http://marketingsource.com/articles/ Articles at marketingsource.com Articles Library en-us http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/stay-relevant-a%80-adapt-and-reinvent-your-offer.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/stay-relevant-a%80-adapt-and-reinvent-your-offer.html Fri, 17 Sep 2010 09:36:38 -0500
I established a marketing consultancy during the last recession, against everyone's advice, and initially I won clients on the basis of a very broad service offering.

Back then, a lot of people still thought marketing was about advertising, or producing brochures (I know, I know....!) so at times, the sales process was an uphill battle. It wasn't really about the recession, it was about the relevance of my offer.

Here are 10 questions to ask yourself about your products/services, in order to keep them relevant:

1. Is your offering easy to sell?
If not, you need to chunk it down to more manageable offers. For example, when I was offering a broad marketing service, it was difficult to sell because I was trying to be all things to all potential clients! By doing that, I wasn't focused on any one thing and so it was hard to sell. If you have trouble articulating your offer, it won't be relevant to your prospects!

2. Is your offer easy to buy?
Same as the above but from the prospect's perspective. If they can't get their head around what your offer is it will have zero relevance to their business. Also, if there are too many hurdles or steps in what they need to do to buy your product/service, an alternative offer is likely to have more interest and relevance to them.

3. What is the sales trend for our products/services?
That is, what sells well, what is it that your clients don't buy much of, and what's the trend? If there's a product or service that you offer but no-one is particularly interested in it, you need to replace it with something more relevant, and focus on those products/services that sell well.

4. Is there a pattern in the purchasing sequence?
Which products/services do your clients usually buy first? For example, will they ask you to design a brochure before they ask you to redesign their website? Do they have you develop a strategy first, then do what's needed to implement it or project manage it? The point of this is that if you know what the sequence is, you can lead your clients into it, rather than focus on just selling one service on an ad hoc basis. Focus on the sequence.

5. Does your offer reflect market trends?
For example, if your marketing firm only focused on printed media and ignored digital, it would have decreasing relevance in the broad market, as clients want a mix of media.

6. Can you quantify the outcomes and value you can deliver to your clients?
This is essential in any business, but in more buoyant markets a 'nice to have' offer is more likely to get through. In tougher markets, your offer needs to be a 'must have' with tangible ROI for your prospects.

7. Have you converted services to products?
For example, a broad marketing service becomes far more relevant when it is packaged into products, such as Focus Group Product Testing, Lead Generation Campaign Development, Email Marketing Campaign Packages, etc Your prospects understand what the service is by the name you give it, and a product description can highlight the value it delivers and the outcomes it achieves. You can charge a higher fee for a packaged product and outcome, versus an hourly fee for a general service.

8. Have you had conversations with your clients and other business people to determine what their challenges are?
For example, if you are a Sales Consultant you could potentially be having a field day offering lead generation and client growth services to many businesses. If you provide services to your clients and want to secure the business you have, you may consider more favourable terms for your clients.

9. What's to be scared about the positive aspects of reinvention?
Just because you've had your business for many years, doesn't mean it needs to remain the same as it always has. Consider it time for a spring clean and 'relevance overhaul'. Leap now, rewards later!

10. Finally, have you looked beyond your own market?
It's always important to continually look at what other businesses are doing, both in your industry and beyond, and watch what the leading companies are doing. Constantly scan for ideas and fresh perspectives and approaches. ]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/product-creation-%252525253d-revenue.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/product-creation-%252525253d-revenue.html Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:56:25 -0500
The more products you can offer your clients, the more benefits for everyone:
• More value for your clients (assuming of course that your clients want the products you've created)
• New sources of revenue for your business
• Innovation keeps you competitive
• Client retention as long as you keep giving them value
• Increased lifetime value of your clients
• Higher purchasing frequency by your clients

This is equally as important for a large corporation as it is for a small business. If you sell your client or customer one product or service once, you will always be on the hunt to develop new business opportunities and new clients.
It costs money to acquire new clients – direct sales people, marketing campaigns, telemarketers, setting up distribution channels, retail outlets and so on, depending on your business model.

Once you capture new clients, you need to grow them. In order to do that, you need a range of products to sell.
How does a service business create new products?

There are many steps involved in this process, but if you focus on these few steps, you will be on your way:

1. Review all the services you have provided all of your clients over the last few years. Take a page for each main service. Write down all the sub-services underneath it, which are all the steps you take to deliver the final outcome for your client. Could any of those steps become a product on their own? For example, if you develop marketing plans for your clients, and part of the planning process is to conduct a competitive analysis of the market, could you expand on that step and make it a new ‘product'? It could be an entry level product for new clients, before they commit to a full marketing plan, it could be an annual product for those companies who want to keep on top of what the market trends are on a regular basis, or it could be a product that some of your clients will buy when they are thinking of developing a new product, and want to research the market first. Suddenly, from a standard marketing plan service, you have at least one new product to sell to new and existing clients, possibly on an annual or biannual basis if you position it well.

2. Talk to your clients and find out what else you could be helping them with . Often new services come out of existing ones. For example, once you have created a marketing plan for your client, what they are likely to need next is a copywriting service to produce new or updated marketing materials – brochures, website, company overview etc. Could you extend your current services into a logical next step (next product) for your clients? If you don't have such products to sell, your job is done once the marketing plan has been completed. You need to continue delivering value to your clients, and building the relationship you have through ongoing contact.

3. Look at what your competitors are doing . Using the above example, you may be thinking about developing a new competitive analysis ‘product', and discover that there is an opportunity to specialise in providing competitive market analysis in a particular segment. Keep fine-tuning what you do, and what else you could be doing.

4. ‘Package' your products . Name them, describe them, create the value proposition, price them, protect your intellectual property through trademarks, and promote them!

5. Follow these steps regularly until you have successfully developed your own product creation system ! ]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/how-to-measure-your-marketing-results.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/how-to-measure-your-marketing-results.html Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:24:37 -0500
1. Define Your Marketing Objectives, for example:
Generate sales leads
Educate the market about your products/services
Build customer and partner relationships
Increase sales
Build brand equity
Raise/promote your company’s profile
Send a specific message to the target market


2. Set the measurement criteria:
Sales volume/leads
Client retention
Client churn/new customer acquisition
Market share
Customer satisfaction
Value of client business
Product/brand recognition


3. Collect the data, and analyse:

Sales Volume/Leads
This is very simple to measure, providing you collect the information. Often, companies will run a promotion using advertising with a special offer, and not bother to record, collect or act on the leads. An example of this is a metropolitan car company which runs ads in the country at considerable cost, and then loses most of the leads generated as the salespeople based in the city are too busy with their own local leads and customers to follow up. If you don’t have a mechanism to capture the leads and make the sales, then any marketing activity to improve sales will be a waste of money.

A client of mine contacted a graphic designer, in response to a print ad she had read, which had the obvious goal of generating leads. She’s still waiting for her call to be returned, a week later… If you can’t follow through, then don’t spend the money on advertising.

Client Retention
As we all know, it is hard work and time consuming to acquire new customers. When we have acquired them, we need to keep them. Measuring client retention is important, and marketing activities that reinforce with your existing clients why they should be doing business with you, are important. The marketing activities are more likely to be personalised and one-on-one, but retention is easy, and important, to measure.

Client Churn
Measuring churn goes hand-in-hand with client retention. Many years ago, one of the mobile phone companies spent literally millions of advertising dollars on acquiring new customers (“connections”) and all the while this activity neglected their existing customers. All the special offers and rewards were designed to bring on new “connections”, but did nothing to reward their existing customers. The result was a base of customers who had little or no loyalty to their supplier, and could be easily won over by competitors with special offers. This resulted in an industry frenzy where customers were constantly defecting, and although the size of the market grew, the important thing to remember is that for all the marketing dollars spent and new customers acquired, almost as many were ‘churning’ to competitors. At the end of any period the net number of new customers was actually gained at an enormous marketing cost.

Market Share
This is measured by individual companies making estimates as to what their share of their market is, as well as by some industry groups which collate the overall industry share data, and independent companies who provide some market share statistics for some industries. Market share is a significant measure of the success of a company’s marketing activities, but since it can be ‘bought’ it is not necessarily a good financial measure of profitability or margin. For example, some companies will sell their products at significantly reduced prices in order to win sales and market share, but the overall result may be reduced profitability. So when discounted pricing is involved, the question is always, what is a more important measurement, share or profit?

Customer Satisfaction
You must be careful when you use this indicator, to ensure you are actually measuring the things that are important to your customers, not to you. For example, client relationships are all about people, and your customers may not particularly ‘click’ with the person who is assigned to look after their business. This would not necessarily come out in a customer survey, and may not be anyone’s ‘fault’, but it could ultimately be the cause for the customer to go elsewhere. However, in every other way the customer may be delighted with the overall service they receive. If you’re going to measure customer satisfaction, take a benchmark survey as a starting point, then compare results and improvements at regular (annual) intervals. An excellent measure of real customer satisfaction is referrals. If your customers are happy to independently refer new clients to you, then you could consider that they are happy with your service, and satisfied customers.

Value of Client Business
If you are able to offer your customers new products and services, or ongoing offerings, and you are communicating that to them effectively, and making offers at the right price and time, and making the benefits clear, etc, the value of each of your key customers should increase.

Tracking value is a good indicator of how your client's spending patterns are changing over time. Ideally, you could track them from when they first became a customer (depending on how long you've been running your business and how many major customers you have). If they continue to spend more with you each year, then this is a good broad indicator that your marketing is paying off. You're doing the right things. If the customer value is declining or stagnant, you need to reassess your specific marketing activities with these particular customers or group of customers.

Product/Brand Recognition
Marketers use advertising to create and increase brand awareness. Advertising could be television commercials, radio, billboards and outdoor signage, newspaper/magazine print advertising and even sponsorship. These forms of marketing are the hardest to measure. However, if they are done with a specific objective to improve brand awareness and are run over an ongoing period of time, then measurement can be made via market research. You must take a benchmark measure again – what’s the starting point. Then after a period of time measure the research results again and see how recognition has improved. This research is conducted as a comparative test of consumer recognition of your brand against other brands.

Marketing activities such as advertising, product launches, customer relationship building events and activities, are all difficult to measure, and usually cost considerable amounts to do properly. However, if you have a specific goal in mind, and you have the ability to capture the measurement data, you can analyse your results and know exactly what works, and what doesn’t. Just remember, what do you want to achieve, where are you now, and did your marketing activities get you to the destination goal? ]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/business-nuggets/how-to-get-paid-what-youa%252580%252599re-worth.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/business-nuggets/how-to-get-paid-what-youa%252580%252599re-worth.html Sat, 26 Jun 2010 06:19:10 -0500
Setting fees that will represent what you are worth, and make money for your business, is based on good judgement, knowing your client, having a good sense of self worth and also knowing what your options are.

Service Fee Options

Hourly fee
This option pays you for your time. This is not advisable as it is severely limiting to the growth of your business, and affects your perceived value with your clients.

As a consultant, I have twenty plus years of experience that solves problems, takes my clients on a growth path and helps them achieve success. I don’t always turn my thinking on and off and many times have solved a problem with insight that comes to me in a moment. Do I charge for the ‘moment’?

On the flip side, I see some consultants and professional service providers in particular, recording every six minute blocks of time and billing their clients part of an hourly fee for that. Each professional in the firm, and every support person, only has so many hours in a day, week, month and year. They reach their limit of billable hours and then need to add a new resource to the firm. As a client, I always wonder if I’m being billed as I chat on the phone to my accountant and he asks me about my holiday…tick, tick, tick…


I have had clients who could honestly remove 60-80% of their client base, focus on growing the remaining clients, and do so with less people, less overheads, less stress, and more profitability. But they don’t because they’re caught in the cycle of billing dollars for time.

If you are tied to this form of billing, don’t forget to raise your fees from time to time. I have had clients who have not raised their fees for five years, simply because they didn’t know how, or didn’t think they could ‘justify’ it.

If you don’t raise your fees, you are sending a message out to your clients that you’re not worth it, of lesser value than others, or just not up to it.

Contingency/Success Fee
This often comes to play when your service is helping a client to win a major piece of business, tender or project. If you charge a fee contingent upon success, you will only get paid when the client wins the business, although you are certainly backing yourself! However, there are many things that can affect the outcome over which you have no control. It is far better to charge for the service, and if the stakes are high, charge a success fee on top of that. It’s like a bonus for exceptional performance.

Project fee
When you are involved in a project, whether it’s helping a client win a tender, developing a suite of marketing collateral, undertaking a customer survey, or installing new accounting software into their business, you can charge a project fee.

The best way to do this is in staggered tranches. For example, you will always be paid faster if you don’t start the project until you receive the commencement fee. If the project is to take five months, for example, and you leave the bulk of the amount to be invoiced at completion, you may not be paid for eight months.

A better progress payment option is 50% upfront, 30% at completion of a (pre-agreed) major milestone, and the remainder on completion of the project. Alternatively, you may decide to invoice 50% upfront and 50% on completion if it is a relatively short project.

Never leave the bulk of the fees to be invoiced at the end of the project.

Retainer
A retainer is the ultimate goal of all people in the service profession. There are many forms for different types of services: monthly fee retainer for the provision of ongoing consulting/advisory services, monthly support fee (for software), monthly licence fee, monthly fee to be available on request for support/training, and so on.

You may decide to charge a retainer on a monthly or quarterly basis in advance.

Do not enter into a retainer arrangement where you are paid after the service has been delivered. You could end up delivering three months of service and wondering when you will be paid.

If your clients really need your help, they will accept your terms – terms that are agreeable to you!

What Are You Worth?

This is the Achilles heel of all service providers, because it’s all about our knowledge, our capacity to think and be creative or solve problems, and it’s based on our accumulated knowledge of usually many years. It also is based on our own sense of worth.

When you deliver value to your clients and help them achieve their goals, and solve their problems, you can justify your fees based on that value they receive.

If you are creating a new brand design and marketing collateral for a client, that in the longer term will achieve results like higher market profile, higher value clients and higher value business, then what you are delivering has enormous value beyond the time you spend creating it.

We started our Mastermind Program many years ago at $300 per month membership. It barely covered costs. With my heart in my mouth about two years later I increased the fees to $600 per month. A year later we recruited new members for $1200 per month – no resistance. The members in the program value what they gain.

Keep raising your fees until you feel some resistance, then you know you’re close to an optimum level at that time. We increased our program fees 300% based on that strategy.

When I first started Boss Management Group, I did a competitive analysis of other consulting and mentoring firms in the market. I developed a range of fees that other people were typically charging, and positioned myself at the lower end of that scale because I was just starting (refer end of article for more on that!). That strategy is not a recipe for success or growth, unless you are marketing a commodity service to a mass market.


Packaging Value

A great way to move toward a value-based pricing model is to bundle products/services together.

If you are an Accountant, you could charge a monthly fee, for example, for compliance and BAS services, annual company return, and four quarterly review meetings per annum with the client. You could also package special reporting packs, the individual’s personal tax return, their family’s annual tax returns, management of their superannuation and a range of other options that suit different types of clients. You could have three basic levels of package starting from $500, up to $1500 per month, as an example. Other clients may opt to remain on an hourly fee (if you decide to give them that option).

That helps with forecasting your revenue, your resource requirements and your profit estimates. Clients know where they stand and exactly what they will receive, and you don’t need to have everyone in the firm record their activities at six minute intervals.

Credentials Raise Value

When I started my business I had no client base to give me leverage, no testimonials, no track record in this business, and a very intense need to get new clients (any clients)!

I didn’t believe I was in a position of power to lead with a high fee strategy. I did get clients at fees that were too low, but as soon as I had enough credentials in my new business, I started to increase my fees. I could have started with high fees based on my credentials and experience to that point. Belief systems are very important to how well you are paid.

When you have a track record of getting results for your clients, your advice is highly valued buy those clients and they are happy to tell others, and you have a credible client base that mirrors the sort of clients you are trying to win over and attract, then you are in a position to raise your fees and charge what you’re worth.

As guru marketer Jay Abraham says, reduce or remove any obstacles that potential clients may have in dealing with you. Once they become clients, as you deliver value and build your relationship, you can then increase the value of those clients (and your fees) over time.

Positioning Dictates Fees

If you really do have the capabilities, track record, skill set and experience that makes you stand out from the crowd, you can use that to position yourself at the top end of the market. You will aim for bigger and better clients who have the ability to pay the fees you demand and the expectation that quality services come with a high fee.

If you are aiming for that market, but you don’t yet have the credentials, remember Jay Abraham’s strategy and go in lower with a view to raising your fees in time.

Don’t be too cheap – it raises alarm bells.
Don’t be too expensive too soon – it will price you out of the market.

Getting your positioning right takes time, as become more aware of your specific target market and the sorts of clients you want to attract, and how far you can raise your fees in exchange for the outcomes you deliver.

Take time, monitor it, and be clear about where you want to be positioned. Higher fees will not precede results.


Your Biggest Hurdle

Don’t forget the power of your mindset in charging fees that create value in your business!

The biggest hurdle that most service professionals face is their own perception of the value of the knowledge.

If you can’t get through this you will need a friend, an ex colleague, a mentor, a business partner, or anyone who has experienced the value you can add to others to reinforce this with you. Someone else’s opinion will have more of an impact on you than your own.

A really good strategy is to make a list of the contributions you’ve made to your clients’ businesses, and if you don’t have a lot of clients yet then go back through your business career and list the value you’ve added, the results you’ve produced, the rewards and recognition you’ve received for a job well done. Use this list to remind yourself as often as you need. This works whenever you need a confidence boost too!

When you produce results and generate outcomes for others, you should be positioned at the higher end of the scale.

Charge for What You’re Worth

If prospective new clients try to force you into a ‘money for time’ situation, don’t go there. You have value to offer the right clients who will pay you for what you’re worth.

You will never be paid what you’re worth, if you don’t stand up for yourself and respect yourself!

Part of your business growth strategy should also be to seek out clients who not only value what you can do for them, but can also afford it. If you find a potential new client who wants your help, but can’t agree to your terms or your fees, you should both reduce the service and reduce the fee accordingly (ie: reduce the ‘package’ you are offering), or walk away.

Forget charging for your time, and start charging for all the knowledge, experience, ideas, capabilities, contacts and resources you have that will ultimately deliver exactly what your clients want, and reward you in the process! ]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/how-relevant-are-you-really-to-your-clients.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/how-relevant-are-you-really-to-your-clients.html Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:55:49 -0500
I want to take this opportunity to outline a way to help optimize your core business in a difficult market.

A global tier one consulting firm developed a score called the NPS – Net Promoter Score. They use it with their multinational clients to determine how close they are to their clients and therefore how secure that relationship is. The essence of it is, how well would your clients really speak of you to others and how important are you really to their business.

A high rating with customers is essential if your business is to successfully ride the recession. It is now more important than ever to have a strategic focus to protect your greatest asset – your customers.

We have done several surveys on behalf of our clients to determine their ‘Customer Relevance Score’. We use six questions and their associated feedback to deliver results that will enable you to constantly stay ahead of the pack in servicing your customers. The end result is a score you can track that effectively ‘protects’ your position with your key customers and continues to make you relevant to their business.

It is also a great customer service tool from the client’s perspective, just because your have taken the time to ask what they think, want and need. And, some of the results that are uncovered include feedback on how to strengthen your relevance to your client’s business, and what you need to do to build or maintain secure relationships.

For companies that deal with retailers, there are many competitors jockeying for shelf space and working to replace you. For those who deal with corporate clients, the competition is just as intense to secure as much as possible of corporate spending budgets.

Clients don’t always complain if your service is no longer relevant to them. They just ‘go’.


If you don’t ask, you may be exposing your business to a potential risk. Isn’t it worth asking the question?

There are many benefits in identifying your Customer Relevance Score now:
- If you don’t take the time to do it, your competitors will – it will be good for your customers to see you take the lead

- In a difficult market, you want insightful information on what really strengthens your business position with your customers – this is the best way to get it

- You can get feedback from more than one contact in the organisation, providing a more holistic perspective of your company

- It’s the best way to discover if you could be lifting your game, and in what way

- It can be done quickly, in a way that is convenient for your customers, and at minimal cost to you


Once you have this information – your score – you can use it in your business as a KPI that is measured each year.

One of my clients, always mindful of minimising risk in their business, and adopting innovation in everything they do, now uses this score and what it tells them to stay as close to their clients as possible. There is limited room for a competitor to take their place and they want to keep it that way!

If your business targets high net worth individuals, for example, this is especially important, as the level of service these clients receive must be of a very high level in line with their fees!

I undertook this exercise on behalf of a business advisor and a financial advisor, and both received very low scores. The potential risk of their clients moving to another firm was high. For both firms, the level of service they received was not of high perceived value and for both again, their service offerings were confusing and as such, seen as not particularly relevant. Needless to say, they weren’t happy with their respective results, but at least we could then put a plan of action in place to address these risk exposures.

If you are in a highly competitive market where competitors are always pitching to win your clients over, for example in PR, recruitment, design and branding firms, this is an essential tool.

You can do this exercise yourself or you could approach us to do it for you. Either way, if you have high value clients in particular, just make sure you do something to assess and protect your relationship with them! ]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/get-ready-for-speaking-to-generate-new-leads-fast.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/get-ready-for-speaking-to-generate-new-leads-fast.html Fri, 11 Jun 2010 08:43:22 -0500
Referrals and public speaking are the fastest and most direct ways to generate new leads, because it fast-tracks the time it takes for people to know you, like you and trust you.

Here’s the list:

Put together your Speaker’s Kit

This information needs to promote you as a great speaker who has something of interest and benefit to say to the targetted audience. It is of course a marketing document.

It needs to contain, in either physical or digital format:

- Your professional bio

It’s worth having someone with a skill for copywriting look this over for you. We often ‘ease back’ if we have to write our own bio, but let the accoldaes fly if someone else writes it for us. Don’t be shy – powerful bios beat boring bios any time!

- Your photo - professional shots – two different ones will do.


- Contact details (make it easy for people to contact you)

- Examples of audiences you’ve addressed before, associations or groups you’ve spoken to, and make sure they are of a similar caliber to the types of audiences or groups you want to target with your speaker kit. If you’ve only ever spoken at a low key, small network group you need to work up to very large groups.

- Testimonials from people who enjoyed your talk – full names, titles and organization are best if possible

- If you’ve written any books on the same topics as you plan to speak, include the details

- An overview of your top/most popular signature talks (refer below)

Signature Talks

- These are the talks that present your core messages.

- For example, my signature talks are around growing service businesses, creating the right structure for growth, and marketing strategies.

- If you were facing a room full of people, what could you tell them that they would find helpful and useful, and that would add value to their business or life in some way?

- What are the key messages/objectives of your talk for the audience

- In what subject matter are you strongest?

- Do some research into what other speakers talk about, what titles they give their signature talks, and how they position themselves.

- Now, for those of you who hate public speaking, your core messages can be used in everything you do (except speaking engagements!). Core messages can be crafted to:

o Present a keynote talk
o Present a 30-60 minute talk
o Run a workshop
o Write a feature article
o Use on your blog
o Run an introductory seminar
o Use on your website
o Turn into a teleclass

- It can also be useful to specify where you would be available to speak – eg: Regional areas, interstate, your city only

Find Your Audiences

Again, you’ll need to do some research, but there are many organizations and groups that are always looking and in need of speakers. Think of:

- Professional associations
- Local business groups
- Networking groups
- Special interest groups
- Alumni groups
- Schools
- Informal groups – ask around

Make Your Approach

- Use referrals where possible to get you to the decision makers – usually a committee or group head

- Be aware of the group you are targeting, the type of members they have (eg: young female marketers in their twenties; retired male lawyers in their sixties) and the sort of information that would be of interest and relevance to that group.

- If you are already a member of the group it may help you to be invited as a guest speaker

- Ideally, it is preferable to have attended some of the target audience’s events so you have first-hand experience of how they work

- Depending on the group you’re approaching, and the referrals and contacts you have, you may elect to call first and speak to the appropriate person, and then send through your Speaker’s Kit. Many organizations have guidelines for submitting your credentials and your approach.

At the Event – Give Away Something of Value

Congratulations! You got the gig!

Make sure you have plenty of business cards, but also have something of value and relevance to give to your audience. You can request their business cards if they wish to be sent your giveaway, or take you up on your special offer, which enables you to collect their details.

Get them on your list, make time to talk to interested audience members after your talk (and try not to let people hijack you), and follow through on the special offer.
]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/smart-tips-for-a%252580%252598working-the-rooma%252580%252599.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/smart-tips-for-a%252580%252598working-the-rooma%252580%252599.html Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:15:02 -0500
Tip #1: Be clear on who to avoid and who to engage.

Be clear on who to avoid and who to engage. Don’t mess around. If someone is in your vicinity that you do not wish to engage, you need to act quickly and move directly to a new target. It isn’t enough to just mosey away, you need to specifically move toward someone else, rather than away from the person you want to avoid. Trust me – it’s effective!

Tip #2: Never be seen just ‘standing there’

Social suicide. No-one to talk to? Don’t know anyone? No need to make it obvious. Refer back to point 1 – intent is the key and moving forward! Even if you don’t know exactly who or what you’re moving toward, no-one else does either!

Tip #3: Don’t linger too long

There’s many people in the room....don’t linger too long with any of them. You have a mission and a purpose to work the room, and you can’t do that if you talk to the same person/people for most of the night. Too boring. Keep moving!

Tip #4: Don’t use an obvious segue...

Novices say things like “I’m just going to get another drink” (a line that I’m sure has passed my lips before...). Room-workers use phrases like, “your trip sounds fantastic...I’ll look forward to hearing about it when you get back. Have a great time....(as they smile, kiss goodbye and/or do a slight arm movement to indicate a quasi wave, and move back from where they’ve been standing, and turn in the direction of .... a new target). A very subtle ‘goodbye, I’m moving again’ where neither party loses face.

Tip #5: Always have a free hand

One for a drink, which you’re bound to need, and the other for quick bites and hand shakes. If you’re female and have a bag, make sure it’s a clutch or has a handle or strap so you can keep your hand free. Nothing worse than food in your hand and your mouth, a drink in the other, and you can’t speak, and you can’t ‘shake’. Not a good look. No way to make connections.

Tip #6: Don’t be seen to be leaving until you’re out the door

There may be someone very important that you see just as you’re leaving. Keep a drink in your hand and look like you’re still in full networking swing. You don’t want to be seen to be leaving early.


So, there they are. My top tips for working a room. Give it a try...believe me, when you come at it from a head space of ‘working the room’ as opposed to ‘networking’, you’ll feel and act differently. Promise! ]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/business-basics/is-something-missing-from-your-business.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/business-basics/is-something-missing-from-your-business.html Tue, 13 Apr 2010 10:47:04 -0500
I know from personal experience that the answer to business problems of any kind is focus. Without focus you don’t have clarity. Clarity creates certainty and a clear path toward a result or solution that you want.

Sometimes, when everything is going wrong, we can lose the excitement and desire for our business that we once had, and become confused and fearful. “If this isn’t working, what else am I meant to be doing? How am I going to change this situation? I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing any more.” When you are in that space you have no focus and won’t be able to generate positive results.

These are the steps that will help bring back what’s missing from your business:

Create Space to Get In Touch With What You Really Want

There’s no way you can create a path toward clarity if you don’t allow yourself time to think and reflect on what you really want to do. Turn off the phone, get right away from your work environment, go somewhere you enjoy like the park of the beach, or just go for a walk or run. You need to be on your own, not somewhere with distractions like a cafe.

This is important, because if you are in a place of confusion or fear, you may have lost sight of why you have your business, and whether you still want it.

Remember What You Enjoy & Excel At

Think about what you’re really good at and what you love doing. Don’t think about your current situation – open up your thoughts to what it is you really love doing, and where you can add the most value to others, and expand on that. Go back as far as your childhood.

Do you love being with people, are you highly creative, are you great with numbers, do you enjoy teaching, are you a performer? Get back to basics and make a list of all the things you have been doing throughout your life that you are really good at and really enjoy.

Somewhere in that list is your true desire.

Tune In To Your Emotions

As you create your list, tune in to how you are feeling. Does something on that list make you smile, excite you al little bit, ignite something you’d forgotten, or now leave you indifferent?
Hone in on what lifts your energy. That’s what you need to focus on. You have to get it back into you and your business in order to produce outcomes that you want.

Focus On Where You Add The Most Value

Remember to do the things that add the most value to your business. These will be the things on your list that you’re passionate about and really good at. If you’ve lost sight of that, you need to get back to it. Let others do the rest. If you’re not in a position to employ a team, consider outsourcing to virtual resources that are far less cost than in-house resources. I suggest Guru.com as an excellent resource. I use it in my business and have referred other people to it as well.

Above all, you have to get back in touch with what it is you do best, that also adds most value to your business.

80/20 Focus

When you look at all the things that need to be done in your business, whether it be client work, managing your team, tracking a marketing program, staying on top of the financials, or providing strategic direction, you must prioritise. The way to prioritise is to look at the potential impact of each priority.

It’s important to focus on the 20% of activities that will produce 80% of the progress or results for your business. If your focus is missing, and you don’t know where to start, use the 80/20 tool to set clear priorities for yourself and your team.

If any of these factors are missing from your business, follow these steps to bring them back, so when the next season arrives, you and your business will also experience a new phase.
]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/does-your-business-enable-you-or-tether-you.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/does-your-business-enable-you-or-tether-you.html Thu, 01 Apr 2010 09:32:47 -0500
For example, I have a client who loves travel, and the thought of building a business that only has a domestic scope just isn’t on the cards! Opportunities, contacts, projects – they must have a global focus.

Another client prefers to work alone. For this person, a growing business with an expanding team of people needing mentoring and management is not enabling a lifestyle. It’s tethering the business owner to a place he doesn’t want to be.

As business owners we are so fortunate in that we can create whatever we want our business and our lifestyle to be, whether the business is a startup or established, the ‘enabling principles’ apply.

The following enabling principles will help you to determine how well your business enables you to create the future of your dreams, or how much it tethers you:

What activity would you be doing that you love so much you’d do it for free? If I left you alone for the day, uninterrupted, and came back to find you immersed in that activity completely unaware that a day had gone by, what would you have been doing?

For some, there may be no work going on but they’re surrounded by people, talking, laughing and having a great time!

For others, they may be doing something completely unrelated to work, like entertaining children, cooking, singing, playing golf or developing ideas on a white board. It doesn’t mean you would do this all the time, but it’s something you do that immerses you.

Do you have a chance to do that through your business, or is the business structured in such a way that it enables you to leave it and pursue your ‘immersion’ activity?

If you’re an architect, and you love to design buildings, you need to be able to do that. If you get caught up managing people and dealing with the day to day operations of a business, you will most likely start to either resent being tethered by your business or you will lose your passion for what you do and lose your momentum.

However, if you recognize that architectural design is essential to you being passionate about what you do and making a contribution, then you must structure your business to run ‘hands-free’ (without your hands, that is).

This is a real leap of faith for many business owners, but this leap is a true enabling step.

Where and how do you ideally like to work?

Do you need to be flexible? Do you prefer to work in a slick modern office? Have you always wanted to work in a converted warehouse? Would you rather work at the beach, or at home?

Being able to design where and how you work is an essential part of creating your business in such a way as to enable you to live how you really want.

Do you like to spend the day with clients, colleagues, members of your team, in meetings, out having lunch, in discussion? Would you rather be more solitary in how you work? Do you like to work at night or early in the morning, or like a friend of mine, right around the clock?

Would you like more free time and if so, how would you spend it?

A lot of business owners would like a little more free time, but when the opportunity arises, some of them don’t really know what to do with it. I’ve seen people who retreat to their business rather than unleash themselves on themselves! I’ve also seen workaholics who eschew free time, but once the concept and the opportunity become more obvious, they start to embrace it with great enthusiasm.

We only get our time once, so make the most of it while you have it.

What needs to change in your business to enable you to live and work with more enjoyment, satisfaction and better personal results?

It has to start with you – it’s your business and your life.

Do you need to change the structure of your business?
Do you need to change your role in it?
Do you need to change how you work?
Do you need to change or build your team?
Do you need to change your schedule so you spend more time doing what you love?
Do you need to enlist help to keep you on track and accountable?
Do you need to sell your business and do something new – start a new chapter?
Do you need to loosen the control and focus on what inspires and motivates you?

Finally, is the vision for your business based on your personal goals? Are they in alignment?

Are the financial goals for the company driven by your own personal financial goals? For example, if you want to double the business turnover next year, why do you want to do that, and will it enable you to live more like the way you really want to be living?

Set your business goals because they are in alignment with what you really want to do, and enable you to live a great life. Don’t set goals simply because you can, and be tethered by them as a result.


Think of the lines in the INXS song: ‘we all have wings, but some of us don’t know why’. Make sure your business enables you to use your wings and fly! ]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/business-nuggets/3-ways-to-make-your-business-more-secure.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/book-promotions/business/business-nuggets/3-ways-to-make-your-business-more-secure.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:02:30 -0500
Strategy 1: Analyse your sales
- Know what you sell and to whom
- Know which products and services are more in demand
- Know what each product or services contributes to your business

Ideally, sell more of the ‘in demand’ products, sell more of the high value products, focus on the products that contribute a large proportion of your company’s revenue or profit.

Be mindful of the sales cycle too. If you have a very high value product that has a long sales cycle, factor that into your forecasting. Balance the long sales cycle products with those that are easier to sell, and are in effect your company’s ‘bread and butter’.

Strategy 2: Analyse your marketing returns
- Marketing options are many, but not all marketing produces the same results
- Make a point of knowing which marketing activities produce the best results. If you’ve never tracked it then start doing so, otherwise you will potentially waste not only money but energy and time
- Also, make sure that the marketing activities which produce the most results also produce the best results – that is, they attract the sort of potential clients that match your target profile

Strategy 3: Analyse & track your cash flow and sales forecast
I can’t tell you how many clients I have worked with who don’t have sales forecasts and don’t do budgets. If you don’t forecast and track, you can’t effectively manage your cash flow and/or adjust your sales and marketing activities.
- Develop a P&L budget for your company and/or your product
- Over estimate your expected expenses and underestimate your expected sales
- Track on a regular basis (frequency will be determined by the length of your sales cycle: if you own a retail shop you can track this daily; if you sell high-end software systems you may track monthly)

These 3 strategies alone are very quick and effective ways to minimize risk in your business and stay ahead in a tight market. ]]>