The natural stone industry is booming and natural stone professionals need more marketing information than ever before. You can read about natural stone and you can read about marketing. However it takes time to understand both concepts from different sources and combine them. This book is written specifically for natural stone professionals to provide assistance on natural stone marketing operations. This marketing book is talking in natural stone language just for natural stone professionals. It is the expanded 2nd edition of the book "A Direct Marketing & Customer Centric Approach To Marketing Imported Natural Stone Products In A Competitive U.S. Marketplace." Marketing is the backbone of any natural stone company. Companies that focus on only production, design or sales are missing the big picture. It is essential to be customer focused and offer customers what they really need and want. The more you focus on your customers, the more you will differentiate yourself from your competitors. While you may have the best quality natural stone products, if you do not market to your customers effectively, you can't maximize your profitability. Also, as I explain in this second edition, it is crucial to be proactive in your marketing efforts not reactive. The first section of the book focuses on marketing, direct marketing and sales strategies. The first section answers fifty different questions about marketing and natural stone marketing and twenty questions about how to use direct marketing to increase sales of natural stone products. Also included are sales strategies for natural stone professionals and direct marketing essentials. The second section provides a step-by-step business plan for a natural stone start-up business for you to analyze and use for your own natural stone business venture. The business plan includes up-to-date marketing methods including: direct marketing, CRM and customer loyalty programs. Critical must-know details are provided on many practical skills necessary for success in the natural stone business such as how to use phone calls creatively and effectively to promote your natural stone products, how to design and manage a marketing campaign and how to conduct and utilize the results of customer satisfaction surveys. My goal for the second edition of the book is to show you the practical steps for how to implement modern marketing methods for your natural stone business. Success depends not only on production and sales but, very importantly on your knowledge and skills for marketing natural stone products and services. This book will help you gain the marketing knowledge you need in the increasingly competitive natural stone marketplace. 2 I am happy with the interest that natural stone professionals have shown for the first edition, which was also translated to Chinese. I hope this second edition will provide you with even more insights that will help you achieve and even surpass the goals you have for your business. Hasan Kursad Devecioglu, MS February 2007 New York, USA