Learning the Skill of Selling Increases Success and Wealth

In all my career I've learned there is one skill needed to achieve higher levels of success in all aspects of life, including personal and especially my professional life - That skill is selling. How many of you "hate" that word? And how many of you think that sales skills is a used car salesperson's learned trait? I cannot tell you how many times I hear negative comments about selling. "Oh, she's a good salesperson". "You better watch him because he can sell you anything"! There were many ocassions through-out my life that I was embarrassed to say that I was in sales! But over the years, I learned that sales is not a gimmick to get people to do what they don't want to do, but instead, it is a learned skill to relate to customers and help them (and myself) to better understand their needs and how best I could help them eliminate the pain those needs created. I attended many sales training classes and became a sales professional due to the trainings and classes.

One of the biggest lessons that I learned about selling is in order to advance in life, career and eventually run my own business, I must learn a working knowledge and develop a higher level of competency in sales skills.

Through most selling courses, I learned that first off, we are always selling! Even at home, your selling the idea to your children to do their homework and do well in school. Your also selling the idea to your wife "why" you need a new car or motorcycle. It may not be at a conscious level and you may fumble around trying to get what you want. Nevertheless, you're selling.

So, you see, selling and learned sales skills are very valuable in your business for helping customers and clients better define and achieve what they want. It's an art to help others gain clarity. And, if you help others obtain what they want, you, the business professional, gets what you want. Since we are always selling... let's get better at this critical communications skill.

We all have the potential to sell more effectively. It's simply a communication "giving and receiving" exchange with a win-win result. Both parties should walk away feeling good and feeling they indeed are better off for the exchange. Selling is not trickery or one up-manship!

To make the sales process easy to learn and accomplish, I like breaking it down in four step increments: 1) establish rapport and trust with the other party (client), (build a relationship) 2) ask qualifying or open-ended questions to gain significant information or data about their specific needs, 3) give or share the relevant benefits about your business solutions and how those benefits will ease their pain/needs, and 4) together, establish an agreement on the next step to take.

Here is an easy way to remember the effective selling and communication process:
1. Build a relationship
2. Find out what the customer's needs are (their pain) by asking questions,
3. Match your solution's benefits and how those benefits resolve the pain,
4. Determine together the next step.
Follow this selling process in any situation and you'll find yourself focusing on the client and their needs. It's simple and you'll both win when you follow this process.

Bottom line, whenever you are selling, you are simply asking questions and listening to the needs and wants of others and then offering a solution. Do not fear selling. And don't hate it. It is not difficult. And it's not rocket science. You might hate it because of a bad or negative "selling" experience when you felt pressured into doing something you didn't want to do! They were focusing on their own needs, not yours! And that my folks is not selling. That's pure selfishness and manipulation. You don't want to emulate that behavior.

When done right, selling is helpful. You are helping the client better define and understand what they want and need. You're helping them define their current situation, their ideal situation, and then bridge the gap by offering a solution. And this is noble!

Learning these skills and following the process, you will enhance your sales communication. By doing so, you help clients get what they want, you in turn get what you want - more success, fulfillment, and money. When done right, you both win!

Thank you for visiting. Carol @ Workingcaregiver.com

More Internet Marketing Tips for Your Senior Services

More useful Internet and website tips to get your senior service noticed!

1. Focus on your specialty - How often do you go to a website and can’t seem to figure out what they are promoting or what they are asking the visitor to do? Try to focus your website to promoting one product or service, or asking the visitor to take an action. If you offer a variety of senior or aging products and services, you should have different websites for each offer or deliverable. Because family caregivers, seniors, and visitors search the internet using keywords and they are looking for one and only one thing. They will buy from the website that is delivering that one product or service because it appears to them that it is your specialty.

2. Get them to click by using a headline - Get visitors to pay attention your copy. Make headlines fascinating, your readers won’t mind reading a lot of small print to get details.

3. Make sure you put keywords in your content - Make sure your content has the keywords you’ve selected to include in your Meta Tags and with the keywords people are typing into search engines. What makes a search engine valuable is that it does a good job of taking searchers to websites that are exactly in line with their keyword searches. You want your site high on the list of organic search results listed for the keywords you’re using to bring people to your site.

More later on marketing! Carol @ WorkingCaregiver.com

Marketing Your Senior Service on the Internet

Over the past 2 years of learning the magical "how to's" of Internet marketing, I've made many mistakes. But out of those mistakes, I've learned critical improvements for WorkingCaregiver.com . There's more to learn but I'm proud to say that the Internet and it's search engines do not intimidate me like it did a year ago! Over the few years; I've attended classes on Internet marketing, cutting edge technology, and hired a consultant to help me learn their expertise!

I must admit, just because my background is high-tech does not make me technical. Like you, I had to learn the grueling ends and outs of the Internet. I offer you hope that you too can increase visibility and marketing know how when increasing your senior services visibility to family caregivers and seniors online.

You may be thinking - why is the Internet so important to my business? What I learned in researching elder care, 33% of all caregivers and seniors seek help through this mechanism. There are two other places they go when reaching out and you may already know the answer to that. But let's focus on the leader - Internet Search Engines!

Here's a few website design mistakes I learned upfront:

1. Having a Flash page as a home page or the first viewing page visitors come to when they click on your website address. While this looks appealing.. it's disaster for search engines. Why? Family caregivers and seniors who are perusing the web for information can’t stand them. The Flash page gets in the way of information. You may be losing more than half of the information seekers because they will leave your site before the flash page is loaded - they opt out of seeing your sales presentation because it's taking too long to load. And search engines don't like Flash pages. The Internet mammoth is only interested in content and in delivering information to seekers or searchers. I know for myself, when I come to a home page using Flash... I opt out by clicking "BACK".

2. Copy sells - Family caregivers don't have time to wade through a lot of graphics, click throughs to another page, and pictures. This all takes time to load. And we all know caregivers have limited amount of time. Besides, search engines love content. The more the better. And the more frequently added, the more it loves to visit the website. And as a senior service provider, you want frequent visits from search engines... the higher your ranking when searchers are looking for specific keywords.

Let me add that the average time a surfer spends on a Website is about six seconds. So, don’t waste their time by making the reader wait, and wait, and click and wait to read content they desparately need. Remember to place the article, in it's entirety, on one page, even if your reader must scroll to read everything. I've learned that by scrolling, readers will stay. They don't want to wait for a page to load and load.

3. Use more attention getting headlines - Your readers, family caregivers and seniors, will get pulled in and STAY (very imporant) if headlines are appealing and address their pain. Readers are looking for answers, tips, and tidbits of information to help make their lives easier and more balanced. And they're seeking help.. lots of help. In your headlines, give something 'Free", or "How to", or "Tips". Try a "Discount".

Consider these - they will drive and hold more seekers, searchers, and readers! After all... if the reader finds your copy or content rewarding, they will end up buying your service. The more value up front, the more return they perceive getting for the money spent on your service.

More on the Internet Marketing for Senior Services soon! Thank you for visiting.
Carol Marak at WorkingCaregiver.com - Carol@workingcaregiver.com