One key factor to succeeding in business is having products that are in hot demand.

Your wholesale business needs to have the merchandise which resellers are being asked for by their customers.Since your sales are driven by the success of your customers, who in turn need to sell the wholesale merchandise they buy from you, it would make sense for you to offer the hottest merchandise available on the market.

But how can you determine which wholesale merchandise is in the most demand?

One way to ascertain this is by polling your wholesale customers.

Ask them straight out what line of merchandise they need for their customers.

Since your customers are in business to make money, they will be glad to share this information with you.

They realize that as a wholesaler you are not going to compete

with them on the retail level.

For this reason they will be secure in telling you the exact type of merchandise they need.So next time you are trying to figure out what the hottest wholesale merchandise is, simply ask your customers.

Remember, the wholesale deals that your customers need, is the hot merchandise as far as you are concerned.

Because even if for example DVD players are a hot wholesale item, if your customers are looking for good wholesale deals on televisions, then as far as your business is concerned, the hot item is currently a television.

Keep this in mind while you develop your wholesale business and you will have a very good chance of always selling your wholesale inventory.

Donny Lowy is the CEO of http://www.closeoutexplosion.com, an online wholesale and closeout business.

In today’s 24/7 driven business word, accountability is becoming a more critical issue for every business owner, manager, executive and salesperson. The challenge is to realize that accountability is just not a single issue, but an issue with many supporting elements. To maintain and thrive as an accountable individual first requires overcoming the fear to embrace these elements and then a plan of Action to ensure that YOU are an accountable individual.

Action – What action or actions did you take or not take and why? Since many individuals have been conditioned not to take action or are stuck in “analysis/paralysis,” accountability suffers because no specific action has been taken.

Commitment – Are you truly committed to doing what it takes? As a good friend and mentor once shared that the U.S. has a multi-billion dollar diet food industry. However, he continued “If individuals would engage in walking 30 more minutes each day, drink 8 glasses of water, reduce their daily food intake and avoid known fatty foods, would they or would they not lose weight? The answer is yes there would be weight lost. So, why is there a multi-billion dollar diet industry? The answer for most simply lies within the level of commitment of those individuals.

Choices – Are you making good choices such as prospecting, networking or professional development ? Growing your business is directly dependent upon the choices that you make. Are your choices growing your business or limiting your business?

Opportunities – Are you creating new possibilities for success? With so many ways to build your business, what opportunities will generate for you greater success? Look at each networking event as an opportunity to enhance your business. Set goals for meeting new people. Analyze the outcomes from those events. Consider forming strategic alliances with others to improve your business results.

Understanding – Do you understand yourself? Are you aware of your own strengths and feelings? Do you know how to leverage those strengths? How do you deal with your feelings? By better understanding what you what, what behaviors will help you achieve your goals, how you feel and what values are necessary to maintain your credibility, will bring additional benefits to your business as well as to yourself.

Numbers – What are your weekly numbers? The old adage goes if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Today’s technology provides a variety of tools to help you manage your daily performance numbers. By developing your own baseline for success such as 100 dials equals 20 contacts creating 10 appointments delivering 2 sales, you establish some mental boosters to help you stay focused and motivated.

Time – Are you making the most of your time? Time is a fixed commodity. By using down time, the time between appointments or phone calls, you can greatly enhance your results. For example, you can write 5 more emails, read

5 more pages or file 5 more pages.

Alignment – Are your actions in alignment with your purpose? Do you know what your purpose is? Your purpose along with your vision, values and mission statements act as filters and help you to make better decisions. For if the pending issue is not in alignment with your purpose, why are you even considering this issue?

Building Behaviors – Is your accountability a one time thing? Inconsistency derails many individuals and organizations. “Walking the talk” is critical to building a culture where you are respected for your demonstrated actions. Accountability then becomes your friend and not your foe.

Internalization – Are you working from the inside out? To be truly accountable, means that your actions are coming from your inside convictions and not just from some recent external event. Internalization also helps to strengthen the consistency of your actions.

Learning – Do you view failure positively or negatively? John Maxwell in his book Failing Forward explains how failure is an opportunity for success. If you permit failures to drive your behavior, you have lessened your own likelihood for success. Each day should present to you a new learning experience from which you can grow both personally and professionally.

Integrity – Do you demonstrate your values at all times? For example, will you take action when you know a situation is wrong or will you ignore the situation because you don’t want to lose a sale?

Team – How can you help others be more accountable? Today, proactive teamwork is a greater part of American business. Teams help achieve greater success, but sometimes team members lack some of the necessary skills. We often hear of the 20% of the team doing 80% of the work. Are your behaviors helping others to be more accountable or are your behaviors allowing others to shoulder more of the workload?

YOU – Bottom line, it is all about YOU, no buts, no excuses!

Leanne Hoagland-Smith is President of ADVANCED SYSTEMS, The Process Specialist. With over 25 years of business and education experience, she partners with her clients to connect the 3P’s of Passion, Purpose and Performance to affect sustainable change in 4 key areas: financials, leadership, relationships and growth & innovation with a variety of industries. Her ROI solutions align the strategies, systems and people to develop loyal internal customers leading to loyal external customers. She is the co-author of M.A.G.I.C.A.L. Potential:Living an Amazing Life Beyond Purpose to Achievement due for June 205 release. Leanne also speaks nationally to a variety of audiences. Please call Leanne a call at 219.759.5601 or email leanne@processspecialist.com if you are seeking sustainable results for your business or yourself.

Copyright 2005 Leanne Hoagland-Smith, http://www.processspecialist.com

Permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way (grammatical corrections accepted).

I was with a gentlemen the other day and I have known this person for 4 or 5 months. He is one of the most talented sales persons I have ever met. It pains me to say this gentleman lives in a hotel room and lives hand to mouth. To complicate things he also has a drinking problem. Forget the drinking problem and lets focus on mental conditioning. This gentleman is 53-years-old and won’t let you forget how great he thinks he is. That’s fair, because it’s true! If he works he is great!

On the highway of life I have literally met thousands of people some in sales, some not who have allowed lack of mental conditioning control their life. It’s funny, we nourish our body two, three and sometimes four or more times a day, yet we nourish our minds almost never! Mental toughness is extremely important in sales and in life. While I was listening to this gentleman describe his failure for the thousandth time, he proceeded to tell me how he kept statistics and he had missed x number of sales in the past six weeks. It was incredible to hear him spout off the exact number of sales he had missed week after week. Not once in our conversation did he tell me how many prospects he sold!

There are literally tens of thousands of people who only focus on the negative things in their life. Take it from “The Specialist”, it won’t work. If I thought it was out of your control I wouldn’t be doing this post. I also find it quite amusing that in our social life regarding the opposite sex we manage to keep an amazingly positive outlook. If that was not the case very few people would be married or have girlfriends. Look how much rejection we take before we find the right mate. If it will work

in our social life it will work in our business life.

I asked the gentleman, since he had not only kept all these incredible statistics and by writing them down had really reinforced them, what good were they? I challenged him to show me one positive thing that he could derive from that information he had gathered. He had no answer. If he had focused on the 2 sales he did make each week he have a reference to build from. Not only that he could set goals and maybe over a short period of time move out of that hotel room. I informed him that the bad results had already happened and I couldn’t change them. He might learn something from it, but that’s it! Move on and focus on the positive.

The longer you focus on your failures the longer your down curve will be. The faster you move on and start focusing on the positive not only will your down curve be shorter but your up curve will last a lot longer. everybody has ups and downs in life. It’s just how we handle them. Major league baseball players get paid literally millions of dollars if they can get a hit just once in three times at bat. That means they fail 67% of the time. What do you think they focus on? My guest started to tell me that 2 days last week he was positive and nothing happened. Surprise! Positive thinking is not a sometimes thing. It is an ‘all the time thing’! It is not your aptitude but your attitude that determines your altitude in life! Right now that gentleman is just a wandering generality. A person with permanent potential.

“The Specialist” works very consistently, but when things are not going well, as happens to everyone, I work even harder. Consistency and Positive Thinking are a sales professional’s best friend!

“The Specialist”

The largest sale that I ever closed was negotiated over hot dogs and a soft drink at a refreshment stand, just off the exhibit floor, at a Superintendent of School Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I met an educator who was interested in the summer study abroad programs that I was selling at the show. He saw my nametag for the Foreign Study League and wanted to learn more about my products. His school district filled two and a half jet airplanes with over 400 students (at more than $1,000 each) who enrolled in my firm’s summer study programs in Europe. Exhibiting and selling at tradeshows, if handled properly, is the most cost-effective selling tool in which a business or professional organization can invest.

By attracting prospects, clients or customers to a single location, a tradeshow exhibit is an “ideal selling situation,” because you can sell at your booth, meet prospects at vendor sponsored cocktail parties or even promote your products or services during the down times when the show attendees are supposed to be in meetings–like the school superintendent that cut a convention session to learn more about my high school summer study abroad programs. In a day or two at a tradeshow, you can meet more decision-makers than you can contact over many weeks of cold calling and/or in-person meetings. And, participants who visit your exhibit are for the most part pre-qualified, with an interest in or a need for what you are selling, giving you access to decision-makers in a non-threatening and fun environment.

Research shows that tradeshow participants rarely see the meetings and exhibits as a selling event, so there is less resistance to your product or service promotions. Also, Tradeshow Weekly magazine reports that: 86% of a tradeshow’s attendees make or influence buying decisions for their business or professional organization. The magazine’s researchers have also found

that over 80% of the decision-makers attending a show were not even contacted by an exhibitor’s representative prior to a given event. Yet, 75% of the attendees left an exhibit area having made a commitment (i.e. agreeing to taking the next step or setting an appointment) or actually concluding a purchase. As these statistics illustrate, often it’s the little things you do prior to the show or with your exhibit that can make the difference in your level of success. To make the most of a tradeshow opportunity, you might want to call in an expert to help you orchestrate the many small details that can make the show a profitable event. Just go to http://www.thesellingedge.com/tradeshows.htm to learn more about the expertise and programs available to businesses and professional organizations that want to generate the most business from a tradeshow event.

Obtain Free The $elling Edge®, Inc. Sales Myths E-Training Program At: http://www.mcssl.com/app/contact.asp?id=32989&afid=&formid=&preview=

VIRDEN THORNTON is the founder and President of The $elling Edge®, Inc. a firm specializing in sales, customer relations, tradeshows and management training and development. Clients have included Sears Optical, Eastman Kodak, IBM, Deloitte & Touché, Bank One, Jefferson Wells, and Wal-Mart to name a few. Virden is the author of Prospecting: The Key To Sales Success and the best selling Building & Closing the Sale, Fifty-Minute series books and Close That Sale, a video/audio tape series published by Thompson Learning. He has also authored a Self-Directed Learning series of sales, coaching & team development, telemarketing, and personal productivity training guides. Check them out at:http://www.TheSellingEdge.com/Book1.htm.

Virden teaches for the Center For Professional Development, Texas Tech University at Lubbock, Texas and in the School Of Entrepreneurship, J. Willard And Alice S. Marriott School Of Management at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. You can contact Virden at: Virden@TheSellingEdge.com. or learn more about him at: http://www.TheSellingEdge.com .

Without new business, your restaurant won’t be able to grow.  You need a constant stream of new customers to replace those you lose as a result of customers relocating, switching jobs, or changing dining habits.  Here are six strategies for getting more customers through your doors.

1. Market Your Restaurant In Hotel Rooms

Business travellers and people on holiday may not be familiar enough with your town to know where to find an excellent meal.  You can give them a hand simply by doing some hotel room marketing.  Talk to hotels within your three-mile radius area and ask if you can place menus and advertisements in their rooms and lobby area.  Some hotels have a “Nearby Attractions” list which they provide for their guests.  You can ask to be added to the list.  When guests get hungry and start trying to figure out where to eat, you’ll be one of the first restaurants to come to mind.

2. Form A Strategic Alliance With Event Venues

After a concert or sporting event, people are hungry and want to eat.  Remember that people sometimes travel a long distance to come to these events, so they don’t want to travel home on an empty stomach.  One venue in the United States showed a nearby restaurant’s advert on all of the venue monitors between concert acts.  After the concert was over, that restaurant was packed with concert goers.  You can do your part by promoting upcoming events of that venue at your restaurant.

3. Enter Contests

One of the biggest ways to get some media attention and, therefore, to attract new business is by winning a contest.   For example, enter your chef in a cooking contest.  Read restaurant publications and browse the Internet to find out about any contests you may be able to enter.  If all else fails, create your own contest and invite local restaurants to participate.  Then, even if you lose, you’ll still generate great publicity and get new patrons in your door.

4. Sell Gift Certificates

Your loyal customers may want

their friends and family members to give you a try.  Provide them with your gift certificates, so they can buy these as presents for loved ones.  A gift certificate allows the recipient to try your restaurant completely risk-free since they usually don’t have to pay anything for the experience.  Plus, each gift certificate serves as a referral to your establishment.  Make sure your gift certificates come in flexible amounts so that buyers have the freedom to decide how much to spend. 

5. Give Samples Out At Busy Locations

Send your food on the road if you really want to lure in new customers.  Go to locations that have a lot of human traffic, such as shopping centres, supermarkets, parks, etc, and offer samples of some of your most tasty food to everyone that passes by.  When they stop to take a sample, give out a menu, business card, or a coupon so that they’ll know exactly where they can go in order to taste more of your scrumptious food.

6. Offer “Happy Hour” Specials

At the end of a hard day, many workers want to relax and unwind before heading home, so invite them to your restaurant for some “happy hour” specials.  Drink specials and low-price finger food buffets are both good ideas.  You could also have Frequent Diner cards for happy patrons so that after so many drinks they receive a free drink or a discount on their meal if they decide to stay for dinner.  Inform all local businesses about your offer.

Copyright © 2004 Habiba Abubakar and Emprez.   All rights reserved.

Habiba Abubakar, a.k.a. Restaurant Marketing Diva, is the author of 40 Proven Strategies For Attracting A Continuous Flow Of New Customers To Your Restaurant.  Habiba helps restaurant owners and managers who are struggling to attract more customers and are finding it hard to build customer loyalty.  Be sure to sign up for your FREE copy of her revealing report, FOUR Things You Can Do To Skyrocket Your Restaurant’s Profits In 90 Days or Less.  Just go to http://www.emprez.com.  

I had to really look at things a little different when I started calling people. Now I am not a telemarketer. I call people only when they request it.

The problem is, they usually don’t remember filling out the form or they don’t remember why I am calling. Most of the time, I get polite people but on occasions, it’s pure hell.

It’s like these people should think that their phone is off limits to everyone. I even got some people filling out my form with the name “who Cares”. What kind of a name is that. How am I suppose to reply to that?

Simply put, I just deny getting letters like that. To be in marketing, you sometimes have to have thick skin. I am not one with so thick of skin. I really get my feeling hurt. When my feelings get hurt, my anger shows.

People are looking for an opportunity and fill out your form asking you to call them and when you do, it’s like they were waiting or better yet daring you to call. When you get them, it’s always at the most inconvenient time. Did they forget that they told you the best time to call.

One lady told me that it’s never a good time to call but call anyway. How do you approach this situation. You can bet, I didn’t waste my time with her. I think you are getting the picture here.

Now, I really had to think about myself here. When my phone rings, what am I thinking about? I am sure telemarketers have gotten to the most of us. I really hate it. I get called 2 to 3 times a week for donations, sweepstakes, or some kind of gimmick and to be quite honest, since I am in marketing myself, my own phone number is on my web site.

Even though I belong to the no call list, people still call.

What can you do about it? Nothing. Why? Usually they don’t have

caller Id show up. That is the bad thing. You would think that caller ID would work in reverse of the way it does.

Caller ID should show up for the people you don’t know so that you can decide whether to answer or not. Instead, you have to answer those calls to find out it isn’t anything important.

Are you ready for the good news. Whether you hate calling people or not, you still get more people saying yes by this approach than simply emailing them.

I know it’s tough to put all your feeling behind you and call that next SOB, but sometimes you really do meet some fantastic people.

If you get that SOB, that just happens to be drunk or suppose you just woke him up, then hey, hang up and go to the next client. Just do it.

Your going to hear all kinds of stories. I even felt sorry for people. Remember, this is your job. Turn things around. Suppose you were going to get fired if you did not make a certain amount of calls per day. I assure you, you would call. It is a matter of keeping food on your table for your children or living on the street.

I have an alternative for you if you just cannot find yourself calling people. Hire it done. Yep. Hire a student that needs to make extra money. Place an ad in the newspaper and have them call everyone you choose and pay them per call or by the hour. Tell them to learn the script and pay them. Simple huh.

Still can’t find a way to call people. Don’t give up. It’s a lot harder but you can try having them call you. I doubt most of them will. However, some will. Instead of your ad asking them to fill out a form, ask them to call a number and you make sure you answer it.

“Just Straight Shooting”

Randall Stafford

http://www.randallsquare.com

Marketing Since 1994

Not all mannequins are made to look like full-grown adults. Child mannequins are also common in many clothing stores. A child mannequin is the same as an adult mannequin except that it is built to the scale of a child. These mannequins are made specifically for displaying children’s clothes. A child mannequin is made of the same materials as an adult mannequin and has the same level of detail.

Child mannequins are commonly found in department stores as well as stores that specialize in children’s clothing. Child mannequins come in many sizes, ranging from toddler size to adolescent. A child mannequin is needed to display the store’s inventory in a realistic manner. Customers want to get a good representation of what the clothes will look like on their children. Child mannequins show parents exactly how the clothes will fit on children similar in size to the mannequins. Many child mannequins have feet and a head to show what entire outfits look like. These mannequins can model hats and shoes as well as shirts and

pants. Other child mannequins consist only of a torso held upright on a stand. These child mannequins take up less space than the full-size models and are perfect for displaying shirts and blouses.

Child mannequins are exactly the same as adult mannequins in all aspects, except for size. They are made of fiberglass, plaster, or wood, just as adult mannequins are. As with adult mannequins, child mannequins can have real human hair and have extremely detailed facial features. Most child mannequins are stuck in a stationary pose, but some are adjustable and feature moveable arms and legs that can be set in different positions.

Child mannequins are vital to stores that sell children’s clothing. They can give parents a good idea of what the store’s clothes will look like on a child.

Mannequins Info provides detailed information about display, female, and child mannequins, and advice on where to buy mannequins for sale, plus used and wholesale mannequins, and more. Mannequins Info is the sister site of Store Fixtures Web.

A study done by the Association of Sales Executives revealed that 81% of all sales happens on or after the fifth contact. If you’re a small business owner and you’re only doing one or two follow-ups imagine all the business you’re losing.

Not following up with your prospects and customers is the same as filling up your bathtub without first putting the stopper in the drain!

But don’t be disheartened if you’re among the 90% of business owners I talk to that don’t do any follow up. The good news is you have ample room for profitable improvement.

Consistent follow-up creates a predictable and profitable stream of prospects and customers that buy. Small businesses that capture leads and follow-up with them enjoy higher conversion rates and a higher percentage of referrals than those that don’t.

After asking many small business owners the reason they don’t follow up I often hear responses such as, “I don’t have the sales staff to chase down all our leads”, or “We’re usually too busy to do a lot of follow up.” These responses automatically set off red flags that tell me that they lack a systematic process for following up.

The problem is not that they don’t have the capacity to follow up with prospects, it’s that they don’t have the systems in place to do it. ______________________________________________

What Does a Good Follow Up System Look Like? ______________________________________________

A good follow up marketing system should have three attributes.

It should be systematic, meaning that the follow up process is done the same way every time.

It should generate consistent, predictable results.

It should require minimal physical interaction to make it run, meaning it should be able to run on autopilot.

Sounds like a dream come true for most small business owners doesn’t it? Not only can it be done, it’s being done every day. The secret to “follow-up marketing” is to make it automatic so that you don’t have to lift a finger but the job still gets done.

With today’s technology it’s simpler than ever. Automating your follow-up processes gives you more time to work “on” your business rather than “in” your business.

__________________________

Three Types of Follow Ups __________________________

There are three types of people you should be following up with, suspects (people in your target marketplace), prospects (people who have responded to your marketing but have not purchased, and customers (people who have purchased something from you.)

Each follow up message and offer will be different for each type of person. With suspects, you’ll want to entice them to call you or visit your store / office.

With prospects, you need to persuade them to make their first purchase. And with customers, you want to convince them to come back and do more business with you and give your referrals.

Obviously the hardest type of person to follow up with is a suspect because they haven’t shown any interest yet in a pool or hot tub and you usually don’t have their contact information.

But that’s not true with prospects and customers. You not only know who they are, but you should already have their contact information.

And if you follow up with your customers with consistency you’ll find that they will help you turn your suspects into prospects and prospects into customers for you through referrals.

__________________________________

Your Follow Up Marketing Tools __________________________________

Your principal follow up marketing tools are the telephone, direct mail, and email. Many pool and hot tub business owners make the mistake of jumping right on the telephone to follow up; however, most prospects don’t want a pushy sales message right away and most prospects have been trained to consider anyone who calls up to be a pushy salesperson.

Instead, you should try to develop a relationship of trust with your prospect by quickly sending informational items such as special reports, audio CDs, or videos before you make a phone call.

Remember to always include a “next-step-offer” to accompany your educational materials. If the next step is to visit the store, then entice them with an appropriate offer or if the next step is to call you, entice your prospect to call you immediately.

People move through the buying process in baby steps, especially when considering buying high-ticket items such as hot tubs or pools. Your offer should always help them take the next step.

____________________________

Your Follow Up Sequence ____________________________

The power of your follow up will lie in your follow up sequence. Your follow up sequence is a series of communications with your prospect that are “linked” together, with each communication building on the previous message.

For instance, you might

start your second letter by saying, “10 days ago I sent you a letter…” You might also consider stamping the message, “2nd Notice” on the envelope to let people know this is the second time you’ve contacted them.

Referencing the previous communication links what you’re saying with what you’ve already said and reminds your prospect that you care enough to continue the conversation.

Usually, when doing direct mail you should include three to five mailings spaced out about seven days apart. When using a sequential autoresponder you can have as many follow ups as you want because using email is basically free (that’s why you always want to get a prospects email address).

One of my clients has over 20 follow-ups in his autoresponder sequence that go out over a six month period.

Each sequence should follow a logical argument and you might consider bolstering the offer with each communication using a deadline as a motivator to act now.

As an example, in the third communication you could say, “I’m surprised you haven’t taken me up on my generous offer. What’s holding you back?” Or consider saying, “I’ve written you three times and you still haven’t taken me up on my offer so I’m going to pull out all the stops and make you an offer you simply can’t refuse.”

Notice how the language always links the previous communication and increases the boldness of the offer. It’s the same type of conversation you might have in a regular sales conversation.

_______________________________________________________

How to Put Your Follow Up Marketing System on Autopilot _______________________________________________________

What I’m about to reveal to you is the key to developing a powerful follow up marketing system because it overcomes the number one reason most businesses don’t follow up.

You must automate your follow up system as much as possible so that there are few, if any, physical interactions from your employees with the system. It’s the required physical interactions (i.e. printing letters, sending emails, inputting leads etc.) where 99% of all the breakdowns happen in well-intentioned follow up marketing systems.

To automate your follow-ups you should consider using robotic marketing systems and outsourcing any manual interactions to a dedicated service.

For instance, to capture your leads you should consider using a toll-free automated recorded message system that captures your prospects contact information and automatically transcribes it and sends your leads to you in a spreadsheet every morning via email.

If you’re using a direct mail follow up system (and you should be), find a fulfillment house to do the mailings for you. To find a fulfillment house, simply go to your local printer and ask them to refer you to a fulfillment house in the area.

Now step back for a moment and see the power of what I’ve just revealed to you. Imagine running an ad, having your prospect call up and give their contact information via your recorded message system.

Then having your leads automatically sent to your fulfillment house via email, after which your prospect receives a five-sequence direct mail package containing your most persuasive marketing message — without you lifting one finger!

You can set up the exact same type of “hands-free” follow up marketing system using an email autoresponder system. Your prospect will not only be receiving your direct mail messages, but you can insert your email messages in between your mailings.

____________________________________

What About Calling to Follow Up? ____________________________________

You’ll notice that I didn’t say anything about calling your prospect. That’s because you want your prospect to have already received your educational marketing messages and have most of their questions answered before they call you. An educated prospect is your best prospect.

They already know why you’re different, what your value proposition is, and how you’re uniquely qualified to meet their needs. In essence, they’ve pre-qualified themselves before you ever have to spend time physically speaking to them.

This drastically reduces the sales cycle and increases your conversion rate because you have positioned your small business to be their only logical choice.

_____________

Conclusion _____________

Follow-up marketing will boost your closing rate and dramatically increase your customer satisfaction. Following up with systematic processes allows you to leverage your salespeople’s time and enhance their productivity, which will result in more sales with less effort and isn’t that what you want? Start winning more sales today by implementing your own follow-up marketing system.

Copyright 2005 David Frey

David Frey is the author of the best-selling manual, “The Small Business Marketing Bible” and the Senior Editor of the “Small Business Marketing Best Practices Newsletter.” To get your free lifetime subscription visit http://www.MarketingBestPractices.com

One marketing technique may work wonders for someone, but that doesn’t guarantee that it’ll do the same for you. The only way to really know what works for YOUR products and YOUR target audience is to experiment. Testing and experimentation are crucial to increasing your profits.

1. Try using the occasional pop-up window to get more subscribers to your newsletter. Some people *really* hate these, so use them sparingly. For example, you could have a window pop up only the first time someone visits your site … or you could have one appear whenever someone leaves your site. Try different scenarios to see what works best.

2. Change the price of your product and see what impact it has on sales. Even if your sales drop, you may still come out ahead when it comes to profits. Note: your sales may not drop at all; I increased the price of my own booklet from $12.95 to $19.95 and sales stayed the same. You never know until you try.

3. Test different sales copy on your website and in your autoresponder. Should you come on strong, be subtle, be extremely detailed? Does long sales copy do better than short copy, or vice versa? Do you get more sales by spreading your sales copy on multiple pages, or by putting it all on one page?

Be sure to make backups of your previous work; if you find the new copy kills sales, you can always restore the previous version.

4. Track your advertising. There are a number of commercially available ad tracking packages that can help you see which ads are working well and which aren’t. Discard anything that doesn’t work, and try to improve on ads that appear to work well.

5. Experiment with the navigation of your website. For example, change the number of clicks required to get to your ordering page, or change the flow of navigation so that your visitor always ends up at an ordering page.

6. Test different types of links. You might try short ads in the margins of your web pages vs. text links within the context of an article, for example.

7. Test response rates between direct links to your sales page and the use of a follow-up autoresponder. Sometimes people just need an extra ‘push’ or a reminder to order. (make sure your autoresponder has an easy way for your prospect to unsubscribe)

About The Author

Angela runs several successful sites dedicated to helping beginners profit from the Internet. Her new web magazine, Online Business Basics, features step-by-step tutorials for eBusiness ‘newbies’. To take the guesswork out of starting and building an Internet business, click over to http://www.onlinebusinessbasics.com

All small businesses can benefit from inexpensive off the shelf CD Rom mapping software. If you own a business you need to where your customers are coming from, where you would like to expand your sphere of influence to, where your competitors are located and how to route your delivery vehicles. We recommend the following companies and CD ROM mapping software:

Rand McNally

Business Map

Delorma USA Map

Etak Maps

By printing a selection of nine maps at street level and taping them together you can get a pretty good indication of the area, you can then draw circles at 5 and ten mile radius to see where 80% of your business is most likely coming from. Etak relief maps show hills, mountains and elevations along with roads, highways, schools, libraries, post offices, government buildings, etc. Residential curvy roads usually indicate foothill areas or higher income areas (often both). Grid type residential areas near highways, freeways or railroad tracks indicate lower income areas. You can most likely pin-point your best customers and find the clusters so you know where to spend your marketing dollars or even get off your butt and walk door to door asking for their business.

If you are unsure of an

area, which may be either commercial or residential simply click on a street, find a point and an address will display. Then click on all corresponding addresses. If a dot appears by most of the names, that indicates a business area. This area will be highlighted as a primary target area on the map.

By using Select-A-Map, we can cross-reference with fax numbers and know exactly where these faxes are located. We can also print out a list of every street considered business, commercial, industrial or retail in ascending address order. This is an incredible marketing tool. Nobody we have encountered is this heavy into the high tech front end marketing as we are. They just don’t get it. They don’t teach this in schools or universities yet. They would have to rewrite all the textbooks and get new professors. So much for tenure.

Look if you are not using these most basic tools you are missing out, because if you have sophisticated competition they already are. Think about it.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/