I told them why they should buy but nobody bought-Why?

 What you think folks want and the reasons you offer to attract paying customers  are often incorrect and unfortunately fail in its objective because of those assumptions you have made.

Missing this mark is preventable as is getting it right very probable with a little up front homework. You can, with a few easy steps and ways of thinking get your messaging right so it does connect with and gain customers.

Try these steps and ways of thinking so you can,when reaching out, get paying Customers   

1. People do things for their reason's not yours

If you have not done the in depth homework to see how a target audience thinks, what it cares about and how to link what you want to what they want so joining in makes sense, you probably will be disappointed in your results.

2. Its hard to “hear” folks with a background in messaging and connecting for getting results trying to tell you that.

That's because your Belief in your direction is so strong in you that  you think that everyone will agree and want to join in. You get blinded by that belief and it prevents you from being objective about how best to get followers and participants.

Even hearing the communication "experts" saying things like "folks just do not care about that" referring to your pet project, being so caught up in the value of your idea, you resist their expert advice.

Its just too hard on you and your deep seeded beliefs, values to accept what they say.

 3. You can not just wish things into reality

If the audience has or sees no real buy in nor reason that, to them, resonates and says "that's me-that's exactly what I need to do and I am doing it" your message and recruiting efforts will fail. 

There's just to many "you need to do this" messages bombarding us so its critical that you do what is suggested in this step in the way you reach out to folks.

4. Looking at our core traits and what we are really good at, we should see what we are good at and not good at and accept it. Then farm out what we are not good at to someone who is.

If we are not marketing types and we want our idea to connect, get the marketing type to figure out how to do that.

5. Its not ego, its pragmatism that should govern how you and your strengths and weaknesses are played out in trying to make something happen.

Why go it alone when you don't have to? 

Why risk failure trying to do what you know you are not good at,  especially something as important as gaining willing participants?

This is especially true when you want to influence people, their thoughts, manage your messaging so you do gain traction for your idea or project amongst the many different types of audiences out there.

Knowing precisely how to do this with differing approaches that resonate with differing target audiences is how you get to "yes, that's exactly what I need and I want to do it" from the members of the target audiences you have identified as folks who could benefit from participating.

If you are not good at that, be brutally honest and let someone who is great at that help you by doing that part for you.

Failure is a learning experience but you can, especially if you want to create active participation in something, avoid failure if you can adopt the thinking of what's been suggested here in this post.

And remember very simple but useful way of thinking as you try to go and gain joiners and participants:

• 1."People do things for their reason's not yours 
• 2. Imagine the prospect or target audience has a sign on their forehead that says so what!" ( copywrite-Neil Licht, Axioms for success in selling, motivating and getting to yes)

Living those two axioms  when charting connecting, influencing and getting participants goes a long way to realizing success for gaining acceptance of your idea,event  It  goes a long way for you in getting folks to participate and willingly join in with your "vision" and, for their reasons, not yours, make it theirs as well.

For more insights from colleagues and others just like you who "sit in your seat" Please join into the discussion and group on this site called "acquiring Paying Customers" 

http://www.mentrepreneurs.com/groups/acquiring-paying-customers

Acquiring Paying Customers: Discussion and suggestions from folks who sell for a living  http://linkd.in/mHpGcW  and also http://linkd.in/irU5uo 

Blog: "Here We Are" - Your Sales-Marketing OPERATOR'S MANUAL for our new on line-connected business world http://ucanpreventbadhires.blogspot.com/

and lets share thoughts on how to do this in the face of our on line, web and social media "everything's a commodity" sourcing mentality.

Regards,  Neil Licht. CEO Hereweare, Chief Advisor Acquiring Paying Customers group

Web Page    http://www.wix.com/ndlicht/hereweare

Technorati Tags: account,manager.management.close,customers,decision,decision maker,heweweare,ndlicht,neil licht,prospects,economy,selling,sales,buy,bought,acquiring,paying,acquiring customers,acquiring paying customers

Make Your Small Business Memorable: Create a “Character”

By Dave Ramacitti

The one overriding goal of your small business’s marketing efforts, especially during a start-up phase, is to be noticed, is to be memorable in the eyes of customers or potential customers. You achieve being memorable by finding something your customers or potential customers can identify with, an image that you can own. Then you deliver that image --- your marketing message --- in a unique and memorable way, that is, in a way that is different from your competitors.

One way you can present your marketing message in a unique way is to create a memorable “character” or brand icon. The Geico gecko, the Aflac duck, Morris the cat, Tony the tiger and the Keebler elves all come to mind as famous non-human “characters” that have helped a particular brand of product achieve uniqueness in the marketplace.

While they were not literally part of the business’s official logo, they became so closely associated with the sponsoring company that they became an icon for the brand. Would your business lend itself to some kind of character? Would you be comfortable with this strategy? The key here is that the character somehow has to grow naturally out of who you are or who you want to be as a business. This technique isn’t for everyone. If you tend to take yourself too seriously, then this one definitely isn’t for you. But when it works, it really works great!

(Dave Ramacitti is co-founder and chief content developer for Marketing Over Easy, a new website dedicated to helping small businesses be smarter marketers. To receive a free copy of our special report "58 Free and Low Cost Ways to Promote Your New Small Business" visit us at www.marketingovereasy.com/signup © 2010 by David F. Ramacitti. Excerpted from The All-Important Stuff You Gotta Do First to Effectively Market Your Small Business © 2009 by David F. Ramacitti)

3 Tips for Marketing In a Recession

Marketing at any time should be a carefully managed process, but this is even more important when trying to sustain or grow your business during a recession or other economic downturn.

Here are 3 tips to help you get the most out of your marketing in any economy:

Recession Marketing Tip #1 – Determine Your Profit Point

Determine the profit point (the point at which sales from your marketing expenditure breaks even and pays for itself) by dividing the average profit per sale into the total marketing or advertising cost.

For example, if you spend $1000 on marketing a $100 product, you might think that 10 sales is your break-even point. Unless you have a 100% profit margin, this could be a potentially fatal error! Assuming your profit margin is 20%, your profit per sale is actually only $20, which means that you would need to generate 50 sales $100 in order to break even.

When you know your break even number ahead of time, you will know without a doubt whether a particular campaign generated a positive return on investment or not.

Recession Marketing Tip #2 – Track Everything

One mistake many business owners make is not tracking each individual marketing or advertising campaign. You cannot properly determine whether or not a particular campaign is hitting your pre-determined profit point or not without knowing where your leads are coming from.

Use custom web addresses such as www.YourCompany.com/adsource or vanity URLs (www.YourCompanyNow.com for example) to easily track advertisements that drive people to your website. Coupon codes, customized extension numbers or “virtual employee names” where you give the phone number to call and the instruction to “ask for Sally” (who doesn’t exist) or instructions to “clip this coupon” or “mention this ad” when visiting your physical location.

Make it part of your internal process to ask people where heard about you and make note of it in a spreadsheet so that you can track your results over time.

Recession Marketing Tip #3 – Do More of What Works, Less of What Doesn’t

When and if you find a marketing campaign that is consistently failing to produce enough sales to cover your investment and reach the profit point, you should immediately make a decision to either change the advertisement in some way in order to get a better result or simply stop the activity immediately.

Unless you know that your initial $100 sale will be worth many thousands of dollars over the long term (because you know your average lifetime customer value) then continuing with a money-losing campaign without at least trying to improve it is a sure way to reduced profits or even losses on your bottom line results. Even then, you should always seek to improve the results you’re getting from every marketing campaign.

On the other hand, when you find a campaign that is consistently hitting or, even better, exceeding your pre-determined profit point, then you should find ways to get more exposure in the same or similar sources.

For example, if you are advertising in a particular magazine bi-weekly, you may want to test a weekly advertisement instead. If the campaign is paying for itself and producing a profit over and above your initial investment in one magazine, you may want to try reaching a similar audience in a different, but related publication.

When you follow all three of these tips and apply them consistently and in order you will see definite improvements in your overall marketing results.

Paul Keetch is a copywriter, consulting and now #1 Amazon bestselling author with his book Make My Marketing Work: How to Win Customers & Make More Money. Download your free marketing toolkit at www.PaulKeetch.com today and make YOUR marketing work!

Be Your Own Spokesperson to Help Make Your Small Business Memorable

The main goal for your small business’s marketing efforts, particularly when you’re in the start-up phase, is to standout, is to be remembered by your customers or potential customers. You can achieve this uniqueness by finding something your customers or potential customers can identify with, an image that is exclusively yours. Then you deliver that image --- your marketing message --- in a unique and memorable way, that is, in a way that is different from your competitors.

One way you can present your marketing message in a uniquely is to be your own spokesperson. The late Dave Thomas was THE spokesperson for Wendy’s, the burger chain he founded. Today we’re seeing lots of Craig Culver on TV speaking on behalf of his burger chain, Culver’s.

Neither gentleman has the slick voice or polished delivery of a professional announcer. And that’s okay. In fact, it is this lack of polish that gives the businesses they promote uniqueness in the marketplace. In both cases --- Thomas and Culver --- it is their personal enthusiasm for their particular business that comes through, it is what makes their ads noticeable and memorable.

Speaking of enthusiasm, for a really outstanding example of how an “amateur” spokesperson can powerfully get the message across, check out Gary Vaynerchuk’s daily video blog at www.tv.winelibrary.com.

Being your own spokesperson is a particularly effective differentiator for a local business. Think about it: Your competitors can’t use you to promote their business, so using yourself to promote your own business is by definition unique.

# # #

(Dave Ramacitti is the co-founder and chief content developer for Marketing Over Easy, a new website dedicated to helping small businesses be smarter marketers. To receive a free copy of our information-packed special report “58 Free & Low Cost Tricks to Effectively Promote Your New Small Business” visit us at www.marketingovereasy.com. © 2010 by David F. Ramacitti. Excerpted from The All-Important Stuff You Gotta Do First to Effectively Market Your Small Business © 2009 by David F. Ramacitti)

$4,800 a pair shoes!!!!

There are certainly plenty of places where you can get a pair of shoes these days for $10 or less. Indeed, they all seem to be competing for how much cheaper they can offer a pair of shoes.

So, how can someone that charges $4,800 for a pair of shoes even exist today, let alone be prospering?

I met Tod’s of Italy in an article in the online edition of the New York Times (“A Shoemaker That Walks but Never Runs,” October 8, 2010).

According to the article, Diego Della Valle, the company’s current chief executive and the son of the founder, “does things the old-fashioned way: by instinct. To find out if a new style of shoes will work in the marketplace, he doesn’t need focus groups or poll testing — he wears them. After a few days, if they’re not to his liking, he renders his verdict: ‘These won’t go into production.’

“Despite running Tod’s like a traditional, Old World family business, Mr. Della Valle has turned it into a successful multinational, multibillion-dollar company, whose buttery leather moccasins adorn the feet of Princess Stéphanie of Monaco, Gwyneth Paltrow and thousands of other loyalists around the world,” the article explained.

“A men’s crocodile loafer, which retails for 3,500 euros, or about $4,850, costs 1,590 euros for Tod’s to produce in Italy. Making it in China would reduce the cost by half. But while ‘Made in Italy’ may cost more, Mr. Della Valle says he still thinks it is worth the price,” the article said.

The article went on to quote Davide Vimercati, the chief analyst for luxury goods at UniCredit in Milan: “For true luxury brands, lowering prices by outsourcing is not something they could really ever consider as a strategy for growth. Tod’s is proof that if you manage your brand consistently and you build brand equity over the years, you reach a stage where demand remains strong, even in tough times.”

And that brings me to what small businesses might learn from Tod’s:

First, no, it isn’t that you have to find a way to sell things to celebrities or royalty, although that would be cool if you can pull it off. Rather, it’s that a small business needs to find a way to NOT compete on price, which, as I suggest above, is pretty much a race to the bottom that the little guy can’t win.

And second, to find that differentiator (from the cheap commodity versions of your product) pay attention to your gut --- Diego Della Valle “does things the old-fashioned way: by instinct.” He uses his own product and thinks of himself as his own customer --- if it’s not good enough for him, it won’t be good enough for his customer.

(Dave Ramacitti is co-founder and chief content developer for Marketing Over Easy, a website dedicated to helping small businesses be smarter marketers.

(To receive a free copy of our information-packed special report “58 Free & Low Cost Tricks to Effectively Promote Your New Small Business” visit us at www.marketingovereasy.com/signup .

© 2010 by David F. Ramacitti)