The truth about selling: You can’t succeed if you’re not motivated. Hit your sweet spot by determining why–and how–you sell best.

By Barry Farber

Show prospects what you can do for their business by offering a complimentary assessment.

By Gail Goodman

One of the best ways to show prospects your business’s value is with a compelling customer case study coupled with an offer to repeat your success with their business. 

To find the perfect case study to offer up to prospects, think about how your business has already solved problems for your satisfied customers. Maybe your products or services have saved them time and money or helped their efficiency. Identify and quantify how you’ve successfully met your customers’ needs, then use e-mail marketing communications to share that case study and package an enticing service introduction as a “free consultation.”

Done correctly, potential customers will feel they’re getting a tremendous value for free while you’ll have created an opportunity to bid for their actual business. Here are a few suggestions for how to use e-mail marketing to show prospects what your business can do for them–and get your phone lines ringing: 

Show by Example: Support the Offer With a Compelling Case Study
You already have success stories from customers happy with your product or service. Ask if you can interview a preferred customer for a short case study that presents their problems or challenges and shows how your business provided solutions. (You can also present the case in more generic terms if you wish the client to remain anonymous.) Quantify how you helped that customer, either in terms of gained business, lowered costs, higher efficiency, increases in revenue–whatever made your relationship successful. Then outline your methodology in broad steps, and include testimonial quotes if you have the client’s permission.

Publish your short case study in your e-mail newsletter or via a separate e-mail marketing campaign. Alongside it, run a sidebar offering a “free consultation” (or “complimentary assessment,” “project evaluation,” “service overview,” “introductory consultation”–whatever language works best for your business). The case study should be the main feature while the sidebar extends your offer.

For instance, let’s say your business specializes in the collections process. Your case study would describe how you revolutionized collections for a business, saving it time, streamlining the process and increasing cash flow. Your sidebar would be a call to action to contact you for an assessment. It should say something like, “Want to do this for your own business? Contact us for a free evaluation.” Your “Contact us” link could go to a landing page that further explains the offer and asks the prospect for more information about their particular business needs.

Don’t Wing It: Use a Structured Methodology to Evaluate Customers’ Needs
Potential customers may be wary of businesses offering something for free and reluctant to share their phone numbers and other personal data with you. Be very clear when wording what the free consultation involves so customers know exactly what they’re getting into. Here are some tips for writing a compelling offer: 

• Put a time limit on the assessment. “Give us 10 minutes, and we’ll evaluate your savings potential.”
• Keep it short. “Call us for 3 ways to improve your marketing ROI.”
• Frame it as a self-assessment tool. “Take our 10-minute self-assessment test to learn if we can help lower your IT costs.”
• Market an event. “Join us for a two-hour seminar to learn more about how search engine optimization can help your business.”

You don’t want prospects to feel like you’re saying, “Call us, and we’ll sell you.” It’s not a hard sell. A “quick assessment” is more digestible to customers still in research mode.

You’ll want to put your best foot forward with these hot prospects, so make sure whoever takes these sales calls is up to the task and does their homework based on the information prospects submitted and what you know based on their past activity (learn what their past activity means for you in this previous article I wrote).

Another important tip: Draw in your customers without giving away so much that they could do what you offer themselves. And if you say your consultation will take 10 minutes, don’t let it yawn on to 45–or even 15.

To make your assessment short and effective, develop a rigorous methodology based on your past experience with evaluating customers’ needs so in 10 minutes, you’ll know whether you can help a prospect or not. The more structured your assessment and ROI tools, the more successful your free evaluations will be. It’s your one chance to win your prospects’ confidence and take the relationships to the next level—getting the go-ahead to create a proposal for their business.

To reach even more prospects, you should reach into your e-mail tracking and reporting data–it’ll show you who clicked through to your offer page but didn’t submit a form. Those warm prospects are worth a phone call as well. 

E-mail marketing is a wonderful way to generate leads and build customer relationships.

It’s the first step in a process that moves prospects to phone contact and culminates with you pitching the client in person. If you’ve conducted your complimentary assessment correctly, you should already know what the customer needs and how your product or service can help. Your proposal should be informed, insightful and right on target, offering solutions to the customers’ specific problems. Close the deal with the confidence that comes from knowing you’ve done your homework on a newfound customer.  

Gail F. Goodman is the“E-Mail Marketing” coach at Entrepreneur.com and is CEO ofConstant Contact, a web-based e-mail marketing service for small businesses. She’s also a recognized small-business expert and speaker.

If you’re still not quite sure what blogs are or how they can benefit your business, this blogging veteran offers some words of wisdom. 

By John Nardini

Blogging is the latest innovation to take the web by storm. According to blog tracking firm Technorati, there are currently 14 million blogs with 80,000 more being added every day. And 30 percent of all 50 million internet users are blog readers. In short, a lot of people are reading and writing blogs.

Yet despite their popularity, you may be one of those people who doesn’t really know what a blog is or what relevance blogging has to your business. In this article, I hope to answer those questions and cover the basics of using blogging to deliver favorable business results.

So just what is a blog and why should you care? Basically, the word “blog” is short for web log, a frequently updated web-based journal that’s intended for general public consumption. So what do people write about? Anything from personal stories (from the mundane to the bizarre) to theme-centered creations (finance, politics, parenthood) to businesses (philosophies; updates; branding methods) to…you name it!

And while writing a personal blog can be fun, business blogging can be a powerful tool, allowing you to communicate with a significant number of consumers and achieve many of your business objectives. And best of all, these results can be delivered in a very cost-effective manner.

Let me give you an example. Scobleizer is a blog written by Microsoft middle manager Robert Scoble. Scoble’s openness and responsiveness to comments–both good and bad–have helped put a personal touch on a company that many previously saw as an evil empire. Not that the blog has changed everyone’s perceptions, but it’s certainly giving a human face to Microsoft and helping to soften its image a bit, something that will ultimately impact business results.

Here are some additional advantages for businesses that blog:

• Word-of-mouse. Because so many people have access to electronic forms of communication, it’s easy for information to spread quickly. If you have a great new product, an innovative idea or an exciting marketing strategy, you can be sure your blog readers will pass it along via e-mail to others who will pass it along, too. Soon, your marketing message has reached hundreds if not thousands or millions of people.
• Speed. If something goes wrong or if you have quick-breaking news, a blog can get the word–or your response–out immediately, much faster than any other form of media.
• Awareness and loyalty. Purchasers of your product can read about it, post comments and engage in discussion. You can respond. Others can comment. This personal communication can create an open, honest, trust-building dialog that will make consumers more aware, more willing to try your products and more loyal to your brand.
• Feedback. Businesses can find out immediately what people think of their company, products and ideas. But be warned: This takes a thick skin, as all feedback is not positive. But if you’re really willing to listen, this information can be invaluable. Better yet, feedback can be generated quickly–over days, if not hours. A blog can act like a never-ending focus group that gives a company great insights into their consumers’ thoughts, likes and actions.
• Community halo-effect. Overall, most bloggers are friendly, helpful (by linking to each other’s sites), and eager to cooperate to make the blogosphere–the collective group of blogs–a better place. By simply being an active part of the culture, you get the benefit of the doubt and your product becomes one that bloggers will consider purchasing.

This newest web phenomenon can rank your site #1 in search engines, boost traffic and sales, and establish you as an expert in your industry. 

By Derek Gehl

I’m sure you’ve heard about one of the biggest things to hit the web in the last few years: blogging.

A “blog” (derived from the term “web log”) is basically just a website with two key differences: First, it’s extremely easy to add information to it. A blog is like an online journal, so you just log in, type what happened today, post it, and you’re done! Second, you can add a simple little feature that automatically tells a whole bunch of other websites that you’ve made an update to your blog–every time you make a change.

However, what you may not know is that a blog can also be a very powerful marketing tool for your business, and some people actually earn an income just from blogging alone.

The fact is, blogging is fast becoming an extremely important strategy for any online marketer. An effective blog can:

• drive swarms of traffic to your main website,
• generate more product sales,
• create an additional stream of advertising income,
• be a great customer service tool,
• and much more!

Blogs have an informal, conversational style, and readers can join in by commenting on each post. Blogs can be chatty, informative, opinionated and often humorous, and it’s this “human” aspect of blogs that draws many people to them.

But the best part about blogs is how accessible they are to everyone. Blogs are free (or very inexpensive) to set up using services like Bloggeror TypePad. They’re also easy to use (you can literally create your own blog in less than five minutes) and easy to promote with all the new tools and resources that have been created specifically for blogs.

How You Can Use a Blog to Accelerate Online Success
The fact is, blogs are no longer just online diaries of people’s personal lives. Both online and offline businesses can use blogs to take their products and services to a wider audience, increasing their traffic, leads and sales.

Let’s look more closely at a few of the extremely powerful ways your business can benefit from a blog. With an effective business blog, you can:

• Humanize your business. Because a blog is much more informal than other websites, you can write posts in your own voice and give your business more of a human face. This helps reassure prospective customers that there’s a “real person” behind the website who’ll take care of their needs. It also allows you to inject much more of your own personality into your online business than your main sales site could do.
• Improve your customer service. Your blog can act as a kind of interactive FAQ, allowing your customers to submit questions and you to answer them. You can also provide product updates, how-to articles, and other information of relevance to your customers. Prospective customers who see your blog will be encouraged by your commitment to good customer service.
• Give your target market the information they’re looking for. With its automatic archiving feature–by date and category–a blog is a fantastic content-management system. It’s easy for you to post new information on a regular basis, and it’s easy for your visitors to find the information they want. With a well-written, regularly updated blog, you can become a reliable resource in your industry and build a following of loyal readers who depend on your content. These people will be your best potential customers.
• Drive traffic to your sales website. If you already have a website, a blog can give your traffic levels a real boost. For starters, your blog will attract new visitors that you can then redirect to your main sales website through links and special offers. But an even more effective technique is to use strategic keywords and links to specific sales pages to dramatically improve the search engine rankings of both your blog and your main website.
• Build your credibility and establish yourself as an industry expert. You can give your credibility a real boost by regularly posting valuable and relevant information on your blog. It’s a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your subject area, and allow your visitors to feel much more comfortable buying from you.
• Promote your products or services. You can actually sell products directly from a blog, or you can use your blog to mention new products and direct visitors to your sales website.
• Generate extra income. There are now several advertising programs available, such as Google AdSense, that allow you to monetize your blog and generate an extra revenue stream.

3 Key Tips for Starting a Business Blog
Excited yet? You should be–blogging’s not just a winning strategy, it’s also a lot of fun! The beauty of blogging is that you can easily incorporate it into your daily schedule of tasks. You can even blog when you’re on the road.

But what does it take to become a really successful blogger?

1. Great content: If your content isn’t interesting and relevant to your target market, your blog won’t work. It’s as simple as that. You’ll be surprised, however, how easy it is to find things to write about if you really put your mind to it. It could be news articles about your industry, product updates, interviews, personal insights into topics of importance to your target audience, and much more.
2. Regular updating: I won’t lie to you: there are some days when I really find it hard to find the time to post a new article. But if I don’t post, no one will come back. It’s like subscribing to a daily newspaper but only getting a copy delivered now and then! So post often and your audience will keep coming back. And regularly adding fresh content to your blog also gives you a boost in the search engine rankings.
3. Your own distinct voice: It’s important that you write in your own voice. A blog is no place for formality and corporate speak. It’s more of a forum, a place where ideas can flourish and topics of current interest can be debated. You don’t even need to be a brilliant writer; you just need to be able to relate to your audience and give them good content.

Final Thoughts
Starting a blog can take as little as five minutes. Of course, starting a blog is the easy part; turning your blog into a strategic tool that drives traffic and sales to your online business is a completely different matter.

Building a truly effective blog that keeps people coming back again and again takes a lot more than five minutes; it takes time and dedication to develop a blog that keeps your audience coming back for more.

Derek Gehl is Entrepreneur.com’s “E-Business” columnistand the CEO of the Internet Marketing Center, an internet marketing firm that has helped thousands of people learn to start and run their own online businesses. He is also author of the online guide, Blogging for Dollars.