Last week, I wrote a little bit about customer service and quick communication. I hope that all of you have been responding to your emails and returning phone calls in a prompt time frame! If you are performing outstanding customer service and lightening quick communications, I’ll bet your customer and prospect list is growing. We are going to discuss all of those a bit further some other time, only because there is something much, much, more important that we need to discuss right now: THE INCOMING CALL OR EMAIL INQUIRY. What do we have here? The answer is:WE HAVE SOMEONE READY TO BUY AND SPEND MONEY WITH YOU! Wooooooo……

There is nothing better than picking up the telephone and hearing someone interested in purchasing from you. I’m going to teach you a few things you need to say to a “Call In” and a few things you should never do or say. In order to do this successfully, I’m going to to take a real life situation which many of you wholesalers encounter everyday.

1) Prospect (”P”) calls and says, “What’s your minimum order?”

P is calling you because he got your number from an advertisement, website, business card received at a trade show, or referral. The P is calling you because he probably sells your merchandise in his store and wants to order more. How do you answer that question?

a) “Our minimum order is $100.”

b) “That’s a great question Mr. P. Depending on what product you’re ordering, and how much of them you would like to purchase, our minimum order can vary. What are you looking to buy today and how much of that product do you need?”

c) “It’s $100. How can I help you?”

If you answered A or C, you definitely need to keep reading this. Yes folks, the correct answer is B and I’ll tell you why.

In order to understand why B is the correct answer, we need to analyze the structure of the response. In the opening line of the response, “That’s a great question…” we immediately start off by complimenting Mr. P and telling him how intelligent and savvy he is for calling you today. Mr. P is aware of the fact that you understand he’s an informative buyer who asks mindful questions. We then ask Mr. P the type of product he is ordering and how much of them he would like. Mr. P must now give you a precise answer to a direct question. He’s going to tell you the very product he wants and how much of that product he needs. We’ve already asked Mr. P the type of product he wants and how much he needs TODAY, so, what’s next? Let Mr.P answer you! He could make it easy and say, “I’ll take 100 pieces. Do you take credit cards?”, or her could say ,” I need to think about it. I’m kind of just shopping around right now.” Now, that’s certainly what we don’t want to hear. Let’s overcome that objection.

Start off by saying:

a) I understand that you want to shop around. However, I have these products in stock right now and I’m sure the reason you’re calling me today is because you saw our low price in the ad. There are customers of mine reselling this product right now making a significant margin and I’d like you to experience the same benefit. I’m going to expedite the shipping to you today and have these products in your store front by week’s end. What carrier do you prefer we use to ship to you?

Kind of aggressive, I know. Keep in mind, you have nothing from this prospect right now, and nothing to lose if he still wants to wait. Test Mr. P and see how serious he is. If he still wants to hold off, then fine.

Get his name, phone number, and address. Make sure he gets a call the very next day. It shouldn’t take that long to shop around — don’t risk losing this sale to a competitor. There are many ways to be creative and present your products as a unique opportunity. The incoming call is the most important call you’ll get all day. Always be ready and prepared for it.

Remember, you have someone waiting to buy your goods right then! Do your best to present your features and benefits. Then all you have to do is close.

Go and get some sales!

Jason

I was scheduled to attend ASD’s San Antonio Show this weekend, but due to a category 5 hurricane (Rita) the show has been postponed. Postponing the show was the right move to make. There are hundreds of thousands of people evacuting the coast line areas of Texas right now for higher and safer ground. We witnessed just a few weeks ago, with Hurricane Katrina, the amount of devastation and chaos that natural disaster can wreak upon us. Every hotel in San Antonio is booked, and there is no question that the city of San Antonio will be donating its resources to the potential victims of Hurricane Rita.

Well, I just got off the phone with Southwest Airlines to cancel my flight and request a refund of the tickets that I had purchased. I first spoke with a representative in the refund department who told me that they were only refunding customers from Houston and Corpus Christi. After expalinging to him that Rita is a category 5, every hotel in San Antonio is being used by evacuees, and the city will be a resource for hurricane victims, he still refussed my refund and only offered me a credit. I demanded to speak with a supervisior. He put Bob on the phone for me. Bob is the supervisior of the refunds division. Bob told me that I’m under a contractual obligation to fly into SanAntonio. I told Bob that I too have many customers that are contractually obligated to advertise with me, but I make excpetions for my customers when they are faced with events out of their control. Bob also told me that Southwest has already lost millions of dollars from Katrina and they will probably lose millions from Rita. To sum it up, Bob refused a refund to me as well. Bob and Southwest expect me to fly into a city being used as a resource for evacuees. This is a shame.

Southwest should not be a proponent of travel into San Antonio at a time when it is more that obvious that the only people that need to be around that area are those that already live there, or those helping the thousands of people that are more than likely going to lose everything they have.

Southwest needs to recognize that they are contibuting to the chaos and devastion of a catastrophe and sacrificing humanity for the sake of a few dollars. Shame on them.

Jason

Alexa is an Amazon company which attempts to rank websites in terms of popularity. It’s ranking method consists of counting the number of visits from users who have the Alexa toolbar installed. It is the most commonly available tool for measuring a site’s traffic. It is also completely inaccurate, nobody leaves those stupid toolbars installed. The only people who do are people like you and me who are trying to raise their Alexa ranking.

However, people believe in the Alexa Ranking. Perception is reality.

It does have some benefits. a) It can give you some backlinks b) it helps the big three search engines index your site and c) it makes you look better than your copmpetition.

So do as I do: hate Alexa for its fatal flaws, but promote it and use it for the benefit of your business.

Use it to find links! The “related sites” feature of the alexa toolbar is a good way to find sites that might exchange links with you.

Download the Alexa Toolbar!

Everyday, thousands of people scour the internet looking for new startup ideas. Many choose the wholesale industry. Whether you’re looking into: dropshipping, manufacturing, importing or distributing; the wholesale industry can be very profitable. After you find the right products, and officially “open your doors”, there are a few basic principles I never want any of you to forget! We’ll start with 2 of them for now.
1) Customer service is key.
Well, duhhh, kind of obvious! Then why do so many companies forget about the customers that put them on the maps in the first place? Customer service entails more than just a follow up call to see if the products arrived ok. Here are a few basics:
a) Always have your contact information and phone number easily accessible on your website, catalog, business cards and any other correspondence pieces. There is nothing people hate more than going to a website and only having email as the only way available to contact a business. Please do not ever make that mistake. When you receive a voicemail from a potential buyer, or an email with a product question, don’t wait 24 hours to respond. Respond now! 24 hours is a lot of time to give a potential customer access to your competitor. Email is here for a reason. It makes communication instantaneous. I love when a company responds right back to me. We all hate to wait for answers. Google knows that! How do you feel when you have to leave a voice mail or drop an email and wait hours, if not day for a response? I’ll bet you despise it. Do onto others as you would like done onto you! Simple advise.
2) Keep them informed and stay in their face! Who are “them”? “Them” is every customer, prospect, past customer or potential prospect. Your customers and past customers are very important assets. They are the known “x” factor. Each of these categories represents someone who is either buying from you right now, or someone who has bought from you in the past. You need to: keep them buying, increase purchasing frequency, increase the amount being spent, and get them to buy from you again and again. Here are some basics:
a) Keep your customer informed on all the latest and greatest products you’re offering. Let them know about price reductions, inventory changes, updates to catalogs, and special offers coming up.

b) Communicate often! Your competitors are also trying to sell your existing accounts. There is no way you can prevent your competitor from calling your customer, but there are ways to increase customer loyalty. Send your customers weekly emails on any price change, closeout, or important development they should know about. Send your customers thank you cards and reward them for buying from you. Let them know that their business is appreciated and you sincerely value loyalty. Call your customer on the telephone at least once a month. Don’t just call to say “hi, Joe!…How are you?” Your customers are busy. Have something intelligent to say. Ask them if they plan on attending the upcoming trade show because you wanted to make sure they stop by your booth. Tell them about the new product coming out and you would like to give them an opportunity to pre-order before its available to everyone. Always act knowledgeable and professional! Chances are, you’ll probably get an order, or at the very least, keep that customers existing business.
c) Do your marketing now and do it often! Keep a database of all existing, past, and potential customers. You need to market to each of these 3 categories uniquely. Your customers know you, and for some reason, keep buying from you. Your past customers stopped buying. Maybe they stopped liking you, found a better deal, changed products lines…Who knows! But you need to find out. Prospects do not know you. Or, they’ve herd of you, and for some reason they just have not pulled the trigger yet. You need to make them buy. I always find out from past customers why they have not purchased in some time. When I know the root of the problem or the objection, I can do my best to avoid making that mistake again (that’s if it was my fault!).

It’s important to remember that all of us want to buy and desire to be sold. All you have to do is present the features of your product, show your customer how your product can increase productivity or sales, tell them how easy it is to start this new profitable venture, and then….ASK for the order. You would be amazed at how many sales people are either afraid or plainly forget to ask for the order. I promise you, that if you ask for an order every time you present, you’ll close more often and enjoy more vacations! We’ll talk again soon. Please feel free to leave your feedback or shoot me a question anytime.

Go and get some sales!

Jason.

JP Communications knows how important knowledge concerning the industry is to all of you when attempting to make a decision to advertise, attend a trade show, produce a new catalog or develop a new, exciting product. Companies like JP Communications, Sumner Communications, The Closeout News, Wholesale Source, Merchants Media and Forum Publishing are key sources to information and trends in the general merchandise industry. All of us provide key editiorial insight and speak to thousands of wholesalers every month.

I would like to invite all magazine and website publishers to this community and blog spot. There are thousands of retailers out there who need your advice and opinion on what the next industry move is going to be! Feel free to discuss your products, ideas and what you may think the current atmosphere of the economy is. Your customers and users of the services we all provide love to hear from us. Let’s do our job and keep those vitally important to the success of our companies informed. I look forward to hearing from all!

Best Regards,

Jason Prescott
JP Communications

An Open Letter to All JP Communications Customers and the Wholesale Community:

JP Communications was founded by Joe Preston and myself back in late April of 2005. Joe and I have over 15 combined years of sales, marketing, and management expertise, which has helped us develop some of the most unique products for the wholesale community. Top Ten Wholesale was created with the belief that:
1) Publishers need to show more of a commitment to their clients.
2) Advertisers need to know their return on investment.
3) Publishers need to be responsible for helping their clients track their response.
4) JP Communications will be the information “highway” of the industry and place where not only Wholesalers can market their products, but a place where retailers and entrepreneurs can go to collect valuable information on their industry and product line.

For many years, the only gateway the community had to market their products was offline in trade magazines. I used to sell print advertising for many years with a prominent publisher in the industry. We all know that the only guarantee a publisher gives us is that:
1) They will run our ad.
2) They will send us an invoice for that ad (or, make us pre-pay!!…Yikes!)
In 2003, when Wholesalers really started to market their products online through their web sites and search engines, I started to get some real, relevant objections as to why a continued marketing campaign in print magazines was not necessary. My customer started to tell me that:
1) Print is too expensive.
2) There is no guarantee on response.
3) I can’t target my precise market like I can online.
4) Margins are greatly increased through successful Internet advertising.
5) I’d rather spend my time targeting a more profitable, savvy buyer.

I tried to fight back. We had meeting after meeting and a response was developed to every objection. Hmmm…….Maybe, the industry was right. Was print on its way out? Does the Internet really work? What if they’re right?

I started to watch page counts drop like flies. To this day, if you pick up copies of trade magazines like the East Coast Merchandiser and compare the book to an issue 2 years ago, you’ll see a significant difference! Sure, the publishers will deny it. When they deny it, ask them for a copy of a magazine from two years ago (yes, they all have them) and just count the number of advertisers compared to the most recent issue. Look at the number of pages in the magazine, the editorial (some publishers get desperate and try and fill empty space with house ads and useless directory content). Well, it can no longer be denied. I still believe that print can be effective, but there is no longer a comparison between print and what the online world can offer all of us.
When Joe and I launched Toptenwholesale.com, we never could have anticipated the response that we received from our clients. Toptenwholesale.com was created with one belief, “For the Wholesaler, by the Wholesaler.” We knew that the only way our customers would advertise was if we could show them and prove to them results. The system we came up with was simple. No budgets, no bills, no contracts, no obligations. You, the wholesaler, choose what you want to spend, and we will only charge you for response. Very similar to that well know Super Giant: GOOGLE. Remember, GOOGLE is not making billions of dollars a year because the system doesn’t work! It works. In fact, search engine advertising is a brand new advertising revolution that is here to stay. Magazine publishers need not fight the trend. The only way to compete is to join!

Shortly after the launch of TopTenWholesale.Com, JP Communications delivered another product. The Off Price Network Never before had any publisher attempted to penetrate this industry online. JP Communications had a vision, listened to our customers, and developed a fantastic product. The Off Price Network was the 1st online search engine for the Off price apparel industry. For years, publishers had grouped “off-price” as just a category in the general merchandise wholesale industry. JP Communications though it was time to recognize the Off-Price industry as its own entity. Visit the site, it speaks for itself!

There are many more exciting products that JP Communication plans on launching in the future. Our recent acquisition of Wholesale U gives us a very powerful directory for retailers to find even more wholesale sources. Many of our customers have already given us some very exciting suggestions. So, stay posted, in the coming months there is much, much more to come (yes, we already know what it is, and we would love to share it with you, but for many obvious reason we’ll all have to be a bit patient! You are all going to love it!)

Jason Prescott
President, JP Communications
jason@toptenwholesale.com

I missed this news, however I find it quite alarmingly underreported that Google AdWords Employees are allowed to own AdWords accounts.

The post where this is admitted is #19.

Here’s the start of the thread.

I would like to say that I think AdWords Advisor is great and it must be a herculean task to do his job.

However, toddb sums it up when he says:
” Wow! So you and I are playing poker but you get to see my cards. I am totally stunned. I had no idea.”

This would not be a big deal if we were talking about little sample testbed accounts that every AdWords employee used. With google’s available processing power they could probably even make it a virtual mirror of the real Adwords system. Instead, some Google employees are very involved in private AdWords accounts. As this post from bttmfeed indicates:

Seeing the same thing here. High ctr history and testing with an outrageous bid is not winning the affiliate auction. Tried everything. It’s almost as though a google employee is setting their own CTR history. Last time meeting with our merchant one of the other affiliates there was a Google employee, and an Adwords employee at that. How is it acceptable to have to compete with someone with insider knowledge that actually works with the system daily and can look at my account. IMHO, Google should really not be allowing this.

That’s for sure! Shill bidding is the name for this practice, whether its intentional or not. Here’s Ebay’s definition of shill bidding.

Shill Bidding is bidding that artificially increases an item’s price or apparent desirability, or bidding by individuals with a level of access to the seller’s item information not available to the general Community.

The “item” in question is a high position on the sponsored listings ads or in the case of advertising as an affiliate, the only available ad position
for a specific keyword. Shill bidding from Google employees won’t harm the overall advertising experience significantly (too few employees, too much ad inventory) but you can bet that it is freezing out individual advertisers from keywords that used to provide them a good living. Even if Google’s “strict controls” on the process put a low limit on employees adwords budget, there’s going to be a Google employee out there absolutely cleaning up via their informational advantage over the competition.

I’m not outraged, this is a problem with every auction-based ad market on the internet, and the smaller the ad market the more damaging it can be. I have seen some really egregious practices of this sort in the wholesale industry. I’m amused because it’s proof that Google is really just making it up as they go along.

The American Red Cross is turning to online marketers for help by donating ad space for Katrina Relief.

A wealth of banner options are available at:

Donate Ad Space to Red Cross