The Sales Pipeline Are you having a tough time closing at least one Web site deal each month? Do you ever wonder how some WebCenter owners are able to close multiple deals month after month? It takes a lot of work for these sales superstars to consistently sell sites, and it all starts with how well they manage their sales pipeline. The sales pipeline (also called the "sales funnel") is a term that describes the flow of prospects from the initial contact (when they're just a lead) all the way to the final sale (when they become a customer). It's important to understand your sales pipeline because it will help you budget your time and plan your work to keep your business operating at optimal efficiency. If you are too focused on closing sales, you won't have any prospective customers to close next month; if you are too busy finding prospects, you won't have enough time to conduct walkthroughs and sell sites. Managing your sales pipeline is the key to selling Web sites week after week, month after month. So how do you manage your sales pipeline? Start by figuring out the answer to the following three questions: 1. How many leads does it usually     takes before you find one     prospect?          (A lead can be anyone you've     approached about a Web site; a     prospect is someone who has     expressed an interest, and has     agreed to a walkthrough     presentation.) 2. How many prospects does it take     for you to find one customer?          (A customer is someone who has     actually purchased a Web site from     you.) 3. On average, how long does this     process take from start to finish?     (This includes the first time you met     the business owner, the walkthrough     presentation, and all subsequent     follow ups until the deal finally closed.) If you already know the answer to these questions, that's great! You probably do an excellent job keeping your sales pipeline full and productive. If you don't, it's time to figure it out. This may seem really basic, but you'll be surprised how much of an impact something this simple can have on your monthly sales figures. You cannot actively manage your sales if you do not know how many leads and prospects you need to find a customer, and it makes it difficult to sell Web sites on a consistent basis if you do not know how long it will take to close the deal. Let's look at how this information can be used to improve your closing consistency. If it takes 10 leads for me to find one prospect, and I close one Web site deal for every three walkthrough presentations I conduct, I know that I'll need about 30 leads to generate one sale. If it took 14 days from the time I first met the prospect until the time they finally bought the site, I know that I need to plan my prospecting and sales activities at least two weeks in advance if I want to keep closing deals each week. Once I have all of this figured out, it's just a matter of deciding how many Web sites I want to sell in a given period of time, and putting in the necessary work. If I want to sell five sites next month, I'll need to call or visit 150 leads over the next few weeks; if I plan to sell ten sites, I better work through 300 leads by the second week of next month. The MA WebCenter 3.0 Marketing Manual has a great worksheet to use as a starting point to help you determine the amount of time and number of approaches you need to make. Use the worksheet on page eight of the manual to start out, and then adjust the time and approaches requirements based on the results that you experience. Remember, keep your sales pipeline full—with leads, prospects, and follow ups. If you do not continue to find new prospects on a regular basis, you are setting yourself up for future failure. At the same time, if you focus too much on prospecting, you won't have time for walkthroughs and follow ups. Manage your sales pipeline well, and you'll start closing deals like our top performers!         Over the past several months, we've been blown away by how many Web sites our WebCenter owners have sold. More and more people are out there shaking hands with business owners and selling Web sites, and we've tried to recognize their hard work in the weekly top seller e-mail. However, we've come to the conclusion that although praise and recognition are great, prizes are even better. So during the month of November, we'll be running the following contest: Whoever sells the most Web sites will win a free year of WebCenter hosting!! There are a few things you should know about the contest. First, the winner must sell at least five Web sites to qualify. If no one manages to close more than four deals, we will not be able to award the free hosting prize. Second, all of the Web sites that are sold through Mini WebCenters will count toward the sales numbers for the WebCenter owner they are working under. Last, in the event of a tie, the winner will be decided upon by looking at which WebCenter owner had the highest average selling price for all of the sites they sold. The contest already started yesterday, so get out there and find as many prospects as you can! Someone is going to walk away with the title of Most Outstanding WebCenter Owner AND a free year of hosting…why shouldn't it be you?!

Follow the Trail of Money Are you still having trouble finding new prospective customers? Want to know where to find small business owners who aren't afraid to spend money promoting their business? Just follow the trail of money. Look for small businesses in your area that are spending a considerable amount of money on marketing and advertising. Who is promoting their business the most aggressively? Which businesses have the biggest ads in the Yellow Pages? Who is spending money on TV commercials or fliers in the mail? These are the businesses that you need to target. Businesses like this are excellent prospects because they are more likely to understand the importance of having a Web site, and they are more likely to have the budget to actually buy one. For example, in Las Vegas, NV, attorneys and restaurants tend to be some of the biggest spenders when it comes to TV commercials, Yellow Pages ads, and mailers. Competition for clients and customers in both these industries is fierce, and savvy business owners realize that they need to spend money promoting their business in a variety of ways if they want to succeed. The most aggressive attorneys and restaurants are already spending thousands of dollars on advertising and marketing; how hard do you think it will be to get them to look at a new, effective, and cost-efficient way to generate walk-in traffic and phone calls? How difficult do you think it will be for them to come up with the money to buy the site? This is exactly what makes these businesses ideal prospects. Just try this prospecting approach for two weeks. Businesses that are spending money on advertising meet two of the most important criteria: the need for a Web site, and the money to pay for it. Focus on one industry at a time, and while you are looking for prospects, keep an eye out for local businesses in that industry that already have a Web site. (It makes it much easier to motivate prospects when you can show them examples of what their competitors are doing.)     New Web Mail from MA WebCenters Have you had a chance to check out the new e-mail service we are offering? Have you taken the time to call up your prospects and customers to let them know about this awesome addition to our robust Web site management platform? Your customers will be impressed by all of the user-friendly tools and great features in our Web Mail system: o 10MB of storage space for each     mailbox o Add attachments up to 8MB in size o E-mail forwarding o Rich HTML text formatting and editing     tools o Plain text composition option o Built-in spell check feature o Preferences for customizing your     e-mail account o Address book to organize contacts'     e-mail info o Online calendar and day planner o Search feature to browse through all     your e-mail o Spam Assassin filtering to minimize     unsolicited, junk e-mail If you have any customers that are currently hosting a domain name on our servers, you will be able to provide them with up to five different e-mail accounts for every domain name they own. Just have your customers log in to the administrative section of their Web site and click on the new E-mail tab on the My Account page. (This is the same area from which they can create and manage e-mail aliases.) It's pretty easy to get started with the new Web Mail system, but if your customers have any questions, please have them call Customer Care at (888) 343-2889, and our professional technical support reps will be happy to help them out.         Did you know that less than 10% of all Web site sales are one-call closes? It takes the average WebCenter owner two follow up calls before the prospect actually purchases the site.         Do you have any questions about selling Web sites? Online marketing? Tools or features in the software? If there is anything we can do to help make your business more successful, please e-mail us at newsletter@mawebcenters.com.