I read once that something like 30 percent of all drinkable water gets wasted on the way to the consumer by leaky pipes. Likewise, your business may be letting potential revenue drip away, to be lost forever, all over the place. Use this checklist to make sure you are taking best advantage of all the opportunities for earnings that would be arriving safely if you only plugged up those holes.
1. Improve your followup. According to the National Sales Executive Association, only about two percent of sales occur on the first contact. Eighty percent of sales require at least five contacts before the transaction occurs. That means that if you put out your sales message just once or twice, you're barely out of the gate. Those who might eventually buy are hardly even beginning to pay attention. You must repeat that message again and again before it wakes up busy people to what you are offering.
2. Put your marketing activities on schedule with a plan. I see a lot of businesses bedeviled by the "feast or famine" syndrome, where they stop marketing when times are good and therefore have no pipeline in place bringing them new leads when the economy slows down. They get busy marketing, but there's a time lag before new business comes in, and when it does, they stop marketing once more, keeping the cycle going. Instead, invest time or money in creating a marketing plan that tells you what to do each week or month to keep business continually flowing in. If it's too much for you to handle, hire assistants or outsource it to hungry but competent colleagues.
3. Increase your personal productivity by working at your most creative times. Once I incited a firestorm of criticism on CompuServe's PR Forum by revealing that I hardly ever spend more than one hour writing a press release. Other PR professionals opined that I couldn't possibly create decent work that quickly. Well, I do, and here's my secret: following a process that creativity researchers will tell you is used by top scientists and inventors, I absorb all the facts and define the challenge for myself, then go to sleep, take a walk or step into the shower. Within a day, my unconscious mind brings me a "Eureka" experience with a terrific headline. The rest of the press release pours out right after the headline. Had I sat down to try, try, try to write that document, it would take triple the time and not reach the same quality.
4. Stop unproductive marketing activities, boosting your profits. Advertising pros know that most advertising doesn't work, but they continue to spend like crazy because part of it does. If you can identify which marketing efforts of yours are not giving you a return, and stop spending money and energy on those, you'll be earning more from what you spend. Admittedly, it can be difficult sometimes to pinpoint what actually brings in customers and clients. However, if you begin asking each new buyer how they heard about you and keep track of the answers, patterns almost always emerge. One graphic artist learned through this kind of research that nearly all her clientele came from word of mouth and none from her ads in the local business journal. Of course, the opposite discovery could have happened, too. Don't assume, find out!
5. Market more often to your customer base - much more often. Hardly anyone stays in touch with existing and past customers often enough. They think they might be "bothering" their clientele by letting them know about new products, opportunities to buy before a price increase, success stories of other customers like them, and so on. Nope, it's not so. On the contrary, staying in touch ensures that you stay in the awareness of people who have done business with you before, so that when they need you again, they come to you rather than go to your competitors.
6. Hire help for mechanical tasks or a virtual assistant to help manage communications. Feeling overwhelmed? If you can make, let's say, $100 an hour doing what you do best, you should not be spending too much energy on routine things like stuffing envelopes, doing errands like going to the bank and the copy shop or putting together slides for your upcoming lecture. Instead, pay someone $25 an hour to get those to-do's accomplished and free you up to get more high- paid work accomplished. An exception to this principle is when you do the repetitive tasks as a break or rest from money-making activities that tire you out.
Increasing your productivity means increasing the income from your business without spending more hours working. Get started on at least one of the above today!
Marcia Yudkin is the author of 6 Steps to Free Publicity and 10 other books. She runs a private member site, MarketingforMore.com, which supports business owners who are growing their businesses. Learn how to avoid the most common pricing mistakes in her free report, "Charge More & Get It," available from http://www.marketingformore.com/survey.htm .
By cranking up others development to meet your business needs,... Read More
As a business owner, you've likely created a hurricane plan... Read More
No matter what product or service you provide you will... Read More
If you are a manufacturer wanting to use your business... Read More
I read once that something like 30 percent of all... Read More
From time to time there seems to be a flurry... Read More
If you own a pressure washing business one of the... Read More
You have heard that there is extra money on the... Read More
ACTION PLANNING: Action Planning is a process to develop strategies... Read More
Would you like to jumpstart your online or offline business... Read More
So you've decided to write your own business plan because... Read More
With the help of balanced scorecard strategy map, it is... Read More
Twice a year, Bill Gates goes to a remote island... Read More
"Bozo" ? A clown with a forlorn look, always finding... Read More
The foundation of any business transaction is the promise of... Read More
These may sound like no brainers, but you'd be surprised.... Read More
Some analysts credit [Larry] Ellison with anticipating the consolidation in... Read More
The decision to sell, or not to sell your business... Read More
Growth through acquisition should not be considered an option reserved... Read More
We all agree Strategic Planning is a critical part of... Read More
The goal of almost every business owner is to generate... Read More
David E. Gumpert, author of Burn Your Business Plan, often... Read More
I am not a big fisherman, but I do enjoy... Read More
Let us look at a few of the big distribution... Read More
If you are in the parking business and own or... Read More
It is always said "If you Fail to Plan, you... Read More
Many of us are discouraged by the networking events that... Read More
Growing your own small business can be one of the... Read More
Succession planning requires the owner of a small or medium-sized... Read More
There is a story, about a business owner who wasn't... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains does wonderful ERP job for horizontal markets... Read More
Many very successful business owners may never have had a... Read More
How you finance the expansion of your business is important.... Read More
A significant advantage of some business ideas is that the... Read More
Regroup?is this a new management trend? Not a chance! Regroup... Read More
Note to Northwest Airlines ? It's not about fuel costsFor... Read More
These may sound like no brainers, but you'd be surprised.... Read More
A piano tuner recently moved to Buffalo, NY, and would... Read More
Please take a moment before you read any further and... Read More
After 128 years of business, a household word, Montgomery Wards,... Read More
When someone mentions business planning we have been conditioned to... Read More
If you own a mobile franchise business and wish to... Read More
A strategic alliance is when two or more businesses join... Read More
"Did you hear what your competitor is doing?" This question... Read More
From time to time there seems to be a flurry... Read More
Is there really anything as a problem? Does chaos or... Read More
I'm not talking about posting the HBO schedule on your... Read More
( * - the word 'product' can be substituted to... Read More
Writing a business plan is no easy task, sure you... Read More
Growing your own small business can be one of the... Read More
Do you work in or own a business that's affected... Read More
People often ask "What makes a good business plan? Or,... Read More
I am surprised how few sales professionals, independent consultants, and... Read More
Cassy was an employee of a nonprofit who had been... Read More
Many business start-up kits or consultants will tell you one... Read More
Imagine spending the same amount of money on marketing and... Read More
You have heard that there is extra money on the... Read More
The format of a Business Plan is something that has... Read More
Succession planning, like any business acumen, is both an art... Read More
A menu is the foundation of any restaurant; Guests will... Read More
Business owners and entrepreneurs are, by nature, risk takers and... Read More
Every decade we seem to come up with a buzz-word... Read More
"Most great plans aren't. They are just nice, high-level ideas."That's... Read More
The first step in starting a restaurant is proper planning.... Read More
Diversify - to make diverse, give variety, to balance, to... Read More
It's easy to lose sight of what needs to be... Read More
Strategic Planning |