by: Audra Clair

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an influential component in the efficiency of a business operation. CRM is the glue that holds the policies, processes and strategies of an organization in tact throughout customer interactions by tracking front and back office customer information. CRM programs also analyze the success of the CRM activities in relation to the specific business operation.

Ranging from customers and sales to service management and marketing, CRM strategies can vary in size, complexity and scope. The objectives of a CRM strategy must consider a company’s specific situation and its customers’ needs and expectations. Information gained through CRM initiatives allows organizations to gain valuable strategic insight; such as identifying customer segments, improving customer retention, improving product offerings and identifying the organization’s most profitable customers.

CRM can be implemented without major investments in software, although software is necessary to analyze the full benefits of a CRM strategy. Some commonly used CRM enterprise software includes Amdocs, Microsoft, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Salesforce.com and SAP, depending on the company CRM strategy. A number of companies consider a CRM strategy only to focus on the management of a team of salespeople, while other CRM strategies can cover customer interaction across the entire organization.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM delivers comprehensive sales automation, service management and marketing automation functionality through a browser and within everyday productivity applications, to facilitate a range of possible CRM strategies. As the enterprise CRM market grows and advances, it is important to ensure that the software matches the company and the CRM strategy. Minnesota Microsoft Dynamics CRM provider InterDyn BMI is currently offering a 30-day free trial of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to help businesses ensure their CRM software investment is the best option for them. (http://www.interdynbmi.com/solutions/TryMicrosoftDynamicsCRM.htm)

The core ingredient to consider when evaluating a CRM solution is the compatibility of the software with the business operation, and CRM strategy. Other elements and features to consider include sales and marketing analysis, history and trend management, automated processes, database information, and mobile technology capabilities.

Audra Clair works to educate businesses on the benefits of CRM software. For more information regarding these benefits, visit the following URL: http://www.interdynbmi.com/solutions/dynamics_crm.htm

by: Peter Kenward

Internet based business opportunities for the home-based entrepreneur appear almost daily. Most of these businesses are brand new and are relatively unproven. One business, however, bucks that trend. The LGN Revolution has been in existence and has been helping people for several years now. This system allows anyone, regardless of their internet marketing or sales experience to make serious income from home very quickly.

Many online marketing systems will collect fees and simply mail out a manual and expect the entrepreneur to go build the business on their own. The manual usually contains very high level and generic information that isn’t particularly helpful when attempting to implement the system in real life. Attempting to apply that information, the new business owner struggles to make any sort of serious income from home and often gives up frustrated, not successful, and eventually gives up. Peter Kenward sponsoring the LGN Revolution takes a very different approach. Peter takes an approach designed to help the new business owner succeed and begin making serious income from home almost immediately.

The LGN Revolution provides the new business owner everything they need to start their home-based business. Included in the LGN Revolution are all the tools required to do real internet marketing including a professional, already-done-for-you website, weekly online tele-seminar calls for prospective customers, and an additional feature you won’t typically find with home based businesses; a real-time chat assistant for visitors to the business owner’s new website. This real-time chat support person is like a free sales person who can answer any prospect’s questions and help convert that prospect into an actual customer (a sale that makes serious income from home, as the commission payout). This benefit of the online chat person really eliminates the specific “selling” the business owner would normally do themselves and allows them to concentrate on making serious income from home and helping their existing paid customers be successful. This is a true consultative approach that greatly increases everyone’s chances for success.

From the new business owners perspective as well, working with existing customers who are already making that serious income from home is much more enjoyable than trying to “sell” new people to the business.

The core aspect behind the success of the LGN Revolution and Peter Kenward’s sponsorship is the compensation plan. Designed to allow the new business owner to make serious income from home, the system pays out 100% commissions on all new sales after the first training sale. The system not only pays for direct sales, but it pays a residual commission that adds to the already serious income being collected. Finally the system includes several free travel vouchers as well so you can travel and enjoy life while the automated turn-key business generates the income or while on vacation. Finally, when those customers learn and start their own easy online business and start to drive their own traffic to their own customer web sites, they can start making their own serious income from home and the original business owner derives additional income from the residual payout.

If you want to start your own business and start making some serious income from home with a full turn-key solution, a valuable range of free software tools, minimal investment, some free travel vouchers and a ton of personal one-on-one support from Peter Kenward and the staff at the LGN Revolution, then visit Peter’s website at: http://redhot-biz-4u.com. The serious income from home made through the LGN Revolution and Peter Kenward will help you accelerate your path to financial freedom and a better life.

Peter Kenward lives in West Australia. After a long career in sales and marketing, Peter retired and started several online businesses including the LGN Revolution business. Peter is married, in his 60s, and keeps busy enjoying life with his wife at his home and on his cattle farm. He also regularly travels around the globe to visit his 3 adult sons and 2 grandchildren. Peter loves to answer questions from people curious about his sponsorship of the LGN Elite system at http://www.redhot-biz-4u.com. For more information on the LGN Revolution opportunity visit Peter’s website or contact him at pwk@iinet.net.au.

by: Dave Chaplin

The prospect of leaving permanent employment to go contracting in the UK can be quite daunting. Concerns can be quickly alleviated by researching how to get started in contracting and also by understanding what to expect when you go contracting.

If you are thinking of becoming a contractor here are 5 tips to get you started:

1. Sales & marketing

As a contractor you are the product. You yourself have to market your product, typically by writing a high impact CV, to get yourself interviews. Then at the interview you need to pitch your product to the potential client. This all involves good sales and marketing skills on your part.

It doesn’t matter how highly skilled you are, if you can’t market yourself then you will fail at the first hurdle and will never get an interview.

If your marketing is good, but your sales is poor, you’ll get interviews, but then never get the job offer.

As a contractor you will have to make many applications, and attend many interviews. Any time spent job hunting is time that you could spend earning. Learn some basic sales and marketing skills, to ensure you win the lucrative contracts.

2. Learn to negotiate

Your may be good at marketing, and sales, but if your negotiation is poor then you’ll just increase the time it takes to build that retirement pot. Rest assured, your agent knows what you are worth to the client, and if you don’t you’ll just line their pocket with a nice hefty margin, and end up working longer than you should.

Any fool can sell £50 pound notes for £20, but not everyone can negotiate well. Making sure you maximise your return for your skills is key to ensuring your pocket gets filled with cash, rather than your agents.

3. Technical Skills – keep them updated

Many firms hire contractors because they have a project that needs completing for which they cannot justify hiring someone full time. Others hire contractors because they simply do not have the skills in house. And most firms want to live on the bleeding edge rather than employ older technology.

If you have cutting edge skills then you’ll be more in demand than those contractors using yesterdays box of tricks.

Keep your skills updated, and this will ensure your charge rate stays high.

4. Deliver, deliver, deliver – the three D’s.

Make sure you always deliver on time and to budget. Having a reputation for delivery will be valuable in the long term, because people will hire you again and again. Bosses like contractors who don’t need hand holding and always deliver what they promise.

There’s an easy trick to this – just under promise as much as you can. Give yourself plenty of wiggle room, and stand firm if someone tries to get you to do something that isn’t possible. Then if a risk pops up you can manage it without running late. If no risks materialize you can simply deliver more than you promised. Either way you win.

5. Blow your own trumpet

If you are delivering the goods on a regular basis then your boss will certainly know this, but does their boss, or the bosses boss? Make sure, without being arrogant, that people know you deliver – especially those who sign the cheques.

If you don’t blow your own trumpet then no one else will. Demonstrate that you are adding value to the person who is paying you money.

Being a successful IT contractor means learning ‘contracting skills’ which are outside of your usual skill set. It doesn’t matter whether you are an engineer, IT contractor, interim manager, and so on – to be a great contractor you will need to learn some non-technical skills to be successful for the long term.
Dave Chaplin was an IT contractor in the City and knows what it takes to carve out a successful contracting career. He has turned all his experiences and those of dozens of contractor experts into a fantastic resource of how-to guides, advice and detailed contractor information, including loads of guidance about choosing a contractor accountant, which you can download free from http://www.contractorcalculator.co.uk .

The author invites you to visit: http://www.contractorcalculator.co.uk

by: Brian Scott

The publishing company is the backbone of the writing world. The publishing company provides a great service to society by publishing and displaying the work of authors. The global existence of publishers is obvious, but the inner workings of a publishing company is unknown by many authors. Many book publishers consider the publishing industry as an apprenticeship industry — most book publishing professionals gain knowledge and skills in this field with hands-on job experience. Generally, what an apprentice learns in one department is useful throughout the publishing house, which gives professionals the opportunity to move between departments. A typical publishing company has many levels to it, each with different functions.

THE ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENT

The Administrative Department is the first level of any book publishing company. It has many responsibilities to help the publishing company function properly. The Administrative Department manages daily operations for publishing executives and management. This responsibility involves interaction with all employees from all departments, as well as interaction with authors and agents. The administrative employees manage the calendar, maintain organized files, screen/prioritize mail, draft correspondence, make travel arrangements and prepare itineraries, process expense reports, take minutes at meetings, and prepare reports. A position as an administrative employee allows a person to have a high-level of understanding of a publishing company, while being visible to executives.

THE ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT

All large and small publishing companies have an Advertising Department. Most publishing companies have in-house advertising agencies that purchase media space and create and design advertisements. In a publishing company, the Advertising Department works closely with the marketing directors, editors, and publishers of titles to create an advertising plan that promotes sales of an author’s book. An advertising plan requires research and negotiation to provide the best venues and the most cost-effective methods of advertisement. These employees also work closely with graphic designers, commercial sales representatives, printing presses, and internal staff to facilitate the run of advertisements.

THE EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT

The Editorial Department of a publishing company is one of the most important departments. The Editorial Department acquires, negotiates, develops, and edits book projects for publication. The daily activities of editorial employees include preparing acquisitions for transmittal to the production department; developing and maintaining relationships with authors, booksellers, and agents; performing general administrative duties; participating in editorial, design and marketing meetings; and reading and evaluating submissions by writing reader’s reports. The editorial department must work closely with all departments.

THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT

Another division of a publishing company is the Marketing Department. The Marketing Department creates, prepares, and establishes marketing strategies and policies for each book title by coordinating the efforts of publicity, promotion, advertising, and sales departments. The Marketing Department prepares all sales presentation materials, audio recordings, fact sheet collation, and promotions; creates and produces additional account-specific presentation materials; researches and establishes relations with new markets; and plans and maintains sales and marketing schedules.

THE PUBLISHER’S OFFICE

The Publisher’s Office is also an important department for many publishing companies. The publishers oversee the life cycle of a book title from acquisition to production, and onto the sales force. Publishers make executive decisions for all book titles within assigned imprints while staying within any cost restraints. This department is also responsible for sponsoring book projects, strategies, and initiatives for the publishing company.

BOOK RIGHTS DEPARTMENT

The Subsidiary Rights and Permissions Department is one of the most important divisions of a book publishing company. This department finds additional sources of profit for a given title, including serials, book clubs, and paperback, audio and e-book rights.

The daily activities for the subsidiary department include writing submission letters; sending manuscripts, proposals, and books to foreign publishers and agents; coordinating co-productions with other publishers; working with book clubs and sales for special editions; and maintaining relationships with other publishing companies.

ENJOY THE JOURNEY

The road to getting a book published is a long one, but well worth the effort. Trust yourself, and trust the publisher to create a beautiful masterpiece. Don’t be discouraged if several publishers are not interested in your book. You may have to self-publish your first book, and then again, a large or small publishing company may accept your book based on marketability. Good luck and enjoy the process.

Brian Scott

Learn how to become a published book author! Download Brian’s free e-book, Book Writing for Fun and Profit, at http://www.BookCatcher.com. Visit Brian’s blog, at http://bookpublishingnews.blogspot.com

by: Grant Soosalu

Using the power of Social Networking websites like MySpace or other blogging sites is a great way to promote your business. However, because most of these sites are free, they tend to provide a ‘value-less’ experience. Instead, a new type of Social Networking website – A Social Reward and Recognition space – can provide an incredibly valuable sales and marketing tool for a very small financial outlay. Let’s illustrate this claim by examining a very real example.

Being a nominee on the1000best, a new social reward and recognition website is turning into a marketing dream for Helen Van Den Berg, a tour guide operating from a small remote town in Australia. Helen’s profile as 1 of the1000best has seen her inundated with tributes and boosts from her clients, all with one very clear message that Helen is the best tour guide in the world.

Helen’s nomination as 1 of the 1000 best tour guides in the world was gifted to her by friends as a way of rewarding, recognising and saying thank you. This gift gave her a Personal Space page on the1000best where Helen profiled herself, her own newly launched web site and her Tour Guide business.

As well as the profile, the website also encourages ongoing positive reinforcement for nominees by giving people the ability to boost’ their favourite nominees on a daily basis and to send tribute messages. It is the tribute messages that are paying off handsomely for Helen. “I have been overwhelmed by the tributes I have received and I have been on a constant high with all the positive feedback. This website has to be the ultimate marketing tool – this type of marketing is priceless and it’s lead to an amazing amount of traffic to my own website”.

The1000best.com takes social networking in a totally new direction. Rather than just providing a platform to connect people, the1000best.com goes the next step by offering a gift of social reward and recognition. Generally, anyone can join a social network for free however to get connected on the1000best.com someone must value you enough to purchase a gift nomination and nominate you as 1 of the1000best in the world (according to them). People with business interests and who are fortunate and worthy of nomination then have a very public platform to market themselves by way of sharing the positive experiences of their clients with the world. Referral systems like this are worth their weight in gold.

Savvy business owners can also nominate their employees or business teams and use the power of social networking and social recognition to both reward their people and gain valuable positive advertising. This is a form of synergistic marketing, in which the business is linked to positive values and social appreciation. As Grant Soosalu, one of the developers of the1000best.com commented “Social Networking is a huge and growing phenomenon, and the1000best.com now provides a fantastic mechanism for showcasing your business by linking your people into this network of value”.

So if you want to really make use of Social Networking to promote your business, and do so in a way that links to strong positive values, check out:

www.the1000best.com

it can work wonders to promote your business.

Grant Soosalu

I’m the creator and developer of http://www.the1000best.com. I wanted to create something positive that would add value to people’s lives. I also wanted to create a new way of gifting. I have a background in IT, in Psychology and Positive Psychology and in Writing and Training. So I put it all together and came up with the concept of http://the1000best.com.

by: Chris Swope

Every internet marketer has either heard about or tried email marketing over their career. Remember years ago when people started buying all these lists of email addresses, and there was even software designed to send, or “blast” these emails to this list in the hopes of getting your message out to your intended audience? Spam was not a problem yet, and the floodgates were open.

These days, the internet marketing world has definitely changed, people hate spam more than ever (me too!), but the fact is that email marketing is still a viable marketing strategy in 2010. What does that mean in layman’s terms? People still are making profit by sending out emails to lists of email addresses.

For those of you who are new to internet marketing, the idea is simple. You obtain a targeted list of people you want to market your product, opportunity, or service to. You then write an attention grabbing subject line, your reader opens the email, reads the body, and then is compelled to take some sort of action based on some directions given in the body, typically using a link to a website.

I could probably write 10 articles all revolving around email marketing, but this one is going to strictly focus on one question – “What is the best day to send email advertisements?”

Some people will say that the best day to send is whatever works best for your schedule. Whatever fits into your Daily Method of Operation. I beg to differ. Studies have been done to show that more people make income, or sales, from emails that are sent out on Fridays. My opinion is that the reason for that is that ‘most’ people are paid on Friday’s, and are in the ‘weekend’ mood and are willing to part with their cash on Fridays more than any other day of the week.

As an internet marketer, your obvious goal is to make sales. Make money. But not everyone involved in email advertising has the goal of making money directly from an email. Their goal with the email is to get someone to a website, getting them into your sales funnel, so that eventually, at the right time, you can make a sale. So the question then becomes “What is the best day to send email advertisements – IF you want to concentrate on Clicks?”

Statistically, Monday and Thursday are the best day for clicks. You get into the office Monday, and your inbox is full of emails sent since Friday and you are fresh and ready to go for your week. You’re mind is concentrated on work, your job or career, and if the headline and message are right, more people will click on the link to your landing page on Mondays.

Regarding Thursdays – my theory here is that lots of people are TOO busy Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday with their job responsibilities to even look at an email from you, and Thursday is when they finally get around to it.

Bottom Line: Send out your emails on Monday’s and Thursdays if you want the best statistical chance for having the link to your landing page clicked in from your email marketing efforts.
After reading Chris’s Email Marketing article, thousands of internet entrepreneurs have achieved massive success in their home business by visiting Chris Swope’s website http://JoinChrisandJen.com website and checking out all the information and videos there.

The author invites you to visit: http://internetwealthstrategy.com

by: Peter Lawless

Good sales people are naturals. They just get on with the job, their customers love them and they keep bringing home the bacon. But what is it that they are doing right? Do you know? Can you pass on those lessons to other members in the team? If you can get the whole sales team to consistently follow best practices, your sales revenue will increase dramatically.

Why bother with a sales process?

By having a good sales process, A process is defined as: “A series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result” you will be able to ensure that all of your team can repeat best practices to ensure success. You will also have a record of what went wrong with those sales or leads you failed to win. By analyzing how you lost, you will learn how to avoid mistakes in the future.

What is a sales process?

A process is defined as: “A series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result”. That result should be a successful sale, done in the shortest possible time, with minimum discount. Upon becoming a customer, that company or person, should become a reference, create a testimonial and refer business to you. Understanding the set of actions that led to that sale, documenting them and ensuring your team follows them, is creating a sales process.

How do you get a sales process right for your business?

Assuming you understand how to track all steps leading up to a sale for a given product and customer group is the first step. You then need to do this for all of your products and customer target markets. Now examine the commonalities within those processes and clearly document them.

Sometimes it is good to base your process on a proven template. However it is important to remember that you know your products best. The key elements you need to incorporate are as follows.

Who is your target market?

What problems does your product solve of needs and desires does it fulfill?

How do customers generally put a value on these capabilities?

Who is the final decision maker within your potential customers?

Who are the influencers of a buying decision within your customers?

How do customers evaluate your products?

Does your customer have a budget in place?

Who is your competition, how do you deal with them?

Now ensure that the steps in your process cover all of these elements and others particular to your product and industry. This way, you can ensure that you are continually getting the right message to the right people.

What are the benefits of automating a sales process?

How often have you contacted a company to get information, only to wonder why you had heard nothing a week later? If you did get an information pack from them, did they follow it up with a phone call? When your sales people meet with a prospect, do they always set up the next appointment before leaving? Do they always summarize the points discussed in a meeting with a follow-up email or letter? By implementing technology that prompts your people to always to the right things, little is left to chance. What is more, the business owners are able to forecast sales, which keep production and your bank manager happy.

How do you get sales people to use the process?

The one common trait that all successful sales people seem to share is that they seem to hate and are particularly bad about paperwork, but who cares anyway? You care and so do your customers. If you have pre-sales support staff, how do the sales people get to use them? If they can only book them based on sales that have reached an appropriate stage in the cycle, they have to keep up to date. If sales people find it easier to prepare a proposal and mange their time, based on a system that you give them, they will use it.

However the most important factor of all, in getting sales people buy-in to any new process or system, is to ask them to help you design it. If they feel they have created a process that makes their life easier, and enables them to earn more money – they will use it. And you all win.

How to implement a sales process!

Either follow the steps outlined above or call in someone who can help you. What you do not want to do is to go straight to a vendor who offers an automated system. You need to ensure that if you do go down the technology route, you choose the correct solution. Remember, you know your business best, so work with someone who understands that and who will help you implements something that works for you.

This article was written by Peter Lawless, founder of 3R Sales and Marketing – http://www.3r.ie. For previous articles like this, visit 3R’s Articles. Alternatively, subscribe to Success our free monthly Information Bulletin with sales and marketing articles.

by: Hiral Vyas

It may be difficult to sell your products using pyramid scheme because it requires every team member doing an equal share of the work to bring in a profit for the entire company. Each team member have to make and craving the sell as many of the products as they can as quickly as possible and try to maintain a consistent number of sales each month. Finding sales personal who are willing to take the time and effort to work for a company that uses a networking market to sell their items can be difficult, as many may give up after the first few weeks. An employee of this type of business must be highly self motivated, and have the ability to want to sell the product to numerous people quickly.

It may be a long time to find recruits to help your business to sell as many products needed to establish and maintain financial management without losing on a consistent basis. One idea that you may not have conceived is to hand away marketing network software to not only your prospective recruits but also to prospective clients as well. With the network marketing software, your customers will be able to go home, insert a CD into their hard drive and search on the types of products and services offered by the company. This can reduce the time needed to train each employee, as most of their questions about the products and services will be answered on the software. They will be able to decide if this is the type of job they can really devote their time, which reduces the time you have to spend sorting through hundreds of prospective applications of employees who are not qualified or do not have the motivation and drive to work in this career.

The implementation of network software for potential customers may also be very beneficial. They can find information on products, uses and benefits to their fingers tips, before contacting your company regarding the purchase of your products and services. This can significantly reduce the number of frequently asked questions that potential customers may have. It is very important that you make manually available to potential customers. Do not assume that the software will answer all their questions. It can help increase your sales if your customers think you’re available to answer your questions about your products and policies to your products, when they may occur. Their understanding of how the company and the product may cause others to say about how wonderful your company was helpful and that can lead to other potential recruits and customers.

Having a business that is accessible and respectable, boost your sales and your reputation of a company in your area. Find employees who are beneficial for the sale of your products, so they are motivated and help ensure a good business in your community or online sales.

To know more about Network Marketing Software and Network Marketing visit, http://www.yeah.co.in/dev/index.php

Hiral Vyas write articles for Network Marketing Software Development Company. To know more about Network Marketing Software or MultiLevel Marketing software and Network Marketing visit http://www.yeah.co.in/dev/index.php

by: Silas Reed

Finding $100,000 careers these days is not at all difficult if you can think out of the box and on your feet as there are plenty opportunities available. From sales and marketing to even truck driving can make you earn in that category, but there are also other avenues where you can put to use your skills to make that amount of money. Nowadays, there are several web opportunities that can throw open possibilities for huge income if you are looking for 100K employment.

High costs require high incomes

Employment is 100K category is much sought after these days as the cost of living and median home prices coast to coast have gone up tremendously in the last decade. Even after the economic meltdown, there has been a surge in price rise where the prices of many essential commodities as well as power bills are seeing an unprecedented high. But the basic requirement for a sales job can be a MBA from a graduate college.

Again, there are several other options in sales and marketing these days with more opportunities available for the right candidate. You can sell a host of products for companies and even do online jobs that are also regarded as part of $100,000 careers.

Finding $100,000 employment is not very difficult as these are real time jobs and can be very rewarding as well. If you can show that you can make a difference to the company by ratcheting up their sales turnovers, the company won’t mind paying you that amount of money.

Working as a lawyer in a law firm can be equally rewarding even though you have to speed read several documents every day. Your skill at the law courts and also at disseminating classified information, looking through legal nettles that can solve critical cases would guarantee your 100K employment. 100K careers are easy to find these days and if you are qualified and have the necessary experience, you can earn even more.

Demanding jobs

$100,000 careers also require a high degree of conformity as well and any failure to deliver in time could spoil your chances of keeping the job. As companies pay you more money, they demand a lot more as services.

You would be expected to at times exceed their expectations and keep up the tempo all through your employment as the money is good. There are several types of jobs at offices where you can earn similar or even more money these days.

If you are interested in slogging hard and even keeping awake at nights as you hit the long hard road, your best bet would be to be a truck driver. Many people also fail in trucking as they can’t always face up to the pressure. But if you are diligent and want to make real good money the hard and exciting way, trucking could one of the options for employment in 100K.
Silas Reed, Writer for http://www.100Kcrossing.com 100KCrossing, writes articles that inform and teach about different 100K job profiles. Please visit http://www.100Kcrossing.com http://www.100Kcrossing.com and sign up for a FREE trial to gain access to ALL of the many exclusive job listings we offer in the 100K profession.

The author invites you to visit: http://www.100kcrossing.com

by: Janice Jenkins

I have been advised by marketing gurus a lot of times and often I would hear this advice: “Be different”. The advice is always geared at being able to catch the attention of prospective clients. The idea is a basic one – one that will get the attention of customers or clients in a crowded marketplace. Your products or services must stand out in some way. The idea is to make prospectors distinguish your product or service from the competition.

There is no doubt that this is a sound advice because it will make you or your products and services stand out. But how different should you be?

A business executive once related to me his experience with this advice. This executive noticed that there were no brochure printing ads for their product. “What an interesting opportunity,” he thought, “to make my business stand out to prospective clients.” He spent over $500 on brochures but the result was not a single phone call.

What he had neglected to ask his marketing guys is how they distributed the brochures. It turns out that his marketing guys wanted to be so unique that they inserted the print brochures in a magazine that no one among his target market is reading.

Sometimes you can be too unique for your own good. There is a lot in sales and marketing that is tried and true. If you decide to forge a completely new trail, you may be attempting an experiment that many others in your field have already tried with no success.

It is not always just your marketing techniques that are a little too different. The same problem can afflict the product or service you are marketing.

Being noticeably different from the competition can help you attract customers and close sales. But overdoing it without proper research may not be advantageous at all. In the example above, your target market should have been carefully considered. Before embarking on a ‘unique’ distribution strategy, it would have been necessary to understand how this particular market segment behaved. A simple study would have revealed that this market segment did not read or purchase the magazine that would have delivered the brochures.

Creating the perception that your product or service is one of a kind can help you capture people’s attention and make them remember you. But you have to be able to identify the people you want to reach out to, and communicate how you can be of service in words they can understand.

Definitely look for a unique way to express the benefits you offer to your clients; but make sure it still communicates what you actually do. It is okay to get creative with your marketing; but do not bet the rent money on untried techniques.

If you really want to make your marketing more effective, cheaper and less stressful, stop re-inventing the wheel. Find models that work and replicate them. I am not suggesting that you plagiarize your competitors’ marketing copy, but when you see someone successful in your field, find out what they are doing right, and follow their lead.

Do not let your business be a victim of “terminal uniqueness” — the belief that you are so different from anyone else that none of the rules apply to you. Being distinctive is good; being eccentric can be unwise.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit: http://www.printplace.com/printing/brochure-printing.aspx
Janice Jenkins is a writer for a marketing company in Chicago, IL. Mostly into marketing research, Janice started writing articles early 2007 to impart her knowledge to individuals new to the marketing industry.

The author invites you to visit: http://www.printplace.com