Carol Bentley

It is far more difficult - and costly - to find new customers than it is to keep your existing customers happy by enhancing their experience with your business; making sure they do not miss out through your negligence.

And making your first sale is easier if you are introduced to your prospect by a trusted colleague. That’s why business networking is so powerful - especially for smaller businesses.

These are two different aspects of the same approach - concentrating on people who are less sceptical about what you offer and may even be very inclined to do business with you.

I’m forever banging on about keeping in touch with your customers. Keeping them informed, giving great advice, perhaps even making recommendations. If you only supply a single type of service or product then making sure everyone you deal with knows what you can provide and the benefits they gain is very easy, isn’t it?

Or is it? Because a wise business owner is always looking for innovations, for new ideas that complements what they offer. And sometimes - as the variety of products or services expands - we forget to tell existing clients about all the new solutions we’ve introduced.

In fact, if your company has a sales force and a wide array of products and services, are you confident that everyone knows the full product range and potential benefits - and actively promotes them? It’s probably even more important now with talk of a recession.

Go through this excercise with your sales staff (or just do it for yourself)

Your Customer/Product Awareness Exercise

1) Take a piece of paper. Ask your sales team to list all the products and services your company provides - including any variations. Now compare the lists - do they all match? If they do then you have a great sales force because they are selling from a strong position, knowing what you can provide.

2) Now ask your sales people to think about their accounts and mark which products they have told their customers about. Are there any gaps? If so, they are selling opportunities for your sales team. And it is worth remembering that a selling opportunity isn’t necessarily a direct sale to the customer, they may not need that particular product or service. But, if your customer knows you can supply it they can recommend you when someone mentions they are looking for that service or product.

This is a good exercise to repeat, just to keep it fresh in your mind. If you like visual reminders then an Opportunity Matrix could work for you and your team - perhaps on an office whiteboard or (as I’ve described later) in a spreadsheet.

Here’s how to create a constant visual reminder…

1) Draw a grid shape. You need enough columns going across to list all your products and services in the top row; show one product/service at the top of each column, starting from the second column.

2) In the first column of the rows going down list your current customers.

3) Choose 2 strong colours. One to represent ‘Told’, the other for ‘Sold’ (you could add a third for ‘Referred’; and use it when your customer has recommended your company to someone else). I’ve used Told=Yellow; Sold=Green in my example chart).

4) When you tell your customer about another one of your products; you have supplied information so you know he is fully aware of it and the benefits it offers, mark the colour for ‘Told’ against that company in the column for the specific product/service you’ve explained.

5) When your customer buys that product/service from you add the ‘Sold’ color.

6) If your customer recommends your product / service to someone else; ‘refers you’, you can fill in the ‘Referred’ colour.

If you include step 6 some of your boxes may have the Told and Referred, but not the Sold colour.

Now you can see, at a glance, which products your customers do not know about (in which case you can inform them) and, just as importantly, if they do know about the products whether they have bought from you or referred you to someone else.

A Free Gift For You…

As I said earlier, this works really well on a spreadsheet, such as Excel, using the conditional formatting feature. I have created a spreadsheet with the chart set up ready to use.

In fact the file, which I call the Opportunity Matrices, contains 3 spreadsheets: 1 to use for referrals within your business contacts circle, another to use for checking that your current customers know about everything you offer and the third is a Price Research spreadsheet. Use the latter to compare your prices against your competitors - it is a useful tool when you are launching a new product or service or revising your pricing structure.

I’ve also written a PDF file that explains how I created the spreadsheets - so you can do the same if you wish - and describes how to use them.

If you are subscribed to this blog you will find the download link for the zip file containing these 2 files in your notification email.

If you are not a subscriber you can get your copy using the request box below (free and with no obligation):

You will be asked to confirm your request - I have to do this to avoid spamming problems.

To summarise…

Recession Proof Tip 2; Don’t miss selling opportunities

Make sure everyone connected to your business (including customers) knows all the solutions you deliver.

In tomorrow’s tip I’ll explore the second point I made at the start of this post… how to find more warm prospects…

~ Carol Bentley

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Question: What is one of the worst things that can happen to a right-handed copywriter?

Answer: Something that stops you using your right arm! And yep - that happened to me this week. I woke up Monday morning with an extremely painful right arm. And, on top of that, the schools have just broken for the summer holidays which means my PA is on her ’summer schedule’ so I couldn’t even get her to do the typing for me!

Am I getting the violins from you yet? I’m expecting loads of sympathy here you know

Anyway after a physio session I can at least use my keyboard for short periods, so I’ll continue the RPT’s (Recession Proof Tips) tomorrow.

~ Carol Bentley

I took a few minutes break and had a go at the ‘What sports car are you?’ quiz, just out of curiosity

I don’t know whether to feel flattered by the result… after all I would have expected to be associated with a Bentley!

I’m a Porsche 911!

You have a classic style, but you’re up-to-date with the latest technology. You’re ambitious, competitive, and you love to win. Performance, precision, and prestige - you’re one of the elite,and you know it.

Fancy seeing your associated power vehicle?

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Have a good weekend - back to the serious stuff next week.

~ Carol Bentley

When there’s a cold going around I decide I’m not going to catch it. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s worked for me for quite a few years now. And I regard talk of a recession as a bit like an unpleasant virus because it can be contagious.

Reports in the media about the credit crunch, escalating bills and reduced spending give a picture of general doom and despondency. Are you being infected?

Now, don’t get me wrong I do appreciate many people, both consumers and businesses, are finding things more difficult. I also believe we, as business owners, have a decision to make; accept all the negative reports, take part in the recession and accept the dire consequences it can lead to.

Or, decide not to take part. Decide to take action that makes us - and our business - stronger.

Is it possible to come out of a recession stronger?

In my experience, yes. I was talking with a close friend (I’m godmother to his son) and business entrepreneur. And we realised that we had both come out of previous recessions stronger than we might have expected to. In fact, my original computer training business - back in 1990 - was born out of a recession when I was made redundant from my position of General Manager with a local computer supplier.

Why had we survived so well? Because we both avoided…

The Biggest Mistake Businesses Often Make in a Recession

Stop actively looking for business from existing and new customers.

When I say actively I’m talking, as you’ve probably guessed, about marketing. Being seen as a vibrant, open-for-business company is vital to your survival, let alone your growth and success when there is an economic downturn.

Yet as soon as business is a bit slow and the order books start to dwindle, for many the thought of investing in advertising and marketing is abhorrent to them. The mentality is “We can’t afford to spend on advertising and marketing!”

Why is this when the reality is “Can they afford NOT to spend?”

Lack of Knowledge Can Lead to Your Downfall

I believe the reasons why some business people think this way is lack of knowledge in two specific areas…

• They don’t know how effective their advertising and marketing is.
• They don’t know the true value of each prospect they find who turns into a loyal customer.

Measuring your marketing spend against the value of the sales it attracts is the only way you can be sure of having control of your business at any time. When you’ve got this control you can choose not to take part in a recession, if it comes.

Back to Basics

Over the next few posts I’m going to suggest a few different marketing approaches for you to consider in your business.

Before I do that let me remind you of a few basics, linked to the two points above. (Sometimes it’s good to be reminded, don’t you think?)

How to Measure The Effectiveness of Yor Marketing

There’s only one way to be sure your marketing spend - whether that’s time or money - is a good investment… only use direct response marketing in your letters, adverts, web pages, newsletters and flyers. Gear them up to elicit a direct action from your target audience. And monitor the responses you get.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

You decide to place an advertisement in a local publication targeted at your specific market.

You create a direct response advert and include a unique code so you can measure the response to that specific advert, in that specific publication in that specific issue.

The advert costs you £500.

The publisher tells you it has a readership of 25,000 - and says “It’s only costing you 2p to reach each reader!” That would be a fantastic investment if all those readers are real prospects and there is a high chance they will respond. You wish!

The only figure that is relevant to you is the actual number of people who take action and respond to your advert.

Your advert goes out and you get 10 enquiries. You now know it cost you £50 to get each enquiry. Let’s say you convert half into sales. You have 5 new customers, each cost you £100 to acquire. (The price of your advert divided by the total number of new customers).

The next point is the one that many business base their future marketing decisions on. And it’s where they often go wrong.

Question: “Is running this advert worthwhile?”

On face value you could decide “No!” if the immediate sale - the first sale - does not deliver a high enough profit to cover the advertising cost. The real question should be “What is the profit value of all the subsequent sales I’ll make to this new customer?”

If you are going to blossom in a recession you must have a strong, effective, follow-up system; sometimes called the back-end. Once your new customer buys, especially if you’ve delivered a good product or service, they are more open to considering other products or services you can deliver. Add these onto the initial sale and you could find that seemingly expensive advert is not such a drain on your resources after all!

Before you start any advertising or marketing campaign you need to know two things:

• The average profit value of each of your customer’s transactions
• The number of purchases they are likely to make before they stop (if they ever do) buying from you.

Multiply these two figures and you have a fair idea of the true worth of your new customer (sometimes called lifetime value).

So, going on from my example…

let’s be conservative here and say your first sale profit value is only £80. That means you are making a loss of £20 on each new sale. At first glance that looks as though this is not a worthwhile advert to run again. And, as I said, that’s what many business owners base their decision on.

But if you’ve got your strong follow-up in place and you know that, on average, your customer’s subsequent purchases deliver a £100 profit each and they normally buy another 6 times over a period of two years - then your total potential profit is £680. Take away the original cost to acquire the customer (£100) and that gives you an overall expected average profit of £580 per customer.

Now placing that advert makes more long-term economic sense, doesn’t it?

Recession Proof Tip 1; Have a Strong Back-End

and make sure you know how to measure your true return on investment.

Look out for more Recession Proof Tips, including some direct response marketing ideas for you to consider.

~ Carol Bentley

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I know - it is a classic style headline, but if it has intrigued you then I guess it is still working.

There are some blatant writing mistakes that it is easy to to make when you are dashing off a quick email or two. And, as the article I’ve linked to below explains, that can be forgiven when it is between friends. Make those same mistakes in a business email and your credibility could be wiped out.

I’m talking about classic mix ups, like your and you’re; its and it’s and other faux pas.

Check out the 10 mistakes described in this article.

It makes interesting reading - and if you do spot something you have problems with it may help you avoid making that mistake again. Of course, if you are fully aware of all the examples and how they should be used… then you can congratulate yourself, can’t you?

~ Carol Bentley

P.S. I’ve decided to opt out of the recession - look out for posts on suggestions to help you do the same.

Have you ever come across the American Marketing Specialist, Jay Abraham? If you have, you will definitely be intrigued by what I discovered today…

I first met Jay at one of his 4-day programmes in London; I think it was 1995. I remember paying £4,500 (a huge investment) for my place in the hotel conference suite where over 200 other marketing-wisdom starved entrepreneurs eagerly soaked up every drop of knowledge he and his co-presenters revealed.

I still use his collection of newsletters, ‘Your Marketing Genius At Work’ and marketing guide ‘Money Making Secrets of Marketing Genius Jay Abraham’ for inspiration.

So why am I telling you this?

Because someone who has created $5.4 billion in extra sales and profits might know a thing or two about successful marketing, don’t you think?

And I’ve just discovered he’s virtually giving away a treasure-trove of that marketing expertise for an unbelievable $39. That’s less than £20 or €25! You can’t even get a good meal with a bottle of wine for that!

What’s the deal?

I’m not going to give you the whole speel - you can read it for yourself at Jay Abraham’s Crazy Offer but here’s just a taster of what he’s delivering…

Taken from his offer website:

• Abraham 101 - Explains his most closely guarded money making secrets.
• Ultimate Market Domination Report - Teaches how to at very least double your income every 15 months or less… forever!
• Nine Drivers of Explosive Profit - Teaches you the fastest, biggest ways to multiply business, increase profits, build massive business wealth with little or no risk, very little time, and surprisingly modest effort.
• Multiplying Your Business Wealth - Tony Robbins interviews Jay Abraham
• Winning Big With the Internet and E-Commerce - The Key Factors in Developing a Powerful Web Strategy

Read more about it…

Of course, there is a catch - well 2 actually…

1. The material is available purely as a download - I guess that’s the only way to make delivering such a huge amount of material viable for this minuscule price.

2. After using the concepts he discloses, he’s asking you to share your success and experience with other people.

He does offer his usual 365-day “You’d Better Make Money or I’ll Double Your Money Back’ guarantee (actually it was at Jay’s event that I first came across the powerful principle of risk-free guarantees).

Is it worth going for? At $39, what do you think?

I’m certainly not going to miss out on this chance to enhance my marketing treasure-chest - I suggest you take advantage too.

On second thoughts - perhaps you shouldn’t because if you do, you probably won’t need to read my blog posts any more, will you?

~ Carol Bentley

P.S. Although he talks about creating a marketing tidal wave in America - I reckon using this could make it happen anywhere!

P.P.S. It is an affiliate link I’ve given you above… that OK with you?

Anyone involved in marketing will have come across the quote from John Wanamaker, founder of the Philadelphia store of the same name:

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted,
and the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

If you sometimes feel like this, then what I’m about to share will be an inspiration to you.

My good friend, Ed Rivis, knows the true power of advertising - when it is done properly. What do I mean by done properly? I mean it is…

• Targeted at the right audience like a master archer focusing his arrow on the bullseye
• Written in the most effective style* - as an advertorial (an advert that looks like an article) so your reader is engaged in your message
• Contains an offer that hits the reader’s hot-spot so they can’t help but respond
• Thoroughly tested as a smaller advert before investing in larger, more expensive advertising space
• Measurable - either through coding or by using a unique response mechanism. You cannot test if anything is working if you have no way of measuring it.

* Incidentally, David Ogilvy said…

“There is no need for advertisements to look like advertisements. If you make them look like editorial pages, you will attract about 50% more readers.”

Would You Like 1,035 Responses To An Advert?

Pop over to Ed’s blog where he shares, in a video clip, the details of what he did to get 1,035 responses to his advert.

As I said it may inspire you to reconsider advertising if you’ve dismissed it as a “waste of money” in the past.

Have a good weekend,

~ Carol Bentley

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Some of the adverts in your local Yellow Pages haven’t got a cat-in-hell’s chance of bringing enough business to cover the cost. Asking these three questions could prevent you making the same mistakes.

The adverts I’m talking about are frequently those ‘designed’ by the Yellow Ad’s ‘graphics team’.

You know the type I mean… the

‘Name… Rank… Serial Number’ style

Name: Business name; unless you have a highly descriptive business name this is not going to make you stand out from the crowd.

Rank: What the business does; standard wording that rarely describes any benefit to make the advert more appealing than the other entries.

Serial Number: Contact details; with a phone number as a minimum.

Here’s Three Questions To Ask Yourself Before Deciding
To Advertise in any Long Term Publication…

Q1. “Is this directory the first place my target audience is likely to look for someone who can provide my services/products?”

Q2. “How can I make my advertisement stand out from my direct competitors?” (I’ll give you a hint - think about the results your prospects are looking for).

Q3. “Is the advert I plan to use tested and proven elsewhere before committing to a 12 month publication?” Find a local business directory or publication that is issued more frequently - say monthly - that your prospects are probably looking at. Test your advert:

Test

• the headline;
• the offer;
• the content;
• the layout

and remember to use a reference code so you can measure which version is the most successful. Then - and only then - should you agree to place that tested and proven advert in a long term directory like Yellow Pages.

Never, ever leave the design of something as vital as your advertisement to the directory publisher - you can’t afford to waste money like that - can you?

Carol Bentley

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OK - it has been an extremely busy week so a few minutes light relief is welcome. Especially something that makes me smile as these did…

The Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational asks readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are the winners:

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realise it was your money to start with. (my personal favourite)

2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

4. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

5. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

6. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

7. Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer. (second favourite)

8. Decafalon (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

9. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

10. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web. (oh, I sooo relate to this one!)

11. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

Which is your favourite? And can you go one better and come up with a word and definition of your own? Share your word inventions, hit the comment link.

Happy Independence Day to all my American readers - have a great holiday.

And have a good weekend.

~ Carol Bentley

You have probably noticed I have been a bit quiet this week. That’s because I’ve been extremely busy on a new project which has got me all fired up! In fact the only reason I am adding this post is because an email just came in I thought you might want to know about.

On February 6th I shared my thoughts about using the mindmapping software from Buzan - iMindMap™ (read the original post at Getting your thoughts on paper - opens in a new window).

Today’s email came from the Buzan team telling me they are soon to release version 3, which contains three new editions of the software. And Tony Buzan is giving a surprisingly generous gift to anyone who already has iMindMap™ before the release date - more about that below. The three new versions are:

Elements: for basic mind mapping
Professional: for businesses and organisations. It includes a high level of integration with Microsoft Office and Open Office
Ultimate: “The ultimate package of features, including an impressive creative and comprehensive Project Management System and publishing tools.” You can import mindmaps created in MindManager and FreeMind.

Naturally I took a look at what the new versions cover - impressive. But I had an ulterior motive because I was invited to get in early by joining their private testing team. If the new features looked good, it might be just what I need for my new project and getting to grips with it now would be great (apart from which I can spill the beans to you on what’s good or not so good! )

So yes, I’ve taken up the invitation to get the early releases (who wouldn’t?)

Tony’s Gift

Giving upgrades at a reduced price is standard procedure for many software companies. Some generously give free upgrades to the next version of the same level of a software package. So I would have expected to get a special deal on this new version of iMindMap™. What I didn’t expect was to be told…

“Tony Buzan is making a once only offer for iMindMap™ users to save over UK£90/US$180/EUR€99 by giving away free upgrades to the ‘Ultimate’ Edition of iMindMap™”

…that’s the top-of-the-range edition - with all the new bells & whistles. And it’s a saving of almost double the current price of a single licence. Not bad.

Plus - the offer applies to everyone who has a copy of the current iMindMap™ before the release date of version 3.

So - if you’ve been thinking about treating yourself to a mindmapping program, here’s one to consider - iMindMap [Affiliate].

I’ll let you know what I think of the new version before the official release date. As they say… ‘Watch this space.’

~ Carol Bentley