Dos Equis Ads

So I had to comment on Dos Equis commercials....I think they are extremely effect and have launched a brand that would have not have been as well known. There are a couple of reasons that it is as effective including..

1- Built an interesting character
2- Interesting story line
3- Good Graphics
4- Well thought out actor selection

Shawn White Joint Marketing

Red Bull does a great job of marketing without even mentioning their product. I can probably buy a product/energy drink that is better for me, but it probably won't make me feel as cool as Red Bull.

Effective Thanksgiving Message

Here is an effective message I have found...

1- Funny
2- Interesting
3- Logical Argument
4- Great Conclusion
5- Good Timing / Relevant Timing

I thought they explained there

Enthusiasm vs Experience

Here is an article analysing the loss of Sharon Angle

Great Arcile Written About the Sharon Angle Lost


I think it is interesting to analyze sales and marketing principles in different settings. When Sharon Angle was running for Senate she had every thing going for her including political momentum, popular message, and running against an unpopular incumbent, but wasn't able to win. The article lays out why Sharon Angle lost and explains the importance of Experience and Enthusiasm.

Why Meg Whitman lost

Here is another great article on why Meg Whitman lost...


http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/What-Loss-of-Competent-Uber-Rich-Meg-Whitman-Says-About-American-Politics-5645

Sales Technique Eliminating Distractions

Here is an interesting article about Oprah looking at a home.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1330965/Oprah-Winfrey-eyes-magnificent-New-Jersey-mansion.html

What is interesting is the sales technique that was used on Oprah...

Executive Leadership

1- Knew what she was doing
2- Ability to confront situation and what the right thing to do is
3- Do things the right way
4- Be efficient and frugal as possible
5- Bring people together to solve it
6- Problem solver
7- Listens to people around her and look at different points of view
8- Makes people feel heard and valued

Anyway those were some quick quotes from this campaign ad. As I have been working on a start up company I have thought a lot about Executive Leadership. Here is a quick link to a great site on leadership...http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leader.html

The web site on leadership talks about the three principles of Leadership

1- Be
2- Know
3- Do

Social Intelligence Leadership

Here is an interesting clip I found on leadership. How many people have bosses that they don't like? A lot of people don't like their bosses, but why? I think it has to do with the lack of social intelligence in most workplaces. The video will explain how to be more socially intelligent as a leader.

Billy Mays TV Seller

Billy Mays was a classic, he had a unique talent to build rapport with an audience, build excitement, and close a lot of sales. Here are five tips and product essentials that Billy used as outlined in the video.

1- It must solve a problem
2- It must have mass appeal
3- It must be unique
4- It must offer instant gratification
5- It must be demonstrable

By following these product essentials Billy was able to sell a lot of different products and become one of the most famous pitchmen.

Don't Criticize, Condemn, Or Complain

Here is another principle from Dale Carnegie's book How to Win Friends and Influence People. In my experience I have found that people want to be around happy, excited, energetic people as opposed to negative, pessimistic, and un-energetic people.

Enjoy

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

I read this book the first time a couple of years ago and I have been really trying to incorporate its principles in my business. Over the next couple of weeks I will cover the series of principles I have learned from the book.

Today I would like to talk about;...

"Arouse in the other person an eager want"

Basically this means you want to create a desire in the other person to want something you have or to want you to do something for you. Now this is easier said than done, there have been many people who have read the book, but few who can master it. Here are some steps to mastering it...

1- Know what the person wants
2- Present yourself in a way that will attract the person to you, your product, or service
3- Follow the sales process...1- Build Rapport, 2- Provide Value, & 3- Close the Sale
4- Execute...it is easy to read the blog and think of how it should be done, but it is quite different to do it in the real world.

Good Luck!

Leadership

Another bit of wisdom from Art of War Sun Tzu


"When the common soldiers are too strong and their officers too weak, the result is insubordination. When the officers are too strong and the common soldiers too weak, the result is collapse. "

When you are a leader you need to be in a position where you have the personal attributes, knowledge, experience, and follow through/execution to have your people want to follow you and get the most out of them.

175 Million Spent and a loss

So this last week was election week as most people should know. The election that got most of my attention was the Governor election for California. It was a fascinating match up between a former Governor and a Billionaire. The political tide was totally shifted towards the Billionaire with the populous favoring her policies and many national elections going towards her party. She had the political momentum, the message and spent nearly 200 million dollars of her own money.....but still lost.

So why did she lose.......here is an excellent article analyzing her loss, but the quick summary is she was not able to follow the sales process to complete the sale.

She did not build rapport, trust, or credibility with the people of California, she did not provide value in form of a message, most people were distracted by the amount of money she spent, and she didn't close the sale. Personally, I wanted her to win, but she didn't.


Here is a link to a story about Meg Whitman's losing political campaign...


http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-steinberg-whitman-20101104,0,2090320.story

Art of War 6 Pride

Another Great Quote from "Art of War" Sun Tzu

"He who exercises no forethought but makes light of his opponents is sure to be captured by them. "

Business Strategy, Market Strategy, and Product strategy is a constant struggle, new competitors are entering the market and old competitors are becoming smarter and innovating. The customer benefits and the company needs to adapt because loyalty is becoming less and less important. If we treat our competitors & customers lightly then we will lose.

Art of War 5 Leadership

I read this from Art of War this morning and it reminded me of the essential elements of leadership.

"There are five dangerous faults which may affect a general: (1) Recklessness, which leads to destruction; (2) cowardice, which leads to capture; (3) a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults; (4) a delicacy of honor which is sensitive to shame; (5) over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble."


The three elements of leadership are:

1- Be: Do you have the personal attributes to be an effective leader?
2- Know: Do you know what to do? A leader without knowledge will look foolish
3- Do: You need to act, no one will respect a leader who doesn't act.

If you can follow the three elements of leadership and overcome the faults, then you can become an effective leader.

Communication The 4th Element

I continue to blog about communication because I think it is the most important part of business. There are  three aspects of communication namely:

1- What you say?
2- How you say it?
3- Body Language

While communicating with others these three components can make or break relationships.

 However, I believe there is a fourth aspect of communication.

4- Why?

         Why you said it.
         Why you said it that way.
         Why your body language was that way when you said it.

The 4th element explains your motive for communicating.  Understanding the why helps you communicate better and develops good business relationships.
Here is a quick video on understanding the motive...

Art of War 4

Continuing with my Art of War quotes


"Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:
(1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
(2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
(3) He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
 (5) He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign. "

The same strategies used in war can be implemented in Sales and Marketing.

1- Pick your battles. 
2- Prepare for every opponent the same
3- Motivate all of your people the same
4- Stay prepared wait for when the person is unprepared
5- Allow the people in the battle to make the major decisions and don't interfere.

I should have a couple more quotes to come in the future

"Cargo Cult"

So I came across the term "Cargo Cult" and I decided to research it and find out what it was....I did my wiki search and it was fascinating to read about these cults near Papua New Guinea. Basically they are tribes/cults in this area that are waiting for cargo to fall from the sky. Cargo did fall from the sky anciently when the US army would drop cargo during WW 2 in the area and the tribes would benefit greatly. The tribes would also benefit from visits of missionaries and other humanitarian aid.

These tribes believe that this "Cargo" comes from the sky and their previous ancestors and it is a spiritual manifestation. Because of this belief the tribe will erect items that will bring this cargo to them and wait. This includes airstrips, fake airplanes, and radio tower.

How many of us are a "Cargo Cult"? When we think that things will magically appear if we do things that are similar to what is necessary to produce the cargo ourselves. Instead of producing the cargo ourselves we wait for the cargo to drop from the sky.

Art of War 3

So I didn't plan on doing a lot of Art of War posts here on the blog, but I keep coming up with great quotes from the book. Here is the latest...

"He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious."
Sun Tzu

If you can identify your strength's, weaknesses, and readiness then you will be successful. Sometimes you need to pick your battles in your company because you have limited resources and need to select the best opportunity.

Enjoy!

Art of War Numero Dos

Here is another interesting quote from Art of War...

Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles
is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists
in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

This reminds me of a political axiom which states "If you are explaining you are losing" George Will. If you need to explain things after a situation has already happened then you run the risk of not communicating properly, misunderstandings, losing credibility, and losing a client. People want to keep things simple and work with people who will simplify things and make them easy to understand.

This brings us to a second quote..I actually would credit to myself.."I would rather troubleshoot than problem solve because it is a lot less painful"

If you can go into a situation with a potential sale or client and you can create reasonable expectations and identify potential difficulties then the experience will go a lot better. When you are trying to troubleshoot the challenge will be to win your client's trust and have them believe you about potential problems.

Art of War

Sun Tzu's Art of War is quickly becoming one of my favorite books it was written in the 6th Century BC as a military strategy book. There are so many good insights on how to formulate strategy and overcome an adversary based on common sense and experience. One thing I have done lately is to see how I can apply many of the quotes into my business. One of the interesting quotes I came across is:

"If you know both yourself and your enemy, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss"

I don't think it is a good idea to think of your customers as enemies, but if you truly understand your customers needs, wants, compliments, complaints and understand them, you will be more effective.

Now the hard thing is to understand how to understand yourself and customer.

Company Self Presentation

How does your company present itself? You may have the best product or service in the world, but if you lack image then you won't get anywhere. There are three things you need to establish with your new clients.

1. Trust
2. Credibility
3. Rapport

Each of these items will allow your company to become a company that will impress your potential customers and help them want to work with you.

As mentioned in the video, one way to build trust is to tell a story. One thing you may consider is to tell a story that will illustrate the benefits of your product or service.

Social Intelligence

After reading the book Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman I discovered that Social Intelligence can be more important than IQ.  People care more about their relationships with others than their book smarts. 

There are basically 2 sections of Social Intelligence that  improve business.

Social Awareness:

1. Primal Empathy
2. Attunement
3. Empathic Accuracy
4. Social Cognition

Social Facility

1. Synchrony
2. Self Presentation
3. Influence
4. Concern

If you master these steps you are more effective in the work place, with potential clients, and future clients.

How are you?

When people ask me how I am doing I give one of two answers with a smile on my face ...

1. Really Good
2. Really Well

These answers create interesting results. First people stop me and ask me what I am doing to feel really well. Secondly, they are suprised by my answer because it isn't one of the normal answers they hear such as.

1. Fine
2. Good
3. OK

Lastly, they smile or laugh. I found people want to be around someone who is positive and confident. They want to know my secret and get it for themselves. I don't usually buy into the hype of just think positive and things work out, but for some reason these simple answers to "How are you doing" just makes people curious.

Marketing Vs Sales

To maximize sales in your company it is important to create collaboration  between the marketing and sales team.  The first step to this symbiotic relationship is to understand the functions of each.

Marketing:

1. Develops Product
2. Creates Product Mix
3. Identifies Target Market
4. Develops Marketing Mix
5. Places, Promotes, Prices, Places ( Distribution)
6. Modifies Marketing Mix to address needs of target market

Sales:

1. Builds Rapport
2. Provides Value
3. Closes the sale

Each team could not exist without the other. A good marketing plan creates a product that is desired.  This makes the life of the sales team easier; however, marketing does not close a sale.  This requires a professional sales person equipped with people skills, confidence, communication skills, and follow up.  By understanding each function and developing  respect between the marketing and sales team, sales can be maximized.

Following Up

After someone has visited your web site, signed up for your service, or asked to receive more information it is now time to follow up with them.

Key Points to Following up

1. About 1 time per month
2. Provide Valuable Content
3. Provide an offer or discount
4. Direct people back to web site
5. Have tracking system to see if e-mails are opened
6. Intriguing Subject Line
7. Talk about success of company

Things to Avoid

1. Too many e-mails
2. Poorly scripted e-mails
3. Non-Deliverable e-mails

By following up the correct way your web strategy is more effective

Building Trust in your web site

While building a web site for your company it is easy to get wrapped up and spend all your resources on complicated non-essential components; however, sometimes the basics are all you need to build trust. Here are some quick tips to create a reliable web site.

1. Simple Designs
2. Good Color Scheme
3. No Grammar Mistakes
4. Customer Testimonials
5. Secure Payment Methods
6. No Clutter
7. Uploaded videos
8. List of awards
9. Membership in Associations

By incorporating these items you can build trust with your current and potential customers. Remember to not lose sight of the principles that will make you successful.

Web Site Content

 The saying less is more also applies to web sites. ...Sometimes people try to make a web site more than it is.  They develop the web site according to their own interests and get caught up with flashy new gadgets that sometimes distract from the main goal. Here are some ideas to create a web site that attracts customers.

1. Define your online goals
2. Look through a potential customers eyes
3. Provide valuable content or something of value
4. Make web site sticky
5. Eliminate unnecessary wording and content.

By incorporating these concepts your web site will be more effective and accomplish your goals.

Business Communication

The difference between making the sale or not  can come down to many small things including what you wear, your marketing, and most important communication. Communication can be broken down into three parts...

1. What you say?
2. How you say it?
3. Body Language

By mastering these three parts of communication you can be most effective and ultimately maximize the amount of potential sales.

Incorporating Sales into E-Commerce

When building a successful E-Commernce presence there are 5 questions  you should consider.

1. What is your online presence?
2. How do you get people to your site?
3. What are your online goals?
4. How do you build rapport, provide value, close the sale?
5. What is your follow up system?

Your reflective thought to these quetions will help you build an effective site. 

Social Media Marketing

There is a lot of buzz these days about utilizing social media today to advertise your business. Why is social media the best marketing channel to advertise? There are many ways to explain it, but it returns to the sales process.

1- Build Rapport

2- Provide Value

3- Close the Sale

Social media allows you to build a tremendous amount of rapport, trust, and credibility because you approach people more as a friend and less as a business looking to sell a product or service. This is why people purchase from people they like because they have that level of rapport with them.

Social Media also allows you to provide value in a more simple medium where clients and potential clients have access to information about your product or service in a click of a button or can watch a video and have their questions explained.

Close the sale...this is the final problem with social media is that more often than not it doesn't properly close the sale. It leaves too much up to the potential client and doesn't necessarily create urgency, invite to purchase or provide incentive to close the sale.

By utilizing your social media network and providing it in the framework of the sales process you can be more effective in what you are doing.

Providing Content

One of the best ways to build credibility, trust, and rapport with your current clients or potential clients is to provide valuable relevant information your clients can use in their business. Now this is easy to say and difficult to do. Here are 5 quick tips...

1. Provide Information that isn't readily known
2. Make it short
3. Leave a tease so people need to find out more by contacting you
4. Don't allow errors
5. Don't post too much information

5 Ways to create urgency in your marketing

There is a famous quote "Why do it today when you can put it off for tomorrow" this is the theme of someone who never gets anything done. Unfortunately, many of your current and future customers follow this theme and can frustrate your sales team.  They are in no hurray to purchase your product or service. To be more effective and to generate more sales for your company it is essential to create urgency and to have your customers act now. Here are 5 ways to create urgency.

1- Offer promotion

2- Have deadline for promotion

3- Offer discounts

4- Provide value

5- Have a limited number of people who can get a certain deal

Video E-Mail Marketing

Videos are an effective way to keep in touch with customers. Some of the advantages of video e-mail marketing over traditional approaches include:

1. More Personable
2. Easier for people to visualize
3. Cater to a customer's short attention spans
4. Builds trust, credibility, and rapport
5. Provides more value
6. Helps close the sale
7. Creates a lead generation tool
8. Prepares, Educates, and helps your clients understand

By creating quality videos you can take advantage of video e-mail marketing. Here are some key points to consider when making a video.

1. An Effective Introduction
2. Catchy Music
3. Clear Objective
4. Bullet Points
5. Conclusion that ties into the main point
6. Short (only 1-2 minutes)
7. Lots of images & few words
8. Key points written on the screen
9. Hiring actors and actresses.

Video e-mail marketing is a great way to do business.