Feature Article

When Is the Best Time to Make a Sale?

by: Charlie Cook Marketing for Success

Do you know when the best time is to help your prospects make their first purchase?

Timing is everything in marketing. Get it wrong and you can't get your prospects' attention. Get it right and you'll see your revenue grow each month of the year.

My daughter was twelve when we got a dog. She couldn't get enough of that cute, cuddly puppy and made good on her promises to take care of it - at first, anyway. The first week she fed, walked and brushed our new dog. The second week, she fed and walked her. After three months, she was keeping up with the feeding and that was it.

When a puppy first comes into the house, its owner is enthusiastic and will do anything and everything for it. If you've ever owned a dog, you know what I'm talking about. It’s called the "new puppy syndrome".

Prospects experience the new puppy syndrome with your small business marketing. The first time they sign up for your free offer, stop by for a test drive or visit your store, they're enthusiastic and this is the time they're the most likely to make a purchase.

Your prospects' interest wanes with each day that passes. They go from highly interested to mildly interested or not interested at all.

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You've got two opportunities to help your prospects buy with your small business marketing. The first is during the 7 to 10 days after they became a qualified lead. This is the time you want to follow up with additional information and make an offer they can’t refuse.

One of my clients periodically gives talks to coaches, health professionals and other trainers to promote his specialized athletic training business. His unique training system generates a lot of interest, and he collects contact information from many in his audiences. When is the best time for him to make the next contact with these prospects?

Immediately! These people are primed to become clients and customers. Imagine how impressed his new contacts would be find an email or free guide, or offer waiting for them when they return to their offices.

To help people remember you and act on your offers, give them helpful information along with a "new prospect offer" they can't refuse. Do this once a day or once every other day for the first 7 to 10 days after you've gotten their contact information. Your prospects will remember you and you'll convert more leads to clients.

I know you're thinking, "Three to seven contacts per week? That's way too many! I'll lose all my prospects with this approach."

The opposite is true. Wait a week or more to follow-up with your prospects, and they'll have forgotten you exist. When they get your note, they'll have lost their initial enthusiasm and curiosity and won’t even read it.

There is no exact right number of times to contact new prospects the first week they become qualified leads. You'll have to test this yourself and gauge the results. Obviously you don't want to be annoying. You do want to start a conversation with your prospects about their needs and how your products or services meet those needs.

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You know your business; tie your follow up with prospects to the business or seasonal cycles or the events critical to your industry or your customers. For example, immediate follow-up is critical when purchasing decisions are event-driven.

My client the athletic trainer can't wait to contact a new prospect because the athletes he works with are training for specific competitive events. If he doesn't sell his services soon enough, the event will have passed and he'll have lost the sale.

Depending on what you market, the purchase of your products may not be event driven. For example, if you're a financial advisor, no single event will prompt your prospects to pick a new one. Given that time isn't usually a constraint for your prospects what can you do?

What do you do about the prospect that continues to be interested after 10 days or so but just won’t commit to a purchase? Some prospects won't buy for months or even years.

Keep the conversation going; continue to provide them with helpful ideas a couple of times a month. Continue to educate them about your business and your services. You’ll increase their perception of need and convert them to clients.

Want to convert more of your prospects to clients?

Follow-up frequently during the first 7-10 days and then regularly each week or every other week until you make the sale. Take advantage of the "new puppy syndrome" and you can double your sales by helping your prospects get what they want when they want it.

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The author, Charlie Cook, helps small business owners and marketing professionals attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up to receive the Small Business Marketing Ideas eBook, '7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business' at:www.marketingforsuccess.com

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Second Article

Ecommerce Shopping Carts

by: Glenn Roy Ormond Out Source Heaven

Shopping carts are more commonly used as a way to display physical products, products like televisions, groceries, electronic equipment, clothes, and memorabilia, etc, not digital products. Shopping carts make it easy to cross-sell and up-sell your customers once they arrive at your store. Shopping carts typically handle the shipping and handling calculation, taxes and credit card processing. A good shopping cart handles all of these efficiently and securely.

Dynamic Operation

A good shopping cart program also creates dynamic order forms on the fly as the order takes place. The shopping cart should be totally dynamic; meaning it only executes code and retrieves products, images, and product descriptions from your database when your customers request it. During the checkout process it should also calculate shipping/handling and taxes for you.

Real-Time Credit Card Processing

Powerful CGI, PHP, CFM, ASP, etc, scripting, processes commands for you on secure servers when your customers place their orders. Don't get this confused with credit card processing. That’s mean passing of your customers' order information from a secure form, to your merchant or payment processor, using one of the scripting languages above. Your payment processor or merchant, like PayPal, 2CheckOut, or Authorize.Net will then process the credit card. If you don't currently have a merchant or payment processor, and you are going to be selling online, then you need one.

Usability

You can choose what options you want your customer to see. For instance, you can choose to display a search form on your shopping cart. A search form allows your customers to search your store for items by keyword or product name, etc. You can choose to display options like color, size and quantity, and even adjust the price based on the customer's selection. These are called options. Your shopping cart should also allow you to upload images of your products as well.

Stand-Alone -Vs.- Hosted Shopping Carts

You can purchase standalone shopping cart software or services. The stand alone software, of course, requires skill and expertise to install it on your web host or on your own server. Some of the shopping cart services, although it may not seem like it at first, limit you as to what you can and cannot do. These services are most commonly offered by web hosts as a way to entice you to host your site with them. When using these types of services, remember, you're locked into using that web host when you opt to use their shopping cart service. Your business is not portable and becomes a part of that web host. Make sure there is a simple export process that allows you to easily download your website and shopping cart if you no longer wish to use their services. The best option is to use a shopping cart that runs from your own website, independent of your web host. Both Prowebware and stand-alone shopping cart applications run from your website, giving you both control and flexibility.

Choosing a shopping cart boils down to 4 things:

1. Your Budget
2. Your Skill-level - Do you have the expertise to edit & install scripts on your server?
3. Desired Functionality - Want a professional results oriented system or a display case?
4. Time - Have time to take away from your business to shape and mold a new program?

Whatever you decide, your cart should also permit you to follow-up with your customers automatically and even instantly auto-subscribe them to your mailing list.

To implement most out-of-the-box applications, you will need to know how to edit PHP, HTML, or ASP code and how to set up a MySQL database on your server for dynamic operation. Then, with some, all you need to know is how to copy/paste some simple code to your existing web pages or the template you're using. The system should also include some type of easy help or instructions, like an HTML file or contextual help menus that walk you through setting up your new cart.

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Glenn Roy Ormond writes for www.RookieWebmaster.com and recently founded www.OutsourceHeaven.com, a marketplace for freelance web designers, programmers, and content providers.

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