Are entrepreneurs born or made?
By Ian Mount
When Bill Gates's children become adults, they'll probably launch their own businesses.
And not just because of their father's example. Entrepreneurial tendencies -- including the ability to recognize business opportunities -- are heavily influenced by genetic factors, according to a study co-directed by Scott Shane, a professor of entrepreneurial studies at Case Western Reserve University.
Shane and his fellow researchers compared the entrepreneurial activity of 870 pairs of identical twins -- who share 100% of their genes -- and 857 pairs of same-sex fraternal twins -- who share 50% -- to see how much of entrepreneurial behavior is genetic and how much is environmental.
The mathematics behind quantitative genetic modeling are rather complicated, but the upshot was fairly straightforward: Entrepreneurs, the researchers concluded, are about 40% born and 60% made. Ten to 15 years from now, genetically advantaged entrepreneurs might be identified through DNA testing or psychological surveys, Shane says.
Some academics go further: University of Cambridge clinical neuropsychology professor Barbara Sahakian, lead author of a recent study on entrepreneurial risk taking published in Nature, says that drugs used to manipulate dopamine levels might be employed to enhance entrepreneurship.
"Nature" theories like these don't sit well with professionals in the booming "nurture" field of entrepreneurship education. (The number of undergraduate majors, minors and certificates offered in entrepreneurship rose from 104 in 1975 to more than 500 in 2006, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City, Mo., think tank.)
For Heidi Neck, a professor of entrepreneurial studies at Babson College, nature studies hinder the democratization of entrepreneurship.
"If entrepreneurship is the path to economic development, to the American dream and out of recession, I think it's dangerous to say it's hereditary," Neck says.
Others are even more adamant in their distaste.
"Even if you were able to identify specific genes, then what would you do -- inject them into people who lack them?" asks Donald F. Kuratko, executive director of the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Indiana University. The very idea, Kuratko says, is reminiscent of the Nazis' World War II eugenics program.
There is more than academic turf at stake. Startups are responsible for more than a third of all new jobs created in the U.S., and firms less than five years old accounted for all net job growth between 1980 and 2005, according to the Kauffman Foundation.
For Bo Fishback, vice president of entrepreneurship at the foundation, entrepreneur gene studies are largely curiosities. What's most important for Fishback is opening the possibility of entrepreneurship to more people. Shane himself suggests that psychological surveys based on his findings could be used to identify potential entrepreneurs at a young age so they could be exposed to opportunity early, helping, for example, to turn a future entrepreneurial gang leader into a budding business founder.
Exposure seems to have an effect: A recent study at Munich's Ludwig Maximilians University found that a compulsory entrepreneurship course led about 18% of students who hadn't planned to launch a company to reconsider. The class also vastly increased the students' confidence that they knew what was necessary to start a business.
This confidence seems warranted in light of a 2006 study led by Yale University economics professor Dean Karlan, which focused on a banking program for female microentrepreneurs in a Peruvian village and determined that the women who took business-training classes had 16% higher sales than those who didn't.
Educators are not surprised by such findings. "I do believe that you can teach entrepreneurship skills," says Randy Komisar, a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, who teaches at Stanford University. Classes, he observes, give students basic tools and reinforce the desire to take risks and question the status quo.
But he doesn't totally dismiss nature's role. "For someone without aptitude, I don't think those things can be taught," he says. "I can't make a librarian into a Broadway performer."
The debate will probably heat up soon. A book by Shane and his colleagues, Born Entrepreneurs, Born Leaders: How Your Genes Affect Your Work Life, is due from Oxford University Press in March 2010.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Change Your Definition of Marketing
Change Your Definition of Marketing
By Dan Kennedy
In my 35 years working with business owners, entrepreneurs and big corporate clients on marketing, I've seen many different definitions of marketing govern peoples approaches to it, and unfortunately, most versions are narrow, limiting and--well--wrong. Marketing shouldn't just be a cog in the wheel or a link in the chain of moving prospects to buyers or products to market.
Of late, the entire U.S. economy has been weighed down by a massive over-supply of look-alike, do-alike, painfully ordinary businesses doing ordinary things in ordinary ways. About one-third are unnecessary duplicates.This column's space prohibits full discussion of everything marketing is and isn't, should and shouldn't be. But one of the best functions of marketing has always been business reinvention, and there's never been a better or more necessary time for that.
In No B.S. Ruthless Management of People and Profits, I tell the story of a Disney executive describing "the million dollar piece of gum"--how gum left on the ground might cost the company a million dollars. Walt originally included park cleanliness as a marketing function, not a cost of operations. He defined the core of good marketing as doing what you do so well and so uniquely that people can't resist telling others about you. Disneyreinvented the traditional amusement park. Initial reinventions included: single entry and exit rather than open design--forcing customers to exit through the main shopping area and all the souvenir stands, an innovation now replicated in the exit paths from individual rides and attractions within the parks; price per day vs. individual tickets for rides; and the aforementioned cleanliness.
Similarly, Howard Schultz reinvented the coffee shop as "the third place"--Starbucks--and is now trying to reinvent for the developing New Economy and "un-invent" some sins committed in his absence.
Aradical approach to innovation and marketing isn't restricted to big corporations--there are plenty of small businesses ahead of the curve. Let me tell you about a few of our Glazer-Kennedy Insider's Circle members who have reinvented the concept of fractional ownership.
Diana Coutu ofDiana's Gourmet Pizzeriain Winnipeg doubled her business' sales and size last year selling pizzas priced from $22 to $38, thanks to innovations not at all common to pizza places, including levels of membership with fees automatically charged to customers' credit cards every month (stabilizing income and locking in use in advance, thus protecting customers from competitors' seductions); multiple ways to take home the products--cooked and ready to eat, frozen and ready to heat, "from scratch" baking kits (for family fun nights), raw dough--and with comprehensive direct-to-customers marketing built around a newsletter and website.
Nigel Worralreinvented the business of renting out homes to Florida vacationers with different clubs, bundled excursion and adventure activities, and extraordinary marketing with an emphasis on the experience, not 'X' number of bedrooms plus a pool for 'Y' dollars a day, marketing--and his business is booming even as other Florida travel destinations cry about the recession.
Chris Hurn, CEO ofKennedy's All-American Barber Club, reinvented by combining a classic men's barber shop that offers straight razor shaves with a men's club atmosphere and different programs of membership--as opposed to cafeteria-style pricing.
In all these cases, marketing is not being used as a means of getting a customer or making a sale. Instead, it's in the context of dynamically changing the business itself and delivering an entirely different customer experience. With this comprehensive approach, the businesses thrive.
The hierarchy of income:
• Bottom is commodities.
• Next--products and services discussed in terms of features and benefits, provided by vendors and salespeople.
• Next--solutions to problems and fulfillment of unmet desires, provided by experts.
• At the top, exceptional experiences provided by experts in "categories of one."
Begin here: Question and be willing to throw out any and every industry norm, tradition, current belief, idea and practice now defining your business, as you advertise, market and operate it and as customers perceive it. Then search for opportunities to make your business something entirely different and more meaningful to the customer than just a provider of goods and services. Very, very, very few business owners are willing to engage in such radicalism. We have a term for them: multimillionaires.
Widely celebrated as "the millionaire maker," Dan Kennedy has a long record of taking entrepreneurs to 7-figure incomes. A serial entrepreneur directly influencing over 1 million business owners as a business coach, he's the author of the popular No B.S. series, including the forthcoming No B.S. Sales Success for The New Economy, accessible for free preview atwww.NoBSBooks.com.More information about Dan can be found atFreeGiftFrom.com/entrepreneurpress.
By Dan Kennedy
In my 35 years working with business owners, entrepreneurs and big corporate clients on marketing, I've seen many different definitions of marketing govern peoples approaches to it, and unfortunately, most versions are narrow, limiting and--well--wrong. Marketing shouldn't just be a cog in the wheel or a link in the chain of moving prospects to buyers or products to market.
Of late, the entire U.S. economy has been weighed down by a massive over-supply of look-alike, do-alike, painfully ordinary businesses doing ordinary things in ordinary ways. About one-third are unnecessary duplicates.This column's space prohibits full discussion of everything marketing is and isn't, should and shouldn't be. But one of the best functions of marketing has always been business reinvention, and there's never been a better or more necessary time for that.
In No B.S. Ruthless Management of People and Profits, I tell the story of a Disney executive describing "the million dollar piece of gum"--how gum left on the ground might cost the company a million dollars. Walt originally included park cleanliness as a marketing function, not a cost of operations. He defined the core of good marketing as doing what you do so well and so uniquely that people can't resist telling others about you. Disneyreinvented the traditional amusement park. Initial reinventions included: single entry and exit rather than open design--forcing customers to exit through the main shopping area and all the souvenir stands, an innovation now replicated in the exit paths from individual rides and attractions within the parks; price per day vs. individual tickets for rides; and the aforementioned cleanliness.
Similarly, Howard Schultz reinvented the coffee shop as "the third place"--Starbucks--and is now trying to reinvent for the developing New Economy and "un-invent" some sins committed in his absence.
Aradical approach to innovation and marketing isn't restricted to big corporations--there are plenty of small businesses ahead of the curve. Let me tell you about a few of our Glazer-Kennedy Insider's Circle members who have reinvented the concept of fractional ownership.
Diana Coutu ofDiana's Gourmet Pizzeriain Winnipeg doubled her business' sales and size last year selling pizzas priced from $22 to $38, thanks to innovations not at all common to pizza places, including levels of membership with fees automatically charged to customers' credit cards every month (stabilizing income and locking in use in advance, thus protecting customers from competitors' seductions); multiple ways to take home the products--cooked and ready to eat, frozen and ready to heat, "from scratch" baking kits (for family fun nights), raw dough--and with comprehensive direct-to-customers marketing built around a newsletter and website.
Nigel Worralreinvented the business of renting out homes to Florida vacationers with different clubs, bundled excursion and adventure activities, and extraordinary marketing with an emphasis on the experience, not 'X' number of bedrooms plus a pool for 'Y' dollars a day, marketing--and his business is booming even as other Florida travel destinations cry about the recession.
Chris Hurn, CEO ofKennedy's All-American Barber Club, reinvented by combining a classic men's barber shop that offers straight razor shaves with a men's club atmosphere and different programs of membership--as opposed to cafeteria-style pricing.
In all these cases, marketing is not being used as a means of getting a customer or making a sale. Instead, it's in the context of dynamically changing the business itself and delivering an entirely different customer experience. With this comprehensive approach, the businesses thrive.
The hierarchy of income:
• Bottom is commodities.
• Next--products and services discussed in terms of features and benefits, provided by vendors and salespeople.
• Next--solutions to problems and fulfillment of unmet desires, provided by experts.
• At the top, exceptional experiences provided by experts in "categories of one."
Begin here: Question and be willing to throw out any and every industry norm, tradition, current belief, idea and practice now defining your business, as you advertise, market and operate it and as customers perceive it. Then search for opportunities to make your business something entirely different and more meaningful to the customer than just a provider of goods and services. Very, very, very few business owners are willing to engage in such radicalism. We have a term for them: multimillionaires.
Widely celebrated as "the millionaire maker," Dan Kennedy has a long record of taking entrepreneurs to 7-figure incomes. A serial entrepreneur directly influencing over 1 million business owners as a business coach, he's the author of the popular No B.S. series, including the forthcoming No B.S. Sales Success for The New Economy, accessible for free preview atwww.NoBSBooks.com.More information about Dan can be found atFreeGiftFrom.com/entrepreneurpress.
How to profit from customer complain
How to profit from customer complaint
By Marie Moody
Obstinacy can push an entrepreneur to persevere when any sane person would quit. But obstinacy can also kill your business if it keeps you in denial.
Because I am obstinate, I pursued my dream of creating a premium pet-food company that sells what it claims to sell and not some unidentifiable substance in a dressed-up bag. Stella & Chewy's ingredients include organic fruits and vegetables and meats that are free of antibiotics and hormones.
Originally we packaged our foods in transparent bags. In fact, transparency became our guiding philosophy. Today we offer open plant tours, publish our meat sources and test every batch of food for salmonella and E. coli using codes that can match each bag to its lab result online.
To launch the company in 2003, I pounded the pavement, visiting every pet-food store in Manhattan -- where I lived then -- and some outside the city. By 2006 Stella & Chewy's was sold in 250 stores, mostly in New York City. In 2007 I moved the company to Muskego, Wis., where I opened a manufacturing plant. That year our revenues were almost $500,000.
But getting my product into stores was just the beginning: I then had to persuade pet owners to buy it. We were competing against much bigger pet-food companies whose monthly marketing budgets dwarfed our annual sales. So we invested in brochures and a Webs ite and even stood on sidewalks distributing samples. Eventually we developed a loyal following.
With more customers came more feedback -- much of which I dismissed. Your dog doesn't eat lamb? He's allergic to blueberries? You hate the name Stella & Chewy's? You're concerned about where the cows sleep? We responded diplomatically to these concerns. Still, my gut told me that I knew what was best for my company.
I was also fielding complaints about ice crystals on the food. Ice crystals form when the air temperature changes. Practically every frozen food item develops ice crystals by the time it hits the retail store because of slight temperature changes during transport. For this reason, most frozen foods are packaged in opaque bags or boxes. Studies have proved that ice crystals have little, if any, effect on either the quality or the taste of the food. Basically, there's nothing wrong with a little ice.
So I ignored the complaints. After all, I told myself, we were better than competitors that wouldn't even reveal their products. We weren't hiding anything.
In 2007, the popularity of frozen pet food soared after some of the bigger American pet-food manufacturers issued recalls. Some of their products had been contaminated by melamine, a chemical found in an ingredient many of those companies imported from China. Thousands of dogs and cats died from the tainted food, so consumers sought smaller pet-food vendors that they hoped would have better control over their ingredients. Suddenly we had more competition.
Our sales kept growing, but not as fast as those of our rivals. Retailers told me that consumers who were new to the frozen pet-food category -- crucial customers for sales growth -- were choosing products packaged in opaque bags. Hearing this over the phone from a store employee or from the occasional customer was one thing.
However, when I visited the stores and forced myself to consider my product objectively, I had to agree: The ice crystals undercut the look I wanted. The food didn't appear fresh; it looked as if a blizzard had hit the inside of the bag.
We switched to opaque bags and overhauled our in-plant freezers so that the food would freeze faster, resulting in smaller ice crystals. Customers responded: In 2009 Stella & Chewy's was sold in 2,500 stores across the country. Annual revenues should exceed $5 million this year.
Today we can afford to use consumer focus groups. It's tough to sit behind a one-way mirror and listen to people criticize the brand. "Is this a treat or a meal? Why no pictures of cats on the bag? Why does Stella [one of my dogs] look like a Cyclops on the logo?"
But now I take a deep breath and remember that the critics might just be right.
By Marie Moody
Obstinacy can push an entrepreneur to persevere when any sane person would quit. But obstinacy can also kill your business if it keeps you in denial.
Because I am obstinate, I pursued my dream of creating a premium pet-food company that sells what it claims to sell and not some unidentifiable substance in a dressed-up bag. Stella & Chewy's ingredients include organic fruits and vegetables and meats that are free of antibiotics and hormones.
Originally we packaged our foods in transparent bags. In fact, transparency became our guiding philosophy. Today we offer open plant tours, publish our meat sources and test every batch of food for salmonella and E. coli using codes that can match each bag to its lab result online.
To launch the company in 2003, I pounded the pavement, visiting every pet-food store in Manhattan -- where I lived then -- and some outside the city. By 2006 Stella & Chewy's was sold in 250 stores, mostly in New York City. In 2007 I moved the company to Muskego, Wis., where I opened a manufacturing plant. That year our revenues were almost $500,000.
But getting my product into stores was just the beginning: I then had to persuade pet owners to buy it. We were competing against much bigger pet-food companies whose monthly marketing budgets dwarfed our annual sales. So we invested in brochures and a Webs ite and even stood on sidewalks distributing samples. Eventually we developed a loyal following.
With more customers came more feedback -- much of which I dismissed. Your dog doesn't eat lamb? He's allergic to blueberries? You hate the name Stella & Chewy's? You're concerned about where the cows sleep? We responded diplomatically to these concerns. Still, my gut told me that I knew what was best for my company.
I was also fielding complaints about ice crystals on the food. Ice crystals form when the air temperature changes. Practically every frozen food item develops ice crystals by the time it hits the retail store because of slight temperature changes during transport. For this reason, most frozen foods are packaged in opaque bags or boxes. Studies have proved that ice crystals have little, if any, effect on either the quality or the taste of the food. Basically, there's nothing wrong with a little ice.
So I ignored the complaints. After all, I told myself, we were better than competitors that wouldn't even reveal their products. We weren't hiding anything.
In 2007, the popularity of frozen pet food soared after some of the bigger American pet-food manufacturers issued recalls. Some of their products had been contaminated by melamine, a chemical found in an ingredient many of those companies imported from China. Thousands of dogs and cats died from the tainted food, so consumers sought smaller pet-food vendors that they hoped would have better control over their ingredients. Suddenly we had more competition.
Our sales kept growing, but not as fast as those of our rivals. Retailers told me that consumers who were new to the frozen pet-food category -- crucial customers for sales growth -- were choosing products packaged in opaque bags. Hearing this over the phone from a store employee or from the occasional customer was one thing.
However, when I visited the stores and forced myself to consider my product objectively, I had to agree: The ice crystals undercut the look I wanted. The food didn't appear fresh; it looked as if a blizzard had hit the inside of the bag.
We switched to opaque bags and overhauled our in-plant freezers so that the food would freeze faster, resulting in smaller ice crystals. Customers responded: In 2009 Stella & Chewy's was sold in 2,500 stores across the country. Annual revenues should exceed $5 million this year.
Today we can afford to use consumer focus groups. It's tough to sit behind a one-way mirror and listen to people criticize the brand. "Is this a treat or a meal? Why no pictures of cats on the bag? Why does Stella [one of my dogs] look like a Cyclops on the logo?"
But now I take a deep breath and remember that the critics might just be right.
The Law of Reciprocity
The Law of Reciprocity
By Brian Tracy
People have a deep subconscious need to reciprocate for anything that is done to or for them. The Law of Reciprocity is one of the most powerful of all determinants of human behavior. This is because nobody likes to feel that he or she is obligated to someone else. When someone does something nice for us, we want to repay that person, to reciprocate. We want to be even. Because of this, we seek an opportunity to do something nice in return. This law is the basis of the law of contract, as well as the glue that hold most human relationships together.
Concessions
The first party to make a concession is the party who wants the deal the most. You must therefore avoid being the first one to make a concession, even a small concession. Instead, be friendly and interested, but remain silent. The first person to make a concession will usually be the person who makes additional concessions, even without reciprocal concessions. Most purchasers and sellers are aware of this. They recognize that early concessions are a sign of eagerness and are prepared to take advantage of it. Be careful.
Equal or Greater
Every concession you make in a negotiation should be matched by an equal or greater concession from the other party. If the other party asks for a concession, you may give it, but never without asking for something else in return. If you don't request a reciprocal concession, the concession that you give will be considered to have no value and will not help as the negotiation proceeds. If a person asks for a better price, suggest that it might be possible but you will have to either decrease the quantity or lengthen the delivery dates. Even if the concession is of no cost or value to you, you must make it appear valuable and important to the other party or it will not help you in the negotiation.
Small Concessions lead to Large Concessions
Small concessions on small issues enable you to ask for large concessions on large issues. One of the very best negotiating strategies is to be willing to give something in order to get something. When you make every effort to appear reasonable by conceding on issues that are unimportant to you, you put yourself in an excellent position to request an equal or greater concession later.
Use Reciprocity to your Advantage
Use the reciprocity principle to your advantage. Before negotiating make a list of the things the other party might want and decide upon what concessions you are willing to give to get what you want. This preparation strengthens your negotiating ability considerably.
Action Exercise
Prepare your best price or offer before you begin. Then, think through your first "fallback" position and how far you are willing to go to make a deal. Prepare your final fallback position as well, along with the maximum you are willing to concede. This exercise of thinking through these issues in advance will make you a much better negotiator.
By Brian Tracy
People have a deep subconscious need to reciprocate for anything that is done to or for them. The Law of Reciprocity is one of the most powerful of all determinants of human behavior. This is because nobody likes to feel that he or she is obligated to someone else. When someone does something nice for us, we want to repay that person, to reciprocate. We want to be even. Because of this, we seek an opportunity to do something nice in return. This law is the basis of the law of contract, as well as the glue that hold most human relationships together.
Concessions
The first party to make a concession is the party who wants the deal the most. You must therefore avoid being the first one to make a concession, even a small concession. Instead, be friendly and interested, but remain silent. The first person to make a concession will usually be the person who makes additional concessions, even without reciprocal concessions. Most purchasers and sellers are aware of this. They recognize that early concessions are a sign of eagerness and are prepared to take advantage of it. Be careful.
Equal or Greater
Every concession you make in a negotiation should be matched by an equal or greater concession from the other party. If the other party asks for a concession, you may give it, but never without asking for something else in return. If you don't request a reciprocal concession, the concession that you give will be considered to have no value and will not help as the negotiation proceeds. If a person asks for a better price, suggest that it might be possible but you will have to either decrease the quantity or lengthen the delivery dates. Even if the concession is of no cost or value to you, you must make it appear valuable and important to the other party or it will not help you in the negotiation.
Small Concessions lead to Large Concessions
Small concessions on small issues enable you to ask for large concessions on large issues. One of the very best negotiating strategies is to be willing to give something in order to get something. When you make every effort to appear reasonable by conceding on issues that are unimportant to you, you put yourself in an excellent position to request an equal or greater concession later.
Use Reciprocity to your Advantage
Use the reciprocity principle to your advantage. Before negotiating make a list of the things the other party might want and decide upon what concessions you are willing to give to get what you want. This preparation strengthens your negotiating ability considerably.
Action Exercise
Prepare your best price or offer before you begin. Then, think through your first "fallback" position and how far you are willing to go to make a deal. Prepare your final fallback position as well, along with the maximum you are willing to concede. This exercise of thinking through these issues in advance will make you a much better negotiator.
The Heart of the Sale
The Heart of the Sale
By Brian Tracy
What is selling? In its simplest terms, selling is the process of persuading a person that your product or service is of greater value to him than the price you are asking for it. Our market society is based on the principles of freedom of choice and mutual benefit. Each party enters into a transaction when he feels that he will be better off as a result of the transaction than he would be without it.
Convince the Customer
For the customer to buy your particular product or service, he or she must be convinced, not only that is it the best choice of product or service available, but also that there is no better way for him to spend the equivalent sum of money that it costs. Your job as a salesperson is to convince the customer that these conditions exist and then to elicit a commitment from him to take action on your offer.
The Critical Factor: Risk
The critical factor in selling today is risk. Because of the continuous change, rapid obsolescence, and an uncertain economy, the risk of buying the wrong product or service has become greater than ever before. There are four main factors that contribute to the perception of risk in the mind and hear of the customer.
Size of the Sale
The first factor that contributes to risk is the size of the sale. The larger the scale, the more money involved, the greater the risk. If a person is buying a package of Lifesavers, the risk of satisfaction or dissatisfaction is insignificant. But if a person is buying a computer system for their company, the risk factor is magnified by hundreds of thousands of times. Whenever you are selling a product that has a high price on it, you must be aware that risk enters into the buyer's calculations immediately.
People Affected by the Decision
The second factor contributing to the perception of risk is the number of people who will be affected by the buying decision. Almost every complex buying decision involves several people. There are people who must use the product or service. There are people who must pay for the product or service. There are people who are dependent of the results expected from the product or service. If a person is extremely sensitive to the opinions of others, this factor alone can cause him or her to put off a buying decision.
Length of Life of the Product
The third factor contributing to the perception of risk is the length of life of the product. A product or service that, once installed, is meant to last for several years, generates the feeling of risk. The customer panics and thinks, "What if it doesn't work and I'm stuck with it."
Unfamiliarity
The fourth major risk factor is the customer's unfamiliarity with you, your company, and your product or service. A first-time buyer, one who has not bought the product or service before, or who has not bought it from you, is often nervous and requires a lot of hand-holding. Anything new or different makes the average customer tense and uneasy. This is why a new product or service, or a new business relationship with your company, has to be presented as a natural extension of what the customer is already doing.
Action Exercise
Identify the risks that a customer might find with your product or service. Once you had clearly defined those risks it will be easier to find solutions to them to ease nervous customers.
By Brian Tracy
What is selling? In its simplest terms, selling is the process of persuading a person that your product or service is of greater value to him than the price you are asking for it. Our market society is based on the principles of freedom of choice and mutual benefit. Each party enters into a transaction when he feels that he will be better off as a result of the transaction than he would be without it.
Convince the Customer
For the customer to buy your particular product or service, he or she must be convinced, not only that is it the best choice of product or service available, but also that there is no better way for him to spend the equivalent sum of money that it costs. Your job as a salesperson is to convince the customer that these conditions exist and then to elicit a commitment from him to take action on your offer.
The Critical Factor: Risk
The critical factor in selling today is risk. Because of the continuous change, rapid obsolescence, and an uncertain economy, the risk of buying the wrong product or service has become greater than ever before. There are four main factors that contribute to the perception of risk in the mind and hear of the customer.
Size of the Sale
The first factor that contributes to risk is the size of the sale. The larger the scale, the more money involved, the greater the risk. If a person is buying a package of Lifesavers, the risk of satisfaction or dissatisfaction is insignificant. But if a person is buying a computer system for their company, the risk factor is magnified by hundreds of thousands of times. Whenever you are selling a product that has a high price on it, you must be aware that risk enters into the buyer's calculations immediately.
People Affected by the Decision
The second factor contributing to the perception of risk is the number of people who will be affected by the buying decision. Almost every complex buying decision involves several people. There are people who must use the product or service. There are people who must pay for the product or service. There are people who are dependent of the results expected from the product or service. If a person is extremely sensitive to the opinions of others, this factor alone can cause him or her to put off a buying decision.
Length of Life of the Product
The third factor contributing to the perception of risk is the length of life of the product. A product or service that, once installed, is meant to last for several years, generates the feeling of risk. The customer panics and thinks, "What if it doesn't work and I'm stuck with it."
Unfamiliarity
The fourth major risk factor is the customer's unfamiliarity with you, your company, and your product or service. A first-time buyer, one who has not bought the product or service before, or who has not bought it from you, is often nervous and requires a lot of hand-holding. Anything new or different makes the average customer tense and uneasy. This is why a new product or service, or a new business relationship with your company, has to be presented as a natural extension of what the customer is already doing.
Action Exercise
Identify the risks that a customer might find with your product or service. Once you had clearly defined those risks it will be easier to find solutions to them to ease nervous customers.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Top 5 Mistakes Made in Marketing
Top 5 Mistakes Made in Marketing
By Laura Lake, About.com Guide
http://marketing.about.com
A properly developed marketing campaign can not only connect you with the right prospects, but it gets everyone talking about your company, your product, or your service. However, marketing mistakes can just as easily cost your business thousands of dollars. Here is a checklist of 5 mistakes commonly made in marketing.
1. Lack of Research and Testing
Research and testing should be done to determine the performance of every marketing effort. This takes the guesswork out of what your potential customer or client wants. Always make sure you have done your due diligence when it comes to testing different offers, prices, and packages. Get the input of your customers.
2. Improper Focus and Positioning
Don't market to build up the company, but approach marketing to demand an immediate response from the recipient. Improper focus and positioning can be avoided by following the proper solution positioning of marketing.
3. Marketing without a USP
Your USP is your unique selling proposition. It is the one single statement that will single you out amongst the competition. It should be used in every piece of marketing material. Think of your USP as the philosophical foundation of your business. Don't market without it!
4. Failing to Capture Repeat Customers
Keep in mind that when marketing 80% of your business comes from existing customers and 20% comes from new customers. Failing to resell to your current customer base could have a detrimental effect on your profits. It will cost you 5 times the expense to sell to a new customer than to sell to an existing customer.
5. Lack of Focus on Potential Customer's Needs
Do you really know what your potential customers need and want? If so you are ahead of the ballgame and probably don't need to be reading this article. Truth is very few businesses have a good grasp of what it is that their customer needs from them. The secret to avoiding this common error is to find a need you can fill and then fill that need better than anyone else.
By Laura Lake, About.com Guide
http://marketing.about.com
A properly developed marketing campaign can not only connect you with the right prospects, but it gets everyone talking about your company, your product, or your service. However, marketing mistakes can just as easily cost your business thousands of dollars. Here is a checklist of 5 mistakes commonly made in marketing.
1. Lack of Research and Testing
Research and testing should be done to determine the performance of every marketing effort. This takes the guesswork out of what your potential customer or client wants. Always make sure you have done your due diligence when it comes to testing different offers, prices, and packages. Get the input of your customers.
2. Improper Focus and Positioning
Don't market to build up the company, but approach marketing to demand an immediate response from the recipient. Improper focus and positioning can be avoided by following the proper solution positioning of marketing.
3. Marketing without a USP
Your USP is your unique selling proposition. It is the one single statement that will single you out amongst the competition. It should be used in every piece of marketing material. Think of your USP as the philosophical foundation of your business. Don't market without it!
4. Failing to Capture Repeat Customers
Keep in mind that when marketing 80% of your business comes from existing customers and 20% comes from new customers. Failing to resell to your current customer base could have a detrimental effect on your profits. It will cost you 5 times the expense to sell to a new customer than to sell to an existing customer.
5. Lack of Focus on Potential Customer's Needs
Do you really know what your potential customers need and want? If so you are ahead of the ballgame and probably don't need to be reading this article. Truth is very few businesses have a good grasp of what it is that their customer needs from them. The secret to avoiding this common error is to find a need you can fill and then fill that need better than anyone else.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
The Seven P Formula for Marketing Success
The Seven P Formula for Marketing Success
By Brian Tracy
http://www.briantracy.com
Once you have developed your marketing strategy, there is a seven P formula you should continually use to evaluate and reevaluate your business activities. These seven are: product, price, promotion, place, packaging, positioning, and people. As products, markets, customers, and needs change rapidly, you must continually revisit these seven P's to make sure you are on track and achieving the maximum results possible for you in today's Market.
Product
To begin, develop the habit of looking at your product as though you were an outside marketing consultant having been brought in to help your company decide whether or not it is in the right business at this time. Ask critical questions such as: Is your current product or service, or mix of products or services appropriate and suitable for the market and the customers of today?
Prices Deserve Attention
The second P in the formula has to do with price. Develop the habit of continually examining and reexamining the prices of the products and services that you sell to make sure they are still appropriate to the realities of the current market. Sometimes you need to lower your prices. At other times, it may be appropriate to raise your prices. Many companies have found that the profitability of certain products or services does not justify the amount of effort and resources that go into producing them. By raising their prices, they may lose a percentage of their customers, but the remaining percentage generates a profit on every sale. Could this be appropriate for you?
Promotion
The third habit in marketing and sales is for you to develop the habit of thinking in terms of promotion all the time. Promotion includes all the ways you tell your customers about products or services and how you then market and sell to them. Small changes in the way you promote and sell your products can lead to dramatic changes in your results. Experienced copywriters can often increase the response rate from advertising by 500 percent by simply changing the headline on the advertisement.
"Increase Your Sales and Income Immediately!"
Do you ever wonder how luxury cars and designer handbags continue to fly off the shelves…even when the economy is bad? It's because price isn't the only reason why people buy.
Learn how to separate your product from the competition and give your clients great reasons to buy—that have nothing to do with how much it costs! Click for more >>
Place
The fourth P in the marketing mix is the place where your product or service is actually sold. Develop the habit of reviewing and reflecting upon the exact location where the customer meets the salesperson. Sometimes a change in place can lead to a rapid increase in sales.
Packaging
The fifth element in the marketing mix is packaging. Develop the habit of standing back and looking at every visual element in the packaging of your product or service through the eyes of a critical prospect. Remember, people form their first impression about you within 30 seconds of seeing you or some element of your company. Small improvements in the packaging or external appearance of your product or service can often lead to completely different reactions from your customers.
Positioning
The next P is positioning. You should develop the habit of thinking continually about how you are positioned in the hearts and minds of your customers. How do people think about you and talk about you when you are not present? How do people think and talk about your company? What positioning do you have in your market, in terms of the specific words that people use when they describe you and your offerings to others?
People are Everything
The final P is people. Develop the habit of thinking in terms of the people inside and outside of your business who are responsible for every element of your sales and marketing strategy and activities. Your ability to select, recruit, hire, and retain the proper people, with the skills and abilities to do the job you need to have done, is more important than everything else put together.
Action Exercise
Position yourself in everything you say and do as the most credible and believable supplier of your product or service to your ideal customer.
By Brian Tracy
http://www.briantracy.com
Once you have developed your marketing strategy, there is a seven P formula you should continually use to evaluate and reevaluate your business activities. These seven are: product, price, promotion, place, packaging, positioning, and people. As products, markets, customers, and needs change rapidly, you must continually revisit these seven P's to make sure you are on track and achieving the maximum results possible for you in today's Market.
Product
To begin, develop the habit of looking at your product as though you were an outside marketing consultant having been brought in to help your company decide whether or not it is in the right business at this time. Ask critical questions such as: Is your current product or service, or mix of products or services appropriate and suitable for the market and the customers of today?
Prices Deserve Attention
The second P in the formula has to do with price. Develop the habit of continually examining and reexamining the prices of the products and services that you sell to make sure they are still appropriate to the realities of the current market. Sometimes you need to lower your prices. At other times, it may be appropriate to raise your prices. Many companies have found that the profitability of certain products or services does not justify the amount of effort and resources that go into producing them. By raising their prices, they may lose a percentage of their customers, but the remaining percentage generates a profit on every sale. Could this be appropriate for you?
Promotion
The third habit in marketing and sales is for you to develop the habit of thinking in terms of promotion all the time. Promotion includes all the ways you tell your customers about products or services and how you then market and sell to them. Small changes in the way you promote and sell your products can lead to dramatic changes in your results. Experienced copywriters can often increase the response rate from advertising by 500 percent by simply changing the headline on the advertisement.
"Increase Your Sales and Income Immediately!"
Do you ever wonder how luxury cars and designer handbags continue to fly off the shelves…even when the economy is bad? It's because price isn't the only reason why people buy.
Learn how to separate your product from the competition and give your clients great reasons to buy—that have nothing to do with how much it costs! Click for more >>
Place
The fourth P in the marketing mix is the place where your product or service is actually sold. Develop the habit of reviewing and reflecting upon the exact location where the customer meets the salesperson. Sometimes a change in place can lead to a rapid increase in sales.
Packaging
The fifth element in the marketing mix is packaging. Develop the habit of standing back and looking at every visual element in the packaging of your product or service through the eyes of a critical prospect. Remember, people form their first impression about you within 30 seconds of seeing you or some element of your company. Small improvements in the packaging or external appearance of your product or service can often lead to completely different reactions from your customers.
Positioning
The next P is positioning. You should develop the habit of thinking continually about how you are positioned in the hearts and minds of your customers. How do people think about you and talk about you when you are not present? How do people think and talk about your company? What positioning do you have in your market, in terms of the specific words that people use when they describe you and your offerings to others?
People are Everything
The final P is people. Develop the habit of thinking in terms of the people inside and outside of your business who are responsible for every element of your sales and marketing strategy and activities. Your ability to select, recruit, hire, and retain the proper people, with the skills and abilities to do the job you need to have done, is more important than everything else put together.
Action Exercise
Position yourself in everything you say and do as the most credible and believable supplier of your product or service to your ideal customer.
Prospecting From Your Customer Base
Prospecting From Your Customer Base
Written By : Carleadbest
It's easier to keep a customer you have than to get a new one. However, many salesperson get so caught up in the 'excitement of the chase' - the pursuit of new clients - that they forget about the client base they already have.You want to do more than just keep your current clients-you want to expend the amount of business you're doing with them.
It take work to keep any relationship going and growing.You can't depend on your product to keep your customers loyal.Currently, there's so much product parity that if you want to keep the competitive edge, you've got to provide the one thing your customers can't get from anyone else-personalized service.Your present customers can be the best source of future business. Here are some suggestions for prospecting from your customer base:
1.Make personal contact a priority.
Keep your best customers on speed dial so that you can call them when you have a free moment to say hello.This serves as a constant reminder of who your key contacts are and that you should keep in touch. With the press of one button, you can call to say hello, find out what's new with their business and see if there's any way you can be of further service.
2.Keep your customers in mind
If you see an article in a newspaper or magazine that might be of interest to them, send it to them. It could be some relevent industry news ( theirs or yours), or it could be something related to a sport or hobby that interests them.
3. Follow your MAP
Use your MAP ( Management Account Profile)board to keep track of customers' buying cycles. Then send out mailings to them every three, six or 12 months ( or whatever their cycle is ) announcing a new product or development, or to find out if there's any way you can be of service
4. Implement customer satisfaction surveys.
Many customers who have a minor complaints will never say anything about them , they just won't buy from you again. If you ask them for their opinion, however, they'll be glad to give you the chance to solve the problem. Call your customers and ask,"Is there anything we're not doing we should be doing?" Or, every few months, send current customers a one page survey about how you and your product or service are performing. The survey has two function: It give you a chance to correct any problems and it can be used as a selling tool for prospective clients. A positive survey from a satisfied customer reassures a prospect that he, too, can expect satisfaction.
5. Build a reputation as a problem solver
Problems are opportunities. Research conducted by the United States Office of Consumer affairs showed that of consumers who complaint and receive a satisfactory response, 70% out of them become the company's most loyal customers. If you should receive a compalint, go beyond the customer's expectations in solving the problem.
6. Learn about your customer's business and think of way to help their business grow.
Help your customers in any way you can, whether or not it has anything to do with sales. You might run into someone who could benefit from your customer's product or service. You might be in position to help get your customer some publicity or have some promotion ideas. Whatever you can do to help your customer's business will help yours as well.
7. Remember that customers buy from people they like, trust and respect.
- Like: A customer doesn't necessarily want to become your friend but she does want to feel comfortable with you.She has to feel a connection with you.She want to know that you are being yourself and that you can listen and respond to her needs.
- Trust: The basis for all sales relationships, especially those that entail ongoing and long-term sales cycles, is trust. TRUST is an acronym for the critical elements of a strong relationship:
Truth:Be totally honest
Reliability: Never promise something you can't deliver
Uncommon effort: Go the extra step to earn the business
Service: Superv service builds trust
Truth:Openness and honesty, start to finish.
-Respect:Customers will respect you when you are knowledgeable about your product or service and when you're prepared and professional on your calls. But they'll respect you even more when you take the time to learn their business and their needs and show your commitment to helping them achieve their goals.
Written By : Carleadbest
It's easier to keep a customer you have than to get a new one. However, many salesperson get so caught up in the 'excitement of the chase' - the pursuit of new clients - that they forget about the client base they already have.You want to do more than just keep your current clients-you want to expend the amount of business you're doing with them.
It take work to keep any relationship going and growing.You can't depend on your product to keep your customers loyal.Currently, there's so much product parity that if you want to keep the competitive edge, you've got to provide the one thing your customers can't get from anyone else-personalized service.Your present customers can be the best source of future business. Here are some suggestions for prospecting from your customer base:
1.Make personal contact a priority.
Keep your best customers on speed dial so that you can call them when you have a free moment to say hello.This serves as a constant reminder of who your key contacts are and that you should keep in touch. With the press of one button, you can call to say hello, find out what's new with their business and see if there's any way you can be of further service.
2.Keep your customers in mind
If you see an article in a newspaper or magazine that might be of interest to them, send it to them. It could be some relevent industry news ( theirs or yours), or it could be something related to a sport or hobby that interests them.
3. Follow your MAP
Use your MAP ( Management Account Profile)board to keep track of customers' buying cycles. Then send out mailings to them every three, six or 12 months ( or whatever their cycle is ) announcing a new product or development, or to find out if there's any way you can be of service
4. Implement customer satisfaction surveys.
Many customers who have a minor complaints will never say anything about them , they just won't buy from you again. If you ask them for their opinion, however, they'll be glad to give you the chance to solve the problem. Call your customers and ask,"Is there anything we're not doing we should be doing?" Or, every few months, send current customers a one page survey about how you and your product or service are performing. The survey has two function: It give you a chance to correct any problems and it can be used as a selling tool for prospective clients. A positive survey from a satisfied customer reassures a prospect that he, too, can expect satisfaction.
5. Build a reputation as a problem solver
Problems are opportunities. Research conducted by the United States Office of Consumer affairs showed that of consumers who complaint and receive a satisfactory response, 70% out of them become the company's most loyal customers. If you should receive a compalint, go beyond the customer's expectations in solving the problem.
6. Learn about your customer's business and think of way to help their business grow.
Help your customers in any way you can, whether or not it has anything to do with sales. You might run into someone who could benefit from your customer's product or service. You might be in position to help get your customer some publicity or have some promotion ideas. Whatever you can do to help your customer's business will help yours as well.
7. Remember that customers buy from people they like, trust and respect.
- Like: A customer doesn't necessarily want to become your friend but she does want to feel comfortable with you.She has to feel a connection with you.She want to know that you are being yourself and that you can listen and respond to her needs.
- Trust: The basis for all sales relationships, especially those that entail ongoing and long-term sales cycles, is trust. TRUST is an acronym for the critical elements of a strong relationship:
Truth:Be totally honest
Reliability: Never promise something you can't deliver
Uncommon effort: Go the extra step to earn the business
Service: Superv service builds trust
Truth:Openness and honesty, start to finish.
-Respect:Customers will respect you when you are knowledgeable about your product or service and when you're prepared and professional on your calls. But they'll respect you even more when you take the time to learn their business and their needs and show your commitment to helping them achieve their goals.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Skip Perfection
Skip Perfection and Go after the Easy Sales First
If you are still at the early stages of building your small or solo business and you’re struggling to get clients, what you need now are easy sales that generate cash flow. Cash flow will allow you to pay your bills and invest in growing your business.
You may think that you need to wait until your website is perfect, your marketing materials are perfect and your products and services are fully developed, but going for perfection will take time, is almost impossible to achieve and it will shut down your cash flow. The most successful entrepreneurs will tell you that it’s more important to put your products and services out there, take action and get a few clients into the pipeline. Even big companies (think Microsoft) don’t strive for perfection, but for “good enough”.
Your potential clients need their problems solved now. You’re the expert and you can help them even if your solution will get better over time.
There are many ways to go after easy sales. One approach is to host a get together for your local network of friends, colleagues and business connections. Make it your own personal social networking event. Do a brief presentation about the problems you solve and how you do it. Then ask people to take action. Either give them an incentive to sign up for your services right away or tell them they will be rewarded for sending referrals your way within one week after the event. Initially, offer the simplest, easiest solution you have. Don’t try to initially sell your most complex, high priced solution. Just get then buying and into your client funnel.
Another is to offer some very low priced entry level products, like e-books, reports or videos. Get people onto your mailing list and offer them a one time up sell into a more expensive option.
Invite people who follow you on social networks or who are in your local networking groups to a free tele-seminar. Give them good content then give them a limited time offer to purchase your product or service. Offer them a simple easy, no brainer purchase that will allow you to show that you deliver on your promises.
Finally, consider speaking to people who already serve your target market, but who don’t offer what you offer. Explain how they could endorse your product or service and you will give them a percentage of sales. They can increase their sales with little effort. This is a simple joint venture and they will need to trust in you and your product to agree, so let them sample it for free, or try it out on one or two of their clients if that’s a possibility.
Getting some clients in the door, even at a lower price than you will charge once you’ve ironed out the kinks, will give you experience and confidence. Then you need to get great testimonials from these clients and post them on all your web pages and marketing materials, at which point you can raise your prices a bit. Also ask these initial clients for referrals in return for a referral gift that they will find enticing.
Taking action is the key. You can have cash flowing into your business in 30 to 60 days. Don’t wait!
If you are still at the early stages of building your small or solo business and you’re struggling to get clients, what you need now are easy sales that generate cash flow. Cash flow will allow you to pay your bills and invest in growing your business.
You may think that you need to wait until your website is perfect, your marketing materials are perfect and your products and services are fully developed, but going for perfection will take time, is almost impossible to achieve and it will shut down your cash flow. The most successful entrepreneurs will tell you that it’s more important to put your products and services out there, take action and get a few clients into the pipeline. Even big companies (think Microsoft) don’t strive for perfection, but for “good enough”.
Your potential clients need their problems solved now. You’re the expert and you can help them even if your solution will get better over time.
There are many ways to go after easy sales. One approach is to host a get together for your local network of friends, colleagues and business connections. Make it your own personal social networking event. Do a brief presentation about the problems you solve and how you do it. Then ask people to take action. Either give them an incentive to sign up for your services right away or tell them they will be rewarded for sending referrals your way within one week after the event. Initially, offer the simplest, easiest solution you have. Don’t try to initially sell your most complex, high priced solution. Just get then buying and into your client funnel.
Another is to offer some very low priced entry level products, like e-books, reports or videos. Get people onto your mailing list and offer them a one time up sell into a more expensive option.
Invite people who follow you on social networks or who are in your local networking groups to a free tele-seminar. Give them good content then give them a limited time offer to purchase your product or service. Offer them a simple easy, no brainer purchase that will allow you to show that you deliver on your promises.
Finally, consider speaking to people who already serve your target market, but who don’t offer what you offer. Explain how they could endorse your product or service and you will give them a percentage of sales. They can increase their sales with little effort. This is a simple joint venture and they will need to trust in you and your product to agree, so let them sample it for free, or try it out on one or two of their clients if that’s a possibility.
Getting some clients in the door, even at a lower price than you will charge once you’ve ironed out the kinks, will give you experience and confidence. Then you need to get great testimonials from these clients and post them on all your web pages and marketing materials, at which point you can raise your prices a bit. Also ask these initial clients for referrals in return for a referral gift that they will find enticing.
Taking action is the key. You can have cash flowing into your business in 30 to 60 days. Don’t wait!
Create a Successful Business Plan in 30 days
Create a Successful Business Plan in 30 days
Written by Janis Pettit
It’s time to make business goals. How much time have you scheduled in for planning this year? If you want a successful business, you have to plan!
The reason many small and solo business owners don’t plan is because they are caught up in an endless list of daily tasks that keep them running. By the end of the day you may find yourself too tired to do the creative thinking and brainstorming necessary for successful planning. So what you need to do is reserve thirty minutes or more first thing in the morning when you are refreshed and not stressed where you can think clearly and when great ideas can bubble to the surface. Do this for just 30 days.
Go ahead and schedule that time right now. Go ahead. Because if you don’t you’ll read this and then go back to doing things the way you have always done them. It’s human nature.
It wasn’t until I really grasped the crucial nature of planning for a successful business that my business growth exploded. Since then, in my work as a small business coach, I’ve walked hundreds of small and solo business owners through this process and it really can be fun and exciting. So how do you get started?
You need to create a Business Design that is based around your long term goals, your lifestyle and around creating both active and passive income streams so you’re not stuck just selling time for dollars. You got into business to live a certain lifestyle and you need to consider that when planning. A Business Design will take you through several important steps that will end up being a repeatable system that you can implement over and over in your business.
1) First you need to determine where there is an obvious need in the marketplace, within the scope of your talents, skills, passion and knowledge that you can fill. Where are there people searching for the solution to a problem you can solve, who are willing and able to pay for that solution? Don’t make the frustrating mistake of creating a product or offering a service because you think people want it. Go find out what they want first by doing some basic online research.
2) Once you’ve identified an obvious need or growing trend within your area of expertise, you’ll need to develop a series of sequential or related products and services that can address that need and that group of people over time. I call this the Product Funnel. If you get a client, you don’t want to lose them after a single sale, do you? So you need to plan out a natural sequence of products that you could sell over time to that customer.
3) Next you’ll need to figure out how you will lead people from one product to the next. One way might be to offer levels, like beginner, intermediate and advanced. You could have a basic version of a product and a fully loaded version. You could create a product or service that addresses sub niches within a bigger niche. For example, people that need to learn about marketing their business need knowledge in many areas: how to create a great website, traffic generation, how to use e-mail marketing, how to use social media, and how to write good sales copy. So how can you logically move buyers from one purchase to the next in a way that will increase the value you give them and the loyalty they have for you and your business.
4) Figure out the “plumbing”. What marketing materials will you need? What new web pages will you need? Will you need to add new autoresponder lists and write new e-mails for new leads? Do you need any programming done? What about photos, graphics or videos? Make a list of what you’ll need to support each product in your funnel.
5) Decide on a Marketing Design. Pick 3 primary marketing activities you will relentlessly focus on implementing to drive leads to your business and generate online traffic. Obviously working on your webpages and following an online lead generation system is crucial. You may also include search engine optimization or pay per click ads with Google or Yahoo. Don’t forget to focus on active marketing offline as well. Pick marketing that allows you to connect directly with your leads, through speaking, networking or phone sales.
6) Finally, map out a schedule for next year, or at least for the first 6 months:
•Decide exactly which marketing activities you’ll do each week and month.
•Decide when you’ll launch new products and when you will need to start marketing your new product.
•Schedule tele-classes, webinars, speaking engagements—whatever you can plan in advance.
•Schedule in your vacation times so you know when not to plan business activities.
•Add any regular activities to your schedule.
In one month, with just 30 minutes a day, you can complete this task. I cannot tell you the feeling of elation when you see your business plan there, on your calendar, in black and white. The energy, focus and clear goals that it creates are so motivating. And the successful business that will be the result is the real reward.
So the next time you’re tempted to skip the planning, think of what you really deserve to achieve and how you’ll get there so much faster by planning.
Written by Janis Pettit
It’s time to make business goals. How much time have you scheduled in for planning this year? If you want a successful business, you have to plan!
The reason many small and solo business owners don’t plan is because they are caught up in an endless list of daily tasks that keep them running. By the end of the day you may find yourself too tired to do the creative thinking and brainstorming necessary for successful planning. So what you need to do is reserve thirty minutes or more first thing in the morning when you are refreshed and not stressed where you can think clearly and when great ideas can bubble to the surface. Do this for just 30 days.
Go ahead and schedule that time right now. Go ahead. Because if you don’t you’ll read this and then go back to doing things the way you have always done them. It’s human nature.
It wasn’t until I really grasped the crucial nature of planning for a successful business that my business growth exploded. Since then, in my work as a small business coach, I’ve walked hundreds of small and solo business owners through this process and it really can be fun and exciting. So how do you get started?
You need to create a Business Design that is based around your long term goals, your lifestyle and around creating both active and passive income streams so you’re not stuck just selling time for dollars. You got into business to live a certain lifestyle and you need to consider that when planning. A Business Design will take you through several important steps that will end up being a repeatable system that you can implement over and over in your business.
1) First you need to determine where there is an obvious need in the marketplace, within the scope of your talents, skills, passion and knowledge that you can fill. Where are there people searching for the solution to a problem you can solve, who are willing and able to pay for that solution? Don’t make the frustrating mistake of creating a product or offering a service because you think people want it. Go find out what they want first by doing some basic online research.
2) Once you’ve identified an obvious need or growing trend within your area of expertise, you’ll need to develop a series of sequential or related products and services that can address that need and that group of people over time. I call this the Product Funnel. If you get a client, you don’t want to lose them after a single sale, do you? So you need to plan out a natural sequence of products that you could sell over time to that customer.
3) Next you’ll need to figure out how you will lead people from one product to the next. One way might be to offer levels, like beginner, intermediate and advanced. You could have a basic version of a product and a fully loaded version. You could create a product or service that addresses sub niches within a bigger niche. For example, people that need to learn about marketing their business need knowledge in many areas: how to create a great website, traffic generation, how to use e-mail marketing, how to use social media, and how to write good sales copy. So how can you logically move buyers from one purchase to the next in a way that will increase the value you give them and the loyalty they have for you and your business.
4) Figure out the “plumbing”. What marketing materials will you need? What new web pages will you need? Will you need to add new autoresponder lists and write new e-mails for new leads? Do you need any programming done? What about photos, graphics or videos? Make a list of what you’ll need to support each product in your funnel.
5) Decide on a Marketing Design. Pick 3 primary marketing activities you will relentlessly focus on implementing to drive leads to your business and generate online traffic. Obviously working on your webpages and following an online lead generation system is crucial. You may also include search engine optimization or pay per click ads with Google or Yahoo. Don’t forget to focus on active marketing offline as well. Pick marketing that allows you to connect directly with your leads, through speaking, networking or phone sales.
6) Finally, map out a schedule for next year, or at least for the first 6 months:
•Decide exactly which marketing activities you’ll do each week and month.
•Decide when you’ll launch new products and when you will need to start marketing your new product.
•Schedule tele-classes, webinars, speaking engagements—whatever you can plan in advance.
•Schedule in your vacation times so you know when not to plan business activities.
•Add any regular activities to your schedule.
In one month, with just 30 minutes a day, you can complete this task. I cannot tell you the feeling of elation when you see your business plan there, on your calendar, in black and white. The energy, focus and clear goals that it creates are so motivating. And the successful business that will be the result is the real reward.
So the next time you’re tempted to skip the planning, think of what you really deserve to achieve and how you’ll get there so much faster by planning.
Marketing Your Business: What Works Now
Marketing Your Business: What Works Now
Written by Janis Pettit
Why would you waste one dollar or one hour on marketing that doesn’t work? It happens all the time and the reason is often just a lack of knowledge or understanding about what would work better. As small or solo business owners, who can afford to waste time or money on marketing your business that doesn’t work?
If you are doing what I call “shot in the dark” marketing, which means a little of this and a little of that, hoping something will hit the target, I want you to stop now. Before you spend another penny come up with a strategy and a plan—what I call a Marketing Design.
The goal of your marketing should be to attract qualified leads, so you can then create a trusting relationship and convert them to clients. Most marketing does not lead directly to a sale but to an inquiry. So forget about generic marketing whose only goal is to get your name out there. If you’re small you can’t afford that luxury. Your marketing needs to be all about generating qualified leads and opt-in subscribers.
So what works now? Some of the strategies that used to work are now less effective and others are taking over. So let’s look at a few.
E-mail marketing: it’s still crucial for you to have an opt-in form on your key web pages where people can sign up for your mailing list and receive a free gift in return. However, less people are choosing to opt-in than ever before because they just don’t want more email. That said, once people are on your subscriber list they are very valuable leads and as long as your emails are a mix of real value and gentle promotions you’ll see huge gains.
Twitter and Facebook: I’ve found that people either gravitate toward regularly using one or the other. Since you can connect your Twitter feed to appear on your Facebook wall you can “kill two birds with one stone” and save time. The key to succeeding with both is to find followers or friends who are in your target market by using the search tool. Build relationships with these people by responding personally and offering great advice. Then send them to your web page or blog when you have a special, limited time offer, tele-class, webinar or other time sensitive special event. Once there ask them to opt-in for more information, which they will gladly do if you are really offering value. The key here is value—not hype. Also build your followers by replying to and re-tweeting leaders in your niche who have a huge number of followers. Finally join groups on Facebook that contain your target clients.
Linked In: Perfect if your target clients are businesses. Be more subdued here in presenting special offers and give value by answering questions people ask in your field.
Industry specific and local social networking sites: There are now social networking sites for people who have specific interests. Consider Yahoo groups or groups on Meetup.com. If a group contains members of your target market, join it and contribute value to the group.
Video: it’s big and getting bigger. But don’t just expect to throw a video up on You Tube and get viewers. Make it relevant, creative, touching or shocking and you’ll generate interest. Also use TubeMogul to upload it to multiple video sites.
Blog comments: find the leading blogs in your niche and start adding valuable comments with a link back to your site in the signature. Form a relationship with the blog owner and they just may be interested in promoting your website or product.
Direct Mail: It’s making a resurgence as people tire of email. Try using Send Out Cards to create warm compelling messages with a variety of graphics. Creating a sequence of compelling direct mail pieces and mailing them to a warm list can be a great follow up to your email marketing.
Phone sales: Once we added phone calls back into our marketing mix sales dramatically increased. We call people who are already on our email list to see how we can help them. Also consider calling people who have customer service issues to see what they currently need. You don’t have to cold call. Call people on your subscriber list or who you connect with through social media or through networking. Or warm them up by sending a card or letter first. Each of these approaches will result in additional sales.
Look at the marketing you’re doing now and eliminate or tweak what isn’t working now. Put together a well thought out strategy to use a mix of the ideas above to create a powerful marketing program.
Written by Janis Pettit
Why would you waste one dollar or one hour on marketing that doesn’t work? It happens all the time and the reason is often just a lack of knowledge or understanding about what would work better. As small or solo business owners, who can afford to waste time or money on marketing your business that doesn’t work?
If you are doing what I call “shot in the dark” marketing, which means a little of this and a little of that, hoping something will hit the target, I want you to stop now. Before you spend another penny come up with a strategy and a plan—what I call a Marketing Design.
The goal of your marketing should be to attract qualified leads, so you can then create a trusting relationship and convert them to clients. Most marketing does not lead directly to a sale but to an inquiry. So forget about generic marketing whose only goal is to get your name out there. If you’re small you can’t afford that luxury. Your marketing needs to be all about generating qualified leads and opt-in subscribers.
So what works now? Some of the strategies that used to work are now less effective and others are taking over. So let’s look at a few.
E-mail marketing: it’s still crucial for you to have an opt-in form on your key web pages where people can sign up for your mailing list and receive a free gift in return. However, less people are choosing to opt-in than ever before because they just don’t want more email. That said, once people are on your subscriber list they are very valuable leads and as long as your emails are a mix of real value and gentle promotions you’ll see huge gains.
Twitter and Facebook: I’ve found that people either gravitate toward regularly using one or the other. Since you can connect your Twitter feed to appear on your Facebook wall you can “kill two birds with one stone” and save time. The key to succeeding with both is to find followers or friends who are in your target market by using the search tool. Build relationships with these people by responding personally and offering great advice. Then send them to your web page or blog when you have a special, limited time offer, tele-class, webinar or other time sensitive special event. Once there ask them to opt-in for more information, which they will gladly do if you are really offering value. The key here is value—not hype. Also build your followers by replying to and re-tweeting leaders in your niche who have a huge number of followers. Finally join groups on Facebook that contain your target clients.
Linked In: Perfect if your target clients are businesses. Be more subdued here in presenting special offers and give value by answering questions people ask in your field.
Industry specific and local social networking sites: There are now social networking sites for people who have specific interests. Consider Yahoo groups or groups on Meetup.com. If a group contains members of your target market, join it and contribute value to the group.
Video: it’s big and getting bigger. But don’t just expect to throw a video up on You Tube and get viewers. Make it relevant, creative, touching or shocking and you’ll generate interest. Also use TubeMogul to upload it to multiple video sites.
Blog comments: find the leading blogs in your niche and start adding valuable comments with a link back to your site in the signature. Form a relationship with the blog owner and they just may be interested in promoting your website or product.
Direct Mail: It’s making a resurgence as people tire of email. Try using Send Out Cards to create warm compelling messages with a variety of graphics. Creating a sequence of compelling direct mail pieces and mailing them to a warm list can be a great follow up to your email marketing.
Phone sales: Once we added phone calls back into our marketing mix sales dramatically increased. We call people who are already on our email list to see how we can help them. Also consider calling people who have customer service issues to see what they currently need. You don’t have to cold call. Call people on your subscriber list or who you connect with through social media or through networking. Or warm them up by sending a card or letter first. Each of these approaches will result in additional sales.
Look at the marketing you’re doing now and eliminate or tweak what isn’t working now. Put together a well thought out strategy to use a mix of the ideas above to create a powerful marketing program.
Friday, January 1, 2010
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