Finding customers isn't usually the hard part of selling.

It's "closing" that can drive you crazy. You know the

excuses. They want to shop around a bit longer, they're not

sure they can afford the price, they need to get approval

from a superior. The list goes on and on. Your challenge is

to find ways to close prospects at a higher rate, and

thereby speed growth and increase revenues.

One sure fired way to increase revenues without damaging

your reputation, is to educate your customers into your

price increase first before doing it. You don't want to be

worried about raising your prices. Most people are afraid

to raise their prices.

For example, one of my original companies operated at a

marginal price just under the standard for the industry. We

got a lot of business and kept the customers coming

however, we didn't get much more business than the next guy

whose prices were higher. We were always afraid to raise

our prices and lose customers.

Finally, we did. We got just as many customers and

increased our bottom line by 35%. We then decided to raise

our prices again. Still - same amount of customers.

We ended up raising them even higher to almost double what

we had originally started at. We did lose customers at that

point. However, we had increased our fees so high that our

margin was still much higher than it was before and we

doubled our business. All by simply raising our prices.

We had already delivered quality work and were confident in

our products and services. All we did was raise our prices.

To overcome people just looking for price, educate them.

What we did was let them know about some of our follow-up

services, our customer service plan, things that we

naturally included in our service that other marketing

companies didn't. By educating them and showing them what

they were getting, they were more than happy to pay our pnces.

Why would anyone pay more for the exact same thing? Once

they found out what we were offering, they didn't perceive

us as offering the same thing as the other marketing

companies. When you don't educate them, they perceive you

the same as the next business.

If all things are equal, they will choose the cheapest

price. Once you convince them and educate them, you no

longer have to worry about it. Price is simply what you pay

for something. Value is what you get. The customer wants to

know what he's going to get. Every customer wants to think

they're going to get good value.

Your customers don't really care about the low price,

especially if they're going to get bad workmanship and poor

products or services. They want value. If you give them

value, you might as well charge them for it.

Don't wait for them to tell you you're expensive or they

can't afford it. If they're telling you this, it's too

late. You haven't educated them on the value they will

receive from your products and services. You need to

educate them right from the beginning from the time they

request your no cost book or report. Your customers are not

automatically inclined to buy the cheapest thing they can get.

Raise your prices. Get paid. You're worth it. If you've

built in a great guarantee, which should be one of your

strategies, then you are on your way to deliver quality

products and services to your customers at all times. You

do great work, give them great quality, educate them,

you're better than your competitors you should get paid for

it. If you believe you're worth it, then your prospects and

clients will believe it also.

Abe Cherian is the founder of Multiple Stream Media,

a company that helps online businesses find new

leads and more customers without spending a fortune.

http://www.multiplestreammktg.com