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competitor Tagged Articles
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Communication, Negotiation and Bargaining in Business
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| Decide on a negotiating style. You may be a competitor, looking only for the best deal; others are compromisers, seeking middle ground; or are you the collaborator, valuing good communication and a fair solution for both parties? Try to asses which style works best for your personality. |
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Select Seminars and Workshops with Purpose
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| Recently, one of my clients asked me about a seminar offered by a competitor. His questions to me were, “Howard, take a look at this and let me know if you think I should go, and if you want to come with me?” Rather than answer the questions directly, I left him with these thoughts and some questions to ask himself. |
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Achieving Top Search Rankings in Microsoft New Decision Engine Bing DEO/SEO
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| The new decision engine from Microsoft, Bing, is sure to be a major competitor with Google and the other search engines. Since it is brand new many of you are wondering how their algorithm works and how to get to the top organic search results. It seems like Bing looks at back links more than it does at a pages actual content. Read other observations and advice here. |
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Sales Rep Lame Excuse #83
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| Did you ever watch a customer or prospect make a bad decision? OK, dumb question… We’ve all lost deals because the guy on the other side of the desk just flat didn’t do a good job of making the decision. And because we hold the customer’s best interests near and dear to our hearts, it hurts to watch them do the “wrong” thing and buy from a competitor. But the sales rep certainly can’t be blamed for that, right? Wrong! |
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Lesson #5: Help Others to Help Yourself
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| “Any society begins by realizing that together, by helping each other, you can survive better than if you fight each other and compete with each other,” says Lucas. “We have the tendency to lose it when we forget that, as a group, we are stronger than we are as individuals.” |
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Lesson #5: Know When to Get Help
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| “If you’re building an organization, you quickly realize that you can’t do it alone,” says Schultz. “You’ll build a much stronger company if you can find a colleague you trust absolutely, someone who brings different strengths to the mix but who still shares your values.” |
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Refining Success: Standard Oil Takes Shape
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| By the time Standard Oil was in business, Cleveland had become one of the five major refining centres in the country. By getting secret rebates from the railroads and supporting a new cartel aimed at stabilizing freight railroad rates in return for preferential treatment, Rockefeller was able to give his company an edge. |
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Sam Walton Quotes
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| Sam Walton Quotes |
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Building Piece by Piece: IKEA Becomes an Industry Leader
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| “It is our duty to expand,” said Kamprad. “Those who cannot or will not join us are to be pitied…A glorious future!” |
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Lesson #1: Obsess About Your Customers, Not Your Competitors
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| “There are multiple ways to be externally focused that are very successful,” says Bezos. “You can be customer-focused or competitor-focused. Some people are internally focused, and if they reach critical mass, they can tip the whole company.” |
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Jeff Bezos Quotes
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| Jeff Bezos Quotes |
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Lesson #3: Take Care Of Your Customers And They Will Take Care Of You
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| More than anything else, the Four Seasons chain of luxury hotels is known for exactly that – luxury. But, it isn’t luxury in the normal sense. “Our competitors interpreted luxury chiefly as dazzling architecture and décor, but how important is that to our customers?” Sharp asks. “They are mostly executives, often under pressure, fighting jet lag, stress and the clock. We decided to redefine luxury as service.” |
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Lesson #4: Never Compromise Your Principles in Any Relationship
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| When Li Ka-shing says “yes” to someone, he means yes; he has entered into a contract and he intends on keeping his promise. In 1956, when he was just beginning in the plastics business, Li received an order for a three to six month production. He calculated a profit of 20 percent and agreed to the deal. Soon after, a large American competitor of Li’s buyer approached him, offering to pay an extra 30 percent profit for the merchandise Li’s original buyer had ordered. |
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Jim Sinegal Quotes
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| Jim Sinegal Quotes |
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How Long Till Marketing Works?
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| Whatever you do, don’t hold your breath while waiting for marketing to take affect. Instead, hold your horses because it’s not gonna happen instantly. |
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Poker, Unpredictability, and Going on Tilt
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| I had an interesting experience tonight playing Texas Hold'em Poker. Despite having virtually no poker experience, I ended up winning a decent-sized pot. The morals of the story: |
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Stealth Market Research & Google Movies
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| I love stealth market research -- that is, unusual ways of figuring out what companies and competitors are doing. There are all sorts of ways of doing this sort of thing, from counting cars in company parking lots on outward. But there is no denying that technology continually creates new ways of ethically observing companies, and therefore new kinds of stealth research.
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How to Change the World: Defensibility
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| Blog reader Curtis Thompson asked me a very good question a few days ago: What should an entrepreneur say when she’s asked what makes her company defensible? This question is more and more common as more and more entrepreneurs start “Web 2.0 companies,” and investors torture themselves by wondering why they didn’t fund YouTube. |
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Guerrilla Caring
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| All business owners care about their customers, but guerrilla marketers prove they care. Here are twenty ways that they prove it. |
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100 Ways to Succeed #78
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| Speak Not Ill of Thine Competitors |
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A Little Extra Effort
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| I wonder about the many things we could do if we didn’t know that we couldn’t do them. Many people never make a serious effort to achieve worthwhile objectives because they assume they can’t reach them. |
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WallStreet.com Up For Auction: Is Money Worth More Than Sex?
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| Ah, the age-old question: Is money worth more than sex? We get the latest test tomorrow, with the WallStreet.com domain going up for auction, a scant six months after porn.com sold for $9.5-million. Moniker, which is handling the auction, claims to have a $4 to $5-million reserve. |
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States rights
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| If you own a web page, you really owe it to yourself and to your users to pay attention to state. |
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Fundamentals First
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| Here are some fundamental marketing rules for living life in the slow (but safe) lane: |
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So You Think You’re Different?
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| Being different, or more accurately, having a point of differentiation that matters to a market, is one of the most critical marketing strategies for the small business. |
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Out Sell Your Competitors – The Easy Way!
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| Last week I was onsite with one of my favorite clients, a manufacturer in South Carolina. During a dinner meeting with the CEO and CFO, I heard a great sales story. My client had been looking for a new insurance provider. Seems that the company they had worked with for years sold out to a larger organization, and their account was now being handled out of Texas. My client really wanted a firm with an office in their state, and a representative they could meet with in person. Sounded reasonable, so they started taking bids and interviewing providers.
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Driven to Distraction: How Latest Trends Will Hurt You
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| It is good to be open to new ideas and new customers however stay focused on the prospects you have, and the less you’ll be distracted by the latest trend... and this will leave you with more opportunities to actually make more sales.
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Attract More Clients By Dumping the Junk – Your PITA Clients!
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| By focusing on bad customers, business owners lose the opportunity to use those resources going after and servicing the phenomenal clients they want and need to make money... |
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Talent Management - Is the Investment Worth It?
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| Organization spend millions to find talented people and then watch them leave for a competitor. Stop the exodus of talent from your organization. If you are not adding value to your key employees they are thinking about leaving. |
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Why the Relationship is So Important to the Sales Outcome
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| Many people have written extensively on the topic of relationships and selling. One common topic is that people only buy from people they like and the other is how to develop strong relationships. There is nothing wrong with either of those topics but they surely miss the mark in two important areas. |
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Game 7 - There is No Tomorrow with This Sales Opportunity
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| Don't turn opportunities where there IS a tomorrow into a desperate, "How much of a price concession do we have to make?", last ditch effort to close it today scenario, but do turn a customer/prospect-initiated deadline into a Game 7 scenario where you do whatever it takes to earn that business! |
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Compelling Reasons for Your Salespeopole to Go Mobile
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| Good Sales Managers know how important it is for their salespeople to uncover needs.
But it goes way beyond needs.
As I detail in Baseline Selling - How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball, it requires that your salespeople learn about their prospects' compelling reasons to buy. Not just their needs. The issues, problems and frustrations - and even the consequences - that would cause them to spend money and spend it with your company, instead of your competitor.
But it goes well beyond compelling reasons.
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Game 7 - There is No Tomorrow with These Sales Opportunities
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| don't turn opportunities where there IS a tomorrow into a desperate, "How much of a price concession do we have to make?", last ditch effort to close it today scenario, but do turn a customer/prospect-initiated deadline into a Game 7 scenario where you do whatever it takes to earn that business! |
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With Blown Call, Jim Joyce Succeeds at a Sales Core Competency
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| The certain perfect game is just like the sure things that your salespeople report. "We're gonna get this business - it's a slam dunk." Or, "Everything has been agreed to - just waiting for final approval." Or, "We're the only ones they're talking to - it's ours for the taking!" And then...it isn't. |
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How Dell and Apple Use Customer Service as Their Sales Force
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| You expect your salespeople to find and close business. You should expect your customer service people to not only retain the business, but uncover new opportunities too. Sounds a lot like inside sales to me... |
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Lesson #1: “Creativity comes from constraint”
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| When asked whether they had anticipated just how big Twitter would be when they first launched it, Stone replied, “Yeah, we knew Barack Obama was going to use it.” Williams followed with, “I knew I was going to be on Oprah in two years.” |
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The SMS to Success: Texting Takes Twitter To New Heights
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| When asked whether they had anticipated just how big Twitter would be when they first launched it, Stone replied, "Yeah, we knew Barack Obama was going to use it." Williams followed with, "I knew I was going to be on Oprah in two years." |
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Mass. Senate Race Alternate Ending Compares with Major Account Selling
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| ecent special Massachusetts senate race between Democrat Martha Coakley and relative unknown Republican Scott Brown, the eventual winner. Well guess what! If this hard fought campaign had taken place at the same time 49 other states were holding their senate elections, Martha Coakley would have crushed Scott Brown. |
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Speaking Badly About A Competitor Is A Poor Reflection on You!
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| Placing the emphasis on what you're good at as opposed to what your competitor is bad at is a much more convincing strategy, not to mention more ethically correct. |
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Home Business Opportunity - Staying Competitive
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| Your home based business opportunity investment requires that you have a comfort level in your role as a business person. If you are not comfortable in your ownership role or if your business is not one that excites and motivates you then it will be difficult for you to be competitive. If you have a business that you are extremely passionate and motivated about, then you will be more inclined to focus on being competitive with your home based business opportunity. |
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Business Opportunity - Computer Safeguards
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| Business Opportunity Owners need to take special precautions to safeguard their business data on their computers. Establishing your Business Opportunity requires more than just taking measures to grow and maximize profits. After you have maximized your business for profit and efficiency, your work is not over. Potential cyber attacks require you to also safeguard and protect yourself and your business opportunity.
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Practice, Practice, Practice then Play
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| In the sporting world it is expected that athletes make the time to practice, practice, practice and then go and compete or play the game. Through regular practice they hone their skills, behaviours and attitudes to ensure they are ‘match fit’ and ready to compete at the highest standards.
A sports team needs to make sure that when they are in the thick of the game they can draw upon those skill drills and practice sessions to perform well as a team and perform well under pressure.
When an individual athlete is neck and neck with a competitor racing for the finish line they need to know how to dig deep and draw upon their experiences, skills, and mental and physical reserves to cross the finish line first. This cannot happen without lots of conscious, purposeful practice. |
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Passion - The Great Differentiator
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| Imagine that there is a cornerstone on which all performance-driven organizations are built. A cornerstone that–if you placed it–would ensure that your team or organization relentlessly delivered top-tier results.
What would that cornerstone be?
Based on "The Passion Principle: Designing a Passionate Organization", the first book in the "Passionate Lives and Leaders" Series, this article will show you that there are many components of success, but only one that’s not optional: Passion. |
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Sun Tzu, Boxing and Leadership: weathering economic down-turn with momentum and timing.
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| Sun Tzu, renowned general and author of "The Art of War" provides guidance on how to be competitive in times of economic turmoil and scarcity. He explains the role of momentum and timing and how to employ them to the advantage of the modern leader and entrepreneur. Understanding these principles not only informs marketing, but gaining market-share and weathering tough economic times but how China has risen and how we can thrive. |
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••••••>Check Out Your Major Competition to Improve Your Own SEO Rankings and Methods
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| There are plenty of free SEO tools you can use to determine what keywords your competition is using, what kinds of SEO methods they are relying on, and you can then adapt your own SEO techniques and strategies to improve your website. |
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Succession Planning
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| Can organizations prepare for loss? You can never be fully prepared for a tragic loss, however a succession plan will go a long way in minimizing the effect of loss. The loss in this case was an untimely death, but many organizations today face the risk of losing a seasoned executive through age, retirement, and even hiring away by a competitor. It is therefore important to consider the issue of succession NOW rather than later. |
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What to do when an employee steals your IP
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| Losing a valuable client hurts. Losing that client to a former employee, on the other hand, gives you a sickening feeling in your stomach, particularly when that employee told you they weren’t leaving to work for a competitor. So when you find out that an employee has done precisely that what do you do? |
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Buzzwords are BS!
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| Three adjectives and a noun are not a positioning statement! |
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Create Large Accounts by Establishing C-Level Relationships
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| Learn how to move from vendor to preferred supplier in a heart beat. Here’s the path to C-level executive suites. Once relationships are established there, sales come easily and continuously. |
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Goals Will Guide You to Success
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| If you want to be successful in life, you need to set goals for yourself. Work hard to accomplish everything you have dreamed. Analyze your weaknesses, and the areas that need improvement. You can achieve any goal if you create a plan and work hard enough. |
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7-Sigma Selling
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| Selling a product or service is more than making presentations to prospects.
It's making presentations to the RIGHT prospects at the right time.
It's also about treating prospects right ON time.
"Prompt response to needs and requests" is ranked by prospects only 2nd to pricing. |
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Business Incentives for Increased Profits
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| What is going to put you ahead of your business competition this holiday shopping season? Using business incentives can let you compete with stores selling the same product for cheaper. |
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Introduction to Internet Marketing
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| No doubt one could fill hundreds, even thousands of pages trying to capture all the ins and outs of the forever changing area of internet marketing. It seems that there is not a day going by where the rules of the game aren't somehow changing. Who would have thought a few months ago, for instance, that a basic site like Twitter would show up on to the scene with such speed and become a common used name within about six months. There is no end to it; that's why people spend thousands of dollars and thousands of hours studying internet marketing. Well, at least it's we'll never get bored. |
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Right and Wrong in the Eye of the Beholder
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| Do we stretch our own ethics to remain competitive? |
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What If?
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| The past doesn't represent out future - so why do we spend so much time focused on it? |
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SEO is for YOUR Franchise-5 Tips For You Use
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| Everyone has heard of it by now. Very few know how to use it and I suggest that many franchises are still missing out on a major marketing process by continuing in the dark ages by ignoring it. I am talking about Search Engine Optimization.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a powerful Internet tool aimed to increase brand, product and service visibility and your business presence on the web. Since the Internet is now the primary source of information and goods for multi-market and Top 100 regional market companies and service providers, it only makes sense to be as visible as possible in order to attract and meet the needs of your prospects, clients and customers. |
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Client Loss: Three Types of Women Entrepreneurs, Three Types of Responses
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| In an increasingly tough economy, losing clients can be a daunting proposition. A new study reveals that different types of women entrepreneurs have different approaches to running a business and dealing with everyday business challenges that arise. This article details how three very different types of women entrepreneurs are likely to respond to the loss of a client—along with insights for building business resilience and moving ahead. |
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Creating a Life, Creating a Successful Home Business
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| Home business expert, Andrea Scott, discusses the power of positive thinking in creating a successful home business. She gives practical tips to maintain positive thoughts. |
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Demise of the Yellow Pages
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| Yellow page use is declining. If your Yellow Pages leads are drying up, there ar4e two important lessons. You need to have a web site, and customers need to be able to find it in the search engines. |
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Analyzing Your Competition – Check Indexes
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| The beauty of the Internet is the inherent open nature of competition. It is so open, you can check indexes when analyzing the competition to improve your site. |
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One Suprising Key to Selling Value
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| Gary Harvey, my guest on this week's episode of Meet the Sales Experts, has great advice for companies that are trying to avoid getting sucked into having the lowest price. His secret? Purchasing Agents have always told salespeople that they go with the lowest price. When he asks them why they do this, they always tell him the same thing. "Because it works on every other salesperson until we met you." |
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How to Analyze a Competitor’s Website
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| Competitors' websites, if analyzed properly, can give you all sorts of information that you can use to increase the traffic and the popularity of your site. Here is an article on how to analyze a competitor's website. Start off by identifying the major players. A good place to do this is Yahoo’s directory. It is good to view the major players in similar fields to your own so that you have a better view of your web site as perceived by others. |
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Match Your Message To Your Market - A Unique Selling Proposition
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| When some people hear the term unique Selling Proposition (USP), they think of their company slogan or tag line or something trite. What a lot of business owners don't realize is that a good USP can make or break a business. It goes much deeper than a few words in an ad. |
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Create Chaos, Change & Controversy! (...or at least chase after them)
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| There's a new buzz-word making the rounds. Have you focused on the "trigger event" concept? Can you make it work for you? |
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Think and act like business manager
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| The traditional role of sales rep as provider of information is obsolete. That role got outsourced to Google because it's a lot faster and easier that way. |
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The importance of understanding your buyer relationships - especially in a tough economy
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| The tough economy is leading to many nasty surprises for sales organisations. In many cases the surprise, or the extent of the surprise, could have been avoided if the sales organisation had better information about the relationship that they have with with their buyers. in this article Keith looks at the different ways of determining the relationship you have with your buyers. |
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The Three Percent Solution - Part 2
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| In our last article, we looked at strategic actions around your efforts. Today we will look at intelligent and strategic ways to work your business to reduce competitor advantage. This article highlights three strategies that will increase your competitive advantage in your marketplace: developing strong core structure, targeting your advertising, and strategically networking. |
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Broken Promises & Bagging the Competition
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| Nothing irks customers more than sales people overstating their capabilities and making claims and promises they cannot keep or live up to. It's the fastest way to break trust and leave customers doubting you and your business. Making grand claims with little or no substance is foolish at best. In today's networked world, many people have access to information and can check pretty quickly whether what you claim is true or not.
So can you do what you claim you do? |
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Email: An Overlooked and Virtually Free Marketing Tool
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| Once my clients truly understand that marketing is about relationships, we start talking about how those relationships are created and maintained to determine appropriate marketing tactics for their businesses and personal styles. But no matter what kind of business my clients are in, they all have the same excellent relationship marketing tool at their fingertips: Their email messages. |
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How To Make People Want To Buy Your Product – Step By Step Establishing Your Brand
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| Establishing your brand is a step-by-step process. Big companies pay someone else to do it for them. Small and newly established companies usually do not have that luxury. They have to do it themselves. The good news is, it is not that difficult. When you can afford it you probably will want to bring in the professionals but when you are just starting out you can easily do it yourself with a little help from your friends. How? You determine your mission, vision, audience, and find out what sets you apart from your competitors and then you just put one foot in front of the other and begin to establish your brand. Follow me, I'll tell you how, step-by-step. |
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Making People Want To Buy Your Branded Product And How Your Competition Effects Your Brand
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| Believe it or not your competition is usually only one of the small stumbling blocks to your success—you are. However, that does not let you off the hook when it comes to the old adage of “Know thine enemy.” Actually, your competition is not always your enemy, sometimes they can be your best friend—especially if their product is good quality and their brand name is not well imprinted onto society's conscious. Anyway, whether they have done a poor or fabulous job of branding their business for success you need to take time to research and study them, so you can know and understand what makes you special and why people should want to buy from you instead of them. |
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Step By Step Techniques To Build Brand Recognition And Grow Your Business
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| The bad news about trying to build your brand and grow your business is.... Building recognition can be one of the most difficult tasks in the branding process. The good news is.... There are many ways of building brand recognition, and they all start at do-it-yourself ground zero with you. Which means that getting the process started is entirely within your own control. So begin by fixing everything within your organization that limits the quality of your product, process or service and then work your way outwards—mending and fine-tuning as you go—toward your customers and competitors. |
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Increase Your CTR: How to Write Enticing Page Titles and Meta Descriptions
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| You can increase your CTR by learning how to write enticing page titles and meta descriptions. Implement these simple SEO writing tips to make your site stand out against your competition.
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Help Your Business Thrive In A Bad Economy
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| Don't be defeated by the current economic crisis. Help your business not only survive but thrive during tough economic times. Use some of these strategies to show customers that they receive far more in value than the price they pay for your goods or service. |
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Revenue Progression in the Midst of Recession
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| The world has changed. And that means there's no such thing as business as usual. In responding to the demands of this economic downturn, you've probably had to cut back on resources and spending while trying to maintain the status quo as you wait for the situation to stabilize. However, this is not a time for you to simply retrench in order to survive. Find out what you need to do...
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But They're Our BEST Customer!
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| A strong relationship with a customer is the Holy Grail we all seek. After all, once you have a Win/Win relationship, both businesses profit, right?
Sometimes, but not always. |
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Trademark Monitoring
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| After you've had your trademark application filed, it's absolutely necessary that you monitor your trademark in some way. The USPTO does conduct a search of their own files so if someone does file for a Federal trademark after your registration it typically is rejected. However, relying on the USPTO to protect your trademark is a mistake for several reasons. |
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The Empire Strikes Back?
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This week I came across the expression ‘Vigilante Consumer’ for the first time. It seems that consumers are starting to strike back at companies that make it difficult to deal with them when they have a problem.
You know what I mean? They have the attitude that they are perfect or at least doing the best that is physically possible to be done and you have a problem that shows a mistake has been made or that the system has failed. You want to explain the problem and nobody listens!
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You Get More Flies with Sugar
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| Let's be serious. If you're having problems, anyone asking you about them already knows what's up. So cowboy-up and face the music. Be open and honest. You don't have to share the dirty laundry and all the details. But you can be honest, open and paint a picture that is true. People respect other people that open the kimono and tell the truth. And guess what, customers are people!
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Put the Competition in the Rear View Mirror
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| Competitive assessment is one of the most powerful tools we have in our quiver. Yet IMHO so few companies actually assess the competition in a way that works. We spend time evaluating our competitor's technology foundations, comparing feature against feature. We look for every detail that we can use to prove that our technology is far superior to that of others. Too bad that having the best technology doesn't mean you win....or that having the most features doesn't guarantee customer success. If the best technology won, then today's industry giants wouldn't be so, um, giant, now would they?
Don't get me wrong. Understanding your competitor's technology and its capabilities is a worthwhile exercise. As long as you don't fall into the trap of defining your solutions based on their features - and become a follower.
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Trade Declining Sales for a Competitive Advantage
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| Utilizing your suppliers declining sales to leverage your own sales. |
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Book Review: Selling The Invisible
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| Selling The Invisible is packed with tips and insights on how to market your business services. Harry Beckwith claims that most marketing advice is based on a product marketing model, most of which doesn’t apply to service businesses.
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Sales Force Alignment with Market Strategies
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| Most companies differentiate between inside and outside sales; domestic and international sales; products and services; equipment and consumables, etc.
But if you are into breaking down processes, approaches, market strategies and positioning, there is more to it than these obvious differentiators... |
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Collaborate Rather Than Compete
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| Many would say that our entire free-economy system is built on the foundation of competition. Competition drives the supply and demand curve, it is the catalyst in pricing models, and it fuels the need for innovation. Yet some have suggested that cooperation and collaboration with our competitors can be valuable. |
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User Acceptance Testing Can Improve Your Website's Chances
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| Before you launch a new or modified Website you should have a representative sample of of the end users try the Website before it goes live, even if you have already subjected the Website to testing by qualified quality assurance testing professionals. Here's how easy it is. |
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Entrepreneurs – What Should Be In Your Business Plan?
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| You are setting up your business and know that you need a business plan but you have no idea what should be in it. Well here are a few ideas for you: |
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HOW TO BE A TRUSTED ADVISOR
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| Imagine going to a heart surgeon and leading with “give me your best price on a triple bypass?”
Madness! You just wouldn’t do it. Why? Because you want the best person for the job and you’ve probably gone to great lengths to research and speak with friends or associates who have been through a similar process or know others who have – in order to find the right information you need to make the right decision. The right decision is always - what’s best for you. The price is the last thing on your mind if you want the best result. |
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Your Customer's PIR: Price Investment Ratio
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| If your customer can't see the return on investment, they won't invest - they won't pay the price you want to get... help frame their expectations...
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How to Become a Celebrity in Your Field
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| In a world where competition is fierce, the climb to the top is arduous and challenging. Everyone in your field is reasonably smart, educated, experienced, even talented. So what? To become recognized as a leader or celebrity in your field…no matter if your area of expertise is nuclear physics, business consulting, plastic surgery, sports, politics, or landscaping…you need a strategy that attracts followers.
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Entrepreneurs - Check Your Changed Market In These Recessionary Times
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| Times are not good and sales are slipping so now is the time to check the state of your market – that is who you are selling to or not selling to any longer as the case may be! So time to check if your market has changed and if so how? |
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Play the Full Table
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| During uncertain times (like today!) most leaders and business owners play it safe. This means that if you want to distinguish yourself during tough times, the bar is pretty low.
Now is the time to play the full table! Don't restrict your strategies to the sure shots. While your competitors are playing it safe, try new shots, explore the edges of the table. |
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Entrepreneurs – Are You Writing A Tender Or Proposal And Want To Differentiate Your Company From The Competitor?
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| You are hard at work writing your tender or proposal in the hope of winning that big new contract, but you know that you have at least one, if not more, big competitor. You’d like to differentiate your company and make it seem much better than them. You’ve also got some great products that are better than their as well. So how do you do this and win that great bid? |
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Be An Orange
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| When a prospective buyer is looking at your product or service, he or she is really comparing you to the competition. So the question is, are they comparing an apple to an apple or an apple to an orange? It is vitally important in marketing that you find a way to be THE orange! In other words, what is it about you that makes you completely DIFFERENT from your competitor? |
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Is Your Home an Asset?
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Veteran Financial Planner discusses your home as an investment and asset.
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9 Ways to Become An Expert Without Writing A Book
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| You have a business. You want more publicity. You don't have the time or inclination to write a book. Such is the plight of the modern entrepreneur. It seems like Jill Competitor is getting on the news all the time, and she doesn’t even know that much! How in the heck can SHE be an expert -- and how can you be one too?? |
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How to price for optimum profit - 5 steps
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| One of the greatest problems that businesses face is getting the pricing strategy right. This article explores the three key factors; all companies need to consider when getting this vital element on target. Missing only one of the three can have disastrous consequences. It is important also to realize that the best solution may also not be the cheapest. |
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How to handle the top 10 SME Sales Objections - Part II
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| Part I discussed the three main types of sales objections. This part will highlight the 10 most common objections, and how to handle them to close the sale. The most important thing through out the sales cycle, that you can do, is to ensure that your customer appreciates the value of your offering. Most if not all of the 10 Objections can be avoided by continual qualification and value verification. “What benefit, in addition to those that we have discussed will that bring?” |
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How to handle the top 10 SME Sales Objections - Part I
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| A Sale is considered closed when the buyer and seller reach agreement on terms for the buyer to take ownership of a product or service. To get to this stage, the seller normally has to “close” the sale, by asking the buyer for their business. This is where the buyer raises “objections”. Objections generally fall into three main types. This article will explore the types of objection, how they arise and how to overcome and avoid them. Part II will then discuss the 10 most common objections, and how to handle them to close the sale. You must get the customer to reiterate the value that they are getting first and foremost. |
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7 Key Tactics For The Small Business Owner
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| For most folks, owning your own business is a dream come true. The freedom of being your own boss and succeeding to the best of your ability are facts of life for the small business owner. |
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SEM - Research Measures Success
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| Search engine marketing (SEM)success comes from good research. By applying research to understand your competition and target audience, your optimization efforts will succeed. Your visitors need to relate to you and understand your message and what you want them to do. |
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Finding Targeted Keyword Phrases Your Competitors Miss
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| Finding keyword phrases your competition is missing is easier than you might think. Combinations of two and three word phrases are often overlooked by your competitors when vying for the top competitive terms. This missed opportunity may be a benefit to you to overcome your competition in the search engine rankings.
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Buzzwords vs Effective SEO Keywords
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| Ever see a website that seems to speak a foreign language...in English? We encounter many SEO client websites that rely on buzzwords in the page copy to get the word out about their product. The problem lies with visitors who may not be familiar with those terms. |
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Want to Double Your Sales? Cut Your Market in Half
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| Two years ago, my firm suffered from split business disorder and as the owner, so did I. Offering marketing services for small business owners, we also offered team building and training services to Fortune 500 firms.
Neither segment was large enough to stand alone, so I spent my time split between both. When someone asked me what I did, I was never quite sure how to respond and often said too much.
Networking associates overloaded with T.M.I. (Too Much Information) rarely had a good referral for me. How could they? If I didn't know what I did or who I wanted to meet, it was unrealistic to expect others to be able to help me. A drastic change was required! |
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How To Check Out The Competition In A Niche Market
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| There are a lot of search engines out there but let's face facts. Google is used by the majority of people in the world so if you are doing research, this is the best place to see who else is out there that you are competing with. When you search on a keyword in Google, you will see 2 types of listings. There are the main results which are listed in the body of the page. These are pages that come up automatically (also called organic searches). I'll talk about those in a minute but for now I want to talk about paid listings. |
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Business Plans Don’t Last Forever
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| Business plans... you either love them or hate them. They are a beautiful thing when they create a unified focus and alignment across your company... And empower your team to go out and do what they must do to produce results. But fast-growing companies outgrow their business plans. Often, it is just a matter of time, because business plans don’t last forever!
It’s highly likely you have outgrown your business plan when: |
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Practical money-saving tips for small business.
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| In today's economic climate, it's more important than ever to save every penny we can in our small businesses. With that in mind, here's some cost-cutting measures you can take to the bank. |
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The perfect sales call
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| 15 things to consider when making sales calls |
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What An Entrepreneur Can Learn From The Rolls Royce Mission Statement
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| Rolls Royce is one of the most recognised and aspirational brands in the world. It is at the centre of their company and is core to all that they do. So how has Rolls Royce stayed at the top of its market, through recessions, depressions, wars and why is a Rolls Royce car on the shopping list of the wealthy and future lottery winners? More importantly want can you learn from their brand and mission statement? |
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What Is A USP And Why Do I Need One To Sell My Product
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| Did you know you have a USP? If you don't already know what that is, then you either need to learn what your is...or shut down shop immediately. Everyone's product should have a strongly highlighted USP...if you do not then someone else is probably hijacking most of your buying customers. What is a USP? It is the one thing that makes you stand out from the crowd and makes people want to buy specifically from you. |
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Getting investment from BBC's Dragons Den
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| In August 2008, Buggyboot creators Charlotte Evans and Carolyn Jarvis appeared in BBC's Dragons' Den TV series to seek investment for their business. Charlotte and Carolyn made a spirited presentation, which they describe as being one of the most challenging and nerve-wracking pitches they've ever given. After demonstrating the product and explaining the business, Charlotte and Carolyn secured the full amount of funding they sought and the support of a Dragon - Deborah Meaden. Read more how they got started |
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Why External Diagonal Career Moves are Rare
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| An external diagonal career move occurs when someone moves into a more senior or broader role in a different organisation in either the same or a different industry. For example, if a Marketing Manager in an organisation moves to become a General Manager or Chief Operating Officer or CEO in a different organisation, I call this a diagonal move. They are rare. Most of the time people move either vertically or horizontally. |
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Three Simple Referral Marketing Strategies
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| I personally know of several very successful small businesses that don’t spend a dime on advertising? Why? Because they have implemented a referral marketing program that automatically brings in more clients than they need. This article discusses three referral strategies that will help you do the same. |
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7 Tactical Reasons To Use Mini Campaign Websites
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| How many websites should your company have?
That's a question that comes up often in discussions with clients, but perhaps the idea never crossed your mind. Why would any company need more than one website? Not to be glib but the answer is as many as you need, but how many is that?
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Higher profitability based on intelligent management of superior information.
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| In a slow economy there are still plenty of companies that are making money. How? Business Intellegnce |
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Controlling the Assumptions in Your Sales and Marketing Strategy
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| When you incorporate a new strategy into your service business there are certain assumptions that are made upon which the success of your strategy relies. These assumptions need to be monitored and controlled to give your company the greatest chance of accomplishing your stated objectives. The assumptions we make as business leaders are limited to two primary areas: 1) the external environment and how it will change, and 2) the industry in which we operate.
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Entering the ‘go-go’ zone with your eyes wide open
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| The Go-Go zone is that place a business can find themselves in that sounds like heaven. In reality, it is more often hell. It is the place where you have more business than you know what to do with, where it is all you can muster just to get orders processed and shipped. Keeping customers happy gets left by the wayside. This article is my effort to help you understand the pitfalls of this seemingly idyllic situation, and help you prepare for it if and when it occurs. |
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Who do you report to?
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| If you are a business owner, who holds you accountable? This is a major issue most small business owners never think about. Larger businesses have Boards of Directors who are legally responsible for oversight. Even many smaller business have them as well, and others prefer to use a Board of Advisors. Regardless of how you create accountability, it is a proven fact that you will do a better job as a leader within your organization if you have an external individual or body of people you are accountable to. This article provides insights into how you can create and utilize some form of Board governance for your business. |
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Decisions based on emotion = BAD for business
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| In recent years, there has been a rise in discussion and research around what makes a good leader good. From those discussions, a new field of study and measurement has arisen,. It is called Emotional intelligence, or EQ. (Don't ask me why it isn't EI, but it's not.) In simple terms, EQ is the ability to know and control your emotions, and the ability to recognize and empathize with the emotions of others. For the expertrs in this field, please, don't get your feathers ruffled. Defining EQ is not the point. The point is, emotion does NOT belong in business, and often leads to really bad decisions. Emotion seems to play the biggest role in family owned business where family members are either co-owners or employees. This article talks about how to handle these situations, whether you are on the verge of wading into one, or already there. |
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Know yourself before you decide to buy someone else
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| According to a survey conducted by the Hay group and published in 2007, 91% of all M&A efforts fail to meet their pre-transaction goals. How many activities can a business undertake that fail 91% of the time, yet keep doing them over and over again? That is what happens with mergers and acquisitions. The sad truth is making these growth strategies work is not hard - it is complicated, but not hard. If you do your due diligence, and pay close attention to all the myriad of details, you will succeed. This article talks about what you need to know about your business before you try to buy someone else’s! |
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Tips and Techniques for Finding the Right Ad Agency
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| Creative agencies, whether they specialize in graphic design, advertising or web, are just what you would want them to be – creative. And that includes snappy presentations that can wow you with lots of bells and whistles. But a creative presentation won’t necessarily get you the partner who is best for your project.
Selecting the wrong creative partner is a waste of money and time that can turn an exciting project into an exercise in frustration. Sure, you want a firm with outstanding creative skills. But you need an agency that bases their top-notch creative work on a solid foundation of strategy, knowledge and understanding of where your organization is trying to go.
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Quick Secrets To Successfully Advertising Your Business How To Grab Their Attention
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| Advertising your business is the one expense you cannot avoid; even online...but if you are smart about it you can cut down on your expenses while still successfully helping the world beat a path to your virtual doorstep. It's really not that hard once you know a few basic secrets. |
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CONNECTING IS NOT ENOUGH: The Need for a Strategic Approach to Networking
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| The first of a regular article based on the premise, Connecting is Not Enough. Looking at why and how to develop a networking strategy for businesses to thrive.
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Customer Loyalty
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| Customer Loyalty is a buzzword these days, but it is of critical importance to retailers. In a down economy it is crucial to take care of your existing customers because they demonstrate the best ROI on marketing efforts, and will help lead your sales out of a downtrun. |
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Don't stop learning
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| The importance of staying informed about your business |
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Outsourcing Your Website's SEO
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| Ready to optimize your site so that you get a notable increase in traffic? Here are some ways to boost your SEO (we’ve also included a list of resources if you want to delve deeper). |
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Top 3 2009 Sales Resolutions
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| It’s a new year, with a fresh sales quota and a new set of sales resolutions. I’m always looking for ways to improve and January consistently finds me evaluating my performance from the previous year then setting goals for the coming one. |
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Strategies to Win in a Demanding Business Environment: 5 Ways to Grow Your Business
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| In the midst of such a demanding business environment, many companies are struggling to increase sales. In light of that, how can a company grow? What are possible sources of increased revenue? |
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Create Internet Business Success Using An Auto-Responder
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| Internet is very competitive today. So, it is very important for you to separate yourself from your competitors. Acquiring an auto-responder can be the most important decission you make with your internet business. |
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Now is the Time to Master Financial Conversations
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| While these are admittedly challenging times for many, I still see a lot of sales being made among the companies we are working with. The biggest difference in selling today is the amount of time it takes for sales to close, especially compared to the last few years. But some sellers aren’t feeling any pain – their sales aren’t taking longer in spite of the economy – and yours don’t have to either. |
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What Recession ? SELL
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| If you are in the SALES Game you have to adjust your strategy and target markets. |
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Adopt a People-Centric Approach to Improve Customer Satisfaction and Profitability
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| Satisfied employees are a critical contributor to customer satisfaction... prepare and support your employees to provide outstanding service and your customers will reward your efforts.
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What Salespeople Can Learn from a Focus on the Chase instead of the Hammer
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| What is possible if salespeople began to think of the sales process like the noted automobile restorer Wayne Carini? Just how is the sales process in the top performer’s way like the chase for the finest classic cars? |
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Thought Leadership Best Practices
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| Thought leader is a term used to describe a company that is recognized among peers and competitors
for its innovative insights. As many technology companies have come to realize, thought leadership is
an increasingly vital driver of business success. In addition, it provides organizations with a cost-effective marketing alternative to establishing leadership in an industry or segment. This paper provides best practices for developing and executing a successful thought leadership program. |
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New York State Passes Broadcast Employees Freedom To Work Act
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| New York State Broadcast employers are prohibited from using non-compete agreements as a condition of employment. |
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Dealing with Sales Objections: Resistance to Change
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| When I talk here about the ” Resistance to Change” objection I do not mean a competitor objection. I say this because it can sometimes prove very difficult to tell the difference. The prospect may choose to verbalise both objections by giving the salesperson very similar answers i.e. “I am happy with my current supplier”.
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Are These Two Words Sucking Your Sales Dry?
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| There are 2 little words that currently cause YOU a TON of stress.
In fact, these words make grown women hum and haw, stutter and stammer, look at the ground, look at the sky, and clear their throat a lot.
Here's what else happens.
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"You don't know what you've got till it’s gone"
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| In times like these it becomes even more important than ever to hold on to our existing clients. Everybody knows the costs of customer acquisition. Here are some helpful hints
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Customers Needs-The One and Only Way to Know For Sure What To Sell
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| If it were up to me there would only be two or three flavors of ice cream ever created. If you don't love chocolate chip and strawberry ice cream it is a good thing for you my tastes and desires aren't the holy grail of what sells!
Don't let your preferences and desires determine what you sell. And for your businesses sake, don't assume that your preferences are shared by your customer. Desire and motivation is unique to each of us. Even if we ultimately purchase the same product we often do so for very different reasons and therefore need to be marketed to differently. |
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How to protect your great business idea
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| One of the things that new business owners tend to be very scared of is someone else stealing their business idea. After all, they’ve spent a lot of time, effort, energy and money developing the idea and the last thing they want is someone stealing the business idea and developing it instead. |
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Sales Training – Top Salespeople Are Not Dunces
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| All salespeople do what they can in conversation so their prospect doesn’t feel like a dunce. In celebration of Dunce Day, more salespeople can have greater success applying a de-duncing strategy for themselves. |
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Jazz Up and Energize Your Vocabulary To Increase Sales
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| Do you know who Elmer Wheeler was? And why is he important to you increasing sales? Read on to learn more. |
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7 Reasons Why You Must Zealously Qualify Prospects
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| Tessa Stowe explains why you should make an unbreakable rule that you will zealously qualify prospects before you try to sell them anything. |
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Starting a New Business Online - 5 Secrets on How to Fail Miserably Online
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| You have decided to start your online business. It is so great and you are assured to meet success. Millions will rain in a few days and in the next few months you'll be richer than Bill Gates. What will you do then? You'll get bored! With this in mind, below I give you 5 secrets that will make your site a failure and years of bankruptcy. |
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Dealing with Sales Objections: Competitors
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| Competitor related objections often prove to be some of the more difficult objections that salespeople have to deal with. This is borne out by the fact that a lot of sales trainers continue to preach wishy-washy sales advice that merely skims the surface, rather than deal with the issues involved. |
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Increasing Sales in a Sluggish Economy
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| You Can't Escape It
Pick up a newspaper. Listen to the news reports. The price of gasoline is still quite high. The stock market is still down. The economy is still sluggish. The Middle East is still unsettled. The mortgage industry is still volatile.
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Goal selection the key to success
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| Once an organization has decided what business it is in, it can focus on its goals, aims, and objectives. In contrast to a mission statement, corporate or business objectives are precise statement of intent which emphasized the aims and goals of an organizations. In this article we describe what is Goal,How to create company goals and objectives,characteristics of good goals and Comparison of team with goal and without goals. |
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How to negotiate with integrity
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| For some the worlds of negotiation and integrity may seem poles apart. How can you ensure you get what you want whilst retaining your integrity? Well, according to sales guru Jack Collis negotiators fall into one of three categories. |
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Here is the step by the step process of hyper responsive opt-in email lists:
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| This is the final article of the series on using email autoresponders in your business to connect deeper with your clients and prospects |
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Yawn..Do Your Customers Think You're Dull?
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Well - it really breaks another big rule of SELLING. When you're dull - you're not different.
When you're not different (with something that is important to your customer) -they feel that you're exactly like your competitor.
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Dealing with Sales Objections: Price
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| This objection is sometimes misunderstood in that when a prospect objects to cost, what the prospect is really objecting to is the value/s he currently perceives related to the cost. |
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Increase Sales By Jazzing Up, Energizing and Limiting the Words You Speak and Write
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| Do you know who Elmer Wheeler was? And why is he important to you increasing sales? Read on to learn more.
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Extraordinary Customer Service: Where Does It Begin?
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| Do you know where extraordinary customer service begins? You may be surprised by the answer. |
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Franchise and the Risk of Failure
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| Failure is definitely a real possibility in franchising no matter how skilled a person is, especially since failure rates for small businesses are rather high, particularly in the United States. |
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The Power of the Win/Loss Analysis
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| Typical success rates for closing major new proposals are typically less than 20% when several suppliers are asked to present. Companies often spend tens of thousands of Rands (if not hundreds of thousands) in an effort to win business. For those who failed in their bids, little feedback is offered for why a competitor was a better fit. As a result, the likelihood of winning the next major opportunity remains roughly the same.
Independently collected research data, gathered from interviewing supplier selection teams, offers surprisingly simple fixes that losing competitors could use to improve success rates. Yet, relatively few sales forces consistently gather quality data about their losses to permit a legitimate benchmarking, tracking, and management of their proposal and presentation process. |
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How Many of Your Customers Are Profitable?
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The provision of value should be a two way street. If providing value to your customers is essential for long-term prosperity, then so is accurately measuring the value you receive in return. This article explains how to calculate the profitability of one’s customers, and offers some thoughts on how to treat the profitable and unprofitable.
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Selling is Not Politics: Going Negative in Sales May Destroy Results and Reputation
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| With the USA presidential campaigns in full swing, salespeople may be tempted to sell negatively. But do politics and selling both get the same results from going negative? |
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Avoid the Downward Spiral ©
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| This article explores the reasons why companies get into the "downward spiral." It also notes several reasons why executives and business owners often do not keep up with the numerous changes that affect their business. |
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If You Dont Run This Story Im Taking It To Your Competition
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| You want the media to understand that you can help meet their needs by giving them interesting stories. You are not going to make your story more interesting to a newspaper editor or TV producer by threatening to take your story to his or her competitor.
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The Secrets of a TOP GUN Xerox Sales Professional
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| Have you ever wondered why some Sales Professionals do so well while others are failing in the same marketplace? In this article I'll share with you the"Top 10 Customer Service Commandments". Follow these guidelines to become a TOP GUN in Sales. |
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Use Noncompete Agreements To Help Protect Your Business From
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| Renegade former employees riding the free enterprise wave is one reason noncompete agreements are gaining in popularity among employers who hope to use them to help protect their business from competitive threats launched by former employees. Many employers are now demanding that key employees sign noncompetes as a stipulation of employment. |
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Hey - Are Your Sales And Marketing Materials Fridge Worthy?
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| When my friends come over to my house, the first place they head to is the fridge.
And nooooo - it isn't for the food either! (although I AM a fabulous cook)
They are STARING at all the cool quotes, cards, offers and important things or people that I want to remember and have in my radar. All attached with a fabulous magnet of course.
(REALLY - it's a position of honor!)
And people LOVE looking at it!
I often advise my clients that ANY sales and marketing materials they're creating had better be FRIDGE WORTHY. (or puh-lease - DON'T show them to me)
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Value Over Price Preserves Profitability
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| One way to add value inside of this business equation is to buy a customer's business by offering the lowest Price. You already know that may get you a short-term sell at the expense of short-term and long-term profitability. But, there are more profitable ways to create Perceived Buyer Value, beyond under-cutting your competitor's price. |
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Marketing Plan Template
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| Marketing plans sit within an overall business plan – they are one of the vehicles to help you deliver your business goals and objectives. Without a clear business direction and strategy, your marketing plans will never be 100% effective. Always start with gaining clarity on the direction of your business before filling in your marketing plan template and the activities you will undertake. |
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Common Pitfalls in Buying a Business - Buyer Overpays
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| This article explains the reasons why buyers often overpay for a business. |
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What is eDNA and How Can it Affect Your Brand?
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| Have you ever written anything online that might cause someone to question the integrity of your company or brand?
Think about all the imprints you've left online over the last few years - emails, blog posts, forum comments, articles, etc., essentially an eDNA trail that leads back to your small business.
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A Big Sales Tip
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| Here's a big sales tip. How would you like to keep close tabs on your biggest sales prospects, best customers, and fiercest competitors without having to lift a finger or pay a penny? Now you can!
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HOW TO DEAL WITH A LOW QUOTE AND WIN THE BUSINESS
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| Often in business we are faced with the challenge of offering better deals in hopes of outbidding our competitors and winning the deal. Here's how we do this and still come out on top. |
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Beating your number one competitor - the status quo
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| The biggest competitor faced by most firms is not the high quality market leader or the low-cost overseas firm. For most businesses, their biggest competitor is the status quo - the client not doing anything. |
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In Praise of Passion: Selling’s Secret Weapon
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| The stereotype many people have of salespeople is of an amoral hired gun. A sharp-suited, sharp-talking huckster who doesn’t care what he’s peddling as long as it brings in the money.
But in reality, the opposite is true of all truly successful salespeople: they have a real passion and belief in the products and services they sell.
This article explores the importance of passion - and how to incubate it in your sales team. |
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Why Should I Buy it From YOU
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| When you can tell people why they should hire you or use your services in a way that distinguishes you from the other sweet, juicy red apples, you'll get more business. |
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Sales Training - Buyer or Seller You Need to Learn to Negotiate
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| Buyers and sellers alike need to sharpen their negotiating skills.
Each needs a set of strategies to deal with competition and competitive pricing in today’s marketplace.Sales people fall into the trap of the buyer telling them they will have to match their competitor’s price in order to get the business. |
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The Lost Sale
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| Many of us are guilty of giving away our time. I’m not suggesting you keep from contributing time to worthy causes but your sales day is not time for charitable concerns-- time for revenue generation. Sometimes, we forget. |
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THE MYTH OF BEING DIFFERENT
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| By Mike Schultz
One is the loneliest number.
- Three Dog Night
I got a bad grade on my final paper in Entrepreneurship class in graduate school. The professor said, "The business you're proposing to launch...it's not different. Other people do it. While the plan seems well-thought-out, due to the simple truth that this business has been largely done before, and there doesn't seem to be anything truly unique about it, I wouldn't advise launching the business." (So long, stellar GPA...)
Being different and unique seems to be highly regarded by folks that think about, write about, and teach business.
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Selling Through the Tough Times
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| In this tips-oriented piece, Rick Davis, president of Strategic Sales in the Building Industry, explains how to rise to the situation and sell through tough times. |
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The Importance of Listening in Selling
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| The best salespeople were not necessarily the best talkers, they were the best listeners. |
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Do You have a Strategic Sales Action Plan?
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| Do you want to shake up your sales results? It's time to rethink you're approach and come up with a plan that will produce results. |
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6 Common Objections and How to Handle Them
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| You as a salesperson should give every opportunity to the prospect to ask questions and make objections if he is inclined to do so. It is frequently desirable to assist in bringing out these questions and objections. Sometimes the very best arguments you can make are based on objections by the prospect, especially if you are thoroughly prepared. |
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Keywords Research Tips
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| Keyword research in short is the process of identifying the words those buyers could be looking for. Every keyword that's missed during the keyword research is an opportunity gained by the competitor who has successfully incorporated the missing keyword1. So, it's necessary that our keyword research should always be a good as possible. Today search engine marketing has heavily changed the business process and has become an unavoidable tool for the marketers, and keyword research is an important part of the same. |
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“Don’t get down in the mud with the pigs.
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| You will both get dirty and the pigs love it. |
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Your customers can only have 2 out of 3… Or your lose money!
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| Customers want three things from you.
• Great service
• Top quality products
• Low price
And it would be great if you could figure out how to give them all three and make money, but no one ever has. |
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The Hidden Key to a Successful Direct-Marketing Package
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| In This Issue:
The Hidden Key to a Successful Direct-Marketing Package
Understand how the unique sales proposition boosts the power of your sales package.
Quick Tip: 2 Free Online Calendars
Free online calendars that can help you manage your time.
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Don't Drop Those Weights Just Yet
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| Here are a few pointers so you can actually keep the goals you set. |
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Exit Strategies
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| Planning on selling up soon? How many times have you heard business people say "my business is my pension"?
Unfortunately, too frequently, and unfortunately too many find that their pension isn't worth what they believe it to be. |
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Selling a Price Increase: Is There a Good Time?
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| As you become more confident in your pricing your efforts are better spent on showing your customer how the value of your product or service meets their needs & desires.
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5 Guaranteed Ways To Retain Online Customers & Keep Them Away From Competiton
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| Whatever the product or service you offer on your website; there are probably hundreds of thousands or millions other websites which a potential online customer can go to. It takes a lot of hard work to get the visitors to your website in the first instance; now that some prospects have visited your website, you have a very high chance of converting them into your online customers. It is very important for you not to lose them to your competitor. |
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How Women in Business Can Better Succeed
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| Even though women launch more businesses then men every month their failure rate is still high. Below are tips to help increase the success rate of any woman in business or momtrepreneur, as well as mentrepreneur. |
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Closing with Passion
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| When you get the opportunity to close, always remember to close with the benefits that the customer has stated. The golden rule is three benefits, this does not mean that you always need three, one is enough if it's powerful enough, the rule of thumb is three, then in most cases you will always make the sale. |
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The Most REFRESHING Tip For Dealing With Sales Rejection
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| So.
You've met with the client. Provided a proposal. Asked when they wanted follow-up. You felt the meeting went well and secretly you were counting the dollars and where you were going to spend them.
And then you've...
Called, e-mailed, Called, e-mailed, Called, e-mailed, Called, e-mailed, Called, e-mailed, Called, e-mailed, Called, e-mailed, Called, e-mailed, Called, e-mailed (deep breath!) until you're blue in the face??
And NO ONE is getting back to you?
And quite frankly, you're starting to feel like a loser with no friends? |
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Are Your Trademarks Being Used by Other Companies on Google?
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| Saper Law Offices assists businesses in all areas of trademark law, from registration and filing to litigation. The following article serves as an overview of the effect search engine marketing and Internet “keyword” advertising through Google’s search engine has on a business’s trademark. For a case specific consultation regarding (1) whether or not your use of another’s trademark in a Google Ad could result in legal action, or (2) whether or not you may prevent another business from using your trademark in a Google Adword, a meta tag or as the text of an advertisement, call Saper Law Offices for a consultation at (312) 641-0551 or contact us by email at dsaper@saperlaw.com. If you need assistance with creating and implementing a Google ad campaign, contact www.LegalPPC.com. |
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A Beginner’s Guide to Pay Per Click Marketing
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| Kalena Jordan of Search Engine College discusses the history of Pay Per Click Marketing and how you can make it work for you. |
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Business Intelligence: Get the Goods on Your Customers, Partners, and Competitors
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| You just learned about a sales or business development opportunity. Or, perhaps, you encounter a new competitor. Now what? The first step is to gather information – and the Internet can be an effective and inexpensive source to do so. Here’s how. |
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Who Are Your Buyers and Who Feeds Them
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| Once you have the overall industry landscape figured out, the next step is to go deeper and describe who the buyers, suppliers and distributors are, and what drives them. This is the food chain that some researchers refer to. Start with the buyer; your customer. Within a company, who is the buyer? Is it a CIO? Is it a VP of service? Is it the purchasing manager? Is it the buyer for a retail store? Is it the VP of development? Whoever it is, describe the buyer's recognition of the problem you solve, the criteria that will be used to determine the purchase, the likely availability of resources to support the purchase, and the decision process that you will be confronted with. |
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New Study of Corporate Rewards Program Proves...
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| Considering that a recent study from the Incentive Federation has shown that a good corporate reward program can improve sales and production as much as forty-four percent a company can hardly afford not to have a corporate reward program. |
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What you Need to Know when Buying a Business
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| Once you are aware of the benefits and risks associated with buying a business, and have found a business that matches your strengths and interests, you must then do a thorough examination of the operation. |
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6 Steps Up the Ladder of Sales Success.
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| A lot of successful people have said that we always have to think about the customer and to think about the sales. You’ll hear me talk a lot about sales because it’s a skill we all have to master. In business, the only way to remain in business is to sell successfully. No one will buy anything from you if you don’t master the art of selling.
Eliminate your competition. The days of basing your product solely on its USP are almost gone, and this is why the UEP is so important. Today’s lesson, in short: a guaranteed personal transformation is hard to duplicate and replace. |
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Turnover, what does it cost?
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| Reducing turnover is a critical step in improving your resiliance during tough economic times. However, Retducing turnover isn't enough, you must retain the right employees. This is the first section in a four part white paper on reducing employee turnover. |
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Unscrupulous Competitors
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| Unscrupulous Competitors can disrupt key customer relationships. Learn how to deal with competitors who promise lowball pricing just to get the business.
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UTILIZING YOUR MEDIA to Land More Business
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| If you use it correctly, media begets media. |
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Beware greenwashing your business
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| Greenwashing, the practice of using the term 'green' just to score points, will fail you and your business. |
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Fine Tune Those Ethics
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| Is there something you are doing in your business endeavors that causes you to pause and wonder, "Should I be doing this?" or "Is this right to do?" If so, then you are more than likely engaged in behavior that is a bit questionable and need to listen carefully to your inner voice. |
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Today's "rant" - stress
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| If you are in TV Sales or the TV business you are a competitor. Over stressed athletes usually end up hurt and seldom perform optimally. So why do we think putting more stress on our people will produce better results? |
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Creating a Culture and Brand That Makes and Actually Keeps Brand Promises
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| A positive brand and cultural alignment is a powerful competitive strategy! Identify your market and building a strong base your clients and customers will notice and will reward your efforts... |
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Are you ready for your game plan?
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| A 75 and 25 year old men were sitting on a bench watching a ball game. The younger one looks at the elder and with a pompous attitude, asks him the following:” I am 25, my generation built Apple air, IPods and PDA’s”. What did your generation build? The older man turns his head and with simplicity, replies:” I am 75, my generation built the Computers that helped you build the Apple Air, IPods and PDA’s”.! |
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Buy or Start a Home-Based Business?
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| When it comes to starting a home-based business from scratch, the unknowns can be daunting. One alternative you might consider is to buy an existing business. |
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4 Easy Ways to Dissatisfy Your Visitors
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| Since creating a website that is "user friendly" is often difficult and time consuming, I thought it would be fun to explore a few ways to create a dissatisfying user experience on your website. Unlike the dozens upon dozens of things that go into creating a website that provides a positive visitor experience, one that creates an atmosphere of trust and is likely to improve conversion rates, creating a dissatisfying experience can be done fairly easily in just a few steps. |
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Proven Alternatives To Lowering Prices
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| Many businesses struggle with pricing issues. Maybe you're frustrated with low price competition. Since you need profit to have a healthy business, there is a lot to gain by understanding what motivates people to buy. Discover how you can prosper even if competitors are slashing prices. |
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Greening How You Take Green
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| There are many ways to green your business. Using recycled products, swapping out your lightbulbs, and offsetting/minimizing your carbon footprint probably come to mind first, right? What about how you process payments? Come again, you say? Yes, there is now a way to green how you take green: Dharma Merchant Services. |
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There is NO Competition
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| What’s the competition doing? Who cares! The important thing is what you’re doing, right here and right now. |
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Getting the Right Building
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| Getting the Right Building is designed to help entrepreneurs minimize the risk of overlooking important elements that may impact on specific operational procedures relating to their building and location. It is an essential tool that exposes the hidden traps of enthusiastic, but un-calculated decision making. Garry Donnell |
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How to Steal Your Competitor's Business
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| One secret to success is being able to win when there is lots of competition. This is especially important when it seems everyone wants opportunities where there is little or no competition. The problem with the latter is they are both elusive and unproven. I outline how you can win in competitive businesses. |
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Those With the Best Talent Win
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| In a talent war there’s only one way win. And that is to hire and retain the best talent! Can you imagine a sports coach hiring average talent! As a manager you need to develop a real distaste for average. |
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PR FollowUp Secrets
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| You’ve found your story, you’ve written a release, you’ve sent it to the appropriate media contacts and now you’re ready to follow up with the media. Welcome to the minefield. |
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Recruiting for Dummies
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| When facing the challenge of recruiting personnel, most organizations out there believe that a job posting and some behavioral based interviews will suffice to hire the best candidates—this is true at some point if you are recruiting for some technical jobs such as machine lifter or tractor driver, not that there is anything wrong with these jobs, but the pool of candidates and degree of job functions and expertise will differ if you are hiring a white collar or top executive. |
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Protecting Your Business Name
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| One of the best marketing strategies is to have a recognisable and well respected business name. Word of mouth can bring you much work. So how do you protect your business name from a competitor using that name, or using a deceptively similarly name in order to mislead potential customers. |
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12 Product Page Conversion Strategies That Shant Be Ignored
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| Product pages maintain considerable strategic importance for ecommerce websites. Your visitors enter your product pages not only with an intention to buy something (the most desired end action) but to also learn, research and compare what you have against a competitor. In addition to this, product pages also serve to help buyers find relevant pricing information, delivery costs, warranty and/or return policies and a whole lot more.
To be effective, your website must implement product pages that are able to satisfy each of your visitor's needs. But information isn't enough either. While providing necessary information, these pages must be convincing enough to entice your visitors to move through the purchase process -- on your site rather than on a competitor's website.
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Five Steps to an Intuitive Website
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| An intuitive Website gets results by meeting visitor needs. How can you make your Website intuitive? |
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Can Becoming a “Thoughtleader” Give You an Edge? Attempts to Quantify Its ROI Say YES
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| Have you ever thought about or noticed a competitor utilizing “thoughtleading” as a business development strategy? Positioning yourself and your firm as leading-edge thinkers in your field involves publishing articles and books, speaking regularly to professional groups, getting yourself noticed by the media and surveying your target market in order to produce research data that only you possess. |
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Reap Rewards with the Right Reputation
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| We’ve all heard the old cliche, “Under-Promise and Over-Deliver”. It’s easier said than done, isn’t it? Today, in these challenging economic times, many people tend to promise prospective customers more so they perceive the value as better than what a competitor can offer. Those same people also enjoy over-promising to make themselves feel more valued. Do they not think these actions will come back to haunt them? The overall point I’d like to make today is that we cannot build a reputation for ourselves or our company by what we say we can do. We build good reputations by delivering what our customers need. |
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How Pablo Picasso Dealt With The Price Objection
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| Everyone in sales fears hearing the price objection, yet very few salespeople prepare how to deal with it. |
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One way reciprocal link exchange theory.
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| One way reciprocal link exchange is a good initiative to get your website recognized and introduced to a certain group of visitors.But then how do you do it to proper effect.Here is a small trick.See who your competitors are.Look for the bigger competitor.Try finding out his linkings.
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Why Your Customer Doesn\'t Like Your Price
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| The one and only reason your customer doesn't like your price is because they have failed to see enough value in what you are offering to warrant paying the price.
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What Separates the Good Marketers from the Great Ones?
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| What traits and behaviors separate the good from the great? Check out what sales-and-marketing traits will lead you to the top of your profession...
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Are you sure you know who you're competing with?
| |
| In past times competitors clashed often enough to develop a sixth sense on each other's strengths, weaknesses and strategies to win business. In today's environment your competitor could be an adversary that you have no knowledge of whatsoever. The competition could be an international company, a new start-up, an internal customer team willing to do the work, or have the mandate to do nothing because of business pressures. The competition landscape has changed and will continue to offer challenges to all companies. |
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StorySelling “How to Write Mini User Stories”
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| Why: Use mini user stories, with the right sales message, so that your salespeople are able to sell value and differentiate your offering instead of pitching product and reducing price.
Mini User Stories: Make the stories short. Use only one constraint per story otherwise you risk flooding the Buyer with too much information.
Make the Buyer the Hero of the Story: Many Customer Stories make the company out to be the hero who rode in on their white shinny horse to save the Buyer.
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Health & Business Performance
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| So if like me; you live and breathe for your businesses and aim to make them as successful and as profitable as possible then you need to continue to breath life into your business, you need to be healthy, strong, adaptable and full of vitality to ensure you and your business not only survives but succeeds. |
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Quick Mobile Hits Around Africa
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| 2go
Rafiq wrote a review of a new mobile service out of South Africa called 2go. It enters the chat/social network fray with fellow South African competitor Mxit (past with interview Mxit’s Darryn Foster found here). |
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How To Disaster-Proof Your Business
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| How much pain would your business feel if suddenly you couldn’t email your clients? What if you lost your correspondence file or your phone lost its dial tone? We tend to avoid thinking about a business catastrophe until it hits close to home. And when problems hit, we need them fixed yesterday and are willing to pay a lot to make them go away. |
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Market Leadership
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| Learn how to become an effective leader in today's competitive market. And start by learning the 4 steps to achieving a customer centric oriented culture. |
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10 Ways to Build a Referral-Only Business In Less Than Ten Minutes a Day
| |
| While most businesses are spending enormous amounts in an effort to attract new customers, a select few use a strategy that has virtually eliminated the need for marketing. Building a business on referrals isn’t costly or time-consuming once you know the secret. |
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Plan for the Unexpected
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| Companies often face unanticipated challenges like these. Do you have a business plan ready to execute next week for an interruption in your supply chain, recession, terrorist attack, sudden drop in the stock marketing, or a spike in oil prices? The best businesses are ready. Many have even profited from events that destroyed or damaged their competition. For companies that want to turn fatal blows into near-fatal blows, they must plan for the unexpected. |
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Increasing Your Company's Competitive Intelligence
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| The resources are likely within your reach to gather and distribute competitive intelligence throughout your organization if you desire to make this important for your organization. Smaller companies simply don’t devote enough attention to expanding their competitive intellectual capital, and this is a creative way to get more people involved in your strategic efforts and team build while maintaining some cost control. This article outlines a few ways to help get you started down the path to greater competitive intelligence across your entire firm. |
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Other competitor Related Articles
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Objections are Requests for more Information
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| Think of objections as simply requests for more information. In other words, when the customer objects, he or she is simply asking:
"Tell me how to justify this amount of money?"
"How is this a better buy than your competitor´s product?"
"Tell us how your other customers have dealt with their price concerns?"
"Tell me why I should buy the product from you, and not your competitor?" |
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Sales Training London: What Opportunity To Improve Are You Wasting
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| You're probably doing all this already, but if you're not, I don't suppose you know how much it could be costing you to not take advantage of your best source of customer and competitor intelligence?
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Trademark Registration India
| |
| It is not any trade mark which is registrable. To be registrable the mark should be distinctive and should not be similar to any other trade mark registered for the same or similar goods or used by a competitor whether registered or not. In the case of a similar mark used by a competitor but not registered difficulties for registration will arise only if the owner of the mark chooses to oppose the registration. In choosing a trade mark therefore one has to see whether the mark satisfies the requirement of distinctiveness contained in section 9 of the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958. |
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Beating your number one competitor - the status quo
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| The biggest competitor faced by most firms is not the high quality market leader or the low-cost overseas firm. For most businesses, their biggest competitor is the status quo - the client not doing anything. |
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Yawn..Do Your Customers Think You're Dull?
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|
Well - it really breaks another big rule of SELLING. When you're dull - you're not different.
When you're not different (with something that is important to your customer) -they feel that you're exactly like your competitor.
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How to stop social networking sites killing your restraint of trade clauses
| |
| Dave knew that he had a problem when he came into the office one morning to see a LinkedIn update saying that one of his former employee’s had taken a senior position with his major competitor. But it wasn’t the fact that Mandy had moved to his competitor that started the alarm bells ringing, but that he had received a notification of the move in his inbox – he knew that 70% of his client base would have received the same email and may flock towards her. |
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SEO Software for SEO not for competitor spying
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| Search Engine Optimization process involves genuine on-page and off-page optimization on your website to boost up your search visibility. Stop wasting time in investing competitor website analytical reports and links. Start SEO today by SEO Software Submitter to move ahead of your competitor in search results. |
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Why competitor analysis Never Help in SEO?
| |
| Run faster than your competitor to reach number one spot in Google and all major search engines. |
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Gold Medal Selling
| |
| How the Formula for Beating the 1980 Soviet Hockey Team Can Help You Beat Your Biggest Competitor. |
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How Do You Do It? – My secrets (shh!) 6 Tips for blogging success
| |
| Check out these mind-blowing statistics:
Jeff Ogden
Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor
1,067 Posts
Almost 62,000 viewers to date
In nationwide syndication
Publishes on the Kindle
Publishes 7 days a week and mostly twice on weekdays
Those stats are for this extremely popular blog, Fearless Competitor dot net. |
|
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from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.