As a business owner who is trying to increase sales, you have to be ready at all times for presentations.  It is exactly what sales reps do for their companies.  They have everything they will need in their car.  Literature, samples, business cards, catalogs, some even carry around a change of clothes just in case.

You should have at the very least 3 different things in your car and/or on you because the truth is, you never know who you will bump into.  There are the things you need to have.

#1- Business card with a reachable phone number.  If they have to dial your 800 number than press one for English then they can’t find your name in the listings and have to go to an operator, then get transferred and all they get is your voicemail; this is not helping to win them over.  Add your cell phone number or a direct line- it gives a personal touch that will keep you remembered.

#2- Literature is a great way to show/tell someone about your company quickly.   Many times in telling someone about our business we might leave something out in all the excitement.  So its a good idea to have something to hand them so they can go back to and read it later.

#3- Samples.  When talking to people about your business they are going to see the card, see that you are president or vice-president and then listen to you tell them about how wonderful your product(s) is.  The problem is that everyone says their products are better than everyone elses.  What people want is tangible proof, something they can feel and touch.  If you can do it, then you increase or chances of having that sale by 25%.

Preparation is a must in today’s instant society.  Always be ready, always be prepared.

D.G. Landolfi is the author of The Woman’s Blueprint to Business Success, a step-by-step guide to teach women how to start and operate their own business.  D.G. has a passion for empowering women and showing them how they can be successful.  Check out D.G.’s website at www.icanbesuccessful.com.

Corporate Identity: You need to figure out what kind of service/product your company is providing to the public.  If you don’t know how to explain it, then how do you expect to sell it.

Branding: With an emerging business, one of the biggest mistakes in marketing people make is incorrect branding.  When advertising your business you need to come up with one slogan, one phrase that explains the main idea of your company.  T-mobile has branded themselves with the slogan of “Get More.”  This is stating that if you are a T-Mobile customer then you get more service, more minutes, more everything.  You need to do the same thing.  Staples has the easy button, stating if you go with Staples everything will be a lot easier for you.  What does your slogan say about your company?

Local Advertising: Niche Marketing.  Long gone are the days of “If you build it they will come.”  People nowadays want to go to the specialists, they want to ask the expert.  A good way to get customers is to specialize in a certain area.  Think about your surroundings, what will be in demand and when.  If you live in South Florida and have an auto repair business, then you should be advertising promotions for air conditioning repair before the summer months.

The Internet:  A lot of people have turned to the internet to find local businesses.  What most do is go to Google, type in the service you require and your zip code and a list of services appear.  Now if you don’t have an internet marketing campaign in effect or at the very least aren’t listed, just imagine how many times you have been skipped over without even knowing it.

Global Advertising: This goes hand in hand with internet marketing.  If people wanted to do some research about your company because they were interested in buying from you.  What would they find?  Or would they even find anything?  One of the biggest reference on this planet is the internet.  It gives consumers a since of control to be able to do their own research and choose who to give their business to.  If your business sells books, with a website you would then have the ability to sell your books around the world.  If you don’t have a website, you are only robbing from yourself.  It’s not as expensive as you think. 

These are 5 things you need to build general awareness.  If you need help with any part, let us know.

Visit us online at www.icanbesuccessful.com.  D.G. Landolfi is the author of The Woman’s Blueprint to Business Success.  D.G. has a passion for empowering women and showing them how they can be successful.

There is a rule called the 80/20 rule.  80% of your sales are made by 20% of your customers.  So what we need to do instead of sending out the same flyers and advertisements to all of our customers is to send targeted advertisements to them. 

For the 20% that make up most of our sales, I would send them a full catalog of what my company has to offer.  I would send them coupons and little freebies to show them that I appreciate their business and support.  For the other 80% I would break them down into two different groups.  Ones who have bought something within the last six months and the others who have purchased something past the six month mark.  The six month or less group I would send them coupons and a copy of our services.  The others I would send just coupons on a postcard.

With this approach, you are letting the 20% know that you appreciate their business – and because of it, they will always come back.  You are letting the six month or less group know they are important and you also appreciate their business and encourage them to come back soon.  And the over six month people, you are letting them know you are still there and haven’t forgotten about them and appreciate their business even though its been awhile since you’ve seen them.

Tthe object here is to target each group differently.  It will cost you less and it will be more effective.

D.G. Landolfi is the author of The Woman’s Blueprint to Business Success.  D.G. has a passion for empowering women and showing them how they can be successful.  Check out D.G.’s website at www.icanbesuccessful.com.

You’ve seen it at the malls:  they are switching the trays in the food court of restaurants like China Hut and Sbarro’s to clear plastic ones because the tables now have advertisements on the tops of them.

You’ve even seen it at the gas stations: Ever seen a bunch of business cards sitting on the 7-11 gas pump that you’re using?

These are examples of guerrilla marketing.  Guerrilla Marketing can almost be labeled the underground media approach because a lot of the tactics used are not considered mainstream. 

The point to this style of marketing is to expose you to their brand subconsciously.  Without you even knowing it, you are being exposed to hundreds of different brands every day.  From pushing the snooze button on your alarm clock that has Emerson written right on the front of it to getting the key out of your pocket that is engraved with the Mercedes logo, marketing is all around you.

Look how many different company names I just mentioned in the few paragraphs you just read.  The reason they do this is to get you familiar with their product.  If you go down an aisle of hair care products and you don’t know which one to get, chances are you’ll pick up the one that you heard mentioned on tv or the radio.  You do this because you are somewhat familiar with their product.  This leave us with a couple of questions…

How are you getting the public familiar with your product or services?

What are you doing that is going to attract more customers?

What marketing style are you using to gain customer relate-ability and familiarity?

Let’s learn from these tactics.  Contact us at www.icanbesuccessful.com to talk about it.  D.G. Landolfi is the author of The Woman’s Blueprint to Business Success.  D.G. has a passion for empowering women and showing them how they can be successful.

Packaging: If you see a transparent green 20 oz bottle with a white cap and the label torn off, what kind of drink is it? Most would say either Mountain Dew or Surge Energy Drink.   You would never confuse it with a Pepsi or Fanta Orange.  That’s branding done with packaging.  Why is this done?  Well if you see three 20 oz bottles sitting on the table and they all have their labels ripped off (which is what America does when they are bored or talking on the phone), how do you know what they were drinking.  Now if you were in the same scenario and saw three transparent green bottles sitting next to each other, you know have an idea of what people are drinking.  Why do they want you to know what others are drinking?  Because if they are drinking it and if you never had it before, chances are you will go and buy one to drink it too.  They want everyone to be able to recognize their beverage because the more you notice it being drunk around you the more you’ll want to drink it too.

Slogans: Slogans can be a fun thing to play around with.  But if you are an emerging company, don’t do it.  Stick with one slogan that’s going to identify your company and use it in everything.  If you don’t, it will take longer for people to identify you.  Don’t think that you have to change the slogan just because the big companies are doing it.  Not every big company is doing it.  RadioShack is now switching from, “You got questions, we got answers, ” to “Do Stuff.”  But there are other companies that have stuck with the same slogan for years and because of it they have profited more.

De Beers is a diamond mining company.  We all know their slogan, “A diamond is forever.”  Did you know they started that marketing campaign in 1946?  That’s over 60 years with the same slogan.  They have never changed it and it has served them greatly.

Logos: A logo is something that associates an image with your company.  Take Staples for example.  Right now they are using a picture of a red button that they are calling the ‘Easy Button.’  I’ve seen kids that were walking around a store with their parents and have said, “Look mom, its the easy button.”  That should tell you just how effective their strategy is.

These are just a couple of ways to brand your company.  You need one of these in order to make your company stand out from others.  If you don’t make your company stand out from the others then how are customers ever going to know you exist.

We’d love to hear about some of the ways you have thought about branding your products or company.  Leave a comment or visit us online at www.icanbesuccessful.com.

D.G. Landolfi is the author of The Woman’s Blueprint to Business Success.  D.G. has a passion for empowering women and showing them how they can be successful.