Marketing Muse from Silver Square

Brand YOU and what that says...

I want to welcome Annie S. Dimitri, Life and Image Coach, to share just how important it is for you to realize you are a brand and you speak for your company by how you dress, how you talk, what you do, etc. Give Annie a buzz to get started on a new brand you.

 

What Does Your Image Say About Your Business?

Branding your business. Lots of us spend our valuable resources of time and money, tweaking this detail, and defining that nuance, of our business so that who we are and what we offer are boldly declared to our target market. However, your most important asset and advertisement, YOU, most likely hasn’t received the same amount of painstaking care and attention. What can this do for the results of all the hard work of your marketing strategy? It can flush them all right down the toilet with a loud gurgle. And quickly.

Research demonstrates that within 3 to 4 seconds, we form preliminary judgments about people based solely on their appearance. Within 30 seconds, we have calculated at least 11 different assumptions about someone, such as their ability to succeed, sense of humor, and work ethic. Again, this is based solely on appearance.  If we don’t pass muster in that first 30 seconds, then the opportunity is shot. The one and only way to change a poor first impression is through repeated exposure, and typically, that isn’t possible. So what is a business owner to do with this information? Let there be no wailing and gnashing of teeth, or excessive martini swigging, about this issue. The solutions are very simple.

Begin by defining how you want others to perceive you (and therefore, your business) when they simply see you. What messages do you want your grooming, clothing, and body language to convey so that it is consistent with your marketing? These three components are your visual vocabulary, the personal poetry of you. Once you have that, rid your closet right then and there of any item that doesn’t agree with your message. Even your exercise clothes. Any place you go, you are advertising your business. It is that simple. You never know when and where you will meet that next client. Find stores that carry the looks you desire. Buy them. Learn to wear them. Educate yourself about the importance of your body language, and how you can use it to make an even more stellar first impression. Update your hair and cosmetics. Those sweet winged bangs and that fluffy ponytail perched jauntily atop your head were so cool back in 1985, but this is 2009. Be current. If you aren’t, potential customers will assume your business isn’t either. If all this isn’t your area of expertise, seek assistance. Image consultants, personal shoppers at Nordstrom and Saks, or just very talented friends can make all the difference in the branding of your most precious commodity—you.

Giving is the new marketing

This fun snapshot of social media explains how and why embracing social media can help your business and grow sales. As us how we can help you get started.

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.

 

           

 

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.

What is that one thing?

You have heard me say before that reading The Breakthrough Company was one of my best reads in 2008. Now I'm going to share one of the quotes from the book that, if done, could have a big impact on your business.

"Take 10 minutes right now and ask yourself, 'What one thing should I do tomorrow that will have the biggest positive impact on my business?' And then don't stop until it's done." 
        - Keith McFarland, author

Let me know your one thing and how you accomplished it and we'll share it on a future blog.

What is it about the exclamation point? I'll tell you!

Lots of people who know me like to joke about a few of my idiosyncrasies, like my problem with exclamation points. I don't use them often, and, like to basically taunt people who do. When I use one, I use it with every honor that some English teacher somewhere will respect. I attribute my exclamation point issue both with my personality and my journalism background, but also because of the problem I have with its misuse....

I'm not a fan of false or exaggerated enthusiasm, and the misuse of the exclamation point is doing just that. It can hurt your credibility and it can hurt your brand.

Let me prove my point on two cases that come to mind: 

1. I was helping with a campaign for someone once, and within the same paragraph, they used five exclamation points. Five. I happened to like this candidate and thought the use was a bit much. I said so and explained my point to the campaign director, which was, you're making the candidate's entire platform seem uncredible due to your overuse/misuse of exclamation points. We don't need five; let's maybe use one. They came around, but...the very next ad they requested guess who showed up for the party?
2. Sometimes, just for giggles, I'll look through the real estate magazines. Sorry Realtor pals, but you guys are some of the worst at overuse and misuse of my friend the exclamation point. Is well-maintained! and Needs Updates! really exclamation point worthy? Again you have made me all but cancel out anything that you're saying is Beautiful! and Must See! just because you're trying to oversell me on everything. It's not all that great. You're bringing down your credibility and doing your client a disservice in selling their home.

In general, exclamation points are great when you mean them and when used only when appropriate. The more you use them, the more you chip away at your credibility and your educating/selling goals of your piece. Don't shoot yourself or your company's image just because you don't know when to stop your use. If it's genuine, use it. If it's not, don't.

Pat, pat, pat

Everyone once in awhile you do a job very well done and you're proud of your accomplishments. While this happens often for us (shy, I know) it's not as often that we promote our work (bad, bad, bad).

Introducing the new Pete the Planner website, videos and GreenCandy.com. These sites deliver useful and relevant information for the generation Y audience and the parents who dearly love them. The new Pete the Planner site was built to move away from the stylish yet hard to maintain image-based website to a new, sleek and streamlined site that the client can udpate on his own. Adding his podcasts, radio shows, news articles and keeping his blog up to date all takes him just a few minutes each.

GreenCandy is a completely new brainchild we helped Pete form and then turned it in to reality. The site delivers big impact for subscribers to learn all they need to know to get their financial house in order. Once you're in the site, you get a funny video that describes each pod (what we call the topics, which include things like debt, investing, risk management, etc.) and loads of super cool and useful worksheets that help generation Y tackle their financial goals.

Check it out and consider giving GreenCandy as a gift to your loved one for the holiday - it's a fun, interactive site that teaches you about money like you've never seen before.

When you're reading to create your own subscription-based site, videos and web-based marketing plans, drop us a line.

Five ways to show your thanks and share your abundance

This year, I started a grateful journal. I thought journaling was a bit too out there for me until I started doing it. I write down what I'm grateful for (usually listing three) and what lesson I learned for the day. It's a great way for me to end my day and helps me stay on track for life and business.

In the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday, I want to share my gratefulness to you, my reader, and share a gift from the book Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. Enjoy the holiday and eat lots of dessert.

1. Feed people: There's no better way to be generous than by hosting a dinner party - and what do we have coming up but the ultimate dinner party? For many Thanksgiving is a family event, but inviting a friend or colleague who may be alone on the holiday is a wonderful way to be generous and strengthen a relationship.
 
2. Make introductions: I'm constantly introducing people from different parts of my life who might benefit from knowing each other. It's a sort of ongoing puzzle, matching up the right people and the right opportunities. Never hoard your relationship equity.
 
3. Become a knowledge broker: Share information, by blog, by email, by Twitter, over lunch or however else. But in particular, focus on sharing information that helps people solve problems, however broadly defined. Suppress the urge to tell all the world about your favorite chicken salad sandwich (unless maybe you have a cooking blog) just because you can. With all the noise out there, occasionally silence is the truly generous choice.
 
4. Tell a story: Sharing your history is always a generous way to give something of yourself to a friend or colleague. Telling a real story about your past - with a beginning, middle, end, and maybe even a Kleenex moment - is even better. They'll be happy for the glimpse of what makes you tick (and hey, it saves them a price of a movie ticket).
 
5. Mentor and get mentored: Perhaps the only thing you can do that's more generous than serving as a caring, consistent mentor to someone is asking someone else to mentor you - and then working your hardest to make them proud.

Do you need to get a little satisfaction?

I love it when things begin from a mistake. The founders of Get Satisfaction started the company all from watching online users post and answer their own questions from a software release that was launched with a bug. Bingo - a new company was born.

Get Satisfaction helps companies collect, monitor and respond to audience feedback. As I have discussed before, consumer-driven content is where things are going. You should really take the time now to position your company to create means to not only directly interact with your audience but allow them the platform to speak and share collaboratively as well. I almost always take advice from a forum or a blog vs what the company is saying - it's more relative and definitely easier to find and use.

Check out the tool and see if it's right for you. If it's not, continue exploring how you can interact with your audience and use their feedback to help drive your site's content. Get on board and get a little satisfaction started now.

The good response

This morning I met with Rob from Corinthian Fine Homes, a client we recently rebranded and are helping expand his marketing in 2009. He recently met with one of the city's top Realtor's who was impressed with his business cards and the key message we helped him develop:  We build unique, personal homes with no surprises. It's all coming together and working to Rob's benefit.

Check out Rob's portfolio and sign up for his newsletter to keep updated on an up and coming premier building in Indianapolis.