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What are you selling?

Coaching? Consulting? Professional services? A product? Information?

To start with, you need to sell your product or service in terms of benefits to your clients and not features.

Clients want to know what your product or service will do for them, not necessarily all the credentials you have or the process you use.

But once you've got a great list of customer-focused benefits to use as copy points in your marketing messages, what else can you do to increase the odds your prospects will buy?

You can make an incredible offer.

What's an incredible offer? It's a way of packaging your products or services so your prospects simply can't resist. You want their reaction to be, "This is such a great deal, I'd be a fool to NOT buy!"

So how do you construct an incredible offer?

You start with your primary product or service, and then you add value, in terms of bonuses, to make it more attractive. The idea is to build up the value with products or services that cost you very little, but add great value to your customer.

For example, if you're a coach, instead of simply selling a few coaching sessions, sell an entire package that includes educational and support materials, email support, reminder services, recordings of all sessions for future listening and reference, and monthly check-ups for six months once they complete their coaching sessions.

These are all products or services you can easily create and provide at very low cost, and they could significantly increase the perceived value of your coaching services.

Whatever business you're in, brainstorm a list of products or services you could package with your primary product or service.

Consider your clients. What are they looking for? What would be valuable to them? What needs to do they have that you can fill? What service could you add that would set you apart from others in your industry and provide great value to your clients?

Here's 10 ideas to get you started:

1) An automatic reminder or follow-up service (email auto-responders are great for this)

2) An unconditional guarantee

3) A checklist to help them stay on track with what you're helping them do

4) Articles

5) Special reports

6) An ebook that answers the frequently asked questions or issues your clients face

7) A complimentary consultation or coaching session

8) Complimentary shipping

9) Training and support

10) Installation or set-up

You may even want to consider a joint venture and offer a partner's product or service.

For example, new subscribers to The 10stepmarketing Ezine get three bonuses just for subscribing. It increases my subscription rate significantly.

Buyers of The 10stepmarketing System get between five and seven bonuses depending on which system they purchase. These are all products or services that complement the system, help my clients with their marketing more than just a step-by-step guidebook could, and add significant value.

These carefully thought-out bonuses create an entire package to increase the success rate for my clients.

It's a competitive world out there. If you want people to sign-up for your mailing list or buy from you, make it a no-brainer by offering them incredible bonuses and value.

You don't have to lower your prices or give stuff away. Just be creative. Create a killer package that you know will be valuable to your clients.

I challenge you to take a look at what you're selling. Is it a lonely product or service? Or, is it a complete package with incredible value?

If you're not selling a complete package, take the time to brainstorm a list of added bonuses to make it irresistible and watch your sales and sign-ups rise!

(C) Copyright 2005 Debbie LaChusa

Debbie LaChusa

Debbie LaChusa is a marketing veteran with 20 years in the business. After 13 years in the advertising and marketing agency business, Debbie founded DLC Marketing, Inc., a marketing consulting and coaching business. Her goal? To give entrepreneurs and small business owners affordable access to the same high-level strategic marketing and advertising expertise that typically only large companies with big budgets can afford.

Debbie's commitment to making marketing expertise accessible to small business also led her to pursue speaking engagements and teaching. She has spoken at meetings and conventions across the United States and in Canada. She also is on the faculty of Wellcoaches Corporation, where she teaches wellness coach trainees around the world how to successfully market their new coaching practices.

Debbie has written and self-published two marketing workbooks, "A Step-by-Step Marketing Guide" and "A Step-by-Step Marketing Guide for Your Fitness Business" which have sold copies worldwide. Her advice is also featured in Entrepreneur Magazine's "How to Start a Personal Training Business," part of the magazine's Business Start-Up Series. And she is a contributor to the San Diego Business Journal.

Debbie created The 10stepmarketing? System to provide small business owners, coaches, consultants and other independent professionals with all the tools they need to market themselves.

This simple, step-by-step system, features an easy-to-use question-and-answer format that walks business owners through every step they need to take to develop and implement their own marketing plan designed to achieve the success they desire and deserve.

On a more personal note, Debbie LaChusa is a fraternal twin. In 2004 she launched Twin Connections, a web site that celebrates the unique and mysterious bond shared by twins. She collects twin stories and hopes to compile them into a book.