Quick question: What area of your business can you change that will increase sales quickly and give you the freedom to work ON your business, not IN it?

Customer service? No. New product development? Nope. A re-organization? Getting colder.

The biggest change you can make is in your marketing. And this month, I found myself in the 'hot seat' in the latest edition of the Counter-Intuitive Wisdom Series on CD and instead of me asking the questions, I was the one being asked to reveal the secrets we use to help our clients retool their marketing in our most recent teleseminar, Do-It-Yourself Launch: How to Generate More Leads and Dramatically Increase Sales Right Away!

A 'launch' is a custom coaching program we have for clients and for the first time our marketing strategist, Rafael Mael, and I revealed the 3 step process that has been so successful for our clients. In a sense, you're getting the same advice that others have paid thousands of dollars to receive. So let's get started'

For most, advertising is like trying to find a marriage partner by simply walking up to the first person you want to meet and asking, 'Want to get married?' Every time you get a 'no' you say good-bye and move on to the next person. This 'buy or good-bye' mindset doesn't work 99 times out of 100.

Instead, you want to develop a relationship first. And to do that, you have to figure out who you want to meet. Who are the fish in your pond? Next, you must figure out their pain. What keeps them up at night? Once you've indentified what they're going through you can identify with them and establish a relationship.

Rafael just finished working with Steve Dorfman, head of an SAT prep company. Previously, he wasn't getting any response to his marketing, but in one month he closed 5 leads and has another 6-8 leads he's following up on. Each lead involves schools worth at least tens of thousands dollars! How did we do it?

He made the same mistake we see with many of our clients. The marketing was all about his company ' not his hungry fish. But as he talked with his hungry fish ' guidance counselors ' he found they felt unappreciated and pressured by administrators, parents and students and even the SAT prep companies. So instead of talking about the prep company, the marketing talked about the pain guidance counselors felt. As Rafael says, we switched the conversation from sales to 'relationship marketing and said, 'Hey, we have a service. You have a need. Can we have a relationship?'

This is where most businesses we work with fail miserably. Remember, the goal is to create a relationship. Why? Because 81% of all sales don't occur until after the 5th contact. That means you need to make contact with your prospects again and again. Your initial goal therefore is to simply capture their contact information using irresistible bait. What's the best irresistible bait? Either free information or free stuff. Free information can be a report, book, a how-to-guide ' something that positions you and your business as a credible, trusted source. Go to www.YourBusinessGPS.com/teleseminar for my free guide, How to Write a Book in 21 Days.

Free stuff also works well. Stone Street Capital offered its prospects (lottery winners) a mini boom box radio simply for calling the office to find out more about their financial planning services. The mailing ($3 per piece) generated a 10.4% response rate ' the most it's ever had in its 14-year history.

Once you have their contact information, never let go. Auto responders (Aweber, iContact, Constant Contact, etc.) are your best tools for drip campaigns in which you can set it up once and automatically send information to your prospects giving them reasons why they should do business with you.

Once you've generated the leads and developed the relationship with your prospects, it's much easier to get them to say 'yes' to your offer. Look for any holes in the process! Analyze every step in which you're asking your prospects to take an action and make sure you're not losing large numbers of customers.

In the case on one chiropractor we worked with, Dr. Paul Pratt, he made the mistake of asking clients to schedule their first paid appointment with his receptionist. Most didn't do it. His close rate was only 6%. So instead, we worked with him to schedule the first paid visit and his close rate jumped to 93% in one month!

Another tip: Take the risk off the prospect by offering a guarantee they can't refuse. One of our clients, Dr. Alvin Schamroth, doubled his sales when he offered doctors double their money back if they didn't pass the oral exam boards after taking his prep course.

We're not shy either. In our launches we offer a 10:1 Guarantee. If you don't get 10 times the return on your investment, you don't pay a cent. How's that for risk reversal?!

Special Gold Membership Benefit:  Call us directly at 800-805-1220 and get a FREE no-risk, no-obligation marketing analysis with one of our strategists. If you qualify, you may also be eligible for a launch with Jon Goldman.