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Every customer looks for 3 special benefits when they do business with you. They may not specifically ask for these benefits. But you're losing sales if you don't automatically provide all 3.

1. Fast Results

Prospective customers may take a long time deciding whether or not they will buy from you. But once they decide to buy, they expect instant results. When people buy a car they want to drive it home today. When they sign up with a health club they expect to look and feel better by the end of the week.

Look for ways you can reduce the time your customers have to wait after a transaction before they can start enjoying the results of their decision to buy. Try to deliver your product at the point of sale. When that's not possible, look for creative ways to provide a benefit your customer can start enjoying immediately.

For example, a publisher I know recently created a special package combination of his latest "how-to" book in print and several eBooks on the same subject. When customers order his new book, they can immediately download the eBooks on their computer. They don't have to wait for the hard-cover book to arrive before they can start enjoying the benefit they paid for.

2. Easy Procedures

Customers want products that are easy to use and services that produce results without disturbing their daily routine. You can increase your sales by stressing the "easy to use" characteristics of your product or service in all your promotions. Convenience and ease of use are often more important to customers than price.

Simplify your buying procedure too. Make it easier for customers to buy from you and you will get more sales.

For example, many online shoppers are impatient and won't tolerate a lengthy ordering process. Minimize the number of times your customer has to click to another screen when ordering online. Use a simple order form instead of a shopping cart if you only offer 1 or 2 items. And don't ask them to give you more information than you need to process their order.

3. Personal Attention

Every prospect and customer wants personal attention. One way you can provide it is by giving them an opportunity to ask questions.

Only interested prospects will take the time to ask questions. Many will buy from you if they get valuable information from your answer. You can often include a promotion for your product or service as part of your answer.

Answering questions is not time consuming. The same questions will be repeated over and over again. But you only have to answer each question once if you save your answer to a permanent file. Copy it into your reply whenever you get that same question again ...and revise it slightly to personalize your response. You can answer questions quickly and your prospects will appreciate your personal attention.

Tip: If you find yourself personally answering a lot of questions, add a Questions and Answers page to your web site. Post the answers to your most frequently asked questions. It will reduce the number of questions you have to answer individually. But remember, it also deprives you of an opportunity to impress prospects with your personal attention.

Every customer wants fast results, easy procedures and personal attention. Most won't ask for these benefits. But they won't buy from you unless they get them. Make sure you provide all 3 of these special benefits ...and look for ways to improve the quality of each. Then watch how quickly your sales increase.

Copyright 2004 Bob Leduc

Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards ...and launched *BizTips from Bob*, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper. You'll find his low-cost marketing methods at: http://BobLeduc.com. or call: 702-658-1707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV

In a world where values are taken on board and discarded again when they become inconvenient to maintain, it is refreshing to see that our young people are adopting a set of healthy moral standards. When I was a teenager back in the dark ages it was considered that any prospective suitor was open season providing he was not married, gay or ghastly thought poor.

These days it is rarer for a couple to be married, as so few people take the conventional trip down the aisle, and the result is the disappearance of comforting borderlines. It is no longer easy to check whether a man is free or not just by glancing to see if he is wearing a wedding ring. Even asking him point blank if he is married will not do; he may well be in a fifteen year, extremely anchored relationship, with the mother of his nine children.

My nineteen year old daughter and nearly all of her friends, with one or two tarty exceptions (who shall remain anonymous but they know who they are) socialize within the most rigid guidelines of behavior when it comes to the boyfriends of friends and acquaintances.

In a society which is becoming increasingly permissive I am happily surprised to find such moral codes in evidence. I would even go so far as to say that I think moral behavior amongst young people has undergone a weird reversal of ethic in the past fifteen years or so.

With the risk of Aids and a whole collection of other nasty sexual diseases an ever present and increasingly virulent handicap to passion, it is hardly surprising that the most intelligent of our younger generation have swapped free love for freedom of infection.

Jan Gamm writes reflections on life with an emphasis on world travel. She has lived in many countries and traveled extensively in the Far East, the Middle East, America, South America and throughout the South Pacific. She writes for fun and for money whenever she can manage it.