114

151 Quick Ideas to Increase Sales

Following the leader is not such a bad idea as long as the

leader is going someplace you want to go, too. Allow yourself

to be inspired, not oppressed.

Epilogue

Epilogue

Epilogue

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Epilogue

91

Marketing Is a Hard Number

One quick idea to increase sales comes to us from Corpo-

rate America. Those folks routinely establish marketing budgets

with strong funding. Ear-
marking a percentage of
your income to reinvest in
marketing assures that
you will have a business
to come home to year af-
ter year.

Three to five percent

of sales is a common mar-
keting budget, while
organizations in growth
mode invest more. Online
operations selling high-
margin products invest up

to 50 percent of their income in marketing, most of which goes
for customer acquisition. A financial commitment to marketing
is critical to increase your sales.

Assignment

Find out what others in-

vest in marketing. Public
companies file annual reports
that include financials. Check
out some that you think might
have a similar style of busi-
ness. The dollar values may
be different, but the percent-
ages should be useful.