Charlie Cook’s latest blog post is titled “How to Make 150% More This Year.” [Marketing for Success Blog]


Charlie Cook’s latest Marketing for Success Blog post:

How to Make 150% More This Year

Even when I’m one vacation, as I was a couple of weeks ago in Vermont, it drives me nuts when I see small business owners missing out on potential profits. Over and over I see hard working people who are struggling when they could be prospering.

One night my wife and I went out for a bite at one of the local restaurants, being run by a new owner. The staff was friendly and the food was excellent but when we left, they’d made 150% less then they should have and my wife vowed never to go back.

Are you leaving money on the table with your business? Could you be making more with a few simple changes?

When we arrived at the restaurant we were told we’d have a table in 5-10 minutes. Thirty minutes later we sat down. During that time we were never offered a drink or appetizers, both of which we would happily have purchased, significantly adding to the restaurant’s profits. And that was only the start.

We never did figure out who our waitress was. There was plenty of help and everybody seemed to be very busy, but at the same time very little was getting done. As a result, it took us forever to get served and we had to practically beg for dessert. My wife gave up and decided not to order the cappuccino she wanted.

With a bit of organization they could have served us, sent us happily on our way and filled the table again with more paying customers. That simple thing could have more than doubled their profits.

You may not own a restaurant, and I don’t envy those that do. I’m sure it’s a tough business. Whatever your business, there are two simple ideas you can use to increase your profits by more than 50%.

1. Anticipate What Your Clients Want
Instead of waiting until a prospect or a client contacts you and asks for one of your products or services, anticipate what they’ll want and when they’ll want it. If you ran a restaurant you’d ask people waiting for a table if they wanted something to eat and drink so they wouldn’t just be standing around listening to their stomachs growl.

Or, if you’re an accountant you’d send clients reminders when their estimated taxes are due, and suggestions at year-end about the best way to manage capital gains.

With a little bit of anticipation you can increase your sales by at least 50%.

2. Follow Up With Your Prospects and Clients
Most sales people respond to client requests for proposals, and that’s great, but you can easily make a lot more money if you anticipate and then follow up.

For example, the restaurant could have been helpful by updating us on the length of the wait. This would have helped set our expectations and kept communications open, giving them the opportunity to promote specials and other ordering options so we would have focused on the meal, not the wait.

If you just wait for sales to come your way, you’re missing out. Most services providers’ customers only have a vague idea of the range of services and products they offer. The key is to communicate regularly with your prospects so they know what and when to buy.

Now, I know lots of you could make use of my one-on-one mentoring program, except there are two problems. As you know, I only work with a handful of people one-on-one, and I charge a lot of money for my mentoring service. These clients pay lots for my advice.

To solve this problem for you I’ve been working hard getting my new program ready to go – Charlie Cook’s Monthly Marketing Mentoring Program.

It’s going to be fantastic, because it will give you a way to get mentoring and up-to-date advice in a personal way, but it will be open to many more people.

This membership program isn’t hype, it’s the REAL DEAL.

THIS program will allow me to offer my mentoring services to people for less than the tens of thousands I normally charge a year.

I am going to make this the best marketing mentoring program out there. I’m dead serious, this is very important to me.

I’ll share with you the hottest, most profitable ideas for generating tons of leads, attracting boatloads of new clients, maximizing your profits and making your business an even bigger success.

I’m talking about money-making strategies so fresh you won’t find them in any book, course, or ezine – because NOBODY knows about them yet!

So mark your calendar.

Remember on October 27th, I’m launching my new private membership program – Charlie Cook’s Monthly Marketing Mentoring Program.

Get ready to sign up, and keep your eyes peeled for all the special bonuses and gifts you’ll get during this time as my subscriber.

To your success,

Charlie

How To Win Without Pitching

Charlie Cook’s ‘Small Business Marketing’ Blog


Charlie Cook

The author, Charlie Cook, helps business owners and marketing professionals, attract more clients whether they market on the web, in person, or in print. You can find more of his ideas and marketing tools at Business Marketing That Works , The Marketing for Success Store and at his Small Business Marketing Blog. Use this link sign up and receive the Free Marketing eBook, ‘7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business’.

*IMNewswatch would like to thank Charlie Cook for granting permission to reprint the article.

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