The businesses and organizations that do the best job at marketing realize they’re not just selling products or services. They realize they must sell solutions.

These are the same companies that don’t wait for clients to find them. If you think clients are looking for you, peek out the front door. Chances are there’s not a line of hot prospects begging to buy from you.

Add longer sales cycles and more competition, a tougher-than-ever economy, and you know you need to deploy new strategies to help you stand out from the competition.

Whether it works for you or against you, clients and prospects know more than ever. In fact, some know more about your business and your products than you do. In addition, clients and prospects are busier than ever, and they are less patient.

What does this mean to you? Your prospects and clients would say to you, if they could look you right in the eye, “We want to know what is in it for us.” In other words, if it does not provide them with a solution, make money for them, or save them time today, they are uninterested.

How do you respond? You have to understand your clients better than ever. Although they may purchase identical products, they, themselves, are not the same. People buy for different reasons than they did in the past, too. In fact, you may be pleasantly surprised to find that convenience is more important than price.

In addition, you have to work harder to turn prospects into clients. The world has not seen a truly innovative mousetrap in a long time.

You must create the demand instead of just filling it. You need to be long and strong on insights into your client base, and light on order taking. The one thing you cannot do is waste anyone’s time. When prospects sense this, they are gone for good — standing in someone else’s line.

There is a positive side: When you focus on the needs of your clients and prospects and provide real-world, bottom-line solutions, you discover that people and organizations respond.

You may be pleasantly surprised to discover something else that happens when people and organizations see real value and real solutions. They make a mental buy-in that may even preclude the empty, low-price offers of your competitors.

This is why targeted marketing that promises solutions, entices your prospects, educates your clients helps you make the sale.

Careful, it’s a trick question. Think about your answer carefully before you inadvertently blurt out the wrong answer.

Is the goal of marketing to make a sale or generate leads? Is it to build client loyalty or create one-on-one relationships with your clients? Is it to encourage prospects to visit your store, visit your website, or take some action? In a way, it’s all of these, and it’s none of these.

The way I see it, regardless of who you are, what you are selling, or where you are in the marketing process, your goal is to motivate your prospects into taking the next step!

For prospects, that next step could be requesting additional information. It could be calling for color swatches, completing a survey, or accepting an in-home or in-office demonstration.

For clients, the next step could be to purchase again, increase their ongoing order quantity, make an annual purchase commitment, recommend your product or service, or attend a training program.

This isn’t rocket science, just basic logic. Before you land on the moon, you do more than count backwards on the launch pad. You need to plan and consider every step, from building the rocket, programming the computer guidance system, and fueling the rocket. The focus is always on moving ahead one next step.

You want to move your prospects logically from the first step to the next in the same manner. When prospects respond to an initial solicitation, this qualifies them for the next step. They are encouraged to “buy in.” This makes the next step easier for them — and for you.

Sometimes you can lead prospects through all 99 steps in a single marketing message or sales encounter. In other cases, you may need a single activity or event to convince your prospects take a miniscule step.

In most selling scenarios, there are three or four logical steps that all prospects move through before they make their decision to buy from you. Take a close look at what your prospects have to do before they become clients.

Then, let your marketing and sales activities reflect these, taking prospects logically through each step. The first step may be requesting information. Next could be seeing a demonstration, receiving a personal sales call, or receiving a CD or video presentation.

Very likely, you’ll discover that there are one or two steps absolutely critical for your success. When you have maintained a logical progression through each of the earlier steps, the big steps are easier to accomplish. You are controlling the process strategically and absolutely single-mindedly. Your bank account is proof of the viability of your strategic plan.

Think about your prospects ascending a staircase, each step taking them closer to buying. You can’t ask them to take two steps at a time or run up the stairs. They could stumble and fall, and you would lose them for good. Instead, turn that stairway into an escalator, moving them smoothly and effortlessly to each next plateau.

Low price has always been a strong motivator. In today’s world, there always seems to be someone with a lower price. But the fact remains that there’s just so low you can go.

So, you have a couple of choices. You can either join the battle of lowering prices — that no one ever wins –  or you can add more value and help your clients see beyond the price tag.

Instead of jumping onto the nickel-and-dime battlefield, look seriously at ways you can justify holding your price – even increasing it. You can do this by adding value, giving more, educating, and becoming indispensable as a resource or provider of products or services!

Sure, no matter what you do, some people will only buy on low price. You won’t change them.

But others can be pulled gently away from seeing only the price tag. They can be taught to appreciate the extra value you bring. When you add free delivery, a free checkup, a free extended warranty, a gift, free gift wrapping, free training, a 30-day money back guarantee, you demonstrate real value that enhances your clients’ lives.

One of the greatest values is to provide education — before, during, and after the sale. This shows your prospects and clients that you take responsibility for their wellbeing. Sure, there are shoppers who pick your brain, mistreat you, and then go somewhere else to buy on price. Many, though, will stick with you as long-term, devoted fans.

In today’s world, the most important intangible we have is time. Our lives are too full, too busy. Consumers want to recapture time. Spending a little more in return for value, service, and peace of mind – knowing they will not have to battle with the low-price leader later on – is a great motivator.

When you take responsibility for your client’s wellbeing by calling to make sure they sent in the warranty card, making sure they had their summer checkup, or by going beyond the call of duty, you win the war.

Have you ever “saved a client’s life” by being available when no one else was? By shipping when no one else could? By being there when no one else was available? So, are they loyal? You bet! Are they your best referral source? Every time!

The more you tout value, the easier it is for prospects and clients to abandon their “low cost” ways and seek you out. They want a reason, too. Low price isn’t the answer. Value is.

The words guarantee or guaranteed are incredibly powerful. When you offer a guarantee, you assure your prospects they can buy with confidence.

After all, you couldn’t and wouldn’t offer such a great guarantee if your products didn’t perform as you claimed. A guarantee is a customer service commitment. You promise to fix and adjust, and even provide solace for their inconvenience.

Guarantees in your marketing offers can be simple, dramatizing your confidence in your product or service. “Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.” It starts to look almost like a free trial, doesn’t it? It says that your prospects can try it freely, knowing from the outset it may be returned if necessary.

Guarantees in offers will help direct behavior. “Guaranteed for two years if you use your credit card.” People will reach for their Visa if it means the warranty is twice as good or lasts twice as long.

Guarantees in offers help you build solid, long-term relationships with your customers. “Because you are a valued customer, we’ll extend the factory warranty to two years.”

People like guarantees, and so do you. Say you are presented with two similar products at similar prices and terms offered by two experienced, quality companies. One company offers a guarantee; the other does not. Go ahead. Place your order.

By the way, your guarantee, no matter how good it is, has no value unless you back it up, advertise it, and promote it. Display your guarantee proudly and prominently, in as many ways as you can.

Some businesses market all the time. Their steadfast pursuit is new business.

Marketing continually to ferret out new business is a highly important strategy. No one can dispute the value of this approach. Because it is so targeted, direct marketing is the most effective means to reach new clients who are most like your present clients.

However, as aggressive as many of these businesses are, they sometimes neglect to market as vigorously to their current clients.

Clients have value today. They have potentially greater value in the future — over the long haul. This “long haul” is called the lifetime value of a client.

It is easy to calculate the lifetime value of a client — and wise to do so. When you do, you see your clients in an entirely new light.

You begin your calculation by determining how much your clients provide today in terms of their individual contribution to overhead and profit. Then you ponder how long you can hold on to them — two years, five years, 10 years, or more.

If you believe you can retain them for 10 years, the long-term value of your clients is roughly 10 times what they are worth now. So it is very easy to build a case for nurturing your clients — particularly the good ones.

The best way to nurture your present clients is through ongoing, one-on-one marketing, and the reason is simple. There is no easier, more professional, personal, or cost-effective way for you to maintain constant client contact!

It pays to orchestrate a program to keep your name, opportunities, and concerns before your clients. The program can range from the simple to the extravagant. The key is to make ongoing client contact one of the most important areas of your marketing. Create a program and keep it in place.

In business, the words “customer” and “client” are often used interchangeably, but they really are not the same.

A customer patronizes our business, buys our products, or uses our services. Think of your relationship with the water or electric company. It is distant and impersonal.

On the other hand, the dictionary defines a client as “the party for which professional services are rendered, such as by an attorney…one that depends upon the protection and advice of another.”

From a marketing and business perspective, a customer is someone with whom we have transactions. However, a client is someone for whom we are responsible, and with whom we have an ongoing relationship.

It’s wise to make sure your clients receive what they really need, rather than simply selling them a product and waving goodbye. By taking care of your clients’ needs, you’ll build a mutually successful and profitable relationship for many years.

You may find it helpful to ask yourself if you have customers or clients. How you answer may have a dramatic impact on your long-term success!

You may even enjoy asking this of the vendors who serve you. Do they see you as a customer or a client? You will be able to tell based on how they look out for your welfare!

Of all the activities that can make or break any business owner, the willingness to talk to lots of people is the one I see as most critical.

It stands to reason that if you sit behind your desk waiting for the phone to ring, it won’t.

But the willingness to be proactive… to reach out to as many people as you can… is the one way – perhaps the only way – that good things happen (regardless of the state of the economy).

The key is, to talk to lots of people every day. Attend networking events. Use social media to reconnect with old friends and business acquaintances. Never eat lunch alone.

Tell friends, neighbors, church members, store owners, about your business… and what you’re doing to help people. This doesn’t mean that you have to sell to them. To the contrary, you just need to talk to them.

And, above all, when you’re out there talking to lots of people, remember that talking should be only 20% of your conversation… and listening should be 80%… because the more you listen, the more you learn.

Perhaps the headline of this posting should be “Listen To Lots Of People Every Day.”