It’s a Keeper

I was searching through my personal email the other day when up popped an email from a local spa. Thinking it was a good time for a massage (OK, is there ever a bad time for a massage?) I took a look to see what they were offering. They laid out what seemed to be a great membership program. Discounts, special offers, bring your friends. Since my friends and I often do "girls days" at the spa, I was interested and without even seeing a price was seriously considering buying.

Yeah for them, they succeeded in getting my attention. But then the problems began.

The message said, "cli*ck here" for more information and the application, but there was no link.

 A little frustrated, but not ready to give up, I looked for an email address - nope, not there.

 Well how about a website link? Nope, zilch, nada. Just the web address imbedded in a graphic file that I couldn't do anything with.

So I let out a big sigh, opened my internet browser and actually hand typed the web address of the spa. Would you ever go this far? Of course you wouldn't, certainly most people would have given up a loooong time ago. I was just feeling persistent.

Now determined to find out something I started clicking around their site. I checked out their services, well what I could see of them anyway, since the page was supposed to scroll and didn't so all I could see was about 5% of what they offered. And when I finally found a place called special offers, the music went off in my head as finally my search for the golden membership package would be found, right? Survey says, WRONG. Strike three. I was done.

After closing out their site, I even thought about replying to the email, but noticed it was some weird address that obviously was created by their email blaster and I figured no one would ever see it. So I deleted the email. Game over.

The question then becomes, how do we learn from the mistakes of others? When you send out a mailer, an email, a letter, a proposal, an offer or anything, are you easy to work with?

You work so hard at getting their interest; do you complete the process and make sure there is an actual way to buy from you? To contact you? To find out more?

One of the "Made it to a Million" mentors my Outrageously Effective Systems members learn from talked about the importance of making it easy to do business with you. So consider how you might make it easier for people to work with you.

==>Can you offer a payment plan?

==>Can you offer free shipping?

==>Can you offer an easy way to contact you? Like say always sending your phone number in an email signature, always including a web address in your emails.

==>Can you automate so the client does less work? Like setting up forms or filling out information for them.

Make a quick list of five things you can do to make working with you easier. Then tape that list to your wall so you keep those items in the front of your mind every time you interact with your clients or leads. Keeping those few things in mind will make sure you avoid making the same mistake as that spa. Why spend all that time and energy enticing people in, just to push them away?

Beth Schneider, President of Process Prodigy Inc., www.processprodigy.com, along with her team of highly sought after operations consultants, reveal the insider secrets billion-dollar corporations pay thousands of dollars for. Specializing in process creation, Process Prodigy tools and techniques have helped entrepreneurs increase productivity by as much as 600%, and revenues by as much as 250%. Visit www.processprodigy.com/ezine and grab your FREE systems starter kit valued at $297.00.