This article is a broad overview of the kind of marketing that gets good results. We will discuss very specific ways to implement the plan. Now, I am not talking about the kind of plan that you might have learned in Marketing 101.
What I’m talking about, is a list of methods, philosophies, mission like statements that give direction to all my marketing efforts and those of successful marketers. Remember in a previous article, I said that marketing is EVERYTHING you do in your business, from ordering paper clips to handling customer returns? Marketing encompasses more than just advertising and web site design.
This article is based on a business philosophy that I believe in because I’ve seen it work. You might not agree with it completely, but I’m sharing this with you to help you in developing your own ‘business philosophy’.
A Business Philosophy That Never Fails
· What I think doesn’t matter. Only what the market wants or believes it wants is important.
· If you market and advertise your products like everyone else, you will get no response. You must differentiate yourself.
· Don’t market in a threatening aggressive way. Don’t ask for money in any significant way on the first contact. Even after several contacts, your customers don’t believe you or trust you.
· Trust takes time. So reassure them and sell them what they want. If they are satisfied with the first purchase from you, they are more likely to come back. And repeat business is where the real profits are in any business.
· Don’t fall in love with your merchandise or your products. If what you have in stock isn’t selling, dump it and reassess the market. Only what the market wants is important.
· Don’t get married to what your selling — i.e. if your customers want “D” and you’re selling “A”–find the best and cheapest source for “D” and sell them that! The market is the ultimate judge.
· Don’t sell your merchandise at the lowest possible price. Get a good price for your items. Charge enough to make a healthy profit. How can that be done with ‘commodity’ items? By adding value. Enhance commodity type products in a tough market with free tickets to a basketball game or a free car wash, etc… find something of value that may cost you nothing to acquire, but will be appreciated by your customers and makes you stand out.
· Only by making a healthy profit can you expect to be in business for the long term.
· The market does not respect “cheap” products or services, but they always like to think they are getting a ‘deal’. So whenever possible explain in concrete terms why this is a better deal for them than they could find anywhere else. Your “deal” could be a few hours of your time to help them through a particular set-up problem with your item, or it could be donating 10% of the purchase amount to their favorite charity, etc.–it doesn’t always have to be a deal by lowering your price.
· Put yourself in the prospects’ place. Feel what she feels. Think how she thinks. You must know him/her better than he knows himself. What is he/she like. What do they want, really want? It’s not your item isn’t what they want–it’s the results they will get from using your item that they really want: The new skills they’ll learn from your content, the knowledge they’ll gain to help them in their jobs or relationships, the feeling of pride they’ll receive by showing the item they just purchased from you to all their friends.
· People buy for their reasons, not yours. Therefore give them every reason possible so they can pick and choose the reason that suits them best.
· Strip everything from your business that does not directly produce sales, profits and new customers. The only business expenses you should have are the ones that will generate more sales and profits. Before buying anything for your business ask yourself, “Will this help me generate more profits or sales?”…if not, don’t buy it. It’s a waste of money.
· Focus all your energies and resources on selling something. You have to have something to sell. Is that obvious? Yes it is, but there are a lot of people who want to make money in business and don’t know what to sell! Find something to sell! Constantly develop or obtain new products to sell. When you find one that sells well with your existing customers, that’s the time to ‘roll out’ big to other lists.
· The money is made in the selling. You cannot make any money if you don’t have anything to sell. Obvious? Yes! But a lot of people will look for months for something to sell, because they can’t come up with a product or service to sell, or can’t get started or finish the book they were writing. Forget it !! Stop “looking” and start testing, testing, testing instead. TESTING and DOING is the key to success. Don’t worry about what to sell– just sell anything–if it works, keep doing it, if it doesn’t work–don’t sell it anymore–find something else. You never know what people will buy until you place the item in front of them. I would never have thought ‘pet rocks’ would sell and I would not have sold them if I had a retail store, but look at what happened! They became a nationwide craze.
· Realize the significant difference between being “professional”, having a certain “image” to maintain and getting “results”. Jay Abraham emphasizes this, and he’s right. This is a difficult concept to explain. The idea here is that RESULTS are all that count – your ‘image’ and being perceived by others as ‘professional’ are nice, but should take a back seat to being productive. If you’re worried about your image, you’re not going to be successful. All your efforts should be placed on satisfying customers wants.
· Always strive to be personable and friendly – the down-to-earth approach to business is what keeps people coming back to you. Even in this age of the Internet (or maybe because of it) people want to know who you are, as a person. Are you nice? Are you a jerk? Do you love kids and dogs or cats? Do you love to read books? What kind? You see what I mean.
· OK, I’ll say it again- only results count – if you want to be in business longer than the statistical averages then FOCUS ON RESULTS!
· If you’re not selling enough merchandise, at a profit, to make a living, stop what you’re doing and think! Start over…get out of that BOX you’re in.
· You get better results by being yourself rather than trying to impress your customer and clients with your superiority. Be humble, admit mistakes and move on. You’re a business person, but you’re a human being first.
· Don’t worry about who likes you and who doesn’t like you. People spend half their lives just trying to please people that will never like them back anyway. You’re much better off and will have a more loyal customer base by bonding with others who like you for yourself.
· Therefore my job is to: Sell merchandise I feel comfortable and proud of selling and which I know my customers will value more than the price they paid.
· Advertise, market and promote my product or service by being totally focused on the buyer and their wants and/or testing the market to see if it’s what the market wants at that moment.
· Don’t assume people will order from you without asking them to order it from you. They won’t. You have to ask them to order from you.
· Don’t over complicate the running of your business. Keep it simple and focused.
Business Philosophy, Final Thoughts
When someone buys from you, do you ever send a “Thank you” card or letter saying how much you appreciated their business? If not, then you have not learned the art of marketing.
Joe Girard made the Guinness Book of World Records for selling the most automobiles because he understood this one aspect of business: he appreciated his customer. He sent ‘Thank You’ cards, Christmas cards, Birthday cards and letters to his customers constantly- he built relationships with all his customers and his customers responded in droves by buying from him and no one else.
If your customer expects Y then give them Y times 3. Always do more for them than they expect. Very, very few local businesses (even most national ones) I’ve done business with has ever sent me a ‘Thank You’ card or even a coupon so I could get a deal from them the next time I buy something. You will generate a lot of goodwill and customer loyalty by just being thoughtful.
If you give your customers more than expected then your prices can keep going up. Psychologically it is better to charge your customers higher prices if, and only if, you can deliver more than they expected.
One final word about marketing. Develop a marketing attitude in everything you do.
What do I mean when I say, ‘marketing attitude’? I mean that you have to put yourself in your customer’s place, think about their wants and ask yourself continually how your product or service benefits them.
Stop thinking about what you want (at least while you’re selling) and never stop thinking in terms of communicating with your customers the more salient points and benefits and the results they will get when they purchase your merchandise.
BONUS: Three CRITICAL Business Strategies For The Real World
RULE #1: Do not use your cash to buy anything that does not help you produce more cash!
New business owners go out to buy every piece of equipment they can think of that they might need, but may never need and have little cash left over for marketing their product or service.
Don’t you fall into that trap. Only cash pays the bills and only cash can be used to generate more cash through marketing.
RULE #2: Treat Your Internet Business Like A Business And Get Serious About It!
Conduct all your dealings in a business like way, friendly and personal, but business like.
Order business cards that state something unique about your business on the front and back of the card. Also, if your sales volume really picks up and it makes economic sense, use an “800? number for people to call and order from you instead of only using online orders. Why?
It’s just one extra option. Remember that people buy for their reasons, not yours…that also applies to the way they like to buy. They will want to order the way they want to order, not the way you want them to order.
Also don’t believe that the only way to market your business is using online methods. Try sending postcards, letters and other offline methods to drive people to your web site. Think about every method that’s available to you and test all of them.
RULE #3: How Specialization Can Increase Sales
The importance of specializing and knowing, inside and out, what you’re selling cannot be overemphasized. Specialization helps you focus and you build a more valuable knowledge base.
Although I have sold other products and services in the past, my focus is publishing information. I read just about everything I can get my hands on when it comes to information publishing. Sometimes I browse the business and periodical sections to gather ideas, see what’s new or find something I read a long time ago but forgot about.
I love business information, and I get paid to advise retail clients on how to improve their businesss. It’s my focus and I constantly find ways to build my knowledge and capture new opportunities.
Has this ever happened to you? When you purchase a new car (or anything) suddenly you start to see a lot of “your” car on the roads? It seems as if everyone has the same car you do. You didn’t notice so many people were driving the same kind of car you had before because you had taken your old car for granted and didn’t focus on it- but now that you have a new car, your focus has changed because of your interest in the new car.
The same thing happens in business. Once you pick a focus, a specialty, all of a sudden you are surrounded with great opportunities that you weren’t aware of before you started to focus.
You begin to see opportunities others are not even aware of. That’s the reason you specialize– to become aware of opportunities that others with less focus than you, pass up daily.
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