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Each year, I am fortunate to have the opportunity to travel and speak at some trade shows and conferences. Recently, I gave a presentation to around 150 business owners looking for ways to increase the yield of their marketing efforts. This seemed like the perfect list to share with you all!
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Always tell the truth. Lying for the sake of impressing a customer or getting the sale is never a good idea. It will always bite you in the butt; and more often than not, the customer will sense it coming and back out of the sale.
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Spend your time (and money) where your heart is. Many business owners are asked multiple times a day to donate to (insert cause here). We’d love to donate to all of them – but then, we’d be out of business. I always encourage owners to pick a cause or two that are important to them, and put their time and money there. You can make a difference when you give what you can to one or two organizations, instead of 20.
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Use REAL people. Instead of the beautiful, perfect, ideal, unrealistic image, use real people in your ads. People can relate to this and see themselves in that position (tanning companies are the worst at this!)
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Market in waves, and don’t fight the tide. Most businesses have multiple products and services to offer. Spend your time and energy telling the story of one product or service over and over, until you feel like you’ve said it so much that you can’t say it again. By this point, customers will start to get the point and listen.
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By “don’t fight the tide,” I mean market what makes sense – don’t try to sell something your customers don’t want. Don’t try to sell coats when it’s 90 degrees outside. Don’t try to sell UV tanning in October. Promote what people need.
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Empower your staff to take care of your customers. Sure, there are rules for a reason. Give your employees the power they need to make decisions that support your business. Trust them to make the right call and be able to tell you why they made it. If it’s not the decision you would have made, it’s a teaching moment. If it is – cause to celebrate!
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Don’t be afraid to give it away – but then, don’t give it away. This is a bit of a paradox, but it will make sense in a moment!
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Trust your product enough to be able to give it away to “hook” people. But, once you’ve got them hooked … don’t give it away for free, or discount the fire out of it just to sell.
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The subtext for this one:There is value in what you do/sell, until you diminish that value. Trust that your products and services are worth something – and then sell them for that price, over and over again.
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Create a lifestyle in your business. Make your business something attractive that people want to be a part of. Make it fun and contagious. If you build it, they will come!
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Own your business; don’t let IT own YOU. This is hard. We go into business for ourselves to create a certain life; but it’s so easy to let the day in/day out of the business take over.
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Tell, not sell. Focus on telling the story of what you do and what you’re selling, instead of trying to sell. If you focus on explaining the value of what you offer, it will bring the customers. Tell your story and they will listen.
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Love what matters. This is cliché, but true! Keep your priorities in line and love what matters most. If you do this, your work life will be the piece of the pie it’s supposed to be, instead of becoming your whole life.
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