Selling More When "Business is really down..."

This is a quick post about what to do when your customers or prospects blame the current economic downturn for poor sales. Typically, this comes in the form of an objection to your offer. 
What's a marketer to do in the face of this looming economic uncertainty? Simple... You go back and dig down deeply into your existing resources then pluck out a brand new revenue stream - that's what... 
If you have a "dead" file of leads that never converted, you have money in there... 
If you have an old product or service that's almost reached the end of its useful life, you have money in there... 
If you marketing collateral that has not been repurposed fully, you have money in there... 
Change your approach, and you'll change your outcome. 
Keep throwing money at it the way you always have and you're in for a disappointment. 
Try and move your expensive marketing processes (bulky direct mail pieces & expensive information collateral, lead-gen telemarketing, etc.) into more automated and cost-leveraged channels (email and autoresponder marketing, downloadable PDF's and streaming rich media, etc.). 
Call it hedging your bet. Call it stretching your dollar. Call it whatever you want... The result is lower cost per sale and returning some of that "lost" revenue, using what you're already paid for and have available to you immediately. 
I am certain that if you spend the next 5 minutes creating a list of all of your marketing resources, you'll have an "AHA!" moment... Give it a try!

Hiding Your Forced Continuities In Plain View

Continuities are the flavor of the month in Internet Marketing circles at the moment.

Consequently, we've all seen a wave of emotionally charged discussions about the concept, as if continuities were a new discovery.

Nothing could be further from the truth...

Mostly, the uproar surrounds "hidden" or "forced" continuities - as in "I didn't know I was going to be charged..." or "The ____ was supposed to be free, but if I have to sign up for $39 a month to get it, then that's NOT FREE...".

Affiliates focusing too much on the freebies and marketers under-representing the "catch" seems to be the recurring theme where most of the major griping is concerned.

Fortunately or unfortunately (depending upon which side of the fence you market to) The Great Continuity Debate appears to be largely restricted to "marketers marketing to marketers".

Whatever your business niche might be, you should not let cynicism or clumsy sales practices discourage you from considering how continuities can exponentially increase your profits.

Continuities are an age-old and fundamental component of many, many marketing models - particularly in direct response television (infomercials) and household or consumer products.

How many times have YOU seen the spots on TV or in your weekly Parade insert in the Sunday paper where you buy the widget for cheap and then have to buy the stuff that makes it work on an ongoing (continual) basis.

The Swiffer is just such a continuity product. If you never buy the little rectangle wipes and bottles of cleaning juice, it's worthless to you (and to J&J).

NetFlix is a continuity service. Try it for a month for free then pay $20 a month. Simple.

Gevalia Coffee... The new Gillette razor handle that they just mailed me for free but only comes with one blade. All of these are examples of continuity products and none elicit the kind of mistrust or negativity seen in the "make money online" market.

Just think about how many continuities you encounter in every facet of your daily life - they are everywhere. So, don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Done properly, continuities are like nitro for your cash flow.

Here's where most marketers royally screw the pooch with continuity offers and bring down upon themselves a world of hurt:

1) Not properly disclosing the terms of the offer
2) Focusing solely on the freebie and not the back-end or continuity itself
3) Mishandling or failing to honor refund requests properly

Here's some tips on doing continuities the "right" way:

1) Make the buyer decide that they NEED the continuity, not try to get around it just to get the freebie.
2) Be absolutely explicit about the offer -– build the continuity INTO the offer, don't bury it.
3) Leverage the continuity to introduce related products/services and build community.

As always, I'd love to hear your take on the issue...