How To Create Your Own Success Formula

It is a marketer's burden to create his or her own formula to reach success as there is no such thing as "one size fits all" for marketers.

Every successful marketer that you have heard of has accomplished this and their own formula is somewhat different than any other successful marketer's formula.

Therefore, no one can guarantee your success by following them because your path will be somewhat different and only YOU can find it.

The burden of success is clearly on you...

Where one marketing strategy may work for some... the exact same strategy may not yield the same results for others.

Always put your own twist to everything that you do while you model other successful marketers along the way is a great approach. That is to say... you don't have to reinvent the wheel but also never carbon copy it either.

You see ... not everything works the same for everyone... Success is not like that and you may become disappointed quickly if you simply follow the standard "Monkey See - Monkey Do" marketing some will try to sell you on...

So to be different... what you want to do is test various strategies and try to make them profitable. Seeing what works with your own eyes is truly the best teacher of success and will open the door to many success formulas that you can use over and over.

We as marketers must all do this and it's where we germinate our own formulas for success. By trying different things through testing and changing the variables it gives us a cause and effect that yields results which can be measured.

You have to be like those few salmon that can swim upstream against the current that holds others back while YOU succeed!

Please reread that "salmon" line again because it is a perfect universal analogy of success itself.

Testing is what helps you swim upstream against the current allowing you to reach your destination of success.

The truth is... testing IS the only magic bullet there is...

TIP: Test till you find a winner and then you move on and upward from there and on and on it goes... It's the momentum that makes it all work. The snowball effect... I call it Marketing Momentum.

That's when you start to see success. This is long term thinking if you are serious about being successful in online marketing.

But how should you approach testing since it does present a "needle in a haystack" type of mental block?...

Only by failing forward until you succeed at something will you see fruit from your testing.

So go fail till you succeed and expect it to be part of the growth that leads you toward success. Therefore, don't be afraid of the little failures that lead up to success...

And above all...

Action with Persistence is the real key to any success.

Action with Persistence will out-do others with more knowledge and even experience...

Action with Persistence wins the race slow - but steady!

And... believing in yourself even when no one else is there for you is a powerful source for creating your own successes. But you MUST believe you can do it and never give up until...

Bottom line... with Action and Persistence PLUS Belief in yourself, there's nothing holding you back and that truly IS your greatest success formula of all!

Market Penetration and Niche Marketing

In any industry, it would be the ideal dream of all people to be able to become the market leader in the industry they are catering to. But in most cases as well, most organizations have to face reality that to become a market leader entails a lot of investment, most of which are financial aids and time. Entering a market for the very first time, despite tons of knowledge and strategies does not necessarily mean that any organization or person for the matter will become an overnight success. A curing time to allow market awareness and soliciting consumer feedback and probable acceptance will still be keys to the success of any business related endeavor.

For most wise market strategists, a careful evaluation and study of the market that they are planning to penetrate is in order. Doing the necessary research work, planning procedures and mapping out their various strategic planning measures will be put to the ultimate test. Regardless of what industry it is, an immediate decision to get into the market will surely be a waste of time.

Some points to consider for the serious entrepreneurs:
1. Identify The Purpose of your Existence
2. Choose a Business Genre
3. Study the Current Active Market Players and Enumerate them
4. Gather data and historical data to evaluate the response of the market
5. Identify the lacking needs for consumer satisfaction and demands
6. List down the itineraries and issues for concern
7. Create a timeline and thorough study of the market
8. Execute the Plans immediately upon uniform agreement

While there may be other steps that can be added to what has been listed above, this will entirely depend on the planning and management team. For sure, the establishment of guidelines, vision and mission, purpose and expected output from perceived operations will be critical. There is no doubt that varied ideas will surface and once they do, proper justification from these shall be needed. Thus the importance of proper evaluation and analysis of available statistical data is needed to support such claims from the research and development team.

For the conservative and patient professionals, identifying a niche market of consumers that have not been targeted by market leaders is another good way to go. While there will be limitations, serving this portion of the consumer market will help most people start somewhere. No doubt that this can eventually lead to steps towards coming face to face with the market leader, but such should be secondary in nature. For sure, there is no doubt that immediately going head to head with the major players in the market is inappropriate in the young stages of the business. Eventually, the business will get there, and once that time comes, such organizations will have already ready plans to give these corporations a run for their money.

How To Promote Your Coaching Business Online

Many of my coaching clients are coaches themselves, and quite a few of them have asked me how to promote their coaching business online. Here is some of the information I have shared with them. Use these tips and ideas to promote your own coaching practice online, get more clients and make more money:

- Have a Professional Web Site. In order to attract online clients, you need to present a very professional image online. People who find your web site will equate the professional look and feel of the web site to your own professionalism, since the web site is the only piece of information they have to evaluate your business.

The web site should have professional look and feel and have information about your business, as well as your products and services. There should be a way for customers to contact you, as well as subscribe to your newsletter.

- Explain What You Do on Your Web Site. Not everyone knows what a coach is, so in addition to calling yourself a coach, make sure you explain what a coach does. For example, if you are a dating coach, explain that you help men and women find that one perfect person.

If you are a career coach, tell your web site visitors that you help them figure out the perfect career, and then you help them find a job that reflects their career choice. And if you are a business coach, tell them how you can help their business succeed.

- Publish a Newsletter. Not everyone who comes to your web site will immediately become a coaching client. Not everyone who comes to your web site will buy your products immediately. You need means to keep in touch with people who come to your web site, but are not ready to hire you or purchase your products.

A newsletter is a great tool to keep in touch with your web site visitors, share information with them and educate them about your products and services. Make sure that you have a newsletter subscribe form on every page of your web site, and that you offer a compelling reason for your web site visitors to subscribe to it.

- Optimize Your Web Site for Search Engines. Search engine optimization is the process of modifying web page content and meta-information to improve the search engine ranking of the page. Successful search engine optimization will greatly increase the number of visitors that come to your web site since over 70% of people who are looking for products and services use search engines to locate them.

- Publish Your Articles Online. Publishing articles is a great way to show off your coaching expertise, as well to drive traffic to your web site. When you write and publish your articles, other web site owners pick them up and publish them on their web sites, while giving you a link back to your web site.

Use the five techniques we outline above to drive targeted clients to your coaching practice. Effective promotion of your coaching practice online will make a difference between your coaching web site sitting idly and a coaching web site that drives leads and clients for your business every single day.

Focusing Your Audience On Your Message

They sure knew how to get your attention, those streakers of old did. They did it by employing the elements of shock and surprise. And, of course, they always seemed to play the nudity card!

Come to think of it, the nudity part was sort of the key to the whole streaking thing.

Anyway, as one of your company's marketers, wouldn't it be cool to be able to apply the "streaker mentality" to your marketing efforts? I'm talking about the concept of figuratively stopping whatever else is going on in the marketplace and drawing all eyes to your product, if only for a brief, focused moment. When a streaker would break loose onto a baseball or soccer field, the game stopped.

THE GAME STOPPED!

People gasped. People laughed. People were appalled. But, whatever their reaction, the game stopped and people watched a buck naked guy proudly flopping in the wind as he serpentined his way through stadium security. If you ever saw a streaker at a sporting event, I'll bet you all the lint-covered change in my pocket that you can't recall the final score of the game. It's the naked guy you remember.

Here's the parallel: The marketplace is the game, except this game is going on all the time and all around you. The game is so loud, so colorful, so ubiquitous that it's very tough to get noticed (and remembered) by the audience - the people to whom you need to sell your product. It’s tough, that is, until you find a way to stop the game...if only for that brief, focused moment.

Cracking my Psychology 101 book just enough to peak in, I can see that there are two basic modes in which consumers cruise through their day. While in Alpha mode, your audience is basically oblivious to the radio and TV spots, the billboards, the print ads, the Web banners, and the thousands of other stimuli that surround them. That’s partly because so many of the messages tout products that hold no immediate interest to them; and partly because, even if they could derive value from the product, the message itself is not unique enough to stand out from all the rest. So, it goes unnoticed.

Beta Mode, however, is a more conscious state; a state in which the consumer is actively involved with the message: listening, laughing, filing away the information for future use, or, even better, acting upon the call to action. This is where you want your audience to be.

What snaps your audience from Alpha mode into Beta mode is what’s known as an Activator; an attention-grabbing headline; a compelling image; that special piece of music; that voice; that copy. It’s the element of your message that plucks an emotional chord in the recipient and elicits a desired response. It could be the warm-and-fuzzies (The irresistible sound of a baby cooing), or it could be the acknowledgment of a specific pain (“Face it! Dandruff is ruining your life!”). The Activator is the streaker! It opens the audience’s hearts and minds to your message.

Remember these letters when planning your company’s marketing messages:

I - E - E - O

They stand for Interrupt, Engage, Educate and Offer

First, interrupt the game with your version of streaking! Grab their attention. Snap them out of that snoozey Alpha mode and into the receptive Beta mode. This doesn’t require yelling. Imagination speaks much louder.

Secondly, once you have their focused attention, engage your audience with information that draws them even deeper into your message.

Thirdly, educate. Provide facts. Back up the claim in your headline. Build a case for your product.

Finally, make ‘em an offer. It should be easy to understand. And it should not require a commitment, like a call or visit from a salesperson.

When you lead with a streaker, you’ll snap your audience out of complacency, and help them to open up enough for you to plant a thought.

Now put your clothes back on and get marketing!

Positive Thinking and Effective Marketing Go Hand in Hand

Successful sales and marketing requires persistence, continuous improvement, and the expectation of a positive outcome. If one doesn’t approach every aspect of marketing with enthusiasm, creativity, and a positive mental attitude, then it’s like embarking on schooner race with no wind in your sails. You’ll have no momentum or direction, and the competition is guaranteed to overtake you.

Attitude has an insidious way of infiltrating everything we do; and it can lift us up to great heights or pull us down to the depths of failure. It can energize us to do and say all the right things at the right time, or it can undermine our motivation and cause us to sabotage our own best laid plans.

The bottom line is this: either we own our attitude or our attitude owns us. Every now and then, it’s necessary to make a conscious decision to take charge of our thoughts, attitudes, and habits. An unfocused effort, whether it involves marketing or any other aspect of business, is sure to produce inferior results.

Allowing negative thoughts to infect your mind creates a cascading effect of self-defeating behavior. In direct sales, one needs to have a winning attitude and a magnetic personality to influence and persuade prospects to become customers. That’s only the tip of the iceberg, though, because a successful salesperson also needs to have the finesse and people skills to win back lost customers, negotiate the best deal, ask for and get sales referrals, inspire teamwork, and have the energy and optimism to overcome setbacks and keep moving forward in the face of temporary failure. Without a positive mental attitude, none of that is going to happen.

Cultivating a positive attitude also feeds the creativity and optimism necessary for nearly every other aspect of marketing ranging from sending out press releases and sales letters to placing ads or launching a web site. If you don’t believe it’s going to work, either you’re not going to try at all—or your efforts will be weakened and half-hearted. In both cases, you’re doomed to failure before you even get out of the starting gate.

On the other hand, if you make up your mind to be an ‘eternal optimist’, you’ll be willing to take calculated risks and put your best foot forward. Getting there may involve an integrated program of reading motivational books, listening to self-improvement CDs, making a concerted effort to identify and avoid (or filter out) a lot of the negativity in your environment, and establishing daily habits that will tend to attract beneficial people and circumstances into your life.

Being an entrepreneur and running your own business is an intrinsically risky endeavor. If an expensive marketing campaign falls flat or a major client signs on with the competition, you might find yourself scrambling to make up for the loss. A positive state of mind not only helps you be creative, resourceful, and energized, but it also enhances your ability to anticipate, adapt, and regroup.

While many aspects of marketing are considered a gamble by anyone’s estimation, the best way to hedge your bets is by adopting a focused, optimistic, and positive mental attitude.

Crafting A Winning Marketing Strategy

For business owners and managers who do not have a marketing background, few situations prompt the same intensity of emotions as when they are faced with producing a marketing strategy. Whether they are working alone or with a consultant there is often a contradictory mix of optimism, uncertainty, excitement and doubt.

This is hardly surprising, given the complex and demanding nature of the task. It requires a good analytical knowledge of the markets that the company operates in. It also demands that businesses take a different and creative view of how they operate. It is the culmination of a complex distillation of a wide range of factors, trends and facts, into a crisp statement of intent and an action plan.

The path to this objective can be broken down into six basic steps:

1 Decide the target market segments that you will focus on. Every mature market has segments of customers, who have needs that are different from other segments. For example, in the freight business, the express market is very different from the palletised distribution segment. The express segment will pay high prices for fast turnaround, computerised tracking and electronic proof of delivery. The palletised segment is looking for a lower price and lower service offering. When you choose segments, make sure that you have the capabilities to serve them well. Sometimes businesses choose attractive segments, but they do not the infrastructure, systems and people to operate in them successfully. If you choose to target the express freight market, you need the right vehicles, depots, IT systems and sales infrastructure. Also make sure that the segment is large enough for your business. Attractive new segments are sometimes discussed in the trade press, and they generate a lot of discussion, but they can be ideas ahead of their time. RFID has been discussed in retail for over five years now, and there have been millions of articles written on it, but there are still very few real sales being made. A segment like this is one for very large businesses only.

2 Profile the customers that you will target. Build a picture of the types of businesses that will buy your products.
- Where are they located?
- What size are they?
- What needs do they want to satisfy?
- Will our product alone satisfy them?
- Who in the organisation makes the buying decision?
- Are there any influencers on that decision?
- What media do they read/ browse and what ways can you reach them?

Within your segment there may be sub-segments that you identify. If you sell office products, you may choose to target the small business segment in your local area. Within that segment, accountants and solicitors would be particularly heavy users of paper and stationery because of the nature of their businesses.

You may need to repeat this step several times if you have products or services targeted at several different customer types.

3 Clarify your competitive advantage. In each segment that you choose to operate in, you need a clear statement of why customers should select your products ahead of you competitors. You need to be clear about why you can satisfy their particular needs in a way that is superior to anyone else.

This is the steps that most needs some challenge and scrutiny. In weak plans, this is often where the problem lies. Common problems include:

- advantages repeated year after year, even though differentials have eroded
- perceived advantages are not real or substantial enough in the minds of your customers
- new competitors have not been studied and advantages have been overtaken by an innovation

Part of marketing craft is to constantly search for new threats and new business models. It is also to constantly listen to customers, especially as they explain why they like to do business with you compared to others. Do not be afraid to question them and draw them out when they do…this is some of the most valuable information you will get in business.

4 Determine the benefits of each of your products and services. This is often the least troublesome area of the plan because businesses are comfortable discussing what they make and do. The key points are to only write about benefits. Bear in mind the following copywriters ode:

Tell me quick and tell me true
Or else, my friend to hell with you.

Not how this product came to be,
But what the damn thing does for me. Also, you must really dare to be different here. Nowadays everyone has a supplier for what you sell. Business often underestimate how different they need to be to draw a customer away from their current supplier and to start a new relationship with them.

5 List the marketing and sales methods that will be used to deliver the sales and profit objectives of the business. The marketing mix needs to be fully described and a full schedule of activities listed. Behind this schedule should be a series of calculations that show how the customer metrics in the business will change, how the margin mix will evolve, how the sales forecast has been made, and how the marketing costs have been calculated.

This can be a complex task, but as long as it is based on historical data, it has a low risk of error.

This step has two purposes. The first is that it summarises how the first four steps are going to be turned into action. Secondly, it is a tool for management to see if the steps are being carried out. It should contain all the information on who is responsible for doing what, and when.

6 Summarise the impact on the P&L. Marketing is an investment, and it should always be measured in terms of the results that it produces. The business strategy will determine the business priorities, and this summary will show how the marketing plan will make its contribution, whether it is in sales growth, profit increase, or cost savings. Behind the P&L should be the key monthly marketing indicators that will drive the forecast results. Senior management can review these indicators regularly, and can take appropriate action if they deviate from the plan.

If you follow these steps, then you will have a plan that is actionable and measurable. You can take action and if some parts work and some don’t, you can investigate the problems and make the necessary changes. In this way the plan puts you in control of your business and as the plan evolves you are learning about what works and what doesn’t. This I believe is what Eisenhower meant when he said

“A plan is nothing; planning is everything”

Vital Component to Marketing Success: Establishing Credibility

As a salesperson or the owner of a small business, do you consider yourself to be qualified, experienced, and dependable? More importantly, have 95% of your customers had a satisfying experience doing business with you or your company? If your answer is ‘yes’ to all those questions, then your services or products have the potential to be in high demand. The trick is effectively communicating that information to your target market.

Let’s assume that you have what your prospective customers are looking for: excellent service, high ethical and quality standards, a near-perfect track record in living up to promises and producing desired results, and the skills or knowledge to help your clients achieve their goals or solve their problems. Think about it. You are exactly what people are scouring the Internet or Yellow Pages for and spending countless hours researching. If you’re not in demand now, then you ought to be!

What’s Standing in the Way?

In all likelihood, your phone isn’t ringing off the hook because you haven’t convinced your prospects that you can offer them all these desirable qualities and benefits. That’s where marketing strategy comes in!

Whether or not people ask you these questions, you can be sure it’s almost always on their minds: "How long have you been in business? What are your credentials? Are there people who can vouch for your dependability (provide references)? Why should I feel secure choosing you over the competition for this important project/need/solution?

Strategies for Establishing Credibility & Trust

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a minute and try to think like someone who’s in the market for your services. At some level, they’re thinking, “Why should I put my faith in this person or business?”

One good way to project an image of reliability is to join the Better Business Bureau and display their logo in your ads, stationery, brochures, and web site. According to their web site, “members of local BBBs are businesses and firms which meet tough BBB membership standards, agree to follow the highest principles of business ethics and voluntary self-regulation, and have a proven record of marketplace honesty and integrity.”

Another approach to making a good impression is to join professional organizations and display that affiliation, wherever space allows, in your ads, letters, and marketing literature. Someone who’s a member of a professional or industry organization usually cares about ethical standards, working cooperatively with others, and keeping their training up to date. It also conveys the impression that they take their profession seriously and that they’re not a ‘fly by night’ operation. Membership in Chambers of Commerce can also be an image-enhancing investment.

Some other ways to establish credibility and trust include being active in the community, earning professional credentials, appearing in the media as an organizational or industry spokesperson, conducting seminars, teaching classes, writing a newspaper column, and speaking at public events and meetings. Having a well-designed, up-to-date website (that’s not ‘under construction’), professional-looking business cards, and an impeccable reputation are also important facets of branding you and your company as a dependable and quality-conscious source of products and services.

Why Most Marketing Fails

It’s a sad fact that four out of five businesses will fold within the first five years of operation. And the number one reason they will do so is because of poor. or non-existent, advertising or promotion. Assuming they have a sensible product or service at a reasonable price, they should be able to survive. Yet, many small. or start-up enterprises, will spend all their investment on the nuts and bolts of the business from furnishings to signage, ignoring the most important way people will eventually find them; marketing.

The majority of businesses fall into two categories: those that rely on word-of-mouth or those that do a minimal amount of local promotions such as direct mail, flyers, small Yellow Page ads. In any regard, they give advertising very little though. For example, when the Yellow Page representative comes around to talk about their program, they have done little or nothing to prepare for the call. At the very least, they should have considered some of the following issues:

Who are your customers? i.e., men, women, young, old
Where are your customers? i.e., from around the block, citywide, statewide
Which ones are most profitable? i.e., what service or product returns the greatest profit?
What is one customer worth? i.e., what is the value of an average sale?
How do you intend to reach your customers? i.e., marketing, promotions.
What makes your business unique or better than your competition?

If you can answer most of these questions in advance, you’re heads and tails above your competition. If you can’t, you’re in big trouble. Realize that the marketing that actually attracts your potential customers is built upon the foundation of understanding what type of customer you are seeking. Once you have formulated a profile of the perfect customer, you can plan a strategy for marketing to them.

The shoot-from-the-hip approach of making it up as you go along will waste time and money. In other words, poor planning will lead to poor results. If you devote as much time in developing an advertising campaign as you might have done picking colors for your office, you would be far better off. You should also be able to figure out your ROI, or return on investment based on that average sale and track the results. The latter is important for future marketing approaches to enable zeroing in on the most effective format or media.

Remember that most media can be worthwhile if the message is designed properly. I should know. I was a YP rep and consultant for nearly 25 years and, prior to that, had my own advertising agency. I also have a degree in marketing. I’ve been designing Yellow Page ads for the past three decades. So I have expertise in YP creation and have advised almost 7000 companies on how to put together the most effective YP ads. If you have a display or in-column ad, regardless of size, color or position, I can tell you it most probably needs improvement in the headline, artwork, body text, placement, book, or heading. You must understand the ROI or return on investment and learn how to track the results as well.

So consider getting some expert advice before you place your next ad. There are many good and inexpensive places to turn, some available on the internet. Make sure the consultant is well qualified with at least 25 years experience. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting your own time and money.

Knowing what makes an effective ad is the real secret to success.

How To Make Marketing Simple

Quite a few clients have told me that marketing is difficult for them. It is difficult to get started with marketing; it is difficult to figure out how to market, and it is difficult to understand how to market effectively. Even if you are already using marketing techniques to promote your business, there is no guarantee that your marketing efforts will bring the results you are looking for.

I have put together a simple plan for you to take charge of your marketing and to simplify at least some of the process. Here are five marketing steps:

- Define What Needs To Be Done. What are you marketing? Is it a product or a service? What are the results you are looking for? Would you like to generate more sales, more leads, more partners? Which online marketing techniques are you planning to use? Search engine optimization, article marketing, newsletter publishing? The better you define these points, the easier it will be for you to put your marketing plan into motion.

- Break Your Plan Into Bite-Size Pieces. Divide-and-conquer is a proven, time-tested technique for managing complicated tasks. If your goal is to optimize your web site for search engines, your bite-size pieces will include learning about search engine optimization, performing keyword research, optimizing your pages, optimizing your copy, etc. It is much easier to follow along when you map out the steps.

- Understand The Marketing Process. It is really difficult to apply a marketing technique if you do not have a good understanding of the process. For example, if you do not know how to use article marketing to promote your business, you will not be able to use it to market. Learning about marketing is essential. It will help you market now, and you can use your newly acquired marketing knowledge to continue marketing your business for years to come.

- Don't Try to Do Everything At Once. Don't start using five marketing techniques at the same time. You will simply end up jumping from one method to another, without spending a proper amount of time on any one of them. If you do not devote sufficient time to applying a marketing technique, you will not get results. Take some time to learn and apply a new marketing technique. Then, once you are seeing results, move on to the next one.

- Track Your Results. Tracking your results (or lack thereof) helps you understand what has produced results and what hasn't. It also helps you compare different marketing methods and to determine which one(s) produce better results for your business.

Use this five point plan to better market your business and get results from marketing your business online.

Use Drop Shipping to Expand into New Markets

For retail businesses, expanding into a new market can be a risky proposition. Aside from additional marketing costs, there are also the costs of storing new inventory that may or may not sell.

This is just one more situation where drop shipping can help save you time, money, and a lot of unwanted stress. Just like drop shipping is a low risk way to break into the retail business, it can also help your existing business get its feet wet in new markets.

Let's take a look at an imaginary online retailer that sells camping equipment. For years, this retailer has focused on specializing in tents and sleeping bags only. Now, to increase sales and profits, he wants to expand into more camping accessories such as cookware, backpacks, propane, emergency equipment, and so forth. The problem is, he's worried that he won't be able to overcome his reputation as a "tents and sleeping bags only" store, and he'll be stuck with a lot of inventory he can't sell.

In comes the drop shipper. Now the tents-and-bags-only retailer can start offering an expanded offering on his website without risking an investment in inventory.

One of four scenarios could possibly occur:

1. He is unable to sell any items from his expanded catalog, and goes back to selling just tents and bags. He only loses a little time from the effort. 2. He sells some items, but not enough to justify bulk purchases of the additional items. He sticks with drop shipping the new items to keep his new customers happy and coming back for more. Hopefully, sales continue to increase and his expanded selection becomes a major part of his business. 3. The expanded selection is a huge hit, so he starts purchasing inventory to save money by purchasing in bulk. 4. He finds that he loves the time he saves from drop shipping so much, he expands his drop shipping operation to include his tents and sleeping bags!

Whatever you're thinking about expanding into, drop shipping could be the solution for your business. Using a drop shipper will allow you to run your tests without the risk of losing money on inventory.

When looking for a drop shipper, the usual rules apply: make sure they provide real-time inventory reports to minimize the risk of backorders, make sure they use a reliable shipping provider that also provides tracking information, and make sure they process orders in a timely fashion so you don't end up with angry customers.

Promoting Marketing Campaigns Via Affiliates

Introduction If you are a merchant that uses coupons and special promotions such as clearance sales, site wide free shipping or other marketing tool that have a limited life span and also have an affiliate program which you use as sales channel to promote those campaigns, then this article is intended for you.

Avoid mistakes that can cause problems during or after the campaign which are in most of the cases customer service issues that probably harm your image in the minds of your existing or potential customers and will potentially hurt your brand in the long run.

Announce it, but announce it right Before you launch your marketing campaign through your affiliate marketing channel consider the following tips and check if you have everything ready and in place that your affiliates can to their job right. This article is focused on the proper announcement of the launch and discontinuation of your marketing campaigns.

Always provide an expiration date and time. Provide your affiliates with the expiration date and time for any coupon or marketing campaign you want them to promote. If it is an ongoing promotion let them know that.

If you don't know the expiration date of a promotion yet, provide the information how long you expect it to run and the goal you want to accomplish with it, which will have important impact on the expiration because you will probably discontinue the promotion earlier if you don't meet your goals at all and extend it much further than originally planned, if it is exceeding your expectations.

Use your affiliates campaigns to boost yours You can also announce a campaign before it launches, but make sure that you provide the date and time of the launch and make clear what they can and can not do with that information. Specify if you allow or even recommend affiliates to announce an upcoming campaign to their customers.

You don't want then to announce all the details of the campaign, of course not, because that would damper the effectiveness of the campaign in general, but enough to get their customers attention and make them curious about what might be coming.

Provide Teaser material in those cases. Even without having a teaser can it help to increase the effectiveness of a campaign if you announce it to your affiliates, because it gives them more time to plan and make preparations on their end.

Affiliates might be preparing a campaign for their Site at the same time and your campaign would be perfect to launch parallel to increase each others "bang" or may be it could be incorporated into their campaign, mentioned or referred to. This is often the case with campaigns for specific holidays (Christmas, Valentines Day, Thanksgiving, St.Patrick's Day etc.) or national events (Super Ball, Stanley Cup, Olympic Games, Mardi Gras and Spring Break etc.).

Discontinuation of long running promotions There are only a few cases where you would not know at least a few days before the fact when an ongoing promotion will be discontinued for whatever reason.

Send a notification before it expires to give your affiliates some lead time to prepare and ready exactly when you want them to be. Don't do it on the day or worse after it expired, demanding the immediate removal from the affiliate site and a complete stop of any other way of promoting it.

The earlier you can send the notification the better. Don't give the impression to your affiliates that your company decided unexpectedly to discontinue the campaign today and had your own Webmaster jump through hoops to get it of your own website that very same day, if it did not happened that way.

This is still too often done like that by many merchants and very unprofessional. I explain the case where it is appropriate a few chapters later.

Bad timing Most merchants run monthly campaigns. A lot of coupons are valid for one month only and often targeted to aid and improve the effectiveness of that month's campaign.

Sites that are specialized in promoting merchant campaigns, like coupon and other sites that target and attract bargain hunting customers have their busiest days right at the end of the month and the first days of the following month replacing expiring campaigns with the new ones. If possible, announce upcoming or to be discontinued campaigns that used to be ongoing outside this timeframe.

This will increase the chances that your campaign will get more attention and decreases the chances that the announcement of a discontinuation gets unintentionally missed. Affiliates are humans and humans make mistakes especially when they are under stress.

Unplanned discontinuation of any promotion Keep in mind that the chances are good that affiliates promote long running promotions in multiple different ways. To stop all of them might takes more than a few minutes.

Affiliates are busy too and the ones that do it right and successful are doing also resource planning as any other healthy business and are not able to halt their business operation for you, because you want them to do something immediately you knew already earlier.

Only if there is very good reason (Legal Issue, Natural Disaster, End of the World and that sort of things) is it acceptable and also understandable for your affiliate if you demand an immediate stop of a promotional campaign. If you have to demand an immediate stop, explain why.

The promotion and even the release of new action movies that involved terrorists was stopped or delayed immediately after 9/11. TV Stations changed their programming and replaced what was considered inconsiderate with more appropriate programming.

This could not be planned ahead, but the right thing to do and nobody was complaining about the extra time it took to do it or the fact that I had to be done fast. It is not acceptable and bad business practice in any other case.

Announcements via email Regardless what, when and why you announce something important and/or time critical to your affiliates via email, make sure that you state in the subject of the email your intention and content of the email and not just "Affiliate Newsletter" which is fine if you are providing general information and news to your affiliates.

It is the worst subject you can use for emails that do require immediate attention or actions to be taken by the affiliates that have a due date. Your emails are not the only emails an Affiliate receives.

Clear email subjects allow quicker, more efficient and better processing by the affiliate and reduce the chances that critical emails get overlooked.

Final words Affiliate Marketing RRule No.1: Affiliates and merchants are business partners, treat them as such.

How to Build your Opt-In List

To get an email list, some companies decide to send customers a free newsletter. Yet there are many other ways to get email addresses. Having a newsletter doesn't always make sense for your company. For instance, if you happen to sell microwaves, how much information could you send your customers, daily, on microwaves? So, well explore a few other options for increasing your email list.

You could run a contest. The objective, puzzle, game, or task should be easy and straightforward so that you don't confuse or frustrate the customer and you still get their email address in the end.

A free eBook as a great incentive to collect email addresses. People love getting free things, especially eBooks on topics that interest them. Remember your eBook doesn't have to be 100 pages long it can be five to ten pages. That length will work just fine.

A great way to collect email addresses is to survey the customer. You can find out what the customer likes and dislikes and also what they have problems with or need answers to.

You should advertise your opt-in offer in an e-zine or classified ad. It actually isn't that expensive and if you find the right place to advertise, you could quickly see dramatic results.

An email signature or electronic signature, otherwise know as a sig file, is a three to six line footer that you can add to the bottom of each email message you send out with your name, personal info, company info, website, and a free report with a link attached. You will be pleasantly surprised how many visitors you get this way. Be sure that you track where you are getting your traffic by the different links you send out.

A customer will have no problem providing you with their name and email address if they are interested in downloading an article from your web site. They will love to receive more articles from you or have access to a members only area of your site with plenty of resources.

You should offer your customers a free course or a free download to collect email addresses. They will appreciate and love to get something for free. Customers who opt-in when something free is being offered think to themselves what have I got to lose. It a great deal for both of you.

MARKETING DECISIONS BASED

We all like to think we base our decisions on hard facts, but that’s not always the case. Business leaders will talk about doing their due diligence prior to making a decision; but in reality, when it comes down to it, what really pushes us to select one thing over another is our feelings.

While instinct and intuition do play a role in business (stories abound of business people who refused to pay attention to the facts and created a success out of what should have been a disaster), 9 times out of 10, cold hard facts and reality cannot and should not be ignored.

This new mini-series of BrandReturn™ (our newsletter’s new name) will introduce the basic concepts of business and market research, share some methods of obtaining data, and prod you to begin collecting data and analyzing that data.

Market research consists of two primary categories: primary data and secondary data.

Primary data is made of information obtained through focus groups, surveys, and observation.

Secondary data is provided by another group, such as the Census Bureau, a professional association, or think tank. A problem with using secondary data sources is their information may not relate to your target market or geographic area.

Obtaining primary data yourself is time consuming and can be expensive; but how much money have you or your company wasted on advertising or activities that ended up not generating the business you thought they would?

You already have some primary data in your customers’ buying patterns. If you don’t have a system that provides you with mechanisms to breakdown data into various groups, then you need to begin investigating how to acquire one.

Here’s an example of how data review and analysis can become important:

A large hotel was experiencing an increase in revenue but not an increase in profit.

As the hotel began to study expenses, it discovered that managers were over-scheduling employees on the weekends and even paying overtime to deal with the expected increase in customers that marketing was driving in. Naturally most business would come in on the weekend and the facility would staff up on Friday afternoons and evenings. When check-in data was examined, management discovered that most visitors were checking in on Saturday morning. By making scheduling adjustments and cross-training employees, the hotel was able to use fewer employees to handle the influx of customers. More employees were given time off on Friday nights, raising employee morale which resulted in improved customer service. Soon, expenses were down, revenue was up, and most importantly, profits were up.

None of that would have happened if management didn’t take the time to look at the statistics, analyze the data, and make adjustments.

Surveys can also provide important information a business can use to improve the customer experience, the employee experience, or extend the brand through additional product offerings.

Surveys are labor intensive since they take a bit of time to create, administer, then compile and analyze the data. If spending a couple of thousand dollars can lead to tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands or more in revenue, it’s money well spent. The same can be said if that investment saves you from spending even more money to invest in something that your customers don’t want (and remember: Customers don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want.).

There are lots of ways to conduct a survey. The method used depends on what data you’re trying to obtain and what customer segment or segment of potential customers (or former customers) you’re trying to reach.

For example, if you own a bricks-and-mortar store, you can ask your customers to complete a quick comment or survey card while you package their purchases. Of course, they may not be as entirely honest as they could be since you’re standing in front of them and, assuming you read the card right after they walk away it’s not anonymous (you could have them drop it in a box for an extra level of anonymity).

You could also mail surveys to customers (with a self-addressed, stamped envelope or SASE), try phone surveys (you can just imagine how hard they are to conduct), or email surveys. All of these techniques have pros and cons and we can’t stress enough that the method you pick should be the best method to be used with the population you’re targeting. If your customers are in a certain age group who are not heavy internet users, an internet-based survey administered through email would be a mistake.

Focus groups can be a great source of information but you’ll need to consider how you recruit the participants, what characteristics (demographic and psychographic) should your participants possess or not possess, and what will you give them as an incentive to attend.

That’s right. You have to incent people to attend. Only the rarest of the rare will participate in a focus group just because it sounds like a fun thing to do. Even surveys need some level of incentive to increase participation. Including a SASE is a bare minimum. No one is going to provide the envelope and postage to complete a survey for your business.

We hope this introduction to research has motivated you to begin thinking about your decision process, the information you’re collecting, and how research could possibly benefit your organization.

In our next issue we’ll discuss how research impacts advertising and marketing decisions and how it gives you more bang for your buck.

Experian Study Focuses on U.S. Consumer Credit Card Usage

Approximately 14 percent of the US population has more than 10 credit cards, according to the latest National Score Index study by Experian Consumer Direct, the provider of online direct-to-consumer credit reports, scores, and monitoring products.

The study examines consumer credit card use on both a statewide and a national level. Experian Study Focuses on U.S. Consumer Credit Card Usage by dma.org

The states with the highest percentage of consumers with at least 10 credit cards are New Hampshire and New Jersey, where the average is approximately 20 percent.

More critical to financial management is how much consumers use the cards they carry. Nationally, one in seven consumers (14.3 percent) use 50 percent or more of their available credit. Alaska and Hawaii top this category, with about 17 percent of their residents using more than 50 percent of their available credit.

Other key findings from Experian's study include the following:

* US consumers have an average of four credit cards
* Approximately 51 percent of the US population has at least two credit cards.
* Approximately 14 percent of the US population has more than 10 credit cards.
* About 14 percent of the US population uses at least 50 percent of their available credit.
* US consumers who use at least 50 percent of their available credit carry an average of 6.6 credit cards.
* The national average credit score for those with credit card utilization of at least 50 percent is 645, compared with the overall national average of 674

"Using credit cards to purchase items now and pay them off over time is a convenient way for consumers to get the items they want or need that they may have never been able to afford if they had to pay in full at the time of purchase," said Ty Taylor, president of Experian Consumer Direct. "Although credit is convenient, consumers should keep in mind that good credit management means being able to pay on time each month and paying off debt in a reasonable amount of time. Maxing out credit cards may also have a negative effect on their credit score. "
—From the-dma.org

Win The Battle To Sell, Market, Advertise & Promote!

It doesn't matter how long you have been in business, your business can't survive without customers. Being able to gain your customers' attention is the most critical factor in your business success.

Customers only buy because of a benefit that your business provides. It is called -- WIIFM (What's in it for me?) If you make your store a more inviting place to be, people will prefer to buy from you instead of the competitors.

A. What benefits do you offer?
B. What are you doing better than your competition?
C. What are they doing better than you?

Trick is to Know the Competition

Today, there is a new tough consumer... they demand value - they love choices - they love new products - they want convenience - they want to save time - they don't want hassle - and they enjoy fun-filled experiences.

1.) Design compelling customer-winning advertising
2.) Create eye-catching direct mailing sales letter(s)
3.) Use interior and exterior point-of-sale signs
4.) Implement distinctive ways to display stock
5.) Merchandise your store to get the highest response

The bottom line is this: If you don't do an exceptional job of training employees... motivate customers to take action... or don't do the strongest job to sell them once you have their attention... you are cheating your company of profits it could potentially be earning.

Be Prepared to Make Changes
Identify Unfilled Market Niches
Display Warmth of a Smaller Store
Improve Your Level of Customer Service
Utilize the Latest Business Technology
Develop a Long Term Business Plan

In the final analysis, don't ever take customers for granted. Most people have so many demands on their time… so many situations interrupting their day, with so many things on their everyday to-do lists. That's why you must communicate with them in a timely newsworthy manner with powerful messages to collectively capture their precious time.

Conquer Your Business Fears

What are your business fears? Are you afraid of being a successful business owner? Do you think that if you become successful, you will lose your authenticity? Are you afraid you do not know how to market your business? Are you afraid of bothering your potential clients with your offers?

Many business owners I have coached had business fears. These business fears usually left them unable to market and promote their products and services. As a result, these business owners spend time being afraid, instead of spending it on marketing and finding new clients for their business. Their bottom line suffers, and sometimes they even have to close down their business because they can't get clients.

Conquer your business fears! I am listing three common fears that many business owners have, along with suggestions on how you can conquer them:

- Your Business Fear: You don't really know what marketing is and how to apply it to your business, so you can't really use it until you know all about it.

How To Conquer Your Business Fear: If you wait for everything in your business to be perfect before you start, you will never start. Instead of waiting to learn a lot about marketing, start marketing now. For example, write an article relevant to your business and submit it to article directories. This will give you a start in marketing your business.

- Your Business Fear: You will not appear very genuine to your clients if you market yourself. You are a professional and your clients should just magically find you themselves.

How To Conquer Your Business Fear: If your potential clients don't know who you are, they can't hire you. You need to get your name out there and become seen as an expert in your field to get clients.

You can become a highly visible person in your field by writing and publishing articles in your field of expertise, publishing a newsletter, and participating in online networking. Use these as opportunities to share information with your potential customers and educate them about you and your business.

- Your Business Fear: People don't need what you are offering.

How To Conquer Your Business Fear: There is a great way to make sure that people you are marketing your products and services want them. Market your products and services to members of your target market. These are the people who already want, need and can afford your products and services.

When you promote your products and services to people who want them, things happen. It becomes easy to get clients and make money. Your products and services are in demand. You become the go-to person in your field of expertise.

Use the ideas above to conquer your marketing fears. Doing this will get your more clients and help you take your business to a whole new level.

Creating a Business or Advertising Slogan

A slogan is a catchy one or two line phrase associated with a product, campaign or business. These are often developed by big-name advertising agencies as part of an advertising or branding campaign. But big-name agencies come with big price tags -- beyond the reach of many small businesses. If you are in this situation, don't despair. With some creativity and persistence, you can develop your own slogan.

(1) Decide what you want your slogan to communicate.

If you have a positioning statement and/or unique selling proposition, write them down and keep them close at hand. Your slogan should reinforce them. Ask yourself these questions.

- Who are your customers?
- What benefits do you give your customers?
- What feelings do you want to evoke in your customers?
- What action are you trying to generate from your customers?
- How are you different from your competition?

Try to get one or more of these across in your slogan.

(2) Begin brainstorming preparation.

Gather slogans from other companies and brands. Look in other categories besides your own and try to find brand and company slogans from both large and small companies.

As you find slogans, write them on index cards or individual slips of paper. You will be mixing, matching, and pairing them with unrelated items as you brainstorm your own slogan. Pay attention to the words used, how they are put together, and which of the above questions they address. By doing this, you are more likely to come up with your own unique angle.

NOTE: You are looking at others' slogans only to spark ideas, not copy them. You must come up with your own, original slogan.

To find slogans, look around. Anywhere you find advertisements, packaging, or logos you will find slogans. Look in cupboards, around desks, in magazines, on TV/radio commercials, in print advertisements, and on Web sites. For example:

Presidential Campaign Slogans

The 2008 presidential election campaigns are beginning to kick in. Some early slogans associated with presidential campaigns include:

- MoveOn: "Democracy in Action"
- ICanBePresident.com: "Women for Hillary" (Clinton)
- Rudy Giuliani: "Rudy"
- Barak Obama: "Obama '08"

Not a lot of creativity as of April 2007, but each conveys a desired action or goal.

Restaurant Slogans

Restaurant slogans tend to be a bit more creative and subtle. Often accompanied by a lively tune in commercials, these slogans are intended to get the targeted consumer up, out the door, and into the restaurant or drive-thru (sometimes in terms only the target market would find less than bizarre):

- Burger King: "Wake up with the King."
- Taco Bell : "Good to Go," "Think Outside the Bun," "Run for the Border," (Example of a slogan that flopped: In the late '80's, when I was a Taco Bell store manager, Taco Bell had a short-lived, one-word slogan: "Hello". We had to answer the restaurant telephone with "Hello, Taco Bell." Uhhhmmmm. Whatever.)
- McDonald's: "You deserve a break today."

Famous Ad Slogans

Many classic slogans also convey a critical benefit or unique feature:

- Alka Selzer: "Plop plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is.
- Rice Krispies cereal: "Snap, Crackle, Pop!"
- Johnson's Baby Shampoo: "No more tears."
- M&M's: "Melts in your mouth, not in your hands."
- Milk: "Milk. It does a body good."
- McDonald's Big Mac: "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun."

(3) Find your competitors' slogans.

Look at them and strive to be better and different.

(4) Gather together books to help you come up with different ways to phrase similar ideas.

Some of my favorites: "Word Menu," "Flop Dictionary," "The Describer's Dictionary" and "Twenty-First Century Synonym and Antonym Finder".

(5) Conduct a brainstorming session.

This works best if you can get a small group together, but can also be done solo. Set up a place with a lot of writing space - use dry erase boards, easels with big paper pads, note cards, etc.

Go through your props. Look up words or concepts in the books. Rearrange your various props so you can look at them in different ways. Write down *everything* that comes to mind and all the new ideas each phrase sparks. They do not have to make sense. At this point, you want a large number of ideas.

(6) Consolidate your list.

After brainstorming, go through all of your ideas. Pull out those few you think have the best potential. Try to reduce longer slogans to fewer words.

(7) Choose the one best slogan.

You should be left with a short list of possibilities. To pick the single best slogan, get others' opinions. If you have some funds budgeted for slogan development, work with a market research firm to test the slogans with your customers.

You can also conduct informal research. Set up a free or professional survey at SurveyMonkey.com and encourage people to take the survey through your Website. If you have direct contact with customers, ask them what they think. Give them an incentive to help you, such as a discount or small freebie.

When you are done, you will have a slogan that will help your business thrive.

The Best Way To Get Clients Online

Many times when I ask my clients what their biggest business asset is, they do not have the right answer. Some say it is their web site, the services they provide or the products that they sell. While all of these are important, your biggest asset is the list of people who are willing to hear from you on a regular basis. This list is also known as your newsletter list.

The vast majority of your web site visitors will not buy anything from you the first time they come to see your web site. But if they subscribe to your newsletter, you can keep in touch with them. As they read your newsletter, they will get to know you and they will become more likely to purchase your products and services. Your newsletter is your best long-term strategy to get clients online.

Here is how to use your newsletter to get clients online:

- Use your newsletter to promote your expertise. Send out a regular newsletter with tips and articles. You promote your reputation as an expert by sharing your knowledge.

- Use your newsletter to promote your products and services. Your newsletter subscribers will not know about your products and services unless you mention them in the newsletter. Use your newsletter to link to your web site, your products and services.

- Use your newsletter to learn from your target market. Conduct a subscriber survey from time to time. Doing this will help you keep your finger on the pulse of your target market, so that you know what kind of subjects your target market wants to know more about. Use this knowledge to create products and services for your business.

- Use your newsletter to test drive new products. It is useful to get feedback about your new products, before you make them available to the world. Offer your newsletter subscribers a new product at a discount, if they agree to share their feedback with you.

As you can see, you can get a lot of value for your business by publishing a newsletter. Use it to promote your expertise, sell your products and get feedback.

Remember, in order to get these results from your newsletter, you need to have many newsletter subscribers. The more subscribers you have, the more value you can get out of your newsletter. Make sure to spend time every single day to add more newsletter subscribers to your newsletter.

Put A Call To Action Everywhere

A call to action is telling people what they should do next. When reading something we all look for something we should do - call, read, buy, go to, sign up, listen ... We want to be told what we ought to do and if the headline or copy are compelling, we stay until the call to action appears.

It's polite and expected of you when you are doing business to tell people what to do. Just remember to be nice about it!

Look over everything before it leaves your hands and listen to the feedback your clients give you. Be sure you see a call to action at the end of each document.

Check everything that goes out with your business name on it to see that it has a call to action telling readers what you’d like them to do. It should also have your phone number, fax number, web address or email address. Tell people how to get in touch with you.

Look at each of the following. They are meant as examples for you.

* ads in newspapers and magazines and listings like Yellow Pages
* your business card
* every page of your web site
* email newsletters
* blogs
* your emails
* handouts when you give any kind of talk or course
* radio or tv - whenever you speak
* your books
* whatever you send out by email – documents you have written – word processed, spreadsheets, or pdfs
* ebooks or articles or anything you are giving away OR selling
* anything you give out like pens, mugs, magnets
* etc .........

You can think of more. Look around you for ideas. Cereal boxes, newspapers, magazines, bags from stores all have a way (if they’re good) to get in touch with the supplier. Use them yourself. It costs you nothing and makes it easy to be found gain.

Share them with me and ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT!

How To Find People Who Want Your Products And Services

Would you ever try to sell car insurance to people who don't have cars? Or how about selling meat to vegetarians? How about offering homeowners insurance to people who can't afford to buy a house?

A business owner who knows marketing knows that doing any of the above is a huge waste of time. People who do not own cars do not need car insurance. People who do not eat meat will not buy it and renters are not shopping for homeowners insurance. Offering these products to them will result in completely wasted time and no sales.

But I have seen many business owners are doing exactly that - they are spending time and money trying to sell their products and services to people who will not buy them. They do that by advertising and marketing their products and services to people who are not in their target market. And they get no results. Same will hold true for your business. If you market your products and services to people who are not in your target market, you will not get any sales.

Your target market are people who need, want and can pay for your products and services. If you want to make money, you need to offer your products and services to people in your target market. It is easy to sell car insurance to people who own cars and need car insurance. It is easy to sell meat to people who want to eat meat.And you can definitely sell homeowners insurance to people who just bought a house.

In order to sell your products and services, you need to reach people who need them and get them to your web site. So where can you find people who are looking for your products and want to purchase them? They are using the search engines and you can find them there. Over 70% of the people who buy online, use search engines to find products and services to purchase.

To get people who are using the search engines to find the products and services you are selling to your web site, use a process called search engine optimization. It is the process of modifying your web site content and meta tags to improve the search engine ranking of the page. Meta tags includes certain HTML tags (title, heading, emphasized text, keyword and description meta-tags), as well as links between pages on your same site and links to your web site from other web sites.

Once search engines know what material you offer on your web site, they can index it in their database. Once your web site is indexed in the search engine database, it will show in search engine results for keywords that are relevant to the information you have on your web site.

It is very easy to sell your products and services to people who already want to buy them. Use search engine optimization to get these people to your web site, sot that they can purchase your products and services.

Make Your Clients As Key of Your Business Development Strategy?

If they are, and they are, then the first thing which you must make is a complete analysis of your base of customer, thus you include/understand how many the capital it really cost your business. I worked with some customers who neglected their base of customer at the point which, if their base of customer were a garden, the majority of the factories and trees dead being!<

Any strategy of development of the businesses must give the great consideration to the value of your base of customer, now and in the future. The side of flick of the EC is the value which you can offer your customers.

If you can answer these questions then you obviously made the analysis and knowledge where you must focus yourselves to increase the value of your customers:

• How much inactive customers have you as percentage of your total base of customer?

• Which of your current customers represents occasions of growth?

• How much customers have the value in fall, as percentage of your total base of customer?

Does • Combien represent a constant jet of regular income?

• Which of your customers are in mode of growth, in terms of their value to your business?

• Do you Know your strategy of development of the businesses of customers?

• Where is the occasions so that you provide more value and of support to your customers, or to provide them new products and services?

The • grouped you your base of customer in lines, with line 1 being most valid?

The • which percentage of your base of customer in lines 2 and 3, and could it is potentially become a customer of line 1?

The • are your customers in value asse' with you?

• Do you Have the right customers?

• Do you have yourselves enough customers to be able to increase your business now, or you must really acquire new customers?

• What make the answers by means of these questions to you in terms of income?

It is a simple, and important exercise. To segment your own base of customer thus you have good information to then make some decisions around your strategy of development of the businesses/span>

How Do You Find the Right Sales Lead Management Service?

Are you looking to outsource your sales lead management? Choose a firm that understands the importance of properly managing, developing, identifying and distributing qualified sales leads to your direct salespeople, dealers, reps or distributors. Follow these steps to find the right partner.

1. Determine what your response management or lead management system must include ahead of time. Construct a flow chart of the process, including the steps required and the time allotted to each. Prepare a "wish list" of the features your lead generation programs will include if budget allows.

2. Put together a package of background information for each vendor being reviewed. Include literature about your company, products or services as well as samples of current inquiry response materials.

3. Share your numbers with the vendors. How many inquires per month? How many sales offices, reps, dealers or distributors are involved? How many different pieces of printed literature are required?

4. Get a written proposal. The proposal is an easy way to check the sales lead management service company's understanding of your needs. It should include background on the sales lead management service company, its qualifications, a detailed program recommendation and the related fees. Keep in mind that the quality of the proposal and its attention to detail will often serve as a reflection of the vendor's quality and its attention to detail in all aspects.

5. Tour the lead management service company's facilities. Be sure to explore beyond the conference room, and visit the production department. Listen in on phone calls. Look over the shoulders of people who enter data and fulfill information requests. Be sure you meet the people who will actually be managing your business.

6. Check the lead management service's references. Ask to see a current customer list and look for other companies in your industry or market. Call these companies, not just the ones provided on a reference list. Ask about both the quality of the company's services and the quality of the company's customer service representative who handle their account.

7. Conduct a trial program. Establish measurable objectives up-front, and then determine how long it will take to decide whether the relationship with the sales lead management service will be a good one. Consider running the trial program concurrently with your in-house operation until you are sure everything is working properly and smoothly.

Are You Applying the "So What Factor"?

Are you applying the "So What Factor" every time you talk about your products and services? If you are passionate about what you do, it is very easy to fall into the trap of telling potential clients as much as you can about the features of your products and services and ignoring the "So What Factor."

Are your potential clients really interested in listening to you talk about all the features of what you have to offer? The answer is no. What they're really interested in is WIIFM -What's In It For Me. They want to know what specific results, benefits and value they're going to get from your products and services.

So how do you make sure you always address the WIIFM when you talk about the features of what you have to offer?

It's simple: just apply the "So What Factor."

From now on, every time you mention a characteristic or feature of what you have to offer, follow it with a sentence to the effect "So what that means to you is...." By doing this you will be letting the potential client know the specific result, benefit and value they'll be getting from this feature. By doing this you are addressing the WIIFM.

The "So What Factor" links the features of what you have to offer to the WIIFM.

If you don't know what the "So What Factor" is for a feature then don't mention it to your potential client. Remember they always want to know WIIFM.

Here is a very simple example.

Let's suppose you sell elaborate telephones with lots of great features. You are very keen to let a potential client know that these phones have a memory of 100 numbers. This is a feature of the product, and by itself, means absolutely nothing.

Through your questioning (which you have, of course, done before talking about your solution), you uncover that the potential client has lots of friends and colleagues with whom they like to keep in touch. They keep all their numbers in a diary and they tell you that it is a bit of a nuisance sometimes as they can't find the diary when they want to call someone.

So when you get to the stage of talking about a phone, you could say something to this effect "This particular phone has a memory of 100 names so what that means to you is you'll be able to store the names of all your friends and colleagues, and easily call them by the push of a button. You'll be able to throw out your diary and save time."

You don't need to use the specific phrase "so what". The important thing to remember is that whenever you state a feature, immediately follow it with a phrase which effectively says "So what that means to you...." Think of the two as being locked together. Feature/So-what. Feature/So-what.

You may think the "So What Factor" is common sense. It is. Yet even though it is common sense, it's very rarely applied. Apply it and watch your sales results soar.

Brainstorming Unique Business, Service & Product Ideas

Truly unique concept development is a struggle, which explains much of the "copying" that goes on within any given industry. Our new business, product and service ideas often have existing products and services as a base, producing only incrementally different results. Stepping outside of the existing framework in order to see opportunities in a new light is the key.

What is Brainstorming?

According to Wikipedia "brainstorming is a group creativity technique that was designed to generate a large number of ideas for the solution of a problem." Brainstorming business ideas should be uncensored. No idea is dumb or impossible and each person's contribution is equally valuable. The mail clerk's ideas are as valued as the President's.

In order to step outside of the existing business or industry framework, participants must "erase" their memories and pretend they know nothing about what is (or is not) possible. Consider each idea with equal thoughtfulness, no matter how outlandish. The task at hand when brainstorming truly unique business ideas is to free-associate, generating as many ideas as you can.

Brainstorming via the Five Senses

There's nothing more boring than a sterile conference room. Yet this is where many new business idea / concept development sessions take place, in a room with four blank walls and no stimuli (far from the best atmosphere for brainstorming new ideas). Brainstorming sessions need "springboards" to get the creative juices flowing.

One technique for breaking out and generating innovative business, product, or service ideas is to get all of the external senses involved. Try filling colorful gift bags with small items of different textures, tastes, appearances, ingredients, sounds, and smells. In the brainstorming session, break into small groups of three or four people and give each group a bag. Have each group sort through its bag, imagining how the sensory aspects could be incorporated into a new product or other new idea. After about 20 minutes of digging through the bags, discussing, and writing down ideas, allow each group to present their ideas. You will find yourself with many more great ideas than you can execute.

Brainstorming via Trends

Another approach to brainstorming business ideas is to study trends. Business and general interest publications; the Internet; and trade journals can be effective brainstorming tools for several reasons:

- The general publications contain articles across several industries -- and society in general -- which is good for brainstorming new ideas that can apply to your own industry.

- Business publications often include a mix of short articles (good for brainstorming ideas based on what others outside your industry are doing) and in-depth reports (good for new product concept development based on trends).

- The Internet reflects trends on a real-time basis. Social bookmarking sites and blog directories (such as del.icio.us and Technorati), track and report the hottest topics. Wordtracker monitors online searches, reporting the top 100 daily.

- By skimming a variety of business related articles (news articles, features, human interest, and analytical pieces) you broaden your idea base, which results in more new product ideas.

No matter what your brainstorming techniques, remember two rules: 1) no censoring and 2) use your senses and current trends as springboards for new ideas. Do this and your brainstorming sessions are sure to be a success.

Make Your First Impression Your Best Impression & Creating a winning opening statement

In my line of work, I tend to hear a lot of opening statements.
Some I listen to during training or coaching sessions with clients. Others come from unsuspecting sales people who call me at work or at home to sell me something.

Sadly, the vast majority of opening statements I hear seemed designed to create more resistance than they do relationships. In sales, your opening statement is absolutely critical to your success. So why do so many otherwise good sales people get it so wrong?

A critical part of your success
A great line will open doors and land you more business. A bad one will cause those doors to shut faster than you can say, “Hi, I’m Tim, and have I got a deal for you!”

I think the reason so many sales people use such disastrous opening statements is that we often spend very little time planning and preparing what we’re going to say. Most sales experts say that we have between 4 to 30 seconds to create interest from the time the customer picks up the phone, yet many of my clients confess that they don’t even begin to think about their opening line until they’re actually dialing the phone!

More often than not, it’s the little things that make all the difference between success and failure. A few awkward or stumbling words, a mispronounced name, an inappropriate question or just plain being under-prepared or too long-winded can create a bad first impression, and lose the sale. As I discussed in past articles, something as simple as removing “How are you?” from the beginning of your opener can yield as much as a 25% increase in your cold calling success.

So how can you go about crafting a winning opening statement? The best way to improve is to first recognize what’s wrong with your existing opener, and then take the appropriate steps to correct it.

Get rid of the clunkers: pruning your sales vocabulary Let’s start with the following example. Say you finally get a decision maker on the phone (I know that’s tough these days!) and you lead off with:

“Hi, this is _______ from _______. We’re in the business of _______. Are you the person who handles that?”

UGH!

I think we can agree that this isn’t exactly a killer opening. What makes it so bad?

Just consider a little Psychology 101. People would rather not talk to sales people they don't know. I bet even you, a professional sales person, avoid talking to sales people you don’t know. This fact is as natural as it is unavoidable.

An opening statement like the one above announces your intention to try to sell something to the decision maker, triggering a defensive posture and moving them into a negative frame of mind – you know, the one that says, "Darn, it’s a sales person, how do I get them off the phone?”

Tactically, you should find out who’s the right person to talk to before you pick up the phone. Start by reviewing the corporate website, getting a referral or calling other departments (Sales, HR or the Help Desk) within the organization to determine who the decision maker is.

After all, if you call the wrong person, they’ll let you know soon enough without you having to ask. And if you are talking to the right person, avoiding the awkward clunker above means you won’t jeopardize the relationship you’re attempting to build. Remember, your job on your first call is to peak interest and get a dialogue going – NOT to sell something.

Get specific
OK, so what should you do? When the decision maker answers, go directly into something like:

“Hi Chris, this is _____­­__ from _______. Our manufacturing clients tell us that we help them _______ by _______. How are you currently _______?”
Or:
“Hi Chris, this is _______ with _______. We work with (CEOs, IT Directors, etc) to help them _______. I understand that you maybe _______ and there’s a possibility we may be able to help you _______. Does it make sense for me to ask you a few questions now to see if we should talk further?”

Of course, these statements are very generic. I suggest that you tailor or customize your opening with information you collect before the call through conversations with other people in the company or by reviewing their website or quarterly 10Q SEC reports (if their firm is publicly traded on a US stock exchange).

Touch on results they’ll have interest in. I’d also recommend scouring the local and national newspapers for stories that might include or affect your prospects, so you can use that news in your opening. By showing that you know just a little bit about them when you call, your prospects will be much more likely to engage in a meaningful conversation.

Remember: potential customers will always be much more impressed with how much you know about them than with how much you know about your product. Here are a few more specific examples of successful opening lines:

“Hi Chris, this is Colleen from ABC Staffing. We work with VP’s of HR to help them find the right talent for their organizations quickly while guaranteeing the right skill match. I understand you’re expanding your Toronto organization and there may be a possibility that we can help you with your recruiting. Does it make sense for me to ask you a few questions now to see if we should talk in more detail later?” “Hi Chris. This is Colleen with ABC fencing. Our manufacturing clients tell us that we save them money each year in lost and damaged goods by implementing secure perimeter fencing at their factory sites. How are you planning to secure the new plant you’re building in Baltimore?”

One last note: if you’re a new rep taking over a patch of existing clients in a territory, don’t call and say, “Hi this is _______. I’m the new rep. Can we meet?”

Instead, study the file, create two to three specific questions about the customer that shows you’re genuinely interested in them, and then start your call with:

“Hi, this is _______ from _______. I was reviewing your file, and I had a couple questions about _______. Is now a good time to go over these with you, or should we schedule another time in the future to talk?”

Telling customers that you’re new puts your interests first. The statement above puts their interests first, which are always going to be more important (and more interesting) to them then yours.

Give the customer a chance to ask who you are. If they care, they will ask, giving you a chance to satisfy their curiosity with an answer they requested.

Yes, it’s a subtle change. And it will make a huge difference in how many positive relationships you build – and how successful you become.

The Art Of Negotiating, The Skilled Negotiator Has The Advantage

When we realize that virtually every aspect of our business and personal life requires negotiation, the benefit of being a better, more efficient negotiator is clear.

Negotiating skills are not usually part of our formal education, though we use these skills all day, every day. These skills are at the very core of both our professional and personal lives. It doesn’t matter if we run General Motors or the corner snowball stand or our households, we all have to communicate and convince effectively.

What is negotiation, anyway? Negotiating can be explained as simply as “working side by side with other to achieve some beneficial result.” Luckily, it is a practical skill that can be learned. It is not a genetic trait we’re born with, like blue eyes or black hair. So no matter what our age or our position in life, if we develop a certain attitude about negotiating, pay attention to honing our skills, then our life will run smoother.

Some things to remember when developing a negotiating strategy:

• Act collaboratively, not competitively. It is not “me against you.” When we see the other person as a bargaining partner, we are aware that everyone must come away with a benefit. It is a big mistake to think someone is going to give you something for nothing. So try to determine what it is the other person might want, in exchange for what you want. And then present your case to show them that, if they will help you get what you need, you will help them get what they need. Make “Mutual Benefit” your mantra.

• Personalize the situation; deal as individuals, not as institutions or corporations. You are not talking to “the Tchula bank” but to Charlie Smith, the person sitting in front of you, who represents the bank. Flesh and blood Charlie Smith. Realize that you negotiate on behalf of yourself, representing the company. When you see the other person in this light, you are able to look them in the eye. This eye contact

• Increase your expectations. You usually get what you expect to get. If you don’t think you will get the promotion, you probably won’t. If you don’t think you will land the contract, you probably won’t. There is no way you will put your best effort forward if you think, in the back of your mind, you won’t succeed anyway. So you might as well act as if you expect to get whatever it is you want. You will be pleasantly surprised when you do! You see, when you truly expect to get what it is you are seeking, others see this in you.

• Know what you want. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But surprisingly, there are many times when we go in to a negotiating session saying, “Let’s see what they offer us.” Why let the other person decide what you will get? Nobody knows your business or your life as you do. Being able to state specific proposals gives you strength.

• Stay focused on the real issues. Decide what you absolutely want to come away with; what extra’s it would be nice to come away with; and what you can do without if you need to give them up to reach an agreement. Why do you need to determine these things in advance? Because in the “heat of battle” you won’t be able to focus on these issues so easily, and you could be very surprised at what you didn’t get or at what you gave away.

• Prepare. Do you homework; thoroughly research the person or company with which you’ll be dealing. Is the company an innovative one or a staid one? Is the person with whom you are negotiating known for being creative or for being more traditional? With all the information available on the Internet today, there is virtually nothing we can’t find out beforehand. Whether we are researching a corporation or a person. Just Google-ing someone is likely to bring up something we didn’t know. And of course, there is the old-fashioned way: just ask. Ask industry colleagues (non-competing ones) or acquaintances. It should not surprise you how much people like to talk about what and who and how much they know!

• Make time your ally. Try to know your counterpart’s deadline without giving away yours. Why? Because if I know your deadline to solve a problem or come to an agreement, I can stall any decision up to the point I know you have to make a decision. Most concessionary behavior and settlement action occur close to someone’s deadline; don’t let it be yours.

These are just a few of the many points necessary to knowing more about the negotiating process. Will practicing negotiation skills take time and effort? Of course. But becoming a more efficient, smarter negotiator will bring you many rewards in both your professional and personal life.

WHERE'S YOUR BUSINESS GOING ON?

Building a brand requires the same four questions necessary when planning a trip:
When do I want to go? What do I want to do? Where do I want to go? How will I get there? It’s always a great time to plan a vacation, and it’s always a great time to build your brand.

Consumers begin forming opinions of your product and organization as soon as you break into the marketplace.
If you’re not controlling your image and message, it’s being controlled by others through their perceptions of you and your product. A successful brand strategy makes sure that a compelling message is delivered correctly to your target market. The time is now to start building your brand.

A business owner who lacks a clear vision can never truly know how his business is performing.
The best brand image and strategy can only be created when the owner clarifies and communicates the vision to the team who will create the brand identity.

A solid brand strategy is like the magnetic North on a compass:
It guides you, your business decisions, and your potential customers so you’re able to find each other. It lays out the best route for the business to take in order to communicate its core message and unique promise of value to the target market.

The business must also take its current reality into consideration.
How are you positioned in the marketplace? Do you know what differentiates you from your competitors? Are you positioned to take the most direct route possible to achieve the success you want?

So, when do you want to go on your branding trip?
The sooner you establish your brand, the better.

What exactly are you looking to do?
Your best bet is to create a brand that will differentiate you from the competition and help you reach the next level of growth.

Where do you want to go?
What this means is how much of your potential do you want to tap in to? Strategic branding can help you achieve the goals that have been set for your company.

Finally, how will you get there?
By partnering with professionals who understand the benefits of branding and marketing.

Open Your Introduction With The Firecracker Moment

The number one requirement, whether you are a business owner or an employee, is to be able to say what you do, and say it with influencing results. Through testing, I have seen, experienced, and received feedback that an elevator speech no longer works. My test results show that elevator speeches are too slow and too boring. People know what’s coming and have mindfully tuned out it out before the first sentence. Elevator speeches don't stop the listener in their moment, which is exactly what you need to do. An introduction that starts with a firecracker impact does stop them in their moment.

Pitching what you do needs energy -- energy in your voice and body language. The same energy you have if you're pitching your screenplay to an agent or getting a large crowd’s attention. Elevator speeches have become over processed and passive. People only notice if you give a poor one and that is because they measured it against their own. A good introduction, without a firecracker beginning, doesn't stop them in their moment.

You want them to remember you and your answer for a long time. Not just 10 minutes, the next day when they call you to pitch you, but next week, next month, when something happens and their pain appear. Better yet, when they are talking to someone else and see the pain-solution results. They see you as the answer. A firecracker stays with people for quite some time. Where were you the last time you saw fireworks? Once triggered, I'm sure you remember the day, the time, and whom you were with quite quickly.

You will want to create a memorable firecracker introduction that you can use everywhere -- in any introduction, any situation, as the key point of every presentation, voice- mail message, e-mail signatures, slogan on a business card or even as a headliner on your website home page.

Let’s learn this process together by beginning with a few examples I created. These examples will also give you hints on how you can open your pitches with a firecracker moment. Pitches that change people’s moments – ignite a firecracker under their assets.

Let’s assume you are at a networking event and someone asks, “What do you do?” You can open in one of several ways depending on the function and what you thought would intrigue people attending this event. The introduction must always lead to getting them to act on only one call to action. If your call to action is to sell space in an upcoming workshop, you don't promote your consulting services. Multiple action calls will dilute your message. Even worse, they confuse your listener.

Consider crafting several, still staying within the single call to action, by changing the wording ever so slightly so that it doesn't sound memorized just in case others are close enough to over hear you. This also works if you are testing to find the best language.

Always make the first sentence a declarative statement: "I perform miracles. Not the religious type, of course, the business type. Entrepreneurs, like [current or past client] and [another current or past client], hire me to make their marketing more attractive and pull in clients. I help them become a human magnet, drawing new businesses to them like bees make honey."

It is important for the very first sentence be short and declarative. Declarative doesn't ask, it asserts. Now stop for a few minutes and play with some ideas of your own. Be bold when playing; write with the energy of a firecracker.

A second method would be to open with a declarative question. Actually there isn't any such thing as a declarative question in grammar, so bare with me as I stretch a declarative statement. A declarative question is when you ask them a question but not for them to answer but with a declarative prowess. "Have you ever seen a speaker so dynamic and engaging that you forget where you are? Someone who teaches with inspiration, hypnotizes their audience, empowers people to act, all the while filling the atmosphere in the room with love. Then you haven't experienced me."

The first two sentences will determine whether they are listening. A firecracker intro guarantees that you will snap them out of their moment. If you find that these openers are too bold, you have my permission to continue to let people be in their own moment and keep trying to get a regular elevator speech to work.