“Charlie, recently I bought your book, Creating Web Sites That Sell (link) and I’m ready to build my website. Do you have a web designer you’d recommend?” – Dave from Whitefish, MT

Every week I get requests from readers and customers looking for a web designer, someone who understands that the purpose of a web site is to generate leads and to sell, not just look pretty.

If you’ve used a great web designer, or know of one, that does professional work that not only looks good but has helped increase leads and sales – let me know so I can put them on my preferred list and share it with business owners ready to spend on building or redoing their web sites.

Just add your suggestions by leaving a comment, I’ll review them and put together my short list.

- Charlie

©2010All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

Is business slow? Are you frustrated and wondering what to do to make ends meet, much less become really profitable again?

I spent the first ten days of October on vacation with my wife in a small town in northern Vermont, where I followed two very different business stories in the weekly paper.

Picking up the paper on our arrival, I read an irrate letter to the editor from Larry, the owner of a bed and breakfast, one of many in the area. He claimed that business in the valley is “dying on the vine”. Then I read an article about The Red Hen Bakery, which has grown from 2 employees to 24 in the last 15 years baking and selling artisan breads.

Different businesses to be sure, but just about every business in this area depends on the tourist trade. Inns and bakeries are no exception. How is it that one small business is struggling and another prospering?

Larry gets good reviews from his guests, and has the reputation for running a top-notch bed and breakfast. But when business slowed down in the current recession, he vented his frustration in the local paper.

In his letter to the editor, he said the local merchants and restaurateurs know nothing about customer service, have no business or marketing know-how, and are actually rude and hostile to visitors.

You can imagine the response to Larry’s criticism. Merchants and residents were insulted personally and professionally, and let Larry know it in their own letters to the paper. They also had a lot of advice for him about promoting customer loyalty and weathering downturns, but I think the harm is done. That is, the harm to his business.

What do I mean by this?

The easiest way to grow any business is to get other people to actively promote you — to grow by referrals and word of mouth. A prospect that comes to you because of a referral has already transferred their trust from the person who made the referral to you. It’s much easier for you to close the sale.

Every business exists in a community. For local merchants the community consists of other shop owners. For doctors its the local and regional medical community, other doctors and health practitioners.

The members of your community can be your best sales people, referring customers to you again and again. They can help you maximize your profits with minimal effort.

My community consists of my coaching clients, my customers, other online marketers and people I do business with. My goal is to get as many of these people as possible to recommend my products and services.

Did Larry miss the fact that the local merchants and other innkeepers are a potential source of customers? Talk about a lack of business know how!

The very people Larry insulted could have been a constant source of referrals. Larry should have been courting them instead of blaming them for his lack of business.

How much of a difference would it make to your profits to get other business owners in your community to refer customers to you?

The Red Hen Bakery worked their community in another way. Their bread is crusty and delicious and they have at least 20 local restaurants serving their bread and sell it directly at over 25 stores and farmer’s markets.

Initially the owners thought they’d be successful if they could make their business support two employees. It now has twenty-four employees and just garnered the Vermont “Small Business of the Year” award.

If your business is dying on the vine, don’t do what Larry did and kill it by blaming other business owners. Enlist their support.

Grow your business by getting business owners in your community to provide referrals or even sell your products and services. You could easily grow your business tenfold, as the Red Hen Bakery did.

Which are you doing? Asking who is to blame or asking who can help you grow your business?

Two very different questions that will get you two very different results.

- Charlie

P.S. Want to discover the fastest way to get more referrals and see your profits grow? You’ll get all the details, when you become a member of the Insiders’ Circle.

Interested in making this year your best ever? Take action

©2010All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

The blogosphere has been busy with chatter regarding a certain company that offers to sell companies followers on Twitter, Facebook fans, and Digg votes. It’s not expensive: Facebook fans go for about 10 cents each.  Many companies large and small appear to be interested in this service.

What is the psychology here? Well, think about if you’re in a strange city and you leave your hotel looking for a place to have dinner. Do you go to the restaurant where only one or two tables are taken, or do you go to the one with a ten-minute wait?

Most of us will choose the one with the wait, because if that many people are there, it has to be good. This same principle seems to be working in social media. People are more likely to become ‘fans’ (or followers) of businesses that already have a lot of fans (or followers), because there is the feeling that these businesses must be doing something right.

Is this something you should do? Will purchasing fans or followers for your social media help your word of mouth program? As you know, people who like your business are likely to talk to others about your business. And in my opinion, you want quality over quantity when it comes to word of mouth: you want people who are currently customers of your business, who come in often, and who will be happy to answer ‘yes’ when you ask them to tell others about your store. And in fact, they are more than likely to become your Facebook ‘fans’ and to follow you on Twitter.

I think that “purchasing” fans and followers gives the illusion that your business popular, but it does very little to get people to your place of business.

Of course you could offer a special Facebook or Twitter discount to these newfound fans and followers, and you might get a few people in the door to sample your business. While I don’t have statistics to back this up, I’m guessing that any of the ‘fans’ that you purchase are unlikely to tell others about your store.

So instead of ‘paid’ followers and fans, think about ways to grow your fan and follower bases organically…through the people who chose to be part of your network (social or otherwise).

Ask them to become a Facebook ‘fan’, and then once they do, ask them to invite their network of friends to become fans of your store too (maybe give them a special code that they can share with their friends to encourage them all to visit your place of business). A thumbs up from current customers will do more to bring new people to your store than a big number of followers or fans.

So if you were thinking about buying some new people…think instead about using those funds to give incentives to current customers and their friends.

- Kim

©2010All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..