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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 selling 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 >>

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

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 website marketing 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. They’re website marketing is a failure.

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 website marketing >>

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 website marketing 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 marketing, 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 marketing strategy 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 marketing? >>

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? >>

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 >>

The Day I Lost My Pants In NYC

By Charlie Cook | March 18, 2009

It was the day after Thanksgiving when I lost my pants. I was headed in from Connecticut to New York City with my fiance to explore what was then a still-emerging art gallery scene in Soho. We were enjoying the trip in but things started to go wrong when we got off the subway.

We’d misread the subway map and got off one stop too early. That wouldn’t normally have been a problem, but when we emerged from the subway station, rain was coming down in buckets. We had rain jackets but no umbrella, and the temperature was just above freezing.

By the time we’d walked a few blocks, our jeans were soaked through and we were both shivering and miserable. We were too cold to spend the day wandering around soaking wet. The choice was, either to give up and go home, or do something about our wet clothes and try to save our day together in the city. We opted for the latter.

What would you have done?

We stopped at a corner store, bought a newspaper and went looking for a way to dry our pants. A block away, behind a heavy metal door, we found a tiny laundromat with just three washers and dryers.

We peeled off our wet jeans behind the newspaper and popped them into a dryer. We sat down to wait, trying to be as discreet as possible about our state of undress. (Newspapers are handy in such situations, but to tell you the truth, the New Yorkers around us didn’t even blink when we took off our pants.)

Thirty minutes later, we had warmed up, our jeans were dry, the rain had let up and we were back on track. We’d salvaged what could have turned into a really bad day.

Ever have something bad happen that turned into something good?

This current recession is like a cold rain. It’s soaking lots of people’s profits, and anticipating a difficult year or two is downright unpleasant.

Want to find simple solutions to salvage your business plans and dreams? You can do it.

The email I’ve been getting over the last three months falls into two distinct camps. The first group is paralyzed by fear and worry. They’re watching and waiting, and they’re unhappy.

The second group of people are worried, too, but they don’t feel stuck. They are highly motivated to find a way out of the problems the recession is causing them.

These smart business owners, people like you, know they need to adapt to these challenging conditions, improve their business practices, and look for new opportunities to maintain profits — or even grow.

Last year, during the first year of this recession, my clients on average doubled their sales. You can do the same by taking action now.

Contact me by filling in the application for my one-on-one mentoring program. This program isn’t for everybody. It’s for qualified business owners who can show me a track record of past success, and who are motivated to find solutions to today’s problems.

Want in? I’ve only got two spots open.

Start here to schedule a time to talk >>

– Charlie

P.S. Don’t lose your pants in this recession. Do something about it.

Who Will Be The Business Marketing Winners In This Economy?

By Charlie Cook | March 10, 2009

There are two kinds of people: those who panic when things go wrong and those who get a grip and take action to solve the problem.

Which are you?

Who Will Be The Business Marketing Winners In This Economy?

Over a month ago, U.S. Airways Flight 1549 out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport ran into a flock of geese within minutes after takeoff, shutting down both engines. You probably read about it or saw the reports in the news.

The pilot, Captain Sullenberger, kept his wits about him and chose to make a very tricky water landing. He pulled it off, easing his jet down into the middle of the Hudson River without damage, saving everyone on board.

Talk about a winner. It’s an inspirational story, but how did Sullenberger do it? How did he know what to do to save himself, his crew and his passengers?

Captain Sullenberger has years of experience flying, but he credits his training for preparing him to handle a once-in-a-lifetime emergency like this one. He didn’t panic because his training had taught him a set of maneuvers to choose from in extraordinary circumstances.

As a business owner, you may feel like you’re piloting Flight 1549. Just when your business marketing is airborne, a flock of misguided bankers and lenders (turkeys in this case) threatens to bring the whole economy down and your business with it.

It’s bad. Credit is tight and buyers are harder to find. You can panic and watch your company’s profits sink, or you can take your cue from leaders like Sullenberger. The winners in this economy will be business owners — pilots— who take action to save profits and even grow in this economy.

You need to pull your business out of danger and keep pulling in sales. Institute emergency procedures. What are they? Start here >>

How can you save your business and even increase your profits in this economy? There are many ways, and I’ll be discussing them in this and future articles. The first is to…

Create efficiency in key areas. Especially marketing.

Does that sound like strange advice from a marketing coach? It isn’t. You can’t afford marketing that isn’t working.

Marketing is the engine that drives sales and profits. You may have years of experience marketing, but if you aren’t using strategies that run this engine efficiently, you’re losing prospects and sales at a critical time.

In my experience, 90% of potential sales are lost due to poor marketing copy, limited followup, and/or a low percentage of conversions. That’s not a typo; 90% of potential sales are lost due to marketing inefficiency. Institute emergency procedures!

You can improve your marketing efficiency in just a few days and see gains in profits of 400% or more.

How can you improve your marketing efficiency? Find out >>

Most companies are lucky if they’re getting a 1% response to their marketing. Your response rate could be as high as 15%. Think what that would mean for your sales and your income.

1. Lead Generation

Most company’s conversion rates are terribly low, and you probably wouldn’t be reading this if yours weren’t, too. Whether you’re using direct mail, cold calling or a web site to generate leads, a typical response rate is less than a half of one percent. Improve your conversion rate to 1% and you’d have twice as many leads.

Is it possible to get 1% of the people who see your information to contact you? Yes. 10 to 13% is possible!

How can you improve your lead generation? Find out >>

2. Conversion

Once a lead comes in, how many do you convert to sales? Here’s another marketing sinkhole: most companies lose 80% of potential sales from leads due to lack of follow-up.

Emergency procedure; improve your follow-up system. You could be landing five new customers a day, not just one. Or 50 instead of ten. It doesn’t have to be a perfect follow-up system for you to double your revenue.

How can you improve your conversion rates? Find out >>

3. Sales

Use every sale as the stepping-stone to the next one and the one after that. Up-selling and cross-selling can easily double or triple the amount you make from a client. Yet most businesses leave these profits on the table. Is that what you’re doing?

How can you improve your up-sell and cross-sell? Find out >>

Business owners who learn how to market efficiently now will not only survive the recession; they’ll be way ahead of the competition when it’s over. They will be the winners in this economy and the next one.

You’re in the pilot’s seat. You can’t sit back and wait for the economy to improve; you’ve got to take action. But don’t panic. Discover how to make your business marketing efficient and stay in the air. When you do you’ll be able to smooth out the bumpy ride you’ve been experiencing and enjoy the trip.

Ready to be a winner with your marketing?>>

– Charlie

P.S. Can you really afford to keep marketing the way you are now? Want to avoid watching your business crash? Improve the efficiency of your business marketing and you’ll instantly get more leads, more sales and more profits.

The Secret to Marketing When Money Is Tight

By Charlie Cook | March 4, 2009

Struggling to bring in new business? Wish you could generate more leads and clients without having to deplete your cash reserves in this tough economy?

Whether you’re just starting out or have a well-established business, the truth is that some of the most powerful ways to grow your business can be had for free! And these work whether you’re netting $50,000 a year or $10,000,000 a year in business.

Here are three no-cost, high return ideas you can take to the bank in this tough economy:

1. Give Away Something For Free
I use a simple report I wrote to bring in an average of 60 leads a day or over 400 each week. Each week my list of qualified prospects grows. I spent a few days writing the report but after that my lead generation costs went to zero.

Business Week ran an article last year about Chipotle’s successful giveaway marketing strategy. The fast food restaurant chain has handed out tens of thousands of free burritos and tacos as way of building a loyal clientele. In just one day Chipotle gave away 6,000 burritos when they opened a mid-town location in Manhattan.

This customer-satisfying strategy cost them $35,000, just about the same amount they would have spent for a half page black and white ad in The New York Times.

Let your prospects sample your ideas or your products. It’s the fastest way to help people understand the value of what you provide, to trust you and to want to do business with you. Chipotle has leveraged this strategy to become one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in the country. Imagine what this marketing strategy could do for you!

Ready to generate more leads and make more money this year >>

2. Create Compelling Offers
In this economy your offers need to grab your prospect’s interest and prompt them to act right away. Special time limited or limited availability offers are what the retail chains are using and you can use too.

People buy your products and services based on their perception of value. Whether you are charging five dollars or five thousand, your prospects need to be convinced that the benefits you provide will outweigh the cost.

To stimulate sales place your offer in the context of your target market’s concerns. Once you’ve clarified how your product or service meets their concerns the value of your offer will be apparent.

Creating a compelling offer is an art and involves blending the following items together to create a sentence or two which will move people to take action, whether it is contacting you or making an immediate purchase.

Include the following items to create an offer that helps sell:

Name – What you are selling
Benefit – The problem it solves
Credibility – Why they should buy from you
Value – How useful it will be to them
Guarantee – Your promise to them
Motivation to Act – A reason to take advantage of your offer today.

Want to know all the secrets to winning more clients and more business >>

3. Get Others to Promote Your Business for You
The goal in marketing is to reach more prospects, get them to trust you and understand the value of your products and services. What’s the fastest and least expensive way to do this?

Get others to promote you.

That’s right. No matter what you’re product or service there are other businesses that offer non-competing products and services to the same target market. Join forces with them and get them to promote your company and you’ve instantly extended your reach, leveraged the trust relationship they have with their list and all you need to do is clarify the value of your service or products.

Want to discover the fastest, least expensive ways to attract all the clients you can handle. Get the details >>

How do you find other businesses willing to promote yours? Let me give you a few examples.

You’re an athletic trainer. You could partner with someone who provides sports massage or nutrition counseling. Even weekend warriors will benefit from this combination of services. You promote each other and all of you could double your clientele without spending a dime.

Or if you own a web site that sells shoes, you could offer a $25 discount coupon with each sale over $75 that your customers can use at another site that sells socks, and vice a versa. You both generate more sales and make more money without actually spending a penny.

Or if you’re a voice coach working with aspiring executives you could partner with a leadership or sales coach. If you each provide your partner with the marketing collateral they need to promote you, your cost is minimal and you both double your marketing reach.

Each time you partner with a business that has a broad customer base, you’ll dramatically increase your sales and profits. And you’ll do so virtually for free.

There are dozens of other ways to position and expand your business, strategies that work whether you’re just starting out or you’re growing a well-established business.

Discover how to leap-frog the competition and double your profits this year. Get the details with this link >>

– Charlie

P.S. What’s the one marketing bible recommended by Brian Tracy, Tom Hopkins and Jay Conrad Levinson? Find out >>

3 Ways To Succeed In This Economy

By Charlie Cook | February 24, 2009

What’s the number one thing to realize about 2009? It was true in 2008 but by now it should be sinking in.

What’s different about doing business this year and last?

The rules have changed!

For 95% of businesses, you can’t keep growing or making a profit using boom marketing strategies. I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that they don’t work. That you can’t make as much as you were much less reach your growth goals if you keep doing the same things you used to do to grow your business.

What are your 5 options for dealing with this economy?

1. Use denial
Tell yourself everything is fine and pretend that the recession will just go away. Denial is one of the first lines of defense. It’s your reaction to news you don’t want to hear. We all use it, but it’s only a temporary way to block out bad news and no matter how long you stay in denial it doesn’t make anything better.

2. Be angry
If your growth plans are on the shelf and your profits are shrinking you can look for someone to blame. I can think of a few financial wizards, who are morally bankrupt, to be mad at. But ultimately being angry won’t make you rich.

3. Get depressed
If you read the news, see how many people are losing their jobs, or take a look at your profits, it’s easy to get depressed. You could just give up and ask yourself, “Why bother with anything?” It’s natural to feel this way but at some point if you want to start attracting more clients and making more money you’ll need to move beyond depression to…

4. Accept the situation
The few smart economists who predicted this recession tell us that you and I are going to be dealing with it for five to eight years. If you accept this and can move beyond denial, anger and depression then you’ll accept that the rules have changed and you can…

5. Do something about it
Change the way you market your business. If you want different results you’re going to need to change the way you generate leads, and find out how to close more sales and generate more revenue from each client.

No one likes to be forced to change but if you want your business to survive much less prosper – it’s time. Don’t worry it’s easier than you think.

3 Ways to Succeed In This Economy
Last year, in early 2008, just when this recession was really kicking in, I got a call from Mary Ellen and Ed, a pair of therapists in California who were struggling to attract new clients and build a profitable practice. They were at a break even point but needed 50% more clients to reach their goals.

Here are the 3 simple strategies I showed them.

A. Create A Top Converting Lead Generation Website
When we started working together, their web site was closer to an online brochure and it wasn’t working to generate leads.

I showed them how to replace boring copy with the key phrases they needed to use to keep people reading and which elements to include on the page to prompt people to contact them.

The result? They’re now getting two to three times the leads and the ones they are getting are more qualified and closer to the ideal clients they want.

Interested in making your site more profitable too? Start here >>

B. Replace Expensive Online Advertising With Top Search Engine Placement
In an effort to drive traffic to their site, Mary Ellen and Ed had been spending thousands of dollars each month on pay per click ads. With a site that wasn’t working to convert visitors to valuable prospects this was a waste of money and killing their profits.

Instead of costly advertising, I showed them a few key SEO strategies that ramped up their traffic making it possible to cut back on the expense of pay-per-click ads and increasing their profits.

Want to know how to get all the traffic you need to be more profitable? Go here >>

C. Improve Follow-up To Increase Prospect to Client Conversions
Ed had been writing a newsletter but it seemed like no one was reading it much less picking up the phone to talk to him or Mary Ellen about their services.

I showed Ed how to make a small shift in focus and content and turn the newsletters into a proactive conversion tool, increasing calls and clients.

Ready to improve your follow-up and close more online sales? Use this >>

3 simple changes – done right – the result?

Last year in 2008 Mary Ellen and Ed more than doubled their business and now in early 2009 have reached their goals. They have all the clients they can handle.

Let me ask you three questions.

1.    Do you want help reaching your goals?
2.    Would you like to have all the clients you can handle?
3.    Want to make more this year?

If you answered yes to any of these, then it’s time to move beyond, denial, anger, depression and acceptance and take action to find out how like Mary Ellen and Ed, you can put your business on top in this economy.

– Charlie

P.S. Most business owners are in denial about their websites. They don’t work, so they give up on them. Don’t make this mistake. With a few quick fixes you can easily use your site to double or triple your income.

Interested in making more with your website? Find out what to do >>

Does This Drive You Crazy Too?

By Charlie Cook | February 19, 2009

I’ll never forget that drive back from Vermont, one winter evening in February when I was 14. I’d been skiing in Vermont with my parents and on the way home we got stuck in a blizzard.

We were less than 60 miles from home when all traffic on our side of the highway came to a stand still. We could see that there was an exit a quarter-mile ahead, and wanted to get off but we couldn’t move forward, not even an inch.

We sat and waited for ten or 15 minutes. It snowed and got darker outside. I was contemplating a long cold night in the car when my father suggested we take a look, get out and see what the problem was. To be honest, at 14, the idea hadn’t occurred to me. I was just waiting for some big snowplow from the sky to show up and magically take care of things.

We walked forward past hundreds of cars with people sitting inside, running their engines to stay warm. When we reached the exit we discovered the problem. Six cars were stuck in the snow blocking it so no one could get off.

Six relatively small cars (this was pre-SUV) had slid sideways in the snow. And in every case the drivers were just sitting inside doing nothing.

My father and I looked at the situation and quickly realized that all we needed was five or ten strong backs and we could easily clear the downward slopping exit ramp and get things moving.

That’s when I got the surprise of my life – remember I was only 14.

With hundreds of cars lined up on the highway, we figured it’d be easy to get a few people out into the snowy night and get things going. By now we’d been there for almost an hour without any signs of help or movement.

When we tried to get the other stranded motorists to do something – hardly anyone seemed interested in leaving their warm cars. They were just waiting and slowly using up the gas in their tanks as the snow piled up around their cars.

We had to knock on dozens and dozens of car windows just to get a handful of people to take action and help themselves and dig out the few cars that were creating the bottleneck.

You know what drives me crazy – totally bonkers? APATHY!

Apathy drives me crazy! It drives me nuts when people wait for someone else to solve a problem – when an easy solution is right in front of them. Ultimately it took us longer to round up a few action oriented individuals than it did to clear the ramp and get on our way.

This recession reminds me of that wintry night years ago stuck on the highway. This economic climate is like a big blizzard and it’s slowing things down for sure. So what are most business owners doing about it?

Most business owners are hunkering down and hoping someone else will solve the problem. They’re sitting tight while their sales dry up – when instead they could be taking action and increasing their profits.

Which are you doing?

Last year Mary Ellen and Ed, two therapists from California came to me with what might seem like an improbably task. They had recently started their business, were struggling and wanted to see if I could help them while most other businesses were floundering.

They could have just hunkered down and lived with it – waiting for some miracle but instead they sought a solution and took action. One year later – they’ve more than doubled their business and have almost as many clients as they can handle. You can do the same!

There are four remaining spaces available in the MasterMind Mentoring Group and if you apply today, you may still be able to get in. Just use this link to apply or email Jessica@37d57f8fa2.nxcli.io to schedule a time to talk with me personally to get your questions answered.

Just in case you’re confused by the name – it’s called a MasterMind Mentoring Group so you’ll benefit from the others experience but don’t have any doubt about it, I’ll be showing you what to do – I’ll be mentoring you directly.

Once these four remaining spots are full, the group will be closed. If you’re one of those people overwhelmed by apathy, this isn’t for you. But if you’re smart, an action taker and you want to do something about making sure your business comes out on top this year – don’t wait – do something about it.

In Tuesday’s email, I’ll detail the four simple steps Mary Ellen and Ed used to increase their leads and convert more leads into clients and more than double their business in the past 12 months.

– Charlie

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