Small Business Marketing Kit For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Chapter 19

Making the Sale

In This Chapter

Using marketing communications to convert prospects into customers

Leveraging each step of the sale process

You have a great product or service (see Chapter 3). You project a clear, strong, positive business image (see Chapters 6 and 7). And you’ve run ads, sent direct mailers, optimized a website, and driven traffic to your business (see the chapters in Parts III and IV). In other words, by now you have plenty of prospects. So what do you do next?

If you’re like most businesses, you follow the if it ain’t broke don’t fix it rule. You run more ads, send more mailers, pull more people to your website, and, as a result, you keep building more and more interest in your offering.

But if you’re like the most successful businesses, this is the point at which you shift emphasis. After all, your ultimate goal isn’t to gather prospects but to gain customers.

Prospect generation is a step on your marketing path, but it’s not your destination. After your prospect pipeline is full, you need to convert interest to action. That means making the sale, closing the deal, and winning the customer. That’s what this chapter is all about.