Sensible Tools for Sales Presentation & Marketing
(Exerpts from "I Hate Selling"- by: George Mousouris, CPA)

Here are some helpful tips on improving your sales performance:

1) Use a good CRM tool (Customer Relationship Management)- to organize your phone campaigns and manage your leads. CRM's dictate the organization and structure of your sales generation.

2) Be prepared with presentation materials to support your branding and sales project. From leave-behinds to mailers, email attachments and URL's, support your pitch with materials that help to close. (Websites, business cards, brochures, powerpoint presentations, direct mail, e-mailable materials etc.) The right visuals speak volumes over verbal and written words.

2a) Invest in PROFESSIONAL Presence Unless you are a dedicated marketing company (or have one in-house), please "do not go on the CHEAP" and try to avoid doing it yourself! DO not underestimate your leads. Amateur work is most noticeable- especially to prospects. Anticipate that they have been solicited by many many vendors like you - and they've received all sorts of competitive looking materials!

There's a drastic difference between Kinkos color copies and commercial printing. The same goes for any electronic media such as websites and powerpoint presentations. It's your sales...do it right!

Sales Lesson 1: "You have one chance to make a first impresssion".

Sales Lesson 2: "You get what you pay for".

3) Develop a realistic strategy, approach & scheduling pattern for your entire campaign. This includes scripting, pacing and lead re-sorting.

4) Select your leads and target clients well. Pre-qualify all leads cost-effectively and safely with a little research or a phone conference. There are telltale signs on how to "sniff out" a real sale. By setting up the right appointments can be the diffference between positive results to someone who's just looking to get information. Today's appointment setting efforts must come with a higher level of sophisticated planning in order to save valuable time, $$$ on travel and other business resources.

5) Redefine your sales quality:
Arm yourself with diversity. Within the past decade, today's sales industries have reinvented itself to KNOW more and to BE more. To advance itself into the competitive marketing arena, the “aggressive pitch-and-close quota chasers” are being replaced with more highly-informed and refined presentation experts to communicate at much higher quality levels. They deliver at the skill capacities equal to that of the head of marketing, technical support, customer service and production. Today’s companies and sales reps have to work much harder to earn the public confidence with more thorough presentations, immediate and more complete answers and evidence of a solid training platform.