Selling Advertising? Who To See First

 Low Hanging fruit.
In every market there are people who are ready to buy. In advertising sales, these people buy advertising from almost anyone who sells it. They buy because;
1) They know how to make it work, and the more avenues in advertising, the better (this is rare).
2) They like advertising for ego reasons, or have a huge budget, and just want to spend the money.
3) They sell something with a high enough profit margin that almost any ads will generate a profit.

Whatever their motivation, these people buy lots of advertising. The easiest way to find them is simply to look at ads in the local newspaper, direct mail magazine or envelope, and the Yellow Pages. You may as well start your sales career off with a bang. See these people first.

But you need to know this; Just because they spend money on advertising, doesn’t mean they know how to advertise. Most companies don’t track their ad results. They don’t really know which ad is working and which ad is not. After you ask them “Is this ad working for you?” in reference to an ad they are already running...ask “How do you know?”. The answer to that question will tell you whether they really know if it’s working or not.

If they are compulsive advertising buyers, my advice is to accept the business, try to give them information and suggestions to make the ad better, and let it go.

What if they won’t kiss on the first date? (Did that get your attention?)
Everyone buys at their own speed. Different people make decisions at different speeds.
There is a sales process time line. You want your client closer to the end of the process before you sell the advertising. You want to keep communication going between you. This can be done with mail, E-Mail, drive to website, recorded message, or touching base by phone.
Even if they bought the first day, the sales process continues. You are in the relationship business...the results business. The first sale you make supports the second sale...which supports the third sale. That’s why selling gets easier with the same client.

Want to know more? Go to;
Claude Whitacre Speaker And Author

If you are brand new to selling advertising (Or anything else

A quick tip; Go with an experienced rep for a few days. Just ride along. Don’t talk when they are in front of a prospect. This benefits you both. You will see that cold calling is easy, and that nothing bad happens when you do it. Or you will see that you simply hate it, and would rather go to the dentist than talk to a new prospect. Either way, you’ll be ahead. It benefits the person you are going with, in that they are now forced to work. It’s amazing how much you will accomplish when someone is watching....even when that someone is a new rep.

Good News & Bad News.
First the bad news. Your prospect is getting phone calls from telemarketers several times a day. When I’m in the store, I get between 15 and 30 calls a day from reps of every sort. Most are either selling internet Yellow Pages advertising or wanting to change my long distance, credit card processing,  or utilities. Two or three times a day, a rep comes through the door selling something. This happens every day to everyone you want to talk to.

These callers and visitors all have something in common. I don’t want to talk to them.
None of them give me an immediate reason to stop doing what I’m doing and listen to them.
None of them make me glad to see them.

I haven’t scared you away from cold calling? Good. Just don’t do it the way they do it.
There’s a better way.

How can you make the prospect glad to see you?
Give them something they want, or tell them something they want to hear.

Here’s a cold calling phone script that will get you in the door more times than not.
“I saw your ad in the (Yellow Pages/newspaper/direct mail piece/etc.). It’s a pretty good ad, and I work with local businesses to improve their advertising and reduce their costs. I think I can improve your ad results. I can show you what I mean in just a few minutes. Are you going to be in tomorrow at 3:00?” I used to use that script when I first started helping people write ads (I don’t do it anymore). It really got phenomenal results.

Look at that again. You gave two benefits (improve ad & reduce costs), appealed to his vanity (It’s a good ad). You need to say “Show you what I mean” ...not “tell you”. If you say “tell you” the prospect will simply say “Tell me now”.
What helps is that you are talking about a display ad. You really have to show him, not tell him.

The power of gifting.
Reciprocity is a powerful force. If you do someone a favor, or give them a gift, it’s very hard for most people not to return the favor. For example, in my retail store I give free service on minor repairs. I will install a belt on a customer’s vacuum cleaner..and not charge for it. Why? Because I’ve tested the results, and found that for every dollar I spend in “free belts”, I get back $60 in new vacuum cleaner sales. Some people just can’t stand it when they don’t return a favor. It eats at them. So they come back and buy from you...or buy before they leave.

When I was selling in people’s homes I made it a policy that, if they sold a small item...or their kids were selling something for school, I would buy it...maybe multiples. My selling average skyrocketed in those cases. In fact, I don’t remember a single case where they didn’t buy from me after I bought from them.

So what’s a good free gift when you are selling advertising? A fruit basket, a box of donuts, a book on advertising (Hint Hint), articles about what other businesses are doing to increase business, free tickets to a seminar, anything that would be considered a gift. Don’t give gifts for buying advertising. That’s a mistake, and could even be illegal. But delivering a small gift when you meet someone? Smart. And you’ll be the only rep who did.

The Grapefruit Story;
When we first opened our store, we had a nice lady bring in a giant grapefruit. It was huge. She said that she was an attorney, and had extra grapefruit. She handed us one (with her card) and left. A year later she did the same thing...and the next year. On the third year, we called her to rewrite our will. We wouldn’t have considered anyone else. By now, she was a friend. We have given her thousands of dollars and she has given us seven grapefruit. And we couldn’t be happier.

Does this mean I’m suggesting you have to wait years to ask someone to buy? Of course not. She could have started the conversation of what she could do for us on the first visit...with the first grapefruit. But we didn’t need a lawyer then. But everyone needs a lawyer eventually.....and we wouldn’t have dared use anyone else. I really like grapefruit.
You have a huge advantage over the lawyer. Everyone you talk to needs what you have...now.

To get more, read my book Selling Local Advertising. Here...

The Real Reason Ad Reps Fail.

The first time I spoke to a group of ad reps, I learned a very valuable lesson.
I joined a group of reps for breakfast at the hotel. It was the wrong table. It was the bitching table.
For about half an hour, I got to hear how the company was doing everything wrong. Everything was either the company’s fault...or the customer’s fault. Oh Joy.
One guy said  “Customers don’t get this business. I was talking to an advertiser the other day, and he told me that the ad wasn’t making him any money. I told him that my job is to get the customer to his door. What happens after that is his business”. Then he looked at me and said “Right?”
I said “No. You can sell that way...but what if you designed an ad that actually made people want to buy his product? He would stay a client-for-life. You just need to see it from his point of view.”
He looked at me like was from Mars, and said “I don’t know what the hell you are talking about”...and he walked away. After the seminar, we shook hands...he wasn’t a bad guy.

Unfortunately, this guy was stuck in the “We sell ad space” rut. If you think that way, your career will be filled with cold calling, convincing people against their will, competition stealing your clients, and being perceived as a pest.. Selling will be exhausting.

This is why reps fail; Not seeing the advertising from the client’s point of view...not concentrating on helping the client sell more of his product or service. This “Us VS Them” attitude is still pervasive in all types of sales. It is perpetuated by people that don’t know how to sell.
Your client’s success is your success.
It’s still common for ad reps to do one-shot-selling. They show up at a business. Give a short presentation, and leave. The business owner either bought...or they didn’t. This actually has merit if you have an unlimited number of prospects, or if you are selling a special project and won’t be in the area long.  But it isn’t much fun.

What is your responsibility?
To make the prospect want to do business with you....and want to continue to do business with you.

You can find out more in my new book.  Selling Local Advertising

http://www.amazon.com/Selling-Local-Advertising-Insider-Secrets/dp/1481862596/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360180517&sr=1-3&keywords=claude+whitacre

Image Ads VS Response Ads.

Ad reps love image ads. Image ads are the ones you see in national magazines that build Brand Awareness. Their purpose is to make the consumer feel better when they think of the brand name. Examples are ; “Have it your way” by Burger King, Prudential Insurance’s “Own a piece of the rock” , Chevrolet’s “Like a rock”, and Motel 6's “We’ll leave the light on for ya”.
(Thanks to Selling Air by Bob Diamond for the examples)
Brand awareness ads work.
These ads pre-condition the consumer to more easily accept local ads that actually sell the products.
Image ads sell the company name. Response ads sell the product. Which would you rather sell, if you were the client?
Ad reps love this type of ad for a reason: The sales can’t be tracked...because the ads create no sales. So the advertiser continues to buy the ads...without expecting an immediate result. Also ad reps (and ad agencies) get to concentrate on being creative rather than producing sales results. Frankly, this type of ad is just more fun for the ad agency.
National companies, with dealer networks, like this.
The dealers in their network then advertise with response ads locally, and the image ads help the response ads work better.
The problem is that occasionally, you’ll met a business owner that thinks that brand awareness ads are what local advertising is. So they run these ads, get no sales, and then blame...you.

Response ads are where the prospect responds to the ads by coming into the store, calling on the phone, or going online (depending on what the ad directs them to do). Generally, the purpose of the ad is to cause the reader/listener to come in the client’s store/business and buy.
These ads create sales. The results can be measured. Here’s another difference; Image ads don’t generate sales, but response ads will generate a positive brand image almost as well as the image ads themselves....and at the same time, pay for themselves and produce a profit for the client.
All infomercials are response ads. All QVC or Home Shopping Network ads are response ads.
Almost all of your clients will be local. Almost all of your clients will be dealers looking for sales.
Response ads that also create the desired image...are where the money is...for the client.

Selling Advertising VS The Business Of Advertising

I have a vast library of books on advertising, selling, and marketing. Almost every book on “how to sell advertising” so far is missing one key point; It’s far easier to sell advertising when you have a clientele of satisfied advertisers that are bragging about how well their ads are working. If you sell an ad...and it generates $3 for every $1 in ad cost...how hard will it be to sell that second ad? Not hard at all. And this book will show you ways to sell that first ad.

You will not need to learn the business of every client you have. Fortunately, advertising principles are pretty universal. At the back of this book, I have listed recommended reading. For under $100 at www.amazon.com you can have a small but concentrated library on advertising.

Business owners tend to advertise in several media., or they don’t advertise at all. So you are likely to have several other reps competing for the client’s business. This is to your advantage.
Since most ads are easy to find, you simply go to the business owner that is advertising with someone else, and they are very likely to buy your offer too. Business owners that are currently using any advertising are infinitely more likely to buy your media too...at least a trial run.
They don’t need to be sold on the idea of advertising. Eighty percent of the work is already done for you.....by the other rep. Of course, we’ll also cover selling ads to the prospect that never advertises.

If you take the time to work with the advertiser...building ads that produce results...helping them improve ads that fail....and sharing with them what works with other ads you’ve produced....I promise you this; You will be the only one. No other rep is taking this route. All of them are selling advertising as if it were a commodity. Eventually the advertiser may cut ads out of their budget. Who are they going to keep? You. No businessperson drops an ad that generates $2 for every $1 invested in the ad.

The odds are very strong that your prospect has never read a single book on advertising, and is basing his advertising decisions on what other reps have told him, what his brother-in-law told him, and what he has seen in the movies. Most ad reps also never read a single book on advertising.  Would you trust the advice of a doctor that never read a single medical book?

Between you and the client, don’t you think that at least one of you should have an idea of how to make his ads pay?
When you meet a prospect, you have zero control over what he knows or believes (big difference between knowing and believing) about advertising. You have 100% control over what you know about advertising and how you can help the client make his ads pay.

You can get my book on advertising at  http://www.amazon.com/Advantage-Advertising-Subtitled-Newspaper-business/dp/1570877270/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360180517&sr=1-4&keywords=claude+whitacre

Video Advertising Essentials

What are the changes in advertising, the way people buy, and what you can do about it.
Right now, there are adults that have never used the print Yellow Pages, and never will. There are adults that have never read a newspaper, and never will. The numbers of these people are growing. Soon that number will be 100%.
Do you have a print ad out right now? Do you know what 67% of the people, that used to just walk in your store, are doing? They are looking up the brand name, model number, and price on the internet...probably on Amazon.com. They are looking for more information before they buy. And if you have a higher price than the lowest price online..your ad just sold a vacuum cleaner for an online competitor. Happy New Year.
Ignoring these facts won’t change reality. Downtowns are full of vacant stores where the retailers thought "This too shall pass".
So what can you do?
Sell models they can’t find online, at any price. If you won’t do that, at least package your offers so they are more difficult to shop. Parts of your offer may be a commodity, but as a whole it won’t be. And give your offer a name. When shoppers look it up online, you will be the only one offering that package.
Have a website? Does it show up on the first page of a local Google search? It better. Is your website Mobile Ready? Millions of searches are done with phones today. Your website better convert, or it’s like you don’t have a website at all.
With a mobile search, maybe 3 listings show up on the first page. With a laptop, ten search listings show up. Make sure they are your listings.
Google recently changed how they rank websites, directory listings, and articles. Heartache for some. Opportunity of the well informed.
What is the one solid unchanging, dependable method of online marketing that is unaffected by these radical changes?
Video. Especially Youtube videos.
Why? Because Google now places a huge preference on "Authority websites". What is an Authority Website? A website that is for an entire industry, or has thousands of pages of content that people can access through a menu or index.
Wikipedia is such a website. So is Amazon, Yelp, Manta, and Youtube. Google loves Youtube because Google owns Youtube.
Youtube has two huge advantages; A video becomes an entire page of content you are not sharing with anyone else, and Google prefers videos when they rank listings.
What’s that you say? "Claude, I have a video, and nobody ever sees it". That’s because you have to market your video. You have to make Google love our video, by showing Google that your video is popular, relevant, and completely matches the search phrase typed into Google.
Fun Facts About Youtube Videos;

Individual videos can be promoted, linked to, and can link to other videos.
If you comment on other video that are highly ranked, it creates a higher rank for your videos.
If you post your video more than once on Youtube, they will delete the second video. Do it more than twice, and the bar you IP address from Youtube (IP address basically means anything from your computer)
The more people watch your entire video, the better it ranks in Google.
Links from websites to your videos help. But links from your video to your website has no SEO value.
Google only allows two videos on each page of search results If you do any kind of search for vacuum cleaners in the United States....my videos show up, or videos I created for my clients in the vacuum cleaner business. Why do they show up? Because I now do 137 separate steps to ensure that they show up.
These videos are designed to bring buyers into your store or to the phone to call you.
At the VDTA I’m conducting a three hour workshop behind closed doors. I’m going to reveal the complete method I use to get videos ranked at the top of Google searches. Every question asked will be answered. No stone will be unturned. You will see the best kind of videos to post online. You will see where to post them for maximum results. You get linking strategies to make your video listings bulletproof. I’ll teach you how to use other people’s videos to market your videos. And you will see how to write titles, descriptions, and tags to literally force Google to rank your video at the top of the local Google searches.

New vacuum cleaner websites that I recommend

Here are three vacuum cleaner website that I recommend. If you want to save money on vacuum cleaner bags, belts, parts, or supplies...these are the guys. Buying vacuum cleaner parts online is faster than it has ever been. These websites are new, but the vacuum cleaner brick and mortar store that is backing these websites has been around for over 25 years.
You can find the best prices on Kirby brand vacuum cleaner bags and parts at;
http://www.kirbyvacuumcleanerbagsparts.com

You can get Rainbow vacuum cleaner fragrances, parts, and deodorizers at;
http://www.rainbowvacuumcleanersupplies.com

And if you own a Tri-Star vacuum cleaner, you can get your Tri-Star vacuum cleaner bags and filters at;
http://www.tristarvacuumcleanerbags.com  I hope you save some money here.

New Home Inspection Clients

Guys; I'm happy to announce that I have several new Local Profit Geyser Clients. Here are two Home inspection service websites that home inspectors had me build.
This home inspector is in Portsmouth New Hampshire.

http://www.homeinspectionportsmouth.com/
http://www.homeinspectionyorkmaine.com/

Also, I have a home inspector in Atlanta Georgia ; http://www.home-inspection-atlanta.com/
or http://www.home-inspection-athens.com/  These home inspectors also offer mold inspections, radon testing, and commercial building inspections.

Additional websites to post your articles on

www.bestsmallbusinessreviews.com
www.main-street-shopping-guides-and-articles.com
www.main-street-business-profiles-and-reviews.com
www.mainstreetreviewsandarticles.com
www.bestlocalbusinessreviewsandarticles.com
www.onlin-buyers-guides-to-local-businesses.com
www.local-shopping-guides-reviews-and-articles.com
www.best-buyer-guides-for-local-consumers.com
www.localbusinessarticlesandreviews.com
www.localprofitgeyserarticles.com

These article sites are to be used by small business owners to promote their small business to local consumers or other local small businesses. Se you soon. Claude

New Article Submission Websites.

Hello;

Do you have a new local business you want to promote? Here are several article websites that I just built that you can post your information on to promote your local business.No Multi-Level Marketing businesses. No internet businesses. These must be local businesses that sell to local
consumers or other local businesses..

www.smallbusinessprofilesandreviews.com

www.mainstreetshoppingguidesandreviews.com

www.smallbusinessbuyersguidesandarticles.com

Local Profit Geyser New Clients

I just added a few new clients to my Local Profit Geyser business. You can see the results of promotiong Jeff Dettmer at Berea Printing at http://www.printingclevelandohio.com/ My new website is at http://www.vacuumcleanersclevelandohio.net/

Enjoy, Claude

Vcuum cleaner websites for my core business. Examples of how to do it.

Hi; I have built a service called Local Profit Geyser. Using this servixce, I have created websites that are magnets for local search traffic.

On the page beneath the front page, there are articles listed that I wrote. These are on nich subjects like pet hair problems, needing a lightweight vacuum cleaner, and allergy sufferers.

Enjoy.

The allergy site for people with allergies is;
http://allergieshepavacuumcleaner.info/articlelist.php?totalcount=29&name=allergy%20vacuum%20cleaner%20articles

The site for peole neding a lightweight vacuum cleaner is;
http://lightweightvacuumcleaner.info/articlelist.php?totalcount=29&name=RSL3,4,5%20reviews%20spun

The site for people that have pet hair problems is;
http://pethairvacuumcleaner.info/articlelist.php?totalcount=49&name=pet%20hair%20article%20with%20Youtube%20link%20%2010%2010%2010

These website generae trafffic to my store of buyers. Not browsers, buyers.
Go to http://www.claudewhitacre.com to learn more.

Claude

Advertising locally Online; Examples.

I have jut put up seven website that are designed to funnel local prospects o my store. All have very targeted titlee tags, and descriptions. Some have articles with links to the other sites, some do not. Anyway, check them out.

http://www.vacuumcleanersakronohio.com/ for Akron Ohio residents.
http://www.vacuumcleanerscantonohio.com/ for CAnton Ohio residents.
http://www.vacuumcleanersclevelandohio.com/ for Cleveland Ohio residents.
http://www.vacuumcleanersmedinaohio.com/ for Medina Ohio residents.

I also have websites for people with special vacuum cleaner needs;

http://www.pethairvacuumcleaner.info/ for people with pets that shed.
http://www.allergieshepavacuumcleaner.info/ for people with allergies.
and http://www.lightweightvacuumcleaner.info/ for people that need a lightweight vacuum cleaner.

They all host videos, you may want to check them out. Claude

Online Local Marketing. The Single Biggest Key

If you own a local retail store, service business, or professional office, this is the main reason your local online marketing is failing. This is also the most powerful way to make your local marketing pay. Let’s find out how.
"I found your store online" is something we hear at our retail store almost every day. A year ago, we didn’t hear it at all. What happened? We became easy to find.
Have you ever advertised in the Local Yellow Page Directory? Advertising in the Yellow Pages used to be far more productive for most businesses. For most towns, there is just one print Yellow Pages. So advertising in it alone would get your business in front of most customers. But now, 67% or more Yellow Page searches are online. There are eleven different online Yellow Pages. Thee are now over two hundred local online search directories.
Do an experiment; Google your business category (like "Lawyers"). You’ll see ten listings on every page of the Google listings. Most will be listings in different directories. You will see dozens of different directories in the first few pages of searches alone.
The problem is, you have no idea of knowing where your local buyer is going to look for the product or service you sell. If they look in Yellowbook.com, and you are listed in every single directory except there...you lose.
So you need to be listed everywhere a customer could possibly think to look for what you sell.
If you go online and type in "free yellow page directory listings", you’ll get a list of places you can submit your business name to the various online Yellow Page directories. Of course, you will have to go to the website, negotiate the maze of up-sells, promotional information, and information gathering technology. After all, they aren’t in the business of giving free listings. They are in the business of selling advertising.
Then you type in "free local business listing services". You will find several lists of directories you can manually submit your business information to. Personally, I used a service that placed my information with over 200 directories for $299.
It took about two months to see the real benefits. But now we have seen a huge increase in people coming in our store to buy, from seeing our listing online.
Food for thought.
Claude Whitacre is a speaker on the subject of local online advertising, and offline advertising for small business. He is the author of the book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. You can download a free copy of his book at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com You can also learn about a local online marketing service that places your business information with over 200 local search directories at http://www.localbusinesslistingservice.com

Should you buy locally?

In the market for a vacuum cleaner, ceiling fan, dust brush, or back scratcher? Can you save money by shopping locally? Is it to your benefit to buy online? Is that the best way? Let’s find out now.
This idea applies to almost any category of product.
Local retailers almost always suggest buying locally. Of course, this is in their self interest. But there really are advantages of buying locally.
You can usually save a few dollars buy shopping online. This initial savings becomes less attractive when you consider buying locally from someone you can actually see.
Here are the advantages of buying locally;
1) You can see what you are buying and will be able to tell if it’s really what you wanted.
2) You can usually try what you buy, or at least see it demonstrated in some way.
3) You can ask specific questions that you would not consider if the product were not in front of you.
4) If you need service, the local dealer is more likely to give you exceptional service, than an internet seller who has never met you.
5) You can visit the dealer if you have questions, and ask questions with the product in front of you as a point of reference.
6) There is no telephone tag when you visit a local dealer.
7) There are no shipping costs or delivery delays.
Most local business owners (and well trained employees) are very knowledgeable about their product categories. They are not just faceless online order takers.
And the best benefit you have with dealing with a local dealer is that they can show you the right product for your situation. This may save you a little money, or it may cost you a little more. But the product you get will be the one that fits your needs. You are not just buying from a clerk. You are getting advice from a trusted advisor.
And there are risk buying online that you won’t see when buying from a local business. Your local shop owner is easy to find. Your internet dealer may not be a dealer at all. The product you buy may be a "scratch & dent" model purchased for pennies on the dollar, buy the seller, to be resold for a slight savings to you. The internet dealer may actually not have a real brick and mortar business at all. They me be working out of a temporary office, or out of a PO Box. And a cell phone. You just can’t be sure.
You are also far less likely to be treated unfairly by a local retailer. Word gets around quickly when news is spread locally. Local business owners cannot afford the bad reviews. One bad opinion read in the newspaper could destroy a local business. Local businesses have more invested in keeping you happy.
And let us not forget. This works both ways. It may be to your advantage to shop locally. But it’s also to your advantage to shop locally if you own a local business. Every community keeps money in circulation by buying from each other.
Happy shopping.

Reader; You can also see many similar articles at http://vacuumcleanerswoosterohio44691.com/shllist.html

My new website for local searchess is http://www.vacuumcleanerswoosterohio44691.com

Check it out, Claude

Selling: Making The Sale Without Dropping Your Price

In a slow economy, the first thing salespeople want to do to get a sale is to drop their price. This is a mistake. Here is why it is a mistake and several ways to avoid a price drop.
When selling, it’s easy to drop your price, but selling by lowering your price is a mistake almost every time. In a slow economy, whether it’s local or national, dropping prices is easy to justify. But here is why you want to do everything you can to not drop your price. When you drop your price for any reason, it becomes the new price. No justification will sound reasonable to your customer when you raise the price back up to where it "should" be. Here are ways to avoid lowering our price;
Change the offer. You can offer a slightly different package of items, or a slightly different model for the same price. It isn’t that people have no money. It’s that they feel like they need a better deal for their money. Just give them what they would see as a better deal.
Add something for free. As long as the price stays the same, you can give something away as a premium to make the offer look more attractive. Adding something for free makes it much harder for a customer to ask for a lower price.
Change the terms. If you add a longer payment term, it will lower the monthly payment (or account billing terms). It will feel to the consumer as though you are offering a better offer, even though you are really just giving better terms.
Add something for a better price on the add-on. Added on products can be offered for a reduced price instead of free. For example, if you sell men’s clothing, buy a suit and get the shoes for half price. Nobody is going to come back later for shoes and say that the price is twice what it used to be.
But three get one free. If they buy in greater quantity (at one time) they get a discount on the last one they buy, or get it for free. This offer can be discontinued later, without the price being compromised for one.
Offer free services or an extended warranty at little or no cost to the consumer. An extended warranty offered for free is a good inducement, and feels like a lower price. In fact if you give the price with the extended warranty built in, and then lower the price to your regular price without the extended warranty, you are giving the customer the feeling of a lower price with little out of your own pocket. Later, when you no longer include the warranty for free, your price will remain unchanged.
The big reason you do not want to lower your price; The customer will then know that you will lower the price. The price becomes flexible in the prospect’s mind. Once the customer sees that you will lower your price, they will negotiate everything they buy from you.
Do not artificially increase your price, just to take money off. These should be real offers that provide real value. That is selling.
I hope this helps.

I wrote The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. You can download a free copy at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com You can also just buy the book (plus lots of free bonuses) at http://www.claudewhitacre.com

Advertising Humor: Smart Advertising Choice?

Small business advertisers almost universally want to be clever in their advertising. Humor is the first thing they go for, after clever word play. Is this a good advertising strategy?
The big sin in advertising and marketing is being boring. A market will forgive almost anything else. But a boring sales letter, commercial, or video will generate absolutely no interest in your product. The advertisement must be interesting to the prospect. Not interesting in general, but to that prospect.
Most small business advertisers who are putting together an ad, think of trying to be funny as their first priority. This is because many think of advertising as a form of entertainment. Advertising isn’t entertainment, it is selling. Making someone laugh when they see your ad, may make you feel better, and it feels like the ad should be working, but this isn’t the case.
You do not want to hear "Wow, I saw your ad. How clever (or how funny)." You want people to see your ad and then want to buy the product it is showcasing.
Is humor ever effective in your advertising? Sure. A viral video should be either very funny or very shocking. This will cause the video to be spread to all corners of the internet. You may even make some sales off of that video. Humor also has a place in advertising because to tends to stick in the mind of the consumer. Humor in advertising makes the company seem a little more "cool" because if the humor. But the humor should never get in the way of the appeal of the ad, which is to make someone want to buy the product advertised.
Advertisers should always put Selling first in their ads. After there is a strong appeal in the ad, then you can think of ways to say it in a funnier way. But never let humor get in the way of the selling.
Here is the danger of using humor in your ads. Some people may simply not get the joke. If they don’t get the joke, the ad will actually irritate them, because they won’t understand your point.
You may actually offend a few people. The humor, if really funny will direct the consumer’s attention to how funny the ad is, not how great your product is.
A funny and dramatic demonstration of your product, that really drives home a buying benefit, is useful because now they are talking about the demonstration, which is the same as talking about your product. See? You want them taking about your product, not the commercial.
What is almost universally useful in your broadcast ads, is smiling, friendly faces. They don’t have to be funny, but just happy. The prospect assumes they are happy because they are using the product. In print, it’s harder to be funny anyway, so you are trying harder to be funny, which doesn’t translate well to print. In print, ads should always try to sell, not be funny.
You can be interesting without going for a laugh. Do you know what prospective customers find interesting? Anything that will make their life easier, or will solve a problem that is bothering them. That’s what they find interesting. And not being interesting is the major sin in advertising.
Do you see the title of this article? Originally it was going to be Advertising Humor: It’s No Joke. Do you know why I changed it? Even though it is a semi-clever play on words, it wouldn’t make you want to read the article as much as the title I used. See the difference?

If you would like a copy of my book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual, You can purchase the book for $19.95 at http://www.claudewhitacre.com You can also download your Free copy of the complete book at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com

Small Business Advertising And Marketing, The Biggest Mistake

Every small business owner thinks of the product first, before what the market really wants. The real way to market (the way that almost guarantees success) is the approach “I have customers. What do they want? What can I get them that will satisfy that craving? How can I let them know that I have what they want?”Think about this...It’s hard to make someone want something. It’s infinitely easier to find out what they already want, and get it for them.
For example. We sell several models of vacuum cleaner in our local retail store. Now, what do people really want in a vacuum cleaner?Not what we think they should want...but what they really want?They want lightweight and easy to handle.If they have pets, they want it to pick up the pet hair.
So that’s what we advertise. That’s what gets them in the door. Now, there are plenty of dealers that say “They should want Made In America. They should want to buy locally. The customer should want metal construction”, and the list goes on.But it isn’t what we think the customer should want that counts, it’s what they actually want.
If you sell a weight loss product; What should they want? Better health, longer life.But what do they really want? To look better to the opposite sex. If you advertise a weight loss product that stresses the benefits of better health, and longer life, the ad will fail.
And what do weight loss ads show a lot of? Food. Lots and lots of food. Why? Because people who are overweight and want to lose that weight...really want more food. The strongest appeal is “Eat everything you want, lose weight, and fit into that skimpy bathing suit.” So successful weight loss ads get as close to that as they can without committing fraud.
An advertising representative came in my store recently. He wanted me to buy advertising space in a local magazine. I showed him an ad that I would be willing to run. He looked at the advertisement and told me that it didn’t look like an ad that fit in with the other, brand building, ads. I told him that I wanted sales, not brand awareness. He was trying to sell me what he thought I should want, not what I wanted. Unfortunately for him, the person handing over the money, makes the decision.
Have you ever heard this? “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day...teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime” It’s a beautiful sentiment. And everyone you see should want to learn how to fish, but what do they really want? A free fish. Ads that promise to teach you how to fish are harder to make work than ads that promise lots of fish. Shouldn’t we want to learn how to fish? Of course. We should all learn more...the benefits are endless. But we don’t do what we should do, we do what we want to do. And appeals to what we should want to do, almost always fail.
So the question you need to ask yourself is “What do my customers really want, and how can I deliver that?”


Of course, don't even think about leaving this blog without geting a copy of my book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. You can purchase the book for $19.95 at http://www.claudewhitacre.com You can also download your Free copy of the complete book at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com

Your Next Small Business Location: How To Choose

You already own a successful local small business. You just got an offer to move your brick and mortar store to a new location surrounded by fast food restaurants, bars, movie theaters, and game rooms. The offer is a little more than you are paying now. Do you take it?

In almost every discussion about the new location, you’ll hear talk about the cost per square foot, the lease length, and cost to remodel. These are considerations, to be sure. But they are all missing the one big point that needs to be addressed; Does this new small business location attract the people who buy from you?
If you have a retail or small business location now, you already know the demographics of your ideal customer. Ask yourself; Does most of your profit come from teenagers, middle aged adults, or the aged? Men or women? Married or single? What income do most of them have? What kind of music to they like? What do the watch on TV? White collar or blue collar?
If you don’t have a store or local smalll business right now, and are thinking of opening one, visit a local store selling what you would like to sell. Walk around. What kind of people shop there, and buy? ( "Buy" is the important word here) There may be several close stores around your new proposed destination. It may take a whole day. A day well invested.
If you are thinking about moving to a different small business location, what is going to be around your new store? What kind of businesses are there? Do these businesses attract the type of people that buy from you now? Please don’t think that you will change the group of people who make up your customer base. If your customers are mostly high brow older people, a biker bar right next to the new location will kill your business (at least you’ll have a place to drown your sorrows).
Do you sell something that is heavy, or hard to carry? Do you want parking spaces that are 500 feet from your door? Maybe not.
Are most of the customers kids? Do kids make up the bulk of your customers?
Are the activities in the close area surrounding the new small business location attracting your best customer?
Are most of your customers middle aged? Is there a movie theater next to your store? Do middle aged people make up the bulk of an audience that goes to movie theaters?
Would your new store be very easy to see from the road, or do you have to drive into a mall or complex to even see the store? How much of your business is from people just driving by?
Is most of your business from "browsers"? Is your small business a destination business, like one selling plumbing or electrical supplies?
Your location is Marketing. Your signage is Marketing, Your visibility from the road is Marketing. And the most important question you can ask is "Does this location make it easier for my best customers to find me, or do they find me because of who is next to me?"
If the new small business location attracts the wrong demographic of customer (wrong for your business) than the cost per square foot is immaterial, because you will be attracting non-buyers to your location.. If this new location is surrounded by stores and shops that cater to your idea customer, the cost per square foot is almost immaterial too, because your customer will be attracted to your new location.

Of course, I'm the author of the book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. You can purchase the book for $19.95 at http://www.claudewhitacre.com You can also download your Free copy of the complete book on Small Business Advertising at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com

Build A Better Mousetrap And The World Will Beat A Path To Your Door. Really?

This quote has been attributed to the great Ralph Waldo Emerson. Actually, he said something different, and the quote was cobbled together by a smart advertising man, decades after Emerson lived.
But small business owners can learn a lot from this quote. For example...

This quote has been attributed to the great Ralph Waldo Emerson. Actually, he said something different, and the quote was cobbled together by a smart advertising man, decades after Emerson lived.
But small business owners can learn a lot from this quote. For example...


There are several points to consider if you want to start a small business to build mousetraps. Of course "mousetrap" is a metaphor for any new product. I just picked mousetraps because it was catchy. These points will apply to that thing you sell too. Just watch.
1) Do people really want a better, and more expensive mousetrap? Is there something about the mousetraps sold now that people don’t like? For example, do people get their fingers snapped by the tripping mechanism? Do they hate the idea of picking up a dead mouse to dispose of it? Is it the sight o the dead mouse? The smell? Just the idea of mangling a perfectly innocent mouse?
If so, there is a marketing and advertising opportunity here.
2) Is your market growing, or shrinking? Are there more people buying mousetraps than last year? If so, you have an opportunity to ride the wave with a slightly cheaper version of the current mousetrap. You may consider writing an article about the evils of mice infesting you home. You could write to the local newspaper about how mice cause more damage every year than termites. If the number of mousetraps sold every year is sharply declining, is it because there is something better out there killing mice? If not, building a better mousetrap, with dwindling demand, is a sure way to go bankrupt.
3) The world will beat a path to your door? Really? How will they know that you even have a better mousetrap? If there are any paths that are beaten here, it’s you beating a path to the marketplace. First you have to identify the people who would buy a mousetrap at all. What causes mice to invade a home? Are there demographic biases to where mice like to live? If there are no mice in California (for example), marketing your better mousetrap there would be a total waste. Is there a mouse-outbreak anywhere? Do floods give rise to more mice? Hurricanes?
Is there a type of home where mice are more of a problem? One story? Basement? Fireplace?
4) Do people really want to kill mice? Would a more accepted product be one that repels mice? How about something that repels mice, and gets rid of the smell (assuming that dead mice smell) at the same time? Is that something people want? How about a way to treat the wood or insulation so that mice hate the taste, and won’t come in at all?
5) The biggest problem I see with the quote "Build a better mousetrap..." is that it assumes that the right way to sell something is to just decide what you want to build, make it good, and then let people figure out that you have it, that it will do the job they want, that it’s worth the price, and that a mousetrap is what they want. That’s got everything in marketing in reverse.
Great marketing is : Finding out what people want (what problem they have), making sure that there is a demand in place for this solution, seeing what else is out there to solve that problem,
Figuring out if they will like your product better (not they should like it better, but actually will)
And then how will you market the new solution? What type of advertising and marketing works now to sell a comparable solution? Can you find list of people that already need and want what you have? Who else is building a better mousetrap, and how do they sell it?
"Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door? Maybe, but that’s not how I would bet.

Of course, I wrote the book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. You can purchase the book for $19.95 at http://www.claudewhitacre.com You can also download your Free copy of the complete book at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com

Local Small Business About Advertising Made In America

The Made In America appeal is very strong with local small business owners.
Do you own a small business that sells something that is Made In America? Good, there are some customers that want what you have. But even if it isn’t Made In America, you can still use that appeal. Any small business owner can use this idea. Here’s how.
This is related to the "Saving The Environment" appeal. There are people who will buy a brand (assuming they want to buy anything) because it is made in America. This article isn’t judging how we should feel about our country. This is about how we can us Made In America in our marketing.
As a local small business advertiser, I would use it as part of a headline...not as the entire appeal.
You want your local advertising to appeal to the widest niche you can find…..and people who buy just because the product is made in America is a small group. There are lots of people who are attracted to products more because they are Made In America, but as a single reason for buying, the appeal is limited to a small percentage of the population.
We sell vacuum cleaners. Lots of them. Some are made in America and some aren’t. When selling, I always mention the "Made in America"" feature when I can, but if I don’t get any immediate feedback on it, I stop talking about it.
If the customer says "Made In America? Now you’re talking!"...I’ll talk about the quality of the product. If he talks about foreigners taking American jobs, I’ll politely listen.
I’ll be talking about quality...but he’ll be hearing "Made in America Quality" which is just fine with me.
But what if your product is made out of the country? Was it designed in America? Will it be serviced in America? Isn’t it shipped across the country by American truckers? If you find out that many of the parts are actually Made In America, but the product is shipped overseas for assembly, you can say that. It is almost the same thing. Made In America actually means "assembled in America". So you can always mention what part is made in America. If the prospect really wants the product anyway, it will be enough.
Back to advertising. If the product you are marketing is made in America, I would certainly mention it in your advertising, but as a single reason to buy it usually won’t carry the sale. That’s why we mention it in our advertising, but include lots of other reasons to buy. We want the best return on our advertising dollar, I’m not making a political statement.
I have an acquaintance that puts, on his door, a sign that says that he is a Republican..
He is turning off about 50% of his customers before they walk in his door. Republicans aren’t going to buy more from him, just because they agree with his politics, and Democrats will generally be turned off from the sign. So it’s not a way to generate more money. Now, if you are selling online, or by mail, and your customer base is heavily one political party or the other, it will help to mention your views. In fact it’s a way to bond with your customers. But in retail? Never do it. His fellow retailers love the idea when he tells them, but it’s an idea that will cut your business in half.
This is not a political article, it’s a marketing article. The moral of the story is to use what works, not what we wish would work.
Remember, people think about their problems and needs about 99% of the time (you and I do it too). If you appeal to their wants in your advertising first, you’ll have a chance at getting their attention, and their money.

Oh yeah, I wrote the book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. You can purchase the book for $19.95 at http://www.claudewhitacre.com You can also download your Free copy of the complete book at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com

The Small Business Marketing Secret Of Knowing If Your Local Advertising Is A Winner

The Small Business Marketing Secret Of Knowing If Your Local Advertising Is A Winner
One thing I hear from fellow small business advertisers is "I know this ad I ran is a winner. I get people all the time saying that they saw my ad….they tell me how clever it is...and how much they enjoy it" But does that mean your ad is a winner? Let’s find out.
Here’s the problem; Everyone will tell you that your advertising is clever and that they enjoyed reading your ads. People want to be polite to you and they don’t want to be rude.
When you run ads, everyone will compliment you on the ad. It’s their way of saying "I know who you are, and I’m letting you know I saw your ad". But they don’t really know anything about advertising. They will know if they like the graphics, but not if the advertisement will produce a profit.
The only test of whether or not your ad was successful….is if the advertisement more than paid for itself, and generated a profit. The rest is fluff.
I used to frequent a local bar. I would write an ad. I took it to the bar and asked a few guys what they thought.
"Wow, Claude..this is a great ad!""
"I get it...very clever ad"
"Claude, you sure know how to make a fine ad"
Hearing anything like that meant I had work to do.
"Wow, Claude….can you really get this for that price? Do you have any in stock?"
Now, I knew the ad was a winner.
The only purpose of advertising is to make people want to come in your store and buy something. It isn’t to get your name out there, be funny, crack jokes, or say something bad about a competitor. The purpose of advertising is to attract buyers to your business.
Being "clever" won’t do it. If your ad is clever..they are thinking about the ad...and not your product. Most small business advertisers think that funny and witty equals sales. It doesn’t. There is no relationship between how clever your ad is and how much it creates the desire to buy what you sell.
Trying to entertain won’t do it. Ever watch an infomercial? They are selling. Everything in the time allotted is geared to selling. They don’t sing jingles, they don’t try to be clever in their ""company motto". They sell.
I have an exercise for you. This is what I did at the beginning of my advertising studies...to understand what made ads work.
I went to a library….took out a magazine…..looked at the ads...then got an issue a year old...and looked at those ads.
The ads that were still there (that sold something or offered information) were proven winners. How did I know?
Ads that sell something are tracked by the advertiser for effectiveness. After a few months...if they aren’t profitable they are gone. If they are still in the magazine after a year..they are making a profit.
After you look at several successful ads, you’ll begin to see commonalities. They leave clues as to why they are profitable.
And the ads that didn’t work? They ones that are gone? They were written by someone who didn’t do this research.
Do you save ads that advertise and sell what you sell?
I do. The ads that work become templates for me to "borrow" ideas from.
A couple of hours at the library can save any small business advertiser thousands of dollars a year in advertising mistakes. How do I know? That’s what I did.

By the way, I'm the author of the book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. You can purchase the book for $19.95 at http://www.claudewhitacre.com/. You can also download your Free copy of the complete book at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com/ So There!

Advertising Ideas For The Small Business Owner; The Top 12 Marketing Strategies

There are principles and ideas that will transform your small business advertising. Here are the best 12. Most of these ideas are found in the book Influence by Robert Cialdini. Which one is most important to you?
Greed: Offering something for nothing is still a viable advertising method. You must still create the desire to own the thing that is free. As small business owners, we can offer an add on product free with purchase, or a gift just for showing up at our business. The appeal is strong.
Specificity: The power of a story is in the details. The more specific a claim, the more believable. Dove soap is 99 44/100 % Pure, not 100% Pure. This also means that any benefits promoted in your marketing must be specific to your prospect. The more the benefits fit the buyer precisely, the more the consumer values it. This is a core marketing principle.
Scarcity: Diamonds are valuable because they are so rare. Small business owners need to create the illusion that what you sell is in such demand that you can’t keep them in stock.
Urgency: There is always a reason to buy now. A sale is over in two days. There is a pending price increase. We only have 25 left in stock. We are going out of business. The new models are coming in, and we need to liquidate our inventory.
Exclusivity: The only place you can get this product is here. Also, it means that the target market can get this offer and nobody else. Perhaps because you are a member of a club or organization.
Reciprocity: If you do someone a favor, there is a strong internal need to return the favor. A form of this is always giving a little more than was paid for. This builds up a debt in the mind of the consumer. This also practically forces the consumer to recommend you to their friends.
Bundling: Offer two or three products or services together, and name the offer something exclusive to you. This make price comparisons difficult, and gives more value to the consumer.
Just bundling two or three items together to build a package actually creates more value than the total if added together.
Keep It Simple: The offer must be easy to understand. A child should be able to completely understand the offer. A confused consumer always declines the offer. Don’t use industry jargon. Don’t try to look professional by using large uncommon words. Make your sales story very easy to follow.
Social Proof: If everybody else wants what you sell, your prospect will want it too. If your customer believes that there is a great demand for what you sell, they will believe it must be good. Small business owners should use testimonials, and referrals. They both serve the purpose of giving social proof.
Offering Choices: Offer two or three choices in advertising and marketing. This changes the decision to choosing which item to buy, not whether to buy at all. A "Good, Better, Best" offer serves this purpose
Authority: The authority can be you, a celebrity spokesperson, or a governing body. If something is "certified" then the buyer feels more secure in their decision to buy. If the buyer sees you as an expert, then your presentation is seen as advice rather than as a pitch. "Four out of five doctors recommend..." Very powerful concept.
Building Value: Your offer must show at least twice as much value as the price you are asking. This value must be shown in the small business owners’s advertising and marketing. Every ad should tell everything the customer needs to know to want to buy what is being offered.

You can purchase my book for $19.95 at http://www.claudewhitacre.com/. You can also download your Free copy of the complete book at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com/

Selling With Cold Calling: The Most Profitable Method

Cold calling can be done in person or on the phone. Most salespeople avoid it like the plague. But it has benefits, and there is a method to the madness.
Years ago, I was selling vacuum cleaners. I was cold calling by knocking on doors. It was unpleasant work. Nobody is happy to see you when you are knocking on their door.
Anyway, it was the last day of the month, and I was in a contest. A storm was going to arrive within the hour, and canvassing in a storm is a no-no. I needed a sale. One more sale would give me a huge bonus for the month.
I kind of panicked. I started running from door to door. I wasn’t looking for someone to let me demonstrate my vacuum cleaner, I was looking for a sale. So all my training went out the window. I knocked on doors and said approximately the following "Hi, I sell vacuum cleaners. If you take a look at mine, I’ll give you this cutlery set. Are you thinking about getting a new vacuum cleaner?"
That last sentence was a killer. It made most people turn me down. But I needed a sale, not a demonstration. After about forty five minutes, a man said "Sure, if it’s good enough, we could use a better vacuum cleaner". After I brought the machine in their home, I told him and his wife that I was in a contest, and that I couldn’t spend time showing the vacuum cleaner unless there was a real possibility of a sale that night. He said "Sure, like I said, we’re interested in what you have".
Of course they bought (Thank Goodness). I won my contest. But what I gained that was far more valuable was the realization that there are actually people out there that want what you have right now. And as much as you are looking for them, they are looking for you. My job was just to find them. This changed my cold calling procedure forever.
Whether I was knocking on doors (this was in the 1970-1980s), or calling on the phone, I found that it was much more profitable if I concentrated on finding the one or two people tat day that were truly ready to buy what I sold. Rather than trying to convince prospects to let me talk to them, and then convince them to buy, it was easier to just quickly sort through the list, to find the ideal buyers.
This idea only works if you have a near unlimited supply of prospects. For example, in my area, we had 50,000 people I could call. If you sell a highly specialized product that is only bought by a very small segment of the market, I wouldn’t do this. Instead, I would concentrate on building a relationship with the few possible buyers you have to work with.
The big advantage of this "call quickly to find the best buyer" method is that you don’t really care if any one person is interested in what you have. You are actually trying to dis-qualify the people you talk to as quickly as you can. Phoning prospects rapidly is also a key to this. If you call three people an hour, you’ll spend an entire day, and maybe not even set one appointment.
If you call prospects as quickly as possible, you’ll find that time flys. You’ll also end up with several appointments with highly qualified and eager buyers.
A good book to read is any edition of the book Prospecting Your Way To Sales Success by Bill Good. It’s available at amazon.com. I’ve found this book to be invaluable in learning better cold calling methods.

And just so I don't forget... You can purchase my book for $19.95 at http://www.claudewhitacre.com/. You can also download your Free copy of the complete book at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com/

Positive Or Negative Ads: Which Is Better For Your Business?

Nearly every industry has used negative ads at one point or another. Negative ads include ads that compare one product to a competitive product, one company to another, one political candidate to another. But do these ads really pay off? Let’s see.
In hamburger ads, you will see one ad comparing their hamburger to another fast food chain’s hamburger. Do you know who loves these ads? The CEO of the fast food franchise company. These ads are designed mostly by advertising agencies to appease their client. They almost say at the end of the ad "So There!".
Some of these ads (in different industries) don’t even compare product, they just say something bad about a competitor, and then the advertising company’s name is mentioned at the end of the commercial, or print ad. The question I always ask is "Does this make you want to buy the product of the company that paid for he ad? In most cases, no.
It’s a bad investment to spend time proving that another company in your industry is giving bad service, or has a shoddy product. Do you watch negative political ads? Unless you live in a cave, you do. After you see a vicious ad about a candidate, do you think "This guy is so bad, the other guy must be great"? Do you know who react well to these ads? Core supporters of the candidate they are supporting. This is another example of "So There!" ads. I also call these "Take That!" ads. Can you imagine if one candidate had all of these negative ads, and the other candidate only talked about the good things he has done? Nobody would be talking about the other candidate.
Here is the bottom line. Negative ads about your competitor, don’t build desire to buy your product. They don’t make you look good to the public. They don’t build confidence in your company, service, or your brand. And the biggest reason (as if these weren’t enough) is that you are making the buyer aware that you even have a competitor. And savvy buyers know that if you didn’t think the other company was a threat to you, you wold compare yourself to them at all.
The ad "At Avis, we try harder" is brilliant. They say that they are number two, but don’t compare themselves to number one directly. And in the slogan is a real buyer benefit. "We try harder’ carries the meaning "We try harder to make you happy". Most people also identify with the "second biggest" more than the biggest in practically any area.
Can you imagine that if someone was asking you out for a date, and they said "Don’t go out with that guy, he has bad hair! Go out with me instead"? How would that sound? Like someone has low self esteem, like they feel like they are less than the other guy, like they feel threatened by the other guy. Is that how you want the public to feel about you, and your brand?
When people see your sd, what they want to know is; Is this for me? Will this help me? Is this a great solution to my problem? What do I get if I buy this?
Years ago, I had a local competitor that sold what I sold. Different brand, same product.
It was so long ago that I forget who started it. We started spending thousands of dollars a month in ads, whose sole purpose was to irritate each other. The only person who cared was him and me. The only person who profited from this was our ad rep.
Years later we met at the bank (on unrelated errands), we talked briefly. We both started laughing over how stupid we were to waste all that time and money irritating each other when we could have both been getting richer by advertising what we sold, and just ignored each other.
I’m a slow study. I hope you are a bit faster.

My book is available at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com It's free to download, or you can just buy it at http://www.claudewhitacre.com

Small Business Owners: Want A Flow Of Buyers In Your Business? Do This....

I learned this technique twenty years ago from a small retailer in Barberton Ohio. It literally brought...not prospects, but buyers into his store every day. Here’s what he did.
This is in the days of Videos, not DVDs. This man sold vacuum cleaners and air purifiers. I’ve seen this idea work with both..but let’s take the air purifiers.
He would put an ad in the newspaper describing how the indoor air pollution was up to five times as bad as the outside air pollution. He offered a free video, and gave that video a value of $89.95
the ad said something like "Stop in to pick up your free video "How To Instantly Make Your Indoor Air Clean And So Fresh It Will Make Your Nostrils Tingle!".
His first few ads said that he would mail them the video. He did, and nobody that received the video came in the store. Something was wrong. Eventually he realized that the video was answering the consumer’s questions, and there was no need to come in the store.
So here is the brainstorm; He said, in the ad, to come in the store and pick up the video.
Of course, the only people coming in to pick up the video were people who were interested in how to clean their indoor air. These were people who had a problem, usually pet or smoke odors, and wanted their problem solved as soon as possible.
So they came in to pick up the video. The salesman (sometimes me) told them that they could have the video, but could we ask a couple of quick questions first. The answer was always "Yes".
You see, nobody really came in because what they wanted was another video. What they wanted was to solve their problem. So we would find it very easy to simply anser their questions, find the right solution for them, and send the best product home with them for a no risk two week trial.
Id the air purifier wasn’t everything they wanted, they could return it within two weeks for a complete refund. Seventy five percent of the people kept the air purifier.
But they wouldn’t have come in the store unless we offered the free video.
Of course, if they asked, we gave them the video...whether they bought from us or not. They were duplicated in quantity for less than $2.00 each.
We ran the same ad, offering the free video, for over a year. It was the single most profitable marketing idea that we implemented that year.
So the formula is: Offer a free DVD (now) on a problem that really bothers some of your local market. Make sure you sell a great solution to that problem. Make sure they have to come in to get the DVD. You can also deliver the DVD. But never mail it, or you will lose the customer.
That’s it for now

OOOOPS! I forgot, you can download my entire book, The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual, by going to http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com You can also subscribe to my newsletter at http://www.unfairadvantagemarketing.com

The Real Way To Save Over 50% On Your Advertising Costs

If you own a small business, you advertise. There are ways to make your advertising more profitable. The easiest way is to simply pay less for the ads. Everything you read here, I’m doing right now in my business. These ideas are proven.

First, you should know that ad representatives are hurting now. Less business owners are advertising, and they are cutting back on the ads they run. So reps are willing to deal. Even if they tell you they are not willing to negotiate...they are.
I use two approaches that work. The first one is simply to call that advertising sales manager. Don’t deal with a rep, especially a new one. They may not even be aware that these deals are out there. The manager will have to approve this price anyway, so you may as well deal with them now.
Simply call the sales manager and tell them that you have figured out what it costs you to get a new customer and want to buy advertising from them. But you can only afford to pay them a specific price per inch, minute, ad placement, etc. I shoot for a third of their national rate. You can find out their ad rates in the Standard Rates And Data book at your local library. You can also simply offer them half of the rate they are asking for. The rep will tell you that they never negotiate, that the costs are too high, that nobody gets that rate. Listen patiently, and then tell them that you understand that they cannot do this deal, but if there is ever an opening, you’ll take it at that lower price. Make sure you tell them that you won’t share the rate with other advertisers.
They will always...always come back. In my experience, about half will just take the deal, and the other half will offer you another price.
You have to understand that they can certainly afford to advertise at your offered price. It’s not a matter of money, it’s a matter of them admitting that they will sell for that price, and the fear that you will tell other advertisers.
Two things you should know about advertising in almost any form.
1) Almost nothing has a lower cost to place than an advertisement. The newspaper pays for the paper no matter whether a story runs or your ad. The story doesn’t pay them anything, your ad does.
2) After the newspaper, radio time, direct mail magazine, or direct mail envelope is mailed, broadcast, or delivered...there is no way for the media rep to make money from that media slot. The space is either sold, or the value is lost. The three things that have to be sold right away, or they lose all their value are airplane tickets, hotel rooms, and ad space.
If the ad rep or ad manager comes back, and they are willing to deal with you, but not at your asking price, the following ideas will help get you what you want.
Ask if they can write an article about your business on one page, and your ad appears on the facing page. In their mind, you are paying for the ad, and they are providing content in their media. Of course, the article is really an ad, and flows into your paid ad.
Did you know that there are ad buyers that buy advertising space and advertising time for about twenty cents on the dollar and then resell it to their clients for a fair markup?
Just Google the term "Remnant Advertising Buyer". You’ll get the top three or four agencies right of the bat.
I saved the best for last. This is the way I get my advertising for 50-80% off the national rate consistently. I simply send a check for a fourth of the national rate with an ad ready for placement. My letter simply says that they can run the ad anytime they have the space, and they can cash the check. They always cash the check. Try it.
I should mention that direct mail advertising companies have a real cost to delivering your ad, and they can only cut about 40% off the going rate. They have to pay for printing and mailing. So be gentle.
That’s it for now.

Oh, I almost forgot...you can download a copy of my book for free at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com/.

Want to see what you can get that will shake you in your boots for only $5.95? Just go to http://www.unfairadvantagemarketing.com

Small Business Marketing With Customer Choices

Many of us just sell one product, or deliver one service. There are a few reasons you may want to create a second offer. Here are the reasons.
This idea was thought of for small business owners who own a retail store, but this idea will work with virtually any type of business. I make sure that I offer the prospect a choice of two, or rarely, three options, at different price points.
There are several benefits to this.
In discussing the features and merits of the two offers, you can quickly tell where they are comfortable financially. I show the two products and make no outward attempt to lead them to either one. They will begin to ask you more questions about one of your offers. They will begin to give you reasons why the one offer is better for them than the other. Sometimes this is for the more expensive offer, sometimes not.
This "discussing two offers" has the benefit of casting you in the image of an advisor, instead of a salesperson. The consumer tends to give value to your information, because it just sounds like you are helping, not pitching.
The idea of "whether to buy something" quickly becomes the decision of "which one is best for us". A far easier path to them buying.
You then have the ability to support whichever way they are leaning. If they like the more expensive model, you can tell them about all they get for just a little more money. If they start favoring the less expensive model, you can tell them how it has all the important features the more expensive one has. Either way, I make it a rule to let them know that whichever way they choose, that it’s the more popular choice with my customers. This gives them "social proof" that they are making the right choice.
This method of selling by offering options also allows the customer to feel more like the entire decision to buy was entirely their idea. You were just supplying them information. Of course, it really is their decision, but this method makes it faster for both of you, and gives the customer a better feeling after the sale is complete.
This method also dramatically cuts down on cancellations. After all, they chose what they wanted. It’s harder to go back on a decision when that decision was yours, and not the salesperson’s.
The reason you never want to make the choices more than three, is that now you end up giving them a tour of everything available. They become overloaded with information. The options cause them to stop the buying process until "they have a chance to digest everything". And remember, a confused mind always...always says "No".
That’s it for now.

As always, you can download my book for free at http://local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com You can also buy it at http://www.claudewhitacre.com

Small Business Advertising Tips To Double Your Ad Results

There are several ways to make your advertising more effective. These are not wholesale changes, or templates to design an ad. These are just several quick ideas that will make the print ad you run more effective in grabbing attention, and bringing buyers to your door.

Round the corners of your display ad.
A rounded corner will make your ad pop out from the rest of the ads on the page. The eye will be drawn to them, and it will not allow your ad to blend in with the ads next to it.
Put the headline in quotations. If you put the headline in quotations, it forces the reader to hear a voice as they read the headline. Also, a quote is much more interesting to read that a normal headline. If someone was quoted as saying something, it must be important, right?
Use words in the headline that pull the reader into the body of the ad.
Words like these, This, Which, Which of these, Why, How many, and How will bring the reader into the ad because their ind wants the answer to the question in the ad.
Use capital letter for the first letter of every word of the headline.
Which looks better: "Which Of These Cars Do You See Yourself In?" Or "Which of these cars do you see yourself in?". The reader won’t pick up that you are using capital letters, but your headline will stand out more. Do NOT use all capitols in the headline. It will look like you are shouting at them.
Put the name of your business and the directions to find you at the bottom of the ad.
This is hard for many business owners to hear, but nobody cares about the name of your business. The name of your business is never a headline. Your business name never causes anyone to want to read the rest of the ad. Nobody cares about the name of your business until after they have decided that they are interested in what you are selling. This is the single most common mistake advertisers make. It’s also the most costly, as far as formatting the ad.
Tell everything about your offer that the space will allow. White space doesn’t sell anything. The more someone knows about your offer, the more likely they will want to buy it, and the value you can build in the offer. Almost nobody will call you or come into your store, just because you made them curious. Tell them everything. Everything the ad doesn’t tell the customer, the customer will have to guess at. And they will always guess incorrectly. Tell them everything.
Use bullet points.
Bullet points in an ad draw the eye, and make whatever is after the bullet point sound important. A solid list of benefits your product has, with bullet points in front of them, will be the start of a powerful ad.
If you are using a magazine or newspaper, make sure you are "above the fold" and on the right hand side as the paper is opened. Odd number pages pull better than even number pages, because that’s the way we flip through the newspaper or magazine.
Make sure these things are in your ad;
You store or business website, your address, your store hours, credit cards you accept, directions to your business with a landmark if possible, any awards you have won, and any financing you offer.
That’s it for now.

Of course, you can buy my book at amazon.com for $19.95. It's The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. Or you can download a free complete copy at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com

You can also receive three ful months of my newsletter, some videos, audio interviews, and more for just $5.95 at http://www.unfairadvantagemarketing.com

The Advantage Of Using Direct Mail To Advertising

Advertisers have a choice of offline advertising media. Newspapers, Billboards, Yellow Pages, Radio, Direct Mail, and TV. Direct mail has proven to be the most dependable for my clients. Here’s why.
Most people won’t be listening to your radio ad when it plays. Most people won’t be seeing your cable TV ad. Most people aren’t tuned into the specific station or channel your ad is on, when it plays. But everyone in your area will get your Direct Mail piece. And when they get their mail from their mailbox, nobody ever just throws it all away without at least seeing where it is from. Market coverage is almost complete.
The reader can put your ad down, come back later to it, read some more, save the ad, and buy when they can get to your store. The information in the ad stays with them. Direct mail can be set down, looked at later, given to another buyer, used to find your store, and brought in as a form of shopping list. Unless the customer records the radio or TV ad, it’s gone after it plays.
You can say so much more in a Direct Mail piece that in a TV ad, Radio spot, Yellow Page ad.
You can list reasons to buy, use coupons, and make several offers, all in the same ad. Very difficult to do in other media. You can mail a five page direct mail ad for the same price as a one page ad. You can tell a complete story to bring them in your store (or get them to call)

Direct Mail can work as the "Backbone" of your advertising. I’ve noticed that we get a better total result when we have Direct Mail going out at the same time as a series of radio commercials. There is synergy in multiple media advertising.
Most people call this Junk Mail. So do I. But so what? If it creates a tangible profit for your business, what difference does it make what it’s called?
Here’s how I doubled my profits in one month.
I was running a full page Direct Mail ad in the Town Money Saver (my local Direct Mail company) for over a year. We would switch the ads every few months to "keep the ads fresh" in the reader’s mind. It finally dawned on me that there wasn’t a law that said I couldn’t have two pages in the Town Money Saver. Two completely different offers in the same magazine. I even got a price break for doing it. Very profitable. The most we have done is three ads in the same magazine. Our three main ads were running at the same time. Amazingly, no loss of response from any of them. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this idea sooner.
One of the things I like most about Direct Mail, is that I can know for sure if an ad is working or not. I just put in every ad "Bring this ad in for a free ___ with the purchase of a ___". When the customer comes in the store waving the ad, I know what brought them into the store. I just clip the ad to my copy of the receipt, and at the end of the month add them up. Very easy.
The Big Reason That You’ll Like Direct Mail
After you get a customer, you’ll be contacting them by Direct Mail for your additional offers. If the customer was brought in the store by Direct Mail in the first place, they will be much more responsive to your Direct Mail offers in the future. They have proven that they read their mail.
You aren’t going to contact your customers by TV, Radio, or the Newspaper.
In Direct Mail, a list of names of buyers , that bought from a TV infomercial, aren’t as valuable as a list of names of customers that bought by Direct Mail. People tend to respond the same media over and over again. In fact, I have taken money from the Yellow Pages and put it into Direct Mail with very profitable results.
If you make offers to your current customers by Direct Mail, your best results will come from building your new customer base by Direct Mail.

Want to know more? Download my book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com/ or just buy it at http://www.claudewhitacre.com/

The Small Business Owner’s Program To Create Employee Generated Sales

There are many ways to generate sales for a small business. One of the overlooked ways is to generate sales from your employees. Here’s how to do that.
Your employees are actually a great source for new sales. We call this New Employee Business.
You can do this with employees no matter how long they have been with you, but usually we concentrate on new employees.
Your employees have friends and family that are perfect prospects for your product. It’s simply a matter of making the idea a benefit to the employee, and feel like a great deal for the friends and family.
Basically what we do is have an Employee Bonus Campaign. It sure sounds better that the We Want More Money Campaign, doesn’t it?
We have the employees call their friends and family (on or off premises), and have them offer the friends a special offer to just come in and look at our product. It’s usually a free pizza certificate from a local pizza shop. Almost any pizza shop will sell you certificates for a free pizza for $2.00 or $3.00 each. They just want to cover their real cost to make the pizza, and they get a new customer. They also sell that customer soda, chips, and sandwiches.
The employee’s friend comes in our store (this will work in any business), and we explain that the employee gets a bonus if they buy our product. The first thing we do though, is give them the pizza certificate. If you hold back their gift, it’s what they will be thinking about until you give it to them.
We give the employee a 10% bonus on any sale made that day to their friend. Of course, the bonus depends on your markup, and what you are selling. It helps if the employee is there while you explain the program and show the friend or relative your product. Of course, there is no pressure from you...but there is considerable peer pressure for the friend to buy something.
Parents or other close relatives almost always buy something if they are even remotely in the market for what you sell. Friends will also buy, but not always.
We make a big deal about the new employee getting their bonus. The people we are showing are eager to help their friend or relative. They get a good product (it helps if there is a special price or offer just for them). The employee gets more money in their paycheck than they normally get. And you get a new surge of business at almost no marketing cost to you.
Isn’t that what we all want?

Like this idea? You can download a free copy of my book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com

Who Really Is The World's Greatest Vacuum Cleaner Salesman?

I belong to a forum that I posted that very question. I gave some of my records, and had a couple people post records that they heard.

Who is the greatest heart surgeon in the world? Is it the heart surgeon that did the most surgerys? Had the most good outcomes? Had the highest percentage of good outcomes? Has the perfect record? (meaning nobody ever dies after the surgery)

I submit that quality is better than quantity.
I used to work in the field (the sales field) with a lady thaet once told me "Do you know the difference between you and me? I'll give 10 presentations a week, sell two, and be happy as a clam. You'll give three presentations a week, sell two, and try to figure out why you missed the third one." She was absolutely right. And eventually, all this study, of the craft of selling paid off.

The last 3 or 4 years I was still in selling in people's homes, my closing rate was over 80%
I hear plenty of lies from salespeople, bragging about a 99% closing rate (or some such equally unbelievable lie). They then have to explain that the figure only counts the people who bought! or the people who called them to buy.

How could I consistantly sell 80% or more of the people I showed my product to? Simple.
I refused to show it to people I knew weren't likely to buy.

I asked qualifying questions in the form of a survey. If the answers led me to believe that they would be willing to buy...if the offer was good enough...I would show my product. If I could see that they just weren't going to be open minded about buying (or a condition like bad credit prevented them from buying), I would politely give them the gift that was promised, and go to my next appointment...or knock on my next door.

I relied heavily on refrrals from my past buyers. I only asked for referrals from people who bought from me. I also woul follow salespeople who sold a string of people through referrals.
I played "Follow the salesman". I only saw the people who bought from them, ad only asked for the referrals that also bought from them. I was only seeing buyers. People who have proven (by buying) that they would buy from an in-home salesperson...that day...and had good credit.

I also would see people who bought a high end vacuum cleaner from me several years before. I would take it as a trade-in with a generous discount. So I was only seeing buyers...and their close friends...who were also buyers.

If you don't know, this is alsothe One Big Secret of most direct mail companies. They buy lists of ...not just names...but names of buyers.
They buy the names of people who have shown a strong interest in the product area, by their buying habits. The names of people who buy from a certain media are also valuable. If you sell through direct mail, you want a list of people who have bought similar products to yours...by direct mail. Not purchases from infomercials, magazines, or internet shopping.

The last three paragraphs just gave you the whole picture. Got it?

Dedicated to your success, Claude

The World's Greatest Vacuum Cleaner Salesman

OK, here's the big scoop of the day. I'm declaring myself The World's Greatest Vacuum Cleaner Salesman.
For the last 34 years, I've been selling vacuum cleaners. Most of the time in people's homes...and for the last 10 years out of my own retail store...The Sweeper Store.

Now, why in the world would I want to be known at the world's greatest vacuum cleaner salesman? Am I really the the world's Greatest?
I have no idea. Sure, I've made some sales. My records are $12,000 in a single day (from 10 separate in-home sales...I couldn't talk for 3 days afterwards).
I've netted 26 sales in a single month...with only one person saying "No" that whole month. I have a street in my town where every homeowner bought a vacuum cleaner from me (in-home sales). Has someone sold more? I'm sure of it.

But after 34 years, and more than 6,000 in-home sales...and more than 10,000 in my retail store, I've decided that I'm the greatest.

I even bought the domain name Worldsgreatestvacuumcleanersalesman.com

This is partly tongue-in-cheek, but I've decided that's a title I can take right now.

Who is the world's greatest salesman? They person who sells the highest lifetime volume? he highest volume in a day? The highest net profit in a certain time period? The highest closing percentage? The last 25 years, I've closed about half of the people I've cold-called (from a dead start) and closed about 80% of the people that were referrals from past customers (the real money was made here).

If someone proves that they have sold more vacuums than I have, Great...I'll then be the world's heavyweight vacuum cleaners sales champion. Or maybe the world's baldest sales champion. I'll fit in there somewhere.

Anyway, I wanted to get that off my chest.

Small Business Advertising Idea; Use Your Blog.

Have you noticed that many speakers have blogs?
This is for several reasons.
1) It's a cheap way to get people to "follow" your ideas.
2) Its an easy way to include content that isn't on your website.
3) Your blog creates links that lead the reader back to your websites.

Let's talk about #3;
I have several websites that have offers in different businesses.
http://www.sweeperstore.com/ sells vacuum cleaner parts, bags, and supplies.
http://www.sweeperstoreonline.com/ is my local retail store website. It leads people doing local searches to my retail store.
http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com/ is a site where you can download a free complete copy of my book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual.
And http://www.claudewhitacre.com/ is my Speaker website.

Now, all the links I just listed are automatically adding one more link to each of thse websites.

So what do I recommend you do? Go to http://www.blogger.com/ and create a blog for your business.
It's fast, easy, free, and will create a steady stream of new visitors to your main website. See you soon, Claude

Small Business Advertising Lesson #1 Headlines Count

I came back from doing a couple of events in Las Vegas. I just received a phone call from the MC of one event. He told me that he received a phone call from two attendees telling him that they rewrote their next ads based on my one speech.

My entire thrust of the speech was on Headlines. Every ad has a headline the same way every song has a title. Every book has a title. Every article has a headline.
It the way readers (or listeners/viewers) skim over material looking for something that concerns them.... something that interests them.... The purpose of the headline is to grab the reader by the ears and say "Look at me!".

Being clever focuses on you....and your cleverness. The headline must instantly make the reader feel that this concerns me!...This is what I want to know!

After they reader sees your ad, you do not want them saying "My, what a clever ad".
You want them saying "Now, where can I get that?"

Of course there is more in my book;
The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual.
You can download a free complete copy at
www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com

You can also get a hell of a lot more by subscribing to my newsletter at www.unfairadvantagemarketing.com

And you can either order tebook in paperback or find out more about my speaking services at www.claudewhitacre.com

That's about enough self-promotion for now. Later, Claude