“The Psychology of the Sale” by Marshall Lager (CRM Magazine, May 2009).  No matter how you cut it, we are all in sales. Whether it’s getting someone to buy our product or service, or getting the kids to buy into the idea of cleaning up after themselves, it’s sales.  A sale is establishing a relationship and getting someone else to embrace your ideas.  This is a handy article end to end but this paragraph was worth pulling:

More than mere honesty and comprehensive product knowledge, it’s important to express what your product or service is really worth to the customer, Champy says—what it means to their lives and livelihoods. “Pricing is not it,” he says. “The value proposition is what brings them back.” Knowing why your offer is better—and especially why it’s different—is something every salesperson must communicate. “Zipcar is a highly compelling and attractive business because its value is shared ownership, not car rental,” Champy says. “It changes the frame of reference.”

“Google Wants You” by Chris Morrison (Fortune Small Businss, May 2009). As overviews of Google’s advertising options go,  this is a pretty good one. There are three majors gaps that deserve to be mentioned:

1) The estimated click fraud rate of Ad Sense / Ad Words ads is anywhere from 15% – 20%. That’s a fairly significant amount of waste and might be more than you’re willing to hand over to an already uber-rich company.

2) If you also want to sell ads yourself on your site, as well as use Ad Sense, then check out Google Ad Manager. Good stuff.And it’s free.

3) There are ways to increase (organic search) traffic without having to pay for keywords. However, what you save in money might cost you in time. That said, a blog (for example) is something that can keep people coming back and helps to develop and support your brand on an ongoing basis. Ad Words are more of a one shot approach.

“Minimize Cancellations And Grow the Bottom Line” by Karen Woodard-Chavez (Fitness Business Pro Magazine, April 2009). Ms. Woodard-Chavez makes a number of good points. She must be commended for her guestcentric approach. To her list we would like to add a few things that didn’t make it into her must-read one-pager:

1) Analyze the triggers  that got members to sign-up. Maybe there’s a particular promotion, message, channel, publication, etc.  that drove in more cancel prone individuals that others. Look at those details and try to figure out what went wrong. In other words, maybe it wasn’t them, maybe it was you.  In theory it’s possible to reduce cancellations but trying to target people who are less likely to get cancel. Maybe there’s a profile for such people? Be proactive.

2) What about ongoing relationship maintenance? Instead of waiting to the end, why not follow up with members a regular basis to see how they feel? What they like? Or don’t like? A simple greeting as they walk in isn’t enough. Instead of being reactive at the end, why not be proactive throughout their entire membership? Again, maybe there a profile that develops. It would seem that typically most people are probably gun-ho when they first sign up and then taper off and time goes on. Well, find out where and when the threshold is for a canceler and then get to them sooner.

3) Don’t just listen to what they tell you, take that feedback and do something about it. Listening is great but if there’s no procedure in place to actually address the info collected then the same issues can in theory persist for a long time. Over reacting to each and every canceling member might be overkill but any trends should be tracked and addressed.

In summary… Avoid marketing to targets who are likely to cancel… Be proactive with staying in touch with the wants and needs of your guests… Don’t just listen but be prepared to act on what you hear.