7 Marketing Ideas Report 0120

7
IDEAS
MARKETING
YOU Can Use

To Get More
Customers*
Straight
Away!
A short sharp ‘crash course’ in how to increase your sales,
win new clients/customers/patients and make more money,
using sales and marketing techniques that produce amazingly
good results, quickly and for a lot less money than you are
probably used to spending!
By John Williamson
© 2020 busierbusiness.com
Published by John Williamson
Email: johnwilliamson@busierbusiness.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and
retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.
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information. Adherence to all applicable laws and regulations, both federal and state and local, governing
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responsibility of the purchaser or reader. The author and publisher assume no responsibility or whatsoever
on behalf of any purchaser or reader of these materials. We expressly do not guarantee any results you
may or may not get as a result of following our recommendations.
© 2020 Busier Business

Contact me to discuss how to apply this idea in your business - free and without obligation:
johnwilliamson@busierbusiness.com
Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 2
MARKETING IDEA #1 - How To Get Your Hands On The Best, Most Desirable
Sales Leads In Your Market Place ... And Get Them Days, Weeks Or
Even Months Before Your Competitors Even Know They Exist! ………....................
3
MARKETING IDEA #2 - How To Make Your Advertising Completely Irresistible

(... Even To People That Didn’t Think They Wanted To Buy Your
‘Stuff’ When They Woke Up This Morning!) .......................................................... 8
MARKETING IDEA #3 - How To Turn ‘Promiscuous’ Customers Into The Most

Loyal (And Lucrative) Customers You Could Ever Wish For! ................................ 12
MARKETING IDEA #4 - How To Eliminate Annoying Discount Requests And

Put An End To Those Pesky ‘I Need To Think About It’ Conversations,
ONCE AND FOR ALL! .............................................................................................
18
MARKETING IDEA #5 - How To Snatch Back ‘Potential Customers’ That Have

Slipped Through Your Fingers ... Even Those That Have Actually
Gone On To Buy From Your Competitors! ........................................................... 21
MARKETING IDEA #6 - How To Use The ‘Only-Pay-If-It-Works’ Marketing

Method To Effectively Create An Unlimited (Growth Accelerating
And Enabling) Marketing Budget! ........................................................................ 24
MARKETING IDEA #7 - How To Double Your Customer Base, Revenue And

Profit - In 12 Months Or Less - Without Spending A Penny On
Marketing! ........................................................................................................... 30
FREE BONUS - How To Get Even Faster Results! .................................................

35
Introduction
H
ere’s some good news – sales and marketing needn’t be anywhere
near as difficult (if you find it difficult) or unpleasant (if you find it
unpleasant) or as time consuming (if you find it time consuming) or
as expensive (if you are finding it expensive) as you are experiencing right
now!
In fact, prepare for your experience of sales and marketing to be

transformed.
Because this book is actually a short sharp ‘crash course’ in how to win
new clients, customers or patients and make more money using sales and
marketing techniques that produce amazingly good results, quickly and for a
lot less money than you are probably used to spending!
And you’ll be pleased to know that this is a theory free zone.
Every single one of these ideas have already been tried, tested AND
proven many times over by entrepreneurs and business owners just like you,
in real life situations just like the ones you are facing in today’s tough
economic climate.
The book includes techniques that you can put to work in your business
straight away – techniques that can be producing more sales and cash flow for
you in as little as 24 hours if that’s what you need.
Plus the ideas in this book will enable you to ...
 forecast your sales results with a much higher degree of accuracy
 charge higher prices than your competitors and still get the business
 substantially reduce the amount of money you spend on marketing
 claim more than your fair share of the best clients/customers/patients
 generate predictable results from your sales and marketing activities
 make more money from a lot less effort!
In fact, this book gives you a complete sales and marketing toolkit to
make this year your best ever year in business!
2
IDEA #1 - How To Get Your Hands On The Best, Most Desirable
Sales Leads In Your Market Place ... And Get Them Days, Weeks
Or Even Months Before Your Competitors Even Know They
Exist!
Fact: most of the population aren’t very good at making decisions.
People are worried that they might make the wrong decision.
They are scared of the consequences if they make a bad decision.
When it comes to buying products and services, they don’t want to lose
their money through making a bad decision.
And they certainly don’t want to look stupid in front of their peer group
for making a wrong decision.
You can turn this natural state of confusion and fear to your advantage
by stepping in and becoming your potential customers’ assistant decision
maker.
By offering your potential customers helpful and unbiased advice,

guidance, information and education about how to make the right decision,
you can quickly reposition yourself as being a trusted advisor instead of being
just another salesperson.
Achieving this status can be done relatively quickly and easily by

creating and then aggressively promoting a ‘buyers guide’.
Let’s look at exactly how this works in practice ...
Case Study
I first discovered just how powerful it is to create and promote a ‘buyers
guide’ when I was running an outside catering business.
After one year of conventional sales and marketing effort we were still
going from week to week, wondering where sales were going to come from
and fighting tooth and nail with our competitors for market share even
though our product and service was far superior to our competitors
3
(nooooooo, it wasn’t just me that thought so, we were getting 10 out of 10
from every customer along with almost embarrassingly good testimonials!).
The problem was, for us to provide the quality and service we wanted to
provide, we had to charge a higher price. (Actually, we were charging about
20% more than our nearest competitor and nearly twice as much as the
cheapest!)
When people responded to our marketing they only ever seemed to have
one question on their mind … “how much is it?” … and when we told them,
that’s often where the conversation ended!
If this sounds all too familiar to you, keep reading …
Because this all changed from the very day we started to promote our
‘buyers guide’.
The phone started ringing off the hook. Our conversion rate sky
rocketed. Orders flooded in. And within months some of our competitors had
shut their doors!
What was this ‘buyers guide’ that caused such a transformation?
Well it had absolutely nothing to do with our catering service and

everything to do with solving a problem which people regularly encountered
when they were thinking about buying our service.
You see, a little research revealed that although catering might be one of
the first things people enquired about when they were organising a function
or celebration, they would always book a function room before they placed an
order for food.
Obviously and quite logically, there was no point arranging catering

without having a function room to send it to!
And that’s where the problem was - the function room owners would
often offer their own catering services or they would recommend other
outside caterers with whom they had long standing ‘relationships’.
Either way, we were being cut out of the action.
From this insight, I simply researched and created a ‘buyers guide’.
4
The research consisted of ringing every function room we could find in
the area and asking them for details of their facilities.
By the time we had finished, we’d found 147 function rooms for hire.
We then compiled this information as a ‘directory’ of function rooms,

added a few other service providers that a party organiser might find useful
and called it ‘The Party Organisers Handbook’.
We then started to market this free, desirable and very useful

information instead of promoting our catering service.
Then when people rang to ask for a copy of the handbook - which they
did in droves - we would helpfully suggest that we ‘pencil them in for catering’
at the same time whilst they continued their search for a function room.
Most people took us up on our risk free offer and along with the free
‘Party Organisers Handbook’ they were sent full details of our catering
service.
Very few people ‘un-booked’ once they’d received details of our service
which contained many glowing testimonials and a fear eliminating guarantee
that their food would arrive ‘piping hot and not even a minute late … or it
would be completely free of charge!’
When we switched from using our marketing to brag about how good
our product was and instead offered free information that was useful to our
potential customers … sales took off!
If you had a ‘buyers guide’ your sales could take off too.
It just takes a different way of thinking. You need to think less about
what you want and a lot more about what your customers want and
specifically what is stopping them from getting what they want.
Over the years I have created many different types of ‘buyers guide’ for
many different types of businesses and professions.
One type of ‘buyers guide’ that can work for virtually any business is to
simply write a report that promises to help people avoid …
The 7 Costly And Potentially Disastrous Mistakes People

Make When Buying [insert your product or service]!
5
For example if you sell homes abroad the ‘buyers guide’ could be:
The 7 Costly And Potentially Disastrous Mistakes

People Make When Buying Their First Home Abroad!
If you sell caravans the ‘buyers guide’ could be:

People Make When Buying Their First Caravan!
If you sell double glazing the ‘buyers guide’ could be:

People Make When Buying Double Glazing!
If you sell IT services the ‘buyers guide’ could be:

Business Owners Make When Buying Computer Equipment!
Which could be made even more powerful by focusing the guide on a
specific industry or profession:

Barristers Make When Buying Computer Equipment!
(By the way … these are all real life examples of buyers’ guides that have
actually been used with excellent results – if you’d like to see an example of a
buyers’ guide, send me an email).
At less than 1,000 words, your own buyers guide can be researched and
written in a matter of hours.
Once you have created your buyers guide you should promote it in
every place that you would normally just brag about your products or service.
You can use your ‘buyers guide’ in your Yellow Pages advert to stop
people dead in their tracks and give you first bite of the cherry (think about it
6
- why would someone start ringing your competitors for quotes until they had
got the lowdown on the industry by reading a copy of ‘The 7 Costly and
Potentially Disastrous Mistakes People Make When Buying Double Glazing!’)
You could use the space on the back of your business card to promote
your ‘buyers guide’ – if you do a lot of networking this is a great way to
generate qualified leads without you having to waste time following up on
people who have no interest in your product or service!
You could mail postcards to people in your target market offering them
your ‘buyers guide’.
In each of these instances the best way to deliver your buyers guide is
via a specially created 1 page web site where people can download the ‘buyers
guide’ in exchange for their contact information. Gaining their contact
information in exchange for the report is essential so that you can follow up in
an appropriate way.
You will find that people will ask for a ‘buyers guide’ weeks or months
earlier than they would ask for a brochure which means that you find out that
they are in the market for your product or service weeks or even months
earlier than your competitors.
By aggressively promoting your own ‘buyers guide’ you will generate

lots of hot leads for your business.
Think about it – why would anybody request a copy of ‘The 7 Costly and
Potentially Disastrous Mistakes People Make When Buying Their First
Caravan! ... unless they were seriously interested in buying a caravan.
When offered in the yellow pages, buyers’ guides have generated more
than 7 times more phone calls than a normal ‘buy our stuff’ style advert.
Business cards handed out at networking events have generated 50%

request rates for the ‘buyers guide’. And postcard mailings offering a ‘buyers
guide’ consistently generate double digit response rates.

A ‘buyers guide’ can make advertising work even for those businesses
where advertising usually doesn’t work. And if you sell exactly the same
products or services as your competitors your ‘buyers guide’ can give your
business that all important Unique Point Of Difference.
7
IDEA #2 - How To Make Your Advertising Completely
Irresistible (... Even To People That Didn’t Think They Wanted
To Buy Your ‘Stuff’ When They Woke Up This Morning!)
In my seminars I often do this exercise with the audience. It can be a

real eye opener as to why most ‘advertising’ doesn’t work.
Here’s how it goes ... first I ask people in the audience to put their hands
up if they are thinking of buying a new kitchen right now.
Then I ask ‘who is thinking about buying a new computer this month?’
Next I ask, ‘who is considering changing accountants at this particular

moment?’
I’ll ask similar questions about a half a dozen other products or services
and each time I’ll get everyone in the room to look around and see how many
people say ‘yes’.
Now, here’s the interesting thing.
Less than 7% of the people in the room put their hand up to any of the
questions!
In other words, at any given moment, no more than 7% of people are in

the market to buy any given product or service right now. The vast majority
of people will buy those products or services at some time in the future but at
the moment it’s not on their mental shopping list.
We all (both businesses and consumers) have a mental shopping list of

things we want to have or do, but because most people don’t have an
unlimited supply of money, they have to prioritise things.
For instance someone might have these major items on their mental
shopping list:
Send kids to private school

New kitchen
8
New car
Exotic holiday
They can’t afford to buy them all in one go today, so they have to
prioritise them, deciding which one is more important or desirable to them
right now.
Here’s how their mental shopping list looks like once they’ve prioritised
it:
1. New car
2. Send kids to private school
3. Exotic holiday
4. New kitchen
Now, if you are selling cars that’s great news – well, sort of.
And if you are selling kitchens it’s bad news – because by the look of
this list, you’re going to be waiting for your ‘turn’ for quite some time!
Here’s the reason why it’s only sort of good news for our local car
dealer.
Our car dealer will be fighting with every other car dealer for the
attention of this hot buyer.
His advertising will promise low prices – so will his competitors! His
advertising will promise a great choice – so will his competitors! His
advertising will promise great after sales service – so will his competitors!
In fact, if we swapped all of the logos on the adverts around, it wouldn’t

make a blind bit of difference because everyone is saying pretty much the
same thing.
Your job as an entrepreneur (and the purpose of your advertising) is to

get your products or service from a number 3 or 7 or ‘101’ on somebody’s
mental shopping list to number 1 - and things like having a competitive price,
fast delivery and great service are not going to make that happen.
If you can figure out how to do that, then you have increased the size of
the market place for your product or service by over 1,000%!
Here’s how you do it.
9
Case Study
My client, a kitchen sales company, was desperate to find a way to make
their advertising stand out from the 11 other kitchen companies fighting for
attention in the local newspaper.
An examination of the advertising revealed that everyone was

competing on price, or with special offers or incentives like free appliances or
free fitting.
People who were in the market for a new kitchen would simply use the
adverts to plan a weekend tour of the local kitchen showrooms.
By talking to some of the kitchen companies most recent customers we

were able to discover the ‘buying psychology’ behind a kitchen purchase.
These conversations gave us some very interesting and useful insights.

For instance, we found that in almost every case the purchase of a kitchen was
actually triggered by a house purchase.
Now, in some instances several years had elapsed between moving into
a new home and purchasing a new kitchen. But careful questioning revealed
that the ONLY reason they had not replaced the kitchen sooner was lack of
money and other priorities.
Time after time the ladies we spoke to said pretty much the same thing
… “I’d hated that old kitchen since the day we moved in” … and then
they would go on to talk about the old kitchen as ‘hers’ to make the point that
it was the previous home owners choice.
By listening into the conversation that had been going on inside these
customers heads, we gained a valuable insight in to how to create an
advertising message that would appeal not just to people who had already
decided to buy a new kitchen but also the 93% of people that had not yet got
to that stage and for whom the enticement of special offers and incentives
would be meaningless.
Based on our research we created brand new adverts. And these adverts
were completely different from the competitors – for a start we completely cut
out all of the usual incentives, freebies and special offers!
10
And then, instead of the usual ‘SALE NOW ON’ headline we ran the
following headline ...
‘Ladies: are you fed up living

with someone else’s kitchen?’
This headline and the new incentive free body copy caused many people
to instantly move kitchens from a number 3 or a 7 (or a number 101!) on their
mental shopping list … to number 1.
In fact, 3 times more people responded to this new advert compared to

previous adverts and people were coming into the showroom and saying to
the salespeople … ‘that advert could have been written just for me’.
(Mmmm ... well, actually Madam, it was written just for you!)
By ‘talking’ to people who have already bought your product or service

you can discover exactly what to say to attract more customers just like them.
The advert was irresistible to people that weren’t even in the market for
a kitchen when they picked up the newspaper for a casual read that day. The
headline ‘spoke’ directly to them; to the quite internal conversation that they
had always been having with themselves.
The headline caused them to say to themselves ‘that’s me’. And that’s
the secret to creating irresistible advertising – creating headlines and copy
that taps into a person’s quiet internal conversation and gets them to think
‘that’s me!’

Your web site, mail shots, posters, yellow page adverts can all be made
several times more powerful, appeal to a much bigger audience (the 93% of
people that didn’t wake up this morning thinking about buying your product
or service today) and generate many more sales by utilising ‘that’s me’
statements to reset peoples buying priorities and propel your product or
service to the top of their mental shopping list – instantly!
IDEA #3 - How To Turn ‘Promiscuous’ Customers Into The Most

Loyal (And Lucrative) Customers You Could Ever Wish For!
Do you know what your customers want?
11
You should do everything you can to find out, because knowing what
they want is the fastest, easiest way to get what you want – more sales!
Here are a few clues ... and a shortcut to those sales.
Your customers want more value for money – which is NOT the same
thing as having to have the absolute rock bottom cheapest price. According to
one study just 9% of people stop using a business because they could get a
cheaper price somewhere else. (Of course all things being equal, people will
buy on price which is why it’s your number 1 job as an entrepreneur, to make
sure things aren’t equal!)
They want you to make everything more convenient for them – which
means that they want it to be easier to do business with you. Easier to find
what they want. Easier to get it delivered. (Really, they just want you to make
it easier for them to give you their money.)
They want you to eliminate the risk of doing business with you – and
that’s not just the financial risk of losing their money. It’s also the emotional
risk of losing face in front of their peer group if buying from you turns out to
be the wrong decision. (So make sure that you underwrite your customers
trust in you with the most liberal guarantees you can offer.)
But, the one thing they want more than anything else (this is the
shortcut) is lots more contact from you – surveys have shown that 68% of
people that leave a business do so through a feeling of indifference, through a
lack of contact.
If you increase the amount of contact with your customers you will lose
less of them. That in itself is good news. But there is even better news. These
customers will spend more money with you and they will also refer more of
their friends, family and colleagues to you too. Which means even more low
cost sales for you.
There are literally dozens of different ways to increase communication

with your customers but usually the most effective way is good old fashioned
direct mail.
You can create a monthly mailing programme to communicate with

your existing customers for around £10 per customer, per year.
12
If you provide a great product/service you will generate a massive pay
back from this investment in marketing to your existing customers, not only
through the increased sales you get from them but also from the extra
referrals you get from maintaining top of mind awareness with your
customers.
But proceed with caution, this increased communication must be

meaningful, respectful and most important of all, consistent.
Which means you can’t just bombard people with a stream of un-
personalised, irrelevant marketing offers.
And, as consistency is one of the most important elements of success

you should plan a whole series of mailings in advance – preferably 12 months
in advance!
So where should we start?
Obviously every business is different but there is one universal mailing

that every business should be making to their customers every year.
So let’s get you started with that one.
You see, it doesn’t seem to matter if someone is 7 or 70, the single most
important day in the year for most people is … their birthday.
In my experience, if you write to your customers on their birthday with

a special birthday offer you can expect around a third of them will respond -
particularly if you send them some ‘birthday money’ like in this example
letter:
Dear [customer]
It’s your birthday ... and we wanted to get you a

little birthday gift but we couldn’t decide on what to get
you.
13
I thought flowers maybe. But we all had different
favourites and of course none of our choices may have been
to your liking.
[Employees name] suggested a nice bottle of wine. But

was it to be red or white? Sweet or dry? French or
Californian? We don’t know what your taste is.
So [another member of staff] suggested chocolates.
I could tell you that we couldn’t decide which type

but the plain truth is ... [a member of staff] and I can’t
be trusted with a box of chocolates in the salon!
The only thing we could agree on is that we all like

to get birthday money.
So we’ve had some special [salon name] birthday money

printed and you’ll find some in the enclosed envelope.
It’s our little gift to you on your birthday. You can

add it to any other birthday money you received and treat
yourself to exactly what you want.
Happy birthday
and best wishes from
[names of staff]
PS If you come in during the week of your birthday we’ve

a special surprise for you – can’t say what it is, but
... after a week it will definitely have gone! Just
bring this letter in with you to receive your surprise
birthday gift.
Many will add your ‘funny money’ to the real birthday money they’ve
received (or be stimulated by your letter to go and ask someone for some
birthday money!) and then they’ll come and spend that money with you too!
Alternatively you could invite them to a private birthday sale like in this
example letter:
14
Dear [customer],
Happy birthday from everyone at [business name].
To celebrate this special occasion, we’ve decided to

hold a birthday sale just for you!
Simply bring this letter in with you within 30 days

of your birthday and you can have 10% off anything in the
centre.
Yes ... ANYTHING! You could use your personal

birthday discount to treat yourself to a:
 Example
 Example
 Example
... or indeed, ANYTHING else that takes your fancy at

10% off.
This birthday sale is our little gift to you. We

thought you could add your birthday discount to any
birthday money you received and be able to treat yourself
to exactly what YOU want!
Best wishes
[name]
PS If you come in during the week of your birthday we’ve

an extra little treat planned for you – just present
the enclosed voucher in the [café] when you stop for
a break ... and we’ll bring you a FREE slice of
birthday cake.
Even if you don’t have a suitable product or service that people can buy
from you on their birthday you should probably still recognise your
customers’ special day.
If nothing else it might stimulate some word of mouth referrals as they

tell their friends and colleagues how amazing you are.
15
Maybe you could buy them a birthday dinner like in this example letter:
Happy Birthday [client]!
It’s that special day again.
And this year everyone here at [business name] would

like to make it extra special for you.
So, to show our appreciation for your past custom and

to help you celebrate your birthday we decided we’d like to
get you a little birthday gift.
We toyed with all the usual things like flowers, a

nice bottle of wine or chocolates but we all had different
tastes and of course none of our choices may have been to
your liking.
The only thing we could agree on is that we all like

to go out on our birthday.
So we’ve bought you dinner at [restaurant name and

location].
The food and service is excellent and all you have to

do to enjoy it is present the enclosed compliment slip when
you arrive.
It’s just our little gift to you on your birthday.
Happy birthday
... and bon appetit
[name]
Managing Director
Don’t worry it won’t be as expensive as it sounds - most restaurants

could do with more customers, so strike a deal with them.
Explain that you want to send every one of your customers to their
restaurant for a birthday treat on you … provided the restaurant will let you
have the treat at cost.
16
In other words, you’ll pay for the food but not all of the other overheads
like wages, electricity, rent etc. after all, they were already being incurred with
or without your customer being there.
You should be able to negotiate a discount of at least two thirds off the
bill which means you get to buy a £15 meal for your customer at a cost to you
of just £5.
You look good in the eyes of your customer and the restaurant gets the
opportunity to impress a new and potentially regular customer.
Of course most people will not eat out on their own, so the restaurant
will sell another meal at full profit (unless of course you feel generous enough
to buy their dining partners meal as well.)

Concentrating a disproportionate amount of your resources – that’s

your time, energy and money - on remarketing your business to your existing
customers will almost always generate a bigger payback for you than any
other marketing initiative you could undertake.
Providing you’ve lived up to the ‘promises’ you made with your initial
sales, you should expect much bigger response rates when you market to your
existing customers because people generally prefer to spend their money with
companies that they have already had a good experience with, rather than
‘risking’ their money by purchasing from a new and unknown business.
IDEA #4 - How To Eliminate Annoying Discount Requests And

Put An End To Those Pesky ‘I Need To Think About It’
Conversations, ONCE AND FOR ALL!
How many times have you got to the end of a perfect sales presentation
(and what looked like being a certain sale!) only to have it evaporate right in
front of your eyes, when the customer started to ‘haggle’ with you over your
17
price or tried to manoeuvre you into offering a discount by asking for time to
think about it.
Of course, ‘trying it on’ is only to be expected.
After all, who wants to pay more than they have to for anything?
But for many people, getting a discount has become a bit of sport and
owning the product is sometimes not nearly as exciting as being able to tell
their friends about the great deal that they negotiated!
That’s fine.
Let’s give them a great deal to brag about.
After all, we want them to tell all of their friends about their new
purchase and where they can get one too, don’t we?
Here’s how you substitute a great deal for a discount so that you can
make maximum profit whilst your customer gets maximum bragging rights.
You make your normal sales presentation and right at the end you
should say to the customer …
‘… by the way, did I tell you about the free bonus

that comes with this [product/service] today?’
The minute someone hears the words free bonus they forget about
asking for a discount – the only thing on their mind now is ‘what’s the free
bonus?’
You then continue by explaining that their purchase comes with a free
product/service worth £xxx WHEN they buy today.
Here’s what qualifies as a suitable free bonus:
1. The free bonus must be highly desirable.

2. The free bonus must be valuable.
3. The free bonus must be available to purchase.
4. The free bonus must not be one of your own products or services,
in other words it can’t be something that you could have sold to
the customer anyway (otherwise that’s just another form of
discounting!).
18
5. And finally, the free bonus must be free to you.
Here’s an example to show you how this technique works in practice.
Supposing you were an optician, then the ‘free bonus’ could be a free
haircut at your local posh hairdressers.
For ladies interested in their appearance (well, they’re looking for new
frames so that’s a fair bet!) this could be a very desirable free bonus.
It’s also a valuable free bonus – it could actually be worth £100

depending on how posh the hairdresser’s is.
And the free bonus is available to purchase – if our customer walked in

off the street then £100 is exactly what she would pay for the haircut.
Perhaps most important of all, the bonus is free to you.
Here’s how.
All hairdressers are looking for new customers and will spend good
money on advertising to acquire those customers.
You simply make the following proposition to the hairdressers - tell

them that you will send them a constant stream of potential new customers if
they will give you the first haircut for free.
The hard cost to them is very little, just some shampoo and an
otherwise pair of idle hands in exchange for an opportunity to win a new
client without risking any money on advertising that may or may not work.
Most will agree and bite your hand off.
And ... can you imagine how happy our lady would be with her free
bonus and how eager she would be to tell everyone she knew how she had got
it!

Giving a discount to get the sale could be commercial suicide. Work it

out - even a small 10% discount could actually be costing you half (or in some
cases even ALL!) of your net profit. Offering a valuable (but free to you) free
bonus at just the right point in the sales process will deter people from asking
for a discount and secure you the sale, there and then.
19
IDEA #5 - How To Snatch Back ‘Potential Customers’ That Have
Slipped Through Your Fingers ... Even Those That Have Actually
Gone On To Buy From Your Competitors!
Do you ever make sales presentations to people who won’t commit to

buying on the spot?
You know the situation, someone promises to ‘come back’ to you with a
decision after they’ve had the chance to ‘think about it’ ... but then you never
hear from them again.
Studies show that many sales are made only after several attempts to
get the business have been made.
20
That’s why you should have a follow up system in place for when these
circumstances occur.
Having a system will ensure that you always follow through and
maximise your conversion rates.
Your follow up system should incorporate multiple types of follow up

contact and one of those points of contact should include sending a copy of a
‘no hard feelings’ letter.
Some customers you send the letter to will not have bought elsewhere
yet, but are in fact still thinking about it.
Receiving this letter actually prompts many of them to pick up the

phone and ‘apologise’ for not having proceeded yet.
They will almost certainly appreciate your respectful approach, which is

evidently different from your competitors who will have either lost interest by
now or have resorted to bombarding them with phone calls, pestering them to
make a decision.
Others receiving the letter will have already bought elsewhere.
If it’s a major purchase that won’t be made again for months or perhaps
even years, they may still be impressed with your attention and reward your
efforts with an opportunity to gain their business next time around.
Some of them may not be happy with the service they are receiving from
your competitor and may be in a position to buy again relatively quickly in
which case they now know someone with a good service attitude that they can
turn to.
An unexpected by product of sending this letter will be the phone calls

or visits you get from people who have been referred to you by someone who
had actually bought elsewhere but received your ‘no hard feelings’ letter and
decided to refer their family, friends or work colleagues to you instead of your
competitor they actually bought from!
Here’s an example of the ‘no hard feelings’ letter.

Dear [prospect],
We recently provided you with a quotation for a [product

or service].
21
We’ve not heard back from you and as some time has now
passed, I assume that you have purchased your [product or
service] from someone else.
I’m just writing today to say ‘no hard feelings’.
Of course, not everyone buys from us. However nearly 1 in

every 2 people that do ask us for a quote do go on to buy from
us (which is good compared to the industry average where I
believe that for every 3 people that ask for a quote only 1
accepts).
I can only guess at why you didn’t choose [business

name]...
You may have preferred someone one else’s [designs].
You might have ‘hit it off’ with their [salesperson].
You may have been promised a [delivery date] that we

couldn’t offer.
Or you just may have been given an irresistible price.
Whatever the case, I’d just like to let you know that if
for any reason things aren’t working out with the other
company ... then we are still happy to help you in any way we
can – just pick up the phone and ask.
[A product or service] a great way to [make or save

money] and I’m sure your decision to invest money on this type
of [product or service] will turn out to be a wise one.
Yours sincerely
[name]
Managing Director

There are so many reasons why you should create and use a follow up
system that you can put into action every time a sale doesn’t convert on the
spot.
22
Your follow up system can bring you extra sales and profits for relatively
little extra effort and the ‘no hard feelings’ letter is a very important part of
your sale recovery system.
IDEA #6 – How To Use The ‘Only-Pay-If-It-Works’ Marketing

Method To Effectively Create An Unlimited (Growth
Accelerating And Enabling) Marketing Budget!
I’m going to show you how you can buy customers at wholesale.
Let me explain.
Most businesses are effectively buying their customers at retail.
They acquire each new customer one at a time by advertising in

newspapers and magazines, by sending out thousands of direct mail pieces
each month or by choosing to trade from expensive locations where lots of
potential customers will see them as they go about their lives.
These marketing methods cost lots of money.
23
An advert might cost £1,000 and bring in 10 customers so each new
customer has cost £100.
A direct mail campaign might cost £2,500 and bring in 30 customers so

each new customer costs £83.
A PPC campaign might cost £600 and generate 8 customers at a cost of

£75 each.
In fact, after the advertising costs, many times businesses don’t make
much money on the first sale and they often lose money. They plan to make
their money by making more sales to these customers in the future.
You can benefit from the goodwill and relationships that other
companies have already established by entering into an arrangement with
them to promote your products and services to their customers.
This is called a strategic alliance.
Businesses that you create a strategic alliance with will probably want
paying for introducing you to their customers but it’s almost always on an
only-pay-if-it-works basis and generally for a fraction of the money you’d
have to spend to acquire new customers through normal advertising methods.
A great strategic alliance for you would be a non-competitive company

that sells a complementary product or service to the same types of customers
you sell to.
In other words, they sell something that is used before, goes along with,
or follows the product or service you sell to people.
These are customers that have already found one supplier they can trust
and with an appropriate introduction might now be predisposed to buy what
you sell.
To encourage these companies to work with you and endorse your

business to their customers in this way you should make them an
overwhelmingly appealing proposition.
There are primarily two ways to do that.
24
First … you should almost certainly create a special offer or some form of
preferential treatment for the other companies’ customers.
Something that will make your strategic alliance look good in the eyes of
its customers.
An inducement to buy that their customers will find irresistible.
And then … you should devise a generous compensation plan for your
strategic alliance.
You could give them a commission from any sales.
It could be a share of the profit.
So much for every inquiry received.
A fixed amount for every new client gained.
Sometimes your strategic alliance will not want a direct financial

compensation.
They may prefer some other form of compensation like an introduction

to your customers.
Or they may be more interested in the fact that the special deal you are
creating for their customers will differentiate them from their competition.
Whichever compensation method you decide on, when you are

explaining financial compensation to your potential strategic alliance be sure
to make it sound exciting by turning it into a big number.
Don’t just say:
“I’ll give you 10% of the sales we generate.”
Instead, say:
“You’ve got 10,000 customers. Because of the relationship you have

created with your customers and the irresistible offer we’ve created
especially for them, we should easily be able to get a 10% response
rate. Our average sales value is £249. On that basis and if my
25
guestimate is right we should soon be giving you a cheque for
£24,900!
Remember, you can afford to be generous.
Even very generous - in both creating an irresistible offer for the

customer and with the compensation you give to the company.
Look at it this way.
When you mail another companies customers with their endorsement

you can expect the response rate to be considerably higher than almost any
other mailing you can do.
And unlike other forms of promotion where there are no guarantees that
your efforts will be successful, in this instance you only-pay-if-it-works, so the
risk associated with most other forms of advertising is almost completely
eliminated.
You could even be super generous and give away all of the profit on this
front end purchase … if you knew that once acquired these new customers
were likely to go on to buy from you again and again.
When you identify a potential strategic alliance you should assess the
various ways in which they could go about promoting you to their customers.
For instance ...
 If they have salespeople they could be trained to introduce your

products and services as part of their normal sales presentation.
 You could have them insert a promotional flyer when they send out
invoices.
 They could include a discount voucher for your product or service

when they deliver their own product or service.
 They could introduce your business to their customers via an

endorsed mailing.
 They could use your special offer as a welcome gift for new customers.
 They could give a sample of your product or service away as a bonus.
26
 They could invite their customers to a special event hosted by you.
Using methods like these to tap into the relationships that thousands of
customers have already established with other businesses in your market
place is a fast track, low risk way to grow your customer base.
The endorsed mailing is the workhorse of an effective strategic alliance

because the endorsement is very obvious and once agreed it can be up and
running very quickly.
The following example can be used as a template for many types of

products and services.
Dear [potential customer],
This is a very unusual letter for me to write.
You see, it’s the first time I’ve ever written to you
recommending another business.
In fact, it may be the first and last time because, quite

frankly, I can’t see how I’m ever going to be able to do such a
fantastic deal on behalf of my customers ever again.
I’m talking about £39.95 for a king sized widget with a spare
set of doo-dahs included for free ... does that sound like a once
in a lifetime deal to you?
They’re selling the very same king sized widget over at The
Superstore PLC right now ... for £59.95!
And there are no spare doo-dahs.
This great price is only available from my new friends over at

XYZ Ltd before [date] when you tell them (very discretely please,
this very special deal won’t be available to the person stood next
to you at the till) that Jim from ABC Ltd sent you.
In fact, it might be better if you just pass them this letter

when you’re paying to avoid any embarrassing scenes - just in case
the person next to you is paying full price because they aren’t
one of our customers so won’t have received this letter.
I hope you find yourself in a position to take up this great

offer.
27
Best wishes
Jim Smith
PS We’ve been using this very same widget ourselves for over 4
months now and we are amazed at the difference it is making
[etc.]
An important point to make is that you must never leave the writing of
the letter to your joint venture partner.
Obviously they’ll insist on giving it the go ahead, after all it is going on

their letterhead and they are going to sign it, but if you leave it to them and
they write a bad letter you won’t get the result you’re after and if they’re busy
it might just not get done at all!

Acquiring new customers by ‘piggy backing’ on the relationship that

another business has developed with their customers can be a fast and risk
free way to grow your business and should definitely be part of your
marketing plan.
If you select the right strategic alliances and create strong long term
relationships your business will grow alongside theirs as they continue to
grow and acquire new customers for themselves.
28
IDEA #7 - How To Double Your Customer Base, Revenue And
Profit - In 12 Months Or Less - Without Spending A Penny On
Marketing!
In my experience, salespeople have got to be about the most competitive

people on the planet.
I’ve seen a dozen ‘guys’ in an office fight tooth and nail just to achieve
the ‘Salesperson Of The Month’ award ... with the prize being a fake plastic
‘Oscar’ trophy for their mantelpiece and a cheap bottle of bubbly!
Which is why Joe Girards story is so remarkable.
You see, Joe was in officially named in the Guinness Book Of World
Records as the Worlds Number 1 Salesperson - a title he held onto for 12
straight years in a row.
Many tried, but no one could match his sales records. In fact he never
actually lost the title; he gave it up when he retired.
Joe sold cars (but it could have been ANY product or service!) ... and he
sold lots of them.
29
In fact, in his best ever year he managed to sell an incredible 1,342 cars -
that’s nearly 1 car an hour for every working hour, day after day, for a full
year.
And every sale was an individual sale; no fleet sales!
Now Joe was a good salesman.
But, by his own admission, superior salesmanship wasn’t how he

managed to sell such a remarkable number of cars and retain his coveted title
for 12 long years.
The ‘secret’ to Joe Girard’s success was his approach to marketing.
He figured that the best way to find new customers - the kind of
customers that would buy quickly, be less likely to shop around and not give
him a hard time on price - was through word-of-mouth introductions from his
existing happy customers.
Of course every business owner or salesperson knows that word-of

mouth marketing is the best marketing method of all.
But, there is a huge problem with word-of-mouth marketing – it can be

a slow, unreliable and unpredictable way to generate new clients because you
are reliant on your existing customers being motivated to go out of their way
to promote your business to their circle of influence.
Joe fixed the problem by creating an organised referral gathering

system.
The system was simple and proactive rather than passive.
First, he let his customers know that he liked to receive referrals.
Then, he regularly asked his customers for referrals to their family,

friends, neighbours and work colleagues.
And when his customers gave him those referrals, he thanked them ... so
they gave him even more referrals!
So, every single one of those 1,342 sales was to an existing customer or
to someone who walked in the showroom and asked for him by name because
they had been referred to him by an existing customer.
30
In fact, if Joe met you on the showroom floor and you weren’t one of his
existing customers or hadn’t been referred to him by an existing customer he
would ‘give’ you to one of the other salespeople – that’s how confident he was
that he was going to get another referral … any minute now!
Joe made it a rule to sell by referral only and then he went to work and
created a system to enable that to happen.
Think about your own business for a second - how many referrals are
you getting ‘by chance’ at the moment?
The good news is that with an organised referral gathering system in

place you could double that number. And then double it again. And again …
In fact, consider this …
“If every one of your existing clients*

introduced you just ONE new client in the next
12 months then you would DOUBLE your client base,
DOUBLE and your sales and DOUBLE your profits
… this year!”
* During their lifetime the average person will know about 1400
people and at any one time they will know 250 people - so it
would seem almost inconceivable that during the next 365
days each one of your customers will not know of at least 1
other person who could or will buy your product or service.
Could you become a by referral only business ... turning 1 customer into
2 ... and then turning those 2 customers into 4 ... and then turning those 4
customers into 8 ... just like Joe did.
Well, if you had an organised referral gathering system in place just like
Joe, then ‘yes’ of course you could.
There are dozens of different ways to create such a system depending on

the type of product you sell and the type of people you sell to.
Here are some real life examples to stimulate your thinking.
31
A kitchen company generates a dozen introductions to a their
customers neighbours, family, friends and work colleagues every time they
sell a kitchen, simply by hosting a referral party in their customers brand new
kitchen.
The kitchen company supplies half a dozen bottles of wine, nibbles and
some classy invitations.
The customer invites people over, the kitchen sales person gives a
‘guided tour’ of the new kitchen, makes a surprise presentation of a kitchen
gadget to customer ... and never fails to generate enquiries from the
customers (very jealous!) friends.
An accountant receives well over 100 introductions from his existing

clients every year by regularly hosting a free business skills seminar.
The accountant finds a suitable expert to speak on a subject that is of

interest to his target customers – that’s growth orientated business owners –
and then offers free places to his existing clients providing they bring another
‘qualified’ business owner with them.
The clients bring their best contacts, the accountant introduces the
speaker, announces that the sandwiches are ready when the presentation has
finished ... and never fails to generate appointments with potential clients
whose own accountant isn’t looking after or supporting them this way.
A sales person for a printing company generates a constant flow

of new contacts by hand delivering a newsletter (NOT a snooze letter!) to his
existing customers.
The newsletter is packed with clever ways to increase sales using print.
Whilst delivering the newsletter he explains that he has a few copies of

the newsletter left and asks his customer which of their business neighbours,
customers or suppliers they think should receive one of these ‘spare’ copies.
After stapling his customers’ business card to the top of the newsletter
he sends it to his clients introductions with a handwritten note explaining
that they will contact them shortly to see if they would like to receive the
newsletter on a regular basis.
The useful content generates many ‘subscription’ requests ... and

stimulates plenty of enquiries for printing too.
32
In each of these examples a referral mechanism has been used to gain a
successful introduction to the people that an existing customer has influence
over.
Obviously, if these same customers had just been asked outright: ‘who
do you know who wants to buy my products or services?’ … the outcome
would have been very different.

Your existing customers always know people that could become your
customers either now or in the future.
If you have a good product or service and you treat your customers well,
then they will generally be happy to tell their friends and colleagues about you
if and when the product or service you offer comes up in conversation.
These passive types of word-of-mouth recommendations are great when

they happen but occur far too irregularly for you to be able to rely on for
generating predictable business growth.
Creating a referral mechanism will put you in control and enable you to
harness the power of word-of-mouth marketing.
33
FREE BONUS - How To Get Even Faster Results!
There’s money to be made by applying the sales and marketing ideas
you’ve read about in this book. Lots of money!
But, to get that money into your bank account you now need to
customise these ideas so that they will work in your own unique situation.
If you want to take a shortcut and save yourself some trial and error
experimentation in doing that, I can help you get up and running quickly.
Your FREE consultation

If the few ideas I’ve shared with you so far make sense, then I’d like to
offer you a FREE consultation so you can see how my practical, results
orientated approach to business development can give you an advantage over
your competitors, win you more clients and make you money, quickly.
And, this time, a FREE consultation means exactly that, a free

consultation – not a ‘free’ sales pitch.
The world is full of ‘pay-me-then-I’ll-show-you-what-I-can-do’

people ... but I’m not one of them. During your free consultation I will work
with you to identify the very best strategy for you to your business and then
show you exactly how to implement the strategy.
I’ll hold nothing back during our consultation.
34
My goal is to impress you.
Why – because, if I can show you how to get better results and make
more money from our very first session working together, then you might just
want to put me on your team.
And putting me on your team is remarkably easy and affordable.
From as little as 1 hour per month (with no contract to sign) we could be

putting business development right at the top of your list of priorities,
ensuring that you hit your targets, achieve your business goals and make this
year ... your best ever year in business!
You’ve nothing to lose - book your free consultation today:
https://calendly.com/consultrapreneur/discovery-call
35

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© 2020 Busier Business

MARKETING IDEA #2 - How To Make Your Advertising Completely Irresistible

MARKETING IDEA #3 - How To Turn ‘Promiscuous’ Customers Into The Most

MARKETING IDEA #4 - How To Eliminate Annoying Discount Requests And

MARKETING IDEA #5 - How To Snatch Back ‘Potential Customers’ That Have

MARKETING IDEA #6 - How To Use The ‘Only-Pay-If-It-Works’ Marketing

MARKETING IDEA #7 - How To Double Your Customer Base, Revenue And

FREE BONUS - How To Get Even Faster Results! .................................................

In fact, prepare for your experience of sales and marketing to be

And you’ll be pleased to know that this is a theory free zone.

Plus the ideas in this book will enable you to ...

 forecast your sales results with a much higher degree of accuracy

 substantially reduce the amount of money you spend on marketing

 claim more than your fair share of the best clients/customers/patients

 generate predictable results from your sales and marketing activities

 make more money from a lot less effort!

Fact: most of the population aren’t very good at making decisions.

They are scared of the consequences if they make a bad decision.

By offering your potential customers helpful and unbiased advice,

Achieving this status can be done relatively quickly and easily by

Let’s look at exactly how this works in practice ...

If this sounds all too familiar to you, keep reading …

What was this ‘buyers guide’ that caused such a transformation?

Well it had absolutely nothing to do with our catering service and

Obviously and quite logically, there was no point arranging catering

Either way, we were being cut out of the action.

From this insight, I simply researched and created a ‘buyers guide’.

We then compiled this information as a ‘directory’ of function rooms,

We then started to market this free, desirable and very useful

The 7 Costly And Potentially Disastrous Mistakes People

The 7 Costly And Potentially Disastrous Mistakes

The 7 Costly And Potentially Disastrous Mistakes

The 7 Costly And Potentially Disastrous Mistakes

The 7 Costly And Potentially Disastrous Mistakes

The 7 Costly And Potentially Disastrous Mistakes

By aggressively promoting your own ‘buyers guide’ you will generate

Business cards handed out at networking events have generated 50%

In my seminars I often do this exercise with the audience. It can be a

Next I ask, ‘who is considering changing accountants at this particular

Now, here’s the interesting thing.

In other words, at any given moment, no more than 7% of people are in

We all (both businesses and consumers) have a mental shopping list of

Send kids to private school

In fact, if we swapped all of the logos on the adverts around, it wouldn’t

Your job as an entrepreneur (and the purpose of your advertising) is to

Here’s how you do it.

An examination of the advertising revealed that everyone was

By talking to some of the kitchen companies most recent customers we

These conversations gave us some very interesting and useful insights.

‘Ladies: are you fed up living

In fact, 3 times more people responded to this new advert compared to

By ‘talking’ to people who have already bought your product or service

IDEA #3 - How To Turn ‘Promiscuous’ Customers Into The Most

Do you know what your customers want?

Here are a few clues ... and a shortcut to those sales.

There are literally dozens of different ways to increase communication

You can create a monthly mailing programme to communicate with

But proceed with caution, this increased communication must be

And, as consistency is one of the most important elements of success

So where should we start?

Obviously every business is different but there is one universal mailing