Archive for May, 2010

On Fast Biz Growth Radio my guest on the show today was Erick Keiles Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Square 2 Marketing, Inc.  Erick shared with us his marketing expertise from his new book Reality Marketing Revolution – Transform Your Business into a Money Making Machine!

If you’ve ever said to yourself, “My Marketing Isn’t Working and I Don’t Know Why???” then you’re not alone. Most business owners are confounded by the changes occurring in buyer behavior in 2010.  They complain, “Why aren’t my ads working?  Why am I spending so much on marketing with little result?  Why can’t I attract the right kind of buyers?   The answer is in the huge shift in buyer behavior.  Eric Keiles explains how we have quickly moved from mass media to Reality Marketing™ and how business owners can take advantage of this change by building a new kind of Marketing Machine™.

On the show I asked Eric to share his “One Thing” that is the most important take away.  Eric’s “One Thing” he shared is the importance of having a Remarkable strategy.  Put your marketing strategy before marketing tactics and ask yourself “how can my company be remarkable?”.   Companies like Disney, Apple and Zappos.com are truly remarkable.  To begin building your remarkable strategy, consider the following key points discussed on the show.

1. Identify your goals and what results you want from your marketing objectives.
2. Understand and really get to know your buyers shopping behavior and pain points. 
3. Target the buyer and align your marketing tactics to address the pain points and the buyer’s behavior.  Don’t tell them how great you are.  Be the solution to their pain or as Erick & Mike state in their book “Cure your customer’s pains” chapter 10.

 You can hear more of what Eric Keiles shared from his book “Reality Marketing Revolution” by listening to the playback.  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fastbizgrowth/2010/05/27/transform-your-business-into-a-money-making-machin

I’ve shared with you in the past that I’m a big fan of business solutions that are proven to get results.  What I like to call “Business Recipes”.   As business owners and entrepreneurs you don’t have time to figure things out on your own.  You’re in business to make money from your product or service and to make more of it.  Reality Marketing Revolution is a great marketing “Business Recipe” that will get you results! 

Listen weekly to Fast biz Growth Radio where we bring you Expert Solutions for Fast Biz Growth!http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fastbizgrowth

Mike Brenhaug
Business Growth Expert
www.Fastbizgrowth.net

Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.

I love the fact that companies have video available to make email and Internet communication more personal; to deliver a more compelling visual message; to say with emotion what can’t be said in an email; to introduce themselves or their companies; to tell a story; and yes, to sell in a way that can’t be done with text.

But before you go crazy and decide to include or increase your use of video, let’s talk about the mistakes to avoid.  While the mistakes on my list may be in the domain of marketing, in my opinion they are glaring Sales 101 mistakes.  It seems to me that “stars” of their own videos have forgotten that First Impressions are Everything!  I am horrified by some of the video sales pitches I have seen lately starring “Professionals” (CEO’s, Presidents, Entrepreneurs, VP’s, Sales Managers, and Salespeople:

1. Talking about their unique expertise while in tee shirts instead of suits.  There is a reason that broadcasters, emcees, guests and analysts dress up when on camera - it looks better!
2. Driving their cars, acting cool, believing that recipients will be impressed that they can shoot a high def video, drive on the highway, look in the mirror, and talk, all at the same time.  I’m impressed too, but only with their ability to multi-task, not with their credentials!
3. Sitting in front of a $5 green backdrop that makes it obvious it is an undersized, incorrectly hung, poorly positioned piece of crap.  Might as well take it down and let us see the real crap behind their chairs!
4. Reading from a script.  I know they don’t want to stumble through their message but if they don’t know their stuff by now, why should we watch them read it?
5. Failing to look at the camera.  If they aren’t going to look at us, they might as well just read the message and send us an audio file!
6. Using video because it’s there.  If it can be effectively communicated with text, then communicate it with text!
7. Compressing the video to make it portable.  If the resolution is horrible, it is horrible!
8. Emailing mini-videos. If the finished video is so small that you need a magnifying glass to see it, well, we won’t see it!
9. That are Boring.  Give us a break.  If your message isn’t valuable, interesting or thought-provoking, change your mind and don’t share it!
10. Don’t Speak Well.  If you don’t pronounce your words correctly or have a speech impediment, we won’t hold that against you but for crying out loud, have somebody else deliver your message.  We won’t know the difference.

It should go without saying that your videos should be professionally produced and directed. The do it yourself videos made on the fly are prone to all ten of the mistakes listed above.  Unless you are in the marketing, advertising or videography business, you have no business doing this yourself unless you want to give people reasons not to buy from you.

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Tue, May 18, 2010 @ 08:01 PM

Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.

What would you do if one of your sales reps called at 5 PM on a Friday, the last day of the month, on the final day of a bad quarter and said, “Good News - I closed ___________!”(insert any huge company here)

You’d get excited, your heart would beat a little faster, you’d feel relieved because things seem to be turning around, and you’re thinking, “This is good, damn it.”

You ask, “What did you close them for?”

Your salesperson responds, “They bought a ___________.”
(the least expensive thing in the smallest possible quantity)

You know that  it would have been more appropriate for them to buy a _________________.
(the most expensive thing you sell)

You yell, “What?  Are you kidding? How did that happen?  And you’re calling me to brag about it?  Are you crazy?”

The salesperson says, “But we’re in!”

So here are some questions for you; 

Is it better to “be in” with something sold today, or to still be out, and hoping to sell them the appropriate solution tomorrow?

Is it better to say “they’re a customer” now, or is it better to wait and do it the right way later?

Is it better to know you have to sell them one more time, or take a chance that you may never have the chance to sell them what they really need?

Let’s explore the opposite scenario.

Let’s say that you failed to close a company who decided against buying what you were trying to sell them.  Does it make any sense to return to them and offer to sell them what they are willing to buy?

These situations occur on a daily basis in most companies, (at least the companies with enough activity taking place) and everybody has a different preference as to how they should be handled.  What would you do?

Scenario 1 - happy to sell them something or wait to sell them the right solution?

Scenario 2 - return and try to sell what they’re willing to buy or move on?

Here’s another way of looking at it. In scenario 1, you waited to sell them the right solution and they wouldn’t buy it.  So now you have moved to scenario 2…

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Tue, May 18, 2010 @ 04:24

On Fast biz Growth Radio my guest was Robert Bloom.  Robert Bloom has a wealth of knowledge and experience, as US Chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide, the centerpiece of the $4.6 billion global marketing services company, he helped craft and implement the growth strategies of some of the world’s largest companies and brands. At Publicis, Bloom managed over 1000 employees, 12 US offices, and a roster of clients including BMW, L’Oreal, Nestle’, TGI Friday’s, Whirlpool, Zales Jewelers, and T-Mobile. 

On the show Bob shared a few key points from his latest book “The New Experts”. Winning the newly empowered customer” www.thenewexperts.com.  In Bob’s book he discusses how the seller is no longer in control of the sell encounter and the buyer is in full control and armed with information from the internet.  Technology is a beautiful thing which has given buyers a powerful tool for researching and comparing products and ultimately leading them to where they purchase their product or service. 

The first sentence in Bob’s book is a powerful argument “Buyers no longer care who they buy from”.  Bob shares a few tips from his book that will help sellers be in a better position to respond to the new experts, and to attract and retain customers. 

During the show I ask guest to give us ”One Thing” that will help you, the listener, in your business to achieve Fast Biz Growth.  Bob’s One Thing he shared is the seller needs to think like a buyer and not a seller.  Your product, service and company need to be the preferred choice.  Bob talked about the 4 decisive customer moments to help you understand buyers and how to change your thinking to attract and retain customers.

You can hear more of what Robert Bloom shared by listening to the playback. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fastbizgrowth/2010/05/12/win-todays-newly-empowered-customers

Or download winning-todays-newly-empowered-customer-robert-bloom

Listen weekly to Fast biz Growth Radio where we bring you Expert Solutions for Fast Biz Growth! www.Fastbizgrowth.net

Mike Brenhaug
Business Growth Expert
www.Fastbizgrowth.net

I was listening to Red Sox manager Terry Francona being interviewed on one of Boston’s sports radio stations the other day when I heard him say, “When we get information we try to know what information we are getting.”  Huh?

It turns out that he was referring to the difference between what the statistics tell him and what he sees with his eyes.  The statistics don’t tell the entire story.  A baseball example of that might be the shortstop who leads the league in errors.  If you look at that statistic you might think he was a defensive liability but if you were watching him perform, you might see that he completes all of the routine plays, regularly makes outstanding plays to prevent runs from scoring, and most of the errors were harmless throwing errors that didn’t cost the team runs or games.

Which salesperson would you rather manage?  The salesperson with $1 million in annual sales or the salesperson with $650K in annual sales?  You think I’m going to choose the $650K person, right? Well it depends.  If you simply look at the data, you would choose the $1 million salesperson.  If you also watched them, you might still choose the $1M salesperson.  But let’s look a little more closely at the make-up of their business.

Our million dollar man has just two accounts but they are big ones; one is worth $650K annually and the other $350K annually.  He wins roughly 2 deals a week from those two accounts and he’s always happy, smiling and confident.  The company and the salesperson were both very eager to have these two accounts and offered sizable discounts in order to land them.  The margin on all of this business stands at only 10% and it’s a senior salesperson, earning 30% (of margin) commissions.  So we have a salesperson investing 100% of his time managing just two large accounts that contribute only $70K annually to overhead after commissions. Yikes!

Our $650K salesperson has only been with the company for three years and has 65 small accounts at a 30% margin.  His commissions are 20% (of margin) and he brings in about one small order each week from one of his small accounts.  If you were watching, you wouldn’t think his accomplishments were nearly as impressive as the first salesperson’s.  But this salesperson is contributing around $175K to overhead, more than double that of our million dollar man.  

The differences go beyond the contribution to overhead though.  If salesperson #2 loses an account, there is almost no change to the business.  If salesperson #1 loses an account, it has a major impact on revenue, capacity and cash flow.  Additionally, it is much less difficult to replace a small account than one of those large accounts.

If salesperson #1 were somehow able to leverage those two large accounts and capture business from two more accounts like that, at 20% margin instead of 10%, that might make his contributions more valuable, but only if the average order from the four large accounts doubled or tripled in size.  Otherwise, he wouldn’t have the time to effectively manage twice the workload and the company might have to hire additional workers to handle the volume.

So things are not always quite as they appear.

Do you have salespeople that aren’t profitable, don’t contribute enough to overhead, won’t change what they’re doing and simply aren’t benefiting the company?

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Mon, May 03, 2010 @ 04:54 AM