Critical Mistakes People Make when Selling Online

July 26, 2023 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

If you want to start up your own online shop then you will know what an experience it can be. That being said, you do have to make sure that you avoid these top mistakes, as this is the only way to give your site the highest chance of success.

Focusing on Creativity Too Much
The creative process can be exciting. You will be able to invent new things, and you will also be able to captivate your audience with your innovative approach. That being said, you don’t want to focus on creativity too much. If you do, then you may find that you end up overlooking market research. If you ignore this step then you may find that your business collapses and that you experience significant losses. Find out who your target audience is, and take the time to understand their basic needs. It is also important that you know your competition, so you can set the right prices and keep yourself competitive. If you overlook simple steps like this, then you will struggle in the future.

Source: Pexels (CC0 License)

Choosing a Bad Platform

A lot of people who start up their own eCommerce store opt for Shopify or even WooCommerce. There is nothing wrong with this, but you do have to make sure that the platform reflects your needs. When choosing your platform, make sure that everything is convenient for your customers and also make sure that it is financially beneficial for you. When you have chosen your platform, you can then make sure that you add plug-ins to accent the experience. This could include a Paypal checkout option, for example.

Poor User Design

Search engines within your site have to be convenient. You also need to make sure that they are simple. Any products you have should be strictly cataloged and they should also have the right tags and categories. This means that they can easily be found, which makes things much easier for you. If you want to help yourself then make sure that you have a solid system in place, before you begin listing products on your site.

Ignoring SEO

Your store has to be known to your potential customers. Sure, you do need to invest in advertising and this is a great tool to have in your arsenal, but if you overlook SEO then this could really impact your sales going forward. Find out what queries your customers are searching for and also make sure that you document the search volume. This will allow you to cater your efforts so you don’t end up throwing money at a keyword that you have no chance of ranking for. Remember that SEO will take a great deal of work, but at the same time, it is well worth it as it is one of the best ways for you to get your site on the map. If you have a hard time making sure that your SEO is on point then don’t be afraid to hire a service to take care of it for you.

6 Benefits of Outsourcing Your Sales Calls

September 22, 2022 by Tracie Johnson Leave a Comment

Image Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-man-working-in-a-call-center-8867431/

If you are an entrepreneur, freelancer, or small business owner, one of your most important tasks is to make sales. Your ability to do this determines your success and whether the business can continue to operate. You may have a catchy slogan, the best product in your niche market, and a stellar social media presence, but it doesn’t matter what you do if you are not making sales. In this article, we will go over six benefits that you get when you outsource your sales calls.

1. Save Time

It is no doubt that time is money, and the older you get, the more valuable time becomes. As a business owner or entrepreneur, you probably have a lot of other things to worry about, in addition to sales and making new contacts. You may also be working on developing new products or services for your business and getting some much-needed downtime. The last thing you need is to have your sales calls become a distraction for you.

When you outsource sales calls, they can be the voice of your business. They will be out there making the calls and collecting new contacts on a regular basis. You won’t have to worry about conducting them because they will use their own talent and expertise to do it all for you.

2. Make More Sales

If you make all of your sales yourself, then you are at the whim and mercy of how busy you are and whether or not you take the time to call someone. If you don’t call anyone, it will be a long time before leads or contacts come through for your business. When you hire a sales lead generation company, they can provide new leads, contacts, and opportunities regularly so that your business can continue to grow and prosper.

3. Avoid Low-Quality Leads

When you do any kind of business, you want to make sure that you are getting the best quality leads possible so that your business can be as successful as possible. When you hire a sales to lead generation company, they can review the source of your leads and ensure that they are not just any old leads. They will review them thoroughly to ensure that they are top quality and value for your business.

4. Make More Money

You may not realize it, but there are several other expenses that you have when you are doing your own sales calls. From calling phone numbers to researching company reviews, it can take up quite a bit of time and money just to get started.

When you hire a sales lead generation company, they will handle most of this legwork for you so that you can spend more time on boosting your profits.

5. Improve Your Image With Clients

Another benefit of hiring a sales lead generation company is that it will help improve your image with clients. Some people just don’t like making cold calls, and you may run into prospective clients who are turned off by the idea of doing it themselves. They may have a bad impression of the sales process or business owners in general because they feel that they are pushy.

Hiring a company to make your sales calls for you can help you improve your image among potential clients.

6. Save money

The last benefit to hiring a sales lead generation company is that it will help save you money in the long run. It can be expensive to start out on your own, and you may not be able to afford all the upfront costs needed to start. When you hire a sales lead generation company, they will often offer services that you need in addition to sales calls.

They can provide a variety of different services, including those that would be needed to get your business started. They may also help you find financing if you need it so that you can pay off the costs immediately.

Closing Thoughts

In conclusion, these are some of the many benefits you can get when hiring a sales lead generation company to make all of your sales calls for you. They will help boost your business in many ways and can help you get off on the right foot with new contacts and leads.

How To Make A Success Of Selling Products Online

September 20, 2022 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

More and more people are starting to sell products online, and it’s easy to see why. After all, as long as you approach it in the right way, you can fairly easily make a success of it, and it’s the kind of thing that can go equally well as part of your overall business or as a standalone side project. However it is that you are personally approaching it, there are a few things to bear in mind if you want to ensure it goes as well as possible.

In this post, we are going to discuss some of those things in particular, so you can see exactly how to make a success of selling products online. As long as you bear the following in mind, you should find that this is much more likely to work out for you. So let’s take a look right now at some of those.

Image – CCO License

Get Involved In One Of The Top Selling Categories

There are definitely some products that are easier to sell than others, and which are generally more popular and more profitable, so you will obviously find that focusing on these in particular is a pretty wise move to make. As long as you are thinking about selling in one or more of these top selling categories, it’s the kind of thing that can really help you to make a success of your business, so that’s something to think about.

Of course, the kind of products which sell well change quite frequently, but there are some categories which are fairly reliable in terms of continuing to be popular, so those are worth looking at in particular. For instance, you will generally have success with beauty, childwear, animal related products, anything more or less technological-based, and home security too. Fashion is another area that generally does well most of the time.

All in all, going for the right category is one of the best things you can do to ensure that you sell as many products as possible, so make sure that you are thinking about this when you are deciding what to sell.

Go Niche

Having a niche that you care about is a really powerful way to ensure that you are going to be as likely as possible to find success, so that is something that you should certainly think about doing here. The niche can be anything, although as we have seen some things are more likely to be big sellers. But the most important thing is that you are doing all you can to find a niche that will sell well and which you will enjoy as much as possible too. When you find the combination of these two, that is the best position to be in here.

Image – CCO License

Don’t rush your decision of what niche to go for. Just allow it to unfold. If you can do it this way, you should find that it really helps you to get the right niche, one that works for you. That is hugely important, so be sure to do it this way if possible.

But Allow For Expansion

And yet, you might also want to make sure that you are allowing for the opportunity of expansion as far as possible too. You never know when this might become a viable option, and you certainly want to be able to do it when the chance crops up, so that is something to think about here as best as you can. Allowing for expansion simply means that you have the capability to do so, and that you are open to the possibility too. Then, by the time it is possible to do so, you will find it naturally just works out that way.

Allowing for expansion doesn’t mean forcing it, either. Just make sure that it’s something you are thinking about as a possibility. If you can do that, you should find that you are much more likely to find great success with your online store, so that is absolutely what you should try to do here as best as you can. It’s going to make a huge difference to how your entire business works out, which is obviously what you want here.

Look For A Consultant

There are plenty of people who have done a lot in the world of ecommerce before, and looking for help from those people is always going to be a good idea. You never know what kind of advice they might be able to furnish you with, and the fact is that you are going to be able to make a huge change if you do find the right advice for your needs. The best way to do this is to look for a consultant whom you might be able to get the appropriate help from.

Image – CCO License

There are a lot of consultants out there, so make sure that you are choosing the right one. You should ideally go for one who has the most experience possible, and who is able to help you specifically with your industry or product category, if possible. If you go here, you will find the perfect example of the kind of consultant that you might want to look out for. Having this kind of help on board will definitely help you to make the most of your online selling experience, so that is something to think about from the start if possible.

Make Your Website Attractive

There is a lot to be said for an attractive website. For one thing, it will mean that visitors to the site will be a lot more likely to hang around for a good while – making it much more likely that they actually buy something. They will also be more likely to recommend the site to others. In general, it also just helps with the appeal of the brand, which is one of the major things you always need to think about in any business, but definitely with one that is online-only. So that is something to be aware of too.

So how can you make your website more attractive? There are a few things in particular that you might want to bear in mind here. First of all, there is the basic layout to consider. This should be relatively stripped-back and simple, but also the kind of thing that needs a bit of a wow factor. Consider using color carefully – think up a color scheme and stick to it as best as you can, that is generally the best way. As long as you do that, it’s already going to look a lot more attractive.

Beyond that, make sure that you have a landing page for each product, as that is going to be much more likely to look good and to generally be attractive. It will also have a way of increasing sales significantly, which is obviously an important part of all this too. So make sure that you are doing that, and you will have the most attractive website possible.

Image – CCO License

Use Social Media

It would be somewhat foolish to try and sell things online without making some kind of use of social media. In the end, whatever else you think about social media, there is no denying that it is an incredibly powerful tool which can help to advertise anything a lot more effectively than without it. So you should definitely make sure that you are making use of social media if you are keen for that to happen.

Of course, the approach you take here is important too, as you don’t want to make the mistake of overusing it or not managing it in the right way. So you should make sure that you have a proper plan in place for utilizing social media as a marketing tool. As long as you do that properly, it’s going to help you out a lot, and your website will get a lot more traffic, which will generally translate into more sales and a healthier business in general.

Pay Attention To Trends

There are always going to be trends going on, and the more that you pay attention to these, the more likely it is that you are going to sell your products well. This is definitely the kind of thing that you therefore want to pay close attention to. The more that you keep your eye out for trends that you might want to follow, the more likely it is that you will be able to sell a lot of products, which is obviously the whole point to all of this. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled, therefore, and you are going to find that thai really helps.

Those are just some of the things you can bear in mind if you want to make sure that you make a success of selling products online. As long as you do those, you will find that your chances of success are much higher. You should be selling a great deal of products in no time.

6 Things To Make Travelling For Business Much Easier

May 3, 2021 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Anyone who travels often for business knows how exhausting it can be. It’s getting harder in several ways, so we need to do whatever we can to make things simpler. Whether you’re travelling across the country or overseas, travelling for business can be stressful. From packing the right attire to making sure your transport is reliable, you may find yourself dreading a long journey. However, travelling for business doesn’t have to be like that, and here are some tips and tricks to make travelling for business much easier.

Photo by mentatdgt from Pexels

Make hanging suits and dresses easier

Suits and dresses for important meetings simply can’t be shoved into a suitcase. However, with limited space (apart from the handles inside your car) it can be difficult to hang your smart clothes nicely to avoid creases. Investing in a car clothes hanger like this one will make your road trips for business so much easier.

Don’t risk running out of fuel

In theory, running out of fuel shouldn’t be an issue you’ll run into, especially if you’re keeping an eye on the fuel gauge. However, if you’re driving through towns and cities that are unknown with large amounts of countryside, you may not know when you’ll next be able to fill up. Keeping a gas oil fuelbox in the trunk will give you that peace of mind when you’re next travelling for business.

Keep a list of contact numbers in your bag

There’s nothing worse than becoming stranded with a dead phone. Even if you can find a payphone or borrow someone else’s to call for help, you still need to know numbers off by heart. Don’t risk forgetting important numbers by keeping a list of contact numbers in your bag. That way, if you’re stranded you’ll have a list of numbers from a mechanic to someone who can come and pick you up.

Pre book parking

Parking in an unknown city or country can be stressful, especially if you weren’t expecting to have to pay for parking. Pre-booking a parking space is now easier than ever thanks to Your Parking Space! That way you don’t have the stresses of trying to park up close enough to your hotel or event.

Travel earlier than rush hour

Nobody likes being caught in traffic, and if you have to travel to a destination in time for a meeting or seminar, you may feel a tremendous amount of pressure when you’re travelling. Take this pressure off by travelling earlier than rush hour to ensure you’re there in plenty of time. If you’ve got to make a flight, consider travelling in the early hours of the morning to give you enough time to arrive.

Call your hotel ahead of time

Finally, calling your hotel just as you set off on your journey will allow you to resolve any issues that might have cropped up such as double bookings or your room not being ready in time. That way you can work with your hotel to ensure everything is ready once you arrive.

How To Create Effective Sales Pitches

May 3, 2021 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Ideally, when you’re running a business and you have what feels like a thousand different things to do daily, you’ll concentrate on building growth oriented sales team to help you boost your business and take this one task at least away from you. A good sales team is crucial to any business, and it can spell the difference between success and failure, growth and stagnation.

Yet before you have this team, or when you’re looking for ways to train them, knowing how to create compelling sales pitches is vital. When you can pitch your products and services, or even your entire business, in the right way, sales will follow. Read on for some advice about creating an effective sales pitch and growing your business quickly and successfully.

Image from Pexels

Offer Solutions

One of the very best things you can do when you want to sell something is to talk about the problems it solves. In other words, offer solutions for those problems. If someone can see how your product or service will remove a problem from their life and make things easier, they will be much more willing to try it out.

The old-fashioned way of selling was to talk about the features of a product or service, but this is not enough. People can already see what the features are; they need to know what benefits those features will give them.

Support Your Pitch With Facts

It might be unfair, it might not be true at all anymore, but unfortunately, salespeople have gained something of a reputation for exaggerating the facts or even outright lying. This has led to many people having an innate distrust of anyone whose job it is to sell. The best way to combat this issue is to prove that what you’re saying is true. In other words, support your pitch with facts and information that can be checked and verified should the customer want to do so.

Prepare your pitch in advance and provide plenty of evidence in the form of case studies and research that prove how effective your products or services really are. Customer testimonials are an ideal way to do this too.

Identify Objections

Before you even begin your sales pitch, before you go into the meeting or pick up the phone, you should think about what objections your client might make and already have the answers to combat them. In this way, no matter what objections the client might have, you’ll be able to allay their fears and show them why buying from you is a good idea.

Of course, you won’t want to be overly aggressive as this is a sales technique that really doesn’t work and will turn people away from you rather than make them want to buy from you, but if you can identify the biggest objections, you’ll be armed correctly for the sales pitch.

Ask Them For The Sale

It’s hugely important for any salesperson to be confident, otherwise that lack of confidence will be picked up by the client or customer, and they will feel less sure about buying from you themselves.

This is why, at the end of your pitch, you should always ask for the sale. This might be along the lines of asking what date is suitable for delivery, or what quantity they want, or even outright asking if they’re going to buy. Missing this step could make your pitch fall down at the last hurdle; often it’s what customers are waiting to hear to help them galvanize their thoughts and make a decision.