Advice of the Week: Edification

Posted on May 30, 2012 by

people skillsThere is no measuring the good that can come from positive encouragement given to a colleague.  It is called edification, and it is an underutilized, highly motivational tool that any business leader or sales person should master.  The key is doing what you can to make your client feel that they are the most important person you will see that day, and if truth be told, at that moment there should be nobody more important to you.  The art of sitting down with a person, turning your focus entirely on them and their needs, understanding what matters to them, is an unendingly powerful method of making a sale, and one that will create a relationship that will last the life of a business.  And it is indeed an art, no faking allowed, it has to be the real thing.  If you can see your customers and potential customers as people whose needs you can meet in some way, rather than a means of raising your commission, your sales will not only grow, they will skyrocket, and you will be a professional in every sense of the word.

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Day to Remember

Posted on May 28, 2012 by
Memorial Day Commemoration 2008

Memorial Day Commemoration 2008 (Photo credit: davidyuweb)

We call this day Memorial Day because we are meant to remember the people in our lives who have been lost to death.  We deem remembering so important, in fact, that we have set aside a whole day, for thinking of the people in our lives who have crossed the threshold into eternity.  The day seems to be spent, often with family and friends, cooking outdoors, sharing some pre-summer sun, perhaps working in the yard.  All of those things are worth doing and we wish everyone safety and fun in their endeavors, but we wish everyone something else.  If on this day you have a lost someone you are thinking of, we hope that your thoughts will be filled with joy, with memories of all they meant to you, with laughter for all the funny times that life throws our way, with tears for the days you wish you could talk to them just one more time, with contentment for knowing that you have loved someone enough to carry them in your heart always.  XandrePress wishes you a happy and memorable Memorial Day!

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The Unpopular Blog

Posted on May 24, 2012 by
Official seal of City of Cleveland

Official seal of City of Cleveland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the blogging world, which in reality encompasses the entire world, it has been proven that there are certain subjects that rise above all the rest in the “followers” category.  We seem to love to read about food – making food, eating food, shopping for food, sharing food with friends.  Recipes rise to the top of the “food chain” as it were when it comes to readership.  We are also as a species drawn by words about other species – our pets in other words are perfect fodder for the well read blog.  We are equally enamored by travel and the photographs of such.  If you’ve been anywhere at all and taken pictures of your time there you will have a popular blog.  A trip to Cleveland documented in quirky photos will get more readership than a well informed blog about how to avoid financial crisis, because living a financially sound life just isn’t entertaining enough.  But here is the point.  If you are a financial guru, the people you want to reach, the ones that will truly pursue your wisdom and join your clientele, will seek out your blog.  They will search your key words and find you because they want to, like you, live a financially sound life.  The folks who want a recipe for muffins infused with lavender probably will never give you a second, or even a first look, but that’s okay.  Your goal is to grow your business, not your fan club.

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I Don’t Always Drink Beer

Posted on May 18, 2012 by

marketing mattersThe beer of the year has to be the Dos Equis brand, because they aren’t just selling beer, they are selling a lifestyle that is bigger than anything that exists in reality.  They have brilliantly branded themselves by doing three things.  They found an actor who looks like he spent the first half of his life wrestling sharks off the coast of Brazil, and the rest of it counting his money.  He is James Bond and Clint Eastwood and a little bit of Sir Lancelot rolled into one very successful persona that is so secure he can even make fun of himself within reason.  Secondly, they have a tagline that the rest of the beer moguls are salivating over.  “I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.”  Brilliant in spades! Then let’s talk about their logo, two huge red exes, unmistakable, bold and brash.  They are unapologetic about their image of being a “man’s” beer, because they know who their target audience is.  They aren’t selling champagne, it’s beer for heaven’s sake and they are making the most of it.  Smart marketing doesn’t try to grab the entire population, it goes for the people who will use their product, a lot!

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Marketing Math

Posted on May 16, 2012 by

social mediaIf you like to talk in percentages, the percentage of your operating budget that goes to marketing is directly related the percentage of your overall profit increase.  In other words, if you are spending more money on anything in your company than you are on your marketing, especially if you are just getting started, then you are destined for failure.  We love the analogy of water on the rock.  If you throw a bucket of water on a rock, it makes a splash but when it dries up, which is rather quickly, it is as though it never happened.  However, if you cause a slow run of water to fall on the rock a drop at a time, what happens?   In time, and it does take some time, the rock begins to erode, the water leaving a permanent impression in the stone.  That is marketing to a tee-the constant effort that embeds itself in the psyche of the buying public.  Social Media, be it Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, Link-in, Pinterest, will give you a presence on the web that will make your company a known entity, but it takes consistency and time, and a commitment to the business you want to be tomorrow.  All the buckets of splash campaigns in the world will only get you noticed for the moment they are seen while a true marketing strategy will leave a lasting impression.

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Learning to be Leo

Posted on May 12, 2012 by
Leonardo da Vinci 043

Leonardo da Vinci 043 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There has long been a thinking that says we are born either good at math and sciences, or good at the creative arts, writing, painting, etc.  We have been led to believe that our minds will most likely not be able to embrace both forms of discipline successfully.  Then, just when we have neatly accepted this adage, we are faced with a man from the fifteenth century named Leonardo da Vinci.  He is known for his painting, such famous works as the Mona Lisa, but then again, he is known for his great power of invention, his study and notation of the human body, his practical genius in weaponry and flight. Is he one of the few people ever to possess the ability to nurture both his right and left brain at the same time?  He was known as a loner.  Was his lack of human relationship because he was leaving room for all of his extraordinary thinking and emotion would have muddied the waters?  Or is it that we put ourselves in a box, believing that the reason we struggle with physics is because we are an accomplished musician.  When Bach was at his prime, teaching and composing at the speed most people were breathing, he made the statement that anyone who was willing to work hard and had a good grasp of mathematics could be a composer such as himself.  This was certainly an overstatement, but it makes one wonder if our creative ability is limited by our lack of exploration in math and science, and our analytical abilities are limited by our lack of exposure to the arts.  Leonardo da Vinci was good at almost everything he tried, and he tried almost everything.

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Urgency for Colorado Small Business

Posted on May 8, 2012 by

blogging for businessThere is constant analysis that goes on about small business marketing through social media, some of it worthwhile, a lot of it just clogging the drains, but there does seem to be a point of connection where all of the experts, and even the wannabes, speak with one voice.  Word is that content, quality content, with refreshing, innovative, useful information is the name of the game.  Well constructed blogs and posts will get you noticed not only by the readership you are targeting, but it will get you noticed by the Google Ranking gods and they are powerful beings.  The analysis suggests that frequently posted, well thought out information is hard to come by for the small business owner who is there from open to close and everything in between.  Marketing professionals, who have done the job by traditional means for years, are now encouraging small business to pay a percentage of your marketing budget to a company that will keep your content Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and your blog up to date, relevant and fresh.  Standing in the station as the social media express passes you by is putting your business in danger of losing ground that you won’t be able to regain.  Step up to the window and buy a boarding pass before the train leaves for the last time.

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Social Media Laboratory

Posted on May 3, 2012 by

social media marketingSocial Media Marketing has come screaming into the marketing stratosphere and continues to reign supreme in every small business industry in the world.  We realized there are those who have chosen, and it is a choice, to stand on the sidelines, possibly hoping the whole mess will go away.  There is good reason for that.  Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, WordPress, Pinterest, were all meant to be simple, highly accessible means of communicating with a larger public than crosses the threshold of our domain, but, and this shouldn’t surprise us, marketing companies have gotten a hold of it and tried to turn it into a science, and they’re right.  It is a science, in that it is experimental and ever changing, and success often comes from a lot of trial and error.  If anyone ever tells you they have social media completely figured out, that they can follow a formula and get the same results every time, they are lying.  Brutal but true.  Our focus is on the small business – the very unique, truly small business.  Marketing for one business will never be exactly like marketing for the next business, because as the demographic changes, so do the best tools for reaching them.  So we work with you, find your target market and hone what we do for you until we hit the bull’s-eye.  Next month the target may have moved, so we move too.  It is a science, which is a really nice way of saying, we’re learning as we go.

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Take a Look in the Mirror

Posted on May 1, 2012 by

business buildingStop being so modest.  You know more about what makes your company work than anyone else.  You work it harder than the next ten people in line combined.  You are, though they say this isn’t possible, indispensible, to the point that everyone else could quit and you would still be able make it run as long as you skipped sleep and ate only every other day.  So run it like you mean it.  When you’re on the frontline of sales sometimes you need to look that potential customer in the eye and say, “this is what I do and I am better at it than anyone you’d care to mention – if you want to work with the best then let’s go, because I have a list of people waiting to take your spot”.  You know you’re good, and you believe in what you do, you just have to make the guy across the desk believe it.  Your passion and absolute assurance will bring them into the fold, and give them the security they need to make a decision to spend money with you, and you won’t let them down because you are the best at what you do and it’s time you proved it.

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Follow Me

Posted on April 26, 2012 by

 

Massage in Frankfurt, Germany

Massage in Frankfurt, Germany (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Small business suffers from a label that immediately sets limits.  The word small says it all.  The perception is that small means less progressive, less visionary, less profitable, but in reality, small might just mean focused.  The smart small business owner will not allow their smallness to keep them from greatness.  The internet has opened the door to endless possibilities, and your marketing efforts right now should be central to what you invest in your business.  The world is looking for what you do, on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, Linked-in, to name a few, and if you have an active blog you’ve just doubled your credibility and your draw.  The key is to gain Author Ranking through quality posts that are worth following.  If you are a massage therapist you need to be making your readers aware of the clinically proven health benefits to massage therapy, telling them the latest innovations for pain management and stress relief, connecting with other alternative health care sites that are innovative and responsible, and give your followers something to talk about.  What has massage therapy done for them, what scares them about massage therapy, what helps them the most after a session to maintain their new relaxed posture?  It should be a given, but your first goal needs to be making your sites interesting, followable – which isn’t a word now, but give it a few months and it will be.

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