MinuteWithMike

Happy New Year!

Hope you had a great break and are raring to go in 2010 with your new marketing plans.

Over the holidays, we spent a few days at Disneyland in California.

My twin 9 year old daughters were bouncing off the walls. It was their first time, and my first time in a few decades.

One of the first things I noticed was the impact the recession had on Disney… or not.

The line-ups began at 8 am, just to go through the security tent where they searched people’s bags. Then the next line-up was to pay to get in the gates.

It took 30 minutes just to get to the point where I could hand over my $600 for the 4 of us.

That bought us a 2 day park-hopper pass, so we could go to either Disneyland or California Adventure, located right next to each other. Hundreds of other people were in the line-ups behind me eager to hand over their money too.

In an average day at Disneyland, well over 125,000 people will cough up their money at the gates as well. Not a bad way to go, just to get in the park. And they were running at full capacity during the holidays… while we all were immersed in a nasty recession.

Mickey’s Lesson #1: Charge the big bucks, and don’t discount just because everyone else does! My parents were with us at Disney and they too had to pay full price at the gates.

No senior discounts.

No discounts for just walking the park without going on the rides.

Full price, for everyone.

While in line to pay, I heard one guy trying every possible way in the book to get a deal… from seniors discounts… to pulling the “investor” angle… to asking if he could buy a “corporate” pass instead of an individual one. The gal at the window just politely kept telling him no to each of his requests. He never turned away ranting and raving about this, he just handed over his Amex for his full-price tab (he even looked happy about it… maybe he got the lesson too).

Now we are through the gates! And my kids facing turned to frowns as we started walking. “This is NOT what I thought Disney was!” Hailey mumbled to me. She was referring to Downtown Disney you have to walk through to get to the actual rides.

Dozens of stores line the road, and you have no choice but to walk past all the stores to get anywhere near a ride. Right out of the gate, you are subtly being trained to buy things. From the massive Disney Store, to the quaint little shops to get your customized Mickey Mouse ear hats, there was already a great selection of places you can spend more money.

Mickey’s Lesson #2: Once you have charged them the big bucks, offer them more items to purchase right away. The $30 mouse ears price tag doesn’t nearly seem as high after dropping $600!

Walt Disney himself mastered the art of cross selling (buying the Park Hopper pass instead of a single park pass), down selling (downtown Disney was packed with tastefully done stores that had every possible kind of knick-knack you could ever want), and up selling (if you want to stay at THE best hotel possible, their Grand California Hotel and Spa will gladly take your $1,897.04 for 2 nights accommodation (they throw in the Park Hopper passes with your accommodations though). $300 more for a room with a view of the park. $1,400 more for 2 nights in their One Bedroom Artisan Suite.

The Key?

Make it seamless.

One store connects to the next.

One theme feeds into the next.

By the time you make it through the gates, through downtown, you are out of pocket a grand, minimum.

And people lining up for the pleasure to do this…because they aren’t here to buy things.

Mickey’s Lesson #3: The reason Disney has become a 36 Billion Dollar Empire is that they are the absolute MASTERS at selling the experience. Once you step inside their park, you are in their world now, and they will give you something you won’t find anywhere else in the world.

In the Disney world, fantasy IS reality. And their fantasy world is incredible. If you could close your eyes as a kid and step into the most incredible world imaginable, Disney is it.

Seeing Goofy off to the side doing what he does best…. goofing around with the kids.

Getting your picture taken with Mickey.

Having Mr Incredible Flex his muscles for you while he signs your autograph book (which is for sale, by the way, for only $8).

Seeing princesses, Muppets, parades, and ohhhhhhhh the rides!

The Disney experience is unmatched.

My dad was walking beside me and asked if I thought they had made chewing gum illegal because there wasn’t a single bit of gum to be seen on the sidewalks.

I saw why one day when a piece of gum was spotted by one of their actors (each employee there is a part of the experience). He had his backpack and trolley at his side while he scraped up what he could of the gum. Then, after scraping up all that he could, he sprayed some form of liquid on it, and then scrubbed it, leaving that spot on the sidewalk immaculate right alongside the rest of them. Over a piece of gum!

Nothing is left to destroy the illusion of another world.

In the Disney World, everything is perfect.

Except for the line-ups.

Mickey’s Lesson #4: Make it as easy as you can to get people experiencing as much as possible of your world.

They have implemented the Fast Pass system to help you get in as many rides as possible. The rides with the greatest wait times have Fast Pass capability. You go up to these little machines, insert your day pass, and out spits your Fast Pass.

Having this little Fast Pass card lets you skip the main line-up… but you can only use it in certain designated time slots.

So, if you get a Fast Pass for Pirates of The Caribbean (awesome ride) at 10, you may not be able to use it until the 2-3 pm time slot.

But that means you can go take in a bunch of other rides with shorter wait times, and then know for a fact that at 2:00 you can skip the one hour wait at the Pirates ride and go right up to the near front of line (you still wait… but only for 5-10 minutes, instead of 60 minutes).

Great system… if you know how to use it and are organized enough to know which rides you want to do when… and you plan your day around it.

The point is that it does allow you to get in more rides and experience more of their world.

Why is this important?

Mickey’s Lesson #5: Once you have in your world, make sure you give them ample ways to remember it after they leave.

This is especially important when selling a service or experience like this.

After every single ride, you exit the ride and are presented with an opportunity to buy a picture ($20) of you on the ride.

They have strategically placed cameras that take a snap shot of you at the best parts (usually when you are screaming or going real fast).

(Lots of people now have camera phones so they are opting to take a photo of the TV screen showing your picture, but lots of people were lining up to pay the $20 for a single photo in hard copy).

The key is though that you get lots of pictures of your experience at the park. You will show it to friends and family.

You will post them on Facebook, or use them in articles:o)

You will gladly share your experiences at the park, and will do everything in your power to build it up to be the most incredible adventure you have ever taken.

It helps justify what you spent… and it definitely helps sell the Disney world to your friends and family.

The more you help your buyers remember the experience and give good stories they can tell their friends and family, the easier it becomes to sell others on the experience.

Question for you: There are 5 critically important points I just made here. I have about 30 others I learned there that I will also share later.

For now though, how can you use these in YOUR business?

1. How can you charge the big bucks for your products and services, without worrying about competition or price resistance?

Are you offering enough high ticket items or bundles? If not, who could you partner with that can offer other products and services you could bundle with your own?

Yes, you need low ticket items too – but you MUST have some high ticket, high priced, high value products, services and experiences you could create.

Remember the Million Dollar Lobster story I have shared here before?

If not, do a search for it.

Those 2 brothers created a million dollar empire selling commodity type products because they realized that the top of the market wanted more than a lobster dinner… they wanted bragging rights and a GREAT story their could share with their dinner guests.

They sold an experience in an industry that had never seen such a thing… and built a million dollar empire in a few months. They found a way to take a $10 commodity item, and turn it into a $3,000 membership. How could you do this?

2. Do you have enough products or services you are offering them right from the beginning? You may already know about offering more than one product or service. But are you letting your brand new buyers know what you have to offer? Soon enough?

Not months from date of their first purchase… but right after.

Give them ways to know and understand who you are and what ALL you can offer them.

NEVER assume that they know… they don’t.

It is your responsibility to make sure you give them enough education about you, your business, your offerings, and your differences on what makes you the one to buy from.

Do you have system in place to walk them through your complete product/service portfolio?

With a new year upon us, NOW is the time to start.

Create your offer plan and make sure every new and old customer has multiple chances to see it.

3. How can you become an absolute MASTER at selling the experience you offer?

This is not something that is natural for entrepreneurs. If it was, Disney wouldn’t be the biggest and best at it… they would have a ton of competitors all as successful as they are.

Selling the experience is something we ALL need to work more diligently at.

Most buying experiences are not an experience at all.

Rather a simple transaction that happens and is done with… for good.

Or, in the internet marketing space, you buy a product and get HAMMERED with emails once or twice a day offering you the next magic bullet.

That is NOT an experience!

That is an insult.

A real experience leaves them wanting more.

Leaves them jumping up and down to share their stories with their friends.

Has them sharing their photos with everyone.

And is not to be found in your industry… yet.

How can YOU become the master at selling an experience in your niche, unlike anything anyone has ever done before?

4. Are you giving them enough ways to fast track their experience with you? Are you offering them samples of your other products or services?

Are you giving them a free trial of your new membership program? Are you making it easy for first time buyers to feel like experienced buyers?

Are you giving them the chance to step inside your world and look around quickly and easily to all you can offer?

Disney has a park map they give away. It shows you everything you can do… and the exact paths that take you through the experience.

Are you making it easy enough for people to see in a visual way what you can do for them and what they should be looking forward to?

5. Are you giving them ample ways to remember you after they leave or buy? Not by inundating them with more junk emails.

Have you found ways to increase the perceived value of what you provide?

Disney gives you ample opportunities to take photos with Mickey, Goofy, and 100 other characters. Those photos will go in photo albums and remembered for years, decades to come. And other people who see them wish they had memorabilia like that as well.

How can you make it easier for your clients to remember you, to tell the stories about their experiences with you, or to give them such and incredible experience that they can’t wait to come back again… credit cards in hand?

I am not saying the answers to these questions are easy. But they ARE important.

Plus, with a brand new year in front of us, now is the PERFECT time to figure it out.

I will share more of the lessons I learned from the $36 Billion Dollar Mouse next week.

Till then…

To your success

Troy White PS: If you want a quick and dirty blueprint for creating the ultimate marketing plan for 2010, a new year is here and these plans will have you up and running in no time. PPS: This article was originally written for Clayton Makepeace and his Total Package blog. Every Thursday you will find one of my articles, along with a daily post from other contributing editors. Troy D. White http://www.smallbusinesscopywriter.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Troy_White

I’ve been in business for myself for over 20 years now, and while my first venture did not fair so well, I did learn a lot about marketing myself and what would be expected of me if I wanted to succeed as an entrepreneur.

Small business owners are a unique group of individuals, we spend hours on end searching for ways to acquire new customers. Marketing can be a walk in the park for some, or stressful for others. The key of course is to understand what types of marketing are out there, and which are right for your business and goals.

It’s a new year, and if you have yet to hunker down and create a marketing plan of action – I encourage you to do that now, right away, before you send your marketing budget in so many directions you lose grip of it.

Choose marketing strategies that fit with your overall goals and simply consistent with it. You’ll come find soon enough that your small business marketing budget will be better controlled and produce more fruit.

I’ll share with you several small business marketing methods I have used, a couple you may already know, while the other may seem a little foreign to you. Don’t worry, I’ll explain each to you.

It’s important to choose the marketing strategies that’ll work the best for your small business. By doing so, you’ll be in a better position to point your marketing budget in the right direction.

Let’s start with “Blanket Marketing” – This is normally used by bigger corporations, and basically means spending your marketing funds on advertising to all target markets, no demographics involved or filling a void…just market to any and everyone it can. Companies and businesses choose this method for magazine or newspaper advertising. Unless money is no object to your budget, this method has no control of who your message of reaching, however it will also reach a larger pool. The cons to this strategy is COST. Using the blanket method will cost you a pretty and at the same time you won’t be reaching who you really want to. YOUR target market. I mean that’s the whole point right? You want to reach those who would be more likely to buy your new clothing line or your new soft drink, or maybe you have an amazing new product altogether that a certain market would be interested in. THOSE are the consumers you want to reach.

Okay, enough with the blanket talk I’m getting tired. Which reminds me, I have to pick up a new comforter. Moving on to “Targeted Marketing”, I’m sure you’ve heard of this one before. A method in which you choose a specific target market (or demographic) and only focus your marketing there, not over here. THERE.

The beauty about target marketing is that you are more likely to increase interest and revenue be reaching the right people. Sounds simple enough, but many businesses are missing the mark and prefer going the route of blanket marketing, hence losing a lot of potential profits and wasting valuable energy. I don’t know about you, but losing money is not why I got into business for myself.

So it pays to have a market in mind, and work on reaching that audience.

And finally, marketing your business through social networks.

SMM (Social media marketing) is when you promote your brand/business by making your presence known within social media networks (such as Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, MySpace, etc). Building your fan base, getting followers and growing your friends.

You have to keep in mind that the key to social media marketing is that it’s not really there to provide instant business, but rather increase your business or brand visibility to ultimately convert “friends” into buying customers. You can blog and post in forums to try and harness some new business. The con side however is that social media marketing can be a lot like blanket marketing.

So there you go, all you need to do now is figure out which marketing is right for your business and focus your energy there.

Nic Soto is the co-founder Public Relations Depoto, a U.S. based PR marketing based in Chicago, IL. Employing a staff of 8, the firm’s business comes from around the world, with clients from every industry. Offering inexpensive and small business marketing solutions: Press Release Writing, Mass Media Distribution, Brand Visibility, Link Building, Reputation Management and Search Engine Optimization. Mrs. Soto can also be found on Twitter @MamaPR. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nic_Soto

Most business owners are now doing market research in order to determine the probability of success for their business. By doing market research, business owners are able to test if their products and services will gain the interest of a lot of people and also this allows determining the weak points in the business that they are handling. Knowing how to do market research will help in increasing the likelihood of your business becoming a success.

In doing your market research, you should formulate some questions that you need that can be answered by market research. It can be a new product or service that your business has obtained and also if you want to change locations or other things. You should also be able to monitor business trends that are available online and also in magazines, newspapers and trade journals. This will enable you to determine what are the things that people are looking for and also what they need.

After doing this, you need to be able to talk to the future consumers of the product or if your product or service is old, you can talk to people that have used your product and or services. The best way to find this out is to conduct a survey or a focus group discussion so that you will be able to hear the points of views of other people. These are some ideas on how to do market research.

Most business owners need to do market research so that they will be able to determine the viability of introducing a new product or service. You can use different avenues to do surveys or to know what your main customers are looking for and what they need. The internet is a good way to conduct a survey that you need in order to be able to accommodate a large number people.

Also, creating some sort of email list or telephone list so that you can randomly call or email someone and ask them about their perspectives on a product and or service. Most experts on how to do market research will tell you that you should research the same means of selling your product. If you are selling online, then do a survey or a forum online, if you are selling via stores, you can conduct surveys in the store itself.

If you are selling online, then do a survey or a forum online, if you are selling via stores, you can conduct surveys in the store itself. To learn more about marketing online for free Click Here. Or to see how Troy Pryczek can mentor you to market online, and to claim you’re FREE! Internet marketing Boot Camp visit http://www.BecomeAnOnlineGuru.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Troy_Pryczek

Developing, writing and implementing a successful marketing plan starts with solid industry and market analysis and concludes with an implementable marketing strategy and program. A marketing plan is not developed and implemented independently; rather, it should be developed in close coordination with your company’s products and services and ultimately implemented through a strategic plan.

There is a certain approach and building-block process to developing a marketing plan. The place to start is analyzing your industry: its current state; who the major participants are; changes in the industry; opportunities; economic modeling forecasts; and examining who else may enter the industry. Then move toward determining how distribution works in your industry and how technology affects its distribution systems.

After your analysis on the industry level is complete, it is time to narrow your focus to analyzing and defining your market segments. Some example determinants are demographics, geography, customer needs, buying pattern and psychographics. With these segments defined and analyzed, analyze each market segment and determine how the market needs lead these identified groups to buy your products and services. Focus not on what you have to sell but more importantly, on the buyer needs you satisfy. Determine why customers buy from you.

You can now narrow down your target markets, determining what market groups are more important to your operation, along with, the market niches you can effectively target. It is vital to determine what your target customers’ needs and characteristics are, along with, what makes certain target groups more advantageous to market than others.

The next step in the marketing plan development process is to analyze market trends from a strategic standpoint. Look at market trends as a way to get ahead of the market direction, knowing with a probability of certainty where it is going. You can now realistically project your market growth and specific growth rates. The growth rate projections should identify in detail the relationship between your potential customers, sales, revenues and ultimately, profits.

Explain the nature of your competition, why customers choose one provider over the other, and why customers will buy from your company instead of these competitors. Provide a detailed competitive summary of your products’ and services’ variables, ranking them in comparison to your competition. Example variables include pricing, sales, trends, positioning clarity, quality, value, reputation, packaging, advertising, customer service, target market focus, innovation, brand awareness and so forth. Determine your top five competitive strengths and weaknesses, as well as, identifying your top competitive gap threats. Finally, determine how competitively positioned your company will be in the market.

Two parts remain: your marketing strategy and marketing program. The marketing strategy consists of positioning statements, pricing strategy, promotion strategy and distribution strategy. These are closely linked as your marketing programs will implement the marketing plan’s underlying strategy- the program puts the strategy into action, bringing “life” to your marketing plan.

A great marketing plan development process understands it is a companywide endeavor between product and service development, market analysis, marketing strategy, marketing programs, the marketing plan, the strategic plan and the sales plan. This all adds up to happy customers and financial success.
Consider hiring a marketing pro to help you develop the best marketing strategy and plan for your company and don’t forget the online marketing component! Online marketing can be highly targeted and cost effective per customer acquisition, with high profit margins and tremendous growth possibilities.

Frank Goley works for ABC Business Consulting and is an expert in developing and implementing business plans, marketing plans and strategic plans. Check out his articles on cost effective online marketing and marketing plans. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Frank_Goley

If entrepreneurs and small business owners do not market themselves, chances are, they won’t be in business for long. Here are some mistakes entrepreneurs may overlook or struggle with when marketing themselves:

1. Thinking that one ‘touch’ is going to do the trick. I have recently been in conversations with someone who does workshop and he has done one mailing to 300 people and thinks that marketing doesn’t work because no one contacted him based on that mailing. I have been trying to help him understand that his first mailing didn’t even cause a blip in the brains of those who even saw it. I encouraged him to narrow his mailing list and to “mail the heck out of them.” (I think that is the language I used).

2. Thinking that one kind of marketing is going to do the trick. Today, there are so many options for marketing and we need to consider all of them. Direct mail, email, articles that draw people to our websites, social media, face to face, ’stuff,’ word of mouth…it’s ALL important and very few entrepreneurs can go with only one type.

3. Not understanding that you need to build your ‘list.’ If you only have 6 people or 73 people or some reasonably small number of people to whom you are marketing, they had better be pretty darn responsive or you’ll starve! Building a list through opt-in methods is the way to go and it’s part of why it’s smart to offer products (digital, for example) for free. People come to your website, find what you offer to be helpful, download it, take the teleseminar (or whatever), and if they like what they receive, they “hang out” for awhile. The hope is that they will continue accessing some other products or services. Someday…they’ll buy…or at least that’s the idea. Since you are in business, if no one buys, you are not in business for long, but it’s about building relationships along the way.

4. Not budgeting time to do all the marketing activities that need to be done. It’s extremely short-sighted to say you don’t have time to market. If you don’t MAKE time to market, you’ll soon have nothing but time because you’ll be out of business. And remember, you do not have to do it all yourself. Tap into the expertise that is out there.

5. Not paying attention to the marketing intervals in addition to the marketing frequency. If you send out something 15 times, but over 15 years, you won’t have much (i.e., any) impact. Your marketing needs to be frequent but also done within a short enough time frame that people remember and think, ‘oh, yeah, I think I’ve seen this person/service/business before.’

6. Not realizing that you are either going to spend money or time or both. You can’t market without some investment of your capital – either the $$ or the time part. Target your message and your efforts so you don’t dilute your impact.

See if you are making any of these mistakes – and if you are, take steps this week to start correcting them. It will be perilous to your business if you don’t.

And for a full 90+ minutes of marketing tips, tools, and techniques (using the metaphor of a puffin), here’s the place: http://meggin.com/MarketingThatMatters.php to learn more. (c) 2010 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm) Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh supports bright people who want to be more productive, thereby being able to consistently keep their emphasis on excellence. It’s a blast! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Meggin_McIntosh

Do you want to increase sales? Then you must invest the time to “make it so.”

Many of my business coaching training clients share with me that one of their greatest challenges is time.

I just do not have enough time for:

• Business event networking
• Social media
• Marketing activities
• Writing articles
• Updating the website
• Following up on customers
• Expanding my professional development

After this pity party, I then hear:

• I do not know how you do it with the twittering, the article writing, the networking, the sales calls.
• You must work weekends.
• You are just one person.
• You probably only sleep a couple of hours a night!
• You are just great at multi-tasking.

Before I respond to their questions and statements, I ask this simple question:

Do you waste 12 minutes a day?

The answer is Yes 100%. And sometimes, I will hear just 12 minutes in the first hour or two.

A wasted 12 minutes a day equals one hour in a 5-day work week. Over the course of the year, this amounts to 52 hours of non-productive time. Just imagine how much extra work, how many more sales you could accomplish by redirecting all that wasted time?

The differences between those folks who believe they do not have time and myself are these core attributes or essential talents:

• Personal Accountability
• Personal Commitment
• Realistic Personal Goal Setting

Of course if you do not know if you have these essential talents, then it becomes difficult to become self-managed respective to this concept of wasted time and how to use time to increase sales. If you are finding yourself stretched and yet can honestly admit you waste 12 minutes each day, then maybe investing the time to make it so by understanding your talents is the first step to realizing your goal to increase sales.

Get FREE sales skills assessment by Sales Coach Leanne Hoagland-Smith who helps with sales coaching, leadership to sales management development. How many sales are you losing because you do not know your talents? Maybe now is the time to consider this performance appraisal approach? Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Leanne_Hoagland-Smith

Networking has many benefits. You can get a free stream of customer, receive great advice, and help many others in the process. However, one thing that really stands out is the process of bartering. Now you are able to get some really expensive products and services free. Read on to find out how you can benefit from this.

With a standard, non-networked business, you are going to pay, pay, pay. Each time your business needs a product or service, from legal to accounting, from office supplies to party planning, you’re going to have to write a check. Well, those days are now over once you join a network.

With the bartering aspect of networking, you will trade your goods and services for the goods and services of others in direct proportion to the value of the work provided. If you are a web designer and you need some painting done, then you could create a website for the house painter in your network and perhaps he will paint a room in your house. If you agree to become his webmaster and constantly maintain his site, say for the next 5 years, perhaps he will paint your whole house.

There is another twist on this as well. There are also things called barter dollars, or barter credit. Where you will do something for a person, but you do not need their services in return, so they will issue something like a paper IOU as a form of barter credit. Now you can turn around and trade this barter credit for someone else’s services that you need and that person will use your coupon to turn in for the original service. The person that you helped originally will repay their debt, just to another person.

This is just one of the many ways that you can use bartering. There are whole groups of businesses around the country that create networks just for the sole purpose of doing this. Some people even pay cash for barter dollars for much less than face value and then turn them in for a high profit with of services that you want to have in return. For example, let’s say that you bought $500 worth of credit from a lawyer for $100. Now you can turn around and trade those barter dollars for something else, or you can cash in an get $400 worth of service for free in addition to the $100 that you paid for. This is where the big guys keep winning and the little guys keep paying. Join the winning side.

Joshua Black is the developer of the Underdog Millionaire’s Guide to Networking. This guide gives you over 118 different tips that you can use to build a small business network. Check it out at: http://www.how-to-business-network.com. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joshua_Black

We have mentioned before the importance word-of-mouth has for your business growth. Referrals are critical to achieve success in business, and your goal must be to get them without having to ask for them.

How exactly do you do that? How do you inspire people so much so as to make them speak well about you to others? It’s very easy and very hard at the same time, but you must give worthwhile incentives to the people who refer you.

Finding the best incentive for everyone is not easy, as all of us are moved by different things and have very varied interests. In the past, the most widely-used incentive was fees, and although it is OK to give them in some situations, fees may not hit the mark in regards to what people really care about.

Sometimes all it takes is the person’s name on a list. Consider this example of a very valuable and not monetary incentive:

A while ago, Mark referred his best friend, Gerard, to his dentist. About a month later, it was Mark’s time for an appointment, and as soon as he got to the dentist’s office, he noticed the bulletin board that was notably displayed at the entrance. The bulletin stated something like this: ‘We wish to thank these patients for referring someone to us last month’.

The sign, Mark recalled, had been there always, but this time it had his name on it. He was very pleased, even smiled, but that was it… until a month later, when Mark had to return to continue his treatment and his name was gone from the list. Immediately he started thinking about another person to refer, just to see his name in there again.

This may not matter to everyone, but it does matter to many people. The key is to find as many worthwhile incentives as possible to reach as many people as possible.

The bulletin board has two strengths: it permanently reminds patients that the office wants referrals, and it recognizes people for their efforts. Other valuable incentives may be:

- Free consultations
- Gift baskets
- Wine bottles
- Flowers
- Certificates for your services or other important complementary benefits
- Free estimates, samples, or tests
- Free additional products or services
- Discounts
- Time extensions
- Phone consultation privileges
- Extended life memberships
- Extended warranties

Incentives help you sell more products or services to your actual customers in a shorter period of time. No matter the type of incentive you select, just by offering it you are highly increasing your potential for generating word-of-mouth business.

But, you shouldn’t offer just any incentive. You must be certain that you are selecting one that works for you. In order to do this, ask others. You can invite some acquaintances to dinner. Make sure they meet your customers, partners, and friends’ profiles, because the purpose of the gathering is for them to suggest incentives you could offer to encourage word-of-mouth without asking for it directly.

The key here is creativity. Most people are natural helpers; however, they will be more willing to act if they are recognized for their efforts. They feel really great when a referral works; thus, take the time to let them know it was a success.

Every time you meet people that have been referred to you, take the time to get to know them and say something nice about the person who referred you, because it is all about karma!

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention meetingwave.com as the original source).

Connect with people for business and social purposes. Anytime. Anyplace – http://www.meetingwave.com/ – meet people. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathan_Boyd