The Five most Important Questions You Need to Answer about your Business if You want to Increase Revenues

Ok its day twenty of our guidance emails.  Today you not only have to read the content but also think about answers to just five questions.  How important are these simple questions you might ask?  The answer is critical to you getting more from less with your marketing.  Not only can the answers provide you with insight into your business but they can and will help you cut adverting costs and increase revenues.

So with that being said let’s not waste any time.  By the way I expect to get the answers back from each of you in 48 hours or less.

If you are serious about strategically setting your company business or practice apart then this is an exercise you need to complete.

The five questions are:

1. Its six months from today and with that in mind what would be your goal in terms of marketing and what would you like the results to look like?
2. Which three of your current marketing problems (tactics that aren’t working) do you need to eliminate in order for you to be satisfied with your marketing progress over the next six months?
3. What are your three biggest opportunities for gaining massive increases in your revenue, in terms of marketing, over the next six months?
4. What have been over the last twelve months your most effective marketing tactics that you have used that have resulted in your biggest revenue spikes and that you could use to maximize your revenues moving forward?
5. Of all of your answers you just identified which one will produce your greatest ROI and why?

If you answer these questions honestly then you will paint a clear picture of what you need to do in terms of your marketing and how to optimize your success.

Most companies fail to look at what they are doing and just randomly try all different types of things hoping one or two will stick.  By performing just a little deep thinking and looking at the results you can greatly change your outcome.  Remember it is all about doing less and getting more in terms of benefits and revenues.

Over the last few weeks, hopefully, I have opened your eyes, minds and thoughts to a whole series of ideas on how to effectively and strategically market.  We know it has already helped with a few of you as we have received awesome letters of success.

What we need to happen for the rest of you is that you to get awesome results.  That won’t happen unless you take action and help yourself first.

If you don’t know where you have been, or where you are now, you for sure can’t determine where you want and need to be in the future.  Take a few minutes and really think about these questions as they can quickly put your marketing into perspective.

If you want 2013 to be your best year ever then you are going to have to sit down and think about how you going to get there.  One thing for certain is that you will not get there if you continue to use a shotgun approach with your marketing.

In today’s digital world there are more shinny object marketing tactics that don’t work than do work.  You need guidance when it comes to making the correct decision about your marketing.  Trying a bunch of random things will only do one thing…make you poorer.

Day 21 is special.  Simply take the time to answer just five little questions and I will personally put the entire first campaign together for you but only after you take the time to see where it is you want to go.

Day 21 will take a while to get back to you but it will be a complete action plan you can follow for your business or practice with the specific steps to take all in a done for you ready to implement form.  But you will only get a day 21 response when you take the time to answer and return my questions.

Good luck and if you have any questions do not hesitate to get in touch.

P.S.  As I have mentioned throughout these 20 emails I will be taking this one step further and actually working with 5 selected companies for six months.  No I’m not doing it for free and there will be an increase in your monthly fees.  I don’t work for free and I’m sure you don’t either…so respect that.

I already have two companies that have accepted the offer and have started to see results.  That leaves just three spots left.  My guarantee is really only going to be rather simple.  If you don’t see results you won’t pay.

So if you want to be one of three under consideration I urge you to get to work thinking about how 2013 will be your best year ever.

Now that you are communicating on a regularbasis what do you need to communicate?

Irresistible offers are the key but they need to be integrated into your communications so they are not perceived as blatant pitches.  Speaking of pitches or sales copy it should only be included in every 10 or so communications.  If you happen to be connecting and communicating with social media the number changes to every 50 touches.

So if you’re a small business owner or the owner of a medical practice how do you create an irresistible offer that works?

Here are a few ideas as to what my trigger a buying spree.

• Bonuses that are unadvertised and made valuable only to existing customers, clients or patients
• If your regular guarantee is for 30 days extend it to 90 days or even one year
• Give free samples away not only to your existing customers, clients and patients but also to the people they refer
• Contests are powerful and can work for almost any business
• Create a better than risk free guarantee meaning that if your customer, client or patient is not satisfied they get an extra free gift to try and keep even if they return the original product for a refund
• If you are a retailer or have the ability to act like a retailer have a private sale that is only announced to your best customers, clients and patients…make them feel special
• Extend an offer for a free report (How to save thousands on your kids braces) or something that provides real value for zero cost
• Package your products and services together so that the customer, client or patient gets more for less
• Starting a preferred or VIC (Very Important Client or Customer) club and make it exclusive and charge an annual fee might also work depending on your niche
• Make exclusive local only offers to existing customers, clients and patients but only when they refer one person to you (make the offer of extreme value to get them working for you)
• For super high end customers, clients and patients provide them with high-end bonuses (how about a week in Hawaii all expenses paid)

So there you have more ideas from which to empower your business or practice all on a shoestring budget.

Communicating with your Customers, Clients and Patients

Way back in guidance lesson number nine we told you there are only three ways to grow you business.  But before you can grow it we also told you that you need to communicate.

Once you have tried a few of the tactics and they are working you then need to start communicating more often with relevant information.  If you want your customers, clients and patients to buy more and more often you need to provide them useful information.

If you have tried one or two of the guidance tactics and now finding yourself sitting not he fence then this is for you.  To often business ownersbelieve (incorrectly so) that it’s an intrusion, inconvenience, invasion or a mistake to communicate frequently with their customers, clients or patients.

In many instances there thinking is that they don’t want to bother their customers, clients or patients.  In reality, many times, it’s that they (business owner) doesn’t want to be bothered b the small amount of effort and work it takes to keep in front of and in touch with customers, clients and patients.  This is one of the mostly costly mistakes you can make.

Anytime you have important, relevant, information you have an obligation to feed it into your pipeline.  The majority of people that do searches on the internet are looking information or “how to.”  Turn your business or practice into the “how to” of laser focused information and watch what happens.

If you have information that can sustain, support, enlighten or advance the use of your product or service you owe it to your customers, clients or patients to disseminate that information as often and quickly as you can.  Your customers, clients and patients will appreciate it and many times forward it on to deserving friends who may become your next customer, client or patient.

Today’s world is fast paced and information driven.  In this frenetic environment finding and getting information is essential and your customers, clients and patients will value your product or service more when you feed them more information.

Do you think that there is any statistical probability that your customer, client or patient is focused in on you and your product or service 24/7?  Of course not so that is why you have an obligation to personally stay in touch weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually.  Frequency depends on how dynamic your product or service is and only you can measure that.

If you establish from day 1 with your customers, clients or patients that it is your intention to clearly and frequently communicate then they will immediately see benefit and value in your product or service.  If you don’t chances are they won’t.

If you communicate regularly with your customers, clients and patients it becomes an expectation and they will anxiously be waiting for the extra value you are providing them.

Here are some obvious and not so obvious ways of following up with each and every sale:

• In general it takes 8 to 9 communications or touches before a person becomes a customer, client or patient
• So don’t give up after one or two contacts…it’s a numbers game
• If you are doing a physical mailing follow up next time with a phone call or email
• Send a personal “thank you” card, note or letter to every new customer, client or patientyou get
• Continue to thank customers, client or patient who continue to make purchases
• Send random emails, snail mail or phone calls thanking people for the business they did in the past and while your at it add a special discount, coupon or some other form of promotional material that encourages them to buy again
• People who purchase big ticket items should get special treatment as there “lifetime value” potentially is much greater than a non big ticket item purchaser
• Send follow-ups after a purchase to see how they are enjoying it and if you can be of any other service
• Send advance notices of sales and special VIP treatment for past customers, clients and patients
• Hold an event to draw your customers, clients and patients deeper into your inner circle of “influencers”

If you are a doctor, dentist or lawyer you need to step it up even more.  You are getting a hefty fee so your customers, clients and patients expect more and they also deserve more.

One doctor we advise has a rather lengthy get acquainted consultation form that digs deeper into his or her personal life.  Before each consultation the doctor reads carefully the form over and never fails to ask about the other spouse, children, hobbies, etc.  This builds a unique, gratifying and solid bond as the customer;client or patient now feels special.

I have another client that has a little board (white board) right in the front door that has little drawing, a big welcome message and the name of the patients who are scheduled in the morning.  At noon time they erase the morning patients and add the afternoon patients.  They also have a little row at the end of the board that announces what patients have referred the most new patients during the month.

This entire exercise is about building long term relationships and keeping in touch.  The easiest way to grow is to not lose any customers, clients or patients.  But if attrition is just part of your business replacing old with new at a faster rate than losing them will provide measurable results and revenues.

Risk Reversal a Seldom used by powerful Concept

If you own a business or practice and have any form of buyer hesitation then risk reversal may be a way to overcome any hesitation.

Whatever product or service you sell you better be ready to stand behind it 110%.  If you don’t believe in it how will others?

It is simply amazing how few small-business and professional people are actually willing to stand behind there product or service 110%.  Many times businesses are unwilling to assume full or worse yet partial transactional risk.

Not only is that shortsighted it is super unfair to that businesses customers, clients and patients.

So if you aren’t willing to stand behind your product or service why on earth should someone buy anything from your business or practice?  Why would anyone want to extend themselves and make a purchase if you are not willing to assume all the risk of the transaction?

Just by assuming the risk from the customer, client or patient and carry the risk yourself your sales transaction will be more powerful, sustainable, appealing, engaging and embraceable for those doing business with you allowing them to complete the transaction with total confidence.

It is not unheard of that when a business or practice embraces and uses risk reversal for that business to double and even triple their sales.  The reason is simple.  More will buy because you have removed the risk form them and shifted it back to you and your business.

Customers, client and patients want to know they are protected if something goes wrong.  Refunds are typically a very small part of a business’s overall transactional process.  However, it is always comforting for a customer, client or patient to know that they can return a product or service with no questions asked.  It makes for a more enjoyable transaction and it also increase sales.

By setting up a risk reversal model you can actually turn lemons into lemonade and gain more customers, clients and patients who are more loyal, refer more of their friends and help to grow your business without asking for anything in return.

If you are still skeptical about offering a massively one sided guarantee then ask yourself the following three questions:

1. How many of customers, clients or patients openly and aggressively express dissatisfaction with your product or service over a week’s time?
2. What about over a month’s time frame?
3. What about over a year’s time frame?

If you provide an excellent product or service then the answers should be not very often.  If for the most part your customers, clients or patients are genuinely satisfied then you have nothing to worry about or fear.  Offer a risk-free risk reversal guarantee that is clear, concise and takes the burden and shifts it from your customers, client and patients back to you the business owner.

Your best sale closing proposition might be to take the risk totally away (this will not work for every business but for some it will).  Offer more than a standard guarantee.  Offer something your customers, clients and patients can’t refuse “Try it for 10 days and if you are not satisfied we will let you return the item no questions asked.”

In this particular case you have removed all the risk and made the customer, client or patient feel 110% confident in the ability of your product or service to product value to them or they pay nothing.

In most cases when a tactic like this is used sales increase.

When it is all said and done, there are only two main forces that compel someone to make a purchase from your business or practice:

1. The first is do they have confidence in the product or service you are selling and…
2. Second is the amount of risk you are asking or assuming they your customer, client or patient is willing to take…

By reducing or eliminating the risk or fear of buying you are removing the barrier to take action.  If you make it easy to say yes it will be easier for the buyer to take action and buy.

Keep in mind you are always in competition with your competition so if you carry no risk and your competition does it will be easier to say yes and in all likelihood your sales will increase.

Obviously there are dozens of different ways to offer risk reversal propositions but here are three of the easiest, fastest and most result proven ways that you can use now.

1. The first and most obvious is a 100% money back guarantee.  You the seller promise to refund the purchase price (usually associated with a time frame) if for any reason the product or service does not meet the buyers expectations.  Just don’t say “Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back”  instead say something like “If our carpet cleaning isn’t the best you have ever experiencedthen you are entitled to a complete refund within the first 30 days of us doing the work” or something along those lines.  Yes it is more risky on your part but it also takes all the risk out of the transaction for the customer, client or patient.
2. What’s better than a refund?  How about total risk reversal where you not only guarantee a 100% refund if the buyer is dissatisfied but in addition you offer a bonus incentive that the buyer keeps even if he or she asks for a refund.
3. The third way is something called emotional risk reversal.  Emotional risk reversal is where you take steps to increase your customers, clients or patients level of confidence thus reduce their fear level before they buy.  This type of risk reversal is perfect for the professional that issuing a refund would be impractical.  A good example of this might be a dentist or other professional by offering free consultation, free assessmentsand freeanalysis of existing problems.  The result more potential buyers will seek you out and look for your expert guidance.  It will then be your job to sell your services but the good thing is you now have prospects.

To many of you risk reversal may sound scary.  Studies have shown that your sales will increase many, many, many times over what you would ever pay out in refunds so really the risk is very small, if any, on your part.  Even if you have a small amount of people who request a refund it should be very small when compared to the increase in revenues.

So just go do it.

Host Beneficiary Relationships and Joint Ventures

Building your customer, client or patient base can be a costly endeavor.  As you already know the cost of marketing, promotions, advertising, a sales force and goodwill can get really expensive.

Keep in mind that every business on the planet is in the same business which is to find customers, clients or patients- find prospects and from them generate business or revenue.  That is why you market.

Have you ever thought about that fact that when you market or advertise most of the money spent is getting to people who you will never sell to.  Hopefully this is fairly obvious.  In fact this leads backto he acquisition cost of a client.  You better know the real costs are you will be in trouble fast.

If 97% of all people who get your ad via the mail throw it out before they read it that means that for $1,000 you spend you are throwing $970 away that will never result in any business.

What if I could show you a way to that could eliminate most if not of this advertising or marketing expense?  What would that do for your business or practice?

Well it is really not as hard as you might think.  By using a “host/beneficiary” model.  The concept is rather simple.  In this “relationship” one party enters into a joint venture with another company.  The objective is to sell something you have or they have to each other’s list of clients.

To be perfectly clear the “host” is the business or practice that owns a customer, client or patient list that the new found beneficiary wants to sell his or her products to.

The “host/beneficiary” between two parties occurs when the beneficiary (another business) helps the host out be selling his or her product and in turn gets a reward, return o benefit from the beneficiary.  By bringing the two parties together we have created a sum that is much greater than the two parts making it a win win for both parties.

The key to establishing mutually beneficial “host/beneficiary” relationships is to identify other businesses that have built solid lists that are complementary but not competitive.

Piggyback off of the beneficiary and their reputation, credibility, trust, stability, longevity and the good will from their customers, clients or patients.  Use their integrity to leverage yourself in front of q whole different audience.

Now for some of you this may sound a little bit like to good to be true.  It’s not only true but it is something that you can do with a little guidance.

So if you want to jump right in here is the formula for leveraging someone else’s assets.

The steps you will need to make this work for your business or practice:

1. Make a list of the general type of business that is complementary to yours.
2. Next make a list of businesses or services that your current customers, clients or patients might seek out to go along with your products or services.
3. Last make a list of other businesses that might go after visiting your business.

So this should provide you with a fairly generic list.  Once you have the list you can target in on very specific businesses or niches.  If you need help finding the specific businesses you are looking for just go online and look in directories.  They should provide you with a great source of ideas.

Once you have the list you need to start contacting the prospects.  This can be done in person, via mail or email or over the phone.  A key point here is not to go after the billion dollar company when there might be local smaller company that you can get your feet wet with.  Go slow and start small.

If you start slow and small you can refine your contact method and have it perfected in no time and just in time for the bigger fish in the business sea.

There are more ways to structure “host/beneficiary” deals and it would be impossible to address all the ways in this short guidance report.  However, when we start working together I will tailor make the deals for each industry.  The bottom line is a “host/beneficiary” relationship can work for any business in any niche.  Many times the results are profound.

A strategic alliance like this is not new but it may be new to your business or practice.

Focusing on people is what makes “host/beneficiary” relationships so powerful.  By targeting not only your customer, client and patient but also the customers, clients and patients of complementary non-competing businesses you can massively expand your reach and revenue.

Reactivation of your old customers, clients or patients

So would you rather make your marketing hard or easy?

If you could spend a fraction of the time and effort on your marketing and get better results would that be beneficial?

If you could spend a fraction of the money reactivating old customers, clients and patients why would you need to go after new ones?

Instead of looking at the next shinny new object in marketing why not turn your attention to those customers, clients and patients whose patronage and loyalty you once enjoyed but who, for whatever reason, have stopped doing business with you.

Your inactive customers, clients and patients could be your secret gold mine.  If attrition is a problem then let’s address it and do something to fix it.

Customers, clients and patients who stop doing business with you do so for a reason.  If you knew the reasons you could address those and gain loyalty and referrals.

Turn inactive back into active.  Old customers, clients and patientsdon’t have to purchase anything from you to be of value.  The value of a past customer, client or patient lies in who they know.

Just because someone has stopped doing business with you does not mean you should turn your back on them.  In fact you have an obligation to show them that you really do care even if they are no longer doing business with you.

Remember your goal as a business should be to show both former, current and past customers, clients and patients your extraordinary superior service, the impact you provide and the benefits and massive advantage you provide on people’s lives.

It’s not all about making a nickel.  Once someone has stopped doing business with you have an opportunity and a right to get them back.  By caring just a little you can win back there trust and in turn their referrals.

Let’s take a close look at your business or practice.

Do you have any idea how many customers no longer do business with you?

Have you ever looked at this on a percentage basis so that you could analyze what it means?

Some companies lose as much as 75% of their customers, clients and patients each year.  Where do you stand?

What if they could reduce that number by 50%?  Any idea what that would mean to your bottom line?

If you can cut your attrition by just 15% that is like adding 15% to your bottom line.  So why would you want to look at new shinny objects when it is so much easier to look inside at your existing assets?

This single concept could be the single most important, immediate, easiest and overlooked area of your tactical business rebirth.  You just need to focus on it.

Every business has attrition unless you are trulyunique.  My guess is you are not.  Just take a look at your customer, client or patient list and determine your loss.  It could be substantialand impacting your profitability dramatically.

If you find inactive names you need to contact them to find out why.  Write or call them personally to find out what the issues they have are and how you can personally help.

Before you can fix anything you need to know the problem.

Many of your customers, clients and patients you have abandoned have not abandoned you.  It’s your obligation as a business to find out how you can help old customers, clients or patients rehabilitate, rejuvenate and return back to their relationship with your business or practice.

If you can enrich your customers, clients and patients lives again by adding back the benefits they are no longer receiving you will have won them back.

What you are being shown here is an easy, fast and simple way to get your benefits in line with your customers, clients or patients needs.  When they experience this they will come running back as you have acknowledged their wants and provided your benefits as the solution.

If you stay connected your attrition will decrease, revenues will increase and referrals will spiral upwards.  It’s impossible to erase the past but if you are proactive with the future you can do amazing things for your business or practice.

This should not be a painstaking task but rather a fun challenge.

Just remember it is not about you it’s always about them (customers, clients and patients).

The more you communicate with valuable and useful information the more results you will see.  It should be obvious but so few businesses engage in this type of practice it’s shameful.

If you strive to move from ordinary to extraordinary your customers, clients and patients will receive massive benefits.  The result of that is that you will also receivebenefits, both personally and monetarily.

There are tons of reactivation tactics you can deploy and if we work together long term we will build those for you and your business or practice.

Tactic #1!

Let’s start with an easy tactic and gradually dig deeper into other tactics as we close out this guidance over the next seven days.

Let’s go after referrals.  Not all referrals are equal so make sure you have optimized your plan to only get referrals that are truly interested and convert.

Ever wish you could turn your best customers, clients or patients into a silent sales machine?  The good news is you can and it is not as hard as you think.

Every wonder what the best way to get more “ideal” customers would be?  Well the truth of the matter is to get more customers, clients or patients like the ones you value the most is to have your current customers, clients and patients get them for you.

It’s so simple and obvious but so overlooked and neglected.  Simply build a system that gets your present customers, clients or patients torecommend and refertheir friends and family to your business or practice that are just like them.

It’s rather easy actually and not as embarrassing as you might think.  So the big question is why would your current customers, clients or patients refer their friends or family to you?  Because they understand the value or benefit you are bringing to their lives and they want the people they know and care about to get the same benefit.

Most businesses owners are more than happy to get the few referrals they get but that’s not enough.  Settling for second best isn’t what you want.

You want to turn your best customers, clients and patients into silent selling machines that are referral monsters.  You can no longer be passive about getting referrals.

Imagine just for a moment you got five, ten or even 25 times the amount of referrals you are currently getting with just a little more work and a simple system that everyone can follow.

By putting a system in place you have just added massive leverage by using a formal referral system.  For the most part referrals can be immediate and relatively inexpensive or even free to acquire.  Name an advertising platform that can do that?

Referrals are self-perpetuating and referrals will beget referrals.

Don’t be bashful or ashamed to ask referrals as it is not begging for customers, clients or patients.  There is no good reason not to ask your best customers, clients and patients for referrals.  Heck they already know, like and trust you or they wouldn’t be your customer, client or patient.

It’s not only ethical and appropriate but it’s also your obligation.  Just follow me on this for a minute.

As I just mentioned your customers, clients and patients already are bonded to you with some form of relationship.  They know, like and trust not only you but also your business or practice.

Your customers, clients or patients have already grown dependent on your high level of service, results, satisfaction, results, prestige, enjoyment, protection, experience or well being you are providing them.  So don’t you think it would be easy for them to become your ambassadors or silent sales team if they understood how easy it is to do?

So how do you set up one of these monster referral systems of your own?

What if I was to tell you setting up a simple referral system that will work wonders is just four easy steps.  Steps that can be used in person, over the phone or via email or letter.

Step 1:  Simply tell (yes you) your best customers, clients or patients how much you enjoy doing business with them and their family.  You realize there are tons of choices and you really appreciate the fact that they have entrusted you with the opportunity to be of service.

Step 2:  Since they already know the type of customer, client or patient you prefer to work with (someone just like them) extend the opportunity to them of referring their valued and trusted family and friends to you.  Also tell them that you don’t do much advertising so the only way you can grow your business is by having trusted and loyal customers, clients and patientsjust like them helping out.

Step 3:  Make sure they fully understand the value and or benefit(s) you provide. Help them with who else they might know that would like to receive the same level of care, attention and superlative service.

Step 4:  Provide your silent sales team with a risk-free totally obligation free sales offer that they can pass along.  Make sure to let them know that this is not advertised and is only being shared with your most valued customers, clients and patients for them to share with their friends and family.  Offer to consult with their referral without expectation of purchase so that they feel comfortable with you and can realize the value for their friends and family.

Trust me this works.  Do this for ten straight days and watch the results roll in.  If you make people feel privileged and special they will go to the ends of the earth to help you out.  Once you have proven the results pass the techniques on to your key personal and watch the referrals grow exponentially.

Formulating the Picture

By now you should be well on your way to putting a lot of the pieces together to better formulate your strategies and tactics.  Assembling your strategies and tactics is expressed with new philosophy and is executed through the delivery of your products or services.

If you have an optimized overall philosophy then your strategies and tactics should be second nature.  The best and simplest way to distinguish between philosophy and a strategy or tactic is to understand that philosophy refers to your core values while your strategies and tactics refer to what you intend to accomplish based from those values.

I have gone over this a number of times but it is really about your customers, clients and patients.  And the sooner you understand and embrace that way of thinking the sooner your results will improve.

The sooner you clarify your philosophy, strategies and tactics the faster the pieces will fall in place and while you are at it you can formalize a valid companywide mission statement based on the new and improved direction of your company.

Make sure you know who your customers, clients and patients really are and gather and keep as much information on them as possible.

Don’t overlook the gold mine under your nose.  In all likely hood you have a spent a ton of money acquiring customers, clients and patients.  Are you continually mining the gold from your list?

Just because you think a customer, client or patient is done using your service or product that may not be the case.  How many other similar people might they know that they could refer over with the proper bait?  You won’t know that until you ask.

So the big question is how effectively, or at all, are you mining the assets you have spent so much time and money acquiring?  If you’re like most business owners you haven’t spent any time mining the gold in front of your nose.  That needs to change now.

Your customers, clients, patients and prospects need to be constantly worked and then reworked just like the tailings in a gold mine.  It’s those nuggets that get missed that could be the most valuable.

Just think if you were a children’s dentist and you have not contacted families that you treated many years ago.  What if they have new kids in thefamily?  If you don’t ask you won’t know.

It’s often said and many times repeated that the cost of reactivating old customers, clients and patients is 8 to 9 times less expensive than finding new ones.  Hopefully that turns the light bulb on.  It’s super cheap to engage old customers, clients and patients so what are you waiting for?

If you know what your Lifetime Value of a customer, client or patient is then you also ought to know that doing everything within reason to get them back through the doors has got to be worth it.

If you have figured this out from our first couple of lessons would you not think if your lifetime value is say $2,000 it would be well worth a few dollars to get them back?  Heck even a couple of hundred.  This is all math…so just do it; figure out what you might be missing out on.

You need to think outside the box and bow down to past customers, clients and patients (especially the ones you liked) and do something special for them.  Send them a free gift or whatever just gets the conversation going again.

Communication really is the key.  It is also the cheapest and easiest form of revival advertising so test it on 25 or 50 past customers, clients or patients and watch the results roll in.

By using this one simple process you can start to reactivate old relationships and get the greatest yield, biggest profit, largest productivity, cheapest form of reactivation possible.

Now it’s up to you to take action.

Benefits versus Features

Most of you probably already well aware the for the most part your customers, clients and patients aren’t interested in any specific feature of your product or service.  So why do so many businesses continue to pitch features over benefits?

Every single one of your customers, clients or patients only wants one thing: benefits.  They want the benefits that your product or service provides them to help improve their life or their family’s life.

For the most part no one cares how great you are.

Whatthe average person wants to know is what’s in it for them or their family.  They only care about what unique benefit, advantage, service, or personal enhancement you can offer them that others can’t.

How are you going to improve their lives?

How are you going to make their lives easier?

How are you going to make them healthier?

How are you going to make them wealthier?

How are you going to help their family?

They want to know and understand whatever your product or service is that it can and will enhance the value, quality, enjoyment, profitability or health of their lives.  Few understand that and fewer know how to address this in their marketing.

No one cares about you they only care about themselves and their loved ones.  Isn’t it about time that you focused on what they want and not what you want?

When you communicate any form of advertising no matter the medium you need to pound on benefits.  Here is a simple list of some of the things your message needs to channel and address or at least give you inspiration as to what the real message should be.

• Saving Money
• Pride of possession
• Saving Time
• Saving and improving earnings
• Comfort
• Better Health
• Prestige
• Vitality

By understanding the benefits your customers, clients and patients seek then don’t you think if you targeted those benefits with laser precision the results would be greater.

So when starting this process simply lists all the benefits of your product or service.  Next rank them according to what you think is most important to your customers, clients and patients.

Different words mean different things to different people.  So if you were to randomly ask 10 people what they considered “big money” what would the results show?  Well the truth is you would probably have ten different answers so don’t assume the same words mean the same to everyone.

The job here is to find what answers you and then quantify them and build your benefits around the most popular answer to fully understand who wants want what.

The features of your product or service can only be useful to a third party if you can also show them what benefits they are going to receive from the features.

The big take away and task needed here is critical.

You need to spend some time at this very moment and make a detailed list of all your benefits, results, advantages that your product or service brings to you customers, clients and patients.  When you know this compare it closely with your competition to see what makes you different.  Next put your benefits in terms that can be understood.  Once you do you will be able to run laps around the competition because you have indentified what hits the hot button or selling trigger in your customers, clients or patients mind.

Your whole selling proposition just got a whole easier as you now understand what your customers, clients and patients want and not what you want.

Day 11 through 21 will be all about exact methods and examples of how to activate your new mindset and silent sales machine.

If you recall I had everyone do a simple exercise in the Day 1and Day 2 exercises.  Hopefully you all figured this out as it is now going to come into play.

So now that you know what the lifetime value of your customer, client or patient is when are going to apply it so that it provides you with an actual ROI.

It does no good if you can’t figure out how it will help you in your business.  Without you’re “numbers” you don’t know what you can afford to invest, as opposed to what you can “spend.”  You have to change the way you think here and now.  You are not spending anything but rather investing.

When it finally sinks in and you have figured out that you and can and will have to invest that the only question that remains is what to invest in.

There are dozens of answers to that that question but let’s just look at a couple of ideas.  Here are a few that should provide the foundation of where to start.

• Your Marketing
• Your Strategy
• Your Capital
• Your Business Model
• Your Relationships
• Your Distribution Channels
• Your Product and Services
• Your Processes, Your Procedures, Your Systems
• Your Ideology

These simple drivers of your business are the key for you to unlock your mindset to the possibilities that are waiting for you to seize, recognize, harness and exploit.

Most small business owners are reactive and non-strategic meaning that they are systematic and many times adverse to any change.  They do the same thing over and over again without ever exploring other methods or tactics.

Being anti-strategic lulls the small business owner into a since of security.  Many times, after it’stoo late, they realize they have been trumped by theircompetition and it’stoo late.

You owe it to your family, employees, customers, clients, patients, to get the highest and best use from your marketing, strategy, capital, relationships, systems, procedures, etc.

By optimizing each step along the way you optimize your strategic plan for maximum output while suing the same exact resources more efficiently.

When it comes to marketing, the first item, on the list look at what you are currently doing and what is working and what is not working.  Also go back in time and determine the same list of what worked then and what didn’t.

You are never to mature in a business to examine all the marketing you are doing and revamp according to market conditions, the economy, trends, demographics, etc.

When it comes to marketing we like to look at tactics that fit your overall strategy and then pounce on them.  Many times what you are using is resulting in lousy to no results.  So why do you keep using them?  Most of you are in a rut and adverse to change as you perceive it carries a lot risk.  Actually the risk is in not changing but staying with what you are already doing especially if it is failing.

Over the course of the remaining emails I will be showing you a few of the top marketing secrets you have never heard but are proven to work.  Some have zero cost and produce fantastic returns.