In tough economic times, every corporation needs to guard against waste and inefficiency. That’s where corporate training can prove crucial. But are employees receiving the correct training and in the most efficient format?

1. Classroom Doldrums
Many employees like outings. They are a chance to get away from the pressure and tedium of their jobs. An outing (even if it’s only down the hall to the corporate training center) can prove a refreshing distraction—almost a “paid vacation.” But the class itself frequently doesn’t live up to its promise.

Sometimes even the mid-level execs who exit these training sessions can be heard mumbling their disagreements—lack of consensus. But all too frequently, the bulk of employees can be seen marking time, doing texting on their cell phones, doodling and the like. They’re bored, but at least they’re getting paid for it.

2. Trainer Blindness
Many corporate trainers are nominally good at what they do, like many teachers in public school. They may know training, but they may not always know the material. Sometimes the trainer is only freshly trained in the material themselves; they are not seasoned veterans. In other words, they can’t answer the tough questions. That’s embarrassing.

Also, without the proper background experience with the material, the trainer can miss opportunities to illuminate the material in a way that can prevent future problems—like an awareness of computer security weaknesses. There may be “conventional wisdom” that everyone may have heard about, but then the frontline experts may see it differently because of empirical experience. Having the wrong trainer can worsen this kind of disconnect.

3.

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For many years now, “customer service” has become a dirty word in some parts. That is regrettable. Some corporations feel the pinch on their bottom line and tighten in the one place where tightening is perhaps the most detrimental—listening to the customer. When the customer gets squeezed by CSR quotas, the company will end up paying dearly. But it need not be as bleak as all that.

We’re talking about the focus on quantity rather than quality. To be sure, the customer service rep (CSR) who makes a dire mistake will pay dearly with the proverbial “pink slip.”

Boilerplate Madness

So many examples have crossed this desk of customer complaints receiving boilerplate responses that had no bearing on the topic. The harried CSR wants to keep their job, so has to meet or beat quota. The customers’ needs only stand in the way.

Case in point: a customer needed to transfer money and decided to try one of the new international money transfer vendors based in San Francisco. We’ll call them “Company X.” The customer had moved to the Philippines and they signed up using an email address for their overseas PayPal account. Funds would go from PayPal to Company X and then to a brick-and-mortar outlet in the Asian islands.

The customer had not yet had their overseas PayPal account verified, and despite the Company X mentioning nothing about this as a requirement, the lack of verification proved to be a stumbling block when the first transfer was attempted. The customer attempted to resolve this with the vendor’s customer service department only to receive a boilerplate (pre-packaged) message about the lack of verification.

The customer then switched to their American PayPal account which had long since been verified, but they received the same error and same boilerplate response.

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A person buying or selling a business needs the temperament and correct negotiation skills to successfully close the deal.  It used to be that people think you are a good negotiator if you push for what you want and you get it.  This mentality is passé.  Today, deals are made by parties willing to find solutions to their differences.  The two parties at the negotiation table are not adversaries.  They do not attack one other, but rather they address the issues at hand. 

Here are some Business Negotiation Strategies:

1.  Prepare in advance.
Prior to beginning negotiations, study the business and the market trends through trade / industry publications, trade events and networks, and consult with those in the same line of business.  Knowing the industry statistics and analysis of the business arms you with information you might need to back up your offer or counter other proposals.  You can demonstrate that you know what you are talking about and you cannot be misled. 

2.  Listen to the other party.
Give the other party your attention and the time to say what is on the their mind.  You should refrain from making assumptions.  You can gauge the other party’s reaction and emotion to key issues so you can later respond accordingly.  The information you gather forms the basis for your questions later. 

3.  Kindness and diplomacy will go a long way.
Be genuinely kind and interested.  As the saying goes, “It is easier to attract bees with honey than with vinegar.”  Kindness is an advantage in business negotiations.  You gain credibility as well as the trust and empathy of the other party when you are reasonable, straight forward, fair and polite.

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The answer to this question may be simple and may seem obvious to many; however it is always good to remember why a company should always train new employees during their first month in the organization.

To incorporate a new employee within a group and help him be successful, it is crucial to get him rolling with the least difficulty.

You don’t want to see a new person inactive and doubtful about trying new things and about actively learning from his errors and from the others around him.

In the same way, you don’t want your new employee to start doing too much only to make a mistake that can really impair his reputation early on.

New employees know everyone is watching over their performance, and extensive early training is the only way to make sure they do not get eaten up by unnecessary stress and are capable of showing their full capacity.

If you’re reading this, you probably know what the hiring process is like, right?

You know what it is like to post a position, read hundreds of resumes, choose the group of qualified candidates, assess their capabilities and skills, interview them two or three times, get feedback from others, and finally make a decision…

What happens if during the first day at the job you discover you hired the wrong person? How do you make up for that?

When dealing with new employees, there has to be someone to help them understand the new environment. They are being bombed with new information coming from everywhere; it is just hitting them too fast and hard. So, they need a source of solid knowledge to help them identify their place and comprehend how they fit in this new environment.

And here’s where an elearning training program becomes very valuable.

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“Needs Improvement”
“Below Expectations”
“Unacceptable”

As an employee, you would be mortified to see these ratings on your performance evaluation. Yet year after year, those are the words often used to describe performance reviews at organizations around the world. Any employee with such ratings would have “managed out” long ago.

How badly are employee performance evaluations failing? Take a look at the conclusions of a global survey conducted by Sibson Consulting:

● Less than 50% of HR professionals see performance reviews as helping their organizations achieve their strategic objectives. These are the people who are often driving the process.

● Only 46% of respondents see talent development as a goal of appraisals, while 54% identified greater “individual accountability.” Two-thirds (67%) identified the distribution of pay raises and other rewards as the goal of their appraisal system.

● Only half of the respondents say their companies use goal setting in their performance evaluations, and only half of those use quantitative metrics in evaluations.

● Only 56% of respondents said their organizations train managers to use the performance-management system.

● 55% reported delivering appraisals on time.

● More than a quarter of respondents (28%) felt that performance evaluations were an exercise in filling out forms rather than an opportunity to have quality conversations with employees.

These results aren’t limited to a single industry or a single country. The survey, conducted in mid-2010 with the HR association WorldatWork, drew more than 750 responses from a variety of industries and countries. Responding organizations ranged in size from fewer than 100 employees to more than 500,000.

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The other night (after a very long week I hasten to add) my husband and I went to Prezzo, the Italian Restaurant Chain. Prezzo is a company that I really admire in terms of marketing, because they really have it spot on. Granted they have a huge marketing team and probably a large budget to boot, but there are some things that they do really well that you can implement in your business for free. So what do they do? 

Firstly, they know that people love a bargain and they want to get people into their restaurants. So what they have done is provided vouchers and have literally put their vouchers onto every voucher website they can find out there. I guarantee you that if you do a search for Prezzo vouchers, you’ll find them easily. 

These vouchers vary from buy a main course for a £1 to two main courses for £12 and a number of other ones, but they’ve tested them to see what works and keep rotating these. This is fantastic because if you’re looking to go out for dinner, don’t want to spend a fortune and like a bargain, you’ll definitely be attracted to Prezzos. 

But – you can’t just get these vouchers. Oh no! You have to enter your details into the voucher system and you get sent a voucher by email or text. Again, this is great marketing – Prezzos not only know exactly who has got a voucher, they know who has used it and they have their contact details. 

So, guess what they do when they have this information – they contact you via email or text to let you know that they’ve just released a new voucher and you may want to go to Prezzos again. After all, they know you’ve already been there once don’t they because they’ve tracked your use of the voucher. So, it stands to reason that you might go again. But that’s not all. 

On top of this, they also use social networking extremely well particularly Facebook.

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Starting an online business? Have a great product idea that you think can make millions?

As you start developing your idea, the first thoughts coming to mind are probably technology focused. Who is going to build your site? How much will it cost? How quick you can launch your site?

Unfortunately, the phrase “if you build it, they will come” does not apply to online businesses.

There have been many entrepreneurs that have built great products, but have made little money in doing so. The way the Internet has evolved, if no one knows about your great product, it can and will be a bust.

To prevent this, consider user acquisition just as important as your product itself.

In fact, in recent years, I’ve seen mediocre sites make more money than those with sound business plans, with the primary driver being website traffic.

So how do you get the traffic?

You have two main options. You can pay for your traffic via pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns like Google AdSense, or you can plan ahead and have a great search engine optimization (SEO) strategy in place.

The PPC route can yield quick results, but my best advice is to make sure you have a healthy set of conversion metrics in place. With any PPC campaign, you are required to pay for every click a user makes. If the conversion rate is low, you can quickly find yourself in a money losing situation.

Those successful in using PPC campaigns as their main traffic and revenue drivers typically have a complex reporting mechanism in place, which allows them to quickly asses the profitability of a campaign. This undoubtedly helps, as under-performing campaigns can be swiftly addressed to minimize loss.

The other approach to traffic acquisition is SEO.

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When it comes to distribution and media outlets, PR has changed dramatically. Mailing used to be the standard way of sending out information (actually it’s not a bad approach nowadays, since everyone is getting so adept at hitting their keyboard delete button). But on the whole, mailing in many ways has become archaic. The number of media outlets and what defines a media outlet has also shifted. Yet the basics of PR, which include defining your objectives, defining your stories, learning how to present your stories, defining your target market(s), and creating a media contact list that reaches your target market(s), remain the same. Although the distribution channels have changed, and the Internet has redefined who and what the media actually is, the public relations basics remain constant.

This truly is a situation where the more things change, the more they remain the same. You still want to reach your prospective customers, you want to tell a compelling story, you want to give a call to action, and you want to demonstrate your value. None of that has changed. That is all as it always has been. Yet, while the core basics remain the same, it’s true that just about everything else has changed. Mailing a release to editors and producers and making follow up calls is no longer the sole name of the game. It is still a part of the process, but only a part, the media relations terrain is constantly evolving and the changes have made the process more intricate, not less. Placing a press release on one of the paid wire services is not going to meet your public relations objectives. Anyone can write what they consider to be a press release and send it out to a number of contacts and place it on a wire service. The trouble is just about anyone does, so most of those releases remain totally ignored. They might end up on some websites, but most of the time, little more than that will happen.

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Times are changing; Oprah is gone as are many of the daytime soap operas. TV’s 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daytime slots are shifting dramatically. It is a primarily female audience that watches at that time. The numbers show that most are seeking personality based or issue oriented programs. Talk shows, game shows and reality shows fill the niche since none require the type of consistent viewing that a traditional drama or comedy does. Busy women can tune in and out throughout the programs. If you’re looking to pitch yourself as a guest on a talk show, never fear, although Oprah is gone, there are a myriad shows out there and more are on the way.

Daytime TV will be talk-heavy; Time Warner will launch a new talk show hosted by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and Walt Disney’s ABC is in talks with Katie Couric. There is also Talk, the View, Dr.Phil, Dr. Oz, Nate Berkus, Ellen DeGeneres, Rachael Ray and Martha Stewart. “Chew”, featuring chef Mario Batali will launch in September, 2011. And “The Revolution”, from the producers of “The Biggest Loser” will premiere in January, focusing on topics relating to health, weight, and lifestyle.

The courtroom will also probably be more present during the daytime. Judge Judy has been averaging 6 million daily. This type of programming not only appeals to women, but does fairly well with other demographics.

Whether any of the current crop will breakthrough and reach Oprah status is hard to say. It would be difficult to replicate a program and personality with the power of Oprah, but who knows? From a PR perspective, what was for so long considered the golden ring is gone, but there are quite a few avenues out there to pursue. Although its ratings are inconsequential next to what Oprah used to draw, the OWN network has its own shows which are worth a look.

Initially your most important job is to actually watch the shows.

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You may be a natural salesman, and your clients may indeed love you, but you’re playing a different game when you’re contacting the media. You are entering a very specific phone world. You may be a great person one-on-one, with a winning smile and a firm handshake, but that won’t get you far over the phone. You may be an extremely successful high-pressure telemarketer, but remember, here you’re dealing with a different, more weary, more sophisticated audience. Making PR follow-up calls can be a difficult proposition. Be candid with yourself. Do you have a personality that works over the phone? If the phone intimidates you, or if you come off gruff, demanding, or impatient over the phone, don’t make the calls yourself, hire someone to make them on your behalf.

You need to be painfully honest with yourself. Most of us don’t like to admit that there are areas that aren’t our forte. But none of us are proficient in everything. Developing a good pitch and writing a strong press release are important, but you also need to have an effective follow-up plan, which could include learning to communicate differently.

Don’t try to be everything to all people. If you’re uncomfortable on the phone, too shy and passive or too demanding and pushy, consider either learning how to adjust your approach, or consider having someone else make the calls. Otherwise you’re not doing you and you’re business any favors. You’re only going to hurt your chances for success. You may be a good field general when it comes to your business, but what you need here is a savvy diplomat. You may not even be aware that you have a weak phone voice, or you talk too quickly, or you’re too aggressive, or your tone is too confrontational over the phone. You might figure you’re you and they better like it. But the aim here is to make sure that the media likes the pitch.

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You may think Nike sells shoes and Apple sells Macs and iPhones, but you’re wrong. They sell their brand. Developing a powerful brand can spell the difference between struggling to make ends meet and achieving real success. Why is developing a successful brand so important? Take a Nike shoe or an iPhone and replace the known brand name with a generic label: you’ve just demonetized both products. Both are as functional as they were before, but neither is as valuable. The brand is what creates the value.

So, what is a brand? According to Wikipedia, a brand is: “the personality that identifies a product, service or company (name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or combination of them) and how it relates to key constituencies: customers, staff, partners, investors etc. Some people distinguish the psychological aspect, brand associations like thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, experiences, beliefs, attitudes, and so on that become linked to the brand, of a brand from the experiential aspect.”

In other words a brand is not a product; it is the emotions, thoughts, and perceptions that a product elicits. It is those reactions that create a brand’s value. If the majority of people agree that something is valuable, then it’s valuable. The value isn’t necessarily intrinsic to the product itself. The value comes from the worth we collectively assign to it.

For example, if you show someone a painting and say it was painted by John Smith, it will be assigned a particular value, if you then say you were wrong and it was actually painted by Rembrandt, the value of the painting will skyrocket. The Rembrandt name, label, brand (what have you) is what drives the value. Similarly, people will pay top dollar for an original fashion designer’s purse. They’ll also pay for a complete counterfeit product, if it carries the right label. The label carries the value.

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No matter what you do and no matter how large or small your business is, technology is going to play a large part in your daily operations and probably your revenue too. Despite this dependency on so much technology the majority of businesses don’t take the threat to their IT seriously enough despite the fact that a major security breach could be enough to send most businesses under.

Take a good hard look at the IT that’s used on a regular basis within your business, customer lists, sensitive client information, access to funds – losing any of this data could have a detrimental impact on your business, it could result in the loss of one or more clients which will directly affect your revenue, it’s also going to damage your reputation which will make it harder to win future business and if you have to store your data in a certain way to ensure you’re industry compliant you could even find you’re facing legal action. These are all reasons why you should be taking your IT security more seriously.

You’ll already have a firewall and some antivirus software in place but this doesn’t mean you can put your feet up. If something is about to attack your IT systems a Firewall is not necessarily going to stop it. A firewall will simply asses the surface value of a piece of data before deciding if it should deliver it, if the data looks safe the firewall will still let it though. Antivirus software is designed to pick up on things like viruses, Trojans and worms trying to get through to the servers or desktops but is more of a cure than prevention. It’ll help spot something after it’s already got through and shouldn’t be relied on as a sole source of IT security.

The best way to combat any IT security threat is to start by assessing what risk you have. Are your staff you’re biggest threat? Do you have outdated basic IT security in place? Do you competitors pose as your biggest risk?

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“Mathematics… mathematics is never going to lead you to higher truth. Because it’s boring!” – Charles, “A Beautiful Mind,” Universal Pictures (2001)

Multitasking…true, human multitasking is a fallacy. This came to mind when we visited our son in his room recently. His computer had four windows open plus IM going, his iPod was plugged into his ears (thankfully he wasn’t sharing the noise), his TV was on in the corner, he was texting with his phone. He said he was getting a lot done by multitasking. We call it switching tasks…very fast but switching none the less. Sure, your quad core computer or dual core smartphone can multiprocess; but it’s not multitasking it’s simply executing a bunch of things simultaneously…it’s not thinking. When he’s working on a report, that’s where the mind is. When he’s IMing, texting; that’s what he’s thinking about. When he’s surfing…he’s surfing. When he’s updating one of his social pages…he’s there. Everything else is white noise. Nash explained it a little differently when he said, “I’ve gotten used to ignoring them and I think, as a result, they’ve kind of given up on me. I think that’s what it’s like with all our dreams and our nightmares.” You may even be one who firmly believes you have really mastered multitasking.

A Lot About Nothing – When people are online today, they increasingly carry out other activities because they’re sure they can. Some of the activities are effective white noise. Others are lost the minute they turn away, in a few hours, a few days. But with data/content coming at us from everywhere, it is as natural as eating at your computer. Source – GfK Roper

Congratulations!! But go into a meeting with another multitasking master.

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The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) recently banned radio stations from playing “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits after it received a SINGLE complaint from a ‘minority group about the use of the word ‘faggot’ in the song. People who are familiar with the song know that it was inspired when Mark Knopfler overheard a conversation between two blue collar people in an appliance store as they watched a music video and one of them used the word ‘faggot’ to describe the musician. This song has been played tens of thousands of times in Canada since it was released in 1985 but one person has effectively prevented it from being aired again. Unfortunately, this type of knee-jerk reaction is common.

When I first started writing my newsletter more than eight years ago, I once mentioned a particular company in a negative way and immediately received backlash from ONE subscriber who lambasted me for mentioning the company’s name. Since then I have been cautious how I present information in my newsletter and blog. Here’s how this reaction by a few people affects your sales decisions.

• One prospect expresses concern about your price and you immediately think that price is the sole reason people make buying decisions. Or, you believe that ALL of your competitors are cheaper and that your company is pricing itself out of the market.

• One customer says they are dissatisfied with your product and you instantly start to wonder if other customer’s feel the same way. As a result, you begin to lose faith in the value of your products and services.

• One prospect hangs up after you make a cold call and you automatically believe that every person you call will behave in the same manner. This causes you to rethink the value of cold calling and you scale back your efforts to connect with people using this approach.

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Although you might not think that getting payments from clients is anything to do with marketing, I would completely disagree. Because I think that there is nothing more demoralising that celebrating getting a new client and then finding that they do not pay. It can make you feel very low and be very stressful, which of course is not the ideal frame of mine to do more marketing or get more clients. 

So, knowing how to get payment out of a client is a vital part of your business and of your marketing. How then, do you set up your business to get payments easily out of customers? 

The first thing you need to do is adopt the right mind-set. If clients go into a contract with you knowing that you’ll let them get away with non-payment for a couple of months, they absolutely will take advantage of it. Make sure you set your mind set up so that clients know from the outset that non-payment or a delay in payment is not acceptable. 

I used to tell clients that they had to pay because we had a big dog, but since she sadly died a couple of years ago, I can no longer do that. So, I’ve changed this to “we know where you live”. Although I say this as a joke, people know that I’m very serious. 

I also will address delays in payment immediately because I absolutely hate non-payers and it annoys me if I have to chase someone, which is another mind-set shift too. 

The second thing is to set expectations right up front in writing. Make sure clients are very clear when they will be invoiced and when payment is due. All of our invoices are sent out at the beginning of the month and payment is expected within 14 days. We put this in our emails and a written contract and also say this verbally to a client just in case they decide to read the agreement without signing. 

The next thing to do is to make sure you have good payment procedures in place.

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How do you respond to cold calls, ads, direct marketing pieces, email spam? Exactly. Now why would you expect your prospects to react differently? Generally people either run from or lash out at aggressive hard sell marketing.

Although they can work, traditional promotion efforts have a poor return on investment. Most prospects turn and run when they feel they’re being sold. Overt promotion is considered intrusive, overly aggressive, and unwelcome. Approaches such as cold calling generally induce reactions such as irritation, fear, impatience, annoyance and anger. Not the reactions you want to illicit in a prospect.

These approaches trigger people’s fight or flight responses. Your prospects either want to argue with you, or they want to slam the phone down in your ear. Not a good way to start to a business relationship. There is a reason why cold calling and direct marketing have such low rates of closing. These approaches set you up as the adversary, the enemy.

To market effectively, attraction should be your focus. You shine a light on your prospective client’s problems and offer solutions; which in turn draws prospects and clients to you. Illumination equals attraction. The trick is to shift from a traditional marketing approach to one that focuses on your value; the standard dynamics of marketing are upturned, as your focus moves from promotion to attraction. Doing business with you becomes appealing, desirable. You and your business are sought after.

This is where a combined approach that includes PR, media relations, blogging and social media can be so effective. For this to work make a firm connection with your message and your audience. Your approach needs to be in alignment with your core values and your true skill set. Focus on illumination and attraction rather than on selling; you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results.

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A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post called, 11 Lame Questions You Need to Avoid”. It generated some interesting comments and one reader asked, “What questions should I be asking?”

What ARE the questions sales people should be asking to increase their sales and improve their results?

Certainly this depends on your industry and/or product(s). However, there are many questions that are generic in nature or that can be easily modified to your specific sales environment. Here are 23 high-value, tough, penetrating and powerful sales questions that will help you grow your sales.

Let’s start with high-level questions; these are important if you sell to senior executives.

The higher up in an organization you sell, the more important it is to ask these types of questions simply because executives are used to asking—and answering—tough questions.

• What goals are you striving to achieve this quarter?
• How do those targets compare to last year’s results?
• What, if anything, is preventing you from achieving these goals?

However, do NOT start your conversation with questions like this because you have to earn the right to ask them, especially if you do not have an established relationship. It is much better to begin by demonstrating your expertise, industry knowledge, and understanding of your prospect’s business and/or company.

• We’ve noticed several trends occurring in the industry lately. The two that stand out the most are… How are these affecting you and your business?
• When I was doing some research, I noticed on your website that your company is… What progress are you making on that initiative?

These questions are effective because they show that you have done your homework and executives appreciate that.

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Thinking about sending out a sales letter to your contacts this year? Before you do, stop and put in place some things that will prevent you from making some of the basic mistakes that sales letters tend to have in them.

1. Being too short

One of the biggest mistakes sales letters include is being too short – a common assumption is that your letter should be one page max. Wrong! Your sales letter is intended to do the job of a sales person. Would you send in a sales person to a meeting and tell him to stop after 6 paragraphs? Of course not! Your sales letter needs to be as long as it needs to be to effectively sell.

2. Not including pictures

Because your sales letter is now going to be longer, you can include pictures. Pictures (particularly if they show happy and satisfied customers) can really do a great job of convincing people to buy.

3. Leaving out stories

We love stories too! Stories of what people or businesses were like before you met them and what they’re like now. Stories can help you build up the problem of why people should talk to you.

4. Forgetting about the testimonials

Testimonials from satisfied customers ideally with pictures can be an excellent selling tool – and yet, they’re missing from most sales letters. Even including just this bit can improve your sales letter a thousand percent.

5. Where’s the great headline?

Most sales letters go in the bin because quite frankly, they’re boring! Use prefixes and suffixes like Warning…, How to…, 7 secrets to…, How I… to make your headlines sound interesting enough to read.

6. Build up the problem

Before you launch into how you can help, build up the problem first. People need to recognise that you understand how they think and feel before you tell them how you can help.

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Public relations is an important marketing component for nearly any company or product, but when it comes to fashion, beauty or style, an effective PR campaign is not an option, it’s a necessity. Think about it, fashion and style is directly linked in our culture with celebrity and fame. When Entertainment Tonight or In Style feature the latest singing sensation or movie star, it’s not just the person who is being spotlighted it’s also what he or she is wearing including what bag, jewelry, blouse, pants, skirt, scarf or coat they are sporting at the time.

When Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt prance down the red carpet, they’re not the only ones being scrutinized, the magnifying glass is also on their shoes, their blouse, the sunglasses – everything they are wearing is now suddenly in the grip of the star making machine. A fashion designer we were working with had one of her designs worn by Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson in the same week. That opened the door to the People magazines and In Style’s of the world. That is a definite plus. As a designer you want celebrities to wear your clothing. It helps media-wise, there is no doubt about that. But a mistake that designers often make is that they place their primary focus on chasing down celebrities and celebrity stylists thinking that the only way to establish themselves in the world of fashion is to get the latest A, B, C (and if all else fails) D-list celebrity to wear their designs.

As I mentioned, that helps, but your primary job is not to chase down Hollywood’s latest flavor of the month. Your job is to create the best fashions you can. You want to develop a line that the public reacts to. The bottom line is you want your creations to be your star, not the celebrity that wears them. So, how do you do this?

Here’s your exercise, forget (for a bit) that celebrities exist. Put aside your desire to have the latest celeb wear your designs.

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Tip 1: Make a list of objectives that you want to achieve before starting the process. You don’t want to limit your idea and thought process, but you do want to define objectives to accomplish. When it comes to PR brainstorming, your goal is to come up with a list of the most important story ideas including new business concepts, the unique value you offer, important information you can give, and anecdotal stories. Also spend some time focusing on how and why you can be presented as an expert regarding your company, your business, and your overall field.

Tip 2: This is a group process. Don’t simply brainstorm on your own, set up a brainstorming session with your PR consultant, or, if you’re doing this in-house, meet with members of your staff that understand your business. If you’re a one man, or one woman show, bring together some friends or associates who understand your business. You want people you can bounce ideas off. You want feedback, plus you want energy. Make it fun; make it a game, but one with a purpose.

Tip 3: Allow everyone involved to speak freely. Set up an agenda but let the information flow. Start with a list of the obvious stories, then drill down to more unique stories; also review different ways to present stories. You don’t want to spend the bulk of your time on concepts or stories that are too left (or right) of center, but do let it get a bit crazy. Think out of the box. Be creative. Remember you don’t have to use all of these stories or ideas, but the deeper you drill, the better the chances of finding a great story, so let the ideas fly. Let yourself bandy about story ideas that chances are you’ll never use. You never know, those might actually turn out to lead you to some golden PR nuggets.

Tip 4: Once you’ve created a list of possible ideas, now start thinking like the media.

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