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Have You Ever Put Lipstick on a Pig?

By Charlie Cook | September 10, 2008

What is it with putting lipstick on a pig?

Obama and McCain both seem to love this phrase. According to Meghan McCain her Dad uses it frequently and at last count McCain used it plenty publicly referring to Hilary’s health care plan and to Mitt Romney.

What’s it mean?

It refers to dressing something up and trying to sell it as something it isn’t.

Obviously you can take this idea too far and the first thing I’d recommend is that to anyone who uses this phrase drop but don’t dump the concept.

What am I saying? Should you put lipstick on a pig?

No! But regularly businesses rename products and bring them back to life. For example book publishers look at poorly selling titles and if the book looks like it could have life they come up with a better title, one that catches attention and sells.

So don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, use this idea, just not to literally.

Does this work? Does renaming and repacking existing products or services work to bring life to a poor sales?

Yes! It’s one of the easiest ways to ramp up profits. Just don’t call it putting lipstick on a pig. And of course I’m assuming none of your products or services are pigs anyways.

– Charlie
MarketingForSuccess

Harvest Low-hanging Profit and Triple Your Small Business Income

By Charlie Cook | August 27, 2008

Many small business owners, entrepreneurs and marketers struggle to be more profitable and overlook simple, effective strategies that could increase their sales by as much as 200%.

Are you one of them? Have you overlooked these marketing opportunities, too?

• Do you have a list of satisfied clients but you’re having trouble increasing your sales?
• Do you send out mailings and get a miniscule rate of return?
• Do you run ads and expect a landslide of new business?
• Do you have a web site that barely pays for itself?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re burning up time and money stretching and straining to increase sales and missing the low-hanging profits you could be taking in.

Have you been to one of those Pick-Your-Own orchards? It’s an annual fall excursion in my family. Each year we drive to our favorite orchard in Monkton, Vermont and pick a few pecks of apples for eating and baking.

If you’ve picked your own apples, you know that it’s a lot easier to grab the ones hanging on the lower branches. The wooden ladders that reach to the top of the trees are heavy, awkward, and never nearby when you need them. Once you’ve located a ladder and wrestled it into position, you’ve got to scramble up without damaging yourself or the brittle branches of the tree.

You can pick five times as many apples in the same amount of time by moving from tree to tree and grabbing the ones within reach. Likewise, there is profit potential within reach if you know how to take advantage of it.

Discover the easiest way to pick up more profits with your business. >>

Small Changes Add Up to Big Profits
Recently my VW dealer sent me an email detailing 4 ways to improve my mileage by 20%; replace filters, change the oil, tune the engine and keep the tires properly inflated. Each is a small, low cost change but making them could add up to significant savings. You can improve sales with similar low cost changes in your marketing and have a big impact on profits.

Here are seven small changes that can yield big results:

1. Replace your marketing message; Increase sales by 20% to 3,000%.
2. Use an automated lead generation system to target your best prospects; Increase sales by 100% to 1,000%.
3. Change your pricing strategy; Increase profits by 20% to 65%.
4. Replace your sales script; Increase closing rates and sales by 50% to 80%
5. Change your sales page headline; Increase your income by 50% to 150%.
6. Include related up-sell offers; Increase profits by 12% to 25%.
7. Use every page on your website to generate leads, instead of just one or two pages; Increase your sales by 15% to 40%.

Ready to discover how and where to increase your profits? Find the easy answers >>

The solution to making more with your business isn’t to look for a magic marketing pill that will solve all your problems instantly. It doesn’t exist. The solution is to pick the low hanging fruit to get 10% and 20% and bigger improvements.

How to Increase Sales by 300%
If you could find a way to increase your profits by 10% every month, you would have more than tripled your income by the end of the year. Harvesting low-hanging profits can do that for your business. Like plucking the apples at arm’s length in an orchard, it’s less work and a whole lot more fruitful.

Interested in harvesting low-hanging profits to grow your sales and your business? Discover how >>

– Charlie

Marketing Ideas that Make YOU Money

P.S. Add a few thousand dollars here and a few there each month and within a few months you’ll be on your way to making an additional $100,000 to $300,000 or more this year.

What’s Missing From Your Small Business Marketing?

By Charlie Cook | June 3, 2008

What’s the Once Thing 35 out of 40 Businesses Forget to Do That Kills The Sale?

“I’m having trouble selling my hearing aids even though I discount them 30%. Should I sell it for even less?” — George R., MI

Why Prospects Don’t Buy

Ever wonder why your prospects aren’t buying?

You know the situation. You’ve got a qualified prospect on the phone or you’re meeting with them in person and they’ve agreed that your product or services are the perfect fit. Then you mention the price, and they don’t bite. They tell you that they want to think about it or they need to talk to X or they just flat out tell you its too expensive.

You could offer them a discount but is that the right thing to do or are you just shooting yourself in the foot.

When a prospect who needs your product or service walks away and doesn’t buy, typically it’s not price that’s the problem. And if your prospect isn’t buying, lowering the price won’t guarantee the sale.

Why Price Isn’t The Problem

Typically when your prospect doesn’t buy or objects to price, the real problem is that they don’t understand the value of your products or services. And it’s not their fault; it’s the fault of your small business marketing. Whether you sell consulting services, hand tools, hearing aids or chicken legs, the price you can charge is based on your prospect’s perception of its value to them.

Want your marketing to sell more? Go here >>

Don’t Make This Mistake

Want to avoid losing clients? Here’s an example of what not to do.

Last year I was planning a family reunion at a charming old inn in the Berkshires in Massachusetts. As part of the festivities, I wanted to organize a light breakfast buffet for the 50 or so relatives attending. The inn quoted me a price of $29 per person, without giving me any information about what was included. When I got the quote I was shocked. It was much more than I’d anticipated, and I decided to drop the whole idea.

What was the fatal mistake the Inn made?

Without a clear understanding of what I was going to get for $29 per head, I had no means of determining whether it was worth the money. I didn’t know whether the $29 per person charge included just a cup of coffee and a donut or a full buffet breakfast with a chef on hand to cook custom omelets.

Either way, the inn lost an opportunity to feed us another meal and profit from the presence of our large group.

When your prospects object to price or just leave without buying, it’s a signal that your marketing isn’t doing its job. You’re not giving your prospects the information they need to understand what your products or services can do for them. As a result, they don’t buy from you.

Want to discover the secret to overcoming prospects’ objections? Go here >>

How to Increase Sales

Want to avoid objections to price, sell to more people and even raise your prices?

Since the price a prospect is willing to pay for your products and services is directly related to their understanding of its value to them, then the higher the perceived value, the more you can charge.

One of my clients, Janice, was working way too hard at bringing new clients to her phone coaching business. She helps clients eliminate anxiety and replace it with self-confidence so they can be more productive in their work and lives. She had dozens of prospects, but when she quoted her fees, too many prospects opted not to sign up.

When I asked her to describe the things she does for her clients and the benefits of her services, she gave me a lot of information and many examples of her successes. Then I asked her how much of this information her prospects knew. Very little, she said. Whoops!

I find that most small business marketing managers and owners I’ve talked to make the same mistake. They have a great product or service but neglect help their prospects fully understand the value.

What’s the best way to define value so prospects become buyers? Go here >>

Define Value In Terms Of What Your Prospects Want

The solution was simple. I showed Janice how to structure her sales conversations and how to ask the right questions to get her prospects talking about their goals and needs. This sets the stage so that when she explains the services she provides, it’s clear that they are the perfect solution to her prospects’ problems.

The result? Instead of lowering her prices to get more business, Janice increased her fees. Within a week she was making 50% more money.

Wouldn’t you like to have prospects eager to pay the prices you charge? Sound impossible? It isn’t.

When your prospects fully understand of how much better off they’ll be or how much more successful they’ll be with your products and services, more people will want to work with you and buy from you and they’ll happily pay more to do so.

Interested in closing more sales? Go here >>

Charlie
Proven Small Business Marketing

Should You Ask for the Sale… Small Business Marketing Tips

By Charlie Cook | May 13, 2008

You can use this small business marketing tip to close more sales.

You’ve got a live qualified prospect on the phone and you don’t want to lose this one. What do you do when they hesitate to make a commitment and want to think about it?

You know that if the prospect disconnects without placing an order, the chances are slim that they’ll call back and you’ll get the sale. What do you do?

Last week I got a call from another Internet marketer, who I’ll call Rex Relentless. Rex offered me a commission to promote his services. He wanted me to promote his business in my newsletter, on my Blog and, to top it off, add a flashing banner to my site.

I get dozens of requests like this each week and I wasn’t interested. When I balked, Rex shifted into sales overdrive. He wouldn’t stop talking about how great his product is. He kept pointing me to more and more pages of supporting data and testimonials.

Did he think I would agree to promote him just to shut him up and make him go away? I couldn’t get a word in edgewise and finally had to interrupt him to end the call.

Rex was like a dog with a bone. He just wouldn’t let go, and in the process he chewed up the bone and destroyed it. If you’re a dog that’s basic instinct but if you want to build a sales person who wants to build a positive relationship with a prospect and close the sale it’s a bad idea.

When I was done with the call I never wanted to hear from Rex again, much less work with him. If you’ve ever run into a similar salesperson you know how obnoxious they can be. And I’m sure you don’t want to emulate them with your small business marketing.

What’s the alternative? What’s the best way to close more sales?

Discover how to get your prospects to sell themselves >>

Rex couldn’t stop asking for the sale and in doing so, killed the sale! The irony is that he does have a great product that I might have been willing to promote. But he was so focused on getting the sale that he gave no thought to what I would want out of the deal.

Should you ask for the sale?

You may not be as relentless a salesperson as Rex, but in most cases asking for the sale at all is a mistake. It’s the fastest way to kill the sale and lose a potentially lucrative client.

That’s right; if you have to ask for the sale, that’s a clear indication that you haven’t sold your prospect. You need to do a better job of eliminating the obstacles to the sale.

By now you’re asking yourself, “Is Charlie off his rocker? If I can’t ask for the sale, how do I close more sales?”

3 Rules For Making A Sale

1. Never tell the prospect what they want. Ask them to tell you.
Discover how >>

2. Never try to convince a prospect to buy from you. Make them convince you that your product or service is the right one for them.
Find out what to do >>

3. Eliminate the obstacles to the sale so when you get to the close the client does it for you. You’ll sell more in less time and make more money. Learn how to use this strategy >>

To help you understand who should be doing the selling and why let me ask you a question before you go.

“Whose voice is music to your ears?”

Most of us have to admit we like the sound of our own voices. So put yourself in your prospect’s shoes. Get a prospect talking about what they want and why. They’ll do a better job selling themselves than if they listen on and on to your voice. For the most part, prospects would rather hear themselves talk than hear you lecture them on the benefits and features of your products and services.

Want to double your sales with your small business marketing?

You can do it by using these simple strategies to lead your clients to sell themselves. Get the details here >>

Charlie

Want to listen to this week’s small business marketing podcast?
Use this link >>

3 Marketing Ideas to Eliminate Objections to Price

By Charlie Cook | February 7, 2008

When a prospect objects to your pricing, it is often the beginning of the end of a potential sale. You can run through all the benefits of your product or service again, but once price has become an obstacle, it’s hard to remove it. Do you offer to discount the price? That’s a slippery slope; how much of your profit can you bargain away?

Want to know how to ensure your method of selling sales overcomes objections to your pricing? Read this week’s marketing idea >>

Follow this link for more Marketing Ideas to boost your sales and eliminate objections to price >>

Charlie
Marketing Ideas That Make You Money

6 Business Marketing Ideas to Ramp Up Sales Today

By Charlie Cook | February 5, 2008

Building relationships with prospects and earning their business by staying in touch over time is a great way to gradually ramp up revenue. But what do you do if you want to make the sale today?

Use these business marketing ideas >>

Charlie Cook
Business Marketing Ideas that Make You Money

How to Increase Sales in a Bear Market

By Charlie Cook | December 19, 2007

Have you noticed a chill in the air this December, in the weather and in your sales?

Use this small business marketing strategy to turn things around.

According to my Toronto based bookkeeper, this winter is forecast to be one of the coldest and snowiest of the last 15 years. That cold Canadian air seems to be spreading.

Here in New England, the bears are hibernating and so are many consumers. The financial sections of the paper have been forecasting lower levels of consumer spending all month, and debating whether or not we’re in a recession.

Has this affected your business? What should you do?

Marketing your business in an environment where your target market is spending less doesn’t make life any easier, but there is still plenty of money to be made. You can’t afford to hibernate, though, and just wait out the cold season.

One of my clients brokers construction loans. Over a year ago, when loans were still flying out the door, Ron decided to phase out his loan brokerage and specialize further in a market he knows well. He built a web site that generates leads for construction loans to firms all across the U.S.

By this past fall, when housing starts dropped precipitously, Ron had his new web site up and running. Even though the overall volume of construction loans was down, he now has a national reach instead of a local one, and has plenty of business – and income coming in.

How can you weather a bear market or a recession? Use this link to find out >>

Whatever else you do, don’t let pessimism get the best of you. There is opportunity in every market environment, but you’ll need a plan to take advantage of it. Here are two simple ideas you can use.

Market To A Larger Audience
One of the easiest ways to keep growing your business, even in a time of reduced spending, is to do what Ron did and market to a wider audience. If 20% fewer people in your target market are buying, but you’re marketing to twice as many people, your income could still go up by more than 50%.

A no-cost or low-cost way to do this is by join venture partnerships. Find a business that markets to your target market and get them to promote your products or services in return for your doing the same for them. Or work out a profit-sharing deal. [is this correct?]

Increase Your Conversion Rates
Do you wish you could generate more leads, close more sales and sell more to each client? What are you doing about it?

Let’s take a look at the four generic steps of website marketing:
1. Use a Google Ad to bring people to your web site
2. Generate a lead
3. Make a sale
4. Get clients to buy again.

What are your conversion rates for each of these steps?

Most web sites get dismal results from this process. If you own a typical website, only a fraction of a percent of site visitors contact you and an even smaller fraction buy from you.

Want to increase your online conversion rates and sales? Use this link >>

Increasing your conversion rates is a step-by-step process. I advised one client to make the changes below and she saw more than a tenfold increase in sales.
a. Rewrite the copy of your homepage to focus on the problem you solve for prospects.
b. Offer a freebie that your prospects can’t resist to get them to contact you.
c. Measure the conversion rate of each page on your site. Tune up each of the high-traffic pages so they convert visitors to leads and sales.
d. Set up a system of autoresponders to prompt your prospects to take the next step in your marketing sequence.

If your web site generated ten times as many leads, and your followup process converted twice as many of those leads into sales, how much more could you make, even in an economic slowdown?

Don’t let the talk of bear markets send you crawling into a cave or you’ll lose the interest of all your potential clients. Instead, implement a marketing strategy to grow your business all year long.

Interested in growing your business? Use this link >>

Charlie
Marketing Ideas That Make You Money

3 Marketing Ideas to Avoid the Holiday Slowdown

By Charlie Cook | December 4, 2007

Don’t you wish you could leverage the holidays to generate a surge
of sales, no matter what you sell?

You can, using these marketing ideas!

The Friday after Thanksgiving, “Black Friday”, is the day many
retailers count on to pull them out of the red and turn a profit
for the entire year. Here in Connecticut, shoppers line up before
daylight to be the first to get into stores at the local malls. By
noon, I-95 slows to a crawl with all the shoppers on the highway.
It’s the beginning of the retail holiday spending spree.

Are you benefiting from the spending spree, or do your profits
suffer at this time of year?

Many business owners and marketers will tell you that their sales
slump in December. Yes, many people are distracted and busy with
holiday shopping and other holiday activities. If you aren’t in
retail, the question is, how can you turn the holiday season into a
sales opportunity, not an obstacle?

During the holiday season your prospects are in a mindset to spend
money, and are more than willing to spend money on themselves.
They’ve got their credit cards out and are ripe for you to market
to them.

What’s the secret to tapping into this holiday spending spree? Use
this link to find the answer >>

Retail holiday sales are a success because they rely on a handful
of tried and true marketing concepts. Use these simple marketing ideas to
create a tsunami of year-end profits:

1. Wish Lists
Many people make wish lists of presents to give and get during the
holidays. Why not ask prospects to create a wish list for
themselves and their business. Ask them what they want and need to
be more successful next year. Then sell them the solution.

2. Urgency
Once people have decided they want something, whether it’s a
present for a loved one or a new car or a better computer or new
marketing collateral, the quickest way to get them to buy is to
tell them might not be able to get it unless they act now.

When people head out to shop after Thanksgiving, they’re taking
advantage of short term sales, feeling the pressure of the limited
shopping days until Christmas, and they know that the stores may
run out of the items they want if they don’t act right away.

Creating urgency is one of the most effective ways to increase
sales, no matter what or when you market. Even if you’re selling
HVAC maintenance contracts or snowplowing services, marketing
limited availability or limited-time offers is a big motivator.

3. Special Offers
Typically, you may associate Christmas sales with toys, TVs and
personal items. You’re right, that’s where much of the spending is.
But there are no rules that say you can’t have a holiday sale on
your products or services, whether you provide computer systems or
accounting services.

Whether it’s a discount on price or a special bonus, when you give
your prospects something extra it increases their perception of the
value of your offer. Add in a sense of urgency, and you’ll have an
irresistible offer.

Are more clients and profits on your wish list? Use this link to
get them >>

In past years have you given up on the weeks between Christmas and
New Years and assumed you’d be lucky to ring in a few sales? If you
did, you’re missing out on some of the biggest selling days of the
year. The holiday shopping season generates about 20% of all retail
sales for the entire year.

With the right marketing strategies, December can be your best
month ever. And if it hasn’t occurred to you yet, you can use these
same strategies to generate a holiday rush of sales, all year long.

Ready to bring a flood of sales all year long? Use this link to
find out how >>

Charlie
Marketing Ideas That Make You Money

What Turkeys Know About Marketing…

By Charlie Cook | November 20, 2007

Will you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner eager to dig in to a feast of tasty turkey, succulent sweet potatoes, green beans, gravy, cranberry relish, fresh rolls and an array of apple and pumpkin pies?

In our house, the cooking begins the day before. Homemade pumpkin and pecan pies start popping out of the oven – but we can’t eat them yet. Early Thanksgiving morning, the big bird gets washed and stuffed and hefted into the oven. Then the work of preparing all the side dishes commences.

Walk into our house on Thanksgiving day, and you’ll be greeted by delectable smells. I’m sure most of your homes are the same.

By noon, the roasting turkey smells delicious, and you’re making frequent trips through the kitchen hoping to sneak a bite. You’re ready to eat, but if your family is like ours, you don’t sit down for the Thanksgiving meal until mid- or even late afternoon. By that time you’re very hungry.

Do you need to be sold on the idea of digging into this delicious meal?

Of course not. When you’re hungry and someone offers you something to eat you don’t need to be convinced. The hungrier you are, the more impatient you are for a meal and the better the food tastes.

Wouldn’t you like to be in a similar situation with your business? How would you like to have prospects so eager to buy that you didn’t have to sell and could focus instead on taking more orders?

Want to make your prospects hungry to buy from you? Use this link to find out how >>

If you’re like most business owners, marketers and sales people, you want to increase sales, but you don’t want to be so pushy that you turn people off. The problem is that you aren’t selling a delicious Thanksgiving dinner to family and friends. What can you do to increase the success of your marketing?

Focus Your Marketing On Your Prospects’ Hunger
Food, family and friends are what motivate most of us to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner. What are your prospects hungry for? You need to know in order to attract them to contact you and motivate them to buy.

Are they looking to eliminate wrinkles in their skin, get rid of back pain, avoid costly data loss, increase sales from their web site, increase repeat sales, look younger, make more money in a volatile stock market, or save on taxes?

Everybody is hungry for something and their hunger prompts them to take action. The hungrier they are, the more likely they are to take action.

Want to prompt your prospects to take action and buy from you? Find out how with this link >>

Make a list of the five top reasons your prospects seek out your products and services. Next, list the reasons that it’s important or urgent for them to buy from you right away. Then use this information to focus your marketing.

Help Your Prospects Get What They Want
When you sit down for your Thanksgiving dinner and someone asks you if you want turkey, rolls or cranberry relish, you don’t feel like they are trying to sell you. You’re pleased that they’re helping you get what you want – delicious food.

Your prospects don’t want to be sold, either. They want help solving a problem or satisfying a need. The fastest way to get them to buy is to stop trying to sell them and help them get what they want.

Picture this; before you get your fork anywhere near a plate of your Thanksgiving favorites, the cook insists on telling you where he or she bought the turkey, what it had been fed, where it was raised, how it was roasted, etc., etc. You’d probably never eat another bite of the big bird.

Instead, imagine what your reaction would be if the chef of the day simply asked you what you want to eat, and helped you get another serving of your favorite dish.

In your ads, your marketing brochure, your web site and your sales conversations, tap your prospects’ hunger for solutions to their needs. Speak to their concerns, problems and goals. When you communicate to prospects in terms of their hunger, you’ll get their attention and their business.

Ready to finally “talk turkey” about what works to generate more
leads and clients? Get the answers with this link >>

What do turkeys know about marketing?

Nothing, obviously. Turkeys’ brains are said to be about the size of a walnut and they have fewer brain cells than a cockroach. But they sure taste good when you’re hungry.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Charlie
Small Business Marketing That Gets Results