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July 23, 2008 By

THE introvert’s guide to selling

Not everyone throws on their spidey outfit and relishes leaping into the fray of the business sales arena. As a matter of fact a great deal of people sell because it is just part of what they do. If they could get the sales some other way, they’d probably jump at it. In the mean time all of the reluctant sales people out there, have to do they best they can with the few sale skills they have.

For the past few months I’ve been in touch with several reluctant sales people from around the world, and we’ve been sharing tips and techniques that has made selling a little bit easier. None of these contacts are Anthony Robbins clones or Dale Carnegie wannabe’s, BUT the one thing they did have in common was that they are introverts in an extroverts world. They’re tired of the books on sales that assume you love to put yourself out there.

So guess what? I’ve taken this valuable conversation and put them together in a little eBook that I am giving away for the asking. It was a pleasure putting together this information because of the insight it gave me. This is my first offering in the eBook realm. I call the effort, “The Reluctant Salesperson: An Introvert’s Guide to Selling.”

If you see fit to add this eBook to your reading, I’d love it, if you’d drop back here and let me know what you think. One thing about blogging that I find immensely gratifying is the breadth of opinion – all of it with the goal of helping all of us improve how we do business.

…for all the reluctant sales people who may be too shy to drop by my site and pick up a copy, I don’t mind if you get a friend to do it for you.

All the best.

File under: Archives, Beginners, Blogs & Blogging, Branding, Business, Employer Branding, Featured, Marketing, Media, News, Personal Branding
July 14, 2008 By

Google Lively – A Platform For Marketing?

Many of you may be aware that Google has launched a new service for websites called Google Lively – a lightweight competitor to Second Life.

As this popped up, many marketing bloggers online have begun talking about how this might be relevant for for marketing purposes. I can’t say I have ignored it. In fact, I want to know – do you have any ideas for marketing and branding on Lively?

While Lively creates a similar experience to Second Life, it uses websites as a platform rather than purpose built software.

What Google Lively is About

It’s a platform for people to interact with one another when they visit their favourite websites. I think Niniane Wang (the creator) sums it up best on the Google blog:

“…to express yourself with and without words, and to do this in the places you already visit on the web.”

Can you imagine using your avatar in a 3D room to read the content of your favourite websites? This may be just one reality made possible with this new platform – and for those looking to connect with customers, it could be a dream come true.

Marketing on Google Lively

I’ve had a bit of a play around on it, and I’ve found a couple of features which I think could be very useful for any businesses looking to use this service. Currently you can:

In the future I suspect you will be able to:

  • Contribute Objects, Room Shells and Wardrobes
  • Put RSS Feeds into Rooms
  • Place Advertising in Rooms
  • Program Events to Run
  • Buy & Sell Objects, Clothes, Rooms and Shells

Could you imagine the worth of a room which attracts 10,000 people daily?

Are There More Marketing Applications?

Google is busy testing a number of initiatives to make the web into a more social place. Just take a look at what Google has under their belt:

With all these projects working together, I suspect Lively will become a lot more popular. Especially as it matures and Google opens the doors for innovation through APIs and what not.

What Marketing and Branding Opportunities Can You See on Lively? Discuss…

File under: Featured
June 6, 2008 By

Yahoo Pipes – A Tool For Your Marketing Research Kitbag

Are you researching for a key branding project or marketing assignment you are working on?

I know many of us turn to the web to find information perhaps about a potential client as we write proposals, about the industry sector a client is involved in so that we come well versed in their business and so we can identify where we can add value, or even checking out a competitor as part of the development of our brand strategy or marketing plan.

A free tool I have recently come across which I think has tremendous opportunities for research is Yahoo Pipes.

Yahoo Pipes provides you with the ability to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web creating a feed with relevant information. you can also publish your Yahoo Pipe so that others can access it or modify it for their own use.

Take a look at this video that shows you how to create your own pipe of research data.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

I use Google Alerts to support my research,and you can read an article here about 10 ways I use Google Alerts in my research.

File under: Branding, Marketing
May 29, 2008 By

Differentiate or Die: Standing Out In A Crowd

How important a core difference is essential to marketing success.

Marketing behaviorQuite often a small business owner will ask me to reveal the most powerful marketing strategy I have seen. The answer may surprise you.

The most powerful marketing strategy I know has little to do with direct mail, adverting, special promotions, websites or referrals. No, before any of those ‘tactics’ will have any major impact on your business you must first find, commit and communicate a compelling difference between you and everyone else that says they do the same thing as you.

Let’s do a quick mental exercise.

Pretend that you are in a room full of your competitors and I asked this question. “If you think you offer a fair price, please raise your hands”. “Now, lower your hands if you don’t offer great customer service.” “Lower your hands if you don’t feel you are an expert and can deliver valuable advice” How many hands do you think would be up? Almost all right? So, if you don’t do an effective job at “educating” you customers on how specifically you are different, guess what the deciding factor is? PRICE!!!! Who wants to compete on price?

Look, we all know that every business is special and unique in its own way. But the bigger question is does your potential clients know? You have to answer the following question “why should I choose you?” from the customer perspective. There are several ways you can establish a unique selling proposition. Here are a few:

  • Unique service
  • Market niche
  • Special offer
  • Solve a specific problem
  • Message of value
  • Unique habit
    		•
  • Unique product
  • Unique packaging
  • Outrageous guarantee
  • Customer service
  • Against the competition
  • A way of doing business
    		•

Once you have spent some time and discovered your uniqueness, you must commit to it. These core differences will become the foundation for all of your marketing material and advertising messages. You will use these unique differences to create your marketing materials that educate.

Dig deep into this exercise, it will serve you well. This is another prime example of why it is so important to spend time on Strategy before jumping into Tactics.

File under: Featured
May 16, 2008 By

Pay Per Click (PPC)-Why You Should Care?

If you aren’t actively marketing for local search prospects, you are missing out big time.

With close to 300 million searches per day, there is no denying that people use search engines. But do they use them when looking for local products and services?

There is an abundance of public data suggesting that as high as 80% of potential prospects turn to the internet first when looking for a local product or service.

The yellow pages are a thing of the past. The new yellow pages are local internet directories and a new medium called Pay Per Click advertising. If you don’t believe me ask yourself when was the last time you picked up your local yellow pages to find a vendor or to do research.

I know it, Google knows it (the majority of their stock price is a reflection of their anticipated growth from advertising) and if you resist it, there is a good chance your business may a thing of the past too. Microsoft knows it too, for this very reason; Microsoft is attempting to purchase Yahoo.

WHY USE PAY PER CLICK (PPC)

There are many reasons why, as a small business owner, you should consider allocating part of your marketing budget to local search marketing strategies, here are just a few:

  1. Highly Targeted-Unlike direct marketing and other forms of advertising your ad will only be served (appear) when a prospect is actively searching for your type of business (typed into your pre-selected “keywords”)
  2. Tracking-there is an old marketing adage that says “I know I am wasting 50% of my marketing budget, but I don’t know which half”. You can’t improve what you can’t measure and Pay Per Click advertising is very easy to measure. With search engine marketing (SEM), you are able to track every aspect of your campaign-keywords, Ad groups, Ads ect. All four major search engines, Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK provide a piece of script that you can put on your websites that give you very important visitor information (that will be covered in an upcoming article), all available in report form.
  3. Testing-You can quickly and easily run A/B testing for both Ads (to drive leads) and different landing pages (to convert prospects).
  4. Performance based-It is the only advertising available that you only get charged if a prospect actually takes action (clicks on your ad). This actually is a second form of qualifying. The prospect not only is actively searching for your type of business, but actually liked your ad enough to click on it.

HOW IT WORKS

  1. Choose your search engine to advertise on. Google, Yahoo, MSN and ASK.com account for 90% of all searches. Each search engine has different demographics for their typical users, so do some research.
  2. Choose your keywords and key search phrases. In other words, when do you want your ad to appear? For example: if you were to look for an accountant in your area, what would be your search phrase? “Las Vegas accountant”, “cpa in las vegas”, “irs audit cpa las vegas”.
  3. Choose a monthly Pay Per Click (PPC) budget. Many of the pay per click search engines allow you to manage budgets based on a set dollar amount or by daily or monthly limitations. Choose the PPC budget management tool which best suits your needs.

A word of caution before you run off and start pouring money into your PPC campaigns. Though, there is no denying that, when executed correctly, PPC can be a leading sales driver and profit builder, it can also drain your marketing budget if you aren’t careful.

Read and study as much as you can about Pay Per click and how it works. I would also recommend you start out small and learn what works and what doesn’t and then scale up your budget when you begin to get the hang of it. Be prepared though, Yahoo! anticipates the average advertiser spends nearly 17 hours per month managing their accounts. And that’s just Yahoo!. Add to that Google, MSN and Ask.com and it can quickly become a full time job.

If you believe that Pay Per Click can benefit your company but you don’t have the time, energy or desire to tackle this project on your own, there are many companies that will manage your search campaigns for you- my company being one of them. For more information on how to attract more clients using Pay Per Click (PPC) go to www.stickymarketingsystems.com

File under: Marketing, SEO & SEM
May 12, 2008 By

Your Customer’s Prized Possession? Their Time.

Watch
So spend it wisely.

I got a packet today, from someone who is trying to sell me a service that I’m probably interested in. We’ll call me a lukewarm buyer. I don’t know enough to be a hot buyer, but the potential is there.

I had asked the rep to send me some information. I received a very nice folder/brochure, a DVD and a cover letter. The cover letter says:

“Blah, blah, blah…. In addition, there is a DVD enclosed that will tell you all about the products in about the first 20 minutes.”

What? The FIRST 20 minutes? Are you kidding me? What in the world makes them think I am going to watch their promotional material for almost a half hour? It is never going to happen. And now, because I didn’t get the information I needed, I’ve become a much less interested buyer.

Consumers today have a USA Today mentality and attention span. Give it to me short and sweet. Or I don’t want it. Technology has given us the tools to skip, skim or just ignore marketing messages if they aren’t delivered in a palatable way.

How are you doing in this arena? Are you being mindful of your potential customers’ attention spans or are you cramming as much information at them as possible?

Are you being skipped, skimmed or ignored?

File under: Marketing
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