Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Generating sales isn’t easy.
If it were, there wouldn’t be gridlock traffic at 8 am and 5 pm every weekday.
You’ve heard that business blogging is a powerful way to generate sales.
It is.
Business blogging will generate sales. But first, you will likely endure a struggle similar to a 162 game baseball season.
Seeing a pattern
I was laid off from my job in February of 2009.
By the time baseball’s Spring Training schedule was firing up in April, I had started a blog. After a grinding three months of blogging in obscurity, I received my first comment (that wasn’t motivated by pity.) In October, as the World Series of Baseball was taking center stage, my blog was generating sales for my business.
Over the past two years, I have been studying the path that sales generating blogs have taken. It’s a challenging path. A path not unlike that of a grueling and lengthy baseball season.
The actions recommended below are by no means the only path to creating a sales generating blog. But it is the path I have taken to sell both products and services through my blog, and the path of others I have observed.
Are you ready? Let’s play ball!
Click to continue…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Great marketers are thieves.
They steal and collect marketing ideas that work. Facebook has something that works. And, they stole it too.
So don’t feel bad ripping off Facebook, they didn’t invent this idea, they just perfected it.
This is such a powerful marketing concept that you don’t need to execute it perfectly. Just get started and you will see results.
The concept is social proof, read on to see why it works.
Click to continue…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Lumpy oatmeal may be fine, but lumpy revenues —while common for entrepreneurs—can cause heartburn and sleepless nights for small business owners.
The good news is that there are concrete things you can do to help you generate more cash, reach your professional goals, and get back to sleep.
If your sales chart has more spikes and dips in it than David Hasslehoff’s career, here are five tips for coping.
Click to continue…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Scott Ginsberg has been wearing a nametag for nearly 4000 days. He is an author of 13 books, a world-renowned speaker and a relentless entrepreneur.
In his latest book, Ideas are Free, Execution is Priceless, Scott talks about perhaps the most critical aspect of running a tiny business.
Execution.
Learn these four concepts and more:
- How “The Nametag Guy” stays motivated to keep executing
- 4 types of execution that will move the needle for your business (velocity, volume, value, vitality)
- Why working with partners and teams may be hampering your execution
- The reason you need to know the “why” before the “how”
You can connect further with Scott on his website or his blog.
You can find out more about BrandTags, identity collages for businesses here.
Click to continue…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
A sale is a response.
It is a response to a call to action. It is a response to marketing.
So, if you want to learn to increase sales, you must learn to increase response.
When you stand in line at the grocery store you have access to 100′s of lessons in response. As you stand, unsuspecting, in the checkout line you are targeted by the best direct response marketers in the world.
Usually to your left, you will find a dozen or so magazine covers printed with headlines that are proven to create response. They draw consumers in like magnets and they get consumers to respond.
Where to apply these lessons
The lessons you can learn from these headlines can be applied in literally thousands of marketing and sales activities.
Here are just a few:
Click to continue…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Have you ever wondered how some tiny business owners seem to make all the right marketing moves?
It isn’t because they are smarter than you. It isn’t because they work harder than you either.
It is because of the way that make marketing decisions.
Narcissists make bad marketers
This isn’t about you. It isn’t about your spouse or your close friends.
It’s about your customers.
Each and every marketing decision should be weighed against your customers, not you or your immediate acquaintances.
The worst statement you can make is…
Click to continue…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
If you have a business, you have a brand.
Like it or not, you have a brand position in the minds of others.
Here is the good news…
The longer your business has been exposed to your market with consistent messaging, the more deeply rooted your brand is in the minds of that market.
Here is the bad news…
The longer your business has been exposed to your market with consistent messaging, the more deeply rooted your brand is in the minds of that market.
That’s not a typo. Having a strong brand can be either an advantage or a disadvantage.
Here’s why…
Click to continue…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The sale is on the line.
You are sitting in a coffee shop that is halfway between your office and the prospects office.
You arrived on time. Your clothes are neatly pressed.
You’ve explained your service confidently. The benefits are made clear to the prospect. Price has been discussed and doesn’t seem to be a problem.
You have addressed every objection brilliantly.
Only one thing stands between you and the sale — TRUST.
Your prospect is sitting across from you with one last question:
Click to continue…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a tiny business owner!
Being a tiny business owner has disadvantages. Big Bucket, Inc. (your big competitor) has an established brand, a sales force and enough cash in the bank to ride out even the worst economic downturn.
But being a tiny business owner also has its advantages.
If you use these advantages properly, your tiny business will gain the super powers it needs to defeat Big Bucket, Inc.
Here are some of the super heroes your tiny business can become to defeat big competitors:
Click to continue…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
It’s a dream come true. You are working out of your home.
You grab your first cup of coffee, head over to the computer and boot up for a productive day.
Hmmm… maybe you should make a bit of breakfast. In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt to see what’s on Good Morning America.
Hup… hup… back to work. Stomach full.
But first, you better check Facebook to see what friends, family and business connections are up to. Hmmmm… did you take anything out of the freezer for dinner tonight?
Doorbell rings. Of course you don’t want to buy a home security system.
Hup… hup… back to work. The kids will be back from school before long.
Maybe you should go up to the coffee shop for some inspiration.
Working out of your home is wonderful. But, if you are like me, it does have its issues. It can be excruciatingly unproductive.
Click to continue…
