Managing Partner Time To Be Great, LLC Global Independent Distributor Healy, Vollara, Xelliss, BEMER Business and Real Estate Coach, Consultant Professional Speaker, Author
The goal of your blog is to further fuel your revenue and profits. Do not major in minors. Start with the most important revenue and profit drivers of your business.
Who are the 20% of your customers that account for 80% of your sales?
What do they buy?
What do they buy the most of?
(You are invited to read the the remainder of this article and all prior articles by registering at www.stevereports.com )
Columbus, Ohio was once the home and headquarters of Sun TV. This company had the products and format of what today might be Best Buy. If you needed a TV, dishwasher, washing machine or some other appliance, many people in the Columbus market thought Sun TV and bought at Sun TV.
Macy Block started Sun TV and I had the opportunity of spending some time with him as part of a consulting engagement. He told me he would not let a similar format competitor in the market. Macy would strategically locate stores that were easy to get to then he consistently promoted low price for select name brands in print and on television. Sun TV owned the market. Many competitors tried to enter that market and in a short time they were out of business.
What happened? We all get older and Macy did as well. He accepted an offer from an investment bank and he sold half the company. Several years later the investment bank took the company public. By that time there was a new CEO and Macy was able to sit back and enjoy the monetary rewards of what he built.
The new management team had new ideas about how Sun TV should be run and did not stick with the “let no competitors into the market strategy”. Rather than cut prices so deep that a competitor could not make money like Macy did, the new team maintained margins so they would have good reports for their shareholders. They also invested heavily in non retail-store assets that contributed nothing to sales and profits.
Sun TV is out of business today. Liquidation resulted from competitors doing a better job of store site selection, product offering, service and price. They never would have had that opportunity under Macy’s watch.
What reminded me of this story was a recent article in the Tampa Bay Business Journal titled “Bank Enlarges Footprint To Steer Competition Away.” The story is about Bank America’s strategy in certain parts of Florida to use location plus hour of service as a competitive advantage.
Time will tell if this strategy will work. It appears to have a lot of things going for it. The Bank America story also is a good reminder of the opportunities in what appear to be crowded markets. Sometimes companies have a tendency to think they must expand into another part of the country to succeed. That may be an appropriate part of a long term growth strategy, but if you are a retailer or some other business that is dependent on “foot traffic” you should be addressing the opportunities of market dominance from multiple locations strategically selected.
I don’t know about your market but in Tampa Bay and many other markets in Florida, the drugstore closest to your home or place of work gets your business. You will find a Walgreens, CVS or both near every major intersection. Do these companies make money? Just look at their annual reports and you will see that they make money. Does every store make money? Probably not but they contribute to a market dominance position plus they gain tremendous advertising dollar leverage of the advertising when there are multiple locations.
If your business depends on customers walking through the door, then you will be well served by having a clearly defined real estate strategy as part of your profit optimization mission. There is a lot more to it than merely finding or building a building. Demographics, traffic flow, market trends, competitive analysis all play a part. Work with a commercial real estate expert and an expert business consultant who will objectively evaluate the information and return on investment estimates.
Steve Pohlit, Business Consultant
“Helping Business Make Extraordinary Profits Now! No Reports…Just Results”
www.stevereports.com
www.stevepohlit.com
"Blogging For Profits" Lesson 4 Sales On Steroids From Blogs
There are only three ways to increase sales:
1.More transactions with existing customers: for example if a customer buys from you once a month, increasing that to twice a month doubles your sales assuming the transaction size is the same.
2.Increase in the average sale transaction: for example if your average sale is $40.00 and you increase the average sale to $50.00 then you have increased sales by 25%. Of course that can be achieved by raising price, selling more items or both.
3.Increase the number of customers.
Achieving all three results in sales on steroids. Here is how blogs can help you realize maximum sales performance:
Continue to the rest of the article by completing the following information. I respect your privacy. Your contact information will not be provided to anyone – ever!
In the previous lessons, we have covered the definition of a blog, RSS and why this technology will help you deliver your product, service and message to a targeted market fast. Many are experiencing blog-based sites being re-indexed by Google and Yahoo the same day a new article or other item of valuable content is
added.
Note: I write these articles fast. If something does not make sense or you see an edit I should make please email me
with your comments.
There are many FREE resources on how to start blogging. This series is about what works and the problems you can avoid by following this roadmap.
If you are new to blogging, you will soon be familiar with the free service Blogger by Google. Some readers have an active blog at Google’s Blogger. Many other companies offer their own blog technology including AOl and My Space.
I Do Not Recommend Any of The Heavily Promoted Services For Your Blog If You Want Your Blog To Help You Grow Your Business.
It is very important to be in control of the sites and content you create or use to develop your business. This means that whether you are developing a blog, website, lead capture page or autoresponder with content that is delivered to your target audience, that you have a back-up copy ready to go on another server. If a problem should develop, you move your domain to another host and you are in business in 24 hours or less. It is very difficult to implement a back up plan quickly if you use Blogger and other blogging services that are not operated from a domain name you own registered to your own domain hosting account. I didn’t follow this advice for nearly a year and lost tons of great content. Never again. Stay in control of your business.
Just this week I received an email from a very well known and successful marketer who described a horror story of his partner becoming disgruntled and destroying all the files on their server. Yes some of his business is backed-up, but a lot is destroyed. In 2001 I was in a joint venture for technical support for an entire Internet business I started from scratch in 1995. I woke up to find a message on my company’s home page announcing the business had been "sold" and for all customers to direct their payments to a new location. I did not have back-up servers and data. I lost most of the business.
One story is from five years ago, another is from about 18 months ago and another this week. Two of the three instances are ones I experienced personally and another is one I read about. I could write a book on the disasters I am aware of, but by now I know you understand the message that your list and your content are your most valuable assets when you are developing business using the tools of the Internet. Set up your services right and have a backup ready to go at all times.
Here are the Steps:
Establish a hosting account with at least one of the major players. I useHost Gator because they have all the tools I need and offer hosting for virtually an unlimited number of domains for $14.95 a month. I also recommend using more that one host provider. I use three and will likely use more soon.
Host Gator remains my top pick. Whatever host provider your choice, make sure they have C-Panel, Fantastico and complimentary WordPress with each domain. These will make your life a lot easier.
You will need to select a company where you can register domain names. If you plan on registering or are currently managing more than 20 domain names then I suggest using Moniker. If you are at that level then email me and I will help you get a deal for not more than $9.00 a year for .com domains. I know there are companies losing money on registrations by offer better deals. I want to pay the right price long term to a very reputable company and I want my domains easy to manage. If you are not at the bulk name registration level, go for the lowest price you can find but have your hosting service selected first so when you register your domain name you will have the information you need to finalize your domain name registration.
You will need an Adsense account with Google and an affiliate account with at least the following companies to start:
Clickbank
Linkshare
Commission Junction
With a domain name hosted on a server with C-Panel and having Fantastico for the install of Word Press you can begin making additional money within a day or two from your blog based product and information center (assuming you have set up your Adsense account.)
There are other tools I use including registration forms and autoresponders. I will talk about them in later posts. They are not required for you to start Blogging for Profits right now. You can implement what I am recommending in one day if you take action now.
You have the basics and you now know you will need to learn a few infrastructure building blocks. If you are a business owner with people having narrow skills working for you then you will need to learn some of these details even if you outsource many of the tasks. I know there are a number of very successful people who strongly advocate not spending time learning many of the details necessary to operate successfully in the Internet world. Those details include how to set up a hosting account, how to activate Word Press for your first blog based site, how to use an html editor and more. For me, I am in a better position to manage outsourced tasks as a result of developing basic skills.
In this lesson I have given you steps you will need to work through to get started. In the next lessons I will be covering how to use a blog to build traffic and incremental profits in connection with and existing website you have. This is very relevant for companies who already have a corporate web site and small business owners and entrepreneurs who either already have a main site or have been thinking of developing one for their business.
You will need to register to receive future lessons. How many are there? Well I don’t have a finalized outline of all the topics I will cover, but it looks to me at this point like there will be at least 8-10 more lessons. Before concluding, please do not delay getting started. If you need a domain name and hosting account, get them. If you need an Adsense account with Google – get one. If you need an affiliate account with Clickbank, Commission Junction and Linkshare (others discussed in future lessons) get them. These steps should be done now even if you are a major corporation. You will soon see why.
Happy Blogging,
Steve Pohlit, Business Consultant
www.stevepohlit.com
www.stevereports.com
"Helping People Make Extraordinary Profits Now..No Reports, Just Results!"
I personally use RSS Reader to track news releases in topics of interest including local market business news in areas where I often do consulting work. I also track each of the RSS feeds for niche sites I have developed to make sure my reports are picked up by the directories within an hour after they are released.
If you have done this properly, you will now receive in your reader a list of articles released from Steve Reports including this Blogging For Profits Course. Of course you have just learned by example how an RSS feed reader works and you can now add any content distributed using RSS. Look for the RSS symbols like the little orange one in the right hand corner of Steve
Reports.
This course will give you, as promised, the exact steps of what you need to do to make money for your business using blog technology. Before we get into the nuts and bolts I want to make sure you are already thinking about how you can take advantage of what you are learning to make money. When you have a view of the end result you are working for, the details will be more interesting, relevant and you will stay motivated to implement the steps as we go through
them.
The primary ways to make money using a blog are:
1. Advertising revenue from contextual ads. The number one source of relevantcontextual ads is Google and Google’s adsense program. You will find examples of Google adsense ads in various places at Steve Reports. I use Google adsense on nearly every page of every site I own. If you do not have a Google adsense account, go to www.google.com and click on advertising at their home page then click on adsense and set up your account. You will need that active soon.
2. Selling other people’s products and earning affiliate revenue. www.Clickbank.com is a great source of information products. There are others and we will cover more of them as this course progresses. There are many sources for information products, software, and physical products that offer affiliate revenue when you make a sale. I am a member of a number of programs for physical products including Commission Junction and Linkshare.
3. Selling your own products and services.
Of course, using combinations of the above can optimize your revenue flow. Steve Reports is designed primarily to market my professional consulting services. It is also set up to capitalize on adsense revenue and build a contact list where, just as in this course, I reference other people’s products as an affiliate.
Often there is resistance when I advise people to take advantage of as many revenue sources as possible. For example a retailer with an online store objects because they do not want to promote competing products and do not want people to leave their site by clicking on an ad.
Here is my advise and you are encouraged to test it and, of course discard it if it doesn’t work for you. In summary, most sites can promote complementary products and capitalize on traffic looking to spend money. In the case of a retailer with an online store, I first advise to capture the contact information in a database of everyone who buys. Then I recommend a compelling offer be made for visitors to leave their name and email address so autoresponder technology
can be used in a follow-up campaign.
As this relates to contextual advertising, test the results. It may be that you are better off using specific niche content websites to promote a specific offer and use contextual advertising and affiliate programs to generate incremental revenue from visitors who don’t buy from you. On the other hand, you may be better off focusing on capturing name and email addresses and implementing a follow-up campaign. In the follow-up campaign you can reference complimentary products where you are an affiliate. What is the optimum answer? I have no idea. You have to test.
Now, everyone is anxious to learn from this course and make more money. In the next lesson we will proceed with some of the boring stuff you need to do to be able to implement you making money strategy. However, you must have a strategy so begin right now to define what you think will be your best approach for making money? I do this then hedge my conclusions by implementing multiple strategies. You can too but you need to pick one and then you can select
derivative strategies from the one.
Please avoid analysis paralysis. If you are not sure about your strategy, then simply follow the instructions to set up your RSS reader, Google adsense account and your Clickbank account. At this point everything is FREE. In the next lesson you will learn about the primary infrastructure you must have in place to implement the Blogging For Profits plan.
Author: Steve Pohlit, Business Consultant "Helping Companies Make Extraordinary Profits Now!…No Reports Just Results" using The Profit System. Register for the FREE course "How To Increase Profits by 30% or more in 90 Days or Less" at www.stevepohlit.com
Blogging For Profits 1
This is the first in a series of articles completely focused on blogging for profits – your business profits. This blogging for profits series is presented at Steve Reports. While Steve Reports has some appearances of a website, it is actually business profits building content presented and published using blog technology.
I will use Steve Reports as the primary example of blogging for profits since it is achieving most of what I am recommending in this series and I it is one of my sites where I am building targeted traffic.
I assume everyone knows what a blog is, but it is important to cover one very important attribute of blogs which is RSS. RSS stands for really simple syndication. Think of a press release or a news wire. Information is written and electronically published by news services. The description of the technology is not important. What is important is that when you publish information on a blog that is properly configured, RSS readers around the world instantly display that content. If you are a subscriber to Steve Reports either by registering here or though one of the many blogs when I publish an article, it is available to you at lightning speed. It is also available to people doing searching for information on a topic I have written about. My content is more available than general information found on a web site because the search engines pick up on my topic keyword optimization. You will find that my articles are written first for the search engines because if they don’t find me neither will your target audience. This is a very important point that most people in business never fully appreciate.
This process that I am beginning to describe may be the most valuable search engine optimization tool in the market today. Google, Yahoo, MSN and others are visiting sites publishing content (articles, press releases, etc.) very frequently. This means that when you feed the search engines relevant content, your site will be found by targeted visitors.
There is no downside! None! Done right, there is no limit to the business profit building opportunities using web sites based on blog technology.
In the next article, I will summarize the building blocks you must have in place to get started plus a lot more. Do not miss a single article. Register today for updates by email using the form at the top right hand corner of this site.
Author: Steve Pohlit,Business Consultant Copyright 2006 All Rights Reserved. This article may be freely published with all links and author reference intact.
Two of the foundation marketing principles that I use to help companies drive high profitable sales growth are:
First: The message should be developed to appeal to your target audience.
Second: The effectiveness of the promotion must be measurable so you can calculate return on investment. This means you need to be able to track the response to the marketing promotion. This is the foundation of direct response marketing.
As to direct response marketing. Many in the advertising agency business argue for building brand awareness. That is a legitimate and worthwhile goal. Cingular is a cell phone brand. They ran a promotion for a hot monthly subscription price and an even hotter free phone if you called a special 800 number. It seems to me that they had a plan to build brand awareness and track response to the promotion. It also looked to me like they may have been doing some split testing since other ads run during the American Idol finals did not have the same direct response features. If in fact that was a planned split test campaign, I am not sure how they were measuring the effectiveness of the non-direct response advertisements.
Coke Cola, a traditional institutional brand advertising company at least on television, moved to testing direct response by encouraging viewers to go to a specific web site for a promotion. It moved pretty fast so I didn’t get the website address or even remember the special offer. I imagine a lot of other people didn’t either. But they are moving in the right direction by linking a promotion to a measurable call to action.
I am not in the target age group for Ford’s "bold moves" campaign but I wonder
how showing a woman cutting her hair off and a man competing with one leg makes you want to buy a car. If it does, how would they know?
43 million people watching the finals and Wendy’s promotes a big frosty. With the awareness of high calorie, fat building foods going through the charts, I wonder how many people were motivated to go to a Wendy’s after that commercial. Now I could be very wrong here so if Wendy’s really wanted to know the effectiveness of that ad, why not "GIVE AWAY A FROSTY TO ANYONE GOING TO A SPECIAL SITE SET UP TO CAPTURE NAME, ADDRESS AND EMAIL. IN EXCHANGE THEY CAN PRINT OUT IMMEDIATELY A COUPON FOR A FREE FROSTY." Now there is a test with multiple benefits.
If someone can explain to me the point of a bunch of people running around in madras shorts and tops, pleaseemail me. I just could not see how that ad would make anyone want to jump in their car and get over to Old Navy. No wonder same store sales for The Gap are tanking.
A couple other ads fell into the Old Navy category. One was Fantastic Sams. It didn’t well – it just didn’t. One of Sony’s ads went so fast that I couldn’t tell what it was they were offering and I was paying close attention to the advertising. Most people watching American Idol most likely did not watch the ads that closely.
State Farm directed people to a web site where they could register for a free car. Good example.
Home Depot ran a promotion on a specific product. Fine but since the American Idol finals are in advance of the Memorial Day long weekend where Home Depot is running a lot of other specials in print circulars, there is no practical way to measure the effectiveness of the money spent on the American Idol ad.
Many other companies promoted product with no specific offer or ways to track it. It is a waste of money and the ad agencies who came up with the ads and the executives who approved the running of the ads should be … well you come to you own conclusion.
Do not think that marketing and advertising is simple. It is not. But it is not hard to test. It is not hard to add a tracking element to even bold institutional type promotions
Most big companies will not change much soon. However, use these examples as lessons on what to do and what not to do. As to upcoming comments on TV advertising, well there probably won’t be many since I am not in front of that medium very much. So stay tuned for rants in other areas of business development.
Coming up is my series on building blogs for profits. You are not going to want to miss it. It will help you start making some incremental money right now.
Steve Pohlit, business consultant writes articles based on his experience helping companies make extraordinary profits in a short period of time and structuring their business to continue making extraordinary profits. Register for his free course “How To Increase Proftis by 30% or More In 90 Days or Less at www.stevepohlit.com
Taylor Hicks Asks: Do I Make You Proud? Our Answer Is: Yes You Do!! American Idol Is A Great Example of "If You Believe It – It Can Happen"
More votes than any president of the United States. 63.4 million people voted and Taylor Hicks of Birmingham, Alabama is our new American Idol. Taylor, you deserve our applause and our thank you for bringing joy into our homes. All the American Idol contestants also deserve our applause because they stood up, walked on stage and gave it their best.
You can be the Idol in front of your customers, employees, friends and family.
I repeat – there are no losers here. Look at "The Broke Note Cowboys." By any standard, these guys cannot sing. Yet here they were entertaining an audience exceeding 40 million and I loved the show. There were more wonderful examples.
Nothing can happen if you don’t get up on stage. If you have a dream and don’t get up on stage it will remain a dream. You have to do your part.
Personally, I could write a long story on my views of tonight’s American Idol finale. I’ll leave that up to the journalists, TV critics and music industry experts. What I will stay focused on are the lessons than I believe will help you in your business right now. They are:
1. Take action. Get up on your stage and make something happen. Even if you can’t sing, people will welcome you if you are sincere and passionate about what you do.
2. Achievements happen with the support of others. Look at all the finalists of American Idol. They were coached by professionals on singing, dancing, dressing and more. There were back-up singers, musicians, production crew and a lot of other people that made this show so we could experience it.
3. Have total respect for you competitors
4. Play so everyone wins.
5. Remember who shed the biggest tears – their family.
I started watching the American Idol season towards the end. I understand why it captures the heart of America. American Idol broadcasts the reality of The American Dream. If we in our lives and in our business sit back and do everything the same as we did yesterday, the results are very predictable. That is right, the results will be the same. What is your back-up plan? How do you adjust your plan when the road you are on does not seem to be getting you to
your destination? Do you have a destination other than the grave?
Wake up – take action. Business owners, make a difference in the lives of your customers and employees. You will be richly rewarded for giving not taking. If you are not sure of the first step then take do one of two things: a.) call me b.) subscribe to my course. How to do both can be found atwww.stevepohlit.com
American Idol-There Are No Losers
There are no losers. All of the people who took action are winners. Tens of thousands stood in line and one person emerges as the winner. Remember not one of the other people who showed up are losers. Everyone took action. Key point everyone took action.
We are in the game of life. There are those who made it to the "let’s say" regional finals who by some evaluation standards have superior talent to the final two. Talent doesn’t matter in the final selection process. It is the total package. As Joel Bauer says "wrap your package for the results you expect to obtain." As to the package, do you not think every man and particularly every man with a daughter was not moved by Katharine McPhee singing her heart out to "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" with the cameras showing the tears rollingdown her father’s face? I really am thankful I have that image and if you didn’t see it you need to find a video clip of that moment.
Do I think that because Katharine McPhee is a beautiful woman with a marvelous voice that she will win? No, I come to no such conclusions because Taylor Hicks is remarkable. Can you even fathom that someone from Birmingham, Alabama could ever end up on stage in Hollywood as one of the top two contestants. Have you ever been to Birmingham Alabama? This is as much proof as anything that anything is possible when you make up your mind.
There are outstanding life and business lessons from the American Idol process.
Katharine’s final song was "My Destiny" She visualized this moment most of her life. Think about that. What do your visualize for yourself, your family, your company?
Taylor’s final song was "Do I Make You Proud". Do you see the message? Imaging! What are you imaging?
I am not a person who allocates much time to television. However, American Idol has captured the hearts of many millions of people. Even with that I was not paying much attention to it until a marketing guru friend Tricia Strahler started admitting she was addicted to the show. So I began paying attention and I have to tell you the show is amazing.
Let’s review the structure of American Idol and the the lessons we can gain right now and apply to our business. I am not going to read some chapter out of an MBA course on management or some theory from someone who never stepped inside of a business except to maybe buy some toothpaste (maybe).
First: the best of show wins. Not the best looking or the best singer, or the best performer… the best person to bring in the money.
Second: the votes of a small group do not matter in the long run. The audience (your customer) will vote with their cell phones or wallet and will pick a winner.
Third: many who appear to lose in the short term can be long term winners based on their overall performance and continual focus on bringing value.
Next I will offer you observations on the companies who chose to advertise on this show to the tune of $739,000 for each 30 second spot. While Katharine and Taylor and all of those who showed up and tried deserve the applause of the world I am not as complementary of the time, energy and money that went into the marketing of products and services promoted during American Idol. More on that real soon.
Very Good Business Development Examples
There are two sources of information on how to achieve improved business performance. The first is written material including: books, newsletters, blogs, and other print media. Next is the observation of companies who are implementing the best current advise.
As to best current advice, this does not always mean that current thinking as to best practice is correct. In fact some of the best advise on best practices has been around for quite some time. Recently I have noticed some great examples of companies applying well established business development practices. Why more companies are not doing this I have no idea.
McDonalds uses the $1.00 menu as lead generation. Get them into the store and once they are there other menu items will be sold. The sales and profit numbers say this is working and I like the idea for their niche. I have not seen any examples of McDonalds aggressive capturing contact information of their customers. What retailer would not gladly pay a buck for the contact information in a data base that they could communicate with regularly? I recently worked with a retailer who gave away a $9.00 valued product in exchange for the customer’s information. He understood the value of somebody already spending money with you.
I noticed while watching the national channel covering the Stanley Cup Playoffs several examples of great lead generation. One company was promoting cell phone plans at a discount. They had a compelling offer and a free report was offered at their web site. In addition, they offered a hot new phone if you called their 800# right now. This was excellent and a great example of designing electronic media advertising (T.V.) for maximum results. Everything is in place for them to track all components of this campaign and calculate return on investment.
If you are not on the mailing list of Duluth Trading Company you should be. Register at
For maximum business performance, each company must hit on all five pillars of long term success. I have written about those before in greater detail atwww.stevereports.com At this point I remind you that the best marketing strategy precisely implemented will not help you if you do not have the product or service when you customer wants it and your company is not structured for maximum gross margin, profitability and liquidity. My course "How To Increase Profits by 30% of More In 90 Days or Less" is complimentary and is the roadmap on how to maximize all five pillars. If you want to jump start this process, call me. All contact information is atwww.stevepohlit.com
Steve Pohlit, Business Consultant, is an expert at helping companies achieve extraordinary performance now. Steve can be reached at www.stevepohlit.com
A woman traveling with her husband in their family van in Tampa Bay, Florida dodged a bullet – literally. Apparently, some unknown person fired a gun. The bullet went through the windshield of the van. A combination of the lady’s seat belt and bra straps deflected the bullet.
An alert bra manufacturer who found this story offered to send her complementary bras and lingerie. The only problem was she only wears Playtex 18 Hour Bras and the company that called was not Playtex. Playtex did pick up on the story and is now sending her complimentary products.
This story is not only in the local papers, national news has picked it up, CNN and Good Morning America and possibly others are reporting on what could have been a very tragic story. Every time this story is run, including in blogs like this one, Playtex is mentioned in a positive context and the marketing value of this story for Playtex is huge. This is a great example of being on alert for how your products and services have helped someone. Advertising this valuable simply cannot be purchased.
Playtex should evaluate additional opportunities for positive impressions with this story. How the 18 Hour Bra literally helped save the life of a woman might be used on their web site, on their blog, and other media promotions. Of course the emphasis needs to remain on the wonderful outcome of what otherwise could have been a total disaster.
Sending you energy of health, happiness, prosperity
Steve Pohlit
Business Consulting, Executive Coach
Turnaround/Crisis Management
Temporary CEO, CFO, Controller Services
International Business Resources
Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.
727-587-7871
About: Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Steve is a business owner and an expert business consultant focused on building profits and net asset value. He is very experienced with Internet marketing and social media marketing. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
Turnaround Management
Hewlett Packard recently reported a 51% increase in quarterly profits. In a previous article I commented on the Mark Hurd’s (the new CEO) observations on the layers of bureaucracy in the company’s sales organization. The quarterly report confirms Mark is not just observing what could be run better, he is implementing. Let’s look at some of the lessons.
According to the story reported by The Wall Street Journal, HP cut approximately 1,500 people in the quarter and emphasized that while they are continuing with a reduction in forceprogram, they are recruiting for certain positions deemed to be important, namely sales. The article also reported the company benefited from the sale of higher margin attractive components bundled with lower priced PC’s. Translating that, HP was able to increase it’s average sale and gross margin for certain products that were attractively packaged and marketed to its target audience for those products.
How does all of this apply to your business particularly if you are not hitting your performance goals or if business is particularly difficult you are concerned about your business being able to survive.
The process for strengthening business performance is the same whether you are off plan or in crisis mode. The primary difference is that in crisis mode, you are going to have to negotiate time with creditors and they are not going to grant it unless you have a practical, achievable survival plan that you are implementing now. If you are in survival mode I highly recommend you get outside help. You will think you cannot afford it. I will tell you that you cannot afford not to do this. Make sure whoever you contact has experience and has lost sleep for the same reason you are losing sleep right now.
The primary goal in a turnaround is to build liquidity right now. The cash flow model I present in the course "How To Increase Profits by 30% or More in 90 Days or Less" is the template I use with every business including turnaround situations. Register for the FREE course at www.stevepohlit.com and it is yours.
The details of what you do can vary from company to company can be different but the principles are the same:
Eliminate all unnecessary spending and that sometimes means people you have known for quite some time need to go. This is one key reason to use an outsider. They take some of the heat off of you. In addition, it can demonstrate to your creditors that you are serious about strengthening your business.
While you are fixing the outflow you must be aggressively addressing the inflow. This means collecting money that is due, and maximizing sales and gross margin. Remember you cannot have sales and margin unless you have the right product in the right place at the right time so liquidating in-demand product to create cash is not advisable.
This is an article and not a manual or a book. Fortunately nearly everything you need to know is detailed in the course I just mentioned. Finally, while the guide on what to do to be successful is there, those that attempt this on their own rarely succeed. I think that is true for just about everything, don’t you agree?
Author: Steve Pohlit, Business Consultant "How to
Increase Profits by 30% or More in 90 Days or Less" is available for no charge at www.stevepohlit.com
In the Tampa Bay Florida market, 1-4 full page advertisement are published nearly everyday. There have been promotions for special event seminars. One was clearly a lead generation ad with specific times and locations of the free seminar they wanted you to attend. This promotion was well done. The seminar promoters will know, exactly how many people came to each location and out of that total how many people purchased the special training package that I am sure was offered at the event. Return on investment is easy to calculate. Hopefully,
they also obtain the contact information of attendees who did not purchase. That allows the company to implement a follow – up communication strategy. These are exactly the principle at the foundation of www.localretailmarketing.com By the way that means marketing to your customer in their local market.
I am delighted to see examples of promotions that are rational and are positioned to measure effectiveness. Most are not. What you will typically find in this market are major promotions in the newspaper for commodity items. The price points are high but they are commodities. For example, lasik laser eye surgery, cataract surgery, hearing aids, contact lenses, sweepers, furniture and the list goes on.
Some will argue that many of the products and services are not commodities. When there is no unique selling positioning and when the product or service is readily available in any market, I view the offer as a commodity.
Please do not misunderstand the key message. Newspaper advertising, magazine advertising, regardless of the size of the ad can be very effective. The key is having a measurable call to action. One example is having one number to call where the prospective customer can schedule a free consultation or receive a special discount. Whatever the offer it should have a limited time associated with it. Something like "For The Next 3 Days Only…" The offer can be tested giving people one choice which is to call and another could give people two options including call or use a designated internet page. Giving them more than two choices is not recommended.
Marketing is very important to business development. It can be effective with a high return on investment or a complete waste of money. Generally, by focusing on a couple key attributes of effective marketing, you will experience an extraordinary return on investment.
Steve Pohlit,Business Consultant"Helping Companies Make Extraordinary Profits Now!"
Before addressing specific networking tips I want to address critical aspect of networking that is often overlooked. Sometimes we are so eager to network that we don’t stop to consider whether or not we are investing our energy in the right places.
You can go to all of the networking meetings under the sun and collect hundreds of business cards while you’re at it but if you’re not hanging out with people you can do business with, you might make some new friends, you won’t necessarily grow your business.
If you want to grow your business by networking it is imperative that you network with: people who are your ideal clients,
people who know your ideal clients, and/or people who do business with your ideal clients. It’s that simple. So before you sign up for your next networking event, ask yourself if it is a good fit for your business.
When you network with people who need your products/services (or know others who do) there will be a natural interest in knowing more about your business. Stop, not so quick – the story of you and your business comes later. First, let’s walk through what happens at a networking event and I will give you a tip for each step.
Step 1: Meeting People
Enter the room with confidence, stand up straight and smile. Look for a friendly face and introduce yourself. If you don’t see an opportunity to meet someone right away don’t panic. A sure fire way to strike up a conversation is to get in a line (to sign in, for food, for drinks, for the restrooms). You can also approach the person hosting the event and ask for an
introduction. In addition, if the list of attendees is available prior to the meeting you can identify someone you would like to meet and approach someone to ask if the person you are looking for is at the meeting.
Step 2: Getting to Know People
Instead of trying to be interestING (focusing on the ‘ing’) be interestED (focus on the ‘ed’) in the person you are talking with. You don’t have to worry about what you will say (except for your brief pitch which comes later). In fact, you can make it a goal to talk as little as possible, I promise you will be remembered as a marvelous conversationalist. Memorize this phrase: ‘Tell me more about…’ and use it! Just relax, be yourself and listen.
Step 3: Giving First
The reason you are networking in the first place is because you want to get something. You want to meet more of your
ideal clients and meet people who can refer to your ideal clients. But don’t forget, networking is a two way street. It is about building relationships. I know you have something interesting to share, so why not give first? Perhaps you can recommend a great book or website, share an article, or maybe you can make a valuable introduction.
Step 4: Your Perfect Pitch
Eventually the person you are talking with may ask you what you do, so be ready! Don’t ramble on about how long you have been in business or how your business process works. Do prepare a fabulous, short, and memorable pitch (10-30 seconds long) that clearly communicates what you do and for whom you do it.
Step 5: Ending a Conversation
Remember, all conversations must end at some point so don’t be afraid to politely excuse yourself and thank the person for
her time. Reasons to wrap up can include going to get another drink, something to eat, going to the restroom, or needing to talk with someone before they leave. Whatever the reason, be honest and be genuine.
Step 6: Follow Up and Follow Through
This one is so simple and important yet somehow it frequently gets ignored. If you promise to do something (call, send an
article, make an introduction) do it!
Think about making use of these networking tips the next time you plan to do some networking. The truth is people do business with people they know, like, and trust. This occurs over time and is all about building relationships, not about collecting business cards. Be yourself, be real and have fun!