Create Your Own Rumors
A consultant new in the city asked me how I managed to get business so fast. Working for that marketing company definitely gave me a jump start. That's because I already knew about press releases. Only in business a few months and I already had been in two of the local papers. However, it was my male mentors who introduced me to telemarketing. At the suggestion of calling strangers on the phone was enough to terrify me. There was no way I could just dial up people and sell myself like a product. I was sure people would hang up. I insisted that I could not do it. Tim termed it "telephonitis." Yes, that was it; I was scared of the telephone to use it in that way. I was given this advice. Don't sell yourself, sell your company. Look at the company as a separate entity. Pretend you are telling people about your company. Okay, I agreed to give it a try. I failed miserably. I stuttered, forgot what I was going to say and hung up on many people. Thank goodness, the phones back then didn't have that return call back button. But I did realize that this is a great way to do marketing so I had to come up with a plan to jump this big boulder on my journey's path. I remembered back a few short weeks ago, when I answered the phone and was told by a female voice she was a college student, and was doing a survey. I did not feel she was being intrusive and answered her questions. At the end of the survey, she was very friendly and thanked me for my time. Therefore based with that memory, I decided to try a new approach to my telephonitis. My first call was made to an accounting firm. I advised the voice on the line that I was a student doing research and did she have time to answer a few questions. The voice returned a polite yes. I had prepared a list of ten questions about her job title, did she work with a computer, the programs she worked on, etc. When finished, I thanked her for her time and hung up. You see with funds being limited, I needed to send flyers only to those who had computers. What I now possessed was a target market, As I got bolder with my surveys, I discovered that people were friendly and I could interject other stuff. Many times, they were frustrated with their computer or their computer consultant. Bingo, I then would tell them all about this person I heard that had a great reputation. I would go on and on about how this consultant has many clients and they all just love her. Of course I was telling them about myself. It worked like a charm for me. Therefore I started my own rumors, and created my own tactic in the game. ### Gina Novelle (copyright 12-2004) Gina Novelle is a published free lance writer. Her company sponsors the web site http://www.thirdpocket.com, a support site for the self-employed. Her book, "Business Secrets Men Don't Tell Women" reveals how women and men view self-employment differently and will be available in 2005. She currently offers her services as an Ezine Writer to optimize search engine ratings. gina@exclusivemarkets.net
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Your Secret Marketing Weapon
As a professional service provider, you're paid for what you know. People come to your firm for the expertise you offer, first and foremost. Did you also realize that this is also your secret marketing weapon?
Whats In It For Me?
Sometimes, one of the most difficult things to teach beginning
sales professionals is the difference between features and
benefits. All too frequently, sales people list their product or service features, without articulating how those features will ultimately benefit that prospect or customer. Unfortunately, your prospects or customers are not always able to make that leap for themselves. And when they do not see the benefit, they do not buy. So-what is the difference between features and benefits? How do you articulate that difference?
Profitable Marketing Programs Part 2: Figuring Break Even Point
In Part 1 -- http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/online/profit.htm -- I discussed how to consider both long term and short term profitability in your marketing programs and assumptions that go into conducting a break even analysis. Here in part 2, I will look at three different break even formulas.
Sell Big Ticket Items Now! - 1 Simple Step To Keep Your Fears From Holding YOU Back
First, some background on today's topic. I've had a terrible week. Not
terrible as in I got nothing done because I did actually get quite a bit done.
But man, I struggled. And I didn't even really understand why.
I have to admit, most of what I got done happened between Thursday and Sunday.
Have you ever had a week like that where you struggled to get things done?
Or worse yet, struggled and didn't get anything done? Or maybe it just FELT LIKE
you didn't accomplish anything?
I hate weeks like that and I rarely feel that way. So why was this week
different? At first, I couldn't put my finger on anything specific. Looking back
and replaying my week in my mind didn't cause anything to stand out either. In
short, nothing really clicked as the cause for the way I was feeling and acting.
So then I decided to do what I always do when I am trying to solve a problem. I
just kinda let it go for a while and did something else.
And THEN, I finally figured out what the problem was!
It wasn't anything specific about THIS week. It was related to something I had
done several weeks ago. And it's very ironic that this was the cause of my
problem.
You see, several weeks ago I had drafted my 90 marketing plan. This document
describes what I plan to do in my Big Ticket Marketing efforts over a 3 month
period.
It's actually not that hard to figure out but it is something that you need to
track closely and see which weeks of marketing effort have the biggest payoff.
In other words, you want to track which things you did that resulted in the
biggest payoff in sales, opt-ins by potential customers, joint ventures,
branding, etc.
Basically all the stuff we need to do to as part of our Big Ticket Marketing
efforts. We want to repeat those things that give us the largest payoff in our
next 3 month marketing plans and drop those things that didn't work out. And of
course we always try new things that we think will work, as well.
Anyway, the reason that I was struggling and feeling like I wasn't accomplishing
this week was because...
I was in OVERWHELM!
I had a lot of tasks I wanted to accomplish, because I'm an ambitious guy. I
want to do well and I have a lot of goals I want to reach. This is all fine, but
the point of having a 90 day marketing plan is so that it will be easy to focus
on the specific set of tasks that I need to accomplish each week by focusing on
ONLY ONE main area each week.
And normally, this system is very effective at keeping me focused. But,
ironically, the act of creating the 90 day marketing plan made me look at
everything I had to accomplish in the next 3 months and I was sort of stuck in
that mode. I wasn't being effective at focusing on this weeks tasks because I
was in OVERWHELM thinking about everything I had to get done, overall.
Have you ever experienced that?
I think we all have at one point or another.
However, I am disappointed that I didn't recognize what was going on sooner. My
background as a software engineer for Microsoft forced me to be pretty
disciplined about focusing on what I needed to do and what our team needed to do
every week to accomplish our goals. And sometimes the ship cycles lasted between
1.5 to 2 years.
Plus I have a black belt in Hapkido (a Korean martial art like a cross between
Tae Kwon Do and Aikido), which requires a lot of training discipline, patience,
practice and long term view. But at the same time requires you to learn and work
on smaller portions of the entire body of techniques, patterns, because that is
the only way you can really learn what you need to know.
Anyway, my point is that I should know better and yet I still fell into the fear
from OVERWHELM. And I think everyone experiences not only overwhelm but other
fears about what they want to do as well.
The title of this article promised you a simple secret to keep your fears from
holding you back - from selling Big Ticket Items. Can you guess what the secret
is?
I'll give you a hint. It's not really a secret at all. In fact everyone knows
about this but unfortunately not everyone knows what to do especially in a case
like overwhelm.
Ready... the secret is ACTION!
Yes, ACTION. Now you are probably wondering... "Hey, wait a sec, you just said
you were in overwhelm, how can action possibly be the secret for that?"
Napoleon Hill, in his book "Think and Grow Rich" said, "Action is the real
measure of intelligence". Thomas Huxley said: "The great end of life is not
knowledge but action." Intelligence means nothing, action means everything.
I knew what I had to do this week and yet I was struggling to do it. I even had
a 90 day marketing plan with each week spelled out for me and yet I was stuck. I
got unstuck when I realized I was overwhelmed and decided to do something about
it. What I decided to do was to take action. But the type of action I decided to
take was influenced by my precious experience both in software development and
martial arts.
Have you heard of Kaizen?
Kaizen is a Japanese word which basically means 'continuous and incremental
improvement'. The word came from when the Japanese were introduced to the work
of W. Edward Deming when he was stationed in Japan to help them rebuild after
World War II. While there, Deming introduced them to what later became know as
Total Quality Management.
What I like about Kaizen is that it takes small action steps over time to solve
problems. The beauty of this approach is that you can take something that
currently seems daunting or puts you in overwhelm and start by only focusing on
one small step that you can take to help improve the problem. The small step is
so easy that you bypass your overwhelm and fears and just do that one small
step. Then after a little while you introduce another small step and
continuously improve the situation or problem until it is solved.
So in this way you CAN take action, even if it is very small, and slowly over
time each action you take has an effect that builds on all the others and
creates an unstoppable force until your problem has been solved. The fact that
the action is so small makes it easy for you to do SOMETHING and not focus on
how much you have to do.
Maybe a short example will help. One of my goals is to increase the readership
of my articles and to get more people exciting about Big Ticket Marketing. One
of the best ways to do that is to get my blog and my articles out to as many
readers as I can. So this week, I wanted to get my Blog and my articles listed
in as many E-zine and Electronic List directories as possible. I even have
software to help me do this.
Guess how many directories and list locations there are?
Well... there are over 1000 just in the built in database in the software I am
using.
I kept putting this off, because I had a bunch of other stuff I needed to get
done as well. But this was a major focus for me this week. Finally, what I
decided to do was to just add my information to ONE directory or list every time
I finished another task. Breaking it down so that I only had to worry about one
entry every so often REALLY helped me make some progress in this area, without
worrying about how many there were.
I still have a long way to go, but my initial goal was to get listed in 20-25
sites and I'm currently sitting at 17. A few more sites and I will have met my
goal!
Plus, Kaizen is really how I study martial arts so the process is very familiar
to me even when applied to something else.
Ok, so the one 1 simple step you need to take anytime you have a fear to conquer
or an overwhelming situation to deal with is to decide on one simple action that
you can do in a very short amount of time that will ultimately help you solve
your problem. Do this, and then increase what you are doing in that area by a
little bit each time and before you know it you will have your problem solved.
Try this! It works amazingly well with very little effort. And you get a huge
amount of satisfaction knowing that you are taking steps to accomplish what you
want to get done... and you'll be doing it almost effortlessly.
By the way, if you want a great little resource on how to apply Kaizen, you
should get The Kaizen Way - One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert
Maurer. It's a relatively recent book and a quick read at 182 pages. You can
find it on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble online. Maybe this is your first small
action step.
Also, check out the resource box below for some websites that will give you some
resources you can really use related to your Big Ticket Marketing efforts!
Networking the Media
The media is a business's absolute best friend. It is THE
source of information distribution to the masses. Even "bad"
press has been known to stimulate business.
Five Joint Venture Marketing Skills A Small Business Owner Must Have
Joint venture marketing is a lucrative way of leveraging the assets of two or more businesses. It is the fastest way for businesses to achieve certain business goals and benefit their clients at the same time.
Stop Searching - Joint Ventures are the Solution to Doubling Your Business
First, define the end user (or ideal client) of your product. Many times when I ask people who their ideal client is they will tell me "oh everyone can use my product!". Actually the only two things that EVERYONE uses are air and water, SO narrow your focus ? really key into WHO your customers are. What are their age, gender, hobbies, interests, etc. By refining your focus you can better serve your customer and become "THE" supplier of choice in your market.
10 Awesome Ways To Attract More Orders
1. Create a free ebook directory on a specific topic
at your web site. People will visit your web site to
read the free ebooks and may see your product ad.
Easy Marketing Methods with Letters, Post Cards, Referrals and Testimonials
Easy Direct Marketing Methods for Insurance Agencies
Rules of Thumb for Marketing to Your Past Customers
Keeping in touch can dramatically increase business, when done properly.
Niche with Passion and Reap Your Financial Rewards
One of the keys to creating a successful business is finding a market niche that is small enough to corner the market but big enough to make money. Let me tell you about a few people who have done that well, and why it works for them.
Do You Know Where Your Email Address is Today?
Having people go to your website is not always easy:
remind them with a special business card.
Top Five Tips For Designing Marketing Strategies That Get Results
"But this won't work" said Steve. "I've tried it in the past and had no response." Does this sound familiar? My newer clients often resist implementing certain strategies based on past experiences. However, I usually find out that it wasn't the strategy itself ? but how it was implemented that caused the dismal results.
Top 7 Tips for New Businesses
The marketing decisions you make for your new business are the most important part of making your business a success. Marketing is about building a strong presence, name recognition and credibility through various methods. Here are 7 things you can do to get a new business off the ground.
People Arent Interested in You or Your Company
Does your Web site talk about your company? Yes, I know, it's your company Web site! But the last thing it should talk about is your company.
10 Important Marketing Tips
Each of the following Ten Marketing Tips is based on a
highly effective but often overlooked marketing tactic.
How many are you using? How many have you overlooked?
Planning Your Postcard Marketing Campaign
Before you create your postcard, do a little planning. Ask yourself:1. Why are you doing this card mailing? Do you want to get new clients? Or do you want to stay in touch with existing clients?2. To whom are you going to be mailing these cards? Which begs another question: who's on your mailing list? Now, you may be saying, "Martha, how can you ask such a thing? I don't even have a mailing list!"Okay, you don't have a proper list quite yet, but do you know anyone? I mean, do you have any friends, family, colleagues, former classmates, former coworkers, military buddies, or neighbors? I'll bet you do.Now, all you need to do is get their names, addresses and other pertinent info into a database program like Act!, Capstralia Contact Expert, Microsoft Excel, Goldmine or Microsoft Outlook. There. Now you have yourself a mailing list.And, furthermore, you have the best kind of mailing list there is, because it's made up of people you know. They're going to be much more interested in what you have to offer than a list that's made up of a bunch of strangers.Your list of people who know you may well do a lot of business with you. Or your list folks may send you business. Mine sure do!
Marketing A Misunderstood or Scary Product or Service
What do you do if your business, product or service is something hardly anyone is aware of or understands? Or worse yet, if it is something they are afraid of or want to avoid?
Are You Losing Business?
As a small business owner, you are grateful for all of your clients or customers. But did you know that small business lose over 62% of sales because they don't follow up? You are caught up in the business of running your business you don't take the time to follow up with your clients.
Meaning and Marketing -- The Links
You know who you are and what you want and what it means or will mean for you to be FULLY ALIVE and you also know that you can change it it -- your definitions.
|
