1. Offer a Gift to Charity – A friend of mine promised to donate $1 to the favorite charity of every person who followed him on Twitter.  He capped the give away at $2K and he made it mandatory that the charity be a recognized non-profit.  He got 6,000 followers in a day.
2. Create a Deck of Cards – One of the WV portfolio companies, PBworks, decided to run a custom deck of cards contest for the thought leaders of Enterprise 2.0.  It brought a ton of social media attention to PBworks.
3. Give Away a Prize Pack – Get friends and associated companies to offer prizes as part of a prize pack that you can use for a contest.  Keeps your cost to near zero and also lets other companies share in driving attention to the contest.

About the Author:

It was an unimaginable experience — a gigantic corporation that should know to train its employees much, much better.

A portion of my income is generated by delivering webinars.  Therefore, it is vitally important that my cable service be delivered without interruption. Unfortunately, my experience was such that I was motivated to change providers. I walked into the local store of the provider with all of the internet and television equipment in hand that required being returned. As fate would have it, the store was filled with new customers waiting in line.

I was cheerfully greeted — an excellent beginning but the excellence ended there. I was then asked to put the used equipment on the counter in the center of the store. Suddenly all eyes were upon me. Next I was handed a stationary phone connecting me to customer service - placed on the counter in the center of the store – and – in front of all the customers waiting to purchase!

This was an excellent strategy for discouraging their new prospects, current clients and future business development as I tried to discretely explain why we were terminating service. Why didn’t the employees escort me to a private room to take care of this? Emphasizing the company’s lack of forethought, this morning’s newspaper relayed that the very same company is not handling complaints of dropped calls on the iPhone appropriately. Apple is seriously considering Verizon as its next vendor. The marketing messages given by this company is “We’re too big and don’t care what you think!” Keeping this up, they won’t be too big for long.

In short, always take the leadership stance to be of the mindset of caring about your clientele and striving to build relationships. In turn, your clientele will take care of you making for a continued Smooth Sale!

About the Author:

Every morning I make it a practice to read the business news. Today I read that Toyota reflected on their past polices, changed their mindset and is now considering reaching out to its clientele in 3 different ways:

1. Free maintenance may become standard for U.S. clients
2. 0% financing extended
3. Discounted lease offers

Given their very serious blunders in the past, these new incentives are definitely going to attract the attention of new car buyers. These should work to turn around a previously lost clientele for ultimately greater revenue.

As entrepreneurs, every once in a while we all make errors. So the question is: which customer service policies do you have in place to smoothly continue your relationship with your clientele should something go wrong? It’s important for business development and even to remain in business that you have a plan in place.

When you communicate how you resolve problems you are seen as a leader and the go-to person for when your service is needed. This is a large part of your marketing effort and it will work to spread great word of mouth about you and your business, and will attract many more sales.

Wishing you always a very Smooth Sale!

About the Author:

Most often marketing experts will suggest beginning with a small defined audience to quickly become the expert and leader in your field leading to a quicker conversion of prospects to clients. But what if you have been in business a long time and were to focus on the tiniest portion of your business that you enjoy the most – will that work in attracting more sales?

Last year was a tough one for most. This morning, 3 friends and I reconvened to bring each other up-to-date on our activities. I was completely surprised by the fact all 4 of us did exactly what I posed – we took the tiniest portion of our business that we enjoy the most and are promoting to the fullest. The surprising part is 3 of us are anticipating more revenue than ever!

My belief is the reason for our success is that we are each now focusing on what we truly enjoy. For me, the ebook webinars are a huge hit. The fourth person was in a very hard hit industry but her passion is swimming. She mentioned in passing that she knows how to instruct swimmers to swim faster. I exclaimed, “Why don’t you start charging for swim lessons?!” She answered, “I’ve been thinking about it silently, and now that you said it, I’m going to do it!”

When your clientele hears the passion in your voice and sees the excitement in your face, they become excited too, helping to build your relationship. This is the point where attraction marketing and selling work their charm. This works on anything you want in life, including interviewing well. It’s business development at its best and turns into a very Smooth Sale!

About the Author:

I had the good fortune to hear a marvelous speaker. She used her voice as a fine instrument. Her talk was filled with emotional stories both funny and sad. All the while her voice rose to a crescendo and then gently toned down to very soft notes of deep insight. Her talk was as moving as an opera.

However, in my opinion, her ending spoiled the impact. The speaker’s message was, “Stand in our own shoes to enjoy your unique journey into the spotlight.” It was a very powerful message. Everyone was nodding in agreement.

Alas, the speaker’s power diminished when she made an offer contradictory to her message. Her offer did not speak to standing in your own spotlight. Instead she offered a collaborative project designed to ride on her coattails. For me, the speaker’s offer ruined the entire message.

Had the speaker instead offered a package whereby she would help prospects in the audience achieve their own success, it is a safe bet that many more people would have quickly become her clients.

It is a wonderful idea to think about new markets but much forethought and homework needs to be in place first. In order for others to see you as the expert in your field and for you to develop business methodically along with easily building relationships with your new found audience, here are some ideas to consider:

1. Do the questions you receive shed light on potential new services to implement?
2. What is the profile of your intended new clientele?
3. Where will you find your new audience in large numbers?
4. Will your new venue complement your core business?
5. Will your new service fill a need and a wish?
6. Will your product or service save your prospects time and money by enlisting your help?
7. Most importantly – will you be helping your new clientele?

I just went through this exercise myself pulling together my core business of sales training and my new-found learning of collaboration and social media. It was all transformed into a new webinar series on “How to Write an eBook and Sell More!”

The class was novel both for me and the students. Their excitement toward the prospect of completing their books was on high and their heartfelt thanks afterward – well that was very heart-warming. My excitement is knowing I will enable others in a new way to grow their businesses and have their voices heard.

The bonus is our relationships are deepening and I know full well, further business, testimonials and referrals – the hallmark of a dynamic business – will be coming my way. This is how I recommend developing the Smooth Sale!

Something really jumped out at me.  They made a big bold statement that coffee prices only include one refill.  While I am sure that they do this to keep bums from coming in and sitting there all day and only buying one cup of coffee, it sent such the wrong message to me.  Greasy-spoon diners cater to a wide audience and need to understand that some people (who pay most of the diner’s bills) often use it as an easy meeting place.  This diner’s coffee warning told me this is not a place I want to use as a meeting place again.

This message also made me think about the messaging start-ups use.  We have to understand that lots of people will see our messaging, and we need to make sure the message is really what we want to say to every audience.  Looking cheap or small is going to scare off the customers you value the most.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Cheryl Vargas

Why should potential customers leave their cozy keyboards to attend your live event when the proverbial ‘world is at their fingertips’ via the Internet?  Well, it’s got to be something they don’t want to miss, something everybody’s talking about, the latest industry event buzz!  How do you generate that buzz?  It’s easy, (but it takes time and effort).  Involve your audience in the process of creating interest, using a standard arsenal of today’s tools.

Before the event - Invite attendees to “save the date”,  use podcasts, blog interviews with featured guests and create social buzz via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other community sites.  Talk about what’s hot about your event, the food, the presenters, the entertainment, the sheer anticipated number of attendees, etc. Be sure not to neglect traditional means via appropriately placed ads, articles and press releases. Offer early bird specials, incentives for early RSVPs and offer exhibitors and sponsors the opportunity to share information, specials and discounts without being obviously sales-driven.  A well executed plan should include tracking mechanisms (Google Analytics, BudUrl) to monitor your efforts.

During the event -  You can broaden your reach beyond those in attendance through the use of community forums and webcasts. Having a screen showing live Tweets encourages attendees to comment live from the event. Additionally, you might create a space for guests to post photos on your site or on public forums. This is also a great opportunity for bloggers, videocasters, and podcasters to interview speakers and attendees.  Track actual attendance, solicit feedback and interaction, so that you can further tailor your company message to your customer needs after the event.  Have future event dates in place so you can share the information on-site with incentives.

After the event – Don’t drop the ball. Stay connected to attendees with ‘thank you’ offers, event wrap-ups, links to photos, evaluation feedback and products and future events. Make sure you encourage them to share your information with others who might be interested.  Offer opportunities to engage attendees through invitations to opinion forums, product trials, samples, reviews and user case studies.

To be sure, pulling off a stellar affair requires advance planning and should be based on an activity or theme that relates to your business and, most importantly, your target customer.  Though it should still come off as a soft sell opportunity to appreciate, educate and treat your guests well.

A great example comes from Ann Middleman and her ADM Marketing.  Read her thoughts about recovering from a down economy and thriving with entrepreneurial thinking:

I was VP of Research at a PR firm in NY, making close to $100,000. When several tech clients left (without paying), about 20% of the staff was laid off, including me and 7 other VPs. I looked for a job for 6 months, but no one wanted a 50 year old woman for a client service position (yes, ageism is alive and well). In the process of networking—I was doing freelance assignments during this period—I met an advertising exec who asked me to partner with his agency to do a customer satisfaction study for a company they were pitching. The fees were enough for me to start my business.  I’ve never looked back.

Was it a blessing in disguise? You bet! Truthfully, I was beginning to get my resume together to make a change because I hated working at that company. Being laid off got me some severance (not nearly enough, but at least it was something!), unemployment, and the pleasure of seeing how guilty my boss looked (if there’s ANYTHING I can do for you……..[right!]).

I run a lean operation—no employees; don’t need ‘em, don’t want ‘em. I use freelancers and subcontractors when I need them. It’s working fine. This lean operation has allowed me to survive the slowdowns—like now.

Rama Beerfas, Chief Solutions Specialist, Lev Promotions:
Although this was not my client, one of the worst marketing tactics I ever saw was at a community event for families. The event had activities for kids, vendor booths, music, food and more. One of the vendor booths was a mortuary that was giving away a promotional product. Unfortunately, they chose to give away flying discs (the branded term is frisbees). For their type of business, it was a completely inappropriate item and caused several negative comments amongst the crowd.

Shawne Duperon, Media & Gossip Expert, Shawnetv.com:
In an interview to constantly say your website and the name of your business..
Like…
At ShawneTV we believe, blah blah blah
or
that’s a great idea,,, go to my website at blah blah blah.

Nope, don’t do it. Every time you plug your site or your company name, you’re telling the reporter you don’t trust them, that they suck and you’re going to plug yourself.

Smart marketers let the reporter do all the plugging. When you understand media, it all happens quite naturally.

Danielle Downs, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, EcoDiscoveries:
EcoDiscoveries has made the mistake of doing a tabletop show just because it was free. Free is not always good. The real cost to do the show was tremendous as far as man power and time not working on viable projects. We also ruffled feathers of potential customers because the show design was a nuisance. The event was held in a busy area downtown, and we spent 4 hours trying to call people to our booth to purchase product who simply did not have time to shop. The walk-through traffic perceived our company as small-time. Few people were able to discern what our company offered and that we are a local business.

Joyce L. Gioia, President/CEO, The Herman Group:
Once upon a time in the mid 90s, my partner decided that we needed a video series. Without conducting research, we invested $80,000 in a series of videos conducted in a talk-show format. We may have sold 10—if that many. The problem was that no one wanted to sit still for 30minutes at a time to watch them—especially not the small business owners to whom they were directed.

Trey Burley:
One time I sent something out for a client on a coconut.

At the time I was living in Key West, and there were coconuts everywhere.  I took my clients information, wrote it on the coconut and put it in the mail.  By the time the coconut got to where it was going it had been smashed and milk was leaking out everywhere.

Most of the message was smeared and couldn’t be read. However, the phone number could still be made out.
The recipient called the contact number, and my client did receive an interview, but the topic of conversation was mainly, ‘why did you send a coconut?’

While the coconut made a statement, it wasn’t the statement that we wanted to make.