RCR | Building Revenue

It doesn’t matter whether we’re in global meltdown or economic boom - the greatest challenge for any B2B marketer is in creating and maintaining a strong and well-nurtured lead pipeline.

Furthermore with an increase in online use to investigate products and services, as well as changes in buyer behaviour, today’s marketers need to ensure that they dedicate time to nurturing prospects at the earliest possible stage.

The starting point has to be detailed planning and strategy, before launching into tactical campaigns - a step that is often overlooked. Ad-hoc, demand-generation activity might result in creating short-term spikes in demand. However the quality can often be questionable and it will never deliver a sustainable pipeline which can be nurtured over time, with prospects tracked at the earliest possible stages and mapped through the buying cycle, from non-awareness, to awareness, interest, early sales engagement to qualified lead.

Below are some simple steps to start your preparation in order to ensure a strong and sustainable lead pipeline:

Know your market
The first area of focus needs to be the database - or target community. This is your key tool for a successful campaign. Understand your market, their issues and challenges, what solutions they need and what will make them interested in your offering.  Learn how they buy from you and what behaviours increase their propensity to buy. And when segmenting your target market, focus on what they do, not what they say - extend your buyer profiles to go beyond company size, industry and geography to look at roles, needs and behaviours.

Target wisely
Having the correct leads on the database at the start of the campaign is paramount to successful targeting. It’s critical to spend the time profiling your decision makers - both buyers and influencers. Research the relevant job titles and companies carefully and with reason.  Prioritising your list is also vital so that you can focus on your top tier accounts first and give others in your team guidance as to where to concentrate their efforts first.

Communicating with the community
Your next action is to create an integrated, multi-touch programme to ensure you draw your target community in with a series of regular and compelling communications. By sending out value-added communications you begin to understand your market better; who showed interest in the communication and what topics resonate well within the community. It also positions you as a thought leader and keeps your name on their radar - so when they are ready to buy, you’ll make the short list. Other options can include invitations to relevant thought leadership events, webinars and links to social media functions.

Furthermore, this will keep your community ‘warm’ and ensure regular cleaning of the database can take place before strategic lead generation (enhanced telemarketing) begins. There is a fine line between over communicating with your market, yet still keeping them interested, so plan your communications carefully and create a content calendar at the start.

Keep it relevant
Make sure the messages to your market are relevant and credible.  Demonstrating a deep rooted knowledge and understanding of their industry and the key issues they are facing, with opinion, thought and insight will create a powerful marketing dialogue - which in turn will build over time to establish brand trust. Ensure you have an ‘unsubscribe’ feature available to eliminate any non interested parties.

Creating your AIDA community
The basic AIDA (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) scoring exercise of your market is one of the most effective ways to monitor how you are moving your prospects through the buying cycle, from non-awareness to awareness, interest, desire (early sales exploration) right through to action (sales engagement). Ensure you can measure the position of each prospect within the buying cycle and monitor how you are gaining market traction at each stage - this will ensure you keep total visibility of marketing ROI.

Know the process
Understand that this process can take time. Decisions to ‘buy’ in today’s market, and with today’s choices, are not taken quickly and often involve input from various parties.  You need to penetrate your target companies across many levels and roles to impact the decision-making unit. All of this can be tracked using the method outlined above so you can measure not only the marketing ROI in terms of sales funnel, but also the market share and traction you are gaining within your target market.

Invest in a good lead management system
This is more than just a CRM solution. You need to invest in a system which allows you to track responses at the very earliest stages of engagement - at first point of interaction, and not just when leads hit the sales teams’ radar. Automating lead management with an efficient and clear system takes the guesswork out of measuring marketing ROI. This will allow you to gain complete control over your marketing activity and provide 100% visibility of responses and results.  This can provide huge insight into buyer and influencer behaviour to enable powerful marketing analytics, used to form your future marketing activity.

Maintain relationships
Don’t take a short-term approach. In order to sustain your lead pipeline, time needs to be taken to create, build and maintain on-going relationships so that your prospect community is continually nurtured. The investment in building these relationships will pay dividends over time. Ensure follow up is conducted in a timely manner - don’t let those invaluable leads slip through the net. Analyse which prospects are ’stuck’ at level one (awareness) and look at creative ways to nurture that relationship through the sales funnel - perhaps you can connect with a target company by working in collaboration with third party organisations (partners, industry organisations) - and leverage their position.

Summary
Before you embark on a sales and marketing campaign, it is key to conduct the right planning and preparation. Investing time and effort at the start of the campaign will ensure not only a targeted sales pipeline is created, but that it is sustainable and able to grow over time. Once you have the basics in place, you can move onto the next stage and begin incorporating more sophisticated analytics to measure and grow your pipeline. Furthermore, you can begin to incorporate predictive modelling to measure the sales pipeline for the following month or quarter based on historical data and response - therefore ensuring your pipeline remains both strong and sustainable.

By Daniel Decker

Before we try to expand it, we need to first define it. What is influence? What does it mean to you?

Dictionary.com says influence is:

(Noun) The capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others.

(Verb) To move or impel (a person) to some action.

Bestselling author John Maxwell says, “Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.”

If Leadership is influence then the reverse must also be true, influence is leadership. Or is it? I’d add influence is only leadership when that influence is leading someone towards a positive destination or outcome. After all, influence can go two ways. It can be positive or it can be negative. It can be self serving and manipulative or it can be liberating and uplifting.

Our thoughts and our actions determine which it will be.

Influence comes from more than just our intention to lead or the words that we say as we instruct those who follow, it comes by what people experience and see in us each day. It comes by example and is often witnessed then repeated.

While there are many ways to expand influence, here are 14 various ideas that I believe are a good start:

• Understand It

First you have to recognize that regardless of your position, you have influence into the lives of those around you. Sometimes we never realize the impact we have on others directly or indirectly but recognizing that we do and conducting ourselves accordingly is key.

• Be a Person of Integrity and of Values

Let who you say you are be reflected in all that you do. Stay consistent. Don’t take short cuts. Make a stand for your brand and give others an example to follow. Values determine your actions which ultimately determine your influence.

• Be Authentic and Transparent

Don’t put on a show. Be real. Be honest. Trust is built that way and trust amplifies influence.

• Accept Responsibility

Don’t make excuses. If you are at fault, accept the blame and do it proactively. Being a leader doesn’t mean being perfect. Learn from mistakes and show others the way.

• Be a Solution Seeker

Don’t sit around complaining about what doesn’t work or about all the problems around you, instead seek solutions. People are attracted to solution seekers and by being one you will help influence others towards a new perspective.

• Be Proactive

Don’t sit around expecting someone else to take the lead. If you want to create positive influence then step out. Be the one who generates new ideas, who takes a risk, and who creates movement towards a desired future or outcome.

• Practice Empathy

Take the time to understand the feelings of others. What motivates them? What do they care about? They won’t care about you and your ideas unless you care about them in return. But here’s the deal… it must be genuine. You really have to care. People are more important than numbers.

• Appreciate & Recognize Others

A simple THANK YOU goes a long way in person and even further when done publicly. Choose to recognize the efforts of others and lift them up as shining examples for others to see. By doing so you are influencing others by reinforcing what works and what was done right. We all want to be valued and appreciated.

• Respond vs React

People are watching. While you can’t always control your circumstances, you can control how you respond to them. How you respond is what others see. Don’t react, slow down, take a second and think through your options. When you respond you do so considering the outcome.

• Bring Out the Best in Others

This should be a no brainer but in order to avoid influence that is self serving and manipulative, you must leverage your influence more for the good of others than for yourself. Pour into those who follow you. Use you influence as a catalyst to spark something bright within someone else. You might see potential in them that they do not. Help them bring it out.

• Practice the Golden Rule

Treat others the way you want to be treated. Don’t just read over this as a nice ideal. Put it into practice. If you want grace extended to you, extend it to others. If you want someone to respect you, respect them. It’s reciprocal and it sets an example.

• Be a Giver

Don’t hoard what you know, share and equip others so that they can build upon the knowledge you’ve acquired. Give freely, give often. Show the way.

• Go Above and Beyond

Good enough is really not that good at all in many situations. Hold yourself to a higher standard and watch that standard trickle down to others. When we raise the bar by our own actions, we end up challenging others to do the same. Give a little more (time, effort, etc.) and perhaps you’ll encounter those around you giving a little more as well.

• Have Vision

Proverbs says “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” This is imperative if you are trying to intentionally influence others. You have to know where you are going in order to get others to go there with you. Be clear. Set expectations. Communicate.

Influence is not just one thing. It’s the sum of many and it’s built over time. As Andy Stanley says, “Leadership is a stewardship … it’s temporary and you’re accountable.” If we are accountable for our leadership, a.k.a. “our influence,” then we should do everything we can to make that influence count.

Written on by Daniel Decker. Daniel is the President of Higher Level Group, a strategic marketing and implementation firm that helps authors, professional speakers and organizations who are doing good (making a positive difference in the world) to expand their influence. More importantly, he’s a husband to a great wife and father to two amazing girls. Priorities matter. : ) www.danieldecker.net

As the seeds of economic recovery begin to sprout, many small business owners are turning their thoughts to taking advantage of the upturn and, in turn, the need for more marketing and business development resource.

In the past, the only option for most businesses was to hire a new marketing employee but recently a new alternative has become available: outsourced marketing.  Over the last decade outsourcing has become increasingly commonplace in a variety of sectors especially IT, finance and HR.  Now, SMEs are recognising that outsourcing their marketing function could also make sense for the same reasons.  Increased flexibility, variable and reduced costs, and an ability to tap into a wealth of specialist experience when you need it are all reasons for considering outsourcing.

If this is a possible solution for your business, here are our ten top tips for getting it right:

1          Be clear about why you’re doing it

There are a number of different reasons why outsourcing might work for you but, unless you’re clear about what you want to achieve, your chances of success are going to be reduced.  Here are some pointers on effective outsourcing scenarios:

• Outsourced marketing director: you need an experienced person but not full time, either because you can’t afford it or there isn’t enough for them to do
• A complete outsourced team: your skill requirements are going to be variable as your priorities evolve, and it’s going to be difficult to find those in one employee
• Skills transfer: you want an outsourced marketing director who can train your junior staff and coach your management team, and then recruit their own full-time replacement as your business grows.
• Project resource: you need some specific skills and capacity to handle a defined project alongside your existing team

2          Identify the cost benefit

For many SMEs, the cost benefits of outsourcing versus hiring a staff member are clear.  You can expect the overheads of hiring an employee to effectively double or treble their salary.  So a marketing manager on £35,000 is going to cost your business at least £70,000.  With outsourcing there are no overheads and the cost should be variable - you can use as much or as little outsourcing as you need from month to month.

3          Short or long-term?

If you need a long-term, full-time resource, then hiring an employee may be the most cost-effective route.  But if you’re hesitant about committing to more fixed costs, or not sure whether a long-term appointment is really necessary, an outsourced marketing director or manager is a good interim solution.  And you can use them to scope a full-time role and recruit the right person when that becomes necessary.

4          Be clear on the skills and experience that you need

When cash is tight, the temptation is to hire a cheap junior marketing exec.  If you simply need someone to do a relatively low-level job and you have the time and expertise to manage them effectively, then this might be the right route for you.  The danger is that they don’t add any strategic or creative value, and they become a drain on the time of senior management.  So be clear about the level of experience you need and consider whether it would be more effective to have a part-time, outsourced senior marketer than a full-time junior.

Also be clear about the skills you need; this will be directly related to your business strategy and your market.  The advantage of outsourcing is that you can often draw on a team of people with different skills when you need them, from digital marketing to running sales campaigns and handling PR.

5          Evaluate an outsourced marketer as you would an employee

You’ll want to take the appointment of outsourced marketers seriously because they should have a major impact on the revenue and value of your business.  So evaluate them in the same way as you would a full-time employee, and that includes the ‘cultural fit’ with your business: will they fit in with your way of working, and with the rest of your team.

6          Set measurable objectives

Any successful outsourcing needs to start with a clear statement of what you are hoping to accomplish, so that potential suppliers can provide you with realistic proposals and defined costs.  Before the engagement starts you need to agree measurable and timely objectives, and review these on a regular basis.  You might also want to consider tying some element of payment to results, depending on the project or engagement.

You should put what you agree in writing and agree the ownership of any work and intellectual property upfront.

7          How ‘embedded’ do you want the relationship to be?

Before you outsource your marketing, consider what kind of relationship you want to have.  Do you want them to represent your business as a ‘card-carrying’ member of your staff or as a consultant?  How much responsibility do you want them to have, for example, in managing other staff or purchasing?  Some businesses like their outsourced staff to work on site while others prefer them to work remotely.

8          Look for skills transfer

The advantage of hiring outsourced marketers is that you are getting access to a substantial range of experience and skills.  Whether your engagement is short or long term, you should expect good outsourcing suppliers to transfer skills into your organisation, through training, coaching and mentoring, just as a full-time senior manager would.    And it might not just be about up-skilling your junior staff; consider whether your senior management team could learn about how to manage your marketing function more effectively in the future.

9          Check credentials and references

Before you make an appointment, take the time to check an outsourced marketer’s track record.  Ask for examples of relevant previous work and testimonials; and talk to previous employers or clients.

10         Have a succession plan

Particularly if you don’t view outsourcing as a long-term solution, you should build a succession plan from the outset.  Indeed, many businesses hire outsourced marketing directors to help them define the right structure for their marketing team and then recruit appropriately.  If you’re hiring an outsourced marketer to deliver a particular project, then make sure you specify what support might be needed once it’s complete, and how much of that is included in the project fee.

With these tips in mind you should be well equipped to make informed choices on outsourcing your marketing, and getting a fast-track to increased revenue.

For more information on outsourcing your marketing, contact us at theteam@rcrpartnership.com

2010 is poised to be an exciting year for marketers; trends that have been taking shape over the course of the past decade are creating new opportunities for business owners. The first 10 years of the 21st century brought economic problems, corporate collapses and environmental disasters, but it was also a decade defined by a shift in communications from traditional media to a worldwide conversation that flows faster and farther than anyone could have imagined. Thanks to the tools of the social web, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, online video and so on, news and information travels instantaneously, and that means marketers have new and exciting opportunities to reach consumers.

With those economic, cultural, political and environmental events, as well as the advances in technology and the global online conversation in mind, following are 10 trends that affect all areas of marketing, from advertising to branding and everything in between, and will shape marketing strategy throughout 2010 and beyond.

1. Transparency and trust are paramount.
   Consumers have lived through a variety of negative events throughout the past decade, and they’re no longer willing to accept anything businesses tell them. Brands that embrace the loss of naïveté and make a concentrated effort to be honest and open in their marketing communications will generate positive consumer responses, which can lead to brand loyalty and brand advocacy. Building trust is the most important thing in 2010, and once you’ve earned it, you need to make sure you keep it. In other words, transparency and trust are not a one-time thing. They’re an ongoing effort.
2. Less interruption, more enhancement and value-add.
   The days when ads and marketing messages were developed for the sole purpose of getting the attention of consumers are over. People expect more (or in the case of interruptions, less) from businesses and brands. Give them more by ensuring your marketing communications and efforts deliver useful and meaningful value.
3. Speaking of value . . .
   The economic downturn that occurred in the latter part of the past decade stopped many consumers in their tracks. Rather than spending money frivolously, consumers began seeking out deals, using coupons and actively looking for the biggest bang for their buck. When the economy recovers, that behavior will not disappear immediately. Be prepared for the consumer focus on value to continue well beyond 2010, and build marketing campaigns with that consumer demand in mind.
4. Show it, don’t tell it.
   Consumers don’t believe everything they hear. Indeed, consumers are more skeptical than ever, and you need to prove your marketing claims. Don’t just tell consumers about your product, business or services, show them what’s in it for them if they pull out their hard-earned money and buy from you.
5. Social media is not going away, and engagement is critical.
   Twitter, Facebook, blogs, YouTube, and other tools of the online social community are not going anywhere. Instead, these tools are being adopted by more and more people around the world. If you thought you could avoid joining the bandwagon, you were wrong. In 2010, it’s critical that your business joins the social web conversation, and you must engage consumers on the social networking sites. Give them amazing content and interact with them to fully leverage the power of the social media.
6. Peace-of-mind messages prevail.
   Consumers have lived through a wide variety of negative events over the past several years, from economic turmoil to environmental disasters and more. They’re actively seeking marketing messages that give them a feeling of peace of mind. Try to communicate a feeling of security in your marketing efforts to meet this need.
7. Relationships rule.
   With the growth of web-based social networks and a desire for transparency, trust and peace-of-mind messages, it shouldn’t be surprising that relationships rule in 2010 and beyond. Leverage the social web to interact with people around the world and build relationships that wouldn’t have been possible a decade ago. When you build relationships with consumers, you also build a band of brand loyalists that can become your most powerful source of word-of-mouth marketing, brand advocacy and brand guardianship.
8. Online video and mobile marketing are hot.
   Both online video and mobile marketing are set to explode, and we’ll really start to see that happen in 2010. You can create your own online video content or mobile content, or you can invest in online video or mobile advertising. The choice is yours, but there is no better time to jump in than right now!
9. Focus, focus, focus!
   Don’t try to be everything to everyone in 2010. The strongest brands are focused brands. As the first decade of the 21st century unfolded, marketers and social media professionals began using the term niche more and more to identify highly focused products, websites, blogs and so on. Today, that strategy is even more important. Build your core and keep it as strong as possible before you try to extend your brand and branch out into new areas.
10. Integrated marketing trumps stand-alone tactics.
    It is absolutely essential that you surround consumers with your marketing messages in 2010. The number of marketing communications that people see each day is overwhelming, so it’s important that your messages don’t get lost in the clutter. You can make your brand, your business and your messages stand out by surrounding consumers with branded experiences and allowing them to choose which of those experiences they want to consume. For example, use online advertising, online video, custom content, point-of-sale collateral, and ads with consistent messaging to engage consumers in different parts of their lives. If you’re consistent and persistent, your messages are more likely to connect with your target audience–raising brand awareness, recognition, purchases and loyalty.

Susan Gunelius is president and CEO of KeySplash Creative Inc., a full service marketing communications provider and branding consultancy, and owner of WomenOnBusiness.com, a leading blog community for business women. She is the author of several books, including Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps, published by Entrepreneur Press. Her newest book, Building Brand Value the Playboy Way, is now available.

Whether you choose to do your marketing online or offline, sole thing does not quarters. This is the concept that no single marketing strategy will be as effective as a clutch of two or more marketing strategies.This does not mean it is necessary for you to implement every known marketing strategy to promote your business but quite it implies that it is worthwhile to market from a few different perspectives to help you achieve your business related goals.

This article entrust examine the importance of combining email marketing with other types of marketing to create a successful; multi tiered marketing strategy and commit besides offer some advice on managing more than one marketing strategy at once.

As the old saying goes, “Two heads are better than one”, and this is certainly true when it comes to marketing. You may dig a great activity of success with email marketing but this does not mean you should not try other types of online marketing such as website creation, participation in industry related orientation boards, placing banner ads, orchestrating an affiliate marketing campaign and generating inbound links to your website.

While it is possible that not all of these strategies will be effective for your business, you are likely to find at least exclusive other option which complements your email marketing and helps you to achieve your business related goals.

Alternately you may even wish to combine your email marketing campaign with more traditional marketing strategies such because radio ads, television ads and the print media. Just because these types of advertising do not take place online, does not niggard they will not be able to help you generate more business.

In fact advertising both online and offline can allow you to reach a larger target audience. This is because you leave likely reach Internet users around the world but can also stretch potential customers who do not utilize the Internet for purchasing or researching products or services similar to the ones you offer.

Popular marketing strategies to combine with email marketing include banner ads and message cooking participation. These are all online activities and each one individually is fairly simple. However, in combination these simple activities can fabricate a powerful statement.

You may send out emails offering subsidiary information about your goods or services, purchase banner ad space on websites which may be of passion to your potential customers and participate in industry related message boards where you can earn the respect and pique the interest of potential customers.

Even if your potential customers are not currently in need of the products again services you offer, seeing your business name so often can have a branding effect. Branding is essentially a process in which consumers see a company name so often that they are more likely to select a product from this company when they are in need of an item the company offers.

If you are planning to combine variegated forms of advertising, you should be aware that this can make it hard for you to evaluate the effectiveness of each marketing plan. This is especially authoritative if the marketing strategies are implemented concurrently.

When you are only using one type of marketing strategy, you can generally attribute increases in sales or website traffic to changes in the marketing strategy. However, when more than one type of marketing strategy is in effect, determining which device is creating the desired effect can be quite difficult.

This problem can be handled by not making changes to more than one marketing strategy at a time. This can help to pinpoint which changes produce an increase in sales or website traffic. It can also help you to determine when changes to your marketing strategy have a detrimental effect on your sales and website traffic.

However, if you are having difficulty determining which marketing strategy is most effective you can consider petitioning customers to answer survey questions and provide information such as how they learned about the merchandise or services your business offers.

Email marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to a targeted audience. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing.

There are a number of advantages to email marketing - compared to other marketing investments such as direct mail or printed newsletters, it is less expensive. and the return on investment can be high when done properly.

If you plan to do some Internet marketing to promote your business endeavor, you should seriously consider email marketing as at least one tier of your Internet marketing campaign. Many business owners shy away from email marketing because they believe all email marketing campaigns are purely spam. However, this is not true and not partaking in this type of marketing can cause your business to lose out on a great deal of business.

By not appealing to potential customers via email, your business may lose a great deal of business to competitors who are using email marketing campaigns to reach customers around the world. However, the first step of an email marketing campaign should be creating an email distribution list.

This article will discuss some popular options for doing this and should help to the reader to learn more about what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to email marketing.

Once you have made the decision to start using email marketing to promote your business you are likely facing the dilemma of compiling an email distribution list. This is essentially a list of email addresses to which you will email your advertising and promotional materials.

One common way to gain a list of email addresses is to purchase a list from distributors. However, this method is not very effective at all and we do not recommend it. The problem with purchasing an email list if you have no way of knowing whether or not the members of the list would have any interest at all in your products or services.

This is very important because while you want to reach a large audience with your email marketing you also want this audience to be members of your overall target audience.

Make sure you’re not blacklisted!

Companies considering an e-mail marketing program must make sure that their program does not violate spam laws such as the United States’ CAN-SPAM Act, the European Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 or their Internet provider’s acceptable use policy.

Even if a company follows the law, if Internet mail administrators find that it is sending spam it is likely to be listed in blacklists such as SPEWS.

When you purchase an email list you may be sending your email messages to some users who might be interested but this is largely coincidental and is not likely to be well received because the message was not solicited. Internet users are very quick to delete materials they believe to be spam without even opening or reading the emails.

In fact some Internet service providers include spam filters which may automatically delete your emails if your messages are deemed to be spam. These filters run complex algorithms on the subject heading and content of the message to determine whether or not it is spam and are quite adept at weeding out spam.

Therefore you run the risk of having your email marketing effort turn out to be a complete waste if the majority of recipients never even read or receive the message.

A far better way to create an email distribution list for your email marketing campaign is to ask current customers as well as interested potential customers to register with your website to receive additional information and periodic updates about your products and services as well as other information which might be of interest to them.

This provides you with a database of email addresses from current customers as well as potential customers who have a genuine interest in your products and services and who are interested in learning more about these products and services.

Once you have a list of interested customers or potential customers you can send emails or create e-newsletter for distribution to the members of your email list. These documents should contain a wealth of valuable information as well as a soft sell pitch for your products and services.

This information will be valued by the readers and may help to persuade them to try your products and services. You might also want to include useful links to either your website as well as other websites which may be of interest to your readers.

Your content should also contain a portion which urges the reader to take a specific action such as making a purchase or at least investigating a product further.

Written by Michael Saunders has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business

Brilliant’s not enough in today’s economy–you need a compelling story so people will remember you. By Mary van de Wiel

One of the best ways for a business to get a leg up in this competitive climate and distinguish yourself from the rest of the pack is to tell your brand story.

Story is how we connect with one another. Wonder why the emerging social networking sites are so popular? The answer is because people crave the emotional and powerful connection that comes through telling a story.

The best brand stories are irresistible, compelling and provocative in a way that your target audience is going to hear, seamlessly and effortlessly. Telling that kind of brand story will position you and your company as a leader in the marketplace.

The most memorable brand stories tell the unexpected, speak directly to the heart or dare you to live life to the fullest. Take Nike, for example. Its brand story challenges people to be empowered, to adopt a maverick spirit in life and “just do it.” That story inspires, continues to be popular and provocative, and consistently strikes an emotional chord with Nike’s fans and customers around the globe.

Why is storytelling so important to your business?

1. An authentic brand story makes you memorable.
2. It differentiates you as desirable.
3. It brings your brand to life.
4. It gives you a distinct competitive advantage.
5. Your target market becomes hugely responsive.
6. It positions you as a visionary in your field.

Take the role of brand guardian seriously. This role is critical. Like the captain of a ship, you’re steering your brand through stormy seas. Be mindful of your brand’s behavior, intention, tone and attitude. Right now, your brand story may be transmitting subliminal messages and telling a story all its own. As brand guardian of your business, pay attention to every kind of signal your brand is conveying to your target audience.

Taking the role of brand guardian seriously doesn’t mean you have to be stodgy. The great brand guardians also have a great sense of humor. If you’re not having enough fun with your brand, go back to the drawing board and tap into why you started your business in the first place.

Raise your brand energy levels. What comes to mind when you think about brands such as Apple, Target, Virgin or Nike? You probably sense big personality, boundless energy or major magnetic appeal. Now, imagine you can feel the “pulse” of any of these brands. You’d pick up that they were clearly alive, pumping and showing strong vital signs, right?

Your target audience has an uncanny ability to pick up on your brand “pulse” or brand energy. Start raising your brand energy levels, because a slow simmer won’t cut it here. Look at the language you use across your marketing communications. Is it bland or does it have a dynamic, knock-your-socks-off energy? After all, there’s something very attractive and contagious about brands that feel totally energized, passionate, idiosyncratic and that reflect your personality. It’s a clue that the entrepreneur, CEO or brand guardian is paying close attention to embedding his or her individualistic energy and passion into the business.

Make sure all aspects of your brand are in alignment. Just as a car runs best when the wheels are aligned, your brand communication needs to be aligned, too. I’m talking about consistency–across all the ways you get the word out to the market. For example, if the messages on your website are not reinforced by and aligned with your tweets or press releases, the way you answer the phone, the way your staff welcomes clients or the way you shake a client’s hand, then your brand is out of alignment.

Kaira Rouda, founder and president of Real Living and author of Real You Incorporated: 8 Essentials for Women Entrepreneurs, talks about the power of story. “In today’s business world, relationships drive successful sales, and your network is your net worth. You must tell your story.” Rouda goes on to say, “For your business brand to resonate with customers, it must be based on something truly genuine: your reality, your passions.”

Be Clear
If you’re ready to start shaping your brand story, remember this tip: If you want others to recognize you, the best way to do it is to recognize yourself first. Before you tell your brand story, recognize the kind of message and meaning you want to embed in your story.

Your character is going to define exactly what happens in your story. Be as true to yourself, compelling and believable as possible. What makes you unique and different? What makes you stand out?

1. Your personality shapes your brand story. I’m talking about your personal values, integrity, core beliefs and ethics. Think about what inspires and motivates you. Wrap this around your brand story; it will bring your brand to life.
2. Define what your character stands for in your story. Why do you do what you do? What is your purpose? What’s most meaningful in your life and business?
3. What actually happens in your story? What’s the compelling action (or series of actions) that makes other things happen? What’s driving your story forward?
4. Think about how you want your audience to react to your story. What’s the outcome–the object lesson here? What kind of conclusion do you want them to reach? Think about the pulse of your brand. Are people going to pick up your brand’s vital signs in your story?

So, is your brand story doing justice to your business?

As branding expert and co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Branding Yourself, Sherry Beck Paprocki says, “If you don’t brand yourself, Google is going to do it for you!”

Mary van de Wiel (Van), founder, CEO and global brand therapist of A New Brand Landscape & Co. and ZingYourBrand.com, helps entrepreneurs and startup CEOs leverage their irresistible Zing Factor, embed it in their brand, and then build an entire business around it. In a former corporate life, as founder and CCO of an award-winning agency with offices in New York and Sydney, Australia, Van led national brand campaigns for Fortune 500 clients in four continents. Her ‘What’s your Zing?’ methodology helps clients ultimately impact the bottom line through her consulting work, brand audits and online brand marketing services.

5 tips for sales professionals who want to love their job. By Barry Farber

It would be great to wake up every day full of enthusiasm about moving your business forward through the sales process. But there are days when we get tired of sales calls to new prospects and feel as if what we used to love has morphed into a feeling of “I hate to sell.” No need to worry; it’s normal. And there’s not a top sales producer I know that hasn’t gotten into a rut once in a while. You just have to figure out how to get out of it.

Here are some ways to turn your “I hate selling” days around:

1. Show up. Activity that introduces you to new contacts not only can open up more opportunities for business but also give you that boost of energy that accompanies adding qualified prospects to your pipeline. How many times have you been on your way to a sales meeting or networking event thinking to yourself “this is a waste of my time,” only to meet a person who brought you significant business several months later?
2. It’s not about you. If you think selling has to do with how well you can talk, then you’re missing out on a huge part of your business. After you show up, shut up–doing so might help you love selling. Every time you’re with prospects or customers and they start asking questions about you,  answer quickly and then turn it around with questions to get them talking about themselves. Since so many people love talking about themselves, you’re in no danger of listening yourself out of a sale. Nobody’s ever said, “I don’t like her; she listens to me too much!”
3. Attitude is king. Maybe you’ve heard over and over that attitude is everything. Well, there’s a reason for that. When you have a negative attitude people pick up on that, and it’s contagious. Every day you wake up, your attitude that day has more to do with your sales success than any other factor. Let this knowledge influence your choices: Read positive materials and surround yourself with people who drive you and inspire you. A study of top executives determined the four attributes that contributed to their success were knowledge, experience, intelligence and attitude. When the executives were asked to rank them by importance, knowledge, experience, and intelligence together only comprised 7 percent, while attitude determined 93 percent of their success.
4. Plant seeds in the right soil. One of the biggest factors that contributes to your attitude about selling is rejection. The more rejection we experience, the more we feel like what we’re selling is of little value or worth. Many times rejection has more to do with whom you’re calling on to make a sale. When the person isn’t qualified to make the decision or doesn’t have a real need for your services, you have to learn to walk away and move on to more worthwhile accounts. Imagine planting seeds in the desert–it can be very frustrating. If you employ the advice from tip No. 2 above, “It’s not about you,” you’ll know the person you’re speaking to and can target questions to determine where your product could be of service.
5. Hard work. This is one of the best ways to beat the salesman blues. It makes up for our deficiencies. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.

When I was a kid, my friends and I used to dress up for Halloween and go around town with a pillowcase to fill with treats. There was something satisfying about having that pillowcase filled and going back home for another one. Not only was the payoff sweet, but with all that walking we started to learn which homes, streets and sections of town gave out the best treats. So the next year we were working smarter. Massive activity has a way of qualifying situations you would not have known about otherwise.

Nobody said selling was easy, but when you love what you do it gets significantly easier.

Barry Farber is rated as one of the top speakers of the year by Successful Meetings Magazine and is the bestselling author of 11 books on sales, management and personal achievement. He is also a black-belt weapons expert and a regular on QVC as the marketer and co-inventor of innovative products.

Need to step up your sales? Create an easy-to-follow marketing plan that’ll help you along. By Kim T. Gordon

Are you serious about growing your business? Then it’s time to ditch your old “catch as catch can” marketing approach and put together a plan that you can manage along with the daily operations of your business. Too many entrepreneurs focus on marketing only during the slow times and, as a result, put their businesses on an economic roller coaster where it’s always feast or famine. A well-planned marketing program helps you build sales year-round and is easier to manage because it removes the stress and anxiety of having to play catch-up every few months to jump-start sales.

Choose Your Tactics

The best marketing programs reach prospects with a smart mix of tactics. When it comes to marketing, being a Johnny-one-note is a bad idea because a single tactic is rarely sufficient to move prospects through the sales cycle.

Most every small business has three types of prospects: cold, warm and hot. Cold prospects know little or nothing about your business. Warmer prospects are familiar with your company and are about midway through the sales cycle. Your company’s hottest prospects are those closest to closing or who’ve purchased from you in the past. Either you’ve successfully moved them through the sales cycle by exposing them to multiple marketing messages and sales contacts, or they’ve come to you by way of referral and simply need a bit more information or personal selling to make a purchase or sign a contract.

Are you serious about growing your business? Then it’s time to ditch your old “catch as catch can” marketing approach and put together a plan that you can manage along with the daily operations of your business. Too many entrepreneurs focus on marketing only during the slow times and, as a result, put their businesses on an economic roller coaster where it’s always feast or famine. A well-planned marketing program helps you build sales year-round and is easier to manage because it removes the stress and anxiety of having to play catch-up every few months to jump-start sales.

The best marketing programs reach prospects with a smart mix of tactics. When it comes to marketing, being a Johnny-one-note is a bad idea because a single tactic is rarely sufficient to move prospects through the sales cycle.

Most every small business has three types of prospects: cold, warm and hot. Cold prospects know little or nothing about your business. Warmer prospects are familiar with your company and are about midway through the sales cycle. Your company’s hottest prospects are those closest to closing or who’ve purchased from you in the past. Either you’ve successfully moved them through the sales cycle by exposing them to multiple marketing messages and sales contacts, or they’ve come to you by way of referral and simply need a bit more information or personal selling to make a purchase or sign a contract.

When creating your marketing program, it’s essential to include at least one marketing tactic to reach each of these types of prospects. Cold prospects, for example, might be reached through newspaper ads or direct mail, warm prospects via an e-mail marketing campaign, and hot prospects might respond best to PowerPoint presentations along with face-to-face selling to add the final heat to close sales.

Choose a mix of tactics that’ll reach and motivate your prospects–and fit your company’s marketing budget. Whether you’re bootstrapping or flush with funds, there’s a group of tactics that’ll work for you. Tighter budgets sometimes require tactics that take a bit more hands-on execution. For example, a cable TV campaign will reach cold prospects, but so will home parties-and for considerably less cash.

Put It on Paper
The trick to successfully balancing all your marketing tactics is to have a written plan with a manageable timeline. That way you can create your campaigns and materials well in advance of your deadlines and have them ready to go when you need them. You can also save money on design and copywriting fees by having many of your marketing tools–from ads and brochures to website copy–created at the same time. And you can lower your printing costs by having all your new marketing materials printed together.

Unless you’re creating a marketing plan to help win funding (in which case you’ll need a more elaborate, in-depth document), your company’s marketing plan can be simple to create and easy to follow. There should be five principal parts:

1. Situation Analysis: Generally only about a page in length, this section provides a brief overview of your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This is a helpful benchmarking tool because when you review your plan a few months from now, you’ll be able to see how your situation has changed.

2. Target Audience: If you’re marketing to consumers, write a target audience profile based on demographics, such as age, gender and household income. If your target audience consists of other businesses, include a one paragraph or less description of those businesses here. This target audience description is absolutely invaluable when evaluating whether a particular publication or media opportunity will help you reach your best prospects.

3. Goals: Write a short, bulleted list of your company’s marketing goals. Be sure to make them measurable, such as “increase new accounts by 10 percent by March 31,” so you can evaluate the performance of your campaign.

4. Strategies and Tactics: Outline your company’s overall marketing strategy and the list of tactics you’ll use to reach prospects as they move through your sales cycle. Create a timeline or use software with a calendar function to note important production deadlines.

5. Budget: Price out the execution of the mix of marketing activities you’ve chosen. If they appear to take you over budget, don’t get discouraged. Remember, there’s a tactic to fit every budget. Rethink your plan until you have a mix of strategies you can afford and that’ll reach out and motivate your prospects year-round.

Friendly advice
Sometimes people are uneasy with selling to friends and certain contacts even though they think they need what you are selling. You do not want to give it away free either. A good tactic is to arrange to meet them to show you what you are doing and get their input. When you meet you do not sell at all but just run through the concept and the sort of clients you are looking for and ask them if they could make any suggestions and if they know anyone who might be interested. If they are interested they will tell you and if they are not then they may be able to think of someone or they may have some good ideas. If this is done as a thinly veiled sales pitch then it will not work and may impact your relationship. If you sincerely ask for advice then only good is likely to come from it.

Pre-selling
This involves developing alliances to pre-sell you to your prospects. Basically, if a buyer likes and trusts an existing supplier and if that supplier recommends you then the buyer will probably assume that you are trust worthy and the relationship will quickly prosper. The effort is put into building up an advocate network it takes some time but there are lots of ways to accelerate the process such as getting existing advocates to introduce you to potential advocates.

Free-to-fee
This is where the prospect is given something free or very low cost so that they have an opportunity to gain an experience of working with you. Provided that you have a suitable up-sell strategy then you can expect a good proportion to go onto engaging in fee paying activities.

Trading places
A key soft selling tactic is seeing the world from the other person’s point of view and then telling them what you see. For example, ‘If I were you I would be a little skeptical and that is why I recommend you speak to one or two of our existing clients before you decide to go ahead..’

Holding back
A mistake people make is to start selling straight away. In soft selling you do not start selling until you have gathered all the information needed to discover what you are selling and why the other person will buy it from you. Delayed selling is counter intuitive as the sales person holds back. For example, if someone makes an enquiry the first thing you ask is why they think they need help in that area. E.g.

Buyer: ‘Hello, I am calling about your web design services…’

Seller: ‘That’s great - do you mind me asking why you think you need help?’

Start small and grow
If you are looking to sell a big deal then you will face a lot of competition. It is much better to win a small deal where there is little or no competition and then up-sell. A successful software sales person once told me that unless you already have a good relationship with a customer it is easier to go from a £1,000 sale to a £100,000 sale than it is to win a £50,000 sale. If you identify a £50,000 potential sale then a soft seller would talk about the larger deal and then sell an initial pilot project or feasibility study. Once someone starts spending with you they are more likely to continue, especially if you deliver value.

Verbal references
Offering your prospects the chance to speak to existing customers shows a high level of confidence and also allows your customers to sing your praises. In my experience the take up of the offer is quite low but the fact that you make the offer goes a long way. Logically you would only put forward happy customers but that does not seem to matter. If you are just starting out and do not have any customers then consider doing some free or low cost pieces of work via people you know on the understanding that if they are happy they would be prepared to be a reference and provide a testimonial.

Feel, felt, found
Feel, Felt and Found is a great tactic for overcoming objections as it makes your approach a lot more conversational as opposed to sales pitchy. For example..

‘I know how you feel, many of our best clients felt that way at first, but what they found once they investigated a little further was…..’

You can use different variations. For example:

‘I know how you feel, I felt the same way, until I found…..’

For many people who start in business for themselves, selling is a very emotive subject and sometimes people can feel totally in the deep end. You do not need to be a ‘born salesman’ to succeed in developing enough sales in your business and if you approach it in the same way as learning to play the piano or driving a car it becomes much more of an achievable task - only the pay is better!!

Richard White,
managing director of the Accidental Salesman
For more information visit www.theaccidentalsalesman.com