Marketing and sales is a process whereby you lead an interested prospect from step A to step B to step C to closure. Note that closure could be that the prospect becomes a customer or they simply don’t buy because there was a mismatch somewhere along the process. The prospect decides based on the offer that you have made to them whether they wish to continue down the process.

As a good vendor, your job is to present your prospect with the right offers at the right time. The prospect’s responsibility is to decide whether or not to take up the offer(s). Ultimately, it is the prospect who decides whether or not to buy … despite however slick the sales process is.

So what is a vendor to do to increase sales? Good question. But I think the better question is how should the vendor present his offer to the prospect so that the prospect is in the right frame of mind to fairly evaluate the offer. After all, people buy on emotions and justify it later with logic.

There are one million and one pages of sales and marketing material devoted to how to increase sales. I won’t regurgitate them here on my blog. Rather, I’m going to show you an example of a company that does an excellent job of presenting offers to prospects at the right time during the sales process.

Before I show you the example, let me highlight the key elements of a good online marketing and sales process:

* Lead with free or low cost. Vendors have done this for years by offering “lost leaders.” Grocery stores advertise products below costs in order to lure customers into the store. Once they have the customers in the store, they know that the customers will usually buy more than just the sale item.

* Upsell with relevant options. Car dealers do this when they direct their customers to the finance office. It’s the finance manager’s job to sell the customer on paint protection and extended warranties.

* Give them different delivery options. Shipping and handling can be a profit center for online businesses. Amazon offers free shipping, but that usually takes many days for the item to arrive. Some people just can’t wait so they upgrade to various levels of expedited shipping.

* Ask them to add an extra item for no additional charge. Once the customer has paid for shipping, they would want to add to their order to bundle their costs.

* Offer them related offers from your business partners. Magazines do this when they would offer you a discount to subscribe to one of their sister publications. Some people call this partner marketing. It works because you already have a buyer. And a buyer is many times more likely to buy another product than a prospect.

* Give them an opportunity to join your frequent savings club. More and more companies offer discounts if you would join their club. Supermarkets do this. Costco does this. Office Depot does this. You name it. The best membership type club for the vendor is one where their members have to pay a regular due.

* Finally, offer them a discount if they would refer a friend. This is viral marketing. When done right, it brings in warm leads at no additional costs.

Now that I’ve shown you the key elements of a good process. Let me introduce you to a company that does this process exceptionally well. You’ll have to go through it to see for yourself. The good news is, you’ll get a usable product for your business if you do decide to buy. It’s your choice, as it should be. They’re just presenting you with the right offer at the right time. Remember to copy this process for your business because it works. >>>

http://alextran.com/bookmarks/marketingfunnel