You may not think so but I suggest that you probably do. Here’s what I mean…

#1: “I could reach my quota if my company lowered their prices.”

If I had a nickel for every time I heard this…

While price is a factor in every sale, it is seldom the primary reason people make their final buying decision. Very few companies set their pricing higher than the market will bear.

If you rely solely on price to close deals then you condition your customers to constantly push you for a larger discount or a better price.

#2: “I’ve got this deal in the bag.”

I think this is one of the most common lies sales people tell themselves. In fact, I hate to admit that I’ve been guilty of this from time-to-time.

It’s easy to think that because someone says, “This looks good, let me get back to you in a couple of days” that they are seriously interested in your product or service. I’ve heard prospects say, “This is great, what do we do next?” only to balk at making a final decision.

No deal is guaranteed until the other person signs the agreement, gives you confirmation, or places the order.

#3: “The competition is always offering better prices.”

While some competitors will consistently beat you on price, the reality is that most companies are competitively priced. It’s a rare situation when a competitor will out-price you on everything you sell unless the products are different.

#4: “My territory is too big (or too small).”

In the 16-plus years I have worked with sales people I have never heard anyone say, “I have the perfect number of accounts.”

In an ideal world, you would be able to see or meet with every account or customer in a perfect cycle.

However, the reality of today’s sales world is that companies are struggling to do more with less which less which means most sales people have to manage a big sales territory. The key is to manage your accounts more effectively.

Invest the bulk of your time managing your best and most profitable accounts (top 20%) and customers that have good potential to grow (next 20-30%). Wean yourself from responding ultra-fast to your high-maintenance, low-profit customers (bottom 20%).

#5: “If I don’t set a sales target I won’t be disappointed.”

First of all, let me say that I’m surprised how many sales-based organizations don’t require their sales team to establish sales targets and goals. After all, how can you monitor performance if you aren’t tracking results?

Okay, now that I have that off my chest, let’s take a closer look at the lie.

In my eyes, people who don’t set sales targets are essentially saying, “I’m not sure what I’m going to do this year and I don’t want to work harder than I have to.”

Top performing sales reps always set high, ambitious goals and their targets are usually higher than those set by their company. They use these goals to inspire and motivate themselves to achieve more.

#6: “No one is buying.”

I recently spoke to someone who sells cars, an industry that has been particularly hard-hit in the last few years. However, his sales continue to increase even though many people in the same business complain of declining sales.

Regardless of the economy, people still make buying decisions. They still make purchases. Companies still need products and services.

Stop wasting time thinking about the people who aren’t buying and find the people and companies who are buying!

#7: “I don’t need to practice my sales presentation.”

Yeah, and professional athletes don’t need to practice because they are at the top of their game.

The best sales people seldom take their sales appointments and meetings for granted. They rehearse the questions they need to ask. They run through their presentation to make sure they have included the necessary details and that their presentation flows in a logical manner and that it addresses their prospect’s situation and/or needs.

As painful and difficult as it can be, you are better off telling yourself the truth instead of lying to yourself (and perhaps your boss, too!).

Avoid telling yourself these sales lies because they limit your ability to increase your sales and fully achieving what you are capable of accomplishing.

© MMXII Kelley Robertson, All rights reserved.

Do you know what sales blunders are costing you money? Increase your sales with a FREE audio program, Sales Blunders That Cost You Money and two other sales-boosting resources here.

Kelley helps people master their sales conversations so they can win more business and increase their sales. He does this by conducting sales training workshops and delivering keynote speeches at conferences, sales meetings and other events. Contact Kelley to speak at your event.

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Make the Amazement Factor one criterion for choosing ideas to write about. What can you use in promoting your books that will amaze book buyers? Guerrilla publicist Jill Lublin calls this “the Ooh-aah Factor.”

What amazes us about Guerrilla Marketing for Writers is that there are so many ways for you to promote your books, and most of them are either free or you can get paid for using them. You can get paid for promoting your books by giving seminars, you get paid again for selling your books at your seminars, and then you get paid royalties for the books you sell! Ah, the joys of working for yourself!

And the technology you need to build and run your business keeps getting more powerful and less expensive. If you use technology creatively and effectively, it’s like riding a rocket instead of a turtle to reach your goals.

If you do a publicity tour, you can measure its effectiveness by how many media interviews you had, how important they were, the responses of your live audiences, and how your efforts effected sales.

When you are creating the promotion plans for your books, establish how you will measure the effectiveness of your weapons. At the end of the year, you will use this information to help you set up your promotion calendar. A preview: Eliminate what fails and double up on what works.

If readers love your first book, you have the opportunity to make them lifetime fans of your work and your related products and services. Guerrillas know that it costs six times more to attract new fans than it does to sell to satisfied readers. So when you add new readers to your network of fans, do whatever you can to enlist them in your publishing network for life.

The real payoff from readers only comes if you can make them lifetime fans.

You can’t pay someone to do that. It can only happen because of their passion for your books and their pleasure at being involved with you and your career. Your Web site is the perfect weapon for staying involved with your readers and for them to stay involved with you.

Every time new readers buy one of your books, they are investing in you. If they invest the time to read your book and like it, you have the opportunity to invest your time in them and start an enduring relationship.

Use your biography or a page in the back of the book to invite them to become involved with you as a member of your literary community by:

You can show your involvement with your fans by being cordial when you contact them, by being helpful to them, and by asking about them.

Rick Frishman, the founder of Planned Television Arts/Media Connect, has been one of the leading book publicists in America for over 36 years. Rick is founder of Author101University, a conference for authors.

Rick is publisher at Morgan James Publishing in New York. In 2011 “MJ” published over 100 books. Morgan James publishes non fiction and fiction books and looks for authors with a platform who believe in giving back. Morgan James gives a portion of every book sold to Habitat for Humanity. (http://www.morganjamespublishing.com) http://www.rickfrishman.com for the million $ rolodex

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Link your book series together with similarly styled but individually designed covers and they will more than likely also be loaded onto a single page in your Ebook store and be recognized as a series there. When you load up your books, if you put the series title in the title of the book they will be on one page and readers can find them easily.

A continuing character or characters should be established in the first book if you go for a series. This person or couple or group has to change and grow as you write the series, as I did for my lead character in my first book, and thereafter.

Feel free to change your covers if you find that sales are slow or there doesn’t seems to be enough attention being paid to your books. There isn’t any charge to change the outside or inside on the major online retailer, as well as in their P.O.D. division. As a reminder, in that same major retailer you do have to physically submit separate files to enable readers to Look Inside on the print version posted online. They take care of that automatically with the E version of your book/s.

Lengths may vary of course but a good “short story” or chapter in a linked series is about 5,000 to 6,000 words. This enables you to develop the character or characters and gives a reader the chance to get to know them. You can also have a series of novellas and these should be a minimum of 25,000 words to qualify as long form fiction, because they are true novels.

When you go to load up your Ebooks on this retailer’s direct publishing site, there’s no need to put a cover jpeg inside of your book as well. They take care of that now so it will save you a step! If yuu create your cover jpeg for your Ebook site, then make it 5×8 inches as this looks great both on the site, plus you can use it for your book’s print version, if you choose.

Susan Hart is a former literary agent, now turned to writing mostly fiction (novels as well as ghost writing) and other miscellaneous creative writing projects. She has 16 books up on Kindle and in print on Amazon. Visit her site The Foxworthy Files and see how effective a series can be.

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Content writing is also a service that is mostly offered to website owners and businesses. This service has innumerable benefits and companies use them effectively for increasing sales. A con writer should be versatile and should be able to write in context to any category specified to him. Website content writers write for a website whereas write for search engines, blogs, articles and more.

Hiring Professionals for Your Businesses

Website Content Writer

Businessmen basically hire content writers to improve their marketing strategies. There are some steps that one needs to follow in order to hire an efficient website con writer. Firstly, you need to ask for the portfolio of the writer. This is integral because you need to know the quality of writing and that will be evident by the sample works you see. You also come to know about the experiences of the writers on several subjects. The fact is that in content writing, time is money. This means that the writers need to write fast. The one that does not meet your standards should be eliminated. Secondly, ask the writer on the method of co-ordination. Content development is very important for marketing your company so an effective means of communication is a must. Phone and messenger are most apt for communication than emailing. In this way, you can gain a better service from the professional. The impact that they have on marketing can also be measured efficiently.

Content Writer

As far as a CW is considered, there are some pointers too, to be kept in mind. One of the most important aspects is the style of writing to be looked at. Some write technical material while some are creative in their writing. You have to choose wisely regarding the type you want and eliminate the rest. It is important because the matter that they produce should be relevant and suit your business. Examine the portfolio of content writers properly. This will enable you to derive the quality of writing. Also be steer on the money that they demand and on how much you want to offer. Communication is integral part and so see to it that your objectives are crystal clear to the writers and no time is wasted. Develop a healthy relationship with the writer so that your business organisation flourishes.

Rightcopywriter is one of the leading companies in content development. They are backed by a team of content writers, copywriters and website content writers in rendering quality services.

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