25 Ways To Get More Business

By Paul Lemberg
Posted Wednesday, January 19, 2005

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Need more business? Who doesnt?

Thankfully, new business is pretty easy to get, but you do have to do something to get it. Usually something you aren't currently doing. Here are 25 ways you can bring in more business, and if you do things right, more profits.

These are not long term business strategies. These are short to medium term tactics designed to put cash in your bank account within the next 30 - 90 days.

1. Hire a salesperson. Or, if you already have salespeople, hire another one. You may not be able to pay them a salary, so make it for 100% commission, and make the commission generous. And of course, pay their expenses. This will work best if you have a sales process in place, and some kind of systemized knowledge that will bring them up to speed quickly.

2. Get some sales training. The Sandler Selling System is great for simple sales. Mike Bosworths Customer Centric Selling is great for complex sales. Of course there are many others, and any good sales training program will get your sales off whatever dime you are stuck on.

3. Start a referral program. This doesnt mean simply ask for referrals, but do it routinely. Do it systematically. Have a method to ask, and have a method to reward people who do refer.

4. Add products to your back end. The costliest part is getting new customers. Why not maximize your investment and sell those customers additional products and services.

5. If you sell a service, consider adding products that compliment it.

6. If you sell products, adding services is even easier.

7. If you sell free-form consulting, consider bundling specific services into a “productized” form. Give it a name, make the price fixed. Typically the “productizing” and fixed price enables you to sell at higher prices than previously.

8. Raise your prices. Most people undervalue what they do and charge way too little for it. And many others discount from their “list” at the drop of a hat. Stop discounting, but if you must, always get something in exchange. Think tradeoffs. And raise your rates for services and products both.

9. Joint ventures. Find people who have something you need, like products, or customers and trade with them. Pool your resources. Pool your time. Create something larger than either of you. Make it a win-win.

10. Strategic alliances. How does this differ from above? A strategic alliance partner is only involved in one aspect of your business - in other words, they may source leads or product. A joint venture partner is a deeper involvement. Youll work more closely on more aspects.

11. Referral fees. You probably make these referrals anyway. Now get paid for them.

12. Affiliate programs. This is simply the systemized approach to referral fees, and on the internet is THE way to do business.

13. Take your white papers or articles and collect them into a special report which can be used for marketing purposes, or sold outright as its own revenue center.

14. Sell a subscription to your service. Lock in the revenue and accelerate the payments. Then give them special bonuses or super-service for being subscribers, or members.

15. Create bundles out of all your existing products. Put things together and offer special pricing. This may lower your “per unit” revenue, but it will increase average transaction size, as well as total revenue.

16. The Rolodex routine. This means going through your Rolodex, name-by-name, and calling everyone who looks promising. For something. For selling, for networking, for referrals, even for “how do you do.”

17. Conduct a survey. Ask your client base questions. This process will get you great information about your market, and it will always bring you “unexpected” business.

18. Offer your services or products at a silent or charity auction. While this wont bring in money immediately, it will almost always expand your client base.

19. Offer to let key influencers give away some of your time, product.

20. If you have a service, consider turning your hard-one expertise into an educational course. This could be an e-course, a tele-course, printed home study course, even a live seminar or bootcamp.

21. Publish an ebook. Ebooks are a great way to promote your business and generate quick revenue.

22. Speak, speak, speak. Especially if you are a master of your individual expertise, speaking is a sure-fire way to bring in additional business.

23. Write articles. Articles and speaking compliment each other perfectly. Not only write those articles, but get them published. Anywhere you can.

24. Focus your market. Many people try to cover too much ground. By becoming a noted expert in a tightly-defined market niche, you can increase the power of all your marketing efforts, bringing in more business for each marketing dollar you spend.

25. Shift into an adjacent market. Sometimes your market niche is exhausted, and sometimes theyre just plain broke. A shift into an adjacent market niche can bring you all kinds of new business.

About the Author
Paul Lemberg's clients call him "the unreasonable business coach" because he insists they pursue goals and take actions far outside their comfort zone to make more money than they previously thought possible. To get business coaching tips, tools and strategies like these, visit (http://www.paullemberg.com/Business_Coaching.html).