- Become Proactive – Stop Being Reactive!
Re-write your marketing plan. Get it streamlined. Narrow its focus. This will create a huge improvement each step along your path. It will get you more phone calls resulting in more qualified leads. It will shorten your selling process. It will increase the number of people who buy from you. Don’t have a marketing plan? Get One! Even an incomplete or imperfect plan is better than not having one. It’s easier to get help improving a plan than getting someone to write your plan. Your first step is the most important step. Do something! - Make a Small Improvement in at Least One Part of Your Plan
Do you use direct mail? Change the urgency of the message. Or, change the frequency of mailing each piece. Or, soften the message. Or, change the style of the delivery. Any small improvement will result in a greater return. - Has Something Worked Well in the Past? Duplicate it!
Why are you looking to reinvent the wheel if you already have something that has worked? Keep doing what worked in the past, just do it more frequently. This will boost your results. Really! If you have a mailer that gets you many calls, send more of this particular mailer out. More mailers, more opportunities! More calls, more customers. Isn’t this what you want? - Learn to Listen to Your Customers and Offer What They Want
The trust factor is a colossal obstacle in gaining new customers. Instead of only looking for new customers, why not try to sell more to existing customers? Try providing different services or your present services in an unusual way. It costs more to find new customers than it does selling to existing ones. - Increase All Your Skill Levels
You splurge on training to become proficient in your core business. You want to be the best, “insert what you do.” But how do you do what you do, when you have no one walking through the door? Why not become proficient at MARKETING? Marketing isn’t one thing; it’s a combination of things you do to bring in customers. You must become capable of presenting yourself to your customer pool. Work on your writing skills, selling skills, public speaking skills, negotiating skills, and more. Each of these is part of marketing. Most times, people will forget that marketing is a skill. That it can be learned the same as your language. It just takes time and the willingness to study. - Quantify All Your Actions
Will you ever know how well something works if you never measure it? The number of mail pieces sent to the number of calls received. The number of calls you return to the number of appointments you get. The number of appointments you attend to the number of sales you close. All these combine to make "conversion ratios." Are you tracking these? If not, how do you know how hard you have to work to make money? At the same time you have to track these for each message you send. Otherwise, how do you know which messages work and which do not? Do this well, do this every time, and you will begin to increase the ROI of your marketing dollars. Or don’t do it and wonder why other businesses are succeeding, while yours isn’t. - Every Now and Then, Have a Party
You celebrate your birthday. You celebrate holidays, You celebrate your anniversary. Why don’t you celebrate when you complete a goal? Why not have a party and announce to everyone that you’ve reached a milestone? Compensate yourself for a job well done. Live in gratitude for what you receive when you do your work well. Then, set your next goal. Tell everyone at your party what it is. Then, because you party each time, people may be more inclined to help you, even if it's just so they can attend another party.
Do any one of these scream out to you? Open your outlook calendar. Start entering the date when you will put each of these guidelines into practice. Your business needs these this year, or history will repeat itself. You will not be any better in 2011 than you have been in 2010, 2009, 2008!
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