Imagine it’s late at night. You are walking down a dark alleyway when you turn around and see someone following you.

They get closer.

And closer…

And closer…

Until they make their attack.

How will you defend yourself – there are two ways:

Either you’re trained in martial arts and know the right moves to ward off that attacker…

Or you’re going to be guessing and clutching at straws.

Crisis events can happen at any time… in life and in business.

And when we are forced to confront them, we fall into either one of two categories.

Either you have addressed it in advanced, trained yourself to handle it and can do so.

Or you haven’t trained yourself and you are going to be guessing.

Let’s look at a few examples:

1. A customer complains at your shop

If you have a process to empathise with the customer, find out what the customers problem is and solve it for them…

You could have a raving fan and a customer for life. If you don’t, you could have someone who bags you out to all of their friends and family, costing you thousands of dollars.

2. A new prospective customer calls in

You will either have a sales process to work out what they want, identify their needs and sell the benefits of what you have to offer so you can make the sale…

Or you will be unprepared and lose the sale.

3. You experience a dip in sales due to a competitor or a shift in the ecnomy

You’ll either know a dozen different ways to increase your sales via what you can learn at
http://www.morecustomersmadeeasy.com

… or you won’t know which way to turn and be hoping for a magical solution.

The bottom line is you want to gather information in advance, so that your brains a crisis function scan kicks in and searches for the information you need to overcome the problem.

For example, when I write an advertisement, I have a timeframe… I need to think quickly… and consequently ideas come to me out of nowhere…

Ideas from information I have read in the past. Ideas from http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/quote

It’s kind of like a surgeon. They pull on their years of training to handle crisis’s every day.

And you can too. But the question is: How much real training have you done in mastering the art of getting more customers?

If you were the owner of a twelve-cylinder Jaguar Sports car, would you be annoyed if only six cylinders were firing?

After all, you would have paid for all of that power and have it at your disposal, but despite all of this…

You would only be getting half of your potential performance.

And that would be enough to get your blood boiling, right?

But most business owners are doing the same thing with their marketing.

If you’re like most people, you have enough power to get from A to B…

But if you simply cleaned out all of the clog and applied some lube, you could have two or three times the power and be able to achieve your outcomes far more efficiently and
economically.

So today let’s talk about how you can clean out your marketing clog in a few different ways…

Step #1: Analyse your current advertising: Is it performing at its best? Are you measuring it? Have you tested 12 different headlines? Have you tested different opening sentences? Have you tested different offers?

Are you getting just a mere smidgeon of the response you could be getting?

If you answered no to any of the questions above, you should check out http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/quote

Step #2: How are you handling your customers after the sale? There’s a saying that it’s five times easier to sell something else to an existing customer than it is to get a new customer.

So are you making additional offers to your customers after the sale? Do you have a system in place to nurture your existing customers? A referral program?

Step #3: How do you follow up someone once they become a lead? Do you make one phone call and forget about them? Or do you have a detailed follow up sequence so they never forget who you are and which does not rely on any salesperson?

Step #4: How is your web site running? Are you maximising the conversions on the home page? Are you following up leads? Are you generating the maximum amount of traffic to the site at minimum cost? Are you applying all of the strategies at
http://www.scottbywater.com/internetsecrets to get maximum income from minimum effort from your online presence?

The reality is if you are like most business owners, including me, you are constantly being challenged to unclog your marketing engine so it can run more efficiently.

But it’s worth the effort. After all, you would do it if you had a high powered sports car, wouldn’t you?

Well, your marketing is worth far more in terms of lifestyle & income than any car you could ever be.

So make the decision to unclog the gunk from your marketing pipe today.

Did you know a pound of potato chips costs 200x more than a pound of raw potatoes.

So are you being ripped off? Are we all being ripped off?

I don’t think so.

You see, even thought I know this fact I would still willingly pay the same amount for those chips, when I eat them which – is very rarely, unless it’s a social occassion where I can overdo it and be left with a “carb hangover.”

(I am more of a chocolate person. My wife, however loves potato chips and Twisties. But that’s another story

So why do we pay more than we need to?

The same reason we get take-away on a Friday night.

Or use a travel agent instead of organising our holiday online.

CONVENIENCE

So today, take a moment to think about how you can raise your prices by offering your customers more convenience.

For instance…

If you are a mechanic, could you offer a loaner car so the person who gets their car fixed doesn’t have to catch cabs for the day.

If you are a butcher, could you slice the food for your clients and even add the flour and dressing onto them?

What about if you are in business to business?

An accountant could offer a file which allows his clients to better manage his invoices. He could extend his service and offer to manage the books for his/her client as well.

An optometrist could offer to come to the clients place of work to do all the testing, etc. at a premium fee.

A florist could offer to remember all the special people in your life and automatically send out flowers to them on the special day.

I think you get my point.

If you can make life easier for people – so they don’t have to bake the potato chips themselves, then they will pay more for what you have to offer.

Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Want to know other ways to differentiate your business and crush your competition?

Then head on over to http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/cashflow to find out how to turn this idea from a concept into an ACTION.

After all, nothing happens until something moves.