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Do You Make These Dumb Marketing Mistakes? (I Have Made Some of Them Myself!)

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Published: 30May2004
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Dear Friend and Subscriber,

Most businesses have what I called a "sales prevention department."

It's not part of anyone's business plan and no one starts their SP department intentionally, but we all have one. It’s the "department" that sends out the messages that prevent people from spending their money with you.

My personal favorite is a classic and one that you see all the time in front of grocery stores at bus stops...

“No Change Here”

Imagine you're walking down the street in a new neighborhood and you see a sign that says:

“No Change Here”

The message is clear: we're not very friendly here. And your reaction to that message will be just as clear: “I don’t want to go in there.”

If you see that sign every day while you're waiting at the stop, the impression it leaves -- that the shop is one that is uninviting and unhelpful -- will linger. If you need to purchase a pack of gum or a magazine, you'll take your business elsewhere.

Over the past two years, I've collected the following 24 sales-killing messages from lots of Sales Prevention Departments. Do you recognize any of them from YOUR business:

The "Just Say No" Sales Prevention Department
* We don’t allow ads like yours to placed in that section.
* We don't accept VISA, MasterCard and American Express.
* We don’t sell to Canada/USA.

The "Catch Us If You Can" Sales Prevention Department
* We don't have 800 numbers that work for both the U.S. and Canada
* Our telephone prospect/customer put on hold “forever”.
* Our telephone prospect/customer gets busy signal.
* The person who handles that is not here. Can you call back?
* We don't accept orders by fax or e-mail.
* We don't orders in person.
* We can’t accept your order unless you have an account with us.

The "Pony Express" Sales Prevention Department
* We can’t ship over the border.
* I’m sorry, we only ship UPS – we don’t ship FedEx.
* We only order/ship on Wednesdays!

The "Don't Quote Me" Sales Prevention Department
* Our price quotes arrive late…or not at all -- please call again
* We don't guarantee our quote
* We don't guarantee our work, product, or service
* We don't give demos to our customers/prospects.

The "We're Not Listening" Sales Prevention Department
* We don't have the product in stock
* We don't offer a money-back guarantee
* We're not offering a payment plan
* We're not matching our competitor's price, even though you want us to
* We're not answering your concerns with our "irresistible offer"

The message from each of these departments is loud, clear and unmistakable:

No Change Here!

The bad news is that the SP Department can never be completely shut down. But don't despair. With a little bit of attention, you can make your sales prevention departments as small and “ineffective” as possible.

It’s bizarre what people do in business to stop taking money. They find ways to prevent people from giving them money, yet they’re trying like crazy to get new customers. Just cleaning up the sales prevention department alone will mean almost an overnight profits for a lot of businesses.

The lesson: Fire your sales prevention department…or make sure you're operating with a "bare bones" staff. The fewer SP workers, the better!

Until next time...

Dan Lok

Dan Lok is known as "The World's #1 Website Conversion Expert", with a proven track record of selling over $25.7 million dollars of merchandise and services. Dan has resuscitated copy that was previously in "critical condition" and helped his clients to double and triple their conversion rates… some as much as 417%!!! More than 200 websites have been "Lok-ed" and loaded for Internet action. Go to: http://www.WebsiteConversionExpert.com

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