Leads Archives - TODAY INDIA

Sales Prospecting Technique – Generate Sales Leads With The OXO Routine

Sales prospecting techniques that generate sales leads should be effective and easy to incorporate into your daily routine. The OXO routine is a tried and tested lead generator that most sales people can add to their daily actions.

This technique works best for sales people who sell a product or service which is targeted at a wide range of B2B prospects. The OXO routine is most effective when you have a good number of potential prospects close to each other. For example: When you are visiting an industrial estate or business park and what you sell could be bought by many of the businesses in the area.

We call this sales prospecting technique the OXO routine because the X is the customer you have a sales appointment with and the O’s are the prospects either side of your arranged meeting. When you have completed your sales appointment you call on the two closest prospects either side. The idea is that you make the best use of your time by prospecting close to where you are. They may not be right next door to the business you are visiting, but they should be close enough to walk to or drive there in a matter of minutes.

This prospecting technique will give you many benefits as well as making good use of your selling time. It gets you into a routine of cold calling after every appointment. That means you no longer put off prospecting until the end of the week or until you really need to do it because you have run out of leads. Setting yourself the action of doing the OXO routine after every sales visit will quickly build into a habit.

Use it after every sales appointment whether you make a great sale, or come up against a really difficult prospect and come out feeling down and rejected. After a positive meeting where you have made a sale you will be on a buzzing motivational high. What a great state to be in as you cold-call the businesses either side of your new customer. You may even want to use the fact that you have a new local customer in your introduction pitch to your potential customers.

When your sales appointment hasn’t gone so well you should still OXO the neighbours. You, like me, are only human. We feel the effects of an appointment where we don’t close the sale. As you come out of a bad appointment force yourself to do the OXO. Shake off any negative feelings or self-doubt, and head for the nearest potential customers either side of where you are. Generating sales leads in this way will get you back into a positive selling state and focus your mind on achieving your targets.

Adding the OXO sales prospecting technique to your daily routine will help you to constantly bring in sales leads and keep your prospect bank topped up. It cuts down the time you have to dedicate to collecting leads and makes your time management far more effective.

Different Ways Of Generating Traffic, Leads And Sales For Your Affiliate Or Own Offers

When it comes to running an offline or online businesses, the most critical things owners need – besides the necessary licence and equipment – are traffic, leads and sales. Yet in spite of knowing this, the underlying question in most of their minds – is how to get more while spending less or better still, for free?

Having said that, this is what my article going to address today.

Now regardless of what they are called, they still boil down to one common factor which is people. Because without them taking action the way you want be it seeing your offer, listening to and reading what you presented and taking up your free and paid offer, your business is not going to last. That is the brutal truth in traditional and internet marketing as well.

So the question is how do I get traffic?

To be honest, there is no right and wrong answer. But there are free and paid methods you can use.

However before even doing so, it is important to identify if there is a market for your offer and connecting with people within that. This is absolutely necessary in order to build an audience as in groups of people who know, like and trust you. Especially when you focused on free methods which I touched upon later.

It is the same way with how you got to know your friends, boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse and how politicians do to get more people to vote for them and formed the government. You might also see that in networking events and seminars.

Below are both free and paid strategies I know and learnt from more experienced marketers.

A. Free

1. Article Marketing

This is by far the oldest but still workable method. What you do is write and submit an article like what you see now into relevant sites like Ezine Articles.

2. Blogging

This is more of a long-term SEO and wealth building strategy.

You can write whatever you want in your blog – preferably WordPress into your own domain and hosting and then connect with other bloggers in your niche either through blog commenting or guest posting.

3. Classified Advertising

You might not believe this but this is how I got started making my first dollar in 2008.

This is a great alternative and test to paid ads.

What you need to do is to come up with a eye-catching headline and 2-3 lines ad with links before posting to relevant sites like Craiglist and Gumtree.

4. Directory Submissions

In the past this used to work very well.

But in the wake of Google’s relentless updates, many sites have come and go so apart from Dmoz, they are no longer variable today.

5. Email Marketing

This works provided you have a quality email list of subscribers who are eager to read from, trust and buy from you.

But for this to work effectively, you need a high converting landing page and reliable autoresponder to send unlimited emails.

6. Forum Posting

Forums are online discussion sites in which people congregrated and discussed about common issues and interests.

To get started, there are important rules you have to abide by in order not to get banned.

Such as do not spam but provide helpful information in answering what they need and want to know with your blog and landing page links in your signautre – which is the footer text below every post you make

7. Google SEO

If you provided good quality content in your blog in the form of articles and even videos with social media channel links – I will be talking about later, the major search engine will reward you with higher rankings on first page for maximum exposure and even leads and sales from your searchers.

This also helps if you have comments and questions below your posts.

8. PDF Submissions

You can also compile a set of 5-10 articles into MS Word or Open Office into a report or e-book with an attractive cover before publishing in sites like Calameo, Scribd and Slideshare.

9. Press Releases

They are basically online versions of newspaper reports in which you can submit to related sites.

There are both free and paid services in which you can submit.

10. Social Media And Networks

You can also participate in social networks like Facebook where you can post on your timeline, create fanpages, live events, videos and joined and share in groups like what you do in forums.

Others include LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and Tumblr.

11. Video Marketing

This is where you create your videos from your own PC or iPhone camera, powerpoint slides or both with some music background and introduction or highlighted points text.

If you just want to show your face, you can use camera.

But if you want to share your PC screen, I will recommend Jing and Camtasia Studio – the latter gives you a free 30 day trial before you pay a one-time fee of $197.

12.. Web 2.0 Properties.

You can also post your content in other blogging platforms like Blogger, Hubpages, Webs, Weebly and Wix.

In the past these used to work like a charm in the form of Google Wonder Wheel.

But now you can only posted what you had not in your articles and blog posts.

This works best when you are doing e-commerce and your info products.

13. Webinars

They are online versions of seminars in which you can invite your subscribers and customers to attend before presenting your offer.

For this, I recommend Go-To-Webinar and Zoom.

B. Paid

For paid strategies, I will recommend 3 platorms in Bing, Facebook And Google Ads. At the time of writing this, mobile apps and YouTube Ads also came about.

With that said, these are both free and paid methods I know of getting traffic, leads and sales for your sites.

Insurance Advertising – Discover How Independent Insurance Agents Generate Leads

Each day, more and more Insurance Agents are leaving the captive corporate world to venture into the realm of independent insurance agent. Rather than being locked into selling one major insurance carrier’s branded product line, they opt to offer a larger variety of policies, services and costs; coinciding with the demand of consumers wanting to have choices and options at competitive prices.

As we are well aware, this is no longer a “seller’s market”, but an “informed buyer’s”. People, in general, are armed with more information than ever before. So, how do you, the independent insurance agent, stand out from the other 100’s of agents in your city? What marketing avenues are available to you so that you capture the prospective buyer’s attention and convert them into a prospect and ultimately a long-term client? And which ones work?

Regardless of your target audience, whether you have niched your focus to be product specific, or if you are targeting a certain population segment; you need to investigate the various forms of advertising available to you, the costs of such programs and the pros and cons.

Below is a breakdown of the most commonly used forms of advertising for the independent insurance agency, and the pros and cons of each.

Television Advertising

As the average American spends more time in front of the television, it should be no surprise that this is one of the most sought after forms of marketing available.

Pros:

Ability to reach a larger and more diverse segment of the insurance seeking population

You can specify time of day and network, reaching your intended audience easier

Since most consumers are engaged by a combination of movement, color, what they see and what they hear, this gives most businesses a platform to achieve full sensory contact

Gives a business instant credibility and prestige

Cons:

Cost for the commercial air time and/or multiple runs

Cost for hiring a marketing agency to lay-out and film your insurance commercial

Consumer expectation – no longer are we impressed with someone reading off a teleprompt, they want to be entertained

Competition for the consumer’s attention

Popularity of digital recorders has increased, giving consumers the ability to fast-forward through commercials when watching their favorite shows

Many experts would agree that if you have the extra capital in your marketing budget to incorporate television into your advertising that you should. However, it is important that you research different advertising firms to help you explore your options with regards to creating your on-air advertisement, the best way to target your audience and keep within your planned budget.

Newspaper advertising and local weekly shoppers

With regards to print advertisements, some independent agents turn to local newspapers and weekly shoppers to advertise their agencies. Since many households either subscribe to at least one newspaper, or pick them up at their local newsstands, it is a fast and simple way to gain recognition by consumers.

Pros:

Ability to reach more than one target audience by placing various advertisements in the different sections of a newspaper

You have the choice of large or small circulation papers to advertise your insurance agency

Consumers who turn to the newspapers and weekly shoppers are looking for advertisers who offer deals or bargains

Multiple advertisement ad sizes to correspond with various budgets

Cons:

Newspapers and weekly shoppers are usually read once and discarded

Smaller advertisements have a more difficult time standing out when placed next to a larger ad

Quality of the print may distort images and photos in a way that can hurt your marketing rather than help

Ads, regardless of size, have to compete for the reader’s attention

Like television advertising, it would be prudent to consult with a professional marketing firm, preferably one that specializes in insurance marketing, to help you design an advertisement that best captures your targeted audience’s attention. The smaller the ad space the less detailed and complicated the ad should be.

Also keep in mind the days the most sought after papers and weekly shoppers are printed. The rates for a large advertisement over the weekend will be greater than the same sized ad featured all week long.

Billboards and Signs

While most forms of outdoor advertising are contained within billboards and large signage, some independent agencies have broadened the term to include park benches, posters and seat rails at public transit stops. This form of marketing has become a popular, less costly way, when compared with television and print advertising, to reach a larger audience in major metropolitan areas.

Pros:

Potential clients cannot simply discard or “turn off” outdoor advertising

Name recognition is higher with those consumers who walk or drive the same route each day

Billboards and signs vary in price due to size and location making it is easier to find one in your budget

Cons:

More often than not, outdoor advertisements do not fully engage a consumer’s attention for more than a few seconds

Advertisements have to be simple and interesting enough for the consumer to remember

Outdoor advertisements are usually contracted for a longer period of time than most independent agencies had anticipated securing them for

Posters and bench signs at public transit stops work well in major metropolitan areas where lower, middle and upper class alike share the same transportation systems, however, not as effective in areas where public transportation is not as common

If you feel various forms of outdoor advertising would be a compliment to your business and marketing plan, consider placement wisely. Consult many firms for input and advice on the best way to stretch your marketing dollar and how they can help you create eye-catching and simple designs for your sign.

Phone Book Directories

Since exposure to the advertisements in phone book directories is voluntary, meaning consumers actually turn to the phone book for its ads, this form of marketing for independent insurance agencies has become an industry standard.

Pros:

Certain targeted audiences utilize the phone book regularly to find businesses in their area

Many phone books also have an online directory giving agencies a more broad exposure

You can tailor your exposure to cover a large metropolitan area, or just the city you work in

Traditionally, consumers will keep a phone book versus discarding it like a newspaper

Cons:

Cost – as more consumers turn to the internet, the cost for print ads in the phone book has increased to cover profit loss

Marketing ineffectiveness – with so many insurance agencies buying ads, it becomes more difficult to capture the consumer’s attention, and once again, stand out from the 100’s of other agents in your market

There are so many phone books in which to advertise, which one do you choose to feature your agency

As with any form of advertising, be sure to read all the features and benefits that come with your paid advertisement. Does it include a featured ad online, or is that separate? What is the target area or audience of the phone book you are looking at? Is the cost monthly, quarterly or annual? Is there an automatic renewal clause or will you have the option of not renewing your contract? Where will your advertisement be placed in comparison to the other featured ads? Will someone employed by the phone book assist you with an eye catching advertisement, or do you have to hire a marketing agency to do that for you, and what is the cost?

Internet Advertising

Roughly 90% of all the households across the United States have access to the internet either at home, at work or at school; making advertising on the internet the fastest growing marketing medium for independent insurance agents. That household percentage goes even higher for those families with a combined income of $100k or more. However, internet advertising gaining its strength only in the last decade or so, there is still a lot an independent agent would need to research, as with any form of advertising, before making a financial commitment.

Pros:

Cost- you can spend much or as little as your budget allows

Levels the playing field – the internet gives the independent agent a chance to compete with the large insurance carriers with regards to search engine placement

Whether a web site, a PDF brochure, an affiliated network or a video; any and all forms of advertising can be featured and found on the internet

Advertisement exposure is voluntary. Only the websites relevant to a consumer’s online search will pull up for them to look at. Someone searching for insurance agents in their area are more often than not, looking for an agent to speak with

Cons:

People expect to be educated or informed by an agent’s personal website – having out-dated information or poor graphics can actually hurt your credibility

The ever changing internet – each of the major search engines change what they search for on websites constantly with regards to how well they rank. Staying on top of these changes can be very time consuming or expensive if you pay a firm to do this for you.

Fear of identity theft – consumers are becoming skeptical of entering their personal contact information online for fear they will have their personal information stolen or sold to telemarketing companies and be subject to unwanted emails or phone calls

There are so many options and services available to the independent insurance agent to effectively market themselves and attract more leads. The form of advertising you choose will depend largely on the audience you intend to target, the area in which you do business, and ultimately your budget. Be sure to ask questions. Know what you are getting and what you are not with whatever forms of marketing you decide to use.