If you’re a dry cleaner, it’s removing dirt from fragile clothes without damaging them.  If you’re a taxi driver, it’s helping people get from point A to point B quickly.  If you’re a marketer, it’s creating additional revenue for your customers and clients by helping them attract more business.

But there’s more to being a problem solver than simply providing a product or service that resolves a challenge.

It’s about developing a proactive, service-oriented mindset that places your customers’ needs at the forefront of everything you do in sales and service.

After all, the singlemost important element of ANY business venture or marketing campaign ISN’T a product.

It’s a hungry market.

So listen to your customers and find out what they’ve got a hankerin’ for.

In fact, I’d go so far as saying that EVERY marketing problem you ever face can be solved by knowing exactly what your customer is thinking, feeling, and experiencing when interacting with you.

And the better you understand what your prospects and customers want, the more effective you’ll be at communicating to them how your solution will best solve their problem.

So how do you find out?

Ask them!

Perry Marshall, Google AdWords expert and direct response marketing guru, offers the following advice for getting to know what your customers want and need.

1. Set up an automatic survey in your place of business or on your website where randomly-selected customers are asked questions like these:

• What’s your biggest frustration or challenge with (fill in whatever your product or service is designed to solve)?
• How difficult has it been to find the answers you’re looking for?
• What else can we do to “knock your socks off”?

2. After someone decides NOT to do business with you—assuming they’re really your target prospect—ask them what you could have done to help them make the decision to go with your company. (And here’s a neat side-effect of asking this question: sometimes it re-opens the dialogue and you’re actually able to make the sale!)

3. Right after someone’s made a decision to purchase from you is when they’re at their “hottest” in terms of desire for the product or service you offer. So ask them, “What is your biggest problem dealing with (fill in the blank) right now?”

4. When someone’s demanding a refund, pick up the phone and personally call to ask if there’s something you can improve on.

Try saying something like this: “Hi, this is Katie from XYZ Company.  We got your request for a refund and we’re going to process that quickly and with no hassle.  But I’m just curious if there’s something we could’ve done differently?”

Often times, they’ll be shocked you even took time out of your busy schedule to call.  Then they’ll start talking.  In some cases, you can save the sale; in all cases, you’ll receive valuable feedback that you can put back into your sales and service experience to prevent it from recurring.

The Bottom Line: Become a problem solver.  When solving your customers’ problems becomes an absolute obsession, your success in business will skyrocket.

1. Understand how web copy is different from print copy—and how it’s the same.

But on the internet, keywords are king. You need to make sure you’re pushing your prospects’ hot buttons quickly and immediately with prominent phrases and keywords that show your prospect they’ve come to exactly the right place. Otherwise, they’ll press the back button on their browser before you’ve had a chance to make a case for your products or services.

So as you’re creating your online sales copy, focus on the specific keywords your prospects are entering into the search engines. Get inside their heads, understand the dialogue they’re having with themselves. Often that means putting up several different landing pages for the same product or service, but optimized around different keywords. It may be tedious at first, when you meet your customer where he or she is, your response rates will skyrocket—and it will be well worth it.

2. Integrate media into your landing pages. Did you know that adding streaming media—such as an audio message or a video—can actually increase your response rates as much as 40%? But crafting the correct message is key. Create messages that complement and reinforce the sales copy. Adopt a light-hearted, casual, intimate tone—as though you’re talking to a trusted friend. Above all else, make sure you express the benefits of your product and service throughout the entire message.

3. Build your opt-in list so you have a steady stream of interested prospects. If your website’s conversion rate is around 1%, you’re doing a great job.

But what about the other 99%?

Some people are ready to buy now. Others are simply gathering information. Make sure that when someone is not quite yet ready to make a purchase, you include a “freebie” offer to entice your prospect to leave their name and email address. Then follow up with them consistently until they’re ready to buy.

4. Master the art of writing in the million-dollar minute—or how to create email blasts and autoresponders that GET RESULTS. Often overlooked because it’s so simple, your autoresponder sequences are among the most critical aspects of your online success. Plan to keep in contact with your prospects regularly—sometimes as much as daily—but at least every week or two.

And don’t make every message a sales pitch, either. Include useful, actionable information. In so doing, you build rapport, strengthen your credibility, and make a case for yourself over time. You’ll be amazed at how your response increases when you do it right.

5. Use content-rich articles to make both your prospects AND Google love you! When you launch a new site, start with 10 information- and keyword-rich articles. Then write between 2-3 per week and post them to your site or blog. As you do, you become a clearinghouse of useful information—and create exactly the kind of site that Google LOVES! (And so will your visitors…because you’ll have precisely the kind of information they’re searching for.)

And here’s another hint. You can use bits and pieces of the articles in your autoresponders, enewsletters, and email broadcasts to save time and maximize exposure.

6. Test and track EVERYTHING. Split-testing and tracking results on the internet is so easy, it’s almost sinful. Be sure to test everything like Pay-Per Click ads, landing page headlines, graphics, media messages, and offers—and track traffic flow, click-through, opt-ins, and of course sales conversion rates.

As you test and track faithfully, you will “genetically engineer” your website and Pay-Per Click advertising and watch those response rates creep upwards.

7. Ask your customers what they want. One of the best secrets I’ve learned for creating sales copy that sells is to ask your customers precisely what they’re looking for.

When they opt-in for your list or make a purchase from your site, ask them questions like these…

• What’s your biggest challenge, question, or problem related to X [problem that your product or service solves]?
• What caused you to come looking for us today?
• What else can we do to “wow” you?

Believe me, your visitors will tell you. And when they do, LISTEN to what they have to say! Constantly tweak and refine your messaging in landing pages, ads, autoresponders, and free content, based on the feedback you receive…and soon you’ll create undying loyalty to your site and services.

No, really. This is a vitally serious question.

Ask 100 business owners what business they’re in and 97 of them will tell you what they do. That isn’t the question.

Ask 100 jewelery store owners what business they’re in and they’ll tell you, “I’m a jeweler,” or, “I’m in the jewelry business.”

Ask 100 plumbers and they’ll tell you, “I’m a plumber.

Real estate agents, mechanics, insurance salesmen, manufacturers, printers… it’s all the same.

If you own the business, you may think you’re a jeweler, a plumber, a real estate agent, or whatever, but you’re not.

No, the day you took ownership of the business is the day you became something different. That’s the day you became a marketer of jewelry or plumbing services, or property or whatever, and you were no longer a what you thought then, and probably still now think you are.

The late, great business leader Peter Drucker said in effect, “The only two legitimate functions of business are marketing and innovation. The rest are expense.”

When you own the business, your primary function is to “bring in the business.”

Other people can be found to do virtually everything else; buying and managing inventory, managing employee schedules, training, accounting, you name it. But if you fail in the function of bringing in the business, you have no business.

Dare you abdicate this responsibility?

Unfortunately, most business owners never realize these important truths and that accounts for their lack of prosperity.

For example, one jeweler has been in business for three generations and yet is generating less than a million dollars a year in gross revenues. Another opened just three years ago and is already enjoying a multi-million dollar business.

How can this be?

Some would chalk it up to luck, location, up-front capital, etc. But the truth is, the difference is probably marketing. The owner who focuses on marketing will be the one who makes the most money, even if his skills, inventory, and location are inferior. This is the businessman who realizes his primary function is to bring in the business.

There are only three ways to grow your enterprise…

1. Get more customers
2. Increase your average sale
3. Get your existing customers to come back and buy more often.

A couple years ago, jeweler, Bill Warren, realized his role was to market. He adopted these three goals. By steadily working on the marketing of his business, he was able to go from a typical May of $40,000.00 to a May of over $61,000.00. That’s more than a 50% increase, in just one month.

What did Bill do? He installed a formal up-selling/add-on selling system in his business that increased his average ticket dramatically, and served his clients at a higher level.

He also took advantage of a unique PR opportunity resulting from his gemologist and certified appraiser training, which had the phone ringing off the hook. As a result, 88 new customers came his way in May. And Bill is operating out of a small town.

Kent Whipple owns Whipple Services in Salt Lake City. He has built a multi-million dollar plumbing, heating and air conditioning business in near-record time. But he can’t tell you the last time he turned a wrench, drove a truck, made up an employee work schedule or did the payroll.

Kent has delegated all of those responsibilities. He has people who can do that. He focuses on two things… 1) providing the vision for his company and 2) marketing.

There are a lot of plumbers and heating guys in the Salt Lake City market who have been around a lot longer than Kent, who aren’t doing a quarter of the business he is. But Kent understands that he’s not a plumber, he is a marketer of plumbing, heating and air conditioning services.

And because of that understanding, not only has Kent built a thriving enterprise, but he has the time to enjoy himself, taking several extended trips every year, confidently knowing the business will continue to churn along in his absence.

But if he saw himself as a plumber, he would never have been able to build such a business or enjoy such a lifestyle. He’d be too busy with the wrench.

Odds are you have spent considerable time and money to become the professional that you are. You have time in the field; you may have paid for substantial training; you unquestionably have countless hours invested in learning your craft.  You may have taken business courses, even gotten a degree.

What have you done to become the marketer that you need to be? Have you invested the same kind of time developing and honing the skills you need to run the “engine” that truly drives your business?

I suggest you start with a simple commitment of 30 minutes a day. Set aside at least a half hour a day to work on the marketing systems of your business. (Remember, that is to work on developing and implementing marketing systems, not operating them.)

If you don’t have an up-sell/add-on selling system in place, that would be your most lucrative place to start. Determine what the pieces of the puzzle are for such a system, then decide how many 30-minute sessions it will take to develop all of those pieces. If it will take 10 sessions, you will have your new system ready to put in place in 10 working days.

After you’ve done your first project, select another – perhaps a formal referral system – and begin working on that the same way. Put in your 30 minutes and stop at the end.

The key is to remain true to the commitment. Set an appointment with yourself and honor it. Unless the building is literally burning down, do not let anything – even clients – interfere with this effort.

Finally, if you’re not skilled as a marketer, it might be a good idea to get some help. This does not mean simply abdicating your marketing responsibilities. It may  include some delegation. It certainly includes getting some training, and gathering some resources. Consultants, ad agencies, trainers, books and audio programs… these are all resources. But remember that resources are there to help you accomplish your responsibilities to bring in the business, not take over that job for you. Ultimately the responsibility can only rest with you, the owner.

This is some of the most powerful and useful advice on marketing I have ever given to you. Fail to heed it at your own peril. Follow it and you will quickly, easily, add tens of thousands – maybe even hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue to your enterprise.