Category Archives: Sales and Marketing
Your Business Needs A Marketing Boost
- Write or revise your business plan. It is important for you to have your goals, strategies and future plans written down. It is the steering wheel of your company and it takes you where you need to go, so get it done! It should have time frames of 1-5 years and may need to be updated every quarter.
- Be an expert. Of course, you know that you are an expert, but you need to show everyone else that you are. you need to network and write and speak and act like an expert in your field and eventually everyone will associate you as such. The speaker of an event has more clout than a participant.
- Define what makes your business special. A lot of people feel that the “cast a net” approach will make them more marketable. However, I believe the opposite is true. I can’t tell you how much of a difference it makes when your employees answer the phone and say, “I am a specialist in such-and-such. How may I help you?” People want to know they are working with a specialist or expert. In order to do that, you must specialize in a service or product and promote the heck out of it! I think it is essential for you to hire a marketing expert. I often find that when companies are having a tough go of it, they layoff their most important assets (their salespeople) and cut back on their most important expenditure (marketing). That is such backwards thinking that I can’t even go into it here. That is a book all by itself. If you truly can’t afford to hire a marketing expert, then become one yourself. It is that important, so get it done.
- Follow-up with everyone. First of all, you need to make sure that your current customers are absolutely ecstatic about your company. Create a survey that will get them talking about what they like and don’t like about your company and fix the things they don’t like. Let them know you will make those improvements and that you appreciate their feedback. Following up is critical to business success. Next, you need to follow up with new customers. If you don’t contact your leads within three days, you have already lost them. You need to be diligent about following up.
- Referrals are key. Mining your existing database for referrals is the key to future success, especially in a down market. It is 10 times less expensive and that much easier to acquire customers by referral. Another thing to keep in mind is this: Take your best five customers and find out everything you can about them, then create a campaign around those kinds of people, i.e., their likes, dislikes, why they went with your company, what their needs are, etc. If you like working with those customers, then you need to find more customers just like them.
- Keep prices competitive. Everyone is looking for a bargain. Try offering free trial periods, incentives, like referral fees or perhaps additional free services included in the price, such as a bundled package if they act within a specified amount of time.
- Promote benefits to your customers. Most people don’t want to hear about your work or your process. They want to know just a few things: (1) How will this product/service benefit me today and in the long run? (2) Is the cost something I can live with and pay for? (3) Am I making the right decision by going with you or should I choose you?
- Testimonials. All I can say is, “Get them.” This is an important part of your business. People want to know you are a credible company and that you have the ability to offer someone, anyone, what they want. Ask for testimonials often. You’d be surprised how well they work.
Posts for Sales
In this category, I will post information that relates to selling, managing a sales team, strategic selling, phone sales, cold walking and hiring salespeople…
Posts for Marketing
In this section, I will post information that relates to marketing, with regards to online campaigns, PPC, SEO, landing pages and lead generation…
