Cold calling can be hit or miss for many service professionals. Some professionals swear by it. Others hate the idea of calling people up and pitching their products or services. Personally, I don’t advocate cold calling in most cases because it can be an expensive, time consuming way to market yourself. And while it can work, calling someone who has never heard of you or expressed a need for your services almost always leads to rejection. read full entry

If you’ve been promoting your services for any length of time, you’ve probably experienced at least one time when your prospect seemed to drop off the face of the planet. You thought things were going well. You were in talks and coming close to closing the deal when suddenly, your prospect stops taking your calls or responding to email.

The worst part about this failure to communicate is not knowing what happened. Did you do something wrong? Is the sale lost? And what is the best course of action since you don’t want to be perceived as a pushy salesperson who never knows when to give up. read full entry

In the offline world, when you pay by credit card, you simply swipe your credit card through a point-of-sale device and either show your identification, sign the receipt or enter your pin number (if you are using a debit card, for instance), and the purchase is paid for. If you want to accept credit cards online, the process is a bit more complicated. Online merchants don’t have the luxury of swiping a physical credit card or asking you for your signature or identification, so they have other measures in place to make sure they get paid. read full entry

One of the best ways to keep in touch with prospects and clients is to create an email newsletter that you send regularly to subscribers who have opted in to receive it. Email newsletters are a low-cost way to follow up with subscribers, build your reputation as an authority in your niche, and start conversations with prospects.

A great email newsletter builds trust between you and your readers by delivering high-quality content that your readers find helpful. Here are 7 steps to creating your email marketing strategy. read full entry

When someone asks you, “What do you do for a living?” you might reply that you are an accountant, attorney, consultant, carpet cleaner, financial planner, or a provider of whatever types of services you sell. Yet if you run your own business, you are not in the accounting, legal, consulting, carpet cleaning or financial planning business. Rather, you are in the business of running a business that happens to sell those types of services and related products to people for a profit. read full entry

Your website should be the place where prospects go to learn more about how you can help them solve their current problem, obstacle or frustration. Unfortunately, most service professional’s websites are plagued with cluttered design, meaningless graphics, confusing navigation, poor writing and too much focus on the business rather than the prospect’s problems. Here are 6 tips for creating a powerful website that successfully generates leads for your business. read full entry

Twitter has received an enormous amount of attention in 2009. In just the past few months, Twitter has experienced explosive growth, thanks in part to high profile coverage by Ashton Kutcher and Oprah. read full entry