- How to Earn Customer Referrals
The best sales person is a happy customer; it sounds trite, but a happy customer is much more believable than your best sales pitch. If only you had more of them. - Product Promotion Turns Prospects Into Customers
Unlike advertising and public relations which create publicity and awareness, product promotion delivers a call to action. Typically, the call to action is for the customer to buy now- often there is an incentive offered to encourage the customer to do so. - Marketing Mantras Make Money
A marketing mantra is three to five words that describes how your business or offering is different. It must be easy to say and remember while being easily understood. If it is in writing, it should leap off the page with authenticity and integrity. It can be used internally or externally. It should say how you are different instead of how you are the same. - Niche Marketing With a Sustainable Competitive Advantage
A Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) is a unique offering that is valued by your customer and is not available from the competition. It is not what you think it is or what want it to be. It is what your customer believes and that is what counts. This perception is everything. - Blogging Builds Your Brand
When I wrote my book, First, Best, or Different, I included a chapter on the importance of blogging. Little did I know at the time that blogging would become the core of own book marketing effort. Indulge me as I tell you about my own blogging story. - Pay-Per-Click Advertising Works
Pay-per-click advertising has taken the web by storm and for good reason. You have seen thousands of these ads on the right side of a Google or Yahoo! search; the ads scream for you to click on them for more information. It may seem like you ignore them, but statistically they are one of the best and cheapest ways to advertise on the web. - Product Positioning Strategies
Positioning is what the customer believes about your product's value, features, and benefits; it is a comparison to the other available alternatives offered by the competition. These beliefs tend to based on customer experiences and evidence, rather than awareness created by advertising or promotion. - The Beta Buzz
Take a quick tour of the new and trendy websites on the Internet and you will find the frequent and liberal use of the word "Beta." In most cases, the word Beta is used almost like a tagline under the company or product name to signify that this offering is new, cool, or different. The purpose is to create a "buzz" or the perception of leadership for an offering. - Public Relations Promises Publicity
People often confuse public relations with advertising. PR is the effort that creates publicity for your product, service, or company; this publicity is perceived as not being paid for by the company or individual. PR is communicated by third parties such as newspapers, radio, television, or e-zines. Generally, PR is deemed to be credible and is believed since a third party delivers the message. - Fear of Rejection
A major cause of failure of sales people is said to be the fear of rejection. Fear of rejection can disable you from making cold calls, handling objections, closing deals, and from getting up in the morning. - Emotion and Negotiation
Emotion in negotiation is a very common thing. Yet, many negotiation authorities suggest that being emotional is a sign of a weakness or is the behavior of an unsophisticated negotiator; some say that emotions must be repressed. While it is possible to manage your emotions, it can be nearly impossible to hide from them. In fact, doing so would be really dumb, in my opinion. - Traditional Retail Advertising is Ineffective
A recent online study by Deloitte and Touche uncovered that two thirds of store visits during the 2006 holiday season were not influenced by holiday advertising. It turns out that most consumers picked stores because of their pre-existing familiarity with the stores and the stores locations. Additionally, the products purchased were researched on the internet. - Article Marketing is Free and Easy
Article marketing is one of the best ways to optimize your website, create new sales leads, and to garner new publicity. The really good news is that it is free and easy (OK, it does take some time and a few brain cells). - Customers Know Too Much
With the proliferation of the Internet along with blogs, wikis, social networks, and online communities, buyers today are making superior purchase decisions based on information that is now readily available. Gone are the good old days when buyers depended on their sales people to educate them about products and services. This new found purchasing sophistication applies to both B2B markets and B2C markets. - First, Best, or Different; What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know About Niche Marketing
The entrepreneur who finds a customer segment that has been underserved or overlooked can earn extraordinary rewards. Niche marketing requires that you focus on customers who cannot get what they want or need from their existing providers. For various reasons, mainstream firms will often innocently overlook or deliberately pass over customers with special needs; instead, they will choose to market to the larger, more homogeneous customer groups. These underserved or overlooked segments can be very fertile ground for the entrepreneur to exploit, since they need a provider who truly understands their requirements. - Silence and Negotiation
One of the most powerful tools in a negotiator's toolbox is silence: absolute, blank-faced, quiet. It can be used when confronted with a tough situation, when given news that is too good to be true, or when you just don’t want to say anything stupid. - Brainstorm Options Before You Negotiate
A common mistake is to go into a negotiation thinking that there is only one acceptable outcome: what you want. One of the best things you can do to prepare for a negotiation is to think about all the possible options that may exist for you and the other side. - Hire the Right Sales Manager
Although every organization is different, hiring a sales manager is not as simple as it looks. In fact, the wrong sales manager can quickly damage morale, if not scare away the sales reps and potentially injure the firm. - Marketing Mistakes for Entrepreneurs to Avoid
One way to achieve entrepreneurial success is to not make the following marketing mistakes. It is mostly about common sense and taking the time to think things through. - Viral Advertising: "Will it Blend?"
You may have read about the merits of "viral advertising", which is a relatively new term that refers to marketing techniques that use social networks (i.e. MySpace, your e-mail buddy list, etc) to pass along messages, e-mails, or video clips. - New Millennium Marketing Mega Trends
The following changes will rock your marketing world:
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