Tier5 Partnership Program - The Ultimate Software Program

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝟭𝟬𝟬% 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲?
Wouldn't that be like an Affiliate Marketers Dream?
Here's what you get as a Tier5 Jr. Partner

✅ Access to all current and future Tier5 Software, there are 12 in the market right now, and 30+ full time software engineers on staff.

✅ Agency Accounts. Get 25 accounts on all Tier5 Software, sell at the price you want and keep 100% of the revenue you generate


✅ Advanced training – Tier5 will provide advanced training in using the software, automation, chatbots, affiliate marketing, and many other things.

✅ Networking opportunity. Network with the guys you see in the videos, and many more Tier5 Partners.

Does that sound like “The Ultimate Affiliate Business Program”?
How much is it? $97/month
What can the software do?
Generate Leads
Increase Conversion
Collect Payment
Ringless Voicemail
2 way calling
IVR's (press 1 campaigns)
SMS Marketing
SMS Chatbots
Email Autoresponder
Drip Campaign

Watch the videos from people I'm sure you know of in the Clickfunnels space (they are also partners)

If you want to learn more, you can visit the link below an offer that you will literally lose money if you pass it up.

 >>>>>>>   Tier5 Partnership Program 


Spots are limited. You don't have to act now, but if you wait the spots will run out and you will miss a Passive Income opportunity. 

Tier5 builds amazing software that people love to buy. 

Watch the videos and you will see what people are saying about the Company and the Software

 >>>>>>> Tier5 Partnership Program   

This post contains affiliate links which we receive a commision if you make a purchase using the link. You are not charged anymore using the link to make your purchase.

For Traffic Generation, Differentiate Your Brand with Awesome Copy

HAVE you ever noticed that you stay on some websites a lot longer than others?

To market your brand and business, you need to elevate your copy so readers love to interact with your website. The most loyal customers will anticipate each blog post you write, excited for new insights and entertainment.

It sounds like a lofty goal, but with the right ingredients, you can bring in new traffic with electrifying content and awesome marketing copy:

Make Your Copy Short and Sweet

Although long-form copy performs well in some industries (particularly in B2B sectors), most marketers need to trim down their work. Ideally, every word on a website shines a light on the value of your service or product. Copy that emphasizes how a company can transform customers’ lives is most likely to strike a chord.

If you’re not sure if your marketing copy is concise enough, take a highlighter to a printed version of your website page. Mark every word that helps your audience understand what you do, why you do it, and how your company stands out from the crowd. Leave out superfluous details, so your message can truly shine.

Be Authentic to Your Brand

In order to create traffic, you need to understand the unique attributes you offer customers. Instead of mimicking the voice and pitch of other brands — especially competitors — write down what appeals to you about their marketing. Maybe it’s their killer Instagram account? Or their confidence in connecting with their audience?

Awesome copy is an extension of a company’s brand, so also identify what makes you different from competitors. Perhaps, it’s your stellar customer service or your big community. These are the characteristics you want to identify in your copy. If you struggle to identify what sets you apart, record your voice in a smartphone describing your original vision for the company. Type it up. Next, go through the copy, and cherry pick the clearest, boldest copy to use on your website.

Incorporate Feedback from Your Ideal Audience

Even if you follow these two steps, you’re still not out of the woods. Amazing copy resonates with an audience — the best way to find out if it hits the mark is to ask. To ensure you’re crafting awesome copy to your website, reach out to a batch of people who represent your target audience. They could include a set of honest friends, or loyal customers who are willing to answer a short survey.

You can also offer an incentive to email subscribers, such as 15% off a future purchase for participation in the survey. For a template, consider the following survey request from the clothing and homeware shop Anthropologie — it’s a pretty stellar way to ask for help.

In your survey, share some simple questions that gauge your audience’s perspective on your current marketing campaign. A simple Google Form or a free tool such as SurveyMaker will due the trick. Creating a survey with anonymous responses increases the likelihood of participation. With accurate feedback, you can gauge the extent to which you need to adjust your marketing copy.
These three guidelines to awesome copy extend to social media, email marketing, and print materials too. By crafting language that resonates with both your brand and your audience, you pave a clear path toward increased traffic generation and higher sales.

Tell us how do you feel about it and don't forget to share it with your friends..

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Release of FREE ClickFunnels Reference Books

Clickfunnels release free books [ You cover shipping] giving away all their essential secrets and knowledge on sales funnels and Internet Marketing.
Click the links to get your copies while they last:-
tiny.cc/DotComSecrets
tiny.cc/ExpertSecretsBook

Traffic Academy: Get In the Driver’s Seat! (Part 1)

If you have a website, you have to understand online traffic.
Entrepreneurs who know how to drive traffic to their sites (and convert it), are the ones who are making 5, 6, and 7 figure incomes.
As for those who haven’t quite figured out the traffic formula…they are more in the 2, 3, and 4 figure range.
As you can see, traffic is a crucial piece to the online business puzzle.
So, we created this guide to teach new digital marketers owners how to use it effectively.
We’ll start by introducing you to online traffic and all the basics.
Then, you’ll learn tried-and-tested traffic strategies that work, so you can hit the ground running!
Since there’s a lot to cover, we’re breaking the training down into 2 parts:

• Part 1 (that you’re reading now) will teach you the methods of driving free traffic
• Part 2 will dive into paid methods of driving traffic

Let’s get started!

Online traffic basics

What is online traffic?

Online traffic or web traffic is technically the data that moves between online visitors and the websites they visit.
But, from a marketing standpoint, traffic really refers to the flow of visitors to a location online – whether that is a website, a landing page, a social media profile or anything of the sort.

Why is online traffic important?

For one, online traffic equals people visiting your website.
In the digital world, this is the equivalent of people coming into a physical store.
The more people who visit, the more opportunities you have to close sales.
More sales mean more revenue and who doesn’t love that?
Plus, traffic can provide great data and insights into a website’s performance.
For example, you can see where traffic is coming from, allowing you to invest more into the channels with the highest ROI.
Or, alternatively, you could see that a sign-up page isn’t as effective as it needs to be, and enable you to make edits to your copy – improving conversions accordingly!

How is online traffic measured?

Online traffic can be measured very simply.
All web servers generate a log file where traffic statistics are kept.
This data can be easily viewed and managed for free through Google Analytics or various other heat map/analytics tools.
When looking at online traffic statistics, the key metrics which you can learn from include:

• The number of visitors pages receive
• Average page views generated by each unique visitor. Higher page views indicate a visitor showing an interest in a site and looking at the various pages it offers.
• The duration that each visitors stays at a particular website. Again, the longer they stay on a website the more interested they are.
• The duration they spend on each particular page.
• Times when most traffic is generated.
• The most popular pages.
• The pages first viewed. This helps to show which pages are attracting people to your website.
• Exit pages. Those that cause visitors to leave a website.
• Paths. How visitors navigate through your site.

How do websites gain traffic?

Earning traffic can be done in numerous ways, some of which are free and others which are paid.
In this first part of the series, we will take a closer look at the following free methods you can (and should be) utilizing:

• Email marketing
• Blogging
• Social media
• SEO

Free Traffic Methods

Email Marketing

The first free traffic method we’re going to cover in Part 1 is email marketing.
Email marketing becomes a traffic source when you drive traffic from your emails.
By adding links and enticing copy to your messages, you can direct subscribers to visit your website, an affiliate offer or another place of interest online.
Email marketing traffic should always be driven by personalized emails that are relevant to where the recipient is in the buying cycle (i.e. new visitor looking for information, has shown interest in specific products or services, has made a purchase, long time loyal customer).
This way, the messages help to engage readers and nurture them further through the buying cycle.
How effective is email marketing?
It has shown to offer the highest ROI of any online marketing tactic!

Email Marketing Best Practices

Emails are a great opportunity to entice your audience with promotions.
A key to successful conversions is segmenting your audience properly.
You want to send the right message at the right time.
For example, a 10% off coupon would be a good idea when someone has left their shopping cart before checkout.
Besides promotions, you can stay at the forefront of your audience’s mind by sending regular monthly newsletters which share what’s new, links to blogs (more on those next), recent projects, or industry related news.
This helps to build the relationship and keep your audience engaged.
By choosing your links wisely, you can drive customers back to your website on a regular basis.
You can use Sendlane to engage your audience and send out timely, personalized emails right now!

Blogging

Next up is blogging.
You probably read a few blogs regularly but may not know they are a key tactic for increasing traffic to a website.
Research shows blogging can increase traffic by 55%.
Blogs provide an opportunity to inform potential customers about your company while sharing information that is useful and interesting to them.
Blogs work to drive traffic through SEO tactics and links.
In the example below you’ll notice this blog article has internal links to a variety of helpful resources available elsewhere on the site.
The author is sharing valuable content that not only teaches the reader about the subject, but also more about what the company can offer:

Blogging Best Practices

When writing blogs you want to think along the same lines as you use on social media which means quality, engaging content.
People want to be informed, entertained, or inspired… not blatantly sold to.
So write about topics related to your industry that customer want to know about and that they will find interesting.
You want to show users how your products or services can be used in daily life, and guide them through FAQs about them.
Once they are interested in the actual messaging in your blog posts, they may find subtly included links to your products and services helpful.
As far as optimizing blogs, keywords will come into play and long tail keywords are helpful.
You will want to optimize all posts with keywords, tags URLs, and Meta descriptions which work like the directions for search engines to find them.
Also, Google looks for active sites that are providing consistent content so you will want to plan a blog schedule with regular posts and stick to it!

Social media

Practically everyone is on social media nowadays, which means these platforms are senda great source for traffic.
In fact, you’d be missing a huge opportunity if you didn’t make efforts on the different platforms (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, etc.).
To use social media channels effectively you will want to post content that your followers see as relevant.
This should also include links to your website, so customers can easily make the jump, like this example from the Sendlane Facebook page:

 

Most importantly, social media shouldn’t be used just to promote your website but should have content that will interest your followers.
For example, share relevant blogs, free eBooks, videos, online courses or webinars that will draw followers to your website – like the “Free Training” shown in the example above!
Post on a consistent basis about stories, thoughts, photos, and videos that relate to your business but are not just about your business.
Remember: People don’t go on social media to be sold, they want to be entertained, engaged, and are looking to interact socially, so humanize your brand and post content that people will find helpful. 

Social Media Best Practices

As we said, social media is a place to engage with people and it offers a broader reach than most any other marketing medium. (1/5^th of the world’s population is now on Facebook!)
One of the best ways to reach an audience of people who will likely be interested in your business is to look to influencers in your industry.
Who is making big waves and generating a lot of attention?
You want to target their audience and build relationships with them.
To do this, you can begin engaging with the influencer’s page with likes, comments, and shares.
You can also create infographics, tutorials, or whitepapers that offer value to others in your industry (not just your customers), add your name and link to them, and send them to influencers.
This can be a great way to get more exposure and build your network as others share your work.
After some rapport has been established, you can ask if you would be able to guest post on their page, channel, site, or blog, or if they would like to work out another type of collaboration.
Furthermore, you want to become known in your industry yourself and can do so by joining groups and participating actively.
Remember you don’t want to go in with a mindset of sales, but of positioning yourself as a thought leader in your niche with helpful and relevant information.
Comment on issues, reply to any messages, and participate in conversations.
This will build trust and credibility.
Once your audience starts to flock, be prepared with a call to action button on your page for those who are interested.
Also, continue to nurture your relationships with consistent valuable content.
A good practice is to provide 80% engaging content and 20% promotional on social media.

SEO

Next up is SEO, which Google in particular has made very important for businesses.
Just “Google it” is such a common phrase because search engines have made information so easy to find!
All you have to do it a quick search and a world of information is at your fingertips.
From answers to the most random questions to the “best of” specific products and services.
Because of that, having your website featured on the first page of search engine results is paramount!
It takes time but the first 3 search results account for about 65% of clicks!
The top results are often viewed as the most credible or highest quality, which is great for anyone who does the work to make it there.
Plus, when you get there organically, you have the added benefit of retaining your position longer than paid results.
Even if you stop SEO efforts, it takes about 3-6 months to drop off.
To improve search engine rankings for a website, you need to make sure your website includes a number of SEO techniques.
Of course, you need to start with quality content, but others include the use of keyword targeting as well as inbound link building amongst others.
In the screenshots below, you can see the landing page for Macy’s women’s dresses.
This page ranked #1 for women’s dresses so let’s take a look at what they are doing.

 

They display all of their dresses for sale first and then accompany the page with a keyword-packed piece of content at the bottom of the page.
These keywords shows search engine crawlers what the page is about and help it come up for a variety of searches.
This page would trigger results for cocktail dresses, little black dress, bridesmaid dresses, and more.

 

If you are unsure of how SEO works, take a look at our SEO 101 article to learn more.
From there, you’ll develop an understanding of how to be sure your website hits all the marks.

SEO Best Practices

While SEO is a very detailed topic that experts take years to understand and perfect, there are a few best practices that can help.
First, keywords are the bridge between seekers and results.
You need to perform an in-depth analysis of what words your audience uses when looking for your products or service.
Over time, you can track, test and optimize your keywords.
Also, functionality is very important as web consumers these days will leave after mere seconds of waiting for your web page to load.
This means anything that causes slow loading (rotating banners, clunky media, etc.) needs to be trimmed.
On the same note, mobile friendliness is a major ranking factor now so you need to be sure your website is responsive and designed with mobile customers in mind.
Build your site for speed, this not only means fast loading but easy navigation, content written for easy scanning, and have the most pertinent information prioritized.
Lastly, your website is on the world wide web, right?
The key word there is web – meaning the more connected it is, the better.
Links are the way you make connections.
Integrating them should be done to direct visitors deeper into your own website, as well as making connections from other sites to yours.
The more high authority sites that link to your site, the more valuable you will look to search engines.

Drive Traffic to Drive Sales

Traffic is what will make or break an online business.
But it doesn’t magically appear once you create a website.
Your website is just one piece of a larger puzzle which only attracts traffic when it’s all put together.
So is driving traffic to your website easy?
I wouldn’t say so.
However, it is very possible when you know what to do and have the dedication to follow through!
Plus you have these 4 methods to get started with right away!
Ready to learn how to drive even more traffic to your website?
The second and final part of this series which focuses on paid traffic sources will be available next week, so stay tuned for Traffic Academy: Part 2.



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The Advantages of Segmenting Your Email Lists

 No matter how perfect an email you send, there will always be a small number of causalities (aka “unsubscribes”). As reported by MarketingProfs, the average unsubscribe rate is 0.25%. That may sound negligible, but if you have an email marketing list with 2,000 subscribers, that’s 6 potential customers lost!

Luckily, there are ways to minimize your loss, and one of the best ways to keep unsubscribes at a minimum is to use list segmentation. By targeting specific groups within your list, you can greatly improve the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.

Why Segment?

Increase sales & engagement
You probably wouldn’t sell San Francisco Giants T-shirts to your customers living in St. Louis (go Cards!). If you know your customers in one region have a preference for some products or services over others, you can target those groups with special offers for the things they most likely want. You may want to offer a special on air conditioners, for example, to a geographic area where temperatures are high on average. If you have a winery, send special emails to your Chardonnay lovers about your white wines. Or if you offer services, create a series of tips or how-tos for people currently using one of the services so they can get more out of it.

You can also segment your lists based on ‘engaged’ users who open and/or click your emails often. These users interact with your emails frequently and will give you an excellent understanding as to what content they desire or like the most via opens and clicks.

Reward customers
Segmenting is a fantastic way to say, “Hey, thanks!” By offering special discounts to your repeat customers, you’re able to show appreciation and sell at the same time. You can also observe their buying behavior and offer them more of the products or services they buy the most while reducing the number of emails they receive about items they’ve shown no interest in.

Avoid being seen as spam
When you email too frequently, your emails run the risk of being marked as spam by recipients. This can be avoided if you’ve managed their expectations at the time of sign up by letting them know how often they’ll receive email from you. When you segment, however, you also send fewer emails to the same list and curb some of this risk.

Tips for Better List Segmentation

• Collect enough information to segment
  When your subscribers sign up for your email list, capture the information you’ll need to successfully segment your list. For example, if you want to segment by geographic area you’ll want to collect your recipients’ zip codes. If you want to target them by a preference, you’ll want to ask more specific questions. In our winery example, you’d want to know if recipients prefer red or white wines. Adding a question or two to your opt-in form will make segmenting your list much easier down the line. If you find that you haven’t been collecting the right info, you can always ask your readers to update their preferences.

• Review purchase history
  You may have a monthly newsletter that goes to everyone and then more targeted emails that advertise specific products or services. Use segmentation to create lists of  people in your database based on past activities such as purchase history or those who clicked a buy link in your email. Offering special promotions to your customers that you know already buy from you can lead to increased sales and help maintain a loyal following. Or, try creating segments based on where your customers are in the buying cycle. Have they just signed up for your service, but not made a purchase? Are they still in the “free trial” stage? Send emails to these specific audiences to either get them to use your service, help them through any other process they may need, or to eventually make a purchase.

• Use your email reporting toolsYou may not have a lot of geographic information on your customers – but that’s okay! If you’re using VerticalResponse or a similar ESP, you can use the information you already have in your email reporting. Use your reporting to see who clicked certain links in your emails. For example, if you had a sale on candles in your last email, you could send a new, targeted email with a special offer for candles to the people who clicked that link.

Of course, you can do much more than that!  Segmenting your email marketing lists is a lot easier than you may think. If you’re a VerticalResponse user and you want to know how to use our segmenting tools to create targeted mailing lists, read our text tutorial and/or watch our video, “Create Targeted Lists Using Segments.”

Segmenting your email marketing lists can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be, but every little effort helps in keeping your customers satisfied and your lists growing. Even if you run a small business, you can benefit from segmenting. We’d love to hear you segment your lists.


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How To Boost Sales Between Christmas and New Year

 Aghh, with just a few weeks to go until Christmas, no doubt you have started to have a discussion in the office as to when putting your tree up is too early. With the big event taking the prominence, and the before Christmas sales kicking in already, what are you planning for the period between Christmas and New Year? Take a look at some of our suggestions on how to boost your sales between Christmas and New Year…

Predominantly this period was sales time, but in recent years this period has started to move to before Christmas. If you look at the top 10 shopping days from 2016, compiled by ShopperTrak, you will see that 9 of the top 10 are in the pre-Christmas period, with just Boxing day sitting at number 2. Business Insider have also got their own list and this time no post-Christmas days feature in the top 10 days. However, Boxing day does feature in their shopper visits report, at number 5.

I suppose historically, pre-Christmas shopping was all about buying gifts for nearest and dearest and post christmas shopping is much more about yourself. From a seasonal goodwill point of view it’s good that the pre-Christmas spend is much higher but, from a retailer’s point of view not so much. So, how can you boost sales in that period between Christmas and New year?

Special Deals
If you are anything like me, you will be shopping in a wide variety of stores and websites for Christmas gifts, and I am sure that you will also find that these shops are very different to your usual haunts. So look at ways you can incentivise these new and also loyal customers to return after Christmas. Offering a discount or money off coupons that are only valid for a short duration of time can help to get them back through the door and, if there isn’t anything of interest to them in your store, you may find that they pass this offer on to the person they brought the gift for in the first place!

Sales
You will find that most retailers will start their sales on Boxing day, unless like John Lewis in 2016, who kept their physical stores closed on Boxing day so their staff could enjoy extra time with their family. However in 2016 the footfall for the boxing day sales was down by 6.7%* on 2015, as shoppers are starting to opt in to staying in and shoping online. Will this trend continue in 2017? In 2016 online boxing day sales were expected to increase 15% year on year to £984m, and it is worth noting that it is expected on Christmas day online spend will be £805m, up 10%**. The actual figures are hard to come by as retailers generally post figure for December, and not specific dates.

So throughout this post-festive period, utilise your subscribers by issuing them special and relevant sales items right to their inbox by using some dynamic content. Entice that Christmas day spend, with some seasons greeting and a special promotion. If you have a physical store on the high street or in a retail park, use you emails to drive shopper to in store special offers.

* http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/shopping-deals/boxing-day-sales-see-drop-9523742
**https://www.awa-digital.com/blog/christmas-2016-stats-round-up






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5 Reasons Why Prospects Don’t Buy From You

It doesn’t matter how good you are at selling, your close rate will never be 100%. But if you’re consistently losing deals you should have won, there’s probably a reason -- if not several.
Fortunately, once you diagnose the cause, you can improve your process, and ultimately, your results.

The 5 Major Reasons Prospects Don't Buy

1) You’re trying to sell to everyone

What this sounds like: “I’m not sure my company really needs [product].”

A good sales pipeline is about quality, not quantity. If your prospects aren’t buying from you, reevaluate the quality of your opportunities. Have they been carefully targeted? Do you know why they’re good fits? Or are you simply trying to sell to anyone who shows the slightest bit of interest in your product?
While it might seem counterintuitive to walk away from anyone, narrowing your focus to the most qualified prospects will make you more successful. Not only are these buyers far likelier to pull the trigger, you’ll have also more time to spend on each one -- letting you personalize your outreach and develop compelling business cases.

2) You’re driving customers away

What this sounds like: “I’m not interested; please stop contacting me.”

There’s a reason most people never answer calls from unknown numbers anymore: They don’t want to be sold to. And if reps continue to use email as a spamming tool -- rather than a means of genuinely connecting with and helping prospects -- messages from strangers will begin to go unanswered as well. (Even more so than right now.)
Dial back the fake enthusiasm. Stop pestering your prospects. Instead, act like yourself and provide real value. It might be helpful to envision yourself as a consultant rather than a salesperson. You should also learn as much as possible about your prospects so you don’t waste their time asking for basic information like how large their company is and what they sell.

3) You’re not surfacing objections

What this sounds like: “Actually, X is a pretty big concern for us, so I think we’re going to [go with Y competitor, pass].”

I get it: Digging for objections is scary. Once you acknowledge them, they’re out there -- concrete reasons the prospect shouldn’t buy. But the reality is, objections exist whether or not you hear them … and the best (really the only) time to resolve those concerns is in the beginning and middle stages of the sales process, while the buyer’s mind is still open.
To learn what’s keeping your prospect back from purchasing right this second, ask:

• “If this didn’t go through, what would the reason be?”
• “We’ve talked about why you like [product] -- can we spend some time on what you don’t like?”
• “It’s very normal to have some concerns about this type of purchase. Are you open to sharing yours with me, if you have them?”
• “We’ve discussed ‘pros.’ What’s on the ‘cons’ side of the list for you?”

4) You’re not creating urgency

What this sounds like: “Maybe next [quarter, year].”

Your product may be your primary focus, but to your prospect, it’s just another thing fighting for their attention. Without a reason to buy now rather than later, the deal is likely to die on the vine. Want it to come to fruition? Then ask probing questions that reveal why the buyer’s business or well-being somehow hinges on having the product.
Here are five examples:

• “What happens if you don’t solve this problem by [X date]?”
• “Describe the consequences of missing [Y goal].”
• “Can you explain what’s riding on [Z strategy]?”
• “Is [fixing, addressing, improving] this a priority right now? Where would you say it falls on your list of priorities?”
• “How long has this been an issue? Why are you focusing on it now?”

5) You don’t want the prospect feel safe

What this sounds like: “I’m not sure we’re ready for this yet.”

No one wants to put their neck on the line for something they’re not 100% confident about. This fact kills many deals; after all, think about what would happen to your prospect if they advocated for your product, successfully got the budget, led a time- and resource-intensive implementation initiative -- and then the solution was ineffective, or worse, completely flopped.
They might not be out of a job, but their internal reputation would definitely suffer.
That’s why part of your job involves making them feel comfortable with the investment and the risks involved. You can do this in several ways.
First, if your company offers any purchase protection terms -- like full refunds, a trial period, or your money back if you don’t see certain results -- make sure to highlight those throughout your conversations.
You should also establish credibility by:

• Referring to current customers -- the more well-known, the better
• Sending case studies and testimonials to your prospect
• Offering to connect them with references
• Sharing positive online reviews you’ve gotten
• Bringing up any awards or industry honors your product or company has received

Learning it's not them, it's you, is never fun. But now that you've figured out what's going wrong, you can take the appropriate steps.

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43 Questions to Create a Sense of Urgency

 Create a Sense of Urgency in Sales

If you don’t want your deals to stall -- or end up in nothing -- make sure to establish urgency. Urgency gives your prospects a reason to move forward and overcome inertia. Help them understand why every day, week, or month without your product hurts their business so they’re compelled to act as soon as possible.

Your product could be a great fit for your prospect. It's within their budget, you've offered them the perfect discount -- it should be a slam dunk. But unless they feel a sense of urgency, your prospect won't buy.

So, you should create some. Right?

Wrong. Sales strategist David Weinhaus, who works with HubSpot partner agencies, has a strong view on “creating” urgency.

Instead of manufacturing a cause to act -- which isn’t helpful to your prospect and will ultimately backfire -- either uncover an existing reason they’re not aware of or back off.

Ask the right questions -- like the ones below -- and get your prospect to realize they’re unhappy or dissatisfied. And if your questions don’t lead them to those conclusions, accept they’re still in education mode and let your marketing department nurture them until the time is right.

How to Create Urgency in Sales

Ask about their business

1) "How big is the company today in terms of annual revenue, approximate customer number, and employee headcount?"

This question helps you qualify them and start a discussion about how big they’d like to be in the future (and what’s currently standing in the way).

2) "Is the business struggling, in a steady state, or in growth mode? Is [company] growing faster than the industry average?"

Remind the buyer of their overarching business goals. This is a good tie-in to how your product would play into their strategy.

3) "Many of the people in your role I talk to don’t know [ a surprising fact]. Did you?"

I like the Challenger Sale method of teaching your prospect something new -- not only will your credibility and authority go up, but you’ll naturally uncover urgency. The buyer will want to act on this information ASAP.

Ask about their pain points

4) "What is the problem you’re looking to solve?"

The buyer might be focused on a different pain point than you. Use this question to figure out if they’re on the right track. Sometimes, prospects try to address the symptoms rather than the cause by mistake.

5) "Why is now the right time to solve it?"

Asking why now is the right to solve this issue gives you an early glimpse into how much urgency your prospect already has. If it's not yet an urgent problem, you might lead them to realizing it is.

6) "Who or what is this problem affecting most?"

It might be their boss, themselves, or the company, but asking this question allows them to consider the human or business costs of not addressing this issue quickly. 

7) "Is the problem clearly defined?"

Learn how much time they’ve spent investigating the issue. Hint: The more clearly they’ve isolated it, the more invested they probably are in fixing it.

8) "Have you had this problem before?"

Figure out just how persistent your prospect’s pain point is.

9) "Is the problem easy or hard to address?"

Chances are, the prospect will say it’s the latter. If it was easy to solve, they would have tackled it by now.

10) "How does this problem affect the revenue, profitability, culture, or product cycle of the business?"

This question highlights the larger implications of what’s going wrong.

11) "Does this problem affect a lot of people?"

Get your prospect thinking about how widespread the effects are.

12) "Are you tasked with solving this problem as part of your regular job, or is this a special assignment?"

If your prospect says, “It’s part of my job,” then make sure you tie their overall performance to fixing this issue. If they say, “It’s a special assignment,” then there’s already genuine urgency: They need to identify an answer before a certain date.

Ask about the consequences of not buying

13) "What happens if you address the problem? What happens if you don’t?"

This naturally leads the buyer to compare life with your product and life without. The second is usually much less appealing.

14) "When do you need to start seeing the results of implementing the solution?"

The prospect would probably love to see results right away. Their answer will help them realize why time is of the essence.

15) "What is the one thing that, if we could help solve it quickly, would have the most meaningful impact on the company?"

Once you’ve pinpointed a major opportunity to help, urgency will spring up naturally.

16) "How would solving this problem affect you personally?"

Knowing the buyer’s individual motivators can make or break the deal.

17) "How does this affect your boss?"

When the prospect’s boss is happy, they’re happy. Connect the dots between your solution and their supervisor.

18) "What happens if you keep doing what you are doing?"

It’s far easier to stick with the status quo than make a change, even if the long-term ramifications could sink the prospect’s business. With this question, you’ll get them to come to terms with the dangers of ignoring the issue.

Ask about how the problem affects them 

19) "How can we make you look like a star?"

This question turns you into the prospect’s partner, instead of just their rep. It also helps you pinpoint how your product can help them look great at the office.

20) "What do you need to do/what objectives must you reach to get a promotion?"

Along similar lines as #17, this question reveals why the buyer is personally invested in finding a solution.

21) "How does this problem affect you on a day-to-day basis?"

Most professionals put up with annoying or deleterious pain points. As soon as you show the prospect there’s a better, easier way, they’ll be more eager to buy.

22) "How does this problem affect [department]?"

Get them to zoom out and visualize the impact on the wider team.

23) "If you weren’t experiencing this pain anymore, which projects/priorities could you focus on?"

This question makes the buyer envision a world where they have time, energy, and resources for the tasks or initiatives they’re interested in.

24) "What’s the most frustrating aspect of this problem?"

Once you learn what’s driving your prospect up the wall, you can position your product accordingly.

25) "What [projects, campaigns, initiatives] are you currently working on? How does [challenge] impact your plans?"

This is another way of learning how the pain point is interfering with or obstructing their day-to-day work.

26) "What problems come up most frequently at executive meetings?"

If the CEO cares about an issue, your prospect will too.

27) "Which problems keep you at the office late?"

Figure out which issues the buyer doesn’t have an easy answer to.

28) "Which themes are coming up again and again on [Slack, Hipchat, your knowledge base/wiki]?"

While not every company uses internal knowledge base or a wiki, asking those who do about the most common themes can help you pinpoint the most exciting, visible, or challenging things they’re facing.

Ask about the competition

29) "Is your industry getting more competitive?"

Most industries are. Capitalize on your prospect’s awareness that they need to act to maintain their edge -- or gain one in the first place.

30) "Are you worried about [specific competitor]?"

Figure out who’s nipping at your prospect’s heels, then show them how your solution will widen the gap in their favor.

31) "Do you ever get the sense that [people in prospect’s department] are wasting [time, effort, leads, budget]?"

Mitigating (or even eliminating) the inefficiencies in the buyer’s department would be a huge win. Open their eyes to the possibility of a fix.

32) "Have you ever lost a major customer unexpectedly?"

Whether the answer is yes or no, this question works. If your prospect has, they’ll be eager to take precautions so it doesn’t happen again. If your prospect hasn’t, the wheels will start turning: Wow, it would be really bad if 20% of our business vanished in one stroke.

33) "How [did, would] losing that customer affect the business?"

Get the buyer to vocalize the negative effects, which will drive their desire to avoid the catastrophe even higher.

34) "How do you avoid getting caught in a pricing war?"

Chances are, your prospect would love to find a differentiator that would save them from race-to-the-bottom pricing. You just need to explain why your product is that differentiator.

35) "Are your customers asking for [feature/service] you don't have?"

If their customers are asking for something your prospect's business can't currently offer, that's asking for a competitor to fill a gap. If you can get your prospect thinking about what they don't have and how you can help them get it -- that's a good way to inspire urgency.

Ask about next steps

36) "Would you be interested in talking to [Customer], who saw a [X%] return on our [solution, service]?"

Hearing from someone who got fantastic results will spur your prospect to the finish line.

37) "Maybe it would be helpful for you to talk to someone who’s [made this journey recently, faced X similar challenge, resolved the same issue]. What do you think?"

If it’s too early in the sales process for references, suggest a knowledge-sharing conversation instead. You’re still connecting the buyer with a satisfied customer -- but their shared experiences are the focus, not your product.

The nice thing about this technique? Not only is it helpful for the prospect and your customer, but at some point during the conversation they’re bound to bring up your solution.

38) "If we supply all the information you need in the next 24 hours, will you have time to review it and get started by [date in the near future]?"

Test your prospect’s commitment to act with this question. If they say they’re not ready, don’t be pushy -- instead, ask what else they’d need to make a decision.

39) "If I send over the contract when we hang up, can you return it to me in [six days from the current date]?"

Sales consultant Jeff Hoffman encourages reps to close this way. Normally, the buyer says they’ll need more time -- at which point you say, “Okay, can you do [preliminary step] by that date?” They’ll say yes, and now you’ve gotten a concrete agreement to make progress on the deal within the week. Boom.

(Adjust the date based on your sales cycle. If it usually lasts two weeks, ask if they can sign the proposal that day. If it lasts 10 to 12 months, ask if they can sign the proposal in three weeks.)

40) "Define your timeline for solving the problem and getting the right results."

Make sure your prospect’s expectations align with reality. You may need to accelerate the sales process to meet their timeline.

41) "When must this problem be solved to avoid negative impact on the business?"

Get a firm deadline for the purchase. Explain to the prospect you should shoot for a few weeks or months before this deadline to protect against delays.

42) "Is there seasonality in your business? Do you have a busy or slow season? Do you need to address this problem before the busy or slow season hits?"

For prospects affected by seasonality (like education, tourism, and entertainment), it can be critical to get a solution in place while business is relatively quieter.

43) "If we can work out a solution sooner, how does that help you?"

Fixing a problem earlier rather than later is almost always a good thing. The best part about this question is that the buyer puts those benefits in their own words.

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