Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

Today, you're getting a hot and juicy marketing interview that I did for my pal Craig Price, host of the terrific podcast series, Reality Check. 

Click here to listen in.

Criticisms, scathing remarks, bitter complaints? Awesome - Craig loves to get those. 

Comments, kudos, or congratulations? Leave THOSE in the COMMENTS section below and let's hear from YOU... 

Closing effectively is all about answering this question: "What can you do to minimize the risk to the prospect of buying your product or service?"

Look at all the products out on the market that offer risk-free, money back guarantees. Do you offer guarantees, warrantees, refunds, free trials or make-ups?

In today’s “do more with less” business environment, many economic decision-makers have a new top priority – and it’s NOT “Making the very best choice.”

It is “Not making a mistake that will cost me my job.”

If you can reassure someone with this mindset that buying from you is smart and safe and risk-free, you will automatically close more sales.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• How can I provide a free version of my product or service?
• What can I learn from the auto industry’s new trend of “the 24-hour test drive”?
• What does the buyer have to lose if they buy from me?
• What do they have to gain?
• How can I ensure the buyer’s success – not just their satisfaction?
• How can I employ the concept of risk-reversal – meaning that the risk is all on my side if they don’t achieve success?

When most sales training programs talk about overcoming objections, they usually don’t discuss the real objections that are in most buyers’ minds. These are things like:

• "I don’t trust you"
• "I don’t believe this will get the results you say it will"
• "This sounds too good to be true"
• "If this works, I would have heard of this solution already"
• "Who says so besides you?"

You should understand (and expect) that people probably will not trust you in the beginning of the sales process.

They have been sold stuff all their lives “against their will.”

They bought the steak knives, the late-night infomercial real estate program, the Girl Scout cookies, the raffle ticket, or the used car and regretted it later. (OK maybe not the cookies.) Trust has to be earned over time.

To address these aspects of buyer resistance, you can use a battery of smart sales tools.

You may be using some of these already, but the more you pile on, the more effective they will be.

Start to collect, document, and use:

• Client testimonials (letters are good; audio and video are even better)
• Awards and industry recognition of your product/service
• Press clippings and articles mentioning you or your clients using your product/service
• Objective, fact-based side-by-side comparisons with competing products/services
• Cost analyses and comparisons between using your product/service, using the competition, doing it themselves, and doing nothing

All of these items will help you reduce risk, build credibility, and pave the way for closing more sales - even to your toughest prospects!

Tags: Marketing speaker, marketing coach, close more sales, marketing for speakers, marketing for authors, professional services marketing, selling professional services

What do YOU think? Please use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, insights and recommendations on these ideas and join the conversation...

Email.

We all get too much. 

We all spend too much time writing, replying, sorting and processing. 

Here's one tactic that will help you - in some cases, immensely.

It's a simple three-word email.

You'll get it in a moment... 

First, more about the problem... Face it: Sometimes you get caught up in replying to emails that do not need a reply. 

You leave open loops. 

You're not sure if NOT replying would seem rude. 

And sometimes you're replying to a reply, confirming a confirmation or thanking someone for a thank you. 

This type of email is totally unnecessary.

And, as you know, the best way to cut down on the number of emails you RECEIVE is to first cut down on the number of emails that you SEND. 

The second best way is to adopt an email template that clearly indicates you acknowledge the other person's reply and that you do NOT need further communication about it. 

Here's the three-word email I suggest you begin to use... 

"Awesome - perfect - thank you."

This email note does a few things for you: 

1. Makes it clear the message was received

2. Gives thanks

3. Makes it clear that no further response is needed WITHOUT being curt, short, or rude. 

My acronym for this email is A-P-T: Awesome - Perfect - Thank you

Try it and see if you begin to see a more streamlined email inbox with less back and forth, less wasted time, and less "email for the sake of email." 

Rock on - and leave a COMMENT below to share your success stories using this APT email...

Here's another in my 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...

Top 5 Tips for Twitter:

1. Listen and learn. As with other social media, the most important first step is to listen to the conversations. See what people are talking about in your industry on Twitter. The daily thoughts of so many people can be an incredibly rich source of new ideas for products and services.
2. Publish valuable news and information. Only after you've listened and understand the style and etiquette of Twitter communications should you consider creating an account and posting content. An easy starting point is to publish regular news and updates that you already distribute via other channels.
3. Distribute promotions. Some companies are finding that Twitter is an effective channel for sending out promotional messages. Timely sales and coupons are easy to distribute on Twitter, and the fast nature of the Twitterverse means that people can respond to the promotions quickly. Note: Keep offers and promotions to LESS than 20% of your tweets, otherwise you'll come off like a sleazy peddler rather than a trusted partner. 
4. Create or extend your brand personality. Ultimately, Twitter is far more valuable for distributing your brand personality than it is for merely delivering your content. Social media is social. Be a person first. 
5. Engage in conversations and customer service. Twitter is about conversations, not monologues. Twitter is about talking with people, not merely at them. Engage, thank, respond and reciprocate.
    

Top 5 Tips for LinkedIn:

1. Use LinkedIn Groups & stimulate new leads daily with value-first outreach.
2. Ask questions & build your credibility using LinkedIn status updates.
3. Create powerful events and promote them to relevant groups.
4. Run an advanced search to find buyers, prospects, and advocates in your target market.
5. Once you find leads, send personalized messages and connect 1-to-1 as real people, not as “targets.”
    

Top 5 Tips for Facebook:

1. Define your target market. Every online effort that will actually get you results starts with knowing exactly who your perfect clients are.
2. Connect with people in your target market. For every action you take on Facebook, ask yourself how doing this helps you connect and network with people in your target market.
3. Get and stay active. Facebook marketing will only work for you if you are active. Don't engage in "drive-by" activity and expect long-term results.
4. Share valuable tips and ideas. A big part of your Facebook marketing should be promoting and sharing your expertise – not pitching and peddling your wares
5. Start a Facebook business page. Start one if you don't have one yet. It's a great forum for discussion, answering questions, and building community.
    

Your Simple Social Media Marketing Plan:

Here is exactly what you need to do - step by step - to help you and your organization maximize the basics in your social media gameplan:

• Calendarize your social media tactics in less than 30 minutes a day
• Organize your social media priorities behind one of three main purposes (sharing resources, building relationships, engaging in reciprocity)
• Operationalize your social media game plan with time-saving tools such as TweetAdder, BufferApp, and ping.fm
• Leverage and grow the impact of all your social media efforts and assets

Remember – if you start small, stick to your plan and your calendar, learn as you go, and adjust your game plan based on your results, your social media strategies WILL pay off for you and for your organization!

Tags: Marketing speaker, marketing coach, social media gameplan, top 5 social media tips, marketing for speakers, marketing for authors

What do YOU think? Please use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, insights and recommendations on effectively using social media WITHOUT going bonkers...

Do you sell to chief executives, presidents, and corporate bigwigs? 

If so, chances are good you're doing it wrong. Here's why... and later in this post, you'll get some tools to start doing much MUCH better FAST...

The reason you're not getting the appointments you want or capturing the interest you need from senior executives and CEOs is that you're selling functional ideas to strategic people.

The last thing - and I mean DEAD LAST thing - that any chief executive cares about is the "how" of solving a particular problem.

You've seen the cliche in a hundred different movies of the top dog barking at an underling in the board room - "I don't care HOW you do it. Just get it done."

But when it comes to selling, we sellers and marketers are soooo in love with our "How."

What you need to focus on is the "Why" and then immediately jump to results and outcomes. 

But not just ANY results and outcomes - the results and outcomes that your CEO prospects are publicly, permanently and strategically committed to achieving. 

Not sure exactly what results or outcomes your top executive prospects care about? 

Don't guess... educate yourself. 

Here are links to some online and offline resources (magazines, annual lists, websites, books) that you should buy, download, read and integrate into your marketing game plan so that you can sell much more effectively to CEOs and other C-level buyers:

ARTICLES and WEB LISTINGS:

Harvard Business Review - Top 100 CEOs

Fortune Most Admired Companies

Fortune Best Companies to Work For

50 Most Powerful Women in Business

2013 NAFE Top 50 Companies for Executive Women

BOOKS:

The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success

What Got You Here Won't Get You There

The NEW Secrets of CEOs: 200 Global Chief Executives on Leading

The CEO Code 

The moment YOU start talking CEO Language about CEO Problems is the moment you start to earn their attention, their trust, and - eventually - their business. 

Tags: Marketing speaker, marketing coach, sales, selling, CEO language

What do YOU think? Please use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, insights and recommendations on effectively selling to CEOs and corporate executives...

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, clients often ask me for branding and naming advice to help create a great company name.

Names like...

• The Cookie Machine
• The Video Advisor
• CareerNavigator
• SalesGPS
• The Coffee Hangout
• Guitars After Dark
• The Fitness Foundry

I've seen solopreneurs and companies go through the branding/naming (or re-branding/re-naming) process smoothly and efficiently in less than a week - and I've also seen train wrecks that needlessly dragged on for months. 

How to get started

First, take a look at two blog posts to help you set the stage for an easy, effortless, enjoyable naming and branding process: 

Instant Branding Toolkit

Building Your Brand Sandwich

How not to screw it up

Here are some ideas to dig into for the "how" or "do's and don'ts" of the naming process...

1. At first, sit down with your leadership team. No spouses. No customers. No low-level employees. 5 people maximum.
2. Generate ideas for your raw branding/naming "building blocks" (as outlined in my "Instant Branding Toolkit" blog post)
3. Work over the list until you have 10 strong candidates.
4. Whittle the list down by eliminating 5 of them - the process is "1 vote to eliminate." If there are no objections from the rest of the group, it's gone. If there are objections, then it is up to those individuals to argue the case for "saving" that name until the vote is unanimous either way. This voting/defending process makes things go MUCH faster. And it gets you to focus on much stronger names faster. 
5. With your top 5 candidates, do a customer survey. Not your spouse, your brother-in-law, your Uncle Marvin who used to be an ad agency exec, not your sister who is a brand manager for Tide. Actual, real, live customers. 
6. Take the top 2 scoring names from the customer survey and do an in-house survey with your own team. Use ONLY customer-facing executives. Sales reps are great. Customer service people are great. Field service people are great. Ask them two simple questions: 1. "Given what you know of our customers and prospects, which one of these two names will resonate with them the most?" 2. "Why?" 
7. Compile your results, make your decision, announce your winner, and start your transition to your new name. 

Boom - done!

Here's a piece I submitted to CMO magazine. 

Wanted to share it with YOU first because, heck, you deserve to see it before a whole bunch of corporate dudes get their hands on this info, take it into meetings, and debate it for months before deciding not to implement any of it... Ya dig?

The lesson? Action creates traction... so GO, GO, GO!!!

Top 10 Marketing Secrets

1. There is NO secret - it's just hard work, good luck, and a great team
2. Social isn't marketing. Social is social. Marketing is marketing. Doing one and expecting the others' result is probably the #1 cause of heartaches, headaches and disappointment.
3. It's all about the basics - always has been, always will be. Now more than ever.
4. B2B and B2C are different animals - yes, really. Thus, genius in one can make for a train wreck in the other.
5. Marketing's main client is sales. Boom!
6. There is no industry or market sector where thought leadership isn't going to make a huge difference to your success. HUGE.
7. We've been saying this for a decade but still so few are doing it: stop "spreading messages" and focus more on starting conversations. Real, open, 2-way conversations with the public, the media, consumers, clients, influencers, and friends (real ones, not the ones on Facebook).
8. The more you rely on third-party platforms like Facebook, the less stable and more endangered your brand becomes. Build traffic on your own properties where you have 100% control of what's visible and what's not, who can see what and when and for how long, and how content and community are built and nurtured.
9. Good, creative, smart advertising has always worked. It's not about where you see it - it's about what you see. And how much it makes you think, smile and act.
10. Stop following the herd - we need more leaders. Stop reading Top 10 lists like this one - and start writing your own. Stop blathering on about your products and services - and start telling real stories about real customers making real improvements in their real lives because you were there. 

Late to the party but still ready to have fun... share smart marketing ideas... and put money in YOUR pocket...  

Please give a warm welcome to...

The Do It! Marketing podcast!!!

In this episode, my guest is author and professional speaker Jim Matthis. 

Jim is an international Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), business strategist and best-selling author. He helps business leaders who want to reinvent their businesses in changing economic climates.

Jim is also the author of the best-selling book: “Reinvention Made Easy: Change Your Strategy, Change Your Results,” and “Reinvention 101: Bold Ideas for Reinvention.”

Jim talks with me about the business of speaking AND how executives and entrepreneurs can punch through the noise and sell more effectively - even to prospects who are lazy, busy, and befuddled!

Listen in and then share YOUR advice, insights and recommendations in the COMMENTS area below... 

Where did that lead come from?

"It came out of the blue..."

How did that customer find you?

"They found us out of the blue..."

What made them call?

"They called out of the blue..."

How many times have you heard yourself give these types of answers?

Hmmm... me too.

Until last night when I was having dinner with The Hot One™ - aka my lovely bride of 27 years.

I was telling her about a brand new client and she asked me, "How did they find you?" and I instinctively answered, "I dunno - they found me out of the blue."

By the way, this is a terrible answer for a marketing guy to give.

I should know exactly how and why my specific marketing activities attract specific clients but I must admit things have been going fast and furious around here lately so I've lost track. A good problem to have - but a problem nonetheless...

Back to dinner with The Hot One™ - she looks over at me, pauses meaningfully and says... 

"There is no blue."

Ouch. And she's right. So she made me think harder - look harder - connect the dots - to where and how this client came to me. 

This is a terrific reminder for YOU, too... 

There is no blue.

So here are 12 potential sources of "blue" -- inbound leads, prospects and referrals. You need to work harder at identifying, specifying, and inquiring about these when GOOD prospects come your way. And even more so when - like in my situation yesterday - good prospects become clients!

1. Google (or other search engines)
2. Your articles in hardcopy publications (industry magazines, trade journals, association publications)
3. Your articles posted online (guest blogs, contributed columns, niche industry websites)
4. Your social media accounts (Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, etc.)
5. Your blog
6. Your personal network (friends, family, colleagues)
7. A referral (current client, past client, or non-client fan/influencer)
8. Directories and listings (online, offline)
9. Your speaking engagements (local, regional, national, fee or free)
10. Your videos (on your website or sites like YouTube, Vimeo, etc.)
11. Your teleseminars (the ones you host or where you're the guest)
12. Your media interviews (TV, radio, print)

Become fanatical about connecting new customers and clients to specific marketing channels. 

Put a sign up on your office wall to remind you if necessary... 

There is NO blue!

Tags: Marketing speaker, marketing coach, thought leadership marketing, lead generation

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!