I'm a fan of Dan Kennedy and his series of No B.S. books on marketing and sales.  I've read most of them after a couple of customers suggested them several years ago.  I've blogged about attending monthly Glazer-Kennedy chapter meetings and the discussions we have on marketing and sales success.  It's a great opportunity to learn and network.

Kennedy is on a "4 Cities in 4 Days" tour this week that is sponsored by Infusionsoft, arguably the best integrated CRM tool on the Internet.  We've worked with customers using Infusion.

We also LOVE AWeber and have a number of customers using 1shoppingcart with great success.

He also promoted his recent books,

1.	No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent: The No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners Guide to Getting Really Rich

 and 

No
B.S. Ruthless Management of People and Profits: The Ultimate, No Holds
Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners Guide to Really Getting Rich (No
B.S.)

Kennedy had 2 presentations.  The morning session dealt with the sales process.  The afternoon session focused on marketing to the affluent.  I thought I'd share some of what Kennedy presented.

He thinks many markets are in trouble because companies do not interact with their customers regularly.  He cited examples of buying four cars at four different dealerships in the past four years and hasn't heard from any of them since.  It occurred to me that my dealer hasn't stayed in touch much except for a "Thanks for your business" letter shortly after I bought my Grand Cherokee.  He also cited other cases where realtors, banks, restaurants and clothing stores where he typically spends $1,000 or more have not stayed in touch.

He talked about how most businesses have an operations system, even if it's someone turning on the lights and making coffee first thing in the morning but most businesses don not have a marketing system. (I couldn't agree more)

Kennedy says most businesses don't have marketing plans for 2 or 3 primary reasons:

1. It's a lot of work.
2. It's complicated.  People want simple solutions.

But here's an advantage.  YOUR competitors will not compete against your marketing for the same reasons!

Other nuggets from the morning session…

Build Trust – Do this with repeated touches.  Like Jeffrey Gitomer, Kennedy promotes building trust to as a key to building sales.  Demonstrate what you will do AFTER the sale.

Don't Discount – He says many businesses make this mistake.  When you're doing fewer transactions, you need to make more profit per sale.  Defend your prices and even consider raising them.

He polled the crowd, asking how many people are not following up as well as they'd like.  Almost everyone in the room raised their hand.  Everyone in the room wanted to do it better, but cited a lack of time, cost, copywriting and "fear of No" as stumbling blocks.  That's another opportunity for you to exploit.

I always preach that building traffic and converting it to sales as the best top level goals for Website ROI.  Here are two Important Takeaways from Kennedy's morning session that support those tactics.

1)  Develop and execute a marketing plan, which should include staying in touch with current and former customers.  It's good for business and your competitors probably won't be able to match your efforts.

2)  Develop a followup system.  It helps your marketing system succeed. Be responsive and touch your prospects several times.  "Let me think about it." is not always a "No."  Sometimes it means your prospect wants to think about it.

Websites can and should be an integral part of marketing plans and followup systems.

I'll post more about his presentations, but I also urge you to read his books on sales letters, marketing plans, wealth creation and time management.

– Kurt Scholle, Website ROI Guy