Ethics Selling With Integrity Marketing campaigns, sales quotas, and sales awards are soon forgotten. Yet, your reputation seems everlasting---it is the essence of what others remember about you. How will you be remembered? Mark Twain said, “If you tell the truth you won’t have to remember anything”. This adage makes sense to me.
Strategy Why Franchises Go Bust Franchises fail at an alarming rate. Yet, your likelihood of start up success increases when you buy a franchise, but franchise failure rates are higher than you'd think. Research on franchising in the US by Timothy Bates, a Wayne State University Economist, suggests that a franchise is not
Sales Management Selling is More Checkers Than Chess The business trade press has published volumes about how selling requires intense strategy and calculated thinking. I think this is mostly hogwash. Stop trying to out-think your customers. Instead, try to understand the customers’ wants and needs---then act accordingly. Selling is a lot more like checkers than chess. Being understood
Strategy Boomer Cemeteries Full Months ago I wrote an article called “The New Millennium Marketing Mega Trends”. It described how the retirement of the “Baby Boomers” (people born in the US from 1946-1964) will change our landscape and will create new opportunities for marketers. Little did I know that this trend would impact the
Strategy Marketing Strategy So, what is marketing strategy? Marketing strategy is all about analyzing business opportunities and attempts to answer the following basic questions for a business: what might we do, what do we do best, and what must we do? Thus, marketing strategy is the commitment and the plan for what you
Branding Help Me Name My Next Book Book titles play a huge role in a book’s success. I need your help in naming my next book which will be a follow up to “First, Best, or Different: What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know About Niche Marketing”. The new book will continue the exploration about how to
Sales Management Selling on the Phone Selling on the phone can be drudgery, but this is how the money is made in sales. It all starts with a phone call. Whether you are a full-time telemarketer or CEO selling the company’s vision, the telephone is the most potent tool in the sales tool bag. Here
Blogging Why Blog? Why do I Blog? I get asked this question a lot. Yes, it takes a lot of time and brain cells, both of which I have a very limited supply. To blog regularly requires tons of research, fact checking, writing, and editing. It is hard work. I don’t blog
Email Marketing Profile of a Spammer Ever wondered who creates the spam that you get in your e-mail inbox? It turns out that spammers are “very special” people and they might just be your nerdy neighbor next door. SpamBlockers created the following profile which describes the typical spammer: * Predominantly male * 16 - 35 years old * Single
Sales Management Why Customers Buy “Different isn’t always better, but better is always different.” * Marshall Thurber, entrepreneur I like this quote because it sums up my thinking about how customers will buy an offering because of its differences and not because it is similar to another offering. This is true even if the offering
Email Marketing Writing Great E-mail Marketing Copy Writing great e-mail marketing copy is hard work. You can always outsource it to a professional copywriter, but you will discover that the good ones are already booked and that they are very expensive. If your budget dictates doing this writing in-house, here are a few ideas, in no particular
Email Marketing E-mail Marketing and Children For many e-mail and web marketers the youth market represents a major financial opportunity. Yet, the legal risks are high. The website “Xanga” was recently fined $1 Million for COPPA violations, for repeatedly allowing children under 13 to sign up for the service without getting their parent's consent.
Public Relations Public Relations Primer Creating publicity with public relations is a lot of hard work but studies show that PR is 8-10 times more believable than advertising. Getting your name in the newspaper, in the trade press, on the internet, on the radio, or on television helps build credibility and helps build your brand.
Market Research Small Company Competitive Intelligence Tactics You own a small business and don’t have a lot of money for market research firms or consultants. What can you do to better understand your competition? Here are a few ideas: • Visit your direct competitor's stores and talk to the sales staff; it is amazing what
Business Planning The Executive Summary Sells the Business Plan The "executive summary" is the first part of the business plan that gets read and may be the only part of the plan that actually gets read. Its job is to get the plan funded whether by an investor or a banker. Many plans are rejected based on
Email Marketing When Opt-in E-mail Becomes SPAM E-mail marketers figure that once a list member has opted-in that this means that their readers will read and value their e-mail marketing letters. Well, this is not always the case. According to blogger Stefan Eyram, "BACN” is a marketing e-mail that many readers agreed to receive, but is
Email Marketing Personalize Your E-mail Marketing Letters A highly effective marketing technique used by successful e-mail marketers is to personalize the e-mail letter. This personalization can be accomplished in many ways. One way to personalize an e-mail letter is to use the recipient's organization logo or web site. The purpose of a personalized image is
Segmentation Is Niche Marketing Like Guerrilla Warfare? Some people will tell you that niche marketing can be like jungle warfare and that you must conduct battle like a “guerrilla soldier.” You may have heard the term “guerrilla marketing” used by others. Admittedly, this is a powerful image but I believe that this paramilitary characterization puts the focus
Branding Trust and Selling Would you buy something from someone whom you don’t trust? Most people won’t. Studies have shown that lack of trust may disable a sale more quickly than any other factor. So, what is trust? I define it as the feeling you get from someone that what they say
Public Speaking Conquering the Fear of Rejection The single greatest cause of sales “failure” is the fear of rejection--- that creeping feeling that customers will tell you “no”. It can be so paralyzing that rookie and veteran sales people will go to great lengths to avoid that word. This fear disables you from cold calling, closing, and
Sales Management It Pays To Be Optimistic Western culture is overwhelmingly pessimistic. Just turn on CNN or the local news and you will be bombarded with bad news---home foreclosures, inflation fears, Iraq, crime, and much more. Most advertising is negative---have you seen the political campaign ads? Studies have shown that 7 out of 10 people are pessimistic
Pricing Discounts Cut Deep To discount or not to discount---that is the question that many sales professionals must answer. At first view, it seems that discounting prices should stimulate new sales and be a good thing. But that is not always the case. The best advice may to be to hesitate and think first.
Email Marketing Spam, Spam, Spam Thanks to Monty Python, the U.K. based comedy troupe from the seventies, “spam” became the symbol for mediocrity. Later spam became the symbol for unwanted e-mail from unknown senders. Spam is actually the trademark name for the Hormel Corporation canned meat product. SPAM was used by the U.S.
Branding Great Brands Your brand is your promise of value to your customers. Great brands are unique, consistent, and authentic. Your brand’s uniqueness answers the question, “How is your offering different or better?” To be considered better or different than your competition your offering must have at least one feature or benefit
Business Planning Business Concept A “business concept” is the first step in the process of starting a new venture. It typically describes a vision of what might be. It generally precedes the business plan and it begs feedback on the merit of the idea. A business concept speaks about the customer, the product or
