I got a question from a new entrepreneur that’s relevant to all service businesses from new to old.  This particular entrepreneur is just finishing up a bookkeeping program of study.  The last module in her program is a marketing module that recommended she drive in a one mile radius and note all the businesses.

Next she is supposed to get the names of those business owners and send them a letter telling them about her services letting them know she will be calling them.

Her question… she was having trouble finding out who the owners were and wondered how to get that information.  To say getting the names of the business owners is the least of her worries is a gross understatement.

To think the marketing plan her school provided her would get her enough clients to earn a living is far from likely.

If that was all it took every business owner in any service business would have all the business they wanted.

Sadly, I got similar recommendations when I started out and so do attorneys, chiropractors, insurance agents, graphic designers…  You name the service and they probably get a similar recommendation.

So off you go thinking the world is your oyster and the skies the limit.

And then you find out…

1. Every prospect you approach seems to already have a bookkeeper (insert your industry)
2. They wouldn’t even considering using anyone who isn’t a CPA (insert any certification others in your industry have that you don’t)
3. They do their own bookkeeping and view you as an unnecessary expense (insert the excuses you get for not needing your services)

And that brings me to the most important element you must develop before you even start developing your sales marketing plan.  The most important element is defining, discovering, and planning how you will deal with the push back.  No matter what service you are in you will ALWAYS get push back unless you plan to avoid or remove it before it starts.

You can’t develop a sales marketing plan until you can…

1. Succinctly communicate what’s unique or special about what you do for your prospects.
2. Discuss the pros and cons of competitors versus your service.
3. Give prospects a reason to be interested in what you sell.

Rather than thinking of your service as an expense your prospects must view your service as the necessary investment required to get the solutions, outcomes, or results they are ALREADY looking to get.

Then and only then can you develop a sales and marketing plan to:

• get your message in front of the right people
• get those people to reach out to you
• develop a relationship with your prospects
• help your prospects identify what’s best for them
• help them buy what they want to buy the way they want to buy it

Properly armed you are then ready to get the names of the people most likely to buy your stuff.

An easy way for the bookkeeper to get those names is to simply call the business, ask who is responsible for daily operations, then ask for the correct spelling of their name so you can send them a note.

It’s so frustrating when you are just starting out because even when you think you are asking for the help you need more often than not you aren’t asking the most questions.  The questions that would get you headed in the right direction.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

photo credit: Maco@Sky Walker

photo credit: lexdenn

Often times business owners are afraid of marketing.  They think it’s mysterious, costly, and difficult.   At it’s most basic level marketing is simply telling the story you want to tell.

I’d like you to go over to Jim Kukral’s blog and look at the picture of Senators McCain and Obama.

Now watch this video introducing Governor Palin

Depending on whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat you will interpret these two stories differently.  I’d love your comments sharing the story you get from each.

The important point is to look at the story you’re telling in your communications.  Look at any and all marketing communications and images you have in your business.  What story do they tell?

If they only talk about you they aren’t telling any story because no one will pay attention long enough to get your message.  If they talk about a product or service you’re likely to tell the same non-story.

What story do you want to tell?  Why is that story important to the receiver?  Would it make the receiver curious and lead them to want to know more?  Ideally that’s exactly what you want.

Make sure your sales marketing strategies are working for you.

photo credit: Yosi-

I was reading another blog where the blog owner was promoting a book written by one of the well known internet gurus.  One of the other readers commented that he thought this particular person might be a scammer.   Whether the person is or not it brings up an important point.

As a small business owner or independent sales professional the acts of those before you precede you.  When your prospects view you as a salesperson they treat you the way they do because of all the unscrupulous salespeople they’ve ever encountered or heard tales of.  You suffer the consequences of actions you did not take and would not take ever.

Honestly, it SUCKS it’s unfair and I wish it wasn’t so.  So what do you do about it?  There are three things you absolutely must do.

First, never ever do anything to help or in any way promote any business that isn’t 100% ethical that doesn’t add value to the people who buy from them.  No matter if that business is owned by your own brother or someone you never liked anyway.  You simply can’t afford to have your reputation tarnished by association with the wrong characters.

Often you think if a business has a really big name they must be the best.  Therefore, going with that business is the safe choice.  Yet, you’ve often found the opposite is true.  You’ll never get the attention and care from a big name big box business that you would from a small business who focuses on people like you.  You”re just a number to the big business and they really could care less if you do business with them or not.  The little business cares very deeply because they always want you to have something positive to say about their business even if you had to return what you purchased for a refund.

The second important thing you must do is position yourself as an expert rather than a salesperson from that first connection.  That way you’ll never have to deal with the defense mechanisms your prospects put up to protect themselves from you.  Read more about how here…

7 Secrets to All the Highly Qualified Leads You Want

Finally, always ask yourself how the customer wants to be treated.  Notice I didn’t say how you’d like to be treated rather how they want to be treated.  It’s really nothing more than committing to treating every person with kindness, respect, and dignity.  Doing so won’t keep you from making mistakes, but when you do make a mistake and you’ve already demonstrated your commitment to treating others with kindness, respect, and dignity your customers will be much more understanding and willing to give you a chance to make things right.

photo credit: tboard

As humans we absolutely love a good story.  If you paid any attention to the DNC last week and the announcement of the republican nominee for Vice President you’ve heard a number of good stories.  Each nominee from both parties has shared a story telling the voters who they are.  There’s a reason for that and a reason it’s critically important for you in your business.

What I want you to realize is that stories are among the most powerful and effective sales and marketing tools you have at your disposal.  Every one can and should have a story.  Top producing businesses and sales people all have a great story to tell.

A wonderful thing about stories is they’re memorable and repeatable.  When your story resonates with your market they’ll pass your story on to others acting as an unpaid marketing force for you.  Stories that resonate are relevant, emotional, and meaningful to the listener.

Stories are a no risk way to connect with a prospect.  As long as you tell the right story to the right people at the right time for the right reasons you can powerfully make your point without triggering the listeners defenses.  The rewards from a good story are huge.

Stories increase your credibility.  They make you more likable.  They make you more trustworthy.  They make you easier to connect with.

One of my favorite stories as a little girl was the tale of Chicken Little.  An acorn fell on Chicken Littles head.  She was convinced the sky was falling and ran to tell all her friends.  Turkey Lurkey, Goosey Loosey, and Ducky Lucky took Chicken Little at face value and ran with her to tell the King about this terrible crisis.  Along the way Foxey Loxey met up with the frightened group and offered them safety in his fox lair.  The Kings dogs came along and chased Foxey Loxey away just in time.  To this day Chicken Little carries an umbrella as she walks through the woods.   This story makes a point without having to spell it out for you in explicit language.  Good stories make the right points for you at the right time in your marketing communications and sales conversations.

Top producing businesses understand your story can carve out the space you own in a prospects mind.  Coke generated curiosity and interest when they shared the story of how their beverage was originally formulated by a pharmacist who sold the top secret formula to them.  Then they created the story of how Coke brought the world together.  Then they developed the whole rivalry story with Pepsi over which drink is preferred.  You can use story to carve out your space too and keep your prospects excited and engaged in your business.

Would you like to hear the stories of the top producers?  (click here –>) to Hear it from the Experts yourself.

photo credit: steve gerecke aka: ice9 - n2it

Really, stop taking business so seriously.  Darren Rowse’s recent post reminded me of an important and often overlooked concept.   The concept of getting the most value from the things you’re already doing.

If you’re like 99.9% of the people in this world you aren’t getting the most value from the things you’re already doing.  Hey, I’m guilty of this too even though I do a better job than most people.  It happens because you get too micro-focused and miss the big picture.

Look at all the things you’re already doing in your life whether work related or personal and ask yourself, “could I be getting more from this”?  Is there a way to re-purpose what I’m doing here another way? Could I multi-purpose what I’m doing already in a number of other ways?

When you discover how to re-purpose and multi-purpose you discover the secret of transforming little successes into gi-normous successes.  Hey, if you’re doing it already why not squeeze as much potential out of it as you possibly can?  Why not make it a win for you and a win for others?

Win-win-win is what you’re striving for.  Not only must you add value in your business, but you must also add value for the people on the receiving end.  You win-win-win when you also add value to your receivers by helping them add value to the people they know.

Win-win-win is the basic underlying reason viral marketing and social networking are so powerful.  You receive a communication that adds value to your life.  You’re excited about it, and you want to share that value with your friends so you pass it on.  Those friends pass it on to their friends and so on and so on and so on.

Here’s the catch.  While viral marketing and social networking can be fun and addictive if you’re going to get the most value you absolutely have to produce a desired outcome.  To produce that desired outcome you have to establish a clear objective for everything you’re doing now.

Your success is all about actions.  Your actions and the actions of others.  Your objective is to produce an action from the receiver of what you’re already doing.  Look at what you’re doing now and challenge yourself to devise a logical next step action for the receiver.

Just like you have to ask for the sale you have to ask for the action.  Never ever presume the receive will figure out what you want them to do.  You have to tell them in specific detailed no room for doubt terms.

Every small business owner wants people to come to them.  Hunting and chasing after people who aren’t interested in what you have to offer is a waste of your precious resources, and demoralizing.  Taking what you’re doing now re-purposing and multi-purposing those things and asking for action gets interested people contacting you.

Now to maximize and have the most fun increasing sales you need a plan for following up with the people who take the actions you ask them to take.  You need an effective marketing plan to move these strangers from wherever they are in their buying process now to ready buyers.

Read more about an effective sales and marketing strategy…(<— click on the link)

photo credit: nickolette22

When blogging first got started a lot of the blogs were these long winded diary type posts.  I don’t really know why they ever worked other than anything new will work at least for a while.  Patsy  Krakoff’s recent post is an example of this type of post.

Why is this relevant to you and your business?  Well, it provides yet another example of marketing that focuses on you rather than the person you’re marketing to.  Gone are the days when getting email is a novelty.  Gone are the days when people  pay attention to you talking about you unless you already have a loyal following.

For the most part you’re trying to connect with a completer stranger.  Ideally you want to get their attention and you want them to take an action that moves them closer to you.  How do you do that?

1. You only talk about them and what they want
2. You get their attention
3. You trigger their curiosity
4. You give them something they want
5. You tell them exactly how to get it

When you lay it out in a step-wise fashion it sounds really easy.  Yet most people find it very hard to do because you have a lot of ingrained bad habits you don’t even realize you have.  I’d like to challenge you to identify a few of those bad habits now.

1. Look at your current marketing communications and count how many times you refer to you, your business, or a product
2. If you use a sales presentation do the same thing
3. How often are you contacted by someone who has questions about how you can help them

Your first connection should contain almost no information about you or your business.  Any presentation you use should be 80% prospect focused and 20% you focused.  If you aren’t getting contacted by people who want to know more about how you can help them on a consistent basis you have proof your sales marketing strategy is too you focused.

photo credit: Neil Boothman

Jim Kukral has this great video explaining the anthropology of YouTube.  While it might sound boring to you I think you may be surprised.  Not only is it entertaining BUT there some very important things you can learn here that will help you better understand your market.

Did you know that many college age people today don’t even own or watch a television?  Yet they spend hours on the internet watching videos, sending and receiving instant messages, researching for information, etc.?  Did you know the number of people turning to the internet for information and connection among people 50 and older is growing too?  What might that mean to you?

One of the reasons the internet is so important to people, and anyone wanting to market themselves is it provides the means for people to form a community.  People naturally like to group themselves.  You naturally join groups based on: how you earn a living, how you like to recreate,  and your beliefs and values.  Blogging was one of the first ways people who searched the internet formed communities.

Why is that important to you?  Because when you can get people to form a community with you those people begin to trust you and they may just be good prospects for you, or they can spread the word about you to people who are good prospects for you.

Bottom line you can’t ignore the future.  Make sure you know how this marketing giant works, and start thinking about how you could make it work for you.  For more marketing ideas read on.

photo credit: Esparta

When you ask how to get more prospects are you being told you just have to pick up the phone and make more calls?  That old saw seems to be the only mantra some sales managers and industries know.  But are they right?

Are you doomed to a life of picking up the phone bothering complete strangers who have no interest what-so-ever in speaking with you?   Colleen Francis shares an email conversation with just such a person.  Someone who thinks cold calling is just the best way to get business now.

Cold calling can work.  So can a lot of other things.  The problem is you have to look at the bottom line facts and data on the return you get from your investment.  If you know how to effectively market yourself there’s no way cold calling can be your most profitable way of attaining prospects.

Another consideration is how easy it is to maintain and sustain the process used to obtain prospects.  Cold calling is a high maintenance difficult to sustain method for obtaining prospects even if you eventually hire others to make those calls for you.

In contrast, an effective marketing plan can run on autopilot once you get it set-up.  I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of stuff I love.  Read more sales marketing strategies…

photo credit: SunCat

Clayton Makepeace is not only one of the greatest living copywriters he’s also just a great guy who can use words more effectively than anyone else I know.  Even though he wrote this post for copywriters the point is every bit as valid for independent business owners and sales professionals.

No one owes you success.

There isn’t a business owner or entrepreneur who doesn’t face challenges each and every day.  There’s a big difference between the way successful business owners and entrepreneurs respond to those challenges, and the way the failures respond.  That difference is founded in the actions you take.

No one owes you a successful business.  No one is going to help you succeed for free.  Why should they?  Those who’ve succeeded didn’t get free help and neither will you.

Successful people from all walks understand you get what you pay for.  If you aren’t willing to invest in yourself to get the help you need you can expect a long painful journey that ends in failure.  You’ll continue to do the wrong things, and you’ll have no clue what you’re doing wrong or  why it’s wrong.

The difference between what works and what doesn’t can be a simple as a single word and the way you use it.  But you’ll never know or understand that if you just keep doing what you’ve been doing that doesn’t work.  You’ll never know unless you seek the expertise of someone who understands how to get the success you want.

It takes courage to admit you need help and even more courage to act on it.  It takes courage to invest money you don’t have in yourself when your business isn’t even paying the bills, but if you don’t it will never pay the bills.  It takes courage to look at what you’re doing and identify what isn’t working.

The sad thing is most people fail just short of the WIN line.  They’re just one small improvement away from turning business failure into business success.  However, they don’t realize it because they don’t understand what it takes or how to succeed.

There are three keys to your business success.

1. You have to effectively market yourself
2. You have to effectively sell yourself
3. You have to effectively back-up what you marketed and sold for repeat business and referrals

Read more about how you can accomplish the first step…how you can get all the highly qualified prospects you need to succeed in your business.