Our Lady's Juggler - A Christmas Tale by Paulo Coelho

One of my most illuminating reads is the book; The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Anthony Robbins, author of Awaken the Giant Within wrote of The Alchemist; "I recommend The Alchemist to anyone who is passionately committed to claiming the life of their dreams - today."

Here is a special treat, Paulo Coelho emailed me a short Christmas tale that speaks of our individual gifts and the joy we can bring to others. From Paulo Coelho and my family to your family we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year beginning with the gift of Paulo's writing:

Our Lady’s juggler

A medieval legend tells us that in the country we know today as Austria the Burkhard family – a man, a woman and a child – used to amuse people at Christmas parties by reciting poetry, singing ancient troubadour ballads, and juggling. Of course, there was never any money left over to buy presents, but the man always told his son:
“Do you know why Santa Claus’s bag never gets empty, although there are so many children in the world? Because it may be full of toys, but sometimes there are more important things to be delivered, what we call “invisible gifts”. In a broken home, he tries to bring harmony and peace on the holiest night in Christianity. Where love is lacking, he deposits a seed of faith in children’s hearts. Where the future seems black and uncertain, he brings hope. In our case, the day after Father Christmas comes to visit us, we are happy to be still alive and doing our work, which is to make people happy. Never forget that.”
Time passed, the boy grew up, and one day the family passed in front of the impressive Melk Abbey, which had just been built.
“Father, do you remember many years ago you told me the story of Santa Claus and his invisible gifts? I think that I received one of those gifts once: the vocation to become a priest. Would you mind if now I took my first step towards what I have always dreamed of?”
Although they really needed their son’s company, the family understood and respected the boy’s wish. They knocked at the door of the monastery and were given a loving, generous welcome by the monks, who accepted the young Buckhard as a novice.
Christmas Eve came around. And precisely on that day, a special miracle happened in Melk: Our Lady, carrying the baby Jesus in her arms, decided to descend to Earth to visit the monastery.
All the priests lined up and each of them stood proudly before the Virgin trying to pay homage to the Madonna and her Son. One of them displayed the beautiful paintings that decorated the place, another showed a copy of a Bible that had taken a hundred years to be written and illustrated, while a third recited the names of all the saints.
At the very end of the line, young Buckhard anxiously waited his turn. His parents were simple people, and all that they had taught him was to toss balls up in the air and do some juggling.
When it came his turn, the other priests wanted to put an end to all the homage that had been paid, since the ex-juggler had nothing important to add and might even mar the image of the abbey.
Nevertheless, deep in his heart he also felt a great need to give something of himself to Jesus and the Virgin. Feeling very ashamed before the reproachful gaze of his brothers, he took some oranges from his pocket and began to toss them in the air and catch them in his hands, creating a beautiful circle in the air just as he used to do when he and his family traveled to all the fairs in the region.
At that instant, the baby Jesus, lying in Our Lady’s lap, began to clap his hands with joy. And it was to young Buckhard that the Virgin held out her arms to let him hold the smiling child for a few moments. The legend ends by saying that on account of this miracle, every two hundred years a new Buckhard knocks on the door of Melk Abbey, is welcomed in, and for the whole time he remains there he warms the hearts of all who meet him.

Paulo Coelho

Weekly Cold Calling Tip #1

Every week I will furnish you with a new cold calling tip. Starting today with tip #1; Compliments of the house.

The truth is 'cold calling' has become a nasty phrase because we are thinking sales. We have to sell something on the call and I know I will be rejected. It is this negative mind set that gets us in trouble. Why not call someone just to explore for possible opportunities. Don't call to make a sale. Call to ask questions about their business and their industry. Offer them a complimentary gift for their time with you on the phone.

Let them know that you are exploring a good fit with your product and/or services to their industry and you have identified them as a respected leader in their industry. State the reasons why they are seen as a leader. You can source 2 to 3 reasons for calling them in most cases right from their website. If you have a name to drop even better.

Have your questions prepared in advance and make sure they are powerful thought provoking questions that get the prospect to explore their own business challenges. Perhaps so much so they ask to learn more about your products and/or services.

At the end of the 5 minute call you don't sell them anything. You only confirm their complete contact information so you can send them out the complimentary gift such as a free attendance to a seminar you are conducting in a couple of weeks or an industry white paper that is relevant to their business or even a gift basket which includes one or two items with your company logo and a business card.

Make sure to follow up with them after they receive the gift to make sure they received it and thank them again for their time. In another week follow up with them to offer them a white paper you wrote on your findings. Or a white paper you found that may speak to a challenge your prospect spoke to you about on your first call.

This method of follow up calls with a reason to call starts to build a relationship that brings all your cold calling to a new level. You are now calling people you know and who now know you...warm leads. In time they will get to know what you do better and eventually you will be in the right place at the right time. There is no such think as luck. Luck is made by frequent follow up calls to your targeted prospect.

Always remember the value of a gift by remembering how you felt when the restaurant owner said to you; "...Compliments of the house."

Cold Calling Tips?

I've written on 'cold calling' as part of the sales process or prospecting for leads before and when I published my posts as articles at ezine they became my most read articles. When most people think about sales they think about cold calling. Regardless if they have conducted cold calling or been on the receiving end of a cold call, the topic brings negative emotions. In response to this great interest, I want to collect your cold calling experiences, good and bad. Post your experience as a comment to this post and perhaps we can create together some great cold calling suggestions and tips to make the experience more positive.

Buying A Franchise Does Not Need To Be Over Complicated

I've been away for awhile focused on business and I'm back now starting with a post about how to select the right franchise business. When someone decides to be self employed there are many decisions and questions to be answered. The first decision is of course to be self employed or not? The second decision is to be a start up or to buy a franchise? Once you have in your mind convinced yourself that being self employed at this time in your life is the right decision and, you have the personal and financial support at home, and franchising seems like a safer bet, then the question is which franchise? This is where most people get confused and bogged down in the decision. Or, make the wrong decision because they look for the easy buck. The truth is that if you find the easy buck business it usually means illegal or low investment generally means low return.

The realty is any business worth your time and money will require you to work. To roll up your sleeves and perhaps take you outside your comfort zone on occasion. Most franchise businesses carry a level of risk. Granted a smaller level of risk than a start up but never the less, there is still some risk. A franchise, any good franchise, is about a proven system. The theory is; if you follow the system you will be successful. This is true but what if the system is only proven in one country? What if the system is only proven with one type of owner? We are not all the same. A franchise that is internationally successful is generally a franchise system that works well in many cultures with many personalty types. How long has the franchisor been franchising? If not many years with less than 500 franchisees how proven is there system? If you buy this franchise they may learn or improve their system on your costly mistakes.

What industry is the franchisor positioned? Is it a fast growth industry with little competition like the Internet or in fast food where not only is there local, national and global competition, you also have a changing society demanding healthier choices.

To earn 6 figures or even 7 figures net profit annually in a franchise you generally need to own more than one franchise. This is due primarily to high overhead, (investment finance costs, buildings lease/mortgage, equipment purchase/rent/maintenance, staff wages, inventory carrying costs and the cost of loss of inventory, etc), combined with low profit margins - well you see the problem. Don't worry. It's not all doom and gloom. There are franchise opportunities where the initial investment is reasonable, the overhead is low and the profits are great. You just need to be focused on this in your search.

Most importantly, if you love what you are doing then it is not a job. If you enjoy what you are doing the money will come. Knowing all of this the best advice I can give you is to start with the Entrepreneur Magazine top 500 rankings. They have been ranking the best of the best for about 28 years and every franchisor wants to be on the top 500 listing. Once you have decided what industry you want to be in, then it can be as simple as asking yourself, can I afford the number 1 company in that industry? If not, does number 2 fit in my budget? Perhaps there is another industry I can work in where the training and support is so substantial that my lack of experience and knowledge is not a problem? Bottom line is; if you want a franchise business and want to protect your investment then review my advice today and then invest in the franchise you can afford which is ranked by Entrepreneur Magazine as the the best and not to be afraid to roll up your sleeves and learn and grow outside your comfort zone.

Viral Marketing And Social Networking

I found a short video presentation that further speaks to my post: Internet Social Networks Are The New Frontier

Paul Martecchini is the principle of PowerStar Consulting, LLC, and he provides some great examples with some tips for success demonstrating how powerful and inexpensive Internet Social Networking can be. Click here

Sales Managers Don't Sell?

Too often we promote top sales producers to managers and this fails the individual and the company. To be a top sales manager should mean to be a top people manager. You may hear the argument that sales people are different and only sales people can understand sales people. I argue that people are people and in most cases the manager must determine what motivates the individual and the collective. You may hear the argument that a sales managers' base salary goes right to the bottom line and is difficult to justify. I would argue that without a sales manager who doesn't sell, who manages people, also goes right to your bottom line. That the bottom line is a moving line and without the right person in the right job your sales will stop growing.

I just read this 'rough notes' article on hiring a sales manager with no insurance sales background for an insurance sales company. As in most organizations some people reacted negatively and resigned. In the end the companies sales increased and most individuals earned more income than imagined. One thing sales people are motivated by is money. When they see more, they smile more.

Any company that wants to grow must at some point bring on a professional sales manager. It is not a matter of choice, it is a matter of success!

From Baby Boomers To Millenials

I recently read an online article written by Krisserin Canary of iMedia Connection titled 'Give Your Marketing Campaign A Millenial Make Over'. This is a great insightful article from a Millenials first hand perspective. Krisserin takes us into the minds and habits of this multi-tasking generation which is important to understand if you plan to target this market for sales and/or build brand loyalty.

As I read her article, I couldn't help thinking about my generation - the Baby Boomers. Where did we go? We are the largest generation who are now entering or are in retirement. We are the wealthiest generation and we have cash to spend. I know it may be too late to create brand loyalty with us but remember this, we are on the internet as well. Grandparents and parents are emailing, messaging, facebooking, downloading, blogging, researching on the net and even buying on the net. After all, ebays' success is in a big part because of the entrepreneurial Baby Boomers with extra cash. Don't get me wrong, we need to understand the Millenials and we know that a marketing campaign to them must include the internet and must be creative, non-intrusive or stealthy as demonstrated by some companies using YouTube. All I'm saying is don't forget the Baby Boomers.

Bloggers Are Rushing To BlogRush

Blogsphere has launched BlogRush as a third alternative in increasing traffic to your blog. The other two choices can be expensive or time consuming. This is free and you are up and running within 5 minutes. Click here to visit their video introduction site. Also, let me know what you think about BlogRush and if you have any other suggestions on how to increase traffic to blogs?

WSI & YouTube

More and more businesses are marketing on the internet following their target markets. If they won't come to the mountain we must bring the mountain to them. WSI - 'We Simplify The Internet' is a Global leader with more than 1500 franchise offices in over 87 countries who educate small and medium size business owners on the benefits of marketing on the net. They offer a unique ABC solution that leverages their economies of scale, 12 years of experience building business web solutions which means they have a repository of code that can be used over and over again. This means their client gets a web presence that is affordable, quickly delivered, virtually bug free, and will be seen by their target market (who is searching for their product and services) within hours of launching the site.

Many companies can boast they are great at building web sites. Many companies can boast they are the SEO experts and many companies can boast conversion numbers that may or may not be true. But no company other than WSI offers everything to a small and medium size business owner at a price they can afford. No company other than WSI can boast 12 years, founded in 1995 when only 2% of businesses had a website. But most of all they leverage the knowledge share network of over 1500 franchise owners, Internet Marketing Specialists, who communicate regularly sharing industry information. This gives them an insight to this emerging marketing venue that no other company can boast.

I no longer train WSI franchise owners, they train me.

Check out this YouTube video advertising WSI. They get it. The internet and places like YouTube is where your business needs to be seen. This is one place where your customer is today and we need to follow our customer to continue to deliver our marketing message.

Internet Social Networks Are The New Frontier

I wrote months ago about Blogs: The New Frontier and I want to republish that post as a follow up to my last post on Internet Social Networks like Facebook becoming the new marketing venue. Let me correct both posts with Internet Social Networks Are The New Frontier. Blogs and Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin, etc. under title of Internet Social Networks are the New Frontier for in tuned marketing professionals and experts. As a small or medium size business owner you must make yourself aware of this and be sure to invest your precious marketing dollars wisely. The best money you will ever spend will be to consult an internet marketing specialist. Don't wait to be too late. Too late may mean your forced out of business by your creative and fore sightful competition.

FaceBook Is The New Marketing Venue

I have to admit that I'm lagging in the internet social networking arena. My young adult children are more involved with Facebook for example than I am but I will learn more. Why?

Look at these numbers from emarketer.com

An article I read in Forbes.com suggests that not only is Facebook growing fast it should be larger than MySpace given the user friendliness and marketing strategies of Facebook. For example; companies like IBM and Microsoft and of course Forbes.com are creating their own open or private communities in Facebook for free. The potential here is awesome. Imagine the intellectual capital of past and present employees coming together in one venue sharing ideas. That is one possibility which is an innovation incubator of ideas for a business. Imagine the marketing power of having your brand viewed perhaps with video (YouTube) and seen by a target market interested in your product or services. After all, with PVR on TV's and people going to the kitchen or washroom who actually watches TV commercials anymore. If a business is not marketing or planning to market on the internet very soon they will be throwing their marketing money away. Facebook is just another example of where our target markets or consumers have gone and we need to follow.

I Don't Want To Die With Any Regrets

As a follow up to my post; Fear Of Change - Why? where I wrote about the fear employees have with change within an organization I now want to write today about the fear of getting into business for yourself.

Too often I hear from people who like the idea of being in business for themselves but think the risk is too great. Business ownership in their mind is for the risk taker, the entrepreneur. This thinking could not be farther from the truth. I have not met a business owner yet who did not calculate the odds, weigh the advantages and disadvantages, examine their skill sets, identify their weaknesses and strengths before making a decision to go or not to go. We work too hard for our money to just gamble it away. In fact that risk taker is sitting in a casino playing the slot machines.

True entrepreneurs differ from the masses in one unique characteristic, they are optimists. They see the glass half full, not half empty. Why is that? Is it their astrological sign that predetermines their outlook on life? Is it in their schooling? Is it in their upbringing? Ahh...I think we may have something here.

I watched my father growing up in Toronto, Canada, in the 1960's working a job to pay the bills and my mother working nights so she could raise us during the day. But they were always looking for ways to make extra money. My dad started a painting business and would market himself door to door and provide his services on the weekends or late into the night. My mother, originally from Cheticamp, Nova Scotia, grew up hooking rugs which are a very popular item in the arts and crafts collectors circles. She would hook rugs and send them back home to make extra money.

Watching this as a child I must have picked up that this is life and work and being creative to earn money is normal. For example; I had 3 paper routes, shoveled snow, cut grass, anything to make a buck. In fact, we use to collect 'etch -a sketch' toys that were thrown into the garbage by Peter Austin and rebuilt them into working condition. We planted ourselves outside the Toronto and Ontario hydro and sold them for one dollar each to the workers as they exited the buildings going to their cars. We even developed, marketed and operated a couple of neighborhood fairs to other kids for a .25$ entrance fee. For attractions we had guess the number of marbles in the jar, sit in the new car for a fee, play in the water, music, etc. We were young entrepreneurs.

I'm sure our parents had a great impact on how we live our lives today. They can also have a negative impact on how we live our lives today. How often have you heard from your parents the words; NO, or DON'T, or THAT IS NOT SAFE, etc.

We are conditioned through repetition by the words of our loving parents at an early age to embrace caution or to not try . The good news is that we can over come this conditioning. We can change. Positive affirmations spoke out loud to yourself daily is one method and writing goal cards and staring at them everyday is another. The list goes on and any one of Tony Robbins seminars will be helpful in this regard.

What motivates me to succeed is the fear of sitting on my rocking chair when I'm old wishing I had tried. I'm not afraid of failure. If you fail you brush yourself off, take stock of what you learned and then move on. But to never have tried, that scares me. I don't want to die with any regrets.

Let me know what motivates you to succeed where others have failed? What motivates you to be successful in business? What drives you to change? Are you motivated by fear (running away from pain) or motivated by pleasure (running toward your big dreams)?

"Gut Feel" Decision Making Is NOT Cosmic

Here is a follow up to a post I wrote on "What Would You Wear For A Client Presentation":

As a salesperson, have you ever made a "gut feel" decision on a prospect that prevented you from being your best or caused you to act your best? I'm talking about that sales call where within a few moments you are in your mind closing down the meeting as a waste of time and those calls where you are connecting and are in your comfort zone. Even the best sales person has had both experiences. Of course we know that the best sales people will match and mirror verbal and body language, not pre-judge (cherry pick) and ask questions that get the prospect selling them self to you and focused on them. But, I don't care how good you are we all had at least once the gut feeling that sent a sales call into a tail spin.

Have you ever asked yourself where that gut feel comes from? It is NOT from the cosmos. It is not the perfect or not so perfect alignment of the stars or a universal vibration theory. It is a culmination of all the external stimuli entering our subconscious mind.

Let me put it to you this way, if you were meeting with a financial expert for the first time who was going to plan a personal financial freedom portfolio for you and he arrived at your house in a 15 year old car that was falling apart and got out of the car in loose fitting clothes that were wrinkled and his appearance was unkempt your subconscious mind would be sending a message to your gut feel center of your body that maybe this isn't the right person to manage your money.

Or, what about the construction contractor you are meeting that is going to discuss building an addition to your house for a budget of $100k and he shows up in a beat up old rusted van and doesn't take notes and after looking around the house in 5 minutes he is quoting numbers to you on how much it will cost to complete the project. Again, your gut feel is telling you that maybe this isn't the right guy to trust with your home and money.

Both of these examples, if not for our gut feel, could have been the best person for the task at hand but we will never know because we elected not to do business with them. In fact, we probably elected to not listen to what they had to say because we made a snap decision to not use them and now you are focused only on how to get them out of your house sooner as opposed to later.

Now we know our gut feel can be fairly accurate but I'm sure it can be just as often not so accurate. For example; I'm a sales person calling on a General Construction company and the owner is dressed in blue jeans and a t-shirt. His office is decorated in construction industry chic, drafting table and coffee table covered in blueprints, sales samples, business cards, junk, etc. He is hurried and his language is very blunt and to the point. My gut feel might be telling me that this guy is uneducated, blue collar tough with cash flow problems and will never buy my product or service. If that was my feeling my attitude will be to end this call as quickly as I can and move on. Guess what, that person might have been me. I am dressed this way because today I'm on the job site and my guys who I know don't respect the suit. In fact, my clients expect me to be dressed down and when I meet with them I was in jeans and a golf shirt with my company logo. What you never found out is that we are busy because we are good and as a result we have loyal customers with repeat business. In fact our bank account is in 7 figures. You just lost a great account.

When you are in sales you must research your prospect before you meet them and know that prejudging (cherry picking) can cost you business. Be careful of the "Gut Feel". Gut Feel decision making is not cosmic and in reality is a culmination of what we see, hear and feel. Now that you know this, how do you present yourself to your prospect? What subconscious message are you sending to your prospects gut feel center?

Sales Force Retention

I came across this great article written by Jeremy Miller with LeapJob.com which speaks to the Sales Force Retention Myth. This is a great follow up article to my post on the Top 10 Sales Manager Mistakes.



This article is worth the read: click here

Vacation Opened My Eyes To Need For Entrepreneurs

I just returned from a vacation to New Brunswick, Canada, to visit my family for my parents 50th wedding anniversary. The trip was great and the barn party we threw for my parents was a great success. The time I spent with my family in the fresh country air was priceless. My brother recently relocated to New Brunswick from Toronto and started a general construction business there a year ago and business is booming for him based on his experience and quality of workmanship. In fact he could be bigger if not for one significant problem, there is no young labour force in New Brunswick. Or at least not a labour force that wants to work. Most of the hard working youth has moved out to western Canada in pursuit of the promised big money.

What I saw in New Brunswick is lots of potential with lots of customers. The labour force is cheaper to employ than all other provinces west of New Brunswick and the cost of living is also lower. The biggest problem for New Brunswick, in fact all of the maritimes, has been a legacy of generations use to feeding on the government teat. For the truly industrious or entrepreneurial finding a labour force willing to work hard all year long is difficult when it is easier to work long enough until eligible for unemployment insurance. However, if you can be like my brother and build a business by yourself first as he has done (he now has a waiting list of customers months long) the labour force will come to you for job security. The mass exodus of youth to Alberta says only one thing to me, they want to work but they want a trade and they want to better their life from their parents. Bring the employment to New brunswick that pays fairly and teaches the youth to be proud of their job and I know they will stay home.

There is lots of money (customers) in the maritimes, there is government support for new business entrepreneurship and word of mouth advertising is faster and more loyal than here in Ontario.

If more entrepreneurs invest in the maritimes more of their youth will stay and return to work. Land in New Brunswick is a small fraction of what land is in Alberta or Ontario and as entrepreneurs build the economy in the maritimes land ownership will become the next great investment for your personal portfolio.

My eyes are opened and I believe that New Brunswick in particular is the next best entrepreneurial investment.

Solution Selling

Solution Selling is the ideal title for describing what all sales people should be doing at all times. They should be asking questions with prospects or existing clients (which I see as prospects as well) that identify their most immediate problems and then the sales person presents a solution to their problem(s). In this environment you are not selling the lowest price. You are offering value to your prospect that they can see benefit from that actually impacts their bottom line. The impact can be either in savings or in additional revenue to their company.

A sales person should be proactive and constantly researching their prospects industry and business. Let's say for example your client's business is in merger consideration and if taken over by another company could cause you to lose the client to your competition because the other company has a larger say in the supplier decision making process. The proactive sales person would be working hard to do business with the businesses entertaining the merger. Perhaps you can even solve problems for these new clients that have nothing to do with what you are selling. If and when a merger does happen your name (and the company you represent) has a better chance of not only maintaining your existing client but also growing the business with this merger.

In addition, too often sales people bid on a "solution" and when the decision is delayed they get nervous and start offering a reduced price. Here is an excerpt from Sales Performance Blog post; "If The Economy Slows, How Should We Sell?" that states my point clearly:

"...what most salespeople do: they simply react by cutting price or offering other kinds of substantive concessions. Ironically, aggressive discounting at the end of the cycle can actually increase the perception of risk by customers. They may wonder, “Why did you quote me a higher price before? Is this now the best price? What kind of price could I get if I delay further?” This begins a death spiral of further delays, followed by additional discounts, until all profit margins are completely squeezed out — which is bad business for both the seller and the buyer."

In summary, Solutions Selling is presented on value not price. And is proactive not reactive.

Top 10 Sales Manager Mistakes

I find it interesting that when I search the internet for articles on sales the focus is generally on the sales person and not the manager. I do appreciate the importance for sales people to improve their sales skills but who is improving the manager? Let's look at what I believe are the top 10 sales manager mistakes:

1. The Sales Manager/Account Rep who has to wear two hats. To be a successful sales manager you must be a manager of your people and focused on their success. If they succeed, you succeed. Give up the account rep role even if it is a plum account. You can still be involved with the account but you should be there to support or help close for your rep.

2. The Let Me Sell Sales Manager; a great Sales Person does not always mean a great Sales Manager. Some of the most successful sales people I have met over the years were the best closers. Aggressive, talkative and very social. However, many of these people when moved to a managers role began to fail. Why? Because they spent their career focused on their success. It is very difficult to turn that switch off. It requires EI, Emotional Intelligence. I believe a measure of a persons EI is nurtured over the years and also has to do with how they are wired. In other words, they are naturally empathetic and care about the success of others.

3. The I Can Do But Can't Teach Sales manager; a great sales manager must be a great sales trainer. Too often I see sales managers who are great communicators but don't know how to reverse engineer what they do to teach others. Send them off to a seminar or get additional training outside the company is their mantra. My suggestion is for this sales manager to get some training on how to train.

4. The Ivory Tower Sales Manager is the manger who is not accessible. They have the "I've made it" attitude and hide away in their big office sending emails and planning golf games and taking trips. Sure the sales manager needs to do this but not if their objective is get as many perks out of the job as possible. In other words, their rep or the reps client could care less if they were there or not and in fact, would prefer if they were not there because it is effecting the nurturing of the relationship started by the rep.

5. The Harping Sales Manager is the person who never upgrades their experience and knowledge of sales and is stuck in an old school mentality. They believe if they answer any question with a standard response or sales management spin or use a strong arm bully approach this will work on their reps. All this does is churn out sales reps causing a low retention rate and from the outside looking in, your clients and prospects don't want to work with a company that can't even keep employees or keep them happy.

6. The Sales Manager With "I" Problems is the person who takes credit for all the teams successes and passes mistakes and failures onto their team or an individual. If you want to be a leader, a sales manager, then you must take responsibility publicly for all failures and pass the accolades onto your team. The respect you will garner from your team will be inspirational and they will climb the highest mountains for you to make you proud of them. In some respects you are assuming the role of a parent and they are the child. Your vocabulary should then change from "I" to "We" or "Them". Try it and see how good it feels.

7. The Grunter Sales Manager is the person who never listens to his reps and shows their lack of interest in many ways. For example; they keep working on their computer with their head down responding with a grunt on occasion. When a rep has a problem, stop what you are doing and listen. Now I know we need to manage by effort but if they are in your office then we must assume you gave them permission to enter and therefore speak to you, so listen to them.

8. The Talker Sales Manager is the person who loves to hear his own voice and never truly listens to his reps. "Seek first to understand before being understood" is Stephen Covey's 5th principle from his book the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. This essentially means we need to listen with our ears and our heart. We need to connect by understanding the other persons view point before having them understand our view point. Listen, but NOT with the intent to respond. Which means don't be deaf because you are thinking only about what you are going to say next.

9. The MBA Sales Manager is the person with very little real life experience but has a wealth of education that abounds with theory. I pity the reps with this person. This sales manager answers every problem with a book answer. Throw the book away and get some real sales experience under your belt.

10. The Numbers Guy Sales Manager is the person who tries to manage the rep by the Statistics but has no clue on how to interpret the numbers. In the old days maybe a poor rep could be motivated to work harder by the numbers but reps are smarter and more educated today. One thing we all know about stats is they can be interpreted to mean what ever we want to say. As sales managers we do need to be on top of the numbers but don't use them as a big stick to get your reps to work harder. The numbers should be used to isolate problem areas in your sales process unique to the individual and the team. Then once isolated you work together to fix the weakness.

WebEx Video Conferencing

I don't normally write about one of my advertisers but this one is special. I use this product and between the combination of ease of use and the interconnectivity of users, it is great. For example, every two weeks I set up a live web conference between Toronto and Japan. Not only can we see the presentation with PowerPoint and access live into a CRM (Client Resource Management) system which we are implementing we can communicate by voice, and video if we chose to do so. That is all great but to consider the distance between Toronto and Japan and even though we expect a lag of seconds we don't see it or experience any time lag. This is an absolutely brilliant technology.

Britain Says 'Cheers' for Online Adverts

I get updates daily from emarketer.com and this following insight to the Brits shows how much quicker they are to adopting internet marketing but most of all, demonstrates to me where the world of business is going to advertise now and in the future. /Ray

"JULY 3, 2007
The old guard is changing, and fast.

If your impression of Britain is a bloke in a bowler hat, think again. Far from being set in its ways, the UK is becoming a model for the future of advertising around the world.
In fact, Britain is set to account for over half of all online ad spending in Western Europe this year. That share will rise to 52.6% of regional online spending by 2011 — amounting to nearly £4.5 billion ($8.2 billion).
" Several recent developments, including Google?s planned acquisition ad-serving company DoubleClick Microsoft?s announcement that it hopes to buy aQuantive, another player in advertising sector, signal a radical transformation online advertising,? says Karin von Abrams, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the new report, UK Online Advertising. "The UK will be in the vanguard of this change."
The health of the UK economy will continue to provide a firm underpinning for online advertising in Britain. Today, few advertisers remain unfamiliar with digital media, and both new and established brands increasingly have the funds, the will and the agency partners to invest confidently in online campaigns.
"Several sectors will drive the UK online advertising market between now and 2011," says Ms. von Abrams, "such as paid search, social networks, mobile platforms, rich media and personalization."
The importance of the rise of Internet spending is difficult to overemphasize.
With the rate of advertising growth declining, and Britain's share of world spending also diminishing, the growth of the online marketplace has made a remarkable contribution to the UK's advertising landscape, and given an enormous boost to spending overall."

Marketing On Wheels

I was driving during rush hour as millions of us do daily and in front of me today I was reading an LED scrolling across my line of vision promoting Air Canada. Now you may be thinking, what's so unique about that? Answer: it was on the rear license plate holder which was on a family mini van driven by a mother with children sitting in the back seat. Why she would be promoting Air Canada I can only guess. But, what it did do was made me go to the Air Canada web site to investigate this further. Nothing there could be found about these LED license plate holders. But it did get me to go to their web site. I did some more searching and found a site that claims to be the "original" of this LED scrolling display and therefore the cheapest, ScrollingStuff.com.

Just imagine how powerful this would be for your entrepreneurial business if you were to have your business website address scrolling across the back of your car. Everyday, people are stuck in traffic reading your URL. Eventually their curiosity drives them to go to your web site. And to their surprise they are greeted with; "welcome" and offered a discount for visiting your site from seeing the LED display. Building a website for your business is only the beginning. You still need to drive traffic to your site and then covert them to customers.

Scrolling Stuff offers these LED scrolling display license plate holders for $49.99 usd plus shipping. A reasonable price considering what we spend on Telephone Directory advertising that does little to drive traffic to your website.

I love this idea and if you have a fleet of vehicles you may want to look into this thinking outside of the box idea and start 'Marketing On Wheels'.

PVR - Personal Video Recorder Can Save Our Children

I finally joined the 21st century and I had installed a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) on my TV. I have this service through my satellite hook up with Bell Canada. Let me start with, this device has set me free from commercials or, TV ads. I always knew that during a 2 hour TV movie I would endure a great deal of time on ads. Sometimes I would mute the ads to speak to someone else or do something in another part of the house so not all my time was watching these ads. But what I found with the PVR is I could now calculate how much time I was seeing, watching and/or hearing in a day, a week, a lifetime. It is mind boggling.

In a 2 hour movie it was 25 minutes. In a 30 minute TV series over a 5 day period which includes more commercials at the beginning and/or at the end of the show I found the aggregate time in ads was 40 minutes. Which means 150 minutes of TV watching was really only 110 minutes of what I wanted to watch. I came across a pdf url: tvturnoff that has an abundance of statistics and information on TV ad consumptions in the USA which I'm sure is not too different in Canada and I must admit they are alarming numbers. For example; Number of TV Commercials viewed by American children in a year is 40,000 and brand loyalty can be created in a child as early as 2. These are scary numbers for me because it shows the power these ads have over the minds of our children. Our children don't have built into their brain yet media filters that we have spent a lifetime developing.

The PVR Can Save Our Children. And perhaps change the way businesses advertise forever. How you may ask? Imagine this, a future, not too far away, where the PVR is in most households. And the PVR is used to stop ads from reaching our children through pre-recording and/or pause features that allow the user to fast forward "skip"the commercials. Now, you are a business owner who is spending 100's of thousands of dollars, maybe millions, on TV advertising but your market share continues to be eroded by the competition. The more you advertise or regardless of the ad you run the competition is still growing and your losing money fast. Guess what, your competition is on the internet. They have an online marketing strategy that spends maybe a quarter of what you spend on the TV and they are putting you out of business.

Every once in a while a new technological device comes around that seems harmless in the beginning, for example the TV in the early 1950's, the 386 desktop with windows and of course the internet in the early 1990's and these seemingly harmless introductions then launch an explosive growth that change the way we do business and the way we live our lives. The PVR, in my humble estimation, will change the way businesses advertise and spark a flash point in online internet marketing. In this new PVR world truer words were never spoken when, to paraphrase Bill Gates, prophesied that "there will be two kinds of businesses in the future, those on the internet and those out of business".

The PVR Can Save Our Children and if you are a business owner, let me leave you with a question; are you ready for this flash point in history and put your business online and are now marketing it online with a budget that gets you found and then converts visitors into customers? Just as you would not create a TV commercial by yourself in your basement nor should you create an online marketing presence by yourself from your basement. The PVR is here and it is going to change how we market our business. Remember that you heard it here first.

I Can't Talk Now, I'm Busy Sabotaging My Business

As a follow up to my post Soaring With Eagles which asks the question; How do you keep yourself motivated:

Why is it that very smart people fail at business? To answer this question you could ask another series of questions; why do we light that next cigarette, why do we eat late at night, why do I drink and drive. The list goes on of the many self sabotaging things smart people do everyday. We are all guilty of doing things we know we should not do but do them regardless of the negative consequences. In many cases it is a question of a persons paradigm. In other words, how they see life.

Some people see life as a glass half full (optimistic) and others see that same glass as half empty (pessimistic). Many of us will have paradigm shifts from time to time but to succeed in business we need to be optimistic most times. Therefore, you must change your paradigm to that of an abundance mentality. There is plenty for everyone. You must, when the days in business are lean, (and you may have more of these days in the early years of your business), you must always reaffirm to yourself that you will succeed and nothing is going to stop me or get in my way.

What I'm talking about is the control of our thoughts. How we think has a direct connection to how we act. If we lose control of our car on the highway and stare at the guardrail we will hit the guardrail. If we stare in the direction we want to go our body reacts and steers accordingly to that direction. Don't under estimate the power of your mind. I believe strongly that if you have done everything physically neccessary to succeed, that is, studied from the masters and then executed on their sound business, sales and marketing strategies and techniques, surrounded yourself with good people then the only missing link is your thoughts.

Your thoughts create the power of attraction. If you are positive you will attract positive energy to you and as a result to your business. If you don't believe me try an experiment with the opposite (negativity) or remember the day recently when you were really upset and spent the day complaining to whom ever would listen. Did you experience some who were drawn into your complaining and complained along with you and that made you feel good? And did you also see some people steer clear of you and refuse to engage in a conversation with you of complaints? Like attracts like. Let me leave you with a tip, most successful people see the glass as half full. Those people who shied away from you when you were complaining are successful people or will be successful and you just alienated your best assets or allys. Imagine if they were your prospects or customers. Imagine if you continue with this negative paradigm how many customers you may not have.

You are smart, so stop the "I Can't Talk Now, I'm Busy Sabotaging My Business" attitude and change your paradigm to "Let's Talk Now, I'm Busy Being Positive For My Business".

Motivation Needs Interpretation

Here is a Sales tip from Jonathan Weaver, Peak Performers. I love this tip on understanding not only your motivations but also the motivations of your prospect. It all leads back to the question every prospect is asking themself when they listen to your sales pitch, "What's In It For Me". As many of you know who read my post Who Do You Buy From? you know I started my career in Purchasing and I know better than most the motivations of the buyer or your prospect.

Jonathan Weaver's Sales Tip:
"Motivation can be defined as a concept used to describe the factors within an individual which arouse, maintain and channel behaviour towards a goal.
Another way to say this is that motivation is goal-directed behaviour.
If you want to be a true sales professional, you will want to study motivation from both sides of the transaction.
On your side of the transaction come to terms with the answer to WHY you'll do the following:
Do the necessary prospecting
Do the necessary homework on each account
Do necessary follow up
Study salesmanship and develop your skills rather than just work at it during the course of the day...
On the other side of the transaction, if you can understand the goals of the buyer you can meet their needs
Why are they meeting with you?
What benefit of ownership of your product / service are they most interested in?
What are they looking to avoid?
When you understand WHY you're working - What you're doing becomes easy! When you understand WHY your prospect wants to buy - Sales are faster and more profitable..."

College Versus Buying A Franchise

I just read the following blog post from Sean Kelly "Wise up! Skip College. Buy A Franchise!" It is very humorous but also thought provoking. When you look at the franchise cost of the top 50 franchises in Entrepreneur Magazines top 500 you may just be further ahead to buy a franchise than go to college.

Let me know your thoughts?

Buying A Business - Ask These Simple Questions:

Too often I see people in jobs making a living but not really living. I know people who make a great income but have no freedom to enjoy their income. I've heard some say I work to live and others say that they live to work. If you live to work then you have found a job you enjoy, that you have fun with and that is great.

If you are thinking about getting into a business for yourself ask yourself if you are buying job security or job satisfaction? In other words, a business you would enjoy? Yes you need to make a good income from the business so you can continue to enjoy the lifestyle you are accustom too but, will it bring you to a higher lifestyle that you may enjoy even more? Will it afford you the opportunity to enjoy your income with your family and friends? What lifestyle are you buying with this new business? One that ties you to the desk or a food preparation counter or, provides you freedom to make choices of when you work or not, take a vacation or not, take a few weeks vacation or only one week.

Too often we look at the numbers to make a decision before we buy a business which is a necessary decision step but, also too often we don't look at our happiness in the business.

Let me leave you not only with my questions posed above but also with a quote from someone I admire, me. :)

“With fun comes passion, with passion comes success”

How To Get "Mo"

Here is something I just received from a colleague that speaks to motivation very simply and succinctly:

How to Get "Mo" by Steve Simms;

What makes you want to do what you do when you do it? That is the mystery of motivation. Motivation is the drive that impels a person to take action. It is an internal need that is satisfied by an external expression. When you experience something and you want to get some "mo" -- that is "mo"-tivation! The truly motivated person wants to take action to either get what he wants, or to avoid what he doesn't want.


"Success is more attitude than aptitude."Anonymous
There are three ways people can become motivated. The first is the K.I.T.A. method of motivation. (K.I.T.A. stands for "kick in the anatomy.") It is based on the fear of punishment. The K.I.T.A. method motivates people to move away from something painful or distasteful. It pushes them into action. An example of K.I.T.A. motivation is when the boss threatens to fire you unless you stop showing up late for work. The second motivation technique is the 4P's Principle. It uses praise, prestige, promotion, or paycheck to motivate people. The 4P's pull people toward something by promising a reward for taking action. An example of the 4P's Principle: "Bill, you are too good an employee to be late for work all the time. And when you show up on time for an entire month, I am going to give you a promotion and a raise. And I will announce it in the company newsletter!" The K.I.T.A. and the 4P's Principle methods of motivation both work, but they are not as effective as the third method. There is no special name for this one. It is just plain ole self-motivation. It involves finding a personal reason, deep inside yourself, to take action.
"...a dynamically motivated person is like an automobile - he is driven by his own power source from within!"
Most people go through life being pushed or pulled by outward circumstances. They do what they do in response to what happens to them. Like a billiard ball, they are bouncing off the rails of life or falling into the pockets -- all in response to the positive or negative cues of their outward environment! An effectively motivated person, however, is self-motivated! He or she is not like a wheelbarrow (being pushed) or a wagon (being pulled). Instead, a dynamically motivated person is like an automobile -- he is driven by his own power source from within!

'Majority Rules' Can Be Inappropriate Decision Making

The following PowerPoint Presentation is something a friend sent me that makes you think at the end about how we make decisions. From an Entrepreneurs perspective, it made me think about how many times I made decisions in haste or solely on emotion which cost me money.

In business sometimes we battle with decisions that is best for the bottom line but sacrifices our ethics or perhaps our morals. I've always leaned toward my ethics and that has not generally failed me in the long run. However, watch this presentation and let me know your thoughts about how you make business decisions today?

Click here to watch the Presentation

Fathers Day, Daughters, And Golf

This blog post is dedicated to my daughter. Brittany, who is 19, planned a fathers day that I will not forget. It was special to me for many reasons but mostly because it was important for her to demonstrate her love in a way she never could before now. In other words, she has some money in the bank that she earned and saved.

My fathers day gift began as a mystery. I was to be "kidnapped" at 9:00 am but first I had to wear my first gift, a Tommy Hilfiger golf shirt. She insisted I wear this with my golf shorts and running shoes. Now I'm thinking we are going golfing but she did very well at the denial. I hope that is not a family trait. As I'm rushed off in the car she continues her ruse of mystery and eventually we enter the parking lot of a local golf course. Upon arrival she informed me that my clubs are in the trunk, that my brother will be joining me (he was set up by his daughter in the same way), she gave me $20.00 spending money, a pen for the score card and a pin for my shirt that was like the the blue ribbon you award to the prize bull at the country fair that said; 'Worlds Greatest Dad'.

My brother was dressed in the same khaki shorts with his new blue Tommy Hilfiger shirt and prize ribbon. Our daughters took our picture together and sent us on our way for the day. As we came off the golf course they were there to pick us up and then continued the day treating us to dinner at a local franchise pub. At the pub they presented us with a framed picture wrapped nice and it was the two of us dressed alike from this morning. I should mention that the golf was great and many fathers were out with their wife and children. Golfing has truly become a family sport.

Our daughters were very proud to do this for us and I was moved and proud of them as I will always be proud of my daughter. My love and thanks to my daughter for the best fathers day so far. Don't tell her but, I miss the paper finger painted ties I use to get and I would be just as happy with that today.

Business Websites Can Make Or Break You

Too often I visit business websites that have not changed their content since my last visit. On occasion, I see outdated contact information including office move addresses that have not been updated. These sites are certainly not effectively following my post challenge; "Put Yourself In Your Customers Shoes". If your website is guilty of these marketing offenses let me leave with you a piece of information and advice; most internet visitors, your potential customers, will make a decision to stay on your site or leave and never return within 3 seconds.

We hear more and more about Pay Per Click Advertising and essentially you don't have to be too smart to be on the top of a Search Engine like Google in their sponsored sites section. All you have to do is be the highest bid per click on key words and phrases and you will be on the top. BIG DEAL! First off you don't need to be on the top to be successful with Pay Per Click Advertising, second and third spots work just as well and in some cases better. The key here is that when you drive the online traffic to your site, what happens when they get there? Do you have your site updated with current information? Does your site allow for easy navigation? Does your site follow the 3 click rule and ensures that the visitor gets their information within 3 clicks from your landing page? Is your site easy to buy from online? Is your site Search Engine Optimize so you can move up the search engine organically and may then only need PPC for certain marketing campaigns, for example new product launches? I could go on with what your site needs to do and consistently but to properly execute on any of these ideas requires detailed web analytics. We know we can utilize free online reports like Google Analytics but do you know how to interpret the information into a sound online marketing strategy? Do you know how to use the reports to make business decisions? If the answer is no then you need a professional internet marketing consultant. Remember that when you have a visitor to your site who abandons your site within those 3 seconds that they in most cases never return to your web site.

Get smart and at a minimum, keep your contact and address information up to date or you stand to let your website abandons go to your competition. The decision to act or not act on the content and design of your website is yours, this decision could make or break you!

Sales Strategy Creates A Competitive Advantage

The following article; Sales Strategy Creates A Competitive Advantage by Darrell Zarhorsky found on About.com is a great follow up to my post: Stop The Cold Calling Sweats.

He suggests the strategy that starts by identifying a segment of your target market and then searches out an industry problem. Once the problem is identified you create a solution that is not offered by your competition. This becomes your Unique Selling Proposition.

This makes calling for appointments with prospects and existing clients much easier as you have a solution to their problem.

American Airlines Moves 200,000 People Per Day

I wanted to bring to the forefront again QR Codes or Qcodes (Mobile Picture Phone Readers) and encourage you to read the comments to my post; North American Marketers Are Xenophobic which speaks further to how this technology is entering the North American Market and starting with the Airline Industry is going to make checking in and getting an airline ticket much more easy and convenient. It appears there is a battle ensuing on which technology is better today and for the future. It comes down to which technology reads better on the picture phones and, with the HP Steered MC2 Consortium working toward creating a standard for the mobile phone industry, if your reader is not the standard you stand to lose billions of dollars in future sales.

Just imagine how quickly this will grow in North America when airlines adopt this technology built into mobile picture phones. American Airlines advertises now they move 200,000 people per day on their flights. Multiply this number by the number of Major Airlines and 365 days in a year and you start to see how fast the end user will adopt this method of phone reader for convenience of checking in and getting a flight ticket. Roll this out to hotels and the tourism industry and it is mind boggling how fast this can and will grow.

Is your business ready for this new technology?

Lawyers Profit From Our Due Dilligence

I spoke yesterday about my friend starting a new business and seeking out my business experience advice and decided today that I want to add to that post with a typical entrepreneurial story regarding legal advice and their age old question; To use a lawyer or to not use a lawyer?

When we start a new small business we generally have most of our financial resources already in the business. Therefore, when trivial details like business contracts need to be signed a lawyers opinion and advice is generally sacrificed. I have signed many multi-million dollar contracts over the years and live by the opinion that every contract can be broken, it's just a matter of weighing the risks against the benefits as well as the level of probability (high or low) if and what damages would be incurred under various scenarios. So seeking out a legal opinion isn't something I would do in all cases. However, if you see high risk and many pitfalls in a contract then you must seek a third opinion and generally a lawyer is your best and safest bet. But remember that not all lawyers are experts in every aspect of business.

A lawyer (not all lawyers) will tell you yes I can help you with your contract evaluation and even negotiation but is really only interested in the hourly fee they can collect from you during the soon to be lengthy and protracted process. Your proper due diligence may become your lawyers next Goose that lays the Golden Eggs.

As is the case in most professions, the legal profession has specialists. Using a specialist in the evaluation of your business contract may save you money in the long run. Also, remember that theirs is a legal opinion and not necessarily a business opinion and should be only one of many opinions you receive. For example; you may have an opinion from your financial advisor, your accountant, your operations head, your sales department, etc. At some point the buck stops with you and you have to make a go or no go decision. And on occasion, it may be against the advice of your lawyer. That's just business. Anyway, back to how a specialist can save you money, a specialist who has seen similar contracts and clauses before can speak from experience and get right to the potential problem areas right away. They can also advise that the contract is a standard contract for this industry and advise of it's expressed and implied intent and then leave you to decide to go or no go on the execution of the agreement. An example of this is franchise agreements.

A typical franchisor - franchisee agreement is written to protect the franchisor. That is to say, to protect the existing franchisees and of course their investment. If you are considering a franchise then you want an agreement to be written this way. To protect you as a new franchisee. In fact, any franchisor who is prepared to re-write their agreement for you is really saying, no protection for you, we are only interested in your money. If you experience that kind of accommodating franchisor you should turn and run away as fast as you can. They are after your wallet and you are about to be mugged. In this franchise example, if you are speaking to a contract lawyer but not someone who specializes in franchise law then you will get a lawyer who will charge you by the hour to get the franchisor to re-write the agreement to be more fair to you and if the good franchisor is not prepared to re-write their agreement then you are just throwing your money to the lawyer in the form of a golden egg. A specialist in franchise law will recognize a standard franchise agreement, highlight the meaning of particular clauses to you and then generally say, it's a standard franchise agreement, do you want to do the business or not? If you do then sign the agreement. In this scenario, the legal specialist just saved you a great deal of money.

Don't let the lawyers profit from your due diligence.

Learn From The Seasoned Professional

I met with a friend and his business partner today who both started another new company earlier this year and who wanted to pick my brain to discover potential growing pain problems before they pounce on them and they are not prepared. This is a smart business practice for anyone considering getting into business and also while you continue to grow your business. This is called the 'Pile theory'. Look for the person with the biggest pile of money in your business sector or in business generally and then pick their brain on how they achieved their great success.

We sat for 2 hours discussing business mergers, acquisitions, licensing agreements and pay structures for new employees. They have a great opportunity and are on the verge of exploding in the next few months and certainly in their first year. The biggest piece of advice I gave them, beyond some specific answers to specific questions, was think big and grow big. They will be a $15 million business in the next 3 years and will also enjoy significant profit margins. The challenge is that if you are not prepared for this quick growth you may also experience a quick fall.

Think big and grow big suggests that you must strategize, plan, (which they have done and is still evolving), and then implement business policies and procedures around a unified business image. This requires a focused attention on your core competency and then communicated to all staff to be executed properly. You need to ask questions like; how do we want other business to see us? When someone asks; what do you think of those guys, that business, what response do you want from not only your customers but also your prospects? How do you want to treat your customers? Selling on price only or building long term relationships which creates customer loyalty? What benefit can you provide to your customers that they are NOT getting now from your competition? When you can answer all these questions then create a business mandate and mission statement to be promoted and communicated to your employees, your prospects, and your customers.

That's it for today, back to my move and unpacking boxes.

Moving Homes; Need Two Crews

I have been spending the last three months packing and planning the move into our new home and all was going well. Then days before the move people started backing out or offering only a few hours to help with our move. In a normal move this is not generally a problem because if you are like me I always have more help than I actually need. But this time we did something different. We went with what we thought would be a less stressful move. We rented a trailer (U-Move) from AMJ Campbell which I still believe is a great concept at a great price but remember this; you will need two crews to move your home.

The idea was that we would have the trailer dropped off at our present home on early Thursday morning and then take our time loading all day and into the evening if needed. The next morning, Friday, AMJ would pick up the trailer and deliver it to our new home. Then we would have all Friday to unload. Sounds very doable and less stressful than having to load a truck and be out by 1:00 pm and based on my previous experiences, unloading the truck late into night. And there have been many moves over the years as we spent the 80's and 90's buying and selling homes to build equity quicker.

However, in the U-Move scenario not everyone, in fact nobody, could do both days. This meant two crews. As they started dropping like flies, filling the crews up again and doing some juggling to ensure I had an appropriate amount of muscle on each day was a challenge. We did it, we hope, and all that remains to be seen is the move itself.

The U-Move is a great idea, just think more about doing it over a weekend.

Wish me luck and I will be back on my Blog next week.

SEO - Put Yourself In Your Customers Shoes

Too often I see websites that are marketing to their customers in the words that they believe makes sense to the customer. In other words, they are not asking themselves how would the customer ask the question when searching for our product or service. For example;

An Airline Company website promotes Low Fares and what the
customer is searching for on the internet is Cheap Flights. In a one month study I saw at a recent SEO seminar I attended that compared both of these two keyword/phrases, searches done online during September of 2006, Low Fares had 629 searches and Cheap Flights
had over 1,500,000.

I learned the 6 Steps of building a Successful SEO strategy and how to keep from being black listed by the Search Engines. Yes, they have rules and if you break them they will stop crawling you up their pages. The most significant thing to remember is that Google and Yahoo are always changing their algorithms and you need to be on top of these changes to move up to the top of the searches and to stay at the top. Right now, for example, Google is cleaning house of any and all web sites that are nothing more than an Advertising or "Spam" site. The biggest component of your site that moves you up the page rankings is Content, Content, and Content. So make sure your site is loaded with great and lots of content. Down loadable white papers, frequently updated articles, press release and links to blogs are huge.

This was a 2 day seminar so I can't give you everything I learned but what I can tell you is if you are not using an internet marketing professional or consultant who has the latest and up to date SEO information at any given time then you are probably not being found on the internet. Seek professional advice and do it right...'Put Yourself In The Customers Shoes'.

Family Support

If you are considering business ownership ask yourself if this is your dream and everyone else is just along for the ride or, you share your dream with your spouse. If you are single and young you have your life ahead of you and risk is minimized by the attitude that every failure makes us stronger. When you are older and have to support a family, business ownership becomes a greater risk. To minimize this risk you need the support of your spouse.

He or she should be an active partner in the research into your future business opportunity. They don't necessarily have to be a working partner in the business but if you are planning on spending your family nest egg then they need to go into this with their eyes open. In fact, in Canada, if you are applying for a business loan or line of credit for your business your spouse will be expected to get an ILA (Independent legal Advice). This is a form to be completed and signed that she has spoken to her own lawyer who explained the consequences if you fail to meet your debt obligations. This is less frightening if he or she has been involved in the research from the beginning with you and has agreed to this new business in advance of meeting with the lawyer.

The biggest advantage of having your spouse be involved early in your research of a business is that they always see and hear different things than you see and hear. As a result, different questions are asked and of course answered giving you a deeper perspective on your buying decision.

When you both come to the same conclusion and move forward with the business you generally have a great back up and positive support person in your corner making sure you see everything on a frequent basis and can be there to boost your morale and celebrate your victories. Remember that if you both came to the same conclusion this becomes your spouses dream and passion as well, even if it is only to see you happy, successful, and proud for your family.

Family support in business is powerful if it is done correctly.

"I Am Canadian Blogroll"

I am proud to be Canadian with many friends and readers from around the world. To help further the success of other Canadian Bloggers I have added my blog, Entrepreneurs Seek Advice, to the "I Am Canadian Blogroll". Thanks to Tricia for her instructions found at her blog; Tricia's Musings and, for helping me get this properly set up on my blog. Great work Tricia and we appreciate your efforts and time required to manage this with the intent to keep it current with active blogs that are also civil in nature.

I see from some of the comments Tricia has received about this blogroll that we are the envy of others from other countries. Always glad to be part of the leading edge of innovation and creativity.

My QR Code

I wrote about the Xenophobic North American Marketer and QR Codes and I was pleasantly surprised to find that Kaywa - Feed2Mobile had created a QR Code for a feed from my blog. If you have a QR Code Reader on your mobile phone you can now scan my blog code. Let's promote this more and more as this is a great idea waiting for it's entry into the North American Marketing.

Entrepreneurs Seek Advice Mobile Feed - QR Code

Differentiation Can Be a Niche Market

I remember starting may career in the late 1970's with an automotive jobber selling car parts. I enjoyed the job more for the discount on parts to work on my 1973 Camaro which was my money pit at the time. A money pit that I was very okay with...what a great looking and sounding car with the chrome side pipes that provided my peers with a great parking lot show at night spitting fire with every quick gear change. Ahh, the days of our youth. The jobber I worked for at the time was a family owned business and they were very successful for 25 years and most of the money they made went back to the family. I was just an employee but that was okay because of my Camaro.

Looking back on this company today, 30 years later, I remembered something unique and special about this two store operation, they had parts for cars that nobody else had. So many times I spoke to customers over the counter who travelled miles to our store for the rare part for that rare car that no one else had. Or because they knew from experience that no one else would have the part they started with us first. This small but successful automotive aftermarket parts business built a reputation on having in stock, sometimes with an inch of dust on it, the part you just can't get anywhere else. The company was known as Radex Automotive and at the time Radex was the jobber to beat. Even the big brand competitors could not take their market away because of customer loyalty. Radex found that their differentiation was the hard to find part. There was no science as to what unique part to stock, they just did it from 25 years of parts business experience and they were very good at it.

The question I have for you is; What are you doing to make your business unique or different or rare amongst your competition? Let me know your Unique Selling Point Proposition and how you are getting the word out to your prospects and customers?

I just added a link under this post title (or click here) to a great article published in Entrepreneur.com on Niche Marketing with some tips to follow for success.

Customer Referrals Can Be Automated

Every good sales person or business person knows the value of asking for a referral from your existing clients. But why not ask for a referral from your prospects. If you have read my previous posts you know that 'any prospect worth calling on once is worth calling on again'. In other words you build a relationship with a prospect until you are in the right place at the right time for business to be conducted. During this phase of building a relationship, why not ask your prospect, "Can you see how my services may help any of your business contacts?" What have you got to lose. Referrals are great, because this prospect is listening more to you than normal because of the referral who has called them on your behalf if you got the best kind of referral. Now imagine this referral process being automated...

The internet brings to a business much more than an online presence or e-commerce. The internet can automate many business processes and this includes sales techniques. When someone visits your site today they are generally researching for a buy. If your site fails to convert them to a customer, which if this happens frequently you may need to look at a new site, then why not have a pop up window that occurs when they click to leave your site that asks them questions. One question could be; 'Would you recommend our site or product or service to someone else? If so, please enter their contact information for the site link to be emailed to them with an introduction letter from the visitor to your site'. Why not entice the visitor with some credits to future business if the referral actually takes the call to action.

This automated approach to referrals when compared to traditional methods of lead generation is very inexpensive and will provide you further business marketing intelligence depending on the tool you use and the questions you ask.

What are you doing in your business today to automate your business processes?

Build It And They Will NOT Come

It is a very risky business person who believes that the product will create the need. We may argue that IBM and Microsoft with the desktop PC and DOS and then Windows is the exception and, the internet is certainly in many cases creating a need. However, it could be argued that the need was waiting patiently dormant for the innovators to play catch up. In other words, Sci-fiction movies from the 50's through the 60's and TV shows like Star Trek had already created the need for high tech tools and toys. In my mind, only a fool would risk everything on passion alone. Any amount of marketing intelligence, no matter how little, is better than no marketing intelligence at all.

When I first entered into the world of Custom Home Building I took a course which started in the States which upon completion provided me with more letters after my name. CSP, Certified New Home Sales Professional. One of the trainers, a large home development builder in Dallas, Texas, left me with the best advice; don't build the home you want to live in, build the home your market will buy.

From that point on I tried as often as possible to get some information, any information, that would protect my investment. I have found over the years that informal and formal surveys work very well. The informal survey is when you are asking the same questions to your customers and prospects over their desk, over coffee, over lunch or over dinner. I would ask questions that try and get a sense of where their future needs may be coming from and would also be a mix of finding out what problems they are experiencing and "what do you think of this idea that I'm kicking around in my head?" The informal survey takes longer so it is generally used for long term plans.

The formal survey is when you actually create specific questions to identify if a need exists in a target market you are considering entering into or to identify how to improve sales by identifying the needs of the prospects which in turn will be used later for marketing by addressing their needs with the benefits of the product or, of course, the services offered. There are many online survey tools you can use, for example; I use Survey Monkey, which is very user friendly and inexpensive. For larger ventures you may want to consider using a Third Party company which can also provide great analytics with the reports. The internet of course, with a properly built web solution can be a great resource for ongoing analytics. Any way you do it, just do it.

Build it and they will come is in most cases...build it and they will NOT come.