Engineering Your Marketing

When I was seven one of my favorite ways to spend a hot summer day with my friends was playing a backyard game we called "waterworks".

We'd use a trowel to construct channels in the dirt, put the hose at one end and watch the water flow. If we wanted the water to go straight, we'd remove rocks and debris to clear a path. We became sophisticated engineers, guiding water around corners and across short aqueducts. We felt like masters of the universe, directing the water where we wanted it to go. (You can bet my mother loved seeing us come into the house at the end of the day.)

Plan your marketing to take charge of increasing your sales. Your marketing can lead prospects to your products and services the way my friends and I engineered our waterworks; by making clear paths and removing obstacles. Channel your prospects' attention and interests and eliminate objections. Below are the four most common objections and ways to eliminate them.

Lack of Interest

Prospects need to understand what you do before they can become interested in what you have to offer. It is that simple. If you're marketing yourself as a lawyer, coach, accountant or fitness center, you're not telling people why they should be interested. To capture their interest, explain the problems you solve from their perspective.

Lack of Leads

You want people to email you, call you or go to your web site to buy your products and services. But first you have to motivate them to contact you so you can market to them. Once you have their attention, use your conversation, your emails and your web site to ask them what they want and need.

Lack of Credibility

You want prospects to see you as the expert; the person and the firm that has the products and services they can rely on. One of the biggest challenges to attracting new clients is gaining their trust and being seen as the essential expert. Use your articles, ezine, and web site to demonstrate your expertise. Use testimonials from clients to tell prospects about the results you and your products have achieved.

Pricing Objections

Whether it is a $25 subscription or a $50,000 consulting fee, prospects object to price when they don't understand the value of the purchase. Establish a set of questions you can use to help prospects define what they want and what you are providing. When price is put in context, it becomes much less of an obstacle.

Still not converting as many prospects to clients as you'd like? Use questions to find out more about what they want, and what their concerns are. Then address each of these objections up front and remove them as potential sales killers.

Think of your target market as a reservoir of water waiting to be tapped. If you eliminate the barriers between them and you, you could send a steady stream of new clients and customers your way. N0w, don't just imagine it, do it. Start eliminating your prospects' objections and create a clear path for them to become clients and customers. Help your prospects get what they want and you'll get what you want, more clients.

About the Author:

The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals and small business owners attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up for the Free Marketing Plan eBook, '7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business' at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com