Charlie Cook's MArketing for Success Insider's Club

 

The Top Experts Reveal Small Business Marketing Strategies
That Get Results In This Economy

Can You Teach Your Small Business Prospects to Buy?

By Charlie Cook   |   August 9, 2007

Can you teach?

Is there an inner teacher in you that could help grow your business?

I’ve been a teacher ever since I graduated from college – literally and figuratively. My first post-college job was as an elementary school teacher and then I moved on to teaching children with behavior problems as a special education teacher. Later I graduated to working with big kids, with senior executives as a management consultant.

For the last couple of decades I’ve found my true passion as a marketing coach developing marketing ideas. I love providing marketing solutions and helping people transform their businesses.

When you know something that can help someone else it’s satisfying to share that knowledge and it’s good for business too. One of the most effective ways to build credibility with prospects and to help them see how valuable your products and services are is to teach.

You may never have trained formally as a teacher or graded papers but if you’ve been in business for a few years you’re an expert and your clients would be impressed if they realized how much you knew.

One way to convince clients of your expertise is to tell them, “Twenty years in business” or “America’s best”. You could do that but it wouldn’t impress many. Instead you can effectively demonstrate your expertise with articles, newsletters, audios, videos, etc. Do this regularly and your prospects will see you as the go to expert in your field.

You may be asking yourself – “Aren’t there tons of others in my field who know as much as I do or more? How can I differentiate myself from them and stand out from the competition?”

You’re 100% right. In most service professions or product areas, there are lots of competitors, people who have the same amount of experience as you do or more, but there is one difference…

Most small business owners don’t use their marketing to educate their prospects and to capture their loyalty and their business.

Regardless whether you sell advertising, concrete plants, hearing aids, real estate, design, or consulting services, there are tons of ideas you can give away, ideas you can teach your prospects that don’t cost you a dime and make you look smarter and better than your competitors.

If you use this simple strategy you can easily stand out from your competitors and be seen as the expert in your niche. Isn’t that what you want to stand out from your competition and get the greatest share of the business?

If you’ve ever wanted a simple and honest way to market your business and see your profits grow I’ve detailed what to do in the ‘Insider Secrets to Highly Effective Marketing‘. Use this link to claim your copy >>

I’m always teaching whether it’s with my clients or my friends on the ski slope or out sailing and there is a point where you should drawn the line. Don’t try teaching your wife or husband. Even if I know exactly what my wife should be doing to make the perfect ski turn, she’d much rather hear it from a ski instructor. The same goes for your kids once they become teenagers.

Even though your family may not appreciate you as a teacher – your prospects do. They do want to discover the great insights and tips you may take for granted, ones that will help you build a long-term winning relationship with them.

You’ve worked hard to become as wise as you are – now tap your inner teacher and leverage all that effort by marketing your knowledge with the ‘Insider Secrets to Highly Effective Marketing‘ and get all the business you deserve. Use this link to claim your copy >>

You can teach your prospects to buy and grow your business!

– Charlie
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work

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Is Your Small Business Marketing Message Locking You Out?

By Charlie Cook   |   August 8, 2007

Are you losing business because of your small business marketing message?

Ever misplace an important key and get locked out?

It was the first summer weekend we’d owned our vacation home in the mountains of Vermont when I returned from a hike to discover my wife, who was off doing errands with my in-laws, had the key. We didn’t have a spare and the place was locked up and I couldn’t get in.

Fortunately it was a pleasant summer day and after a half-hour of waiting, my wife returned and I got in. (Yup, I made a spare the next chance I could.)

Your marketing message is like a key. With the the right one, you can unlock doors to new business and start the process of converting them to clients. If you don’t have the right one or the one you have is the wrong size or poorly crafted you’ll be locked out in the cold, wondering why your business isn’t growing faster.

While I felt foolish when I got locked out of my VT. vacation home, it didn’t cost me a dime. When you get locked out of new business because your marketing message doesn’t open the door, you’re losing big bucks, especially if it happens again and again.

Unfortunately too many independent professionals and small business owners market with marketing messages that just don’t work. They may be too long, too short, too common, too dull, or too self laudatory. The result is they don’t open enough doors to new business.

Your marketing message needs to be irresistible to your prospects to open doors. This idea may seem like a small part of your marketing effort, but in fact it is one of the most important elements and costs the least to fix.

If your marketing message helps your prospects understand how you can help them, you are in business. If it doesn’t then you’ll never reach your revenue potential.

Interested in opening more doors to new business? Ue this link >>

Want an Irresistible Marketing Message to Attract Clients?

Whether you are talking to someone in person or in your marketing materials, your objective is to engage them, to get them thinking about their needs and wants. Do this successfully and they’ll soon be wondering how they can’t live without your products or services.

Your marketing message should be the catalyst to conversation. When you use it a connection should be made between your services and your prospect’s needs. If you had a brilliant marketing message that resonated with your prospects wants and needs you’d have more and more qualified prospects contacting you and more and more business.

Want to discover the fastest way to grow your business? Use this link >>

Does your current marketing message:
• Tell people what you do?

• Start a conversation?

• Create a perception of need?

My marketing message is, “helping small business owners attract more clients and be more successful”. When I use it I get one of two responses. If I’m talking to someone who isn’t a small business owner, they usually want to know how I do what I do. If the person is a small business owner they want to know how I can help them and I’m on my way to converting a prospect into a client.

If you want to attract more prospects and grow your business, the first step is to create a brilliant marketing message, one you can use in the elevator, on your business card, on your web site and in your voice mail message.

It is not easy to describe all you do in a sentence or two. Capture the essence of who you serve, the problems you solve and the solutions you provide and you’ll have a brilliant marketing message.

Don’t let your current marketing message hold you back. Make sure you have one that works as a key to attracting attention, engaging prospects and opening the door to new business.

Ready to find out how to get more attention and generate more business? Use this link >>

Don’t get locked out with the wrong marketing message. Discover instead, how to create one that works like a master key, opening every door in sight and see your business take off.

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Are You Using the Right Bait to Hook New Clients with Your Small Business Marketing?

By Charlie Cook   |   August 6, 2007

Is your marketing bait working?

Funny Marketing Ideas #1 The Goldfish
This is one of the 5 ideas I had for a marketing lead generator video.
– Charlie Cook
Small Business Marketing That Gets Results

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Who Has The Keys to Your Web Site?

By Charlie Cook   |   August 1, 2007

Most small business owners have the keys to their office even if a secretary is there and opens the door before them. It makes sense, you pay the rent, it’s your company, you should have a set of keys to the building. Right?

The same is true of your business website. You paid to have it built, you pay to run it and you own it.

Do you have the login information for your site? Your web site login information is like the keys to your office or your car.

Do you have a backup of your site on your computer in case something happens to your web site hosting company?

Recently I’ve gotten a number of calls from small business website owners who wanted help revising their under performing sites but in far too many cases they didn’t have the login information so they couldn’t access their own sites. That’s a big problem and makes it impossible to fix your site.

Ted was one of those who called. He had a real estate site that was getting lots of traffic, a couple hundred visitors each day, but wasn’t generating any leads. He’d called me and wanted to know what changes to make to convert all the visitors he was getting into leads and sales but he didn’t have the login information for his site.

His previous web designers had the login information and Ted felt awkward getting it from them. They insisted they had done a create job for him even though the site wasn’t doing what he wanted it to do, bring him qualified leads. It was like having a new car in the driveway that he didn’t have keys to and couldn’t drive anywhere.

Do you have a website that’s been built for you but not helping you move your business forward? If you do, why aren’t you doing something about it? It’s just a matter of getting the keys and discovering how to convert visitors to buyers >>

If you own a web site you are entitled to the login information and to set and change the password any time you want. That way if you’re unhappy with the results of your site and want someone else to take over, you have the keys to the site.

If you haven’t done so already:

1. Get and keep a copy of the login information for your site.
2. Track the performance of your site, the number of weekly visitors and leads generated.
3. If you’re not getting results – take the keys away from the firm that is wasting you money and losing you business.
4. Find someone who can help you improve your web marketing strategy and work with them to turn your site into a gold mine.

In case you don’t have it already get the Insider Secrets to Creating Web Sites That Sell >>

– Charlie
Web Marketing Ideas You Can Bank On

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Growing Your Small Business Faster With Less Effort – Marketing Tips

By Charlie Cook   |   July 29, 2007

Want to know how to grow your business faster with less effort?

Last Sunday, I was out sailing on Long Island Sound off the coast of Connecticut with my good friend John on his trimaran when my son came out on my trimaran. As soon as my son saw us he headed over for an impromptu race. (Don’t you love competition – especially when its between you and your kids?)

It was clear that my son thought he and his friends could out sail me, his ol’ Dad. He’s younger, has lots more racing experience than I and at 21 knows almost everything. (Actually I wish I was as smart as he is but don’t tell him.)

What do you think happened?

It was windy, blowing 20 mph and gusting to 30 mph. My friend John and I had decided to be prudent and had reefed our sails when we left the harbor. We hadn’t hoisted the sail to the top of the mast and had reduced our sail area to make the boat easier to handle.

There is a little secret that you learn after sailing for over 50 years. Sometimes less sail helps you go faster.

You see with too much sail up on a windy day the boat is always tipping. With a trimaran this pushes one of the hulls deep into the water and slows you down and can tip you over. In high winds, with less sail up, the boat tips less and besides being more comfortable, you sail flatter and faster.

So how much sail did my son have up? You guessed it, he had every square inch of sail up, despite the high winds, hoping to go as fast as possible.

Just as my son thought he was going to go screaming by us – a gust hit his sails almost tipping his (my) boat over. He had to turn the boat into the wind causing him to come to almost a complete stop.

With the strong winds, my son was sailing right on the edge. He and his friends were working hard to keep from tipping over while my friend John and I were relaxing and passing them by.

Your small business marketing is the same. To keep your business growing at top speed you don’t need to know how to set your sails but you do need to know which small business marketing strategies to use and when.
– Charlie
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work

P.S. The following have nothing to do with small business marketing but are great fun to watch. Check out the following videos of the type of tri I sail.

And Two Larger Tris Racing

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Your Ideas On the Best Equipment and Software for Making Videos?

By Charlie Cook   |   July 27, 2007

I hired a professional to make my promotional marketing video ideas and in response I’ve been getting lots of questions about:

– What equipment is best to get (what model camera, etc.)
– What software is needed to load the videos on to a web page or onto youtube

Since I didn’t make or load mine, in this case I don’t have the answers. Your ideas? Add a comment below?

– Charlie
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work

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TeleClinic – How to Sell Even If You Never Thought You Could

By Charlie Cook   |   July 26, 2007

Hate selling? Wish you could close more sales and grow your business?

Whether you’re a sole entrepreneur or small business owner or work for a large company – the traditional sales model doesn’t work. It makes you feel pushy and scares away more prospects than it converts into happy customers.

** Save the date **
Wednesday August 1st, 1pm EST
Can’t make it? Register anyways to listen to the call when you want.

In this TeleClinic, I’ll be sharing the secrets of how to master selling and close more sales whether you’re just getting started or have been in sales for decades. I’ll be detailing the step-by-step formula: its as simple as 1,2,3…

You’ll discover how to get your prospects asking for the sale and how you can profit almost instantly with these easy to use techniques.

This isn’t rocket science – it’s just most people are stuck trying to sell using an outdated traditional model that only works marginally. Once you discover how easy it is, it can change your business forever.

I’ve never shared this sales technique with anyone but my private clients before, so you don’t want to miss this teleclinic. It will only be offered this once.

Use this link to register >> http://www.mfsstore.com/teleclinic-hts.html
– Charlie
Small Business Marketing Ideas You Can Profit From

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Where Is The Real Potential For Your Business?

By Charlie Cook   |   July 25, 2007

Are you sitting on a source of untapped revenue?

Most small business owners are but they’re just not accessing it. Take Kathy who has worked hard over the last couple of years to more than double her business but is still struggling to break even. She is sitting on a gold mine, if she could just tap it.

“I spend about $5000 to make $3000 in sales. What can I do?”
Kathy, Therapeutic Massage

I’d consulted with Kathy several years ago on marketing her growing therapeutic massage business. By rethinking her strategy and rewriting her radio spots, her marketing had helped grow her business to employ seven therapists and serve thousands of clients. Now she was back with another problem and another request for marketing advice.

This year she hired a top-notch copywriter and equally good radio talent to create even better ads. Her company’s spots are funny and well written, and are bringing in new business – but not enough to cover the expense of her upgraded advertising. She’s convinced this is the right marketing approach for her business. How to make it pay?

Kathy’s marketing was on the right track, but not enough of her new clients were coming back. Typically, a new client would leave very satisfied with her firm’s services, but rarely return.

Where’s the real profit-potential in your business? The fastest way to grow your business is by helping your clients buy from you again and again.

Kathy knew that to pay for her radio advertising she not only needed to bring in new clients, but she needed to convert those new clients into repeat clients. If and when they signed up for her firm’s services for the second, third and fourth times, she’d be more profitable.

Wish more of your clients bought from you again and again? Keep selling the same way you have been and you’re going to get the same results. Discover exactly what to do to close more sales in Eliminating Obstacles to Sales. Use this link >>

Getting a prospect in the door and getting them to buy is only the first step in the marketing and sales cycle. To grow your business significantly you need with your business you need existing clients to buy again and again.

Clients who have already bought from you – know how great your products and services are. They’re much more likely to buy from you again. In fact it costs 8 to 10 times as much to attract a new client as converting an existing client into a repeat client.

Take a look at the numbers. Say you make a $50, $500 sale or a $5,000 sale and then the customer goes away. You’ve made a bit but how much could you be making?

Now imagine if instead of making just one sale per customer you had 5 – 10 a year, year after year. How much more would you make. As client relationships continued to be added and a few dried up you’d increase your revenue by at least a factor of 5 if not many times more.

Just do the math. Every time you make a sale and the client doesn’t turn into a repeat client who buys from you again and again, you’re losing big time. If instead each new client become a life long client you could easily add hundreds of thousands of dollars to your annual revenue.

Isn’t it time to do something about it?

Find out how to help existing clients to become repeat clients. Discover what works to get clients to buy again and again. Get the solution to closing more sales with this link >>

If your clients aren’t choosing to buy again and again, and you’re confident in the quality of your goods or services, then the problem is that you’re not giving them the right choices.

Kathy knew this but wasn’t having success getting her satisfied clients to come back on a regular basis. She’d been offering a discount to clients who scheduled their next massage right away, but wasn’t getting results from her offer.

Think about it. You’ve just enjoyed a professional therapeutic massage and loved the experience. What would motivate you to come back regularly?

Kathy’s offer missed the mark in that clients didn’t see much value in her offer. I suggested that instead of offering first time customers a discount on their next massage, she offer them a monthly membership with unlimited massages. She loved this idea and immediately saw the potential.

How can you make your sales and profits soar? Build repeat business by offering customers services they want and need, and make the perceived value high.

Imagine if your local gym sold individual workouts instead of annual memberships. What do you think would happen? Given most peoples’ follow through on working out, the health club would be broke.

Memberships, annual maintenance contracts, and special offers to past clients are just three ways you can leverage your initial sale and turn it into regular repeat sales and increase revenue for your business.

Are you missing the chance to increase sales by 50% or more? Do something about it. the Insider Secrets to Eliminating Obstacles to Sales >>

– Charlie Cook
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work

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Funny Marketing Ideas #1 The Rowboat

By Charlie Cook   |   July 24, 2007

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be posting my latest video marketing ideas – quick clips used to generate leads. There are 5 in all and after just the first couple of weeks they’ve generated over 3,000 views. Take a look at tell me why you think they’re working so well.

Funny Marketing Ideas #1 The Rowboat

Why is this a great marketing idea?
– Charlie Cook
Small Business Marketing That Gets Results

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Want to Close More Sales with Your Small Business Marketing?

By Charlie Cook   |   July 20, 2007

You’ve been working with a prospect, moving closer and closer to a sale. Just before you clinch the deal, they decide to go with a competitor’s product or service. Doesn’t this drive you crazy? Just when you think you have the sale all sewn up – it vanishes in thin air.

They may say that your firm is too small, or you charge too much or they decided to work with a friend in the business after all, or all of the above. I’m sure you’ve heard every excuse on the planet.

How do you keep from losing the sale?

Catherine called from real estate agency in town with a similar problem. Her firm regularly competes against national real estate chains and one of the most common objections prospects give is that Catherine’s company is too small. Given that the average sale price of a home is $1 million in town, with some properties selling for over $10 million, losing a listing hurts.

Its natural to want to avoid potential objections to closing sales and hope a prospect never brings them to light. You hope you can make the sale without your prospect ever balking because your firm is small, expensive, located in an unusual place, or whatever.

Many small businesses are, well, small. You may need to charge substantial fees to make a good living from your work and most people have a friend of a friend in the business. Unfortunately no matter how much you try to avoid them many prospects will bring up objections and you can lose their business.

How can you overcome these common objections?

Use prospects’ objections to your advantage and transform them into selling points!

Ever had a prospect raise an objection and ended up losing the sale? Want to discover a way to eliminate objections so you can close many more sales?

I wrote the Insider Secrets to Eliminating Obstacles to show you exactly how to structure your marketing and manage the sale process to get your prospects hungry to buy from you. Use this link to claim your copy >>

In the sales process, prospects always have concerns. If you don’t discuss them or figuratively leave them under the table they will come back to haunt you later. To move beyond prospects’ objections, acknowledge them. Identify their concerns and put them on the table for discussion to resolve them. Here’s how:

Over the years that you’ve been in business, you’ve heard all of the common objections prospects raise. Take out a piece of paper and fold it in half. In the left column, list all the reasons prospects give for not working with your firm leaving a couple of lines between each reason. Across from each objection, in the right column, jot down reasons each objection is actually a plus for your clients.

When you meet with a prospect, use your list to bring up potential hurdles yourself and address them up front. For example, Catherine’s real estate firm is small compared to the national chain firms in town. Catherine might say to a prospect, –

“You know we are a small firm with ten employees. Let me tell you about all the resources we have to help you sell your home. In addition to providing you with the same resources you’d find at a larger firm we provide more attention to detail, more local knowledge, etc.”

Then Catherine can go on to explain how her firm sells a higher dollar volume of homes per employee than the national firms. She could also talk about her highly motivated brokers who earn higher commissions in large part because they aren’t part of a national chain. She could mention the $100 million in homes sold last year.

After explaining the many advantages of working with her unique firm Catherine could ask her prospect, “Are you interested in having a small firm of highly motivated experts help you sell your home?”

With your experience in the business you know the most common objections prospects raise but what about others you haven’t considered. How can you keep these from getting in the way?

To make sure you’ve covered all of a prospect’s concerns, ask them. Jot down a question or two to use to uncover any hidden or lingering concerns they have. Address them and move on. After they’ve explained their concern, restate it clearly to make sure you have it right and then counter it. For example if they are hung up on price, explain the value and benefits of your services and expertise.

Don’t know why prospects aren’t using your services?

You gave it your best shot, but they still selected another firm. Its time to do a post-mortem and find out what went wrong. Call up that lost prospect and ask them why they picked another service provider. Write these reasons down and tack them above your desk. The next time you meet with a new prospect, bring them up.

Early on in the sales process, bring up possible objections and get prospects talking about their concerns. When these are on the table you can address each one and show how each is an advantage. When you put prospects’ objections on the table and transform them into selling points, you’ll see your sales and your business soar.

Want more business? One of the easiest ways to instantly increase your sales and profits is to improve your conversion rates, get more of your prospects to buy. Want to improve your conversion rates? Use this link to claim your copy of the Insider Secrets to Eliminating Obstacles to Sales >>

Charlie

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