Follow Up on Invoices ========== Hey, if client's a pest and you need to get paid do this. Set up autoresponder and let it go. After a couple of reminders, client will get message.

Your blood pressure will stay normal and his will go up. You don't need non-paying clients anyway and you don't want to waste time on follow ups, so this is a great tool. You could space it out so that a message goes out only once a week for say 5 weeks. If client pays in that time, you can cancel autoresponder.

High Powered Sales ========== One of biggest secrets of sales is persistence. Most sales people give up after 3 tries. It takes at least 5 pitches before prospective customers throw in towel and are willing to listen to you. Most of them are exactly like you. They have little time and resources. If you have a solution that will make them money or save time and resources, they will listen to you.

After 5 Calls! ========== Autoresponders help you do that. Many autoresponder services have a follow up sales routine. Which means, autoresponder will follow up with a second, third, fourth, fifth and tenth (if you need that many) follow ups. Each follow up is based on fact that person hasn't responded. If person responds, autoresponder doesn't send them any more messages. If they don't, it keeps sending them gentle reminders.

Of course, there's always thought,"What if it drives away potential customers?" It doesn't if you're smart. Most autoresponder messages can be quite informal and not overt sales messages.

People respond to messages that seem one on one. They always do. It's scared to death business owners and marketing managers who don't try it and pooh pooh whole idea.

For example, when someone asks you for information, it means they're interested. Now all you have to do is keep that interest up.

Here's a Scenario-- ==========

Dear Bruce Thanks for your email about our wine list. Here is wine list.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Bruce I see you asked for our wine list three days ago. We've got some good news for you. We send out an email not more than once a month giving customers like you a substantial discount. The email also gives you handy tips on how to choose best wines for a very reasonable cost.

Would you be interested in receiving this money-saving email?

To subscribe:please email xyz@yxz.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Bruce I guess you've been busy. For month of July our specials are 1)dddddddddddd 2)eeeeeeeeeeee 3)ffffffffffff You can have these specials by going to our website at

If you register for Wine Tasters Ezine, you will get this money saving information on a regular basis plus a great selection of wines.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A couple of followups like this will make even most laziest customer finally click, get on your email list, and end up making one or several purchases, depending on your direct marketing skills.

This is one of most powerful way to make your sales. So use it! ==========

Tracking Your Autoresponder Responses ========== Tracking your ads' response rate will be key to your marketing success. Once you test your ads and determine which ad is pulling most responses, you can easily test which classified ad sites are producing results as well. This will save you a lot of valuable time by only placing your ads at classified ad sites that produce results.

1. Make a list of classified ad sites where you intend to post your ad. 2. Number list of ad sites. 3. You can key your ad using subject of your email. Many times, if you ask for a certain subject description, it may not be provided. To avoid this problem you can add a simple code to your email tag.

mailto:xyzinfo@yourautoresponderaddress.com?subject=cl1

This code should contain your autoresponder address and will automatically fill in subject with your ad key when clicked on. The "cl1" stands for classified ad site number one. The second ad site you have listed should be coded as cl2 or classified ad site number two and so on. By coding your ads, you will know exactly where your leads are coming from.

4. Begin submitting your ad and replace your normal email address with your key coded autoresponder address.

Recommendations for Autoresponders ========== Some of best tools are out there. Do your due diligence. Here are some you'd want to check out.

http://aweber.com/ http://www.1shoppingcart.com

You'll also find free autoresponders on net. Free anything is generally a waste of time, much like free internet and free email addresses. They don't give you or your company a professional image and show you off as a freeloader -- something you want to avoid at all costs!

Get yourself onto autoresponders today. You'll be wasting time if you don't! ============

Sean has developed a system called Psycho Tactics. PsychoTactics unlocks the working of the human brain and radically tweaks the way you think and act about your business. This results in clarity of thought and greater profits. Today, Sean is constantly teaching small business- ‘How they too can do the same?’ He does this through his websites http://www.5000bc.com http://www.psychotactics.com

In interim, while software gods jostle for market share supremacy, what are we mere users to do? We really have very little choice. I will email this article to my editor using Gmail, simply because Hotmail is broken. Perhaps our collective use of other web mail providers will light a fire under Hotmail architects and we can have a workeable solution to this problem soon.