Bang that Drum!

Drumming up business is an old expression meaning go out and find some new customers.

Did you know it originated in the Wild West. When a travelling salesman arrived in a one-horse town he'd park up his chuck wagon and walk up and down the main and only road banging a drum to draw attention to himself. He'd shout out his message and draw a crowd to his wagon where he'd then sell off the back.

We should be doing the same. Not shouting and actually banging a drum, although this might work, but showing our face to potential customers or prospects. Getting that message about and if we can use modern technology, great. Add in a little light humour and away we go. The following videos were taken in seconds, straight off, one take. Not perfect but perfectly good to put your message across.

Why don't you sign up to become a Merchant, make a mini movie and send it to me. I'll put it up on the site. Don't feel confident? Don't like appearing on film? Think you make a lousy picture ? So do we all: we all think that about ourselves. What makes you different. I challenge you to make something short about your offer on the site. Make it funny. Be original but most of all just do it.

Marketing doesn't have to be expensive. You must do everything necessary to get in front of new people who might buy from you. Some ideas are targetted whilst others are scatter-gun. Use a mix.

Most of all do basics like foot canvassing or telephone selling. Remember you are building up knowledge and relationships, not usually selling, unless you have a bag of cleaning products, and you need to keep your eyes and ears open and shut your mouth. Just open your mouth to ask questions and breath. Most of all take action. You won't get business sitting on a chair in the office thinking and planning mid-morning. If you need to use time planning and thinking get there an hour earlier than usual.

And another simple way to drum up new business is to sign up to the Local Business Card. Don't even think about it - just click here and transform your sales results - it takes one step to start a successful journey.

If can do anything to help you be successful call me.

regards

Mike Leahy

The Website has gone live today

Today is a big day for the Local Business Card.

The website has gone live. We have tested it and made changes over the last few days and there are more to come but take a look and get a feel of the Beta version.

You can join as a merchant and add in offers. And you aren't confined to just one. We want to site to be dynamic and work for both Merchants and cardholders. After all there is no point in having a card if you can't use it: and it's not worth going to the trouble of putting up offers if nobody comes to you as a potential customer.

The first newsletter will go out when we have had some response. So watch out.

Sign up and you can cancel anytime in the first 3 months but I am confident you will save much more than your initial card fee. And it's free to be either a cardholder or merchant if you are a Local Business Forum member, or join. So join now and take advantage of the many associated benefits. There should be a link page in place within a day or so .

The Local Business Card is a great marketing tool, so if you run a business come on board right now and take advantage of the low low fees. These will be held if you sign up now but newcomers after September may see an increase. And, of course, it's a really powerful monitoring tool because you can see instantly if a new customer came in because of your offer or widow sticker.

You may wish to know that we'll be working really hard to promote the Local Business Card because we have a real believe in keeping trade local and helping local trade.