ways to become focused is through
goals.

Goals are a valuable tool that one can use in any situation
at all. Failed marriages can be saved through goals, ill
people can become well through goals and businesses can
thrive even more through the use of goals. So, how do you
do it? First, you will need to decide what you want. What
is your idea of success? What would have to happen for you
to think that you are successful? Once you have answered
these questions, you can get started with your goals. Here
are some guidelines to follow which will help you set
focused, clear goals and move forward!

What Strategy Should You Use?

Using the answers to your questions, you will know what you
need to achieve. If you feel that earning more money would
help you feel successful, you know that you need to earn
more money. This is what you have to achieve. So, next,
you need to decide which strategy you should use in order
to achieve this. Let's pretend that in order for you to
earn more money, you need to get higher paying clients for
your business. What can you do to get higher paying
clients? These are the strategies that you will use.
These are what you will have to do in order to achieve your
goals.

Setting the Goals -

Now that you know what you have to accomplish, you can make
goals in order to do it. So, if your first goal is to get
higher paying clients, you need to make your list of
strategies in order to accomplish this and then devote a
certain amount of time each day, week or month doing these
things in order to get your higher paying clients. These
are the things you do in order to achieve your goals.
Without the strategies, your goals will not be accomplished.

Being Specific -

When you set goals, it's one thing to say that you'd like
to get higher paying clients, but being specific will help
you be more focused. So, saying something like, "I need to
get three higher paying clients this week," will be more
practical. Then, you can do what you must do in order to
achieve the goal that you've made for yourself. This also
helps you know if you have achieved your goal or not! Here
are a few other tips! Make sure that you don't set too
many goals at one time so that you don't become
overwhelmed. Also, if you don't accomplish your goal, keep
the goal the same and try again. If you try hard enough,
you will get it eventually!

----------------------------------------------------
Steve Scott is a business/life coach and a business
development consultant. He specializes in teaching
entrepreneurs and solo and sales professionals to create
their own unique success stategies-bringing them balance,
more freedom and greater abundance.
http://www.progresssetfree.com

Have You Dug Up Your "Digital Dirt"?

Have You Dug Up Your "Digital Dirt"?
The Internet's been around for what - 10, 15 years? Not the
"Al Gore" Internet, mind you, but the one that we normal
folk use on a day to day basis.

Let me ask you something. Have you ever put something *out
there* on the Internet over the last 10 or 15 years that
may:

1. Embarrass you?

2. Polarize you?

3. Put you in a bad light by people who don't know your
deeper, likable self?

4. Lose you the career opportunity of your dreams?

According to the Society for Human Resource Management
(SHRM), "Digital Dirt" - the stuff employers find out about
you with a simple Google search, let alone some of the more
sophisticated means - is fast becoming one of the most
sinister forces against executives attempting to transition
to other industries or opportunities.

In fact, an article on the SHRM website about digital dirt
references an ExecuNet forecast with this eye-opening
statistic: "35 percent of executive recruiters who used the
Internet to research candidates eliminated someone from
consideration based on information they found online.
That's up from 26 percent in 2005, it found."

And this is one of those things where you may not actually
know that your job search has been affected. If no one's
calling to ask you for an interview, is it because you're
not standing out in your field? Or is it because an HR
person found something that made you stand out in a way
they didn't like?

Now, what could be out there, you ask? It could be anything
from old emails to blog posts and comments, message board
postings, or even the party pictures that, in hindsight,
maybe you shouldn't have added to your public Facebook page
or other social networking site.

In some cases you may not be able to undo what you've done
online. But you should at least be aware of what an
objective third party finds out about you, should they go
a'lookin' for qualifying information.

So what's the solution? Google yourself to see, from an
objective 3rd party standpoint, what an HR person would
see. Then either do whatever you can to delete or modify
anything that could sink your chances of landing that next
level position, or decide right now you have no regrets
about your life, pictures, and opinions online....and you
don't choose to work with anyone who ditches a candidate
based on a silly message board post you left in 1997.

(Guess which option is easier?)

----------------------------------------------------
Allen Voivod is the Chief Blogger for ResumeMachine.com,
the leading resume distribution resource for managers,
executives, and professionals looking to accelerate their
job search results. Get the attention of thousands of
hiring agents with the largest and most frequently updated
recruiter database on the web, and dive into a wealth of
immediately useful career articles and blog posts - all at
http://www.ResumeMachine.com !

De-Stress Workplace Meetings

De-Stress Workplace Meetings
Even at today's high-stress, long-hours workplace,
researchers report that traditional meetings still dominate
at most companies. Meetings can stretch interminably into
hours, creating more stress for time-strapped employees who
must then have to dedicate time away from their tasks.

Smart workplaces feature shorter "action meetings," at
which agendas zero in on the most important issues and
limit presentations to strict time periods. Even if you are
not in a position to control a meeting agenda, you can
still keep your contributions brief, relying on handouts if
that saves you time. Not every meeting has to address every
issue. More companies also are turning to mini-meetings,
involving only key staff members.

Here are six tips to make your meetings more productive.

1. Only schedule smart meetings. Don't schedule meetings
unless they actually can solve a problem. Are there three
problems that can only be solved with a meeting? If so,
make those three problems your agenda, and distribute the
agenda well in advance of the meeting. This will allow all
involved to have ample time to come prepared with possible
solutions.

3. Set time limits. Keep your meetings short, and to the
point. If you say you will end your meeting in 30 minutes,
do it. If you did not meet your goals within that time,
study what happened to ensure your next meeting will be
more productive.

4. Allow no distractions. Mandate that all cell phones,
laptops and other electronic devices be turned off. This
will force participants to focus without distractions.

5. Create an escape hatch. Announce at the start of your
meeting that issues not resolved or questions remaining can
be addressed by a five-minute follow-up meeting involving
only interested parties, an e-mail exchange, or a telephone
call. Announcing your follow-up plan at the start of the
meeting will help you end all meetings on time.

6. Be prepared. Whether you are giving a meeting or going
to a meeting, do your homework in advance. If you don't
know what will be addressed, ask well in advance.

If your workplace operates at high-stress, you can make
your meetings more productive by introducing the concept of
action meetings to your boss or his admin before the next
one is scheduled in an attempt to try out these techniques.
You might even provide a copy of this article to back
yourself up!

----------------------------------------------------
Ruth Klein is an award-winning business owner, best-selling
author and marketing and time management consultant whose
clients range from solo entrepreneurs to the Fortune 500.
Sign up to receive Ruth's 7 Part Mini-Course on Branding
and Productivity. http://tinyurl.com/25tqo5

The #1 Hiring Mistake You Better Not Make...

The #1 Hiring Mistake You Better Not Make...
When I first started out in this business, my hiring
practices were a little haphazard, to say the least. I met
a person, and if they had been referred by someone I knew,
that was good enough for me. I hired them.

After getting burned a few times, I am still learning how
to (and how not to) hire people. Overall I have gotten a
lot better at hiring the right people for the job the first
time out.

A great many CEOs like to have a long, drawn-out employee
interview and selection process, and that's fine. I've
found it's best if all potential new employees are
interviewed at least three times, by three different
executives in our company. After each interview, each
executive submits his or her own thoughts and perceptions
on the candidate.

Some companies have much, much longer interview and
selection processes that include live case studies (like
Google), with days and days of interviews. There was a time
when I thought they were crazy and just wasting time - but
now I think they are brilliant.

But there's one aspect of hiring that is often overlooked.
Hiring is not just about checking someone's competency
level. It's about seeing if someone "fits" your company.
Just because someone is good at what they do doesn't mean
that they will be a great employee in your organization.

Here's the #1 mistake you can make when hiring someone: You
hire them because they have a great talent, great skills,
great everything...but you pay no attention to how well
that person will fit within the existing corporate culture.

You see, every office has a particular atmosphere. Every
company has a certain "mood" and "attitude." It's often
hard to put your finger on what that mood or attitude is,
and it's virtually impossible to quantify. But believe me,
it's there - and it should be an important factor in any
hiring decision.

So no matter how wonderful the candidate is, the question
you MUST ask is "Will this new employee fit nicely into the
status quo? Will they mesh with us and our corporate
culture?"

If an office is populated with a very competitive,
sales-driven group of people, then an easygoing, laid-back
person won't be the right fit for that office - even if
they are incredible at selling and have proven it time and
again. The high-key atmosphere would almost certainly cause
stress, and a laid-back person would soon be ready to climb
the walls!

The opposite is true in my office. All of us are very laid
back, sometimes even goofy. We like to have fun, and you
almost have to have a good sense of humor to be in the room
with us! Someone who was by nature a serious type would be
a really bad fit. In fact, I recently had to let go of a
lady who was smart and competent, but so grimly serious
that she scared all of us to death!

True Story: Why I Didn't Even Interview the Best Salesman
in the Industry!

Just a few weeks ago I found myself seated at a table with
one of the best of the best salesmen in our entire
industry. His sales feats are legendary. His Rolodex is
eye-popping, everyone knows him, and everyone is already
very accustomed to buying from him. On the surface, he is
the PERFECT salesman.

I actually had a chance to interview him - possibly even
snap him up for our company. But I didn't.

The minute we sat down and started talking, I realized that
this super salesman was just not a good fit for our
company. I could just tell that he would make all our team
conference calls more tense, the whole office more tense,
and just make everyone feel more reserved (including me).
His style was simply counter to our corporate culture.

He would undoubtedly make lots of sales, but he would also
make me and the rest of our team a lot less happy with what
we do...and we ARE happy with what we do!

I had a nice chat with the super salesman without ever
asking one typical interview question at all. One great
salesman is not worth ruining the WORKING dynamics of the
rest of the team.

So the next time you are thinking about hiring someone,
remember that personality is a key element. You should ask
yourself, "How would this person get along with my team?
Does this person fit?" Sometimes your answers will be a
surprise even to you!

----------------------------------------------------
The Mystery CEO is a young entrepreneur who started a
company now doing close to $2 Million a year right in his
DORM room! Now he lets you watch over his shoulders as he
learns more about entrepreneurship. You can even listen-in
when he interviews CEOs who manage $100 Million+ companies!
Read his entrepreneurship blog right away for all the
entrepreneurship training you'll ever need!
http://www.MysteryCEO.com

Advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing

Advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing
Outsourcing in general is geared toward one main goal of
cost savings. Certainly there are substantial quantity of
other reasons such as reconfiguration of human resource
capital, increase in divisional or organizational
effectiveness and efficiency. However, the ultimate goal is
to increase bottom line by reducing overall costs.
E-Business or ecommerce is no exception. In order to
determine the viability and suitability of outsourcing any
or all business processes a cost saving analysis as well as
return on investment maybe the most suited tools to make
such determination.

The most current trend in the outsourcing appears to be the
marketing aspects of an ecommerce site which may include
Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Link Campaigns, online
organic marketing, offline promotion as well as niche
marketing. Most of these functions occur after the initial
design and implementation with the exception of SEO. Other
common attempts to outsource include article submissions,
data storage, data processing, ad servings, CRM, as well as
many other but similar popular third party services.

The advantage of outsourcing ecommerce projects could
include cost and time savings in initial creation, reducing
cost of maintenance, as well as taking advantage of third
party up to date expertise in design, optimization and
functionality. Though all of these functions can be equally
created internally, the cost efficiency is certainly
questionable. The influencing factors may include talent
acquisition and maintenance, continues educational and
training costs, purchase of hardware and software as well
as their respective maintenance cost, as well as managerial
cost of supervision and evaluation of human resources as
well as tools.

At the first glance, it seems like a no brainier that once
a viable third party is selected, outsourcing of e-business
is a simple choice of economic decision making. However,
there is more to it than it meets the eyes at first. The
most pressing issues is one of strategic nature. The
outsourcing of vital functions such as ecommerce is
certainly a two sided coin. The cost benefits are great yet
the strategic reliance on a third party which essentially
creates dependency as well as lack of internal expertise
may have a greater impact on long term strategic vision
than the cost saving may justify.

Reliance and dependency on a third party eliminates the
negotiation capabilities of the outsourcing entity.
Equally, the lack of internal capabilities and expertise
certainly creates a vacuum in terms of knowledge creation
and maintenance which is equally significant for long term
strategic vision and goals. Nevertheless, even the most
novice business personnel and entities have not only
observed but have actively participated in outsourcing. It
is interesting to see the long term impact of relinquishing
total or partial control over vital functions by means of
outsourcing.

----------------------------------------------------
http://blog.royaltyuniverse.com/