Free Marketing Tips & Ideas from Start Marketing, Calgary, Alberta

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START Marketing provides regular marketing columns to CBC Radio One - to listen click here and click onto columns by Jacqueline Drew. The following are some of the recent columns, in text form.

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Most people hate making cold calls – so why on earth should you do it? Because it's bar none the best way to market your business to other businesses. To do it right, you should first ask yourself, what kinds of companies do I want as clients, and make yourself a hit list. Then do some homework on them – as a minimum, check their web site, and make point-form notes about what you found. Then plan out questions you're going to ask when you call. When you get through to the right person, tell them why you initially thought of their firm, and tell them right away, what you ALREADY know about them. Showing you've done your homework will give you immediate credibility. With your questions ready, you can open up a good two-way conversation. And you'll soon find that they'll start asking you questions about your business. Once they do, presto- you can suggest a meeting.

Does your company fax off quotations? Think about this – if you send off a price, your customer is going to judge you on just one thing – the price. What the customer really needs to know is – why should they buy from you? In other words, make your quotations into proposals – even if they're just 1 – 2 pages. Include a quick history on your company, similar jobs you've done, and differences in quality you can offer. When presenting the price, assign dollar values to things like upfront job design, product guarantees, or after sales service even if you don't usually charge for them. Then, bring the price down after you show the total value. If you were the customer, would you rather buy from the company who quoted $500, or from the very professional company who was willing to give you the goods for $600 when they're really worth $1000?

Ever wasted money on direct mail? Most companies have. Printing companies encourage you to print in great volumes, and most companies think they should also mail in great volumes. There's two tricks to this – first, only print in your brochure the things what won't change about your company. Its basic history, a broad overview of services, and its philosophy. And make sure you go to a professional designer – for a few hundred dollars it makes a huge difference in the overall quality. If it's new brochure or flyer concept, go to a digital printing company and only get about twenty to test them out. They'll look almost as good as offset printing if you have them professionally designed. No doubt you'll find changes that you want to make as soon as you've handed out your first batch. After that, print offset if you really want more, but only mail what you can follow up within a week. Mail, follow-up, mail-follow-up. Never just mail. Then think about how many brochures you really need

Ever wondered how to price more strategically? If you can, give the customer both cheaper and more expensive options to choose from, and explain the differences in a non-judgmental way. You should also add up the dollar value of extra services you're including – that will enhance the overall value you present. And make sure you develop policies for discounting your price to customers. Think about not only volume discounts, but off-season discounts, or discounts for strategic new kinds of clients. That way, your sales team will be able to follow clear guidelines. If still find you're getting beaten up by customers on price, it could be because you're simply not marketing enough – fewer clients to choose from may be making you more desperate to get the sale. But if you set clear price policies, offer a logical price for the quality, and continue marketing well, pricing won't hold you back.

How should you get rid of unwanted clients? The wrong thing to do is gradually offer them less service, which will only hurt your reputation. Even worse, you might allow bad customers to suck away your enthusiasm for even being in business. One good option is to raise their prices to account for the amount of time they consume. If they don't go walk away, you at least won't mind serving them as much. Another idea is to substitute yourself for another employee – try a junior person for a less lucrative client, or another senior person if it's a personality clash with a bigger account. A final option is to sell off a portion of your business, or client list, to a supplier or competitor. They may be pleased to get it, and it could be a great win/win scenario. Then, relish the time you've saved by unloading the unwanted business, and invest it into getting the kinds of clients you really want.

Is voicemail blocking you from potential customers? When selling, most people handle voice mail in one of 3 terrible ways: They hang up, they lie about why they're calling, or they're just plain vague. The right way to handle voicemail is to be totally honest. If you've done your homework on the prospect , you can give good reasons why you're calling, along with the standard name and phone number. Then offer to CALL BACK AGAIN, and say when you will. Ask the receptionist when a good time to reach them is – to improve your chances. Try back – 2 or 3 times over 1 – 2 days at different times, still offering to try back. That way, they'll remember you, but still not feel pestered to return your call. If you still can't make live contact, say you'll send some information. By then they'll know you at least a little, and pay attention to what you send. Leave a polite reminder voicemail every 1 – 2 months, and one day they'll call you.

What's your sales process? Almost every company eventually hires a salesperson, but few ever DEFINE a sales process for that person to follow. Steps of that process could include researching the lead, phoning, sending information, or a host of other things, but goals should be clearly defined for each step. For example, if step 3 is an initial meeting – what information are they expected to get from that meeting? What tools such as brochures and presentations are they expected to use? And at what stage should out-of-town travel, heavy-hitting managers, or speculative proposals be used? It's also good to estimate a timeline for the whole process. That way, when you or your sales person makes a sales forecast, you can ask “what step is this prospect at?” and get a much more realistic picture. A good process will not only improve your selling efficiency, but motivate the sales staff, and make a far better impression on the prospects.