But burning bridges in business is not romantic, and certainly doesn’t have a beautiful melody.

Perry Marshall’s message this morning was about a woman who “lurked” around his site for 3 years before finally jumping in to invest in his courses and materials. When she finally did, it was to the tune of about $8,000.

Had he brushed her off somewhere along the way, he would have burned the bridge between them, and she would have spent her money somewhere else.

But he didn’t do that. He kept her on the list, gave her full access to all the free advice he hands out,

Are you dropping people from your list because they don’t take action quickly?

Are you assuming that if they’re not interested now, they won’t be interested next week – or next year? Obviously, that’s a mistake, and a silly one. If you’re communicating via email, it costs you nothing to keep that prospect on your list.

What if you WANT to burn the bridge?

What about customers, clients, and prospects who are too demanding, ask you to commit illegal acts, or are simply unpleasant people? You actually want to burn your bridges with them. They’re not only time and energy thieves, they can be downright dangerous to you.

BUT… unless you do it carefully, that burning bridge can spread and engulf a whole lot of bridges that you’d rather stayed intact.

You have to choose your words carefully, so that when your message is forwarded to friends, pasted into a blog, or otherwise distributed to the world, you won’t need to go hide under a rock.

As much as you want to yell and tell the person that they’re an inconsiderate idiot, or a common crook, or an unpleasant, nasty human being, don’t do it.

Blame something about yourself for “breaking up” with this particular person.

Being a business person has it’s freedoms – but also its restraints. You need to keep close watch on your words and actions at all times, and never give the gossips a thing to talk about.

Stock image courtesy of Dreamstine

But how can you apply it to yourself and your business in this extremely tough economic climate?

Start by using every low and no-cost method available to promote your business!

Craig’s List offers free ads, local bulletin boards offer space for your card, service groups and the Chamber of Commerce offer opportunities to speak and share your expertise. Local non-profits offer volunteer opportunities to expand your sphere of influence.

And then there are the social sites – which offer great opportunities to show your expertise in your field while you create links back to your website – which helps your search engine optimization.

But… before you start working on getting people to visit your site, work on the site!

Go there – and read your copy as if it didn’t belong to you.

Does it clearly show what you can do for your visitors? Or, like so many sites, does it just talk about you?

In a time when so many are tightening their belts, you have to make yourself stand out as THE choice. And the way to do that is to appeal to the emotions that will cause a visitor to your site to believe that he or she doesn’t just want what you offer – he needs it.

It sounds awful and selfish, and many people will claim that it isn’t true in their case – but the truth is every person is tuned into station WIFM – “What’s in it for me?” Your website’s job is to answer that question – clearly.

One quick way to determine if your site is doing it’s job is to count the number of times you say “I” or “we” or some variation of that. Then count the number of times you say “You” or “Your.” If the you’s don’t far outweigh the I’s, you need to get to work fixing your copy.

A second failing that I see – primarily on real estate websites – is a tendency to hide, and to promote the location instead of the agent.

I call them Chamber of Commerce sites – and on some of them it is nearly impossible to find the agent’s name – and even harder to find any contact information for that agent. My question always is “What’s the point?”

Someone searching for an agent in your town already knows they want to move there – they don’t need a glowing description of Colorado mountains or Florida sunsets. What they need – and want – is to find an agent who knows their way around and can make the home buying process easier for them.

Home sellers also don’t need to know how wonderful their town is. They need to know that an agent has the experience and expertise to market their home well.

So… why do the majority of real estate agents promote their town instead of their services? I haven’t figured that out, but if you have, please tell me, because it makes no sense!

If you’re promoting your town instead of your services, re-think your position. And if you want to increase the number of closings you attend this year, re-write your landing page. And if you need assistance, get in touch.

Meanwhile – if you are in real estate – or in any business that draws customers from a local base, take a look at the e-book I wrote just for you: It’s called How to Promote a Local Business, and it offers a system that will not only create loyalty among your current clients, but cause them to bring you referrals. It costs less than lunch at the local fast-food joint… but could easily double or triple your business over the next few months.

One thing is certain: Some people will make money in the months to come. And you should be one of them.