(Part six of a seven-part business coaching series on sales strategies that work for small business. ) If you missed the last installment, you can read part six here.

Have you ever been at a party with a “close talker”?

No matter how many times you back away, they seem to get closer and closer, invading your personal space. This is an example of a rapport breaker – not respecting someone’s personal space.

Instead, you want to be a rapport builder; make others feel comfortable being in your presence and encourage an atmosphere where people want to talk with you more and are so engaged with you that they lose track of time.

In addition to using the right words when communicating with others, it’s important to use the right words the correct way.

A person’s body language, rate of speech, and tone of voice will also give you clues to what type of Language Pattern your client or prospect prefers.

The easiest way to gain rapport with someone you’ve just met is to model his/her behavior in a natural way. Try to mirror his/her hand movements, eye contact, and rate of speech.

Keep in mind that this does not mean copying their movements exactly. Rather, it’s a respectful way of honoring a person’s communication style of interacting with others.

Case Study:
Theodore was in Best Buy, trying to figure out whether he should buy the current X-box gaming system, or if he should wait until November when X-box 360 is released.

The salesperson had successfully gained rapport with Teddy. But even after showing him the differences between the two products, this young gaming enthusiast was reluctant to choose one over the other.

Teddy has a DIGITAL Language Pattern, and should be treated uniquely, and respectfully, allowing him to process and think about his decision. If the sales professional tries to rush Teddy into making a rash decision, he may simply walk out, or he’ll come back and ask for a refund for his hasty purchase.

The need for Teddy to justify this purchase in his mind (or on paper) is a simple process that will help him feel more comfortable with his buying decision - regardless of the product he chooses.

When you notice your prospect saying things like, “I need to understand and process this decision.” You’ll want to walk them step-by-step through a system or comparison chart of pros and cons in order to help them make the best decision.

TAKE ACTION!

The better you are at identifying the approach a person prefers, the more you can assure yourself of long-term success by adapting your words and style to the way he/she most readily receives information.

If you are interested in learning the key words and phrases commonly used by people in each of the four Language Patterns, send an e-mail to news.support@RPMsuccess.com and ask for the “Words that Trigger Buying” Action Sheet.

Utilize the action steps contained in this seven-part series combined with the right words and tools for communication, and you’ll begin to develop more meaningful connections with people 20-30% faster than before.

Deborah Micek is known as the “Business Communication Coach” by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owners Coaching Club™.

Official Life Coach for the Dream Makeover Hawaii TV show aired on NBC, internationally published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Deborah is a managing partner with the international small business coaching company RPM Success Group Inc.®

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc.® and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

(Part six of a seven-part business coaching series on sales strategies that work for small business. ) If you missed the last installment, you can read part five here.

Have you ever felt like you were talking to a brick wall when communicating with someone you know?

Whether you are showing someone a strategy, or delivering an elaborate power-point presentation, if you think you’ve presented your case perfectly, yet you are being met with a blank stare, you just might be communicating the wrong way.

Case Study:

Katrina is a sales representative for a large insurance firm in Texas. She came highly recommended and graduated at the top of her class. Yet her supervisor, Susan, doesn’t understand why Katrina’s sales aren’t as high as her peers.

Susan decides to send Katrina home with a stack of books, all about closing tactics. However, since Katrina has always been primarily an Auditory learner, she does best when she hears a strategy taught to her, rather than reading it in a book.

If Susan gave her an audio book or DVD on sales, Katrina would have been able to tune in better, and been in harmony with her supervisor’s goals to get better results.

To discover if your team member or prospect has an Auditory Language Pattern, you can pose the feedback question, “Do you hear what I’m saying?” or “Does that sound good?”

If her response sounds something like, “Yes. That rings true!” you’ll know you’ve tuned in to her preferred style, and are coming through loud and clear.

TAKE ACTION!

The better you are at identifying the Language Pattern a person prefers, the more you can assure yourself of long-term success by adapting the way you phrase your words to the way he/she most readily receives information.

Communicating effectively is about opening the doorway to positive relationships. Adapting your style is not about being “phony.” It is merely about accommodating another person’s preference in order to allow the conversation to continue.

As your relationship progresses, the other person will get to know you better. People will accept others who are different from themselves – as long as they trust the other person in the relationship.

On the other hand, if you turn someone off within the first few minutes of your introduction, you will have lost him/her forever; all because of an underlying mistrust that developed within seconds of communicating “out of style.”

One teacher from Kaimuki Middle School contacted me, very excited about this seven-part series on language patterns, remarking, “This has huge implications for teachers!”

She’s absolutely right! Whether you’re a teacher, a resident advisor at Hawaii Pacific University, or you’re a business owner, when you speak to people according to their preferred learning style, they’ll hear what you’re saying without tuning out.

This is the secret of getting your point across quickly - and influencing those around you – for everyone’s benefit.

In part seven of this series of business coaching articles, we’ll show you how to look beyond words for the secrets of how to influence and close more sales.

Deborah Micek is known as the “Business Communication Coach” by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owners Coaching Club™.

Official Life Coach for the Dream Makeover Hawaii TV show aired on NBC, internationally published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Deborah is a managing partner with the international small business coaching company RPM Success Group Inc.®

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc.® and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

(Part five of a seven-part business coaching series on sales strategies that work for small business. ) If you missed the last installment, you can read part four here.

Too many people have adopted a false belief that treating everyone the same is a good thing. Unfortunately, that mindset is one of the most ineffective methods for communication; especially if you need to get your point across – fast!

While it may seem fair to treat everyone the same, in reality, it does more harm than good.

Think about it. Look at your right-hand index finger. Does anyone else have the same fingerprint as you? If we’re each as unique as our fingerprints, doesn’t it also make sense that we each have a unique style of how we prefer to communicate and learn?

Despite how politically correct it sounds to focus on how alike we are, if you don’t spend the same or more time thinking about all the ways we’re different from one another, you’ll sell yourself short. You’ll never communicate as clearly and effectively as you could unless you actively learn how other people prefer to communicate and learn.

Like an ostrich hiding his head in the sand, the sales person who rejects the fact that we’re all different, will stubbornly stick to a one-size-fit-all approach. And when he does pull his head out of the sand, he’ll be left scratching his head, wondering why his sales are the lowest on the team.

How to Start Adapting Your Communication Style:

Keeping in mind that there are four language/learning patterns that people have (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic and Digital), let’s grab hold of an understanding as to how the Kinesthetic-style person prefers to be communicated with.

When you are talking to someone who has a high Kinesthetic Language Pattern, you’ll notice he/she uses words that pertain to touching things or interacting with their environment.

When selling to people with a Kinesthetic Language Pattern, give them something to do. Perhaps you hand them your product. If you’re selling over the phone, you could ask them to go to your Web site, and visit certain pages together or ask them to complete something and turn it in. Anything they can “try before they buy” will appeal to high Kinesthetics.

Here are a few phrases that click with people who have a preferred Kinesthetic Language Pattern:

I’m just calling to touch base with you to check how you’re using the cleaning products in your home.

Toss the idea around and see how it feels.

Can you grasp how that might work?

Does that click with you?

Coach’s Corner:

When coaching Internet marketers, I coach them to include something interactive on their Web site for their kinesthetic visitors. Examples may include a questionnaire or survey, or an interactive poll or forum where they can connect with others who use the product or service being sold.

Whether it’s selling in your store, online, or in your client’s office, keep in mind that kinesthetic people need to interact with your product or service to feel comfortable.

In part six of this series of business coaching articles, we’ll show you how to listen to your prospects for clues on how to influence them and close more sales.

Deborah Micek is known as the “Business Communication Coach” by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owners Coaching Club™.

Official Life Coach for the Dream Makeover Hawaii TV show aired on NBC, internationally published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Deborah is a managing partner with the international small business coaching company RPM Success Group Inc.®

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc.® and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

(Part four of a seven-part business coaching series on sales strategies that work for small business. ) If you missed the last installment, you can read part three here.

FACT: People buy from people they like. And, people like people who are like themselves. It’s as simple as that.

Target Training International, based out of Scottsdale, Arizona performed a study that proved this basic premise. And, if people truly understood the implications of this fact, the entire sales process would undergo a dramatic 180-degree turnaround. We’ve seen this over and over again with our business coaching clients.

Think about your own experiences. How many times have you found yourself buying something from a store, walking out with a smile, and thinking how nice the sales person was? Think about why this was a good shopping experience.

Using the right words is critical to whether the doorway to communication gets opened, or closed. But it doesn’t stop there. Studies have been conducted that reveal how “words” constitute a mere 7% of the communication process.

This tells us that we must also pay close attention to matching the voice cues, body language, and rate/tone of speech of the people with whom we communicate. With this information, we have the knowledge as to how we must adapt our communication style in order to build rapport.

Adapting to your clients’ preferred ways of communicating will open doors quicker than any other sales strategy (commonly referred to as “matching and mirroring”).

In workshops where we coach business owners on stealth sales strategies, we see time and time again how the exact same words will carry very different meanings when the tone of voice or body language is altered.

Emphasis on using certain words over others has been proven to dramatically influence behavior in small and large crowds. Just imagine how persuasive you can be using the right words in the right way when meeting with a prospective client one-on-one.

Adam Bayless, president of Global Asset Consulting, based in Los Angeles, positioned building rapport as one of “the most important skills that a professional salesperson should constantly improve upon above all others.”

This not only helps the sales professional – but it also makes the entire sales experience an enjoyable one for the client. The client leaves feeling satisfied, and assured that his/her needs were met.

Bayless describes this as the new ideal for sales professionals who are serious about helping their clients get what they want. “By understanding and communicating with your prospects at a deeper level, you are able to create solutions your client needs, as they’ll feel more at ease discussing their real motivation for buying your product or service.

And when this is done correctly, you’ll never have to close another prospect.” Smiling, Adam continues, “Your prospects will literally be asking you for your products and services, then raving about you to all their friends. And that’s enjoyable for everyone!”

In part five of this series of business coaching articles, we’ll expand upon the strategies to use to close more sales.

Deborah Micek is known as the “Business Communication Coach” by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owners Coaching Club™.

Official Life Coach for the Dream Makeover Hawaii TV show aired on NBC, internationally published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Deborah is a managing partner with the international small business coaching company RPM Success Group Inc.®

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc.® and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

(Part three of a seven-part business coaching series on sales strategies that work for small business. ) If you missed it, you can catch part two here.

It’s critical that you choose appropriate words in all of your business relationships, especially sales . Much like with persoanl relationships — the wrong words can can torpedo the relationship before it even gets out of port. The right words will inspire and motivate people to gain trust in you and eventually do business with you. And that means more sales in your small business or professional practice

Case Study:

Joe, a sales person, is talking with Nick. But Joe’s having a difficult time trying to describe the service he offers.

His business coach observes that when Joe tries to determine if he’s getting his point across, he uses the phrase, “Does that click with you?” (This is a phrase that attracts those with a KINESTHETIC Language Pattern, like bells and whistles.)

Since Nick has a VISUAL Language Pattern (as described in part two of this series), his face scrunches up as he replies, “No, I’m not quite sure that I see where you’re going with this.” Nick doesn’t get what Joe is saying because he’s not realting to the words Joe is using.

If you’re talking to someone who has a high Visual Language Pattern, you’ll notice they use words that pertain to “seeing things.”

Once Joe implemented the phrase his business coach advised him to use, he noticed a dramatic change in Nick’s body posture and facial expressions. Under the guidance of his business coach, Joe clarified his question, changing it to, “Can you picture how this works, Nick?”

Here’s the other phrases that Joe’s business coach helped him develop when he’s speaking with a person who listens and learns using a Visual Language Pattern:

• Imagine using this product in your home!
• Do you see yourself using this service?
• Can you see what I’m saying?
• Watch how this image moves.

Once Joe began using words and questions that appeal to the way Nick’s brain works, his sale with Nick closed masterfully. Just by altering the words he used in his presentations, Joe’s sales for the month increased by 33%! Not bad, huh?

I’m sure the gig is up by now and you’ve realized that I am Joe’s business coach, so I can say with certainty that Joe’s sales increased because he began appealing to the Visual Learners who walked in to his shop, people who happened to make up a disproportionate percentage of his customers.

Business Coaching Corner:

Powerful communicators are people who create the best environment for others while stepping out of their own comfort zone. This is the first step to inspire others toward action.

To alleviate some of the challenges you may face as you step out of your own comfort zone, imagine that you are learning another language and visiting another country. Picture the differences in the culture you see around you, listen to the speech patterns, and take note of the mannerisms used by the people around you.

This is the same process you must take with someone who has a different communication style than yours.

In part four of this series of business coaching articles on small business sales, we’ll highlight the most important aspect of the sales process. We’ll show you three aspects of communication that the majority of people are completely unaware of, and how you can get the edge over your competitors by knowing how to apply them.

Deborah Micek is known as the “Business Communication Coach” by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owners Coaching Club™.

Official Life Coach for the Dream Makeover Hawaii TV show aired on NBC, internationally published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Deborah is a managing partner with the international small business coaching company RPM Success Group Inc.®

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc.® and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

(Part two of a seven-part business coaching series on sales strategies that work for small business.)

In part one of this series we looked at some hi-impact communication secrets that can help boost sales in your small business. Today we’re going take those communication secrets one step further, starting with a case study.

Case Study:

Susan needs your product/service, now! But she’s not going to come right out and give you that piece of information.

As a professional sales person, you need to unravel the mystery of who is (and who is not) ready to buy what you have to sell – before they shop around and buy from your competitor.

The faster you uncover what your clients’ real needs are, and communicate how your product or service can satisfy them, the faster you’ll be able to capture your fair share of the market.

• Have you ever wished you had the ability to read a prospect’s mind?
• If you knew what Susan was thinking and feeling while she was shopping in your store, how would your behavior change based on this intelligence?

We’re about to unveil a secret way for you to make a good first impression with every person you meet from this day forward.

• If Susan spoke a different language than you, would you continue speaking in your preferred, familiar language?
• Or would you attempt to communicate to her using the language she knows and is comfortable with?

There are four main ways that determine how a person best receives and processes information, and communicates with others.

Just like a different language, each of us has a “preferred” way of communicating. We call this a Language Pattern.

Below is a general guide to let you know what each type of person is looking for when he/she is communicating with you.

4 Language Patterns

Grab four index cards and write each of the following Language Patterns on separate cards.

VISUAL - This person wants to see what it is you are talking about, whether in actual physical form or through a well-constructed analogy that allows him/her to “virtually” picture things.

AUDITORY - This person will listen intently to hear what it is you are trying to convey to him/her.

KINESTHETIC - This person prefers to utilize a “hands-on” approach to learning or to grab hold of something tangible in order to understand concepts or how something works.

DIGITAL - This person responds best when there is a “step-by-step system” where he/she can analyze the process before making a decision to move forward with any new knowledge.

NOW… TAKE ACTION!

How would you alter your regular sales presentation based on each of the four Language Patterns?

Begin identifying each of your prospects’ preferred Language Patterns throughout the upcoming week.

Once you uncover each preferred Language Pattern, you’ll be able to alter your own sales presentation and communication style based on how each prospect prefers you to communicate with him/her.

In part three of this series of business coaching articles, we’ll share a case study for you so you can learn how to use the right words at the right time with the right person. We’ll begin to reveal the different types of preferred words to use for each of these four Language Patterns.

Deborah Micek is known as the “Business Communication Coach” by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owners Coaching Club™.

Official Life Coach for the Dream Makeover Hawaii TV show aired on NBC, internationally published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Deborah is a managing partner with the international small business coaching company RPM Success Group Inc.®

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc.® and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

(Part one of a seven-part business coaching series on sales strategies that work for small business. )

Have you ever noticed how you just “click” with some people almost instantly, while other people seem to be a bit more challenging to get to know?

On a recent speaking tour, my partner and I found ourselves clicking with one particular sales consultant to the point where we wound up in the lobby of the Sheraton talking story for more than four hours.

A bewildered guy stumbled out of the hotel bar and couldn’t help but express his astonishment that we were sitting out there all that time without caffeine or alcohol until two in the morning, yet we seemed to be having a blast.

This natural connection progressed into a successful, enjoyable business relationship – all without either party having to engage in traditional sales approaches. Too many sales professionals have been trained to engage in ineffective “closing” strategies that aren’t nearly as effective in creating long-lasting relationships as knowing how to build rapport, naturally.

Here’s the good news about overcoming ineffective sales training:

The better you become at discovering other people’s preferred communication styles, the more effective you will be in communicating with all types of people.

As important as it is to know what type of communication YOU prefer, it is equally important to understand and adapt to the communication preferences of OTHERS.

By adapting your communication style, you’ll successfully get your message across. You’ll also leave the impression that you’re someone who is enjoyable to do business with. And isn’t that what we all want — to enjoy our business relationships and have fun while we work? The root of sales success Each of us has a unique combination of communication styles which form our own behavioral fingerprint. When you fully understand what motivates you to do the things you do, you will be able to modify your own behavior when necessary.

Anytime I coach a business professional who is struggling to get her point across, whether with her coworkers or team, I’ll encourage her to take personal responsibility. It is a basic human tendency to "place blame" or think that the "other person" should adapt to us.

A true leader and master communicator will take ownership of any challenge and discover ways to negotiate through conflict or misunderstanding in order to work together more effectively.

Each of us has a “preferred” way of communicating. The quicker you discover what your prospect or client’s style is, the quicker you’ll be able to find solutions to their most pressing challenges, and give them what they’re looking for.

There are a number of factors that contribute to a person’s overall behavioral style including an individual’s propensity toward one communication style over another.

In part two of this series of business coaching articles, we’ll get you started with four tips that will quickly show you how to discover what type of person you are communicating with, and what is his/her preferred communication style.

Deborah Micek is known as the “Business Communication Coach” by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owners Coaching Club™.

Official Life Coach for the Dream Makeover Hawaii TV show aired on NBC, internationally published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Deborah is a managing partner with the international small business coaching company RPM Success Group Inc.®

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc.® and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

There’s one fact we always encourage our business coaching clients and members of the Business Owners Coaching Club to remember — the fact that 90% of your money, energy, and effort goes into getting the first sale with a client.

After that it takes very little time, and even less money to maintain and grow that relationship. But sadly, this is something that very few small business owners or professionals take to heart. Most business owners move on to “getting more clients” instead of nurturing the ones they already have. When they do, they’re losing more than just symbiotic opportunities. They’re losing their reputation.

One simple way to reassure your clients, reinforce their decisions to do business with you, and honor them for their loyalty is by instituting an intentional follow up plan. A series of small events, messages, or interactions to keep your company name associated with positive thoughts in the minds and hearts of your clients.

What small business can learn from the most successful auto dealer in the world

One company that fully understands the concept of reinforcing and rewarding client loyalty is BMW.

I’m sure you’ve seen one of those cute new “Mini” coupes or convertibles that hit the roads a year or so ago. Well, a friend of ours bought one recently, and she raved about their client care and follow up. She told us that she received more gifts and follow up letters since she bought her car than she did from most boyfriends… never mind any other company she’s ever dealt with.

These aren’t necessarily big, luxurious gifts. They’re more like small tokens of appreciation to share with your friends and family who like your new “toy.” Mugs, postcards, notepads, and other small gifts, ALWAYS coming with another variation of a “Thank You for being our valued customer” letter inside the package.

Think about it. Who doesn’t enjoy receiving surprise gifts in the mail? Not too many people, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Business Coach’s Corner:

- If the majority of people experience buyers remorse, then why don’t the majority of business owners have some type of plan to address this for their own client base?

- What type of system do you have in place that prevents buyers remorse and builds better relationships with your clients?

- If you don’t yet have a system, what is some small step you can take in the next seven days?

Take that step and make it the first step in a complete system for building better client relationships. When you do, you’ll keep more clients longer, spend less on marketing, and turn your current clients into raving fans!

John-Paul Micek is known as the “Click-and-Mortar Business Coach” by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owners Coaching Club™. He’s a published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honolulu Star Bulletin, and a managing partner with the international small business coaching company RPM Success Group Inc.®

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc.® and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Part 10 — Small business marketing success all comes down to incremental improvement!

I saved this principle for last in this series because it reinforces all the others. When most of our business coaching clients join the Business Owners Coaching Club, or participate in one of our click-and-mortar marketing courses — they come in with the misconception that they need to overhaul their entire marketing operation in order to produce powerful results. The plain truth is, most of the time that’s simply not necessary.

Principle 12. A slight marketing edge is all it takes to exponentially increase your profits.

Actually,
all you need to outperform your previous efforts, and your competition, is a slight edge. I’ve seen explosive results from simply changing a headline or restructuring a guarantee. The copy, design, and medium of delivery remained exactly the same – but the advertising pulled three, six or even eight times the previous way. On occasion a major revamp is called for, but most often, this is simply not the case.

The principle in practice

Look, it’s quite simple. If you can increase the number of clients you serve by 8%, increase your average sales amount by 10 or 20 dollars, and make just two additional repeat sales to each of your clients every year, you can realize very real net profit increases of 35% or more.

And better yet, you can do it safely, with very little effort, and almost no additional expense. To do that, just remember the RPM Principle Of Compounded Business Growth: small, prioritized gains carried out with consistency over a period of years will grow your business to astounding levels.

So leave the flashy, wildly creative, costly and “cutting edge” advertising campaigns that produce little or no action to the “Big Boys” with “Big Budgets” whose focus is more on winning awards than on winning clients. You can be content knowing you’re on your way to making BIG profits with hi-impact marketing in your small business — not a big impression.

Follow the twelve principles that have been laid out in this eight part series, apply what you’ve learned, and I’m sure I’ll be seeing you soon in the winners circle too!

And if you’d like to put all these 12 laws into practice and start profiting in less thatn a third the time it would take on your own — you definately want to join the Business Owners Coaching Club.

Aloha, enjoy — and I’ll be speaking with you soon in an upcoming article, podcast, or teleclinic.

John-Paul Micek is known as the “Click-and-Mortar Business Coach” by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owners Coaching Club™. He’s a published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honolulu Star Bulletin, and a managing partner with the international small business coaching company RPM Success Group Inc.®

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc.® and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Part 9 – Marketing Without Action Is Dead

I hate to see money wasted. And I hate it even more when it’s the money of hard driving small business owners or professionals. And no where is this waste more prevalent than in marketing, where these business owners try to emulate institutional marketing. Here’s a quick example to illustrate my point.

The other day I was watching a tape of CSI. As I was fast-forwarding through some commercials, a beautiful scene in one of the ads caught my eye. I even skipped back on my DVR to watch the entire commercial on the hard drive. That’s unusual since the whole reason for recording the show to begin with is to save time not watching commercials.

Pretty powerful commercial you might think. But, that would depend on your perspective.

You see, as a viewer, the ad was a visual delight. There were gorgeous mountains in the background with rolling fields of grass waving in the wind in the valley below. Then a thunderous sound became louder and louder as the camera panned across to focus in on a herd of wild mustangs galloping across a field.

All of a sudden the herd comes to a screeching stop and the horses stare to the side. The camera pans again and there is what caused them to stop dead in their tracks. A glistening black 4×4 truck with a man working nearby. The man smiles at the mustangs, turns toward his truck, back towards the mustangs — and they rear up and gallop on.

Wow, impressive. This truck can get a herd of wild mustangs to stop and stare.

Was it entertaining? Yes. Visually stimulating? Sure, if you find the awesome Rocky Mountains awe inspiring.

But does any of that motivate you as the viewer to take action right then and there while you’re emotionally charged, if you even are? With most conventional advertising — it doesn’t.

Maybe a big Fortune 500 company with tens of millions of dollars in their advertising budget can afford that sort of creative license and not get any direct response. But I would guess that you can’t afford that luxury. Good guess, right?

All this brings us to the eleventh principle of this series, and marketing without action is dead in the water.

Principle 11. Direct response marketing is the only type of marketing you want to invest in.

Every ad, every sales letter, commercial, promotion and news release you produce should be geared to getting your prospects or clients to respond in some way. They must take some kind of action. The type of action is dependent on you’re looking to achieve. Here are four examples:

- If your goal is to generate leads, you’ll want a prospect to call to make an appointment for a consultation.

- Maybe you want an interested party to email you to request specific information.

-If your product or service lends itself to single-step selling, you’ll want them to place an order.

- If it’s publicity you’re after, you’ll want to time your press releases with the coverage of a challenging situation by the media. A challenging situation your product or service can solve.

No matter what response you’re looking for with your marketing, you must always remember that you are looking for a prospect to take some sort of action right then and there.

There are two important reasons why you would demand this of your advertising.

1. Reason number one is because action that can be attributed to one of your advertising pieces is the only way you will be able to measure how effective each area of your marketing campaign is. And to be as successful as possible, it’s essential to be able to tell precisely how well or how poorly each of your marketing efforts performed.

It’s not enough to know that your sales are up over the same period from the previous year. You must know specifically why they’re up.

· Which specific marketing methods are superstars?

· Which are so-so when it comes to being profitable?

· Which are slugs draining cash away from your business?

Without this critical information, you’ll continue to dump your hard earned cash into worthless efforts. That’s money that would be better invested in adding to your most result-producing performers.

2. Reason number two is more obvious, but equally as important. It’s because you want to build relationships with your clients or would be clients. You want to learn more about their needs, develop trust, build rapport and prove to them you have their best interest at heart. How can you do that if you never communicate with them? Quite simply, you can’t. When a prospect responds though, you have that chance.

From my introductory story you may get the impression that I think emotions and “intangibles” have nothing to do with outstanding advertising and result-generating marketing.

Perish the thought! Nothing could be further from the truth.

Drawing emotion out of your prospects through your advertising and marketing is a crucial component of successful marketing. The vast majority of people buy based on emotional needs. (Yes — even you. You might not like to think so, but watch yourself in the next major buying decision and see if emotions don’t play a major role in your decision making process.)

There’s not time to go into detail on the critical role emotions play in quickly generating action on the part of prospects. In the course curriculum in the Business Owners Coaching Club you’ll learn the critical importance of emotional buying triggers, behavioral preferences, motivational values, and a host of other influence-based factors that you must take into consideration for successful small business marketing. But for now, I do want to be sure you walk away today with some guidelines you can put into use to supercharge your marketing efforts.

There are two simple guidelines that will serve you well if you dedicate them to your long-term memory.

These “rules,” when put into practice, will assure you that every marketing effort you choose to invest in from here on out will give you solid results and business boosting action on the part of prospects and clients.

1. Each and every one of your marketing efforts must be completely measurable. Measurable means your marketing efforts that your prospects or clients take some kind of action based on your marketing. Measuring and improving the results of your advertising methods will allow you to cut your costs significantly while getting much better results for every marketing dollar you invest.

2. If you want the greatest ROI on every dollar you invest in growing your client base through marketing and advertising you must strive to constantly eliminate dead weight. If a marketing format doesn’t produce profit, either modify it and test again or drop it. Period! If you’re not measuring results, you’re wasting your own marketing dollars.

Enjoy — and stay tuned for part 10 of the 12 Laws of Small Business Marketing Success series.

John-Paul Micek is known as the “Click-and-Mortar Business Coach” by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owner’s Coaching Club™. He’s a published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honolulu Star Bulletin, and a managing partner with the international small business coaching company RPM Success Group Inc.®

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc.® and licensed under a Creative Commons License.