Archives for January 2012

Lessons from my last trip to a Pitch Fest

January 4, 2012 by

Packed Restaurant

My last Trip to a Pitch Fest. And the Valuable Insights into a Market

Although there is a bit of lag between when you read this and my trip to the Richard Branson/21st Century Education Multi-speaker, multi-day endurance contest, I did learn a valuable lesson on how to get real value out of those events.

So for those of you who don’t know the game, there is a couple of draw card speakers, (in this case Sir Dick Branson and Tim Ferriss – the 4 hour work week guy) used as bait to fill the room/stadium. Then the attendees endure multiple sales presentations over the remainder of the time the event is on. Each speaker guarantees to make you rich, successful and occasionally happy as long as you give them your credit card details.

I finally figured out how to get some real value out of those things as an attendee. Mystery Shopping. Here is how I did it and didn’t lose my mind.

  1. Take a friend who you can talk to about the mechanics of selling. It keeps you analytical.
  2. Get yourself a spot up the back where you can see the tables where the purchases are made
  3. Take copious notes about how each speaker:
    – Makes a big promise (and what it is)
    – Makes their promise unique
    – Proves they are legit
    – Creates a need for their course/home study kit or whatever it is they are selling
    – Proves their case
    – Closes the deal
    – Makes a case for immediate action
  4. Watch the response rates – count the number of people who rush to order.
  5. Calculate, who has the highest gross sales. And who has the best closing percentage.

Buying the event recording will not get you an indication of the response rates – the really important bit. You need number of sales and dollar volumes of sales, otherwise it is only your opinion about the effectiveness of the sales presentation. Going to multiple presentations for the same product and taking notes gives you a library over time of how different speakers are tweaking (testing) their presentations in order to improve response rates and how those tweaks went. These are all things for you to test as well.

It will give you plenty of insight on how the man on the street is responding right now to various forms and formats of how you can present benefits, ideas and position your products and services in the minds of your customers.

The best marketers borrow, twist and reinvent things from other industries to create breakthroughs in their own. The marketing tactic, ‘Gift with Purchase’ came from cosmetics. The drive through at McDonalds was adapted from drive through A.T.M.’s. So even if you aren’t selling anything that is relevant to these industries, you probably have some of the market in common – the attendees. So pay attention to what people are responding to favourably and model it in your business.

Filed Under: Blog

Where does aspirin come from?

January 4, 2012 by

“Take two aspirin and call me in the morning” is a medical cliché, but that doesn’t mean that aspirin is something to ignore. Even Hippocrates, the father of medicine, prescribed an early form of aspirin for patients suffering from minor pains.

Aspirin, known by its technical name of acetylsalicylic acid, belongs to a group of drugs called salicylates. It’s commonly used for minor aches and pains, to reduce fever, and to relieve inflammation. Aspirin also inhibits the production of platelets in the blood, making it useful in preventing clots that may cause heart attacks and strokes. In addition, low doses of aspirin administered immediately after a heart attack can reduce the risk of a second attack or damage to cardiac tissue.

Hippocrates and other early physicians used extracts of willow bark or the plant spiraea (found in Europe and Asia) to treat head­aches, pain, and fevers.

In 1853, a French chemist named Charles Frederic Gerhardt was the first scientist to create acetylsalicylic acid, but it wasn’t until 1897 that chemists at Bayer AG first produced a version of salicin that was gentler on the stomach than pure salicylic acid. The new drug’s name, “aspirin,” was based on the word “spiraea.” By 1899 it was being sold by Bayer throughout the world.

Following World War I, “aspirin” became a generic term, although Aspirin with a capital A remains a registered trademark of Bayer in Germany, Canada, Mexico, and more than 80 other countries.

Filed Under: ezine

A Worldwide Look At Wealth

January 4, 2012 by

The richest U.S. citizen is Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, who, according to Forbes magazine, is worth $56 billion. But he’s far from the only billionaire in the world.

Here’s a look at some of the wealthiest people around the World:

  • Mexico. Carlos Slim Helu (telecommunications), $74 billion
  • Brazil. Eike Batista (mining), $30 billion
  • China. Li Ka-Shing (shipping and cosmetics), $26 billion
  • Canada. David Thompson (media), $23 billion
  • Chile. Iris Fontbona (mining), $19.2 billion
  • Colombia. Luis Carlos Sarmiento (construction, financial services), $10.5 billion
  • Australia. Gina Rhineheart (resources), $10.31 billion
  • Argentina. Carlos and Alejandro Bulgheroni (energy), $5.1 billion

 

Filed Under: ezine

Ramp up your emotional intelligence

January 4, 2012 by

Most employers aren’t just looking for technical skills, like the ability to translate foreign languages or fix the photocopy machine. A CareerBuilder survey found that 71 percent of HR managers place more importance on emotional intelligence—an employee’s ability to get along with people in the workplace.

Developing these interpersonal skills will make you a more valuable member of any organization you work for even if you’re the best programmer or marketing associate around:

  • Emotional control. Stress is part of any job. If you can keep your temper and not fall apart when the heat is on, you’ll show that managers and co-workers can depend on you in any situation.
  • Empathy. Don’t ignore other people’s feelings. Even when you disagree, or when a colleague rubs you the wrong way, do your best to understand other people’s perspectives so you can work together constructively.
  • Listening skills. Keep your ears open and your mouth in check. Listening to other people shows you take them seriously and that you care about their opinions—which will help you earn a reputa­tion for thoughtfulness and professionalism.
Filed Under: ezine

Outsourcing the Easy Stuff

January 4, 2012 by

Outsourcing might be a dirty word in some business circles, but particularly when it comes to the “easy stuff,” it can make a great deal of financial sense.

In today’s electronic age, surely one of the biggest drains on company time and resources is data entry.  As essential as it might be to modern businesses, paying direct employees to process huge amounts of data can be horribly expensive, and yet the work itself is typically very straightforward.  With very little training, outsourced providers often are able to come to grips with an organization’s data entry processes and can supply a service that costs a fraction of the amount that would be paid to internal staff.

Although some businesses have gone in for outsourcing in a big way, basically farming out everything that they can feasibly have done via external agencies, others have been far more reluctant to “lose control” of certain functions within their organizations, particularly those that might have considerably longer-term impacts, such as HR.  Where basic functions such as data processing are concerned, however, quality control checks are typically easy to put into place, and outsourcing can represent a much cheaper alternative than doing it in-house.

Filed Under: ezine

Plan Before You Print

January 4, 2012 by

plan-before-you-printI often get businesses asking me for quotes on batches of flyers and I’ll ask the question: “What is the purpose of them?”  and more often than not I receive a blank stare and silence… It’s a little nuts, but a lot of small businesses want to have ‘generic’ flyers to hand out like business cards, they basically say: “This is me and this is what I do”.

Unfortunately  this approach to marketing won’t get you very far. Instead you should ask the following questions or every piece of marketing prior to designing and printing.

Who do I want to receive my marketing? – Be specific. Is it new customers, existing customers, a list you’ve bought or a joint venture list. Try to define age, sex, occupation, hobbies, income etc. The more detailed, the more tailored the message is likely to be and also the easier it is to determine what media to use to reach your ideal recipient.

What action do I want people to take after reading my marketing? – This is usually the most overlooked step, many business owners will say “use my product or service” or “hang on to the flyer or remember my business for when they need my product / service” – this simply isn’t good enough. You need a specific, measurable action for your prospects / clients to take. There should only be 1 action for each piece of marketing. (ie – don’t try to get them to call to place an order or sign up for a newsletter) You can have multiple methods of contact, but they should all be for the same purpose (ie – call, email, fax in the coupon, all to request a free report.)

What am I offering? – I’m a firm believer that if you are going to put a piece of marketing out, you should make an offer. It can be a special product or service, a discount, an add-on product, a free report, a subscription to your newsletter or pretty much anything where you can give them value. Your offer should be irresistible. This is often the action that you want your clients to take.

When do I plan to distribute the marketing? – By knowing this you can add in some urgency, and give people a deadline that they need to respond by. It also allows you to make sure that your designer, printer, distributor are all informed of and can make the deadline.

There are many other questions that you should be asking prior to doing any marketing, in fact I have a questionnaire that has 30+ questions that I email to clients before commencing some jobs, but if you ask the above 4 questions then it will give you a little more clarity and hopefully allow you to avoid some of the common pitfalls that businesses experience.

Filed Under: Blog