Savvy Marketers Know When to Decline Business

“I can’t spend money advertising something I know I can’t sell … It’s not worth it to me. Advertising is way too expensive.”

From Agents Balk at Overpriced Homes. The Record, May 7, 2008.

That quote is from a real estate agent who can’t convince some prospective clients to lower their home prices to a realistic level.

I bet other solo marketers, inside and outside of real estate, face similar dilemmas with clients they represent.

How do you persuade them to lower their prices to encourage offers? The answer, as pointed out by agents in the article, is that in most instances you can’t. Accepting them as a client won’t help either.

“If I have to show that house 165 times before I get an offer, that’s 164 times I could have been doing something else…”

The practice of marketing isn’t made easy by inflated prices in an economy where neither clients nor buyers will budge, so it’s okay to turn down this type of business.

There’s a flip side to this situation that may help you fare well.

One of my solo business friends is facing this type of industry-related problem. What’s her secret to capitalizing in this economy? She orders specialized reports on businesses from county agencies.

None of these owners have requested her support, but they still may be interested. She mails them a pre-printed letter to gauge their interest, and she goes after business from leads generated by those letters.

Her business is thriving because rather than pursue people with inflated expectations, she’s profiting from firms that are ready to do business.

I applaud marketers who bypass prospects due to foreseeable problems. Isn’t that what you do?

If the information shared here benefits your success, please subscribe to my RSS feed!

May 8, 2008 | Filed Under Problems & Solutions | Leave a Comment

A Materials’ Shortage Can be Hazardous

How many of you realize at the last minute that you have no marketing materials to hand out at an upcoming event? Am I the only one with my hand raised?

Today, I’m prepared for an early morning speaking engagement. Everything’s in place except for one thing: my postcards, listed all of my Web sites associated with today’s topic, are unavailable.

How did this happen? Many sales arrived in my office last week, and that depleted the postcards I keep available to either hand out at events or include with orders.

Thankfully, there’s a backup. Last year I ordered business cards with the same, though condensed, message as the postcards. When I encourage the audience to visit me online, they’ll take away something in hand to remind them where to find follow-up information.

This dilemma has taught me a valuable lesson:

Add notice in my calendar, one month before an event, to ensure that handout postcards are plentiful.

Determine if additional materials need duplication, and send the sheet(s) electronically to the nearest printer.

I share this with you because the best of us (and that’s you, too) can overlook ordering marketing materials in time for a trade show, speaking engagement, or conference.

This will occur less frequently, or not at all, by scheduling a materials’ check a month before each event.

Technorati Tags: solo business marketing, small business marketing, marketing materials, business postcards

If the information shared here benefits your success, please subscribe to my RSS feed!

April 21, 2008 | Filed Under Problems & Solutions | Leave a Comment

What Parts of Your Business are Automated?

There’s a good chance that you receive questions and requests for similar information each week.

In the past I’ve sent newly-created Emails to each prospect or site visitor. How much time do you think it takes to form and send those Email responses?

Marketing-related information is added to the response, but a lot of time is spent writing something from scratch rather than setting it to automation.

Perhaps, like me, you’re unable to be totally automatic, which is the ability to have a computer program send a response that’s customized for each subject (outsourcing the task also helps). That’s unfortunately impossible for marketers who’d rather send information that relates to the query instead of a canned response that totally misses the mark.

What I’ve done is create a “Responses” folder. Each file within that folder is named according to the questions I receive most often.

When a question arrives, I open the folder and look at each file’s name to choose a response. After copying and pasting the answer, I add the person’s name within the salutation and press “send.”

There are times I feel that this is a lot of work, and you, too, may see it that way. However, this part of marketing has turned prospects into customers more times than I can count. Canned responses send the prospect straight to a competitor, or at the least, they won’t return to you.

In the past I’ve talked about creating a frequently-asked questions area on your site to respond to certain queries, but even with this, you’ll still receive numerous Emails from people who may not see that section or simply want to speak with someone at your firm.

I’ll continue to look for better ways to automate responses and other parts of business. For now, the ability to answer quickly by typing less streamlines this task.

Technorati Tags: solo business marketing, frequently asked questions, small business marketing, how to streamline your work

If the information shared here benefits your success, please subscribe to my RSS feed!

April 17, 2008 | Filed Under Problems & Solutions, Solo Housekeeping | Leave a Comment

Finding Solutions Outside of the Office

Talk with a trusted friend to find business solutions Yesterday, I took the advice from chapter two (Network Marketing, Solo Style) of my book.

I’m facing a business dilemma and left the office to discuss it at a tea room with a good friend.

We ordered tea, chose a table, and immediately began discussing my problem. Within five minutes she presented a solution. It’s one that was in front of me all along but needed to be revealed by her.

Why didn’t I meet with my friend before the problem overwhelmed me instead of stay in my office cocoon? There’s a simple answer to this: I thought I could handle it on my own. Isn’t that what you think, too?

Family members and corporate employees rarely understand our unique problems. Talking to them can be frustrating. That’s why it’s best to turn to a like-minded person.

I invested two hours of time and $11.99 for tea and cookies to remove the problem, and even if there was no solution found during that time, getting out of the office invigorated my day.

What dilemma are you facing? I bet that help from a trust source will end your madness.

Technorati Tags: small business marketing, Marketing Strategies for the Home-Based Business, solo business marketing, solo entrepreneur

If the information shared here benefits your success, please subscribe to my RSS feed!

April 3, 2008 | Filed Under Networking, Problems & Solutions, Solo Housekeeping | Leave a Comment