Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

Snappy.

Concise.

Quick.

Here's a video to demonstrate: 

The awesome Yosef Klein who works at Click and Market in my old stomping grounds of Brooklyn NY sent me the following picture of the poster he created from my blog post titled 101 Success Tips in 3 Words. 

Check this out: 

Isn't this what we are all after when it comes to marketing YOUR awesomeness? 

Don't YOU want people putting posters up in their offices of YOUR ideas, tips, content and inspiration?

Damn... I know I do... 

I know Yosef does...

And you probably do as well. 

So here are 11 observations, learnings and ideas for YOU to make this happen in YOUR business.

1. People love lists. 
2. People love encouragement.
3. People love brevity.
4. People love audacity.
5. People love connection.
6. People love visuals.
7. People love quirkiness.
8. People love insights.
9. People love personalization.
10. People love specificity.
11. People love fun.

And thank you, Yosef. 

Dude - you made my day, my week AND my month.

You rock.

I appreciate you. 

_______

Tags: Marketing Speaker, Marketing Coach, Word of Mouth Marketing

What do YOU think? Use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, insights and recommendations on how YOU create content that is more shareable, more spreadable, more findable and more poster-ific!

Here's the first in a series of marketing and business book reviews - but not just any old business books.

Fire starters...

Game changers...

Show stoppers...

Books that will transform the way you think about your work, about your business, and - yes - about your life.

Ready? Take a look...

What do you think? Please leave a COMMENT below to share your experiences with this book, with this author, or with other game changing books that YOU recommend...

No step is too small...

No effort goes unnoticed...

So just TAKE the first step...

MAKE the initial effort...

Because action gives you traction. 

Two quick things for you:

1. NEW Group on LinkedIn for "Professionals Who Speak"- if you're a speaker, author, independent professional, corporate executive or entrepreneur, the conversations, resources and people you'll connect with here are top-notch.

We are up to over 300 members in just over 5 weeks. Great community and great content is being posted and discussed daily.

Join us here: http://bit.ly/LI-ProSpeak 

2. We still have a few seats open for next week's zero-cost teleseminar called "Product Development Roadmap." If you or someone in your circle is looking to write a book, produce audio, video, or online assets, package a coaching or consulting program, or otherwise "productize" your expertise, this may be worth a look. Especially because it's FREE...

Register here:

http://www.doitmarketing.com/product-development-roadmap 

Have a great weekend!

1. Drink more water.
2. Watch less TV.
3. Action makes traction.
4. Try new things.
5. Hang in there. 
6. Get better daily.
7. Begin with enthusiasm. 
8. Finish with flair.
9. Celebrate small wins.
10. Eliminate wasted steps.
11. Aim higher sooner.
12. Never stop learning.
13. Start fresh today.
14. Write that letter. 
15. Practice deep listening.
16. Pay yourself first.
17. Seize the day.
18. Cashflow is king.
19. Life is good.
20. Eat more vegetables.
21. Thank your Mom.
22. Make others shine.
23. Ask me anything.
24. Think WAY bigger.
25. Focus your energies.
26. Now beats later.
27. Tweet more often.
28. Zig don't zag.
29. Marketing comes first.  
30. Hug your kids. 
31. Content before commerce.
32. Never sell alone. 
33. Don't get distracted.
34. Always ask "Why?"
35. Amp it up!
36. How doesn't matter.
37. Invite and engage.
38. You're already there. 
39. Make silly faces.
40. Get off email.
41. See the sunrise.
42. Simplify, eliminate, outsource.
43. Kiss your dog.
44. Fascinate to dominate.
45. Write it down. 
46. Keep on truckin'!
47. Love your clients.
48. Ask for help.
49. Value follows fee.
50. Never give up.
51. Decide, organize, act.
52. Sharpen your edge.
53. Lose some weight.
54. Hammer it out.
55. Doodle more often.
56. Drink hot coffee.
57. Expand your circles.
58. Consider crazy alternatives.
59. Chinese food rocks!
60. Use beautiful things.
61. Not so fast. 
62. Get a massage.
63. Unlock, unblock, unleash
64. Go for no. 
65. Blow 'em away.
66. More chocolate, please.
67. Fill your buckets. 
68. Don't shy away.
69. Give more generously.
70. Don't be scared.
71. Freshen it up. 
72. Go play outside. 
73. Thank your heroes.
74. Respond, don't react.
75. Sing real loud.
76. Schedule "me" time.
77. Bake a cake.
78. Live the dream.
79. Invest in yourself.
80. Fall in love. 
81. Seek the truth.
82. Avoid the obvious. 
83. Laminate your kudos.
84. Birds gotta fly. 
85. Fish gotta swim.
86. Potential ain't performance. 
87. Relationships are perishable. 
88. Kill your television.
89. Make that call. 
90. Hire the weirdo.
91. Speak more honestly.
92. Track your progress. 
93. Decisions drive momentum.
94. Take notes everywhere.
95. Look further ahead.
96. Stop playing small.
97. Sell the dream.
98. Deliver the goods. 
99. Never shortchange yourself.
100. You're so ready.
101. DO IT. Now!

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, my clients often ask me for advice on sales.

Naturally, this makes a ton of sense because the MORE and BETTER marketing you do, the FASTER and EASIER your sales process becomes. 

BUT... 

Nothing frustrates me more than when my clients DO a lot of the great marketing we work on together ONLY TO BLOW IT during the sales process!

So... don't let this happen to YOU. 

Let's talk about what you need to close the deal: the steps you need to get from the first solid marketing conversation to the final signed contract.

Depending on your particular business, this could take anywhere from 10 days from first contact all the way up to a year or more. The sales process can be a long and winding road.

BUT there are several factors totally within your control that make it go faster and easier.

The most important one - by far - is asking smart questions early and often.

Think about it: delays in your sales process come from one main source...

Surprises.

You don’t want surprises on their end - and they don’t like surprises on your end.

Each surprise or question or unexpected element can add anywhere from a week to a month to your sales process - and you don’t want that.

Understanding this, you’ll want to ask them some key selling questions early on in your conversations and throughout at every major step and milestone.

Let’s cover them together now so you can begin using these 21 killer sales questions to close more deals - more easily and more often.

1. If you were to decide this is a good idea, how do you buy things like this?
2. How do you implement?
3. What should I know about your timing? Signoffs?
4. When do you budget for things like this?
5. Do you think this deal is going to work?
6. What’s missing or what should we add?
7. Are you going to pitch it?
8. What else do you need to see from me?
9. Can I help you put together some numbers?
10. Do you have some numbers I could include?
11. Who else besides you will be making this decision?
12. Are “they” going to like it?
13. WHAT are they going to like?
14. WHAT are they going to push back on?
15. What else is going to be in our way?
16. How would YOU respond to that?
17. What answers do you need from me to so you’re prepared to answer their questions?
18. How much detail do YOU want?
19. How much detail will THEY want?
20. Are there any surprises we should be prepared for?
21. If this were just you and me, how excited would you be to move ahead on a scale of 0-10?

Hint: If they answer 9 or 10 - you’re good; If they answer 7 or 8 - ask, "What would need to change to get us closer to 10?" If they answer 6 or less, you have a problem. Go for no with “I don’t think we can make this work. Do you?”

Be relentless and follow up like a friendly bulldog.

Never let an active prospect get more than 10 days away from you.

Always show up in their world like a happy squeaky wheel: Circle back. Send more value. Ask more questions. Offer more engagement. Invite further dialogue. Come back with more ideas to genuinely help them. 

More and better and faster sales will follow.

I guarantee it.

And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!

In Part 1 of this article, I shared the seven challenges that most speakers, authors, experts AND thought-leading corporate executives face when trying to boost their visibility and credibility as professionals who speak. 

Here are a few recommendations to upgrade or fix any gaps in your speaker and expert brand so that you are positioned and ready to approach more and better speaking venues to showcase your expertise.

1. Do a website makeover. Hire a pro from Elance.com and ask them to work on a new header graphic for your website and do a graphic overhaul to make your site more visually appealing and professional. This should cost you less than $500 - sometimes as little as $300.
2. Need more testimonials? Look to your Linkedin profile - you may have some recommendations there that could easily be copied/pasted. Look in your paper files for written evaluations or letters/notes you’ve received. If you’re low on all of these... simply ASK people who know your work to write a few lines. Or help them out by writing it for them and inviting them to edit/tweak.
3. To get quoted in mainstream media and industry publications, you must, MUST join PRLeads.com - it is the fastest, cheapest and most reliable way to get quoted and interviewed by the media. You may also want to look into PressReleaseSender.com which guarantees online placement in over 100 high-traffic mainstream media sites.
4. For your blog, the simplest recommendation I can give you is - start. Your blog is truly the centerpiece of your online presence. Without it, you’re a nobody. Blog frequently - 2-3 times per week is ideal. Blogs can be short, medium or long. Doesn’t matter - just share insightful information, make smart recommendations, engage your readers and have fun with it. There’s no shortcut here. Do it now and you’ll thank me later.
5. Social media accounts are something that buyers are looking at more and more. Even though at the same time, people are starting to question the true ROI dollars-and-cents value of social media, it IS a metric and (like it or not - valid or not) buyers DO measure your credibility by it. So start using some social media automation tools like Hootsuite or TweetAdder and your numbers will start to increase more quickly and consistently.
6. Speaking is another must - as you know, a big part of my life is to work with both professional speakers AND professionals who speak to increase the quality and quantity of their speaking engagements. Buyers look at your speaking schedule as part of your overall platform - if you’re not getting out there, they’re going to think, “Houston, we have a problem.”
7. Interviews and profiles by other experts is easy - instead of seeking the media, spend part of your time BECOMING the media. In other words, YOU start to invite the thought-leaders and experts whom YOU respect to be interviewed by you. You can do these by phone or Skype or even email. The more you feature and leverage other people, the more your own "thought leadership platform" will grow.
8. BONUS: Creating and publishing original research, surveys and reports. This is so much easier than many people think. The bottom line is that experts do research. Something as simple as a LinkedIn poll or your own SurveyMonkey survey to collect and gather statistics, analysis, trends in your industry or in your topic expertise. It’s also a great excuse to get on the phone and reach out to your perfect prospects - not to sell them anything but to interview them for your research project. Rapport builds from there - relationships grow - and soon you’ll have the top 20 decision-makers in your field knowing your name and willing to take your call. THAT is the power of original research.

As you know, most of my work is dedicated to boosting the success of entrepreneurial and executive speakers - meaning, both professional speakers AND professionals who speak. 

Whether you are a professional speaker, author, or high-fee expert OR a thought-leading corporate executive, your marketing success depends on developing a personal brand with some pretty serious horsepower.

Not necessarily superstar celebrity status, but you also can’t look like you’re fresh off the pumpkin truck.

So what does that mean?

Let’s do a quick audit of your assets and resources:

1. Is your website strong and credible with bold graphics and professional design?
2. Do you have an abundance of testimonials and third-party endorsements?
3. Are you regularly quoted in the mainstream media and industry publications?
4. Is your blog top-quality and updated regularly? (You do have a blog, right?)
5. Are your social media accounts current, updated regularly and growing?
6. Are you speaking regularly at local, regional and national events?
7. Are you getting interviewed and profiled by other experts in your field?
8. (Bonus) Are you creating and publishing original research, surveys and reports?

Now at this point, I’ve scared almost everyone... Sounds like an awful lot of work, doesn't it?

My encouragement to you is this - DON’T give up.

ALL of these assets and resources can be beefed up and made ready for prime time with a little bit of concerted effort and perhaps some outside help and guidance.

Tomorrow, I'll give you step-by-step guidance on how to get started on each of these.

Until then, please us the COMMENTS area below to share your insights and experiences building up your own levels of speaker marketing success...

In this final installment of New Year Goodness... you're getting my top picks of marketing must-read info, strategies, templates and tools. 

Why?

Simple... 

So you CAN (and WILL!) make 2013 your best year yet. 

Is this just more smoke and mirrors and hokey motivation?

Nope - it's a 12-pack of "Real Deal" marketing tools that you can review over a weekend (ahem... maybe even THIS weekend?) and start to implement bright and early Monday morning. 

Ready? 

Here we go...

Most popular posts:

1. Marketing Coach: 17 Ways to Drive More Traffic FAST
2. Email Blast: Creating subject lines that pack punch
3. 23 things to say when you're asked for "free consulting"
4. Small Business Marketing Coach: Developing Customer Intimacy
5. Referral Blurbs - Marketing Coach Tip
6. Marketing Coach: How to Write Your Kickass Bio (12 Tips and Example)
7. Social Media Scripts: Tips from a Marketing Coach
   
   

Hidden treasures:

1. Marketing Coach: 33 Ways to Make 2013 Your Best Year Yet
2. Professional Services Marketing: Speaking to Attract New Clients
3. Marketing Concept: Use these headline techniques if you dare
4. 5 Signs that Your Prospect is Giving You Too Much Bullsh*t
5. Business Coach: 50 Reasons People Should Buy from YOU
   
   

Ah, heck - I can't resist giving you THIS one...

The (REAL) Idiot's Guide to Social Media Marketing

And one more for good luck:

Marketing Speaker Tip: Erase. Start Fresh. Kick Ass

p.s. As you review these, please share YOUR advice, insights and recommendations in the COMMENTS section for each of these blogs. Even if the posts are older, I always see new comments as you post them -- so I'd love to generate discussions with YOU on how you can max out these ideas in 2013 for YOUR business!