Qualifying For Success

Traditional marketing strategies encourage business owners to continually grow their businesses by adding new customers. In today’s competitive world of business, it is more important than ever to aim for more transactions with existing customers by using the power of customer follow-up and attention to good service.

These first ten tips will help you in turning your existing customers into walking billboards for your business and loyal customers for a lifetime. While we aren’t advocating that you do all of them, choosing your favorite five and making sure they become a part of your marketing efforts will pay off handsomely.

1. Call your clients every Monday morning just to say “Good Morning,” and to check in on how things are going. This extra ounce of attention will keep you forefront in the minds of your clients, and they will greatly appreciate your extended care and concern.

2. Keep a list of birthdays, special days of celebration, and upcoming special events in the life of your clients and their families. On these special days, send a card or small gift to let your clients know you are thinking of them. On the same note, keep a detailed list of hobbies, interests, favorite foods, preferred music, and the like. As you travel or are out and about, and you see a small token which you know your client would appreciate, buy the item, and ship it with a note that says “I thought of you when I saw this! Enjoy!” One of the most desirable “client perks” is tickets to a favorite sporting event or concert. Many companies purchase packages of sporting event tickets strictly for the purpose of entertaining champion clients and for building a long lasting relationship with the individual.

3. Be “Newsy” and a Trend Setter. One of the best ways to develop loyal clients is to become a trendsetter, continue your own education and training, and to become a forward thinker. By attending training events and reading cutting edge magazines such as Dwell, Futurist Magazine, FAST Company, Gourmet, Architectural Digest, and even Cosmopolitan Magazine, you will be able to follow trends which are current, allowing your clients to receive the newest and best information available on a variety of topics from business to fashion to design to travel to new foods on the market.

4. Attend conferences for your clients. For clients who are too busy to attend a conference, you can offer to attend a conference in their place. The best approach is to choose a conference that will benefit both you and your clients, and you pick up the tab (you will be able to deduct your cost as a business expense, so keep records and receipts for all expenses). While attending the event, collect a “goody bag” for each of your clients, that will include samples from the conference exhibit and any written materials, which you feel may be of benefit to your clients. When you return from the event, host a one-hour conference call or teleclass to update your clients on the latest/greatest in their industry.

5. Feature your clients or referral partners on your website or in your newsletter as your honored man or woman of the month/week. Contact your clients or people you often refer others to one month prior to publication, and invite them to be interviewed as your “guest expert” for the month/week. Record the interview, transcribe the interview, and post the recorded interview and transcription, along the client’s photograph, biography, and contact information on your website or in your newsletter. The enhanced visibility will speak volumes to your clients about your support for their lives, and will show others that you are committed to the personal and professional improvement of others.

6. Invite your clients for a “sneak peek” to test a new product, service, or teleclass before the general public is invited to participate. Make this “sneak peek” unforgettable. If you are offering the preview in a live setting, provide wonderful food and drink. If this is an online event, teleclass, or virtual offering, make the sneak preview say “WOW” with fabulous graphics, distinct digital audios or videos, a dynamic power point presentation, and a copy of a 15-20 page document which will add value to the life of your clients.

7. One day each week, send your clients a special quote or a brief story of inspiration. A wonderful online free resource for quotes and stories of inspiration can be obtained through the “> www.cybernation.com <http://www.cybernation.com>. Cyber Nation is one of the largest online quote libraries celebrating the famous words of men and women from history, both past and present.

8. Adopt the philosophy of Fed-Ex. Do you know what Fed Ex says? “When it’s a matter of hours, it’s a matter for FedEx. We can pick up and deliver door-to-door 24/7/365 including weekends and holidays and give you immediate confirmation. Just pick a service and pick up the phone.” Quick service, 24/7/365 is the number one reason that the majority of consumers in the United States choose Fed Ex over other parcel delivery companies. As a coach, you will develop loyal customers by being highly responsive and by delivering answers with lightning speed. When your customers expect a response, they usually expect it within 24 hours, so give them what they want, and you will develop a long list of “raving fans.”

9. Be highly accessible. Provide your clients with multiple ways to contact you, including e-mail, fax, mobile phone, business phone, and home phone. If you travel, contact your clients in advance to let them know you will be away from the office for a few days and let them know how they can reach you in the event of an emergency. Simply letting your clients know that you are always available is very reassuring and will send the client the message that you care enough to be there for them at any time.

10. Open a private page on your website “For Clients Only.” This special page on your website will be a private area which will include valuable resources not made available to the public at large. This page may include a free e-book, free audio course, free articles authored by you, or a growing list of resources you make available at no charge to those men and women who do business with you. The key to a successful private resource page is to continually update the page, adding new resources that are fresh and “cutting edge.”

© Copyright 2004 by Alicia Smith

Permission to reproduce granted if all attribution & contact information is included.

Alicia Smith is a Coach and Trainer whose specialty is helping coaches to Make Money Now. To learn more about that course and her other products and services, please visit the following sites:

www.AliciaSmith.com
www.InternetAssessments.com
www.90DaystoaProduct.com
www.DiscNinja.com
www.CoachingBlunders.com
www.90DayMarketingMarathon.com

Sales is tough to get right, and depends on retaining those customers, yet people do it badly and unprofessionally all the time. It’s really not difficult to learn the art of good service, and if you get it perfect, you will see those rewards.

Let’s look at an example of service from my point of view:

I usually buy a sandwich from one place only. I always go there, as I get top services and the sandwich is nice. I could go anywhere, but I choose to go to this place.

Price has nothing to do with it. I can get a sandwich cheaper elsewhere, but the reason that I don’t go elswhere is so simple, and it’s scary that so many businesses fail to capitalise on this easy technique. The answer is that the guy knows what my order is I only have to walk in and they prepare my sandwich without asking what I want. I suppose speed of service is part of it - never much waiting in there but it saves me from repeating my order every time I want the same thing.

It’s a nice little touch which is highly noticable by customers. Nothing major, but it shows they care about what they do. They are serious about service and yet it appears effortless, as if they aren’t trying.

That’s the secret of service. Make everything effortless in the customer’s eyes.

About the Author

David is an author, website promotion expert

http://www.eventdomain.co.uk

*You can freely use this article for content purposes, but you must include the resource box and our weblink. Many Thanks!

Affiliate marketing has become one of the most effective ways to advertise online.

It is also one of the easiest ways for anyone with a website to make a profit online. Affiliate Marketing is an agreement between a merchant and a website owner.

The website owner, or the affiliate, allows the use of their site for the promotion of the merchant’s products by linking to the merchant’s website. In exchange, the merchant pays a commission to the affiliate on all sales generated by the affiliate. Every time someone clicks on the link on the affiliate website and proceeds to make a purchase, the affiliate gets a commission. The merchant will pay the affiliate only when a customer clicks on the product link and makes a purchase.

Affiliate marketing programs are described as a win-win situation for both the merchant and the affiliate because of the pay-for-performance scheme. Both the merchant and the affiliate enjoy some benefits in affiliate marketing.

There are many benefits on the merchant’s side. It gives the merchant a wider market in which to advertise a product or service. Affiliate marketing will give the product or service the maximum exposure that it may not get with other traditional advertising techniques. The more affiliate sites a merchant has, the higher the traffic, which can convert to sales. Affiliate marketing is the equivalent of having an army of sales people who will do the advertising and will only get a commission if a customer purchases.

Meanwhile, since an affiliate marketing relationship is a win-win situation, the affiliate also enjoys many benefits.

Foremost among these is the easy way to make a profit. The affiliate can earn by having an ad or link to the merchant’s website, which prospective customers will hopefully click and proceed to make a purchase. As soon as the customer clicks on the ad on the affiliate’s site, is redirected to the merchant’s website and goes on to buy that particular product, the affiliate earns a commission. The more referrals there are the more profit for the affiliate.

Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to earn money while at home.

There are virtually no production costs.

The product is already developed and proven by the merchant, and all you have to do to find, as many prospects as you can that will bring in the profit for both the merchant and the affiliate.

Affiliate programs are usually free to join, so affiliates do not have to worry about start-up costs. There are thousands of products and services you can choose from. You can find affiliate programs for every product under the sun. Surely, there is a product or service out there that is relevant to your website.

In addition, there is absolutely no sales experience necessary. Most affiliate programs offer excellent support when it comes to providing marketing material. The simplicity of affiliate marketing allows you to be an affiliate marketer at the least cost and the most comfort. You can even build a successful affiliate marketing business right in the convenience of your own home.

In affiliate marketing, your responsibility is simply to find prospects for the merchant; you do not have to worry about inventory, order processing, and product shipping. These, along with customer service support are the duties of the merchant.

Because of the global reach of the internet, you can easily find thousands of prospects. You can intensify your advertising campaign by exploiting more aggressive and productive strategies such as viral marketing. By attracting more prospects, you also maximize your potential to earn.

Another benefit of an affiliate marketer is the minimal risk involved. If the product you are advertising is not making money then you can dump it and choose another. There are no long-term binding contracts tying you to products that are not making enough money.

All the same, the best benefit of being an affiliate marketer is the opportunity to increase your income; and you can make a profit even if affiliate marketing is only a sideline business. With your own affiliate business, you can earn easily earn extra income, although you do have to exert effort and use your imagination to maximize your earning potential.

Indeed, affiliate marketing is one of the simplest and most effective business opportunities on the web today.

Copyright 2005 Patric Chan

Patric Chan is a direct response expert, internet infopreneur, international speaker and author. His latest product, Online Niche Secrets Audio Course reveals how he started an online niche business and makes it profitable in less than 48 hours at http://www.onlinenichesecrets.com

Building a business of any size from the ground up is a difficult and often expensive project. However depending on the aspirations and ambitions of an individual or a group there is an online option that creates millions of dollars each and every year for businesses world-wide. Affiliate marketing programs may seem like an unlikely, but it is in fact one of the easiest and most effective systems of earning anywhere. The effectiveness and ease of earnings are hugely increased when a potential affiliate chooses to represent an industry with the huge attraction of online sports betting. This multi-billion dollar industry owes much of its success to the network of affiliates that represent it. As such the major sites are more than willing to offer any affiliate sizeable rewards for any members that they can produce.

The affiliate marketing system is a very simple economic business structure. The affiliates work independently from the sports betting sites, but rely on them to supply not only the advertising campaigns but also the revenue made from the new customers. It is a marketing system in which no risk is associated and both parties have the potential to create a lucrative partnership that works for each of them. Affiliates can earn up to 35% of every player that bring to a sport betting sites overall lifetime money generated. With this money being generated for any amount of time it does not take too long or for that matter, take too many people to make it a hugely profitable enterprise.

The major trouble for all affiliates, as well as that for any serious website owner, is attracting a sufficient number of hits to their site. In a professional affiliate site this equation is far more important, as they can never hope to earn money if they cannot command a significant amount of traffic flowing through their site on a daily basis. The problem with affiliates is that they are wholly reliant on people not only following their links but also signing up and depositing cash. This means that only a very small percentage of those who visit the site will ever become fully signed up members. Therefore it is in the affiliates, as well as those that they represent, to make sure that the sites traffic is increased sufficiently to capitalise on the small percentage of people that will follow their links.

Increased visibility is the best way to make a site a prominent feature on the major search engines. But in the most part, increasing visibility through advertising is not something that can be done for free. Affiliate program marketers can create SEO documents, which are pieces thick with keywords embedded in the site, in order to make the site appear high on search engine lists. This is free to anybody with the skills to create such a document, but takes a great deal of time if done right. Site owners can also increase their visibility by posting a number of messages on forums relating to the sports betting industry. By referencing their site or utilising their individual URL as a signature, a site owner can reach a large enough audience without having to waste valuable dollars doing so. The most expensive option is taking out advertising, or utilising an affiliate system yourself offering sites a percentage of your own money in exchange for valuable customers. Paying for increased visibility is something to attempt for aspirational sites looking to make a significant revenue from their site. But whatever choices you make the affiliate industry is bursting at the seems with earning opportunities, with the real joy being that it is available to anybody with any budget.

Discover the secrets of top poker affiliates and discover how to find the best poker affiliate program at http://www.epokeraffiliate.com/