Business Guide: Maintaining Momentum

In all my dealings and years of consulting with business
owners I have seen one very critical mistake made by over
95% of them. The number one mistake I have come across
is that business owners do not realize the importance of
"Maintaining Momentum"!

This is the most important task of any business.
"DO NOT STOP THE PROCESS"!
What is the process for maintaining momentum?

"Maintaining Momentum" is actually a two step process.

Step One : Advertising for new leads or prospects.
Step Two : Follow up with existing leads and prospects.

These two steps are critical for success. Simply because
"Working your Leads" and keeping contact makes people
believe in you, your product and gains trust. This is very
important especially if you are offering your business
products or services over the web. If your prospects are
comfortable with you they are more likely to buy from you
as opposed to your competitor.

Below are examples and tips to accomplishing the art of
"Maintaining Momentum"!

Step One : Advertising for new leads or prospects.
First you will need to set yourself an advertising budget.
This budget will be what you follow with absolutely no
exceptions if you wish to succeed. Let's say you have a
budget of $100 per month for advertising. That means you
have $25 per week to work with.
DO NOT BLOW YOUR BUDGET IN THE FIRST WEEK!
You must maintain consistency.

Example:

Wrong Way:
You see a site that will give you a discount on advertising
an extended amount of time. It looks good so you decide to
spend the $105.
NO GOOD! Why? You may have saved money and your
ad may run for an extended amount of time, but what if the
ad does not work or create any leads or sales. You have now
expired your entire ad budget for the month. You have lost
momentum and will now have to wait 3 week's to START OVER!

Wrong Way # 2:
You have done your research and have decided on a place that
you feel comfortable placing an ad. that ad is on a classified
site that a 200 word ad costs $24.99 for 8 week's. Two days
later the ad is a hit and is bringing you 20 leads a day.
A few sales and you're as happy as can be. You're now spending
your time answering questions, loving life and you say to
yourself "I'd better lay off my ads because I'm getting so many
leads from this one". WRONG!

Eventually this ad will be moving it's way to the bottom
of the list because new ads on that site will be going ahead
of yours. the replies and leads will quickly become less and
less each day.
This is the biggest mistake because you will now have to place
another ad and... you guessed it START ALL OVER AGAIN!

Correct Way To Maintain Momentum:

Use your budgeted amount each week, no exceptions!
Place your ad for $19 to $30. If you are receiving many leads
and answering their questions, great! You will want to keep the
momentum by placing another ad somewhere else. You should
do this 7 days from the date you placed your first ad for the
month.

Remember not all your ads will work. Keep track of where and
when you placed them, if they do not work then use your budgeted
amount the next week to find a new place to test an ad. If the
first and the second ad both work well then you will have many
more leads to work with. You will begin to learn how to convert
these leads to sales.

I have only one comment on how to convert
leads into sales....... HONESTY!!

By "Maintaining Momentum" as described above you will
find you will have a continuous flow of leads or prospects to
work with. Leads are very important and you must also
"Maintain Momentum" with old leads as well as with new leads.
Obviously the way to generate new leads is mentioned above.

"How can I Maintain Momentum with existing leads?"

This brings us to step number two.

Step Two : Follow up with existing leads and prospects.

Follow up, follow up, follow up! It boggles my mind when I
speak to business owners and I ask them "How many Leads or
Prospects are you currently working with"? "Do you have a
data base of everyone who has asked about your business"?
most of the time when I ask these questions I get blank stares
or squinted eyes. If you have ever been to Radio Shack you may
remember that every time you are at the counter they will ask
you your name, phone, address and zip code.

They do this so they can follow up with you and notify you of
the next big sale or event they are running. Most likely they
will send you a flyer or postcard by postal mail. They do this
because they realize that if you have been in their store or
have purchased anything from them that you must enjoy or have
a need for their products.
They realize that you may have a need or want to purchase from
them again.

You spend money every day to attack prospects for your
services and products and you must capture their contact
information.

"How can we do this on the web"?

Personally following up with each person by hand each couple
a days would be quite tedious and time consuming. The beauty
of the web is that we can have computers do this for us. You
can now have computers automatically follow up through email
for you at any time you wish. You can concentrate on advertising
and new leads and let an automated follow up system contact your
existing prospects.

This type of follow up system is called "Autoresponders"!

What is an autoresponder?
An autoresponder system that automatically sends a reply
message to any email address that sends mail to it.

Why do you need autoresponders to follow up for you?

Experts have shown that it often takes a prospect 7 or more
exposures of your ad or product before they purchase from you.
With an Autoresponder Follow Up System your prospects will
automatically receive your follow up marketing messages.
This is possible and takes you absolutely no time after the
initial setup. You see, the computer system will follow up for
you the essential seven times.
"Automatically"! This will make your sales skyrocket!

How much is just one extra sale worth to you every month?
How much is double, triple, or even quadruple your normal
sales averages worth to you and your company? Hundreds,
maybe even thousands of dollars in extra profits.

Below is a summary of how it can work for you.
Prospects request information via email from your ads or
your site. The autoresponder will then automatically deliver
your pre-written sales letter (just like this pre-written report)
within seconds back to the prospects email box. Information
is sent and their email address and is automatically added
to your database (like at Radio Shack) saving you hours
of endless data entry. You spend more time with other business
tasks since the autoresponder system is doing all the follow
up work for you.

Personalized follow up letters are automatically sent to
each of your prospects at regular predetermined intervals.
This will build credibility, trust and a qualified rapport
with your prospects.
Your personalized, effective, efficient follow up letters will
convert prospects into customers for you... "Automatically"!
You save time, save money, reduce tedious work, build
customer loyalty, increase conversion ratios and make more
money!

I have been around the web and have seen many systems
that can provide you with such a service. By far one of the
best systems I have seen is called "The Aweber Autoreply
System"! the company is owned by a gentlemen named Tom
Kulzer. I have spoken with him many times by phone, I have
used his system and believe Tom to be a very honest and
intelligent person to work with. I also have been in contact
with dozens of other respectable online entrepreneurs who
all have said the same thing. You can visit Tom's site to
view more information at:
http://www.aweber.com/?11056

If you are currently looking for a reputable on-line business
to apply the above techniques to you can look at 2 that I
highly recommend.

Online business 1:
http://www.asrtotalwebservices.com/bizop.htm


Online business 2:
http://www.interwebclassifieds.com/resellers.htm

By applying these two techniques and "Maintaining Momentum"
you will be well on you way to a successful on-line business.

I hope you have enjoyed this report and you can be assured
you will here from me again in the near future.

*Article may be used freely as long as the entire article
appears along with this sig file.


Thank You,
Joe Brennan
Internet Direct
http://www.iypdirect.com

**
Joe Brennan has been an Internet Pioneer and webmaster
since 1995. It is estimated that millions of dollars a
week from online sales are being made from his ideas and
knowledge.
Have questions about business, web designing, search engine
ranking, how to turn your idea into reality or any general
questions about how to effectively advertise your business?
Well, talk to a professional LIVE by phone. Guaranteed results!!
Go To: http://www.asrtotalwebservices.com/consulting.htm