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?

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?

Entrepreneur’s Toolbox to Help You to Market Your Business
(While Cutting Costs and Increasing Efficiencies)

An “Entrepreneur’s Toolbox” includes things that must be within the prospective entrepreneur’s very person but also; external tools.

First, let’s cover what you – the prospective entrepreneur – must have within yourself, in order to have a productive future.

First-and-foremost, “vision” is an absolute must.

The most successful visionaries normally have a very big picture of where it is that they want to be. (It is easier to scale back to a more practical  – and smaller – overall vision than it is to open your mind to a larger vision; once you have set your mind to something small and simple).

Secondly, you must possess plenty of “Self-Trust”.

Many speak of “innovation” as part of the ideal entrepreneur’s mind. Well, without belief in your ideas and the inner trust in yourself that what you wish to provide is needed in the world, your ability to innovate means nothing!

And, last (certainly not least) an entrepreneur must have a bit of “Intuition”. And, despite some of the ideas that the term ‘intuition’ may bring to mind, the sort of intuition that I am referring to is simply: “Knowing something without knowing how you know it”.

And, while it seems to be an in-borne quality, intuition can be developed.

The purpose of this article is to show you the external tools that can develop your intuition – as well as your vision and self-trust – to its fullest potential; in order to cut your costs and to increase your overall efficiency!

A proper business and marketing plan, devised by an outside, expert source; can help you to avoid the mistakes that many make. (Passion and drive are great qualities but, sometimes they get in the way of the bottom line!).

When it comes to your marketing, it is important to be aggressive but also, to be sure that you aren’t aggressive to the point that you trap yourself into one course of action.

Also, you don’t want to ‘burn yourself out at both ends’. So, a well-tuned Marketing Plan is absolutely crucial. To go along with that marketing plan, it is positively a must to possess a detailed, easy-to-use Marketing Calendar.

As covered in one of our other informational articles, a marketing calendar can also help you to be sure that personnel staffing, budgeting and foresight are already taken care of; with little work coming from you! Therefore, you save money, can dedicate your time to more constructive things than worrying and, have that overall satisfying feeling of stability.

A Budget Plan is very important, alone. And, while it is fine-tuned and worked-around (as well as made to be flexible) within your marketing plan (and calendar), having a realistic, organized and easy-to-monitor budget plan is an absolute must. And, just like your other external tools, a budget that is designed for your particular business and reviewed by objective experts increases the odds of your business being a success.

Just like your Marketing Plan, your overall Business Plan should contain “what if” strategies.

No matter your foresight or intuition, you can never be completely certain what emergencies may come up; nor, can you always correctly predict what you competition is going to do.

Put simply, our Business and Marketing Plans must be very flexible and objective. Being “fixed” in your planning can lead you to failure; in fact, it normally does, for most!

A Strategic Investment Plan is something that you must have ready when beginning your career as an entrepreneur.

While you may know exactly what you wish to invest in and when, just like the tools covered above, you must have plenty of flexibility in terms of your investment planning.

What your competitors do, things that happen in the economy and possible failures of past marketing are all things that may play into your needing a flexible and objective strategic investment plan. And, a common mistake that many make is grouping their investment plan in with their budget plan. When you put some thought into those two things, it becomes apparent that they need to be separate; or else you wind up with too many important factors compartmentalized into one category!

Also, depending on your business, you may be thinking more locally than Globally. Well, the right Marketing Company takes things like this into account from the very start. If you consider yourself as an aspiring entrepreneur (or if you are already an entrepreneur looking to increase his success) we have plenty of essential and proven tools that can help you along your way!

Can you name anything in life that has no limits?

I didn’t think so.

That’s exactly why all your marketing efforts should have some type of expiration date.

A limited offer will “out-pull” and “out-sell” an open-ended offer almost every time.

When you do test  a “limited offer,” you will need to explain to your client/prospect why you are making your offer “limited.” For example: “Quantities are limited. We only have 132 units in stock and the man¬ufacture is back ordered.” Or “Call today. We have sold 3 in the last two days, and we only have 7 units left.” Or “We made a special purchase and can’t offer this price again.”

People will want to know why what you are offering is limited, or they will not believe that there truly is a limitation. You need to give them this information.

“Givers have to set limits because takers rarely do.”
- Irma Kurtz

It is also very important to keep in mind that if you are mailing a limited offer you have to allow time for it to arrive. Bulk rate mailings can be delayed by bad weather. They also travel primarily by railroad and there are many factors that can cause a delay in delivery.

Sometimes it just makes more sense to mail an offer via First Class Mail – especially if the offer is time sensitive.

Keep in mind that nothing is forever, everything has a limit and you can use those limits to your selling advantage.

When your offer is known to be limited, it will force people to respond or lose the opportunity. Limits force a decision and that is the ultimate goal of any marketing effort.
What kind of limit will you set for your next offer?

How happy are you with the quantity and quality of the contacts you receive from your Web site?

Many businesses complain that their Web sites do not generate enough contacts and sales leads to justify the cost. They want a better ROI for their Web sites.

We were also getting very frustrated because our Web site was generating very little e-mail and/or phone contact information. After testing a few different web design ideas, and finally decided to insert a bright, attractive, attention getting box on each web page.

This box contained our phone number and e-mail contact information.

As a result of this change, we started to receive many more calls and e-mail leads. This simple change made it very easy for anyone to contact us, and made those who did contact us feel more secure and willing to give us their business.

How can you make your business more accessible and available to new prospects and clients to generated many new sales.

As you know form experience, people will leave your Web site if they have to put too much effort into navigating it, or if they run into trouble trying to figure out how to contact you.

When a future client needs more information from you and your contact page is buried somewhere deep in your site, then it may never be found. If this happens – and it does at many sites we all have visited – then the customer is gone, maybe forever.  The sale is essentially lost. Don’t let this happen on your Web site.

What can you do to make it very simple for visitors to your Web site to find your contact information?

Have you run newspapers and magazines ads? Are there any articles that have been written about you, about your business, or about your products and services?

People may be impressed and respond 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.

Repurpose, reuse and republish your marketing

But you can re-use and re-purpose 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 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 and e-mail your ads to clients and prospects.
• Post your scans on your web site.
• 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.

“The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.” - William Gibson

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 busi¬ness 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.

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

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.

It is wise to collect 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.

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

Who Will Buy Your Professional Services?
By: Sandy Barris

Are you an engineer, IT consultant or a dentist? How about a business coach, facilities manager, project manager or any of the thousands of professional services wanted by millions of businesses?

Have you recently been downsized or layed off? Or, have you retired and are climbing the walls wanting to get back in the game.

If so, stop and pull out your magic wand, wave it around a few times and imagine creating the perfect professional services business —without fear of failing—what would it look like?

Got it pictured. Now, take your magic wand and break it in half because whatever professional service business you choose to create, you’ll always be in sales and marketing business.

Why, because if you won’t market and close business deals, you’ll have a rough time staying in business.

Of course, one of the keys to your success in a professional service business is knowing, without a doubt, who will want and can afford to buy whatever it is you are offering.

One of the ways to get started is to figure out what and who the perfect client may look like to you:

• What business niche are they in?
• What markets do they serve?
• Who supplies that business niche with goods & services
• Where is that niche located?
• Are there enough businesses in that niche to be profitable?
• Can they afford your services?
• Who would recommend their products or services

Answer these questions and you’ll be well on your way to discovering exactly who’ll want your services.

Next, market to your perfect client using many different marketing approaches. Some will work better than others. Some will start out like gang busters then fad off. Others will crash and burn with no ROI. It’s all good because every success and failure is a lesson and brings you closer to succeeding in your business.

The key here is to create an overall marketing strategy that includes 15 or more marketing tactics. The more marketing tactic you try, the greater your chance of getting in front of the perfect future client.

Keep in mind people absorb information in different modes. Some people like information presented verbally. Talk to them face-to-face; send them a CD/DVD or an Mp3 they can listen to in their car.  Others want info visually; they like to see videos, graphs, charts and pictures to fully understand what you offer.

You should test many different marketing tactics.

• Build an optimized website and use the Internet to describe the benefits of your service using video, audio and the written word.
• Go to networking events.
• Approach your suppliers for referrals.
• Host webinars and pod casts because they are the 21 Century brochure.
• Grow your database
• Email market your growing database
• Create a local Pay-per-click internet marketing campaign
• Develop a social media marketing plan
• Join LinkedIn, Facebook and 3-4 of the other top SMM sites.
• And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Whatever marketing you do, provide a compelling reason to try out your services. If a future client has a choice between many similar services or does not have a compelling need to buy your service, your company will not grow fast.

Targeting big business? Your ideal future client may be hidden deep within the corporate structure. Professional service providers have sometimes found it was easier to sell at a department level rather than target the CFO.

But, it can pay to go to the top first, so you can name drop to the rungs down under. Granted, it’s a lot harder to get to the CXO’s. Is it worth the effort, you’ll have to be the judge. Now, keep in mind that when you do get in front of the CXO, birds of a feather flock together and it could be your ticket into many more C-level opportunities.

Discover what your perfect future client looks like, and how to get in front of him/her and you’ll be well on your way to growing a successful professional service business.

What is the name of your business, product and services?

Your business name is usually the first image someone gets of your company and it is often imbedded in his or her mind forever.

People have a hard time separating reality from perception. If you have a bad name, then you won’t attract business; so the best option is to get a new name. A bad name never gets any better and good names are remembered forever.

One of the most important marketing decisions you can ever make is choosing the name of your business, product or service. Your name should explain or “tell a story” of exactly what your business or your product/service does.

“Have regard for your name, since it will remain for you longer than a great store of gold.”
-Ecclesiasticus

Choosing a name isn’t easy. There are so many names already in use for various businesses, products, and services that coming up with a name that is “new” can be very difficult. But remember:  your name will help determine your position in the marketplace.

Choose a name that tells prospects what the major benefits of your business are and how that can help them.
Great examples of “the perfect name” are: “Die Hard Batteries,” “Burger King,” and “Pure and Natural Soap.” These names tell a lot about the products they are selling. Select a name that is generic enough and still describes what you do. Newsweek is a fantastic name for a weekly news pub¬lication. Value City is a great name for a discount store.

It is also important to think about the future when you are deciding on a name. Choose a name that won’t become “out-of-date,” or one that would allow a competitor to come in with a better, more descriptive name and take your marketing position away.

Your name could well be the difference between success and failure in the marketplace. If you are first to the market with an unusual name like Xerox, and you offer a great product/service, then your name can be almost anything. But you can’t get away with an unusual name if you are not the first into the marketplace, and own the top position. It’s hard to build market identity with a non-descriptive name, unless you are the one who creates the market.

What does your  name Do, help or hurt your business?

5 Simple Secrets To Social Media Marketing Success To Grow Business
By Sandy Barris

Let’s face it, you can’t go a day without hearing about, seeing the effects of or feeling your gut telling you learn more social media marketing techniques to help your grow your business.

Social media marketing (SMM) is everywhere.

You watch a news report and the newscaster gives you their Twitter name and asks you to Tweet them. Your best friend puts up a Facebook page and asks you why you don’t have one yet? Your boss asks you to create a Linked In page for him and to get him connected with as many of your clients, suppliers and prospects as possible.

And, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Here are a few mind-boggling social media stats to ponder.
•    200,000,000 – active Facebook users
•    10,000,000  – average daily Tweets
•    900,000 – average number of blog posts in a 24 hour period

Nielsen Online shows that: Social networks and blogs are now the 4th most popular online activity ahead of personal email. Member communities are visited by 67% of the global online population; time spent is growing at 3 times the overall Internet rate, accounting for almost 10% of all Internet time. Wow. And to think it’s exponential. Today, this. Tomorrow?

So, how can your use social media marketing to help grow your business?

1. Social media marketing is a great way to generate traffic to your website. Every time you post anything anywhere, complete your post with your contact information, a call to action and a link back to your Website, landing page or your Blog.
2. ost to your blog every 2-3 days. Post tips, tactics and techniques. Reveal secrets, “how-to’s” and ideas. Keep your content fresh and it will be picked up by the searched engines and served up as valuable information when someone hits on one of the keywords in your blog posts. If you don’t have a blog, see tip No. 3 below.
3. Post comments on other people’s blogs, on message boards, on forums and Facebook posts. Answer peoples questions, Help solve their problems and ask for there help solving your problems too. Post book reviews on Amazon and other book seller sites. Every post will help to build your credibility in that community. Let’s face it, he more credibility you build, the more likely people will click on your signature link to see what else you have to say and offer.
4. Create Pod cast and videos of your content and distribute using the many free and paid distribution services on the Internet. One of my favorites Websites for video distribution is Tube Mogul, a free service that sends your videos in the correct format to 26 different website for video distribution, saving you time. Plus they have great tracking tools to see how far and wide your videos are distributed.
5. Use your public profiles as an integral part of your Social Media Marketing plans and search engine marketing strategy. Everyone searches online, including your prospects and customers. Having strong, keyword ladden, public pages helps people find you fast.  Every time you put up a new public page, or update an existing one, it calls the search engines and let’s them know to come and see the new information. As you create your profiles you are actually build up your name recognition, and making it easier for people to find you, and you want to be found, don’t you?

The benefits of Social Media Marketing are hugely important in their role as a search engine marketing strategy.  The more traffic to your website and blogs, the more connections you make, equals more awareness, leading to sales and higher profits for you and your business.

When will you start your social media marketing plan and kick it into high gear?

Proof Will Help You Sell More Products, Services and Ideas:

Go ahead, take a few minutes today and look at every marketing message you are putting out…

Ask yourself:
Am I providing my reader, viewer and listener the proof and credibility that what I’m saying is indeed true?

How many times have you seen an ad on TV and said to yourself “Yea. Right. Sure it is?”

Let’s face it… we are all slammed with so many marketing messages a day, that we stop believing most of them.

So how do make your marketing messages more believable?

Start by take a closer look at the benefits of what you are selling.

Think about all the ways you can prove your benefits actually exist.
Ask yourself:
•    What are the strongest “Reasons Why” anyone should believe they’ll get what I promise?
•    How much more specific can I be?
•    What solid proof have I offered showing what I claim it true?
•    Have I begun to think about how I can strengthen my guarantees?
•    Is there a way to demonstrate your product/service in action?
•    Can you get a celebrity endorsement?

Answer these questions and apply these ideas to what you are selling and you are well on your way to providing the proof people need to believe your benefits will deliver.

“No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.”
-Henry David Thoreau

Quick Bonus Marketing Tip:

Thousands of marketing experts say that it costs 5 to 6 times more to win a new client than it does to retain an existing one.  What about your company? Is it true for you too?

Yet, most companies spend a small portion of their sales and marketing budget on client relationship management.

Take a moment and think about how much more profit you could generate by deepening your existing client relationships?

Rather than finding ways to get your sales people to “make 20 unqualified appointments this week,” instead, think about the easiest way to building stronger relationships.

Think about all the way you can say “Thank You.” All the ways you can show that you appreciate their business and enjoy the relationship you have.

Here are a few simple ways to get you started.
1. Send a hand written thank you card or note.
2. Drop off a small gift.
3. Bring a flower to the gatekeeper you’re trying to get past.
4. Take your client to breakfast or lunch to talk about ways to improve profits in the coming year.
5. Hold a customer appreciation party.
6. Have your CEO write a personal letter of thanks.

Now go out and give thanks. Show your appreciation.
It feels great and is sure reduces your client attrition rate.