by Ed Rivis.

I’ve noticed a fascinating paradox over the last few years.

Many of my client’s sales increased after they stopped trying to ’sell’.

That may sound paradoxical, but it’s actually not when you realise the underlying principle.

You and I — in fact most people — dislike the ‘hard sell’.

We dislike ‘pushy’ salespeople. Especially the ones who use words like ‘punters’.

We dislike receiving junk mail offering us products and services we either don’t need or have no interest.

The alternative is to stop selling and take a more advisory approach. It gets more sales. It really is that simple.

Effective marketing is about all educating and informing prospective customers about the benefits of the product, service or treatment on offer.

It’s about providing information first. And as MUCH as your prospective customers or clients need before they’re able to make the decision to buy.

If you can do that, more prospects will not only see your products or services as a wise choice, but also see you and your company as an authority.

Of course for many small businesses it’s not possible to be personally present at each and every point of sale — or to freely gift as much time as prospective customers or clients want before buying… or walking away.

Most businesses would quickly be out of business if that carried on for too long!

So how do you prove the superiority of your product, service or treatment — and to the maximum number of people but at the lowest cost? (And also possibly in a marketplace that is crowded with lots of competition — most are these days.)

The answer is to create one or more ‘front-end offers’ that give you the opportunity to demonstrate superiority but in a NON-salesy way.

The aim of a well designed front-end offer is to act as a powerful lure that gets prospective customers and clients to figuratively hold up their hands and say "YES! That’s exactly what I want!"

Look what happens when a business takes the advisory or ‘information led’ approach…

1) A consultant who struggled to charge 3 figure sums for his services wrote a book and grew a multi-million pound consultancy practice in less than 5 years.

2) A financial services company puts on free seminars — attracts thousands of highly targeted prospects — and quickly grows into a multi-million pound service company.

3) A London based legal team employ four solicitors to do nothing other than populate a web site with (at the last count) thousands of free legal articles. Quickly grow a massive subscriber base (one of the largest in the country), and then convert those subscribers into paid seminar attendees and clients. At the envy of their competitors.

4) Self-help gurus in America generate millions of dollars extra annual revenues on the back of 30-minute infomercials (documentary style advertisements.)

5) A struggling web designer who wrote a book and suddenly found it easy to attract clients willing to pay 5 figure fees.

And so on. Can you see the common thread?

Information.

INFORMATION.

INFORMATION!!

Stop selling. Start advising, educating and informing.

Become an authority. Make it easy — not hard — for prospects to get tonnes of information about what you do or provide.

Help them realise YOU have the right solution for them… but without any ‘hard’ sell whatsoever.

Here are just a few of the ways you can attract qualified prospects in large numbers…

1) Write and publish a free report or book (ideally a book).

2) Perform a P.R. blitz and get on television, radio and other in media as an industry expert.

3) Put on free or low-cost seminars and convert attendees into paying customers or client.

4) Create one or more high-value web sites that compel visitors to subscribe or otherwise reveal their personal details.

5) Or do ANYTHING on the front-end of your business that gets prospects to WANT to hold up their hands and reveal themselves.

So what are YOU going to do?

Write a book? Sure! I’ve done that. I can tell you it was certainly worth it (there was a hint at that earlier) but I can tell you it took a LOT more time and effort than I could have ever expected.

OK so how about getting on TV or the radio — and frequently enough to make an impact?

No point me stating the obvious about how difficult that’s going to be.

Put on seminars? Really? Are you ready for that? It’s a big step and not for the shy! (Public speaking? Only death is more feared!)

OK then, let’s create a high-value subscription web site and get tonnes of subscribers?

Yes, great idea! In fact it’s a tactic that’s being performed online by many many successful marketers. And you already know I love the web.

But just think how long that’s going to take before it has enough content to be truly ‘high value’.

So what are we left with?

Well, there’s one option that beats all the others hands down in terms of speed of execution and return on investment (in terms of both time AND money)…

Create one or more video or audio ‘programmes’ that cover your specific area(s) of expertise.

Then make those programmes available either on the Internet (to watch online) or as physical DVDs — or ideally in both formats.

Then every single person who buys them (or claims their free copy if that’s your strategy) is your prospect… and a very well targeted prospect to boot.

Not only that, but because they’re listening to YOU discuss the subject matter, your expertise is being automatically established. And everyone likes to deal with an expert.

Now you may be thinking… "surely a video or audio programme is just as time consuming to create as a book? And probably a lot more technical."

No on both counts. Not even in the slightest.

A book can take months even years to write. (Mine certainly did!)

But online and DVD vide-based information products can be produced in a matter of DAYS. It’s easy when you know how and there lots of online resources that will help.

To quickly give you the 3-step process:

1) Create a slideshow presentation. (Software can be download for free… try Google.)

2) Play it on your computer screen and record that along with a narration of voiceover. Screen recording software is relatively inexpensive (I recommend Camtasia which I’ve found is one of the best).

3) Burn the recording on to DVD and also upload it to your company web site. Then start promoting it using direct response marketing techniques.

Using this 3-step process you could actually start selling your first information product… or gift it to generate streams of sales-leads… within 1 day or less.

Now that you’re armed with this information your competitors won’t stand a chance as YOU become the industry expert and capture all the customers.

How much is one powerful new way of acquiring customers worth to your business?

Ed Rivis has created the most comprehensive, create-while-you-watch information product development resource.
In less than 1 day you can create a home-study programme guaranteed to get more sales!
Check out => http://www.ShrinkWrapYourBrain.com