Wednesday 31 July 2019
Why Selling Online is Often Easier
The dictionary definition in the introduction of what selling is all about is simple and straightforward and covers most of what you need to know about the physical act of selling. This does however ignore the psychology of selling which is something to which we will return on many occasions in this report.
However, if we accept this basic definition for the time being, we can begin to look at the differences between selling on the internet and selling products or services in the real world of high street, bricks and mortar businesses.
The major difference between selling online and doing so in the real world is that the whole process of selling on the internet is far less personal than it would be if you were selling products or services to local businesses in your neighborhood.
For example, imagine that you are a sales person for a local offline business. In this case, you would be constantly calling existing customers and prospects on the telephone, making appointments to go and see them, sorting out problems for your customers and so on. In short, everything about your job would be hands-on and whilst a degree of what you do would not be face-to-face, a significant proportion of your everyday work activities would involve meeting customers and prospects in person.
As someone who has over 25 years experience running sales teams who sold a huge range of products and services in the real world (from long-term investment plans to toner cartridges for laser printers), I can tell you that for most people who do not think that they can sell, meeting customers or prospects face to face is the most fraught and stressful aspect of the selling idea. This is perfectly natural because in a face-to-face meeting of this nature, you are at your most exposed and 'naked'. You are in a position where you feel uncomfortable and perhaps even embarrassed which is unfortunately a position where mistakes are most often made.
For instance, I have seen many young salespeople being far too eager to please prospects and customers who have fallen into the trap of making very basic errors in their understandable eagerness to keep their customer (and their boss) happy.
One classic situation is where, upon being faced with a question to which they do not know the answer, they make what is (at best) a fairly uneducated guess at what they think might be the correct response. This is instead of doing the correct thing by telling the customer truthfully that they don't know the answer but that they would go straight back to the office to find the information before reporting back to the customer.
The latter 'investigate and report back' strategy becomes more natural and comfortable as experience teaches you that you can never know everything about your business and that your customers don't really expect you to either. In the early days however, it's a different story, because it is often hard for new salespeople to admit that they don't know everything.
Now, contrast this scenario with the online selling situation. When you promote a product or service online, you almost never end up talking to a customer on the telephone, far less meeting them. This does not of course mean that you cannot do so and there might be advantages to doing so as we shall see.
Nevertheless, partially because of the truly global nature of online business and partially because it is not really expected, the vast majority of online marketers will only ever have a limited amount of personal contact with their prospects and customers. Furthermore, any personal contact that exists is unlikely to require an immediate, 'on the spot' response to queries or questions either, so there is a good deal less pressure involved too.
As most communication between online business owners and customers or prospects is likely to be by e-mail or by short messages being pinged backwards and forwards via a messaging service such as Skype, Yahoo or MSN, it is far less likely that you will make the mistakes prompted by trying to provide immediate information in the way that there is in the offline business world. There is considerably less pressure in other words.
Now, this is not to say that the world of online business is perfect as this lack of personal contact or inter-reaction can bring its own problems. For example, if you are dealing with a prospect or customer face-to-face, you can read their body language and make decisions based upon their reactions to what you are saying, which is something every good offline sales person learns to do sooner or later. If however you are dealing with someone via e-mail, you obviously have no ability to 'read' what your prospect or customer really needs or wants from their body language in the same way.
There is therefore a slightly increased potential for misunderstanding and even disputes. This is for example one of the reasons why using humor in this kind of situation is often a bad idea, because humor does not necessarily translate particularly well across international boundaries and what you think is funny could appear to be sarcastic or demeaning to someone on the other side of the world.
There are therefore some undeniable advantages to being able to meet prospects or customers face-to-face. This one of the reasons why an increasing number of businesses which sell products or services on the net (particularly digital information products) are beginning to feature information about the physical location of their business on their websites.
For instance, I have seen a few sites recently which displayed a picture of their office location, together with detailed instructions on how to find them with telephone and fax numbers attached, office opening hours detailed and so on.
All of this is an obvious but nevertheless worthy attempt to establish a degree of personal contact with potential customers. Whilst there should be little doubt that this is 'window dressing' to a certain degree -remember that anyone selling a digital information product is selling it all over the world, so the percentage of prospects who are local enough to visit them is tiny - it is still a clear step to becoming more 'people friendly'. Whether you choose to do this yourself for your own business is entirely up to you, although if you do something like this, I seriously doubt whether you are going to have a torrent potential customers coming through the door every day for coffee.
Nevertheless, the bottom line still remains. Running a business on the internet makes it a little easier for you to remain in control of most sales related situations because there is always time to think of the correct response in almost every situation.
This does not however suggest that you should shy away from building relationships with your prospects.
This in fact is the last thing you should do, because as you will read in the next chapter, the strength of the relationships that you can build with your prospects and customers will often be the factor that decides how successful your business is.
The point however is that everyone can sell online, because it is entirely up to you how much you immerse yourself in the sales process. You could for example set the whole thing up so that 99% of your sales business runs itself if you want to (although I would not recommend it). Consequently, even if in reality you are an incredibly shy person who probably wouldn't be particularly profitable as a sales person 'out on the road', no-one out there on the net has the first idea about how shy you are and they have no reason to discover this either. If you can run web searches and send e-mail messages, you can sell products or services online, it is as simple as that.
Thus, the first step to selling more online is to believe that you can do so.
If you have a 'can't do' attitude, you almost guarantee that your prediction will come true and you will fail. The truth is, you can sell online - anyone can with the right systems and processes in place -and the first step to selling more is to banish these negative thoughts forever.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4255377
Tuesday 30 July 2019
An Efficient Approach to Deciding What to Sell Online to Make Money
It's a common dilemma, you want to be an online entrepreneur but you don't have any idea what you'd sell. You want to get your online business going right away, but don't want to make a choice you'll later regret.Ã� The Internet is really just a modern sales channel. For the most part, you can visualize a web site as a great replacement for a printed catalog you might receive in the mail. If the potential customer really needs a sensory experience in order to make a purchase decision, you can't sell it online. Otherwise, you have a good shot at being successful with it.
It's helpful to step back and look at the big picture. Do you want to sell a product or a service? If you want to sell a product, will it be a physical one that you (or someone else) will need to ship, a digital one that can be downloaded, or perhaps a recurring product such as membership at a web site that you built? Once you've made that determination, then you can narrow your search.
Next, you need to think about your target demographic, whether it's according to age, interest group, etc. The product or service will certainly be different if you want to sell to teens than if you want sell to new moms or retirees. The last thing you want to do is target everybody! Pick a specialty and make your mark.
Gathering Ideas:
If you don't have any idea what to sell online to make money, you may browse the Internet and learn about what consumers are buying. Check Google Trends, magazines.com, eBay Pulse, and similar sites to see where the money (and interest) is flowing. Another way to find out what to sell is by participating in forums on various subjects.
Physical Products:
When it comes to hawking physical products eBay is probably what people think of first. That's certainly one choice, whether you're selling in auctions or in an eBay store. If you don't like stocking inventory, you can sell products from a drop shipping company. Through them you can sell thousands products and not have to deal directly with shipping. You make the sale, and they send it to the customer for you (for a fee, of course). But your profit margin will be larger if you buy 1000 widgets and store them in your garage, than if you sell one widget online, then buy it through a drop shipper.
BlackSocks(dot)com is a great example of what would seem to be a very limited market. It started out selling nothing but black socks, on a subscription program, to English businessmen. It has since expanded to include things like boxer shorts, but it's still a pretty simple business compared to most in the clothing industry. Tightly focused businesses can be very lucrative.
Digital Products:
Compared to physical products, digital ones have higher profit margins, and can be "delivered" more easily. You can sell e-books, audio books, software, videos, website templates, plug-ins, among others. Many of us already prefer digital goods to physical ones. Why fill a bookshelf when you can fill you hard drive instead? People often start as affiliates, selling other people's products, then after they are more experienced develop their own digital products. If you don't feel ready to create a product from scratch, you can buy products with private label rights, so you can make some modifications and legitimately call them your own.
Membership Programs:
Membership sites are attractive to online marketers because they provide recurring income. They are mainly oriented towards people who are passionate about their hobby, such as forex investors or scrapbookers. The sites are a bit trickier to set up, because you need to provide a secured area for members, along with an unsecured area for those who are just browsing. Membership sites are a great way to market your private label rights products.
Summary:
To decide what to sell online to make money, look at things from the perspective of the consumer. First find out what products are in demand, then locate or create a product or service to fill the demand. If you really want to dominate a niche, make it a tightly focused one; somewhere on the spectrum between "every tool available" and "left handed monkey wrenches" there's a sweet spot.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7029907
Monday 29 July 2019
SELLING ONLINE: Retail Sales Through eBay, Amazon or Private Websites
If you have no experience selling online, it can seem like a daunting task to undertake. But it really isn't nearly as challenging as some may think. Selling online has become a booming business, especially with the downturn in the economy making it necessary for people to find additional sources of income. With this increase in demand for sales outlets came a concurrent increase in the supply of places to turn for help.
There are many venues already in place that are looking for sellers as much as you may be looking for someplace to sell. These include sites like eBay and Amazon.com. But there is also the personal website option that can just as lucrative. Both selling techniques have their pros and cons, and I'll try to highlight the most significant ones here.
One of the easiest ways to get your introduction to online sales is by selling on one of the existing marketplaces-eBay and Amazon being two of the largest. These are also ideal outlets if you just have a few things around the house that you'd like to trade for some extra spending money, but you really aren't interested in setting up a long term business.
Pros to selling on an existing marketplace:
No advertising expense
Ease of use
Enormous customer base
Tracking tools
With eBay and Amazon, you as a seller have no need to advertise, saving you a tidy sum in advertising costs. Everyone already knows these players in the market, and most people who go shopping online often start on one of these sites. These marketplaces are so large and diversified that it can easily be a one-stop shop for multiple items.
With existing marketplace sites, once you've set up your account, you have access to their easy-to-use listing templates. These are specifically designed for average people who don't have a PhD in computer science. It's simply a matter of filling in a few blanks pertaining to the item you're listing and using their upload tool to upload some pictures of it from your computer (you'll need a digital camera and know how to upload pictures to your hard drive). Part of the signup process is walking a new user through this whole process step by step.
eBay and Amazon have enormous customer followings. As mentioned before, many people looking to purchase something online often start their search on one of these sites. That makes it possible for you to put your listings right in front of all the people who may be looking for just such an item. eBay also offers the added feature of allowing you to list your items as either an auction or fixed price listing. For very popular items, it may be beneficial to list as an auction and let potential buyers bid against each other to get you as high a price as possible. You can further enhance this option by establishing what is known as a reserve, which is a minimum price you're willing to accept (so if the bidders don't meet your minimum, you're under no obligation to consummate the sale).
Many of these established shopping sites also offer their sellers some type of tracking tool. This allows a seller to monitor market interest in their listings, such as how high the current bid is on an active auction or how many people are "watching" their listings. They also have handy reporting templates that provide concise and easy to read reports on outstanding listings and past sales.
Cons to selling on an existing marketplace:
Listing fees
Final value fees
Preference toward buyers
Competition
No matter which marketplace you use, they're going to charge fees. eBay charges a fee to list your item; the amount is based on the price you're listing it at. If you subscribe to their online store, this listing fee is fixed and usually a substantially smaller amount than those for individual listings. This listing fee is charged for every new listing as well as each time you relist an item that didn't sell. Amazon does not charge any fees to list.
Both eBay and Amazon charge much more substantial fees when an item sells. These are known as final value fees, and are usually a percentage of the sale price plus a percentage of the shipping charge. Amazon has a fixed and variable component to their final value fee, but it boils down to the same thing: the more you sell it for, the more they get. This is a cost of doing business with the large marketplace site and taking advantage of the services and features they offer.
When you sell on an existing marketplace to access their huge customer base of shoppers, you also encounter their huge pool of sellers, any of whom may be selling the same thing as you. Herein lies the competition factor. When you're preparing to list an item, do a little quick research to see what other sellers are listing that same item for. This will help you to establish a competitive price for your listing. One thing to keep in mind is that a newcomer to eBay or Amazon has no track record to speak for them. A more seasoned seller has a cumulative feedback score from past buyers to give a new buyer a confidence level with them. As a newcomer with no feedback score, it may be wise to take a little cut on the profit to give yourself a competitive edge over the seasoned seller with a good feedback score in his/her corner.
If you're interests lie with setting up an ongoing business concern online, you may want to consider your own website. The internet is overflowing with web hosting sites-some free, some charge a modest fee for their services-and they all offer easy to use templates to setup a professional looking website where you can list your inventory. You'll link your site to your payment processing service (PayPal is the most trusted of such service providers), and sell your items directly to the public without any fees or charges by a third party such as eBay or Amazon. One obstacle is that you will be responsible for getting the traffic (potential shoppers) to your site without the good name of eBay or Amazon to piggyback on.
The first step in getting your website seen is to make sure it's indexed in the major search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. If your site isn't indexed, their webcrawlers won't find it. If their webcrawlers don't find it, no one else will either because it won't show up in any search results. Once it's indexed, you'll want to get your site as far up on the search results as possible. Shoppers typically start at the top of the list and work down, but they'll most likely find what they want at the price they're willing to pay before they get to-say-the third page of results. If your site shows up on the fourth page, they'll never get to you, even if you offer the same item at a better price.
This is where the concept of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes into play. This is the art of maximizing exposure to a website as economically as possible. Two methods usually employed to accomplish this is article writing and pay per click advertising.
Writing articles that conspicuously include a link to your website and a detailed description of what it offers is an excellent place to start. These articles should be loaded with keywords matching the content of your website. Every website has a theme, and every theme has certain keywords that are descriptive of it. For example, if you're selling bed sheet sets on your website, keywords (or phrases) would include: bedding, sheet sets, king size sheets, queen size sheets and bed sheets. You could have a very lengthy list of keywords, and you should be sure to use any that may be applicable. It's these keywords that the search engines use to identify possible matches to a shopper's search inquiry. The more keywords you use, the better your chances of the search engines returning your site among those they display.
You'll want to get these keyword articles published in online magazines or general article sites that are well known and have a lot of exposure. Just like selling on a well known site like eBay gets your inventory in front of shoppers by virtue of eBay's reputation, getting an article published on a well known publishing site is a good way to get your website address in front of people searching for what your website offers. Use the publisher's notoriety to get people to see your article, let your article get them to your website. Be sure your address is a link directly to your website, and you're only one short step away from directing that traffic directly to your site.
Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is another more direct, and costly, method of driving traffic to your site. Here you establish an account with an online advertising service like Google AdWords. You design the ad you want to display. The ad will include a link to your site and a list of all the keywords pertinent to your site. The keywords will determine which sites are the best matches in the search results. When your ad appears somewhere in the search results, it's called an impression. Each time a browser (potential customer) clicks on that impression, they go right to your site. While that click may or may not result in a sale, it will definitely result in a fee you'll have to pay the advertising service. How much you're willing to pay them for each of those clicks determines how far up on the search results your ad appears. It's basically a bribe to the search engines to get your ad posted in a more visible place to attract more potential customers.
Care should be taken in using PPC advertising. If you don't choose your keywords carefully when you set up the advertisement, you could be getting a lot of traffic that isn't really interested in what you are selling. Clicks cost money, and all those wasted clicks can add up to some serious expense with no revenue to offset it.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8114475
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