Small Business Marketing Kit For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Navigating the Sale Process

The cost of your marketing program is the price you pay to play in the business arena, and the sale is your first point of investment return and your chance at a big payoff:

Seal the deal and you’ll win a new customer and immediate revenue.

Exceed the customer’s expectations and you’ll reap repeat purchases — each at a fraction of the cost of recruiting a new customer.

Develop loyalty and you’ll achieve positive word of mouth and reviews that lead to referrals, starting your chance at a new three-way payoff all over again.

Figure 19-2 illustrates a marketing accelerator — a circle within the marketing cycle where sales and service efforts intensify to convert prospects to customers, customers to repeat buyers, and repeat buyers to loyalists who become ambassadors that recruit new prospects to your business (see Chapter 20 for information on building customer loyalty).

Figure 19-2: Intensify sales and service efforts to create customers, win repeat business, and gain referrals.

Selling redefined

Forget terms like high pressure, low pressure, hard sell, ...