Tag Archive for Success

Creating A Direct Mail Campaign that Gets Results

September 3, 2013 / / 17,535 comments

Reaching your audience can be accomplished in many different ways. Large corporations invest small fortunes on television ads and national branding strategies. These approaches to marketing are designed to reach a large audience and create brand awareness. For small business with significantly smaller budgets and resources, one of the most efficient and cost effective methods of getting the word out is Direct Mail.

Now, before you go sticking postage stamps on a stack of envelopes and dropping them off at the Post Office, there are some things that need to be done. Many companies simply send out Direct Mail pieces such as flyers or pamphlets, with general distribution and no offer or call to action and wonder why it doesn’t work.  Direct response marketing can be an important tool, but it needs to be done effectively. Here’s how…

Identify Your Target Market (Create Mailing List)

Be very specific about who your audience is and then develop a mailing list around those parameters. To ensure your Direct Mail piece gets to your intended reader, be sure to include a contact name.

Speak to Your Audience

Create a message that speaks to your target audience and contains a compelling offer. If your target market is business owners with 5 or more employees, annual revenues of $1M – $5M, and a mindset for learning and growth, tailor your message to speak to them in their language. If your target market is mothers of pre-school children ages 2 – 5 years, who work from home, ensure the content of your message clearly speaks to that audience. Make your message clear, and remember to include a ‘call to action’ component to ensure a higher response rate. Including an expiry date will also result in a better response.

Create a Direct Mail Process

This is a very important step that can sometimes make or break a Direct Mail campaign. For companies with limited operational resources, consider leveraging your time by outsourcing the printing and mailing labour to a local print company that offers this service. This can also be more cost effective than going it alone, as print companies may offer discounts on postage for mailings over a certain quantity. Next, decide how you are going to follow up with your audience. Here are two approaches that will make your Direct Mail campaign more effective…

Sequential Direct Marketing Approach # 1: (Collection agencies follow this model)

  • 1 notice
  • 15 days later they send a second letter with a bit stronger tone
  • 15 days later they send another with a stronger tone than the previous letters plus the original invoice

Sequential Direct Marketing Approach # 2: (The personal touch)

Phone Mail Phone / Phone Fax Phone / or just Mail Phone

Call to tell them it’s coming

Allows you to deal with a misplaced letter

Allows you to deal with procrastinators who have maybe set the letter aside ‘to deal with it later’

Don’t lie

What it boils down to is, Marketing is an investment that should garner a return. Following these simple steps will help you achieve better results from your Direct Mail campaigns to see the returns you are looking for.

 

 

 

Category: Business Coaching, Marketing, Systems / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Controlling Cashflow Outflows

August 6, 2013 / / 14,303 comments

I have mentioned before that, in business, Cash is King!

To survive in business, you must have a handle on your cashflow and disciplined processes to control it. Not only do you need to improve your cashflow for Inflows, you need to also control the cashflow in regards to ‘Outflows’. Maintaining control on where and how the cash goes out in business is just as important as where and how much cash comes into your business. If you don’t have a handle on your cash Outflows, it won’t matter how much revenue the business brings in… you can potentially cripple a business by spending without discipline.

Expense Classification

The first step is to classify your expenses – Fixed and Variable.

Fixed expenses are those that do not vary with Sales e.g. rent, utilities (office), loan payments, municipal taxes, accounting fees, car expenses, etc. Variable expenses are those that very with sales e.g. cost of materials in manufacturing, direct labour costs, commission payments, variable utilities (manufacturing), sales taxes, etc.

Establish Budgets

It is critical that you establish a budget for your expenses. Without this you cannot Test and Measure your progress (or lack thereof) of cost control.

Cost Control

Fixed expenses need to be negotiated up front and monitored vs. budgeted. Key areas to watch include phone costs and office supplies. Utilities costs can also bleed profits – turn off the lights and computers at night! Know your Breakeven $Sales. (Fixed Costs/Gross Margin %)

Variable expense control includes negotiating better deals for raw materials, strict control of overtime wages and constant improvement in waste elimination and efficiency – ask your employees for help here!

Trade Accounts Payable

This is a standard form of business financing. Suppliers who grant you 30 day terms effectively loan you money to buy their products at 0% interest rate. Prudent use of credit cards can get you up to 55 days of 0% financing – but make sure you pay on time.(Many cards will also give you reward points toward that vacation you’re going to take! However, please check with your accountant and government policies on reward point usage with your company.) You can generally stretch payments a few days however be careful – your credit rating is important, so don’t abuse this process.

Having firm control of your company’s finances, including Inflows and Outflows is critical to the success and growth of any business. Take the time to know your numbers, and track them regularly.

 

 

Category: Business Coaching, Business Finance, Profits / Tags: , , , , , ,

Asking The Tough Questions

January 14, 2013 / / 745 comments

One of the more difficult aspects of sales is letting go of our natural need for approval and asking the tough questions that lead prospects to make a decision. The conflict between our “need to be liked” and our “need to get the sale” is often at the core of our resistance to asking the tough questions. You can’t always have both, and that’s why it’s hard. But letting your need to be liked get in the way of productive sales conversations will cost you time and money.

How can you overcome this natural conflict?

First, separate your role as a sales person from your identity as a person. Don’t take the resistance you encounter or the discomfort generated by asking tough questions personally.

Second, understand that asking tough questions – questions that challenge your prospect to look at something they do not want to consider, questions that move them out of their comfort zone, questions that force them to look at their business and their current situation from a new vantage point – will create urgency and compel them to make a decision.

Third, remember that a “fast no” is better than a “long maybe.” We work so hard to get an appointment and earn the opportunity to make our pitch. It’s natural to want to keep the conversation going, even if we’re getting strung along with a long maybe (“…this looks interesting, let me think about it.”). You’ll save yourself and your prospective client a lot of time by asking a few pointed questions that compel them to make a decision – even if that decision is a NO for now.

How much more productive will your sales process be if you ask questions that create “decision urgency” and enable you to focus your valuable time on prospects where you quickly discover a compelling reason to move forward? What are the tough questions you can ask for your solution and what do you need to do to ask them earlier in the conversation? Do your questions hit the key business issues that business owners worry about (increasing revenue, decreasing costs, improving efficiency, etc.)? Can you personalize these questions with a simple follow up such as “What is it costing your company to NOT address this issue? What does this mean to you personally?”

Develop your arsenal of questions and use them. You will be a more effective sales person, and you will see your sales cycle shorten because you will be helping those prospects who just can’t say “No,” to make that decision quicker. This, in turn, will allow you to spend time with prospective clients who are truly interested in what you have to offer.

Category: Business Coaching, Sales / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Mindset for Success: Life Long Learning

January 7, 2013 / / 140 comments

There are several Critical Victory Factors (CVF’s) that will help business owners achieve success.  One of the key Factors is the Success Mindset. One defining feature of the mindset of successful business people is that of being a life long learner.  By beginning with a commitment to continual learning, you will quickly develop all the other Critical Victory Factors.

Tip:

A system that can help you integrate ongoing learning into your business practices is called 30/10.  It is an approach that works systematically and helps you integrate new information and skills rapidly with minimal and controlled time commitments.

In this approach, you block off 30 minutes everyday to read, research, listen to audio programs or even attend seminars.  You then spend 10 minutes thinking about how you will apply what you have learned.  If you commit to this, you will be nothing short of stunned by the amount you have learned within one year.

A helpful addition to this system is called 10/24/7.  If you review what you have learned 10 minutes after you have learned it, then again within 24 hours and then again within 7 days, it will be locked.

So remember these numbers: 30/10 and 10/24/7.  They can literally change your life.

Category: Business Coaching, Leadership, Personal Development / Tags: , , , , ,
 
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