How To Use High-Tech To Market Your Products

If you could sell a bunch of your products every day over the phone, without talking to any customers, would you be interested? Of course you would! There is a new technological breakthrough that a few smart people are using to sell piles of their products, and you can do it too, with the secrets contained in this report.

This technological breakthrough is called VOICE MAIL. Voice mail is kind of like an answering machine, but you need no equipment. In many cases, your local phone company will offer it. If they don't, there are service providers who do. You may find some listed in your phone book. In case you can't, I've included contact information at the end of this report.

Here's how voice mail works. You are given your own voice mail "box," which is assigned an extension number. People calling the phone number you provide just need to type in your extension number on their touch-tone phone to be transferred to your box.

You can call in anytime, type in a special access code, and record an outgoing message, which can usually be up to five minutes long! People calling in hear your message, then can leave their own message to you, just like on an answering machine.

The big difference, though, is they can be directed to different "areas" within your box, by pressing 1 or 2 or 3, etc. The number of areas you can have depends on the provider of the voice mail service, and how many you want to pay for.

So how can you sell your products through voice mail?

Here's an overview.

The outgoing message is your sales message for your product, for example, a book on running a mail order business. After hearing the message, the listener is directed to press 1 to order by COD (cash on delivery), press 2 to order by credit card, or press 3 to request more information by mail.

The voice mail is your salesman!

You can then call in at any time of the day or night, type in your access code, and get your messages. A good idea is to go to Radio Shack or another similar store and pick up a small telephone recording hook-up device (usually around $10). That way, you can tape your messages, and you can then write out the required paperwork and labels at your leisure.

The first step, and most important, is to write a sales message for your product.

Use your five minutes to describe the benefits your customer gets from your product. Note I didn't say to describe your product. Describe the benefits. For example, if you're selling a book on the secrets to succeeding in a mail order business, don't tell them "My book has a chapter on mailing lists, and a chapter on drop shipping, and a..." etc.

Give them a forceful explanation of how they will directly benefit by using your product: "You won't waste anymore money on crummy mailing lists after you read my secrets in chapter 4... You'll increase your profit margin by using the drop shipping methods described in chapter 6." This is much more persuasive and convincing to the listener, and will draw far more orders.

Practice reading your message with enthusiasm. Make sure it fits into five minutes, without sounding rushed. Deliver it in an exciting yet realistic way. Your goal is to get the listener "pumped up," so their ready to part with their money, just so they can share in the incredible secrets of your product. Don't mislead them, give them the impression that you're confiding in them. This will work.

Now tape your message. Don't worry if you don't sound as polished as a TV announcer. Just speak clearly, and with emotion. Then, record the ordering information in the selected "branches" (press 1, press 2, etc.). Give the customer complete details on your COD shipping policies, credit card policies, etc.

Next comes advertising. The best type of advertising to use for this selling method is the classified ad. There is a way of wording an ad for this purpose that is clearly better than other ways. Here is a sample which you should be able to adapt to your product. It uses the product described above.

"Double your mail order business' profits!
Incredible recorded message tells secrets...
Call (219) 555-5555, ext. 1234 24 hours!"

Because you don't have to use up words on an address, you can be more wordy in your ad. The ad above, however, is only 17 words. It's exciting, though, with "Double... profits," "Incredible," and "secrets" being the action words. "24 hours" will also be a motivating phrase for readers.

Don't worry about your voice mail phone line being busy when more than one person calls in. One of the great things about voice mail is that multiple people can call your "box" at the same time! This is because your messages and their messages aren't recorded on tape, as in an answering machine. They are recorded digitally in a computer. No tape rewinding, no busy signals!

What will happen is that people will call from the ad, and, if your selling message is good, they will order your product. Try placing a 17 word classified ad that will actually sell your product! It can't be done. Yet, by "expanding" your classified ad in this way, you can actually draw sales at a far lower expense than if you had to send out information, or place display ads.

How much will this cost? Voice mail prices vary from service to service, and with the number of features you need. You can usually get started with a basic voice mail box for around $10 per month!

You might think you can get an answering machine for a few months worth of voice mail rent, and do this at home. You can, but you'll have to get multiple phone lines installed, and a very expensive answering machine in order to get the benefits you'll get from voice mail. Someone else has laid out the equipment expense, you just use their equipment!