BUSINESS BASICS SERIES
By Dan Cavalli

The Costs Associated With Marketing
Many business owners believe they have to spend a fortune for the best results. They base this assumption on how much other large businesses spend on marketing. It may be surprising to know that a successful marketing plan doesn’t need a lot of money.

TIP: The secret to spending efficiently is to test before you spend.

Make Yourself Known
·    Be pro active by attending events. Become a business card collector and meet as many people as you can.
·    Become a member of local centres of influences with associated (but not competitive) products. For example: associations, clubs and organisations.
·    Take stands at trade shows and promote your service or product.

Public Speaking
·    Make yourself known to local groups of business people
·    Go on the Internet and identify who want speakers
·    Join business associations - do up a profile of yourself and promote it to these contacts

Public Relations
·    Learn how to write a press release and get it into the hands of the media
·    Position yourself as an expert in your business
·    Write short articles about subjects you deal with in your business
·    Provide these articles for magazines, business publications, TV and radio news  teams.
·    Become known by the local media moguls on a first name basis

Add On Sales
·    Sell an associated product at the point of sale.
·    Give your customer a welcome call and ask them if they would like to purchase the monthly bonus.

TIP: Start a monthly newsletter that has specials and promotions.

Improve your skills in areas of:
·    Customer care
·    Face to face contact
·    Developing customer loyalty
·    Obtaining referrals
·    Up selling
·    Persuasion

Joint Ventures
·    Associated products (that you don’t supply)
·    Associated (non competitive) businesses
·    Customer affiliated products (that you don’t supply)

What Now?
Remember the difference between an average and a great business is the people at the top. They implement many successful income-generating solutions. To make a great business select one strategy a month to implement and watch the change in your business.

You can expect sales to increase along with profit and cash flow. When I applied these strategies to my business it went through the roof. There is no reason why you won’t have the same results if you do the same.

TIP: It’s inaction, not action that brings a business down

Dan Cavalli
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