Michael Hepworth Articles

You Marketing Versus Me Marketing - Click To Read Article
During the course of a week I usually meet several people who hope to sell me something. What astonishes me is how few of these people ask questions to find out what I am interested in or worried about.

Why simple advice is sometimes the best advice - Click To Read Article
Don’t reject learning or advice, simply because it seems simple. The secrets to building a successful business lie not in exotic new ideas, but in consistently implementing straight forward rules and ideas that have changed little over time.

Why Falling In Love With Your Product Can Be Dangerous To Your Wealth - Click To Read Article
What is more important than a unique idea, is to make your business unique in ways that are important to your prospects.

When Information is Abundant Attention is Scarce - Click To Read Article
I am not sure who said it, but the above line is certainly true when it comes to marketing. As mentioned in my last newsletter, people are bombarded with marketing messages. This means if you want to make appointments with decision makers and get heard, you need to develop superior access vehicles. Telephone prospecting, using the same old type of messages won\'t cut it, nor will the traditional one page introductory letter accompanied by a brochure.

What We Can Learn From Bill Clinton About Networking - Click To Read Article
Last week Alain Gervais, one of my readers called me to ask me the difference between networking and referrals. He had been successfully generating referrals and wondered if he was missing something. By the way I love to get feedback from my readers, and love to hear about successes you are having. This kind of feedback makes this task worthwhile.

Whats The Difference Between Traditional Marketing and Street Smart Marketing - Click To Read Article
Almost everyone in marketing dreams of a never-ending flow of qualified leads streaming into their business. This has been a lifelong quest for me. It has been a strange and exhilarating journey. Along the way, I have built four businesses and learned many valuable lessons; many of them the hard way, bumping my head as I went.

What To Do When A Customer Say No - Click To Read Article
Most entrepreneurs I know hate rejection and sometimes even take a customer turn down personally. There is a way of creating a positive outcome from these situations.

What to Do When Your Competitors Cut Prices - Click To Read Article
Do you feel threatened by price competition and eroding margins. Don\'t cut your own throat, instead ask yourself how can you add more value to your products and services.

What Makes An Ideal Prospect? - Click To Read Article
There are 3 traits that identify an ideal prospect that most of us already know about. But there is a fourth trait that once you know what it is will help you target your prospects more accurately and therefore more successfully than your competition.

What I Learned From a Granddad Doing Magic Tricks - Click To Read Article
You think you know how something is done, but unless you know the secret and practice a little, you are not going to get the result you are looking for. Even the simplest marketing technique requires you to know exactly how to execute it and a certain amount of practice.

Use Service To Open Doors To New Prospects - Click To Read Article
Kim Armstrong has a successful screen printing business. She focuses on large national firms that buy screen printing in big volumes. Her business has slowed considerably over the last 3 years and her biggest challenge has been getting targeted new prospects to see her. The company gets countless calls everyday from hopeful salespeople intent on selling their firm\'s screen printing services. While Kim is fun to talk to, does great work at reasonable prices and is very service-oriented, these benefits don\'t open as many doors as they used to.

Use EMail Marketing to Increase Your Bottom Line - Click To Read Article
Over the next few months you will see more direct-marketing companies running and launching e-mail advertising campaigns.

The Secret to Achieving Success in Any Business - Click To Read Article
I meet many people during the course of my work who go into business for themselves, simply because they are good at what they do. Take Susan, a physiotherapist who loves what she does. She worked in a multi-disciplinary clinic for some years before branching out on her own. Because she was good and she was in demand at the clinic, she believed the same would be true if she went out on her own

The Power of PR Make Yourself Newsworthy - Click To Read Article
PR is a critical ingredient for success in a small business. Generally its free, you get into media you could not afford to advertise in and if done right can drive many prospects into your business.

The Power of Thank You Notes - Click To Read Article
At one time it was common practice to send hand written thank you notes for almost everything. It was simply considered good manners. Sadly this has died out over the years, to the point where it is relatively rare to receive a hand written thank you note.

The Role of The Small Business CEO as an Allocator of Resources - Click To Read Article
The primary job of a business owner is to continually look for ways to increase the rate of return on the equity in their business.

The Power of a Single Action Web Site - Click To Read Article
Does your web site work the way you want it to? Does it generate business for you or is it just there? I recently learned a new web site secret that few people are talking about yet. It is counter to much of the prevailing wisdom about web sites, but that\'s where its power lies.

The Difference Between Action and Inertia - Click To Read Article
I was reminded recently, that it is not what we know that is important, but what we do with it that makes all the difference.

The busy man is never wise and the wise man is never busy Lin Yutang Chinese Philosopher - Click To Read Article
Lin Yutang was critical of North Americans for being too busy. He believed we are too subservient to the business culture. He saw us as slaves to our work, who worry ourselves to death.

The Dangers of Humour In Advertising - Click To Read Article
Driving along the highway to my next client appointment this morning, I was stuck behind a huge dump truck for a while, as the traffic inched along. The truck was carrying a large load of fresh garden soil, probably top soil destined for the flower beds of one of the large condo developments along that part of the highway. On the back of the truck was the name of the company, along with a telephone number and the slogan \"Soil Yourself!\".

The Difference Between Networking and Selling - Click To Read Article
If you confuse networking with selling you will almost certainly end up earning less than you should.

Simple Strategy for Getting Past Voice Mail When Cold Calling - Click To Read Article
Many people are frustrated with voice mail. It seems like an impenetrable wall between you and your prospects. It often seems the harder you try, the more voice mail you get to.

Richard Bransons Wisdom - Click To Read Article
I have always believed that marketing starts with the product, not what you say about it. If you develop an excellent product with value that is right for your customers, then marketing it should not be difficult.

Risk Reversal - Click To Read Article
Bringing in new customers is expensive and often difficult. Here is one effective but frequently overlooked way to reduce the difficulty.

Remember That the People You Address Are Selfish - Click To Read Article
Remember that the people you address are selfish, as we all are. They care nothing about your interest or your profit. They seek service for themselves. Ignoring this fact is a common mistake and a costly mistake in advertising. Ads say in effect, buy my brand. Give me the trade you give to others. Let me have the money. That is not a popular appeal.

Romance Your Customers By Making The Easy Sale First - Click To Read Article
When I was a teenager, I had a friend Gavin, who had a very direct approach with the young ladies in the town where we lived. We used to laugh because he got a lot of slaps, and we were also envious because he was sometimes successful.

Power of Partnerships - Click To Read Article
Rick Wolfe of Poststone Corp suggests that if you look at the biggest companies, almost everyone sells through partnerships.

May the force be with you Leverage is everywhere you look - Click To Read Article
Leverage is like Star Wars\' ‘The Force’: It\'s what entrepreneurs do to become successful, it\'s all around us, but we don\'t recognize it as such. But if you understand it and learn its power, then you are able to make much more consistent, strategic and proactive use of it.”

Monkey Trap Marketing - Click To Read Article
The primary job of a business owner is to continually look for ways to increase the rate of return on the equity in their business.

Marketing Clutter Is Making Every Business Owners Life Much Tougher - Click To Read Article
According to marketing authority Chet Holmes, decision makers are now exposed to 30,000 commercial messages daily, as compared to only 3,000 ten years ago. Similarly, the cost of selling has almost tripled over the past decade. It now takes 8.4 attempts for a sales representative to get in front of a prospect, whereas 10 years ago, it took only 4 tries. In today\'s market, sales people must work three times as hard to achieve half the results as they used to.

Leverage The Key That Unlocks The Door to Growing Your Business - Click To Read Article
George Beshara of Montreal developed a series of modular training programs to help people manage their lives better. They are excellent programs, and everyone who has been exposed to them agrees, but there is a problem. He only knows a relatively small number of suitable prospects. Should he go directly to the end user or should he go through a group of people who are already connected to the people who need his training programs?

Leveraging Time How To Avoid Being Busy and Broke - Click To Read Article
You have heard it many times. Time is your scarcest resource! Time is your most perishable resource!

Keep Your Marketing at the Leading Edge in 2005 - Click To Read Article
If you want to continuously create marketing that delivers, you should tune up your marketing engine at least once a year. I like to do it early in each new year.

Invest Time In Working With Your Staff - Click To Read Article
Where are we going? What\'s expected of me? What\'s in it for me? Where do I go when I need help? If your staff, particularly the customer facing ones, don\'t know the answers to these four simple questions, they may be moving your organization in directions you don\'t want to go.

Is Business To Business Marketing Different Than Business To Consumer - Click To Read Article
Last week while discussing marketing with a number of consultants, one mentioned that he though my ideas were fantastic for consumer marketing and advertising, but that business to business marketing was different. He declared it had to be more factual, down to earth, logical and feature rich. I think these are alternative words for boring.

How to Turn a Request for a Discount to Your Advantage - Click To Read Article
When a prospect asks for a discount, what do you do? Many of us simply give it and accept a lower profit on the sale. This is fine if you have a clear reason for giving it. Perhaps you wanted to keep a competitor out, or you never intended to charge the full price you asked for, but what do you do if you don\'t want to give the prospect a discount and do it simply because you fear losing the sale?

If You Want to Be Referred - Click To Read Article
Referrals are the cheapest and most effective form of marketing. If you want to be referred, this behaviour is a must. Most people will only refer people they trust.

How to Generate More Leads From Your Advertising - Click To Read Article
1. Make Sure Your Copy Is Read By Developing A Powerful Headline.

How To Get Great Testimonials - Click To Read Article
As customers become more cautious and more skeptical, so does the need for great testimonials become more critical. Most of us have a few testimonials, but almost no one has a process for systematically going after them as a strategic priority. Social proof is one of the most powerful selling tools available and Street-Smart Marketers make it a priority to obtain it and provide it to prospects.

How to Get More Out of Networking - Click To Read Article
Networking is the marketing tool of choice for many business owners, but many are only mildly effective at it, resulting in a huge wasted opportunity. Street-Smart Marketers constantly find ways to optimize every marketing dollar and every marketing activity. Here\'s how you can optimize your networking.

How to drop the balls - Click To Read Article
Most business owners, especially those with rapidly growing businesses have far too many tasks on their plates. How do they juggle all the priorities? It seems that the only way is to either delegate or to simply drop some of the tasks. Here’s a way to look at dropping tasks and get more leverage on your time.

How to Get More out of Your Web Marketing - Click To Read Article
E-mail marketing may be one of the most valuable tools to marketers today, but it does require both knowledge and skill. Not only is it inexpensive but it has huge reach.

How To Cost Effectively Double Your Client Base - Click To Read Article
It seems everyone I talk to says that it is getting harder to get responses from their marketing.

How Much Is Failing To Communicate Regularly With Your Existing Customers Costing You - Click To Read Article
If you are an established business, how much time, resources and energy do you spend on marketing to: new prospects in your total market? .......% marketing to ideal prospects who are not yet customers? ......% to existing customers?......%

How Many Months Do You Have Left To Achieve Your Dreams - Click To Read Article
Over the last year I have noticed an interesting phenomenon. Despite the very positive feedback I get from people on the value and practical nature of the marketing ideas I supply in this newsletter, in my courses and in my consulting, many people seem to find it hard to take the personal action needed. This is true even when they agree that taking action will help them achieve an important goal.

How Newsletters Can Help You Stay In Touch And Build Deeper Relationships With Your Customers And Prospects - Click To Read Article
Many business owners worry about how to stay in touch with a growing customer base. They know when you build relationships, you build sales, but worry about the cost of person to person contact. One of the most common responses is to start a newsletter. Newsletters are an excellent medium to keep in touch with a large volume of customers and prospects. The idea works, but not everyone does a good job.

How Testing Your Marketing Can Improve Your Bottom Line - Click To Read Article
No one knows for sure if any marketing idea is going to work until they try it, yet many business owners get an idea and implement it. While taking action is an important contributor to success, this approach can be costly.

How Often Should You Repeat a Mailing? - Click To Read Article
Measuring the specific results of the same mailing can show you the impact of how multiple impressions to the same list can have vastly different results.

Grow Your Profits By Encouraging Your Customers To Increase Their Spending Each Time They Buy - Click To Read Article
I always maintain that the quickest way to grow your business, is not by adding new customers, but by encouraging existing customers to buy more or buy more often.

Great Recovery The Key To Customer Problems - Click To Read Article
Much of what I have covered in past newsletters has been about how to get new customers. An equally important part of marketing is keeping the customers you have. Today I want to give you a simple but very practical 4 step process for dealing with customer problems.

Get Unsolicited Referrals by Wowing Your Customers - Click To Read Article
So many businesses fail even on handling base expectations. Setting simple standards that everyone in you business adheres to demonstrates your reliability to your clients

From POTS to VOIP treet mart Marketers have a powerful new weapon - Click To Read Article
If you have not heard about VOIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol recently you must be living in a cave. Right now the Telco\'s and cable companies are battling it out with the CRTC over who can do what, and to whom with VOIP. The news has been full of it.

Fire Yourself and Fix Your Business - Click To Read Article
When you run your own business, it is sometimes hard to see the forest for the trees. However we often look at other people’s businesses and know immediately what we would do if we were running their business

Finding Solutions To Things That Slow Us Down - Click To Read Article
It is not that successful entrepreneurs have fewer problems or different problems, it’s just that they cope better with problems and don’t allow them to stop their forward momentum.

Ensure That Prospects Buy From You and Not Your Competition - Click To Read Article
Life in the world of sales and marketing is a passing parade. At anytime there are a small percentage of potential customers ready to do business with you, and a bigger percentage of customers who are interested in buying what you sell but are not yet committed to any particular vendor. There is an even bigger group who has needs, but is not yet interested. Many of these might become interested if they were educated about how your product or service can help them solve problems they recognize.

Ensure Your Product Or Service is a Winner in the Market - Click To Read Article
How do you stay ahead of your competition in a dog eat dog world? Almost every one believes their business is the best choice. This has to go beyond a vague feeling to being a reality. Few people work to ensure that this is true and is clearly communicated to customers and prospects. If you want more business, \"Give me the business instead of giving it to my competition,\" although common is not a very powerful or successful appeal. If you want the business there has to be a reason, from the customers perspective, to give it to you.

Does Your Belief in This Myth Prevent You from Generating More Sales - Click To Read Article
One of the most pervasive myths is that you should write short copy, because people won’t read long copy. In test after test this has been proven wrong and yet the myth prevails.

Do you want to improve the effectiveness of your web site - Click To Read Article
When it comes to websites, most business owners make the mistake of confusing glitz with effectiveness. If your primary objective is to sell, then the single most important issue is text. Not graphics and definitely not fancy flash technology. Graphic designers may disagree with me on this, but words are what count.

Do You Remember The Great Vision You Had When You Started Your Business? - Click To Read Article
I will share a secret with you that will if applied consistently will help make you rich, and grow your business to the level that you first dreamed you could acheive when you started your business.

Do You Blame Your Prospects When Your Products Or Services Are Not Selling As Well As You Would Like? - Click To Read Article
I know you have a great product or service, and I know that when you work with clients they love what you do. But why don\'t more people buy from you if you are able to deliver great value?

Busyness is the Thief of Creativity - Click To Read Article
Do you believe in business time equals money, that if you work longer and harder you will earn more? The only real competitive advantage you have in business today is your ability to think creatively. In order to do so you need to find the time.

Become A Recognized Expert In Your Industry - Click To Read Article
Street$mart Marketers know that one of the best lead generators is the free publicity generated when you are perceived to be a recognized expert in your industry.

Are You a Giver Company or a Taker Company - Click To Read Article
As a Street-Smart Marketer, you know there are giver companies and there are taker companies, just like there are people who are givers and there are people who are takers.

A Quick Source Of New Revenue - Click To Read Article
When you think of growing your business or of increasing your profits, do you immediately think of finding new clients. If so you are not alone.

A Foolproof Way To Evaluate Marketing Advice - Click To Read Article
From time to time we have all been disappointed in by someone selling marketing advice and services, who it turns out has no business doing so. Mostly you only find out once you have engaged them and spent the money.

A Marketing Moron - Click To Read Article
Do you know any marketing morons? I recently received a brochure in the mail from a landscaper. It must be something to do with spring! The cover of the black and white brochure, had a picture of a park like garden and the words: \"Welcome to my world!\"

A Web Site That Works - Click To Read Article
The important issues when creating a web site.

A Shortcut to Great Success in Your Business - Click To Read Article
No matter who you are and where you are in your career, finding yourself good mentors can be invaluable.

6 Simple Rules for Creating Direct Mail That Gets Your Phone to Ring - Click To Read Article
It almost doesn\'t matter what business you are in, direct mail properly executed works.

6 Dirty Little Secrets About Building A Business Success - Click To Read Article
Are you continuously finding ways to delight customers, eliminate unnecessary costs and improve your products and services? If so, your business is probably gaining strength. If not, you are not standing still, you are definitely going backwards.

A Creative Way To Get The Tools And Knowledge You Need To Excel. - Click To Read Article
Do you get frustrated when you cannot learn quickly enough or are having a hard time mastering a new skill. Learn from the experts, take a course, buy a book, ask an expert for advice.

5 Simple Strategies to Boost Your Advertising Results - Click To Read Article
Five simple strategies to create a more effective piece of marketing.


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