No matter what you sell, how high the retail price, what
time of year or how bad the economy is, people are still
buying – Houses, Cars, Boats, Seminars, Kitchens, Pools,
Insurance policies, etc.

Are they buying as many as last year.  Maybe not.   Are
they buying less expensive options than they used to?
Could be.  Are there fewer buyers on the market right
now?  Probably – so what!

I have purchased 9 homes in my life.  Two of these homes
I bought on the 24-25th of December.   Who the heck buys
homes on Christmas or Christmas Eve? Not as many as the
weeks before or the weeks after Christmas, but homes still
get sold then.  I even bought a home when mortgage rates
were over 12%!

Despite what you’ve heard or read, people ARE still buying.
Your job is to stop justifying why your sales are flat or
down and find a way to get those people to buy from you.
Now is NOT the time to give into what I call “the down
disease” – (everyone is down in sales so I don’t feel so
bad that my sales are down too).

In times like these, your competitors will slow down or
even eliminate some or all of their marketing efforts.
This creates an opportunity for you to capture their
customers if you already have systems in place to do so.

Your job is to take advantage of this opportunity and
find those prospects that ARE ready, willing and able
to buy and make sure that they buy from you, not your
competition.  Sounds logical and simple enough.  But
if it was that simple, wouldn’t more companies be doing
it?

The sad truth is that many small businesses continue to
do what they’ve always done in the past regardless of
the mediocre results they are now getting.

You Don’t Necessarily Need More Marketing Money to Increase Sales

Instead, it’s your ability to use the marketing money
and resources you already have more effectively.  What
it really comes down to is not having sales generating
systems in place that they can use to get a predictable
and constant stream of sales regardless of what is
going on around the block or around the world.

These systems can do more to increase your sales than
just about anything else you could invest in.  Why?
Because it concentrates on the one thing that ALL
businesses can’t get enough of…new customers.
Doesn’t that make sense?

Systems are what make so many franchises successful.
Why do you think McDonalds®, Dunkin Donuts® and
Kinko’s® stores and franchises are so successful?
Because they have, over time, developed systems
that work.

Make no mistake about it, people who buy a franchise
aren’t buying hamburgers, donuts or copy machines,
they’re buying a program that has proven the test of
time, they are buying a successful system.

That’s why the most successful franchises cost so
much…because if you do what they tell you to do,
f you “connect the dots”, if you “paint by their
numbers”, your odds of success go up dramatically.

What Type of Sales Generating Systems Do You Have in Your Business?

Listed below are 4 easy-to-implement systems that
you can introduce into your business fairly easily.

1 – Website Lead Capture System

One of the most effective lead-capture systems
is the humble newsletter. Electronic newsletters
(e-Zines) are much like paper-based newsletters in
that they inform, entertain, and make product or
service recommendations. The difference is that
you can send an electronic newsletter instantly to
thousands of people with the simple push of a
button for almost no cost whatsoever.  It’s truly
amazing.

Of course you need people to send your newsletter
to so you should start collecting the email addresses
of your prospects and clients today.  A surefire
way to persuade a prospect to share their personal
email address with you is to offer them a low cost
premium such as a free report about how to buy a
your product or service.

The key to making electronic newsletters work is
to write, in a personal voice, as though you were
talking to your prospect or customer face-to-face.
Also, provide interesting and useful content so
that your reader looks forward to receiving your
newsletter.  Be consistent.  Send your newsletter
on a bi-weekly basis, such as the 1st and 15th
of every month.

If you want all the fuss taken out of the
newsletter process you can use an all-in-one tool
such as http://www.1ShoppingCart.com (that’s what
I use) or ConstantContact.com or Aweber.com.
For a lower cost option you can have a newsletter
template designed for you at e-Lance and then
use an online autoresponder service such as
Aweber.com or with desktop software such as
Gammadyne.com. 

2 – Telephone Lead Capture System

How would you like to capture the name and address
of all your lead sources and know exactly where
they all came from?  Capturing this information
would allow you to do follow up marketing with
your prospects and compute the exact return-on
-investment of each of your marketing and
advertising campaigns. Telephone hotlines allow
you to do just that – and more. 

A telephone hotline is simply a recorded telephone
message that can either, (1) ask for and record a
prospect’s contact information that can later be
transcribed, (2) play back a pre-recorded educational
or sales message, or (3) allow the caller to be
directly transferred to a live person after
listening to a message.

Most telephone hotlines use toll-free telephone
numbers that are rented to your business on a
monthly basis.  You’ll also receive multiple
extension numbers with “message boxes” that can
play different messages depending on the marketing
campaign. I use http://www.AutomateMarketingSolutions.com
for my telephone hotline services.

Imagine offering an interesting free report
(or audio / video) in your advertising by asking the
prospect to simply call your toll-free number
and a specific extension number to request your
information product. The prospect calls up the
advertised phone number with its unique extension
number and then requests the report by leaving
their name and address. Their name and address
gets transcribed that night, entered into an MS
Excel spreadsheet, and then sent to you in the
morning ready for you to follow up on. 

At the end of the month you go online, click a
button, and a report spits out the exact source
of each of your leads and when they came in.
Now you have some powerful information that will
allow you to precisely track the return on each
marketing campaign.

3 – Internet Pay-Per-Click Advertising System

More and more people are going to the Internet
to search for big ticket product product information
before they decide to buy.  It’s critical to be
the first company that your prospect finds in their
search. Pay-per-click advertising allows you to
do that in a low risk way. Let me explain.

Pay-per-click advertising programs such as Yahoo
and Google’s Adwords program allow you to bid for
search engine placement.  If you’ve ever searched
for something in Google and saw those text ads on
the right side of the screen you’ve seen Google
Adwords.  With Google AdWords or Yahoo you create
your own ads, choose keywords to match your ads to
your audience and pay only when someone clicks on
them.

For instance, suppose you are a power sports dealer
in Chicago.  You might bid on the keywords “Chicago”
and “motorcycle,” which is a likely keyword
combination for a Chicago resident looking for a
motorcycle.  You may only have to pay $.10 per
click to be at the top of the search engines. In less
than one hour any business can launch their
 own pay-per-click Internet advertising program.

4 – Follow-Up Marketing System
Now that you’ve generated interest and prospects
are coming to your website or responding to your
advertising, you need an effective lead follow up
system. In the previous paragraph I referred to an
“autoresponder service” and now it’s time to learn
what they are and why they’re important.  An
autoresponder service automatically sends multiple
email messages that you create on a scheduled basis
that you define.

For instance, imagine that you offered a free 6-part
email course on your website titled, “How to Select
the Perfect Home Remodeler.”  After your website visitor
signed up to receive your email course by sharing
their email address with you, your autoresponder
service would automatically send them one email
containing your course content every other day over
the next 12 days.

Every other day your prospect would automatically
receive a useful tip or technique for selecting the
right home remodeler, without any manual intervention
from you. Included in each day’s tip could be an
offer to visit your website to take advantage
of a special offer or to visit your store to
receive a personalized educational session.

There’s no magic to how many emails you can set up
in your autoresponder system. I know of one pool
builder who has over six months of weekly emails
pre-written and set up to automatically be sent
in his autoresponder system.  Each email has a unique
teaser that drives prospects back to their website. 

For instance, one email says, “Click here to see
one of the most unique pool ever built.”
The link then takes the reader to a page with a
beautiful pool on it and and also includes a
story about some of the problems that other 
pool owners encounter and how this new pool
overcame those issues.  It may also include
a testimonial from the prospect raving about the
pool.  It’s quite powerful. 

One last thought, for sales or marketing system
to be effective it must:
1. Be quick to get started, easy to implement,
   and simple to maintain
2. Leverage all your other sales and marketing
   efforts and be capable of producing
   fast results
3. Continue to produce good results for long
   periods of time – it must be “viral”

The 3 systems I’ve shown you certainly meet these
3 criteria.  Now go out there and start systemizing.
If Ronald McDonald can do it, so can you!
 
To your continued success,
 
David Carleton
President, Street Smart Sales And Marketing

http://www.StreetSmartSalesAndMarketing.com

Secret #1 – Create an image of your final business goal and write it down.

The bottom line here is that if you haven’t got a final destination or goal, it’s hard to plot a course. So take the time to create an image of your business goal and create a plan to get there.

All great athletes and successful business people, visualize their final destination. Take time to visualize and keep your perspective.

Also, like they say, a goal not written is only a wish.  For some reason, if we write it, it’s more real and we can stay better focused. Before we decide to revise or adapt our goal, we need to start with something to expand upon if the need arises.

Secret #2 – Know your market and your competition. 

You may have a brilliant business idea.  But if you don’t spend some time researching your market, which includes researching your competition, then you will most likely have a business doomed for failure.

Your idea may be brilliant, but it may need some important tweeks that you will only realize and resolve when you are doing your research to understand your market.

Secret #3 – Stay focused on one dream at a time.

Sometimes as we get excited about our dream, other business ideas may pop into our head.  Write the ideas down in a “To Do” file, and leave them alone until you have COMPLETED your current business effort and it is producing good returns.

Many people get distracted with other opportunities and ideas and never complete one dream, this is very costly and in many instances financially counter productive.

Secret #4 – Remember, no man is an island, you need others to help compliment your business plan.

Networking with others can be very valuable in getting your name out there, but more importantly, you may gain some great insights and strategies to help grow your business faster.

Additionally, hire and develop employees that you can delegate assignments to in areas that you are weak or not as interested in performing.  Then you can keep yourself focused on things that are in line with your natural talents.  Make efforts to enhance your talents to become even more effective.

Secret #5 – Keep yourself from becoming stagnant by keeping yourself educated

The wise entrepreneur will reduce the amount of time it takes to learn the necessary elements in their business by talking with and gleaning insights from those at the top of their market. Learn from someone with a proven success record and then you don’t have to learn from trial and error.  Take courses, read books and be open to new ideas.

Secret #6 – Take one day at a time and don’t allow yourself to be overwhelmed with the magnitude or your goal or challenges.

Although you need to have long-term goals and strategies, your days can only be productive if you focus on one step at a time.  Then you can do a great job on that effort and easily progress to the next step (and bring your sanity along with you too.)

Secret #7 – Leverage your time and resources by implementing systems throughout your business

Why do you think McDonalds®, Dunkin Donuts® and other franchises are so successful?  Because they have, over time, developed systems that work.

Make no mistake about it, people who buy a franchise aren’t buying hamburgers or donuts, they’re buying a program that has proven the test of time, they are buying a successful system.

That’s why the most successful franchises cost so much…because if you do what they tell you to do, if you “connect the dots”, if you “paint by their numbers”, your odds of success go up dramatically.

There are obviously more than just 7 “secrets” to business success, but if you follow these you’ll be way ahead of most of your competitors.

To your continued success,
 
David Carleton
President, Street Smart Sales And Marketing
http://www.StreetSmartSalesAndMarketing.com

Testimonials are one of the most powerful yet under-utilized and overlooked tools you can apply to your marketing efforts.  They are neutral 3rd party endorsements.  They build trust, get attention and overcome skepticism on even the toughest buyers. 

Customers that give you great testimonials are also candidates to give you great referrals and end up becoming more loyal to your business.  By the way, testimonials should always be about how great your company is, how great the buying experience was or how wonderful your customer service was.  I do not recommend that testimonials are “product or brand specific” since you may at some point change brands.

Here are four tips for getting more/better testimonials:
1. After you deliver your product or provide your service, tell the client that you’ll be sending them their “New Customer Gift Basket,” and that you’ll be asking them to fill out and return a postage-paid testimonial survey page that you’re including.  90% of the clients that get your new client gift basket will feel obligated to return a simple testimonial – it’s just human nature.
2. Whenever someone mentions something positive about their buying experience, ask them if they’d mind sending it to you via e-mail.  If you don’t hear from them in a few days, send them an e-mail, thanking them for their comments and ask them to just hit “reply” to add their testimonial.

3. Make it easy as possible for your customers to give you a testimonial.  Instead of making a customer write out his/her testimonial, why not use a Testimonial Hotline.  All they have to do is call a toll free number and just talk.  You can transcribe it later. (Here’s a real example: 800-391-6309 x 6300). 

4. Want to get the best testimonials possible?  Try this…write out what you would consider to be a great testimonial and then turn it into a testimonial questionnaire.  Then give the questionnaire to your customers in a postage paid envelope and ask them to return it.  Be sure to include areas that specifically address your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and help substantiate your company claims.

Once you gather your testimonials, create a “Wall of Fame” in your store or office where you can post them all for perspective clients to see.  Make testimonials a standard part of your product or service offering and presentations.  Offer prospective clients and customers a list of testimonials with specific names and phone numbers to read, review and even call at their leisure.

Getting and using testimonials like this will undoubtedly help you close more sales.

If you want a free copy of my Special Report 7 Street Secrets to Getting More Powerful Testimonials, just go to http://www.StreetSmartSalesAndMarketing.com/StreetSmartTestimonials.pdf

To your continued success,
 
David Carleton
President, Street Smart Sales And Marketing
http://www.StreetSmartSalesAndMarketing.com