Selling Your Services

Contents

Here is a partial listing of topics covered. Your seminar can cover all topics or just the ones most important to your business.

Step 1: Power Prospecting: How To Generate Initial Interest In Your Product, Service, or Idea

Proven Techniques for Generating Sales Leads

Cold calling and telemarketing: are they effective in making the initial contact?
How to generate profitable referrals quickly and easily
How to get and use testimonials
A formula for writing effective lead-generating sales letters
Using personal letters to prospect for business
Creating print ads to generate high-quality new business leads
10 steps for more effective networking

Gaining Visibility With Publicity
How to build your credibility and reputation through articles and speeches
A simple method for turning every article and speech into a direct-response ad for your service
Getting known in your community through teaching/adult education
Promoting your service with seminars
Should you publish a newsletter for your customers and prospects?
Advertising specialties: gimmicky garbage or effective promotion?
Generating large volumes of sales leads with direct-response press releases

Creating Brochures and Other Marketing Documents
How to create effective brochures, sales presentation aids, and other marketing documents you need
6 popular brochure formats you can use

Step 2: Follow-Up: How To Get Appointments With Prospects

Techniques for Prequalifying Prospects

A simple system for keeping track of inquiries and lead follow-up
4 options for following up on sales leads generated from direct mail and other promotions
Is follow-up necessary?
How prospects respond to a follow-up phone call
Setting the right tone for the call
Questions to ask your prospect when following up on sales leads
How pushy should salespeople be?
How to reject nonprospects without offending them
Why you should be careful about criticizing the competition
The 5 essential characteristics of the qualified prospect—and how to determine if your prospect has them
Techniques for turning “no” into “maybe”—and “maybe” into “yes”

Getting Past the Secretary
Getting past the secretary: a unique challenge of selling to business
Best times to call when you want to reach the prospect directly
How to position the call as a call-back, not a sales call
Using Bill Bishop’s “Answer/Ask” strategy to get past the secretary, receptionist, and other “filters”
What to do when they still won’t speak to you or return your call
My secret weapon for getting past the secretary

Getting the Initial Appointment
How much time is appropriate for the initial appointment?
Why you should make appointments or demonstrations—not sales calls
9 ways to secure an appointment with the qualified prospect
What to say to get the appointment
Setting the details of the meeting—length, date, time, location
Should you call to confirm the meeting before you leave for the appointment?

Step 3: The Initial Meeting: How To Make a Successful Sales Presentation That Gets the Order

The Initial Meeting: Fee or Free?

Must you meet the prospect in person to make the sale?
10 situations in which a face-to-face meeting is not required
10 situations in which it makes sense to meet the prospect in person
How to determine whether to charge for initial meetings and consultations
9 alternatives for handling the initial meeting with “marginal” prospects

Making Successful Sales Presentations
The 5 keys to making successful sales presentations
Why you should not overpromise
Why you should limit the range of options or choices you present to the prospect
How to establish a good relationship with your customers and prospects
Why you cannot sell if you are not enthusiastic
Judy Brewton’s 10 tips on making successful new-business presentations

Handling Objections
How to handle the three basic categories of objections: warning-signal, legitimate, and sales-blocking
The 17 most common objections—and how to overcome them
Practicing objection /answer scenarios
Understanding and profiting from Dr. Rob Gilbert’s SWL formula
How to present your fee or price to the prospect
3 ways to make the sale when dealing with the price-sensitive prospect

Step 4: Closing the Sale: How To Get the Prospect to Sign on the Dotted Line

7 proven closing techniques that work
How to let the prospect help you close
Why you need to adjust your sales efforts to the buyer’s mood
The three types of written closings: purchase orders, contracts, letters of agreement
Is a contract always necessary?
How to convert the prospect who does not sign and return the paperwork

Step 5: Continuous Selling: How To Keep Clients Sold After the Sale Is Made

Increasing Your Sales With Client Satisfaction

The importance of repeat business and referrals
An easy (but mostly overlooked) method of generating all the repeat business and referrals you need
7 ideas you can use to keep your clients satisfied
10 rules for building successful relationships with your clients
Profiting from thank-you’s and business gifts
3 proven ways to get new business from old clients

Coping With Difficult Clients
8 reasons why sellers have problems with clients
How to handle conflicts with your clients
The 11 most common problems in dealing with clients—and how to resolve them

Selling and Marketing Your Services in a Recession
14 winning methods to sell your services in a soft economy
Note: “Selling and Marketing Your Services in a Recession” is available as a stand-alone 1-hour keynote speech or lecture.

Preparation and Customization

All clients submit a completed questionnaire in advance of the seminar date. The seminar is tailored to your specific educational needs based on this information. Actual problems and selling situations faced by attendees in their day-to-day work are used throughout the presentation as examples, as exercises, and to illustrate and dramatize ideas presented in the classroom.

In addition, we further customize by going through the course agenda with you and having you tell us which items you want stressed and emphasized. There is no extra charge for this customization.

Number of Students

Recommended number of students per session is 6 to 20; however, you may send up to 25 attendees for the base price. There is an additional materials and preparation fee for each student above 25.

Terms

A 50% nonrefundable deposit authorizes CTC to begin preparation and customization of your seminar. Balance due net 30 days after presentation of seminar.

Expenses

Client is billed at cost for all out-of-pocket expenses including ground transportation, long-distance telephone calls, fax transmissions, Federal Express, and messenger service.

Client provides prepaid hotel reservations and prepaid round-trip airline tickets (from Newark Airport) for all out-of-town engagements.

Text

Attendees receive numerous handouts provided during the seminar at no extra charge. Optional textbook for seminar attendees is Selling Your Services: Proven Strategies for Getting Clients to Hire You or Your Firm, by Bob Bly, 349 pages.

Follow-Up Programs

To maximize the effectiveness of training, you may want to consider one of these two follow-up programs:

Telephone Hotline: Telephone consultation is available. Callers get specific advice and information on how to solve selling problems and handle current situations.

Clinics: Some clients request a follow-up clinic at one or more locations. The clinics typically have 6 to 15 attendees and provide hands-on analysis and problem-solving of ongoing sales challenges. Fee and length are the same as for the full-day training seminar.

About the Seminar Leader

Bob Bly is an independent consultant specializing in sales and marketing communications. Clients include Value Rent-A-Car, Edith Roman Associates, Sony Corporation, Timeplex, Associated Air Freight, Wolfram Research, and Philadelphia National Bank.

Mr. Bly is the author of 45 books including Direct Mail Profits, The Copywriter’s Handbook, and Selling Your Services. In addition, he has taught marketing at New York University. Mr. Bly is a winner of the Direct Marketing Association’s Gold Echo Award.

For More Information

To discuss the specifics of your seminar and reserve a date, call or write Bob Bly at CTC, 22 East Quackenbush Ave., 3rd Floor, Dumont, NJ 07628, phone (201) 385-1220.

What Clients and Attendees Say About Bob Bly’s Seminars and Consultations

“We enjoyed your presentation at our sales meeting! The feedback to date has been great. Your appearance accomplished what we wanted. Thank you very much!”
— Joe Jeanette, Vice President, Creative Group, Inc., Appleton, WI

“Your talk was well prepared and excellently presented. Not only was it extremely informative, but you succeeded in offering some startling insights that many of us failed to realize about our business-to-business communications.”
— Walter Lewis, Business/Professional Advertising Association

“Thanks for your seminar. Besides clarifying some technical points, you gave me insight into my position, and my abilities, as a writer. And, observing you in action was excellent training.”
— Mike Goldscheitter, Loveland Controls

“Thanks again for joining us in Atlantic City on Thursday. I, and the entire group, found your thoughts insightful and right on target.”
— Edward H. Moore, communication briefings Newsletter

“Well balanced, interesting, moved right along. Everything you promised and more.”
— John Pfister, Del Haven, NJ

“Your presentation for our seminar was sparkling, enthusiastic, and informative. The audience response was wonderful to see and hear. Our group benefited greatly and were quite vocal in their praise of you.”
— Wendy Ward, Women in Communications

“I wish to thank you for an excellent program. Everyone enjoyed it immensely and your comments and expertise were greatly appreciated. This was the largest turnout for a seminar this year. The program was full of good solid and serious advice, and you made it a very lively presentation.”
— Zephyr Cooper, Women’s Direct Response Group

“We greatly appreciate your lending your expertise to make the seminar a success. Your information on the Do’s and Don’ts of direct mail was most helpful to all.”
— C. Joyce Wilson, American Marketing Association

What They Say About Bob Bly’s Book, Selling Your Services (New York: Henry Holt)

“Between these covers lies a treasure trove of tips on selling, adding power to your releases, setting fees, creating brochures and other marketing tools, strategies for coping with dozens of situations you will encounter, and hundreds of other priceless ideas.”
— Herman Holtz, author of How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant

“If you’re looking for the ‘hype’ kind of presentation to sales and promotion, don’t buy this book. But if your goal is to improve your ability to communicate and deliver quality services to a greater number of people (and make more money in the process), then Selling Your Services is a great investment.”
— David W. Wood, Free-Lance Business Communications

“Strategic and specific. A must read! Practical advice that really works—not just theories that might work.”
— Howard L. Shensen, CMC, Marketing and Management Consultant

“When you want to outsmart and outsell your competition, you’ll implement Bly’s proven recession-proof strategies for getting clients to hire you first—or the next reader may be your newest competitor.”
— Andrew S. Linick, Ph.D., The Copyologist®

5 Proven Steps on How to Sell Your Services