Small Business Marketing Tips, what about asking me to return?

What do these three quotes have in common?

1. “But Paul, I don’t want to bother them.”
2. “But Paul, I don’t have the time.”
3. “But Paul, it’s too expensive and they buy from me anyway.”

They are the reasons business owners and sales people give to me for not keeping in touch with their clients.

It’s been proven time and again that the easiest client to sell a product or service to is an existing or past client. It’s also proven that they are the best source of referrals and testimonials. That said, what are you doing to keep in touch with your clients?

Do you:

1. Capture all client names?
2. Follow up with clients to thank them for their business?
3. Keep in touch with phone calls, emails, newsletters, greeting cards?
4. Ask for referrals and have a special offer, discount or gift for anybody who gives you one?
5. Ask for testimonials and get permission to use them in your marketing materials?

If not, start now. If you don’t know how, get in touch with me because I already have these systems designed and can have you trained and using them in a matter of days.

Waiting and delaying is no different than holding the door open for your competition to come in and get the business away from you. One way or another, the level of success in your business can hinge on the outcome.

Small Business Marketing Tips – Most Businesses are Making Money In “This Awful Economy”

I gave a marketing seminar this morning to a group of about 30 business owners this morning that was sponsored by the local Small Business Development Center.  We asked the question, “How many of your businesses are doing well?”  Two thirds of them raised their hands.

Of the hands that didn’t go up, a couple of them were just starting out so nearly everyone in attendance was doing well (or faked it to be in the crowd).  Think about it, the companies that are doing well were at a marketing seminar, learning how to do better!  I should have invited a couple of reporters but I wasn’t planning on sharing any bad news so they probably would have ignored my invite.

Bloomberg reported this morning that retail sales actually ROSE 1% last month!  I wonder if the lead-in story on the national news will cover it tonight.  I don’t watch the news so I guess I’ll miss it but I just did a quick look at abcnewscnncbsnew.coms and none of them mentioned it.

Now, I don’t doubt that a lot of industries are hurting, BIG TIME but it shows there is opportunity.  The worst thing to cut in a recession, marketing, is the first thing way too many companies cut in a recession.  Then their sales suck and they say it’s the economy.

If I were to quit marketing, my sales would suck as well. However, over the past several months, I’ve busted my butt to get new clients and it’s paying off, big time.  A recession is acutally good for my business.  Smart companies realize they need to do smart marketing so they call people like me.

That’s a good note to end this post on.  If you want to increase your sales and are ready to do what it takes, call someone like me. Actually, strike that last remark.  Don’t call someone like me, call me. 513-829-6368.

Small business marketing tips to profit in ANY economy

Quote from Mr. or Mrs. faltering business owner, “Oh no, the economy is “bad” I better not buy anything. I better cut back on my marketing. I think I should save my money just in case the “bad” economy cuts into my cash flow.”

Does this sound familiar? Let’s move forward 6 months and ask Mr. or Mrs. faltering (soon to be failing) business owner, “How’s business?” They will reply “Oh this economy is killing me. Sales are way down. I’m not getting any new customers and I hear from fewer old customers than I used to.”

I say, “Hmmm, Mr. Owner lets look at a few other factors. Last year in the first quarter, you spent $10,000 on marketing and this year, $1,500. Last year, you sent your newsletter out monthly and this year, you cut it from the budget. Last year, you conducted sales training every week but this year, you decided the trainer was too expensive. Last year, you sent every client a thank you card for visiting the store and also sent out birthday cards. This year, you cut it from the budget.

Now, let’s look for the underlying cause of your sales shortfall. Because the media telling you the economy is bad and people are not buying, you slashed your budget on strategies that brought you clients, sales and profits.”

Hey, I’m a realist! I’m aware that the economy is faltering but the worst thing you can do is to stop marketing. If you are going to cut marketing, cut the marketing that is not delivering a measurable, positive return. If you don’t know your return, you need to calculate it. Drop useless image advertising that doesn’t deliver clients or prospects.

Learn and implement direct response marketing. That’s the marketing you see that has an offer and tells the prospect to act. If it’s good, you get a response and make money on it. If it’s not good, nothing happens and you lose money on it. Set a system to measure and track results. Determine your ROI and remember client lifetime value. If you break-even or lose on the initial transaction but know the client will be highly profitable over the next year, that’s good!

The lesson here is simple. A down economy is a bad reason to cut good marketing and a good reason to cut bad marketing!

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.

Up your profits in a down economy – Increase client value

In this order, these are the easiest people to sell to:

1. An existing client
2. A past client
3. A referred or endorsed client
4. A cold prospect

This list is an established fact. Even knowing this, where do the vast majority of companies spend the majority of their marketing dollars and effort? On number 4, the cold prospect. Nearly every client or prospect I speak with spends little, if any of their marketing dollars strengthening their relationship with their existing clients.

The thing is, most of them realize they should be keeping in touch with customers but still do nothing about it. Very few companies even have any process or method of getting basic contact information like name, address, phone number, email address or a list of the products purchased by their clients. According to a study conducted by the Direct Marketing Association, for every month that passes without your contacting your clients, there’s a 10% reduction in loyalty to your business.

For about $10 to $15 per client per year, nearly any business can build a customer contact program that will dramatically increase their sales and profits at a fraction of cost of obtaining a new client. Ideally, you will have 12 to 14 contacts per year. Rather than looking at this as an expense, look upon it as an investment in the lifetime value of your clients.

The key to success in your client contact strategy is to include an offer, a coupon, a discount or other reason for your clients to contact you and purchase additional products or services from you.

In my next post, I’ll list some of my favorite client contact strategies and tactics you can use to increase your profits.

Till then…
Dedicated to multiplying your sales!

Up your profits in a down economy – Increase profit per transaction

One of the simplest tactics for increasing your profits is to pay attention to the client who is directly in front of you. It doesn’t matter if you have the person on the phone, in your store, in your restaurant or on your web page, it is fairly simple to get the client to buy more.

Most businesses leave an absolute fortune on the table because they simply ring up the sale that is in front of them and make absolutely no effort to add to the transaction. To put things in perspective, think of the additional profits McDonald’s makes every year because they ask the question, “Would you like fries and a Coke with your meal?” Most of us could easily retire if we had that money!

The easiest person to sell to is an existing client. What you need to do is to train yourself and your staff to ask/recommend to the client to buy more. Too many people feel they are being pushy but that’s not the case. Imagine yourself in a clothing store. If a salesperson suggests a nice shirt to go along with the slacks you just bought, do you feel they are being pushy? What about the waitress who encourages you to get dessert? Do you think she is being pushy? I doubt it!

The bottom line is that it comes down to selling skills and having an attitude of serving your customer. If you have a good product or service, offering it to your client is a way to serve them.

Have you ever read any sales books or bought any sales programs? It is one of the strongest recommendations I have for you. It’s made a major difference in my income over the years and can do the same for you. Spend some time in the bookstore, online or in the library. Buy several programs and develop your own style around the proven strategies and tactics of the sales masters.

Click on the resources tab at the top of the blog and see who I recommend. Become a student of sales and apply what you learn.

Unique Selling Proposition Part 3

In this video, I continue to discuss the Unique Selling Proposition and get into the details of how to use the information you’ve gathered in the previous steps and begin writing and refining your million dollar USP!

Up your profits in a down economy part 3

In a down economy or market, far too many businesses withdraw and adapt a bunker mentality. This is the absolute biggest mistake they can make. Continue with your marketing but be more demanding for accountable results. If you need to cut anything, cut overhead that is not contributing to increased sales.

I’m going to be throwing up a lot of suggestions about what you can do to increase your profits. A lot of them will cost you absolutely nothing but will require time and focus.

The first and easiest thing to do is to focus on increasing the value of every transaction. Most businesses leave a fortune on the table with each transaction because they never attempt to cross-sell or up-sell. MacDonald’s makes an absolute fortune by asking the simple question, “Would you like fries and a drink?”

The easiest person to sell to is an existing client and you can leverage this fact. If they just made a decision to buy, what additional products or services can you add to the transaction? What will add to their initial purchase? Car dealers sell maintenance agreements, restaurants add deserts, clothing stores add accessories, CPA’s can add consulting services, insurance agents can add an umbrella policy.

You must train your staff and give them the sales scripts and the words they should say. Leave nothing to chance. Get your staff to suggest products and services that go together. Create a phone follow-up program to thank the client for their purchase and offer them a special “customer-only” discount or coupon on an additional service if they buy within the next 30 days. Always have an offer and a deadline.

I’ve worked with clients and increased the average transaction by 20% and more just by teaching them to do this. I made sure it was part of their culture. I created incentives and contests for staff to insure they were on board.

This is the easiest money that is hiding in your business!!! If you do nothing else with your marketing except to focus on this strategy, you can easily increase profits by 10% or more. The great thing about it is that it costs you no extra money to make the additional sale.

Go for it!

Increase your profits in a down economy- Part 2

Where do you want to spend your marketing dollars in a “down economy?”  In my last post, I wrote about how the media plays a big role in the perception of the economy.  If you believe them, the entire world is now broke and living in boxes underneath highway overpasses.

Business owners start to believe that there are no longer clients willing to buy from them and they enter a hibernation mode, hoping they will make enough sales to survive.

Have you been to a department or grocery store lately?  If so, you may have seen what I have been seen.  People are buying things.  Have you been to a restaurant lately?  Did you notice that people were buying meals? Have you noticed a dramatic decrease in rush-hour traffic because nobody has a job any more?

Hey, I believe there are some serious problems with the economy but the fact of the matter is that people are still making and spending money. The wise business is not retreating. Instead, they’re spending marketing dollars wisely. They are throwing useless “brand/image” advertising out the door. They are demanding accountability from agencies and others selling them media.

The way I look at it, if your marketing isn’t delivering a measurable return, either get rid of it or figure out how to measure it. There are companies out there that do detailed ROI projections for capital investments but often spend the same amount of money on marketing with no strategy to measure return.

The bottom line is that this is the worst time to cut back on your marketing. Your competition is probably doing it so why not take advantage of the situation to strengthen your presence? When things turn around, there will be a lot of your competitors who may be great buyout targets.

You also need to spend some serious time strengthening your relationships with your clients. Be sure you are maximizing revenue from each transaction. Be sure your sales reps are well-trained in selling skills and product knowledge. Be sure your service staff knows how to up-sell and cross-sell.

Finally, quit listening to the media and chart your own future.

Attract premium and profitable clients with a powerful Unique Selling Proposition

Why should I buy from you?  A simple question but one that few business owners are able to answer.  They say, “We have good service,” or “We’ve been in business for 50 years.”

To the we have good service company, I say, “Well, you better have good service or I’ll never be back.”  Good service is expected, it’s not a differentiator.  If you’ve been in business for 50 years, that may mean nothing to most people.  Who cares how long you’ve been around?  TWA was one of the best known names in the airline industry.  They gave good service and were in business a long time.  They are now a nostalgic memory.

Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) answers the question, “Why should I buy from you vs. your competition or do nothing at all?”  If you can’t answer that question, then you are hoping your prospect will figure it out on their own and will hopefully decide you are worth the investment.

Creating a USP is not as dificult as it may seem, if you follow a process and approach it as a stategic project that answers the why should I buy from you with a compelling reason.  If you approach this as a project to create a clever slogan for an ad, you are handicapping yourself.  In a series of videos, I am going to walk you through the process of creating a powerful and compelling Unique Selling Proposition.

I hope that you find these videos helpful.  At any time, feel free to contact me, Paul Flood, to discuss or review your USP.

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