Self-promotion. You gotta let people know you’re out there, what you can do, and give them reasons to think they need your help. Nothing wrong with that, that’s the free market economy that made US great.

Nathan Hangen talks about The Art of Shameless Self-Promotion in his blog post which can be found here. He says,

“The reason that self-promotion works and self-adulation doesn’t is because self-promotion is the art of spreading ideas, concepts, and a greater vision. Self-adulation is just the promotion of accomplishments, deeds that have already been done.

When you promote ideas, you give people something to cheer for. You give people a cause to support. People, in many ways, are selfish. They promote the things that make them feel good. Your accomplishments aren’t likely to make them feel good, but your ideas do.”

He goes on to develop a 4-step approach to developing a self-promotion platform that works. Find that right here, too!

Social Media: FaceBook Fan Pages

Is FaceBook useful for small business? It can be if used properly. To do so you’ll need to set up what’s called a “Fan Page” which has a much different functionality than hanging around in the more popular part of the site where people relive their high school years and such. Nothing wrong with that it’s just probably not the highest/best use for the precious little time you have to devote to social media.

Dean Rieck has written a good article on the how-to’s and what-fors of building and using a FaceBook Fan Page. He comments,

“Groups are great for organizing on a personal level and for smaller scale interaction around a cause. Pages are better for brands, businesses, bands, movies, or celebrities who want to interact with their fans or customers without having them connected to a personal account, and have a need to exceed Facebook’s 5,000 friend cap.”

You can read the remainder of his always well-written article(s) by clicking here.

Direct Marketing: Direct Mail Tips That Work

Despite what the pundits are writing these days direct mail is still very much alive and well. Yes, postal volumes are down dramatically but a decline from a decade of excess and wanton marketing to a level which still dwarfs the per capita average of any other country in the world is not a reason to pronounce the imminent death of the medium.

Direct mail is alive. Direct mail works. Direct mail should be a part of your integrated marketing effort. Why? Re-visit the second sentence in this paragraph, please, then come back and pick it up where you left off otherwise you’ll find yourself in a continuous loop and people will point at you and mumble things. Okay, so direct mail works. It works as long as you have…

• The right message
• The right offer
• The right recipients targeted
• Deliver the message at the right time

One of my favorite writers on all things “direct marketing” is Dean Rieck and he offers a number of other pointers to improve your results; 99 to be precise! Here are a few:

1. Make an irresistible offer.
2. Give away something free to boost response.
3. Prefer a free gift over a discount.
4. Increase the perceived value of your offer.
5. Reduce the perceived risk in accepting your offer.
6. Offer attractive payment options.

Find the other 93 right here.

Marketing Terminology 101: I’m Great In Bed…

Marketing can be confusing so let’s clear the brush from some of the more common terms. Today, let’s look at a few including Direct Marketing, Advertising, Telemarketing, Public Relations.

You’re at a party and see a beautiful woman. You walk up to her and say, “I’m great in bed.”

That’s Direct Marketing.

You’re at a party and see a beautiful woman. You ask your friend to walk up to her and say, “See that guy over there? He’s great in bed.”

That’s Advertising

You’re at a party and see a beautiful woman. You get her phone number from someone. The next day you call and say, “I’m great in bed.”

That’s Telemarketing.

You’re at a party and see a beautiful woman. You comb your hair, straighten your tie, then ask if she’d like drink. You chat and joke with her throughout the evening, offer her a ride home, walk her to her door, then say, “By the way, I’m great in bed.”

That’s Public Relations.

You’re at a party and see a beautiful woman. She walks up to you and says, “I know you. You’re the one who’s great in bed.”

That’s Brand Recognition.

Marketing: The Role of The Buyer is Changing

Back in the day of the dinosaur a sales rep was an information source. Whether he was a welcome source or not is another point but a source of competitive and industry information he was. At least the good ones were. While that’s still true today, the rep’s role in the buying process has changed.

David Dodd of PrintCEO.com wrote a nice little post in which he states,

“More than ever before, prospective buyers now control the buying process. They decide when and how they will research purchasing decisions and when and how they will interact with potential suppliers. The Internet has put a huge volume of information about almost every conceivable product and service at the fingertips of business buyers, and they’ve become convinced that they can find whatever information they need, whenever they need it, on their terms.”

Hmmm. Have we been replaced? Have we been visited by a information meteor and been wiped out in a cosmic extinction event? Well, it’s not that dramatic. In fact Mr. Dodd continues his thought process,

“Easy access to information makes potential buyers much less dependent on sellers than in the past, and this means that many traditional marketing and selling techniques don’t work as well as they once did. Consider cold calling by salespeople. Not that long ago, cold calling was a reasonable way to generate sales leads. Potential buyers needed information, and salespeople were the primary sources of that information. As a result, prospects were reasonably receptive to meeting with a salesperson. Today, potential buyers are obtaining information online, and they are delaying conversations with sales reps until much later in the buying process.”

So where does that leave you in your sales and marketing effort? Should you abandon all hope, quit mailing, no more phone calls?? Just sit back and wait for internet surfing prospects to finish their research and find you online? That would not be a wise plan to pursue. Here’s more from David…

“Easy access to information also means that business buyers are far less receptive to traditional marketing messages and marketing materials than in the past….What business buyers will pay attention to is information that helps them to better understand the business issues and challenges they’re facing and how those issues and challenges can be addressed. In other words, business buyers will pay attention to information that helps them do their jobs better.”

I think this sort of buyer process change is exciting! The buyer is doing things differently because he has more tools available now. Guess what? We can do things differently to market our businesses in response to that because we, too, have new tools to use. Still have your mental heals dug in? Be honest…wasn’t that you fussing and moaning at the water-cooler about having to make cold calls? Maybe that’s not the most practical thing you could be doing to develop new business anymore. This is good news!

Read the rest of David’s article here, then call so we can discuss your marketing strategies.

Direct Marketing: Cheap Is Not A Synonym For Effective

Fact: A single direct mail-piece costs more than a single email.

Question: Should we then abandon direct mail and go with the email?

Answer: For the same reason there are a variety of items in a wide range of prices on every restaurant’s menu, the answer is a big, fat, “No”. Everything has a cost. Duh. As a business owner what you should be focused on is the return that cost will bring to your business. If the return is adequate then use the tool.

Here’s a story in the Wall Street Journal about one company that experienced a significant drop in response after they switched to an email-only approach, only to return quickly to an integrated approach using direct mail and email.

Seems penny-wise turned out to be dollar foolish, again. Usually does.

Sales: CRM, Drip-Marketing and Fewer Prospects

You’re one sales guy against the world. There’s too many people out there and things move so fast you can’t keep up anymore! You need some help and the answer is probably a good CRM program and the knowledge to use it properly. Here’s an article that might spark some thoughts.

Sales: Q&A on Voice Mail and Prospects

The martial arts gurus will tell you that to win the match you must master the art of using your opponent’s weight against him. Or kick the crap out of his shin and run like he**. Such is the plight of the modern sales rep in his eternal struggle with voicemail.

Doyle Slayton, proprietor and guru for the much bally-hooed website, SalesBlogCast.com just posted a nice little Q&A about dealing with voicemail. It’s good stuff.  See if you agree:

Q: Do you have a strategy for follow-up voice mails? How do you build on each message?

A: I recommend creating 5 to 10 different voice mail messages… all of which build upon the last.

I see a lot of people throw out all their “goodies” on the very first phone call… they say, “I’m calling because my company is awesome and we do this… that… this other thing… we also do this… and these other things too!”

Instead, I suggest breaking those things up into

……check out the rest of the article, here.

That’s it for this month! We’d love to meet you so give us a call and let’s go grab some tea somewhere. 214-350-7727

Francey Beall

The following was borrowed directly from the Two Men and A Truck official website:

TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® was officially founded in 1985 in Lansing, Mich., by Mary Ellen Sheets. Operations began prior to that year when Sheets’ sons, Jon and Brig Sorber, did local moving as a way to earn money while in high school. When they left for college, calls for service continued. In 1985, Sheets formally organized the company, hired movers, and developed a reproducible system. Franchising began in 1989. In 1994, Sheets’ daughter, Melanie Bergeron, assumed the position of president. Now, Melanie is the chair of the board. Brig Sorber is president and CEO. Jon Sorber serves as executive vice president.

Training is extensive and ongoing. It begins with an initial three-month period, including comprehensive classroom training at STICK MEN UNIVERSITY® (a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to moving in Lansing, Mich.) and thorough assistance during the franchise set-up and opening. There are also ongoing monthly training sessions at STICK MEN UNIVERSITY® for franchisees and employees. There are many other tools available to franchisees including detailed monthly reports, newsletters, Intranet, annual meetings, a resource library, a toll-free support line, a tradeshow booth, an in-house shop with a complete line of TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® branded clothing and professional marketing materials and a system-wide purchasing system.

There are more than 200 locations operating worldwide. Locations are in 32 states, Canada and Ireland. There will soon be locations in the United Kingdom.

Selling based on price is for cowards. Reps that are absolutely convinced of the merits of their product/service, delivery, and support package don’t feel the need to give anything away. Why should they? The goose lays golden eggs, for cryin’-out-loud. I’ve seen her do it and it’s real gold! Why would I give that away at a discounted price??

But what if I lose the sale?

If you lose the sale you maintain your backbone, your pride, and your ability to sell your product or service to a smarter prospect that sees the value. If you make the sale by lowering the price you’ve given away any position of strength you may have had, a good portion of your pride, and a hefty percentage of your commission. Try paying your bills with “the sale”. You can’t. You pay bills with commission money and you’re giving it away as fast as your prospects can work their lame, flea-market bargaining, lingo on you.

Bottom line: there’s no money in selling based on price.  As a sales rep you’ve got to learn how to make someone want something badly enough that they’ll pay your price to get it.

What kind of value, real or perceived, can you attach to your product so that taking a hatchet to your price doesn’t become the primary point of discussion?

1. Do your homework.
2. Don’t ask stupid questions, the answers to which you could have known had you done #1.
3. NO conversational chit-chat unless you intend to use up your 5 minutes in the spotlight talking about the stuffed bass on the wall. And make no mistake, if you fail to practice #2, you WILL only have 5 minutes.
4. Say something intelligent that shows you have a firm grasp of the problems he faces in his industry and perhaps specifically in his local market. In question form is probably preferable.
5. Know what you want out of the meeting before you go in.
6. Get agreement on something that you can provide that would make a positive impact on his Income Statement.
7. Clearly offer a logical next step, get agreement, and open it to any other players that may need to participate. (Or offer to draft a Proposal, or a Pre-Proposal for his consideration and get agreement to review it together.)
8. Set a date/time to get back together and do just that. Don’t be late because there is no adequate excuse. It’s over.
9. Get out before you screw it up.

My answer? Social Media is that group of technology tools that allows anyone with a computer and internet access to participate in, and develop online communities of people with common interests. What you do with that opportunity determines everything about the outcome.

Here’s a solid collection of additional answers to the same question. Feel free to add a comment here with your own definition.