The Honest To Goodness Truth On Beating The Recession.

Are you losing hope with all the news today of a bad economy?

If the answer to that is yes, come with me for a walk and let’s take a reality check. First stop, Main Street.

Now, tell me, what do you see? People carrying around shopping bags filled with ‘just bought stuff.’

Okay, let’s look into the restaurants. Are they empty? Chairs covered up in cobwebs so thick one wouldn’t know that an actual chair is underneath? No. Not at all.

What you see are people ordering food, drinking wine, tearing apart the bread and tacos left on their table like hungry beasts as they wait for their meals to arrive.

If you turn to the left of these famished folks, you see the rude people talking on their cell phones to pass the time in anticipation of dessert and coffee.

You see, what I’m trying to tell you is this: life marches on. Business goes on. Your customers are waiting for you. Why? Because they still need your services and/or products. That’s why.

Granted, they may very well be those who will be cautious about spending the next dollar. And some may have lost some of their income and headed for financial problems.

That said, you still have a business to run and correct me if I’m wrong – but didn’t you start a business because you wanted it to be successful? Or were you aiming for failure from the very start?

Listen, do yourself a favor. Turn off the television and keep your focus. If you look straight ahead and continue serving your customers you will get through these tough economic times.

Recessions come and go – and you WILL get through this one, if and only if….you adhere to the following advice that I’m about to share with you. If you want to beat this recession, it’s important to keep in mind these three fundamental principles of marketing:

1. Work your customer database: It doesn’t matter the state of the economy. The fact remains: it will cost you five times as much to get a new customer as it would if you were to market to an already existing one.

So, be sure to always ‘roll out the red carpet’, for your customers. Treat them like gold because they are the lifeline of your business. Not your products. Your customers, yes. Also, make sure they know of every service/product that you have to offer.

2. Repetition is key. If you want to be successful in your business, you will want to market frequently. The way to make your profits soar is to never slow down in your marketing efforts.

This is what most of your competitors are doing right now in their panic over the economic conditions. Many believe that cutting their marketing budget is a smart move. Not so.

Research states businesses who kept their advertising up during past recessions had turned up their profit volumes four times higher two years later than businesses that had reduced their marketing/advertising because of the troubles in the economy.

3. Say no to marketing and you can kiss your business good-bye. Too many business owners fail to see the importance of making marketing and advertising their number one priority.

Do you think that your title is really “Chiropractor?” Or “Financial Planner?” No. You are not a Chiropractor or a Lawyer, nor are you a Pet retail store owner.

You are a MARKETER of Chiropractic services. You are a MARKETER of Financial planning services. You are a MARKETER of Pet retail products services. This is your title – if you want to stay, no, thrive in business and crush your competition.

Unless of course, you are not in business to succeed. Well, in that case…you’re reading the wrong article, my friend. Sorry to have wasted your time. My apologies. I thought you were ‘in it to win it.’

But for those of you who want to become students of marketing – be sure to stay tuned to the next lesson in which you will learn the steps that you will need to take in order to keep your business flowing with great prosperity.

The Number One Article On Selling More To Your Customers.

I don’t know about you but if I were to open up a small business….my number one goal would be to make money. I’d like to take a cruise and dine in the finest of restaurants whenever my heart desires.

Click here to learn more ways on how to sell more to your customers.

Oh, and let’s not forget…buy only bottled water and daily massages for my boxer, Boula. I can hear some of you gasping already: “I can’t believe she just said that?!” Yes, I said it and if you could see me right now….I’m saying it into a megaphone while standing on the edge of my roof.

Whether you want to admit it or not…..you want the same things too. And I’m here to tell you that if your number one goal as a small business owner is not to make a profit (unless you have a money tree in your garage!) then you’re going to be standing on the employment line and crying in your alphabet soup very soon.

Alright, back to business goals….

My number two goal would be maintaining customer relationships so that I can stay in business while offering my customers the best products and services. If you want to be profitable and have a competitive edge in any economy then you’d be very wise to keep selling to your customers.

Why?

Because it’s going to cost you so much more money to attract a new customer to your business than to simply market to your already existing customers. Please don’t fall into the thinking that you’re annoying customers when you responsibly and respectfully keep them abreast of any new products/services you offer.

They will thank you for letting them know. This is the way I look at it: If you’re a small business owner then most likely you don’t have a big marketing budget, so, you’ve got to be very creative in how you keep putting the word out about your business.

And since you spent money on advertising to get that customer in the door then it would make perfect sense to keep selling to them, correct? Why would you allow them to go anywhere else to buy the same product or service that you offer?

Ray Kroc of McDonald’s fame would nod his head in agreement. We can learn a lot from him as he built a fortune on the principle of selling more to his customers. You don’t believe me?

Okay, when was the last time you ordered a meal at McDonald’s and you didn’t hear: “Would you like fries with that shake?”, coming out of the mouth of a pimpled-faced teenager behind the cash register?

You may not have wanted fries when you walked into the restaurant but you were sure salivating for it when asked if you wanted it with your shake. It didn’t’ matter if you were on one of those lemonade-cayenne pepper diets so you can fit into your favorite jeans from high school. You wanted fries and By George you were going to have it!

Amazon.com latched on to the line made famous by McDonald’s and put their own twist to it: If you order a book from them….this is the message that pops up right before you get to the shopping cart: “People who’ve bought xxxx have also bought xxxx.”

If you offer additional products or services at the point of the original sale, you can increase your sale values and the profits you bring in….and again, your customers will thank you.

You need more examples to get your creativity flowing on how you can apply this to your business?

-Carpet Cleaners: Can you sell removal of dust mites? How about scotch guarding the carpet as an add-on to the general cleaning? Every carpet needs to be deodorized every once in a while – sell your customers your array of sprays to rub out any accidents from the kids playing.

-Spa: Your customer has just had a relaxing facial….can you offer her your face products so that in between visits she can keep her skin supple? Birthday gift certificates she can share with her loved ones so that they, too, can enjoy the same experience?

-Real Estate Agency: If you think that as a Realtor that the selling stops when your customer has bought a house from you then you’re going to have to stretch your thinking outside the box and put on your money goggles for a second.

Click here to learn more ways on how to sell more to your customers.

Alright, you sold lots and lots of homes this year and you’re feeling pretty good about yourself – and you should. It’s good to be on the side of success.

Now, after selling a house to your customer….why not offer them other services? When people buy a house, don’t they need new window coverings, furniture, landscaping, carpeting, electrical work, painting, contracting work, computer services, telephone services, cable services, and art?

But I only sell houses, you say. Yes, you sell houses but that doesn’t stop you from setting up strategic alliances with ten different businesses that compliment the work of a realtor.

This is what you can do: Approach reputable businesses that offer complimentary products/services and get them to see how working together can be a mutually profitable union.

You get them to sign a Non-Disclosure form and an agreement stating that they will pay a percentage of the new business you’ll be sending them, plus a discount to the customers you introduce them to.

This is a win/win/win because you’re offering your customers a great service they already need and saving them time from having to go out and find it on their own.

Your strategic partners are getting new customers they didn’t have to spend advertising for and you, Mr./Mrs. Realtor will be generating multiple income streams to add to your own business so you can finally afford that 10 day cruise and cartons of Evian water for your pooches you and they so deserve. Good for you!

Remember, you’re in business to make money, so, keep selling to your customers. I hope while doing so, you are committed to providing the very best to your customers and continue to build solid relationships with them.

If you treat your customers right and focus on rewarding them they will be more than happy to reward you in return. Your survival depends on it.

Click here to learn more ways on how to sell more to your customers.

Shocking Information About Maintaining Customer Relationships Exposed.

Are you very good at maintaining customer relationships in your small business? If the answer to this is ‘no’ and one of your goals is to make money in your business then you’d better re-focus your priorities.

Your top objective should be revolved around protecting your customer relationships and winning back those you thought you’d never lose.

Here is an excellent case study: The year was 1997 and United Parcel Service (UPS) lost a significant number of customers as a result of a strike by Teamsters lasting fifteen days. So, where did much of UPS’s base of 1.5 million customers run off into the sunset with?

Well, they rode off on a white horse with RPS, Federal Express, and Airbone because the work stoppage opened the eyes of the UPS customers to see how risky it is to use a single shipment company to take care of all their packages and parcels.

Of course, Fedex had no complaints about the strike as it was responsible for the company delivering upwards of 850,000 additional packages as each day of the strike went on and reported that they expected to keep at least 25% of these new customers.

UPS wasted very little time in putting into action an aggressive plan to reclaim their lost customers and neither should you as a small business owner. This is the way UPS looked at it: jobs are on the line and this posed a grave threat to their profits.

Furthermore, what made this situation worse was that despite the 80,000 drivers back behind the wheels of the big brown trucks….thousands more were laid off. UPS had one thing on their mind during this time: “Win back our customers or die!”

UPS put on their ‘customer win-back’ hats as soon as the strike settled down and began a telephone campaign letting customers know that business was back to normal as usual and sending out letters expressing their apology for any inconvenience it may have caused.

UPS officials also mailed out letters reassuring customers that the company’s former reliability had been reinstated and encouraged them to accept use the discounted certificates enclosed. This attitude of things being back to normal was also being reinforced by the UPS drivers dropping by for pickups as they expressed cheerfulness and great confidence when meeting face to face with customers.

Do you think it stopped there? Not at all.

UPS was determined to further heal the open wounds and broken trust such that they invited their customers to meet with them at both small and large round table meetings to hear them out.

The goal was to recover their lost customers and their many win-back initiatives coupled with on-line shopping, continued progress in shipping technology and cost-effective services, enabled UPS to not only accomplish this goal but to also enable them return their drivers to work and increase its’ profits by 87 percent only one year following the strike that almost destroyed their business.

If you’re thinking to yourself that you could never be in the same situation with UPS as you’re a small business owner and only major companies are vulnerable to these kinds of things.

Well, my friend, I couldn’t disagree with you more because every business need to be protecting and maintaining customer relationships especially in these unstable economic times as it’s been reported that every year businesses lose anywhere between 10 to 40 percent of their customers.

Think about all the news you read about in downsizings, plant closings, rightsizings and layoffs. What kind of effect do you think this is having on employees and the surrounding communities?

What about the impact on customer turnovers that go unmonitored? This type of thing results in the remaining customers feeling alienated, stagnation in company growth, and deterioration of employee trust – and we all know that when people are not treated in the way they feel is right by a business they are quick to raise their our voices for everyone within earshot to hear.

This reminds me of a restaurant I used to be a customer of for many years. I believe I spent an average of $150 per month with them on their many specials. I loved the food and brought along several co-workers to join me there for lunch.

One day I went to grab my usual meal there and learned that the restaurant would be closing their doors and moving to another location much further away due to the high rent prices they were paying. I remember hearing a customer after customer expressing their shock and disappointment upon learning of this sudden news: “What?!…well, why didn’t the owner send out a letter letting us know?!!”

I shared the same sentiments. And even though it served the some of the best meals that I’ve ever experienced, I never recommended it to another individual nor did I go to the trouble of traveling to their new location. Hmmm…something tells me this place of business is going to have bigger problems to come than high keeping up with the high cost of rent.

If you’re not doing everything you can do to protect your customer relationships then you will spending a significant amount of money in advertising and since most small businesses are not using direct response marketing in which they’re employing tracking and measuring strategies…they’re most likely wasting their money.

But that’s a topic for my next article. Until then, focus on the lesson I hope you’ve learned here: the importance of maintaining customer relationships.

If you take care of your customers…..they’ll take good care of you!

The Untold Story On Customer Retention That You Must Read Or Be Left Out.

If you were among the millions of people watching the 2008 Olympic Games then you witnessed Michael Phelps win a historic 8 gold medals and you said to yourself: “Wow, he’s amazing!”

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Well, what if I told you that your customers could be saying the same thing about your business if you apply the marketing lessons that you’re about to learn here? Oh yeah, it’s true. I’m as serious as that eviction notice taped to your neighbor’s door!

It doesn’t matter what kind of business you’re in, customers are your bread and butter and you’d better remember to always treat them with service so excellent that they become your very own marching army of word-of-mouth fans who just can’t stop talking about your stellar services even if you paid them not to.

Close your eyes for a second.

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Now, pick a business; florist, printing shop, bakery, or an internet access café. It really doesn’t matter because what I’m about to tell you is applicable to every business you can imagine.

Here’s a little secret: If any business expects to keep its’ doors open, they must have a solid marketing plan to get, keep, and grow customers. And if a customer slips through the cracks, then it is to your financial advantage to figure out how to get that customer back.

Do you remember how you stayed up all night thinking about all the things you can do to win back the heart of your lost love right after a romantic break-up? The red roses delivered to her job?

The “I’m sorry, please forgive me?” card you mailed to him? Do you remember how much thought and planning you put into winning back that relationship?

Well, in case you missed the memo…guess what? You are in a relationship with your customers whether you know it or not. And if you want to stay in business it is of paramount importance for you to take this same level of relentlessly dogged approach.

Click here for more on maintaining customer relationships.

Why? Because when it comes down to it, getting your lost customers to come back, once they have “broken-up” with you, will cost you far less money than to acquire a new customer. This is widely referred to as customer win-back.

Customer win-back is a business term that’s all too familiar in many of the large industries such as long-distance phone companies and credit card services in which direct marketing practices such as carefully segmenting ex-customers into control groups and test cells are repeatedly conducted. The goal is to send out new marketing offers in order to increase the customer win-back ratio, or to lower the win-back cost.

Did you know that in far too many businesses, customers leave in truck-loads every single day without so much as an exit interview? Furthermore, there is no understanding as to why they left and even worse, no effort whatsoever is conducted to keep them or to win them back.

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What many businesses don’t know and ought to know is that to acquire a single new customer to replace the old one you let get away without a fight can cost you anywhere from $10 to as much as $400.

This figure can sometimes be higher, yet there exists businesses that make the costly mistake of not allocating a budget to specifically spend money to go after their lost customers and bring them back into the fold. This would be more economical than marketing to a brand new customer.

Unfortunately, businesses are not looking at their numbers when it comes to customer retention and loyalty. They’re too busy throwing their money into getting new customers thus failing to see that their real problem is in their lack of a customer retention system and customer win-back program.

If you, as a small business owner, can see the importance and value of your customer database then you’ve won half the battle and are well on your way to building a solidly, successful, and thriving business for a long, long, time to come.

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The Insider Secrets For Increasing Your Sales Exposed.

Small business owners don’t have to look too far to come up with ways to increase their sales because their current database is being neglected and dying a slow death. Sooner or later, a major competitor will come into town and lure them all away.

Click here for your free online survey software.

If you are the owner of a business and care to make money, then you’ll want to sit up and listen to this. It’s better than a pint of your favorite Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream.

Find out what your customers want. I know you were expecting something truly revolutionary but let me tell you a little secret: most of your competitors are not doing this. If you take heed to what I’m about to say…then you will find that it is one of the easiest ways of increasing sales of your products and/or services. Go and ask your customers what is that they want and then give it to ‘em.

Click here for your free online survey software.

You can put together a survey asking your customers to let you know what it is that you are doing well and what needs improvement. Believe me, they will be happy you asked. There are people everywhere who live to fill out those little survey cards and they take it very seriously. This is what you want. This kind of thing will make your customers feel that you appreciate them and the value that they bring to your place of business.

Oh, I can hear some of you moaning already: “I don’t know how to conduct a survey. I wouldn’t know where to even start.” Okay, that’s why you’ve got me leaning over your shoulder giving you instructions on how to get this thing up and rolling. Turn off your instant message box and lean forward, my friend.

Let’s pretend you have a pet daycare business for the super-duper affluent folks (just because I want to spend some of their money!).

Some of your services include:

Pooch Massage & Evian Water Treat: Fido gets reika massage fingers running up and down his spine and a big bowl of all he can drink Evian water afterwards.

15 Minute Story Book Time: Pets boarding over night can have mother goose rhymes read to them by a staff – extra $$ if a goose costume is required to be worn by the employee.

Belly-Rub Hour: You pick the time for a staff to spend time with your pet and do nothing but rub its’ belly.

Click here for your free online survey software.

Hey, you can laugh and shake your heads all you want but pet parents are serious about their little furry friends and they will beg, borrow, and/or steal to provide them the very best that life has to offer. I should know as I’m a pet parent myself- proud mommie to the world’s greatest boxer girl. Oh, how I love her!

Alright, enough about that.

We were talking about conducting surveys for your pet business (or any business for that matter) in order to give your customers what they want. You can design a feedback card that your customers fill out when they make a purchase.

Ask them to let you know what they think about the pet services you provide and/or what changes in behavior do they notice since Fido has been using them. One of the things you can do is offer a prize drawn every month in exchange for their comments.

I would advise you to take it even further and conduct a phone survey through an independent third party, especially if you are offering high value services or items to learn from your customers the good, the bad, and the very ugly.

This is the kind of thing that will get your customers spreading good word of mouth about your business because it makes them feel great that they are being acknowledged. They will be more than happy to give you the feedback that you need to provide excellent service and stay competitive. Your competitors are not doing this. Many are lazy and simply don’t care about their customers on this level and frankly don’t want to do the work necessary.

Click here for your free online survey software.

I need to prepare you to expect your customers to tell you exactly what’s on their mind about what they think about your business during the call placed by an independent third party. Why should you hire a third party, you ask?

Well, if you were the one doing the calling….your customers may not be as honest as you’d need them to be but if the survey is being conducted in which they can remain anonymous…people are more likely to express every single problem they may have with your services:

“Fido told me that you cheat him out of his belly rubs – giving him 45 minutes of the one hour required!”

“Kitty has awful flatulence since she’s been drinking your water. I specifically asked your staff to give her Evian, you morons!”

Here is another idea: you can also set up an on-line survey where you allow your customers to create anonymous accounts when logging in so they can feel that they can openly share their concerns. This is excellent research for you and it will save you so much agony from having to come up with your own ideas when it comes to creating new products.

All you have to do is turn to your already existing client base and ask them for their input about what they want by way of product suggestions, new services and/or items they would like.

Once you’ve read through all the comments and suggestions you will then be able to make smart decisions as to whether or not you want to introduce new products and/or services. You’ll have the data to help you improve the areas in your business that you need to immediately focus on.

Also, you’ll know exactly what you need to do to increase your profits because your customers will tell you everything and guide you every step of the way to keep your business thriving successfully for a very long time to come – even in a slow economy. Reason to fear a recession? Your competitors, yes. But not you!

Click here for your free online survey software.

Customer Retention Tips: The Ultimate Solution That You Can Learn About Today.

When in a slow turning economy, such as this 2008 recession we are in now….small business owners begin to sweat beads of panic. And they are not panicking about the possibility that they’re favorite sitcom may be canceled; they are perspiring more profusely than a fugitive on a run because they are afraid to go broke. So, what do most businesses do? They begin to cut things out of their budget and one of those things is their marketing & advertising. Big mistake!

Click here to get more customer relationship marketing ideas.

What they fail to understand is this: marketing and advertising, when done right, is the only expenditure that directly yields a profit. And I would imagine that people open businesses so that they can make money, right? So, why pray-tell would they want to do anything that would stand in the way of that? The problem is that most business owners are looking through a one dimensional lens that points them to the activity of what all the other businesses are doing. They erroneously believe that if everyone around them is doing something then it must be correct. This reminds me of an incident that occurred when I was a little girl.

I grew up in a home where my mother opened her heart and, um, the door to nearly any and every distant relative or friend of a friend of a friend passing through town who either didn’t have the money to pay for a hotel room, got kicked out of the house by angry wives, or needed to live with us temporarily in order to save money to pay for their grandma’s gangrene leg operation. Bless, mother. And her sometimes gullible ways.

Click here to get more customer relationship marketing ideas.

Well, one day, a pack of loud-mouth women were living with us for the summer. And there was a sale at the 99 cents store. Yea, yea. border-line poverty sucked. We shopped there. “3 jars of hair grease for 99 cents”! ,the big neon sign read. Honey, let me tell you…it was like a herd of buffalos charging when the word got out in the neighborhood about the sale. Women came out of the woodworks to stock up on their supplies of hair-grease, including my mother and the herd of women living with us at the time.

Oh, boy. It was like Christmas in July upon their return from the 99 cents store with jars upon jars of this product as all the women in the neighborhood held it close to their bosoms. One by one my mother and her house guests parted their afros and greased their scalps with delicate precision. Their joyous chatter grew louder and louder. They were so happy to have found such a great deal. And since everyone was rushing to get it, it must be a good thing.

Three days later, the women (and, mom!) woke up to bald patches all over their heads.

Lesson:

If everyone in your small business industry and niche are doing the same thing, do the very opposite – if you don’t want to be consulting with hair club for men.

Click here to get more customer relationship marketing ideas.

To stay afloat and recession-proof your business in a slow turning economy, there is a long list of marketing strategies I could teach you to apply to your business that would make you the least bit of affected by the recession. Let’s take a look at a few of them:

-You’ll want to create appropriate tweaking to the products and services that you offer. I’m not saying that you should be slashing your prices. But you can provide more flexible payment options so that it will make it easier for your clients to continue buying from you.

-Don’t shy away from talking about the recession in your newsletter or email communications with your customers. On the contrary, take what the news is reporting on the current state of affairs in the economy and stack it up in your favor by reminding your customers of the incredible benefits they are getting from buying your products/services. Keep it in their mind the incredible savings and fairness in price you are offering compared to the value they receive.

-How about creating a much wider price range of goods and services? This will give your customers even more choices to make payments to you and even more reasons to stay loyal to your business because I can almost bet you that your competitors will not be doing any of these things. They’re in chronic panic mode, remember? And like Buffy the vampire, too busy slaying the marketing and advertising dragon.

Click here to get more customer relationship marketing ideas.

Marketing Ninja Fundamentals Explained That Even A Caveman Will Understand.

If you don’t know who Bill Gates is then you’ve been living in the caves with bears. Furthermore, if you own a small business then you have been missing out on an excellent case study of how to be a marketing ninja. Forbes magazine has repeatedly listed Bill Gates as America’s richest man. Hands down, this guy’s got more money than God.

Click here to become a fat-wallet marketing ninja.

But more importantly, he has a Ph.D. in ‘crushing the competition’ to a pulp that sends grown men and women running for a milk bottle from mommy. He doesn’t play ‘fair’, um, err, whatever that means, and he makes absolutely no apologies for stepping on your G.I. Joe toy soldier. And while he’s at it, he’ll be sure to fill your sandbox with water and kick some in your face on his way to the see-saw.

YES! Now, that’s what I’m talking about.

What’s that? Oh, you don’t know what I’m talking about?

Okay, pull up a chair. Pop some popcorn because you’re in for a treat on how to be the marketing ninja in a dying, crying, ‘blood squirting out from the neck’ economy.

Click here to become a fat-wallet marketing ninja.

The year, 2008, and we are now in a recession. So, what is the first thing that people do besides start panicking and labeling and hiding all their food from roommates? Well, if we take small business owners as an example, I can tell you that one of the first things they do is make the immediate decision to slash their marketing & advertising budget down to the size of the grain of a mustard seed.

Have you ever seen the size of a mustard seed? I mean, even the biblical Jesus is amazed at the tiny size of that thing that he went home, drank a bottle of liquor (stolen from his stay at the Marriott, of course!) and out popped a parable. And men with small wa-wa’s think they have issues. pff!

Rats, where was I?…..ahh, yes – marketing. It’s so hard to stay focused in this August heat.

Click here to become a fat-wallet marketing ninja.

When the economy starts to slow down, do you think sound marketing principles change like the tides in the ocean and no longer apply? No. And whoever tells you that is wrong and most likely still selling his books from the trunk of his car. Run, lamb, run. These marketing principles apply even more so and must be used rather aggressively. And Bill Gates would be nodding his head in agreement.

Lesson numero uno: Marketing is the only expenditure that directly produces profit. To please my lawyers, I must add that it directly produces profit IF you are spending money on mediums that allows you to measure it otherwise you are wasting a lot of your advertising dollars and this should have been stopped long before the arrival of the recession that we are in. I will go into more details about this in future articles.

Lesson numero dos: Most of your competitors will be cutting their marketing budget and if you should ever find yourself in the unfortunate position in a river of panic-stricken, drowning, small business owners on a white-water rafting trip gone bad, whatever floating piece of plank they’re all headed for….don’t follow them. Go for the tree. And the point here is simply: If the masses are all doing it, they must be wrong. They chose death. Now, you, grasshopper….choose life.

Click here to become a fat-wallet marketing ninja.

Lesson numero tress: The door will be left wide open for the king of the jungle to market like a hungry lion because the pack of small business ostriches have stuck their head in the sand and committed marketing suicide when they killed their advertising budget dead. Be forewarned: the spirit of Bill Gates will enter the bodies of your competition and take complete control of whatever pituitary gland connecting to the brain that turns on the Lee Iaccoca marketing switch. Oh, if you don’t know who he is, you’ve not only been living in caves with bears, you really ARE a mammal and I hope you’re wearing a sign that reads: “Do not feed before six.”

Click here to become a fat-wallet marketing ninja.

To play hard and to win big during a recession, small business owners must first look to their current customer base. This is not the time to get lazy and ignore this bunch. What you want to do is start romancing them again. Frankly, the honeymoon should have never ended, but that’s a whole other topic.

You must start up communications with your customer base even more so now than ever. Why? Because it’s going to cost you a heap of money to replace them and don’t think it’s going to be as easy as Sunday morning, as the song goes. And when I say to up your communication with them, I don’t mean to send a wimpy little postcard that reads: “hi, just thinking of you.” No. No. No, my loyal subjects. Your talks must be of quality. You’re in business to make money, not make love. Unless you’re a lucky pervert with exclusive rights to legally print money forever and ever till kingdom come. If not….

Click here to become a fat-wallet marketing ninja.

You need to be creating customer retention systems that rewards their loyalty, incentivizes their patronage, and keeping them glued to you because what’s going to happen is that your competitors will be attempting to seduce them with cheaper prices all day long.

You want to have your customers walking around in hypnotic trance-like circles that leads them back to your place of business every single time. No wiggle room for competitors whatsoever. You mustn’t sleep or eat as you set this baby up. And once the machine starts rolling it will be automatic and you won’t need to work so hard since a system will be put in place.

Stay tuned for my next article in which I will continue to spill underground secrets on how you can not only survive a slow economy but bring in more profits than you’ll know what to do with even if you married a one-legged gold digger who doesn’t know a ‘Beatles’ song to advise you. Until next time!

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Who Else Is Lying To Us About Total Customer Value?

If you were to walk into a room filled with small business owners and asked them to write their assets on a piece of paper they would be quick to list such items as furniture, leasehold improvements, equipment, and inventory. It’s interesting to note here that very few would count their customers as assets and this is a big red flag as to the troubles that can be found in their businesses.

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Take a look at every successful business and what you will find as the common thread is that the customer is not only perceived as but is the most important asset and is treated as such. In order for you to fully embrace and ‘own’ this belief, you are going to have to sit down with notepad and pen in hand to figure out what your customer is worth to you. And while you’re at it, go ahead and decide what your customer can or should be worth to you.

Let me create a scenario for you in order to further illustrate my point:

Think of all the businesses that counts you as a customer. Okay, if you are a woman, more than likely one of your favorite places to shop would be “ABC Shoes.” Oh, just play along. I’m just having some fun. (wink)

I digress…..Alright, where was I?

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Ahh, yes. You are a woman with an insatiable appetite for shoes that no therapy can cure, not even the kind that shocks you with electricity. For a period of three or four years, you purchased well over half your massive inventory of shoes from this one shoe store: shoes you wear for the office, open toe shoes for casual walks on the boardwalks during the summer, shoes for all the all the times you were a maid of honor and the bride insisted that all shoes must be brand new.

She even required you to bring in the receipt to prove it! Oh, and let’s not forget the red stiletto heels you wore in the bedroom because your lover begged you to. Is it just me or did it just get hot-hot in here?

Okay, back to business. I’m going to guess that over a period of three to four years of being a loyal customer to “ABC Shoes”, that your average annual purchases at that store was $4000 (Imelda would be so proud of you). So, in four years, you were worth $16,000 in gross. Total of years = 4 X average annual purchase = $4000 yields $16,000.

Now, because you suffer from the incurable disease of “Being Attacked By Shoes”, more than likely, this would have attracted others just like yourself. Women foaming at the mouth whom you referred to the store to temporarily fix their addictions. I’ll pick a number. I will say that you recommended three women to the store and each were worth at least half of what you spent per year. That number: $6,000 total.

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Remember how you couldn’t help yourself in recommending the shoe store to three women? Well, every single one of them has the potential of bringing in additional raving shoe maniacs, oops, I mean, customers they will run into at weddings and barbecues. But for the sake of illustration, let’s reduce that amount in which the additional customers they bring into the business is worth $1,300.00 a year, total. If you do the math, $11,300….$45,200.00 every four years.

Now that you have a better understanding of just how important your customers are to the success of your business….it can only improve your relationship with them and your bottom-line. In my next article I’m going to share with you tips on how to build a brick house around your customers to keep them from ever wanting to leave you and committing the unforgivable sin of “competition adultery.” The nerve!

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3 Simple Marketing Strategies For Your Small Business Explained.

If you’re in business for yourself then sooner or later you’re going to be asking yourself the following questions:

How do I get more customers? How can I get my customers to spend more money with me? How can I get better quality of leads without breaking the bank account?

Is there a better way of targeting my advertising so that I win much more than I lose?

Below are three strategies to attracting more business and making more money:

Strategy #1 – You Must Understand The Lifetime Value Of Your Clients

Every business owner needs to fully understand the life time value of their customers.

This is the total profit that a customer will bring to your business over the lifetime of your dealings with that customer. The following example will explain why it’s important to know this number: Let’s pretend you own a book store.

If your customer spends $50 every time they walk into your store, and they visit once a month for 4 years, a customer is worth $2400.00. The math would look like this: $50 (average bill) x 12 (number of visits) x 4 (number of years).

Think of how much money you’re missing out on if you were thinking of only one transaction?

Let’s take a look at another example:

John Smith sells a cd plus manual kit on how to self-publish a book. The initial manual set is worth $500. John knows that over the lifetime of a customer, a significant number will spend somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000 with additional products!

By knowing his numbers he can afford to allocate a significant amount of money towards his advertising budget to bring in more customers. Why? Because he is equipped with information that he’ll make it up on average over the lifetime of the customer.

Strategy # 2 – Build Up Your Customer List

Always collect their names, emails, and other contact information from your customers.

How will you stay in contact with your customers if you don’t collect your information?

And if you do ask for their contact details on your sales slips and invoices, be sure you are using them!

And if you are wondering how you collect them it is as simple as asking them for it. This is best done during your customers’ purchasing process by asking them to fill out a form with their details. There are many successful companies who did this for years and would mail you catalogs in the mail.

Don’t you remember getting them? And when you received these catalogs you would find a comfortable place to relax with pen in hand checking off or earmarking the items you would later order. This enabled these companies to make more money from their customers.

Another way to get your customers to give you their contact information is by having a monthly drawing in which a prize will be given. It will amaze you how many names you could collect by doing this.

Let’s say you own a restaurant, you can offer a free dessert to everyone who drops their business card into a fish bowl. It’s not impossible to collect over 1000 names over the course of a month. How much will a dessert cost? $2 – $3, if that much. If all business owners were to implement this marketing strategy alone, they would be protecting their businesses in the face of stiff competition. They could send out snail mail to their customers with special offers on slow nights and watch them come flocking in.

This can also be done with emails and faxes. You want to generate more business? No problem. Send out a special promotion.

Strategy # 3 Develop A Strong Relationship With Your Prospects And Clients.

If you want to generate new business that you can keep for a lifetime then you’d better make it a number one priority to keep in touch with your customers. The reason you’d want to do this is so that you can remain at the top of mind with your clients. When they’re ready to buy – you’re the one they’ll think of first.

It’s not unusual to hear cases in which a business will send out newsletters to their customers for years before they buy. You want to position yourself in such a way that when they’re ready to buy — you’ll get the sale.

The lesson here: keep communicating and following up with your customers until they’re ready to place an order with you.

To get more information on how to increase your profits in your small business visit:

Lifetime value of a customer.