Then follow up with a letter. Mention time or two you tried to call, then lay out your offer and give customer several ways to contact you. It's a good idea these days to include an email address. Many customers will send you a note after hours when they have more time to consider your offer.

These techniques work great for current and previous customers and prospects who have shown interest but haven't bought. It is a little trickier reaching people who should want to buy from you, but don't know about you yet. For that you need direct marketing.

Direct marketing comes in many forms ranging from simple postcards, to sales letters, to radio spots, to magazine ads. Try to target your direct marketing to a group of people who are most likely to want what you sell.

Here's an example Roy paints cars. He provides a high-end paint job with a specialty in restoring paint on old cars. Roy knows he can get a lot of great customers fast and cheap if he could find a big bunch of people who collect classic cars from 50's and 60's.

First Roy contacts several classic car clubs in his area. He discovers one has 300 members while another claims 700 members. Roy calls and explains to club presidents how his service could be a big help to their members. Then he drops by with photos of past jobs and a collection of recommendation letters from previous customers.

In no time, Roy gets list of mailing addresses for all members in both clubs. He prints up a brochure with some of his photos, an explanation of how he restores paint jobs, and comments from past customers. He also has a freelance writer create a sales letter for him. The letter offers member a special, limited-time discount for club members. Then he mails brochure and letter to 50 members per week.

Will this get results? You bet! Even though none of 1,000 classic car owners has ever heard of Roy, he offers just kind of service a great many of them need. If he provides a good value, Roy will be swimming in customers for months and years to come.

Use these simple steps to quickly build leads and turn them into buying customers. There is no faster way to improve profits NOW!

7. Build a popular directory of freebies. It will draw tons of traffic to your web site and you can request that submitters place your link on their web site.

8. Create traffic generators that people can add to their site without doing all work. It can be an article directory, freebie directory, web tool, etc.

9. Challenge your visitors to buy your product or service. People love a good challenge. Tell them if they can find a flaw you'll give them a refund.

10. Form a strategic alliance with other related but non-competing businesses. You'll be able to beat your competition by selling to a larger audience.