Posts Tagged ‘blog’

Sales is sales is sales

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

“Sales is sales is sales.” Right. The fundamentals that make effective sales people will not change. What has changed is ways of finding customers, profiling customers, connecting with customers, adding value to customers.

“Our business doesn’t work that way” OK. Each business and market are different but they all need to find, win and retain customers.

“We’ve got a website/ blog/ twitter account/ YouTube channel,etc” Well done. Are you really getting the most out of the new ways of connecting with customers?

“Our customers are not on facebook, they are business people, not kids” When Alexander Graham Bell was looking for investors for his telephone research he often met with the following reply; “If I need to send a message, I’ll just give it to a servant” We all use phones, mobiles, emails etc to connect with customers. Social media stuff is just another version. One that has the potential to revolutionise the way you connect with customers.

Here is one example. In recruitment, one of the best ways of creating a successful business is to go niche. Pick a small section of a market and become an expert in that area. Over time you build enough contacts of both clients and candidates to become the “go to guy”. This takes time, effort, organisation and a bit of luck in picking the right niche.

Now, with new media techniques, it’s possible for anyone to find huge numbers of niche contacts, instantly. So the game has now changed and those who don’t get it, will not be around for much longer.

Don’t agree? Let’s hear your comments

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Marketing2.0

Friday, September 18th, 2009

Yes, I know, another 2.0. Where will it all end?

I attended a great webinar this week from Social Media Magic.

As usual, my focus has been on what is front of my nose and Social Media Magic have opened my eyes to several wider and potentially important possibilities.

First, why bother? There are lots of answers. The main one might be because your competitors are. And of course…. it’s the future….(I’ll try to stop the portentiuos claims on importance of t’interweb)

Like any form of marketing, you really need to have a plan, such as:

  1. Strategy
  2. Presence
  3. Expand reach
  4. Nurture relationships
  5. Properly maintain presence

But how can I have a strategy if I don’t really know what this stuff is? Good point. That’s what blogs like this and webinars like the above are all about. For fantastic explanations of linkedin, twitter, blogging etc have a look at commoncraft. These guys have really straightforward 3 or 4 minute videos explaining all these things and a whole lot more. Check it out, you will learn something useful.

As well as the big 5 listed above the magic men heartily recommended the big C. That is consistency. Since out of sight quickly becomes out of mind, they suggest daily updates/posts/interactions of some kind

An other good point is one I am trying to explore, that is, narrowing your focus to become a real niche player. Now, in recruitment it has long been held that going niche was one of the ways to untold wealth. Just as long as your niche doesn’t suddenly become so niche that it disappears entirely.

The final point they made concerns creating groups on linkedin. They suggested forming a group that would pre-qualify your target market for you. Here’s how it works. Setting up groups on linkedin is extremely easy. Maybe too easy. There are loads that are clearly blatant attempts at building a database without giving anything in return. The magicians suggest an all together different approach. Create a group that explores problems that your service can potentially solve but don’t brand it as from your company. Offer real advice, for free, that will solve your prospects problems. Then invite one by one your target market. Those who accept the invitation are pre-qualifying themselves. Wow!

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