How can salespeople win contracts?

Those who work in sales constantly need to look to win new business. Doing so, however, is not always the easiest of tasks, especially as many organisations remain cautious about spending money in the challenging economic climate.

Luckily, there are plenty of things salespeople can do when meeting with clients to increase their chances of converting leads into new business. First of all, let’s look at the pitch you deliver. This is crucial in terms of determining whether or not a would-be client wants to do business with you, so the importance of planning exactly what you are going to say really cannot be underestimated.

If you are not already doing so, it is a good idea to think about using an ‘elevator speech’. This business concept is based on the notion that a businessperson needs to introduce themselves, the product and/or service their organisation offers and why they deserve attention in the time that it takes to travel several floors in a lift.

Ideally, such speeches should not last any more than a couple of minutes, so you may need to put in a significant amount of practice to ensure that you don’t spend too much time talking non-stop. Otherwise, you might find that listeners’ minds will start to wander and they don’t pay attention to what you have to say.

Regardless of the company you work for or what you are trying to sell, you should remember that virtually everyone you present your speech to will ask themselves “what’s in it for me?”. As such, you need to be certain your pitch highlights precisely why you (and your organisation) are worth people’s time and money.

While putting in plenty of practice is vital in coming up with a well-prepared pitch, a good salesperson should never deliver speeches that feel robotic. Instead, you ought to be prepared to tailor your talk directly to would-be customers and, of course, be ready to answer any questions that are put to you.

As a pitch ought to capture people’s imagination and make them eager to learn more about what you offer, you should spend a little time considering what things potential clients will be most interested to find out more about. How much a service will cost is often a common query among would-be clients, so it’s definitely worth having these figures to hand.

With any luck, your speech should do enough to convince a business to sign up to receive your organisation’s offering or at least encourage them to set up a second meeting in the future. Regardless of the outcome of the initial meeting, it is a good idea to give those you meet a corporate gift before you leave their office.

There’s a wide range of promotional gifts, though it is perhaps best to offer goods that executives and other decision makers will be encouraged to use on a regular basis. This could include, for example, business card holders, fountain pens and paperweights. No matter what you choose, make sure your company’s logo is clearly visible on the items you give out. That way, your brand, organisation and even your sales pitch is likely to resonate long after the meeting has ended.

Studies from the British Promotional Merchandise Association show that 56 per cent of people feel more favourable about a company that has supplied them with a promotional product. So, it could be that being given a gift gives the additional push needed to buy whatever it is you are offering.

If you’re a salesperson, please let us know what steps you are taking to make sure you are always in a position to secure new business by leaving a comment below.

 

How to Retire Debt Free

The great recession of 2008 will undoubtedly become an historic moment across all generations as many hardworking families face cuts in employment and income in coordination with challenging consumer markets and the rising costs of living. Traditionally in this model of family finance, retirement provides that beautiful moment of release alongside a healthy retirement fund and pool of sustainable assets.

However with the level of family debt rising steadily over the past decade, many have been found questioning their previous financial management choices and seeking new ways to balance the books through a healthier lifestyle. Avoiding debt in retirement is entirely possible with good planning; here are five great ways to enhance your financial situation.

1.      Construct a Budget.

Prepare an annualised budget and methodological strategy based around your incomings and outgoings which should provide the estimation of disposable income and monetary investments. This can also shed light on where money could be transferred or reduced and to further identify how your cash flow changes over a significant period of time.

2.      Tax Efficiency.

Tax undoubtedly has an effect on debt levels and should be heavily monitored to make reductions. Business debt and rental property can be removed from taxable income and should be a slimmer priority for those in the higher tax bracket.  As an extra tip to help better prepare yourself for retirement, consider taking courses in a graduate tax program.

3.      Preparation.

A very good measure for savings is to budget 10% of shared gross income as this provides a great fall back for an unexpected scenario such as business failure, divorce or illness. If an unexpected situation occurs, seeking immediate financial cover is both challenging and costly in the longer term. Living within ones means also requires a contingency plan of this nature and if avoidable, provides you with a useful savings trust.

4.      Prioritizing Debt.

All debt is bad debt but there are ways to categorise the importance of each debt based on interest and deductible earnings. Paying off the smallest bill first can allow you to avoid interest on future payments so a debt reduction strategy based on this method can be successful.

5.      Prioritize Importance.

A philosophical approach for the investment of capital should be utilized after covering the necessary areas of education, food, and maintenance. Whilst there is the pressing urge to acquire that new widescreen TV, a weekend away with your partner could become a far more valuable investment for the relationship strength it provides.

 

Author Bio – James Barnett is a writer on behalf of CooperMatthews analysing contemporary wealth management for families across the UK.

Financial Things to Consider When Becoming Self Employed

Starting out on your own can be a great feeling – it usually means that your venture has been successful enough to support you! That is awesome. However, being self employed presents a different set of challenges compared to working for a company, especially when it comes to financial matters. Most employers provide a lot of benefits for their employees beyond a paycheck, and if you’re moving to self-employment, you’re going to have to figure these things out on your own.

Insurance

Most people get their health insurance and other insurance products through their employers. In fact, this is going to be just about mandatory once Obamacare takes effect. However, if you’re self employed or thinking about it, you’re going to need to look for private healthcare options for your insurance.

Most insurance companies offer individual and family policies that anyone can buy directly; however, they are expensive and can be confusing. Since you are buying directly, you have to make all the choices when it comes to deductible, co-payments, out of pocket maximums, and what exactly will be covered. And every choice can change the cost of the policy.

However, if you’re self employed, you may be able to get a group policy elsewhere – maybe your local chamber of commerce, or maybe there is a trade group in your sector that offers insurance. Regardless, you will still need to budget for these expenses out of pocket. And then, don’t forget to think about dental and vision coverage if you will need it. Those can be additional out of pocket expenses as well.

Finally, many people get their disability and life insurance through their employers as well. If your family or business counts on you personally for survival, you will need to make sure that they are protected should anything happen to you. Make sure that you carry enough insurance to cover thing. You don’t want to be the sole earner of your business, and then become disabled or die, and leave nobody to support your family.

Retirement

Also, most people in the United States get their retirement taken care of by their employer. Yes, there are other options, such as IRAs, but most people still depend on pensions and 401ks. If you are going to be self-employed, you need to figure out what you are going to do to save for retirement. You need to budget for it, and you need to make sure that you are actually doing it. Also, don’t forget that your employer usually matches 401k contributions, so that if you contribute the same as you used to, you will be shorting yourself.

There are many different vehicles for self-employed individuals to save for retirement, so this may also be an area where you want to get professional advice to make sure that you are maximizing your retirement benefits while at the same time minimizing any potential tax liabilities. Online Calculators as well as a professional advisor can help you plan for this appropriately.

Why You Should Consider All Business Insurance Options

Depending on the nature of your business, you may need any number of different business insurance policies.  The main three types of business insurance policies that many small business owners and start-ups opt for are public liability insurance, employers’ liability insurance (with minimum cover of £5m) and professional indemnity insurance.   But of these three, many small businesses and start-ups only need public liability insurance if they neither have any employees nor offer professional advice and services.

There are several other types of business insurance policies available, though, and you should consider each in turn to decide whether or not your particular business requires them.  These include:

  • Business property insurance (to cover your business premises and equipment against fire, flood, theft etc.);
  • Tools and plant cover;
  • Revenue protection (through key person cover if your business relies on one or two peoples’ expertise or knowledge to exist, or business interruption service in case something happens that means you can’t trade for a limited period, e.g. after a fire).

Business insurance is ultimately very flexible in that you can pick and choose what types of cover you need and don’t have to pay for cover that isn’t necessary for your business.  Some insurers offer a combined policy for different types of cover, meaning you only have to pay one excess even if you have to claim against several elements of the policy.

For example, if your business premises set on fire and damaged a neighbour’s property, you may need to claim under your business property insurance (to effect the necessary repairs to your premises), business interruption insurance (to pay your outgoings whilst you are unable to use your premises) and public liability insurance (to pay for the repairs to the neighbour’s property).

Of all the types of business insurance policies available to all businesses, perhaps the most crucial is public liability insurance.  That’s because ultimately if your business suffers through theft, fire, flood or the death or illness of a key person, it is ‘only’ your business that will suffer – no-one is going to sue you for it, so you can contain your losses to your business.  That is easy to say, of course, and most small business owners will have invested considerably in setting up, and if you have adequate insurance in place you won’t have to worry at all.  But if you didn’t have adequate insurance and injured someone or caused damage to their property, they would sue you and you may end up losing more than your business – you could lose your home and any savings too.

Public liability cover is designed to cover levels of claim that you couldn’t possibly hope to pay for yourself.  If, for example, a customer caught their coat on a nail sticking out of your wall, you could no doubt afford to pay for the coat to be repaired or replaced without needing to go through your insurance.   Public liability insurance covers up to at least £1million but sometimes you may need a higher level of cover (particularly if your customers demand it).

Finally, if you take out public liability insurance, check the terms and conditions before you buy to make sure that no exclusions apply that would effectively mean that you could never claim.  For example, you may find a relatively cheap quote but discover that it wouldn’t cover you if you were working at height at the time of any incident – not much use if you’re a commercial window cleaner.

 

How to Protect Your Business from Merchant Account Fraud

In order to protect your business from high risk merchant account fraud, you will find yourself in the position of having to be as smart and as clever as the crooks themselves. In a way, this amounts to a technological dance, with fraud detection solutions evolving in response to the latest schemes fraudsters devise to acquire and to use purloined credit card account information.

There are many transaction management utilities available that will give you access to the level of extensive reporting and data comparison necessary to monitor your transactions. The system itself is configured to alert you to suspicious activity, against which you can then take action. Normally when you apply for a merchant account, fraud detection systems will be recommended to you. In order to use these systems to their best advantage, it’s important to understand three core principles that define what you are trying to accomplish in detecting and responding to suspicious activity. These principles hold true regardless of the management utility you use.

First, establish thresholds for the processing of each order. These can range in complexity and be applied in any sequence that best suits your business. A threshold may be a dollar limit on an order, or even a total for a day, week, or other appropriate period. (Similarly you can set a limit for orders or sales in a given time period.) This level of sophistication is especially important in combating high risk merchant account fraud related to online payment processing.

Thresholds can be tied to specific IP addresses so only a given dollar or order amount can originate from that computer according to the parameters you establish. This prevents criminals who have acquired multiple stolen cards to test them all from one computer to see if they can accomplish an approved purchase. This kind of threshold monitoring is then tied to more specific bans directed at particular users. You can exclude an IP address, a given credit card number, a bank bin number, or even geographic regions that seem to be the source of the potentially fraudulent activity.

It is just as important, however, for any fraud protection system to also give you the flexibility to establish exclusions or overrides. This will ensure that your legitimate and honest customers are not penalized by the bans and limits put in place to shut down the crooks. Always remember when you are evaluating a fraud detection and prevention system that you are both trying to stop the crooks and protect your legitimate customers without compromising the ease with which they can use their cards to make a purchase from you.

How One Can Repair Your Credit And Consolidate Your Debts With Simple Financial Administration

A great deal of individuals are experiencing financial issues at some point inside lives. This is enjoyed in the growing credit card bills, unpaid mortgages, plus the ever-increasing home loans plus the loves. Meaning, every person is very much dependent with the allowable amount of credit which depends on the people credit history. Consequently, a wise credit history is very much important with for every individual with have the ability to enjoy a good credit score so as with be allowed with have a tremendous credit maximum. To have the ability with do this, a credit repair debt consolidation is an important method that could be done properly as it is expected to be in order with succeed.

A credit repair debt consolidation is a permissible way to receive a better credit score. Whatever the financial status of the individual, really, all us are in some kind of the consumer debt that we would want to fuse. Whether it is very a small debt including credit card bills, or bigger debts including home loans, it is very always a smarter way to consolidate all your credits to enjoy a greater view of all your debts as well as for you with be aware on how bigger it gets in the event you nonetheless continue with use your credits and without paying all due interests. It will be very hard to enjoy a good credit score and credit history. Moreover, credit card repair debt consolidation keeps you in control of all your debts. Some techniques are produced in order with avoid from having a bad credit.

Initially thing that you need to do is with ask for a copy of your newest credit record every three with four months so you can carefully keep an eye with all your debts. Carefully examining your records including inaccurate reports like belated installments that did not happen could help you boost your credit score. Second thing that you need to do is with prioritize each debt that you have and pay each of them off according with your concern. Always remember with initial pay the debt that causes you almost all of your financial sufferings. You must try with pay initial your debt with all the highest interest and pay the minimum dues for the additional remaining debts until you finished paying off the initial debt, subsequently you can presently proceed with pay the debt with second highest interest.

The third thing with do is with pay on a regular basis and you must pay on time or before the due date. Through paying before the due date or paying on time, your credit score might probably maintain or better, it might boost.
The last but not the smallest, you need to acquire a credit card that is secured and might not only help you boost your overall credit score and makes your credit repair debt consolidation battle a swift and a not too difficult procedure with do so. Paying off all your debts is not that simple but if the procedure is carried out religiously, your credit repair debt consolidation approach might be your key towards a financial freedom.

Seek financial help from a credit expert to get your credit debt under control.

The Right Drip Marketing Has Leads Contact You

How frequently has this transpired?
You meet up with the potential client, but he doesn’t make a consultation. Or you do have a meeting, but this individual makes a decision not to act. So you place his contact information into your tickler for a call in 90 days. When you call him up in Three months, you discover he has recently Committed $100,000 using another professional, a purchase on which you would have earned $8,000. Yet he’d overlooked you. The truth is, he states, “Geez, Joe, I would have made this specific purchase with you, however the some other man caught me when I had been rolling over a bank CD.”
To optimize the yield out of your seminars, one on one marketing or any other promotion, it’s important to drip market on individuals you’ve met but who didn’t make a consultation or become a buyer. Sooner or later they are going to. You need to be in front of these people:
1. At the right time, as well as
2. With the proper communication
And when you are not able to keep contact, the above mentioned predicament can happen to you time and again. Funds, purchases, policies, profits and fees will continue to slip through your hands.
This is where the majority of insurance advisors fall down in their drip marketing. They omit drip marketing from their mix. They will squander considerable lead generation energy locating folks, however never bring these people to full steam. They waste time and energy heating up the prospect, but fail to keep the fire hot. Their warm potential customers cool down and also fade away. Read on and find out how a proper financial e-newsletter converts these kinds of potential customers to customers.
Drip marketing Should be Regular monthly
The correct month-to-month financial e-newsletter will help you turn potential customers directly into buyers. Precisely why month to month? Because individuals have a lots of distractions in daily life and they see a great deal of offers as well as advertisements. After Thirty days, they will scarcely remember your name. However by having your own silent sales person (your insurance newsletter) appear inside their email every 1 month, you remain fresh on their mind.
In the event that you’ve been transmitting a quarterly financial planner newsletter, save your valuable money! After A couple of months, these people don’t remember who you are then when they get your newsletter they say to themselves, “Who’s this guy?”

Everyone should check into acquiring hid kits to possess a lot more presence during wintertime

Hid kits aren%u2019t commonly referred to for the reason that a safety characteristic, they without doubt are. Hid kits significantly consist of yet another component to driving a vehicle during the night that often is certainly going silent and invisible. Except in instances where you own HIDs devote, you%u2019re at a disadvantage. Concealed Xenon lighting should go to lowest three times more relaxing and prior Drastically more than halogen lighting. Concealed offers greater brightness end result providing drivers with greater publicity, because of this helps bring about zoomed ease plus much more protected nighttime driving a vehicle matter.

Concealed furthermore takes in 35Per-cent much less electricity and makes a smaller amount comfortable through purpose. The concept is certainly feasible to purchase equally common bicycling hid kits or maybe to obtain types for sorts of and helps make of bikes. People that deliver hid kits due to the kind of motor cycle possess very specialised knowledge and data of his or her series, and make certain that each of the products complete severe good quality review. Hid kits price anywhere from Dollar45-Dollar300, alongside the versions display to motorcycle brands truly being more costly.

Large Strength Eliminate Equipment virtually all broadly termed as VVME hid kits must be used to enhance their gentle creation of autos right now. Hid kits are designed for substitute the present Halogen bulbs and also haze units when using the Xenon Arc Human brain lamps for the reason that lights final result as soon as fitted Stashed system is 3 to 3 instances higher than the frequent halogen equipment and lighting. Independent of the obtrusive element, HID equipment is at addition utilised mainly because it consumes a lot less electricity in comparison with your halogen light fittings. The crucial element to consider when thinking about if to acquire hid kits for vehicles is the place where theyPer centu2019ve received huge safety features.
To begin with, 90% associated with what most people connect with underlying part each of our vacationing choices on is created by what we all aesthetically see. While we are making use of disfunctional lights which comes originating from old-fashioned halogen lighting options in comparison to we%u2019re lowering what information we’ve to use while we drive, and also since a final result wePer-centu2019ve been getting our self and many others in danger.

Almost nothing is pricey compared to your safe practices. You can actually get many different Narrow hid kits for probably the most current types of your automobiles with this particular organization. You only need to make even more cash and buying a Concealed system for the auto. You can take into consideration choosing xenon packages. These shall be composed of each Ext Gadgets, incandescent lights and ballasts every equipment. There’s a chance you’re essential to shell out a lot more than 15 100 usd in be able to purchase this package.

Even though it is now one of the primary movements to click any car market in times, hid kits for vehicles is a technology that has countless benefits for your driving force. Appropriate now you can buy these types of extraordinary products on just about any type of auto, from motor bikes to application vans, and almost everything in between. The crucial element to find out is this although these are great to analyze, they have concurrently grow to be an essential computer software to protect all by yourself out of your devastating odds of your new world staying during the night time darkness.