Tag Archives: Marketing

Follow-up is the key to customer growth and retention

Business, Computers, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Internet, Marketing, Money, , , , , , , , , ,

Follow-up is the key to getting a new customer.
Sales Statistics
•    48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
•    25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
•    12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop
•    Only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts
•    2% of sales are made on the first contact
•    3% of sales are made on the second contact
•    5% of sales are made on the third contact
•    10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
•    80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact
WHEN ARE YOU GIVING UP ON YOUR PROSPECT?

Follow-up is the key to keeping customers.
Why Customers Stop doing business with you.
•    1% Death
•    3% Move Away
•    5% Buy from a friend
•    9% Sold by a Competitor
•    14% Product Price
•    68% Perceived Indifference

The easy Follow-Up and appreciation solution
So what is an easy way to do both.  You want to keep your image and your marketing message in front of as many customers as possible.  One of the best way to do that is to send out greeting cards.  If you were to send out thank you cards and other marketing to your top 25% of customers you could add as much as 50% to your sales revenue.  If you send follow up marketing messages and cards to your prospective customers you will gain many more customers, and explode your sales volume.

So most people know this, but they don’t do it, because to most people sending out greeting cards is HARD.  They have to shop for them, buy them, write them, stamp them and then mail them.  They have to keep track of what was sent to who and when it was sent.  What if we used the power of the internet to do ALL of this for you.  All you do is log on, select the card, customize it if you wish and click send.  The rest is all done for you.  That is exactly what a great new company called Send Out Cards will do for you.  They have over 8,000 different cards to choose from, organized so that they are easy to find.

Because you are a reader of this blog you have access to a special account where you can get 2 free cards.  All you need to do is go to http://www.sendoutcards.com/az and click on the big red button in the middle.  If you have any questions about this process or if you are ready to take your business to the next level right now email us at dragon@capitalactive.com or call us at 602-579-4919.

Thanks and I hope you act on the message, and take your business to the next level.

The best MLM for me, and why

Business, Computers, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Internet, Investment, Marketing, MLM, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I finally did it, after about 3 months of research, investigating, going to meetings and trying to figure out what I wanted I finally selected the BEST MLM that I could find.

I have been in many MLM / network marketing companies, I have been to hundreds of meetings over the last 15 years, I have built teams, I have sold products, I have marketed many things but this is the first time that I stood back, and researched the pros and cons of different MLM concepts. You may remember back in April I wrote a series of blogs about the idea of a MLM. You can read them HERE, HERE, and HERE. I never wrote the last two in the series because I was still doing my research. In the process I actually joined 4 other MLM companies even before I was sold on them and all of them did not pan out. But now I finally found the best MLM company I have ever seen, more on that later.

So what makes this company better than anything else I have ever seen. There are so many reasons why. Read these reasons and compair them to any MLM that you are looking at.

Well first it is a product that EVERYONE can use, it is easy to understand, and everyone has a need for it. It also is something that you can easily prove, too many MLM promote a product that you just have to have faith that it works. (Most nutritional companies.) But for me the MOST important reason I think that this is the best MLM is because it is a great value, cheaper than normal way of doing things, and the reward of using this product is measurable and instant. You can sign up and start making money the same day, and with only three sales you are already in the black, in MOST MLM companies it is very hard to become profitable, in this it is easy. There is no other company doing anything even close to what they are doing. They are old enough to have their act together but not too young to be saturated. They are in a multi-billion dollar industry and with a radical new way of doing things will take huge market share from the two companies that have over 80% of the market share. Another thing I really love, is that everyone who hears about this product says something like “Of course that is a better way to do it, sign me up.”

If you are in a MLM now, or are thinking of joining one read that list and objectively think about how the company you are with stands up to all of these things.

The name of the company is something you probably never heard before. It is Send Out Cards. What they do is print and mail physical greeting cards that you select, customize and order online. It is a great business tool, allowing you to follow up and keep in contact with all of your co-workers, customers and business contacts. It is also a great personal tool, helping you make the people around you feel good. If you would like to try it out right now I have set up a special offer for all of my blog readers, you can CLICK HERE and you will receive a free account where you can send out two cards to anyone you like, you can play with all the features and see how it works.

Even if you are already busy building your own business you need to look at Send Out Cards as a marketing tool for that business. What would happen if you were able to follow up with EVERY prospect 2-3 times? What would happen if you sent a thank you note to each of the top 20% of your customers, how much extra business would they bring in. Think about it, try out a demo now.

I hope this blog shows some light on your journey to success. If you are looking for the best network marketing company around this one may be for you, it may not.

What you need to get set up for a successful MLM business

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This is the second article in my series on the MLM concept. Here is the first one with links to the rest.

I am going to define success as a business that is large enough to replace your entire normal income and also make a large positive change on your lifestyle. To be successful you first need to have a success mindset. You need to know how to make sales, how to make presentations and you need a team

For this blog I am going to assume that you have all of this in place and it is time to get started. Here is what else you need to get started quickly. These are the tools that I use.

Computer: You MLM is probably online, and you need to keep track of your customers and use your computer for marketing. (If you need a good deal on a computer go to Emerald Computers)
An office: You need a place where you go to work. This can be in your house or outside. It should be easy to bring potential customers there to talk with. I like to have a desktop as my main computer because you can use it longer with less fatigue. A laptop is also very useful.

Ok those are obvious, as should be having a good vehicle and an email account.

Now let me get a bit deeper, on what you need. I will assume that you are building an online business because most MLMs now are mostly online.

First you need your own domain name. You company has a web page and a domain name, but they control that. You need your own, something that is good for what you do, easy to spell, easy to remember. You then will get an email address on your domain. Never run a business using the email address from your ISP or one of those free sites like yahoo, msn or gmail, it really looks bad to many people. I use GoDaddy for my domains, it is cheap, had good support and works well.

Next you will want software to track your contacts. We use a program called ACT. With this program you enter in all the information about the people you are contacting. It them allows you to keep notes about them, update the info when you are on the phone, and most importantly it reminds you of the times you need to follow-up with these people. I also use a Palm Pilot to take all of this info and make it mobile, so that I can access and update it on the road.

Next you will want an auto-responder to manage your emails. What this does is track all of your contacts that wanted to be added to your various mailing lists. You also can preset automatic mailings, and send mass broadcasts to your prospects. There is much more you can do with it. I use a company called GetResponse and for the $150 a year I pay I get unlimited usage and it is well worth it.

Next you need your own website, you can make a simple site that you control. You should have a site for your prospects to visit. Another for your customers to visit and yet another for your team to visit. You need to learn about making a squeeze page, a way to extract data from your customer to feed to your auto-responder. I use a company called PrecisionWeb for my hosting. They offer much more than others for a great price. Check out the main Capital Active site for a great example of a basic page.

Next you should join networking websites like linkedin, Myspace, YouTube and make sites here for your business. You also can find many people who may be interested in your products.

Next it helps to have a blog, it is great way to establish yourself as an expert, as well as get a following of people finding out about you. It also really helps get you on top of the search engine results. I use wordpress because they are free, easy to use, fast and give you a ton links.

I found a lady who seems to have done everything PERFECT. I don’t know her, I just found her site from her blog today. She has her own great domain wealthcreatorsinc.com, and a nice blog. But you may not notice the two most important things she did, she made her page a squeeze page, where you must give her your information to go on. And second she DID NOT mention the name of her MLM this keeps you courious and willing to go on, and it lets her advertise without worrying about the rules of her company.

Next you need to create business cards with YOUR business name on it. I would suggest NOT to use business cards with the name of your MLM on it, they limit your advertising, and they are less flexible when you are marketing. Now carry many of these cards with you wherever you go. I hand out over 80 cards per week on average. More important than getting your card out is getting the cards of other people. I usually flip them over and write on the back details of what we talked about so I can remember.

I also often print up fliers with an upcoming event on it, as well as info about my website. Using this you can get a few more people a month to join your team.

You now need professional clothes. Depending on where you live you will have a different dress code. For Arizona pants and a nice button up shirt is good for most meetings. For the east coast you should wear a suit most of the time. No matter what, you need to have a suit for special events.

When I leave my house, I always have my Palm Pilot, my wallet with at least 20 business cards, my keys, my cell phone, an ink pen, a comb for my hair and usually I have my green laser pointer because it comes in handy all the time.

Well I hope this helps you be more successful.

They are watching you, and keeping track of your wrongs (Unless you pay!)

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What if an organization existed that kept a database on everyone. They would listen to whatever the general public says about other people, and they would record that information and save it in a database. Anyone can go and complain about anyone they like. The more people you meet the higher the chance you will have that someone will have a problem with you. Now what if they made that database available online, for anyone to search and look things up. Then they went a step farther and they would advertise on TV and on the radio the existence of their database, telling you that before you have a relationship with this other person you could look up what other people had to say about this person. They would also encourage you to report any complaints you have about others. You would be considered guilty of whatever action people have complained against you until you prove that you are innocent.

Of course they would not keep this database, and advertise for free, they would need to make money some how, so what if they let people become members of their organization, and a member would be allowed to ‘dispute’ anything in their own personal record and have it removed very easily. To be far they would have to establish a process for non members to dispute things, but of course these disputes would be given much lower priority. Also a member would be given a badge that they could show off the fact they were a paying member. If members paid a bit of extra money they even would be allowed to post this fact on their web page. The organization would advertise that you can only trust people that are members, even though membership is fairly meaningless, it only means you paid them off.

If such a thing existed would you be upset? Would you be outraged? Would you demand that the government do something about it? Would you see it as blackmail?

Well guess what, this organization DOES exist. It is called the Better Business Bureau and that have been doing exactly what I have described for almost 100 years. They pretend that they are there to protect people, that they keep detailed records on businesses but I have seen it first hand, that as soon as you pay them to become a member everything bad goes away with ease, and it is very hard to deal with them if you are not a member.

Also you have no idea what percent of people are unhappy with the company. Who is worse the small business with 10 customers and 5 of them complain or the large company with 10,000 customers where 50 complain? Well according to the BBB the larger one is worse. There are always crazy people who you can never resolve a problem with, we all know them, and companies are punished for having them as customers, even if only .1% of their customers have a bad experience they could have a horrible rating. The company across the way with 10% of their customer having problems pays the BBB off and gets away free. This is a horrable system.

So what can you do about this unfair, blackmail organization? As a customer do not trust them, do not use the BBB to handle your dispute, do not look up your vendors in their database and when you see someone who is saying they are a member, feel sorry for the delusion they live in. If you own a business or have influence in one please don’t become a member, do not give them money, and respond to complaints filed with them.

I am not mad at them, I have no problem with them personally, I just feel that such an organization should not be allowed to exist in our modern society. Maybe if they made some changes, and provided more information, including positive information it would be more useful, and also made it easier to dispute claims against you. But as of now there are many much better and more accurate information sources for those looking to find out about those they plan to do business with. Here are some examples of companies that many people consider to be horrible, but they have perfect ratings with the BBB because they pay, even though there are a huge number of complaints about them. Just read what some people had to say about these companies.
Frys Electronics: Vegas Midway auto team: Phoenix Best Buy (over 12000 complaints) ( I just love how most of the complains on these members are “Administratively closed” something only members can have done.)

Back to basics, going door to door.

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Back to basics, going door to door.

 

We have decided that we need a few more customers.  One of the most effective way we have found to get customers is very old fashioned, low tech but it works.  Tomorrow we are going to visit some nice office buildings, ones that contain businesses that match our target market, ones with 10-20 users.  We are going to start out by going to a mixer for our local chamber of commerce.  These businesses are large enough to generate volume for our company but small enough that they don’t have their own IT departments.  Tomorrow will be a long day, last time we did this we got one large customer that accounted for half of our sales last month. 

 

Sometimes you just gotta get back to basics sometimes in this modern age.  We are used to our websites, our blogs, our IM’s, our text messaging and all out other high tech stuff but sometimes the best thing to do is get out and see people face to face.  Need to boost sales, try getting back to basics, and meet someone in person.

Emerald Computers, a short history from a business POV

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I started a computer company in 1998, and thought I knew it all but I quickly learned so much more. I moved that store a few doors down and this time designed in the way I wanted all future stores to be like. I created systems for doing everything. Then I set out on opening more stores. By then it was 2004 and the market for computers was crashing, the wars by the big companies erased all the profits in the industry. By 2005 we were back to one store. By the end of 2007 we decided that the retail storefront was not the way to go. We moved to a much lower rent area, and just serve corporate and online customers, the ones with the best profits. The wars are over and the profits are back in the computer industry, and with our reduced cost, decade of experience we are ready to explode. All we need now is a capital infusion to get us to the next level. Even if we only get .5% of the US market that is still huge.

Now we are looking for investors.  People who can see the vision and are willing to go there with us.  They will, of course, share in our success.