Sales & Marketing Articles For Entrepreneurs & Small Business OwnersIs Cold Calling Dead?The other day I was speaking at a conference and was inviting delegates to ask me anything they wanted to know about marketing. One of the audience asked an interesting question – “Is Cold Calling dead?” They’d been along to a social networking seminar on the same day and the presenter had made this bold [...] Why Your Brand Is Your FortuneYou 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 [...] 14 Signs You Are A Sales ZombieA recent editor’s note in a sleep products magazine discussed how many people suffer from poor sleep and the editor referred to these individuals as zombies. Instantly, I thought of dozens of sales people I have encountered over the years who could be classified as zombies, too. Here are 14 signs that you might be [...] What Targets Should I Be Setting For My Marketing?I know in my own business that I ALWAYS do better each month if I set some targets for my marketing. If I’ve got goals to aim for, I know where I am and I can try to achieve them. So my targets for this month for instance are: 1 x meeting in the diary [...] Writing Effective Customer SurveysThere is usually a time in any business where you think it might be useful to ask your customers what they think and get their opinions. This is particularly useful if you’re considering launching a new product or service and want to know whether people are likely to buy it. So if you do want to [...] Improve Your Search Engine Marketing By Researching The CompetitionI wasn’t a search engine marketer 10 years ago, but from veterans in the industry, I learned that it was much easier to rank back then. There was less competition and the search engines were fairly simple. All you had to do was insert keywords in the meta tags and the content to do well [...] Have You Got The Courage To Ask?During the last 16 years I have worked with many great salespeople and they all do one thing more consistently than their colleagues … they ask. If you want to increase your sales and grow your business you need to develop the ability and skill to ask for a variety of things. Ask more qualifying [...] Is Marketing About Being Organised?Whenever I recruit for a new member of the team, I usually don’t ask for someone with marketing experience, but more for someone who is organised and has good admin skills. Why? Because the vast majority of marketing I personally think is admin based and about being organised. Think about it: Making calls to potential clients [...] Are Minorities Ruling Your Sales Decisions?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 [...] Good Conversations Build Relationships“It is a choice, Wesley, that each of us must face: to remain ordinary, pathetic, beat-down, coasting through a miserable existence, like sheep herded by fate – or you can take control of your own destiny and join us, releasing the caged wolf you have inside.”. – Sloan, Wanted, Universal Studios (2008) Soon we will [...] Preparing For A Media InterviewDon’t launch your public relations outreach until you’ve had some media training and have prepared yourself to handle media interviews. If you’re going to go through the work of launching a PR campaign, you owe it to yourself and your business to be prepared to fully maximize your media opportunities. Whether it’s a TV, print, [...] Nailing A TV InterviewWhen launching a public relations campaign, it can be easy to get so focused on trying to land a TV interview that you forget to give any attention to how you’re going to handle the interview. Print is usually the easiest in terms of how you look and carry yourself. Those interviews are generally done [...] Sales Prospecting Best PracticesProspecting is a key selling skill and a critical skill to develop if you want to increase your sales and achieve long-term success in sales. Yet, most sales people don’t invest enough time to this integral sales strategy. Part of the problem is that very few companies teach sales reps how to prospect. Here are [...] Concentrate On ResultsI came across a very interesting formula the other day, which was shared by a sales guru based in the US called Lisa Sasevich. She was talking about the fact that when many of us talk about what we can do for customers, we concentrate on how we can deliver the product or service and [...] Exhibiting At Trade Shows Is More Affordable Then You ThinkMost marketers understand that exhibiting at trade shows is a very effective marketing technique. The chance to meet face-to-face with most of your biggest prospects in one place over a multi-day period is a marketers dream. If you’ve targeted the right show for your company, you have a great chance of acquiring new business. The [...] How To Create And Deliver A Killer Sales PresentationEveryone who sells a product or service is required to deliver a sales presentation from time to time. Whether it’s an informal presentation to one over coffee or a formal presentation to a group of decision makers, these sales presentations can make or break your ability to move the sales process forward and increase your [...] 6 Fatal Email Mistakes That Cost You MoneyEmail is a widely used prospecting tool but it is seldom used correctly or as effectively as it could be. Most sales people and small business owners make a variety of mistakes that prevent them from increasing their sales when using email to grow their business. Here are the top six mistakes they make that [...] What Do Animals Have To Do With Marketing?About a year ago now, I went along to a presentation on sales. The presenter advised us to think about people’s personalities when selling as four key animals – Monkeys, Lions, Dolphins and Elephants. Although all of us have a mixture of these personalities within us, we’re all dominated by one of them too. Knowing [...] How To Increase Your Sales By AskingToo many sales people don’t ask for the things they need or that could help them increase their sales and grow their business. Developing the confidence and ability to ask for the things you need is an essential sales skill. Here are twelve situations that sales (and business) people need to summon up the courage [...] Increase Your Sales By Avoiding These Lame Sales QuestionsDuring a recent sales training workshop I conducted with a client, we were discussing the importance of asking the right questions; high-value, high-impact, penetrating questions. One person spoke up and said, “When I’m talking to a new prospect I like to ask, “What do you know about us?” An uncontrollable groan escaped when I heard [...] |
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