Posts Tagged ‘e-books’

Selling More in A Recession

Before starting out any new business strategies in a down turned economy, it’s always beneficial to bolster your position with preexisting clients and customers. Many times there is enough business to be found amongst your existing client base for you to then finance a “new idea” or strategy that you’ve wanted to implement.  Use these strategies to shore up your financial foundation and then go looking for “new” business.

Whether your primary business is offline or online the same principles apply. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling e-books or toothpaste, applied with the right amount of preparation and presentation, these ideas can make the difference between finishing your quarter in the red or in the black.

Try these tips:

• Begin calling your “inactive” customers.
  • Determine why they’ve gone inactive.
  • Ask for the opportunity to “make it good“.
  • “Would taking care of this immediately change your attitude toward us?”
  • Fix it immediately or task someone who will follow through to completion. (Whether it brings the client back immediately or not)
• Call 20 of your “active” customers/clients and ask them make an additional (wisely chosen) purchase.
  • Make them an OTO (one time offer).
  • Offer an upgrade.
  • Offer a “value added service“, something that improves your existing relationship with them.
• Call other businesses that offers complementary products or services to yours and ask for a trade of referrals. Don’t stop with one.
  • Offer to make it an ongoing relationship that’s mutually beneficial.
  • Over deliver! Offer more referrals than you receive. It will serve you well.

Since these principles apply to either an online or a brick and mortar business, they’re perfect strategies for the Offline Consultant to keep in mind when talking to or even prospecting for small business owners. These are the types of high value free advice that will in turn have those shop owners ready and willing  to do business with you.

In fact, the more giving you’re able to be, the more you’ll have people actually asking YOU to do business with them. It will quickly establish you as an authority  and as the person that everyone will want to be affiliated with.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Know Yourself to Brand Yourself (smallbusinessbranding.com)
• Make Money With Your Internet Marketing Skills (valuebookshop.com)
• How to Boost Your Customer Referrals in 7 Simple Steps (ducttapemarketing.com)
• How to Create a Killer Local Partner Team Program (ducttapemarketing.com)

How ToMake A Living By Leasing Websites

Making a good living with internet marketing is nowhere near as easy as some people would have you believe.  To grow a sound and prosperous business requires a range of skills as well as knowledge and persistence.

Usually internet marketers are involved in selling e-books, videos, home study courses, reports, membership sites, CD’s & DVD’s.  It is not often that you hear about someone earning a living by leasing websites.

How can this be?

In the operational area of consulting to offline businesses, there is a huge opportunity to do just that.  It is now well established that this is a major growth industry.  At the present time, the large majority of small businesses either do not have a web site, or if they do, it is not bringing in new business.

Enter the offline consultant…

Becoming a consultant to offline businesses dictates that you need to provide them with an effective online presence that assists them to grow their business.  In order to do that you need to weigh the options available to you.

One opportunity would be to design an appropriate web site and sell it to the business owner.  In this scenario, this becomes a one-off transaction and he becomes the owner of the site.  The new owner also has the responsibility to maintain it on an ongoing basis.

A far better option is to prepare a web site for which you remain the owner.  Then lease the website to the business owner on a monthly basis.  You then retain control and can keep things to a proper standard…  More importantly, you then start receiving passive monthly income.  This is an important consideration, particularly when starting out in this area.

As your client portfolio grows, you will have a substantial monthly income.  Of course this income will be supplemented by other products and services that you may provide to your clients, but it will remain as the strong foundation of your business.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Online giant Facebook sending offline “Like” decals to businesses (sfgate.com)
• Starting A Consulting Business – Essential Tools (domainmacher.com)
• How can small businesses measure offline sales? (mikemoran.com)