I was working with the sales person recently at a car dealership and he seemed very
professional and knowledgeable at the time.  In fact, I did buy a vehicle from him that
day.  We spoke about lots of things as I was waiting for paperwork and such to be finalized.
It turns out we even knew some people in common.

Well, let me tell you what happened from there. Before I left he said he would call me
in a few days to clear up a few things and check in with me.  I had such a positive
experience so I told him that I was going to write a card to the CEO of the car dealership
about my experience and how he was such an asset to the organization.

So I go home that day and write a card just like I said I was going to.  I also sent him a
thank you card with a $10 dollar gift certificate for Starbucks coffee because in our
conversations he said he liked coffee.

Before I bore you to death, let me just explain what happened in the past few days
and weeks after the sale that will make sure he will never have a repeat customer again.

A few days go by after my car purchase and no call.  A few more weeks go by and
still no call. In fact, he was suppose to call when my new license plates come in.
A month goes by and still no call.  To make things worse, my temporary license
plate tag had expired.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands.  I stopped by the dealership to
ask if my tags were in.  They were of course but I never got a call.  The sales manager
who was at the front who helped me find out if my tags were in said “Didn’t your
salesperson call you about this?”  My response was NO.  Well he was clearly upset
about it and apologized for that.

So lets recap this transaction:

• I sent him a Thank You card with a $10 gift card

• I sent a card to the CEO of the dealership on his behalf, and in return he completely dropped the ball.

• I didn’t even get a thank you card from him.  After all, I bought the car from him, not the other way around.

This sales person sure did promise a lot and then completely deliver not a little,
but NOTHING.  I am sure that the CEO would love to know how many times this
is happening in his organization each day.

Repeat buyers of your products or services is literally the most profitable aspect
of any business.  If you make the sale, you need to cultivate that sale and turn that
sale into repeat business.

**You can check out another blog post that will show you exactly what I am talking about
Click Here to read that article.**

Make sure that if you do anything in your business that you under promise and
OVER DELIVER!  Make sure you value and appreciate your customers, clients,
and patients because without them, you won’t have a business very long! This is
exactly why I created my VAP Factor marketing and business model.

If you want to find out what the VAP Factor is and how it is the
“The Most Effective and Profitable Marketing Secret On The Planet”  you
can get your free copy by going to my website at www.AutomaticProfitSolutions.com

or simply click on the graphic below to take you there right now.

Want to know the fastest way to double your business income?
The proof is in the charts.

But consider what the significance would be if you were to increase each category
by only 10 percent?

The cumulative increase would be 46.4 percent! Not a bad increase in anyone’s book!

Think about your own business. How difficult would it be for you to increase the number
of customers you have by 10 percent? How about getting just 10 percent more from each
purchase?

And, with a little extra effort, do you think it would be difficult to get your customers… people
who are already doing business with you, who know you, like you, and trust you… to buy
more often or stay with you just 10 percent longer?

If you think about it, it probably wouldn’t take much to accomplish any of those goals.
But the resultant increase in income would be incredible.

Now take a look at your own business. In the table below, put in the number of current
customers (clients, patients, etc.) you have, how much they spend with you on average,
how many times they buy from you in a years’ time, and how long they do business with
you before they no longer need the products or services you sell, or they move to another
supplier or vendor.

Then, run some quick calculations on what would happen if you were to increase each of
the categories by whatever percentages you think would be realistic and doable for your
particular business in the current economy.

**Side Note:  If you don’t know all of those four things in your business, that is the first
indication that you are not maximizing your revenue and profit generating potential.
This needs to be fixed IMMEDIATELY.**

So I hope that you can see that if you just strive to increase a little bit each each of
these four areas that your income and revenues will skyrocket just with a few little tweaks.

Don’t make things more difficult than they really are.

Time and time again, you always hear terms like “my business is different” or “that won’t work for my business”.  I am talking about marketing your business, products, or services.  When you get right down to it, marketing does work if it is done correctly.

Here is a formula to use when marketing any business, service, or product.  It’s called the 3 P’s of Marketing.

P #1- Passion.  Whatever you are doing, what ever business you are running, whatever product or service you are selling, you better be passionate about it or else you are in big trouble. If you don’t love what you are doing, if you don’t believe in what you are selling it is very difficult to get others to buy into it too.  Whether you are training a staff member or directly selling to potential buyer, if you are not behind what you are doing, the results will be bleak.  Think to yourself why are you doing what you do?  If you are a business owner, go back to why you wanted to be a business owner in the first place?   What was the passion behind you starting your own business.  If you represent a product, you better be passionate about it or maybe you are selling the wrong thing.

P #2- Purpose.  Before you doing anything in your business, whether it be creating an advertisement, website, or marketing materials you first have to answer one major questions…”What is the purpose of ___________?”  If you are building a website for example, what is the purpose of your website?  Is it to give away information?  How about collect leads?  Is it to sell something?  Or is to have them pick up the phone and call you?  If you don’t have a purpose, it is difficult to create something.

It amazes me how often I speak to business owners and sales professionals about various marketing strategies and when I look at their materials, it is not very clear what you want them to do.  Websites are notoriously bad at this.  People say well I have a website.  That is great to have a website but what is your websites purpose?  Many times this question can not be answered.  Make sure that for all your advertising and marketing that you can answer this simple question.  Once you answer it, make sure your marketing piece clearly matches your purpose.

P #3- Profitability.  The reason for being in business is to make a profit.  Even non-profits need to make money (profits) so they can give those profits to their cause. If your company makes 1 million dollars in revenue but your operating costs are 1 million dollars, there is no profit.  Same for if your company makes 100 million dollars and your operating costs are 100 million dollars.

The same holds true for any of your marketing.  The purpose of marketing anything is to get a return on your investment.  If your marketing is not being profitable, it is not being effective.  There are many reasons this can happen that we won’t get into here but the bottom line is whatever you are doing in your marketing efforts it needs to be profitable for you in the long run.

So there is the 3 P marketing formula.  If you have all 3 of these, you will have a business that will be around for a long time.

Marketing your products and services is critical to your business growth and long term success.  Make sure that you are doing the right things in your marketing efforts to make that happen.

In case you haven’t noticed, I have not made a post in quite a while.  Well life sometimes throws you a change up that you will never be ready for.

As of this posting my Mom passed away a little over 2 weeks ago.  She was perfectly healthy until about 6 months ago when it was discovered that she had a tumor growing in her abdomen.  It turns out that it was a very rare and aggressive cancer, only several hundred people are diagnosed each year in the United States with this.

To make a fairly short story even shorter, she became very ill and I along with other family members were there by her side over the last month.

I spoke at her service and in that service I spoke about relationships because in the end, that is really all that you have.  And it reminded me that life is not much different in business either.

You see in business, the most overlooked opportunity that I see occuring daily is that people don’t build lasting relationships with the people that do business with them anymore.  Sure there are a few out there doing it and doing it well but they are the minority.  I am willing to say that over 90% are not doing it.  I know it happens to you to because it is happening to everyone.

All over the United States (and I am sure the world) you are becoming a victim of businesses that just seem to forget about you.  A place that you really like that never does anything to let you know how they appreciate you and that they want you to come back in again.  I know it happens because it happens to me on a regular basis and I know it happens to others too…guaranteed.  The business you are really in should be the relationship business with the people that do business with you!

When it comes down to life and business it’s about building relationships.  The only real difference is that the business relationship needs to be profitable for a business or company.  Marketing your products or services should be focused on building relationships with people that do business with you so they continue to do business with you.  This is the most profitable marketing strategy out there.  You don’t need a fancy degree or title to figure this stuff out.

Ask any business owner or company what they need more of and they almost always say more customers or more clients or patients.  The reality is, if they have been in business for any length chances are they do have enough but they just don’t realize how to make the ones they already have buy from them again and again.

Acquiring new “business” is very expensive and most businesses put a lot of money into advertising to attract those new people.  Then once they get someone to buy something, they completely move on to finding more people.

THAT IS A TERRIBLE MISTAKE!

What happened to the relationship there?  You cared enough about them to get them in but you don’t care enough about them to build a relationship that is profitable in the long term.  You can’t do that in today’s challenging and competitive business world.

During my Mom’s illness one thing that was clear was that she had built a wonderful relationship with people in her life.  The outpouring of support and visitors was evidence that she did something right in her life.

I tell you this story because like all stories there is a valuable lesson to be learned.  Although at the time, I was not thinking about business, after the fact, it was clear that you can make a strong case that with life and business you should focus on one thing and that is relationships.  When it comes to marketing your products and services, you should focus on one thing and that is building relationships.

In closing, I would like to say to my Mom that we had a great relationship and that you will be missed.  I love you.

Most businesses either don’t attract a sufficient number of new customers, new clients, new patients, or they let their existing ones slip away. And, in most cases, it isn’t always because the owners, managers or operators of those businesses didn’t try.

Quite often, it’s a result of not understanding and implementing effective “customer-getting” and “customer-keeping” strategies.  Well, it doesn’t matter what you call people that do business with you (customers, clients, patients, members)…

The bottom line is…

If you really want your business to see maximum profitability and growth, you’ve got to make keeping your customers, clients, or  patients your number one priority.

Let me put it another way. When was the last time you heard of a company going out of business because they had too many happy, satisfied customers buying from them? My guess is, never.

On the other hand, you can probably name quite a few businesses that are no longer around because they didn’t have enough people buying from them, coming back for more and referring others to them.

Sounds simple right?  Well it is, yet this is overlooked or seen as a secondary focus by many businessess and companies today. This is by far the easiest way to generate more sales and more profits!

Take a look at your business and company and ask yourself this “Am I doing everything possible to get my existing clients or customers to buy from me more often?”  If your answer is NO, then it is time to look at how you can take better care of those people!  Take care of them and they will never use another company or business again.

For more information please visit out website at www.AutomaticProfitSolutions.com