From Random Strangers to Raving Fans workshop
I’m excited to be team-teaching a course with my sales coach, Matt Nettleton of Sandler Training Trustpointe. The class is called “From Random Strangers to Raving Fans: Using a system to create the right messages for the right people at the right time.”
We’re going to talk about how important it is that your sales and marketing support each other. After all, the best marketing plan in the world won’t help you if you can’t seal the deal, and the best sales strategy won’t help you if you don’t have leads in the first place!
Check out the details below. Hope to see you there!
March 25, 8:00 – 11:00 a.m.
Sandler Training Trustpointe Offices, 6666 East 75th Street, Indianapolis
Fee: $29.99 Seating is limited, so be sure to register soon. Click here
Episode 21 – Finding Your Ideal Customer
With Matt Nettleton
This blog has been very focused on business planning for the last two weeks. I think it is time to change it up just a little. Today I want to share an interview with sales professional Matt Nettleton.
I am an active participant in a Sales Training Class with Matt Nettleton of Trustpointe. I love his direct, no nonsense appraoch to building my business.
One of the things we have focused attention on lately is the difference between my average customer and my ideal customer.
The average customer, are the clients I attract now. But the ideal, are the clients I want to do business with. Doing business with these companies will help me grow my business over time.
Want to learn more about the difference? Take a moment, and listen to the interview with Matt
Business Plan Mistake # 4
Today we look outside your business to your customer to find our next mistake.
Business Plan Mistake #4 Poorly Defined Customer.
Everyone is not your customer! Too often small-business owners, afraid to walk away from even one potential customer, try to define their market so broadly they include everyone. The danger? Without a focus, you end up spreading yourself so thin you do not effectively reach any particular customer.
The chiropractor who defines his target as anyone with a spine may think he is indicating he has unlimited potential. In reality, he is showing a lack of understanding of the buying characteristics, beliefs, and biases of consumers in his market. There are people who do not believe chiropractic treatment is “real medicine.” It is often expensive to convert nonbelievers. Selecting a narrower market would allow him to concentrate his marketing efforts on those customers most likely to buy.
Once you truly embrace the idea of focus as the key to a successful business, you are ready to begin developing the rest of your plan. With a clear definition of your customer, it is easier to answer the questions that follow.
Start Planning with Analysis
Whenever I want to use my GPS or Google map to find a location, I have to figure our where I am first. The same is true in business, before you can develop a comprehensive marketing plan to take your business forward; you have to have a starting point.
When we work with clients to develop their marketing plan, we often use a two part assessment to help them evaluate where they are and where they want to be. This gives them a starting point for the general direction, and emphasis of their marketing plan.
Part One: Where are You?
- What do your clients think of you and why.
- Who are your most profitable clients?
- What are the purchase factors which motivate clients and drive their decision
- What are your barriers to selling?
- What are the characteristics of your typical client
- What are the characteristics of prospect who rarely become clients?
- What do your clients think about you?
Part Two: Where Do You Want to Be?
- Who is you ideal customer?
- What are their problems which you solve?
- What are the benefits of buying from your company?
- Define solutions to eliminate buying frustrations.
- Identify buying objections and define solutions to overcome them.
If you are ready to start working on your 2010 marketing plan download our free marketing assessment to frame your thinking!
Everyone Is Still Not Your Customer!
For years, I have been trying to convince my clients that “everyone” is not their customer. Many small business owners are afraid to focus on a niche, because they are afraid they will miss out on an opportunity.
Selecting a niche and targeting your message on a specific segment will not prevent you from working with others. Targeting simply forces you to focus your resources and attention on the most profitable segment.
Seth Godin hit the nail on the head when he said:
The problem with “everyone” is that in order to reach everyone or teach everyone or sell to everyone, you need to so water down what you’ve got you end up with almost nothing.
So stop trying to sell to everyone, get really good at selling to the right people and the rest of your business will fall into place. This isn’t just theory. I have put this into practice in my own business lately, focusing my messages more and more on planning. The result? We are getting more calls about planning, which is the most profitable part of my business.
If it works for me, it can work for you! And as Seth says:
As soon as you start focusing on finding the right someone, things get better, fast. That’s because you can ignore everyone and settle in and focus on the people you actually want.
I am not ready to ignore everyone else, but I am enjoying the conversations we are having!
The Beginning of a Podcasting Journey
Written by Neil Chaggar
There are many ways to inform, educate, and communicate with people over the internet. However, there’s one medium that literally gets your voice across to your audience; it’s called Podcasting.
Podcasting works similar to blogging; however it can be far more effective if the presenter is an exceptional speaker rather than a writer or if the audience prefers listening to their media/feed rather than reading it.
Earlier this week, Lorraine expressed an interest in Podcasting to compliment her written blog.
I was excited to work on this project since I already knew how useful yet simple this medium is to get your message across. I’ve listened to Podcasts in the past but didn’t know exactly how to set it up on our website; so began the Podcasting research.
I soon learned many people choose iTunes to publish their Podcasts so they are easily available to anyone and everyone. In addition, there are many other things to consider before you can start Podcasting. To begin, you need to have a quality recording tool. While most computers can record sound into a WAV file, you need additional software to save your files as MP3s.
Turns out, there are many software options from which to choose from but finding a cheap yet efficient one was tricky. Finally, we settled on Audacity, which is free and has decent effects and features, along with capability to save and convert MP3 files.
Another issue Podcaster face is choosing a third-party server where you can upload all your files and material along with RSS codes so iTunes can publish your Podcasts. After looking at several website, some more expensive than others, we chose www.solidcasts.com, which allows users to have first 100MB of space for free and reasonable monthly prices for up to 20GB of space.
Now we have all the precise tools and software to create and publish Podcasts, you can soon listen to Lorraine Ball has to say, literally. Furthermore, if you already publish Podcasts on your own website, feel free to check out the websites and software mentioned above to see if it can improve your Podcasting activities.
Neil out!
Who is Your Customer
As the owner of a small business marketing firm, I spend a lot of time talking with entrepreneurs. I never get tired of their enthusiasm or their passion for their products. I do however, get tired of explaining over and over and over that “anyone” is not their customer.
No matter how universal you believe your product to be, there are subsets of the larger market which are more likely to buy than others. The key to running a successful business is to identify that subset and focus your energy and marketing efforts on that segment.
Defining a target will not limit to whom you sell, simple who you chase! For example, my target and ideal clients are companies with sales between $100,000 and $1,000,000. So, I spend my time networking with small business owners. This allows me to make a big impact in a smaller community and create a consistent voice in my newsletter, blog and other marketing material and establish myself as an expert.
And, it works! The more I focus, the more I build a reputation and expertise in a specific segment. After 7 years, I have an established reputation as a Small Business Marketing Company. Do we have clients larger and smaller? Absolutely, but we don’t go looking for them. We don’t spend our time or resources chasing those segments, but are happy to help when they call us!
What about you? Do you have a niche?
How Much Personality Should My Blog Have?
Yesterday, Robby Slaughter and I were discussing blogs and blogging strategy. He mentioned how surprised he was my blog didn’t have more of my personality. I wasn’t offended, (maybe it was because I was half way through my second Margarita) but I did wonder, how much personality should the Roundpeg blog have?
This is a challenge for any small business owner writing a blog as part of their marketing and social media strategy; where is the balance point between company and personal messages. And while there are many people who claim to be experts, there are no firm rules.
Some of the blogs I read most Kyle Lacy, Louis Gray, and Seth Godin, each let pieces of who they are come through, in different ways. Kyle is at is best when he “rants”. His funny, razor sharp wit is exactly the same in person or in print. Through his blog, we know know a lot about what he thinks, but not as much about what he does. In contrast, Louis Gray, shares a little less of his personality in his informative blog, written primarily for early adopters, technology geeks, RSS addicts and Mac freaks. He does warn however, the blog may occasionally contain some TiVo, media, sports and politics…) To get to “know” Louis Gray you have to add him to your follow list on FriendFeed or Twitter. There you will see photos of his twins, and little pieces of his sense of humor bleed through.
Seth Godin writes smart, funny, insightful posts every single day. I read almost all of them. I read his books, and have watched his video interviews, but I don’t know Seth Godin. He rarely uses personal examples. This isn’t a negative, I really like his blog, but I don’t feel I know him.
Kyle and Robby have solved the problem by creating two blogs. Each has the personal blogs and the business ones: Brandswag and Slaughter Development. I tried this appraoch, I do have a blog called More Than a Few Words, but it was exhausting trying to write good content for both. So I just gave up, and moved a little bit of the personal stuff to Roundpeg.
So who is right? I don’t know, but I am pretty sure my readers wil ltell me if I have made right choices, with their comments, repeat visits and links.
Internet Marketing Trends :#11 Innovation
Tom Now, Writing for StartUp Nation wrote an interesting post about the 20 hottest Internet Marketing Trends for 2009.
Every few weeks I have gone back and looked as his original post, and selected one of the trends to write about. It has been interesting to look at how companies are incorporating these trends into their marketing efforts.
Today’s Trend: Innovation: In the original article Now said:
With the recession will come a greater intensity of competition for the fewer available purchasing dollars. With this will bring a surge of creativity and innovation in the online marketing world.
Do not let your competition out-innovate you.
This was more of advice rather than a trend. And has it played out? Clearly the Skittles Twitter Promotion was an example of innovation. The jury is still out as to whether they will actually sell more product, but lots of folks are talking about them.
What about you? Aret you ready to try something new?
Consumers Want More than Talk
In honor of Valentines Day, I thought I would bring back one of the funniest posts I found earlier this year called Bring the Love Back.
50 years ago, advertising was easy, figure out your target audience, and talk at them. Today, you have to talk to them. While many people talk about this changing nature of marketing communication, this extremely funny video by Geert Desager ( Trade Marketing Manager South East Asia for Microsoft.) demonstrates how wrong old style advertising can seem!
What about your marketing? Are you really focused on your customers, or are you focused on you?
