In your community, I'll bet you can name a company (or perhaps several, if you live in a large geographic area) that has been around many years but cuts many corners in the book of business.

Perhaps they charge extra for prespraying, they leave carpet (or walls, if a restoration company) wet, and the list goes on. But somehow these bad apples never seem to go out of business and you can bet the owner of this type of company is making a decent living and oftentimes making a killing.

There's a company in my service location that fits this description. This owner's house is large and immaculate and he drives an expensive sports car. Unfortunately he's not a scrupulous business owner. He hires bargain-basement subs who drive their own cars to the jobsite, with their own portable in the trunk and have to purchase overpriced chemicals from this owner as a condition of their employment. If the sub doesn't have enough money he simply fills his preconditioner jug with water and dish soap or laundry detergent. If he runs out of real protector he uses water.

Their "technicians" have never had more than a couple of hours of On-the-Job Training and do a very poor job of cleaning. They advertise low prices and the technicians push the customer hard to try to make a $12.95/room job into a $40+/room sale. Not a month goes by that we don't hear a horror story about this business.

This owner is the epitome of everything that should be unsuccessful in business, but he thrives not because he's a good businessman but because he's a GREAT marketer.

He doesn't care if he develops a bad name amongst other cleaners because they aren't his customer. He could care less if he ticks off customers because his sole purpose in business is not to create cheerleaders that will buy over and over again from him and refer their friends and family but to get as many new customers as possible. He's a master at creating an image that his company is the best; yet he's not anywhere near even good. His customers often complain about the work his company performs and his only saving grace is that he is a fantastic marketer.

Now don't go telling your friends "..that Rendall guy says it's ok to do crappy work because all I have to do is market a lot". That's not at all what I'm saying is the right thing to do. What I am saying is just imagine how successful this guy would be if he ran his business the right way and excelled at not only his marketing but also how he conducts business.

The one thing we should all learn from this example is that great marketing forgives a lot of business sins. Let's analyze how we can become better marketers in our own business without sacrificing the quality that our customers have come to expect.

• 5 Profitable Sales Pointers

#1) Know Your Market - By knowing your market you'll know exactly where to spend your advertising dollars. If you define too broad of a market you'll end up wasting money. Have a laser focus on the type of customer you are seeking first and foremost. If you don't know how to define your target market, conduct a survey of the type of clients you are seeking to attract. Ask questions like "What did you like about us?", "What didn't you like about us?" "What made you choose us over the competition?" "How often do you usually get your carpeting cleaned?" These questions will be invaluable to helping you determine many trends amongst your typical prospect and customer.

#2) Know What They're Looking For and Deliver It - By knowing what your prospective customer is looking for you can further define that target market. For instance, if you know that the type of customers you're looking for usually look for best quality over best price, you should certainly portray this image in your marketing. If, on the other hand, you're a price- oriented company, portraying the image that you offer good quality (probably not great) at a lower price will be your Marketing Proposition. One simple way to summarize this point is to ask yourself the question - What benefits are my customers looking for and how can I fulfill them?

#3) Know Your Costs and Budget - Before spending a dime on marketing, you should have a good idea of what you can afford and not break the budget delivering your marketing message.

#4) Use Unique Marketing Approaches - In today's business climate, it's difficult to get your message across to prospects and clients. They're already inundated with a plethora of marketing messages every day. Several studies have shown that the typical consumer is plastered with over 1,000 marketing impressions a day; from billboards to newspaper ads to email, TV, mail, radio, etc. Think of unique ways you can get your message to your prospects and customers. I LOVE postcards. They don't require that the prospect or customer open them and I know if I'm creative enough with graphics and text the prospect or customer will at least read it. Another useful and often underused tool is the simple telephone. With privacy laws in effect one has to be careful and know the rules. Generally speaking it's ok to contact businesses and past customers, though.

#5) Test, Tweak, and Try Again - Marketing is a never-ending necessity of business. If you're not keeping track of who's calling and how they heard about you, now is the time to start. Smart marketers know exactly what works, what doesn't, and when to scrap it and try again. The only way to determine this is by testing. I once sent out a direct mail piece to 200 commercial prospects. I tracked the disappointing results (one call out of 200 sent) and thought about scrapping the idea completely. Then I decided to try another mailing to the same 200 potential commercial prospects several months later but this time I added a 2nd page of text and talked more about the benefits of getting and keeping their carpet cleaned. That letter generated 4 bookings which returned well over $3,000 in sales, not including referrals and back-end sales to the owners, managers, and employees. Yes it took more work but I found a winner sales letter simply by expounding on more benefits.

To wrap up this edition, Superstar marketers make the phone ring. On the other hand Superstar business owners make the phone ring and make their customers happy. I don't know about you but I much prefer to belong to the latter category.

Scott

We have two classes on the docket for spring so far. If you'd like for us to teach a business building course in your area please contact your distributor and have them give us a call. We're extremely accommodating and our classes reasonably priced - especially considering the $1,000's of dollars in value every student receives from one of our classes!

Here's our spring '06 schedule:

• March 30th, 2006 - Sturbridge, MA - Hosted by NEIRC. Contact #: 603-886-9461
• April 13-14, 2006 - Denver, CO - Hosted by Steam Way International. Contact#: 800-447- 8326