Best Possible Entrepreneurial Policy Actions

8/3/2019 Best Possible Entrepreneurial Policy Actions

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19 Business Optimisation Strategies

Your business culture or philosophy is the ultimate key to your

productivity and success. It will either enable or disable everything

else you do.

When working with clients we soon discovered that if the culture of an

organisation was wrong, the impact of even the best business growth

techniques would be severely limited or crippled.

Too many organisations only pay lipservice to these factors and as a result

they constantly struggle to make real progress.

Develop the right business culture is key to your success as everything you

do hinges around this fundamental aspect of your business.

1. Understand your higher business purpose

Contrary to popular belief, people dont buy products or services. Instead

they buy outcomes; results, solutions, benefits, answers, value,

advantages, improvements, time saving, avoidance of pain,

protection, pleasure, fulfillment, enjoyment, prestige etc. Your higher

purpose for being in business should be to turn those positive outcomes into

reality by promoting, selling and delivering the specific outcomes your

customer is actually buying. When you start to look at what you do in terms

of the positive outcomes you can deliver to your clients, you can feel

justifiably proud of the contribution youre making to your client, whatever

your business. And when you do that consistently you profit handsomely.

2. Operate with integrity

Taking an ethical approach to your business, performing as promised, and

operating in a sound manner. Your philosophy and policies toward your

employees and your customers must be based on fairness and a sincere

belief that your customers deserve to be well served at all times. Its having

the attitude that if its good for the customer its good for the company, and

vice versa. Its putting the customers interests ahead of your own.


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3. Optimisation

No longer being content to accept lesser results than youre entitled to for

your efforts. Instead you demand and accept nothing less than the highest

and best outcome for every action you ever take and every activity you everengage in. You do this by integrating and leveraging all your successful

marketing approaches to achieve the optimum outcome and getting the

greatest return for the least expenditure of time, effort, manpower and

money, at the lowest possible risk to you while reducing stress, freeing you

up, and providing for consistent control and total predictability.

4. Genuinely appreciate your team

Some of the most profitable companies in the world owe a large part of theirsuccess to having a happy contented workforce, because those people

KNOW they are sincerely appreciated. This will save you money in many

ways. Your staff turnover will go down. Youll save a fortune on training and

recruitment. Youll suffer less abseteeism. Its less likely that things will go

missing. And having an experienced workforce that isnt always leaving and

having to be retrained one that really cares about your company and

about looking after your customers will result in fewer customer

complaints, more satisfaction and customers who spend more money with

you more often and stay with you longer.

5. Genuinely appreciate your clients

Viewing your clients as long term friends. Redefining your business from the

customers perspective as the basis of your philosophy, so that you protect

and benefit them at the highest level possible.

6. Become passionate about your customers

Passion and enthusiasm are contagious and all too rare. People are more

inspired to do business with you if you display conviction and enthusiasm for

what you do and the way that you do it than any other factor. If you

genuinely burn with an overwhelming desire to enrich the lives of everyone


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you do business with, people will be attracted to you like metal filings to a

magnet.

7. Build a balanced team

Recruitment is often seen almost exclusively as a search for individuals with

the right qualifications, experience, and achievement. Yet theyre rarely

found because of the requirement for more conflicting characteristics than

can normally exist in any one person. But if no individual can combine all

these qualities, a team of individuals can contain all the conflicting

requirements that cannot be found in a single individual. In a perfectly

balanced team there is always someone who can deal naturally and

effectively with any set of responsibilities. Each person just slots naturally

into playing their part in growing and developing the business.

8. Empower your staff

When companies consistently refuse to deviate from policy, they say to

customers, in effect, Our policy is more important than doing business with

you. Empowerment is the process of moving the decision-making process to

the customer interface. Giving your team at the customer interface the

power to do whatever it reasonably takes to delight the customer. Truly

empowered employees invariably recognise and appreciate the authority

they have been given and are more likely to use their initiative and good

judgment to come up with better and less expensive solutions to a problem

than that dictated by rigid policy manuals.

9. Adopt proven success practices

The moment you start adapting and applying success practices that have

already been tested and refined by other industries you save yourself a

massive learning curve. If you can take advantage of millions or tens of

millions or hundreds of millions worth of success-proven, profit-certain

business practices that other industries have already validated, youve given

yourself and your business an incredible edge over all your competitors and

your level of success cant help but increase.


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10. Have fun in the workplace

Some of the worlds most successful companies attribute a large part of their

success to the use of laughter, fun and play in the workplace to build

morale, participation, and involvement. Recognition and appreciation canplay a vital role in boosting morale and productivity among hard-worked

employees. You can easily implement a step-by-step plan for building an

enthusiastic, high-performance team using hundreds of tried-and-tested

techniques for enhancing employee satisfaction and personal pride,

improving employee morale, heightening productivity, creating a more

people-centered corporate culture, and, ultimately, increasing your

profitability.

11. Growth through perpetual training

The growth of your business is the aggregate of the growth of your

individual team members. By constantly training everyone in your business

to perform at higher levels than your competitors, youre investing in the

future, while improving your business today. The better your training, the

better everything works in your business. It radically improves your teams

understanding of your objectives; helps set standards of performance;

produces predictable results; leads to consistent answers to each question or

problem; results in customers being treated in a similar manner no matter

who they deal with and makes a big difference to how everything

functions.

12. Recruit the right people

Most of us choose our life partner and raise our children with care, nurturing

and compassionate attention. Yet we tend to select the people who will join

our company on the basis of an interview or two, and once theyve joined,

they often discover they must fend for themselves. This contrast illustrates

the disparity between the family and work environments. But since around

75% of our adult waking time is devoted to work related activities, it makes

sense to take as much care in recruiting the right peoplepeople who care

and who want to be the best. If you look for genuinely pleasant people who

have the right attitude and human values, the rest will usually fall into place.


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You cant teach people to be nice. Caring must be inherent in peoples

naturesthey have to feel it in their hearts. And if they do, their colleagues

and clients will feel it too, and youll achieve more success with less hassle

and hard work.

13. Run a suggestion scheme

A good suggestion scheme is like having an oil well in your back garden.

There is no more important tool for management. Suggestion schemes can

be made to work extraordinarily well in any business and can be the

cornerstone of constant and never ending improvement. If you and your

team ask yourselves relentlessly each day, How can we do this better? or

What more can we do to , youre bound to find ways to improve.

Whether large or small, these improvements can lead to regular discoveries

that can transform your business.

14. Measure staff motivation

How do you know if your staff are well motivated? This is where most

businesses are amazingly primitive. Their skills in measuring motivation are

under-developed or non-existent. Methods of measuring motivation include:

1) Staff turnover, 2) Absenteeism, 3) Theft, 4) Customer Service, 5) Attitude

surveys. Motivation does not have to be left to chance. Every business can

introduce systems for motivating its employees better. The benefits are

enormous, and once you start measuring the payback on your investment in

the workforce, you will see real results.

Other Business Optimisation Strategies Include:

1. Articulating your core values2. Coaching for performance3. Doing everything with passion4. Doing whatever it takes to serve or add value to your clients5. Systematise every aspect of your business

Knowledgebase fact:


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By mid-2009 Marketing Wizdoms knowledgebase contained around 2.4

million words in 2,065 documents relating to 19 individual business

optimisation strategies. Thats equivalent to nearly 8,500 pages, or 34 full

sized books.

Some of that knowledge is and will be showcased in posts on this site. If

youre an entrepreneur or aspiring market leader, you will learn how to apply

the full depth of that knowledge by participating in the Eureka program

click here for more information

205 Strategies

World-class expertise in over 200 low-risk/high-return marketing

strategies

World-class expertise in over 200 low-risk/high-return marketing

strategies

Somebody had to do it!

If youre looking for the ultimate in marketing expertise, look no further. At

Marketing Wizdom weve invested a fortune over the years building expertise

you cant find anywhere else. Since 1996 weve been accumulating,

dissecting, organising and analysing vast quantities of the worlds most

powerful and effective marketing knowledge.

From this knowledge detailed documentation and step-by-step procedures

have been developed for over 200 low-risk/high-return marketing strategies

that broadly fall into the following categories:

y 26 marketing foundations for exponential growthy 63 strategies for generating qualified leadsy 30 strategies for converting your leads more effectivelyy 20 strategies for retaining your clientsy 9 strategies for increasing your transaction value


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y 14 strategies for increasing your transaction frequencyy 19 business optimisation strategiesy 24 strategy accelerators and power boosters

Each strategy is based on what has worked in many differentindustries

For EACH strategy we have instant access, on average, to over 8,700 pages

of painstakingly compiled data, reference materials and real-life examples,

via a unique knowledgebase which now contains more than 1.8 million

pages of information. Any part of this vast body of information can be

accessed in a fraction of a second using a sophisticated artificial intelligence

data retrieval system.

World-class procedures

To ensure the full and proper implementation of every strategy, robust,

world-class, step by step procedures are constantly under development to

ensure that you can implement strategies more thoroughly, with greater

attention to detail than youre likely to find elsewhere, so that you produce

the best possible results and gain a huge advantage over your competitors,

whatever your industry.

The procedure illustrated above shows the high level headings in a 515-step

strategy roadmap you can use to build some of your key marketing

foundations. Participants in the Eureka program gain full access to this

unique data.

This knowledge and these in-depth procedures cannot be found elsewhere.

Indeed, youd be hard-pressed to find any marketing companies who

have written procedures for implementing strategies or carrying out

campaigns, let alone detailed project plans.

They often prefer instead to take a finger in the air approach, and charge

whatever they think they can get away with. This unusual depth of

knowledge, attention to detail and level of transparency is one of Marketing


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Wizdoms unique edges and ensures that you get the best possible results

and value whenever you implement a strategy using our know-how.

Robert is truly one-of-a-kind and an absolute pleasure to work with. His

personal commitment to continuous learning and his naturally encyclopedicmind of case studies makes him exceptionally valuable as a business

partner. His passion for entrepreneurship and genuine desire to see others

succeed were inspirational to us.

Joni Hawkes, former BrandWeek Marketing Manager of the Year and for 10

years Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at the Coca-Cola Company,

Atlanta GA

26 Marketing Foundations

Building a successful business requires strong, sustainable

foundations

To build on a solid foundation you need to be able to express your business

purpose, your core values and the uniqueness of your offering in a clear and

compelling manner thats understood and shared by everyone in your

business.

If you dont do this your customers and prospects wont fully understand,appreciate or get excited about the value of your products or services or why

they should buy from you.

The more compellingly you weave these fundamental messages into

everything you do, everything you say, and everything your team says and

does, the greater your competitive advantage And the more your product

or service is worth in the marketplace.

The first phase of the Eureka program takes you step by step through what

you need to do to build the foundations for exponential growth in your

business. While the program was under development a good percentage of

clients achieved market leadership in their niche through the application of

these strategies.


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Each strategy listed here there is backed by an in-depth step-by-step

process. Because less than one business in a thousand gets these basics

right, youll gain a massive advantage over your competition, month-in and

month-out if you build on these foundations.

1. Determine customers needs

The most careless approach to building your business is to decide what your

marketplace really wants or needs without first talking to them about it. You

owe it both to them and to yourself, because what you think is important to

your prospects and customers may in fact be totally unimportant. What you

could ignore may actually be all-important. Doing this research will allow you

to focus on the key issues behind your customers buying decisions and true

needs. The moment you understand what they really want and need, what

theyre drawn to and repelled by, youll become so much better connected to

them. Youre able to be more persuasive because youll be in alignment with

what your customers are really looking for. And if you do this right, dont be

at all surprised if a lot of your competitors customers start flocking to you in

the process.

2. Unique Selling Proposition

Why should someone buy from you? Less than one businesses in a thousand

can answer that question in a compelling manner. To do so, your business

needs to be seen as different to your competitors, offering your prospects

and customers a unique, distinctive or superior benefit or advantage that

isnt available to them anywhere else. There are a number of powerful

components to this, which include a) a Commitment Statement b) A journey

Behind The Scenes c) Risk Reversal d) a Positioning Statement e) Setting

the buying criteria for your marketplace f) An Irresistible Offer. Once youve

established what your unique advantage is, your job is to communicate thatadvantage to each prospect by articulating the key benefits of buying from

you. But because your prospects are always short of time, you must be able

to communicate these benefits quickly, clearly and effectively so theyre

easy to remember.

3. Commitment statement


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Your commitment statement is typically a series of 8-12 prioritised bullet

points which explain what your business does and stands for, what someone

can expect when they buy from you, how your business is seen in the

marketplace and where it is going. It should also explain what you do to

provide memorable service, how you go the extra mile and what you have to

do to achieve your long term vision. Your commitment statement can be

used in many different ways to build confidence and certainty and accelerate

the customers buying decision.

4. Behind The Scenes Journey

The more your buyers understand the tangible, compelling and meaningful

reasons why they should take action and buy from you, the more theyll

trust you, the more comfortable theyll feel about what youre offering and

the more rapidly theyll decide to buy. Your behind the scenes journey is

the key component of your USP that educates your buyers by providing

them with with a complete understanding of the reasons why you do what

you do, why you sell what you sell, why your product or service is better and

more suitable to their situation than others, why they should act, and why

theyll be disadvantaged if they dont. It explains the process you go through

to create your product or service, how you select or reject your components

or suppliers, how you gained your knowledge, experience and expertise andthe process you use to train your staff. Its a very powerful process.

5. Risk reversal

The biggest single reason why people dont buy products or services from a

supplier is that they dont want to make a mistake or look stupid or mess

up. Thats why up to 80% of people say theyd be influenced in favour of a

business that guarantees to its buyers that their product or service wont

fail, by giving a really strong guarantee. By guaranteeing your product orservice you reduce the barrier of entry and make it more advantageous for

your customers to buy from you than not to buy. This means that people

cant help but take advantage of your product or service in much greater

numbers.

6. Positioning Statement


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Your positioning statement is a single sentence or a paragraph that focuses

on the specific areas in which your product or service excels or is unique and

conveys the essence of your business in a compelling manner that sets you

apart from your competitors. To be effective it must attract attention to your

business, set you apart from your competition, fill a perceived gap in the

marketplace and motivate people to take action. When your key points of

difference are easy to understand and remember, your prospects get an

instant mental picture of what makes your product or service superior or

unique, and thus worthy of their attention. This will set you way apart from

your competitors and make it much easier for your prospects to act in your

favour.

7. Setting the buying criteria for your marketplace

When you educate your customers to understand the buying criteria for your

product or service, youll totally disempower your competition. Youll also be

able to take more and more market share because no one else will be able

to compete with you. If youre the first business in your industry to deploy

this concept it can have the impact of an atomic bomb.

9. A clearly defined mission

A business develops a personality over time that shapes its philosophy and

motivates its actions. Without a purpose or a mission, both a person and a

business will flounder. Every business, no matter how big or small, needs a

mission statement as a source of direction that lets its employees,

customers, suppliers and stakeholders know what it stands for and where its

headed. A mission also unifies people in a business and provides employees

with a sense of identity and a foundation on which the company can build its

future.

10. Targeting the right prospects

One of the biggest secrets of success is to communicate directly to your

target market, and to no one else. You do this by identifying exactly who

your target audience are, then discovering why those people should buy

your product or service, given their values and priorities. This includes


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identifying the predominant types of prospect you need to target in your

various markets. Should they be the innovators, early adopters, middle

majority, late adopters, or laggards? Identify the crucial decision making

steps needed for them to adopt your product or service. When you do this

the results of your efforts will improve immediately, youll multiply your

effectiveness and usually youll be able to significantly reduce demands on

your time, your expenditure and your efforts.

Additional foundation-building strategies include:

1. Validity Testing2. Branding3. Business Model4. Business Planning5. Choosing a business name6. Competitor Analysis7. Express Your Higher Business Purpose8. Gaining absolute clarity about your current situation9. Market Research10. Marketing Plan11. Defining Your Sales Process12.

Strategic Planning

13. Targeting the right prospects14. Understanding lifetime value/marginal net worth15. Values Charter16. Vision Statement

63 Lead Generation Strategies

Lead Generation and Customer Acquisition Strategies

Here is a quick overview of some of the highly effective strategies you can

use to generate many more qualified leads and clients for your business.

They are all simple and cost effective to implement once you know what to

do and how to do it.


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By bridging the gaps in your knowledge we can show you how to get the

most out of any of these approaches, no matter how large or small your

business.

1. Direct Mail

An extremely flexible medium that gives you access to any number of

otherwise inaccessible prospects for many different purposes; to sell your

products; generate sales leads; follow up enquiries; get more business from

current customers; keep in touch with former customers; close the sale in

advance and so much more. It allows you to present every benefit of your

product or service over those of your competition in a manner thats 100%

consistent. This is not just in their offices and during the business day, but in

their homes, in the evenings and at weekends. Reaching the right audience

with the right offer and the right message is the key to success, because the

only thing that counts is how many sales or inquiries your mailing generates.

2. Effective Advertising

Advertising should be nothing less than salesmanship in print, i.e. it should

do the same job that a top sales person would do face to face. If you

approach advertising in a scientific manner, following proven principles and

facts, it no longer has to be a gamble. There are many extremely effective

ways of using advertising in a highly targeted manner, that cant help but

grow your business. This includes 1) advertising only in media that reaches a

sufficiently large number of the kind of people youre trying to reach 2)

focusing the entire thrust of your communication on your prospects

interests, not your own 3) giving your prospects enough information and

education and 4) offering them something appealing thatll get them to

respond now.

3. Referral Systems

One third-party endorsement is more powerful than a hundred

presentations. Getting your customers to recommend and encourage other

people they associate with to seek out your products or services is the most

coveted prize in selling, besides a sale. There are hundreds of referral


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systems you can use; to create an unlimited supply of hot prospects; to get

prospects returning your calls; to contact hard-to-reach buyers; to create a

reputation that opens closed doors; to enhance customer loyalty; and to

increase sales and multiply profits. Referral systems make your life easier

and more professional, and bring higher profits with increased customer

loyalty.

4. Host Beneficiary Relationships

There are bound to be other non-competing businesses who have already

spent years attracting and establishing relationships with the very people

who are prime prospects for your own products or services. By establishing

the right relationships with those hosts, those customers can be yours for

the asking, with the full co-operation and permission of the businesses that

acquired them in the first place and it will bring you more customers and

more cash right away.

5. Word-of-Mouth Marketing

This is the most powerful, persuasive marketing weapon available to any

business. It drives customers to try products or services more than any

other marketing technique more than advertising, salespeople, direct

response, and public relations combined! And contrary to what you might

expect word-of-mouth is not out of your control. There are dozens of

techniques for launching your own highly successful word of mouth

campaigns, based on an all-important Decision Matrix and a proven seven-

step process.

6. Telemarketing

Telemarketing can be used very effectively in conjunction with other types of

marketing. It is flexible in scope, message, and the things it can accomplish.

It works especially well with direct mail because it allows you to identify

prospects and reach them directly through two media. It is also an

enormously effective way to keep advancing and building your relationship

and gently leading your prospects to a purchasing decision which can

increase your sales results by up to twenty times. You can use telemarketing


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techniques to implement extensive campaigns as well as to fill in spare time

by generating more business. It also gives you immediate feedback from

customers and prospects as no other medium can, allowing you to find out

what prospective customers want, what they like, and what they dont like,

as well as helping you qualify them.

7. Qualified Lists

The quality of your prospect list is the single most important influencing

factor in your marketing success because it can eliminate virtually all

marketing waste. A list of well qualified prospects can be a priceless gem

because if you exploit it properly it will produce tremendous amount of

revenue for you from people who have a proven interest in your product or

service. Thousands of properly qualified lists are readily available for

virtually any marketing purpose and can give you many times more sales.

These lists identify the specific businesses, key decision makers and

demographic characteristics you desire, within the geographic areas you

specify. You can focus only on prospects who are more likely than not your

primary target audience for your product or service.

8. Networking

Most people you meet have hundreds of contacts, which means that virtually

anyone you might want to contact or meet is only four to five people away

from you. Effective networking is therefore vital to your success. Most

people are poor networkers, but you can quickly learn how to get out; meet

people; make new contacts; develop quality business relationships based on

trust; polish your communication skills; educate the people you meet about

what you do and the benefits offered by your product or service; create a

lasting impression; quickly build your network, use your contacts database

effectively, enjoy your new contacts and maximise your chances ofsuccess.

9. Circle of Leverage

A highly effective step by step strategy that deals with the single most

common and frustrating problem for anyone in business: the problem of


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gaining access to the correct audience. No other skill is as directly connected

to your ability to achieve success as the skill of getting in to see the right

people. This approach will help you cut through bureaucracy, identify the

people you most need to see. Youll find that you can get in front of your

desired prospectsregardless of their position or level of experiencefaster,

more effectively, and with less expense. It represents a new way of thinking

about gaining access and overcomes the problem of getting through to the

right people.

10. Internet/E-Commerce

The Internet is now an essential element in business communication. When

people want information, they surf the web to find what they need. You need

a good website that maximizes your exposure or youll look old-fashioned

and behind-the-times. Your website needs to be attractive, informative, and

easy to navigate so that you obtain a constant stream of new prospects. You

also need to establish a system that deftly converts them into customers.

11. Become a Recognised Authority

You can take a number of simple steps to rapidly establish yourself as a

recogised authority in your field. These include writing articles and books,

creating newsletters and information products, speaking and delivering

seminars. These can keep you very busy and in demand virtually all the

time, giving you a tremendous edge over your competitors who struggle to

get by. Customers will normally flock to you, while your competitors wonder

why and have to settle for picking up the leftovers.

12. Public Relations and Publicity

Most of what you read, see, and hear in the media got there with the help of

PR. The media are insatiably hungry for factual, interesting, and newsworthy

or entertaining information they can share with their customers, members,

employees, listeners, viewers or readers. PR, approached correctly, will give

you free coverage on radio, television, in magazines, newspapers, trade

journals, newsletters, e-zines, and via Web sites who serve the marketplace

youre trying to reach.


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13. Special Events and Promotions

One of the best methods of making your business more successful is to

make doing business with you a special, memorable experience. The more

exciting, enjoyable, fascinating, informative, valuable or educational you canmake the experience, the more business you will do, and the stronger and

more meaningful the bond you will form with your customers. Events are a

very powerful way of offering people who have an excellent probability of

turning into customers a chance to be educated about the benefits and

results of your product or service. They can also be used to recognise your

existing customers as being very special.

14. Advertorials and News Stories

Writing articles and news stories for publication in the media that your

prospects and customers would find interesting and would like to know

about is the quickest, easiest way, and usually the first step, in building your

reputation. You need to know how to come up with article ideas, research

and write successful articles, get them published, use the reprints in self-

promotion, and get people to respond to you and buy your products or

services.

15. Brochures and Corporate Literature

No matter what your business, your brochures should help bring in profitable

business yet most brochures fail miserably. You therefore need to know

how to create professional brochures and fliers that sell for you by educating

your prospects and customers about the benefits you offer and also

addresses their questions and their needs for your product or service.

16. Making profits on the Back End

If you depend more on repeat business than initial sales, or if most of your

sales and profits occur when customers repeat purchase from you again and

again, you should be doing everything possible to motivate as many

customers as you can to make their initial buying decision as quickly and

easily as possible. Making it easy and irresistible for the customer to start


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doing business with you by adding extra incentives or by making your initial

sale at breakeven or a small loss, means that you will benefit sooner rather

than later from all the repeat business, the add-ons and the ancillary

products and services that represent the bulk of your profits.

17. Newsletters

A powerful technique for building your reputation with a defined audience

over a period of time is to regularly send them a newsletter, which can

either be free or paid subscription. Newsletters can be used to position you

as an authority in your marketplace, to build closer relationships with clients.

You can use them to educate your target market so they can make more

informed and more frequent buying decisions or educate them to the full

extent of your services and how you can add value through those services.

18. Leaflet Drops or Inserts

Gives you a direct approach into both homes and businesses in an exact

geographical area giving you the flexibility to drop any number at any

time, and lends itself to a low cost combination of letter and brochure

advertising.

19. Use Your Competitors Resources

Harnessing the relationships that your competitors do not properly or fully

develop or appreciate and making arrangements to obtain details from

them of all their unconverted leads, unsold prospects and unconverted

enquiries is like them handing you the keys to their own customer list.

20. Exhibitions and Trade Shows

Some wildly successful businesses employ only one major method ofmarketing: they display and sell their wares at trade shows, exhibitions, and

fairs. They realise that many serious prospects will attend these gatherings.

But there is an art to successful exhibiting which, if mastered, generates

immense rewards. There are few other sales forums where prospects and

clients come to you and where you can meet so many of them in a single


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day. You can also conduct valuable research, get first hand opinions on your

products and services and even collect valuable testimonials. Besides

attracting new business, exhibitions can be used to introduce existing

customers to additional products and services they were previously unaware

of.

21. Card Deck Offers

A card deck offer is a product description or promotion on an individual card

about the size of a postcard typically placed within a pack along with 50-100

other cards. Its a quick and enjoyable way for many busy people to shop

through a variety of product offers, and you can normally target and send

your offer to a large number of carefully selected prospective customers for

less money than nearly all other direct marketing methods.

Other lead generation strategies include:

1. Affinity marketing2. Agents3. Blogs4. Bookalogs5. Catalogues6. Consignment Selling7. Contests and Sweepstakes8. Corporate Hospitality9. Database Marketing10. Demonstrations11. Dream 100 Clients12. eBay13. Experiental Marketing14. Franchising15. Line Extensions16. Link Building17. Magalogs18. Mini Media19. Offers


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20. Paid Search21. Podcasting22. Postcards23. Premiums and Gifts24. Product Placement25. Promotions26. Reactivate Old Leads27. Resellers28. Salespeople29. Sampling30. Search Engine Optimisation31. Seminars32.

Set Buying Criteria

33. Social Media Visibility34. Sponsorship35. Testimonials36. Viral Marketing37. Websites

30 Lead Conversion Strategies

Better conversion strategies can boost your business dramaticallyfor little or no extra cost

Theres little point in generating more leads and enquiries if your existing

conversion process results in most of your hard-won enquiries falling

through the cracks.

Too many businesses are already generating all the leads and prospects they

need but are unwittingly losing up to 95% of their sales opportunities, and

pouring thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of pounds down thedrain.

In these circumstances you may not actually NEED additional leads or

prospects at all instead you need much better strategies for converting a

larger portion of your prospects into customers.


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Some clients have increased their conversion rate more than ten-fold whilst

at the same time dramatically reducing the cost of acquiring those

customers. Here are some of the strategies you can use:

1. Mapping your sales process

This valuable diagram maps the step by step processes required to convert

your enquiries into sales. It tracks the actions you take to prepare for each

sale; how you overcome concerns; build trust; understand your buyers

goals, needs and wants; create certainty that your product or service meets

their needs; overcome their fear of making the wrong decision; officially

confirm the sale and see to it that your buyer is truly satisfied. Youll be

able to carefully study your sales process from every angle so that you

manage and control each step, convert more effectively and address

predictable buyer concerns before they pop up later as objections.

2. Measure conversion rate

What you measure you can manage, yet few businesses ever consider, let

alone accurately measure, the percentage of their hard-won enquiries that

convert into sales. Without a measurement system you can only guess at

your sales conversion rate and usually its an over-estimate! Once you

start measuring your conversion rate you can start focusing on lifting your

benchmark performance using some of the techniques listed on this page.

If you measure what you are achieving, then focus on the key factors that

will impact on changing it things WILL change, often with immediate

effect. Its not uncommon for businesses to increase their sales levels by

20% JUST by focusing on their conversion target.

3. Qualify Leads better up front

Time wasted on unqualified leads is the No.1 factor that can affect your sales

success, because not everyone is a prime prospect for your products or

services. You can be busy all day talking to people, but you wont make

sales unless you concentrate on qualified prospects, rather than offering

your product or service to people who are unreceptive, not ready for, cannot

pay for and are disinterested in what youre offering. You qualify your leads


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by offering very specific propositions to ensure that the people who respond

to your marketing approaches are only those who have the desire, the

capacity and the motivation to buy your product or service.

4. Fish where the big fish are

Even if you have the most technically advanced fishing equipment, youll

leave empty handed if there are no fish in the lake. But if you just have a

simple net, and the lake is teeming with fish, your chances of a catch are

much greater. Where you cast your line is crucial to catching fish and the

same is also true in business. Successful businesses fish where the big fish

are. They talk to customers who are familiar with their product or service, or

already use it, or have a high probability of using it. Dont waste your time

trying to convince people who dont need your product or service when there

are customers out there who already know they need what youre selling

and are thus part-sold before they even see you.

5. Packaged Information Offers

The right offer can increase your response up to 300%. Yet few businesses

ever go beyond a token effort of making some sort of offer. Most people

wrongly assume that their buyers already know it all, or arent interested in

reading lots of words. In truth your prospects crave as much information as

possible so they can make an informed purchase decision. By packaging

your expertise into a special booklet, report or seminar and offering it as an

inducement to get your prospects to contact you, you can bring prospects

out of the woodwork in droves whilst simultaneously establishing your

expertise and at the same time educating and informing the very people who

are most interested in making a purchasing decision which increases the

probability that youll get the sale.

6. Show the chain, sell the first link

No one buys a chain link by link. People either buy the whole chain or they

dont. It is the same with converting business. If you show the customer all

the steps in a sale and he or she agrees to the first step, the customer has

bought the chain unless you break it. You show the chain, make it clear


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how the phases in the sale are linkedfrom first agreement to purchase

orderand then sell the first link which is attached to the last link. Sell the

first link and you sell the chain.

7. Using a planned agenda

A planned agenda for meetings with your prospects or customers is one of

the most effective, yet under-utilised, tools in selling. It offers a number of

key benefits: it makes your sales meetings more productive, effective and

rewarding; it shows youve taken the time and effort to plan for the meeting

which creates a positive impact right from the start; it allows you to take

control of the meeting and keep to the allocated time; it increases your

conversion rate by setting the right expectation from the outset; it helps you

understand who really makes the decisions; it helps you to record and

follow-through on any agreed actions and it will make you look and act more

professionally, thus enhancing your reputation and increasing the chance

that youll win the sale.

8. Onionize to understand

To convert successfully you must first get to the essence of your customers

problem or needs. You must understand all of your customers concerns,

desires, fears, and limits. You cannot prescribe a solution until you diagnose

their need. You cannot turn your customers need into a want until you know

how to put value on your customers desired state. Just as you peel an onion

layer by layer, so, too, you help your customer get to the heart of the

matter. Onionizing is akin to being an investigative reporter, detective,

psychiatrist, doctor, and archaeologist. You ask, probe, dig, diagnose, and

listen to understand then prescribe the solution and win the sale!

9. Winning Quotes & Proposals

If either your product or your proposal are weak, your chances of a sale are

slim to non-existent. If you normally send out single page quotes, youre

asking your buyers to make a leap of faith when they buy from you because

they really have no idea if theyll be getting a great service or a lousy one

and youre inviting comparison with your competitors. If you focus instead


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on educating your buyers to understand the true value of your product or

service by explaining how it solves their major concerns, telling them exactly

what you do for them at each step, they KNOW itll be great. This will help

you to win more tenders, charge what youre truly worth and increase your

conversion rate.

10. Educate by giving reasons why

Youre continuously striving in business to move people first to desire and

then to buy your product or service, again and again. For most people, the

missing link in this process is to provide your buyers with a complete

understanding of the reasons why you do what you do, why you sell what

you sell, why your product or service is better than others, why they should

act, and why theyll be disadvantaged if they dont. The more you help your

buyers to understand the tangible, compelling reasons why they should take

action, the more powerful your positioning, the more people will understand

the value and benefits youre offering, the more they will trust, and the more

comfortable they feel with what youre offering.

11. Create Irresistable Offers

Remember, your prospects dont need you as much as you need them. They

have a multitude of choices available to them. Unless you offer them a really

meaningful benefit for doing business with you, its easier for them to take

no action at all. You therefore have to do everything you can to tip the

scales and make it irresistible for them to take the next step. You do this by

creating such a powerful and compelling offer that people would be foolish to

pass it up. An offer that makes it more advantageous to acquire your

product or service than not to do so, one which eliminates all the hurdles

they have to jump over to do business with you and makes it harder to say

no to you than to say yes, can increase your results up to 300%.

12. Increasing Sales Skills

One of the most immediate ways of leveraging your business is to

continuously train your entire staff in non-manipulative, strategic selling

principles, methods and understandings. Effective selling is not just a matter


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of learning a sales spiel or having the gift of the gab. The finest sales people

in the world are helpful, not pushy. They believe in their product and make

meaningful recommendations and suggestions based on their personal

experience of what actually works. They provide the buyer with the

information they need to make an informed decision and they know how

and when to ask for the order! By training everyone in these skills, youll be

amazed at the massive compounding impact on your business.

13. Mastermind Script Books

Creating a collection of the most powerful, focused and persuasive sales

presentations and sales scripts specifically for your business, that your sales

professionals can use to consistently shatter industry sales records and

effectively counter virtually every objection, stall or form of resistance youre

likely to hear so that you can close the sale. Because different prospects

need to hear different responses, you need 15-20 different immediately

available responses to each objection to achieve maximum effectiveness

with the full range of prospects youre likely to encounter. If the script or

presentation doesnt close the sale, it advances you more quickly to the

close, builds a deep level of trust and sets you up for the next powerful piece

of sales dialog.

14. Better presentation skills

Great speakers have some qualities in common. They have inner fire. They

speak with authority. They connect with the audience through storytelling.

They use their voices well. And they know how to prevent fear from

overpowering them. They also know that what you say represents just 7% of

the communication experience, whereas how you say it has five times more

impact and your body language represents 55% of the total impact of

your presentation. Research also shows that people retain 20% of what theysee, 20% of what they hear, and 50% of what they see and hear. The use of

visual aids can therefore have a massive impact too and will allow you to get

through more information in a shorter period of time.

15. Better Telephone Skills


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A few quick calls will demonstrate that most businesses dont use the

telephone sales-effectively. For many customer enquiries, orders, or

complaints, the telephone will be the primary, if not the only, method of

dealing with your business. If you mismanage your telephone efforts, you

waste opportunities galore, throw a fortune down the drain and jeopardize

relationships with your best prospects and customers. Yet you can enhance

the telephone skills of your team members both easily and inexpensively.

This can turn the telephone into one of the most powerful business tools

available, create a great impression for your business every time and

produce explosively profitable results.

16. Constant follow-up

80% of all significant sales occur only after a minimum of five continuous

follow ups yet only 8% of sales people ever ask for the order a fifth time!

Constant follow-ups are an enormously effective way of advancing and

building your relationships, developing trust and gently leading your

prospect to a purchasing decision. You can get as much as twenty times the

sales and results if you constantly following up. When something makes

such a significant difference, you owe it to yourself to follow up and keep

following up in a nurturing way. It will make a profound difference to your

ability to convert business.

17. Recruit sales superstars

There is a special art to attracting and recruiting sales superstars for your

business. They are original, intelligent, innovative, relentless, clever,

creative, eager to please, entertaining, persuasive, compelling, highly

communicative, learn very quickly and are a pleasure to deal with.

Superstars adapt to every situation, never give up and become even more

determined when presented with a challenge. Within three months theyllnormally be outselling your best performers. They can form a bond where

nobody else can do so and make sales nobody else can get. Sales superstars

dont come cheap. But theyll improve your conversion rate massively which

makes them worth every penny!

18. Market research


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Creating a need and a demand where none already exists, or convincing

customers to do something they dont know they want to do takes time,

money, and more money. Discovering a need and filling it is far cheaper and

easier than betting your destiny on a conjecture. Good third party market

research not only brings objectivity, but can often persuade prospects and

customers to reveal all sorts of issues that they will not tell a company

person. It frequently also reveals that the message you think you are

communicating is not the message being received by the prospect and can

clearly indicate compelling ways to differentiate your business from your

competition, which can significantly increase your conversion rate.

Other lead conversion strategies include:

1. Capture and Log Prospect Information2. Demonstrations3. Winning Awards4. Lead Prospects to the Outcome They Desire5. Point of Sale Displays6. Reprinting and Distributing Press Articles7. Extraordinary Guarantees8. Effective Sales Management9.

Sequential Marketing Messages

10. Setting Sales Targets11. Gathering and Using Testimonials12. Try Before You Buy

20 Customer Retention Strategies

The easiest way to grow your customers is not to lose them

The average business loses around 20 percent of its customers annually

simply by failing to attend to customer relationships. In some industries this

leakage is as high as 80 percent. The cost, in either case, is staggering, but

few businesses truly understand the implications.

Imagine two businesses, one that retains 90 percent of its customers, the

other retaining 80 percent. If both add new customers at the rate of 20


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percent per year, the first will have a 10 percent net growth in customers

per year, while the other will have none. Over seven years, the first firm will

virtually double, while the second will have no real growth. Everything else

being equal, that 10-percent advantage in customer retention will result in a

doubling of customers every seven years without doing anything else.

The consequences of customer retention also compound over time, and in

sometimes unexpected ways. Even a tiny change in customer retention can

cascade through a business system and multiply over time. The resulting

effect on long-term profit and growth shouldnt be underestimated.

Marketing Wizdom can introduce you to a number of simple customer

retention strstegies that will cost you little or nothing to implement. Behind

each technique listed here there is an in-depth step-by-step process that will

increase your customer retention significantly once implemented, and will

have a massive impact on your business.

1. Reducing Attrition

Virtually every business loses some customers, but few ever measure or

recognise how many of their customers become inactive. Most businesses,

ironically, invest an enormous amount of time, effort and expense building

that initial customer relationship. Then they let that relationship go

unattended, in some cases even losing interest as soon as the sale been

made, or even worse, they abandon the customer as soon as an easily

remedied problem occurs, only to have to spend another small fortune to

replace that customer. The easiest way to grow your business is not to lose

your customers. Once you stop the leakage, its often possible to double or

triple your growth rate because youre no longer forced to make up lost

ground just to stand still.

2. Sell and then sell again

So many people do an excellent job of making the initial sale, then drop the

ball and get complacent, ignoring the customer, while they chase more

business. Your selling has actually only just begun when someone makes

that initial purchase decision because virtually everyone is susceptible to


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buyers remorse. To lock in that sale, and all of the referrals and repeat

business that will flow from it, you need to strike while the iron is hot to

allay your customers fears and demonstrate by your actions that you really

care. You should thank them and remind them again why theyve made the

right decision to deal with you and put a system in place to sell to them

again, and again, constantly proving that they made the right decision.

3. Bring back the lost sheep

Theres little point in dedicating massive resources to generating new

customers when 25-60% of your dormant customers will be receptive to

your attempts to regenerate their business if you approach them the right

way, with the right offer. Reactivating customers who already know you and

your product is one of the easiest, quickest ways to increase your revenues.

Re-contacting and reminding them of your existence, finding out why theyre

no longer buying, overcoming their objections and demonstrating that you

still value and respect them will usually result in a tremendous bounty of

sales and drastically increased revenues in a matter of days and will lead

to some of your best and most loyal customers.

4. Frequent Communications Calendar

Avoid losing your customers by building relationships and keeping in touch

using a rolling calendar of communications. This is a programmed sequence

of letters, events, phone calls, thank yous, special offers, follow-ups,

magic moments, and cards or notes with a personal touch etc. that occur

constantly and automatically at defined points in the pre-sales, sales and

post-sales process. People not only respond to this positively, they really

appreciate it because they feel valued and important. It acknowledges them,

keeps them informed, offsets post-purchase doubts, reinforces the reason

theyre doing business with you and makes them feel part of your businessso that they want to come back again and again.

5. Extraordinary Customer Service

The never-ending pursuit of excellence to keep customers so satisfied that

they tell others how well they were treated when doing business with you.


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Moving the product or service you deliver into the realm of the extraordinary

by delivering higher than expected levels of service to each and every

customer. Key facets include: dedication to customer satisfaction by every

employee; providing immediate response; no buck passing; going above and

beyond the call of duty; consistent on-time delivery; delivering what you

promise before AND after the sale; a zero-defects and error-free-delivery

process and recruiting outstanding people to deliver your customer service.

Extraordinary service builds fortunes in repeat customers, whereas poor

service will drive your customers to your competition.

6. Courtesy system

A powerful system that improves the interpersonal skills of your team and

changes the spirit of your organisation. It involves speaking to colleagues

politely and pleasantly, without sarcasm or parody, and treating them at

least as well as you would want them to treat your customers. This will help

your team to feel worthwhile and important, which makes for pleasant social

contacts at work. It also motivates them to provide extraordinary service,

encourages them to be consistently pleasant in all of their dealings and to

relate to customers in a warm, human and natural manner. This results in

better, warmer, stronger, more trusting relationships and longer term bonds

with your customers.

7. Product or service integrity

Long-term success and customer retention belongs to those who do not take

ethical shortcuts. There must always be total consistency between what you

say and do and what your customers experience. The design, build quality,

reliability and serviceability of your product or service must be of the

standard your customers want, need and expect. Service integrity is also

demonstrated by the way you handle the small things, as well as the large.Customers will be attracted to you if you are open and honest with them,

care for them, take a genuine interest in them, dont let them down and

practice what you preach and they will avoid you if you dont.

8. Measure lifetime value


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Theres a vast difference between the one-off profit you might make on an

average sale, which ignores the bigger picture, and the total aggregate profit

your average customer represents over the lifetime of their business

relationship with you. Once you recognise how much combined profit a

customer represents to your business when they purchase from you again

and again, over the months, years or decades, youll realise the critical

importance of taking good care of your customers. And because youll

understand just how much time, effort and expense you can afford to invest

in retaining that customer, youll be in control of your marketing

expenditure.

9. A complaint is a gift

96 percent of dissatisfied customers dont complain. They just walk away,

and youll never know why. Thats because they often dont know how to

complain, or cant be bothered, or are too frightened, or dont believe itll

make any difference. Whilst they may not tell you whats wrong, they will

certainly tell plenty of others. A system for unearthing complaints can

therefore be the lifeblood of your business, because customers who complain

are giving you a gift, theyre still talking to you, theyre giving you another

opportunity to return them to a state of satisfaction and delight them and

the manner in which you respond gives you another chance to show whatyoure made of and create even greater customer loyalty.

Other customer retention strategies include:

1. Blogs2. CRM Systems3. Loyalty Programs4. Magic Moments5. Overcome Buyers Remorse6. Personal Touches7. Premiums and Gifts8. Questionnaires and Surveys9. Regular Reviews10. Social Media


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11. Welcome BookKnowledgebase fact:

By mid-2009 Marketing Wizdoms knowledgebase contained more than 3.1million words in 2,392 documents relating to 20 individual customer

retention strategies. Thats equivalent to nearly 11,000 pages, or 44 full

sized books.

9 Higher Transaction Value Strategies

Reach your goals faster and with fewer clients by increasing your

average transaction value

Growing your business by increasing your number of clients alone, as most

businesses do, is the most expensive, demanding and time consuming

option available to you. The cost of selling them more is inconsequential in

comparison.

Increasing both your number of clients and the average amount each client

spends on each transaction they do with you, using some of the techniques

listed here, is the fastest and easiest shortcut available to you to reach your

goals.

These techniques can instantly multiply the results of everything else you do

and can give you geometric growth and dramatically better profitability for

very little extra workload or it means you can reach your goals faster, with

fewer customers, using less effort and expense and with less hassle.

1. Up-Sell and Cross Sell

Offering extra value or a better deal right at the point of sale, when yourcustomers are at their most receptive, is one of the easiest and most

effective ways of instantly improving the size and profitability of your sales.

Up-selling is getting your customers to buy a better, more expensive, or

more sophisticated product that genuinely adds value to their transaction.

Cross-selling is getting your customers to buy an additional product or

service that will give them a superior outcome. If you make a worthwhile


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offer to your customers, 30-50% will normally say yes, and virtually every

penny of the extra profit goes right to your bottom line because it requires

no more time and effort, and there is no additional cost of sale to reach the

customer.

2. Packaging products or services

Combining a group of individually desirable products or services that

naturally compliment each other and offering the complete package for a

single fixed price that represents almost irresistible value to your customers,

compared to buying the components separately. This can dramatically

increase your incremental profits and also allows you to sell complete

solutions that lock the customer into the use of those products. This is

definitely a win-win situation for both you and your customers. They get a

simplified purchasing process and a discount on a complete solution, while

you increase your sales and can often own your market. This technique has

transformed the fortunes of many organisations.

3. Offer larger units of purchase

Increasing the size of your minimum purchase unit is a powerful and

remarkably easy way for you to increase your average transaction value. If

people buy a one week supply, you can offer them monthly, quarterly or

annual consumption units at an attractive and advantageous price. Your

customers will appreciate the extra value, the tremendous savings and the

extra convenience of buying in bulk, while your average unit of sale will be

increased substantially and youre also locking your customers in for longer.

As an added bonus, a lot of people who say no to the offer, and would never

otherwise have bought at all, will will now buy your smaller units.

4. Increase your pricing and margins

Theres no law that says your product or service has to be a commodity

thats merely bought on price. People will willingly pay more for most

products or services as long as they believe theyre getting better value. The

more distinctive you make your product or service, and the better you

educate your customers, the more valuable your marketplace will perceive


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you to be. Raising your prices typically means that you can afford to service

your customers better, work with them better, include additional products or

services in the transaction, and do more than your competitors. This will set

you and your business apart in a favourable way in the eyes and minds of

your customers and will allow you to charge what youre really worth.

5. Positioning yourself further up-market

If youre good at what you do, moving your products or services further

upmarket and positioning your business at a higher level of distinction or

quality than your competition can improve your business dramatically. By

repackaging your product or service to appeal to more sophisticated or

affluent buyers in parts of the market beyond those you currently cater to,

you can often command higher prices in the marketplace and leave behind

the type of business that gives you all your headaches. The more you raise

your market positioning, the more your existing customers are likely to

respect and appreciate what you do, which frequently results in even more

loyalty and referrals.

6. Point of sale promotions

Offering additional products or services to every customer right at the point

of sale is one of the simplest, most instant and predictable techniques for

increasing your average unit of sale. You can grab their attention by

displaying impulse items, or by using signage, literature and displays. You

can also make appealing offers at trade shows or seminars, or offer

inducements for a first time sale. If you do that before your customers

leave, or take delivery, or sign the final documents, or when they place an

order by phone or on your website, 30-60 percent will purchase the

additional product or service. This can add tremendously to your profit per

transaction for no extra time, effort, or incremental cost.

7. Increase your horizontal penetration

If your customers are unaware of the full range of products or services you

offer, theyre also unlikely to think of you when a problem arises that could

be solved by your product or service. Educating them to use your full range


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of products and services using a simple yet powerful matrix will immediately

allow you to focus on the penetration of each of your products or services

into your existing customer base. It will also identify all the opportunities for

increasing your product or service penetration, for strategic alliance

opportunities, for blocking your competitors and increasing both your

average unit of sale and your profits.

8. Increase your vertical penetration

Similar to above, but instead of focusing on the penetration of your products

and services into your customer base, this technique uses a simple but

powerful matrix and a two-step implementation process that helps you to

focus on the penetration of your products/services by customer.

Knowledgebase fact:

By mid-2009 Marketing Wizdoms knowledgebase contained more than 1.1

million words in 3,282 documents relating to 9 individual strategies for

increasing transaction value. Thats equivalent to nearly 4,000 pages, or 15

full sized books.

14 Frequency Builder Strategies

It is so much easier to sell more to your existing customers than to

sell to new customers

Ignoring your existing customers is an expensive mistake. It costs five to

FIFTY times more to generate a new customer from the cold market, than

to get further sales or referrals from the customers you already have.

After all, your customers have already raised their hand and demonstrated

their interest in your product or service. Theyve committed themselves toyou emotionally and financially. They KNOW you, they TRUST you and

theyve paid money to you. What a HOT list!

Your existing customers are therefore very important, valuable and

significant to you because theyre the MOST likely people to buy from you


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again! So you need to do everything possible to ensure that your customers

will continue to buy from you rather than from your competition.

If someone buys from you twice a year right now, its unlikely to take a lot

more time, effort, manpower or money to get them to buy three times. Yetjust one more purchase a year per customer could translate into enormous

increases in profitability for your business.

1. Communicate personally with your customers

As soon as your customers have done business with you, their minds will

immediately revert to the next issue they have to deal with and you drift

out of their mind. The more continuously and personally you communicate

with your customers by phone or letter to maintain a strong positiverelationship, the more theyll feel you really care. As long as each of your

communications has a purpose, is customer focused and conveys something

of value to your customers its more likely that youll get the next sale, and

the next, and the next. The resulting higher repeat business and referral

levels will also make your business vastly stronger, virtually isolating it from

the ravages of the economy and price-cutting competitors.

2. Preferred customer events

Its easy to forget that your previous customers are the people most likely to

buy from you again. Your customers want to be recognised as special, so

you can use regular or periodic special events not only as a way of attracting

and converting new customers but also to reward and acknowledge your

existing customers as very special people. You can repay their loyalty by

giving them unique advantages and benefits, giving them advance access to

new, improved or niche products or services, or by giving them better

choice, preferential pricing or free bonuses. Everybody loves it, it can be lots

of fun and its usually very profitable because it results in nothing less

than more of your existing customers buying more of your products and

services more often.

3. Programme Your Customers


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Few businesses ever think in terms of selling their customers a long-term

package of their products or services. Yet if your customers can benefit from

your product or service on a recurring or ongoing basis, its easy to sell them

them a six-month, twelve month, two year or longer programme where they

either pay you a flat-fee in advance, or commit to purchase the same

product or service from you a given number of times over a specified period,

or at certain key intervals, at a pre-agreed preferential price. This means

that instead of living from job to job and passively waiting for your customer

to call you, you have on-going business with zero additional sales and

marketing costs. This will give you nothing less than guaranteed future cash

flow that you couldnt stop if you wanted to.

4. Lock In Sales In Advance

So many businesses simply react to their customers needs and fail to set

up on-going relationships. Instead of just passively waiting for the next

customer to call, many of your customers are likely to sign up for a

programme where you supply your product or service automatically at pre-

determined intervals. It can be such an easy process to make the transition

from selling single product or service transactions to ongoing, long-term

lifetime contracts or service level agreements that make it hard for your

customers to switch to your competitors. As long as you educate yourcustomers to understand the reasons why youre doing it, and how it results

in savings that allow you pass the benefit on to them, you can frequently

lock in repeat sales for years.

5. Develop back-end products and services

Most businesses spend all their time, effort, manpower and money trying to

attract new customers, when for a tiny fraction of that investment you can

get your existing customers to buy more products or services from you.When you do, they will often be at higher margins than before because you

no longer have the same selling costs. There are probably dozens of

products or services that you could supply as a back end offering that

represent the icing on the cake that can multiply your profit margin many


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times. These can be anything from extensions of your main products and

services to complimentary products and services that other people sell.

6. Bounce Back Offers

One of the great misconceptions in selling is that once someone has

purchased, they should be left alone. Countless studies have shown that

customers who have just bought from you are in buying mode, and that if

theyre happy with your service, they are THE most likely prospects to buy

again. A bounce back is an offer that comes in a timely manner right after

the first sale bouncing back with another product or service thatll serve

the customers needs. Its one of the easiest, least expensive ways of

generating a re-order or further sale and can generate significant additional

income from the hottest of buyers with virtually no extra marketing cost. If

you dont ask your customers to buy again, they may go to your competitor,

so this is also a perfect opportunity to create an on-going relationship and

bond with your customer.

7. Loyalty Programs

Frequency builder programs motivate your customers to purchase from you

over and over again so that you dont have to work so hard to develop

repeat business. By offering special extras and incentives to return and

purchase more often, you build your customers loyalty. Programs can take

many forms that include point accumulation programs, sticker or punch card

programs, communication programs, preferred customer discounts and

sales, special members-only offers and rewards and gift certificates or

rebates based on expenditure. These programs bring you closer to your

customers, strengthen your position in the marketplace, insulate you from

price competition and help you get a larger slice of the cake. They also allow

you to collect data on your individual customers which will cement yourcustomer relationships by targeting special offers to their specific needs.

8. Price inducements for frequency

A customer who buys from you 100 times is many times more valuable than

someone who buys only once so it makes sense to motivate your


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customers to buy from you initially, then reward those who buy the most for

their frequency of repurchase. The possibilities are endless. You can offer

lower prices for pre-payment or for long-term or till further notice

commitments or you can offer contract prices to high volume customers. You

can give price incentives, bonuses, premiums, upgrades, rebates or credits

to customers who guarantee or commit to buy a certain number of times or

a minimum volume in a year. This will breed recurring purchase habits and

build a perpetual stream of contact, income and loyalty.

9. Endorse other products or services

One of your most valuable assets, if youve done a good job, is the

extraordinary trust, respect and goodwill that you build up over the years

with your customers. They have needs that go far beyond what you can

offer, which means theyre often looking for recommendations from

someone they can trust. This provides you with an enormous opportunity to

offer other peoples carefully selected products or services to your customers

through endorsement. This will normally result in vastly greater response

than if your customers were approached cold without your endorsement

or recommendation. It requires very little time or effort to endorse other

products or services to your customers. Done correctly it cant help but

produce an enormous flow of new business for both you and the companiesyou endorse.

10. A mid-job, next-job recommendation

You should always be alert for the next sales opportunity. As long as your

customers are happy with your product or service, your easiest sales will be

to your current customers. They already know you, theyve invested

emotionally in you, theyve taken a risk and theyve bought from you. They

know whether or not youve delivered what you promise. If you have, youllearn their loyalty. Even so, your customers dont know everything you can

do to help them unless you tell them. Once youre half way through your

current job you should know how else you can help your customer, so its a

good idea to propose another way in which you can help them, then start

selling them the next job. This is the mid-job, next-job recommendation.


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11. Create a perpetual relationship

Customers frequently hold back on their initial transaction because they

want to be sure that you value and appreciate them during and after the

sale. If you dont look at your relationship as perpetual, you may never seethat customer again. But if you invest in that relationship and always do and

suggest whats right for your customer, regardless of your own needs, youll

discover just how responsive and profitable your customer relationships can

become. Because your customers needs are likely to change and grow over

time, your customer can be a continual and predictable source of ongoing

revenue and referrals. By constantly communicating personally with each

customer you can compel them to re-purchase again and again. The

possibilities are endless and the results can be extraordinary.

12. Customer Newsletters

Regular newsletters can be a very effective method of keeping in touch with

your customers and building closer and stronger relationships. You can use

them to educate your customers to the full extent of your products and

services and how they add value; to generate more frequent referrals and

repeat business; to demonstrate that you really care; to consistently remind

your customers why theyve made the right decision to deal with you. An

effective newsletter has a purpose, is focused on the interests of your

customers and conveys information of value to them. People respond to this

positively because it keeps them informed, acknowledges them and makes

them feel valued and important and the right newsletter will result in

significantly higher repeat business.

13. License Your Successful Concepts

Many of your non-competing colleagues will willingly pay to learn your ideas

if youve developed processes, systems, methods of doing business or

technologies that work better than normal, add value in unique ways or

allow you to operate more efficiently, productively or cost-effectively. You

can make a small fortune by consulting with them, transferring your

knowledge, licensing, renting or leasing your concepts or by entering into

joint ventures for a flat fee, an annual usage fee, or a percentage of their


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revenues. Theyll benefit from your expertise and efforts without having to

invest the time and expense themselves. This can transform your ideas,

methods and processes into one of the most lucrative profit centres

imaginable, thatll generate real, significant and recurring cash flow for you

year after year, substantially increasing your profits.

Other Strategies to generate greater transaction frequency include:

y Creating an Energised WorkplaceSome of that knowledge is and will be showcased in posts on this site. If

youre an entrepreneur or aspiring market leader, you will learn how to apply

the full depth of that knowledge by participating in the Eureka program

click here for more information

24 Accelerators and Power Boosters

Accelerators and Power Boosters that will enhance the performance

of everything you do

Here are some of the accelerators and power boosters that work alongside

many of the strategies mentioned elsewhere on this site to improve theresults of everything you do from 50 5,000 percent.

1. Test and measure everything you do

Trying one approach against another, one supposition against another, one

way of doing something, of saying something, of pricing something, of

guaranteeing something, of explaining something, of promoting something

against another, then measuring and comparing results, discovering which

approaches always out-perform others, sometimes by a massive margin.

2. Use direct response approaches

Few ads or sales letters say anything meaningful or make a compelling case

for the product or service being promoted. Most merely keep the company

name in front of the public. Direct response ads or sales letters, in contrast,


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should be nothing less than salesmanship in print. Even the smallest ad

should tell a story; make a complete case for your product or service;

present factual, specific reasons why it is superior on an analytically and

factually supported basis; overcome sales objections; answer all major

questions; stimulate a direct and immediate response, or promote an instant

sale. The more you can create a picture in the mind of your customer that

appeals to their emotions, captures their involvement and allows them to

experience your product or service in their mind, the closer youll get to that

sale.

3. Create a Perpetual Relationship

Investing in your customers to create advocacy and an on-going relationship

so that instead of waiting passively for them to return, they keep coming

back over and over and over again and look to you for all kinds of products

and services.

4. Make It Easy, Pleasant, Desirable and Fun To Do Business With

You

Ensuring that everyone within your business, everything your business does,

everything you stand for, is a pleasant enjoyable and comforting transaction

for your customer.

5. Focus Only On The Intended Customer

Identifying exactly who your prime target audience is and focusing your

efforts on communicating only with them, no one else, instead of trying to

be all things to all people.

Additional accelerators and power boosters include:

1. Address the real needs of your clients2. Bonuses and incentives3. Direct response copywriting4. Educate people to the facts5. Educate your way out of a pro

Documents

Best Possible Entrepreneurial Policy Actions