I had a chance to re-watch The Shawshank Redemption recently and remembered why it’s one of my all time favorite movies. 

It’s got a compelling, gripping story that will stay with you long after the lights come up.  It’s got great acting and narration from the incomparable Morgan Freeman.  And it has

Read More...

Time management may be the single biggest curse for most business owners (it’s right up there with hiring good people, marketing, sales and building processes).  It’s such a prevalent issue because as a business owner you have dozens of things that you could or should be doing and

Read More...

We had a great discussion the other day in one of my Peer Group Advisory Board meetings on marketing ideas for a typical small business.  There are lots of things that are important when it comes to marketing:

• Understanding who is your best target market,
• Understanding the benefits and

  Read More...

  ]]>   photo by christian.senger

  We had a great discussion the other day in one of my Peer Group Advisory Board meetings on marketing ideas for a typical small business.  There are lots of things that are important when it comes to marketing:

  • Understanding who is your best target market,
  • Understanding the benefits and outcomes you deliver to that target market,
  • Effective ways to communicate those benefits and outcomes (message and medium)
  • A brand and a style that fits your core values and strengths

  However in terms of succeeding with those marketing efforts, nothing is more important than being consistent.  Just like you can count on the sun setting this afternoon (with or without the beer and the view) you should also count on consistent marketing efforts if you want to keep moving forward with your business.

  I wrote about this topic about a year ago – What You Need to Win the Marketing Game and covered a lot of the ideas behind what consistency is all about and why it’s important – both in your message and your activities.

  What I didn’t cover last year were ideas on how to build up that consistency – hopefully you’re on board that it’s critical (if not read last year’s post) and if you’re like most business owners you’re currently not very consistent, so what do you need to do to develop that consistency?

  Start with a plan!

  There’s no real rocket science to this – my recommendation is to carve out some time and write down the marketing strategies that you either are currently doing (that are effective) or that you believe you should be doing that would be effective.

  Typically a small business should have somewhere between 3 to  7 marketing tactics going on at any given time.  This should be a mix between short term, long term and passive strategies.  As an example, short term strategies are those that can be worked quickly with quick response – direct mail, a referral system, seminars, etc.  Long term strategies are things that will take time to pay off – blogging, articles, networking, strategic alliances, etc.  Finally passive strategies generally don’t drive direct action but support other activities (i.e. website, Social Media, yellow pages, newsletter, etc.).

  Once you’ve got a good mix of tactics that you’re comfortable with then you need to develop expectations on when and how often you’re going to do those tactics.  So if networking is one of your key tactics, how many networking events are going to attend every month (or every week)?  How many workshops / seminars are you going to present?

  You could document this on a calendar, but another way of documenting and tracking your activities is to use a simple spreadsheet – here’s an example one you can use as a starting point:  SimpleMktplan.xls

  Figure out what works!

  One of the enemies of consistency is the pressure to try new tactics – if you’re having a rough month or two, then you’ll want to try something new.  Or maybe you get called by a persuasive salesperson selling ad space in a magazine.

  Whatever it is, before you pull the trigger to change up your marketing mix do a quick evaluation of what you’re currently doing.  You should be tracking leads and sales relative to the different marketing activities and at least have an idea of what’s working and what’s not. 

  Would it make more sense to focus on the strategies you already have before turning to something new?  Is there something that’s working well that you could do more of?

  Regardless of what anyone says, there are no silver bullet marketing techniques (low cost, easy to do that generates lots of leads).  So before you jump into something new, take the time to look at what you’re currently doing.

  Make marketing a priority

  Marketing can be tough to embrace – you don’t get the instant feedback you get from sales, in fact by definition you are at least a couple of steps away from closing a sale when you do marketing.  You’re generating interest – potential leads that may or may not actually choose to buy so it can be a challenge to keep that as a top priority.

  However the worst thing you could do is to lose the focus on your marketing activities.  The seeds you plant today are tomorrow’s harvest (to use an overused cliché!).

  Actively schedule blocks of time to make sure that your marketing activities are getting the attention they need.  Assign the responsibility (and the expected results) to someone in your company so that it doesn’t become a ‘when we get time’ type of activity.

  A lot of businesses, especially the smaller ones, are familiar with the feast and famine cycle of find the work, do the work, then find the work all over again.  Consistent marketing is the key to breaking that cycle – what do you do to keep your marketing consistent?  I’d love to hear other thoughts in the comments below.

  Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

  Similar Posts:

  • What you need to win the Marketing Game?
  • Are you jumping right over the Marketing Strategy?
  • Is your business at a dead end?
  ]]> http://www.aspirekc.com/Blog/2009/09/20/a-refreshing-look-at-marketing/feed/ 0 http://www.aspirekc.com/Blog/2009/09/14/stop-selling-and-start-educating/ http://www.aspirekc.com/Blog/2009/09/14/stop-selling-and-start-educating/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:46:01 +0000 Shawn Kinkade http://www.aspirekc.com/Blog/2009/09/14/stop-selling-and-start-educating/  

  Outbound sales and marketing are dying…(or at least becoming a lot less effective!).

  The folks over at Hubspot pointed this out almost 2 years when they talked about Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing.  To me it’s intuitively clear  the internet, along with caller-id and sophisticated phone systems have made it much more difficult

  Read More...

  ]]>  

  Outbound sales and marketing are dying…(or at least becoming a lot less effective!).

  The folks over at Hubspot pointed this out almost 2 years when they talked about Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing.  To me it’s intuitively clear  the internet, along with caller-id and sophisticated phone systems have made it much more difficult to successfully sell a prospect that isn’t currently in a buying mode.

  However if you’re like most business owners, you’re spending a good portion of your time thinking about how you can ‘sell’ your stuff to your target market.

  Stop selling and start educating!

  
  

  Education as a strategy

  You might be thinking…I don’t really want to educate my prospects, I just want them to buy something.  Why would I waste my time with a round about approach of education?

  1.  Most people aren’t in Buying Mode right now!

  Last spring I had a chance to read The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes.  It is one of the best (and most practical) business books that I’ve ever read in terms of focusing on what it takes to sell products or services.

  There are a lot of great discussion points in the book.  One of the things that really caught my attention was the discussion in Chapter 4 about people that are ‘buying now’.  Based on his personal experience and research, the author, Mr. Holmes, determined that in any given group of people, only about 3% are ready to buy something right now.  You can see the rest of the breakdown in the illustration below:

  

  So if you want to reach more than that 3%, then you need to make your sales pitch worthwhile, and the best way to reach the most people is to educate them on industry trends or issues that impact them (and position you and your product as a likely answer).

  There’s a free download of Chapter 4 of the Ultimate Sales Machine on Chet Holmes website if you’d like to learn more about this idea.

  2.  Position yourself as an expert

  The other thing an education approach can do for you is position you as the expert in your field.  All things being equal, if I have a choice between two providers of a product or a service, I’m going to go with an expert over just a sales guy every time.

  Establish your expertise by strategically teaching me about all the issues, implications and problems that I’m likely already facing (since I’m in your target market) – framing you and your product as the most obvious solution (and by framing, I don’t mean stretching things so you magically ‘fit’ the best – you need to actually have the best solution).

  Keep this in mind – experts don’t compete on price.

  3.  Become the trusted advisor

  Although this is much more of a long term play and may not apply to everyone, using an education strategy is the best way to set yourself up for the long term win-win relationship of being the customer’s trusted advisor.  If you can reach this level, not only do they want to buy your product / service, they want your help configuring it to work for them, they want your help selecting products or services that you don’t sell (talk about influence in an industry…) and they will look to you for long term support for the next time they’re ready to buy!

  Become a trusted advisor by educating your customers on the big picture within your industry and helping create win-win scenarios so their business thrives!  Help them succeed and solve problems.

  Keep this in mind – trusted advisors don’t compete on price and they get to sell add-on products and services without any competition!

  How do you educate?

  The next time you find yourself thinking about a sales pitch, maybe you should back up and think about developing a core story of data that will benefit your customers and make them more effective in their business.  It will also educate them on the buying criteria for your industry so they understand the value of your product and service, not just the price.

  What core story could you use to educate your target market on your industry?  If you’re in health benefits / insurance right now, you are talking about health care reform.  If you’re a lawyer specializing in business formation, educate your prospects on the downstream implications (taxes, sale of the business, maintenance) of choosing an S-Corp over an LLC.  If you sell landscaping services, educate your prospects and clients on the trees and plants that thrive in the local climate (and those that don’t).

  What’s your core story?  How do you educate your customers?  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

  Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coaching

  Similar Posts:

  • Is Social Media a Silver Bullet? Part 1
  • A sales secret you need to start using?
  • I guarantee you’ll get something out of reading this!
  ]]> http://www.aspirekc.com/Blog/2009/09/14/stop-selling-and-start-educating/feed/ 1 http://www.aspirekc.com/Blog/2009/09/10/stop-blending-in-with-your-linkedin-profile/ http://www.aspirekc.com/Blog/2009/09/10/stop-blending-in-with-your-linkedin-profile/#comments Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:18:06 +0000 Shawn Kinkade http://www.aspirekc.com/Blog/2009/09/10/stop-blending-in-with-your-linkedin-profile/

  I do a lot of workshops on using Social Media for business owners and my number one tip / place to start for anyone that’s a business owner or professional is to have a quality LinkedIn Profile (find me at http://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnkinkade).

  There are other great Social Media sites and depending on the type

  Read More...

  ]]>

  I do a lot of workshops on using Social Media for business owners and my number one tip / place to start for anyone that’s a business owner or professional is to have a quality LinkedIn Profile (find me at http://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnkinkade).

  There are other great Social Media sites and depending on the type of business you have, they may be great strategies as well.  However, LinkedIn is the place to start, the foundation for business focus for several reasons – here are the top 3:

  1. It’s designed to support business networking online…period.
  2. There are over 45 million users, heavily skewed towards professional decision makers and business owners.  These are people you want to connect with.
  3. The tools and capabilities give you a huge boost when it comes to finding people, prospects, strategic partners, vendors, prospective employees.

  Unfortunately even though the platform continues to grow quickly there are lots and lots of profiles out there that are totally camouflaged and don’t stand out at all.

  Here are some quick ideas to help pimp your profile!

  
  

  Complete your profile!

  The first tip to pimping your profile is to actually complete it.  LinkedIn gives you a great percentage complete indicator and if you’re less than 100% complete, do a quick check to find out what you’re missing and fix it – it’s generally not too hard.

  For a lot of people it’s putting a picture in place, filling in multiple previous positions and getting a few recommendations.  All of those are critical to having an effective profile. 

  You might not be comfortable with having your picture out there – but a picture will do 2 things for you.  It will confirm that you’re a real person and help me (and others) put a name to a face and be more likely to recognize you.  I’m not going to connect with you, send you a referral, do business  or anything else if I don’t think you’re a real person or I don’t recognize you – it’s that simple.

  Also – on the subject of pictures…spring for a reasonably professional head shot or at least make sure that it’s only you in your picture and you’re looking business like.  Other social media sites might be great places to share that picture of you passed out on the couch in college – LinkedIn isn’t that kind of site.

  Show some personality!

  So I’ve already talked about how LinkedIn is a professional site – that doesn’t mean you have to model yourself as some corporate drone.  You’re interesting, you’ve got some reason for being – share just a little bit of yourself in the profile. (Don’t go overboard or to crazy town – there has to be a happy medium)!

  Let us know why you’re doing what you’re doing (put that in the summary section).  What are you looking for that would be really exciting and important for you?  Share that kind of stuff!

  Tell us about your hobbies, where you went to school.  That’s what makes you more of a real person…and as we already discussed, people do business with other (real) people that they Know, Like and Trust.

  Customize your Profile!

  Finally, make sure that you create a headline (the part right below your name) that talks about what you do.  If you’re a creative type, go crazy!  For the rest of us, summarizing what you might say at a networking event is a good place to start.

  Most people don’t realize it, but you have the ability to customize the websites description (you get three of them – see mine below).  Instead of choosing My Website or My Company in the dropdown menu when you’re editing the field, choose Other and you get the opportunity to write in whatever you want it to say.  Not only is it more informative and customized – it’s also really good for Search Engine Optimization on your site (assuming you use a description that matches your site…).

  ***Note – another good idea for the customized website links is to use that point people to a particular product page, landing page or maybe even a report that’s on your site that they can download.

  

  Finally – claim your name for your public profile.  My profile is /in/shawnkinkade (see above).  That’s great for Search Engine Optimization on my name and it’s much easier to share with people.  If you’ve got a common name, you may have to get creative and go with a hybrid variation, a nickname or even a mashup with your company name.

  I’ve really just scratched the surface here – what other tips have you seen for customizing your profile?  Share your thoughts below, I’d love to hear them.

  Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

  Similar Posts:

  • Supercharge your Rolodex…with LinkedIn
  • Are you using LinkedIn’s Company Page?
  • Cool new stuff to chew on with LinkedIn
  ]]> http://www.aspirekc.com/Blog/2009/09/10/stop-blending-in-with-your-linkedin-profile/feed/ 0