Call to Business Owners and Managers – Check in with Your Plan

Just a quick check-point with our business owners out there to make sure that you don’t wait to long to check in on those new year plans you made for a great 2011 – just a few weeks ago.

I was speaking with several business owners today who went through our planning process for the new year and realized how important it is to have those measurements in place immediately. Even if you don’t have them all in place – get some critical “Key Performance Indicators” or measurements set for next week.

In order to be “on track” for 2011 how many sales do you need per week? NOT last years numbers the NEW numbers! Then measure what you need to get you to those sales. For our corporate clients, have your departments or divisions reporting in already as well. Just spoke with some other business leaders who did not have their thresholds adjusted to their new plan – lets get that going. Slipped on a few myself!

So if it is an issue – stop long enough to straighten this out – get your measurements in order and begin checking in this Monday at the latest!

Agreed? good – whew – now we are track for a 2011 – and we wish that for all of you!

Those of you already on track – great work!

– All the best – Dean

Holiday Wishes to ALL and a Successful 2011

Just wanted to wish all of our loyal subscribers and students a happy Holiday Season and a Healthy-Prosperous New Year!

All the best and See You Online! – Dean

http://www.linkedin.com/in/deandelisle

Show a Little Gratitude – just post it!

By Dean R. DeLisle

For those of you who have been through our coaching and training programs, you should know about what we call “the gratitude post”.  This is something that we have done in various ways throughout the years of business development.

However, we now have a new way to show quick appreciation or gratitude.  Make a post, “like” something on Facebook, comment, share or simply send a message. That’s right, think about it.  What would happen if once a week you simply look back on those individuals who have influenced you, helped you and maybe even those you have done business with, and simply wrote a statement of gratitude on their wall thanking them for their help, advice or business?  It ultimately connects you, makes you present in their world and makes them feel appreciated.

Many times in today’s world we are so busy that we thank people on the spot – telling them quickly that was awesome, yet don’t spend the extra time sending the thank you cards any more or making the extra call. Well now with the help of Social Networks we can connect with a “gratitude post”.  Simply thank them on their wall, “like” things they think are important, comment, share with your networks and yes, maybe even just one extra direct message to give them added appreciation for their help!

We have over 25,000 readers and subscribers to our articles. What if every single one of us just did a simple gratitude post to someone today – would it just feel good or would it have an impact? Try it for yourself and then you can decide.

See you online!

– Dean

How I used Social Media for the Success of my Business Launch

By Darlene Ziebell

Having been an experienced successful entrepreneur, I used traditional one-on-one marketing for my new business launch in 2007. After several false starts and unsuccessful attempts to grab market share, I began to pay attention to all the emails I received and refocused to look at the internet for marketing opportunities. That’s when I discovered the amazing successful statistics of the world of social media.

I wondered, what is this new world? After all I had a LinkedIn profile and had many emails in my address book. Wouldn’t it be easy just to send a message and begin connecting? Boy was I wrong. Several months later, I only added a handful of new emails to my list in exchange for all the hours I tried connecting with others.

I branched outside and discovered successful social media experts who could connect me very cost effectively for a fraction of the time. Connecting through LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and others is a choreographed dance only known by a few experts. Although I was capable of learning these new dance steps, I didn’t want to spend the time. I searched for a social media expert with the added talent and experience of a marketing expert and I found an effective marketing model. I call it my “sales machine”.

With current economic conditions, many businesses have drastic cost cuts throughout many of their operational business areas. Looking at the very cost effective use of social media is a winner. After my false starts, I re-launched my business using my newly found effective social media “sales machine”. Within months I added 1000’s to my connections, surpassed my customer goals and decreased the amount of time I would have spent with traditional marketing.

Although the internet keeps moving and the players keep changing, I’m not concerned. Having an experienced social media expert that stays current of these new steps, I can focus my attention on serving my customers. And let the connections keep coming in.

Darlene Ziebell is President of Center for Women Business Owners.  She can be reached at darlene@cfwbo.com.  For more information, please visit Www.CenterforWomenBusinessOwners.com.

Social Networking is a Team Sport

By Dean DeLisle

I know it feels a little crazy to say, however it just came up during two different conferences where the companies were talking about Social Media as a single person in the company:

“How are we supposed to socially enable our organization successfully if we only have one voice? Even if we are a small company, don’t we have sales people, marketing, customer service, maybe even operational people who come in contact with the outside world? Then why not use the power of ALL combined networks working together on behalf of our organization?”

Basically, it’s connecting networks to networks of others. We were recently doing some great training with a client in the Point of Purchase Display business. They had all the right moves. They empowered the ENTIRE organization to become socially enabled; and in their industry, I guarantee they are the fastest moving, connecting, and socially enabled company in their space. They have their people connecting at every department – even accounting! Now that the people are in motion, watch their content start to blossom all over the internet!

SMS Displays is a company you should watch out for. They are doing all the right things and are definitely playing in a Team Sport! Visit them soon – http://www.sms-popdisplays.com

Unmasking Fakers Online

By Michael Angelo Caruso

I own an extensive collection of masks from my speaking travels, including masks from South Africa, Egypt and South America. Masks can be fun, but sometimes business people work behind the masks of cloaked Web sites, alias e-mail addresses and other false claims. Here are 5 Cool Ideas for unmasking fakers.

1. You can easily check a Web site’s veracity.
Ever wonder if it’s safe to order from a particular Web site? You should. A cloaked site gives you the impression you’re dealing with Batman, when you’re really dealing with the Joker. Do a quick “lookup” at WhoIs.com to get closer to the truth.

2. Legitimate business people don’t play hide-and-seek.
Look for a street address and phone number in the signature file of suspicious e-mails. If the only contact information is by e-mail, you might not want to do business with that individual or company.

3. There are always clues to a business’s true identity.
Use Compete.com to compare companies’ I’net traffic, including the number of unique visitors and how long visitors stay engaged. Quantas.com tells you what kind of people use a particular site. For example, 55% of the people using the Northwest Airlines site are female and 39% are over 50. This is also a great way to study the competition.

4. Potential clients wonder if your company is real.
Alexa.com rates Web site traffic and will immediately indicate whether a company is masking it’s identity. You can even download the toolbar for easy access.

5. Better searches yield better results.
Google the person’s name. If it’s a common name, try Googling the name and the person’s state like this: “John Doe” + Alabama. No one “detective” technique gives the complete picture, but various types of searches will give you more information to consider.

Michael Angelo Caruso has delivered over 2,000 keynote speeches and presentations on the subject of communication. He is President of the Edison House, a Detroit-based consulting and publishing company. Mr. Caruso is author of the 5 Cool Ideas books and the FastLearnerAudio series, which can help you become an even better person.

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Your Target – sell them what they are buying

Make sure you know who you are looking for.

As we teach you to write a business attracting profile and modify your settings to open up your network, the last thing you want is to attract the wrong type of client.

We have all been there, it’s like sitting through an entire meeting before we find out that this person across from us will not only never buy from us, they don’t even have money!

So let’s be clear on who we are looking for and make sure we position our social network profiles and content to speak to that audience.

There are a couple of simple questions you can answer:

1. Who is buying our product or service now?
2. Is this our ideal customer?
3. What are they buying – not what are we selling?
4. What would we say to them once they arrive?

Now read your profile – does it say that?

– Dean

Don’t go IN unless you know what you’re coming OUT with – Show me the MONEY!

By Dean DeLisle

BEFORE YOU LOGIN to your next Social Network session, think about this – What do you want, need or just absolutely HAVE to have to make your numbers?

It’s funny when we ask folks how many leads they need and all the answers we get. Half of them can’t even tell us their conversion numbers! So let’s see if we can give you some simple guidelines…

Determine the leads you need based on how much money you want to generate, or as all of us business owners like to call it – revenue.

So if I want to generate $10,000 a week, what do I need to generate in terms of leads?

Well if my average sale is $2,500, then I would need 4 sales.

If I need 4 sales, and I know I can close 25% of the people I talk to, then I need to talk to how many people?  I need to talk to exactly 16 people to generate those numbers, right?

Okay, so how many leads do I need to get 16 people either on the phone or in the door, or wherever you prefer to close potential business? Let’s say you can get 50% of those interested individuals that filled out the form to actually pick up the phone – then we would need 32 leads for the week.

So you see, if you know some basics about your business, you can get the right number of qualified leads from your social network sites and get the money!

Now – BEFORE THEY LOGIN TO ANY SOCIAL NETWORK SITE, make sure your team knows how many solid touches they are going to need to make them (and you!) the money you want!

Who’s Getting New Business From Social Networks? – the Gazelle User!

By Dean R. DeLisle

When we talk with our clients, it’s evident which ones are doing right things. As we move into the New Year, the whole industry and business community has learned how to transition themselves to the brave new – social network – world.

However, the question we always get asked is – Who is it working for?  Quite honestly, we have found the answer so consistent that I now lead out most of my classes and talks with the answer. It’s the ones who have the right “mindset”. That’s right, mindset.

Well, you’re probably thinking that’s a broad statement and seems awfully vague. Well then, let’s get deeper!

Whether we walk into a Fortune 500 company or a small five person business, it’s always the same story. We can give them the blue prints, develop the perfect game plan, even train the staff and coach them along. However, if they don’t believe in it and follow through, it will never work. Or, it will work for so few that the company will not support it.

That is the most consistent thing we see everywhere. We spoke to a group in London this week and it’s even the same deal across the pond.  It’s world-wide unanimous!

I call it the Tony-Little syndrome. I see everyone talking about the “Gazelle”. It’s all over television, everyone is ordering it, and if I order one I am guaranteed to lose 20 pounds! So let’s order it up! Let’s get the company a Gazelle!

However, once it arrives, I use it for a few weeks, feel better, start to lose weight, then I get distracted, go from 5 days a week – then to 3 days – then hopefully if I muster up the energy to take the clothes off of it that I threw on top, I will use it once or twice over the next few weeks – while watching TV – not even fully engaged. Then instead of losing weight and feeling better, I start gaining weight and feeling worse.

Now I realize the commercial lied. The “damn” thing just does not work!  I want my money back and am going back to what we know how to do – bitch about the fact we are not losing weight!

Now, are you a riding the Gazelle or piling your clothes on top of it?