Category: Business Developmemt

Advertising: Money Well Spent and Not!



Advertising: Money Well Spent and Not!

If you plan to run a full page ad in a newspaper or magazine, the response to your ad should be measurable. Whether you are a Fortune 100 company or a local small business, your promotion must be linked to a call to action from you target audience. If these criteria are not met, and they usually are not, you will receive more satisfaction sending your advertising dollars to your favorite charity. Let’s look at some recent examples:

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!" 

The Secrets of Effective Networking

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!

Steve Pohlit, Business Consultant

Discover The 5 Pillars of A Successful Company


What happens when you apply the 80:20 rule to the activities required to be completed for any business to operate?

Extraordinary Profits

A Positive, Low Stress Working Environment

Continual Progress At A Rate That Far Outpaces Your Competition

How do you achieve these goals? Well just take a look at how most companies are run and don’t do what they do. People in most companies spend the majority of their time on activities that have little or no impact on building revenue and profits. Let’s review the components of how to solve this.

First there are only five (5) areas of business that need your attention. Hold out your hand and look at your fingers and thumb – 5. Now follow with me on this because I am not in a room with you to reinforce the point. Hold out your hand and assign each of the (5) pillars as follows:

1.Sales – thumb
2.Gross Margin – index finger
3.Expenses – your “flip em” finger
4.Working Capital – next finger
5.Employees – pinky

80% of your time as an owner or CEO should be spent on these 5 pillars and 80% of the 80% should be spent on Sales and Gross Margin – the first two. When you spend the majority of your time on marketing the right balance of products and services that bring you optimum sales volume and gross margin, normally there are no issues recruiting and training the best people, there are minimal issues with managing liquidity and if any area of expense begins to be out of balance, it doesn’t hurt much while you are bringing it back in line.

If you are considering making some adjustments in how you allocate your time, you are invited to review my FREE course “How To Increase Profits By 30% or More In 90 Days or Less” which can be found at www.stevepohlit.com This is a sequential step-by-step process based on the exact programs I use when I help companies implement a management system on site(not software, simply very clear methodology for running the company).

Nearly every article published at www.stevereports.com expanded upon the management of components of the five pillars. In most cases, the information contains practical advice that you can implement beginning today. I have found that if the concepts are not actionable quickly and do not yield positive results quickly, people lose interest. It is no different than an exercise program. If the exercise is too rigorous, too demanding or takes too much time, it will not be sustained over time. Running a company is no different. The process must result in continual positive feedback as to progress toward achieving measurable goals.

Author: Steve Pohlit is a Business Consultant and publishes articles focused on helping companies increase revenue and profit.

Live Chat Is Not The Answer To Improved Customer Service – The Issues Run Deeper

Live Chat Is Not A Solution For Customer Service ProblemsLive Chat Is Not The Answer To Improved Customer Service – The Issues Run Deeper

(The following comments are in response to comments and and article on the benefits of Live Chat. The entire thread is posted here as a convenience. Since this is my blog I am starting with the most important information – mine.)

Live chat, like most programs, can point to a stable of success stories. However, many people offering live chat, do not implement it well.

The reasons live chat does not work well in many instances include all the standard ones that a person experiences with a help desk ticket system, direct email contact and phone support. Those issues include: support not being available, support wasting a customer’s time with irritating questions based on a script, support not being properly trained and finally, unusually long delays in response time due to support attempting to multi-task customer communication or needing assistance from their supervisor.

In an article I recently published at www.stevereports.com details of study by Jupiter-Research show companies are slower and slower to respond to emails directed at customer service and an increasing number of companies do not even respond at all. Customer dissatisfaction with phone support is well known.

Live chat is another tool for customer support. The issues go much deeper than installing this technology. Most customers want accurate answers fast to their questions. The companies that figure out how to do that will be rewarded with people continuing to spend increasing sums of money on their products and services.

Steve Pohlit is a Business Consultant and publishes articles focused on helping companies increase revenue and profit.

Using Live Chat To Service And Sell

The Email Marketing Whiz – Erik James

Dear Friend,

Did you know that Forrester research recently reported that 1 out of every 2 customers on the Internet is unhappy with the service they are receiving?

Think about your own experience as a customer of these companies. How many times have you requested support, only to wait days for a response? How many times have you submitted a question by email and didn’t get a single reply?

Well now there’s a simple, cost-effective solution …

Live Chat software is the cost effective tool that helps you sell your product online and give superior customer support service. With just the tap of the mouse, your web site visitors contact your support team for live assistance through a live chat system.

I recently started using a Live Chat system, and many of you have sent me some incredible feedback.

Now you chat with my support team using our Live Support console right from your own web browser, and you get your important questions answered immediately by a real person, in real time.

The following article, written by Paul Demery, explains the incredible benefits of using a simple solution like Live Chat on your web site …

How Live Chat Increases Satisfaction and Reduces Costs

One thing the Internet didn’t do away with is the demand for customer service. Even though some early e-retailing visionaries saw a brave, new world where customers didn’t need to talk to retailers, that hasn’t happened. And so the challenge to online retailers has been how to fill customer service needs at an acceptable cost. Offering live telephone support is an expensive step backward from the lower operating costs that were part of the web’s promise. And in most cases, pure self-service doesn’t work.

Now a small but growing number of retailers are turning to live chat for customer service. “Live chat is right for the times because consumers still want that assurance of live communication,” says Jim Okamura, retail analyst with consultants J.C. Williams Group. “But it’s only starting to become really effective, so it has a lot of upside potential.”

Taking care of business

Forrester Research Inc. projects steady growth in consumer use of live chat in customer service. In 2003, 30% of online buyers turned to live chat for customer service, up from 19% in 2001, Forrester reports. Acceptance of live chat will grow “as online chatting teens grow up,” Forrester says, to 59% of online buyers in 2007.

“Live chat takes care of business,” says Scott Shulman, director of e-commerce at athletic shoe retailer K-Swiss Inc.’s K-Swiss.com. Although K-Swiss also offers self-service customer service options as well as easy access to telephone customer service agents, it offers live chat as a way of filling the gap between the two. With lower operating costs compared to using telephone call center agents, live chat enables K-Swiss to provide personalized service around the clock. “It makes our site more personal because customers can have their questions answered 24 hours a day, 365 days a
year,” he says.

The measures of the overall market use of live customer service chat may be small, but some retailers who have begun making live chat a prominent part of their customer service strategy say it has grown in popularity with customers. Although K-Swiss.com makes its 800 number easily available through a customer service link that appears on every page, the more prominently placed live chat button on each page is increasing as customers’ first choice for customer service. “Why not? All they have to do is click and get an instant answer,” Shulman says.

Double Duty

Simply making the live chat option more noticeable than an 800 number will cause more consumers to naturally move toward live chat, experts say. If you make the 800 number too available, the tendency of today’s consumers is to use it, but having a live chat button on every page instead will encourage
customers to use that.

Most retailers put live chat to work first as a selling tool, deploying it at crucial times, for example, when a shopper takes an excessive amount of time in checkout and appears to need help making a decision before abandoning a shopping cart. Now more are giving live chat double duty: as both a selling and customer service tool.

Serving and Selling

Customers in a live customer service chat session are greeted by customer service reps trained to respond with coordinated responses intended to both help and sell.

There’s a further way that live chat can be both a customer service and a sales tool, experts say. By using the live chat tool as part of a customer analytics system, K-Swiss builds customer profiles based on shopping behavior, click stream history and conversations recorded in past customer service live chat sessions and telephone calls, Tisdel says. “Then when the customer comes back, the system’s business rules proactively engage her with an appropriate offer in a live chat session,” he says. The offer might be a coupon for a product in which the customer has previously expressed an interest, or an offer for free shipping to satisfy a concern expressed about delivery costs, he adds.

In addition, K-Swiss has used live chat as part of the customer analytics system to turn customer service communications into a merchandising research tool. “For example, K-Swiss learned that many of its customers had a high demand for children’s apparel, which they now offer on their site,” Tisdel says.

Despite live chat’s multiple abilities to help serve customers, it’s still misused or underutilized by many retailers. “Some web sites have a live chat service that says ‘We’ll be right with you,’ but that makes customers wait too long,” says Elizabeth Harrel, analyst with Forrester Research. “That can be worse than not having live chat at all.”

Estimates vary widely as to the costs related to live chat and other forms of customer service, though several vendors estimate the cost of an average live chat session at about $1, compared to estimates of average telephone customer service calls ranging from $6 to $20. Costs vary widely partly because of the diversity in customer service needs related to different types of products, experts say.

Moreover, Harrel figures that live chat costs nearly as much as, or about 90% of, telephone customer service calls. While live chat will provide savings in the cost of telephone lines, they tend to require higher salaries, she says.

Others put the cost of live chat far below telephone reps, mainly because live chat agents are trained to handle multiple chat sessions simultaneously. “A live chat rep can usually do a minimum of three sessions at a time, but I’ve seen them do eight”, says Tisdel of InterSight. “But even if they do only two at a time, that cuts the cost in half.” He figures an average live chat session costs $3-$5, compared to $10 or more for an average customer service telephone call.

This article was written by Paul Demery.

Article Source: ArticleFeedster.com – Free Reprint Ezine Articles and Article Feeds

To browse other Live Chat articles, visit ArticleFeedster.

Warmest Regards,

Erik James
List Marketing Expert, LIST BUILDER Pro
“The Most Trusted Name In List Building.”
www.listbuilderpro.com

How To Protect Your Blog From a DDOS Attack

How To Protect Your Blog From a DDOS Attack

Any server hosting domains and blogs can be a victim of a ddos attack. When a website or blog is hosted by a service focused on a specific niche, the vulnerability to attack appears to be greater.

The recent ddos attack on blogs could be related to commentary posted by someone on their blog that offended someone with the skills to orchestrate a ddos attack. When you have your business blog with a major service where a wide variety of themes are published your risk increases.

For quite some time, I published a blog using two major services with programs for bloggers. Generally, they worked well. However, there were some issues that left me with an unsecure feeling as I really didn’t have complete control over my blog and I felt more vulnerable than I do now.

My blog operates from the domain name www.stevereports.com It is hosted by a company with software built into my hosting account that makes it fairly easy to set up a blog.

I have backups off that server for all content that I publish on my blog. In the event of a problem with that host provider, I simply move my domain to another host and my blog is back in business.

I am also now using the blog software platform to create web sites. This is brand new technology that is also very easy to use. For an example of a site nearly complete see www.lasiklasereyesurgery.us I can tell you I am really excited about this particular software and if you want to learn more visit www.theprofitexpert.com/rapidnicheproducts.html By the way, if you visit www.theprofitexpert.com you will find many free resources including a mini course to help you if you have an interest in developing an income stream on line.

I strongly recommend investing the time to learn how to register a domain name, set up a domain name on a server, use an html editor,and ftp content to your domain. I avoided learning those skills for many years even though I started in the Internet business more than 10 years ago. Now with a few basic skills, I can set up blogs, create web sites for business or fun.

I am not a design expert as anyone can tell by visiting my sites. However, my skills improve daily I am pleased with my progress. Like I advise all my business clients, clearly define what it is you are trying to accomplish, set a time line for achieving it, roll the completion date back to what you have to begin doing today to achieve the goal on or before your targeted completion date, hen do one more very important thing – take action.

(Steve Pohlit is a business consultant whose primary site is www.stevepohlt.com He writes on topics designed to help companies and entrepreneurs make a lot more money. All articles can be found at www.stevereports.com Unless otherwise noted, he invites everyone to use his articles with the only request being to include this resource box.)

Time Management for Maximum Performance


Time Management for Maximum Performance

Several of my articles have focused on the importance of developing a customer and prospect database, a communication strategy and executing that plan. I will periodically remind you of the extreme importance of doing this and how that one area of your business will result in extraordinary profits.

This article is about your daily task list. I fined tuned my approach to my list during my completion of Dan Kennedy’s course on time management. Essentially this process is the same one that you should use for your business. The steps include defining your overall strategy of what it is you want to accomplish, assign a time-line to that strategy and then bring it back to what you have to do today to achieve your objective.

Since everyone has responsibilities outside of their career, this process should be extended to the spiritual and personal dimensions of your life. Achieving a balance can be very demanding because of the increasingly intense level of distractions. They include, cell phone, email, mail, newspapers, magazines, TV, Radio, iPod and more. Then there are the time required for your personal relationships.

My best days are when I plan them out in advance, make my list of intended accomplishments, check off the items on my list that I complete and don’t go nuts when there is something left undone. Uncompleted tasks are simply reprioritized and then added to a subsequent list.

My most productive periods are when I have a clear focus on defined near term goals that support the achievement of a measurable strategy. In addition, there are time lines for achievement and other people know and are tracking my progress. At the daily task level, the greater the sense of urgency, the more that is accomplished.

In summary, approaching the management of your own time is no different than the process of optimizing business performance. The principles of time management is the same. The free course “How To Increase Profits by 30% or More in 90 Days or Less” found at www.stevepohlit.com teaches these principles for companies. The free course “The Internet Profit Roadmap” found at www.theprofitexpert.com teaches these principles for entrepreneurs working to create successful businesses on line. For personal time management training as well as business development training, I recommend you get your hands on everything published by Dan Kennedy. I recommend starting with 3 month trial subscription of Dan’s No BS Marketing Newsletter. Click Here for Details

Steve Pohlit is a CPA, MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Today Steve is an expert business consultant focused on helping companies improve their business performance including growing profits, revenues and customers. For a FREE 6 week mini course where you will receive 10 easy to implement action steps guaranteed to increase business revenue and profits by at least 30% in the next 90 days, please visit www.StevePohlit.com All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

Google, Yahoo Expand Local Search: Ignore This And Your Business Profits Will Suffer

Business Development Consultant, Steve Pohlit, advises all companies to have a website with local search information now. The trends are clear. Conduct this experiment on your own. Simply ask 10 people how they would locate an apparel store, car wash, CPA, shoe repair shop, dry cleaner, attorney, etc. Even if they know the name of the business but do not know the address, ask them how they would find the address. There is a good chance 70% or more of the people you ask will say they search on-line.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google and Yahoo are making major investments in local search “rushing to add more consumer information about local businesses”. Yahoo has www.local.yahoo.com and Google recently changed from Local to Maps which can be found at www.maps.google.com

Yahoo is building local town squares where users share information about local businesses. Google is accumulating local business information that is already posted elsewhere on line.

If you have a business, you must have domain name and at least one page that provides information on the type of business, products and services offered, location and contact information. Information about your business is going to be available on-line soon, if it is not already there. It is better for you to be in the driver seat as to what is published.

The cost of having an on line presence is no longer an excuse. The entire process can be accomplished for much less than the cost of a yellow page listing. In fact, I am registering domain names for $8.00 a year and hosting a web site can be done for $100 a year or less plus most hosting packages include an email and the ability to set up a blog. Essential design can be done less than $100 assuming the business owner gives the designer basic information. If you need additional information on setting up websites or hosting websites, email me and I will help you.

I have discussed the major opportunity for most companies is previous articles, but here it is again: use your website to provide detailed information about your business, offer visitors a reason to register with your business and then develop a communication strategy with your subscribers. This process will increase revenue and profits. It will dramatically increase revenue and profits when you also capture the contact information of people physically visiting your business and people buying from you. That is the entire basis for the business model presented at www.localretailmarketing.com The principle applies to national companies as most market to their customers in local communities.

Here is one example of a national restaurant business headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Most people are familiar with the name Outback Steakhouse. You may not know the names of their other divisions which include: Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, Roy’s and more. The St. Petersburg Times reported that Outback was concerned about the performance trends of their flagship business, Outback Steakhouse. To further understand the basis for these trends, the company hired a consulting firm to study trends and evaluate customer perception of the business. It was not reported how long this study took or cost. It simply said it was conducted in 2005 and the results are being reported in 2006.

You can monitor customer reaction to your business daily without any special studies when you have a communication program in place. For example, in the restaurant business you could offer an incentive to come in and eat. That incentive can be tracked. When the customer who received the incentive in their email, redeems it you can link it to a survey. The survey can be conducted while they are in the restaurant or afterwards with a follow-up message that includes a big, warm thank you for your visit. This is not hard to do. What must be in place is a culture that reacts to what the your customers are telling you. They will spend money with you when they know you care.

Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Today Steve is an expert business consultant focused on helping companies improve their business performance including growing profits, revenues and customers. For a FREE 6 week mini course where you will receive 10 easy to implement action steps guaranteed to increase business revenue and profits by at least 30% in the next 90 days, please visit www.StevePohlit.com All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

Practical Business Plans

Recommending a business plans is often a starting point for many advisors and consultants. The challenge is that there are nearly as many recommendations on how to do a plan as their are advisors and consultants.

The single biggest issue with planning is the horizon. Many suggest a 3-5 year plan. If and when that gets done, the plan sits on the shelf in most cases.

I developed The Profit System specifically for the purpose of guiding companies on how to achieve extraordinary revenue and profit growth in a short period of time. Clients are advised to think in 12 month chunks and then roll that back to what has to be done this week to achieve it.

In the process of doing this, a company must address what could derail the results. So the point of considering disasters is addressed, but you get there from a different direction.

Finally when you bring your targets, to what has to happen today, this week, this month that are required to achieve the 12 month goal and hold people accountable for achieving those interim results, amazing things happen.

This entire process is outlined in a mini course I developed that is offered at no charge. Register at www.stevepohlit.com

The follow was reported in another on-line business blog and is presented to offer the reader a balance in terms of business plan recommendations:

Business Plans

(begin article found on another blog)

Business plans are a must for any entrepreneurial venture. Every new and existing company should have one. They are the roadmap to future business success. They can also keep a business on course in the event of a change in the business fortunes.

There are many aspects to the creation of a good business plan, including finances, marketing, sales forecasts, expected expenses, and so on. By carefully assessing all of the details, a strong business plan can be formulated.

A business plan is a requirement for everyone from bankers to venture capitalists. They are also a useful exercise for you, as developing the business plan forces you to look long and hard at your ideas and projections.

Even with a good solid business plan in hand, many potentially successful business people still don’t live their dream of entrepreneurship. Held back by many factors ranging from being unable to secure financing to staffing and production problems, many companies simply don’t get off the ground.

While these difficulties are common to many businesses in general, some barriers are specific to the business person alone. One of these barricades to entrepreneurial success is fear of failure. Thoughts of marketing and sales problems, staffing issues, and changes in financial status and the economy pale in comparison to that trepidation. Fear can stop a new business before it ever gets started into the marketplace.

The business plan can go far to preventing self doubt by providing a guide to the business that is both direct, yet adaptable to changing conditions. Shortages of funds can be worked around through free media publicity, creative promotional ideas, and business blogging. Alternative financing can be used to bring need cash flow into the company. Hiring only the essential personnel and subcontracting the balance of the work to outside contractors, consultants, and virtual assistants can lower labor and wage costs.

The biggest stumbling block for most failed business owners is a lack of confidence in one’s own abilities. That lack of confidence in oneself, and the potential of the organization, can be overcome. While many techniques can be employed to get past the feelings of self doubt, we will consider one method here.

We will ask one question.

What’s the worst that can happen to the business?

Think about that question for a time. Consider what could be the very worst thing that could befall your business, and subsequently, your future. While some of the worst case possibilities are enough to drive anyone away from even attempting entrepreneurship, many if not most, are not. In fact, many potential disasters can be prevented through careful planning. Contingency plans can be put into place for implementation should the nightmares become real.

Simply looking objectively at the worst case scenario can help with the overall business plan. The worst that can happen to a business may not even be that disastrous at all. In fact, many worst case scenarios can be reduced in impact, or even negotiated into workable situations. Every business problem is not the end of the world or the company.

Once you know what is the deepest depth to which your company could sink, the issues involved don’t even look so bad. It’s much easier to work with a known factor than a completely unknown possibility. After all, the worst that can happen to your business, might not be so terrible after all. The fear of disaster is worse than the potential problem itself. Keep in mind that just because a problem could arise in theory, does not mean it will ever appear in practice.

Don’t let fear of failure stand in your way to business success. Let a strong viable business plan, that makes allowances for major problems, guide you and your company, to achieving all of your business goals.
(end article not authored by Steve Pohlit)

Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Today Steve is an expert business consultant focused on helping companies improve their business performance including growing profits, revenues and customers. For a FREE 6 week mini course where you will receive 10 easy to implement action steps guaranteed to increase business revenue and profits by at least 30% in the next 90 days, please visit www.StevePohlit.com All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

Build Business Revenue by Answering Email

Mark Albright reported in the St Petersburg Times on statistics from Jupiter Research showing the length of time companies are taking to respond to email sent to customer service has increased significantly and 55% of companies with on line customer service take longer than 24 hours to respond. Even more alarming, nearly 40% of all such emails take three days or more for a response or are never answered at all.

In several previous articles I have detailed the opportunities for companies to grow revenue and profits by capturing and using the contact information of their customers and visitors. Now, we learn just how poorly companies are doing responding to customers who need help.

There is a major revenue building opportunity by just responding to the customers with questions and by using the customer contact information to develop a positive communication campaign. These two actions are the foundation of my Local Retail Marketing program which is a component of the Revenue module of The Profit System. But forget all those titles, this is just common business sense. All you have to do is not repeat the mistakes obviously being made by many companies out there and the biggest problem you will have is where do you want to park your yacht.

P.S. When you combine emails not being answered with first the long wait times customers experience when calling customer service and second with how poorly many of the calls are handled when once the phone is answered, the roadmap that you should follow is very clear.

Dunkin Donuts vs. Starbucks

Dunkin Donuts wanted to know. To find out they offered to send their customers to Starbucks and paid them to go there and drink and eat. But they also paid Starbuck customers to come to Dunkin Donuts to eat and drink. In exchange, the people involved agreed to answer Dunkin Donut’s questions.

This test was reported by the WSJ and what Dunkin Donuts discovered was that there are very loyal people to both businesses and they are not interested in the competitor. The Starbucks Tribe will continue to go to Starbucks and the Dunkin Donuts tribe will continue to go to Dunkin Donuts. That was the conclusion.

Why did Dunkin Donuts conduct this test? The business of Dunkin Donuts has a strategy of growing and attracting more customers. So they want to know more about what appeals to people. Of course they could have their customers in a data base and communicate with them regularly and offer them incentives for answering surveys but that is all the subject of my rant in other articles at www.stevereports.com

Duncan Donuts used a traditional focus group approach. Duncan Donuts is to be commended on testing. They are to be commended on wanting to know what changes, upgrades, new product offerings will appeal to their customer. When you review their history, you may conclude they should have done this more often. The facts are most companies fall into the trap of not reinventing themselves. Why is this important to do? Well, look at Kmart. Do you recall when they were in Chapter 11? How about Delta airlines and General Motors? Do you think Microsoft can be in trouble? Interesting to look at history and then ask the hard questions?

There are lessons to be learned from the work done by Duncan Donuts. I remember working with the leaders of The Limited when they were the premier retailer in America. The culture was amazing. New fashion ideas, new store formats, new promotions were always being tested. Merchandise managers were expected to bring their insights of what the competition was doing to the famous weekly Monday meetings where performance was scrutinized.

The point is every company has a development history and at a point in time if you become a champion, a challenger emerges. This is the like playing the game king of the hill kid as a kid. Whenever you are winning someone will be out to take your place.

How do you sustain revenue and profit growth long term? How do you do that when as soon as you are on top there is a challenger? In The Profit System I teach how to track information that tells you how you are doing. Initially, the information is developed for you to track actual vs. plan and the plan is your own performance improvement plan. This evolves to where you are confident in your ability to achieve internal targets, then you set your site on local, regional, national or international champions. At that point your goal is to be the champion. The Profit System is free.

Why is that? Why do I offer something that I promote as being so valuable for FREE when I should be selling it for a million dollars or 10 million dollars or more? Simple, I know this works, and as Joel Bauer says (www.joellive.com) my life does not change at all if you use what I teach. But yours is likely to change a lot. If I can be a catalyst of positive change for you and your company, I am delighted to offer these principles and The Profit System to you at no charge.

Wait there is one more thing. There is a major price to pay for using this system. This price is your time, attention and action to implement. My material is FREE. Even if I were to charge $50,000 for the this material and I am considering that, it is a small sum in comparison to the time you and your company will invest to apply the principles of The Profit System. Return on investment is off the charts. So if you want to make a lot more money go to The Profit System and register for the FREE course.

Will Ducan Donuts™ latest testing mean new store formats will be hugely successful? I don’t know. I do know this if they keep monitoring and keep testing they will figure it out. You can also solve the issues facing your business with a rational management system. I have given you one source for a management system roadmap.

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.

Twitter

Facebook

Linked in

MySpace

727-587-7871

Email

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.

How To Diffuse A Competing Ad Campaign

Calculating return on investment of brand advertising is an art. When a commercial is run on electronic media, whether it is TV or radio, the methods used to calculate return on investment include ratings that measure viewers or listeners vs. sales in the relevant period following the promotion. Since I work with companies on more objective ROI calculations based on direct response marketing techniques, you might imagine I question the effectiveness of brand marketing.

An ad agency executive would probably give me a dissertation on what I am missing and it is doubtful we would ever reconcile. I remember the discussion with the Vice Chairman of a major international retailer on the topic of decentralized organized structure vs. a centralized one for administrative services common to multiple companies operating under the same corporate umbrella. It is an issue that is never reconciled. You either have one point of view or the other. There is no middle ground on some issues. I think brand advertising vs. direct response marketing falls into the category of irreconcilable differences between marketers. Back to Coke.

I must admit the most recent ad campaign is awesome. The scenes make me want to go out and buy the product. Correction, they make me want to go out and live the scenes. This is particularly amazing, since I watch very little TV and rarely react to an ad in terms of thinking of making a purchase. One of the current ads being run by Coke is where a senior citizen is shown experiencing Coke for what is supposed to be the first time. The experience of drinking Coke for the first time motivated him to call a childhood idol for the first time and tell her he has always loved her. It also motivated him to run with the bulls for the first time. All first time acts for him. Very well done.

Congratulations to Coke. This is a campaign that links the emotional response to the product. If others have similar reaction to this as me, then the sales numbers should being increasing for Coke during the running of the ad campaign. On the other hand, if I am a competitor I would quickly mass out an end cap displays in my A category stores in A category markets, with pricing at about $1.00 less per 12 pack of Coke and diffuse their entire campaign. Of course I would also attach a bounce back coupon on that same display and link it to a customer contact page on line. When the contact information is filled out, the customer receives additional promotions and gifts on line. Once I have that contact information, I then know I have a person who bought my product and that is a customer whose loyalty I can now nurture and strengthen. This is a strategy that capitalizes on the media ad campaign of a competitor and turns it to your advantage.

Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Today Steve is an expert business consultant focused on helping companies improve their business performance including growing profits, revenues and customers. For a FREE 6 week mini course where you will receive 10 easy to implement action steps guaranteed to increase business revenue and profits by at least 30% in the next 90 days, please visit www.StevePohlit.com All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

Problems Managing Corporate Sales Solved

The WSJ recently reported on the challenges Mike Hurd, the new CEO of HP, faced when he joined the company in 2005. In summary, there were 11 layers of management between him and a customer. In addition to slowing the sales development process, less than 60% of the 17,000 people in corporate sales were actually selling.

Candidly I was amazed to read this information. I always think that companies like Hewlitt Packard have the best and brightest in place along with a management system that results in maximum productivity. I often find such management controls lacking or missing all together in smaller companies but without having direct involvement in a business the size of HP, I just assumed they knew what to do.

Mark Hurd knew what to do. He restructured the organization, eliminated non performing staff and cut the buerocracy so that not only were people accountable for selling, they had the time to do it. He also selected one software product to track the sales pipeline. Is all well now? Changing culture the size of HP is not done on a dime. From experience, the fastest timeline occurs when information is used to motivate behavior. An international accounting and consulting firm that I was with for quite a while developed a complete product line named “Information for Motivation”. People do respond to what you inspect not what you expect.

Using the principles from Information for Motivation plus other resources, I developed The Profit System. The revenue module of The Profit System shows a company how to set up the sales management system for their company. Mark Hurd is using these principles with the software product he selected to track the sales process for HP. However, you don’t need a specific software product for most companies. I have successfully helped a number of large and smaller companies using Excel spreadsheets.

People have a tendency to spend a lot of time on which tools they should be using. This is a mistake in most cases. It is important to know when “good is good enough”. The goal of all of this meaning the sales management process is to drive revenue and profit. Compensation should be tied to the goal. When sales force compensation is tied to revenue you can expect higher revenue. But that does not mean you will book higher profits. For higher profits in the revenue model gross margin targets are what are key and don’t forget to account for the selling expense in the gross margin calculation.

ABC Management..I was fortunate to be trained in my first CFO position by a powerful business leader who taught simple but effective prioritization principles. To this day I think of most things in terms of A,B or C. Let’s apply that to sales force management. Who are your A customers and what are your A products? Now the goal that I have found to work the best is to have people spending 80% of their time on the A items and the rest their time moving B’s to A’s and C’s to B’s. In the C category if it doesn’t have the potential for being a B in a reasonable amount of time, often the best action is to drop the resources devoted to it.

Like many things in life this process is easy to write about and discuss, but harder to implement. But it is not that hard. With some effort on the front end there are big payoffs. In every case where I have helped a company install this process the benefits to revenue, gross margin and profit have been huge. There is more detail on this subject in my course which is free. Visit The Profit System if you want you company to make more money.

You know it the instant you see the person. It is apparent they have achieved an extraordinary measure of success and have the time to enjoy it. Steve Pohlit is an expert business consultant who developed The Profit System shows business owners how to achieve an extraordinary level of profit and the time to enjoy it. For a FREE 6 week mini course where you will receive 10 easy to implement action steps guaranteed to increase business revenue in profits by at least 30% in the next 90 days, please visit www.StevePohlit.com All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource box.

But Bill … My Business Is Different!

“If You Hang Out With Coconuts, You’re Going To Be A Coconut.” Rocky

You may not have been in Chicago but if you add this blog to your RSS feed reader you will not miss another article when it is issued. Why is that important to you? Here is one reason.

Recently I invested four days of my time and more than a few bucks with Dan Kennedy, Bill Glazier and over 600 of my closest friends all focused on further developing profit building skills. If you don’t know who Dan Kennedy is then go to this link. If you are in business you need to be reading Dan’s No B.S. marketing newsletter Click on this link for a three month FREE trial http://www.dk3monthspecial.com/your_freebie/

It’s too late to join me in Chicago, but add this blog to your RSS feeder by click on one of the links on the right hand side of this page because you will not miss another article. Since I will be giving you a number of valuable business building principles that came from the Chicago conference your are not going to want to miss any of it. Unless of course you are not interested in growing your revenue and profits.

There are conferences around the world every week. I attend on average 4-6 carefully picked ones every year. Conferences, resources I purchase from other experts and a growing network of very successful business owners form part of the foundation of my continuing professional development.

Now here are a couple very important points. You will benefit by making notes of these points. First: if you do not have a professional and personal development plan then you will have increasing difficulty, growing your business. The obvious answer is to have a professional and personal development plan based on you own strengths, weaknesses and interests. Second: while technology and global markets are advancing at lightning speed, the business and wealth building foundation principles are not changing, they are only being enhanced by different views.

The Profit System that I developed has business and profit building principles at its root. By the way, you can get most of this training absolutely FREE simply by subscribing to my six week course at www.stevepohlit.com The conference in Chicago reinforced this point as most of it centered on revenue building business principles that have been around for quite some time. So if they have been around for a long time, why is it that they still need to be taught? Well the facts are that these
principles are almost universally ignored.

What is the #1 foundation business building principle that we spent most of the 4 days in Chicago learning more about?

The Cow

Dan Kennedy told us that he has purchased a cow. Not just any cow but one that had long term value a measured by its ability to produce more cows and it has. So now one cow has produced more cows which are valuable and also produces embryos which are also valuable as they are implanted in other cows and the herd grows faster. The point is it starts with one and with the right action grows into a herd.

The Herd

This is the term used by Dan a lot in reference to the most valuable asset of just about every business. That asset of course is the customers of a business. Without exception, every successful business owner I have met or read about has achieved
success because they have developed a list of customers who trust them.

There are a number of ways to develop customers and in the next article I will cover the ones we spent of our time in Chicago discussing, why they work and what you can start doing now to make sure you are getting the highest return on you investment
in your marketing dollar.

P.S. If you are curious as to the reason behind the title to this article, I’ll tell you. Among the more than 12,000 members of Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazier’s Inner Circle, there is a small percentage of people who say to Bill “but my business is different.” The longer you read my articles and say to yourself “my business is different” the longer it will take for your business to realize its profit potential.

You know it the instant you see the person. It is apparent they have achieved an extraordinary measure of success and have the time to enjoy it. Steve Pohlit is an expert business consultant who developed The Profit System shows business owners how to achieve an extraordinary level of profit and the time to enjoy it. For a FREE 6 week mini course where you will receive 10 easy to implement action steps guaranteed to increase business revenue in profits by at least 30% in the next 90 days, please visit www.StevePohlit.com All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource box.

The Hidden Costs of Employee Turnover

Mike Ullman, the CEO of J.C. Penny since late 2004, estimates the company has saved over $400 million annually by implementing programs to reduce the turnover of valuable talent. Mike has further quantified this cost per employee leaving. Each one costs J.C. Penny about one third of that employee’s annual salary to replace.

If J.C. Penny only loses one third of the cost of an employee’s annual salary when they leave and need to be replaced, they are fortunate. I have seen huge costs associated with employee turnover including the cost of recruiting, training and relocation. There are also the less obvious costs of lost productivity, lost sales and a loss of control of assets.

J.C. Penny operates fairly large format stores supported by district and regional managers. In theory, if a person leaves there is a backup to cover the business while a replacement is found. The reality is that even in that situation productivity is compromised and customer service standards are at risk.

Consider a smaller format store with local or regional retail chain. Often the only backup is none or maybe the owner. I have seen many instances where a store cannot open because of inadequate staffing. When this happens too often, the customer base loses confidence and the profits decline to a point where a store may have to close. Look at the transportation industry where there continues to be an acute shortage of drivers. How many freight companies are losing revenue because they simply do not have enough drivers for their equipment?

In each of these examples, the cost of replacing an employee is far greater than 30% of the departing employee’s annual salary.

In one of the modules of my FREE course How To Increase Profits by 30% or More in 90 Days or Less, I cover key ways to minimize the turnover of valuable people. One is to make sure you do not retain and nurture mediocre performers. That is a major negative influence on talented staff. Another is to clearly define and communicate company performance goals in terms of how they relate to a person’s job and then answer the question “WIIFM” or What Is In It For Me?

Mike Ullman is right on point focusing on the company’s number 2 asset. Employees in retail and many other industries are key to developing a company’s number 1 asset which, of course, is it’s customers. If you know Mike, please compliment him on J.C. Penny’s vastly improved performance and please ask him to visit www.localretailmarketing.com which is a program that will definitely help him grow profits by customer.

A reminder: the FREE course including the module on human resource development is offered at www.stevepohlit.com I wrote the course and the human resource section based on my experience helping numerous clients across a number of key industries including retail, recruit and retain key people.

Steve Pohlit is a CPA has his MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Today Steve is an expert business consultant focused on helping companies improve their business performance including growing profits, revenues and customers. For a FREE 6 week mini course where you will receive 10 easy to implement action steps guaranteed to increase business revenue in profits by at least 30% in the next 90 days, please visit www.StevePohlit.com All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource box in tact.

Blogging Is An Essential Part of Business Development..Do It Right

Blogging is a communication tool that will help your business if you follow a couple basic guidelines.

The majority of blogs on the Internet are free services. The most popular one is Blogger by Google. I started blogging with a Blogger account and still have an active account. However, a number of blogs that I started were left alone for awhile and all of a sudden those blogs and content are gone. Fortunately, I have back-up on nearly everything I write, but the point is Google was in control and I was not.

Notice this blog: it sits on a distinct domain www.stevereports.com In this case I have chosen to use subject categories as a method of navigation. An alternative is to create separate blogs for each subject category. I have tried that and personally find it more difficult to manage over time. I recommend a distinct domain for your blog and a logical navigation based on the content you offering.

Every blog should have icons for the reader to add your blog to one of the popular RSS feeders. This will result in your blog entries being picked almost immediately by the news readers and people who want you content will receive it by way of their own news reader. There are a number of popular new readers including Yahoo, Pluck, Newsgator and more. As this is being written, the links for many of the popular news readers are being added to my blog.

In this article you will notice live links to a couple of my sites including www.stevereports.com and my main business consulting site www.stevepohlit.com You will also notice in my articles certain keywords being hyperlinked. Including these links is a very powerful feature of blogging since the RSS News Readers pick up your blog and the search engine spiders frequent blogs a lot especially when you are adding content regularly. This search engine news reader activity helps the flow of readers to your main web site and increases the back links to your sites which is an important search engine optimization tool.

You will find additional features being added to my blog over the next couple of weeks as I implement my blog development strategy. I developed a plan based on the objective I set out for the web sites I use to promote my consulting business. You should have a plan for your company’s blog that compliments your business development strategy. Of course you can develop a blog on a particular subject and use various techniques to monetize your blog. However, if monetization of content is your goal I continue to recommend a web site for that purpose and a blog designed to drive traffic to your web site.

It took some time to figure out some the features I wanted on my blog and I chose not to become a Word Press programming expert to achieve some of the goals of my blog. I have developed a team of people who can quickly set up a blog similar to this one. They can do it fast and economically. I recommend it and I am offering it because I had difficulty finding a one stop solution when I was starting. If you have an interest in this service, Email Me

Steve Pohlit, Business Consultant is the author of this article. This may be freely distributed intact and with this resource line.