12 Tips for Profits to Keep Your Business Dreams Alive

 

Most businesspeople agree the economy continues to be challenging. Signs of a lingering downturn are everywhere. Business activity is slow. Governments at all levels report low tax revenue and are restructuring, and not spending. Customers want you to cut prices.

With a high level of oversupply in many industries, high unemployment and reduced customer spending, many businesspeople face a highly competitive environment.

To keep your dream alive in this downturn, you must find ways to adapt and do it quickly. That means re-examining business plans, strengthening risk management initiatives, retaining top talent, and making internal changes and restructuring to increase efficiency and profitability – all while looking for new opportunities for growth.

How to improve your business position:

1. Be defensive. Protect your turf by taking the best possible care of your best customers. You can invigorate sales with customer retention strategies. Find out what they think of your company, and make necessary improvements. You might consider jettisoning high-maintenance customers. Upon careful review, you might find they’re not profitable for you. You don’t want to be in a position where you’re just moving money around.
2. Expand your customer base. By surveying your best customers, you’ll probably get some compliments. That’s a perfect opportunity to ask for referrals. Find low-cost ways of rewarding them for referring their associates, relatives and friends to you. Here are sales and networking strategies to build strong relationships.
3. Invest in your future. Keep your productive marketing going. Train your workers. Take advantage of innovations in technology. Consider the 11 strategies to keep your business floating above water.
4. Develop an employee-loyalty program. Make it a fun working environment. Even if you can’t give raises, learn how other businesses are successful in retaining their best employees.  Learn which employees are most-likely to quit. Be transparent with them. Explain your challenges and how they can help, especially in processes and with customers. Note the strategies if a valued employee wants a raise, and money’s tight.
5. Fine-tune your branding. Use the eight best practices in small business marketing. The key to remember – customers want value. Think 1930s for business success. Consumer attitudes are changing.
6. Give back to the community. Did you know that cause-related marketing can increase sales by double digits?
7. Review your pricing strategy. Determine how to get more return on your sales. There are eight simple strategies to give you pricing power.
8. Use best practices in managing your financials. If you’re struggling, here are the step-by-step solutions for a company turnaround.
9. Be creative in your receivables. If collections are a challenge, here’s how to ease debt-collection headaches.
10. If you’re small, make it work for you. Remember size doesn’t matter but image, professionalism count.
11. Do your best for the environment. Eco strategies work with customers. Here’s a checklist for branding, selling your biz as green.
12. Become an innovator. You must constantly evolve. Here’s how successful companies innovate. Once you are running on all cylinders, consider buying your competitors – providing, of course, you can manage them.

From the Coach’s Corner, if you’re really in a survival mode, here’s a six-part series with tips on “Surviving Economic & Industry Downturns” for your Downturn Survival.

“Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking.”

-Anita Roddick

 

__________

Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

Top 11 Tips for a Great Elevator Pitch

 

Whether you’re looking for a job or trying to land more customers for your business — whatever you’re trying to sell – one skill you definitely need is a great elevator pitch.

You need to prepare for any opportunities that come your way after diligent research and prospecting. Don’t be caught off guard. Create an introduction describing the value you provide, be concise, customize it for your target audience, and really know it – so you can deliver a flawless elevator pitch.

You have to be prepared to quickly answer the basic marketing 101 “so what” question – that all prospects subconsciously ask themselves.

To pique the interest of your prospective employer or customers, it’s important to succinctly summarize the benefits you provide. That’s the purpose of an elevator pitch – whether you’re seated for a formal appointment in an office or actually riding an elevator when you suddenly have an opportunity with a key decision-maker.

Here are 11 tips:

1. Know your talents. Take an hour or two to analyze and write down your strengths.

2. Forge a benefit statement or value proposition for each of you or your company’s strengths – a minimum of five reasons to buy from you. Then develop a succinct overall summary – less than 10 seconds – of the value you provide. Set the table so you get another 60 seconds of dialogue – you’ll want a green light that shows the prospect wants to hear more.

3. Avoid trite, over-used buzz words (The Best and Worst Business Buzzwords, Jargon, and Cliches).

4. If you mention data or statistics, keep it simple. Very simple.

5. Rehearse your pitch but don’t appear robotic or wooded, as we broadcasters used to say. You want to have a natural, smooth presentation. How you introduce yourself is just as important as what you say.

6. Keep your branding fresh and up-to-date for the changing marketplace.

7. Be flexible. Be prepared to switch gears if your prospect divulges valuable information regarding a need you think you can fill. It’s all about problems and solutions.

8. Don’t focus on giving your ideas to the prospect. Focus on your value.

9. Do your best to have a presence in the room before your pitch. In other words, develop a strong image online and in the community. That will enhance your chances in making your pitch.

10. Watch for cues to listen. The most persuasive people talk 10 percent of the time and listen 90 percent. If the prospect says something, treat like it’s an event for you and listen intently.

11. If you get an objection, be sure to respond effectively.

Here are the three steps to overcoming objections:

• Get the person to restate her/his concern. Then repeat the person’s words, for example: “If I understand you correctly, you feel…?”
• Empathize: “I can see how you feel that way”…or “You know, someone said the same thing last week.”
• Overcome the objection with facts.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are related resource links:

• Job Hunting? Tips to Land Your Dream Job with Style, Substance
• Are You Committing The Seven Deadly Sins of Selling?
• The Seven Steps to Higher Sales

“Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it’s not going to get the business.”
-Warren Buffett

__________

Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry. 

 

Latest Trends in E-mail Marketing

 

Updated June 23, 2012

Three published reports show the developments in e-mail marketing. Website Magazine reported the most popular e-mail venues, e-mailing’s value, and tips for Q4 e-mail marketing.

E-mail trends. A study by Litmus indicates the development of three trends in e-mail marketing.

Litmus, an e-mail research company, says the trends from July 2010 to July 2011, include:

• Most e-mails continue to be read via Outlook (37 percent of readers).
• Mobile e-mail is increasingly read by the target audience (15 percent).
• Web and desktop e-mail use is decreasing.

Trailing Outlook are Hotmail readers (11 percent), and Yahoo Mail and iPhone (10 percent), and Apple Mail (8 percent).

E-mail’s value. Website Magazine compared the marketing potential of Web sites and social media to the value of e-mailing, as of Sept. 20, 2011.

There were 3.3 billion daily searches on the 463 million Web site.

Facebook had more than 800 million members worldwide, of which there are 60 million updates daily.

Twitter had 300 million members who tweet 140 million times per day, but more than 50 percent of the accounts aren’t active.

Google + had more than 25 million users with 1 billion shares by the users each day.

But e-mail accounts, worldwide, total 2.9 billion – 42 percent of the planet’s inhabitants – with 188 billion e-mails sent daily. No wonder the U.S. Postal Service is in trouble.

In other words, e-mail is more promising for mass marketers because it represents the highest volume of traffic in communication.

E-mail marketing is king if it executes by accomplishing three goals: 1. The right message. 2. The right audience. 3. The right time.

Tips for Q4 marketing. John Murphy, the president of Chicago-based ReachMail, offers his strategies for retailers to achieve their goals in their all-important fourth quarter (Five Steps to a Successful Holiday Email Campaign).

Mr. Murphy starts by cautioning against sending repeat e-mails in the same category to a consumer who has already made the purchase. Subscriber preferences need to be taken into account.

In essence, his points:

1. Audit Your List – Don’t keep sending to inactive subscribers.
2. Update Preferences – Give options to your audience from which to select.
3. Audience Segmentation – Use the consumer’s history as a basis for sending the right offer.
4. Test Subject lines – Keep it simple and test different subject lines.
5. Offer Early Deals – Mr. Murphy suggests sending a “special messaging during October.”

These are all excellent points. Good luck!

From the Coach’s Corner, the only suggestion I’d add is maximize your message by including videos:

• Need a Game-changer? Try a Good Video for More Credibility
• E-Mail Marketers Plan to Greatly Increase Use of Videos, New Study

“Email is the greatest thing.”
-Wally Amos

__________

Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

Need PR, But No Budget? Here’s How to Leverage News Media

 

Social media is OK for promotion. But if you need blockbuster publicity, use best practices in marketing. Play a trump card — leverage the news media for public relations.

Yes, it’s true that increasing numbers of adults – especially the Millennial Generation – are using social media for their news and information, and for making buying decisions. However, don’t be misled.

In marketing terms, the media is still the most powerful center of influence on the planet. You, too, can benefit from PR in the media – just like Microsoft or Starbucks.

If you can’t afford a $5,000 monthly retainer for a public relations person or firm, you can still use the media as a powerful and economical resource to help you brand your business, and get your sales message published – with ultimate credibility and authority. That starts with a press release.

Salient elements of a press release:

• In journalism parlance, include details about who, what, when, where and why.
• Include contact information – telephone number, address, Web site address, e-mail address and name of the person you want contacted.

Use empathy

Like all marketing, PR is a marathon. Journalists are busy and it’s hard to get their attention. Mid-week – Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays – are best to approach them.

For print, learn and use the name of the feature or city editor. If you’re contacting radio or television station news departments, contact the assignment editor or news director.

Print and electronic mediums have different deadlines, so be cognizant of them and contact editors at the right time.

Many big-market media outlets prefer to be e-mailed. However, when I was in broadcast journalism, I noticed that personable PR people, who had deep media-relationships, hand-delivered their releases with success. So, that’s my approach for clients. Yes, with security guards screening visitors at media outlets, it can be difficult. However, I believe in doing the footwork – literally. Sometimes it’s been a successful strategy in achieving PR for my clients.

For success in print or on-air headlines, don’t mask mundane ideas as news. It must be newsworthy and transparent. If it is, you will also probably benefit from word-of-mouth advertising.

Hint: Journalists have egos. In some cases, it’s best to single out one medium to approach. Journalists often pride themselves on exclusive stories.

If your published item attracts the attention of Associated Press, other newspapers, radio and television stations will join the bandwagon. This means your submission will also be inserted on their Web sites, which might result in search-engine headlines. Presto, you will have hit a grand slam.

Feasible story angles to submit to journalists:

1. Promotions and retirements. Newspapers might print the item as a story. If not, they often have a category for promotions and retirements in their business section. If you have all-news radio stations in your market, don’t overlook them. If you’re a major employer, your odds are good, too. 
2. New or unique products or services. That’s especially true if you’re providing value to businesspeople or consumers. Include a product sample and pictures. If it’s a revolutionary tech or green product or service, it’s almost a fait accompli for PR.
3. Expansions or renovations. If your business is making big changes, include pictures and relevant data. Creation of jobs often constitutes a PR opportunity. 
4. Free products and services. Such announcements benefiting the public – especially, kids, senior citizens and veterans – almost always yield coverage. 
5. Contests. You might be able to create a contest for marketplace buzz. 
6. Events. A free how-to seminar or workshop is usually a winner. For less serious creative events, the keys are to have fun and be relevant.
7. Cause-related marketing. It’s one of my favorite PR approaches because cause-related marketing can increase sales by double digits via word-of-mouth. Plus, most journalists like a good cause. Even pro bono work yields good recognition. Just be careful so it doesn’t appear to be shameless self-promotion. When feasible, collaborate with the nonprofit to contact the media instead of you. Just make sure you get adequate mention in materials. When I worked full-time in the media, I loved cause-related marketing because it alleviated my stress amid all the negative-news stories. Civic-minded companies that help charities usually deserve attention.  
8. Scholarships. Another favorite approach of mine is to form a foundation to fund scholarships. It will effectively show your deep involvement in education and your community.

To improve your Web site’s prominence, consider using an Internet press-release service. If you don’t have $40 to $800 for an Internet press release, there are companies that will do it for free.

Your release won’t be as well read, but it will improve your online presence with these provisos:

• Make sure the press-release company is authoritative.
• Verify that the vendor has a better Google page rank than your Web site.

Insert enough of these press releases, and your online presence will improve dramatically. Your goal should be to become No. 1 in your strategic key words. In my experience, the top three sites make the most income.

So leverage the news media to help brand your business. The media is still the most authoritative center of influence to send business your way. Journalists are always looking for good stories. They, too, have inventories to fill. Probably unlike your inventory, theirs are time and space, which are valuable commodities.

P.S. You might also want to consider trade-outs. Radio stations, in particular, will often trade advertising for products or services. My clients have catered parties and provided prizes for station contests. Additionally, I’ve worked at stations that traded advertising for equipment and vehicles, but special strategies were necessary for such expensive items. Radio stations need revenue, too.

From the Coach’s Corner, consider these resource links:

• Marketing Essentials on a Shoestring Budget
• Fast, Easy Ways to Create Buzz
• Secrets to Success in Recessions: Expand Marketing
• 25 Best Practices for Better Business Writing

“If I was down to my last dollar, I’d spend it on public relations.”

-Bill Gates

__________

Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

Do You Know What Drives Your Profit?

 

Who have the toughest jobs? Well, in my experience, single moms who work outside the home, have the toughest job of all. Entrepreneurs have the second-toughest job.

For profits, entrepreneurs must learn how to manage their financials and performance, which are difficult tasks. Savvy business owners know who their ideal clients or customers are.

Entrepreneurs realize financial benefits when their revenue from business exceeds their expenses and taxes. This results in a much easier task – deciding whether to save, spend or invest the profit back into the business.

Until employees and customers actually walk a mile in an entrepreneur’s shoes, they often think a small business owner is wealthy. That may or may not be true. In recent years, the odds are that many small business owners are struggling.

Smart, hardworking business owners enhance their chances for success — by completely understanding the critical factors that drive profits and they tirelessly focus on those profit-drivers.

Profit drivers

The four basic drivers of profit:

1. Price
2. Variable costs (variable costs change as a result of revenue from the cost of sales)
3. Fixed costs (also known as overhead)
4. Sales

Which of the profit drivers have the most impact on an entrepreneur’s success Price. That’s because increases in price immediately add to any profit margin.

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of focusing on sales volume without regard to price. Especially, in a sour economy, business owners are focused on selling to alleviate ageing issues.

The dilemma, however, is that sales increases are tied to increases in variable costs, which lead to less profit.

Conversely, decreases in variable costs increase profit margins, but total revenue will not increase.

Many business owners fail to realize that cutting fixed costs do not affect revenue, which means it has the least effect on profits.

Entrepreneur mistakes

The three biggest profit-mistakes of entrepreneurs:

1. Business owners are so focused on developing revenue from prospective customers, they fail to concentrate on their existing customer base.
2. They fail to build their brand image so they miss opportunities to increase prices.
3. When they cut good marketing and lay off employees to cut costs, most often they’re cutting their investments in their business muscle not fat.

To elaborate on mistake No.2 — missing brand-building opportunities to increase prices — successful entrepreneurs determine how much they can hike prices without losing profit.

True, you will most likely lose the 18 percent of customers who only buy products at the cheapest price. But depending on the amount of a price increase, you can still make a better profit.

Price-sensitive customers who do not appreciate value, most-frequently make the most-undesirable customers. They’re high maintenance, and demand the most service. They complain the most and most-readily return products.

The moral: Build your brand to maximize prices and target the best customers. That’s what leads to long-term profits – and success.

From the Coach’s Corner, here’s more: 8 Simple Strategies to Give You Pricing Power.

“I don’t want to do business with those who don’t make a profit, because they can’t give the best service.”

-Richard Bach

 

__________

Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

8 Tips to Optimize Sales with Social Media, But Beware of a Red Flag

 

Updated Nov. 16, 2012

It’s time-consuming, but there is data to illustrate why social media should be part of your marketing and human-resources recruiting mix.

For example, social networking continued to increase in popularity with consumers in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project in 2011.

Pew reported 50 percent of all U.S. adults are social networking. So are 65 percent of adult Internet users – an increase of more than 100 percent since 2008. Daily, 43 percent of adults using the Internet are also on social networking sites.

The salient social networks: Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Twitter. (The Biz Coach has the AddThis option for readers to share this and other articles – it provides 300 social media options.)

Social Networking Red Flag

So, social media has value. However, beware: Despite the hoopla over social media, Web searchers stay longer.

Social networking doesn’t necessarily lead to sales, according to another Pew study.

It shows three types of social media aficionados:

• Heavy users – 26 percent of time spent
• Medium users – 4.1 percent time spent
• Light users – .42 percent time spent

Surprisingly, heavy users don’t necessarily consume products. Statistically, Pew reports they’re not as likely to buy products and services on the Internet. Plus, they spend less when they do.

Average spending among the three categories:

• Heavy users – $126
• Medium users – $212
• Light users – $297

What you need to do is find the right use of social-mediums for your business, and start interacting.

Here are eight options to consider:

1. Manage your online image and reputation
2. Branding for repeat customers
3. Respond to customer complaints
4. Complement your press releases with blogs
5. Crisis management
6. Stage contests to attract Web traffic
7. Publish thought-leadership commentaries
8. Attract and recruit employees

Naturally, the latter – No.8, recruit employees – is especially viable on LinkedIn. Ask any headhunter who is concerned about competition from LinkedIn. Conversely, it’s a networking tool for jobhunters, too.

From the Coach’s Corner, related information:

• Social Media vs. Traditional Online Marketing – Where’s the Money?
• Understanding Customers: Social Media Teaches Another Lesson
• Is Facebook Approaching the End of Its Product Life Cycle? Ostensibly, Yes.

“Social networks aren’t about Web sites. They’re about experiences.”

– Mike DiLorenzo

__________

Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

11 Tips to Make Money on Facebook

 

Depending on your type of business, the jury might still be out over whether Facebook can you help you make money by making the cash register ring. But advertisers are increasingly investng in Facebook.

Websitemagazine.com is a must-read for any Internet entrepreneur. Its newsfeed on May 23, 2011 included Facebook’s 10 optimization tips for merchants and reasons to use Facebook’s “like” button. I have to agree.

Here are the first 10 of the 11 promised optimization tips:

1. Allowing users to add comments will significantly increase the number of clicks on the Like button

2. Display Like buttons at both the top and bottom of your posted content

3. Clicks increase dramatically when Like buttons appear near videos, images, infographics and other visual content

4. Like buttons that display thumbnail images of friends will receive three to five times more clicks than versions that don’t

5. Ask questions of users on your Fan pages, such as “Would you like …?” and “Would you prefer … ?”

6. Post fun and interactive content such as games, trivia questions and polls

7. Incorporate coupons and discounts on your Wall

8. Post time-sensitive content and relate to current events

9. Post videos

10. Include links to additional content

The Website Magazine feed also mentioned Buddy Media, a Facebook advertising platform. Buddy Media has raised some serious venture capital – $40 million.

Buddy Media licenses its software to ad agencies. The average fee for its 650 ad agency customers is $3,000 per month. When you consider the licensing fee is on top of the advertising budget, that’s some serious advertising coin being diverted to Facebook spending.

VatorNews is another interesting trade publication. Reporter Bambi Francisco Roizen interviewed Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazarow for some interesting insights. (Buddy Media accounts for 10% of Facebook ads?)

As promised, here’s my 11^th tip to profit from Facebook courtesty of VatorNews: Update your Facebook wall on Tuesdays.

From the Coach’s Corner, before you jump entirely on the Facebook bandwagon, make sure you read this cautionary Biz Coach column: Winners and Losers in Facebook’s Invasion of Google’s Turf.

“The Internet is the trailer park for the soul.”

-Marilyn Manson

 

__________ 

Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

Marketing Checklist to Measure Your Brand’s Personality

 

Here are two key questions about your marketing: 1. How much have you invested in your brand and personality? 2. How’s it working? 

These are important questions. However, many companies – large, medium and small – can’t accurately answer the questions. That’s especially true regarding their return on investment. Yet, ROI is critical to measure.

Research shows how to gauge your brand’s personality appeal – if it’s suitable to yield sales.

“We developed this means of measuring brand personality appeal (BPA) so companies can figure out how favorably their brand personality is viewed by consumers – and what they can do to enhance that personality’s appeal to their market,” says Dr. David Henard, an associate professor of business management at North Carolina State, in a press release.

The paper, “Brand personality appeal: conceptualization and empirical validation,” was co-authored by Henard; Dr. Traci Freling, of the University of Texas-Arlington; and Dr. Jody Crosno, of West Virginia University. The paper was published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

“Until now, researchers have only been able to determine whether a company has a brand personality,” Henard says. “The only existing scale was Aaker’s Brand Personality Scale, which could determine whether a brand personality is rugged, sophisticated, competent, exciting or sincere.

“What we’ve done here is develop a system that digs deeper to help companies link brand personality to concrete outcomes. For example, does the brand personality actually make people want to buy their product?”

The 2011 study lists 16 questions to ask about your brand in three variables: Favorability, originality and clarity.

The press release explains: “Favorability is how positively a brand personality is viewed by consumers. Originality is how distinct the brand personality is from other brands. Clarity is how clearly the brand personality is perceived by consumers.”

The press release offers more explanation about the three variables.

“For example, a company may find that its brand personality has a moderate rating on favorability, but is viewed as highly original and clearly defined. High marks for originality and clarity make the brand personality more appealing than the moderate favorability rating might indicate. It also tells a company that it needs to focus its efforts on improving its favorability rating, rather than distinguishing itself from competitors, in order to boost the brand personality’s overall appeal.”

The 16 questions:

1. This brand’s personality is unapparent…apparent
2. This brand’s personality is distinct…indistinct
3. This brand’s personality is satisfactory…unsatisfactory
4. This brand’s personality is obvious…not obvious
5. This brand’s personality is unpleasant…pleasant
6. This brand’s personality is common…distinctive
7. This brand’s personality is attractive…unattractive
8. This brand’s personality is ordinary…novel
9. This brand’s personality is positive…negative
10. This brand’s personality is bad…good
11. This brand’s personality is vague…well-defined
12. This brand’s personality is poor…excellent
13. This brand’s personality is undesirable…desirable
14. This brand’s personality is predictable…surprising
15. This brand’s personality is routine…fresh
16. This brand’s personality is unclear…clear

The study provides interesting food for thought, right? Munch away.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are more resource links to increase profits:

• Checklist to Build Your Brand on a Budget
• Study Provides Vital Lessons for Web Sites Seeking Profits
• Checklist: 19 Quick Marketing Tips for New Entrepreneurs

“What’s a brand? A singular idea or concept that you own inside the mind of the prospect.”

- Al Ries

 

__________

Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

Sales, Networking Strategies to Build Strong Relationships

 

Sometimes, we have to visit our past to anticipate our business future. Is it your experience, too?

When doing some cleaning, I came across some treasures from my high school years. That included a carbon copy of a thank you letter I wrote to the publisher of The Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs. He had given me a scholarship to attend a 10-day workshop at USC with 14 other high school journalists from throughout southern California. It brought back some very fond memories.

The letter also reminded me how business processes have evolved over the years. In my talks before college students, audience members chuckle when hearing about how we first used manual typewriters, then electric typewriters followed by self-correcting machines, word processors, fax machines and computers.

Now, watch sales are down in young demographics as the focus for many students is handheld devices for nearly everything they do, including checking the time. But it is a surprise they’re discovering vinyl records, but they laugh when I describe the process of playing 45 rpm records as a DJ in “working my way” through college. However, I did manage to win scholarships in my misspent youth.

One of the lessons I learned in those days was “It isn’t what you know. It’s whom you know.” Knowledge has always been essential. But the ability to sustain strong relationships was and is both gratifying and important for success.

Jobs were obtained and business profits were earned by old-fashioned networking. Building relationships gave companies on entre to customers. They made money by outperforming their competitors and by creating new niches.

That’s still true.

Branding and benefit statements, or value propositions, build a strong image. Most customers prefer to buy from companies they respect and trust. Ironically, customers buy more products when they feel comfortable – not necessarily by the lowest prices.

First impressions count. It’s all about trust. Only 18 percent of consumers buy on price, alone. Endless sales will condition and numb your customers. The urgency to buy disappears. Focus on the 82 percent of customers who buy for value. There are five motivating perceptions for customers to buy from you. Price is only one small consideration. More on that later.

Consistency is vital. Many sales have been lost because the salesperson gave up or failed to continue to deliver valuable information. Customers feel comfortable in sales situations when the salesperson listens during a minimum 80 percent of the discussions. That’s when customers start revealing their needs and requirements. Ironically, when customers actually do most of the talking, they believe the salespeople are good communicators when they get straight answers from their questions.

For a simple gauge of your sales opportunities, evaluate the sales aptitude of your employees and you, personally.

There is some overlap, but to be certain about being thorough, ask yourself these five questions:

1. Are we showing empathy about the customer’s problems or requests?
2. Are we taking the right steps to help the customer feel significant?
3. Are we giving the customer enough attention?
4. If there’s a disagreement, do we use diplomacy?
5. Do we act as if the customer is the reason for our business?

If any of the answers are “no”, the place to start is to ask open-ended questions to avoid close-ended answers. Then, find a need and fill it. Don’t forget to show gratitude and prevent buyer’s remorse.

Networking strategies

Here are seven tips for networking at meetings:

1. Rehearse your approach the day before. Know your elevator speech with differentiating benefit statements. Visualize having a good time.
2. At the meeting, smile.
3. Appear to be more approachable by continuing to stand.
4. Be assertive. Don’t wait for people to approach you. Shake hands firmly. Be enthusiastic and quietly confident.
5. Ask open-ended questions. Show interest. Don’t give away your power. The more you know about them, the better your chances for success. And the people you meet will conclude you’re a brilliant conversationalist.
6. End the chat by showing gratitude and appreciation. Shake hands. Exchange business cards. Get an agreement on what you’ll do next as a follow-up.
7. As you soon as you discretely can, make notes on the back of the person’s card. If appropriate, send a thoughtful, handwritten note. In it, remind the person of your value propositions – based on their concerns. Include a thank you for their consideration, a buyer’s remorse statement, and reiterate your next step.

The ability to build and sustain relationships remains paramount for success.

From the Coach’s Corner, this article, The Seven Steps to Higher Sales, has the secrets for sales success – seven steps to higher sales, five value perceptions that motivate customers to buy, and the three-step process for overcoming sales objections.

“Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman, not the attitude of the prospect.”
– William Clement Stone

 

__________

Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

CRM and SEO Strategies for Higher Sales

 

True, there are shortcuts you can take for Internet prominence en route to higher sales. However, implementing those dubious tools will ultimately land you in Internet oblivion. Such shortcuts aren’t worth the risk.

The first smart move: It’s important to lay a strong marketing foundation – build your brand equity brick by brick. A rushed job might lead to success, but it’s only temporary. Marketing is a never-ending process. It’s a race – a marathon – not a dash or sprint.

What’s the secret to success? Well, that requires an easy-to-understand set of answers, but it’s laborious to implement for strong results.

Let’s start with strong customer-relationship management. No, not merely CRM software, but it’s important to develop stronger skills in literally managing your customers. In essence, that means developing strong-enough relationships to persuade customers to become effective online brand ambassadors to write reviews for you.

Online reviews have become important. Many sites have become successful partially thanks to customer reviews. Here are 20 User Review Web sites Critical to Small Business. Note, however, Google will penalize sites perceived to have too many reviews. More on reviews later.

Further, strategies with a full complement of SEO – search engine optimization tools – work best.

Much has been written and said about Google’s updates, which is making SEO more difficult for many businesses. The algorithm upgrade in Feb. 2011 was designed to provide better relevant search results by filtering out content farms and other Web sites of questionable value. But Panda has had its critics.

However, you won’t believe this: One problem with Panda was that a business with poor reviews gets a high Google ranking – yes, even negative consumer reviews are counted as positive results. One would think the opposite would be true.

But let’s congratulate Google on its efforts. It will get better once Google understands the issue.

There has been countless buzz about SEO – search engine optimization, key words and meta tags. It’s mostly accurate. Ultimately, businesses will succeed on the Internet by generating links and search results via marketing.

But to maximize sales, it’s a complex matter.

You have to generate clicks from quality Web sites to yours. Google assumes your Web site is getting a vote from another site when the Internet user visits your site. The more visits you get from quality sites, the more important your site becomes.

You also need to garner telephone calls and attract customers to your place of business for facetime. That means you have to become an orchestra leader of sorts by synchronizing all your marketing efforts.

Historically, you’ve had to start with the right drivers to your Web site, including the right message on the right mediums whether it be TV, radio, newspapers or Internet press releases and ads.

But since early 2010, there have been salient changes:

• In February 2010, I wrote social networking, Facebook and Twitter, had joined the ranks of drivers. For professionals, LinkedIn works well, too. The right social strategies represent 50 percent of the factors implemented by Bing, Yahoo and Google.
• The following month, I wrote: Surprise? Facebook and Twitter Increase Odds for Sales.
• Best-practices in customer service began taking on increasing importance with social media, hence this column: Invigorate Sales with Customer Retention, Referral Strategies.
• During the debate over relevant content, I wrote: Google Speaks Out About Frequency vs. Value. Fresh content was deemed important, but if a publisher has to decide between frequency vs. quality, quality was the most-important. Nonetheless, I advised publishing valuable content but do it as often as possible.
• It’s important to evaluate your social media efforts, as I indicated in this column: Is Your Social Media Working? Here’s How.

Additional tips in these articles about Google:

• Good Blogs Have Nothing to Fear from Google’s Updates
• 5 Factors to Get Peak Google Results for Your Web Site – Study
• Checklist: 14 Strategies to Rock on Google
• Google Insights – 23 Key Questions about Your Web Site

Incidentally, in a key word search for your site, don’t be surprised if your social-media mentions – such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter pages – rank higher than your site. They will likely continue to have a higher page rank until your site improves in page rank. But that’s OK, if you do it right. It’s all about brand equity.

Good luck! Master these ideas. Your CRM and SEO strategies will lead to higher sales.

From the Coach’s Corner, here’s a tip about the value of a press release to promote your successes.

Pick a press-release company with a strong Google page rank. Every time you achieve a goal, write a good press release. Not only will you generate productive direct links but others will blog or tweet about your press release. That’s when the multiplier effect kicks in. For every good press release, you’ll generate 15-20 times the number of links.

One of my favorite examples:

In June of 2010, I wrote a column and press release quoting security guru Dr. Stan Stahl about the WIFI security issues at Starbucks. It generated about what I expected in visitors to my column. But months later, a blogger who was writing about Starbucks on Yahoo Finance spotted my press release and linked to it. In just a few hours, more than 20,000 of his Yahoo readers read my PR, and at most of them read the original article on this Web portal.

If you promote a lot and your marketing budget is tight, I’d recommend the free online press-release company, www.prlog.org.

It provides at least nine benefits:

1. You get to select 10 key words appropriate for your Web site
2. Your logo
3. Picture
4. As many as two live links
5. Your contact information
6. An archive which it calls “Press Room” – it shows up online with all your press releases
7. Your business profile which also links to your site
8. It provides user data – readers of your press releases
9. Within minutes of publishing a press release, it shows up on Bing Search as well as Bing News with your picture

The only downside is that the complimentary press releases indicate they’re free and they contain Google ads. My sense is that the benefits outweigh such factors. Prlog’s other options that aren’t free don’t include the Google ads and you’re guaranteed to be inserted in Google News.

Note: Don’t use the same headline for your press release as you do in your blog. Otherwise, your article won’t be indexed – just your press release. Not all readers of your press releases will visit your Web site.

“The success of a page should be measured by one criteria: Does the visitor do what you want them to do?”

- Aaron Wall

 

__________

Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

« Previous Page — Next Page »