Sales Come First

Here is the second last in this series of 10 ways to double your business.

People pay big money to business advisors for the exact same information I’m giving you…for FREE!

Actually most business advisors don’t know most of these ideas. They just waffle on about branding and that kind of thing instead of strategies that WORK. Gotta be a reason most businesses go broke within 3 years, even though there’s so many so called ‘business coaches’ out there.

Anyway, yes. All this advice is here, and it costs you NOTHING. So the question is…why am I giving it away for ‘nutting”? First of all, sadly enough I should be charging. Funny thing is most people value things higher if it costs them more. I’m guilty of it too. Hey, I’m the guy that had some great sales copy examples given to me free, ignored them and then 12 months later, paid $150 to buy them!

But I give this information away because I figure if just a few of you actually take action  on them you’re going to get big very Very VERY quickly. And then you’ll need some professional consultation and copy written. And that’s where I figure you’ll send me an email and say “Hugh, I want to take this baby all the way”. Anyway, onwards and upwards!

Strategy 7. Add membership. Yes, lots of internet businesses are being complemented with membership programs. Its a great idea. But bricks and mortar businesses can do it too. What about membership which gives members cheaper rates, priority access to you, something free every 2 months. You can even do tele-seminars, newsletters (remember them?). There’s lots of things you can bundle in.

And it’s money you bank at the START of every month, before you even lift a finger! Its a great idea for service businesses like health professionals (chiroporactors, physios, masseurs etc), hair dressers and other beauty services too. But it can be done in just about any business.

Here’s a great example. If you’re a hairdresser you can bundle up a haircut ($50), some shampoo and conditioner ($40), some other product ($30) and a newsletter on hair and beauty tips ($25). That’s $145 worth of value. And you offer it for only $87 a month. But the haircut only costs you $20, the products all up cost you $20 and the newsletter is produced for no more than $5. So it costs you $45, you make nearly double that and the money hits your bank account before you lift a finger. Get 50 people into this, and you make $2,100 straight away. Pure profit! Plus you get customers for life, great referrers (imagine reducing their monthly fee by 50% if they refer someone that month). Oh man, my greed glands are sweating and I’ve gotta stop. But anyway, you can literally build a business around a membership program like this.

Strategy 8. Surveys – Want to know how to make more money from your customers? Simple. Ask them. Look, you can just outright ask them when the contact you “What else could I offer you that you’d be interested in”. Or better yet, put together a survey form and offer an incentive like a reduced rate or a competition for everyone who replies. You can even set one up online at www.surveymonkey.com or a similar site. You’d be surprised what you get back. Your customers literally tell you how to sell to them better! Make no assumptions. That golden idea might be right under you nose and you miss it simply because you dont ask.

My next post is going to give you the final two. I really hope you’re putting all this into action and getting big results. Why not leave a comment and let me know how you’re going with it.

All the best,

Hugh Thyer

www.salescomefirst.com

<Are you looking for a copywriter for your next project? Contact Hugh at www.salescomefirst.com to discuss your needs>

I hope you’ve got to work implementing the first 4 strategies.

Here they are again, just to refresh your memories.

1. Re-activate lost customers – easy, because you’re just digging around your customer database and you’ll be amazed what happens

2. Make more offers more often – the simplest way to build up a loyal tribe of devoted followers who will love giving you their money

3& 4. Monthly printed and weekly electronic newsletters – if there was ever a powerful combination this is it! Just write the articles, the offers and outsource the rest. You’ll lock your customers in for life, promote even more offers and even build up a heap of referrals, simply because you keep your business smack bang in front of your customers constantly.

OK, now on to strategies 5 & 6.

Strategy 5. Reward your frequent buyers and make them feel like VIPs. I bet if you worked it out that your business follows the 80/20 rule. In this case, 80% of your money probably comes from about 20% of your total customer list. So it makes sense to reward those 20% and make them feel extra special, right? Why not create a special club for them, then give them better offers, priority access to you and even more information more often. You can even share their successes with other top clients, to create a feeling of belonging. (HINT: The need to belong is one of the big emotional drivers). What else can you do for this group? Why not a free audit of their current situation. I bet you can do this in just about any business. How about a coffee mug or something similar at Christmas, or even better, on their birthday.

After all, this is the group that spends the most money with you, so make sure you treat them the best.

Strategy 6. Slice up your list and send them customised offers. This one is a great one too because you’ve probably got most of the information in your customer database or at least in your head. If you’re an advisor, send all the business clients a specific offer just for them. Or if you’re a bike shop for example, send different offers to customers who are road cyclists, mountain bikers, recreational cyclists and so on. If you have a number of customers who spend money on a certain brand of shoe, or who spend a lot on shoes in particular, just send them a special offer. Don’t clutter your customer’s mail boxes with offers that are irrelevant to them or they’ll quickly ignore you. Far better to contact them more targeted.

Incidentally, once you know more about your customers you should write to them differently, according to who they are. For example, writing to the affluent is very different to the budget conscious. A generic letter to both types of customers will not work anywhere as well. You’ll probably mix it up so much you’ll get a far lower response than you should.

Oh, that reminds me. Have you got a customer database? If not, you’ll need to do this. Its easy enough to start one in a spreadsheet, but to get a little more advanced you’ll be better off with a Microsoft Access one. There are plenty of people around who can put it together for you if you just tell them what you want.

Next week I’m going to give you strategies 7 & 8. Another two strategies that will put even more money in your pocket. They’re easy, and they’re powerful. Is there anything else you could want!

I look forward to sending you this article next week.

All the best,

Hugh Thyer

www.salescomefirst.com

<Are you looking for a copywriter for your next project? Contact Hugh at www.salescomefirst.com to discuss your needs>

These two strategies are related, and VERY powerful. This is how you keep yourself in the minds of your customers constantly.

Strategy 3: Monthly printed newsletters. This is best where your customers are easily accessable. If you’ve got 10,000 interested people in a $17 eBook, this probably isnt going to be cost effective. But if you’ve got a professional service, like a finance professional, mortgage broker, physiotherapist, lawn mower etc etc etc then this strategy is HUGE! You become the trusted advisor, and objections to price literally melt away. While your competitors are quickly forgotten, you’re the one people think about when they need your services…OR when they’re asked if they can recommend someone.

And ‘yes’. I said ‘printed’. A printed newsletter sent in the good old mail has far more value than an email, which can get deleted in a key stroke. Done right, your monthly newsletter will get ripped open and read over a cuppa. Imagine that! Your customers spending 10 minutes a month letting YOU promote yourself to them. All for about $1 which is all it’ll cost you.

I wrote a whole article about newsletters which you can review here.

Oh, and I should mention, it CAN take a bit of time doing a newsletter. Maybe a couple of hours a month. So if you’re scared of doing some work to be successful then give up now. For the amount of time it takes to produce a monthly newsletter, you wont get a better bang for your buck.

By the way, I have a newsletter sample service which I’ve developed. The deal is quite simple. For $500AUD I will write up a sample newsletter for you, so you see how it fits together. I also write some sample articles and a sample editorial to give you the style of writing to use. Plus I tell you everything you should put in your newsletter on a regular basis, so you understand why I’ve done it the way I have. If you want to implement a newsletter in your business (and you should) drop me an email at hugh@salescomefirst.com.

Strategy 4: Weekly email newsletter. Send out a 1 pager each week. But here’s a big tip. Don’t just send an email. Write up a professionally presented document and save it as a PDF. This adds a level of professionalism, because it has your letterhead, logo etc on it. And of course a strong compelling headline.It doesn’t have to be long. Just send information on what’s happening in your industry and how it will affect your clients. Or send them some ideas. Even some home-spun philosophies.

Just don’t foret the golden rule – “Always be selling”.

In combination with a monthly printed newsletter you get yourself in front of your customers 5 times a month using 2 different media. And since it costs an estimated 8 times as much to get a new customer as it does to keep an old one, doing something simple like this means you’ll be spending your time working out new ways to increase your earnings from each customer instead of running around trying to get a new customer into your business. Slash the number who leave your business and spend your time making money from your herd, instead of replacing them.

*** Remember – We’re ALL in the Relationship Business ***

All the best,

Hugh Thyer

<Are you looking for a copywriter for your next project? Contact Hugh at www.salescomefirst.com to discuss your needs>