Survey the CEO's of the top corporations in the world and ask them to describe how their companies operate. Undoubtedly, you would hear more than once, the cliché, "like a well-oiled machine".

These captains of industry would go on to detail how their various departments - marketing, sales, accounts receivable and payable, human resources, research and development - all work harmoniously together towards the companies financial goals and it's growth. They report to each other and to the various department heads at regular intervals.

Probably no big revelation to you. But here's something that might be.

If you run a small, perhaps one-person home based business, you "are", and are in charge of, all the above departments.

Stressing the Point!

I'll never forget many years ago while running my multi-store drycleaning business, a particular day when I was unduly stressed. At the best of times, this is a difficult business. But this was busy season and we had more work than we could handle without all the machinery problems that Murphy's Law had cursed us with. Customers were complaining about late orders. Staff was aggravated at the extra hours of work. Machinery repair people were unavailable. A real zoo!

A good business friend of mine called me for lunch. Told him I couldn't leave the listing ship and said something to the effect that "I really admire people like Lee Iacocca. Here I am running this small business and I'm about ready to hang it up!".

Well, back shot this astonishing reply: "Rick, you contend with much more in a day than Iacocca does. He meets with 3 or 4 people a day to delegate the work for his huge company. You deal with everything - all the customers, all the staff, the production, the planning, and all the problems. Every last detail of running that business is handled by you!"

That was one of those two-by-four upside your head conversations. He was SO right. And to this day I have admired all small business owners. I sold that business several years ago (phew!) and now run a one-man Internet Marketing company.

But the very same concept applies. I am responsible for everything in my business - goal-setting, planning, communications, advertising, developing new products, promotion, closing sales, preparing financial statements right down to ordering computers and paper clips. All of these elements, or departments within my company, must interact and run flawlessly.

Being that YOU most likely wear all these same hats in your company and your day is consumed by being all these various departments, what is usually the first thing to suffer?

Let me ask this question another way.

What is the almost singular reason we are never happy with sales?

You guessed it...Lack of Communication with Your Prospective and Current Customers!!

1) Failure to Follow-Up with your prospective customers. To move them closer towards the sale. Timed perfectly.

2) Overlooking that all-important thank-you letter to your current customers telling them how you will be there for them in the future. The first step to building the all-important trust factor in your customer.

3) Neglecting to check back with your customers on a regular basis to continue to build up that confidence level that will keep them buying from you and recommending you to other potential customers ie:Future Sales.

4) Failure to take advantage of personalization in all your email communications to prospective and current customers. The Internet is cold enough and using your customers name in all communications is both an ice-breaker and a confidence builder.

Failure to Follow-Up IS the Cardinal Sin of Selling and I should be first into the confessional. I couldn't (and wouldn't want to) count the sales I've lost because I was too pre-occupied with the doings of the day to send out that critically-timed piece of information to the right people.

Communication IS King and The Email MUST Get Through!!

But NOW there is a Solution. Affordable software that WILL put you in control of ALL your critical communications on the Internet. So your sales ARE closed. So your customers ARE taken care of. So you DO sell your back-end products. So your customers ARE happy and start sending new customers to you. So you can devote more time to growing your business. Like a well-oiled machine!

Free Yourself from Email Jail!!

Sherlock Holmes himself couldn't have investigated more thoroughly than I did to find a solution to what I call Email Jail. This software program is the perfect marriage of database management and timed emailing functions that is a cinch to operate and will free you to really move your business towards the New Millennium. As auto-pilot as it gets. No more excuses for lost sales!

This is the first time I have ever written an article that promotes a particular product. But when the product has THIS MUCH IMPACT on my business, and I know it will on yours, well I had little choice.

The software is called The Internet PostMaster.