Copyright 2006 Bernadette Doyle
When a client is thinking about hiring you, two major questions in their mind are: 'Can this person deliver what they say they can deliver?' and 'Will their approach work in our particular business?' The trouble is no client can really answer these questions until after they have hired you. And that's the catch 22. This is a major stumbling block which can delay if not totally grind the sales process to a halt.
You can probably think of situations with your own prospects where this is the case. It's a frustrating stalemate.
Yet for professional service providers, there is a way out of this frustrating conundrum. Promoting your own training courses or seminars can help you avoid this stumbling block because it gives your prospective clients a chance to sample you at low cost and risk for both parties.
Here's how it works. Think about the REAL reasons why people hire you. For example, if you are a marketing consultant, people aren't hiring you because they want a consultant: they want a marketing system that gets results! If you are a sales trainer, they aren't hiring you just for training, they want to increase sales. If you are an accountant, chances are they want to lower their tax bill.
If you can identify the core 'reason why', you could then offer a seminar built around that topic eg 'How to Use Low Cost Marketing Techniques to Attract an Avalanche of New Clients' or 'How to Double Sales Within the Next 90 Days' of 'How to Reduce Your Next Tax Bill: Secrets That The Government Doesn't Want You to Know'.
Don't offer a FREE seminar. Your knowledge is valuable and is worth paying for. You will attract better quality prospects and serious buyers if you charge a fee. Now you have something that you can offer to prospective clients, that gives them a chance to sample your approach, and also get to know you better. The beauty is: instead of you having to invest your precious time in sales meetings, they're paying for the privilege!
So you get positive cash-flow and a chance to demonstrate your expertise and build your relationship with potential clients. They get immediate solutions to their most pressing problems at lower cost and financial risk. Everybody wins!
And, if you structure your event well, a good percentage of attendees will want more. They will want your expertise, hands on help, or your expert guidance as they implement your ideas, and now having had a chance to see what you can offer, they will be more than willing to pay.
So running your own events will not only bring in positive cash flow but can also give you a chance to showcase your expertise and have clients 'sample' your approach before they commit to hiring you and thus remove a major barrier to the sale.

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Bernadette Doyle helps people to market seminars, workshops and training courses. She can show you how to make as much as £4,000 a day promoting your own events. For her free report on how to ensure your event is a sell out success go to http://www.howtomarketyourworkshop.com


Sell Your Customer What They Need
When it comes to selling your products it is important to ask your potential customers probing questions as well as open ended questions.
These types of questions are geared toward gathering information. They commit your customer to giving you anything but a yes or no answer.
For instance, an open-ended question would come across like this:
What is it that you like so much about your current bank?
Now, if you are a banker trying to get a customer to bank with you, you will now be able to compare your products and benefits to what your customer has just told you about their current bank.
Also, by finding out about what they like, you will also find out what their needs are.
Another name for selling a customer what they need is "needs-based selling."
All sales people have goals and we have a tendency to sell things to people even though they have no need for the product just so we can have our numbers inflated so we can talk about it during the weekly sales meeting or conference call.
The downside to selling something to someone that they have no need for is that your customer will quickly figure out that they don't have a need for it and will never consider you in the future for your services.
This is the reason why it is so important to find out what your customers needs are before you sell them something.
When you sell a customer something that they need or want, they will be truly happy with the product and the service and appreciate your help.
As we all know, a happy customer is a good customer and will always come back to you for your services and refer friends and family to you as well.


About The Author:
Jay Conners has more than fifteen years of experience in the banking and Mortgage Industry, He is the owner of http://www.jconners.com a mortgage resource site. You can also check out his blog at http://wwwmortgagespot.blogspot.com for more articles


10 Headline Writing Tips That Will Instantly Boost Your Advertising Response Rates!
Copyright 2006 Brian Maroevich
Even the most powerful advertising copy on the planet is useless without an effective headline.
An effective headline determines whether or not your prospective customer will read the next sentence of your sales message.
You must grab your reader's attention with something that appeals to them and forces them to want to learn more, otherwise you won't make a sale.
Whether you have a successful headline or you are just starting to write your next ad or sales letter, here are 10 Headline Writing Tips That Will Instantly Improve Your Advertising Results:
1. Put your prospects name in your headline. Everyone wants to see their name in "The Headlines". This will definitely grab their attention and get them to read your ad or sales letter.
2. "Use Quotations" around your headline. Quotation marks create the perception that your headline is a testimonial and has credibility. And credibility, in turn creates more believability, and this can significantly increase response to your ad.
3. Don't make your headline to "BIG". Many advertisers believe that bigger headlines get a better response. Bigger is not always better. You want your headline to be in a readable and believable size compared to the rest of your ad. A big headline can reduce your credibility because it looks to "hyped up."
4. Don't end your headline with a period. This creates a pause in your readers mind and they may decide to move on to something else. People have been trained to pause at a period. But if you end your headline with an "!" exclamation point you will ad excitement to it and your reader will want to move forward with your ad (this is a good rule of thumb, but it's not a law. I've seen and written ads with a period in the headline and it's worked.) Another technique is to leave your headline open ended or use "..." to get them to move into your body copy.
5. Use one, two, even three subheadlines. Subheadlines below your main headline can be very effective in building intrigue and excitement in your reader. Each subheadline should be smaller compared to the main headline and the subheadline before it; ultimately your reader will end up in the main body of your ad or sales letter before they know it.
6. There are many advanced techniques for producing great headlines but what I've found to be simple and effective is to use the best benefit your product or services provides as your main headline, and then ad "How To…" to it. For example, if your best feature as a web developer is getting websites built and online within 3 days, the benefit of that could be..."How To Attract New Business Worldwide While You Sleep Starting In 3 Days!"
7. If you use "$" dollar figures in your advertising use this tip: If you help people save or make an extra $2,500 with your product or service, attach a decimal point to it: $2,500.00. What looks like more money, $2,500 or $2,500.00? Conversely, if you are stating a price for your product, put as few "0's" in the price as possible. For example, if your product costs $2,500, you don't want to print, "$2,500", or "$2,500.00". You want to print something like $2,499. This looks less threatening.
8. Combine a grabber with your headline and you might get amazing results! Grabbers are small gadgets and trinkets that are attached to your letter or report that get your prospects attention like: million dollar bills, real money, string, magnifying glasses, pencils, fake checks, bubble gum, poker chips etc. The key is to tie in your grabber with your offer in a clever way. Also, if you combine a headline above and/or below your grabber you'll really ad power to your advertising.
9. Make your headline newsworthy. "How To Get Your Tax Refund In 10 Days!" is a pretty good benefit oriented headline, but you could test a newsworthy approach like..."Local Tax Planner Gets Clients Over $1,000,000.00 In Tax Refunds!"
10. Use a testimonial as your headline...Get the most detailed and specific testimonial you have and use it as your headline. For example, "I made an extra $32,000.00 In Six Weeks, and another $10,000.00 in Two Days!" is a prime example of a specific testimonial. This makes it very appealing because it's real, it's newsworthy, and I can attach a real name to it.

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Brian Maroevich has developed a unique prospecting and lead generation marketing system which is available at ==> http://www.amazingprospectingletters.com You'll get marketing tips, secrets, and letter templates guaranteed to increase sales!