How often has this question been asked by you, your boss, your sales manager, or someone else?

The only one who really knows the answer is your former client.

So, why don’t you ask this person why s/he no longer buys from your company? You might get lucky and find a client who is prepared to talk, but keep in mind that s/he has moved on and may not want to talk to you.

Also, your customer probably will give you only one reason, then thank you for your efforts and wish you well.

How much have you learned? Not much at all.

Recently, I lost a client for whom I had created a suc­cessful direct-mail campaign. This marketing effort had produced a nice 1,148.85% Return on Investment (ROI).

Later, I found out from my client she was upset with the slow response that she was getting from me regarding a marketing questionnaire for which she had paid. After answering the questions, my client wanted her market­ing analysis, but we just couldn’t seem to find a mutually convenient time to get together.

Ultimately, I gave her a refund on the questionnaire and we parted friends.

However, to this day I feel that there had to be some­thing more. Maybe there was a hidden “decision-maker,” someone else who had a final say about who my client does business with or who harbored some ill feeling. I felt very bad when I lost my client because I was hoping that there would be a long and profitable relationship for both of us.

Sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint the definite reason why someone chooses to stop giving you his/her busi­ness.

It can be hard to determine what complaints s/he had about you that led to the decision. Oftentimes, you are left with very little information. Working backwards to discover what went wrong can be very difficult.

However, if you are prepared to ask a new client for a lit­tle time after the first sale or, even better, after s/he has been buying from you for awhile, then you probably can determine the things that keep him or her coming back and buying from you.

After the relationship with your client gets past the new phase and is “long-term,” ask him/her why you get his/her business. There will be many reasons, not just one or two. You may have to probe a little, so ask some open-ended questions. I’m sure that it will be worth it.

Build a file or a database of the answers that you get—the reasons why your clients came to you, of course, but also (if possible) the reasons that they stopped using your competition.

Learn from their answers and discover what you can do to prevent clients from going somewhere else. You can benefit by using what you have learned with your next prospect. This information will help you to convert him or her into a new client.

What are you willing to ask your clients about?

Why, Why, Why?

Because displayed on your computer screen is a combination of science, art, and common sense.

Yes, the subject of marketing has been covered before from many angles by professors, millionaires, self-styled experts, assholes and “gurus.”

I also am aware that you don’t have the time to absorb everything presented by these folks.

Plus, you may think that you would have a hard time using tactics, techniques and tricks” to achieve your own success.

With these things in mind, I am presenting these business and marketing ideas in the language of the everyday business person.

Presented in a clear, simple way with the goals of helping you to grow your business and to have a lot of fun doing it.

WARNING:
Merely reading these secrets will not make you instantly wealthy.

Sorry, I have yet to find a get-rich-quick scheme that truly works.

My sole goal is to help you sharpen your marketing, sales, and business skills.

More importantly. Help motivate you to achieve your own greatest potential.

I will share with you some of the secrets that I have developed through marketing my own businesses and those of my clients as well as secrets revealed to me by many experts in the fields of marketing, sales and public relations.

Perhaps you came to this blog because of the collection of marketing and business secrets.

Maybe you’re here because you felt that it would help you market your business more effectively and improve your sales and profits, or maybe you wanted to save time and money marketing your business.

The ideas in this blog promise to help you to do these things. However, and this is something you all ready know.

You ultimately will have to do these things yourself, or hire well—in other words, the ideas that you will encounter are going to take work on your part to succeed.

Don’t let this discourage you! I am here to help you, every step of the way.

“Nothing focuses the mind better than the constant
sight of a competitor who wants to wipe you off the map.”
Wayne Calloway

Know this right up front: if I can learn these ideas, so can you.

You can put these things to use immediately and spare yourself the thousands of hours they have taken me to learn (I am a slow learner). I also hope that these ideas will spare you some of the mistakes that I have made along the way and will give you greater success and more fun than I have enjoyed.

When you use them in your own way, the timeless and valuable secrets that you are about to read in this blog will help your bottom line.

In order to make the best use of these marketing ideas, here are some quick pointers:

1. As you read these ideas, think about how you can use them in your own business. While your thoughts are still fresh in your mind, I suggest that you take notes. Jot your ideas down in a separate notebook or somewhere else. I use 3″ x 5″ cards. Whatever you do, get your ideas written down so that they will be at your side when you need to recall them. Please read the quotes that have been included for your learning and enjoyment. Sometimes it’s the little things that inspire us.
2. Keep in mind that you cannot do everything. Focus your time, energy, and money on marketing to your top prospects and best customers. Be very selective. Concentrate on the most profitable methods of marketing and on getting the best return on your investment. (Yes, marketing is an investment.)
3. Develop a marketing plan. Planning is critical to your success. It is the first and most crucial step to market your business. We’ll get into this in more detail later, but start thinking about making a master plan now. Check out www.iMarketCalendar.com
   
4. Study everything that you can find about business in general as well as sales and marketing. If you need to, read everything over and over again until it sinks in. Come back to these secrets many times. The more that you read them, the easier that it will be to remember them at critical times in your business when you have to generate more sales or greater profits.
5. Finally, track all of your marketing campaigns. Record your results. Be totally honest with yourself. Always ask, “What can I do better?” Test everything before spending big. Test, Test, and Test again. Use what works!This blog is not a textbook about how to market your business. Rather, it is written to be a selection of useful secrets from me and other marketing experts: tips, examples, stories, and suggestions to get you thinking like a marketing genius—in other words, small things that you can do to reap large benefits.

“A bicycle maintains its poise and equilibrium
only so long as it is going forward towards something.”
- Melvin Powers

I promise that if you use any or all of these ideas that I’ll share with you, you will grow your business bigger and stronger.

I don’t think that you would have come to this blog unless you sincerely wanted to make a change in your life—a change for the better.

You would not have cared one bit about these ideas or even taken the time to read them unless you truly believed they could give you the results that you wanted—specifically, marketing, sales, and business ideas to grow your business.

Now, my friend, these ideas CAN do all of these things, but the biggest problem that you are going to run into is procrastination – putting off getting started.

If you do run into this wall, and everyone does, try picturing your marketing efforts generating all the sales that you possibly could handle. Picture the rewards that will come with all of your additional sales and profits.

It may seem silly, but close your eyes. What do you see?

Can you picture your rewards? Are they more money, more time with family and friends, the freedom to do what you love or to go to the places that you’ve always wanted to visit? Are they meeting the people you would love to meet, or buying a home on the ocean? What is it that is close to your heart? Set up the goals that you need to accomplish in order to achieve what you have just pictured in your mind.

Now, start working on meeting your first goal. These ideas cannot teach you everything, but they will help you to get started and to get moving in a forward direction.

Have fun on your journey!