Why Do Some Home-Based Internet
Businesses Succeed And Others Fail?
© 2006 David Peterson
Have you every wondered how you can have
2 Internet home-based businesses side by side, both starting
on the same day of the week, and both of them are beginning
with limited to no startup capital, and one survives and while
the other one fails?
Here’s another scenario; you attend an
MLM conference in your local town and the speaker has made
millions of dollars yet you have never actually heard of a
regular guy like yourself making millions of dollars on the
same type of Network Marketing deal.
It really boils down to 4 words: Open,
Probe, Pitch, and Close. These 4 words are the building blocks
to selling.
You are going to have to learn how to
sell in your new home-based Internet business.
Open, Probe, Pitch, and Close - Those 4
words make up the Sales Process. The sales process is the
natural progression of taking a prospect and turning them into
a customer. Regardless of if you are selling computers or
clothes, an Internet Affiliate program or an Internet Network
Marketing program you need to learn how to sell to succeed.
Learning how to sell is not a mystery
and it is not hard.
To make a sale you need four parts
science and one part art. Since a sale is generally a science
that means you can learn how to do it. Not only can you learn
the Science of Selling, you can learn the 4 basic sales skills
very quickly.
The Art of Selling may make up only 20%
of the equation but it takes quite a bit more time to learn.
The Art of Sales takes experience to learn.
To put it in perspective take two sales
reps one makes $50,000 per year and the one sitting right next
to him/her makes $100,000 per year. Both of them have the same
leads, and the same product. This scenario is not uncommon and
it applies to a business just as it applies to a sales
representative.
The $50,000 rep refuses to learn how to
sell; they try to get by on their “natural” sales ability.
They forget or refuse to open, probe, pitch, and close. In
this scenario the $50,000 rep does not follow the natural
progression of the sales process.
The $50,000 rep always assumes it is the
leads, or they assume they are having a bad day. They
typically don’t look at sales as a profession; it is
something they have to do to get by. Reps need to learn how to
sell. They need to learn the sales process which is always
open, probe, pitch, and close. It’s always in that order.
Even if the sale takes 4 months to close it is still, open,
probe, pitch, and close.
Now if you have two reps sitting side by
side. They both have the same leads and the same product and
one makes $80,000 per year and the other makes $100,000 per
year then the missing ingredient is the Art of Selling.
The Art of Selling is the skills you
pick up with experience. It is learning how to recognize an
inflection change in a person’s voice. It’s learning how
to get past a gatekeeper and making that gatekeeper feel good
about passing you to the decision maker. The Art of Selling is
all of the little things that happen every split second of
every sales call.
The Art of Selling comes from
experience. You can coach someone on what to look or listen
for but you can’t make them react correctly to what they see
or hear. To react correctly they have to want to learn and
they have to gain experience.
The Science of Selling is much more
predictable. You learn how to open the call to get you in the
door and allow you to continue the conversation. Then you
learn how to probe for the customer’s needs by using open
ended questions. The probing questions allow you to establish
a need.
If the customer has a need for your
product you then learn how to pitch your product. You “paint
the picture” during the pitch which makes your customer want
that product. Finally once you know the customer wants the
product you need to learn how to close.
Learning how to close means you will
have to learn how to ask for a person’s credit card. It is
amazing to me how many “sales reps” will not ask for the
sale. They forget to close or they imply a close. Neither will
work, you have to ask for the business if you plan on being
successful.
If you start a home-based Internet
business you will eventually have to sell your product to a
potential customer. Prospects have many choices to purchase
their products. They are going to buy from you because you
sold them on yourself and your business. Learning how to open,
probe, pitch and close will really set you apart from the
competition.
Why do some Internet businesses succeed
while others in the same space fail? – The reason is simple;
the people that manage those businesses learn how to sell.
Good luck in your home-based Internet
business.
Sincerely,
David
Peterson
Author
of:
Been There - Done That
David
Peterson's Search Engine Optimization Guide
Please
send all correspondence to: questions@usreference.com
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