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What Do I Do Now For My Small Business Marketing

By Charlie Cook | July 21, 2009

“What do I do now?”

Is that a question you’ve asked yourself recently about your business?

For most entrepreneurs and small business owners, the past 18 months have been tough. It doesn’t matter how smart you are or how great your products and services are, in the midst of a recession it can be easy to get bogged down and watch while your profits plummet.

Most summers for the last 50 plus years, I’ve spent a week or more on the coast of Maine. And much of that time has been spent in boats: rowboats, canoes, kayaks, sailboats and small motorboats.

When the sun shines and the sky is blue, it’s easy to go for a picnic or motor across to the nearest store to pick up groceries. But when the Maine fog rolls in and blankets the bay, it’s easy to get disoriented and lost.

The current recession is just like a big, damp, cold fog bank for most businesses. It’s disorienting and many people are panicking and losing sales and money.

What can you do?

Discover what works even in a recession

Years ago, I discovered that with a few simple skills I could navigate through the thickest fog and magically get where I wanted to go, most of the time, much to the surprise of my friends. Now with a GPS it’s so easy anyone can do it.

The same is true with your small business marketing. Once you know how to stay focused and navigate through this recession you’ll amaze yourself as you see profits pouring in.

Use the following five steps:

1. Begin with an urgent and compelling goal. Pick a goal that’s vital to the success of your business. It could be lead generation, referrals, increasing repeat sales, customer retention, etc. But whatever you pick, it should be so important that it motivates you to follow through.

2. Pick something you can accomplish within a few weeks, a month at most. If your goal is to write a book, identify a short-term sub goal, such as completing the first chapter.

Or if you want to get referrals, you could start by writing the sequence of questions you’d use to get existing clients to tell you how much they love your products or services and than to get them to give you 1-2 names of people they’ll help you contact.

3. Pick something you can measure. Improving customer service is a nice idea, but you need a specific sub goal you can measure. Increasing repeat sales this month would be a good measureable goal.

4. Make sure the larger goal and the sub-goal you have picked is one that everyone on your team can commit to. If half your team doesn’t agree that it’s urgent, it won’t happen.

If everyone can agree, for example, that they’ll focus on adding one more sales partner each month, it’s more likely to happen.

5. Pick a goal you can accomplish with the people and resources you have. That way you’re not dependent on additional funds or new resources.

That’s it. Now get started.

Pick an urgent small business marketing goal, stay focused and you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish. Anyone with motivation and determination can bring in more sales this way.

- Charlie

P.S. Remember, that to change the behavior of your prospects, to get more people buying, you first need to change your own behavior.

P.P.S. Ready to stop struggling and start profiting from your small business marketing in this recession?

Get a team of experts working for you

About Charlie Cook
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Want A Shortcut? – From Charlie Cook

By Charlie Cook | July 16, 2009

Which are you, a dreamer or a doer?

If you’re a doer (not a dreamer) I’d like to talk with you and see if you qualify for my MasterMind Group, a group of savvy entrepreneurs and business owners dedicated to helping each other succeed.

It’s crunch time!

As I’m sure you know this recession is one of the worst we’ve had since the Great Depression our parents lived through and it’s going to take a while for things to turn around.

The entrepreneurs and business owners who are going to come out on top, the ones who will make profits even in the midst of the recession will do so due to one thing.

Marketing!

So if you’re interested in significantly increasing your sales this year, I’d like to talk with you about how to leverage your marketing to increase your income.

If you want direct access, up close and personal, to me and my over 20 years of Million Dollar Generating Marketing Know-How…then you’re invited to join me, Charlie Cook, and just 26 other success-minded small business owners and entrepreneurs in my MasterMind Group.

Interested? Get the details here >>

- Charlie Cook

P.S. This is only for doers, not dreamers. It’s for people who are passionate about their businesses, their customers and the products and services they provide. People ready to tune up their marketing so they can profit from this recession.

Take a look >>

P.P.S. My one-on-one coaching program has been sold out for months and currently the only way you can get access to me personally is by joining the MasterMind Group.

Want in >>

P.P.P.S. This is only for people who have an existing established business and want to take it to the next level. It’s not for opportunity seekers, newbies, or people who are begging for business.

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What Winners Do

By Charlie Cook | July 14, 2009

Even the smartest people I know make mistakes, really big ones. In fact they make more than most. But they are still very successful in business — and in life.

What is it that winners do that separates them from people who are always struggling?

One of the smartest people that I know is a doctor who retired just last month. He and his wife, both very experienced sailors, had made plans to spend several weeks cruising the coast of Maine. In preparation, the doctor did a lot of work this spring on their 36-foot sailboat, including taking off and refurbishing the propeller and then putting it back on.

When they launched the boat and started to back it off the trailer, though, the doctor discovered he’d made a major mistake. When he shifted the motor into reverse, the engine pushed the boat forward and when he shifted it into forward, the boat went backwards.

He quickly arranged to have the sailboat hauled to the local boat yard and made a point of being there when the repair was made. He wanted the mechanic to show him exactly what he’d done wrong when he reinstalled the propeller.

He wanted to learn how to avoid making the same mistake the next time around, get the boat moving forward when he shifted it into forward gear, and get the cruise underway.

And that’s what winners do.

They don’t hide or ignore mistakes or missteps. They acknowledge them, even celebrate what they learned from the situation, and move on.

Anyone can use this simple, no-cost marketing tip to continually get smarter and make more money.

Over the last few decades I’ve seen hundreds of people double or triple their profits within months, and I’ve seen a handful never get where they want to go.

You’ve seen the same thing. Two smart people from the same school end up in two very different places. One as the CEO pulling in a huge salary with generous stock options, the other struggling to make ends meet.

What’s the single most important difference between winners and losers? It’s not just that they make more mistakes.

Winners are quicker to learn and adjust their course to reach their goals! The difference is…

The Speed of Course Correction.

Imagine you are in a canoe race where the objective is to paddle across a lake to the finish line on the far side. You and your fellow competitors all have the same strength, paddling experience and start at the same time.

You’re headed for the finish line and paddling hard when a breeze picks up and begins to push all the canoes sideways. Can you predict who will win the race?

The winners will be the team that notices the change in the conditions and adjusts their course the quickest. They’ll win by being the fastest to make the adjustments that will give the shortest possible route to their destination.

Everyone wants a straight path to success, but obstacles get in the way; competitors, recessions, marketing that doesn’t get a response, the shifting interests of your clients; the list is endless if you see it that way.

The business people who end up on top are quick to acknowledge that things are off course. They continually make the changes necessary to reach their goals.

What’s the fastest way for you to stay in the winners’ lane?

1. Learn to Love Mistakes
When I had my first website in the mid ‘90s it cost me $35,000 and it was more or less a flop. It barely made any money.

I could have thrown up my hands and decided that the Internet was a total waste of time. Instead I chose to get the most I could out of my $35,000 blooper.

I took it as a challenge to discover which mistakes I’d made and what to do differently the next time around. I sold my second website a year later for just under a million dollars.

I made a big mistake, learned all I could from it, and turned that knowledge into a big success. You can do the same.

2. Acknowledge Mistakes Right Away
I talked to a business owner, a specialty clothing retailer, who told me he’d spent $7,000 on Yellow Page ads. When I asked him how many customers the ads had generated, he said none. The following month he signed up with the Yellow Pages again. What’s wrong with this picture?

If you’re not getting the results you want from your marketing, admit that your current strategy needs to be adjusted, if not totally replaced. Let go of the strategies and tactics that aren’t working and make room for new, more effective ones.

My doctor friend who put his propeller on backwards could have just kept the problem a secret and lived with it for the summer, remembering to put the boat in reverse when he wanted to go forward.

Or he could have tried to fix the propeller himself, hoping he could figure it out on his own the second time around. Instead, he admitted his mistake, sought expert advice, learned from his mistake and set off for a great vacation.

3. Be Ready to Change Course
Over and over I hear the same things from small business owners struggling with their marketing. They tell me:

“I’m sure that idea won’t work for me.”
“I know that already.”
“I can’t find anyone to help me.”
“I just want someone to hand me a blueprint.”

These are excuses to keep doing the same thing, even if it isn’t working.

Winners recognize mistakes and grab at new marketing ideas. They put them to the test, track the results and continually fine-tune the ways they market and manage their businesses.

I have many clients who’ve done just that, and more than one who doubled their income last year in the midst of a lousy economy. They jumped on the ideas I gave them and put them into practice.

You can be a winner, too. Your business goals are within reach. To achieve them, be willing to make mistakes; admit them; learn from them and take corrective action, quickly.

Want to get the help you need to get to the top? Start here >>

- Charlie

P.S. Wish you had a clear idea of what works and what to do to generate more leads, close more sales and maximize your profits? Each month I interview one of the top marketing or sales experts or entrepreneurs, all who have made a ton of mistakes and learned what works and doesn’t work.

Find out the fastest ways to grow your business from these interviews. And if that isn’t enough, I take the most important tactic from the conversation and detail exactly how to implement it. It’s practically done for you.

Ready to get more business and increase your profits? Click here >>

“If you don’t make mistakes, if you don’t have failures you’ll never learn…too often I find people, they make a mistake, they don’t take the lessons from that and they make it again and again. So spend the time to figure out what you can learn from it so you don’t ever repeat it.” Indra Nooyi, Pepsico, CEO

How To Cash In On Social Media Marketing

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Is It A Business Or A Hobby?

By Charlie Cook | June 30, 2009

“Can I make this business profitable?” Jim from Kansas City, Kansas asked me a few weeks ago.

Jim installs glass into existing steel or fiberglass front doors, bringing much needed light into homes and increasing their resale value. He has a steady stream of customers and has increased his customer base each of the 8 years he’s been in business.

Yet he was just breaking even before the recession and is now losing money.

What’s the problem?

Any small business marketing that is built around selling just one product or service is going to struggle. In Jim’s case, his only opportunity to resell to past customers is when — or if— they move into a new home. He has to find a new customer to make almost every sale.

BIG MISTAKE!

Finding new prospects and converting them to customers is the hardest part of growing your business.

Once you have a satisfied customer you can sell to them again and again. To run a profitable business, you want to offer a number of related products or services or a service or product that people need more than one time.

Once you have a satisfied customer, you can sell to them again and again. It’s ten times easier to sell an existing customer than to start from scratch with a new one.

Discover the easiest way to attract a steady stream of profits >>

I asked my barber what his life would be like if he had to find sixteen new customers every day. He looked at me as if I were crazy. He only needs to attract new customers periodically when an existing customer moves away or goes bald.

Jim simply does not have a profitable business model. Instead of using each sale to a new customer to generate additional sales, he’s stuck on a permanent treadmill, constantly needing to find new customers and trying to close the next first sale.

Is It A Hobby?
If you only have one product or service to sell and it’s not something people need over and over, you don’t have a business, you have a hobby. There is no way to grow your business and your income. You’ll always be struggling to make a profit.

Ready to stop working so hard, and make more with less effort? >>

To be profitable, you need to attract first time customers and then sell them multiple products and services or help them buy again and again.

Here’s the sequence that generates profits:

1.    Attract prospects to your mailing list
2.    First time sale
3.    Up-sell or cross-sell a higher price point product,
4.    Sign them up for an on-going service and help them
5.    Create customers for life (well at least for a year at a time).

Of course there are many variations, but the goal is the same; leverage the first sale into additional revenue so you maximize the value of each customer.

That’s what my trainer did when he signed me for an annual season pass to the gym. That’s what my HVAC company did when they signed us up for an annual maintenance contract.

That’s what the phone company does too. They get you in the funnel with an incredible deal on a cell phone and then sign you up for a two-year contract.

WalMart uses the same strategy. They put the lowest, practically free item at the end of the aisle to get you in to the store. Most people buy a higher priced more feature-laden version, and pick up a handful of other items while they are in the store.

Without a marketing funnel, a way of up-selling or cross-selling – you’ll be permanently frustrated and perpetually broke.

Want to stop being frustrated and start making more with your small business marketing? Start here >>

Is there anything Jim can do to turn his “hobby” into a business?

Absolutely. Jim could expand the services and products he offers to meet more of his customers’ needs. He could offer replacement windows and window washing, for example, and have sales partnerships with people who clean carpets, refinish floors, and do home renovations.

By offering just a few of these related services he could easily double his income within a month or two and have a wildly profitable business. But he didn’t want to change his business model. Last I heard he was headed for bankruptcy instead.

If you just want to be busy, get a hobby.

If you want to make money, your business model needs to systematically help first time customers buy from you again and again so that you make more with less effort. It’s not complicated, and you can easily increase your income by 50% or more within weeks.

- Charlie

P.S. Tired of just being busy? Want to find how to find out the proven formula for attracting clients and profits?

Use this small business marketing blueprint to get the profits you want >>

P.P.S. I’ve known people who worked 50 to 80 hours a week just to make ends meet, when they had an untapped goldmine in their hands. Find out how easy it is to get all the business you want and see your income grow.

Get started >>

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How To Increase Your Profits Without Selling

By Charlie Cook | June 16, 2009

Over 20 years ago, I rented an office in downtown Old Greenwich, Connecticut, across the street from the best sandwich shop in town. The first time I went into the shop, I noticed that the menu was a copy of an original created on a typewriter.

The thing was barely legible and made worse by scratched out prices with new ones scribbled in. The menus hardly reflected the quality of owner Gary’s creative and delicious sandwiches.

The proud owner of a new computer and state of the art laser printer, I took one of his menus back to my office, reformatted it in an easy to read typeface, and printed a stack of them. The next day when I went to order my sandwich, I offered Gary the professional-looking menus as a present.

Gary was so pleased that he made my sandwiches free for two weeks and gives me a $2 discount on every sandwich I buy to this day.

Discover how you can profit from the law of reciprocity marketing strategies >>

My friend John used the same basic law of human behavior to get help.

Ten years ago John bought a 28’ Corsair sailboat, a larger version of the 24’ trimaran that I sail. With limited experience with large sailboats, launching this boat in the spring and hauling it out of the water in the fall was beyond what John could manage on his own.

So John asked if he could help me launch my boat and if I’d help him in return, and we’d get both boats taken care of the same day

For the last ten years, at the beginning and end of the summer, we’ve helped each other launch and haul our boats. It’s a fair amount of work, but by now we’ve got it down to a science and we enjoy each other’s company and the reciprocity.

I’m sure you use the “law” of reciprocity in your life; now put it to work in your marketing strategies.

Find out how to make more without selling >>

Six Easy Ways To Make More Money
It’s simple; when a person does something for you that you value, you feel an obligation to that person. You’d like to repay the good deed.

How can you use this basic — and surprisingly powerful — fact of human behavior to grow your business and make more money?

You can use it to:

1. Generate leads
Give away a free report or mp3 that has value to your prospects, and they’ll return the favor by giving you their contact information. Then you can start building a relationship with them. Almost every successful Internet marketer uses this strategy, and it works for marketing offline, too.

Want more ideas on generating leads? >>

2. Sign up new clients
I know many consultants who regularly speak for local chambers of commerce or for industry association gatherings. They share their best ideas and, in return, walk away from each talk with a handful of new clients.

Other successful firms attract prospects with free seminars. For example, if you’re an investment advisor you could offer a seminar on wisely managing investments during a recession. One local financial firm used this approach and added $40 million in new assets within six months — without making a single sales call.

Sign up more clients >>

3. Sell more products
I recently offered a free teleseminar on copywriting to my entire mailing list. It took me almost a week to put it together and cost me hundreds of dollars, but I it was well worthwhile.

The comments I got from people who participated were very positive. They loved the content and expressed their interest in large numbers by taking advantage of the one-time trial offer associated with the call.

If you want people to buy from you, start the process by giving them something of value.

Interested in selling more?

4. Build your membership program
Getting people to make a commitment to pay a monthly fee for a year or more is a huge marketing challenge. The easiest way to overcome this is to give prospects the first month or two for free. Then give them relevant and useful content, and they’ll stay in and keep paying.

It’s a simple strategy that most magazine publishers use, because it works!

5. Get more readers for your blog and your tweets
Want more people to read your blog? To get other bloggers to link to your blog, provide a link to theirs on your site. Then contact them and they’ll be much more likely to return the favor.

The same is true with Twitter. If you want more followers, sign up to follow the people you want following you. At least 70% will return the favor and start following your tweets.

6. Get a bigger tip
(I know most of you aren’t working as a waiter or waitress but I just wanted to include this one to show you the power of the law of reciprocity.)

Waitress and waiters increase their tips in two ways in addition to being there when you need them. One tactic is to include a mint or small candy with your check when they bring it at the end of the meal. Research shows that patrons leave 25 to 30% larger tips when candy is included with the check.

Another strategy used in the restaurant industry is to share a “secret”. When you’re ordering, the waitress may whisper to you that the pork dish you wanted isn’t one she would suggest, and then she gives you a couple of personal recommendations.

When the check arrives, patrons who were given the “secret” recommendation leave larger tips.

Discover the most cost-effective marketing strategies to increase profits >>

There are hundreds of ways to use the “law of reciprocity” to persuade prospects to contact you, to buy from and to spend more with you. Use them and see your profits grow.

- Charlie

P.S. If you’re tired of trying to ramp up your profits with selling, try giving away value. Give your prospects something they want and can use right away. In return you’ll get more business than you ever imagined and feel good about it all the way to the bank.

Find out how >>

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How To Sell More With Your Guarantee

By Charlie Cook | May 19, 2009

“My new software application is getting rave reviews from the people who use it, but I’m having trouble making sales. What can I do to convince more prospects to buy?
- Kelly Sanders, OH
—–

Having trouble with skeptics and getting people to take action from your small business marketing?

Forty years ago I had my first experience with mail order. I know it’s hard to imagine but the Internet didn’t exist. Most people actually bought stuff in stores. Hard to believe but true.

I’d heard about a mail order outfit called L.L.Bean. And I was interested in ordering a sleeping bag for an upcoming hiking trip I was planning. But I wasn’t sure if, sight unseen, I’d be happy with the one I’d selected from the catalog.

What got me over the hump? What got me to go ahead and make my purchase?

L.L.Bean has always had a 100% satisfaction guarantee. With it I felt confident that if I wasn’t happy, I could exchange the sleeping bag or send it back for full credit. And I’d heard stories of people making good on the guarantee and being “100% satisfied.”

Now a guarantee won’t sell your products or services by itself, but without one you won’t sell as much as you could.

Are you a skeptic?

Many of us are. It’s smart to be one. So how do you sell to skeptics?

One simple strategy is to eliminate any perceived risk in making a purchase. When your prospects feel confident that they’ll either love it or that they can easily get their money back, you’ve eliminated the risk, making it easier for them to give your products or services a try.

Want to convert more prospects into paying customers? Get the details >>

What stops people from buying? The fear of being ripped off…the fear of paying something for nothing…the fear of looking foolish. No question about it. If you want to turn interested, but skeptical prospects into buyers, you need to conquer fear.

What helps put that fear to rest? A risk-free guarantee of satisfaction.

In a tight economy like this one, people are especially concerned about money. Many business owners respond to those fears with lower prices, but they still can’t make sales. When you decide to take full responsibility for your customer’s satisfaction, you make it that much easier for a prospect to decide to buy from you.

Want to know how to get more people to buy from you? Start here >>

So what kind of a guarantee should you offer?

The one that will be the most meaningful to your prospects, of course.

If you offer a subscription to Forex investment tips, for example, a 6-month ‘read it, use what you learn, and then decide’ guarantee would be effective. It demonstrates that you’re so certain your system will work, that you’re willing to give the consumer 180 days to succeed with it.

A good guarantee will make sales. A risk-free guarantee will make more sales, double…even triple what you could make without one. Here are some templates for some guarantees that I’ve used successfully:

- “Subscribe today. If you think your first issue—or any issue —doesn’t deliver at least $XXX worth of ideas and information, you can tell us to take a hike. We will cancel your subscription and send a prompt refund for all un-mailed issues, no questions asked. We won’t be happy to know that we failed your value test, but that will be our problem, not yours.

- You can’t lose with our guilt-free, no-risk guarantee and access to the entire program and every one of the bonuses…all for only <$>! If <product name> is not everything we say it is and you are not completely satisfied with it, then we will refund every penny of your money with no questions asked. That’s more than a guarantee; that’s a promise.

- My guarantee is to ensure you are 100% happy with <product name>. If for any reason you are not entirely satisfied, I will refund your money. No questions asked. This is an ironclad guarantee, no ifs, and no buts. If <product name> doesn’t deliver, your money will be happily refunded. In fact, you need no reason to ask for a refund whatsoever. Just tell us the dog ate it! We trust your integrity and honesty absolutely. We take the risk and you have nothing to lose, so take your 90-day trial today.

Let me ask you one last question. Do you expect the companies you buy from to stand by their products and services?

Of course you do. Use your guarantee to let your prospects know you do the same, and you’ll turn skeptics into buyers and see your sales soar.

Interested in finding more ways to convert prospects to buyers? Find out the simple formula to increase your profits >>

- Charlie

P.S. Yes, I include a guarantee with my products. Take a look here to see it >>

The Easy Way To Sell Anything To Anybody

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Business Marketing – Overcome the 4 Most Common Objections

By Charlie Cook | April 15, 2009

You want to increase the flow of sales revenue, but you are stymied by prospects’ seemingly endless objections. Prospects say they’re not interested. They tell you your price is too high, or this isn’t the right time. You’ve heard all the objections.

What can you do to simplify selling and get rid of these once and for all?

Engineer Your Business Marketing
When I was seven one of my favorite ways to spend a hot summer day with my friends was playing a backyard game we called “waterworks”. We’d use a trowel to construct channels in the dirt, put the hose at one end and watch the water flow.

If we wanted the water to go straight, we’d remove rocks and debris to clear a path. We became sophisticated engineers, guiding water around corners and across short aqueducts. We felt like masters of the universe, directing the water where we wanted it to go. (You can bet my mother loved seeing us come into the house covered with mud at the end of the day.)

Plan your marketing to the same way and lead prospects to your products and services the way my friends and I engineered our waterworks; by making clear paths and removing obstacles. Channel your prospects’ attention and interests and you’ll eliminate their objections.

Want to discover how to engineer your business marketing to provide a steady stream of clients? Use this link >>

Below are the four most common objections and ways to eliminate them.

Lack of Interest
Prospects need to understand what you do before they can become interested in what you have to offer. It is that simple. If you’re marketing yourself as a lawyer, coach, accountant or fitness center, you’re not telling people why they should be interested. To capture their interest, explain the problems you solve from their
perspective.

Lack of Leads
You want people to email you, call you or go to your web site to buy your products and services. But first you have to motivate them to contact you so you can market to them. Once you have their attention, use your conversation, your emails and your web site to ask them what they want and need.

Lack of Credibility
You want prospects to see you as the expert; the person and the firm that has the products and services they can rely on. One of the biggest challenges to attracting new clients is gaining their trust and being seen as the essential expert. Use your articles, ezine, and web site to demonstrate your expertise. Use testimonials from clients to tell prospects about the results you and your products have achieved.

Pricing Objections
Whether it is a $25 subscription or a $50,000 consulting fee, prospects object to price when they don’t understand the value of the purchase. Establish a set of questions you can use to help prospects define what they want and what you are providing. When price is put in context, it becomes much less of an obstacle.

Still not converting as many prospects to clients as you’d like?
Use questions to find out more about what they want, and what their concerns are. Then address each of these objections up front and remove them as potential sales killers.

What’s the secret to eliminating sales killers and generating a steady flow of new clients. Find the answer with this link >>

Think of your target market as a reservoir of water waiting to be tapped. If you eliminate the barriers between them and you, you could send a steady stream of new clients and customers your way. Now, don’t just imagine it, do it.

Start eliminating your prospects’ objections and create a clear path for them to become clients and customers. Help your prospects get what they want and you’ll be selling more products and services
to more clients.

- Charlie

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How Embarrassing Is That?

By Charlie Cook | April 7, 2009

This past weekend I was in the attic sorting through piles of stuff. I’m convinced that kids’ toys, sleeping bags, broken chairs and rusty fans have been sneaking up there in the middle of the night for years now.

I was up in the attic because we’re renovating a bathroom and have a dumpster in our driveway. I could have cleaned out the attic in the past, but having the dumpster right there has made it so much more appealing.

One of the items consigned to the dumpster was a baby carriage that someone gave us when our daughter was born that they had in their attic. Twenty-five years later, we still had this big honking, Mary Poppins-type perambulator taking up space. It didn’t have any antique or sentimental value. We took it to Goodwill and even they didn’t want it. Back to the dumpster.

How embarrassing is that?

Have you ever kept something around that was out-of-date, thinking it might be useful again someday, when it really should have been thrown out?

How about your website marketing?

It’s probably only a few years old, but is it outdated or just plain not working? Is it time to figure what you really need, and what you don’t?

Ready to clean up your site so it brings in more profits? Start here >>

95% of existing web sites were built using obsolete models. People re-created their sales brochures online, or put up sites so they’d have “a web presence” or were convinced that “if we build it, they will come.” If sites like these have any significant traffic at all, they aren’t working to generate leads and close sales.

Is your site one of these?

Ready to fix your website marketing so it actually brings in a steady stream of qualified leads and/or sales?

While I don’t want to get anywhere near your attic, and in fact I could still use some help with mine, I can show you how to clean up your website marketing so you can grow your business this year.

Discover the fastest way to ramp up your online sales and profits >>

Look at your sales figures and site stats and answer these questions:

1. Does my site attract a steady stream of visitors?
2. Do I have a system for increasing traffic to my site?
3. Are at least 10% of the visitors to my site contacting me or buying from me?
4. Do I have a simple process in place for converting visitors into paying clients?
5. Is my site optimized to maximize the value of each visitor and customer?

If you answered NO to any of the above questions, it’s time to clean up your site and put it to work to increase your profits. Don’t wait until it’s as useless as my daughter’s baby carriage. Do it now.

With a few changes to your website, you could be one of the few business owners who will increase their online profits this year.

Discover how to grow your business online this year >>

- Charlie

P.S. Don’t let a website that isn’t working sit there collecting dust and costing you money. Spring clean your website marketing and start bringing in more profits.

I’m continually amazed at how many people put up with a website that doesn’t bring in leads and sales. You’re too smart to do that. You’re one of the few who are looking to optimize your website’s performance so you can make more.

Ready to bring in more profits with your website? >>

The #1 Way To Multiply Your Online Profits

The Fastest Way To Make The Sale

By Charlie Cook | March 31, 2009

Have you ever had a prospect walk away from a sale just when you thought you were about to close?

Of course you have. It happens all the time. And more and more small business owners tell me that in this economy, their prospects are even more price sensitive. They’re finding it harder than ever to close as many sales as they want to.

Are you closing all the sales as you want to? Discover how to close more sales here >>

Before I tell you the easy way to bring in more sales, I want to clear up some confusion about marketing in this recession.

Price Is Not The Problem
While finances are very tight for some people, the majority actually have money to spend. In fact individual savings rates have almost doubled in recent months and many people have even more money in the bank than a year ago.

No question that everyone is looking for a deal, and hoping to get the same kind of discounts that we’ve been seeing for the last 4 months, what they really want is value. But it’s not the price that closes the sale. You’ll make the sale when your prospect feels certain that they are getting the best value for their money.

Want more sales? Use this proven strategy >>

Focus On Selling and Kill the Sale
I was talking with Sam, a coaching client who recently went on a shopping spree. His business grew enough last year that he not only had money to spend on his home in New York, but he purchased a second home in Florida.

Sam and his wife needed a new dishwasher for their home in New York. They went to three appliance stores. In the first two, the salespeople asked a couple of questions and then launched into hard sell presentations about the benefits of various models on the floor.

Sam and his wife walked out of both stores. They didn’t want to be sold, and the salespeople were so focused on making their pitches that they drove these prospects away.

The salesperson at the third appliance store took the time to ask them about their home, their cooking and entertaining habits, and their budget. Then he showed them two dishwashers that would suit their needs. One was within their budget but didn’t have everything they were looking for, and one cost more than they had planned to spend, but had all the features they wanted.

Have you guessed the outcome? Right. Sam and his wife bought the higher priced machine because it was a good value for them. They bought from the salesperson who took the time to ask a few questions, listen to their answers and then offer them two good solutions.

Want to make more sales? Start here >>

Focus on the Customer and Make the Sale
Sam had a similar experience house hunting in Florida. He and his wife got in touch with a realtor who’d been referred to them and described what they were looking for in detail before they headed south.

When they arrived in sunny Florida, the real estate agent took them on a whirlwind tour. She had 15 houses she wanted to show them in one day. After seeing the first five, Sam and his wife called it quits.

The realtor hadn’t listened to them. She was showing them homes that didn’t match what they’d told her they wanted, and they were frustrated looking at homes they had no interest in. The remaining 10 houses on the realtors list were just more of the same.

On a return trip a few weeks later, Sam and his wife met with a new realtor. This one asked them detailed questions and then showed them just 3 houses, one of which they now own.

You get the picture. Focus on the customer’s needs and make the sale.

Want to avoid losing customers and close more sales? Use this proven strategy >>

Diagnosis Before Prescribing
When you’re in your doctor’s office describing the pain in your back that’s been killing you for two weeks, you want her to hear the whole story. You don’t want her making a diagnosis before she has all the information about when and where you feel pain and how it all started. There’s a diagnostic side to sales, too.

Before you present a solution to a client, before you try to get them to spend a dime, help them define the problem they are trying to solve. Ask your prospects questions to find out what their needs are. Then use the information they provide to advise them about the best solutions.

People aren’t looking to be sold. They’re looking for help buying what they want. Help them, and you’ll make a lot more money.

It sounds incredibly simple, but over 60% of the salespeople Sam encountered weren’t using this simple strategy to succeed. Most small business owners, marketers and salespeople don’t ask the key questions that will help convert their prospects to clients

I know you’re smarter than most, which is why I’d like to show you marketing tips for the fastest way to close more sales >>

- Charlie

P.S. Want to know which questions to ask your prospects and which to avoid? This important topic was covered in detail on this month’s Monthly Marketing Membership Program. If you’re not a member yet, sign up today to get the insider strategies that will help you succeed this year.

Interested? >>

How To Build a Seven Figure Income

Find out which five essential, low cost marketing activities, when used together, can help you automatically attract more new top paying clients every month and generate more repeat business every year. Click here »

Marketing Ideas – Where To Start In This Economy…

By Charlie Cook | March 24, 2009

Even some of the most successful small business owners are seeing their sales slow down in this economy. As a smart entrepreneur, you know that marketing is the key to successful selling. It’s the engine that drives your profits.

Has your marketing stalled?

How can you get things running again and get your sales and profits back on track?

Discover how to power up your marketing ideas in this economy >>

I was at my grandmother’s place in Maine with my roommate Rex one summer during college. She had offered us the use of her aging 1949 Jeep while we were there. We thought it would be a blast to take it for a spin. There was only one problem.

After a winter of neglect, the old rusty Jeep wouldn’t start. I had no idea what to do. I was about to give up and walk away when Rex stopped me. “It’s not that complicated to get one of these engines running again. It’s either a fuel problem or an electrical problem. We just have to figure out which it is and then we can fix it ourselves.”

With that mindset, we checked the battery, spark plugs, fuel lines, and fuel pump. We finally traced the problem to a dirty carburetor. Once Rex showed me how to approach the problem, with some basic tools we were able to get the Jeep running again.

Troubleshoot your marketing the same way. If you’re not getting all the sales you want, the problem is either leads (the fuel) or conversions (the spark that turns leads into profits).

Not reaching your sales goals? You need to fix your leads or your conversions.

Discover how to get your marketing up to top speed >>

Ready to repair your marketing problems and get your marketing engine running again? Start with these basic diagnostic questions:

Leads
1. Do you use a free offer to get qualified prospects to contact you?

2. Is your free offer compelling? Do at least 1 out of 20 people who are exposed to it contact you?

3. Do you feature your free offer prominently on your web site so that 10% of visitors to your site contact you?

4. Are you using a client-focused marketing message that explains in 10 or 12 words what benefit you provide?

5. Do you have a no-cost referral strategy for extending your reach and helping more people learn how you can help them?

Want more leads and sales? Start here >>

Conversions
1. Do you have an automated follow-up process in place to convert leads to sales?

2. Are your sales processes, your sales conversations and sales copy structured around product features or your prospects’ problems? If you’re focusing on product or service features, you’re doing it wrong.

3. When you get a prospect to the point of purchase are you using an up-sell strategy to maximize your profits?

4. Do you have a system for cross-selling clients to maximize the dollar value of each client?

5. Are you currently testing ways to increase your conversion rates? If you’re not, you may be leaving a large portion of your profits on the table.

Interested in converting more prospects and closing more sales? Find out how >>

If you answered no to any of the above, your marketing is missing key parts. Add them to get your profits pouring in.

Like your car engine, marketing is a system. If it’s not bringing in the level of profits you want, the fastest way to restart it and get it up to top speed is to figure out what part of the system isn’t working.

Start by determining whether it’s a problem with leads or conversions. Once you know that you can identify whether the problem is your offer, your marketing message, or your closing process. And often, just by fixing one element of your marketing, you can get the whole system running and easily double your income.

Don’t let this economy slow you down >>

- Charlie

P.S. Current car engines are a lot more complicated than the 1949 Jeep that Rex and I got running again. But don’t let new technologies distract you from the basics. You can still diagnose your marketing engine and fix it. Need a hand?

Discover the simple system for maximizing your leads, conversions and profits >>

5 Easy Ways To Flood Your Site With Targeted Traffic

Tired of all the hype? Find out the proven ways to attract thousands of visitors a day to your site. These are the top 5 traffic-building strategies anyone can profit from. Click here »

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