Here are 9 low-cost but highly effective marketing tips to
help you boost your sales and profits fast.
Tip 1:
Look for some low-cost ways you can enhance the perceived
value of your product or service. Then test raising your
price. Don't be surprised if both your sales and your profit
margin go up.
Tip 2:
Try to limit your customer's decision making to either "Yes.
I'll buy." or "No. I won't buy". Don't risk losing them by
including "which one" decisions. The more options you offer,
the more likely some customers will procrastinate and never
make the decision ...causing you to lose a sale needlessly.
Tip 3:
You can demonstrate a low cost for your product or service
by breaking down the price to its lowest time increment. For
example, "Enjoy all of this for less than 90 cents a day"
(for something priced at $325 a year).
Tip 4:
Add an unexpected bonus to every sales transaction just
before completing the sale. It prevents customers from
developing any last minute hesitation ...and changing their
minds about buying.
Tip 5:
Print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to
prospects in your targeted market. Postcards are inexpensive
and easy to use. Most recipients who ignore other types of
advertising will read a brief ad when it's delivered to them
on a postcard.
Tip 6:
Prospects who ask questions are usually close to buying.
Take advantage of this. Don't just answer their question.
Include a reason for them to buy as part of your answer.
Then ask for the sale ...or tell them exactly what to do to
place their order.
Tip 7:
Collect testimonials from your customers and use them in all
your advertising. Testimonials provide evidence that your
product or service delivers the results you promise. For
maximum impact, use only testimonials that describe specific
results the customer enjoyed.
Tip 8:
Include "benefit rich" headlines on all your web pages. Many
visitors arrive at a web page then immediately click away
...unless something instantly catches their attention.
Tip 9:
Continually test and evaluate everything you use or do to
promote your business. Allocate 80 percent of your
advertising budget to proven promotions. Use the other 20
percent for testing new variations. Most businesses using
this system continue growing - even in highly competitive
markets.
Bonus Tip:
Handle customer complaints quickly and with a positive
attitude. Strive to preserve your relationship with them
instead of your immediate profit from the transaction. They
will reward you with repeat sales and referrals ...instead
of punishing you by telling everybody they know about their
unhappy experience and causing you to lose future customers.
Each of these marketing tips provides a simple, low-cost way
for you to boost your sales and profits quickly. All you
have to do is to put them into action.


Groupware: What Works the Way Businesses Do?
Groupware
The internet is full of 1.5 million to 7 million indexed pages of groupware packages available on the market today. Every business needs groupware to control, manage, or track documents.
Groupware is similar to other systems that enable document management, often using a centralized system to work through business collaboration processes to create budgets, market reports, presentations, contracts, and countless other documents necessary to run a business.
Ad Hoc Collaboration
Often times, however, businesses do not, or cannot, follow an outlined document collaboration process. Deadlines near, clients change their minds, management changes their minds, information changes, and needs change. In searching for groupware that enables businesses to track collaborative documents, even in an ad hoc environment, businesses need to find groupware that works the way businesses do.
Tracking
In an ad hoc business environment, tracking your document versions can be a chaos. To meet deadlines, many documents are created. But, work is often hurried through, multiple drafts are saved on multiple drives, emails are shot back and forth, and changes are continually made. But when the deadline arrives, the document may barely be missing key parts because drafts and changes were difficult to track, drafts may be missing, nobody knows the draft order, and nobody knows who made the suggested changes. Businesses need groupware that can handle ad hoc collaboration.
Businesses often have to put documents together ad hoc, but the end result doesn't have to be a mess. In searching through the groupware available, there are technologies to keep an eye out for which enable document tracking during hectic, ad hoc, document collaboration.
Digital Thread Technology
Groupware with Digital Thread Technology strings a digital thread through each draft of a document as it changes hands, even through email. An informational tag is inserted into the meta data of the electronic document which acts as a genetic tracker for the document. Digital Thread works in conjunction with Digital Signature and Version History to display the who, what, when, where, and how of a document.
Digital Signature
Digital Signatures provide basic version information every time a tracked document is attached to a Microsoft Outlook e-mail. A link is provided that allows users to see in real time if they still have the latest version of a document.
Version History
In addition to a signature that provides basic version information, groupware with a Version History feature enables a display of the document genealogy or family tree. Version History is a flow chart or visual display of the who, what, when, where, and how of the document.
Merging
After utilizing these groupware technologies, merging the changes is very simple. With just three clicks, you can compare different versions of a document. All of the changes are recorded and tracked, and all of the options are at your finger tips when deciding how the information will be presented in its final format. The ad hoc mess has essentially been cleaned up behind you and presented to you in an organized system to allow the final document to be complete, as well as having a helpful version trail to refer to in case other changes are necessary in the future.
Installation
This is often the most costly part of collaboration software. In sifting through the millions of groupware packages indexed online, the most cost efficient groupware will not require new IT infrastructure. Groupware which can be downloaded is quicker, more efficient, and more budget-sensitive.
The market knows that businesses need services to track and manage documents, especially in an ad hoc environment. Use these tips to make an effective search for a groupware that works the way businesses do.
Joe Miller is a specialist in online advertising. Groupware information is available at NextPage.com.


HOW DOES SPORTS COACHING DIFFER FROM CORPORATE COACHING?
Athletes Versus Employees
Most athletes are young, open to improvement, eager to learn and anxious to receive what a coach can provide. For the athlete, there is a defined season and something tangible to compete for. Feedback is automatic, immediate, and specific; and athletes can easily change coaches and/or teams. Employees, on the other hand, aren't as emotionally committed. When have you seen an adult cry or rant and rage when a goal was not achieved? For employees, feedback and performance are hard to quantify. Work goes on; there is no end and often only vague scorecards. Lastly, employees do not demand corporate coaching or search critically for performance improvement. Without belaboring the point or making value judgments, suffice it to say that the two have different values and motivations. However, these differences do not change what constitutes effective coaching behaviors.
The application of CMOE's Eight Step Coaching model may differ, but the concepts will not. All coaches for example, need to create a supportive, trusting relationship (Step One). Further, all coaches need to create the internal motivation or initiate a desire to pursue a more effective course of action (Step Two).
Sports Coaching Versus Corporate Coaching
In sports, the coach can rarely outperform those coached, yet in business the coach will probably be an accomplished player. One of the most successful coaches in the National Basketball Association never played professional basketball. Is it possible to conceive of a successful sales manager who never was a salesperson? In sports, coaching is a full-time job supported in many cases with assistant coaches; in business the coach has many diverse responsibilities. In gymnastics the coach's span of control is usually on-on-one. The number of "suits" on the bench, during a college basketball game, often equals or outnumbers the "uniforms" or actual players. Athletes can practice before the game and take time-outs; in business the clock is always running. Most athletic coaches see themselves as, first and foremost, teachers. Even though the word "coach" has become a popular addition to most managers' job descriptions, we doubt that many would also include teacher. So while the playing field and conditions are different, we believe that there are some unique lessons to be learned from sports coaching and applied to corporate coaching.
If you would like more information on Corporate Coaching or to learn what 100,000 managers have learned around the world, contact CMOE at (801) 569-3444 or visit their website.