Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Are you looking for more business? Try this experiment. Pick a day next week, like tomorrow. Call it Phone-A-Thon day. Start at 9:00am and start calling every customer that you have ever had or hope to have. If you have employees, let them help you. Make it a big deal and buy the pizza for lunch. Say this to their voice mail or live. “Hi, _____. I was thinking about you, wondering how you are doing, and thought I would give you a call to say hi.” That’s it, just like you would call any friend. Don’t even put the phone down, just keep dialing.
I can guarantee you one thing. This will help your business more than anything else you can do. Try it and let me know the results. Scared of cold calls? That’s OK. These are warm calls to people that know about you. Try it, you may even grow to like making these calls.
Several years ago when we owned a printing company, I decided to do something different for my customers. I found someone who had a company that would deliver a dozen donuts to offices for $5. including the donuts. I gave him a list of 250 businesses and told him to deliver 10 per day. After about two weeks of these deliveries, I thought it was strange that no one had called me about the donuts. So I started calling the list and asking them if they got the donuts and most coldly said yes and thanks.
Finally one guy I called, said he really appreciated the donuts, but that they were rock hard and had to be older than day-old donuts. He said I must really be getting a great price on the donuts. His employees were worried about breaking a tooth! Needless to say, I immediately fired the delivery guy and started delivering fresh donuts myself.
Not sure of the moral to this story except to be more aware that your marketing is really doing what you expect. Do you have a moral?
There is no such thing as “I don’t have time!” unless you are dead or on your death bed. This is an excuse. The proper statement should be, “This is not a priority in my life.” If your family was kidnapped and you had to do a task to free them, would you have enough time to do it like in a recent movie I watched? You CAN find time for anything.
We are all given time to do practically everything. We choose which things are priorities and dedicate time to those tasks. Next time you catch yourself saying, I don’t have time, stop and think. This must not be an important priority.
I just finished a book by Larry Winget, (a Facebook friend) called “Shut Up, Stop Whining, And Get A Life.” In the book Larry describes the three main reasons that people are not successful. 1. 
They are stupid 2. They are lazy or 3. They just don’t give a damn.
Think about that for a minute and see if you fall into one or more of those categories. Larry is an in-your-face speaker and writer who is called the Pitbull of Personal Development (his registered trademark.) I loved this book! It really makes you think and get moving.
This audio message talks about systems that can help you insure your success! Listen to this six minute SuperCharge.
Tip #9 is to become a collector of information. Most of us in business receive lots of business cards that seem to pile up on our desk until we eventually throw them in a box or drawer. Those cards can become a huge resource if you will take the time to enter them into a contact manager. Once those names are entered and coded, finding the name is a simple matter of searching.
With a few clicks, you can instantly reestablish contact with those potential clients and customers. I keep two different databases. One is Constant Contact which is designed for mass emails. You are furnished with various layouts to use. I can send unlimited emails to my lists for about $30. a month. About 1/4of all the emails that I send get opened.
I also use the Contact Manager in SendOutCards which reminds me of upcoming birthdays, anniversary dates or special events where I can use the computer to create a greeting card which is custom printed in my own handwriting, stuffed and stamped with an actual stamp for about a dollar, including postage. A few days later my client or potential customer gets the card in their mailbox.
Both of these databases are interchangeable so I keep the same names in both simply through the export/import function. The combination of both these systems helps me reach out and touch my customers or prospects often.
Here’s the links:
http://www.constantcontact.com
http://www.sendoutcards.com/surface
100 Business Growth Tips in 100 Days!
Business Growth Tips – 100 Tips in 100 Days. Broke a new record for high temp. today (82) and really hard to focus on anything but being outdoors.
Decided to take until Monday off to celebrate Easter.
Everyone have have a fun-filled and Happy Easter!
Saturday, I heard an excellent speaker, Ines Kinchen, who speaks about the same thing that I do, Appreciation Marketing. What made her unique was that she spoke with her new baby strapped on the front of her during the entire speech and most of the day. When the baby woke up,
she took it in stride and introduced Marquise to the audience. I even got one of his business cards, which are about one-half the size of a regular card and has his picture on the front!
I plan to keep Marquise’s card to remind me to stop making excuses. Ines could have easily passed on the speech with the excuse that she had a young baby. Yet she is a go getter and even though she never mentioned it in her speech, she demonstrated to the audience (and me) that you can do anything despite the obstacles that are thrown in your path.
Too young (Marquise is a baby.) Too old? I can prove that won’t fly. Just had a baby? Ines proved that excuse won’t work. Let’s try something. Reply to this post with an excuse and I’ll bet I can prove someone has gone ahead and beat the odds!
Saw this message by fellow speaker, Terri Langhans, CSP……
Before you say “I tried [direct mail] [phone calls] [networking] [whatever] and it doesn’t work,” look at your message before you blame the medium. Odds are it wasn’t the strategy’s fault, but more likely that your message was boastful, blatant, or boring. After all, no one wakes up in the morning hoping to get a sales pitch, and if your marketing message smacks of “Hey, look at me and what I’ve got,” then it’s all about you, not about them, and we all know which of the two it is that people care more about.
Instead, build some intrigue into your message. The title of your program or offering rarely serves this purpose. Same goes for your name and photo. In the precious few seconds you have to get the prospect’s attention, predictability is your enemy. If the person can guess or figure out in a glance, “leadership speaker,” “business coach,” “author,” why bother reading further or listening longer? Instead, one way to create intrigue is by posing a startling statement that demands clarification from the prospect’s brain. Think “headline” versus “title.”
And when it comes to emotion in your marketing, remember, it’s not a about showing an emotion or talking about an emotion. Your marketing should make someone feel an emotion. Get the prospect to smile, laugh, gasp, ponder, choke up, or even wince. Connect to an emotion before you try so hard to convince. Great marketing for a beverage doesn’t describe the drink or tell you why it tastes good. It makes you thirsty. Your marketing can do the same.
Used with permission – Terri Langhans, CSP, www.MaverickMarketing.com.
Did you know that Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics never went to bed at night unless she had sent at least three thank you notes that day. Who do you need to thank today?