Zero to do with marketing, lots to do with cool

While catching up on some blog reading, I came across this Playing for Change video, which was part of the movie in the Heartland Film Festival's line up this last fall. It has zero to do with marketing and everything to do with cool. People like neat things. They like good things. They like quality things. When they have access to neat, good, quality things, they pass them along and talk about them, a lot. Just like me right now.

Enjoy

Today is the day!

How exciting it is today! Not only for our new President swearing in for Barack Obama, but also for the release of some very cool software applications in which you can "be there", such as the CNN feed and the CNN Facebook application that allows you to watch the news and see all of your friends commenting live. It's so cool! You must get in on it now just for the experience....

CNN photo

Pull your print ads...

I'm going to catch a lot of grief over my opinion, but it's time someone put it out there.... if you're examining your 2008 marketing budget and looking through your ROI, my guess is you're not really sure what, if anything, your print ads did for you. You run print ads because you think you're suppose to, you're a victim of a stellar sales job or you're afriad your "awareness" will fall off the charts.

None of these three reasons are valid.

Print ads have a time and place and audience (here's my disclaimer) and yes, all businesses and cases are subject to the results you need to see to fulfill your 2009 business goals, but I'm fairly sure I could sit down with you and make a case for how you could spend your budget, hit your business goals and maintain a consistent marketing approach without print ads. Here are a few things to consider:

1. You can still speak to your 'print ad' audience through your magainze, newspaper, etc. through banner ads, special sponsorships, tradeshows or get really creative and make up a promotion

2. Use your Web 2.0 tools to devote time and resources at staying in front of your audience; it's much easier to trial and error here than testing print ads until you get the right offer nailed down

3. Awareness isn't growing your business. Sales grows business. This economy isn't the time to build awareness. It's the time to spend smart and make sure every dollar is producing a business result

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BookSwim, the Netflixs of book world

My husband recently subscribed us to Netflix. He adores a good movie. I adore a good book.

I was thinking there had to be something for us book people and there is - hit up BookSwim. Free shipping to and from, unlimted rentals and $10 a month. It even has textbooks on there so you're sure to find professional and leisure books alike.

My friend Nicole Bickett over at Organize to Optimize introduced me to Audible.com which is books on CD. Same philosophy, same great, low, monthly fee... first three months even lower fee.

I haven't decided which route I'll take just yet, but know one is in store for me.  

Buying habits as it relates to selling

I don't think anyone would argue with me when it comes to the fact that we are all often much more motivated to take action to keep out of pain than we are to take action to gain something in return. I have had this discussion with Aaron Prickel at Lushin and Associates and asked him to write a little bit about how this buy/sell relationship works. Marketing should always fit your specific audience and what you know about them and how they buy; then your marketing supports the sell.

Let me know if you would like to see more selling articles via this blog and maybe I can persuade Aaron to be a regular.

Do shopping habits impact selling habits?
By: Aaron Prickel, Lushin and Associates

With the buzz surrounding our economy these days, there have been a variety of interesting conversations. Just last week a good friend of mine informed me how he is “hunkering down” and will be more responsible with his money especially when it came time to shopping for specific items. He asked if I would be doing the same, “NOT A CHANCE!” I replied.

 

Why? Because how you buy is a direct reflection on how you sell. For those of us who are in a professional sales role, our job is to find prospects that we can help and help them discover why they need us.  f we spend a long time deciding whether or not we should buy something, visit multiple stores to make sure we get the best price or do additional research to ensure we are making the best decision…watch out!  You must be careful because prospects will provide the same responses when you are selling to them and you will justify it within your own head and agree with them. This is where sales cycles are extended, you lose business to a competitor because they “had a better price” or the prospect will disappear and you will never hear from them again. People who do not have a Supportive Buy Cycle accept objections, stalls, excuses and comparison shop stories from their prospects because they behave the same way when making purchases of their own.

 

There are several hidden weaknesses that affect those who sell, this is just one of them, however it is the most powerful. Statistics show when this is corrected salespeople can be up to 50% more effective. To find out how more effective you may be evaluate your own buying process. It will be a good indicator on why projects may take longer to close than necessary.

 

           

 

Happy new year - I've been out practicing my vision

So I'm only seven days late in sharing my joy to be in the year '09, but it's genuine. One of the things I took the time to focus on for this year and beyond is my vision. The vision for how Silver Square looks three, five and ten years from now, the vision for how Raquel spends her days and the vision for how my perfect life becomes real. It's been a great exercise and definitely a work in progress, but exciting and positive work.

Here are a few things I've learned from the effort. I encourage you to make time to plan out your own vision and then own it.

1. I had a meeting with Matt Griffith, a partner at Thrasher Buschmann Griffith & Voelkel, P.C.  this past Monday, and we discussed visioning techniques. I thought I was going in to detail but Matt pushed me to go even deeper. What did you eat for breakfast? How did it taste? How did it smell? Did you make it or did someone make it for you? Who? Why? and continue with those tiny detail thoughts throughout the whole process. This small change really took me to a new level of really getting in to the exercise and having fun. (by the way I had granola with yogurt, a hard boiled egg and some fabulous hot, bold coffee that I made myself in a quiet house before my family awoke and started their day. If you want more details than that you're going to have to treat me to lunch)

2. Write it all down and don't worry if it's perfect. SO MANY people I come in contact with worry so darn much about, well, it's not perfect. I say... will it ever be? If you're that concerned about not taking steps due to not having it perfect you're really, really missing the point. So tell youself it's OK to start the process and evolve it.

3. One of the very beautiful things that has already happened is that my mind is already thinking about this vision and probably working its magic to fulfill the goals. It just keeps popping in to my thoughts. I love this. It's keeping my goals and vision in front of me, and, depending on what pops in to my head at what time, I'm learning how I want to tweak my vision and taking advantage of an opportunity that is already coming my way because I know it's part of what I want in my future.

Enjoy the process. Own the results. Get started now.

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2008 in photos

This one is just because I have always appreciated the photography and 'summary' the New York Times delivers, and they didn't leave me disappointed with their 2008 Year in Pictures. Enjoy and Happy New Year.

What color is Christmas?

 

What colors do you associate with Chistmas? I pretty much don't associate Christmas with reds and greens unless they are off hues that are brighter and much more fun than the 'typical' holiday offerings. I also prefer thinking of silver or copper instead of brass or gold. A modern Christmas palette is my preference! Magenta, teal, silver, lime green and canary yellow, these are my colors of Christmas.

Enjoy a more serious look at holiday hues at the Colourlovers website. Happy Holidays!

50 questions for every business from Tom Peters

Back, back, back in my early days of career life, while working at Charles Schwab, Tom Peters was the local god. Schwabbies all around loved and read all his stuff, including me. As I think about what's next for not only Silver Square but our clients as well, I'm reminded of this 50 question list Peters wrote this time last year. It's the "Top 50 Have Yous" which are questions such as "Have you... in the last 10 days visited a client" (OK, he uses the word customer, but I cannot bring myself to use that word) and "Have you thanked a frontline employee for carrying around a great attitude … today?"

Take a few minutes and read through the list. Pick out a few and own them, do something with them, and revisit those same questions each month or quarter. See what it does for you in the next 365 days.

Go Butler... finally you have a great website, but a couple things are still lacking

I'm a Butler grad and proud of it, but for many years their website was just bad. It was behind the time and behind in the activities which speak to the individuals they were trying to attract. Finally they have kicked up their design, shared how life is at Butler through student blogs and helped most (most) of the schools create a consistent look with the university. I really like the 'Is Butler right for me' portion of the site - good job there. In my mind though, there are still at least two big items missing...

Video is where it's at for these kids. Take some time over the next few months and get some real life video going to accompany your other web 2.0 applications. Buy some kids a video camera and see what they come up with. Make it a contest and buy a student's books next semester. You don't have to spend thousands to get personal and relate to the type of kids you want coming to Butler. You just have to be real.

After the site visitors get through the grandiose Butler branding stuff, they'll want to know about academics and the information on their school's site. These are still mismatched, inconsistent, dated and just plain horrible. Help them. Quickly. The disconnect is too great. This may very well be where a potential Butler student ends their experience and holds that last bit of information in their brain as 'Butler.' Is that what you want? I don't think so since you went through the time and effort to kick up your other presence.

So, good job, kind of. You still have a little work to do.