When you are selling advertising space, once you have established some rapport with a client (in person or on the phone) and you've started to talk a bit about their needs, goals and so on .... ask this question:

"Imagine you could go down to the Customer Store and PURCHASE all the customers that you'd like -- right off the shelf. Who would they be? How much would you be willing to pay for them?"

Give your client a few moments to ponder this, then ask:

"If, at the moment you are spending ANY money on promotions, discounts, advertising or Press Releases, then you are ALREADY buying customers, aren't you? How much are you paying for them now? Are they worth it?"

Then shut up.

The answers are critical for any business.

They beg the further question: 'How much profit do you make from each of your best customers?' If the client you're talking to KNOWS how much a 'good' customer is worth over the course of a month, a year, a lifetime .... then they know how much money they can spend to acquire a new one.

And they can spend some of that money advertising with you.

However. Most businesses DON'T know the lifetime value of a customer. But they know .... that they SHOULD know.

So this question gets them THINKING about the VALUE of a good customer, without shaming them about their present ignorance.

Marketing is simply the process of acquiring and keeping customers. Your clients need to pay ENOUGH to acquire and keep the customers they want, but there is no need to pay a single penny more.

Which means that: in order to make effective marketing decisions, they MUST know both the cost and value of a customer. You have to help them THINK about this.

This question helps them to get started. They should finish the conversation by advertising with you.

(The middle of this conversation is where you -- together -- agree the kind of customer they want to acquire and how much they can pay to acquire an agreed number of those customers .... and you then show them how your publication will find EXACTLY those customers, for an amount of money LESS than they're willing to spend).

Once your client understands that when they buy ad space from you it is EXACTLY the same as going to a 'customer store' and buying some customers .... then all they want to know is: 'How many customers will I get?' 'Are they the kind I want?'and 'How much will it cost me?'

If you can show them that your publication (your 'customer store') can deliver all the customers they need, for a price which allows them to make a profit from each customer you send them ....then they'll advertise with you again and again and again.