What prevents business owners from using research is usually a case of misplaced ego.

Most business owners are entrepreneurs or small businesses.

They tend to hold strong opinions (from experience or not) of what will or won’t work.

Many are not in the habit of looking outward for answers and prefer to think they know best.

Ask yourself these questions, the next time you’re likely to go it alone:

1) If I’m wrong, how much will it cost me?

2) How long can I afford to be wrong before I run out of money?

3) Have I asked for input from my customers or prospects that have no stake in whether I succeed or fail?

4) Have I asked my customers and prospects what they need and want from me and my business?

5) Do I know if my customers think I’m giving them what they need and want?

6) Do I know what else I can provide my customers so that they’ll pay me more…and be happier about it?

7) Do my customers and prospects know the benefits of buying from me?

8) Do I know with certainty why my prospects go to a competitor rather than me?

Now, open your mind. 

Remember, you aren’t in it alone and it needn’t cost you a fortune to tap into the best advice you’ll ever get.

Start listening to your customers, clients, patients and prospects.

At least once a week ask yourself this question.

Can you stand to know your  customers, clients, patients or prospects might be smarter than you in helping you grow your business?

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?

Does your business make the same amount of profit from each client?

The answer, obviously, is no.

Your customers are not created equal.

Give or take a few percentage points, 80 percent of your sales will come from 20 percent of your customer base.

It is wise, therefore, to categorize your clients into five distinct categories. Use 1-5, or A-E (or some other rating system that you develop), with 1 or A being your best and most profitable clients and 5 or E being the clients with whom you spend a great deal of your time but from whom you make very little profit.

“Twenty percent of the customers account for 80 percent of the turnover; 20 percent of the components account for 80 percent of the cost and so forth.”

- Vilfredo Pareto, Pareto’s Law

After you have categorized all of your customers, I suggest that you “fire” the ones that make up the bottom of the list.

I know that this sounds like a bold thing to do, and maybe even a little bit crazy, but you will find that your business is more profitable in the end.

The easiest way to rid your business of the trouble­some “low-end” clients is to raise your prices.

Again, this sounds like a bold thing to do, but your better cus­tomers know that price isn’t everything. Your business should have the service and value to back up your prices.

A price increase should send your “low-end” cus­tomers to your competitors. Believe it or not, you will benefit from this.

These customers don’t care about the value that you offer and they take up a lot of your time.

These clients are not interested in anything but price.

Let them go!

Let them slow down your competitors and give them the headache of being busy for very little prof­it.

Meanwhile, you will be able to spend your valuable time working with the better customers on your list.

You already know that most of your profits come from your best clients. Therefore, focus on keeping only the better clients. Work to get all of them to the “number one” cate­gory by offering amazing value when they give you their business.

How many clients do you have in each category?

After you have read everything that you can about marketing (including these ideas), after you have traveled thousands of miles in your “personal automo­bile university” (listening to educational CDs and MP3′s in your car), and after you have studied all of the infor­mation that you can find everywhere else, then it is time for you to write your marketing plan.

Gather all of your experience, education, and advice and decide what you will do to grow your business.

Begin by trying and testing your marketing ideas.

Use small and safe tests.

Estimate how long that it might take for you to see the results of your efforts by creating a marketing calendar to help to guide you along the way.

This road map will help you to see how overlapping plans and campaigns affect each other. More importantly, use your marketing calendar to track your results. This will allow you to see clearly which efforts were profitable and which should be discontinued.

Learn to keep each marketing tactic that you under­take flexible.

You will quickly discover which efforts prove to be effective. You will want to use them again, expanding them into new geographic areas and markets.

Unfortunately, you also will find out which efforts proved to be bad ideas, ideas that did not create meas­urable profit. These marketing efforts should be elimi­nated. Don’t waste valuable time and effort trying to fix them. Stick with what works or try something new.

On your calendar, use highlighter pens in different colors to indicate how long the results of each campaign should take.

If you’re a more “digital” type of person, there are many good computer programs and online tools to help you to track your marketing efforts.  In fact, you might want to check out Fast Marketing Plan. There are many tools that will make it easy for you to compare visually how the actual results measure up to your pre-implemen­tation expectations. This information will help you to “fine-tune” your ongoing efforts.

How flexible are your marketing efforts?

How often do you need a “kick-in-the-butt” to get moving?

It’s a recognized fact that most people get much more done when they have someone motivating them, than they will on their own (sometimes a LOT more).

This is very true with marketing. I have to keep calling and bug­ging some of my clients to get them to do anything. They get hung up on the daily tasks of running their business. They are constantly putting out fires, and so their mar­keting efforts end up on the back burner.

“Don’t fall before you’re pushed.”
- English Proverb

Failing to allocate specific time for marketing (i.e. the daily grind of running a business) seems to prevent many business owners I know from taking the actions that are necessary to market and grow their business in a consistent way.

A trick to keeping on track is to set aside one-hour per day to work on your marketing (and nothing else). Use this time to look for “cost effective” ways to generate new prospects or to develop strategies for increasing sales to your existing customers.  If you have trouble doing this on your own, then find someone who will hold you accountable.

Most of the time, a little external “push” or “kick-in­the-butt” from somebody who is close to a business owner does wonders to get the ball rolling.

“Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. A smile. A word of optimism and hope. A “you can do it” when things are tough.”
- Richard M. DeVos

An outside expert can motivate, persuade, urge, and inspire you to levels that you may have never known before. This is very important, because once you get the energy flow­ing, you will find that new ideas come from many differ­ent places.

Find an advisor whom you trust to keep you motivated and on track toward reaching your business goals. This should be someone who is willing (and has the “authority”) to get you moving. If you need someone to help motivate you, give me a call. I will be happy to give you a motivational push.

Do you have someone who is helping you to stay focused, on track, and motivated?

Do you know what happens if you don’t use what you learn?

You lose it.

It’s gone, forgotten!

And all it takes is 21 days.

I heard this long ago.

Since then, I have proven it to myself through personal experience.

It’s easy to for­get what you have just read, listened to, or watched on a DVD or the Internet. There are many distractions in life, and it’s very easy to put things aside.

Last week, I received a quote in an e-mail that said,

“Knowledge that’s not being used is like having no knowledge at all.”

If this is true, then it is important to start using what you are learning from these and other blog posts right away.

Try one idea, and then another.

Take notes as a reminder of the ideas and concepts.

Reread these blog posts and the notes that you’ve taken while reading them until the ideas are fixed permanently in your mem­ory.

Jay Abraham, the author of Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got (Truman-Tally, 2000), says that he has read Scientific Advertising—a self-published book by Claude Hopkins first issued more than 50 years ago— at least 30-40 times. According to Jay, he pulls out a new nugget or different spin on an idea each time that he reads Hopkins’ book.

How much of what you told yourself you should be trying have you forgotten this week?

Sandy publishes a wide variety of tidbits about marketing and marketing plans on a frequent basis here and at: http://www.FastMarketingPlan.com

Do you re-use your print advertising and positive publicity?

Have you run newspapers and magazines ads? How about blog posts? Are there any articles that have been written about you, about your business, or about your products and services? People may be impressed when these articles and ads run the first time, but how many of them are ever seen again by the public?

Running an ad can be very expensive, so you may not be able to run an ad for an extended period of time. Articles written about your business that get printed in the media have a short shelf life. When the current issue of a publication that contains the article about you or your business is taken off the shelf, people won’t be reading your positive press anymore.  But you can re-use these items in other marketing efforts of your own.

When ads for your business (or positive articles about your business) are printed in a newspaper, Website, blog or magazine, have them copied or reprinted at a local “quick print” shop. You now have the ability to use these reprints in a lot of marketing projects.  Here are some inexpensive ways to distribute your reprints:

• Scan or save as a pdf and e-mail your ads to clients and prospects.
• Post your ads on your web site and blog or Facebook
• Mail reprinted materials along with statements and invoices.
• Include reprints with your next direct mail effort.
• Have some high school students put reprints on parked cars or on the “community posting boards” at the local library or college.

As you are making your reprints, be sure to add the caption, “as seen in (Publication Name),” under the actual ad or article. This caption will give your new marketing effort added credibility.

I ran a small ad for my book “97 Marketing Secrets to Make More Money” in the Wall Street Journal and you can bet I captioned all of my reprints and other marketing efforts with the phrase “as seen in the Wall Street Journal.”

Your advertisements can also be enlarged and displayed at your place of business. This will remind patrons about the offers in your print ads. Your advertisements may only run once in print, but they can live forever. You can reuse them for years.

The same technique can be used to extend the life of any positive articles that are written about your business in newspapers, journals, and magazines. Another great idea is to take these reprinted articles and distribute them to any of your clients and/or prospects who you feel might have missed seeing them in the original publication.

If you want to re-use or re-print an article, you may have to get permission from the author or original publisher and pay a small fee. Remember that it’s priceless when someone who isn’t connected with your business, writes positive comments about you or your business in the media. You can use these comments forever.

“This is like deja vu all over again.”
- Yogi Berra

It is wise to collect and save all the advertisements that you run, all the positive articles that are written, and all the testimonials that you receive from satisfied customers. Put these materials into a binder, and use it as a brag book. Use the material regularly in your marketing efforts, to build credibility and help people feel more confident about making a decision to do business with you.

How many old advertisements or positive press articles do you have lying around that could be reprinted and used in your future marketing efforts?

Digging deep is the foundation and basis of successful marketing. You must know your product or service inside and out before you start any marketing campaign.

Why?

Because, not knowing all of the advantages of your product or service hinders your ability to properly market them to future clients. Here are a few back-to-basic steps to help you research your product/service and analyze the market.

1. Thoroughly evaluate your product/service for:
   1. Features (the function and purpose of your product/service)
   2. Benefits (how your product/service solves a customer problem)
   3. Your offer (What is your quid pro quo?)
   4. The competition
      1. Compare your features and benefits to that of your competitors
      2. Gather competitor marketing materials and study their message and value proposition
2. Know what your ideal prospect looks like:
   1. What are your prospect’s desires?
   2. What does your prospect know or believe about what you offer?
   3. How emotionally evolved is your prospect in solving his/her problems?
   4. What behavioral tendencies kick him/her into action?
3. Discover your market. Dig into the following areas to find niches where your product or service fits perfectly.
   1. What are the major news events affecting your target market?
   2. How can you utilize current buying trends and desires?
      1. In what venue (in-store, internet, catalog, etc.) and with what forms of payment are your prospects most comfortable making purchases?
      2. What is the market offering in way of product and service?
      3. What are the preferred forms or types of products/services?
   3. Who are your main competitors and what are they offering?
   4. Is the timing right for your product/service?

Imagine the time, money and effort wasted by not doing your research. Now start digging deep and discovering the hidden features, benefits and methods to outsell your competitors. You’ll be glad you did.

Back-to-Basics Bonus Tip

• Treat your clients, customers and patients like royalty. Let’s face it. Each one of them is unique and you owe them special treatment. One of the fastest ways to destroy your image is to treat customers impersonally.Life happens, and sometimes great customers can miss a payment. Many of us have been in that position. If you have ever received a computerized form letter or phone call threatening to shut off a utility service or to turn your account over to a collection agency for that one missed payment, you would agree that this is not a very nice way to treat stellar customers. Keep this in mind when dealing with your own good customers.
• What’s the universal greeting? You guessed it: a smile. Do it both in person and over the phone. (Yes, when you smile while talking on the phone, you sound more pleasant to your customers.) Always, let your clients know they are appreciated and will be looked after by a caring person…not a computer.

Getting back-to-basics is a must it today’s fast-paced world. Sign up to get more back-to-basics marketing tips from Sandy Barris

Many new businesses have heard the term “Marketing Calendar” several times; with little-to-no knowledge as to what one is.

Other, more-established companies have designed their own; without seeing more success than they had prior to using this very important tool. Or (the worst-case scenario), there are the companies that have paid a very large sum of money to a huge marketing company for this very-much essential tool of business growth; only to have the investment give them a lackluster return.

Well, there are marketing calendars available that are made to fit your particular marketing plan. There are also marketing calendars out there that are easy-to-use yet, very in-depth at the same time. And, there are marketing calendars that are positive in both of those ways and, that get it right the first time!

So, whether you are a rightfully-jaded (in regards to marketing calendars) business owner or, this is your first time considering using one, we can point you in the direction of a marketing calendar that will go above-and-beyond your expectations; perhaps, even showing you possibilities that you previously hadn’t known that you business had!

Whether you have your own marketing plan that is already gaining you serious success, or you are looking for a marketing plan/marketing calendar combination, we have found a solution for you! The key factors that set a great marketing calendar apart from a run-of-the-mill one are laid out in this article.

First, we must have an understanding of what a marketing calendar really is. The simple definition is as follows: A Marketing Calendar assists you in putting your different marketing concepts into motion in a structured and organized way.

While the name “Marketing Calendar” (as well as this short definition) may invoke only thoughts of coordination of marketing efforts, a truly great marketing calendar also assists you in budgeting your marketing concepts and various business moves. So, expect more than a scheduling tool when you are making the ever-important choice of which marketing calendar to choose!

Oftentimes, those running businesses find themselves a bit overwhelmed; as, things come up (and decisions have to be made) that get them off of their original course of action. The right marketing calendar will keep the original aspects of your marketing plan in order; no matter what spur-of-the-moment crisis presents itself. Right before your eyes, you will always be able to pull up the calendar and see where you are in both the short-term, and the long; in regard to your overall goal.

Moreover, a fitting calendar can help you to be sure that you are not dispensing too much effort in the wrong areas! None of us are perfect and, we often get caught up in wasting valuable time (and we all know that time is money) on the wrong aspects of our businesses!

Most importantly: An expertly-crafted marketing calendar can help you rest at night, with the knowledge that worries like planning, budgeting and even staffing are fully under control. And, aside from the absence of worry, implementing such a needs-based calendar can garner you funds that you already had, without your knowledge! In short; such a marketing calendar saves time, money and worry!

Normally, something that assists a company so much is costly and difficult to design. Well, the right marketing calendar doesn’t have to be either of those things!  If you have designed your own plan, all that is needed from the right company is your plan and, your details are simply inserted in a way that will allow you to keep your primary focus on your day-to-day work and, simply consult the calendar to be sure that things happen when they should, how they should and, within the budget that you set out for them to work within. If the right company designs both your plan and your calendar, it is even easier to coordinate the two and, once this has been done, you are on your way to the kind of success that you long-ago imagined – the kind of results that got you into business in the first place!

Our main concern is catering to your specific needs. (As should be the main aim of any good company).  We make our marketing calendars as detailed as possible and, they are easy for anyone to use. Even those who consider themselves to be technologically-challenged can use an online, expertly-designed marketing calendar; so that they can have an overview of their business and all of its details at any time – in any place.

With that being said, your calendar should also be the magnifying glass for your marketing plan! At any time, right before your eyes, you will be able to take in easy-to-interpret (yet, detailed), organized information that will let you know whether or not you should adjust your original plan; in order to suit your current needs. This definitely helps to keep your business stable! Stability is key; most businesses who fail do so due to their owners’ inability to adjust to the ups-and-downs of income and/or changing of plans due to ineffectiveness or so-so results.

In summary, think of your marketing calendar as your business plan’s map to success. Without it, at very best – your business can survive without one. At the very least – with the right marketing calendar – your business will thrive!

Now, you may want to check out FastMarketingPlan.com to discover a fast and easy way to create your next marketing plan and marketing calendar

Before I get into deadlines, let’s come up with a friendlier word that lacks the connotations connected to your nearest funeral parlor.  From now on, I will refer to a deadline as due date.  Doesn’t that sound much better and not nearly as dreadful?

So you have your marketing plan, marketing calendar, marketing ideas, and, hopefully, marketing yourself, advertising plan together and a punctual person to hire.  You are well on your way to having the foundation to a successful way to market you and your business.

You’ve taken the reins on all these aspects. Now it comes down to when you deliver your product or service.  Some due dates are simple.  If you are a distributor for say, locally grown fruits and vegetables, it is the farmers that will tell you when your product will be ready to be picked up and delivered.

Other fields, and frankly, most other fields, you are doing the work.  It is all on you.  We all want to tell the client they can receive their goods or services right away! Tomorrow!  It’ll be done next week. But, like I have written before, “Life Happens” and, you know what, let it happen.  Enjoy it.  Here are a few ways how to enjoy the life and ways to keep you sane while being kind to the due dates.

DO NOT PUT UNREALISTIC DUE DATES ON YOURSELF.

This is an obvious one, but is it?  Many people, especially self-employed, tend to feel like they must be full of stress and anxiety in order to feel like they are being productive and pushing themselves.

Self-employment is just that and it is tough to gage what other people are doing in your field and how fast, so the solution to legitimizing oneself? The marketing problem here is the: “Do it faster, tell the client you can do it faster for less money” scenario.  It’s the American way.  Don’t.

This is an admirable marketing goal, but speed costs and what are you willing to spend or sacrifice?  Many times the quality of the work deteriorates or it is a completely unenjoyable, unfulfilling process.  Nine times out of ten this pain stake is translated somewhere in the work delivered.

Take your time.  You are worth the wait.  Make the best of the task at hand and market yourself in delivering the best work.  If it takes you a few extra days then you think someone else producing the same work is, so what.  Odds are you will get better at your craft if you take your time and the turnaround time will naturally increase.  Which leads me to….

DO NOT GIVE YOUR CLIENT AN UNREALISTIC DUE DATE.

Even if you do start turning work out faster as you get increasingly comfortable in your work, does not necessarily mean you need to tell the client an earlier due date.

Again, life happens and it is a life to enjoy.  Give yourself a few extra days to produce your work and, who knows what you can accomplish beyond your clients expectations with that time. Give yourself the time to make errors, learn and most importantly…time to blow your client away with a quality product or service.

The worst feeling is telling your client you are going to be later then you anticipated.  We all do it, but try to prevent that conversation from happening.  It falls right in line with your new punctual self.  You are on time to your meetings and on time with your due dates.  These are valuable traits and word will spread fast through the grapevine about you.

WIGGLE ROOM FOR THE TIME SENSITIVE DUE DATE CRUNCH.

Particularly in the marketing and advertising realm, some jobs are very time sensitive and tight due dates are impossible to avoid.  Another huge reason to give yourself some wiggle room when stating a realistic completion date.

Now, all of a sudden, you are the person that produces great work on a timely basis AND the person that can deliver when a client is in a crunch.  That’s a strategic and truthful marketing and advertising plan.

If you have too many tight due dates because you want to be the fastest to deliver, then when a client comes your way saying, “I need this now!” you won’t be able to accept the work without most likely, delaying all your other due dates.  This will screw up the reputation of meeting deadlines you have worked so hard to earn.

BE BETTER THEN THE STEREOTYPES.

A few days ago, I saw a commercial for, I think a Gillette air freshener.  It is advertised to last 30 days but may last longer.  Parallel to this statement is a guy that is redoing this couples kitchen and they both say it is going to last longer.  The guy says their kitchen will be done in a month and the couple says that it will last longer.  Sure enough, the air freshener and their kitchen rehab last 60 days.   It’s great advertising, marketed towards all of us who know that many people don’t meet their due dates.

Certain professions, we all get that it will probably take longer then what is quoted.  Be better then the stereotype your profession may have or, as usual, people anticipating that it will take longer to see a job completed.

I recommend not giving a due date immediately.  Go home and give it some careful thought and consideration to everything that could happen (including life!).  If you think about it and communicate the reasoning behind your due date, the client will have a better understanding of what steps it will take to meet the deadline and respect the thought you put behind it.

People love honesty, integrity and seeing a job meeting the deadline.  My personal gauge, is if I think something is going to take me three hours, I triple that time first thought to 9 hours.  Maybe the task at hand won’t take me 9 hours, but the bottom line is I covered myself, maybe have some extra time to let life happen and have a happy client on my hands.

I hope this helps you to meet your due dates, think about how your want to market and advertise yourself,  and to have fun doing it.