We've all heard that when you get a business lead, or a referral, or a phone query, or…something along those lines, we should follow up. Of course we should. And we should do it in a timely manner. "Well," you ask, "what is a timely manner?" In my opinion, it is within 24 hours. Now this doesn't apply to a phone call from your mother, but I covered that in another post titled, Why Doesn't Anyone Return My Phone Calls? published back in February '09.

Most of us are following up with phone calls and emails. Now phone calls are an excellent way to follow up but it has some definite drawbacks: phone calls are VERY time consuming, and a large percentage of the time you get voice mail and have to play phone tag. In order to do that, you have to keep track of who called whom and when. You have enough to do without adding that stress to your business life. Emails. Ahhhhh, emails. Everyone does emails. They're quick, they're easy. But again, EVERYONE does emails. In fact emails are used for more than just follow up, and therein lies the rub. Most people don't open all their emails because they get so many of them and most of them are bullsh….t. I mean, spam. Emails have lost their meaning and impact. Oh woe is us! What to do?

I have a solution. Send a greeting card.

"Are you kidding," you ask? No, I'm dead serious.

What is your first thought when you get a greeting card? What are you feeling when you have it in your hand and you haven't opened it yet? Your first thought is, "Is it my birthday?" The answer is no. Your second thought is, "Gee, I wonder who this is from and why they're sending me a card?" You're checking the return address. You can't wait to open it and see what it says. Let me ask you something – do you feel and think this way about emails? Do you know someone who DOES feel that way about emails?

Now you are thinking of objections to using greeting cards aren't you?  "They're so expensive!" "They're so inconvenient to buy." "I have to write in each and every one, stuff and stamp and take them to the post office." "I can never find on that says exactly what I want to say." "What if I get a paper cut?"

Check this out - and remember, these are REAL PAPER GREETING CARDS that go through the U.S. Post Office. What if you could write one standard card and send it multiple times to people, or send it to many, many people at one time with just a click of a mouse? What if you could set it up so that it sent out cards to many people AUTOMATICALLY as many times as you want whenever you want? What if each card costs less than $1.00? What if you could upload pictures into them, or even make the card out of your photos? You may notice that in the above picture there are cards with our photos on them and some that we got from friends with their photos on them. What if you could insert your ACTUAL signature? What if you could use your actual personal handwriting? What if you could do all this on your computer from anywhere in the world and SOMEONE ELSE would print, stuff, stamp and mail the cards for you?

What if you could try this service out FOR FREE?

Would you take a few minutes to try it? Would you really, or are you just going to read this and then forget about it? Can you see how it could help your business and/or personal life? Do you see how this could be more effective than email, and actually save you money from whatever marketing you're already doing? If you're putting ads in phone books and on billboards, you are wasting your dollars! If you're creating enormously expensive magazine ads, how's that working out for you? If you're not creating relationships with your existing customers or prospects, they will likely never keep doing business with you because they perceive that you don't personally care about them.

Do this NOW! Go to SendOutNow and click on the banner. The founder and CEO will personally walk you through sending a card to someone you love and we'll pay for it. What have you got to lose? 15 minutes of your life? Give me a break! If you want to help your business bottom line, then this is the tool for you. And if you just want to send Christmas or birthday cards to friends and family cheaper and having more fun than you've ever done in the past, then you gotta try this out.

To your business success!

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There is a book called “Blue Ocean Strategy” that talks about uncontested market space and making the competition irrelevant. Here is the main concept: if you market in a specific niche or market like the others do in that same market or niche, then you’re doing what’s called Red Ocean marketing. This means that you are all getting bloody trying to compete with each other for a finite market share. Each of you is trying to out-do each other in a market that has a limited number of customers, a limited price point, a limited profit margin, a limited everything! Let me give you an example. Let’s take pizza.

All the pizza places (Domino’s, CiCi’s, Pizza Hut, etc.) are using T.V. commercials, mailed flyers, magazine and newspaper ads, radio ads and more. Everyone is doing the same thing. How low can their prices go before they’re losing money? How many customers can they reasonably get? What can they possibly do that the other companies haven’t already done, but the bottom line is this – it’s still PIZZA!

Pepsi competes with Coke and all the other soft drink companies out there. All they can do is package differently or change the taste. That’s about it. And what can the other soft drink companies do? What can an insurance company offer a potential customer that the other insurance companies are not offering? What can a car manufacturer offer a potential customer that the other manufacturers are not offering? What can a retail store offer potential customers that other retail stores do not offer? You see what I’m getting at here?

Whatever your product or service is, chances are you’re just killing yourself by trying to out-do the other companies in your market. You’re all beating yourselves bloody in the name of competition.

But you ask, “What else can I do?”

Well, let’s look at Cirque du Soleil. There were two major circus giants who were known as the best in the industry. Other smaller circuses tried to compete in the same market and got nowhere. They all tried to use animals, tents, performers doing the same tricks and what happened? The small ones stayed “small potatoes” or went out of business entirely, and the two circus giants, due to the declining economy, had to raise prices, cut back performances and/or quality, down-size, etc. And the more they did this, the fewer customers they had. That becomes a vicious cycle to nowhere.

So, did Cirque du Soleil follow this formula? No! They created a completely different market and a totally different business model, and even did this with their prices doubled and tripled what the normal circus prices used to be. And they dominate that market! They don’t use animals. They use use artists/performers and use story themes in their shows. Wow!

What about Apple? As the electronics market evolves, companies who create new technologies are the ones who prosper. What about green energy? Same thing there.

Blue Ocean Strategy is about creating NEW markets by creating new products, technologies or new services, not competing in the same old, same old.

Even the MLM industry falls victim to the red ocean strategy. It never fails to amaze me that people who want to quit the corporate world and go into business for themselves choose an MLM business that IS COMPETING WITH EVERYONE ELSE in the same industry. Health products. Electricity. Insurance, for crying out loud. Kitchen ware. Why would you do that? How in the world do you think you will become successful?

Now this is interesting – a totally new product/service comes along that NO ONE ELSE is doing, that the entry fee is ridiculously low, that is cutting edge, like Cirque du Soleil, and do people want to get involved? No! They instead join a company that is one of 20 others just like it. And yet they have high expectations of success. They work hard for a short or long period of time, they invest lots of money and effort and time, and then they quit. Or they just marginally get by. Then they go tell everyone they know that MLMs don’t work. Or they jump to a different MLM company that is, again, one of many doing the same product/service. And these are NOT stupid people!

So tell me, if you had an urge to begin your own business and you are drawn to the MLM business model, which, seriously, is the only way to set your own work schedule and salary limit, wouldn’t you want to put the odds in your favor? Wouldn’t you consider a company that had a low entry fee, that was super easy to do, that was growing like crazy and that had NO COMPETITION?

If this makes sense to you, go to www.sendoutnow.com and click on the banner to try it out yourself FOR FREE!!!!!! Or simply email me at steveblu1@gmail.com and ask me to show you how to get started. What have you got to lose? You’re probably just trading your time for money anyway. Why not do it smarter? And if you want to read more stuff about business networking, go to http://wwwnetworkingfun.com.

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What is the most important thing, in my opinion, you can do in sales and marketing?

Follow up!!

I’ll say it again, Follow Up!

Somewhere, somehow, sometime, you will get a lead for your business. It may be through the many different advertisements you put out or through your networking. It may be through a referral from an existing customer. It may be through your email campaigns or your Facebook ads or Google ads. It may be through Twitter or some other social network. It may be through your direct mail campaigns. No matter how you get them, leads have to be followed up on. Or with. So I don’t use perfect English here, so sue me.

Statistics show that most businesses follow up only once or twice. Maybe 3 times. And of course, people being as lazy or busy or distracted as they are, they don’t respond to those follow ups. It has been found that the company willing to follow up 6 or more times usually gets the response and the sale. And that’s the truth! Some may call it legalized stalking. Well, don’t forget you want to follow up, not bird dog, harass, harangue or smother. Nor do you want to lurk, ambush, slink, or skulk. Trench coats are not the uniform of the day. Business is hard work and follow up is one of the methods used to get sales. Follow up can be done in many different ways, just as advertising and marketing can be. One of the best methods besides phone calls is to send a greeting card or two. They can be set up to be sent automatically and someone else will do the printing, stuffing and mailing. You can send one for less than $1.00. If you would like to find out more, go to http://www.sendoutnow.com to try it out for FREE. Follow up is the most boring and frustrating part of the sales process and it’s very difficult not to take the non-responses as personal rejection and become discouraged and of course, give up. But once again, the one who perseveres gets the rewards.

You’ve got to be willing to do what most others won’t, and that’s follow up. Do it wisely. Do it consistently. And do it legally. But you gotta do it!

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Sound familiar? Who wrote this, do you suppose? It was Cicero in 55 B.C. Holy crap! 55 B.C.! See any parallels with our society and government? So if nothing changes after 2064 years, why are you worrying about the economy? About crime? About who's in office or who's going to be in office? Who cares about who's going to be voted off the island or lose the most weight? What difference does it make who is America's next top model or who wins the dance contest? Start paying attention to the choices you make in your own life. Begin to take action on the things you actually have control over instead of fussing about things that are out of your control.

Want to know what else hasn't changed? Business practices. With the global population increases, most companies still think that advertising is the key. It's not. Advertising may get them in the door, but what keeps them coming back is relationships. Statistics have shown that 60% or more of sales comes from REPEAT BUSINESS. And there is no repeat business if there is no relationship of some kind. Good relationships make the world go 'round. Bad relationships make the world go 'round. That's what life is all about. So how do you begin a relationship? How do you grow a relationship? There is a key word here. It's called "personal." You have to get personal with people and show you care about them. If you don't like people, then this isn't going to be easy for you. Who said, "No man is an island"? I thought it was Hemingway but it turns out it was a guy named John Donne in 1624. Wow, even way back then people knew it was about relationships! 

"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated…As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness….No man is an island, entire of itself…any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." – John Donne

You may notice that there is no new thought here. All this stuff has historical precedence and all we have to do is learn/research it. But I'm saving you the trouble. Just pay attention to our blogs and you will learn all you need to know about relationship marketing and growing your business in a way that will keep it thriving.

To your business success!

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Hey, you know what? This is just like networking! And luckily, I can make a blog out of this, so here goes.

Developing and strengthening your business depends, not on sales, but on relationships. After all, you can't have sales without relationships. People generally do business with people they know, trust and maybe even like. Low prices don't always make the sale. Sometimes is a matter of convenience to where the customer is and most times it's because the customer perceives some kind of relationship with your business. It could be good customer service. It could be that you've been locally established for 30 years and they feel you are trustworthy. It could be they heard of you by referral. It could be because they know you personally. It could be any number of relationship-related reasons. Just plain newspaper and T.V. ads don't convince people to do business with them because anyone can make an ad or commercial and when was the last time you saw or read someone HONESTLY saying, "Yeah, we aren't the best and our stuff is just like the guy down the street, but we have a really clean store and I smile a lot?" No one in their right mind is going to make themselves look like less than God's gift to whatever! So, knowing that, why would you believe anything they say?

Business is about relationships, and you have to plant the relationship seeds and water them and tend to them a lot in the beginning until the relationship roots take hold. Then you can back off a bit but continue to maintain contact in different ways. Well, just like the new plants I planted this week, it takes lots of work in the beginning, but the payoff is BIG! Like anything else, you get out of it what you put into it, and if you don't put any effort into relationships with your customers or suppliers, you're most likely going to have a bumpy business ride. I don't think that doing relationship building is going to hurt in any way, but it may take a bit of getting used to if you've never done that kind of thing before. Check out our other blogs for the step by step on how to establish and maintain relationships. You may be surprised to find that you're doing some of those things already, especially since most of them are natural. We just do what we've seen others do instead because if they're all doing it, then it must be what to do, right? On the other hand, look at how much money is being spent chasing sales and research how little it's paying off. Don't follow the business masses! Set yourself apart and be more successful! Not only is that the name of the game, but it's ultimately more rewarding on so many levels.

To your business success!

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This past weekend we headed up to Austin from Houston. Along the way we encountered vistas of the famed Texas Bluebonnets. The views were indeed awesome! We also had to avoid a plethora of parked cars along the highway shoulder. It seems that many, many (did I mention "many") people who, seeing these fields, hillocks and pastures of bluebonnets felt compelled to stop and pose with each other and their families and their dogs/cats for pictures. They were standing or sitting or lying down in the flowers. They were pointing and waving and smiling. Some were sneezing and coughing and their eyes were watering and itching because of the allergies, but hey, who cares? These are BLUEBONNETS for crying out loud, and you don't get to see them but once a year! What an attraction these wildflowers have over us! If only we could monetize this somehow!

So that brings up the question, "What Do You Attract?" Or better yet, what is it about your business that attracts customers to you? Is your product or service what attracts people to do business with you? Is it your wonderful compelling marketing approach? Is it that you have pictures of bluebonnets on your web site?

Let's look at this for a minute. What makes the bluebonnets attractive? Well, they involve scarcity because they only bloom once a year. They are different from other flowers because they are …uh…blue. And look like bonnets. And they exist almost extensively only in the wild. And they are mostly unique to Texas. Does your business have characteristics similar to these? Are you providing a product or service that is unique and that people are looking for? Is your marketing different from the everyday corporate stuff you see other businesses use – for example, do you foster relationships with your customers instead of treating them as just faceless people? Do you promote once-a-year events or pricing? Do you give VALUE? What do you do to make your business stand out? What will make people pull over and park on the side of the road to check out what you've got?

How can you make your business ATTRACTIVE and not just the same old same old? Step back a bit and take a good look at your business and your business goals from an outside perspective. Start thinking outside the box. Brainstorm with other people for ideas. Take surveys. In short, if you were the guy or girl on the street, what would compel you to do business with you? What would make ME want to see what you're offering and make me want to buy it?

These are questions you should be constantly asking yourself. Everybody and their brother is trying to sell something. We're inundated with all the advertising every day in every way. If you don't want to get lost in the crowd, you need to come up with ideas to make potential customers see you and hear you and more importantly, WANT WHAT YOU'VE GOT!

As for me, I'm taking an antihistamine for my runny nose. Thank God the bluebonnets only come out once a year!

To your business success!

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1. Completely ignore them
2. Stay in touch, but only to try to sell them more stuff
3. Constantly ask them for referrals, but don’t tell them specifically what a good referral would be
4. Contact them only on Christmas and of course, prominently display your business info which implies that you’re looking for more business from them
5. When they call you, wait for at least 5 days or more before returning their call
6. Keep sending them promotional material
7. Keep sending them questionaires about their satisfaction
8. Make sure you continually send them junk mail
9. Be rude or act put upon when they need customer service
10. Always try to upsell them, even to the point of becoming pushy

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We’ve personally seen networking events that only had 3-6 people attend. And the strange thing is, networking is a proven way to get the word out about your business faster than almost anything else out there. Oh, sure, you can do an email blast or something like that (after you buy leads, of course) but those people have no idea who you are! I mean, why would I use your pest control services when I already use this company I’ve been dealing with for a couple years? I already know the guy that comes to the house. I know how many kids he has, what he looks like, what he likes to do on his days off, assuming he gets days off.

But you? I don’t know you from Adam!

What makes you so special? If you want to spread your reputation, then you need to do it by word-of-mouth, because that will give you more credibility than anything else you can do, short of giving away free products and/or services. And even THAT doesn’t mean a hill of beans! People will believe their friends and relatives when they are told that so and so is wonderful or does what he says or gives a little bit extra. Can a billboard say that? Of course it can, but who really believes that advertisements aren’t blowing smoke? When was the last time you saw an ad that said, “I do an O.K. job” or “I promise to do just enough to get by” or maybe “Most of the people who use my service are satisfied?” Wow. Wouldn’t it be cool if there was some kind of Honesty Police that made businesses tell the truth?

How do you get this word-of-mouth thing going? You network. You get to know people who can spread the word. You do jobs and favors for those people you are getting to know. You try to HELP those people you meet at the networking events get what THEY want and you form relationships with them. Find out about their needs and wants, their families and their businesses. As they get to know and trust you, they will spread the word and your business will grow. Then those clients will spread the word. That’s why networking is so important. This concept transcends bad economies. Nothing else does.

So, the next time a networking event comes up in your area, GO TO IT! You never know where it will lead and if you network correctly, you can help your business grow more effectively and inexpensively than any other way.

To your business success!

If you’ve enjoyed this article, please visit www.businessnetworkingmistakes.com to get a FREE report on networking mistakes that can cripple your business.

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