Posts Tagged ‘Sales’

The World is Yours—If You INSIST on Success

Friday, May 15th, 2009

Credit:  © Manfredinim | Dreamstime.com

Credit: © Manfredinim | Dreamstime.com

Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these courageous couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

Most people think that’s the motto of the U.S. Postal Service. I always thought so myself, but it’s not. The Greek historian Herodotus said it 2500 years ago, when Greece was at war with Persia. He said it in admiration of the enemy’s mounted messengers, who wouldn’t let nothin’ or nobody keep them from getting the job done.

Anybody can get strokes from their own team. But you KNOW you’ve got it going on when even the competition is drooling over your results.

It’s all about being unstoppable—about insisting on success, no matter how deep the snow or how hard the rain. Laugh at obstacles, refuse to compromise your goals, and you can watch the world land gently in the palm of your hand. (more…)

Going (waaaay) Beyond Customer Satisfaction

Friday, March 20th, 2009
Customer Service is Key

Customer Service is Key

Customer satisfaction.  Now there’s a nice phrase.  It’s so, you know…nice.  Everybody likes to be satisfied.

Heck, everybody likes to be fed, too.  But when’s the last time you picked a restaurant just because they would feed you?  EVERY two-bit restaurant will feed you.  Whoop de doo.

Thing is, just about every business will “satisfy” you, too.  They’ll get your dry cleaning done, your package delivered, your hair cut.  So if just about everybody can step over the low bar of customer “satisfaction,” why do we keep talking about customer satisfaction as if it’s a meaningful goal? (more…)

You Are Cordially Invited: The Power of Truly Targeted Marketing

Thursday, March 12th, 2009
Credit:  Ginasanders | Dreamstime.com

Credit: © Saniphoto | Dreamstime.com

Are you in marketing?  Let me give you a hint:  The answer is YES.

Marketing is not a department—it’s a mindset.  If you want your company to succeed (Hint:  YOU DO), you must consider marketing a key part of what you do every day.

Marketing isn’t just a matter of mailing out flyers or designing ads.  Marketing is about representing your company to the outside world.  Everything you do that reaches customers and potential customers—i.e. THE WORLD—is marketing.

So what is good marketing? (more…)

How to Keep Your Sales Culture On the Right Track

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
Credit:  © Leaf | Dreamstime.com

Credit: © Leaf | Dreamstime.com

There are a thousand different faces of success—and failure, for that matter—each with a different track leading to it.

I’ll assume success is your destination.  What does it look like?  Specifically, what are the values that drive and define your sales culture?

I’m not looking for some secret set of “right answers.”  I said there are a thousand different ways to be successful, and I meant it.  But you can’t aim for all of them at once. If you want to end up somewhere meaningful, something that fits your corporate and personal values, you have to train your sights on a very specific vision of the future, then lay the tracks that will get you there, and only there.

So how do you know which way to head?  (more…)

The Golden Rules of Marketing

Friday, March 6th, 2009
Credit: © Leoblanchette | Dreamstime.com

Credit: © Leoblanchette | Dreamstime.com

Most marketing is based on out-of-touch philosophies and is delivered in such a way that fed-up consumers do not believe it anyway.

American Demographics once said that “Americans trust marketers about as much as the U.N. trusts Saddam Hussein.”  Unless marketers fancy the idea of being ferreted out of a spider hole at gunpoint and hung, that is NOT an analogy to celebrate.

Over 70 percent of U.S. adults believe marketers exploit and mislead them.  You can’t create a marketing strategy that works until we accept it. When you use this knowledge as a basis for your marketing strategies, you will reach your market in such a way that they WILL believe and accept your marketing. (more…)