For a small business owner or someone trying to start a business, don’t forget that YOU are your biggest sales tool.  What does this mean exactly?  First it means that you have to actively get out there and sell your business, interact with your target market, and invest the time.  But it also means that the following things can make or break you when you are interacting with a potential customer:

• How you speak
• How you dress
• Whether or not you portray confidence
• Whether or not you portray intelligence about your business
• Whether or not you know how to close a sale

Let’s think about a job interview as a good equivalent.  First and foremost you have to do your research.  You have to know the company, the job you are applying for, how your skills fit into that job, and how to sell yourself as the best person. 

But you also have 30 seconds to make a good impression and draw in your potential employer .  This includes your dress, your mannerisms, and your quick sale of yourself (who you are and what you do).  The rest of the time you have to skillfully sell yourself as the best person for the job.  Or at least sell yourself in such a way that they feel you might be a good candidate for future positions. 

If you blow it, you blow it.  It’s the same way in business sales.

As you try to grow your business, remember that even if you don’t make an immediate sale with a person, you are your biggest sales tool for ensuring that maybe this person will come back to you in the future.  Make sure you speak articulately and with confidence.  Make sure you have thoroughly prepared answers to all potential questions.  Make sure you have a rote answer prepared for questions you don’t know the answer to.  And make sure you have some materials to give them that they can reference and take with them. 

Sometimes it takes potential customers time to process your offering(s) and to actually solicit your services.  In fact, many times people will not purchase your product or service the first time they see it.  But that’s ok.  Just leave a positive impression in their minds and be sure to follow up. 

But also make sure your marketing materials are strong, so that your prospects have an incentive and a means to circle back with you if they so desire.  This is why sales and marketing go hand in hand, although that’s another blog topic (click here to read it).

Need help growing your business or nonprofit organization?  Browse my website to learn about how I can help you with your particular needs.

A lot of people lump sales and marketing together into one entity, thinking they are the same thing.  Businesses sometimes think if they focus on salespeople and those types of activities, then they are marketing.  And vice versa – if they focus on marketing, then they are selling.  But it’s just not true.

Sales and marketing are two different entities.  So what’s the difference?

Marketing is the process of promoting your business and the products/services within it via materials, strategies and ideas.  Marketing can take the form of inbound or outbound marketing, and there are many different techniques within these realms. 

Some examples of marketing include websites, direct mail pieces, ads, email distribution lists, solicitations, newsletters, social media, etc.  All of these entities involve things – people are involved in producing those things, but that’s where the interaction stops.

Sales involves directly talking to people.  It’s a people to people job.  It’s about converting those people you are marketing to into actual customers. 

Sales can take the form of phone conversations or in-person visits.  It can be attending a trade show and talking to people.  It can be negotiating a contract based on your business structure, or making deals about rates.  The key difference is that in sales, you are discussing the marketing materials you are presenting (or the business itself) with the goal of changing prospect interest into money for your business. 

Can you run a successful business without both marketing and sales?  Probably not.  This is because you use your marketing materials and resources when you are trying to sell, so you need to create those materials first.  

How often will you purchase something without a tangible object (brochure, product proof, written testimonials, etc.) or website to reference?  Having printed materials, graphics, displays, websites…all of these things add credibility to what you are selling.  Without it, you may as well be selling air.

Need help growing your business or nonprofit organization?  Browse my website to learn about how I can help you with your particular needs.

I am contacted all the time by people who want to start a business and need my services, but who don’t realize that they actually aren’t ready.  So then what does it take to BE ready to start a business?

The majority of clients who contact me about starting a business only have an idea in their heads.  They don’t have a business plan, they haven’t saved up the cash they need for capital expenditures, and they haven’t thought through the costs of actually running and marketing the business.  All of these entities are requirements for setting yourself up for success; skipping any or all of them can cause you to stumble later on down the line.

It’s important to note that creating a solid brand takes time and varying amounts of cash.  Have you calculated how much money you need to create a website, create your image and brand identity, and create your marketing materials?  Have you saved up the money to cover those costs? 

And if not, are you trying to get started on the cheap by hiring the most inexpensive (and often least professional) help possible, thereby setting yourself up for failure before you even begin? (See my post on cheap writers to see what you really get when you hire on the cheap)

Lately my advice to new clients has been this: take some time, research your market and competition, write down your expenses, and save some capital to fund your endeavor.  When you have done that, I can do my job and help you grow.  And you will be ready for success.

So, think you are ready to start a business?  Use this list as a reference:

1. Have you written a business plan?
2. Have you researched your market and competition?
3. Do you really know what you need to get started?
4. Do you have enough money saved to cover your capital expenditures?
5. Are you capable of funding marketing activities for your business once it’s off the ground, and do you know what those will be?
6. Have you set goals and targets for your business so that you can gauge whether or not you are being successful?

Starting a business is not an easy endeavor, nor is it a fast one.  Because everything in our society is so fast, people want to get their businesses going quickly without having to put in the time and effort.

But remember: you have to do the work first in order to be successful later.  Take the time to plan, save, and research so you set yourself up for success.  Consult with a professional so that you know what you are doing.  That way you have a better chance of achieving the ideas and dreams you are so passionate about.

Need help growing your business or nonprofit organization?  Browse my website to learn about how I can help you with your particular needs.

So you want to reach your customers.  You send out marketing materials, then more, then more.  Yet you still don’t receive the response you want.  In fact the response is actually decreasing now, which instinctively makes you try harder.  Is it possible to overly market?  It sure is.  This is actually a very detrimental activity for your business.

When you decide to directly market to your prospects – whether it’s via social media and email, or printed materials like direct mail pieces – be careful how you do it.  It’s easy to cross the line into spamming and degrade your image. 

Choosing how to conduct your marketing activities depends on the type of business you own, and what you are trying to sell.  To avoid turning off your customers and decreasing your prospects, choose your marketing tactics carefully.  Any good marketing person can help you with this if you aren’t sure which direction to go. 

But a good rule of thumb is: don’t repetitively spam your prospects with emails, direct mail, etc. in a very short period of time.  It’s like receiving a phone call everyday from the same company, saying the same thing, with the same tone, and the same words. 

How long would it take you to stop answering the phone?  Not long. 

Think about what this means for your business.

If you need to increase interaction with your prospects, vary your materials and let them have the option to view it rather than forcing it upon them.  Employ more inbound marketing strategies.  Save the messages you really want them to see for planned campaigns and outbound marketing.  That way you will get their attention when you really need it, but not turn them off by continuously shoving a bug in their ear.

Need help growing your business or nonprofit organization?  Browse my website to learn about how I can help you with your particular needs.

Blogs seem to be the hottest trend on the internet.  Many companies are adding them to their websites in the hopes of increasing their customer base.  But is this always a good idea?  It depends on the company, and it depends on who is in charge.  Here are some things to consider.

1. Can you write?

If you are going to run and/or write a blog, first and foremost you have to be able to write.  And to write well.

Blogs are used to drive traffic to your site and to demonstrate knowledge and expertise.  They are also used to engage your market in relevant trends and keep them updated on things that are going on in your organization or field of work.  But if you can’t write with skill…then don’t write a blog.

Let’s imagine a scenario where a potential customer sees an interesting blog title and clicks on it.  They have arrived at your website, which was goal number one.  Great!  Now they start reading the blog entry and find that the wording is jumbled, there are spelling errors, it doesn’t flow, and overall they just can’t understand the message very well.

What just happened?  You just lost a customer.

Why?  Because you lost credibility.

So before you add a blog to your site, consider whether or not you have the writing skills to successfully run one.  And if you don’t, employ outside help to write or edit your content to make sure it stays professional. 

2. Can you consistently add content?

If you maintain a blog, you have to be able to consistently add content to it.  It doesn’t have to be every day, although this is ideal.  But it should be on a regular basis so readers stay tuned into it, view you as credible and invested in your company, and even start following you on RSS feeds and the like.

A stagnant blog loses its effectiveness.  It’s almost like that can of expired soup that ends up at a discount store – at one time it looked really appetizing and was worth some money, but it’s now sat there unattended so long that it’s no longer in the forefront of most shoppers’ grocery experience.  And its worth has devalued to a discount price. 

Blogs need to stay relevant, they need to be active, and they need to keep moving.  A living, breathing blog is an effective blog.  And one that can convert prospects into paying customers.

3. Will a blog really benefit your particular offering(s)?

Before undertaking the time and monetary cost of running a blog, consider its value to your company.  What are you selling?  Is it a product or a service?  What topics around that product or service can you discuss in a blog?  Is there enough there to make it worth the time and effort?

Make sure you know the answers to those questions before you add a blog to your website.  You don’t want to embark on the journey, only to find out that after 10 posts you no longer have anything to say.

Good writers know how to continuously find topics to write about.  It’s a skill that you can learn, or that you can hire someone to do for you. 

But regardless, blogs are not relevant for every company.  Other marketing efforts may be worth more for your particular company depending on what you are trying to sell, and how much information about that particular item or service is really out there.  Think hard about the return you are trying to get on a blog investment, before investing in one.

Need help growing your business or nonprofit organization?  Browse my website to learn about how I can help you with your particular needs.

So you own a business, or you are growing a business, or you are launching a new product or service.  While at first glance entities like sales personnel and product quality (hey, a lot of people successfully sell very poor quality products!) can seem much more important than writing, writing is actually very large part of what drives new business, sells existing products and services, and promotes continued interest in what you offer.  How so?  Well let me explain.

Most likely you arrived at this website because of something I wrote.  I speak directly to a handful of prospects everyday, but not enough to cover all of the traffic my website receives.  And not enough to attract the amount of service inquiries and quote requests I get.

Think about the websites you visited yesterday, or this year.  How did you get there?  Maybe you searched for something.  Or you saw something.  Or the way something was described or written intrigued you enough to want to learn more.  Maybe it was on Google.  Maybe it was on a social networking site.  Maybe it was sent to you by a friend.  But you saw words.

Think about the ads on TV.  What makes those ads compelling…or not?  Are we watching silent films?  Or are we hearing people speak, and watching text come across the screen, and looking at branding and taglines? 

Words.

Words are powerful.  Words are used in every aspect of business, from print and web ads, to radio and television campaigns, to business procedures and contract negotiations.

The words that sell are words that took thought and talent to create. 

Have you taken a look at how your words are performing?  How much are you willing to invest in your business communications?  Find talent in this area.  It’s the number one way to continue to grow your business when you can’t be there.

Need help growing your business or nonprofit organization?  Browse my website to learn about how I can help you with your particular needs.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and trying to figure out where to start with marketing your business, here is a quick five step guide to get you going:

1. Identify and research your market. 
   When you created your business plan (let's hope you did this!), you should have also identified your target market and some initial ways in which you planned to market your services.  Review those people/companies and learn more about them.  Spend time researching what they do, and who their competitors are.  You may find that there is more potential business for you and your products or services than was initially thought.
   
   
2. Determine the best methods for reaching the people within that market. 
   Put yourself into the mindset of one of your potential clients or customers.  What kinds of products or services are they needing or lacking, and why might they want yours?  Look at your own competitors.   What is their website like?  How do they market themselves?   Is it effective, or not?  Then, identify the biggest selling point that you can use to differentiate yourself from your competitors, and build on that within your materials.
   
   
3. Determine the look and feel, as well as the amount of information, you want to present in sales materials. 
   Sometimes you will want to give potential customers a full disclosure of information and costs up front, and sometimes only enough to entice them to contact you for more information.  It depends upon the type of customer you are trying to sell to, the industry you are in, and how people in that sector normally do business and purchase products or services.  In general, the smaller the business and the cheaper the product, the more information customers will want to know up front.  The larger the corporation and the pricier your product or services, the less information you may have to present.
   
   
4. Decide how you want to reach your target market.
   Is an email blast the best way to reach your potential customers?  A flier?  A well-thought out web campaign?  A direct mail piece or card?  An on-site visit or event of some kind, where you can distribute business information and meet with customers one on one?  It is important to figure out what type of information your customers want to receive, and how they might want to receive it, before you actually try to create those materials.   Skipping this step may mean that all of the hard work and money spent on your direct mail campaign results in customers throwing the piece straight into the trash, because maybe their business model doesn't require them to attend to unknown envelopes.
   
   
5. Create targeted, top notch materials for dissemination.
   Don't skimp on this step.  A lot of small businesses and larger corporations alike try to save money on the design and content of their marketing materials by hiring cheap outside help, or by having whomever they feel is the most qualified person at their business create them.  But remember, your materials are a huge investment in your business.  A small investment up front will generally not bring large returns later.  Your materials function in one of two ways: to give a great first impression and hook the client, or to provide a reminder of your products and services and an incentive to come back.  It's important to create good, well-written and well-planned information within your market. 

Need help growing your business or nonprofit organization?  Browse my website to learn about how I can help you with your particular needs.