The top 5% of sales people in the world make sure that they know what their customer objections are and use that to their advantage by crafting the ultimate pitch.  Below are the four most popular objections that you will come across in your selling career.  To truly become the Glen Garry sellers of this world it’s up to you to perfect them and work out your own techniques to slamming that deal down.

A Small Chance That You Might Fail

Many of your future prospects have their own objections in mind that will automatically flick on like a light switch when they realise they are being sold too.  The reason being is that they have probably been sold too many times before, possibly had a few bad experiences and maybe lost some money.  BUT that doesn’t matter to you because you are going to change their lives with the product or service you are selling!  The first initial hurdle you need to leap over if you are going to become a top dog in selling is the fear of failing, you see the failing part of the whole process is actually a good thing, it sets you up for the next time you sell.

What you need to do is simple, embrace failing and think of it as a positive step.  When you fail you learn something new, be sure to write it down and never do it again!

Unwanted Criticism

Why do you think that people find it so hard to accept perfectly harmless criticism?  Because they think it will hurt their feelings.  That makes no sense what so ever!  Your job is to accept faults, build up a strong character that accepts all constructive criticism and use that to mould a successful salesman.

Every time your boss or supervisor tells you that you are doing something wrong, note it down and improve upon it.  Another point to take in is, you should be asking your customers after you have sold to them, what it was that made them buy from you.  This is a fantastic way to produce more sales and build upon your success.  After a few months of doing this, you will craft your very own formula that will convert at a much higher rate than anyone else.

Fear of Rejection

To be rejected means one of two things, you either did a lousy job at selling or your prospect genuinely has no use for your product or service.  Rejection in selling is life, deal with it.  The only way to deal with this is to brush it off and get on to the next meeting.

The worst thing you could possibly do is have the thought in your head whilst you are on the way to a meeting or actually dealing with a future client.  Stay as positive as you can by thinking of what you would like to happen.  When you project this image onto your sub-conscious two things happen, firstly your mind will accelerate into success mode and you will attract that which you desire and secondly your outlook will change, you will smile more and feel amazing from the inside out.  Don’t think this is some new age hippie stuff, this has been proven to work.

Busy Customers Set You Back

When someone is busy it’s not because they are avoiding you, it really is because they are busy going about their day to day chores.  What you need to do to avoid this in the future, is set a specific time with them that you will either sell to them, or close them.  Your job is to create a presence and maintain the momentum which will then propel you into signing off the deal with ease.

Your mindset should be that, they want to buy your service or product because they believe it will benefit them or their business but they would like to give you their business at a convenient time, when they feel comfortable and not rushed.  Remember people are familiar with their comfort zones, so step into their comfort zones and make them feel at ease.

With any new web based business the idea of marketing your website can be a very daunting task, there are literally thousands of ways in which you can market your business online, but where the hell do you start?

Well let’s assume for a moment that you have your website up and running, your products are all set to be sold and your payment processor is waiting for the first order, how do you generate traffic and start building a constant stream of visitors, that return and buy from you again at a later stage?  Quite simply you need to scrub up on some basic Search Engine Optimisation skills or (SEO) for short.  You see SEO comes across like a science or an art that needs to be perfected before you start seeing very decent results, which is true in some cases and to a certain degree but for a start-up this is not your aim.

Your aim as a new seller is to get to grips with the two big areas of SEO which you will here a lot about on forums, blogs and websites, then you need to master the basics.

On-Page SEO Factors

The first area is what is known as ‘on-page’ SEO which basically means every critical element that helps you rank accordingly on the search engines and allows you to pose as the most relevant source of information.  In other words what you add to your web pages best determines how relevant you are to your market and in turn allows Google, Yahoo, MSN etc to rank you based on that relevancy and trust you build with them.

The most important on-page factors that you need to make sure are included on all web pages on your site are as follows:

• Title Tag - You will see this being used in the search engine results pages and can see it at the top of your browser in the title bar.  The idea behind this tag is that you should use it for drawing in clicks (traffic) by writing compelling headlines for it, as it is not used so much for ranking purposes these days.

• Meta Tags - Used back in the day to support keyword spamming they are no longer needed for SEO purposes but more for ad purposes.  There are two types of meta tags, the first one is called the “description” tag and you will need to use this for notifying others what your page is about within 255 characters or less.  The second type is the “keywords” tag which should have your related keywords for that particular page.

• H1, H2 and H3 Styles - These tags are old school HTML markups which are better known as page title tags.  They are used to distinguish what piece of the text on the page is a title, sub title etc.  They also carry on up to H6 which is almost never used.

• Bolded, Italic and Underlined - In order to stand out more to the search engines you must scream relevancy by decorating your words with the use of the bolded, italic and underline functions.

• Contextual Links - With a growing interest of links these days, more than ever you should certainly link important keywords to pages you wish to rank for but in the most natural way possible, for example if you link from within the context of one page full of content about “mountain bikes” to another related page about “mountain bike wheels” then you will increase the internal power of the overall site structure.

• ALT Tags - These are used to name your images on each page but with relevant descriptions in order for web users with sight problems to read your page with audio software, which says your image description out loud.  Once upon a time, keyword spammers used this feature for stuffing words into the images because search engines actually took notice of them for some time.

• Keyword Density - For your page to follow simple rules that Google, Yahoo and MSN set you need to adhere to the density rule, which is basically not to overuse your targeted keyword phrase or term for that page.  The recommended percentage is 3% to 5% which means you need to keep any keyword below this figure in order to stay safe.

• Keyword Occurrence - Sometimes mistaken for “density” occurrence is fast becoming an in demand factor that is used to determine which search engine proven synonyms are related to your target phrase and also which other words are related but also being used on other websites.

Off-Page SEO Factors

• Back Links - Still vital to the success of your website back links pose a significant impact on the rankings of your site in the SERPs.  The reason being is that link are counted as votes which help the search engines decide whether you are important to your market.  The relevancy of your incoming links are the most critical nowadays, as before websites would use links from any website they could find.

• Anchor Text - The quality of your links matter, so you need to make sure that you are using the best phrases that also include long tails, but contain your target term.  For example if you are targeting “rock climbing” then you need to have a link pointing to your site saying “rock climbing tips” as this uses your main key term and also looks more natural.

• Deep Linking - Using the same method above with “anchor text links” but make sure you are linking back to every page on your site and not just the home page, as this will boost each pages quality in terms of page rank etc.

• Social Acceptance & Popularity - As we see a rise in social media websites your focus should be on socialising online with your business.  Search engines such as Google are placing much more emphases on these sites now as it all adds to the popularity of your website.

So What’s The Difference Then?

The big defying difference between these two majorly important factors is that on-page is used for showing how relevant you are to your market and off-page is used for showing how relevant and popular you are within your market which actually translates into traffic and eventually sales depending on your website.

Everywhere you look these days on Google, forums and blogs companies and individuals are promoting themselves and their services to up and coming businesses who are looking to ease work load, lower costs and free up valuable time, allowing them to focus on more rewarding areas which in turn boosts revenue.

Here is a short list of jobs you can outsource, which should help you think of more ways to delegate important tasks that you don’t necessarily need to do:

Research
-Get thinking… or pay someone else too!

• Wholesalers, products that you would like to sell, this can be a painstaking task for any business owner
• Fact checking, checking information is legit and all legal documents are handled correctly
• Products or services that may help with business expansion
• Holiday destinations, need to run off to a meeting in L.A?  Well get someone to get the cheapest flight for you, hotel accommodation, places to go for a drink, there are no limits
• Statistics for business plans and proposals

Data Entry
-The possibilities are truly endless

• Accounts, figures and number crunching to help you stay on top of your books and stop paying those ludicrous bookkeeper fees
• Sales figures that are not being accounted for
• Prospective buyers and addresses
• Marketing campaigns

• Blog posting and commenting to increase brand awareness and social traffic towards your website or blog
• Social bookmarking to keep you current, in the now and hot topic amongst avid we readers
• Article submissions to the most popular article directories for massive exposure
• Natural link building within blog, forums and other websites.  Using a reputable company or individual with a proven track record is the best option for this, always opt for quality over quantity
• Find WHOIS info for authority sites you wish to link to, this is a huge stepping stone for any website wanting to jump up in the rankings
• Forum posting for gaining authority and expert status amongst competitive markets with increasing interest

Administration / Assistance
- Painful administration jobs that need attention, not anymore!

• Follow up emails for sales, customer enquiries, media enquiries
• ‘Thank you’ emails and up sells for when you want to increase sales on a more personal level
• Customer service emails for questions that you don’t need to hire in-house employees for, this will cut down costs and free up a lot of time

Wow and that’s only a short list which took 10 minutes to create, could you just imagine how many other activities your little team of outsourcers could handle for you?

Costs Involved With Setting up

So how much are you looking to spend handing over tasks to other people?  The majority of your dealings if done via the major freelancing platforms such as Elance or oDesk will be paid in dollars so you may want to think about an hourly rate that you are comfortable paying.  There are many independent companies that we will cover in future articles.

For short and sweet tasks such as data entry you would be looking at a generalised role that many individuals can do, so it would be around $5 to $15 an hour, depending on the country you outsource to or level of expertise.  On the other hand if you are looking for researchers for complex business plans or flight destinations your pricing range should be around $30 to $60 per hour.  All in all you can get someone to take on your project for any price you are willing to pay, but be prepared to sacrifice quality.  Remember the old saying - “You get what you pay for”.

Managing Your Outsourced Tasks

There are two routes which you can take when managing your outsourcers, so that you make sure all tasks are completed on time and in the order that you specified.

Route One - Set up a dedicated email for all of your freelancers and outsources so that you keep all correspondence completely separate from your personal emails.  Within this email account you should set up folders which allow you to organise your progress for all projects currently under way, doing so will keep you on top of what’s gong on.  *A quick tip for staying current, make sure you ask each person to send you a weekly progress report so that you can analyse which are the best performers.

Route Two - Hire a virtual assistant to handle all of your outsourcers, what this does is help you concentrate on one person instead of several and leaving all of the managing up to the VA.  Some people will hate this route as they love being in control were as others will flourish due to their laid back attitudes, you know who you are!

Time Vs Money in The Long Run

So what it comes down to is this, how much money are you spending on outsourcing as opposed to other vital and equally important tasks such as marketing and sales?  If the money you spend on freeing up your time is much more important than cutting costs, then outsourcing is for you; but if you much prefer saving a penny or two rather than slicing a few hours off your busy schedule, then you are the perfect person for the job and shouldn’t opt for it.

Pros and Cons of Outsourcing

With everything in life there are the good and the bad, so here are the pros and cons for outsourcing your jobs to others:

Pros

• Can be easy to manage via email, phone, Skype or IM
• Frees up valuable time and allows you to concentrate on more important things
• Cheaper than expected when adding it all up

Cons

• It’s hard to find the right people for the job
• Time freed up could be spent managing others
• Costs can add up at the end of the month, if your not careful

The bottom line is this, you should experiment with the idea for a few weeks, start small and build your team up, only allow them to do very small tasks that are cheap and will build trust with you.  That way you can see if this is the right option for you.  Have fun with it!

I was thinking way too fast for a moment, imagining myself stepping off a private jet with a scantily clad woman on either side of me, as I always do, talking to my then work colleague and soon to be business partner Mr Rockwood, I stick my feet up on the dusty un-cleaned desk, moving a copy of Mayfair magazine to one side with my foot.

“I can’t stand this sh*t any more man” I say with a screwed up look of angst on my face “I mean this is such a waste of our time, I need to be a millionaire this time next year, I need the good life”.

“I know dude, I feel exactly the same, it’s been getting worse over the past few weeks, the work is a joke and the pay is less than my last f*cking job” Mr Rockwood says with an annoyed look of built up tension and lack of respect from the boss man.

Every other night it seemed we would be in our little underground hide out just minutes away from the office in the side crevices of Oxford Circus, it was a cool underground Scandinavian bar which only hired cute waitresses, so naturally we became fans, this is were we would come up with business ideas, that would allow us to leave the rat race.  We both had our own ideas with which we wanted to work on but we were always eager to work with each other on something big…

A week or so later I was introduced by a friend of mine to a guy named T Magic, a student by day and internet boy wonder by night.  We had hit it off straight away talking about business and money for half an hour or so, the guy was 22, a full time student and earning over £50,000 a year just from writing a few articles online each evening.  That sounded pretty damn sweet to me… and something my existing business was already involved in.

“So have you got some sort of formula for your article writing?” I ask hoping he will reveal all and let me in on his strategy.  “Yep, it’s pretty cool, I’ve been perfecting it for the last three years and it’s been producing me a good income for about 7 months now”.

After hearing about how much money he was making and how easy it was for him, my mind started racing again with ideas to take it into the big leagues, I was so excited, it felt like I had finally met someone on the same wave length as me.  “OK so how about this, I have a friend who I work with who I think you will like, he’s a genius writer and works really hard, would you fancy meeting him next week?  Maybe we could all go into business together, seen as though we all have something different to offer.”

Nodding his head in approval and thinking for a split second he looks up at me and says “let’s do it.. I’ve been thinking of taking my business to the next level anyway.”

The Journey Starts Here

I’ve been meaning to start this blog for some time now, its been niggling at me like a hamster munching on a feathered wisp of saw dust in his meaningless 2 x 4 cage.. the euphemism I use to describe my thoughts just shows the amount of times I repeat things over and over in my mind.

My idea of a blog with street smart business advice and tactics, tied into a real life entrepreneur kicking the doors down of every damn venture capitalist he lays his evil eyes on seems somewhat exciting.  Not only will it entertain me along the way but hopefully you also, if I do what I set out to do properly.

Since as long as I can remember… like a little kiddywink, I have been thinking about making loads of money. I could always see myself vividly running my own very successful line of businesses, jet setting around the world and generally being well known as a business tycoon - serial entrepreneur whom lives a lavish lifestyle that most rat racers would only be too jealous of!  My mindset has changed a fair bit over the years I must say, but the dream remains pretty intact even after all this time, in terms of success, respect and most importantly - freedom.

Although the above is not quite yet my reality I really do believe that one day it will be and I’ll look back and laugh on the crazy ideas and thought rants that I had every single day, and of course the pain I put my poor mum and dad through!  When it happens though is a question that I have been asking myself a lot lately and as I grow more and more impatient, especially when everywhere I seem to look these days, there is yet another website being taken over by Yahoo or Google for millions of dollars and the fact that the site the big guns are acquiring has only been up a year… was started in some whizz kids bedroom, whilst he was half playing World of War Craft and now just so happens to be this years biggest phenomenon - Go figure!

I’m not jealous though, I’m just extremely envious and would like to know the intricate details of how these deals come about.

To be honest my drive to hit the big time has just gone out of control this past year, it’s really all I think and talk about constantly.  With added pressure being laid on people in society over the smallest things, it’s no wonder there are going to be people like myself rebelling against the political correctness of today’s modern madness.  I like many others have chosen to live the good life, the path to freedom I suppose, how I will get there is down to what I put myself through.  With one business failure under my belt and a host of cowboy sales floor set-ups from the back streets of Putney to the hooker capital of Spain, I’ve had a small taster of what life has to offer and I want more… much more.  My life so far has been a rollercoster of very haphazard moments that go from one extreme to the other, but that’s what I’m in the game for.

Care to join me?