Most information about almost everything is available on the internet and in general it can be found for free.

Mostly its common sense but sometimes we all need help formulating what we know into a clear course of action.

There are also a few facts that are little known or considered which I guess makes them secret from some people but if that is the case all information is secret from us until we are exposed to it.

2. The Shocking Truth Revealed

Most advertising is not working. Not just that but most companies that advertise do so because they feel they should and they have absolutely no idea what the results are.

The thing to learn form this is to continually monitor your results. You can do this by building tags into your adverts; if people have to call you use different numbers for different ads. You can do this easily with internet based companies offering 0870 numbers for free that are directed to any phone.

If you are calling people to come to your shop and take an offer you can either place something in the advert, such as “mention the Times to get an extra 10% off.”

Best of all you and your staff need to ask people what brought them to your business. Ask them what they think of it, what could be better and what they like best. This way you can improve where needed and promote the best, most attractive things in your advertising.

3. Don’t Sell the Business

Sell the benefits of what you are offering not the business itself. Often people get caught up in telling the world how long they have been in business, that it was their father’s, father’s, father’s uncle who started it. That’s all very well but what does that tell me about what you are offering me today?

Talk about how the customer will benefit from having your company service their needs or sell them a new widget. They need to know that they will have a better life because of what you are offering them so make it clear.

Always direct your offer and sales literature at the audience that is intended for. Write from their point of view, put yourself in their position and imagine what issues are important to them; it may not be what would be important to you.

4. If they say its too expensive you have made the sale

It is a classic misconception that when someone says that something is too expensive it really means that they like it and would have it but don’t see how they can justify it.

So that just leaves you to tell them how they will be much better off because of it and in fact that they will save money in the long run. Just because the competition has a similar product at half the price doesn’t make it twice the value.

You have to justify the expense with the benefits and thus prove the value of your offer. Often a cheap product will need replacing or not function efficiently so the value of a more expensive quality version is easily proved.

It is a common mistake to become preoccupied with price and sell on price alone. The problem with that is there is always someone cheaper than you and you end up cutting your margins and profits. Then you have to cut services and before long there is very little value in your offer.

It is much more profitable to sell on value and it can mean better profits and levels of service. It is also more rewarding in other ways and, more often than not, easier to market.

5. Saying “I can’t afford it” is saying I want it

Here again, as with the last point, people say they can’t afford something only if they like it but haven’t got the cash. Imagine selling Ferraris, almost everyone wants one, that’s not the problem, its finding people what can afford the finance!

So if people say that they can’t afford it, make it more affordable to them with easy payment plans or finance. This has been the secret of the success of the white goods trade over the last 20 years. It is the way most people now budget for big item purchases; gone are the days of saving up.

Make them want it enough, make it no money down and low monthly payments and you are assured of success. Not always possible, as with the Ferraris, but finance is a killer amplifier to almost any offer.

6. Use free advertising

This is something that is little used and often misunderstood. There are several ways of getting free publicity and they are often more effective than paying for adverts.

One example is through the press with press releases. Newspapers have many pages to fill day after day and they often don’t have much to talk about. Give them an interesting story and the chances are you will get it published.

The chances are that you will not get in the news talking about your latest offer or product but if you can come up with a story of interest and value to the readers then you have a very good chance. The added benefit is that people are much more likely to read editorial copy than ad copy. They are also much more likely to take notice and believe it because it comes from the news paper and not an advert.

You should be looking to get a story in the press every few months and you can offer it to more than one paper as well. Once you have done a few you will get to know the people responsible for the choice of article and it will be easier to get them to publish you.

To take this to the next level you may want to offer to write a weekly or monthly column. Then you put yourself as an expert and your company as a leader in its field. People will look to you for advice and your offer will become even more believable. In this way you are adding to the service that you are offering.

Other ways to get free publicity include publishing articles on the internet, contributing to relevant blogs. Writing and publishing books, although that may sound involved it can be very rewarding. You should also have your own website, apart from your business’s one, where you can offer help and advice to people.

All of these things elevate your position and the way that the public perceive you. Make sure that you write things of interest and value that people will benefit from. In this way you are building your personal brand as well as promoting your business.

7. You must be running between more than 5 forms of marketing at any one time

As mentioned most advertising does not work and at best it is very hit and miss. Most business could completely stop advertising with no ill effect. The reason that people do it and have such faith in it is that the big companies do and its always been done.

Big companies spend huge amounts on advertising but most of it is brand advertising. This has no direct result but builds the brand in the publics mind. That way when they are presented with an offer they will recognise the brand and are more likely to choose that one over others.

Small business can’t afford to spend that kind of money on brand advertising and money that they do spend needs to give direct results. That is why it is so important to monitor, refine and adapt, and test your advertising.

The best forms of advertising are often free and some I have mentioned. One not mentioned is having a referral program in place. The best advertising should come from your clients in the form of testimonials and recommendations.

Always ask for testimonials from happy customers, they are mostly very happy to promote a business that they like because they want it to do well. So include these in your marketing literature, post them on your website and let people know what a good job you did. Be sure to get permission to use peoples names because without them it can look as if you just made the testimonial up. “They’re great” say Joe from Wilts isn’t quite the same as “We love the service with care” says long time customer Joe Phelps from Bridport Devon. Or for a company selling to other companies include the company name and position of the person quoted, put a link if you post it on your website. The client will like that and it also means that people can go and see for themselves the people that are benefiting from your offer.

Taking testimonials to even greater effect you can offer a referral program. Let your customers know that they will be rewarded for bring you business. This can be in the form of discounts, free products, or straight out cash commissions. How you do this depends very much on your business.

Other Ways of Marketing

As mentioned to be most effective you should be running multiple forms of marketing. Don’t worry if you don’t have 5 or more currently, just start to think about ways of adding to what you have.

It is easy to put a system in place and then leave it running whilst you start another one. Then come back to the first, make sure it is working, refine it and then start a third. Then check on the others and do more.

I think of it like a plate spinner; he concentrates on one, gets it going and then to the next, then a quick spin of the first, check the second and on to the next. If you set things up well in the first place the maintenance of a system can be planned to be minimal.

You can schedule a day a month when you might write an article for publication, noting ideas as they come to you during the weeks before. Then write and publish and you are done for another month. Referral programs can be set up to run on their own as can many other things.

There are so many automated systems available now on the internet that is becoming easier to give great value to customers and improve your service. A newsletter is a great way to do this and gives you an opportunity to keep in touch with clients and let them know of developments and things of benefit and interest.

The best thing of all is that now you can run a newsletter through email and have it go to your whole client list at the push of one button. More than that it will be addressed to the recipient by name if you so choose.

This adds a personal touch and can give clients the feeling that you are talking directly to them and for their own interest. The newsletter also lets you communicate your current offer and remind people that you are there when they need you.

Customer Relations Management (CRM) systems sometimes have this feature built into them and one that does, and that will give you a free trial, go to www.CustomersAreForLife.com . These systems also allow you to schedule appointments and phone calls as well as monitor the progress of each client, company or group.

Selling is Dead

Gone are the days of the salesman as we imagine them. No longer can a man turn up at your home with a vacuum cleaner and you invite him in for coffee and then let him demonstrate his wonderful new machine.

We don’t like people to call us with offers anymore either, cold calling died a death but some companies are still flogging it. We no longer expect to be sold to, people don’t like it and if a shop assistant comes up to someone offering advice people often shy away. They want to be left alone to make up their own minds, they will call for help should they need it.

This means that the sales person becomes the order taker or the cash register operator. This isn’t a bad thing if we accept it and adapt our approach accordingly. The worst thing is if the staff then think that they don’t have to do anything at all. Too many times I find that staff have very little knowledge of the products that they are selling.

So nowadays you need to get people to buy rather than selling to them. You make them an offer so good that they can’t resist, an “irresistible offer” should answer the basic questions of what, how much, what’s in it for me and why they should believe you. The latter is often overlooked and incredible offers sometimes seem too good to be true and if we think that they are not all that they say; then we don’t buy.

Credibility is key because without it we can offer the world for a fiver but no one will believe us so we will not sell it.

Radical Killer Copywriting

The best way to get an offer across is through the copy of the offer. These days you have but a few seconds in which to grab people’s attention and make the offer.

You need a headline that shouts out “read me – pay attention!” then the first paragraph should hook the reader in. Follow this with story like writing that leads people through the offer. Sell the benefits and concentrate on what is in it for them if they buy, and what they will miss out on if they pass up this once in a lifetime deal.

Answer the key questions and then call the reader to take action, immediate action. Tell them what they must now do, call us NOW or email, or go online; come into the store today before they are all sold out….

As people are exposed to more and more offers all the time it is becoming harder to get people to act. It is also becoming harder to offer something incredible that will make people jump up and take action.

This means that your writing has to have a big impact to draw people in, get them to believe you and then do something about it. I go into much more detail about copy writing in the Gold Members area of Sales and Marketing Wealth so go an have a look; if you’re not a member then sign up for free and you also get 30 days Gold Membership for free at the moment.

Incredible Offers

Companies increasingly have loss leaders to get people in or hooked and then sell them other profitable items. This works really well on the internet with eBooks and information products. I am currently offering one of my books, “Say YES to Success” for just £1 on Sales and Marketing Wealth so that people will sign up for my newsletter and join the Gold membership program.

Online it’s easy because you can automate systems so that there are no costs involved in the sale but off line you have to be more canny and look for the angle. What will bring people to you, what will make them buy your product or service? If it were free would they buy? And if you offered it free would they believe you?

Giving stuff away is an amazing way of getting people to buy from you. I admit it’s not always practical, but again, online it works fantastically. I give a free report away if you sign up to the newsletter on Sales and Marketing Wealth and that works well. People then get to see what great value it is to be a member of the site and they buy other products.

Learn and Adapt

The key to success is to keep learning and adapting; keep reading, join sales or marketing websites and read all the relevant information. There is an incredible amount of advice out there and most of it can be found for free or for a very low price.

With advertising be sure and load in ways of testing the results. Test and re-test your adverts, the smallest of changes can make the biggest of differences to the results.

Try different media too, just because the rest of the industry advertises in on place doesn’t mean you should. Think out side of the box and place your ad somewhere it will stand out. The same demographic of people that read one magazine will often read several others.

A Final Word

The final word has to be perseverance, keep on at it, keep learning and developing your skills. You are the key to your success so invest in yourself and your knowledge and skills.

You are the source of all your wealth so believe in yourself and commit to your future; don’t let anything stand in your way. In every set back there is an opportunity, you just need to find it.

You are killing time in the departure lounge, checking and rechecking the departure time, your ticket and your passport, doing anything to avoid those nagging fears: “What do I do? What if it goes pear-shaped?” Heading out to set up that first international trade deal must rank as one of the most stressful events in a company director’s life. But there is another way. It is perfectly possible to board that flight with an easier mind if, from the outset, you have some clear safeguards in mind.

The simplest form of protection is doing some background research. “Check out your partners: check their references, check they actually have a factory, check there is market for your products – even if that just means walking around the local supermarkets, if that’s where you’re planning to go,” says Russell Jones, South West trade director of the governments’ foreign trade advisory service UK Trade & Investment (UKTI).

Of these elements, Jones says the most important is the research you do into potential partners: all international trade involves a relationship with someone somewhere, be it a client, supplier or agent. And almost all business leaders involved in international trade emphasize the importance of meeting potential partners face to face – repeatedly if need be – to decide whether they can be trusted, not just financially but whether they can do the job.

” At the risk of sounding harsh it’s a “trust no-one” environment,” says Alex Joll, managing director of Atlantic Parks, a business in Bradford-on-Avon which is developing eco-lodge holiday parks in Spain. “It’s your responsibility to undertake comprehensive checks to ensure they are who they say they are and that they have all the right paperwork in place to trade.

“Do as much preliminary face to face as you can: even if it’s through translators. Meet the main players in their own environment so you can see how they’re treated by, and treat, their workers. Dealing with genuine people who want to get the job done is the best way to win. If you have doubts, walk away.”
Many first-timers do not take enough care identifying, appointing and managing their agents and representatives, say UKTI, even though these people will act as their ambassadors and brand holders in potentially lucrative markets.

One common mistake is giving resellers and agents exclusivity without any comeback for below-par performance, says James Mullock, head of technology law in Osborne Clarke’s Bristol office. “Link exclusivity to service levels such as revenue, and give yourself the ability to terminate the appointment or relegate them to a non-exclusive role if they fail to come up to scratch.”

While trust is fundamental, you should still get it in writing with any partner and have legal agreements in place to protect both parties and establish clear targets and obligations. “Don’t forget agents and representatives and your ‘ambassadors’ in their markets,” add Mullock.

Even if a high level of trust is established, putting the exact terms of the partnership in writing is vital. There needs to be clarity about the shipping, for instance, so that sides know who is responsible for the costs and cover of any shipment and when ownership of the goods is formally transferred – when they leave the sellers premises, or at the dockside, or at the buyer’s gates.

As you’re changing your currency at the airport, perhaps this is the time to reflect in how you will pay and be paid. Will it be cash upfront – an arrangement usually only handled by the most trusting of partners – or an open account or a letter of credit?

This is a form of protection under which a bank promises to pay the supplier’s invoice as long as the correct paperwork proving delivery is in order: any disagreements after are a matter for the bankers. Typically most businesses handle transactions with North American and European partners with open accounts, but with Asia a letter of credit tends to be used until the relationship develops.

It is also important to be clear when your business will be paid: Scandinavians tend to pay up within 30 days of having received an invoice, but Spanish and Italian companies tend to wait for three months. Add to this the time needed to ship goods and the impact on cash flow can be significant.

The longer the payment gap the greater the risk from currency fluctuations, but many businesses are taking advantage of the low-ish value of sterling to start exporting. A third of West Country businesses were looking for bigger overseas sales on the back of favourable exchange rates, according to a survey by Lloyds TSB Commercial. Yet even a small fluctuation can wipe out profits.

“Protecting any gross profit margin means looking at some form of hedging device,” says Alistair Scott, a relationship manager for Lloyds TSB Commercial. “For a first-time exporter it’s possible to get coverage through a fixed exchange contract, where a bank will agree to exchange currencies at a set rate on a set day or window. It’s possible to look at a natural hedge – if you are paid in dollars or euros, can you purchase something you need in the same currency?”

As you hand over your passport it may be time to reflect on how you will protect the identity of your business and products. As the South West moves towards a knowledge-based economy, protecting intellectual property is becoming more important. this means getting trademarking, copyrighting, patenting and design protection in shape, says Paul O’Collins, adviser team manager at Enterprise Europe Network South West.

Traders need to know what protections they have overseas – a patent in the UK may carry no weight at all in some Asian countries – and whether they are genuinely enforceable from pirates and rip-off merchants. Imitation is almost the most blatant form of fraud, as Fascia Graphics discovered the hard way when it bean exporting overseas.

Paul Bennett, managing director of the Chippenham business, says: “We were alerted to the fact that a Chinese manufacturer had copied the design of our website and embedded our development code into its website. Fortunately, Google included them within our search engine optimisation reports so we were able to deal with this through the correct channels and the website has been taken down.”

Source: Magazine Article from Insider South West.

Alex Joll, Managing Director of Altantic Parks says:

Atlantic Parks Eco-Timber Lodges are based on the Costa de la Luz, Cádiz, Spain and have put together a beautiful package of Ecological Timber Lodges to holiday in, live in and/or invest in. They are passionate about quality services and the environment and their business model reflects this.

For further information and photos of Atlantic Parks, please visit www.atlanticparks.com

I am going to introduce new ways of generating business and income and ways of making your business more profitable with little extra work.

Training and education is key in business and something that companies don’t invest enough in, especially small companies. Now we are in the information age and you can get all the information you need from the internet in one form or another. Its how you find the right information for you and your business that matters and then how you use this information to profit.

In the following chapters I will introduce a few basics that when used properly will give fantastic results. If you need help with implementing any of these please call or visit the website.

CONTENTS

Introduction

1. KISS
2. Make an irresistible offer
3. Increase your revenue and profit
4. Customers are for life
5. New streams of income
6. Joint ventures

Summary

Special Offer

Introduction

In the following chapters I have tried to give concise advice on how to get the edge in today’s economy. This is not an easy thing to do and there are some skill sets and principals that need to be applied in order to get the best results.

Continue to learn; don’t ever stop making time to learn new skills and find out new techniques and ways of selling and marketing.

Invest in training; spend time if not actual cash training yourself and your staff in selling, customer service and looking for opportunities.

Get help; Sales and Marketing Wealth Ltd is just one of the many companies and bodies set up to help small businesses market and sell. We offer free help and advice through our website and we can supercharge your business. Call or email us for free advice and help that will help your business do well no matter what the economy.

On our website we have all kinds of useful articles and there is a selection of eBooks available to members for free on the Gold pages of the site. These books cover a wide range of topics and one of the most important subjects, often overlooked, is copywriting.

The ability to write copy that sells is a very valuable skill and the difference between and advert of little effect, and one that generates big sales is small. I write advert copy for several companies and I know the value of testing. Always test and monitor the results of your advertising and promotional material. This way you can see what works and use it again for great results.

1. KISS -   Keep it simple stupid

There is so much information out there and there are so many offers flying around the place it gets confusing. I personally believe that in business we should perform the KISS test on everything that we do.

Ask yourself if you are over complicating matters; could you say what you mean with less text or fill? Is what you are offering clear and obvious? People can only recall so many things at once and asking them to do more will not profit you.

When making an offer or using advertising make it clear what it is and what prospects have to do. One of my businesses sells timber lodges, they cost from about £50,000 so I can’t just put an advert in the paper and expect the phone to ring. I advertise the first step in the process and get the prospect to contact me.

Break down the process of your sales into steps and then think about how you get people from one step to the next. If you have a retail shop then you have to get people from the street into the shop with your window dressing and offer that you have posted there. Once they are in you can make them other offer and sell to them. But don’t try and sell to them before they get into the shop or they may not come in. Entice them in and then make your real offer and sell to them.

Other businesses offer free quotes for work or some garages offer a really cheap MOT and hope to pick up extra work from that. The classic loss leader strategy is a tried and tested method and we can take that on further now in new information age ways.

The most important and the most costly thing in business is getting new customers so once you have them keep them and sell to them again and again. This is something that we will be exploring throughout this book.

2. Make an irresistible offer

The offer is the centre of all business and is what attracts people in the first place; as I mentioned getting new customers is the hardest part of business so having an irresistible offer will give you the edge.

An irresistible offer is made up of 3 basic elements;

1. A high rate of return
2. A touchstone
3. Believability

The first is a given; you need to attract people with incredible value and a great return on their investment, the sale price. They need to feel that they can’t do better else where.

The touchstone is like a catchphrase that sums up the offer and your business. It is not your mission statement but more like a slogan. Businesses tend to have a touch stone for a long period, and it helps identify the brand and what they offer. Mac Donald’s “” Burger King “have it your way” Loreal “because you’re worth it” Gillette “the best a man can get” and so on.

Your offer should be amplified by this phrase and then the next time you make an offer people will recognise the phrase and expect that the offer is as good as the last one. My father had menswear shops and his bags said “never knowingly under sold” and before that “more great clothes from….” Hopefully you can do even better if you don’t already have s phrase in use.

The last of the 3 elements is believability and without it you don’t have anything. To prove the point a marketing expert once placed an advert in the national press offering £10 if you sent him £5; he had no one respond. That is an extreme example but it illustrates the point and now more that ever people do not take offers at face value. There are so many scams going people are unsure who to trust and if you market with emails its harder still; more on that later.

These elements are designed to answer the 4 basic questions that prospects have when they make a buying decision.

1. What are you trying to sell me?
2. What does it cost?
3. Why should I believe you?
4. What’s in it for me?

Answer all these 4 questions well and you are on your way to an irresistible offer. If you can enhance the offer with believability and a touchstone you might just be there.

There are very few truly irresistible offer out there and one of the all time classics must be Dominos Pizza “your pizza in half an hour or you don’t pay” – why would you order anywhere else and most people were glad when it arrived after 40 minutes they got a free pizza. So even under delivering became a good thing; if you can match that you have a gold mine.

Now I don’t want to linger here because this book is supposed to be a short one so if you need more information or want to take this further please go to the website www.SalesandMarketingWealth.com or call or email me.

3. Increase your revenue and profit

Now once you have enhanced your offer there are surprisingly few ways to amplify it, I call them the magic 3:

1. Get your message in front of more people
2. Get more profit per person
3. Sell more to your existing customers

That is over simplified perhaps but I challenge you to come up with a way of increasing revenue that does not fall into one of the 3. If you think you have one email it to me and if you’re right I will send you a free book of your choice from the website.

So let’s have a look at them in turn and see just how much falls under each heading.

1. Get your message in front of more people

Improve the quality of your advertising, increase advertising, increase exposure, write articles, get featured in the local paper. There are many ways of getting your message out there and for more ideas see the website. There is a lot of advertising that you can do for free or very little but time; such as PR. This is also one of my favourites as it is incredibly effective; just like referrals and recommendations.

Word of mouth is very powerful but incredibly hard to get going and that is why you need an irresistible offer; to get people talking about you. Make it so good that they want to tell the world.

2. Get more profit per person

This is another big category that includes cost cutting, good buying, up selling, cross selling, increased sales conversion and so on. The biggest of these to me because they are often the most overlooked are up selling and cross selling.

Too many businesses have a closed mind on cross and up selling and miss huge opportunities to make great profit. At the end of this book I will be talking about joint ventures so I will leave that area alone for now, but that still leaves lots of room for your own products.

If you buy shoes you expect to be sold some special shoe protection; if you buy petrol it used to be a can of oil – now it’s a cola and a chocolate bar, or milk and bread. Who would have put that together in the 70’s?

People come in to Mac Donald’s for the 99p hamburger but buy the value meal for £2.99 and still leave happy. So have a good think about what you can be doing to tap this gold mine. Don’t over sell and never up sell until they have fully committed to the original item, other wise you may put them off all together.

Having items at the checkout is a great way to hit this just right and shoe shops do just that with their polish. If you are a plumber you can also do more than just the job in hand. Offer a quote on some other job; offer a professional plunger so next time they may fix the blocked drain themselves and I will go into more possibilities there in the next bit and the Customers are for life section.

So get them in with the irresistible offer and then give them another great product or service to go with that.

3. Sell more to your existing customers

This is similar to the up and cross sell and can include the same sort of thing but what it really means is selling to people again and again. And not just your products and services but other peoples too. This category is so important it spawns two whole chapters, Customers are for life and joint ventures; there are even bits of this in the new streams of income chapter.

4. Customers are for life

This is probably the most important and less used weapon in peoples’ arsenals when it comes to profit. It costs so much to promote and advertise that it can be crippling to continually get new customers. Which means the customers that you do get should be looked after and kept – for life. Sell to them over and over, get them back in the store every season, every sale; get them to call your plumbing service before all others. Once you have done the hard work don’t let them get away!

What all businesses should have, without exception, is a customer database. You should have your customers details stored so that you can get in touch with them and keep them informed about your business and offers and do much more as we will see.

There are several ways of keeping a customer database from a scrap of paper, to a diary or address book, to more sophisticated systems that run through the internet or on your computer. Bits of paper and books are out dated and should be replaced by easily managed systems which are collectively called CRM (customer relations management) systems. They can store all customer and prospect information, send emails, schedule meetings and do much, much more.

You can buy an off the shelf package for between £1,000 and £4,000 or have one built for your business. I would not recommend either of these options for most businesses as the former will become out dated and the latter will end up costing you the earth.

Far better pay a monthly fee and use an internet based service. The other advantage of this is that all data is stored on secure servers that only you have access to. If you move, change computers or are in a different location for one reason or another you still have complete access to all your information.

The best of these services is called www.CustomersareforLife.com (or www.CR4L.com) for short. This system lets you enter all your current contacts easily and add to them as you get more. This system cannot be under valued and if you do not have one in place right now you are missing out on profit.

It is that simple; no matter what business you are in you are exposed to prospects and clients every day. The more you get the more money you can make. If you are in a retail situation then you have the potential to get hundreds or perhaps thousands of clients and prospects on to your database.

The more people you have on your database the more money you will make; it is as simple as that. The better the quality of leads you have effect the bottom line so if you are in a specialist profession or business not just anyone will do.

But in the majority of cases MARKETING IS A NUMBERS GAME the more eyes that see your offer the more money you will make. If you have a limited amount of appointments to offer and once you are booked up that’s that you can still make more money from having more contacts and prospects.

The key to this profit comes in the next chapter and the last; for now we will concentrate on the CRM and its database because this is where the profit steams from.

Firstly you will need to transfer any contacts that you have to the CRM; easy to do and there is help on CR4L.com to show you how. Next you will need to build up the numbers of people on your database or list and the best way to do this is to offer an incentive to your customers and prospects to sign up.

The thing that you will need to provide is value to people and thus a reason to sign up and be part of your list. You should send out newsletters every month offering people discounts, or telling them of any new industry innovations or seasonal changes to your offer – value.

You can also inform them of interesting facts or things that can profit them in what they do – ways to save time or money – value.

Give value to your list and incentivise people to sign up to it not just with the value but with an offer. WH Smith do this, BHS, House of Fraser, B&Q and many other big companies offer people a discount voucher if they sign up to the newsletter/ database.

You can do the same, give away a product or voucher or whatever to get people to sign up. The key here is incentivising the sign up so much that people bother to do it; most people will not take action even if they will profit from it. You should have a signup box on every page of your website to let people join your list and the flyers can drive them to that site and the sign up. But as mentioned people are lazy or have better things to do and will not take action on their own.

So take the action for them; instead of giving them a flyer telling them to sign up on the website and get a free widget, get them to fill out a form at the counter/checkout and then hand them a voucher which they will have to validate with the email that you will send to the address that they just gave you (do that otherwise people will give you erroneous email addresses).

This will have a much greater success rate and you are leaving much less to chance. Train your staff and yourself to do this with every customer and you will see your list grow quickly. Incentivise the staff to do this well giving the person who signs the most each day or week a bonus or time off.

Once you have the forms you will have to enter the details manually but there are normally quiet times throughout the week when you or a member of staff can do this. Make the forms as simple as you like from just the first name and email to much more. People prefer to give less and it’s easier to enter less information later.

If you are a plumber or professional you can do the same with everyone you meet or work for; you will often have more time to do this and can start to build a relationship with the client immediately.

The idea behind this is to give value to this list and keep you in their minds and then the next time they need what you have to offer there will be no decision to be made; they will come to you. You can also stimulate this interest with offers and information in your newsletter and when times are quite you can generate income through them.

It is these new streams of income that make up the next chapter and are one of the key reasons for having a list in the first place. Apart from adding value to your service and keeping your business in customers’ minds you can make money from your list in other ways.

5. New streams of income

We have looked at the cross sell and the up sell and you need to think about these both in store and on your website. If you don’t sell anything, or take bookings or get any money from your website it matters not. You can still make money through your website and the list of prospects and clients.

If you don’t have a website you can still have a list and make money from that list running it though www.CR4L.com but if you add in a website then you can make more.

Most websites don’t make a penny and are a waste of cyberspace. How about yours?

I have posted on the website the basic dos and don’ts of websites so go and have a look at www.salesandmarketingwealth.com and see if yours is ok. The number one unbreakable rule is; have a signup box to your newsletter on every page. Number two rule is less and more; less text and more pictures. Number three rule; don’t be self serving; no one what’s to know all that about us stuff so leave it out or put it out of the way somewhere.

There are three golden rules of making money online and they are simple.

1. Have an irresistible offer
2. Have credibility
3. Numbers – you need big traffic

Now you can have the first 2 but the chances are the last is not going to happen; sorry to be blunt but I don’t want to kid you huge traffic is hard to achieve or expensive and hard.

So how do you make money? Well you have an advantage you can get your customers to sign up to your newsletter and build a list. Lists are better then traffic and you need to build your up and nurture it. Give it great value and have it keen to receive your next newsletter or email.

If you are a plumber or professional you have a limiter amount of time to book with clients and make money. Having a list means that you can leverage your time and make money from many people with just one email/newsletter.

A small town lawyer in the states did this by writing a newsletter every month with useful information and advice. Pretty soon the whole town was signed up and taking about it and it spread to the next town and then went national. That meant huge influence and power to sell to a big captive audience.

With the credibility built up from all the advice and help when the author of a newsletter recommends a product or service people will take note and buy. That is the key – credibility. Then the offer and the numbers will make the profit all the bigger.

If you have a corner shop you have access to huge numbers of people who come through your doors. Grab their details and get them signed up to your website and newsletter. Keep them informed about your offer, what’s new, the neighbourhood and whatever else you think they will find value in. build credibility and then you can sell to them easily.

What do you sell? It does not matter to a certain degree as long as it is related to your product or service and it gives great value – always give great value!

Look at Click Bank or Affiliate Window for ideas or ask me for help. You don’t have to make or provide anything extra because there is good money to be made from recommendations – affiliate profits (for more on that see the website www.SalesandmarketingWealth.com ).

So to recap; in-store cross sell and up sell – look for products and services that compliment the ones you offer. If you are a builder do a deal with a plumber and a decorator and get a commission for recommending them to a client. If you are a dentist get commissions from an orthodontist or some other complimentary service. In a position of authority, where your list has trust in what you say (believability), you can recommend things that are not particularly related to what you do and people will still follow your advice and you will get paid commissions.

Don’t over do it; don’t get carried away recommending rubbish or poor value products or services because you will quickly alienate your list and that is the end of the income stream. Always give value.

Look for new products and streams of income online and cross and up sell through your website; the easiest way is with affiliate links. Ask for advice and suggestions on the best way to go about this; email or call me directly as below and I will suggest something for your business that will make you extra profit.

6. Joint ventures

Joint ventures are, strictly speaking, one of the new streams of income that can be created for your business but they are so important that I decided to give them their own chapter. In fact they are a magic number 3 as well but then all ways of increasing profit fit in to the magic 3.

Joint ventures are where two or more businesses or people join together to one purpose or common commercial enterprise. So if you are a potter you might team up with other potters in your area to hold an event that you could not do on your own.

Joint ventures can help small businesses achieve things that they couldn’t on their own. Pooling resources and using different company’s strengths to the good of all concerned.

Choosing one that suits your business, compliments it or is completely unrelated is the key thing and the best thing to do is get help and advice or look online. These days it is easier than ever to get involved in a joint venture and if you have a list as we have talked about then reciprocal mailings are one easy way to start off.

Find a company with a list of similar or larger size to yours and offer to mail your list about their product in exchange for a reciprocal mailing from them. You can also approach a company and just ask them to do the mailing offering commission on any sales it generates.

Taking that the other way round once you have a list you can offer to do mailings in return for commissions – similar to affiliate profits already mentioned.

Joint venture offer: if you have a convenience store or small shop and do NOT sell the national lottery we would like to team up with you. We have a great joint venture that will cost you nothing to set up and run but will make a great profit. Call now for information and to start making extra profit.

For an easy to use joint venture agreement follow this link:
http://www.lawdepot.co.uk/contracts/joint-venture-agreement/?pid=pg-HTLRURCRW5-joint-venture-agreementtextlink

This website also has many other useful legal forms and documents for business and personal use – you can even do your will there.

Summary

Don’t waste time doing anything that is not related to your irresistible offer or one of the magic 3; other than administration and logistics – but even there being efficient is a category number 2. Anything else is a waste of time and should be avoided so think about it before you do it.

Learning is key and skills should be developed and enhanced. Training is essential for you and your staff. You cannot expect to up or cross sell anything successfully without first training your staff to do so. For even greater success incentivise the sales; commission or even better who ever sell the most xyz gets to leave work half an hour early that day.

Get proactive and find out how best to build and amplify your offer. If you need help then go to the website www.SalesandMarketingWealth.com or call or email me directly. You can explain your situation to me and I will come up with ideas for your business right there and then – and I will not charge.

I sell loads of books and through Sales and Marketing Wealth Ltd offer courses, one to one training and bespoke business packages for marketing and sales. But I am also available by email, and phone, to ask a question or get advice on the spot at no charge.

If you are successful then that potentially means more business for me and my business and if you don’t use us for your sales, marketing or web plans I hope that you will recommend us to others. My motto is value first and I love to over deliver so I hope that this free book has helped and please get in touch if you need anything more.

Author: Alex Joll

Healthy Mediterranean Diet

Great news for the British as the Euro drops. This means that the pound goes further. Cheaper holidays, cheaper cost of living and lower prices all round. People looking for a dream home in the sun also benefit. And if you are thinking of retiring to Spain now is a great time to do so.

People looking for a better life in the sun now have the chance to get it at a discount. Prices of property have fallen to rock bottom and now that the Euro has dropped you get even more for your money.

In the sunny South of Spain people living the life of luxury in the sun are getting more. We asked one couple living on Atlantic Forest Park in Andalusia what it meant to them. They said that the main benefit is that the value of their pension just went up 20%. This is because they get their money from the UK. And as the pound rises they get more income.

“We now have more money to do the things that we like; go to restaurants and enjoy life to the full” said Ron. They added that the cost of living where they are is below that iin the UK anyway. Ron said that he gets more for a Euro than he would for a pound in the UK.

So when you add in the extra 20% you can see why more and more people are moving to the sun.

For further information and photos of Atlantic Parks, please visit www.atlanticparks.com

Firstly I would like to point out that things in Spain are really not that different to the UK. If you build a home illegally here you will have to pull it down. If the council want a new road you will have to move. The case that I quoted in the headline of my friend’s 5 bedroom home was in England. A few years ago the Bath bypass was most protested against but it happened, and my friend Richard lost his family home.

Atlantic Parks Timber Lodge Interior

The fact is that can happen anywhere. But add some seemingly duped couple who have lost their all and the papers will love it. Negative stories sell and will always dominate the headlines. They sell papers. But they are not the norm and most people who move to the sun have a fantastic life.

This negativity is why I feel it necessary to counter this with some positivity. It’s not all doom and gloom and Spain is still a great place to own property. In fact there has never been a better time to buy a dream home in the sun.

I have been developing Atlantic Forest Park for 5 years or more. It has been open for two and a half years and has many happy residents. They are happy because the sun shines and living is easy. Your money goes further in Spain and the great weather means more outdoor living.

People have bought timber lodges on Atlantic Forest Park to retire to or ahead of retirement as somewhere to spend increasing amounts of time. To retire to warmth and beautiful surroundings is many a person’s dream. But it becomes reality for many due to accessibility of a timber lodge.

So I say to anyone who wants to live the dream life of luxury in the sun, there has never been a better time. Make your own success story and start living the dream.

For further information and photos of Atlantic Parks and Timber Lodges, please visit www.atlanticparks.com

Last year was one of the toughest for business. Spain was hit as hard as or harder than many countries. Tourism dropped. House prices collapsed and many developments and projects failed.

But despite this Atlantic Parks kept selling. Driven forwards by their managing director whose determination and dedication paid off this year as they secured substantial funding for the development of a second phase of their Lodge Park.

We asked Alex why his company has succeeded against the odds and why he still believes in Spain. He summed it up in just a few key benefits that his clients respond to.

Sun – at the end of the day this is what people want. This is the most reliable thing about southern Spain. At least 300 days a year of sunshine.

Atlantic Parks Timber Lodge Interior

Price – despite the boom bust Timber Lodges represent fantastic value for money. For the price of a deposit on a flat you can own your own home outright.

Location – Spain is 2 hours away from the UK and the Costa de la Luz is the best climate and the least developed of the Costas.

Alex said “At the end of the day this is what people want. It’s a dream for so many to have a place in the sun. To retire to comfort, warmth and luxury. Atlantic Parks’ success comes from offering all of this at a price people can afford.”

Alex went on to say that to succeed in such a tough climate you need to stack the deck in your favour. He believes in giving more value to his clients that they can get anywhere else. “We offer a product that sells for twice the price in the UK and ours comes with guaranteed sunshine.”

So how do you get the finance for such a project? It seems with a lot of hard work and dedication. After being turned down by the banks and let down by other offers Alex found an investment company with an open mind. His passion and belief in Atlantic Parks is infectious and it is easy to see how he might have generated interest in the business.

“I have a great accountant and together we built a solid 5 year business plan. From this plan I was able to convince others what I believe- that this business has a fantastic future.” Armed with history and a plan for the future a deal was struck. Months of due diligence later and a deal has been signed.

“This investment means that we can move forwards and build the best development possible in a shorter time.” Visitors to the park can see the hive of activity that it is. A new entrance is being built as well as a new water treatment plant. This will enable the park to water their gardens with residual water; further bolstering the park’s green credentials.

New lodges are going up at a rate of 4 a month now as sales continue to rise. Before long building on phase 2 of the project will be under way. I am sure that orders will continue to flow because this is such a wonderful way to own a holiday home in the sun.

For further information and photos of Atlantic Parks, please visit www.atlanticparks.com

Atlantic Forest Park is set in 66 acres of forest. Near the beach but in the heart of the countryside it seems that this tranquil paradise has struck a chord with UK clients. Here you can get the same quality leisure lodge of the type so popular in the UK.

Unlike the UK your lodge in Spain comes with 300 days of sunshine. Add to this the lower price and cost of living and you get an idea of why Atlantic Parks is so successful.

Alex Joll is the managing director and force behind the company and he is beating all the odds and succeeding in Spain. When asked why his company was winning when so many were not he said that Spain will always be a favourite location for the Brits. “We love the sun and relaxed atmosphere and Atlantic Parks let clients enjoy that in beautiful surroundings” Alex went on to say “Our pricing is also our strength because for the price of a deposit on a flat you can have a luxury lodge on our park.”

So as Atlantic Parks beats the recession and continues to sell their homes other companies will look on with interest. Guaranteed sunshine, low prices, quality build and beautiful surroundings are a hard offer to beat.

For further information and photos of Atlantic Parks, please visit www.atlanticparks.com

Alphas make the best entrepreneurs and business people; they are decision makes and people follow them. This is not to say that if you aren’t one you too can’t be successful but if you are you have a head start.

If you are not an alpha but want to be you are already ahead of the betas and most likely a pre-Alpha. This means that with some effort you too can build yourself up to someone people look up to and want to follow.

This is key when in business and successful people are, almost without exception, alpha personalities.

Being someone to follow, a person of authority makes you attractive to others. In this way you can attract people to your business and offer. There are many books on this including “the Attractor Factor” by Joe Vitalle.

FREE NADA GRATIS ZILCH!

Joe is a little more spiritual than most business people in business and tends to imply that if you think it, it will happen. I believe in action, lots of action and that is how anyone can become a person to follow, a person of attraction.

In sales people buy from people and rarely make decisions based solely on the product or offer itself. If you position yourself as a person of authority, as a leader, then people are more likely to listen to what you say, take you seriously and buy what you offer.

Modern sales is about getting people to buy form you and not having to sell to them. So how do you get people chasing after you wanting to buy whatever you are selling?

It’s all about positioning; people have a subconscious attraction to others who convey leadership qualities and offer a high level of personal value. If you convey these qualities then you too will perceived to have great value and people will want to work and be with you.

Think about what category you are in now and how you are perceived; when you meet someone, or see an attractive person in the street do you look away first or do they? That’s a basic but simple test of your confidence and how you feel about your social position.

I read a couple of Frank Rumbauskas’s books and he has a great exercise to do next time you are in the Mall. When someone makes eye contact with you hold it and make them break it first. Almost everyone will and its amazing to experience the feeling it can give you.

Be careful thought, if a big guy who looks mean holds your gaze and glares at you it may be time to let him have the edge and break off.

So just from that simple exercise we can exert authority and position ourselves as a leader with confidence. So it is really a state of mind that makes us alphas, if we think it we can be it. “Fake it till you make it” works because if we believe we are that person, we act like them and people perceive us as one and then we are.

So really your not faking it at all, you just have to believe it.

Taking this to the next level and to get respect from people that we have never even met and may never we can position ourselves in the business world as leaders and people will want to know us.

The best way to do this is to write. Jeffrey Gittomer is a sales god and he is one because he writes – seemingly non stop. He has a column in the paper, many books, a great ezine and he talks too – a lot.

All these people I mention and countless more have become know from their writing. They publish articles and books that elevate them to expert status and make people see them as leaders. They turn away business and have more people ask to work with them than they could want to.

So in conclusion if you want to attract business and opportunities position yourself as a leader. Believe you are and you will be. Write about your business or experiences giving people value and help and this will confirm your status.

Personally I have written several books and published countless articles and talk to business groups in person. The best bit is that I love it and it gets me out of bed in the morning. If I can help someone get on and do well then all the better.

I also love to read and learn so I subscribe to newsletters and buy eBooks all the time; knowledge is power.

Don’t compete – be value orientated

The heart of any business is an offer, there is no business until an offer has been made and accepted. I give you this you give me that, cash preferably! The secret in today’s market is to make your offer so good that people will not need persuading but they will just buy from you. This kind of “irresistible” offer is the secret to a successful campaign and can make the difference between profit and loss.

These days we are bombarded with offers and people are a little tired of it; to be noticed you need to stand out from the rest and get people excited enough about your offer that they buy. I have seen increasing evidence of offer fatigue in the public and you just have to look at the high street for evidence, or better still the supermarket.

Supermarkets started with buy one get the second one half price; but that wore thin and they moved on to buy one get one free – or two for the price of one. Similarly they tried buy 3 and pay for 2 and all sorts of other combinations. Well the inevitable has happened and yesterday my wife came home from the shops to inform me that she had seen buy 1 get 2 free, and on brand products.

Where will this end? How can anyone compete with that? The answer is; don’t. No matter what you do, whether it be service or product based, there is always going to be someone who can offer a similar product for a lower price. So don’t slash your prices because this just means lower profits, tighter margins and hard times.

The best thing to do is look at ways of making your offer special, improve the offer in ways that will make it worth paying more than the competition. This may not be an easy task but it is worth spending some time on and considering ways to make your offer stand out from the rest.

This all goes in well with the Customers are for Life concept where by you build quality relationships with customers by offering incredible value. This leads you to sell not just once but for a life time, creating a lifetime of profits. For more on that see the website at www.CustomersareforLife.com , there you will see how building relationships builds profits and makes you stand out from the competition without having to compete!

Positive mental attitude doesn’t come overnight but comes with time and practice and you have to work at it. There is no quick fix but you can turn things around with some basic exercises and by programming your mind to think differently.

Your mind is a big computer and it runs programs that have been developed over the years of your life. Influenced by events that happen to you and around you, these programs are not necessarily the best thing for us but they run despite that.
You can change these programs to react to situations differently and give you better results, the results that will lead you to success. This programming is called NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and is the subject of another book entirely, for more information on NLP simply go to www.SalesandMarketingWealth.com and put “NLP” in the secrets slot.

In the mean time you can start with a simple exercise right now by using a positive belief statement. Take any negative thing influencing your life and turn it around into a positive statement.  For example; if you get nervous around superiors or colleagues you need to think of a situation where this is not the case; you need to question the belief. Take for example when you are at a social gathering together, an office party or such. Then create a statement which says that you are not nervous with your boss when in a social situation.  Now you need to take it further and turn this into a statement that affirms your attitude and takes it to where you are not nervous with your boss in any situation. See that happening and feel yourself in that situation, confident and relaxed.
Finally you create a statement such as “I stay calm and confident with all people in all situations”. This statement becomes part of your “Statement of Belief” which you should print out and read out loud every evening before bed, when you brush your teeth for example, and every morning when you first get up, again brushing your teeth – don’t spray the toothpaste everywhere.
As you read your statement out loud believe it and most of all see yourself there as the confident person in any situation with anyone, even the president of the bank or your boss or whoever. Feel the success and confidence every time you read it out.
It only takes 28 days of doing this to change the belief within us; that is amazing and it definitely works but I would suggest that you keep on reading your statement day and night. Refine it and add to it and as you accomplish things modify them, but keep at it and take control of the way you think and act.
You are the master of your fate, the captain of your soul and you have the power to control your thoughts and therefore your destiny.
Another little attitude test
1=Never 2=Rarely 3=Sometimes 4=Frequently 5=All the Time

1. I am an enthusiastic person …….
2. I am happy on the inside ……
3. I look for the good in things ….
4. I usually talk about the good in things ….
5. I say when I like things and people, not why I don’t …..
6. I look for the opportunity when something bad happens ….
7. I forgive people who have hurt or offended me ….
8. If I have nothing to say I say nothing ….
9. I encourage myself ….
10. I use positive attitude language and avoid “can’t” and “won’t” ….
11. I have a positive self image ….
12. I make choices that build my positive attitude ….
13. I help others without expectation of reward and without keeping stock ….
14. I am more motivated to help people than to make money ….
15. I often encourage others to succeed ….
16. I am happy about myself and my life ….
17. I work on my attitude every day ….
18. I listen to audio tapes and attend seminars ….
19. I ignore people who try to discourage me or tell me “you can’t” ….
20. I count my blessings every day ….
21. I believe in myself ….

Add up your total here ______________
Here we have the scoring opposite way round with high numbers being a better outcome than low.

75 to 105 – A great score and you have a great attitude. Keep it up, keep working towards your goals.

51 to 75 – Still a good score so build on your strengths and see your weaknesses disappear.

31 to 50 – A bit low on the score so think about where you scored less and consider your thoughts and actions in those scenarios.

Less than 30 – Again you took a wrong turn somewhere. If you want a positive attitude consider the questions and how to change things around and say YES!

Once you figure out how your attitude is you will have a starting point from which to take action.

For further information and a copy of Alex’s book “Yes attitude – say Yes to success” please click here

If you start any task with a yes or positive attitude you are much more likely to succeed. The way you perceive the outcome of anything will totally affect the end result.  Positive attitude is not about what happens to you but about how you deal with what happens to you and what you do with that.
With all opportunities you have a choice, as with all decisions, and if you have a positive attitude you are much more likely to get the best out of these opportunities.

Look for the positive

Always look for the positive in every situation no matter how bad it might seem to be; on my website you will find a section called “Challenge Positivity Man” where you can put in a challenge or problem that you are facing and I will come up with a positive thing to take from that.
I have faced some enormous challenges in business and in my personal life and no matter how dark and hard things become I always look for the opportunity and take the positive from everything. That’s not easy sometimes but if you try hard enough and stay focused on the positive then you can find it and then there will be no stopping you.
Nothing will ever end in failure
Failure is only temporary; remember that and you can brush yourself off after the severest of knockings, pick yourself up and go for it again with added knowledge and experience. You have to take the lessons life gives you and learn from them; no matter how hard they are you must not let them defeat you.
You cannot end in failure if you remember that failure is temporary and after it comes opportunity to go on to better things. So don’t ever let a failure be the end of something, it is just a phase to go through and on to even greater success.

Have a YES attitude

History is littered with people who had a yes attitude, people who said they could do something even in the face of opposition. All our great adventurers thought they could and they did. Sir Edmund Hillary climbed Everest and I bet all the way up he had to keep telling himself that he could do it and no matter how hard the climb got he kept going, kept saying I can, I can – and he did.
That journey, like all journeys, started with a single step and was followed by another and another until the goal was reached. Think positive and start your journey now with the first step to success; think that you can, and do.
Take your first step to unstoppable success and read the rest of this book, then take action.
Its all about you – you are the most important person on the planet – but, shh, don’t tell anyone.

Concentrate on yourself

Too many people get caught up in other people’s problems and don’t spend enough time on their own lives. Some people even spend hours discussing the problems of fictitious characters from the TV instead of focusing on their own lives.
You are what’s important and if you are happy and contented then the people around you are more likely to be and then your whole environment improves. Be a positive influence on those around you and say yes to happiness.
To help you think about your own attitude and the way you approach situations there is a simple test here to complete.
Take a simple test, how is your attitude?

1=Never   2=Rarely   3=Sometimes   4=Frequently   5=All the Time

I wake up happy ….
I think YES first ….
I smile ….
I am kind to others ….
I have deep self belief ….
I am self confident ….
I take responsibility for my actions ….
I motivate and inspire myself ….
I affirm myself ….
I have great spirit ….
I think positive at work and at home ….
I laugh a lot ….
I find humour in all things ….
I read positive things ….
I am in a consistent “good mood” ….
I desire to be the best ….
I love what I do ….
I am happy on the inside ….
I encourage and compliment others ….
I look for the good in every situation ….
People like me ….
People are attracted to me ….

90 -110; Great stuff you have a positive attitude, keep it up

75 – 89; Needs work but you are on the right path

60 – 74; Headed the right way but you need to work on some of those issues

Below 60; You need to get back to the positive, think about the questions and your answers.

For more great tips on helping you to achieve happiness and wealth as a by product of your happiness visit these links:

Sales and Marketing Wealth

Customers are for Life