Public Service Announcement 1 - Christine Bastone

[Christine]

Hi!

As the subject line says--my name is Christine Bastone. I'm a happily married wife and mother of two little kids. I am also a Consultant. (among other things LOL)

And that will be the subject of this service announcement.

(NOTE: And because of those "other things"--or "hats" as I like to call them--I will be doing 2 separate announcements. This should help minimize confusion and simplify things.)

:)

And it is a subject that I feel passionate about!

You see most businesses put most of their focus on getting new customers. And this is the hardest and most expensive way to increase your sales--and therefore profits!!! Now I'm not saying to put no focus on getting new customers. But the easiest and least expensive way to increase your sales is to communicate with your current customers.

Okay--I am going to stop right here and say that for the rest of this announcement--I will talk about clients and not customers. You see I no longer like the word "customer". A customer is someone who bought something from you. A client is someone who is under your protection. So my advice is that whether you call them "customers" or "clients"--think of them as clients.

Now back to the subject at hand. You already have goodwill with your clients. They liked and trusted you enough to buy from you at least once. It would be to your benefit for you to communicate with them on some sort of regular basis.

But don't just keep sending them the same tired offer every time. Send them great offers--special offers--irresistible offers. Sometimes send them no offer--but instead information that will help them!

And do you know who your inactive clients are? Do you know why they are inactive now? Do you think it would be to your benefit to find out? They probably either had something happen that made them temporarily stop being a client. An illness in the family--a vacation--a temporary financial problem. I don't know--it could be a lot of things. And maybe they meant to come back after whatever it is was over. But the more time passes--the harder it is to do that you know?

So a number of inactive clients will come back for the asking.

And some of them that don't probably had a bad experience with your business. (only a very low percentage of them will come forward and tell you this!)

If you ask--they will probably tell you--and then you have the chance to make it right. (and you should do so simply to have their last experience with you positive--not expecting them to come back!!)

The next thing that I want to talk about will probably be a little scary for you! But if you will assume the risk in your transactions--most importantly in your initial one--then more people will take you up on your offer.

So adding a stronger guarantee can boost your sales considerably!!

Don't just give the same guarantee as is standard in your industry--but give one that really stands out!

You see most people want the reassurance of a guarantee--but few people will actually take you up on it! Of couse a few probably will--but--usually the additional sales this produces--makes them practically insignificant.

And keep in mind that the longer the guarantee--the fewer people will take you up on it!!

Now one thing that's really great to do in a recession is to barter. You'll have to contact me for further details--but there are definite advantages to barter--and it would be to your benefit to at least look into it!!!

Make your advertising pay for itself!! Specific offers--where you know what ad it came from--and you know that it brings in orders worth more than you paid for the advertisement is how you do that. (of course you'll have to both test and tweak things to get to this point--but eventually you should get there!!)

If you have a very successful ad, direct mail piece, offer etc--you can have other companies that aren't your direct competition paying you for the right to use it!!

Business owners who are barely breaking even--or even worse not quite breaking even--or who may simply want out of the business but for some reason are stuck-- can frequently sell assets their business has--and get paid a bigger income every month after getting out--than they were for a long time while they were still there!!

And you might be able to make more money with what's called your unconverted leads (people who contact you for more information or whatever--but don't end up as clients)--than your clients!! At the very least you should be able to make back whatever your cost was for acquiring that lead!!!

Now I can help you do any of the above things. Please feel free to leave a comment--a reply--or to send me a message--and we will work out a zero-risk arrangement that will cost you absolutely nothing unless and until I help you grow your business.

I can also help anyone you know do any of the above things. (and if they become a client--AND mention your name--I will pay you a referral fee in cash!)

Thank you for reading this. I hope that you got something out of it. And whether you ever decide to contact me or not...

I wish you much success and abundance,
Christine Bastone