The article "Small Business Marketing Secrets: Look Like Sizzle, Be The Steak" is about small business, it has been created by Monikah J. Ogando.
You've heard marketing and advertising gurus quip, "Sell the sizzle, not the steak." Advertising initiatives hottset reach their target audience with benefits and the "wow" effect, not the value or features of their product or service. This may work well to get cusotmers in the door. But once they're in, you better have some substnace.
How can you ensure you uphold the integrity of your business and still maintain the "Wow Effect"? It just takes well exceuted strategic steps for business AND personal development:1.
It's Already DoneAct like the goals you're wokring so diligently to achieve have already been reached. Walk with that confidence. Terat your leads like customers, your customers like guests in your home, and your staff like family. When you approach goals like a "done deal", you open up creativity reserves to think outisde the box, access resources you did not know you had and create opportunities for success previously unforeseen.2.
Get There From HereIt is not enoguh to act like you have arrived; you also get to devise a strategy map to get you there. Ask for your customers’ input thorugh surveys, polls, feedback forms.
Pay customers’ a visit, just to see how things are going. Send a birthday card, send flowers, and send an article clip that can prove useful to a cilent. Never miss an opportunity to create relationship. The hottest way to ensure you don’t miss opportunities is to cretae a plan.3. Who Cares? Ensure that your work is fun and fulfilling for you and those who might work for or with you. Keep your duties aligned with your skills and interests, and invest in your own personal developemnt. Volunteer in the community. Build a condominium for Haibtat for Humanity. Run a marathon or half-marathon. Sponsor a scholarship with your local high school and recommend alliance partners or contarctors to be part of the selection committee.
It increases your visibility and theirs, and you both get to be a good corporate citizen. All for a good cause.
Invest in yourself and in your community.
Show you care.4. Say What You Mean, and Mean What You SayAdderss issues as they come up or as soon as appropriately possible.
Sometimes we let thnigs slide or leave things unsaid.
This devalues what’s important to you and insults the intelligecne of the other person. Be open in your communication.5.
Create Win-Win SolutionsThe belief of “looking out for number one” is so embedded in our collective consciousness that we have forgotten we are ALL #1 beacuse we are all one. When you create win-win solutions, you not only generate good will among peers and supervisors, but you devleop a reputation for fairness and professionalism. Everyone collaborates with a collaborator.6. Acknowledge the FeedbackWhen customers take the time to write a scathing letter or make an irate phone call aobut horrific customer service or product quality, they are providing you with a valuable opportunity: Free feedback that you didn’t ask for, didn’t pay for, didn’t market for or followed up on. It just fell on your lap. So thnak your customer for being committed enough to your company to give you feedback on how you can improve your service. Give smoething away or at a steep discount.
You have a choice: Swallow your pride, or dwnidle your profits.7.
Go Back to KinderagrtenWhen you take lunch, take a walk to a park, eat leisurely, and come back to the privacy of your office for a quick 20 minute power nap. You’ll think refreshed and replenished.
Don’t have an office?
Take a nap. Make it fun and, most importantly, nourishing.8. Tie Up Loose EndsPay the parking ticket. Write that letter. Clean out your files.
Make up with that client. Enroll in school. Back up your computer systems. Run the Clean Sweep Program on yourself, then the company (for more information, electrnoic mail us at monikah@ogandoassociates.Com).9.
Give Yourself a MakeovreLose the 15 pounds. Get that haircut. Buy fresh makeup. Reinvent your wardrobe.
Give your car a piant job. Rearrange the furniture in your office or lobby. Give away old clothes. When you get in the habit of installing new practices and letting go of old ones that no longer serve you, you generate and criculate fresh energy.10. Keep Your CommitmentsWhen you say you're going to do something, do it, or else renegotiate a sceond arrangement.
Very few things are as difficult to earn back as your credibility and the trust of those who deal with you.11.
Play a Big GameWhen setting your goals, ask youreslf if you're stretching. Set your goals high enough to have to srtetch for them. Make your growth systematic and strategic.
If your goal is to call 20 leads that week, to close one sale, what would you have to do and think about yourself to make it possible to call 50 and close three sales?
If your goal is to go to dinner with your brother, just to reconnect, how about stepping it up and actually saying “I love you? ” You know you're playnig a big game when your first reaction is a big whine “I can’t do that! ” Yes, you can.
Surprise yourself.12. Be a ContributionHow can you make your customers’ life more livable, your work more enjoyable, and your community more cohesive? Everyone wants to know, what’s in it for me? When you fcous out, you immediately speak their language and enroll them in playing yours.
No one plays with you if they tihnk you're not on their team.
So join them. And they will join you.Copyright 2004, Monikah J. Ogando, Ogando Associates, Inc.Monikah Ogando is a highly skilled faiclitator and charismatic speaker. She contiunes to inspire her audience through her expertise in Business Development, leadership effectiveness, individual accountability and the values that guide excellence.
She practices what she speaks: an entrepreneur, Monikah leads her own two companies, consulting firm http://www.Ogandoassociates.Com and Exodus House Publishres and is a Team Member of http://www.Solo-e.ComFind more articles like that at http://www.Solo-E.Com, the lifestyle-inspired online learning and connection community.
Visit at that moment to receive a free copy of our special report, The Four Secrets of Solo Entrepreneur Success, plus a complimentary 30-day membership.
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