What's Your Position?

Greetings, my friend. I hope your summer was relaxing and
prosperous. If the economy were only as hot as the temperature,
we'd all be doing much better. I heard talk this morning of a
double dip recession or even a depression. These are not
comforting thoughts. Most every client I know is suffering from
reduced business, no matter what the industry.

Many people tell me they are doing what they always did to try to
bring new business in, but even things that worked in the past no
longer seem to work. I believe this calls for a different
approach to doing business, and it starts with understanding the
customer's needs and then being flexible in your pricing to allow
the customer to engage you. Once engaged, as your value is being
proven, you can begin to do more work and increase your billings.

Now typically, being nice like this and being customer focused
like this, is not how many businesses operate. Many businesses are
there to take your order and call that customer service. I
liken it to something more biblical.

At the end of the day, we are either Jesus offering to help the
crippled beggar into the healing pool, or we are the crippled
beggar asking for help. At one time or another, we are in one of
these positions -- either in the position to help someone or in
the position of needing help. And businesses and customers need
each other for obvious reasons.

What your stance? Are you trying to take orders or are you trying
to help people? Are you flexible? Lord knows I've had to adapt
and so have most of my friends and clients. When faced with an
extraordinarily poor economy, you must take extraordinary
measures to compel people to do business with you.

For instance, some charge for proposals. I give mine away most of
the time. Some designers charge $117.00 for an ebook cover. I charge
$49.95. Some copywriters charge $3000.00 for a sales letter. I
price it based upon what the need and budget may be.

I'm not suggesting you giveaway the shop -- we all must maintain
a satisfactory (note I did not say healthy) profit margin -- but
you can be more flexible in how you approach prospects during
these trying times.

Now onto tools. Two items crossed my desk this past week I want
to share with you.

The first is Diskeeper 2010, a utility which helps keep your hard
drive stay healthy and run at top speeds. The last time I reviewed
this tool was back in 2004. It's come a long way, and it is
definitely worth looking at. I had not defragmented my hard drive
in 2 years and the sucker was running slow! Took forever to boot
up and open applications and files. Not anymore. I have witnessed
a 37% increase in speed. I'm blown away by the "set it and forget
it" technology. You can read more about it here:

http://www.cooltoolawards.com/software/utilities/diskeeper2010..htm

The second thing is a new ebook called Facebook Power Ads,
Version 3. This is a fairly extensive 98 page ebook about
Facebook advertising -- the how-to's, the what not to do's, and
the things you better do if you know what's good for you! You can
read all about it here (and yes, this comes with reseller
rights):

http://www.cooltoolawards.com/ebooks/facebookpowerads.htm

That's it for now. Think about your position with regard to your
prospects and customers. Changing that position a little could
stimulate your business in new ways.

Until next time,


Steven

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