Marketing Also Means Saying “Goodbye”

Is firing difficult-to-work-with clients part of your marketing plan? I’m learning from attendees at my seminars that saying “goodbye” is a process they embrace wholeheartedly.

September 2000 was the first time I coached a business owner to reduce her stress by ending a client relationship. She told me about the client constant mind changing regarding products he ordered. Keeping up with the changes was exhausting, yet she didn’t want to lose the client and catered to his wishes.

This woman came to me after a seminar presentation and asked how she could politely bow out of the relationship. In five minutes, I helped her craft a letter to end the account. She was grateful and sent the letter the same month.

There were, of course, numerous phone calls placed to her from her client to try and keep the account open, but my coaching helped her to not back down. She’s much happier, and her business is thriving.

Has your marketing been so successful that you’ve attracted a few difficult clients? If so, determine if the account is worth retaining or ending. If the latter, you need only craft three paragraphs.

1. Thank the client for his business.

2. Tell the client that your firm is “focusing on other projects” that unfortunately ends your ability to service him.

3. Suggest one or two industry affiliates that may be able to assist the client.

Marketing helps you find clients, and it’s also a process that lets you end relationships and continue building your empire.

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August 31, 2007 | Filed Under Customer Connections, Offline Ideas, Problems & Solutions | Leave a Comment 

Make the Most of Your Domain Names

Have you purchased numerous domain names that are currently dormant but making money for the company that registered the names? I’m in the same situation, but during my recent trip to Miami Beach, I decided to turn those sites into marketing partners.

Here’s the plan.

1. Print a list of all domains I own.

2. Determine which domains I can easily develop as one-page marketing tools.

3. Write the content, and add my own revenue-based ad products. I’m an author who can easily string words together, but if it were problematic, I’d outsource the work through Elance.com or another place where freelancers are hired.

4. Choose a Web host, one that’s low in cost and provides Web site templates for seamless content inclusion.

5. Publish the one page marketing tool for each site, pairing them to sister sites that I also own to attract visitors. I’ll also comment on other people’s blogs and include the new site’s Web address (whichever new Web site is appropriate).

Holding on and paying for Internet real estate that makes no money becomes costly for you while it acts as a big money maker for the company that runs ads under your name. It’s time to make the domains part of your marketing arsenal.

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August 30, 2007 | Filed Under Marketing News, Problems & Solutions, Solo Housekeeping | Leave a Comment 

Why the 30 Second Pitch Works

You’ve heard that developing a pitch phrase which effectively explains the benefits of your product or service increases interest and sales. Can what people say about developing a pitch be true? Here are two examples of what happened when I used this approach.

  • After pitching my products to a Food TV producer, I appeared numerous times on their news/variety show, netting me over $100,000 in sales. My cost for the pitch? $4-6 dollars to cross the bridge into New York, and $10 for parking each time I appeared.

  • After pitching my seminar topics to conference planners, I was booked to provide sales and marketing presentations to thousands of retailers who benefit from my guidance. Many within this group purchase my books and CDs on site, oftentimes netting more in sales than the honorarium.

    • Have you created your own 30-second pitch, or perhaps you’ve developed one that’s 15 seconds in length?

    To develop my own, I focused on a specific word that was primary in my pitch. From there, I wrote a one sentence explanation and edited it numerous times, eliminating unnecessary words until I had my perfect 20 word pitch. This isn’t an easy task, especially the first time, so consider working on your pitch for several days. The results are worth the effort as I’ve explained above.

    How has your pitch increased clients and sales?

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    August 29, 2007 | Filed Under Customer Connections, Offline Ideas | Leave a Comment 

    Magazine Page Layouts Spark Marketing Ideas

    Sometimes the easiest ideas come from the most out-of-the-way places.

    While browsing through Cigar Aficionado, a magazine I receive free of charge through airline points, I stopped to review its simplistic, yet smart display of the cigar pages.

    The pages are displayed in two columns. The left column is a photograph of a specific cigar, and the right column is a full description of the brand, flavor, and origination. I considered it the perfect layout to market Web site videos.

    Here’s my own setup, inspired by Cigar Aficionado’s pages. If you provide your Web site visitors with numerous videos that explain your products and services, perhaps this same type of setup is an efficient way to construct your page.

    I don’t smoke cigars, but I do enjoy learning about other industries by reading their magazines. Perhaps the same will inspire you to look at your business in a new way.

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    August 28, 2007 | Filed Under Marketing News, Offline Ideas | Leave a Comment 

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