If you play by the rules of your industry,
or if you do the same thing as your competition,
how will you ever gain more clients?

Be inventive, creative, or even outrageous to capture a bigger share of the available business.

Boring is and will always be boring.

Creative marketing will help you to crush your competition.

Follow your gut.
Go with your hunches.
Do it smart and careful.

Keep an eye on what your industry competitors are doing.

Many times it makes sense to do the opposite of what they are doing.

Do your own strategic marketing, it will set you apart.

Your future clients will notice that you are a unique business with different ideas.

What ideas do you have to out-market your competitors?

Tags: competition, marketing, rules, unique

What marketing efforts are your competitors using?

• Call your competitor on the telephone and pose as a prospective client.
• Talk to their sales staff
• Ask the right questions and most salespeople will tell you exactly what you want to know about their business. Many salespeople love to talk about themselves and their business. This can help you with your research.
• Collect your competitors’ brochures, ads, and sales letters.
• Record their voice messages and their radio and TV commercials.
• Visit their booths at trade shows and go to their showrooms.
• Also, check out their Web site(s).
  Most Web sites will give you a lot of information about how the company does business with its clients. The site may even provide a list of clients, which can become a great “target list” for your own sales efforts.
  While visiting the Web sites of your competitors, request more information regarding their companies and their products/services. Then, keep an accurate record about how quickly they respond.

Tags: competition, ideas, information, marketing, marketing ideas, salespeople, sandy barris, spy, weakness, website

The following secrets are not in any order. Each is valuable on it own or combined with other secrets. I highly recommend that you do combine them because when combine your multiply there strength.

Tags: business, marketing ideas, marketing secrets, techniques, tips

I was watching a story on the local news in which a reporter was bashing a travel agent. The travel agency didn’t refund the fees paid by a group of seniors who had had their trip canceled due to a mistake by the travel agency. That one news report probably will hurt this travel agent’s business for a long time.

How your business handles complaints will make the difference between keeping clients and losing them.

Handling complaints quickly and professionally will prevent the spread of negative reports about your business. If you fail to handle complaints quickly and professionally, many people will hear about it and may never give your business a chance.

Smart businesses offer strong guarantees to eliminate this worry. The stronger your guarantee, the more confident that people will feel when the time comes for them to decide whether or not to do business with you.

The most effective guarantee that you can offer is a “100% money back, no questions asked” guarantee. Most importantly, you absolutely must honor this guarantee when the time comes.

Depending on the industry that you are in, it sometimes may be impossible for you to offer a “100% guarantee.” However, you should still offer the best guarantee that you possibly can.

In addition, you should have step-by-step policies and procedures in place to handle complaints when they arise. The sooner that you get these complaints resolved, the better.

If a client is unhappy with you or, even worse, is mad at you, then s/he will spread the word to others. You will lose valuable clients and the profits that they generate.

What procedures do you have in place to handle any complaint with the utmost efficiency?

What guarantees can you offer?