The Road to Prosperity

You want the secret to increasing your sales in this wonderful economy? Be different than your competition. Challenge every idea you have ever heard. Be an innovator. Be audacious. Stand out from the crowd and be seen as well as heard!


Get your head on and launch that new business, create that new product or service that disrupts the competition. Just remember ideas are cheap. It’s the application of the ideas that is the hard part.


There are 3 primary things you will need to innovate and prosper; those being ideas, talent and capital. Over the past couple of years almost everything has been focused on capital. Hoarding your cash, managing your cash flow, working within your budget. Yes this is very important but so is the need for you to continue to invest in research and development as well as marketing. You can’t or shouldn’t put this part of your business on hold completely.


You might need to have a retreat and get away from everything to be able to listen to the market so you know where to focus yourself. And when you more, invest in products for the long time and then keep them in front of customer’s noses so they have enough time to decide to buy what you are offering. Don’t get into any decision for the quick buck.


As for marketing be as aggressive as you can. I know I need to do an update and do a few additions but here are 122 marketing ideas you can use. I use them, you should also. http://www.larsonassociates.ws/marketing_tools Some have a cost some don’t, most fall in-between. My point here is that you don’t want to disappear. Customers are hard enough to come by even in a good economic cycle. The last thing you want to go and do is make them nervous as to how you are doing. If you can, increase your exposure, widen your communication channels and create an aura of confidence.


So perhaps now more that ever it is time to consider the entire concept of direct mail and maybe ask what would be the purpose to use this channel, what would we be trying to do if you used direct mail who do you want to target with a mailing piece and what are the ways we could integrate it with the kinds of online channels we are now using?


Even as we push harder into the digital world of the web, social media marketing email marketing, blogs, video, mobile don’t overlook what could be sitting right at your doorstep or your customer’s doorstep or should we say their mail boxes.


As I showed 2 days ago, people, ya people like you and I trust the printed ink on paper word more than they see and read online. Use that to your advantage.


Larson Notes & Satire: When do you do your best thinking? Mine these days happens to be at 5:10 in the morning. I am in the process of getting ready to run in a marathon this spring with my son. Now a marathon is not something you take lightly. You don’t just go lace up your “sneakers” and go run. It takes months, even for me, months to get my body and mind physically ready for the challenge in all ways so also the growth of a good business. It is not just 1 thing, it might be 1 more thing but it is not just 1 thing. That 1 thing might be what you need push your entire business over the edge into double digit growth. As you know, at least I think you know, I am pushing triple digit growth for the year 2011 with the Larson Challenge http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Larson_Challenge to double the size of your business. Join in, it’s free and no purchase is necessary. So in your quiet time ask yourself, what is that 1 thing you need?


If you’re not doing direct mail marketing, even as little as a direct mail post card, think about it. Direct mail is durable, less disposable and more sensory that anything else out there. You want to be attention to yourself send out a mailing to those increasingly empty mailboxes. Now I know you think of us here at Larson’s as the company of the melodious voices that pound the phones as a group of trained telemarketing professionals but don’t think that we don’t have the resources to put it all together for you. As a 36 year Chicago Ad and Graphics Professional I know how to make it happen. I can only say use me, so many times.


Go on make me work, I dare you.


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
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http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates


https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate


P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.


P.P.S. Take the Larson Challenge to double your sales this year and get listed on our web site @ http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Larson_Challenge . Email us your company name and web address to get listed. Make this year your best ever!