Latest Sales Articles

Livestore for B2B - Wholesalers

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:23:49 -0700

Online retail is currently experiencing a surge in popularity with figures showing that in 2008 Australia alone purchased US$54 Billion, by January 2009 that had increased to US$90. Billion with US$21 Billion expected by 2013.

It is safe to say that more retailers are developing online markets.

I have been a wholesaler for 20 years servicing outlets throughout Australia, Australasia and Europe, and understand the need for an online presence.

Nothing however replaces a face to face visit be it a trade fair or a rep visiting the store; however I have produced the closest you will get to this.

Following a year of development and testing I have developed an online community web site that offers video conferencing directly from the showroom to the customer.

Livestorebiz.com is predominantly for retailers that can showcase their goods to online shoppers; however there is a key benefit for the wholesaler.

Firstly, with a livestore and its many benefits you can set up a profile that represents you and your products.

Gain exposure to the retailers and customers that the site is created for, showcase your goods directly to your retailers via the video chat function. There are no downloads required, as soon as you sign up a video chat module appears on your profile and your good to go.

Like i said I have been a wholesaler for 20 long years, I have and still do travel myself and I have reps to show my goods to retailers and know firsthand the costs involved in doing this.

Livestore was created out of necessity for me to minimise my travelling needs, I have colleagues that I know love this concept. Livestores will not only save time, travel, reps on the road and most of all the costs involved in this!

Imagine being able to easily show your latest products to your outlets nationally and internationally directly from your showroom, your customers will no longer have to wait for a rep to visit.

You and your reps can service your stores from anywhere to anywhere, as long as you have a suitable internet connection, you’re in business.

You can also link to you supplier stores directly from your profile, state clearly that you are a B2B company for retailers only and refer your visitors to your retailer links to purchase from directly.

We also have a very easy affiliate system, for every store that you recommend to use this site that results in a livestore subscription you share the benefits.

Our last little bit of sugar is our ecommerce module, you can sell goods directly from your profile. With a fully integrated payment system and too many benefits to go into you have your own fully support web site within a community of resources and networking.

So the benefits of livestore for your business?

Showcase your products and company to your target market.

Support your suppliers with links to their stores from your profile.

Keep your customers informed with regular product updates.

Save rep’s, time and travel costs with constant visual availability.

Earn money with your database of customers

Join a community of traders, share events, news, blogs, classifieds and so much more.

With our simplicity itself affiliate system this could not only be free but earn you a nice passive income.

Feel Free to Approach Experiential marketing agencies

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:17:24 -0700

An advertising organization uses diverse methods for shaping how they choose to market to target groups. Marketing agencies are often consumer specific. For instance, marketing agency learns what the consumers regularly prefers and shops for and then uses that to make available them with advertising of parallel products.
They with the intention of generating greater results for brands took a chance to propose promotional programs from the ground up which are more economically gracious to the customers.
There are various innovative strategies to focus on marketing .Some of them are as follows:
•    Make the best use your energy effectiveness of equipment and vehicles, reuse and reduce materials work with environmentally responsive vendors and suppliers, select substitute energy sources, train your team on how to execute appropriate misuse management and recycling programs.
•    Appoint full-time staff and part-time employees in constant training and learning on the subject of sustainable practices in experiential marketing.
•    Work in partnership with clients and suppliers to formulate smart choices for the environment, while maintenance of experiential projects cost-neutral or cost-effective compared to privileged path alternatives.

Marketing agencies will be accountable for assistance in generating network content and ever-increasing traffic. It focuses on branding your product with user-generated substance while leveraging social media tools. They use innovative inscription skills to send daily to innumerable social media networking sites Solicit (via email), vertical websites and news websites to make them aware of your brand.

Marketing agencies make every effort to execute your company's marketing and advertising needs with the high-class, efficient communications services as you desired. They maintain a very good customer relationship! Understands client needs. These qualities allow them to merge powerful design and imaginative promotions with modified, market-driven approach.

Hence feel free to take suggestions from experiencing marketing agencies to garnish your ideas and promote your products successfully.

FMCG products and the healthy advertising competitions?

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:57:25 -0700

The FMCG products are Fast Moving Consumer Goods and they come at a relatively low price as compared to the other types of goods such as durables and major appliances. The FMCG products are a manufacturers favorite because their sale is always on a high and the profit though small on each item, becomes great when the larger picture is seen. The FMCG products are promoted more than the other durable and major goods.

The reasons behind the heavy promotional campaigns of the FMCG products are various. They are promoted because the manufacturers do not only promote them but the wholesalers and distributors also promote them. This makes them the market favorite and the advertisement world makes a lot of money only because of the FMCG products. They are heavily promoted because they are sold in a huge quantity everyday and the consumers only think a little while purchasing these goods. The whole process of decision making takes a little while and the consumer does not think critically. This actually helps the FMCG promoters because this way they can easily influence the mind of the consumer and that creates the advertisement wars.

The FMCG products are sold at the grocery stores and the supermarkets as well as at the general stores. Because of the local sale, the different distributors also enter the competition and they also advertise the FMCG products locally and personally to get their benefit from the increased number of sales.

FMCG products offer a healthy competition for advertisers and the wholesalers and distributors. They make sure that there product is best represented and it has something extra that makes it the best in the market. This also puts the pressure on the manufacturers and they also feel their responsibility towards the quality and uniqueness of the product. This competition also helps the consumers because at the end of the day they will be the ones who will be getting better products.

7 Fitness and Outdoor Equipment Christmas Gifts For Him

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:32:40 -0700

It is difficult to choose a gifts for guys. They are sometimes harder than a women's gift. As jewelry to women, exercise and outdoor equipments are something which guys loves to have. Guys like to have something which improve his physique and looks attractive.

These are some of the items you can get guys this Christmas:

1. Horizon Fitness T91 Treadmill - This is a very high quality treadmill which can be found in many gyms. It is sleek and sturdy, which has nine program setting to suit a wide range of physical activity.

2. Reebok Strapless Heart Rate Monitor Watch - This one is a great combination with the treadmill or on its own. This monitor measures the heartrate while the guy is exercising and its strapless makes it attractive. This measurement is accurate and nice trendy colors.

3. LifeSpan Fitness SP1000 Stretch Partner Stretching Machine - This is great stretch partner for guys to have better flexibility and streching ability. This improves the stretching and prevent injury to legs and back. It has adjustable to suit the different body type which makes a better gift for him and his family.

4. Bowflex Xceed Plus Home Gym with Gym Style Ab Attachment - This is a great gym alternative. When you have it you don't need a gym anymore. He can a lot of money and improve his physic with this 65 different gym exercises.

5. Bowflex Series 7 Treadmill - With 15 different levels this is a perfect machine to do strenuous cardio routines. This will save a lot of money on gym membership and you can do the exercise anytime when you are free and you wouldn't have to leave home.

6. Bowflex SelectTech 1090 Single Dumbbell - This space saving equipment combines multiple dumbbels in one product. Easily adjustable from 10 lbs to 90 lbs to suit every man.

7. Schwinn 231 Recumbent Exercise Bike - This exercise bike looks sleek and sturdy, so it will suit you male friend. It has 16 different levels to set, from easy workout to heavy workout to achieve a fitness level he wants. It also has programs such as calorie goals, time trials, and fitness tests to help him reach the weight or fitness state that he wants.

These are some of the fitness equipment which your guy will love.

Written by morish: Christmas round the corner and when everyone seems to be enjoying, you might be in a dilemma of getting a Christmas Gifts for Boyfriend. To present a Xmas Gifts for Men please visit our site, where you can wide variety of christmas gifts for men .

How can management training courses help me deal with Poor Performance?

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:52:46 -0700

How frustrating, here you are managing a team of people and yet you are held back from achieving your goals. On management training courses all over the country trainers are asked 'how can I deal with poor performance?'

Well the truth is it is not all that difficult, probably the most difficult part is finding the time to sit down with the individual and agree goals which are acceptable to you but are also achievable and realistic to the staff member.

The other difficulty is that once you have done this how do you monitor it and ensure the staff member is on track, once again this takes time and effort on your part.

The key to improving performance is to agree a performance improvement plan with the staff member and see it through to the end. You must agree the performance standards with the individual and the agree goals that can be achieved.

When it comes to agreeing goals we should always remember the goal should stand up to the acronym SMART which means the following:

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Realistic

Time Framed

Before you let the staff member off to achieve the goals you have agreed you must ask one important question, the question is 'what can you think of which might get in the way of you achieving the goal?' This is known as removing the barriers, and is one area where many managers fall down. In Management training courses we learn that you must cut off any areas that will stop some one from performing.

The other thing is it is a little like a football match you are better off to know the barriers before the kick off than to learn about the problems with only two minutes of the game left. If you know of the barriers before you can do something about them.

Once you have removed any barriers the next step is to support and encourage the staff member to achieve the goal. You must put in place a monitoring system to check that the staff member is on course. Remember the saying that is said in Management training courses all over the country 'what gets checked gets done'

A skill that is difficult to teach in management training is the skill of judgement and you have to make a judgement on whether this person has achieved the goal or not achieved the goal. At this stage you should be thinking of the three Rs that is, do I Retain this person, do I Retrain this person or do I Replace this person.

There is no doubt that improving performance is not easy but with good management training courses you can develop the skills to put you ahead of the rest

Fearing rejection? Sales training can reveal the truth

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 22:43:33 -0700

Knocking on doors, cold calling techniques cold calling on the telephone, these are all areas that sales training courses can help you with, but the bigger question has to be, is there a better way?

I do not mean is there a better way to learn these skills than attending sales training courses, I mean is there a better way to get new business and sales than cold calling suspects who may or may not have a need for your product.

My background is selling life insurance and I recall my early days of selling. My manager brought me in to the office on my first day of work and stood up with a chart and easel and explained to me what life insurance was and how to sell it, this constituted to my first ever sales training course. I was then given a book which had all the rates and costs and told to go out and sell. I was 21 years of age and had received no previous sales training. In fact this was the only sales training I had for the next 5 years.

I asked my manager where do I start and his answer to me was the next person you see,
Just start talking to them and see do they have any interest-- so much for sales training I thought. Well you can imagine how difficult it was to pluck up enough courage and actually go and speak to someone about Life insurance, but I really had no choice jobs were hard to get and I needed to earn some money so I had to go and ask some one to buy.

Much to my amazement, it wasn’t really that hard, of course loads of people said no and of course I made tons and tons of mistakes and I can recall the sweat running down my back with fear for the first number of calls. But you know the strange thing about it no one was ever rude to me, no one swore at me, no one got a gun or threatened to kill me.
In fact the worse thing that happened to me was people said ‘no thank you we have enough’. Eventually though some one said yes and bought. That was the beginning to my highly successful career in sales, obviously the sales training course worked?

I began to realise the more people that I asked the more ‘no thank you we are happy with what we have’ replies I received, but amazingly although most people said no I did find some people who did have an interest and eventually bought.

I then suddenly realised that out of knocking on 20 doors and speaking to the correct person, I was able to gain some form of interest in the product with about 4 people and from that 4 people I usually ended up selling to 1 of them. I did not know whether this was good or bad as no such mention of these kind of statistics were ever mentioned on my sales training course.

When I asked my manager about this he just answered—‘Just carry on doing what you are doing, the only statistic you need to know is how many people you need to speak with to get a sale, then work out how much that sale is worth to you’.

So I carried on doing what I was doing and sure enough people continued to say yes and more people continued to say no. Then one night, even though my manager had told me not to worry about statistics I sat at home and worked out that my average commission cheque was £200.

I then realised that this sales job regardless of the sales training I had received was a fairly good job. If I could go and speak to 20 people and get one sale worth £200 it really meant that each person I spoke to whether they said yes or no was worth £20 to me.

When I look back on the sales training I received from my manager I laugh, because in reality it was pathetic, however understanding how many people I need to contact to get a sale and the value of that sale was like a golden nugget.

I then realised that every no I received was still worth £20 to me. Cold call selling and the fear of rejection is really not hard when you realise every rejection is worth money to you, I just wish my manager had mentioned this on my initial 2 hour introduction to sales training course

Presentation skills training------Discover how to Learn to not bore people

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:48:53 -0700

On a recent presentation skills training course, I asked the question ‘what do we not want from a presentation?’

There is nothing worse than trying to listen to a presentation and feeling like your listening to Father Stone (from father Ted), boring, droll, tedious and tiresome, like something you can listen to at night instead of counting sheep.

On presentation skills training courses one of the first things you are told is ‘When delivering a presentation you are the most important visual aid’, it is you that the eyes will be watching, it is you that the audience will be captivated by and it is you that needs to present confidently and boldly.

We have all been to the presentations where the person has wrecked our heads, their pitch is up and down, they’re trailing off at the end of sentences, they’re speeding through to get it over and done with and quite frankly they look as though they may just collapse because they’re out of breath.

You do feel sorry for the presenter but all you can think is “oh God I hope I am not like that!” well don’t let yourself be like that learn to speak with ease, be energetic, and enthusiastic. This is what you want to see in a presentation to keep you intrigued so why not practice what you preach? Learn the secrets behind relaxing through presenting, pausing for effect and keeping the audience’s attention by attending a presentation skills training course.

Have you ever been to a presentation when the presenter calls the women at the back of the room by name to ask her a question? Well this is because the presenter had initiated a conversation with the women before the seminar, consequently building up a rapport with that women and subsequently regaining the focus of the audience. Presentation skills training is much more than developing your presentation, it is about you, your vocal image and your pace and knowing that you do not need the big words to present effectively and successfully.

Assertiveness training course—can we develop assertiveness skills or are we born to be passive or aggressive?

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:32:04 -0700

We are often asked does assertiveness training also help me to become assertive in my private life as well as at work. The answer is yes, just imagine the following: You have just bought a new shirt, you bring it home but you decide you do not like it, but there is a problem you can not find the receipt. You bring it back to the shop in the bag and explain that you want to return it and of course here comes the question you were dreading “have you got the receipt?” you say without taking a breath, “I can not find it, I looked everywhere, its not in the car its not in the sitting room……” and so on so forth.

You are not being assertive, you are unsure and you are lacking in self belief. You need to say “no I do not, is that going to be a problem?” this assertiveness can be improved through assertiveness training courses or confidence building courses.

We as a human beings have a constant ability to doubt ourselves. We do not provide ourselves with the reassurance that we deserve. In meetings I have no doubt that you have found yourself saying, “I feel that ….” Feeling is an action such as feeling as though you may get sick as we don’t exactly feel something about the meeting in our colon or our lungs so why do we say this. Assertiveness skills training experts believe that what we should say is “I think”, “I know” or “I suspect” in order for us to sell our abilities.

This can also apply for the word but, for example a father may say to their child “you’re not going to like this when you hear it but…” the father has already lost that child’s attention and the child is already coming up with excuses. A line that you would hear on assertiveness training courses would be “I have an idea that I believe could have some merits”. Use your assertiveness skills to be sure of yourself and this in turn will boost your confidence in repeating this assertive behaviour again.

Picture this, your boss comes into your office and says “Jane/Jack this is Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith this is Jane/Jack” why is it that you are not introduce as Mrs. or Mr.? If this were to happen assertiveness skills training courses will tell you to simply reply with “hello Mr. Smith, pleasure to meet you and what is your first name?” it is vital that there is equality and equal opportunity for all in the work place regardless of sex, race, age or cultures.

Trainers on assertiveness skills training courses believe that it is our right to be treated equally within the work place however in some places to guarantee this fairness and justice people need to become more assertive in their capabilities and competencies.

Discover Your Personal USP

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:02:47 -0700

In sales and marketing you always look for the USP of the product or service that you are promoting. USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition. It is what makes your offer different from all the others in the market place. You too have a personal USP.

What is it that makes you different from all the other people in the world?

One of the truly amazing things about this world that we live in is that no two people are exactly the same. Even so called identical twins are different because, although they may have started their existence genetically the same, their different life experiences have created unique individuals.

There are probably many things that are unique about you but what we are looking for here is something unique that can help you achieve your goal.
The term USP was coined by Rosser Reeves in his influential book on advertising titled "Reality in Advertising" published in 1961. He states that the Unique Selling Proposition must contain three ingredients.

The first ingredient is that it must offer a specific benefit that comes from buying your product or service.

At this point I think it is important to make a clear distinction between a benefit and a feature. A feature is a particular aspect of a product or service. A benefit is the reward gained because of that feature.

For example the air conditioning unit in your car is a feature of the car. The benefit is that you keep cool on a hot day. Products and services have feature but people buy the benefits.

When it comes to discovering the unique benefit that you can offer you first have to decide what your goal is. If your goal is to find a romantic partner then you would be looking for a different type of benefit to offer than if your goal was to make a million dollars, or to gain a promotion in your career.

Think about yourself for a moment. Think about your skills and the unique combination of experiences that you have had in your life. Think about the lessons that you have learned and the successes that you have had. Now ask yourself the question; what unique benefit could I provide people with?

You have to become a bit creative during this process. For example, if are selling knowledge to a particular group of people then the unique aspect could be the knowledge itself, or it could be the way you teach that knowledge that makes it easier or faster to learn, or it could be that you teach them to apply that knowledge in a unique way in order to get different or better results.

Let's imagine that acquiring wealth is your goal. If you start brainstorming around your knowledge, skills, experiences, and talents, then I am sure that you will be able to find a unique benefit that you could offer people. A benefit that others would want and be willing to pay for.

Remember that the world is a huge market place and with the aid of technology such as the internet you can offer your products and services to this global market.

The second ingredient is that the USP must be something that your competition cannot, or does not, offer.

Ideally your USP is something that only you can offer. That would give you a monopoly on that benefit which is a powerful position to be in if you market it well. However it is not essential that the benefit that you offer is actually, totally unique. What is important is that you are the first to market around that particular benefit and so it is perceived to be unique to you.

The question for you to ask is how can I market my personal USP in such a way that the market place perceives it as being unique?

The third ingredient is that the USP must be stated in such a way that it irresistibly motivates the consumer to buy your product or service.

This is an essential ingredient of success that many people totally miss. How often do you hear someone say that they were passed over for a promotion and yet the person who got the job is nowhere near as qualified, experienced or as capable as they are. The person has completely missed the point. The other person got the promotion because they were better at selling their USP. They were better at self promoting in such a way that the decision maker bought the idea that they should award the job promotion to them.

Whether you are aiming to become rich, or advance your career, or gain a romantic partner, or any of a thousand other possible successes your chance of winning will be greatly enhanced if you discover and market your own personal USP.

Achieving effective finish on parts

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:25:25 -0700

Finishing is a process used to describe the altering of the appearance of a part by smoothing, polishing, deburring and/ or cleaning. The process consists of placing together the parts to be finished along with finishing media and finishing compounds into a finishing machine. When the machine starts to run, the media and the parts rub against each other assisted by the finishing compounds - which lead to the polishing and smoothing effect. Finishing is often referred to as a tumbling process.

Finishing compounds help to provide a medium where the finishing process can happen effectively. They improve the efficiency of the finishing media being used. The finishing compounds are typically found in three forms – the liquid form, the powdered form and the cream form. They are made from ingredients in different proportions that lend them a distinct acidic, alkaline or pH balanced property. Based on the finishing requirement at hand, any one type of finishing compound can be chosen. For example, to increase the cutting speed in the finishing process or to increase bleaching effect, an acidic compound can be chosen.

Finishing compounds are used to achieve different functions like raising the foam level or lubrication in the finishing machine which will in turn produce a polish and also help in gentle tumbling of delicate components. They also aid in improving the grinding effect which provides better deburring and smoothing. The finishing compounds are ideal for degreasing and cleaning operations because they posses the properties that help in emulsifying and suspending dirt and grime. They are effective scale removers and are good for cleaning of heavy grime. Finishing compounds enhance the finished part appearance by proving extra sheen and polish. They also have a very useful function of imparting anti rust and anti corrosion properties on metallic parts which keeps the parts safe for a long time.

Plastic deburring media or tumbling stone is an artificial finishing media which comes in the form of preformed shapes in various sizes. They also come with a different degree of abrasive content to suit different needs. They typically find use where soft abrasive finishing is needed. They are light weight and hence can be used with fragile parts without any risk of damage to the parts. Plastic deburring media provide a smooth finish though without much shine. They are ideal for general purpose deburring, pre-painted finishing and heavy, fast cutting of parts. They are best suited to work on soft metals like brass and aluminium. Plastic media are safe on parts having threads as they leave the threads undamaged and they can be used to pre-finish parts that are to be anodized.

The plastic deburring media come in shapes like cones, pyramids, wedges, triangles, tristars etc. Each shape can serve a specific finishing requirement. Triangles, for instance, work well on corners and flat surfaces; cones are suitable for parts with holes. To achieve finishing on parts that have complex geometry, a combination of different shaped plastic deburring media can help.