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The Art Of Personal Communication Hi, Hope you enjoyed our last newsletter, we had a great deal of positive feedback and always enjoy a quick note or hearing from you. This month we have a free gift for all of our subscribers, read on to find out more... Today I wanted to touch briefly on improving your written or print communication with your customers. I wanted to demonstrate a few examples of how you can make you're writing 100% more effective than it may currently be. This months Marketing Tips section will include powerful tools on How to get more customers, Effective Presenting, Master the Phone and Get Appointments. Best of all it is a shorter read than last time. I know how short we are all on time. If you can't read this now then print it off and take it home with you, I'll guarantee it will make a difference in your business. Today's computer technology allows you to easily stay in touch with your customers. If you are not doing this already then you are loosing out in more ways than you know. Just to name a few. One, you cannot possibly meet and greet every single customer each month and are therefore missing out on allowing them to purchase from you. Secondly when you are not in front of them they are not thinking about you and cannot refer others to you. But you remember the golden rule don't you? Most people do not understand that the cost of acquiring a customer is substantial, while the cost of selling them more, or selling them more often in significantly less. In other words if you are not in frequent contact with your client you are missing opportunities to grow your business while at the same time doing them a disservice by not allowing them to use you more often. More on this topic in the Marketing Domination Report. So let's get going right away on the "Art of Personal Communication," and then continue on with part two of the Marketing Domination Report. Which sounds better? We at ABC Company wish to invite all of you to visit our booth at the upcoming trade show. Our staff will be there to meet you and demonstrate our new novel widget master machine. Or Hi. You might remember me from the last trade show. Well, I'd like to invite you to the next one where I will be looking forward to meeting you again to demonstrate our new and novel widget master machine. You see the difference? The second version is more personal and direct. It is me talking to you - not me talking to a large audience. It is as if I, as an individual were writing that letter to another individual. Here is another example: Dear Customer: We here at XYZ Widgets would like to thank you for your recent order. We realize that you could have given your business to many other companies in our industry, but the fact that you choose XYZ Widgets is really appreciated by our entire staff. Thank you very much, Sincerely, Mr. John Smith. Now compare how effective the following would be: Dear Mr. Jones: I just wanted to thank you personally for your recent order, which I've just received. I took your order and even showed it to the president of our company. I realize that you had a number of other choices, but I really appreciate the fact that you chose my company. Sincerely, John Doe Now, in any communication you have with your customers as a group this form use of a personal style of writing makes more sense. Why not change your form letters, announcements, product introductions and general mass communication and make them more personal and direct? Pretend you are face to face in sort of a honest and sincere way. As long as you use words like 'I', "you", and 'me", you can create the feel of a personal form of communication. ****************************************** Last month we covered part 1 of the 12 week plan which included Goals, Time Management, Planning, Policies and Procedures, Strategy Vs. Tactics. Now we need to cover 4 more equally important areas, How to get more Customers, Effective Presenting, Master the Phone and Get Appointments. If you like the marketing tips section let us send you a handsome debossed leather drink coaster with the 12 points on them as a courtesy for reading our newsletter. Just send your complete contact info and correct mailing address to freecoaster@permaboss.com and we will get one in the mail and on its way to you right away. Permaboss.com will be offering this new product for your clients shortly so this would be a great chance to get a sneak preview before we launch it big time at the end of May. These leather coasters are a great way to have your clients show off their logos all the time yet in a subtle, classy and understated way. So lets get on with the program... 5) Get CUSTOMERS Once you know what you want to say to your clients, then you are ready to expand the ways in which you get them. Once every 12 weeks, you need to sit down and think of new strategies and tactics for getting clients. How often do you do this now? Stop the world and work ON your business? Again, if you're serious about building a bullet-proof business, then do what I'm saying here. The results will amaze you. Let me give you a strategy for getting clients, and then let me show you how that strategy might be implemented tactically. This will illustrate a few points really well, including the preceding competency. TRY THIS CONCEPT "DREAM 100 SELL." Write That Down. Every society/market is geared toward paying attention to the leaders or high visibility people in the society/market. We want you to become the most popular, most trusted and respected business of your type in your community/market. That's an example of thinking strategically. To simply think in terms of getting clients, is a very tactical approach. To think in terms of becoming the most trusted and respected company in your area of specialty is an example of thinking strategically. Here's how you'll become the most trusted and respected person in your field: I want you to build a list of what we call, "Market Influencers." This means that you are going to target the people in your community or market who have the most influence: The leaders, the CEO's of your best client candidates; If you sell to consumers, who are the "Market Influencers"? Consumers, who have the most influence over the other consumers you want to attract? Local politicians? Captains of industry in your area? Community group leaders in your area or territory? Publications? etc. Meaning, if you were a financial advisor in Toronto, you would target the 100 (or more) most influential people in that community: Keep reading we'll show you what to do with them. If you sell Business to Business, who are the best possible buyers you could target? Who are the biggest buyers, the companies that need what you have, will pay the best prices to get it and will put you on the map in a huge way if you get them? The secret here is to target your marketing efforts where the best buyers are, or to those who wield a lot of influence. Your goal is to help these groups go from "I never heard of this company," to "who's this company I keep hearing about," to "Oh yeah, I've heard of that company before," to "That's my supplier." Your Dream 100 might be only fifty, or it may be 250, or it may be 2500, depending upon the size of your market, but it's always cheaper to go after the best buyers rather than all buyers. Your target group will now hear from you at least once per month. Most of the people on the list will throw the letter away the first four or five times that they get it, but remember that you are committed to building a reputation, not just getting clients. Building a reputation is a strategic objective, not a tactical one. And if you want to build one on purpose, this means you must be targeting the people who will help you accomplish this faster. And who are they? "Market Influencers." You are going to get something out to these people every month, even if it's only a letter or a flyer. And everything that you communicate to them will have pieces of what your "story" has to say. The only way you are going to become popular to this group is to have a constant process. This process isn't going to cost you a lot of money ($60 per month to send 100 letters), but it will be very, very effective. The first thing you're going to do is to send them a letter introducing yourself and offering a free consultation in your area of specialty. Over the next twelve months, these people are going to hear from you each and every month. So you are going to commit to sending at least one letter per month to your Dream 100 list. This is just one concept about getting clients, but it can literally double sales in 12 to 18 months. 6) Effective Presenting You must keep focusing on your presentation skills and the presentation experience. Studies show that 85% of all motivation is optically stimulated. Can you build some visual aides that will help you communicate YOUR STORY more effectively? Build better communication tools. Even if you sell by phone, how can you get more senses involved? Put your presentation on the web. So now you can take clients through a visual experience while on the telephone. This will help your closing ratio dramatically, possibly even double. In our case we use the Live Web cams to virtually eliminate travel and close our selling cycle to a fraction of what it used to be. It also demonstrates to our customers that we are technology leaders and people prefer to do business with a leader, period. For an idea of what we are talking about you can see the cameras on our engraving machines (die making equipment) at http://www.cadcamfx.com/demo.htm or on the embossing machines at http://permaboss.tzo.com/bosscam.htm These are the kinds of ideas you've heard before, but the hard question is; "What are you doing about them?" Remember, it only takes one hour per week to work ON your business, resulting in remarkable improvements in all areas. Once every 12 weeks, you're going to focus on the communication experience and how to improve it with another policy or procedure. When you improve communication skills to clients, all of your marketing improves, including word of mouth. The better you communicate to me, the better I can communicate about you to my friends and associates. How often have you worked on this area? Now you're going to work on this at least once every 12 weeks. Now that you have some idea of our material, let's take a minute right here to discuss how you make real progress in any company. There is no magic trick that you're going to hear that will radically change your life. Take the DREAM 100 CONCEPT as an example. That concept requires constant attention but it can double the size of your company. This is my whole point. You will not cause any improvement in your organization without a constant process. We have tried to make this as simple as possible because we know that regular discipline is more difficult to achieve than spurts of determination. We've made it so all you have to commit to is one hour per week, and we just want to know right now, if you are going to do that? Take one measly hour per week to work ON your business and you will see remarkable results. One hour per week, focusing on a new different competency, a different technique, but do it religiously, and watch your business take flight. We've given you the subjects, which is half the battle. If you haven't been doing this and you are still waiting for the magic marketing tip or breakthrough, you're doing yourself a grave injustice. THIS has been the missing link to being a truly great entrepreneur. A person who builds a company that runs better and better, every day, week, month, year. Okay, let's go to the next competency 7) Master the Telephone The telephone should be used to get connected again and again with clients. It costs six times more to get the attention of a new client as it does to get the attention of a client who has already heard of you or used your services. One of our clients sells wearables and instituted an outbound effort to simply and politely remind his customers that it's time to buy again for their trade show, company baseball game, product promotion, customer contest/giveaway etc. For the first time in his long history, he has created the way to make his business more predictable. In the slow months, this effort has made all the difference. Once every 12 weeks, sit with your staff, just to talk about how the phone can be used to increase business. How do you handle inbound new "call-ins"? Can you institute an outbound calling effort? The best companies constantly use the telephone like a weapon to attract new buyers and best buyers. Break it down into steps, look for your ultimate strategic objective, and work on improving each aspect of what goes on involving the telephone in your office. One of the things it can be used for, and the next competency is: 8) Get Appointments The telephone can intensify your DREAM 100. Can you follow up your Dream 100 approach with a phone call? You're beginning to see how this entire program is a better integration of skills and the systems to drive them than ANYTHING you have ever tried before. One more little tip. Any sales organization must be focused, at least 2.5 hours per day, on getting in front of more buyers and best buyers. If you're in retail or sell business to business, then use this competency to find more ways to get in front of customers on a regular basis. Don't forget, once every 12 weeks, you need to take a look at this area and seek ways to improve it. Don't forget your free leather coaster debossed with the 12 marketing domination steps. Just send and email with full name and correct mailing address to freecoaster@permaboss.com and I'll get one out right away. See you next month. Rob Did you enjoy this issue? If so I would really appreciate if you would pass this along to your friends and acquaintances. Have you missed out on any issues? Now they are available on our website. Go to http://www.permaboss.com/archivednews You are also welcome to post this issue to your website on the condition that the contact info and information stays in tact as it is. We respect your privacy and your wishes. This list will never be sold or rented to third parties. If you no longer wish to receive The Embossible Times, please send a blank email to unsubscribe@permaboss.com Robert Harbauer 220 Industrial Parkway S. Unit 15 (Mon.-Fri. 9-5 EST) © Copyright Permaboss.com Inc 2002 |