How do YOU get more orders for your services?

Well, as a pro marketing weasel and direct response copywriter, I gotta say that ultimately Marketing IS sales.

Marketing is a way to lead to a sale. All the marketing we design is to inform people about our product and get them to our site. That's where the final marketing happens and if we have done our job well, we get a sale.

Sales, Marketing? I'm not sure what to call it, I get new clients from referrals that I earn by:

• consistently delivering more business value than my fees,

-focusing on business value and not on the project schedule and budget. then I communicate with my clients to make sure that my team stays focused on delivering business value in a measurable way

• honestly assessing my client's request and letting them know up front when I cannot deliver what they want within the budget and time frame they want it.

• carefully selecting clients who have similar values to me and believe in empowered teams who are allowed to use their creativity to solve business problems and who are willing to leave the blame game far behind.

My number one sales & marketing tool is the reputation I have earned throughout my consulting career.

I have a reputation for delivering results.

I would add that excellent customer service also strengthens your brand and will also lead you to the sale.

As a SaaS provider I often see competitors depend completely on their websites to do the selling for them. That may work for Google but is certainly not the case for the rest of us.

As small business owners we should be contentious of going the extra mile to cater to our customers needs. That will produce great marketing and will enable us to reach our sales objectives.

Here is Howard's next Reluctant Selling - for Virgins event. - 05/ 6/2008 event.

-Andrey

Wayne said something that makes sense to me. I'd say that some people can market but not necessarily close the deal. If you've got potential customers walking away impressed with you and your services or products, they're in a position where they're able to purchase, but they walk away without buying, then you've marketed well but sold nothing. When I trained salespeople, more than half of our individual consultations were on closing rather than demonstration. In other words, we had a lot of fine demonstrators who didn't close. Closing is sales. Marketing is a start.

In my experience, Sales is a part of Marketing.

I divide marketing up into Three Journeys:

First Journey- stranger to prospector- when someone is wandering around in the marketplace with a problem, and they don't know how to solve it.

The First Journey ends when they become a prospector (not a prospect) and are interested in what your business offers as a possible solution.

The Second Journey then begins, from prospector to client (or customer). They are building trust, getting to know you and your offers. This Second Journey can happen in a minute, or in a month, or over three years, depending on any number of factors.

The Third Journey is from Client to Raving Fan, when a client becomes so enamoured with the solution and support you provide, that they are eager to send new people into your First and Second Journeys.

The Sacred Moment of the Sale happens in the Second Journey- the entire process/dance/deepening of the relationship happens as they are deciding whether they do indeed want to meet you there, to give you more (money, time and attention) and you're deciding whether you want to give them more (time, attention, resources).

Without breaking marketing up into First and Second Journeys, at the least, many people spend a lot of frustrating time wondering why in the heck it's so hard to convert people to clients.

I should also add that it's really clear to me that Howard knows his stuff. :)

Can't have one without the other, methinks. But if I don't go for the close, usually the sale doesn't happen. It's just a little extra communication.

Marketing is a way to keep marketing professionals in business.

And should we also assume that technology is a way to keep IT professionals in business? Just curious about the intention behind your remark?