Do Business Well

A variation of outdoor advertising would be your own signsand window displays. If you expect to attract traffic because of your store’s location, buy the biggest, boldest sign you can afford (and that the law will allow). If you have a window display, spend some real time and effort making it attractive and interesting. Don’t be afraid to make your window display a bit weird. You want to attract attention! Otherwise, why spend the extra money on that greatlocation?

Mailings. Among the least expensive ways (even in the daysof ever-increasing postal rates) of reaching your specific customer with a very specific message is the mail. You can buy lists of prospects broken out by almost any criterion you can imagine. It may seem farfetched, but you should be able to buy a list of all the single folks between the ages of twenty and forty, with above-average incomes, in the five closest zip codes to your business. Look for sellers of such lists in the Yellow Pages under “Mailing Lists.” Continue Reading »

4 Comments »

There are dozens of methods of contacting prospects. The following are the most popular methods:

Over the phone

The quickest and most cost-effective way to get around is by phone. Although this has a down-side — you can’t see the customer, his face or his expressions — the phone should be used to obtain interviews where you can sell the opportunity.

Just bear in mind that a telephone call can be unwelcome. You are intruding on the prospect’s time. So make what you have to say short, relevant and of interest to the prospect. Your phone call must, within seconds, convey a benefit which will be of interest to that prospect.

Do not try to explain networking over the telephone. This rarely works. You want a face-to-face interview lasting just 10 minutes with the prospect to drop off material. If you can obtain that, and the prospect is interested, you can be sure that your appointment will last considerably longer. Continue Reading »

3 Comments »

The target audience for this newsletter is marketing professionals and students. When it was first launched in autumn 2001 it was e-mailed to Chartered Institute of Marketing members (www.cim.co.uk), plus a proactive list of marketing professionals and an AP list of subscribers to the Marketing Managers’ Yearbook (around 15 000 in total).

The execution involved a first mailing to the full list. A reminder was e-mailed a fortnight later to those who had not subscribed. Continue Reading »

4 Comments »