Are you the Expert?

Are you the expert in your field, profession or industry? Regardless of the profession you choose, when you position yourself as the expert, you will be paid more money. In this chapter, I will teach you how to position yourself as the expert, so that you can get paid what you are worth. If you have a specific skill or knowledge base in a specific industry, if you position yourself as an expert, people will recognize your talent and pay you top dollar to gain some of your wisdom. Your knowledge makes you the authority on a specific topic, trade or profession. You must learn to position yourself as the expert and in this chapter, we will discover many ways to help you position yourself as the expert and command top dollar for your services. In this chapter, I will reveal several top paying revenue streams that experts do. For example, authors, speakers and coaches are amongst some of the highest paid individuals in the world and it makes you the expert in your marketplace. In this book, you will learn some of the secrets and strategies from millionaires that have built true wealth, just simply by positioning themselves more intelligently as an expert!

The better positioned you are as an expert, the more income you can demand for your knowledge and service. If you are an entrepreneur trying to better build your company and make it more profitable, my secrets and tips will help you accomplish your goals. I will share with you what I’ve learned over the last 20 years and what others, who have built large fortunes, have learned about being the expert in their field and what it can do for you.

So what is an expert? Webster’s dictionary describes it as a person with a high degree of skill in or knowledge of a certain subject. I describe an expert as a credible authority who has been in a particular field for seven to ten years or more. Experts know what to pay attention to, what things mean, how things work and how things might turn out. In this chapter, you will learn how to become an expert and how you can monetize your expertise, which will get you paid for your insight, knowledge and experience!

Positioning yourself as the expert is extremely important because your income and your influence are directly proportionate to the number of people who consider you the expert! So ask yourself this question. How many people, right now, consider me the expert, the authority, the go to person when it comes to my expertise based on my knowledge and skills in my particular field? If your answer is not enough, don’t worry, because in this chapter, I will help you identify several ways you can gain maximum exposure by branding yourself as the expert. When you do this properly, everything in your life will shift. People, companies, charities, news and media will all start looking to you for advice. Your circle of influence will grow, the respect you command will grow and ultimately, you will be paid what your worth. I’m sure many of you reading this book right now aren’t getting paid what you’re worth for the knowledge and expertise you have. We’re about to change all that right now!

In this chapter, I will reveal to you the five highest paying skills that I do to create wealth and the seven secrets that experts do to position themselves as an expert to give themselves the credibility of you require to develop the five highest paying skills.

Top 5 Highest Paying Industries that we focus on:

1.       The speaking industry is one of the highest paid expert services in the world. I have been on stage for 20 minutes and made ten thousand dollars and more. I have been on stage and delivered a high value, high content speech and got paid fifty thousand dollars for an hour speech. Some people, such as Former President Bill Clinton, have been paid a quarter of million dollars to deliver a key note speech. Where else and what other industry can pay you that kind of money? I don’t know of another job or industry that pays that kind of money. Getting a high paying gig like that skill and expert have that skill and are the authority in their field.

 

2.       Seminars are another high paying way to generate wealth quickly. People who have put on their own seminars, trainings and workshops and have people come in and learn from you and pay a high ticket price to be in the room with you and learn from you because of your knowledge and expertise in the industry. Making fifty thousand to five hundred thousand dollars is not out of the question for a weekends worth of work.

 

3.       Coaching is another high paying profession that experts do to create wealth. If you are business leader or someone who is great at people development, then coaching is a great high paying career. My wife Giovanna, is one of the best coaches in world and has an unbelievable connection with people. Many people have come from all over the world to coach with her. She does more than just mentor them, but actually coaches them along their career paths. There are approximately 40,000 coaches that get paid anywhere between $300 per hour to $3000 per hour and up!

 

 

4.       Consulting is another highly profitable career path where consultants go into businesses and helping them diagnose how their current state situation is and what their company current situation is like and helping them understand where they could go based on best practices and innovation. This is one of my favorite things to do as I love looking at a business and discussing what to do next and where to go with the business. In my earlier career as a computer consultant, I had the privilege of setting the infrastructure in over 1200 businesses in 200 industries.

 

5.       Product development is extremely profitable. If you create and sell your own products, especially one with a low cost and high profit model is great. For example if you have books, cd’s DVD’s or any kind of informational product where once it is created, the only cost to you is the material, usually a few dollars and it sells for fifty, one hundred dollars or more, then you have a winning formula for high profitability! A simple way that anyone can get started today to create an info product is to interview the top experts in a particular field and record or write about the insight gained from this process. This is compiling data and distributing it and that is something anyone can do today!

 

The seven secrets that experts do and how these seven things can help improve your bottom line are: Perfect One Skill, Continued Education, Opinions and Arguments, Simplify, Create Products, Create a Brand and Charge Expert Fees.

 Experts Perfect one skill and are known for that one skill. There are many things experts can do, but they will do one of those skills the best and are usually know for that skill first. I recommend choosing one thing that you are most passionate about. Choose the skill that you are the best at and perfect that skill better than anyone else you know. When you do this, you will then become the authority in the skill you decided to become an expert. When this happens, people will start coming to you for advice, your opinion and your help. This is when you know you are the authority in your field.

Continued Education is critical to your expert status. Every expert I know, every millionaire I’ve ever spoke with is continuing their education on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. You should be doing internet research on daily basis in your field of expertise. This will include reading blogs and articles, listening to podcasts and watching videos or webinars. How many books are you reading per month in area of expertise? It should be at least two books per month. For some of us, that sounds like a huge task, especially when you read slowly like I do. Then maybe, improving your reading skill should be one of your goals. The more you read, the faster you will get. How many seminars are you attending per year? You should attend a minimum of six to twelve per year. First, because of the great content you will receive, but secondly and maybe more importantly, the contacts you will make when attending these seminars. When you are the expert, other experts will be attracted to you for your expertise.

Experts have opinions and can create arguments on a particular subject. If something has been done a particular way for several years or decades, as the expert in your field, create a dialog that may confirm or conflict with the traditional way of thinking or put a new twist on something or improve it. Campaign or claim that as your own and be known for the person that changed it. For example, everyone knows the phrase “Knowledge is Power”, but Giovanna Garcia, the “Imperfect Action is better than No Action” expert says, “Knowledge with Action is Power”. She didn’t re-invent the wheel; she put her twist on it based on years of experience and coaching many clients. She concluded that many people know what they are supposed to do, but don’t because they don’t put any action behind it. Point out what to pay attention to and explain how things might turn out in any given situation and campaign that knowledge.

Explain what things mean in an easy to understand manner. By illustrating a technique in a formula, flow chart or system, you can help people to see and understand something they didn’t before. So don’t be afraid to analyze something, create something that is easy to understand and get out those graphs, pie charts or flow charts. Everyone loves power point these days, so create a power point to explain each point in your field and do it in a way of everyday language. Don’t try to impress your audience by using big words; the point here is to create something simple so that everyone reading, watching or listening can understand it. When you do this, you become the expert in that field as you are the one who can explain it in a manner that is easy to understand and in a way that hasn’t been taught.

Create products from your expertise. Experts write speak, record and package their knowledge. They have products to sell and give away. Experts speak on stage about their knowledge. Experts create e-books, reports, flow charts, books, cd’s, videos about their knowledge. This is a natural progression from becoming a student in your field to an expert in your field. One rule of thumb is to make sure the content you are providing is quality. Do not focus on the quantity of products. While Giovanna Garcia’s motto is Imperfect Action is better than no action, experts do not just put something together to have a product. Experts make sure their work is excellent. People will respect you when your work is great.

Branding is a key essential element that all experts have mastered. The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers. Therefore, it makes sense to understand that branding is not about getting your target market to choose you over the competition, but it is about getting your prospects to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem. Branding allows you to deliver the message clearly, confirms your credibility, connects your target prospects emotionally, motivates the buyer and solidifies loyalty.

Experts charge expert fees, which is usually more than you would think. If we look at the top five things that experts do to produce income, you’ll realize that all of them are extremely profitable. Speakers can charge anywhere from $2500 to $50,000 for an hour’s work. Experts can develop a seminar business that can bring $50,000 and up for a weekend’s work. Coaching can bring in $300 to $3000 per hour. Consultants can charge $10,000 to $50,000 per customer and take part in a percentage of the improvements of revenues. Product development can bring in millions of dollars and can be sold again and again. Experts get paid well and as you become the expert in your field, your income will increase. So does it pay to be an expert? Absolutely!

 

Branding You Instead of the Product

If you are an entrepreneur, you may or may not understand the importance of branding. If you are a small business owner or an independent rep, branding is more important than you think. When I was a small business owner, I didn’t think about branding. I thought branding was only for large corporations. Well, today, the internet allows the little guy to brand themselves just like a major corporation.

Every year, billions of dollars are spent on advertising so that the buying public will recognize a particular brand of a general product. Now that the internet is here, we all the same ability to brand ourselves, just like a company brands itself. The only difference is we can do it for free.

We have all heard the term ‘branding’ and ‘branding campaign’ used in the Internet marketing arena, but what exactly does it mean? It means that with the power of the internet and social marketing sites, we can compete with the big guys out there without spending any money.

How does branding relate to my informational product? The fact is that every day there are hundreds of e-books published and offered on the Internet. Branding is one way to make you stand out from the crowd. The objective is always to stand out, stand above and be recognized. The purpose of branding is to brand you, not the product or company. Hence, you brand “YOU”. It allows you to create other products without having to start your branding campaign all over again. The new product will simply be another product from “You, the ….” Example: here is another informational training video from “Craig Garcia, The Internet Trainer”. Do you see how I’ve branded myself, no a particular product or company. This allows me to come out with another product and I am already branded, so I don’t have to start branding it all over. Establish yourself as a guru…an expert in the field…the ‘go-to’ guy or gal and sales will increase dramatically

There are several things that you can do that will help you establish a recognizable brand for you and your informational products. One such thing is to have a logo made that is yours alone. Think Coca Cola or Tide! You would recognize those brand logos anywhere. If you are a graphic designer you can, of course, design your own logo. If you are like most of us, you will need to find a graphic designer to make one for you. Think of it as a one-time expense that will have value for you forever. Use this logo on all of your informational products and be sure that when it is reproduced the logo will be included in the reproduction.

Another way of branding you and your informational product is to use your own picture as a part of the work. This will help to establish “you” as the “guru” and any reproduction of the work should include the picture.

Use a slogan often enough that it becomes associated with your informational products. A slogan needs to be short and to the point. Think of the Walmart slogan…Always low prices…always!” It works for them and a slogan can help you brand your products, as well. This slogan should be used as a part of your informational product as often as possible.

You can still have no idea how to brand your informational product, the one thing that you can do free of charge and every time is to put your name in the title of your informational product. “John Doe Teaches You How-to Whatever” is an effective way to brand an e-book or a CD or DVD.

As small Internet business owners, we just don’t have those beautiful multi-million advertising budgets that the big guys have but we can use some of the same tactics that have made them big guys and branding is one of those tactics. Brand you instead of your informational products, help establish yourself as an expert in your field and thereby increase you income.

 

When Creating Digital Informational Products, Begin With the End in Mind

In the previous article, we talked about the best products to create. We based our criteria on simplicity to create, demand for the product and profitability factor for product. Once you have decided on what format to choose for your product, please keep the end in mind when starting.
 
For example, if you were writing a articles, you should be blogging every day, fifteen minutes a day, creating one blog post of two to three paragraphs each. Take those blog posts, if they are on the same topic, and create an article to publish. You may not be thinking this thought while doing your work, but several articles make up a chapter and several chapters make a book. By knowing where you’re going will help you plot your course and help you to stay on course as you journey through your writing career. Digital Downloadable Product Creation will be more meaningful by having a total game plan. You’ll find the work you create today will become repackaged material or bundles later. Creating even more profit.
 
You want to make the buyer of your product feel better, look better, make more money, have more fun, learn something new that they want to know or solve a problem. In other words, if you help them in any way, you’ve hit a home run!
 
that is important because there are some tough critics out there and if they are unhappy, you can find blogs, scam reports and even video of people showing their displeasure for what ever reason…..it doesn’t matter the reason, it doesn’t even matte if they are wrong, you simply do NOT want unhappy customers.
 
The main reason we create the product in the first place is to help people and make money! Look to sell it to a large pool of hungry prospects that are looking forward to buying the information on a certain topic.
 
Creating Digital Informational Products of any kind is an exciting process. The journey from having a good idea to seeing a finished product is an amazing journey. You will learn a lot about yourself, you’ll have many ups and downs, successes and failures, good days and bad. It is easy to lose sight of the end result as most products and projects go in phases, when the main objective is to make money. The main objective for the creator of every informational product no matter what the subject is to sell the product when it is completed. Then repackage it and sell it again & again.
 
You need customers….eager customers waiting for your informational product. Before you even begin creating your digital informational product, you must know that there is a market place for your product. You need to consider the competition, the demand, the price point before creating your product. You’ll need to begin seeking that pool of potential buyers, researching the best place to market and advertise your product. Do you have a list that you are currently marketing to? Do you have friends or colleagues who are also owners of lists that would be most interested and suggesting joint ventures or even partnerships for your product?
 
The most important factor in how to create your own digital informational product, is how to sell your products. It is important…vital, critical and even pertinent that selling the product is what will produce the income you need to pay you for all the time and effort that you will be putting into creating your digital downloadable informational product in the first place.
 
Don’t worry, you’ll get better and faster at creating them the more you do it.

 

The Hottest Selling Digital Information Products

The Hottest Selling Digital Information Products right now are products that teach and inspire. People can’t get enough of it and they can’t get the information fast enough! They want it on demand, they want to pause it and even fast forward through the commecials…LOL

Informational products come in three specific forms. There are the written vaiety (e-books), audio tapes or CD’s and there are video products that are either in the form of a DVD or available on the Internet.

While E-Books don’t have as much pull as compared to many years ago, I still find some quality products on E-Books. If you are going to write an ebook, use these two formats. “The Expert” and the “Report”. The Expert Style is where you take an experts position on a topic. Only use this technique if you really are the expert. I would use this style if you are a specialist in a specific area, if you’re a published author, been on stage or interviewed on a TV or Radio show or even published other digital products. Certainly don’t use theis technique if ou are just starting out.

The Report Style of product would be a gathering of data, certain facts about your topic or industry trends, interviews, percentage factual data or anything that you can simply report on and back up by a creditable source, such as data from the library, scientific evidence, testimonials from people who have experienced it or an expert in the industry.

The Second style of product that you should consider creating is the Webinar /Teleseminar. It is easy to get a room that holds 100 people or more, put on a training, skillset, how to or even an inspirational hour or two, record it and instant product. Be sure to be an expert about the subject you are teaching or talking about. It is a good idea to get other industry experts involved. Have the guest banter back and forth staying on subject with a goal in mind or if teaching, be sure you give the goods and really teach step by step instructions so that if someone needs to watch it a couple of times, they can get it. Start, stop, pause style of learning and doing is the best way to learn from home.

The third simple, easy and very profitable way to make a Hot Selling Digital Informational Product would be the interview. An interview with an industry expert. This is easy to do if you are an expert, because you are probably friends with other top leaders in the industry, giving you an unfair advantage over the newbie in this case…right? Not necessarily…

If you are new, one of the best ways you can get an interview with an industry expert is to go to a live event and meet them. That is by far the best have to solidify your realationship with leaders in your industry. The next best way is to simply call and ask if they can do the project together. You make it a Win-Win scenario so both parties are happy. I’ll give you a few tips. First, you gather the people to attend this Live Interview. Second, all the other person has to do it call in. Make it simple for them. Third, you record it and you both get a copy of the interview. You never know, the other person just may be looking for a reason to make another recording too. Fourth, if the expert has recently published a book, made acd set or something that the guest can promote to your audience, then you will be doing business together…

The most popular is the how-to product. If you know how to do anything at all, there are people out there who want to know how to do it, as well. Inspirational or motivational information products are good sellers on the Internet. Products that are filled with success stories and case studies give people hope…and hope is in demand every where. Products that give up-to-date information are always in demand.

If you want to have the Hottest Selling Digital Informational Products on the Internet then, choose a topic that you are passionate about, that you are better than everyone else at, that will help people solve a problem or make their lives better in some way. If you can do that, you will have a winning informational product that people will be lining up to purchase.

 

How to Turn Digital Products Into Profits!

What are most internet marketers looking for today? What are the search Engines starving for? They all want Valuable and Relevant Content. They want it and they want it now. That is why creating DVD’s, CD’s MP3′s, E-Books, recorded Tele-seminars, Webinars and Interviews are such hot selling products. We want the new information and we want it now and we want it at a fingertips reach.

In an age where the hyped up, fast-paced money making schemes are fizzling out as fast as quickly as they skyrocket in, only the companies with pure substance will make it in today economic downturn. I’ve already seen a couple of my competitors close their doors.

Digital Informational products are some of the most profitable products I have ever sold. In order to turn Digital Products into Profits, you must first create quality content that everyone is starving for. It’s EASY when you know how. The KEY is start with a Quality Product that you would pay for. If you personally would pay for it or even pay double for what you are selling it for, then you have a good chance that your audience will believe you and buy from you. The way you write ad copy says a lot about your belief system.

One profitable idea I would suggest is find an existing internet marketer’s product, become an affiliate and make sales. Ultimately, you want to be able to get so good at this industry, that you are creating your own products, rather than selling someone else’s. That is where I am in my career. But I have paid my dues. I’ve been in the industry since 2003.

Now, in addition to this – you must start your list building career. Although we are making sales and making money throughout our career, we are trying to build the biggest list of opt-ins & buyers and quickly as possible.

You could even offer some of these Digital Info Products as incentives for joining your list. If you are going to sell Digital downloadable products, you must have someone to sell them to. That’s why I list build.

I’ll be writing a series on this subject, so these suggestions are just the start. There are dozens of ways in which you can turn your digital products into cash. Together we will go through many options so you can easily decide ultimately what will be the best for you.

 

Is Text Messaging a Form of Writing?

Kids, teens, moms, dads, and even grandparents are texting. Is text messaging an entry level writing course for our future authors, journalists and bloggers out there?

To find out what the next 10 years of lives will look like, just pay attention to any 15 year old. This is my next target market. Not today, but when those 15 year olds turn 25 years old, they will be theones setting thetrend for what we will be selling in the next decade to come.

When I went to school, you couldn’t pay me to sit down and write, now a days, you can’t keep teenagers off the text messaging. Is your little Jimmy or Sally the next Joanne Rowling, Author of Harry Potter?

Due to the popularity of blogs, and the ease of use, even businesses blog. It could be the business owner blogging, in the case of a small business, or it could be someone hired to blog for a major corporation, such as Microsoft. Everywhere you look, there’s a blog. It is the “New Generation of List Building”.

Here are a few Blogging Tips taken right from our blogging class Training. Make sure that your blog has syndication or RSS abilities, and allow your blog readers to syndicate your articles! This is a vital point in using blogs for the distribution of articles. And a focal point for readers to keep coming back to find out what else you have to write about.

Recently, a blog sold for $20 Million Dollars. So the next time you discourage a child from test messaging, remember they could be the Millionaire Author. They are definitely the next generation for target marketing. They are glued to a little digital device called a cell phone. Maybe we should be thankful that our children are reading and writing anything at all…..

 

The Biggest Mistakes Bloggers Make

The biggest mistake that bloggers make is that they do not blog every day. I’ve have asked people if they have a blog and they answer yes. Then I go to their blog and I find out they haven’t written on the blog in months. If you don’t write on your blog every day, there is no reason for a reader to come back. If you have a blog and you do not update it all the time, then you DO NOT have a blog.

They don’t have a writing schedule. Commit to writing. Plan to write 30 minutes a day. That may not produce one post a day. That’s fine. But by writing 30 minutes a day you refine your art, practice writing and pull together a consistent stream of useful content. Some posts may take 15 minutes to write. Others may take a week. It’s the steady work that matters.

The next biggest mistake that bloggers make is that they are sales people instead of writers. Too often, I see a blog and it is a full blown sales letter with a hard core sales pitch. Do you really think readers will continue to come back and read your blog on a daily basis if all you are doing is trying to sell them stuff? You should view your blog as if you are a writer for the LA Times. You are a journalist, a columnist and when the morning paper comes out, you have a following of readers that can’t wait to read your column to find out what you wrote about today?

They can’t stop selling. No one wants to read a blog that does nothing but sells your own products/services. It’s like going on a really bad date where your companion constantly talks about themselves. Be Yourself! You are more than just your service and product!?

The next biggest mistake I see bloggers do is they flood their blog with advertisements. They read an article about making money with their blog or they read an article about AdSense and all of a sudden they have all these ads all over their blogs. Distracting readers and actually offending readers. The people that do this usually are the ones making no money online, they have no traffic to their blog and they make excuses about how nothing works for them. Duh…No kidding, nothing works for you. Readers see this as offensive. They view you as a walking billboard and you will soon become a member of the NFL…(No Friends Left) or in the blogging world we call this a NRL…(No Readers Left)

Along the same lines as the adsense blogger is the blogger that has banners all over their blog. I call this person the banner blogger. Again, this is an offensive tactic and the blogger probably doesn’t have any readers, therefore the banners will never get clicked, so why have the banners?
They don’t get the conversation going. Blogger don’t meet by accident. The best way to introduce yourself is to Comment on other blogs. See an interesting post on a related blog? Join the discussion! Leave a comment.

They don’t take responsibility to learn the tools you’re using to blog. Learn to create a heading, a link, a list and a blockquote using your blog editor. Learn to work with images, too. These are not difficult things to do, or to learn. It’s your responsibility to know them so that you can produce the best-quality blog posts possible.

The last blogging mistake I see out there comes from the link blogger. This blogger usually does not have the AdSense, usually does not have banners and writes good content. So why would I find fault in this persons blog? The Link blogger thinks that they need to put a link in the blog to drive traffic to their capture page or business opportunity. If you are the link blogger, stop this technique and your blog will explode with readers. Think of your blog as if you were a news reporter on the evening news. They aren’t trying to sell you stuff, they are just reporting on news…Right…Well, link blogger… you are so close to perfection, and if you put a link at the bottom near your signature once a week instead of everyday, you will see a huge increase in readers. Trust me, people aren’t stupid and if they want to find out more about you, then they will find you. They will ask questions in the comment section of your blog, they will contact you and those are the leads you run with.

Craig Garcia
www.CraigGarcia.tv

 

Selling in Tough Economic Times is Easier Than You Think

When times are tougher, it’s time to sharpen those skills and become an expert at what you do. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, you must become the expert in your field. You must become a specialist, the authority and an expert at what you do. Product knowledge and market trends are key components to a successful sales career right now. The benefits of doing business with you must be an easy choice for your customers. There is no doubt about it, the ones who are doing whatever it takes to get through these tough times are the future superstars of tomorrow!

We’ve been there before and the world’s economy cycles about every ten to fifteen years. There’s an old saying that goes like this…”When the going gets tough, the tough get going” and what that means is that you have to get up and show up every day, even when you don’t want to. Get excited and get in the game! People want to do business with happy, upbeat people who have smiles on their faces. No one wants to buy from someone that seems desperate for a sale or someone who brings you down after talking to them.

In these times, you should be attending every mixer, breakfast, chamber meeting, industry convention or training. You should be connecting and re-connecting with people from all over the world. This is how Joint Ventures get started. You should be calling all your past clients and prospecting every day. You should be pouring in good information all the time and never watch the news. You should be reading for an hour a day or listening to positive training CD’s on a daily basis. You should take 15minutes early in the morning before starting the day and have a game plan for that day, don’t just show up and go through the motions of doing busy work. That’s what everyone else does and everyone else is not the top 10% of the elite crowd. As the day ends and you turn down for the night, take another 10 minutes to reflect and ask yourself this question, was you day in align with your morning thoughts? Was your activities today taking you closer to or further away from your goals?

Once the sale is made, the real work is just beginning. As hard as it is to make the sale in these times, you sure wouldn’t want a deal to go bad because of an outside force such as improper paperwork, bad installation, a wrong part, wrong size or didn’t get the right approval. Now the work is really just beginning. So many people work so harder for sale than they will for the follow up. They love the chase or the rush to get the sale, but they often forget about the follow up after the sale. You see, the sale isn’t complete until the buyer says the sale is complete. This is where you and your customer service needs to shine! This is how you get repeat and referral based business, which will make you a superstar.

Quick example: If person A makes 10 sales a month and person B makes 10 sales per month, who makes more money at the end of the month? You might think they are equal right? Person A has the best customer service, the best follow through and asks for referrals. Now who do you think is going to do more business? In this example, Person A has a client base full of happy customers. This means that several extra sales will come in each month because of repeat and referral business, propelling Person A to 15 to 20 sales a month. 10 new sales and 5 to 10 repeat and referral base sales. Don’t you want to be person A? If you do, then you better take care of your clients today, because these people are your future! Besides, if you don’t someone else will. Have you ever heard the expression, “I was treated as if I was their only client”? Well, for some of you that may be the unfortunate truth, regardless, you must treat everyone as if they are your only client. When you do, amazing things will happen for you in your business.

A good rule of thumb is to contact your clients once a week during tough economic times. If there are discounts, freebies or anything extra that you can pass along to your customers, do it and they will thank you and remember you for your good gesture. It is the professional sales person that goes the extra mile. Here’s a million dollar tip: Ask yourself this question, can you go back to any of your past clients and ask them if they need any add on or upgrade products? Can you get contract extensions for a discounted rate if they act early? Can you ask if they know of anyone who could use your services right now? This is the time to make real connections with prospects and turn them into clients! If you sharpen your tools in these times, you’ll make sales today, but most importantly, you’ll set yourself apart from everyone else! When things turn around, as they always do, you’ll be positioned at the top of your industry. Today, it is all about the quality of work you produce. If you produce quality work, people will respect you for it and good things are in store for you. Even if it means discounting your products or services to a smaller margin, do it to survive for today, but most importantly, do it for repeat business in the future. One of the biggest mistakes people make when discounting their services, is give bad service because they cut their margin. Don’t do that, you will never see that customer again. Don’t take short cuts, this is the time to expand and shine in every way. When things turn upward, and they will very soon, you’ll be positioned well ahead of everyone else!

Get back to basic and do what got you successful in the first place. Whenever possible, sharpen your skills and help those around you to get better too. It is very possible to thrive during tough economic times if you follow these golden rules!

Sincerely,

Craig Garcia

Craig Garcia is an internationally recognized trainer, speaker, social networker and author in the Network Marketing & Direct Sales Industry. Craig specializes in Social Marketing, Prospecting, Leadership, Branding, Webinar Presentations, Business Consulting, Closing, Mindset Training and all levels of effective marketing.

 

Simple Closing Techniques For the Internet Marketer

In this article, we are going to cover closing questions and much more. What is closing? Closing is the ability to ask for the order. What is Trial Closing? What Questions do you ask when closing? How to ask for the Sale? When do you ask for the sale? Closing is asking for the order and not talking afterwards. I have a couple of acronyms that I use when I talk about closing. ABC – Always be Closing and CEO – Close Early & Often. Closing is a series of questions that leads you to the closing question.

Before you can close, you must know what to do or how to ask a series of questions to get your prospect to come to the conclusion that they need and want your products and services. How do you get the conversation started? What is your opening Question? This is a line that I’ve used to perfection. “Do you keep your options open when it comes to multiple streams of income?” it’s a simple yes or no question that tells you right away, do you have a suspect or a prospect?

If I get a lead from the internet or if someone opts into your capture page or you buy a leads, this will work every time. “I see that you are interested in starting an Internet business and making money from the comfort of your own home, is that still true?” or another version of that is “I see that you are interested in making extra income from the comfort of your own home, is that still true?

If they say yes to any of the above questions, the next thing you say is, “Great, I’ve got something absolutely incredible that you deserve to take a look at.”

By the way, “How much money are you looking to make?” Wait for the answer. Let’s say they say $1000 week. What would that do for you? Let them talk and take mental notes, because whatever they say here, you will remind them what they said later. Trust me on this one…So put on your listening ears.

By the way, “How much time can you spend on your business?” Wait for the answer. Let’s say they say 10-20 hours a week. I’d say, “Awesome! So if I can show you a business where you can make that $1000 a week, working 10-20 hours per week, are you serious about getting started?”

When they say “yes” you have a qualified prospect and you have already been trial closing. That’s an ABC and a CEO…but you are still not ready to go for the final close yet, there is still a lot more work involved, but it is simple to do and you are probably already doing these things with one important ingredient that most people miss… read on….

When they say yes, they are serious; this is when you take them to your website, phone number to call in or whatever the standard protocol is for closing a deal in your company….

When you show them the website, most companies have a movie or a comp plan that you go over with them or they listen to the presentation, right? This is when you hammer home the income potential and you say, “Do you see how you can make that $1000 a week working 10-20 hours a week?”

Of course they will say yes…This is the Critical moment….The next words out of your mouth must be these….

“Are you ready to get started?”

At this point you got them…Now they may try to wiggle their way out of committing to you right then, however, once you learn how to overcome their objections, you got them. I’ll make my next article about overcoming objections and when you put the two skills together, you will triple your conversion ratio…I promise!!!

Closing is simply providing a solution to all their needs with your business, products or service.

How much money are you looking to make? What would that do for you? When they answer this question, what will this do for you? If they try to wiggle out of the deal, and most of them will, you MUST bring them right back to what the money will do for them. For example, I need to run it by the spouse; I don’t have the money etc. You can bring them right back to their statement of what the money will do for them and you can ask them, so you weren’t really serious when you told me that the $1000 will bring you… boat, car, child care, private schools, college funds, etc. Remember when I told you to put your listening ears on, because you need to recite, almost word for word, what they said. When you do, you just closed a deal. So listening is the Most important thing when asking the questions.

Let’s recap. “You said you wanted to make $1000 a week, You said you have 10-20 hours a week, you told what that money will do for you and your family and you even said that you were dead serious about taking action if I could show you a business that will make that kind of money in that kind of time. So there really is no reason for you not to get started, is there? You might get a “You’re right, I’m ready. You say ok then, let’s get started right now and we can finally do something to change your situation and get you what you want. Are you ready to make that change? If you don’t get the “Yes” right there, you will probably get a “Yea But”. If you get a “Yea But,” start the process all over again and get good at overcoming objections. You’ll learn about that in my next article.

We are looking for the “yes” Practice getting them and they will come and you will soon expect them to say yes. I always say this after I get a yes. Good for you. Congratulations! Let’s go! I’m here to help, We’ve already come up with a plan to get you that….(House Car, Vacation) to make that $$$ a month? Are you ready to make that change? Good for you. Congratulations! Let’s go!

Craig Garcia http://www.CraigGarcia.tv

 

So many companies, how do I choose?

Beware of the Fluff. They seem like great companies, they have a good sales pitch and their comp plan looks good too.  So how do we decide what is good and what is not? Some companies have big corporate offices and have been around for years. Isn’t that good? Any company that has been around for a while and has a good reputation is probably legitimate. That doesn’t always mean that you’ll make a bunch of money with them, however, it is a start when searching…

 

1. Many companies usually make most of their money from you, the distributor, not from selling the products. They have you on auto ship, so you are their income.
2. They only pay about 2% to 10% so many levels deep. They will tell you that when you fill the matrix, you won’t have to do anything and you’ll be making 20 to 40k a month. Watch out for the loop holes to their comp plans that don’t allow anyone to ever reach those levels. You either will have too many people on your left, but not enough on your right side to make the higher level payouts. They tell you that you need more personal volume and your group volume is fine or vice versa, or my favorite, you had fallout this month, so you no longer qualify for that car bonus we promised you about.
3. They are a copy cat company of the original company. Most Copy Cat Companies never match the original. Be careful of companies that make outrageous claims.

 

It just seems like there is so many companies on the internet, how do you know what is good and what is not? Some of these companies actually have a good products, good comp plans and have a great reputation. Please do your homework before deciding on a company that you will represent.

 

When I evaluate a company, I look for these key points. Keep in mind, when I join a company, my #1 goal is to make money and to do it legitimately. I do not want to hurt anyone or rip anyone off. This is what I’ve learned and these guidelines will help you determine what company is right for you.

 

1. If you are not making a good percentage of the upfront commission when you make a sale, forget it. This means that you are doing all the work and the company and/or the person above you is making all the money.
2. If the program is not leveraged in some way, then people in your organization won’t want to build long term.
3. If they teach you to hold home parties and invite all your friends. Run away fast.
4. If they have a sales pitch 2-3 times a day and only 1-2 training classes per week. This means that the company is more interested in selling you than training you how to make money long term
5. If you can’t break even or get into profit with 3 sales, forget it.
6. If you can’t speak with the corporate office via phone or webinar, Forget it. I like to know who I am doing business with before I will do business with them.
7. If it is a start up or in pre launch, be careful. It doesn’t mean that it is a bad company, it just means be cautious.

 

These are not all the rules for success on the internet, but this is a great guideline to follow when evaluating an internet company.