Tag Archives: Marketing

Marketing, Social Media

“…Dealing with Haters…”


Nice post in Mashable last week.  Main idea is that you can benefit from discord and negativity around your social media efforts out there as well as the positive.  Idea is from Tim Ferriss, autor of “The Four Hour Work Week.”  So, what do you do with haters?  Here are some gems from Tim: 

“…you only need to pick your first 1,000 fans — and carefully. “As long as you’re accomplishing your objectives, that 1,000 will lead to a cascading effect,” Ferriss explains. “The 10 million that don’t get it don’t matter.,,”

“10% of people will find a way to take anything personally. Expect it…”

“The bigger your impact, explains Ferriss (whose book is a New York Times, WSJ and BusinessWeek bestseller), and the larger the ambition and scale of your project, the more negativity you’ll encounter…”

The slogan “Keep Calm and Carry On” was originally produced by the British government during the Second World War as a propaganda message to comfort people in the face of Nazi invasion. Ferriss takes the message and applies it to today’s world. “Focus on impact, not approval…

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Marketing, Sales

Handouts, All But Worthless? —– I Think So…


In a blog post yesterday by HR Specialist Rebecca Masin in allbusiness.com, the author makes a great case that handouts are no longer worth it for a myriad of reasons including cost, economic impact, and efficacy. 
 
Her favorite reason, from a book called “Saving the World at Work” is that “Over the course of the last few decades, we’ve gotten into a habit: We print, then think. Instead, we should think first and only then print-maybe.”
 
I agree with Rebecca’s rationale – AND, I would add a sales and marketing twist to the list of reasons not to use handouts – handouts don’t work.  If you’re deal comes down to handing out (or mailing) a piece of paper to get your point across, you need to seek a fresher alternative.
 
I rely on social media, email, and voicemail combinations to get critical points across.  In rare instances, a customized slide show (not printed but distributed via email or USB drive) does the trick. 
 
For more information, please request a handout of this blog post at tim@salesandmarketingmashup.com KIDDING!
 
What are your thoughts on handouts?
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Marketing, Social Media

How big is Social Media?…How big is Google?


Big news.  I just got this from a friend at 7Summits.  According to Fast Company Magazine (a must subscribe if you don’t already), Hitwise analysis says that as of this month, “…Google lost its crown as the most-visited Web site in the U.S. last week. The new king of Web site traffic is, of course, Facebook…”  That is how important social media has become.  Just a year or two ago this would not have seemed possible.   Fast Company predicts an Ad War.  Be looking for more ads in your Facebook pages as companies start to divide their spend amongst these two giant aggregators.  How seriously are you focusing your marketing plan on either of them?

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Marketing, Sales

Selling and Marketing Services vs. Products


While a great number of companies make and sell products, the past 20 years have seen a revolution in the professional services industry.  So there is a good chance that you are responsible for selling services vs. products.  However, many of  the sales techniques used today still echo a product sell.  A great book on the subject of the difference here is called “Selling the Invisible” by Harry Beckwith.  He’s written some other great books too, but this in my opinion is his best.  Here are a couple of my favorites from this book… 

“The first step in service marketing is your service.” – In other words, do your craft with excellence before thinking up a wiz bang marketing plan.

“One Thing Experts Don’t Know…” – In most professions,  you ARE NOT selling your competence.  Your client can’t evaluate you fully.  They are not the professional – you are.  That’s why they are seeking your help in the first place.  Your competence is assumed.  What you ARE selling is a relationship.  Do you pick up the phone and respond quickly?  Are you a good listener?  Am I important to you? Do you deliver to me with excellence? etc.

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Social Media Is for Sales People Too!


So often, Social Media is described as the domain of Marketing.  But “…While marketing owns the message, sales owns the relationship, so using social media to build deeper relationships on a customer by customer basis just seems like a pretty natural thing for the sales team…” 

That quote is from an article called “5 Ways That Sales People Can Benefit From Using Social Media,” by John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing.  The points it makes are very valuable to sales people.   If you are in sales, you need to read this.

I got this link from at tweet by Mike Stelzner.  Mike is the founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com, and a great source of information on social media (20,000+ followers on Twitter).  Thanks, Mike!

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Marketing

Measuring Marketing


Great blog post from the folks at Fast Company:  http://bit.ly/97qnIl.   This magazine is very good.  One of my top resources for business insight.  This post deals with that age-old question, “What are we getting for our marketing spend?”  My firm is doing a better job tacking lead source per deal – in a direct answer to one of the questions posed in the post “From ‘closed business’ where did the initial leads come from?”  It’s making a difference in how we invest dollars in marketing.  Have you connected the dots at your company?

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Social Media Policy – Is it Possible? Ask Coca-Cola


Many companies with whom I have worked struggle to get into the game on social media.  Due to engrained habits, they can not see a clear way to add this new dimension to their marketing mix.  Today, it is really not an option.  Conversations about your company are happening out there – period.  The only decision you really have is, “Do I want to participate?”  I would suggest that your answer should be YES!   But that begs the question – what do you do on Monday morning?  How do you really operationalize these media that can be (and should be) much more colloquial than our traditional corporate communications?  Establishing a policy in this area seems a non-starter for many firms.  However, it is happening.  See Coca-Cola’s new social media policy:  http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/coca-cola-launches-new-social-media-policy/ .  If a global company with 92,000 employees can do this (in 3 pages no less!)  don’t you think your company can swing it?

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Hello world – Sales and Marketing Mashup is Here!


I have wanted to do this for some time now – so here goes!  My name is Tim Kocher.  I have been in sales and marketing for my entire 19-year career, most of it for professional services companies.  I hope this blog will become a place where people who are connected to sales and marketing can come to see valuable information on the tricks of the trade (and the trade itself) in one stop.  We’ll touch on all aspects of business development so be sure to come visit often!  Feel free to Look me up on LinkedIn as well: http://www.linkedin.com/in/timkocher

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