Category Archives for Uncategorized

Do you ever feel tongue tied?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group

Here are the most important words you can use when dealing with people to BREAK down any resistance they might have in dealing with you:

• No Problem
• I Understand
• I’d Be Happy To
• Please Allow Me
• I’m Confident…
• Easiest Part Of My Job
• Would You Do Me A Small Favor?
• Please, Tell Me No

So how can you use these words in your business?

Here are some examples:
• Someone calls to reschedule a service appointment; you say “No Problem, I understand I’d be happy to,”
• You want to ask for a referral or testimonials – you say “Would you do me a small favor?” “Please tell me no if your not comfortable doing this for me”
• You want to try a new service or product with a client – You say “please allow me to (whatever) I’m confident it will be terrific”

Make sure you train your staff to use these words as well.

The you communicate with your clients = More money in your bank account.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Are Your Employees Answering The Telephone Properly?

Are Your Employees Answering The Telephone Properly?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.


I am almost 100% sure that your employees are not answering the phone properly, and it’s hurting your business.

Let me explain.

The most common ‘short cut’ an employee will make is to answer the phone the following way, “NAME of business, this is Cindy.” And more often than not, and maybe every time, they sound like they either don’t want to be there, are super busy, or they are short with customers.

There are many philosophies on how one should answer the phone, but a proven technique is to smile and say, “Name of business, how can I help you?”

You may be thinking there is little difference. But the beauty is in the details. Saying, “How can I help you” makes your potential client feel more important. Saying, “…this is Cindy” makes you customer feel like the person answering the phone is more important. 

You want the customer to feel empowered, not the other way around.

We are constantly training and re training our staff on this point because they do have a tendency to fall into the “This is Cindy” routine. But not often because we call all the time and make sure they are doing it right.

Here’s why: 



The First Contact Is The Most Important!

The first contact a customer makes with your business is the most important because it will create a lasting impression of your business and they will decide right then and there if they want to be a part of it.



Make time for this strategy right away…

Call your business and pretend you are a customer several times in a one or two week period, and do it once a month. Use a towel or something to disguise your voice. Consider recording the conversation for training purposes (check your states laws on
recording conversations if you are not comfortable with it, or you are not sure it’s legal to do so.)

Note how the phone is answered and how friendly your staff sounds. See if they handle your questions well. Do they ask you to come into the store? Do they set up a service appointment? 

If they do not answer the phone in a friendly manner, or handle it properly, fix it right away, especially if they are not sounding friendly and helpful. 

If they use the “This is Cindy” routine, or they sound like they are annoyed or don’t want to be there, you have a major problem to fix.

Train your staff regularly in this crucial area and you will experience surprising results from your efforts.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

ARE YOU a Professional?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.

ARE YOU A Professional?

What we mean by this is:

Have a clean store.

Have everyone dress professionally- (uniforms are an option that can raise the professionalism of a business).

Put protective floor mats in the clients’ vehicle when you get in?

The public can be skeptical about anybody these days. The reason is because there are a lot of inexperienced automotive techs out there who can’t fix their own car let alone someone else’s which leaves clients angry. You must overcompensate for the ones that give auto techs a bad reputation. Granted this is unfair, but it’s the way it is.

We’ve seen many automotive shops where the carpets are filthy, the store looks “junky” and the employees look like Cindy Lauper on a bad hair day. We’ve even seen employees who dressed like they were getting ready for a hippie Halloween party. Granted, there is nothing wrong with a sense of style and fashion, but if you want high quality clients you should be providing them with an atmosphere of professionalism.

You must look clean, neat and be organized. This earns people’s trust and respect. It probably is no surprise to you that the stores with employees like the one above can only charge on the low end of the price scale for their services.

Clean stores & neat employees are important. Do you think people will pay top dollar to go into a dirty, cluttered store with broken down computer parts scattered everywhere. Absolutely not.

We’re not saying you have to be a brand new store but we are saying that your store and your employees need to look good.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-75633.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Are you sending out a newsletter each month? If not, you’re losing big sales.

Are you sending out a newsletter each month? If not, you’re losing big sales.

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.

Mailing a newsletter to your client base each month will always more than pay for itself in increased sales. We see a spike in business the week the newsletter hits our client’s mailbox. Emailing your newsletter is not as effective as mailing it in the regular mail but it is better than doing nothing.

It takes a lot of work to put together a decent newsletter and we are NOT suggesting that you research topics and write your own newsletter each month to your clients. It is not the best use of your time. We have a “Business Newsletter” service where we do everything for you for a small monthly fee.

The way this works is every month you will get from us an email with a 4-page newsletter on it. All you have to do is fill in your specific information in a certain sections we have set aside for you. Then you print and have the newsletter mailed to your client list. You can also have copies in your store to give your clients.

This is a great way to keep your name and business in front of your clients. It is also a great way to announce information you want them to know. They will think that you personally sat down and wrote the newsletter. They will think you spent a lot of time putting it together. They will thank you for all the neat information.

Please send an email to our office if you are interested in finding out the details of our newsletter program.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Do You Wow Your Client?

Do You Wow Your Client?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.

You want your client to be in ‘awe’ after doing business with you.

Does this sound hard?

It may. But it’s really easy.

It’s easy because most businesses do a lousy job. They don’t even do what they are supposed to do. Of course they don’t do anything ‘extra’. So it’s easy for you to stand out!

What do you do to WOW your clients?

One it business owner gives all their clients a free mouse pad and can of air Before you think she is crazy, let’s analyze this:

She gives this to her clients after their first visit to her store. It costs her $6.00 per mouse pad and can of air. She puts a label on the can of air and the mouse pad has all her information on it. She tells them to spray their keyboard every week to clear the dust away. People love this.

Then she says if they ever run out come back in and I’ll give you another one- it’s for free-forever!

So it costs her $6.00 to give her client an extraordinary feeling and “tie” them to her forever. That’s pretty cheap! Of course, you don’t have to offer the exact same thing. If you have a product that you can acquire at a relatively low cost, but would have a high end perceived value to your clients- then offer it.

But, our friend doesn’t stop there.

She also gives her clients a free MEMO board to go on their refrigerator. With her company name and number on it. On the pack she puts personal tips.

Her clients feel special. The memo board coasts her $2.00.

For a onetime total cost of $8.00 she WOWS her client.

Do you think they would ever go to any other business for computer related products and services?

Not on your life!

They are loyal as can be.

70% of her business is repeat business. That means she spend $8.00 to get a client and each time they come back it’s cheaper and cheaper. This is brilliant.

Not only does she get nearly 70% repeat business but she gets 26% of her business from referrals!

If you keep splitting that $8.00 by all the clients it generates, you’ll realize why this is so powerful.

Why Don’t More Businesses Do This?

Most business owners look at it as an expense. This is stupid. It is the cheapest and easiest way to get repeat business and lots of referrals.

But most don’t look at the whole picture. They just look at the cost. This is ridiculous but you can really benefit from their shortsightedness!

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Do You Always Make Your Client Feel Important?

Do You Always Make Your Client Feel Important?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.

This is very, very important. You should always, always make all your clients feel like they are your most important client. It doesn’t matter how much money they have or their social status, make every client feel like they are number 1.

A client who feels important will be a super, great client.

He/she will:

Keep using you over and over again.
He/she never look for a different computer problem solver.
He/she refer lots of new clients to you.
He/she rarely complain about anything. If clients are thrilled with you, they’ll let the little mistakes pass. They realize that no matter how good you are there are always some mess-ups. Clients who feel important are much less likely to hold anything against you.

How do you make a client feel important?

Respond to their calls, questions, whatever immediately. Don’t make people wait, answer their questions that day, or at the latest the next day.

Always treat your clients with respect.
Always help them with their problem, even if it’s something they should do themselves. They’ll appreciate it very much and pay you back ten fold.

Never underestimate your client. If you treat every client like your most important client, you’ll have more business than you can handle.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Is Your Marketing Diversified?

Is Your Marketing Diversified?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.

Diversity equals stability.

If you have one marketing strategy which is pulling in $10,000.00 a month (which is entirely possible), it can be tempting to not do anything else.

This is a mistake. This makes you very vulnerable.

It is like putting all your eggs in one basket.

If for some reason that strategy starts only pulling in half as much, only $5,000.00, you’re in trouble

Yes, yes, we keep telling you that these strategies are systems. That they get consistent results. This is all true but…There could always be some sort of change in one system. Over time these things are bound to happen.

If you have 10 different strategies to get new clients each month, that’s better than 1. The more reliable systems you have bringing in a steady flow of new clients, the more stable you will be.

For example if you have 10 different strategies bringing in $10,000.00 a month and one stops working, you’ll still be fine.

But if you only have one and it stops working, you have BIG trouble.

I’m telling you this because these strategies are extremely powerful. One strategy could easily bring in $20,000.00 or more a month. It’ll be tempting just to do that one but don’t.

Diversify.

Your business will be bigger, better and much more stable.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Headline Tips Guaranteed To Work

Headline Tips Guaranteed To Work

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.


As we discussed in the past the headline is the most important part of your ad. Without a good headline, you will lose prospective clients instantly and your ads will bomb.



Here are 7 quick headline tips that can double or triple your response rates:  



1. “How To” is a tested and proven winning way to begin a headline.


2. Another “can’t go wrong” headline technique is to use the word FREE somewhere in your headline. It’s still one of the most powerful words in advertising.


3. ‘New’ is yet one more proven response boosting word that you can test in your headlines.


4. Try to use “You” in your headline whenever possible. Tests have shown that it alone can boost response.


5. Another surefire way to create a good headline is to ask a question that evokes a “Yes” answer.


6. Guarantee. Using a guarantee in your headline can double response or more. People don’t want to feel like their going to get stuck with a lemon, and they have been ripped off too many times.


7. Everyone wants to know a ‘Secret’. Use it in your headline and watch response rates soar!



Combine some or all of these like I did in the headline at the top of this page for a very powerful headline, and test different headlines. The difference between an average headline and a good one can be the difference between getting two or three clients and dozens of them calling you and driving across town to come to you store if you have one.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Your mail will never get opened… Unless you do this

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.

When most people get their mail they divide it into 3 piles:

Pile A: Personal mail.

Pile B: Bills.

Pile C: Everything else, AKA junk mail.

And you know what happens to junk mail… It goes in the trash without ever being opened.

If you want your letter to get opened, then you can’t send out the same stuff most businesses do. Instead of going for a “professional, polished” look, you have to make your letter look like it’s personal mail; like it is coming from their little old grandmother.

You do this by hand writing the address, using a stamp, (not metered,) and using colors. More people will open your letter if it looks personal than if it looks like something automated and from a business.

Think about yourself when you open your own mail; wouldn’t you be more likely to open something that looks like a note from a friend rather than just another flyer for a local business? If you send a letter and nobody opens it, then your marketing effort, (and TIME, and MONEY,) was totally wasted!

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or are interested in talking about other ways to make the most of your marketing budget, please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Did You Know That Direct Mail Is The Cheapest Methods To Get Customers?

Did You Know That Direct Mail Is The Cheapest Methods To Get Customers?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.

Direct mail is one of the most powerful ways to market your business that there is.

This year there will be $32.4 billion spent on direct mail. Barely $11 billion will be spent on cable TV advertising for the top 6 TV networks. These statistics are according to a study directed by McCann-Erickson.

There wouldn’t be that much money spent on direct mail if it didn’t work.

So why do most small businesses, especially businesses, think of direct mail as a waste?

They don’t know how to use it. They’ve never had any instruction on how to use it.

They send a flier- as you know by now, 99.9% of fliers don’t cut it
they send it to a ‘bad’ list. The list, the people who you send your letter to, is just as important as the letter itself.

Many people overlook this.

One business owner had written a sales letter. It was pretty good, not great but pretty good.

She was getting zero response, not low, not one but zero. Zilch. Nada.

Who was she sending her letters to?

She didn’t know. She had bought a zip code zone.

Finally she went to look at the houses in the zip code she purchased.

Let us describe it for you:

Run-down. Tiny houses with broken down porches- at least one plank of wood was missing. Junk strewn across the front yard. In the driveway there was a car on cement blocks with half the engine removed. Both the husband and the wife were wearing stained t-shirts.

Are these the types of people most likely to buy your services?

Do they even own a computer? If they do, would they pay to get it cleaned?

These people are not good prospects for you.

The List is very important.

To recap, here is why most It business owners fail at direct mail:

No direct mail expertise.
Bad sales letter
Bad list.

How To Do Successful Direct Mail

Have an irresistible offer. The more enticing your offer the better you will sell.

Attention getting headline. Your headline is really an ad for your sales letters.

Create Interest. The first paragraph should emphasize the benefit to the reader, this gets your prospect interested enough to read the rest of the letter.

Create desire. Make your prospect really want what you’re offering.

Call to action. You must have an irresistible offer.

You must tell the prospect to respond and have a deadline. If you don’t tell the person to call today and don’t have an expiration date creating a “sense of urgency” you don’t have a direct response.

In our program there are lots of ready to use direct mail letters. Use them as-is or modify them. Learn from them and start writing your own!

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton