Small Business Marketing to Up Your Profits in a Down Economy with Marketing Systems

One of the single biggest marketing problems I see with small businesses is the lack of a marketing system. Every thing they do is tactical and is rarely planned, budgeted, tracked or measured.

A media rep comes into the business and says, “You need my product to get clients.” TV, radio, newspaper, Yellow Pages or an agency. The thing is that they all have compelling stories and loads of statistics on impressions, market awareness, branding and loads of other marketing terms. Which do you choose?

Most businesses are in a “trial” mode and will keep trying whatever is sold to them, hoping that one of them will be the magis bullet. Worse yet, they continue running an ad without knowing if it is generating the results they need. They think, “Hey, I’m getting my name out there.” When somebody needs me, they’ll give me a ring.

As the spider webs gather on the phone, the owner gets frustrated, the ad rep tells them they need to run a larger ad or run it longer. That’s a bunch of garbage. If you had an investment that was tanking and your broker told you to wait or invest more, you’d find a new broker.

Before you advertise, you need to think of how you are going to systematize your marketing. The advantage of the marketing system is that you can actually plan on results. Wouldn’t it be nice to know if you implement a certain element of your marketing system, you will most likely make a fairly predictable amount of profit?

Companies all over the world are doing it everyday. The owner knows what business is coming in and where it is coming from. Once I set up a system in a business and test my materials, the owner knows that if they send out a certain mailing to their clients, they will make a predictable return. If they run a particular ad with a particular offer, they know it will make them a predictable amount of money.

You can do the same in your business. In my previous posts, I talked about leverage. Now we are into the systems and the types of systems that you can build in your business. I make money and get referrals through the success of my clients, not due to the size or frequency of their media buys. Stick with me and I you will learn the basic elements of implementing my powerful and guaranteed Hidden Asset Marketing System in your business.

Small Business Marketing to Up Your Profits in a Down Economy

In my last post, I introduced the concept of LEVERAGE and the impact it will have on your business when you understand and integrate the concept into EVERYTHING you do. I wrote about leveraging every contact and individual in your business and network for to maximize the benefit to them and the profits to you.

This post is about leveraging and systematizing communications. When you prepare any client or prospect communication, think beyond using it for that individual and instead create it as a template for a communication you will be using repeatedly. Whether it is a thank you note, collection letter, sales letter or proposal letter, you can use it again. Create it as a mail merge document so you can maximize efficiency.

Does your staff send out personal communications? They should be sending out the same materials so you have control of the message and content as well as to improve their efficiency. Think of it like this: Do you want an employee who is having a bad day or is planning on leaving you to be writing to your clients and prospects without your oversight?

Do you want a sales rep who should be in front of clients and prospects to be spending hours or days preparing communications and proposals? Remember that it is human nature to find activities to fill the time available and many feel as long as they are doing something, anything, they are working, irregardless if it is actually productive.

Do you have an online or offline newsletter, autoresponder, ezine, blog, Web site or participate in social marketing sites like facebook? If so, you have massive opportunities to leverage and create a system in which one communication can be used for each of the marketing tactics.

If you properly structure all of these communications, you will have the materials required to prepare special reports to use as an incentive to get clients to sign up for your newsletter. If you combine the special reports, you have the material for a book or information product!

The majority of the materials and posts you read that I write are either from a special report that I’ve already written or are being compiled for a future report and book.

Leveraging and systematizing your marketing and business are so important that I will devote a lot of posts and notes to them. After all, I need materials for my book, don’t I?

Up your profits in a down economy – Post 3

In my last post, I wrote about the importance of improving your selling skills. Without a doubt, it is the simplest way to dramatically increase the value of each sale.

Even if you don’t take the time to go through a professional selling course or book, there are some things you can do to increase the average transaction value.

• Start by identifying your most popular selling products or those that are easiest to sell.
• Select one or more products or services that compliment these products.
• Create “bundles” with special package pricing that applies if the client buys the extra product at the same time as the initial purchase.
• Create a sales script and rehearse the words that you will use to up-sell to a client. Say you own a pet store and a client just bought a training leash for their new dog. You say, “If you are using this for training, I recommend you also get the bookGood Owners, Great Dogs. I think it’s one of the best training books ever written. If you get the book today with the training leash, I can discount the book 10%.”
• It’s that easy. The key is to know what extra value you can bring to your client, believe in the value of what you are offering and ask the client to buy it.

The key is to get used to asking. Will it work every time? No, but it will only work if you ask! Whatever you sell, it is very likely you can add value with additional products. Since you’ve already spent the money to get the client in front of you, you owe it to yourself and the client to insure they have everything they need!

How to write your Unique Selling Proposition

Once you’ve completed the research on your Unique Selling Proposition, you need to craft your initial USP. Don’t try to create a slogan or be cute. Write between 60 and 100 words that capture the essence of your uniqueness.

Once you have that and believe it fits the bill, start to wordsmith it down to fewer words. Read it into a recorder and play it back to see how it sounds to you. Improve it and then set it down for a day or so and read it again. Does it sound compelling? Is it filled with benefits for the client? Will it make a prospect say, “Really, tell me more?”

This video goes more into depth about actually writing your USP and gives some great tips and pointers about creating a powerful USP for your company.

Increase your profits in a recession!

I’m going to be writing a series of posts about small business strategies to profit during a recession.

First of all, I do believe there are some real serious economic challenges, particularly for large companies or even smaller companies who may be having some challenges obtaining credit.  I also believe that there are a lot more opportunities than the media would have us all believe.

Case in point – During a recent segment on Good Morning America, Diane Sawyer was interviewing an Avon distributor.  She acted astonished that women were buying cosmetics in such a tough economy.  About half of the people I know are women and I can’t tihink of a single one who quit applying makeup every day.  The absurdity of Ms. Sawyer’s comment was unbelievable!

Head to Walgreens, Krogers, Wal-Mart, Macy’s or any other store and see if they have cordoned off the cosmetics department because the economy is bad!

One thing I really shudder at is when a business owner tells me they are cutting back on their marketing because of the economy.  If they are cutting back, then their marketing was likely ineffective image advertising, they have no mechanism for tracking results or really don’t know what to do.

Don’t cut back!  Instead, sharpen your approach.  Understand your market, the media that will reach them and the message that you are sending.  Track your results, improve what is working and toss what isn’t.  Make every dollar you invest in marketing bring you prospects or sales.

Try multiple approaches and see what works best for you.  You won’t know what will work best unless you test it.  Be bold and different from your competition.  Stand apart from the crowd and provide incredible service.  Create a loyal fan base who would never consider leaving you.  Give them a reason to buy more from you and to buy more frequently.

In future posts, I’ll be giving you strategies and tactics that will likely deliver the greatest return for your business.   If there is something that works particularly well for you, share it with me so we can help each other gropw and succeed

Dedicated to multiplying your sales!

Paul

What are you talking about?

Are you writing copy for a newsletter, blog, web site or sales letters?  Do you write your own brochures or business letters?  Do you ever wonder if your message is getting through?  When you proofread your materials, do you stop to wonder if it is even interesting?

What’s my point?  Okay, bear with me and I’ll share a small business marketing tip that can make a huge difference in response rates in the response rate to everything that you send out.  It is a secret of top copywriters and has meant a big difference in my income and that of my clients.

To quote Dan Kennedy, “Write like ya talk.”

That’s right, pretend you are having a conversation with your prospects and clients.  Forget that you are writing anything related to business.  Just pretend you are talking and let it flow like you would in a conversation.  Can’t think of what to write?  Then start talking into a recorder, play it back and take notes about what you’re saying.

Summarize your notes and begin writing.  When you’re done, pull out the recorder and read what you wrote and play it back.  Is it interesting?  Ask someone else to read it aloud to you.  What’s it sound like?  Is it interesting?  Does it catch your attention?  Does it compel you to learn more about your product or service?

If it’s not interesting to you, what makes you think someone else will want to read it?

What’s the lesson here?  If your intention is to communicate an idea to a stranger (which is what you are doing with a brochure, letter or web site) then you want to make it easy to read.  It’s often hard to be interesting when using formal business language.  Try to be conversational when you write and more people will read what you write.

I’ll be writing a lot more about this topic in different blog posts.  If you find what I am writing to be interesting, then you want to do a couple of things.  Learn from my style and try to see how you can weave it into what you are writing.

The other thing to do is to be sure you are signed up for my Marketing Moments e-zine so you get my e-course and the other great bonuses I send to my readers.  You can subscribe by completing the form below.  Have any comments or ideas about what I’m writing?  Then go ahead and comment on my posts. I’d like to get a community going here with input from a lot of great minds like yours!

Can you hear me now?

As a hobby, I am a woodworker.  I have learned to build fine furniture, jewelry boxes and a wide variety of other wood projects. I’ve even done some custom commission work and made decent money for doing so.  Someday I’ll get some pictures of my work on my site so you can take a look at my work.

Yesterday, I was down in my shop working on a shelf for the patio and took a look at my tools and other things in the shop and wondered which were the most valuable.  I actually have several thousand dollars worth of woodworking machinery and hand tools.  I’m pretty proud of my collection.  I couldn’t decide between the top two so it ended up being a tie for first place.

What would you guess I chose?  Was it my cabinet saw, router, planer, workbench or any of my hand tools?    My cabinet saw is definitely what I use them most and if you were to survey woodworkers about the most valuable tool, the cabinet saw would win, hands down.   What But that’s not the case for me.
The two items have a combined value of $30.  One is my safety glasses and the other are my hearing protectors.  Why am I telling you this?  Because I believe the two most important selling and marketing tools are closely related to my choice of shop tools.  In sales and marketing, your eyes and ears are the most important tools.

A 1972 UCLA study concluded that the words we say account for 7% of our overall communication!  The other 93% of our communication is non-verbal and consist of body language and voice quality.  Now you can see why I chose the tools that protect my eyes and ears!

Your eyes allow you to read the body language and emotions of your customer.  You can see if you are connecting with them or if you are boring them.  Are they engaged with you or just being polite?   Your ears allow you to hear voice inflection and tone.

Can you read or have you ever studied body language?  Crossed arms and legs reveal the other person is closed to your comments or you.  A person leaning back with arms behind the head is saying “Oh really, prove it!” Someone leaning forward is engaged and interested in what you are saying.

Entire books have been written about the topic and can help you, not only in sales and marketing, but also in personal relationships.

Understanding body language can mean a huge difference in your sales.  The scope of this issue goes way beyond this newsletter but if you would like to know about some of my recommended resources, give me a call or send me an email.

We’ve all heard the cliche that God gave us one mouth and two ears so we can listen twice as much as we talk.  Well, there’s a reason it’s a cliche – it’s true, particularly in sales. You will only know what benefits to stress when you understand your client’s needs.  How can you propose a solution if you’ve done all of the talking?

Listening is an art.  A key listening skill is to avoid formulating a response until you finish listening to what your client is saying.  Notice I said listening, not hearing.  Ask your client or prospect to clarify and elaborate be sure you are answering the question they asked.  Avoid interrupting, unless it enhances or clarifies the topic.

Think of how frustrating it is for you when someone interrupts you in the middle of a sentence or answers your question with an irrelevant answer.

Remember the E.F. Hutton commercial years ago?  Their USP was that when E.F. Hutton talks, people listen, inferring their advice was more valuable than you could get elsewhere.  Just think about that, their sales soared because they said YOU should listen to THEM!

Dean Whitter countered with Dean Whitter grows one client at a time, meaning they took the time to listen and take care of you before they moved on to the next client.

As you look to improve your selling skills and learn new methodologies or new concepts, remember that the things that can make the biggest difference is how effectively you read the body language of your client, how effectively you use your own body language and finally, how well you listen.

Can You Hear Me Now?

As a hobby, I am a woodworker.  I have learned to build fine furniture, jewelry boxes and a wide variety of other wood projects. I’ve even done some custom commission work and made decent money for doing so.  Someday I’ll get some pictures of my work on my site so you can take a look at my work.

Yesterday, I was down in my shop working on a shelf for the patio and took a look around the shop and wondered which tools were the most valuable.  I have several thousand dollars worth of woodworking machinery and hand tools and I’m pretty proud of my collection.  I couldn’t decide between the top two so it ended up being a tie for first place.

What was my choice?  Was it my cabinet saw, router, planer, workbench or any of my hand tools?    My cabinet saw is definitely what I use them most and if you were to survey woodworkers about the most valuable tool, the cabinet saw would win, hands down.   But that’s not the case for me.

The two items have a combined value of $30.  One is my safety glasses and the other are my hearing protectors.  Why am I telling you this?  Because I believe the two most important selling and marketing tools are closely related to my choice of shop tools.  In sales and marketing, your eyes and ears are the most important tools.

Words only play a small part in communications

A 1972 UCLA study concluded that the words we say account for 7% of our overall communication!  The other 93% of our communication is non-verbal and consist of body language and voice quality.  Now you can see why I chose the tools that protect my eyes and ears!
Your eyes allow you to read the body language and emotions of your customer.  You can see if you are connecting with them or if you are boring them.  Are they engaged with you or just being polite?   Your ears allow you to hear voice inflection and tone and understand your prospects needs.

Understanding body language and how to use it can mean a huge difference in your sales.  Countless studies have been done on the topic and you can find great resources online and in the library.  A study I read about several years ago revealed that the salespeople who sat with their legs crossed during the sales presentation closed dramatically fewer sales than those who sat with legs apart.  I don’t recall the exact percentage but it very significant.

God gave us one mouth and two ears for a reason

Some people see it as a cliché.  Well, there’s a reason it’s a cliche – it’s true, particularly in sales. It is so we can listen twice as much as we talk.  You will only know what benefits to stress when you understand your client’s needs and you can’t identify their needs and wants if you’re doing all the talking!

Listening is an art

A key listening skill is to avoid responding until the other person is speaking.  Notice I said listening, not hearing.  Ask your client or prospect to clarify and elaborate be sure you are answering the question they asked.  Avoid interrupting, unless it enhances or clarifies the topic.

I once heard a friend in a conversation with another person and he was quite frustrated about being interrupted by the other person.  He finally said, “Our conversation will be a lot better if you wait for me to finish my sentence before you talk.  You will know when I am done talking because I will stop.”   Talk about getting to the point!
Think of how frustrating it is for you when someone interrupts you in the middle of a sentence or answers your question with an irrelevant answer.  It shows they did not hear or care about what you were saying because their thoughts were what mattered, not yours.  The same applies in sales.  The top earners are not pushy and brash, they are recognized as professionals who understand and fulfill their client’s needs.  They do so because they listen and recommend solutions that will benefit the client.

Do you remember the Dean Whitter commercial that ran several years ago?  The tagline was “We grow our business one client at a time.”  I thought it was brilliant.  It meant they listened and cared about YOU, not the next sale.  The campaign ran for quite some time so it was obviously a success. It was built around the simple precept that people appreciate someone who listens to them.

As you look to improve selling skills, remember that the things that can make the biggest difference are as simple as seeing and listening.  Now, let me ask you… Can you hear me now and what do you see?