How do I get on a No Call list?

The National Do Not Call Registry gives you a choice about whether to receive telemarketing calls at home. Most telemarketers should not call your number once it has been on the registry for 31 days. If they do, you can file a complaint on the Do Not Call Website. You can register your home or mobile phone for free. Here is the link: https://www.donotcall.gov/

© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

Adding up other people’s money…

Everybody does it. You know what I’m talking about…..You’re sitting in a restaurant and you start adding up how much your bill will be and then you divide it by the number of people in your party and then you multiply by the number of people in the room. But you’re not done yet, now you figure out how many “turns” of the tables there will be that night, maybe 2 or 3 and then you’ve figured it all out, you know how much the owners made. There is some small talk and then everyone at your table thinks about how glamorous it would be to open your own restaurant and make all that money. Don’t take that thought too far!

You did figure out what the restaurant brought in (gross), but not what they made (net). There is a big difference between the two.

Look at your own small business, what percentage of your gross is going to pay your expenses? If you look at restaurants more than 50% of their cost is typically food and drink and put in another 40% or so for employees and when you add rent, utilities plus some other expenses you don’t have a whole lot left over.

The grass isn’t always as green as your quick calculations would have you think! It’s fun to play with numbers but make sure you focus on growing your revenues and keeping your expenses under control while calculating how much YOUR business makes. Make it happen!
© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

Will a slowing economy hurt my business?

Assume that it might. By assuming that it might hurt your business you’ll do things differently, spend differently and pay attention differently. Start out by looking at all your expenses.

• How many of them are absolutely necessary and bring you a return? Make sure the expense is something you need, something that helps you do more business.

• Can you reduce expenses in any area? Do you really need all those post-its or could you get by with stapling a note to something? Every little bit helps and as you start to look around for ways to save, you’ll find them!

• Can you put off buying any new equipment? If you’ve got an old printer that works fine, keep it. If your computer still works well, than there’s no reason to get a new one just because your current one is a couple years old. Save the money clean up the old computer, eliminate old programs and defrag if you haven’t done it in a long time.

• If your business has slowed down you may have to look at reducing staff. This is the one that nobody likes to think about but if your business is down and you can’t seem to raise it back up, something’s gotta give. Keeping a person too long when you can’t justify the expense can end up costing you more than your piece of mind and your pride, it might cost you your business.

By taking a closer look at your business “in case” it is affected by the economy, your proactiveness might minimize the effects of a business slow down. We know the economy goes through cycles and if you are prepared for a bit of slowdown, all the things you are doing now to reduce expenses and make your company more efficient will compound your success when the economy bounces back. Make it happen!

© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

How do I handle stupid customers?

I hear people say that indirectly in many ways….."That person that just called was so dumb", or "WOW, what an idiot", or "I can't believe they don't understand what we're doing", or ... and the list goes on, you know what I'm talking about. Every time I hear people say that or complain about customers I have to wonder "does this company really run right, do they get it?"

Let's say a customer calls and says they don't know how to do something on your web site. The easy thing to do is just say that customer is a "dummy" and they just don't understand. The smart thing to do is to go to your web site and try to do what they just tried to do. See what may have tripped them up or caused them to pause or caused them to hit the wrong button.

When you do this, chances are you might just find what that "dummy" was saying was really happening and the input they gave you, the call they made will actually save you money in the long run. Look at the call as favor and quite possibly a wakeup call to get you off of autopilot and get you back engaged in the marketing and purchasing of your products or services.

Keep in mind insurance policies and other public information that people really want people to understand is written at an 8th grade level. I can't tell you how many times I see people use words in their marketing or the directions for buying or describing things that people just don't understand. That's either going to cause them to call you or leave without buying.

Do you want the call or a lost sale? For sure the goal is to get a sale without a call, but I'll take the call over a lost sale a million times a year! The next time you or someone at your place of business labels a customer question or call as stupid or dumb, take a minute and look for the "smartness" of the information they are telling you with their questions. When you start to look at your customer calls with this mindset, you'll not only get fewer calls but you'll get more sales! Make it happen!
© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC