Everyone I talk to wants to be wealthy. Most are savvy, hardworking and willing to do whatever it takes to achieve their financial goals.
What’s the one thing that holds most smart people back?
What’s the one thing that limits your earning potential? Read More »
Want to know the secret to avoiding getting the cold shoulder from a prospect?
There is a simple way to warm up your prospects so they become clients… Read More »
Logic in sales is a gun without a trigger. You can twirl it all you care to, but you can’t fire it. Emotion has a trigger. You can hit a target with it. Every time you generate a positive emotion, you’re pulling the trigger on another accurate shot at closing the sale.
To understand which emotions sell Read More »
“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.
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In this economy it seems like everybody has become a skinflint!
Money is tight and a lot of people are worried. While there have always been skinflints out there, it seems like more of your previously free spending buyers have morphed into skinflints.
What can you do to your small business marketing to get skinflints to buy and get your profits back on track in this economy?
Find out how to increase your profits in this economy >>
My Dad The Skinflint
I grew up with a dad who was always looking for ways to cut costs. He’d turn out the lights to save on electricity, often before the rest of us had left the room.
During the winter, he’d turn the heat down to 50 degrees at 9 p.m. and I learned to sleep under piles of blankets.
When gas first hit a dollar a gallon back in the late 1960s my Dad focused on getting the most miles he could out of a gallon of gas. He’d shift into fourth gear at 20 mph. Even before cars like the Prius ever existed he was getting over 30 miles per gallon.
Even when I take my Dad out for a meal, he stills asks for the cheapest beer they’ll serve. Last time I think the waiter must have gone into a storage room and dusted off a Pabst they’d had sitting around for years.
My Dad ascribed his money-saving ways to his Scottish heritage and now your customers are blaming their reluctance to buy on the economy.
What You Should Know
My Dad was a skinflint by nature. It wasn’t that we were perpetually broke or in dire straits. He saw saving money as a game and took great pride in seeing how little he could spend on electricity, heating oil, gas and even beer.
Did that mean he didn’t spend money or spend big on certain items?
Of course not. Over the years my Dad has spent large when he wanted a sailboat, antique furniture, or the latest Toyota Prius with all the bells and whistles.
What you should know is that even people who are skinflints by nature, are happy to spend money when they want something. And that’s just as true for people who are temporary skinflints due to economic worries.
Find out how to overcome your prospects reluctance to buy
Even in today’s recession-racked economy people are buying. Sales of BlackBerries, iPhones and other smart phones are up 25% in 2009. And even people on tight budgets are buying including job seekers.
They’re buying because the connectedness that smart phones provide has a high value for a growing number of people.
How To Get Skinflints To Buy
Are you getting more and more objections when you try and close the sale? Are more and more prospects telling you, price is the problem, it’s not the right time, they’ll need to think about it?
The one thing you need to know is that whenever your prospects seem to be waffling, appear to be morphing into skinflint mode, the problem 9 times out of 10 isn’t that they don’t need or want your product or service.
When prospects take on skinflint characteristics, what they’re telling you is they don’t understand the value of your product or service. And it’s rare that price is the issue either.
If my 90-year old Dad still drove, you couldn’t sell him a top rated Nissan Sentra or a Ford Focus for around $15,000. But you could sell him similar sized gas sipping Toyota Prius for $22,000. That’s $7,000 more!
The small business marketing secret to getting your prospects to spend more
Your Buyers Are The Same
While I think of my Dad as unique, he’s just like your buyers in one way. He’ll spend money on things he wants and perceives have a high value to him.
If you want to generate more sales in this economy, use the same marketing strategies that get skinflints to buy. Appeal to their wants and clarify the value in their terms. Do this and you could easily make this one of your most profitable years ever.
– Charlie
P.S. There is plenty of money to be made in this economy but it’s not going to fall into your lap. To get it you need to change the way you market your small business and how you close the sale.
Find out what works to close more sales in this economy
P.P.S. Visualize more clients buying from you. Imagine more people chasing you, calling you and wanting to work with you.
Sound too good to be true?
All you need to do to make it a reality is take action and discover how to eliminate the obstacles to sales.
Discover what works to bring in more buyers and more profits
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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.
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.
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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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.
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What’s happened to your sales this past year? Are sales increasing or are you struggling to find buyers?
The temperatures have turned cold here in New England, and there have already been two snowfalls in the mountains. In Vermont, where I ski, the bears have hunkered down for the winter.
Does it look like your buyers are hibernating, too?
Are you thinking of pulling back on your marketing because of it?
Your answer to the first question may be “Yes”, but your answer to the second should be “No.” While your prospects may be more reluctant to make a purchase, there are still plenty of buyers out there. Cutting back on your marketing is a surefire way to lose even more sales and money.
Want to make money this year instead?
Take these three steps to keep your business on track and make next year your most profitable:
1. Stay Confident
The biggest mistake you can make is to lose confidence in your products and your services. Start to doubt your unique competitive advantage and your ability to improve your marketing, and you’ve lost the race before the start. Like a bear smells fear, your customers will notice your hesitancy and they’ll buy from a competitor who appears confident of success. They’ll steer clear of you and you’ll lose even more business.
Unless you compete directly with huge corporations on the scale of a Microsoft, there are plenty of people buying. What you need to do is attract more of them.
Ready to find out how to attract more clients? Start here >>
2. Focus On Your Core Strengths
Obviously, we’re doing business in a very different economic climate than we were a few years or even a few months ago. The marketing strategies that may have helped you stay afloat in the past could easily sink your business this year.
To succeed in this economy, your small business needs to be more focused and specialized. Companies like Circuit City that sold a bit of everything are closing their doors, but I see this happening to small businesses as well. Small companies that try to provide too many products or services are struggling. And for good reason; prospects can’t figure out what they excel at.
On the other hand, businesses that target a specific service or product are holding their own. I’m hearing that business is holding steady and, in some cases, growing from a whole host of people including: voice and data technology providers, and even from some real estate developers. Online, many niche services and products are growing too, including online bookkeeping, online virtual assistants and niche information products.
Discover how to grow your business this year >>
One of my clients is an organization that has been in business for two years providing innovative treatment to people with alcohol problems. Using the website strategies I showed them, they had their best week ever last week. This is a surprise since I’d think the economic news would be driving people to drink instead of to a cure.
Over a decade ago management guru Tom Peters advised business leaders to “stick to your knitting.” Finding the thing you do best and sticking to it is still one of the keys to success. For example, while many banks are struggling because they took big risks with subprime mortgages, the First National Bank in Orwell, Vermont is thriving. They stuck to what they knew well, only providing loans to people who they were confident could pay them back. The result? They maintained a positive cash flow and now more customers are flocking to their doors. This year loans are up 22.6% and deposits up 7%.
Even in the abysmal real estate market there are success stories. Everest Development in Denver offered 135 luxury condos for sale at prices ranging from $500,000 to $2 million and sold 90% of the properties earlier this year. Of course location and amenities were key, but these people knew their market.
You, too, can succeed by focusing on your strengths. Discover how >>
3. Find Out How To Attract More Buyers
At the risk of being redundant, I’m going to say it once more. There are plenty of buyers out there. All you need to do is attract a few more.
The first step to increasing your profits in the next 12 months is to find out how to:
• Attract more prospects
• Clarify the value of your products and services.
• Gain prospects’ confidence.
• Motivate prospects to buy, and buy today.
To make it easier, I’ve created the lowest cost way to access the strategies you need to maximize your profits in less time this year. I’ve put together a monthly mentoring program to show you exactly what works and how to do it.
Interested in making more money this year? Find out how to do it >>
On average, most small businesses will see their profits decline this year. Your business doesn’t have to be one of them.
You’re more ambitious than the average business owner and smart enough to look for ways to take advantage of the situation. Small businesses with the best marketing win every time; be a winner in this economy by finding out what works.
Stay confident, focus on what you do best and find out the fastest ways to attract prospects and convert them to buyers, and you’ll maximize your profits this year.
-Charlie
Small Business Marketing in any Economy
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Have you been watching TV or reading the newspapers? The bad economy makes great headlines, and they’re full of it. You can’t miss hearing or reading about how terrible it is for business. But if that’s all the news you’re getting, you are missing the good news.
The good news about this economy is plentiful. It just doesn’t make great headlines on TV.
It’s true: Many businesses will struggle or even fail during this downturn… but at least ten percent will prosper. That’s right: At least one out of ten businesses will see their profits grow!
Want to be one of those ten that attract more clients and profits? Find out how >>
Every week, I talk to entrepreneurs and businesses that, despite all the bad news in the press, are holding steady or even growing in this economy. And, they all have one thing in common: Their efforts are clearly focused on 3 simple ideas I’ll share with you below.
For most business owners, it’s not a lack of ideas that is the problem. It’s knowing which ones to use. So today I’m going to give you the keys to the kingdom: the three key ideas to use whether you’re thinking of starting a business or have been in business for decades.
These are the three most important ideas I’ve ever shared, and I recommend you read them and then tape them to your forehead, or rather to your computer monitor, and use them to focus your efforts, so you maximize your sales and profits this year and for the rest of your business career.
The 3 Keys to Ultimate Business Success
1. Needs
Whether you sell sunglasses, hearing aids, sports training, legal services, or financial advice, the place to focus is on your prospects’ needs. I know one entrepreneur who thought that the sunglasses parents were buying for their young children were a joke. So she came up with a line of quality unbreakable sunglasses for young kids, and her business is growing like wild.
Every product or service you create and market should be designed to meet an apparent or perceived need of your target market. No need, no sales. High perceived need, high sales.
The same is true of your marketing. It should be focused on your prospects’ needs. Focus your marketing on yourself, and you’ll struggle forever. Focus on what they want, and you’ll get their attention and their business.
Discover how to transform needs into profits >>
2. Relationships
Your biggest competitive advantage isn’t the quality of your products or services; it’s the number and strength of the relationships you have with prospects and clients. It’s the amount of confidence you command. So, where should your marketing be focused?
Focus 80-90% of your marketing efforts on relationship-building activities.
Typically, most marketing is aimed at getting the sale, not at building relationships or confidence. Big mistake! People need to first know you and trust you before they’ll buy from you. They need to be sure you’re the best company to buy from, and your product or service does what you say it does. Where confidence flows, money follows.
How do you gain someone’s confidence so he or she will buy from you? You help them get to know you through repeated contacts and demonstration of your expertise.
Find out how to build relationships for business success >>
3. Profits
Most entrepreneurs and business owners’ attention is squarely focused on increasing sales when instead they should be focused on profits. This can be a fatal mistake, skewing your marketing efforts and distracting you from what you should be paying attention to.
In the past few years, Washington Mutual had amazing success increasing the sales of mortgages. And as you know now, they lost money on each of these and, ultimately, caused the bank to fold.
Whether you are testing a headline, an ad, a sales letter, a website, an upsell strategy, or a followup strategy, the question you should be focused on is, “What will help us maximize our profits?” Yes, you could send out ten thousand postcards and get a few more sales, but if your response is low, your marketing costs are going to decimate your profits.
The solution to making more is to continually test and improve everything you do to market your business, so that each month, you’re generating more leads, more sales and yes – more profits.
Want to maximize your revenue? Discover how >>
That’s it! Needs, Relationships, and Profits.
Tape those 3 words to your wall, and if every day you ask yourself the following five questions, then you’ll be headed in the right direction.
– What are the needs of my prospects (perceived or real)?
– How can I do a better job of fulfilling those needs?
– What am I doing to start more relationships with prospects?
– What weekly and monthly activities am I doing to strengthen relationships with prospects and clients?
– What elements of my marketing am I testing and what would work better to increase profits?
Interested in finding out how easy it is to increase your profits? Apply here >>
– Charlie
Small Business Marketing Success in Any Economy
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What makes an ad get your attention and then keep you interested and help generate more sales? It’s when it clearly identifies a common problem and then shows you an obvious solution that you can’t live without.
Here’s an example that does exactly this >>
Just use the above link and click on play to see what I’m talking about.
– Charlie
MarketingForSuccess
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Attract Clients and Increase Your Profits
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