Are You Marketing Backwards

Written by Charlie Cook


Marketing is like rowing a boat. When you know howrepparttar pointed bow moves smoothly forward throughrepparttar 120334 water encounteringrepparttar 120335 least amount of resistance. Rowing backwards,repparttar 120336 square stern ofrepparttar 120337 boat pushes againstrepparttar 120338 water, requiring more effort and increasesrepparttar 120339 risk of having a wave come overrepparttar 120340 transom (back) and swamping it. Yet most people market backwards, trying to grow their business while pushing againstrepparttar 120341 greatest level of resistance.

Wouldn’t you like to market your business so that it moved easily forward?

What’srepparttar 120342 first thing most people do to increase salës of their products, services? They put together a description of their credentials. Then they pick uprepparttar 120343 ph0ne, run an ad campaign, send out a brochure and or build a web site and ask people to buy.

Do you know anyone who has used this approach?

Have you tried it yourself?

Were you happy withrepparttar 120344 number of new clients and customers you attracted?

It’s a common misperception thatrepparttar 120345 fastest way to attract more clients and customers is to focus on asking people to buy. It looks likerepparttar 120346 obvious route, but in most cases it generates only a trickle of new clients for small business owners. It can work if you’re a large company with millions of dollars to spend building your brand. Why doesn’t this selling approach work for service professionals and small business owners?

A sale isrepparttar 120347 end point or one ofrepparttar 120348 waypoints in your relationship with a client. Before they are ready to give you their m0ney prospects need to be confident that you have what they want, and they trust your product or service will deliver on your promises.

When you lead with a focus on selling and your credentials you run into high levels of resistance. It is like trying to row a boat backwards.

Marketing is about building relationships, one by one. Start by focusing on what your prospect wants, not on yourself.

Customer Excellence Returns to Web Site Hosting!

Written by Robin Nobles


For those of you with Web sites, you probably know what a "host" is. It's a company that provides a location, or address, onrepparttar Internet where your Web site resides.

In other words, just like a physical business needs an address, so does a Web site. You can't have a Web site and just "stick it up" onrepparttar 120333 Web. Unless you want to set up your own server, you have to go through a hosting company who gives you that address, including server space and bandwidth, that enablesrepparttar 120334 search engines and visitors to find your site.

Let's look at some common problems we often have with hosting companies:

--You can never find an actual person to talk to! They may have a 24-hour customer service line open, but you can never get through to a real person.

--Hosting companies often think thatrepparttar 120335 "lowest price" will always getrepparttar 120336 sale, but they fail to realize that what people really want is excellent customer service, servers that are up almost 100% ofrepparttar 120337 time, and a variety of services that come withrepparttar 120338 hosting package.

--Many hosting companies don't provide any other functionality other than Web site hosting. They don't provide a "control panel" full of goodies such as PGP secure e-mail, shopping carts, log analysis, database creation, etc.

--Guess what? Technical support people often don't makerepparttar 120339 best "customer support" people. They may be technical gurus, but their main interest lies in their high tech servers and other functionality, rather than solvingrepparttar 120340 simple problems of their customers.

In other words, weak customer service is a major problem withrepparttar 120341 majority of hosting companies these days. Solution:

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