If you give it a try it just might, but if you don’t, I can guarantee with absolute certainty that it won’t work.

The only thing you can do is develop a plan and then take action. Just remember, in this equation, action is more important than planning. Once you take action, you can start receiving real-world feedback and adjust accordingly. Until then, everything is just a theory.

Will you idea work? Find out!

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When funds are tight, it’s easy for business owners to look for ways to reduce costs and that’s usually a wise choice. Rather than simply cutting your marketing expenditures though, a better option for most companies may be to scrap their existing plan and start from scratch.

Think about your two possible scenarios:

Scenario 1

You do your best to cut a little here and a little there to get your marketing budget down to what you can handle under your current circumstances. In this case, one of two things can happen; either you don’t save as much as you need to, or you end up wasting your money because your cuts have reduced or even eliminated the effectiveness of your marketing. You’ll also waste a lot of energy trying to prop your existing marketing plan up.

Scenario 2

You reevaluate your current circumstances in terms of finances, the activity in your market, your unique business situation and your goals, and then develop a marketing plan around that. In this case, instead of a marketing plan that looks like it was patched together by Dr. Frankenstein, you’ll have one that is tailored to what’s going on right now. You may end up using fewer marketing channels to promote your company, but your marketing will be more focused, less work will be required to execute it and most importantly, you will achieve better results with a lower investment.

Start with the right foundation

If you were building a home in a nice level field, the foundation would be drastically different than if you were building it in the mountains. The same applies to your marketing. When the economy is booming and clients are spending money like rock stars, you can market differently than when everyone seems to be tightly clenching their purse strings. In times like this, you need to determin what your immediate goals are and market like hell to achieve them.

• Branding is still important, but if your don’t have the revenue to pay the rent, you need to focus on that. Your ads should be to the point and include a specific call to action. Motivate your customers to take action now.
• Be competitive in your pricing, but focus on value instead of just the dollar amount, otherwise you’ll always be forced to compete on price. Regardless of what you offer, make sure that you’re making enough profit to make it worthwhile . If you spend all your energy just breaking even, you won’t have time to go after the jobs that can help you get ahead.
• Choose your marketing channels carefully. Email marketing can be a cost-effective and simple way to reach your consumers with a targeted message, however, if you haven’t done the groundwork to build a quality list, it’s going to take some time before you can harness it’s true potential. Outdoor media, such as billboards, can generate tremendous exposure, but if you don’t have the budget to reach a tipping point, you’re not going to see results. Focus on what you can afford to do right.
• Speaking of what you can afford to do right, you need to know what is and isn’t working so you can adjust accordingly, and the only way to do that is to track the performance of all of your marketing. If a prospect calls in, ask them how they heard of your company. Utilize web analytics. Use a phone number that isn’t used anywhere else for your print advertising. Put a CRM system, such as ACT or Goldmine in place to track interaction with your prospects and customers.

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• New entries in your field often undervalue their work or are desperate to scratch out a living, so they work for less than their skills and knowledge would justify.
• Those who have failed to stay up to date and evolve with changes in your industry will work for less because they don’t have the skills or knowledge to do otherwise.

Are you charging what you’re really worth? Do you know what you’re really worth? Don’t simply base that on what your current customers are willing to pay or what your competitors are charging. Base it on the value that you bring to the table.

Your time is obviously the first factor, but there are many more. You have a special set of skills that you’ve developed over the years. Skills that your prospects and clients don’t have; that’s why they’re coming to you. Along with those skills is your knowledge and experience. That has a tremendous value, but it’s still not the end of the equation. For every hour of work you do, you often spend hours or even days behind the scenes reading, researching, testing and planning. All of that work, even if your client never sees it, brings additional value to their project in the form of better results.

It’s been said that you train people how to treat you. The same can be said for setting expectations of the value of your services. If you base your rates on the value of your skills, knowledge and experience, you’ll earn what your really worth. If you don’t, you’ll simply become another commodity.

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This certainly isn’t an end all, be all list of everything that can cause your business to stagnate, but it is an excellent starting point to get you moving forward.

1. Your advertising sucks. It looks just like your competitors’ ads, tries to appeal to everyone and has no call to action. If you want your advertising to work, you need to differentiate your company from your competition, target a specific demographic and tell your prospects exactly what you want them to do.
2. You’re throwing away good leads and wasting time on bad ones. Let’s be honest, not all leads are created equal. Some people are just tire kickers, or worse yet, competitors trying to get information on the inner workings of your company. Others are ready to take action right away. If you’re not utilizing a CRM system like ACT or Goldmine, you can’t keep track of who is who; your prospecting and sales process will be inefficient and cost you valuable revenue.
3. You’re not using what you’ve already built. Chances are you’ve already got a website. If you put a little more work into further developing your site though blogging, SEO and online advertising, you can leverage your previous efforts and reap the rewards more quickly than if you had to start from scratch. The same goes for email or direct mail lists. Use what you have and build upon it.
4. You’re not tapping into your existing clients. You’ve already built a relationship with them, so it would be a huge mistake not to approach them about buying your products or services. Your profit margins will be higher since you don’t have to go through the typical prospecting and sales cycle, and they will generally make a decision more quickly. Keep in mind though, don’t push too hard or you may alienate them.

As promised, here is your starting point. You can easily see a dramatic increase in revenue if you implement these simple suggestions, but there is always room for more. What additional tips or ideas do you have?

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If you’re not tracking where your clients/customers are coming from then you can’t accurately tell which campaigns are performing and which ones aren’t, so you are almost certainly wasting money. The only question is how long will you continue doing so? Here are some easy ways to track the performance of your marketing:

• Take advantage of web analytics, such as Google analytics to see exactly where your visitors are coming from. You can tell which search or PPC keywords, links from other websites, online ads and email campaigns are driving traffic traffic to your website.
• Use a separate phone number for each print advertising campaign. When you receive a call on one of these numbers, you will know exactly which campaign triggered it.
• Implement discount codes for your shopping cart which can be used in your marketing materials. These discount codes will tell you exactly which campaign drove that visitor to your website to make a purchase.

You want this number to be accurate, both for your own information, and to help encourage others to subscribe.

The easiest way to do this is install the FeedBurner FeedSmith plugin, which redirects all your feed sources to your main FeedBurner URL. The results can be pretty dramatic for less than 3 minutes of work – often doubling your subscriber count.

I have always been in sales and in a variety of industries. I worked as a telemarketing representative for two years and was able to learn the telemarketing side of business. I eventually decided to establish my own company so that I could run the business differently. I wanted to begin with a strong team approach where every marketer’s opinion is valued and the marketer can really take charge of the account and use their personality to enhance the campaign.

When we first started, we focused on business to government (B2G) campaigns and then transitioned to business to business (B2B) campaigns since the demand was much stronger for those services.

Most people have mixed emotions about telemarketing and are afraid to utilize it for marketing their business because of some of the questionable ethics that have become associated with it over the years. In your opinion, what are some of the differences between ethical and unethical telemarketing techniques?

It can definitely be a “rough and tumble” industry and most of the reputation and bad press comes primary from the business to consumer companies. We have all received those annoying calls at dinnertime with a telemarketer that is clearly reading verbatim from a script. But for the most part, the business to business (B2B) campaigns are not like that. Quite simply, you cannot have success if your team sounds like “telemarketers” and simply read the script.

Unethical telemarketing includes repeated contacts with someone that is truly not interested and using manipulative and coercive tactics for an immediate sale. Those unethical tactics simply would not work for our market. Our B2B audience is much savvier. The skills to reach decisions makers and present to business owners or managers are much more refined. The initial sales calls cannot sound like a 30 second infomercial, but rather has to be about assessing their initial interest level and potential needs in a conversational manner.

I firmly believe that business ethics cannot be legislated or learned. Ethics are ingrained in you. If you want long term business success, the ethics will either make or break your business and reputation.

Even though they have little, if any time available to dedicate to sales calls, most business owners are afraid to outsource it because they are concerned about how their company may be represented. What can you say that would ease their minds?

With the bad press that the industry receives, I can certainly understand their concerns. However, if outsourcing is done correctly, it will sound as though the calls are coming directly from their office (not from an outside telemarketing firm).

Business owners should only select an outsourcing company with a strong history and longevity, extremely qualified staff, and procedures that ensure the program is going as planned. Avoid using companies that have questionable reputations and companies that take shortcuts from the onset. Make certain that the outsourcing company has a solid plan for your program.

Any successful program begins with a true understanding of the client’s needs. There should be a written plan regarding the campaign including what types of companies should be contacted, the scripting or the approach, and how objections will be handled.

For the cash-strapped entrepreneur who can’t afford to outsource their sales calls, what advice to you have for finding viable prospects for sales calls?

The first step involves defining your target market. You should define your prospects in terms of company size, industry, and geographical markets. Of course, you can sell to a variety of markets so you should identify each market you would like to pursue.

Next, you should customize your approach to each target market. For example, you cannot approach attorneys and auto mechanics in the same way. Even though your product or service may be used by both markets, they may use your offering differently and have different motivations for their purchasing decisions. Be aware of the differences and similarities between each market and consider how best to reach that market.

Having a unique market niche (or niches) will greatly enhance your results. You can find new prospects through existing business contacts, local business associations (like the Chamber of Commerce), or you can purchase contact lists from lead list vendors.

I think the biggest challenge for people during a sales call is the introduction, and many find themselves bumbling along in an effort to get their prospect to like them. Do you have any tips for generating interest quickly and efficiently?

The key factor in initial sales calls is an understanding of your true goals. Of course, your long term goal is to build a relationship and secure the sale, but that usually does not happen in just one sales call or visit. Your immediate goal is to create an initial interest, so that you can continue building that relationship. It takes time to know your prospects and their needs.

Practice your 15 second approach. Know the three key points that you can say in less than 15 seconds that will entice your listener to want more information. Too often, we try to cram every intricate detail into that initial conversation, but details can wait until the prospect is ready. Just supply them with enough information to peak their interest.

Everyone has a different opinion on how many times to call a prospect before giving up on them. If you call too few times you may miss an opportunity just because they were busy or out of town. If you call too many times, you can waste your time and appear desperate. Without a doubt, each situation is going to be a bit different, but do you have any general guidelines?

With most prospects, we will make 3 to 5 attempts to reach them and during that time, we will also leave a few voice mail messages. It is critical that the attempts are spread out over a 2-3 week time frame. After 3-5 attempts, we then move that contact to an exhausted status and we will try again in another month or two.

You should also ask the receptionist for a good time to reach your prospect and follow their feedback. They may have staff meeting on Monday or maybe they don’t work on Fridays, so use this information to plan the best time to reach them.

How has the economy affected the telemarketing industry and your clients?

The last six months has been very interesting. We experienced a decrease in business during the fourth quarter of 08. However, we used that time to continue with new marketing efforts and now business is a strong as ever and still growing. I believe that the economic changes should force every business to re-evaluate their marketing strategies to make their business stronger – rather than just accepting the decline in business and waiting for the economy to improve. Now is the time to implement new initiatives.

Many of our clients are more aggressive with their telemarketing campaigns. In many cases, their competition has gone out of business, so our clients are often using telemarketing programs to secure those un-serviced accounts. We do have some clients that are holding until the economy improves, but for the most part the economy has resulted in additional business for us, so that we can help our clients secure new business – even in today’s economic climate.

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On one hand, this is a sign of just how powerful and cost-effective email marketing is. On the other hand, the increase makes it makes it more difficult to get your message heard over your competitors. So how can you ensure that you get the most from your email marketing?

• You need to continually work at building your targeted opt-in list. The more qualified prospects you can reach, the better. Don’t be shy about asking people to sign up, and be sure to make it easy for them to do so.
• Send your newsletter frequently enough for people to remember you, but not so often that you annoy them. In most cases, once each week is about the maximum, and once a month is about the maximum.
• Offer different, or at least additional information in your newsletter rather than just a rehash of what you provide on your website. If people know that they will find useful, original information in your newsletters, they will be more likely to open and read them.
• Send your newsletter when it’s most likely to be read; Tuesday’s and Thursday’s are typically best for open rates, so they work well for branding. Weekends are typically best for click-through rates, so they work well for specific offers. The best time of day will vary by industry, so you’ll have to do some testing to see what works best for yours.

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What’s the difference between the companies that seem to be devastated by the current economic environment and those that are prospering? Unfortunately, there is no single isolated factor, but there are some general trends.

A few years ago, we had a large client in the seafood industry with revenue of over 12 million dollars a year. Eventually, we chose to stop working for him because he felt that he had all the answers and more often than not, refused to take our advice. His revenue began dropping year after year as a result of ignoring our advice.

What did he do wrong? He took the path of least resistance. When business slowed down, he just accepted it and waited for it to pick back up. Aside from cash flow problems this created, this choice also allowed his competitors to begin chipping away at his market share. At first, it was just little chunks here and there, but as time went on, it became giant boulders. To make matters worse he was always on the look out for sales people that would work for less money than his current staff, leading to high turn-over and poor moral. Do you think an unmotivated sales person is going to present your company in the best possible light?

On the other side of the coin, we have a much smaller client in the motivational speaking industry who chose a very different path when she had to tighten her belt. She not only followed our advice, but also looked for every opportunity to create additional exposure. Since she couldn’t afford to market very much, she spoke at events for free and utilized social media to get her name out there, which helped her to land new clients. She also used her downtime to create new products to sell. All the while, she maintained laser-like focus on her target market and added value to every relationship. Her efforts didn’t make her a millionaire overnight, but they did keep her cash flow headed in a positive direction, and more importantly, they allowed her to begin gaining the market share that her competitors were losing. Despite the economy, she is now in a better financial position, has a stronger brand and a more defensible company.

People have been using the economy as an excuse for everything from losing their job, house, partner, or even their cat. They’ve been blaming their company’s poor performance and even their miserable mood on it. The fact of the matter is that economies go up and down. It’s just the nature of things and your only choice is to learn to deal with it.

Come hell or high water, it’s the true entrepreneurs who will ride through this storm and the many more that will come. Why? Pure and simple, it’s all about mindset. Entrepreneurs will do whatever has to be done to reach their goals without taking things personally. Well, without taking things AS personally as others might; we are still humans after all.

You could whine about how bad things are and it might even be true, but what will that do for you? It will waste your time and keep you in a negative mood. It will cause you to expect the worst. More importantly, it will push positive people away and draw negative people in, making your situation worse and sucking you down like a whirlpool. 

Or, you could take an objective look at your situation for opportunities that all the whiners are missing.

Which one seems like a better choice to you?

If you want to thrive through this recession, you need to take some serious action.

Add value at every opportunity. People are looking to cut costs whenever they can, but they are still looking for value. If they buy something, they want to know that it’s going to last; they don’t want to replace it in a few months. This doesn’t just apply to tangible products though. For example, if you run a heating and air conditioning company, you could add a service to your installations where you come out each month to check their system and replace their air filters. The cost to you would be minimal but it will make your company’s offer appear far more substantial. Though your cost might be slightly higher, so is the perceived value.

Work smarter and harder. Be more efficient, but don’t be afraid to put in some extra hours too. Instead of relying on a tattered notepad, use CRM software like ACT or Goldmine to keep track of your contacts. Plan your day and follow your plan. Lean a new skill that helps you to get more done and while you’re at it, stop wasting time with things that aren’t making you money.

Follow up with every lead. When a prospect contacts you, there is already some level of interest. Do not squander that. Your competitors may not be as good as you, but if they get to your prospects before you do, they may have a far better chance of converting them to their own clients. Remember, the problem isn’t just the immediate loss of revenue when a competitor converts a prospect before you do, it’s also the potential revenue that you miss out on from repeat business and/or referrals.

Get outside your comfort zone. Now is the time to try something new. Launch that new product line you’ve been thinking about. Begin public speaking to promote your business. Go after that big client. Do whatever scares you because that’s how you’ll develop new skills, build confidence and learn more about yourself. While you’re at it, don’t be afraid to fail or make mistakes. You will, and that’s ok, it’s how we learn best.

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