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Mistake #1 – Lack of Marketing Mindset!

Before you can have a paid client you must have a prospect. And before you have a prospect you must have a lead!

Lack of effective, systematic lead generation strategies, and trying to jump from “stranger to client” keeps the business pipeline very dry for most service professionals!

Most of us prefer do deal with experts. So the time and effort you invest in positioning yourself as one will pay huge dividends; you’ll effectively differentiate yourself from others offering a similar service, and gain a competitive advantage that’s nearly impossible to beat!

To discover the remaining six deadly marketing mistakes to avoid click here

© 2002-2007 Marketing Mentors. All Rights Reserved.

The author, Adam Urbanski, Founder and President of Marketing Mentors, helps service professionals and business owners develop strategies to increase sales and profits. His website offers free promotional ideas, marketing tips and information about free teleclasses and workshops that show you how to create a winning Business Marketing Plan

”But this won’t work” said Steve. “I’ve tried it in the past and had no response.” Does this sound familiar? My newer clients often resist implementing certain strategies based on past experiences. However, I usually find out that it wasn’t the strategy itself – but how it was implemented that caused the dismal results.

So whether you are designing a simple flier or developing a plan for a strategic partnership you can increase your chances for success by following these five tips.

1. Develop Your Marketing For Your Potential Clients – Not Yourself.

What looks good to you may not necessarily be appealing to your audience. It’s OK to ask your friends and associates for feedback – but their comments are only relevant if they are members of your target market. Also – just because everyone else advertises in a certain way is not a proof that it works.

2. Provide Answers To These Three Critical Marketing Questions:

QUESTION 1: What’s this about?
Check that your materials immediately and clearly communicate what you offer, who it’s for and what’s the next step you are asking them to take.

QUESTION 2: What’s in it for me?
Don’t make your audience guess about what’s in it for them by leaving this information out or hiding it in the small print at the bottom.

Use clear language free of industry jargon. Describe your offering not from the perspective of what you do but in terms of what the clients will receive and how they will be better off as a result of it.

QUESTION 3: Why should I listen to you?
How will you establish credibility with your audience? Include your photo and prominently display your contact info. Present case studies, statistics, endorsements, testimonies from satisfied clients. If people don’t believe you they will not respond to your offer.
3. Always follow the proven A.I.D.A. format.

ATTENTION – Use a powerful headline that grabs attention. Don’t try to be cute, don’t expect that your prospects will take the time look for a deeper meaning in your clever slogans – they won’t. So be as direct and to the point as you possibly can. If you can boil the essence of the benefits you are offering to just one short sentence what would it be? That’s you headline!

INTEREST – Now that you have their attention you must quickly build your prospects interest. Use subtitles, questions and short stories to illustrate and communicate how well you understand their needs. This is a good place to allow your audience to connect with the pain their problems are causing them.

DESIRE – Technical descriptions and numbers provide information but don’t incite action. Your marketing must arouse in your prospects the emotion of desire. Show your audience how a solution is available and achievable to them through doing business with you. Offer powerful performance promise and eliminate the risk of giving you a “try” by a strong guarantee.

ACTION – Without this part your marketing is like a salesman who gives a great presentation but forgets to ask for the order. Give your prospects a compelling reason to take action. Make your offer so incredibly irresistible they simply cannot refuse!
4. Follow up, Follow Up, Follow Up…

Over 80% of all sales are made after the prospect has heard from you at least seven times. Yet a typical business person gives up after just one or two follow up contacts.

Plan your follow-up steps in advance. Use a combination of mail, email, telephone and personal visits as your follow-up strategy. At each opportunity provide your potential clients with value – this way they will forgive you the intrusion.

5. Develop a System

Most entrepreneurs and professionals waste their time and money on one-shot, fragmented promotional tactics. They practice “hit and miss” marketing system; they try a strategy and abandon it before it has a chance to produce any results.

Instead of developing new marketing strategies look for ways to improve the ones your are currently using. When you find a promotional strategy that works for you build a system around it so that you can consistently implement it over and over again.

Following these tips will make all the difference in the world between struggling to get clients and becoming wildly successfully in marketing your services. They are worth investing your best efforts and getting the support you need to implement them effectively.

© 2002-2007 Marketing Mentors. All Rights Reserved.

The Author, Marketing Mentor, Adam Urbanski, works exclusively with Independent Service Professionals who want to grow their business, attract more clients, and increase sales and profits. Visit his website for more free tutorial articles and how-to tips to creating a winning Marketing Action Plan

Whether you are a professional in a solo-practice or own a small business, chances are you feel overwhelmed when it comes to marketing. While you may be an expert in your field, consistently attracting new clients probably isn’t one of your strengths.

Here is just a short list of “marketing culprits” that are likely keeping your business from reaching its full potential:

Unclear Target Market. It absolutely makes my marketing blood boil when I hear “our service can help everyone”. How on Earth do you find everyone?

Confusing, Self-Centered Marketing Message. Since the early 1900 marketing geniuses like Claude Hopkins have been telling us that shouting “we are the best, come buy from us” doesn’t work – no matter how loud you scream! Amazingly, over 90% of all marketing materials out there are doing exactly that!

‘Hop-And-Drop’ Approach. Any worthwhile skill takes practice. Yet most small business owners abandon each marketing tactic after just one try, without giving themselves a chance to get good at it. It’s like a running rabbit – switching direction with every hop!

On and Off Approach. Spending a lot of time and effort on marketing when the business is slow, but then giving up on almost all promotional activities when business gains momentum!

Not Preaching To The Choir. Most businesses make the mistake of chasing new markets all the time instead of maximizing profits using their existing database of current and prospective clients.
If you can put a “yes, guilty as charged” checkmark next to any of those statements, chances are you are not profiting from your business as much as you could. To help unleash the extra profits currently hidden in your business or practice here is a simple Six Step Marketing Model.

1. Create a MAP!

You don’t need to kill a tree to create an effective Marketing Action Plan. Simply describe your target market, their problem, and the benefits your service or product offers. Identify five to ten ways in which you can get visibility and generate new leads. Finally, list all the action steps you need to take daily, weekly and monthly and assign specific deadlines and outcomes to each step.

2. Craft Your Magnetic Marketing Message!

Potential clients don’t give a hoot about your titles, awards, and prestigious office location! All they want to know is that you understand their problem and have an effective solution to it. Communicate those two things clearly and new clients will flock to you like bees to honey!

3. Develop Attraction Tools!

Forget about the self-focused brochures! You need promotional materials that intrigue interest and generate response. Today’s technology allows to easily and inexpensively assemble and distribute information products – like special reports or CDs – that illustrate your capabilities and effortlessly promote your services.

4. Generate Leads.

Getting all the visibility in the world will not do any good if you are not giving your potential client an irresistible reason to contact you. Try and test several marketing messages and media to see what promotional strategies bring in the biggest bang for the buck.

The key here is testing – tweak your approach multiple times before you decide to completely abandon it. What might have been a big flop at first, with a bit of tweaking can turn into a total goldmine!

5. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up!

Studies show that over 80% of all sales are made on or after five contacts with the prospect. However, more than 80% of follow-up ends after just three attempts! Creating and automating a systematic follow-up process is a must to maximizing your marketing ROI.

Develop a series of 12 to 24 meaningful communications each addressing something of relevance to your prospects and find a way to periodically distribute them to prospects and clients.

6. Learn To Sell!

The thought of selling causes most professionals to cringe. Fact is, effective selling is not about memorizing hundreds of closings tactics or becoming an attack dog that corners prospects into saying “yes”. Instead, study a consultative approach model and become a master of asking powerful questions that compel others to action!

© 2002-2007 Marketing Mentors. All Rights Reserved.

The Author, Marketing Mentor, Adam Urbanski, works exclusively with Independent Service Professionals who want to grow their business, attract more clients, and increase sales and profits. Visit his website for more free tutorial articles and how-to tips to creating a winning Marketing Action Plan

If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me “How can I make more sales?”  Well, lets just say, I would have a heck of a lot of nickels!  The fact is the answer is different for everyone. I would have to look at your product and analyze your entire to tell you exactly where the problem is. Lucky for you, there are 5 basic secrets I can share with you to increase your sales right off the bat.

These methods will work regardless of what you are selling or how you are selling it. That’s what makes it so beautiful! You see it doesn’t matter if your prospect is hearing, watching or reading your sales pitch; these tactics will work for you if you apply them consistently.

#1 Build Impulse:

Impulse is your prospects “willingness to buy.”  You must understand that your customers impulse is at ZERO when they first come across your product.  It is YOUR job to raise that impulse to the point of purchase through a series of well delivered messages. This is called a “presentation” or if you’re old school (like me) it’s called a “Sales Pitch.”

Your pitch has to be well thought out in order to raise impulse effectively.  You must anticipate those points in the pitch where the prospects impulse level will drop. Use the products hot spots to raise the impulse back up and always close at the very peak of their impulse level for best results.

#2 Leverage The Law of Averages

The number one way to double your sales is to double the amount of people you expose to your product. Every product and every salesperson will have an inherent law of average. This law represents the relationship between the customers that refused to buy and those that actually bought. For example a 1:10 law of average means that you must get 9 knows before you arrive at one sale.

Remember this is an AVERAGE. It’s not to be taken literally. I may sell the first 2 customers I talk to and then get 18 “No’s” in a row. At the end of the day you average out your yeses and nos to get your LOA. Now, lets say you wanted to make 20 sales today, if you spoke to 100 people today and only made 10 sales then how can you make 20 sales tomorrow? You got it! Talk to 200 people.

#3 Up-Selling

I think this one of the most common areas where marketers and sales people drop the ball. They invest all this time and money into finding prospects then when they develop a buyer they just stop selling. Hello???  You have a buyer here. Buyers BUY. So keep selling! Suggest other  products that might benefit the customer or perhaps a volume discount a second item. Whatever the case may be, you have to sell more or at least generate another lead from this sale. Ask them what friend or family member could benefit from an item like this of their own.

All you have to do is ask? Whats the worst that can happen, they might say “No, I’ll just take one.”
Let me ask you a question…  when you go to McDonald’s and order a value meal don’t they ask you if you’d like to “super size it”? Does anyone ever say “No never mind, I just wont eat anything at all now because you asked me to buy more.” Of course not!  So what are you afraid of? Sell. Sell. Sell!

Omar Martin is a sales trainer and internet marketing expert. His best selling product
www.HighPerformanceSalesSecrets.com will help ’sky-rocket’ your profits regardless
of what you sell or how your selling it. You can find lots of free sales advice and articles
like this on his website www.omar-martin.com

So many people out there think that selling ability is a God given gift or talent.  This couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality is that ANYONE can sell. Selling is a learned skill that requires no special gift or abilities.

While at the gas station yesterday a gentleman struck up a conversation with me. He was admiring my car and asked what I did for a living. He said that he would do what ever it takes if it meant he could drive a BMW like mine. I thanked him for the compliment as I chuckled, then  I told him I was in sales. He proceeded to inquire about how I got started in sales and what products I sold. I told him that I started 8 years ago by selling pizza coupons door to door. His jaw dropped to the floor!  He said “No Way Really??  I could never do that!”

Just 15 seconds earlier he was willing to do anything to own a car like mine but now, all of a sudden he’s freaked out because I said “Door to Door sales”  I asked him why he felt that way and he said he just couldn’t muster up the courage to approach a stranger and strike up a conversation. Obviously my response to that was… “Where have we met again?” He laughed and said “I get your point.”

The fact is that we sell ourselves everyday. We talk to strangers everyday and we influence other peoples decisions everyday. These things are a part of life but when the average person contemplates doing it for a living, the fear of failure sets in. People are inherently afraid of rejection and failure and that fear usually precludes them from ever getting ahead in life. It precludes them from taking risks and  starting new endeavors. It sadly keeps them in a miserable rut and they usually just end up envying those that took a chance to do something they themselves weren’t even willing to try.

I noticed that the young man was wearing a wedding band on his finger and I mentioned “I see that you’re married…” He said he’s been married for 2 years. I then said “See, you are  a salesman after all, you got her to marry you!” He laughed in agreement then finished pumping his gas and waved so long.

Anyone can learn to be an expert sales person if they have a coach or mentor and put in the time and effort. There is only one prerequisite…. You Must Have A Good Attitude.

Does that sound corny? It may, but it is a fact! Here’s the deal…  I can teach you the 5 steps to a sale, I can teach you the factors of impulse. I can teach you how to raise impulse. I can teach you how to close the deal. I can teach you how to up-sell, how to work a territory correctly and how to manage a team.

I can even tech you how to maintain a positive attitude when your having a bad day.

But do you want to know the one thing no one can teach you? It’s how to HAVE a positive attitude. Notice I used the word HAVE. Many people out there have written books on how you should “fake it to make it” and essentially how you should “pretend” to be a positive person. I hate to break it to you but, Attitude Is Not A Light Switch! You can’t just turn it on and off when you please.

To be successful at sales all you need is a positive frame of mind and an optimistic attitude!

“When you fix whats on the inside… everything on the outside fixes itself.”

Your attitude boils down to a simple choice: Do you want to live a positive life or a negative life?

Make the decision and follow through. Your positivity will be contagious and it will attract more positive people. These are the people that will like you, trust you and BUY FROM YOU with just a simple nudge in the right direction!

Omar Martin is a sales trainer and internet marketing expert. His best selling product www.HighPerformanceSalesSecrets.com will help ’sky-rocket’ your profits regardless
of what you sell or how your selling it. You can find lots of free sales advice and articles like this on his website www.omar-martin.com