by Ginger Marks  (Guest Blogger)

What is a business image? It is the unspoken representation of your business. It defines how others perceive what you do and who you are. Simply said, it is your business identity. The business that has no business image in place actually has a poor business image. Therefore it is important they you create an image today if you haven’t already done so.

When you consider what you want your business image to evolve into, think about the way you would want to be perceived. Would you personally go out in public without being properly groomed? I doubt it. The same holds true with your business. Things like, lack of stationary and re-used packaging illustrate to your customers that you are too cheap to or don’t consider them valuable. While you may think that being fugal, pinching a penny here will cut your bottom line, they may conceive this seemingly insignificant act to mean that you may not be in business the next time they need your services.

What are the critical components of a professional business image? There are several pieces to be considered. While the whole may be different for each individual business owner, there are five key elements that make up a solid business image that must be addressed. Can you guess what those five would be?

Let’s put our puzzle together.

1. Business Name & Tagline

Your business name is vital to you. It is one piece that cannot be ignored or taken lightly. Because you will carry this name with you for many years to come great care should be taken in the selection. It is not unheard of to change your business name, however each time you do you risk losing customers. So think carefully, get input from trusted friends and decided on the name that best fits your product or service.

Your business name should easily reveal who you are where your tagline should reveal what you do. Keep it simple. A long and complicated tagline is easily forgotten or confused. Take a cue from the corporate giants, short and sweet, direct and to the point, make for memorable taglines. See if you know these taglines. Most of these I am sure you will recognize are:

It’s the Real Thing

You’re In Good Hands

Bring Out the Best

Fly the Friendly Skies

The Ultimate Driving Machine

And my personal favorite

We Make YOU Look GOOD!

Here are the answers, how’d you do?

It’s the Real Thing – Coke

You’re In Good Hands – Allstate

Bring Out the Best – Hellmann’s

Fly the Friendly Skies – United

The Ultimate Driving Machine – BMW

We Make YOU Look GOOD! – DocUmeant Designs & Publishing

Be sure your tagline contains two important elements, that of emotional and functional words. It needs to quickly describe what you do. If you want to open a pet store, don’t simply name it The Pet Store, that’s a little stale. Try something memorable like, Paula’s Pet Emporium or Perfectly Petaculous. One note on personalizing your business name, if there is even a slight chance that you may want to sell your business in the future, leave off the personalization. I am sure given the choice, as a buyer, you would prefer not to buy the business just to turn around and have to change the name and lose those loyal clients.

1. Logo

Selection of your logo is of paramount importance. The three things to remember in designing your logo are that it is easily recognizable, matches the look and feel of what you wish to portray and the colors enhance the image.

When deciding on your logo a bit of soul searching and research before you begin the process is a very good place to start. Find out what is out there already, don’t imitate, be unique and creative. Use the competition as a starting point to give you some ideas, DON’T copy!

The colors you choose should be carried throughout all of your business materials. If you use red and green or blue and white – stay with them when designing your website and stationary.

Speaking of stationary, let’s move on to the importance of well designed business materials.

1. Stationary

Stationary items that should be considered are letterhead, envelopes, business card, and forms. Your local office supply store has a number of business forms available for your use at a reasonable cost. Nevertheless, what do your customers think or perceive when they receive them? Does it show permanence, longevity and commitment? Spending just a little more time and money to create forms and stationary that are uniform can greatly affect your business’ perceived value.

1. Marketing materials

Marketing materials should always carry your business identity. These items may be as small as a pen with only the name and address of the business. Items in this category should include brochure(s), flyers, coupon, gift certificates, card and postcards, and t-shirts, hats, and other giveaway items. Pens are often the giveaway item of choice; people tend to hold on to them, and if lost or shared the new owner has your information. We call this “shelf-life” or your product’s “life cycle.”

1. Storefront/Website

As mentioned earlier, your image gives your business a uniform look and feel when all of the elements retain a oneness. Your storefront/website is no exception. Whether online or offline this is your main source of customer interaction. Solidify your presence and demonstrate your credibility and reliability quickly. Let them know within the first few minutes what you do and how well you do it by presenting your unique business identity in the forefront of your business location.

Take a step back from your business; look at it through your customer’s eyes. If need be poll your customers to get a clearer vision. Once you have decided the image you want to represent you, use through your entire business. Be it fun and whimsical or clean and professional, your image is an unspoken representation of your business, becoming its identity. As such, it will speak for you more clearly than words.  When you have a complete business identity it ensures your customer will easily recognize who you are, what you do and demonstrate your competence.

I challenge you to define or review your current business image. Ask for customer feedback and then solidify your place in the market. With all your pieces carrying your single message you will further exclaim your permanence.

© Copyright 2011 Ginger Marks

Ginger Marks is the founder of the DocUmeant Family of Companies, We Make YOU Look GOOD! For more information, visit http://www.documeantdesigns.com/. Her annual edition of Holiday Marketing Guide, Your business-marketing calendar of ideas is available at http://www.HolidayMarketingGuide.com. She also offers a wealth of knowledge through her ezine Words of Wisdom available on her website.

Kevin Daum, Author

Kevin Daum – Guest Blogger 

During these tough times, being good or great is no longer good enough; you have to be awesome. When clients don’t sign with your company, there must be a reason they didn’t choose you. Sure, we’ll cover it by saying things like…“It’s the economy.”  Or “Their situation changed,” but they did move forward with somebody right?! More likely you just didn’t connect in a meaningful, compelling manner and your competition did. Perhaps you didn’t know how to say the right things to the right people in the right way. Or worse, you didn’t recognize that they weren’t all that interested before investing your resources. 

Most of us in these situations show up and throw up all the reasons why people should take what we have to offer without ever considering whether or not our product, service or idea actually benefits the particular, immediate pain suffered by the prospect. Partly of course because we believe that everyone needs what we have to offer. So how can you more effectively make a memorable connection with potential clients?

Establishing Compelling Messaging is the first step to successful promotional efforts. You have to establish empathy by identifying their pain. It lets the buyer know you get them.  Then you can provide an objective solution (too early to sell them just yet). Then once they trust your understanding of their problem, you have to clearly differentiate yourself. 

• Empathy – What is the pain your business will solve? It’s not about what you want, it’s about what they need, whether it’s potential investors or customers.
• Objectivity – Why try and force yourself into a situation where your business venture clearly will not fit.  Be objective about what works and what doesn’t. 
• Differentiation – There are lots of people with smart ideas. What makes yours different and unique? Unfortunately, great service and experience aren’t true differentiators since your competitors say the same thing.

ROAR Get Heard in the Sales and Marketing Jungle

You have gone to a lot of trouble to create an awesome solution and bring it to your customer.  Don’t waste your efforts!  Approach the opportunity by making it about them and you’ll likely find a client ready to let you solve their problem.

 Kevin Daum is the Author of the Amazon #1 Best Seller ROAR! Get Heard in the Sales and Marketing Jungle and the national columnist for Smart Business Magazine.  He can be found at www.KevinDaum.com

By D’vorah Lansky – Guest Blogger

Continuing on with our theme of in-person networking, today I am going to share with you three more tips for building relationships by attending in-person networking events.

1. Bring Friends, Colleagues, and Networking Buddies with You to Events and Introduce Them to Others
2. Develop a 30-60 Second Elevator Speech That Causes People to Say, “Tell Me More”
3. Get Together With People Over the Course of the Month

Bring Friends, Colleagues, and Networking Buddies with You to Events and Introduce Them to Others

Take someone from your BNI Chapter to your Chamber of Commerce meeting and introduce them to someone in their contact sphere or introduce them to people whom you feel would be a good connection for them.  This will again increase your value and your likeability factor as well as make you an invaluable member of the business community.  You will also be helping people at the Chamber of Commerce event to broaden their contact sphere as you help to connect them to people in your BNI Chapter, for example. 

Bring your Networking Buddies with you to events but don’t hang out with them the whole time.  Visit with them, introduce them to people and then go and mingle and encourage them to do the same. 

Previously I gave the example of making a simple introduction between a Realtor and mortgage loan office.  Following is an example of how to make a much warmer personal introduction. Let’s use the same example of a Realtor but this time, provide a warm introduction.

If you are speaking with a Professional Organizer and you know that her best referral source is Realtors. You may want to introduce her to one or more of the Realtors in the room.  A possible introduction could go like this, “Lisa, hi, I know that you are a Realtor specializing in selling homes in this area.  I’d like to introduce you to my good friend Donna.  Donna is a Professional Organizer and she specializes in helping to increase the value of homes with her Home Staging Services.  I thought that the two of you might enjoy meeting one another for a possible mutually beneficial relationship.”  This can increase the services that the Realtor offers to her clients and this can create a great alliance between these two professionals. 

Again, you increase your value and what you offer to the community and you are deepening your relationships.  As an additional benefit to you, you will become more easily referrable as you will be on their radar and thus you’ll be able to grow your business.

 Develop a 30-60 Second Elevator Speech That Causes People to Say, “Tell Me More”

Rather than saying, “Hi, my name is so and so and this is the name of of my business and I do this, that and the other thing and we have great stuff and you should go to our website and buy our stuff.”  First of all, people will tune you out.  This is a situation where the “less is more” factor comes into play.  Rather than telling them everything that you do, share with them something that causes them to say, “Tell me more”.

I’d like to share a story with you told to me by my very good friend Sasha.  She was at a luncheon for Financial Planners and being the conversationalist that she is, she turned to the person to the right of her and asked them, “what do you do?”  That person went on to tell her all about their financial planner services in great detail.  Next, Sasha turned to her left and asked, “what do you do?”  This person said, “I show people how to get their children to buy them an island”. 

Which person would you be more inclined to ask to tell you more?  So, what can you say to get people to ask you to tell them more?  You may want to practice on a few friends and let them know that you are working on your 30 second commercial and that your goal is to get people to ask you to tell them more.  Ask them if they would listen to what you’ve come up with and then give you their honest feedback.

  Get Together With People Over the Course of the Month

Select two or three people that you’d like to get to know better and schedule a time to meet with them over the next few weeks.  It’s a best practice to meet with at least one person a week, outside of networking events.  Some people make it a practice to meet with several people a week for coffee or over lunch.  People may not have their calendar with them, so set a tentative date and find out the best way to reach them to confirm that you both have the appointment in your calendars.  You don’t want to leave it up to chance with a note on the back of a business card as it might not make it into their calendar.  Ask them what the best way to reach them is.  You can say, “If I send you an emai confirming our appointment, will you be able to get back to me or would it be better if I call you? 

These days many people prefer email as they can get to it when they have a moment, it’s right there next to their calendar and it’s easy to reply back to you.  When you do go out with them, don’t use that time to give a sales pitch, use this as a time to get to know them and find out about their hobbies. This will strengthen that relationship.  This is also a great way for you to get ideas for who you can introduce them to in your network.  This increases your likeability factor and the value you are adding to the relationship.

I hope that the seven tips I shared over the course of this week, were helpful to you. Please feel free to leave a comment, share an idea or ask any questions. Consider taking one thing that you learned and putting into action within one week. I’d love to hear about your results.

Here’s to your success!  Happy Networing!

D’vorah Lansky – Guest Blogger

M.Ed and Relationship Marketing Wizard
www.RealtionshipMarketingCafe.com

A few posts back I spoke about my convoluted path to meeting Karen MacNab. Here is another example of how the path to someone is not always a straight line. Since it is a bit convoluted please stick with me. That is the point.

On pages 44-47 of  my book “Turn your Business Card into Business” I speak about the use of magnetic business cards as a useful device to deliver your message and encourage potential clients to keep your name accessible. These are ideal for ambulance and other emergency services; pizza and other food delivery services; and of course insurance and retail agents as well as others find them handy. While browsing through my local big box office supply store I encountered some prepackaged business card sized magnets with a pressure sensitive side that allows the user to afix their own business card to the magnetic material thus creating their own business card magnets in small quantities. I had seen these before and written about them but now it made me think that I should contact this company and see if we might be able to create some kind of alliance.

I contacted the company and was solidly rebuffed by the marketing manager who did not even care to entertain the notion. Figuring that I was not dealing with the decision maker anyway I decided to move up the food chain. Somewhere online I discovered that Chuck Rizzo was the president of the company and decided to take my proposal to him. This however did not end well either as I absolutely could not get through the gate keepers. In a last attempt I sent a book off to Chuck but still did not hear back.

Fast forward almost 2 years later and I read a post at LinkedIn by Chuck Rizzo explaining how he managed to get his product into a major big box office suppply store after being turned down by the product buyer because he sent the product directly to the company president via FedX. Great story. But why was it not my story? I responded to Chuck via LinkedIn and told him how I had tried in vain to get through to him to no avail.

About one day later my phone rings and it is Chuck Rizzo calling to explain that shortly before I tried to contact him he had actually sold the company and left. We had a good laugh! I wondered why the people I spoke to did not at least tell me that Chuck was no longer there. But then I understand that they felt there was not need to help me.

As far as Chuck was concerned we ended up having a nice conversation for about 30 minutes during which he told me about the many items he had developed and marketed through many of the major mass merchandisers. He had left his original company because he wanted to persue what he did best which is develop products and help others develop and sell products that can be distributed through mass merchandisers.

It seems Chuck Rizzo and I did not meet under the circumstances I had imagined but we did ultimately connect and I believe he will be a friend and valuable business contact for me and others in my network. If you have a product or know someone that has a product suitable for a mass market that needs further development and marketing assistance. Take a look at Chuck’s website.  http://www.takemenational.com .

The path to your goal may not be the straight line you envisioned. Continue to reach out and grow your network. Today is June 1st and Day 36 of my challenge to meet 100 new people in 50 days and Chuck Rizzo is number 60. You can see I need to meet 40 more people in the next two weeks so if there is someone you think I should meet let me know.

We are happy to announce that every Friday begining Friday June 4th this site will feature a different guest blogger here at the Business Card to Business Blog. The purpose of this blog is to share ideas about networking with an emphasis on face-to-face networking and the use of business cards to reinforce your message and deliver your contact information. But we also talk about online networking, social media, marketing and other items of interest to owners of small businesses, those with products and services to promote and entrepreneurs in general.

Be sure to stop by at least one a week or use the RSS feed to remind you.

GUEST BLOGGER SCHEDULE

Update:

August 20     Lonnie Sciambi       “The Entrepreneur Yoda”

August 27     Chuck Rizzo               Marketing to the Masses

September 03   Lynda O’Connor    Radio Interview Tips

September 10   Charlie Newman   Negotiation is a Part of Life

Today I took the el downtown to meet with the American Marketing Association – Chicago Meetup (AMA).  I’ve met with this group before and find the discussions insightful. The group is primarily professionals sharing ideas about trends in marketing, advertising and public relations. The format is to give five or six attendees a chance to share a marketing related objective or challenge then let the group weigh in on how to attack the problem. I got the opportunity to tell about AuthorsBroadCast.com then get some feedback on how I might improve my marketing strategy in regard to getting the message of my video book trailer production service disseminated to more authors and publishers. I had a chance to meet several people but there was no official card swap so I did not get a chance to really key in on more than those who were in my immediate vicinity. For the most part this is not an entrepreneurial networking meeting where people are seeking publicity so in the case of a few folks I will use only first names to tell about the new people I met.

 This next bit of the story may seem a bit misplaced but this is a post about marketing, so why not a little case study of my consumer experience with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).

I have to begin by telling you that I am not an avid rider of the CTA. Okay I admit it. However my wife rides everyday which I feel is support enough for both of us. I have a home office and if I have to go someplace I tend to walk if it’s within 2 miles or jump in the car and drive. I avoid going into the loop if possible. I also avoid far Western Suburbs too so that pretty much limits my range. Well in the past week or so I have had a number of downtown meetings to attend and frankly the thirty dollar parking tabs were starting to chap me a bit. So today I thought, “Okay I’ll take the el.” I live fairly close to the Brown Line and the meeting was right near LaSalle and Lake so I had no excuse to do otherwise. 

Now this is where a good idea starts getting complicated. My wife has a nifty CTA smart card pass of some kind that I know little about. I had an old CTA transit card left behind by a visiting niece but had no idea how much value it had if any. I would have preferred to take the bus and do this thing right. But instead I began my journey by DRIVING to the Western Brown Line stop so that I could purchase a transit card. When I got there, it turned out the old transit card was expired! The attendant ran it through another card reader and told me it had seventy-five cents remaining but that was not enough to make a claim. So now I am already a little tiffed. Where does the CTA get off telling me that my seventy-five cents is not important. Maybe it is to me. Maybe I want to give that ticket to some homeless guy. Why do I have to donate my niece’s seventy-five cents to the CTA? Yikes! Okay I can get past that for the moment. But I seem to remember that Lisa Madigan cracked down on the expiring store gift cards. How is it that the CTA got a pass on this scam? 

So now I go to the machine to buy a transit card only to find it does not take credit cards. Boy that’s really user friendly. The parking meters and garages downtown take credit cards, but not the CTA! As it turns out I have four twenty dollar bills in my pocket. But I do not want a $20 transit card. I am not sure how soon I will be enjoying another adventure like this and I just made a seventy-five sent forced donation. I only want a ten dollar transit card however the machine does not give change. Now I understand the challenges related to capping a leaking oil pipe in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico but I cannot understand why the CTA cannot find a vendor with the technology necessary to accept credit cards or give change back on a purchase. It’s a twenty dollar transit card for me or nothing. 

Business cards from the AMA May 2010 meeting

As it turns out I have to go park my car someplace anyway so I leave the Western el station, transit cardless with no firm plan. I need to change this $20 bill. I am sure you know just how accommodating small retail stores are when it comes to this request. “May I give you a twenty dollar bill and take all of your singles and fives.” I really could not stand the indignation of the possibility of this rejection and began harboring thoughts of driving downtown. I decided to drive aimlessly following the Brown Line south as I made my decision. 

Within a few minutes I was at Montrose and spotted a Laundromat. Ha! That’s the ticket. Laundromats need to make change they probably have a machine and I will not have to discuss my situation with anyone, simply an anonymous change machine. I can even imagine how it would look. Just like the one at the car wash near my house with the slot indicating which way to insert your bill illustrated by the outline of George Washington facing in the proper direction and lit up by a little red L.E.D.s. Silk screened on the case would be large white lettering indicating $5 – $10 – $20 BILLS. Perfect! 

Almost miraculously I found a parking spot just off Montrose on a side street with no permit parking signs anywhere to be seen. I walked swiftly and purposely to the Laundromat and searched in vain for the glittering casinolike bill changer that would transform my twenty dollar bill into twenty singles. At this point I would settle for eighty quarters. After about two laps around the establishment I finally asked the attendant if there was a machine that could change my twenty dollar bill. “Oh no we can’t give change for a twenty. We can only give change if you do laundry.” Yikes!! 

Alright so this story does have a relatively happy ending. Back out on the street I notice a currency exchange near the train entrance. I figure even if I have to pay them seventy-five cents I’d rather stimulate their economy. At least they would be providing a service. However happily I discovered that they sold ten dollar CTA transit cards with no additional premium. At last I was on my way. 

For discussion. How in the world can the CTA be serious about increasing rider ship and getting gas guzzling drivers like me out of their cars when I cannot even figure out how to pay them for the privilege? 

Arriving at the meeting I was cheerfully greeted by the assistant organizer Alex Yates whose business card describes him as a “Marketing Mad Man.” Probably not half as mad as I was twenty minutes earlier. I had some nice interaction with Steve Forstneger, Editor of the Illinois Entertainer your source for finding who’s performing where in the Chicago and environs pop music scene. Two previous networking buddies Fredrick Dudek, and market research expert Jonathan, who I met a few weeks ago at the LinkedIn event. Karen Flannery is also a market research maven with Thoroughbred Research Group. Gary was job seeker with an MBA from U of C who also has an IT background looking to apply his skills to marketing and Andrea currently between assignments doing freelance work. Andrea did not have an official business card with her but she did have a blank calling card with an embossed imprint of two hands clasped in greeting with the words PLEASED TO MEET YOU! Under which she wrote her name informing me that we could connect at LinkedIn. I actually respect Andrea’s approach. I have written previously about the fact that women are often reluctant to give their phone numbers and emails too freely at networking events. I think this is a very acceptable solution. So in my quest to meet 100 new people in 50 days I am adding Steve, Karen, Andrea and Gary. Bringing my total to 35 after 21 days. Seems I better step up my game a bit. Be sure to follow me as I stumble along by car, by rail or on foot.

Reno Lovison and Bruce Montgomery

This is an interview with Bruce Montgomery of Technology Access Televison discussing with Reno Lovison the relevance of business cards in today’s business environment. This is a 9 minute segment and is part one of a two part program. Enjoy and comment.

This is an expanded version of a question I answered at LinkedIn. The question was essentially this. “If you had $1,000.00 to promote your health and beauty spa business, how would you spend it?  This answer will be of particular interest to those in the health and beauty industry but is applicable to any local service providers looking to expand their business. 

First of all $1,000.00 is not a big budget so you need to consider how you can leverage that money. By leverage I mean that you need to ask yourself “how can I invest my money so that it works the hardest?” One way to leverage advertising dollars is through co-op advertising. An example of co-op advertising might be an ad that offers a free bottle of “Lady Lovely Skin Softening Lotion” to everyone who books a spa treatment in the month of June. In this scenario “Lady Lovely” picks up some portion of the ad and/or supplies the free product. If “Lady Lovely” pays half the cost you just doubled your advertising budget. 

Another way to leverage your marketing budget is to get others to help you spread the word. The objective of most advertising, marketing or promotional efforts is to get someone, who you do not know, to take action by using your product or service. What if you were to change that a little and make the objective – - to get people, who you do know, to introduce your service to other people they know. Now you are leveraging your investment by using your minimal funds to mobilize a free or nearly free sales force of happy clients. This approach has the additional benefit of target marketing because you know who your clients are, so marketing to them should be rather simple. Presumably you see them periodically; you have their email address, home addresses and phone numbers; and they are following you on twitter and facebook. So you have a number of low cost ways to communicate with them

Relaxing at the spa

So the plan here is to create a promotion whereby current clients and known prospects are encouraged to bring a friend, recommend a friend, or in some way get someone else that they know to take action. In return both she and her friend derive some benefit from taking action. The bulk of your $1,000.00 marketing budget should be used to communicate with your clients and motivate them to take action. You can further leverage your budget by getting a supplier to co-op the promotion. providing all or part of the reward or promotional bonus.

The Internet is an important part of the marketing mix but when promoting a local business such as a spa I prefer to see efforts that include face-to-face marketing and building word-of-mouth. These efforts have the most direct and immediate impact. A key element to the success of a low cost local promotion is to leverage the efforts of your employees, partners, family, and other people who are stakeholders in the success of your business. These individuals should be marketing this promotional effort through face-to-face efforts on a daily basis. They must explain the benefits of the promotion to every client they work with or person they meet in the weeks leading up to the promotion and also make an effort to market the promotion to interested non-clients they encounter.

 In the case of a health and beauty spa nearly everyone you meet would love to take advantage of your services. So how come everyone you have met and everyone you know in your community has not sampled your service?  What holds them back are things like fear of the unknown. What are you going to do to me when I get in there?  Is this going to be expensive? I don’t have time. I am not deserving of special treatment. I don’t want to do this alone. I only want to do this alone. In don’t know what to wear. I am too fat, too skinny, too tall too short. This is only for rich beautiful people. It is the purpose of your promotion to overcome these fears and objectives and get people to sample what you have to offer. In this way they have the potential to become regular customers but more importantly they have the ability to spread the word and help others overcome their fear and anxiety.

Tell everyone you meet. What you have to offer.

 Are you so busy every hour of the day every day of the week that you cannot offer some kind of sample service to the next ten people you meet who have never been in your spa? I have a friend that owns a carwash. Without fail whenever he meets a new person he mentions his carwash and gives them a business card good for one free carwash. By the way everyone thinks he is the nicest guy. Some people use it, some don’t. Some people use it and never come back and others become regular customers. That’s the cost of doing business and in the long run he is a winner. You might say, “Well that’s fine for a car wash but my services are much more expensive.” No matter what you have to sell, your sample is in direct proportion to what you stand to gain. So your sample service may be worth $100.00 but you have the potential to earn hundreds of dollars if that person becomes a customer. Also in the case of services, you are selling your time. If you don’t use that time productively you cannot get it back. Therefore if you have one free hour a day that is not being paid for by a client why not invest that hour in your business and make it part of your marketing budget? Think about it. If you have a free hour worth $100.00 you might think, “I don’t want to give away an hour of my time.” On the other hand to spend $1,000.00 in advertising you will need to work more than 10 hours so that you have that money to spend on an ad campaign that may or may not work. I met a cardiologist at meeting who was a partner in a heath club not too far from my home. When he learned where I lived he pulled four business cards out of his wallet and handed them to me. Each card was a one day pass at his facility that I could use at any time. Let me tell you I was grateful to receive them and happily used them. Though I did not become a full time member I often recommend that facility. It is a beautiful place and they specialize in cardio rehab. I believe my recommendation has more value because I can say I have used the facility. I know what it is like inside and often tell people how much I like their running track and fitness machines. In this way for the price of four visits Dr. Cardio converted me into a salesperson for his facility.

 In addition to being an advocate of word of mouth advertising and the author of “Turn Your Business Card Into Business,” I also produce web videos. In my downtime I will often prepare, for a prospective client, a voice-over that has the potential to be the basis of a short 30 second or one minute video. I record these voice-overs using a few minutes of downtime while I am in my studio. I can tell you that the percentage of people who purchase a production after hearing the sample voice-over is in excess of 50%. This is becoming one of my standard marketing approaches.

 The first most important step of any promotional effort is to know what outcome you are looking for. In this scenario I want to achieve an outcome of 50 new prospective clients. I suggest that a spa owner use that $1,000.00 budget to motivate current clients to bring a friend or to encourage people within a 5 – 10 mile radius of the spa to experience the facility. Leverage your investment by getting product suppliers to help in your promotion. Encourage your employees and/or contractors to invest some portion of their downtime to provide free introductory services in return for receiving their share of new customers.

 Whether the prospects become regular customers is not as important as whether they can tell other people that they have been to the spa and would recommend it. Make them part of the ongoing effort by rewarding them for bringing a friend. I would use email, social media, posters, flyers and business cards to encourage word-of-mouth. If you have the goal of brining in 50 people to sample the spa or attend a special event, that gives you a budget of $20 per person to get them there. If you can get each new visitor to spend $20 while they are there you can break even on your effort. Then “rinse and repeat” monthly until it stops working.

Guest Blog  By Bonnie Ross-Parker

Remember the Total Cereal commercial a few years back? You’ll have to eat ten bowls of the leading brand to get the same nutrition that’s in one bowl of Total!  The advertiser’s point is clear: If you want better nutrition for less calories (not to mention money!), you’ll logically choose the “one-bowl” alternative. This same principle applies to business. Experts say that only one percent of all cold calls ever convert into sales. Imagine! How many calls do you need to make each day to close the number of sales necessary to stay in business? Even if you can stomach the rejection, the fruit you reap is far too sparse in proportion to the amount of time and effort you invest.

What’s the “one-bowl” solution? Try networking! Statistics show that you can boost your chances of closing a sale from 40 to 90 percent. You’ll generate more qualified leads in less time than any other marketing effort . . . if you do it right. That’s the catch. Networking blunders hurt your business credibility, shutting the door to sales — not only with one person, but sometimes with a whole “grapevine” of prospects.

What can you do to minimize mistakes and make the most of your networking time and money?

1. Go for the gold. List your best clients. Where do you find more like them? Find out what organizations they belong to and ask to be their guest for an upcoming function. This way you network with people who have established credibility in the group, are familiar with you and your work, and are willing to introduce you to key prospects.

2. Commit to action. The adage rings true in networking as in any activity: “You get out what you put in.” Seek to be an active player and leader in whatever group you join. High-level involvement gives you and your business greater exposure to prospects, by revealing your personal qualities — whether it’s being a go-getter or a visionary — this helps build your credibility.

3. Come fully prepared. Oh the power of first impressions! Forgetting to bring business cards, promotional material, or your appointment book to a networking function is worse than not attending at all. This conveys a sense of amateurism that will turn off prospects and keep potential “gatekeepers” from passing you leads. When you show others you’re serious about your business, people will take you seriously.

4. Be concise. Tell others what you do — in one sentence — in a way that makes them hungry to know more. A long description may result in losing people’s attention — which in turn can affect future sales or referrals.

5. Speak confidently. Admit it. You’re an expert in your business. If you weren’t, clients wouldn’t pay their hard earned money for your products or services. Use networking functions as an opportunity to share your business accomplishments. This way people feel greater confidence in both passing you “hot” leads and seeking to do business with you.

6. Listen intently. Ask questions. Clarify statements. Listen for expressed needs that your business might be able to meet. When you demonstrate you genuinely want to understand other people and their businesses, you will build greater rapport, opening the doors for sales opportunities.

7. Give first. If you appear as a “taker,” people will notice. They will feel uncomfortable around you and avoid you the next time they see you. Give leads, gifts, marketing ideas, or offer to buy lunch. Remember this: when you have given nothing, ask for nothing.

8. Follow-up! Follow up! Follow up! Show your prospects that you’re thinking of them. Fax them articles relevant to their interests. Don’t just say, “We need to do lunch sometime.” Take initiative to set a date. When your actions correspond with your words, people trust you and feel comfortable passing leads. One must earn credibility. Do what you commit to do.

Bottom line: Networking works. The days of the hit-and-run salesperson are over. Those who succeed in today’s marketplace know how to build long-term relationships, which in turn creates a steady stream of repeat business and hot referrals.

Bonnie Ross-Parker is a multi-dimensional entrepreneur, speaker and author. She’s passionate about sharing strategies on effective connectng for effective results. Bonnie, a.k.a. “America’s Connection Diva”, delivers customized keynotes and workshops especially in the direct selling/network marketing industries. Learn more about her business networking organization for women, The Joy of Connecting. 

www.TheJoyofConnecting.com

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, work for a health club or you’re a freelance health and fitness trainer you have a responsibility to grow your clientele. If you own your own facility or freelance your very business survival depends on getting new customers. If you work for someone, you may feel it is your employer’s responsibility to find clients; this is partially true. However health and fitness training is a personal service and people ultimately choose who they want to work with based on competency as well as personality and other individual qualities. Ultimately your clients will stay with you because they like what you do for them and they like you. As an employee you have a chance to build your own clientele who will follow you no matter where you go and will be happy to refer you to others. Also if you have a reputation for bringing in business, you are more valuable to your employer and more likely to receive appropriate benefits for your added effort.

All forms of advertising and marketing are important but building word-of-mouth referrals is the least expensive and most effective particularly when growing a local service business. The easiest way to instigate referrals is by distributing business cards. Identifying prospects is often the most challenging part of building a business but the good news for you is that everyone with a body is a good prospect for you. People either want to loose weight, get more fit or simply tone up some problem areas. It is likely you can help with all of these objectives. So with this in mind what stops you from giving a business card to absolutely everyone you meet? They have a need and you provide a solution. It is that simple.

So how many business cards did you pass out yesterday? How many will you pass out tomorrow? Every encounter with another human being is another opportunity to tell someone what you do. Don’t hesitate. Simply say something like “I’m a fitness trainer. If you would like some assistance toning up or if you know someone who does, here is my card. Have your card ready and don’t oversell. If they are interested they will ask questions. If not they know how to find you with the info on your card. Don’t forget to give cards to your current clients as well. Just say, “I still have some time open and I’m looking for a few more clients. If you know anyone who might like to train with me here are a few cards to pass along.” Your clients like you and they are probably happy to recommend you but sometimes they need a reminder.

Put some cards in your pocket or bag now! Be sure to have at least one with you at all times. Try to pass out three business cards a day on average. In that way you will distribute about 1,000 cards per year. If you spoke personally to 1,000 people and gave each of them a business card do you think that would grow your business?  Don’t wait start today. To learn more business card marketing tips purchase “Turn Your Business Card Into Business.” This is an easy to read 148 page paperback with ideas you can use immediately. Visit www.businesscardtobusiness.com to learn more.