Hitting the right prospect-rich vein in business is like being given a get-out-of-jail-free card in Monopoly or a toll-free pass at the expressway.  In other words, it’s a fast, free ride to a successful business outcome.  Just like a vein of gold, one prospect will lead to another until you’re swamped with orders, customers and profits.  The question is:  how exactly do you find such prospects?

Prospecting involves casting your net far and wide to determine where the more promising opportunities lie.  Think of it as a market reconnaissance mission.  Far from being a hit-or-miss exercise where you cannot easily anticipate how well things will go, the art of prospecting is actually a very precise way of determining the most efficient use of your marketing dollars.  Here are some tips in prospecting:

Look before you Leap
Prospecting involves time and money.  To avoid wasting both, you need to do some research beforehand.  Read local trade magazines and newspapers.  Pinpoint the organisations, areas, churches, groups, and networks to which your target market belongs. 

Make sure that your target customers truly belong to these groups before you finalise your prospecting plans.  Furthermore, contact your friends and acquaintances to see if they can introduce you directly to your prospects.

Systematise
The goal of prospecting is to gather as much useful information using the least amount of resources possible.  Thus, you need a definite prospecting plan outlining your prospecting dates, locations, activities, and goals.  This will let you cover the widest area possible and the greatest number of prospects without spending more than the necessary amount of time and money. 

Careful planning, moreover, will let you prioritise highly productive business activities.

Generate Impact! 
Of course, prospecting won’t be very effective if you can’t create a favourable impression on your prospects.  To ensure that you are remembered or referred, briefly explain what you do and offer in the most interesting way. 

For example, if you’re in the construction business, you can provide energy-saving construction advice to people who are planning to build their own homes.  Save your sales slides in your handheld device, so you can do an impromptu presentation whenever an opportunity arises. 

Lastly, don’t forget to distribute professional-looking business cards containing pertinent information – the services your offer, your contact numbers and a website they can check for more information.

Remember one more thing.  Be creative!  Create opportunities where apparently none exists.  Turn PTA meetings, wedding receptions, grand openings, and other similar activities into prospecting opportunities.  As an alternative, you can let a professional “mine” your market for you; you can also purchase a leads list from a reputable list company.

What’s the most important part of any ad or sales letter?

The headline, of course.

What’s the hardest part to get right?

The headline.

That’s correct. The headline will make – or break – your ad and it’s the toughest part to write. Until now, that is.

Instead of struggling to create a headline that will get you the action you need, what if you could simply answer 4 simple questions and press 1 button to get 100 killer headlines? And… wait… what if it only took 17 seconds?

That’s okay. I didn’t believe it either until I saw this amazing software in action. Check out this online video to see Shawn Casey actually create 100 superb headlines:

We’ve all struggled to create great headlines. Some work. Most don’t. What an exercise in futility. You can waste so much time and energy. And who can afford to hire a copywriter. Forget it.

That’s why I was so excited to discover this software. Anyone can create killer headlines – no experience necessary.

You’ll experience new feelings of calmness and control as open the software. You’ll enjoy the simplicity of entering short answers to 4 easy questions. You’ll be astonished as you push 1 button and create 100 killer headlines.

And the best part is… you’ll love the results you get when these new headlines get your ads the response you deserve.

So…

Stop struggling with headlines.

Stop settling for mediocre results.

Stop doing things the hard way.

Grab your copy of this software now and enjoy new success.

Too much “Hard Sell” can mean “No Sale”.  With the proliferation of advertising both online and off-line, customers have grown wary of products or services marketed through traditional sales methods. 

Entrepreneurs of today must therefore learn how to invest more time and money in soft-sell methods.  Here are some real secrets to making your customers want to give you their money.

Share Information
Take a look at the web, and you will notice that most corporate sites invest considerable resources on disseminating information to their target market.  The information that these companies provide is geared not only to give customers a better idea about the products and services offered; they also help these companies build their brand as well as their credibility in their particular industry.

Notice, too, that one of the growing trends in television commercials is the use of controversial, funny or shocking information to grab viewers’ attention.  Statements like “9 out of 10 women suffer from…” or “the most common defect of…” give information about a topic of interest to the market being targeted.  Use this strategy to educate consumers and position yourself as a credible (and thus quality) supplier of relevant products or services.

The Human Touch
You must also improve your relationship with your customers.  Most businesses –especially those which are hard to differentiate from their competitors – lose a lot of customers because they lack the will or the means to maintain contact with their customers.  Invest some of your time and money to set up a system which will let you readily and regularly communicate with prospective and past customers.  This will help you capture a larger share of your market, and this will motivate your customers to spend more money on your business.

Lower Perceived Risks
For the regular customer, every purchase decision involves a delicate balance between risks and benefits.  What happens if the product doesn’t work?  Will they replace the defective product with a new one?  Will the product work as advertised?  These are just some of the questions that are usually raised whenever a customer contemplates making a purchase (especially a big one).

You should strive to lower your customers’ perceived risks.  Offer money-back guarantees or product warranties; showcase testimonials from satisfied customers or industry awards for product quality.  These and other similar methods will assure your customers that you will always stand by your promise or your unique selling point.  When customers are less wary, there’ll be less resistance to your products and services.

These are just some of the things that you can do to become irresistible to your customers.  Learn more by subscribing to our marketing newsletter.

Writing is one of the most important skills that a business owner can possess. Whether you are looking to write business letters, emails, blog postings, forum posts, articles, newsletters, eBooks, eZine, autoresponders or sales copy; your ability to be both clear and effective will determine your levels of impact on you readers.

Here are 5 tips for clear and effective writing:

Catch the Reader’s Attention

When you are writing you should start with a short sentence that is designed to captivate your reader’s attention. The goal of the introduction is to make your reader interested in what you have to say.

You will want to identify the bigger picture of your writing by explaining why your topic is important and how it applies to your reader’s personal or business life.

You will also be able to catch your reader’s attention by knowing the audience; who they are, what their needs are and what would they be hoping to learn or gain by reading your text.

Use Strong Verbs

Verbs describe action and readers pay attention to action. Use active verbs instead of static verbs, avoid turning verbs into nouns and beware of using technical terms that you reader may not understand.

Clear descriptions are powerful when communicating a message in a way that is interesting and easy to follow for your reader.

Keep Your Writing Simple

If your writing is not simple, you may lose your reader’s attention. Be sure to construct simple messages, avoid parentheses, strive for simple paragraphs and have a clear and organised path for your reader to follow.

An organised writing structure with well organised thoughts is crucial to use when planning your business writing.

Keep Your Readers Involved

There are several ways to keep your readers involved while they are reading your writing such as providing specific examples, using stories to paint pictures in the minds of the reader and using effective quotations when appropriate.

Use an Effective Closing

When you are concluding your written content, it is important to summarise your thoughts and to include a clear call to action for the reader to follow.

Be brief in your conclusion and be sure to end by emphasising your thoughts and what the reader’s learnings or calls to action should be.

You will need to learn how to be effective in all forms of written communication in business.

To learn about how to use clear and effective writing when drafting an email, read my article called “3 Incredibly Simple But Outrageously Powerful Keys to Guaranteeing your Email Messages are read”.

Emails can be used for business communication, general communication and sales messages as an autoresponder.
 

Discounting is a short term fix with long term consequences! While there is some disparity among experts, most say that even in the current marketplace, discounting can cause long term damage to your overall business success. According to www.sm.com.au, discounting is a costly strategy for retailers. While the book called, You Can Compete, suggests that discounting will double retail sales, most data points towards a business disaster. There are several successful alternatives to discounting that are available for your business.

Retailers who have been indulging in discounting by dropping prices and holding pre-sales before major holidays risk losing customers over the long term. Discounting can cause a business’ customers to become conditioned to sales or discounts. If a change in the economy of your infrastructure were to require a price increase, you will likely lose a large portion of the client base that you worked so diligently to build.

There are several reasons why a business should avoid using discounting as a technique to increase sales, including:

Volume
Too many companies fail to account for the effects of price on sales volume. While reducing prices could yield additional customer purchases; can the purchases match and exceed the necessary volume levels for profitability when taking into consideration the deep discount?

Impact on Customer Relationships
Dropping and then raising a price back up can create ill will within your customer base. Some companies use this pricing strategy to engage a customer or to make a sale, hoping that this sale will result in a residual long term customer. Once the loyalty has been established, some companies then participate in price gauging, losing those initial customers to their competition who has a more consistent pricing model. Deep discounting can also tarnish your brand, unless you are looking to be considered over the long term as a deep discount retailer.

Impact on the Industry
Price cuts that are not backed up by the manufacturing company’s production cost reductions can lead to competitive counter attacks, potentially eroding your company’s profits. Competition can also be created among similar retailers unexpectedly, forcing you to take a lower than expected profit per item sold.

Margins are an essential component for a business’ bottom line. To read more about the importance of business margins, click here to read another one of my articles. There are several available strategies to avoid discounting your products for sale. Your business can give away gifts with purchases that have a high perceived value to its customers.

Businesses with outstanding client service are not concerned with discounting. Evaluate your current customer satisfaction levels and your current business practices to determine how you and your business can provide outstanding customer service. In addition to great customer service, a company with outstanding products & services does not have to concern itself with discounting. Ensure that your business is offering the best products available in its field or industry so that you can demand the appropriate pricing for the product’s value.

While discounting may be implemented and appropriate for some retailers and businesses, the concept should be carefully considered for its effects on your business. The use of alternatives to discounting will be more beneficial for your business growth over the long term. Consider which strategies will be the most effective for your business and business niche.

If you want to write ads and letters that fill your order book, you must study the classic ads of Claude Hopkins in his book Scientific Advertising.  He still ranks as the greatest ad writer of all time.

>>>  I have 20 13 6 copies of Scientific Advertising available for the next 20 13 6 subscribers who sign up for my complimentary “Successful Marketing Strategies” eZine.  Just pop your details in the box in the top left hand corner of this page and I’ll send you a copy  <<<

Claude Hopkins’ marketing secrets generated fortunes.  Palmolive soap, Quaker oats, Pepsodent toothpaste and countless other famous brands owe much of their success to him.  But, what really makes Claude Hopkins remarkable is in 1923, he concluded inside Scientific Advertising, “The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science.”

He goes on to say, “Advertising, once a gamble, has thus become, under able directions, one of the safest ventures.  Certainly no other enterprise with comparable possibilities need involve so little risk.”

In other words, close to a century ago he had advertising figured out.  If you followed his guidance, you were certain to gain a strong return on your advertising investment.

In 1923, Hopkins was earning well over $100,000 a year as an advertising copywriter, which would be in excess of $2,000,000 today!  Many of the marketing lessons you hear from direct-response marketing teachers or copywriters are swiped directly from this report.  Yet, in recent years, most mainstream advertisers have forgotten all of this wisdom. 

They’ve replaced measurable results with branding.  An ad campaign may show zero improvement in sales, but still be called successful by the advertising agency.  “It will help the long-term sales of the product,” they may say.  And, by the time, you find-out if this is true… you’re out a small fortune.  Small businesses must close the doors forever and it may result in layoffs for big businesses.  Hopes and dreams are lost.

On the other end of the spectrum, Claude Hopkins learned from the trenches of “make or break” direct mail advertising.  As he put it, “The severest test of an advertising man is in selling goods by mail… Their cost and result are immediate apparent.”

In other words, if his promotions didn’t produce results, all would be revealed.  Sales either came in from the promotion nearly immediately… or it failed.  I highly encourage you to read Scientific Advertising if you’re involved in any business or marketing activity.  You will NOT regret it.

>>>  Grab your FREE copy by being one of the first 20 subscribers who sign up for my complimentary “Successful Marketing Strategies” eZine.  Just pop your details in the box in the top left hand corner of this page and I’ll send you a copy  <<<

David Ogilvy (one of the most famous advertising men) is quoted as saying, “Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times.  It changed the course of my life.”